Which are the five biggest affiliate networks in the UK? Help needed with article pls

[Azam.net]

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I write articles every week on affiliate marketing for a newsletter and was wondering if I could get some assistance from A4Uers please. By asking others, I can avoid accusations of being biased.

My question basically is: which are the top five UK affiliate networks? If you could list them in order of size that would be useful. And, if you are willing to give an incisive quotation about one of them, that would be useful. I'd rather not have something critical because the article is for an affiliate network's newsletter and, although I always write articles which are as objective as possible, if I publish quotations which are critical of other networks it will be bad etiquette. I just wish to give a list and summary of the top five networks in the UK.

Please PM me your responses (best not to post as people may get into a slanging match about networks ). If you wish to comment on a network or two, please send the quotation(s), your name, your company. Could be great free advertising for your business as the newsletter goes out to over 30,000 people in affiliate marketing and related areas.

Thank you.

[Tyson Pearcey]

Hi Nadeem,

I expect you'll be getting a few posts on this one.

I believe I know where buy.at sit in the pecking order but I think this one can only 100% be nailed down based on year end financial reports (not all networks report these numbers either and some are based on their entire business which may include areas which are not directly through their network earnings).

If you need to get something in this newsletter I’d recommend you find out who reported earnings for last year, base rankings on those numbers and indicate that they were for year end 2005. Get in touch if you like and I'll help you out with this one mate.

Cheers,
Tyson

[hpops]

I reckon
1) TD
2) CJ
3) Buy.at
4) DGM
5) Awin
Would be suprised to be proved wrong

[drivetowin]

I guess the real question is what you mean by top 5 (do you mean sales, performance, number of affiliates, revenue or what parameter?)

[anupun]

1. Affiliatefuture
2.Affiliatewindow
3.OMGUK
4.CJ
5.Buy.at

[Darren]

My question would be how you define 'top' or 'size'.

I know what my/GP's top 5 is, but like as has been said above, some networks aren't just networks, but do other things...and drilling down further, some networks provide consultancy - would this count is overall earnings, etc?

Personally, I would rank them in gross total commissions paid to affiliates (that's the key figure in the overall economy, IMO) - this removes any of the variable factors which would, perhaps, cloud the water (management fees, varying overides, numbers of affiliates, etc).

Interesting to see hpops reply...I can't 'prove' you wrong, but I'd have a different order:

Clear 1st, Tradedoubler
Clear 2nd, buy.at/

The remaining three would be be very close, so in no particular order for 3rd-5th: AWIN, CJ & OMG

I wouldn't rank DGM in the top 5 and would be very suprised if ANY measure (assuming it's not historical!) would include DGM, IMO.

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Hi, with regard to word "Top" are we looking at "size of company" or "the best network" or those deemed "most popular", as we could have diffferent sets of results.

[hpops]

I think that the "most commission payed out per month" is the best measure for "largest".
All the top 5 I stated earlier have done million plus months.
CJ are only there because of ebay (I don't do a penny with them - but I know plenty that do)
I'd love it if Buy.at were no 2.
DGM have had an anus horriblus but I reckon they're still there.
AF don't hit the 1mill a month mark (yet) and I doubt whether OMG do either.

Would be interesting to see these other categories or measures as seperate threads

1) Fastest growing
2) Largest number of merchants
3) Most popular

[drivetowin]

If it's commission paid out per month then I would say

1. Tradedoubler
2. CJ
3. Buy.at
4. Affiliate Window
5. Affiliate Future

However, a bit like the earning curve for affiliates in any affiliate programme I suspect the descent from 2 to 3 and then from 3 to 4 and 5 is pretty steep (and Webgains for one will certainly be snapping at their heels - and I would expect them to be contesting for 4th or 5th position in 12 months time).

Also if you were to remove earnings from ppc affiliates the order would be somewhat different.

It is without doubt a reflection of the times that 2 or 3 years ago DGM would have featured in the top 5 on almost any criteria.

[pistol101]

There's no way that you could ever put a definative answer on whose the biggest UK networks as you'll never get an exact figure from any network. The public companies all report in different manners and for different accounting periods and the figures are so out of date by the time they are reported! Seasonality makes a huge difference.

Things are changing very quickly at the moment, i bet the PPC changes have hurt some network, some networks have lost/are loosing some big names etc.

My educated guesswork would put CJ as the biggest network, clients like Lastminute and Ebay will be bigger than some networks on their own!

[Supercod]

I would probably say payouts commission wise in the UK it something like

TD
BAT
CJ
AW
OMG

CJ I am only counting UK stuff as I see it, but if we didn't they would be higher.

a couple of years ago I would have said

TD
DGM
CJ
BAT
AW

and if it was based on personal choice of who I rather work with and what systems it would be (and no surprise on the 1st one for me)

POR
TD
AW
BAT
WG

And if it was based on who I think the big networks will be commission payout wise in a couple of years time

TD
BAT
AW
POR
WG

Of course this all takes in to account that they will all be trading in a couple of years and have not bought out or into one of the other Networks and of course you should be keeping a keen eye on likes of Affili.net.

Lastly who do I think are the most profitable Networks in that they don't have huge loans, debt or investments to pay back, but of course I don't actually know how the deals work for some of the Networks so it's pure guess work but I can only imagine that if you have stuck piles of money in to something and even if the turn over is huge, it's at the end of the day its just turn over, what is actually the money after all the bills are paid and debt from investment taken into account.

AF
OMG
AW
TD
POR

That is just a pile of speculation and guess work, and I could be way off the mark and each time I have wanted to have 2 or 3 in joint position for 5th so just plucked one out as it list has to be 5

[Darren]

Insightful Clarke. I'm thinking much along the same lines as yourself.

[hooking-up]

I work with 15 affiliate networks, i haven't been in the game long so can only answer this question as a new comer, with no prior knowledge of how the networks used to square up to each other.

top five for number of merchants available (and i am only counting UK based programmes)

1) AW
2) TD
3) AF
4) WG
5) POR

For quality of the merchants it changes slightly

1) TD
2) AW
3) BA
4) WG
5) AF

For revenue i have earned

1) AC
2) TD
3) CJ
4) AW
5) BA

For a System that is easy to use, and a company that is good to work with

1) WG
2) BA
3) AW
4) TD
5) AF


I have a nice list if you ever want to know the bottom 5

[Michael_Anthony]

Why don't we see if anyone will post their annual affiliate payouts to date so that we can give Azam his answer?

I'll start - U$30,000,000

Who's next?

CJ? Buy.at? Tradedoubler? OMG? - I doubt it somehow.

[hpops]

Thats a huge payout Michael, do you have anyway of demonstrating those figures (for example a business name).
note. Not trying to have my usual pop here - just genuinely suprised