Matthew Wood says there are only 500 affiliates in the UK making over £500 per month?

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SES London – Affiliate Marketing Doesn’t Equal Search

It claims that Matthew Wood says only 500affiliates in the UK are making over £500 per month from affiliate marketing...

I didn't realise that we were such a rare breed... Matthew.. do you wish to confirm or deny the claim?

[Lunchbox]

That can't possibly be true surely? The figure I mean, not that someone somewhere (Matthew or otherwise) said it.

I've only been doing it for about 4 1/2 months and I'm earning more than that. Granted not much more, but a little.

I think someone's figures got crossed somewhere.

[JohnnyCash]

Anyone throwing that "500 people earning £500" figure around either has no clue what they are talking about, is being misquoted, or just wants some attention and links.

[splashy]

With over ten years in this industry I very much doubt he said that as it would be a stupid comment - as in that case I would know 20% of them !

Also the blogger seems to be a director of Banner Corporation , which is part of WPP , a marketing agency. So they may have their own axe to grind. There are other points in the blog post which also point to this conclusion.

[jonsp]

Anyone throwing that "500 people earning £500" figure around either has no clue what they are talking about, is being misquoted, or just wants some attention and links.

Apparently Matthew said "only 500 people making decent money" - the blogger concedes he may not have heard the £500 figure correctly as the definition of decent. I don't think anyone would consider £500/month to be decent money. Maybe he said £5000 per month?

[JohnnyCash]

Hehe I guess this will now lead to an argument over what is "decent" money. For some people "decent" might be significantly less than £500 a month, and for some people £500 a day might be distinctly average. So for anyone to say only 500 make decent money doesn't really tell us much at all. The only thing I have learned from this thread is that it could be worth deliberately misquoting people to get links, as you can always recant it later

[KirstyM]

Not sure, but Matt may have been quoting figures from the 2009 affiliate census?

I think there were 1,000 responses to that and about half the people said they were earning £500 a month or less, the rest £500 to £2,000,000. That'd be your 500 people. I doubt he was putting the entire UK affiliate pool at 1,000 people so perhaps the article was a bit of a misquote of his exact words or the point he was making.

[hpops]

Although the figures are probably wrong, there are far far fewer full time affiliates earning a living wage solely from affiliate marketing as you would think.
I certainly think that there are more programs in the UK than full time affiliates.......

[Magnus]

Hello. I'm the blogger in question.

First things first: There's no agenda against affiliates. I'm actually working actively to engage our clients in affiliate marketing since I think it's a brilliant route to market.

Regarding the figures, I've sent an email to Matthew to clarify the this and meaning of what he said. As I highlight in the article, perhaps my ears did deceive me, but hopefully not. Will of course update with additional clarifications as/if i receive them.

[kcheung]

think the general statement of the article was correct -ie. the biggest volume of affiliates sales come from a handful of prominent affiliates, everyone else in the space has the tough job of going from £xxx a month to £xxx and beyond a month....the simple fact is that it isn't easy and affiliates in that position have to think smart etc.

in reference to the 500 earning £500+ a month, given that we see that actual campaign data, i can confirm that based on estimates, there's far more than 500 guys making significant returns, this being said, they probably only account for the top 25% of affiliates. the remaining 75% (these are guess numbers) are generating sales, but not at the volumes these top guys are doing.

[gadget]

Why don't we stick a poll on this thread .. Do you earn more than £500 per month?

[Magnus]

Just got a response from Matthew so updated the post. However, here's the juice

"Update from Matthew Wood (18 feb 2009):

"I probably was a bit unclear.. I was saying at each network... With say 10 networks around that would be about £5,000. Naturally many are earning significantly more. Of course I don't send the payments, so its just a prediction.""

Full article here.

[Matthew Wood]

This quote was indeed directed at network level. i.e. affiliates who consistently have a cheque cut each month for £500 or more from each of around 10 networks.

The actual payment will of course vary greatly by network as some attract more business from us than others.

If in my prediction affiliates work with around 10 networks each. Then, yes I would be surprised if there are more than 500 affiliates who are receiving more that £5,000 each month.

The top level is drastically skewed though as many affiliates are earning significant 6 or 7 figure sums each and every month.

Forget the 80/20 rule I strongly believe it still more like the 95/5 rule.