I just got an email in this evening giving me the link to download the UK Affiliate Census Report undertaken by E-Consultancy and Affiliate Program Advice. 1,536 Affiliates took part (I was one of them) so it should be a good guide as to what’s going on in the UK Affiliate Marketing space and if they keep doing it each year it will be interesting to see how things change.

A couple of things where no real surprise, Affiliates believe payment is crucial and that tracking software is also crucially important. Now I say that’s no real surprise but I have a feeling this might be a shock to a number of Merchants who don’t pay invoices on time or think the old world style of waiting 30/60 or 90 days to pay an invoice as if the just bought some copier paper applies when paying their “partners” who provide them with sales. If the majority of Merchants paid up front it would allow all Networks to pay faster and so making Affiliates very happy in what was listed as the most crucial function of a Network.

27 Affiliates in the UK made over a million in income from Affiliate Marketing, so congratulation to these people, it certainly shows it’s possible to make a few bob out of this industry however a bit more down beat was the number of people that think you can’t make any income at all, so a big divide but I just wonder how many of these people that think it doesn’t work gave it long enough to build up, as this is certainly is no over night, get rich quick scheme.

And the last thing I will comment on for just now is, 23% of Affiliates have only 1 website. This was a surprising to me, as most of the Affiliates I know have a number of websites and this includes the Affiliates doing direct to merchant PPC. Could the same people that have only 1 site be the same ones that can’t make an income from Affiliate Marketing? I think it could be a major factor for sure.

The survey was promoted on the A4U Forum and the Networks taking part: Affiliate Window, Clash-Media, DGM Affiliates, OMG, Paid On Results, Smart-Quotes, TradeDoubler and Webgains. Notably this means Affiliate Future and Buy.at did not support the census, so come guys next year pull the finger out, it benefits everyone.

If you’re a subscriber to E-Consultancy you can download a copy for free so if you’re not a member highly recommend that you should join because for £149 a year you get access to many reports that offer a good base of knowledge covering many different areas. You can find out more about E-Consultancy by following this link E-Consultancy