• During the 2nd Quarter of 2006, affiliate shoppers spent 7% more than the average consumer in internet sales
• Affiliate marketing consumers were 43% more likely to convert into a sale than consumers directed by other referrals
• Affiliate marketing shoppers were 17% more likely than the average Internet user to have average household income of greater than $75,000
• 32% of affiliate shoppers were between 45 and 64 years of age, and were 4% more likely to have children

(Stats based on comScore Networks panel of 1 million affiliate marketing consumers in the US)

The ability to drive quality traffic to a site certainly adds value to affiliates and last year MarketingSherpa estimated that affiliates worldwide will roughly earn $6.5 billion in commissions.

So how do affiliates earn their keep? 

Well for one, affiliates typically come with little risk, as the majority of affiliates work on a pay per performance basis.  Another benefit to affiliates is that they can offer a variety of unique advertising platforms – comparison shopping, loyalty sites, coupon and niche sites just to name a few.  With little risk and a majority of work being performed on the affiliate side, for a web business, affiliates can certainly be an attractive way to gain exposure and sales at a manageable cost.

So how do you find quality affiliates?

If it was as simple as picking some names out of a list, agencies like NETexponent would not exist.  Finding affiliates who will maintain a business’s brand standard in addition to driving quality traffic to their website can be a daunting task.  Fortunately, NETexponent has maintained an extensive database of quality affiliates whom we’ve worked with and can rely on.  Additionally, we have a team of dedicated experts who are constantly working on expanding that database.
At NETexponent we manage:

• More than 25,000 publisher records spanning across Linkshare, Performics, and CJ. 
• More than 60 fields of data per record which helps determine which affiliates are suited best for our clients based on their needs
• NETexponent continually works to ensure information is kept up to date and accurate. 
• We attend 7-10 conferences per year where business cards and contacts are collected and matched against the database for accuracy. 
• 1-1 emails and phone calls are tracked for reference
• Publishers are periodically asked to confirm accuracy of information we have on file