The ratio of affiliates to merchants is approx 12

[jess1]

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In the Affiliate Census affiliates by and large said that affiliate networks did very little to support them. “There is a definite lack of advice and guidance for affiliates. Clearly some affiliates are making huge amounts of money and the networks concentrate on these big earners. It would be good to see more support for those learning the ropes, with tips and techniques from those who are experts in the field.” Firstly is it true that networks seem to favour the big earners or is this a myth? Should affiliate networks be providing training and advice to beginners? Would they even know where to begin? Or is this not the role of an affiliate network?

Surely the savvy high earning affiliates know what they are doing? I strongly believe that very few networks are really focusing on helping the fresh blood coming into affiliate marketing industry as I believe "we" (the industry) are all too busy and busy protecting our own spaces that generates income (latter makes a lot of sense). The networks that do provide work-shops are still pitching way to high. Whilst there was significant growth in the number of affiliates coming into the industry in 2006, most are new and it will take some time for them to learn the ropes, as by and large affiliates are self taught. The real story is not about the impact that high earning affiliates have on the UK online economy, but the fact that so many affiliates don't even register on the radar yet. The ratio of affiliates to merchants is approx 12, a figure that is, in my opinion way too low. There is an estimated at 2386 merchants across all the UK networks. The Trend is, there are more merchants launching affiliate programs then performing affiliates coming into the industry and unless networks start making the newbie a priority, this trend will continue.

So without being negative what do you think the role of an affiliate network is? Do you think there is enough information for new affiliates coming into the industry. How could networks, affiliates and affiliate managers help beginners.

I would love to hear from the networks themselves too, I know affiliatewindow.com are proactive and TD and CJ to a point, is it enough?

What is your experience of when you first started out as an affiliate?

[aaclapham]

I began AM in December 2004 and my first few posts on this forum were pleas for help.

Most affiliates are either too busy, or would prefer to keep their knowledge a secret (which is fair enough), so the only way I have been able to increase my knowledge is by reading posts/blogs with tit bits and by trying to make new friends on msn. (whom have been very helpful)

I work full time so my evenings are spent reading the +40 emails I get a day and updating/ amending content and banners that have stopped working etc.

I do not have time to sit down and read the noddies guide to sql and data feeds. I know I should make time but.........

In the last year I have developed my seo and ppc skills, but still know that I am nowhere near having the skills I need to be a successful affiliate.

I have had some successes which motivates me to do better, however I can see why many people drop out.

The frustrating thing is that I know with the right guidance I could be a good asset to any network.

[drivetowin]

I don't think you can make a simple equation of x affiliates to y merchants though - after all the affiliate to merchant relationship is (on the whole) many to many - there are very few affiliates in my experience who work with only 1 merchant (or even a handful of merchants) and very few merchants (if any) who have only 1 affiliate (or even as you say 12 affiliates)

I would agree with you though that for most affiliates and merchants the inverted 80/20 rule applies - 20% of affiliates do 80% of merchants affiliate sales and vice versa (albeit that the 20% of both affiliates and merchants is in a constant state of flux - in our own example we have earned 70% of our revenue in December and January from one merchant, yet despite being signed up with them for over a year, until December our income from them had been less than £10) - the same is true with networks (probably as a result of which merchants are our 'flavour of the month') - but I can look at one networks stats and see that we received regular big payments every month in 2005 yet it has just taken us 4 months to reach their payment threshold now.

As to are the networks doing enough - no I don't think they are but I think the offering needs to be very different at different levels - there needs to be beginner tutorials (surely networks could provide these online - I mean come on guys there is this thing called the Internet you know ) - and at a more sophisticated level for the old hands while there does not need to be training per se, there does need to be account management - I'll give a very brief example of good account management - earlier this week I got an email from Smart Quotes - "we notice you are promoting our car insurance merchants on your site but you are not promoting xxx car insurance and you should be as their EPC is higher than the other merchants on our network you are promoting"

Excellent piece of account management and precisely what we need more of, yet when I got the email I nearly fell off my chair because it was totally unexpected to get account management of that level - yet is it not an indicator of the sorry state of affiliate account management that such an email took me by surprise - surely with the level of investment and supposed level of professionalism in our industry today, account management like that should be the norm and not the exception.

I would add as well, Linkshare UK, who are nagging me (sorry Mumtaz but I will bring it to the meeting next week - promise ) for a list of my websites so they can identify which of their merchants are likely to perform best on which of my sites - again - good positive account management.

There are (imho) too many network affiliate managers who while good at the 'social networking' part of account management, aren't so good at drilling down into sales reports and telling the active affiliates who, what, where and when they should be promoting to maximise their revenues.

Yes we as affiliates should probably be doing more of the asking, I'm just not convinced many network affiliate managers would have the answers...

[loquax]

What is your experience of when you first started out as an affiliate?

Heading blindly into the dark but quite enjoying getting sales... I don't really think that much has changed

Over the years I've had to learn php, sql, played with feeds, pretended to do seo, dabbled here and dabbled there... and imo too many people sit back waiting for someone whether it be the network, merchant or someone else, for someone to tell them what to do. Best rule of thumb, get off backside and do it. There's now plenty of blog posts, advice and help from affiliates to help people.

Networks could offer more help (and not just to beginners) - but with so many merchants, so many options for promotion, so many ways of working that it would be impossible for them to cover everything in any degree of depth.

Also, imo, if a network did offer a "beginners guide" there would need to be some degree of objectivity - e.g. a network may tell an affiliate he needs to do PPC to earn a living from AM because they like PPC affiliates....

AM at it's basic level is easy - login, get link, add link to site - anyone can do that. The problem is getting traffic to a site, generating sales, SEO, developing a brand, building a community... and that is something imo, people need to go and do for themselves, or buy services for, and it's perhaps not the role of a network to aid in that process.

With PPC, I guess it's different for those wanting to get involved in that side of things though.

Perhaps, at best a network could simply offer a "what is affiliate marketing" powerpoint presentation to beginners... explaining the various options, pitfalls, advantages etc? Not sure any of them do that?

Jason

Jason

[axod]

I'm not really sure what else networks could do to help newbies. It's all maths, scientific method, research, trial+error.
I think there's a wealth of information out there, and it's easy to look at other peoples sites, and how they have done things.
I'm certainly all for helping new affiliates find their feet, but I do think an awful lot of them see affiliate marketing as a 'get rich quick with no work' proposition.

If you have the traffic, making money out of it is simple.
I don't think it's the lack of support and knowledge that deters new affiliates, it's the realisation that they actually do have to do some work to make it succeed IMHO

At the end of the day, I think all a newbie needs is:

1. General knowledge of the internet - URL parts, HTML / HTTP, cookies
2. General knowledge of campaign types (pay per view/click/lead/sale), as well as fixed price, % of sale, revenue share, bonuses, tiers, co-reg etc
3. Plenty of time, common sense and scientific method.

Just my 2c

[monk-i]

Fantastic debate Jess.

I have to say I first come across this a few years ago but have only just began to hit the ground running with AM.

I naturally progressed my business skills / marketing skills / IT development skills towards AM. I had that knowledge and realised the potential that was there.

At the end of the day you can take a horse to water but can't make it drink.

Its slightly similar here. You cannot go giving beginners all the ins and outs of what to do to make money. Thats for them as affiliates to learn and grow and produce successful services for consumers but using AM to monetise them.

If it was like that everyone and their granny would be into it.

I don't think that its right to some extent that networks take the knowledge they have learned from the successful affiliates ideas and give them away to beginners. It would be frustrating for those who have spent the time mastering and learning new skills to be a success. It would completely devalue what a successful affiliate has worked to achieve.

If you ask any of the successful affiliates they have spent many an hour, tweaking and testing, reading blogs, books, forums and that all adds up to value.

Resources such as a4u are fantastic because beginners who are willing to work hard read between the lines and piece it all together to understand AM. It isn't something someone can step in and say 'WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAAM'. After all knowledge is valuable. Beginners cannot be spoon fed which I think some people not just here but life in general expect everything to come to them.

But on the other note I think where things can mature are where Keith are saying.

I am a big fan for Smart Quotes and have a lot of time for them because they are actively seeking to help improve your performance. They are pro-active and really seem to be a close knit bunch who know what they are talking about. They understand the statistics and can answer your questions.

I think there is a lack of knowledge from some Affiliate Managers when it comes to that area. As Keith says they are great at the socialising side and pulling in punters perhaps but I do feel that Affiliate Managers need to offer a whole lot more and should be pro-active in help you grow. Obviously there are different levels. Being pro-active with a beginner who is starting afresh and a matured affiliate who has a number of sites is different but this is where the networks could set things apart. A beginner is going to want different information to that of an established affiliate.

Im not sure if ive gotten a bit lost or off topic in there but I was told about 2 years ago when I started out and I actually think it was Keith or Kieron but the information is all available if you are willing to read between the lines and do your research and piece it all together.

It doesn't happen overnight but if you stick at it you can certainly give yourself a greater chance of success.

There are plenty of people here who are willing to help but they won't just give it to you on a plate but more point you in the right direction and make you work for it which is entirely fair and good of them.

[Alfie]

I would echo Keiths point - the social side of the affiliate managers in this industry is ok - but thats not difficult to be honest.

However, the support on a more technical / commercial level is left wanting - not so much of a complaint as we are pretty much self taught, but the example Keith gives is what should be coming through more often. A better performing program being highlighted in the right context.

In terms of new affiliates and support- it's a difficult one, because like many, we have made our success based on a niche(ish) strategy, and would be reluctant to reveal that.
However, 2 points spring to mind - (1) We do actively help several newbies on this forum, primarily giving advice on what they are suggesting to do, rather than actually giving them the answers - i think that this is the sort of support the older hands could and should offer.

(2) - From a network point of view, there should be more Step by Step guides to different area's - product feeds, what does a banner url consist of, basic SEO, glossary of terms ( ppc, epc etc etc ).

I think what i'm trying to say is there should be a better job done helping newbies grasp affiliate marketing, but ultimately, success will rely on them taking the basics, and learning and developing ongoing.

All the best,

Alf

[hirschnathan]

[i]There is an estimated at 2386 merchants across all the UK networks[i]

There are lots of merchants on 2,3 or even 4 networks. I would half your number of merchants

[jess1]

There are lots of merchants on 2,3 or even 4 networks. I would half your number of merchants

I did... and the figure is an estimated 2386 give or take as new programs have been launched since this last count was done.

[kcheung]

Hi,


after reading this thread, i thought i'd mention that PrimeQ run a PrimeQ university, its very informative and covers alot of the basics, perfect for total beginners. TBH, i wish i had had that kind of guidence when i first started.

heres the relevent link:

http://www.primeq.com/absolutenm/tem...id=36&zoneid=1

Ken

[D-Mac]

I've not had time to read the full thread yet, but one thing that struck me:

If networks spend too much money training affiliates then they may be better off doing their own affiliate work in-house. What's the point of Network A spending £xxxx a year training affiliates, for those affiliates to go off and make money for Networks B & C ? Especially if you make around 4 times a much money if you keep it in-house.

Most people in the industry know there is a lack of quality affiliates in the market, and I am glad the issue has now finally been raised publically. There just aren't enough good quality affiliates to go round at the moment, which presumably is why most networks charge such outrageous fixed monthly fees.

I'll come back later with a more positive post

[D-Mac]

Put another way, demand has outstripped supply. The problem is that the supply chain is invariably pumped via Google.

[monk-i]

TBH, i wish i had had that kind of guidence when i first started.

Thats a great point. Those that started off years ago and even before this forum will have had it much harder and are pioneers

There are plenty of resources for newbies to tap into. They just have to be prepared to work for it instead of the golden spoon feeding.

[kcheung]

Yes this forum has made all the difference in terms of how i do my job, I learn so much for all of you, I've only been in this industry for a year, but I've learnt so much, I can totally understand why newbies find it a daunting subject, monk-i, your totally correct, if your willing to go and look for the resources and material it is already out there for you to find. I suppose the difficulty is knowing where to start, or even that the industry even exists, I remeber not even knowing what an affiliate link was, and now its all about EPC, CPA, PPC, CPM...lol

Ken

[Mogga]

If there are say 100 widgits merchants then no matter how many affiliates you have there is a fixed market for widgits so that even if you had 10x more affiliates promoting them you'd only be able to sell the same number.

The market might be too fixed unless you seek out new markets or expanding the existing markets.