Comments on: Are Affiliate Program Directories Dying?

By: Geno

Geno — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:19:47 +0000

Doug, it sounds that (a) like most successful affiliates you do not have a deficit of merchant offers, and (b) you mostly work with ClickBank, and therefore only use their internal directory of programs/products. That's a good approach too. But sometimes you just cannot find a product/service suitable for your niche within one given affiliate network. A good idea then would be to search internal directories of other affiliate networks (Commission Junction, LinkShare, ShareASale, etc). In the meantime, it's interesting to note that we've had some 44% more votes come in since the time of this post, and the pie chart has changed a bit (not drastically, but it shows that 50% of affiliates do use affiliate directories at one point of time or another). Here's how the distribution of votes looks now:

By: Doug Champigny

Doug Champigny — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:00:44 +0000

Interesting post, Geno!

In the 12 years I’ve been internet marketing and affiliate marketing full-time, I’ve never visited an affiliate program directory nor ever heard one of our JV partners mention one.

When advising the people I mentor, I have them start by promoting the prodcts and services they themselves use, then find products relevant to their niches through ClickBank.

By the time an affiliate is making 6 or 7 figures a year, we’re so deluged by people asking us to promote their products we can’t possibly even consider them all, never mind go looking for other products to promote.

By: Affiliate Solutions and Refer-it 10 Years Later

Affiliate Solutions and Refer-it 10 Years Later — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:54:35 +0000

[...] was an exciting, explosive time in affiliate marketing back when affiliate directories mattered and the first affiliate conference was getting off the [...]

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:36:50 +0000

@ Scott: It looks like 18% of all AffStat respondents still do sign up through them.

@ Shawn: Gotcha. A historical comparison (however brief) would be fascinating to see some time in the future.

By: Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:39:02 +0000

Hi Geno -

I didn’t ask the same questions each year, and one of the years was focused on affiliates, similar to this year.

I may pull together some sort of historical comparison in the future.

By: Scott Thrall

Scott Thrall — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:46:28 +0000

Affiliate directories may be looked at by many newbies, but I would suspect that very few people actually use them join a program.

For myself I used to, and still do, search “niche”+”affiliate program” or when I come across a product I like I will check if there is an affiliate program associated.

Now that is probably not very time frugal but its fact. I think (like to think I am not too abnormal) most newbies do that.

Anyhow just my two cents worth.

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:17:57 +0000

Another way to look at “affiliate directories” is to include “directories within the networks themselves” into the definition (see Adam’s comment to my above-quoted poll)

By: Andrew Slack

Andrew Slack — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:11:02 +0000

I totally agree with Shawn, affiliate directories are great for newer affiliates however anybody who is looking for a 2nd or 3rd affiliate program I believe will do a search for a certain niche/vertical.

By: Geno

Geno — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:19:29 +0000

Shawn, do you by any chance have AffStat data on this very question from previous years (especially from the original one that was released in 2003)? It would be really interesting to see the data on affiliate directories usage from earlier years.

By: Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:42:56 +0000

I think directories are an archaic means for finding affiliate programs, but I suspect newer affiliates are using them, since they turn up high in the search engines.