Interesting study from Shawn Collins was published today by MediaPost.

Report: One In Seven Affiliates Generates High Conversions
by Gavin O’Malley, Monday, Mar 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST

“FOR ALL THE HYPE ABOUT affiliate marketing, is it effective? A new study by Shawn Collins Consulting suggests that affiliate programs can lead to business, with 14 percent of affiliates generating conversion rates of more than 5 percent. For the study, more than 130 affiliate managers–ranging from small mom-and-pops to Fortune 100 companies–were surveyed on their overall strategies, as well as a number of issues about their affiliate marketing channels such as staffing, recruiting, and management.”

The study goes on to talk about affiliate’s average conversion rates, then moves into one of the affiliate manager’s most daunting tasks which is – Recruiting Affiliates.

“One out of four marketers with affiliate marketing programs report that recruiting new affiliates is their biggest challenge. One out of four respondents also said that e-mail is their most effective recruiting technique, but 18 percent preferred the old-fashioned telephone, while 14 percent considered advertising in affiliate program directories to be their best bet.”

The next group of stats go into the percentage of affiliate managers in this study that allow trademark bidding 59%.

The last part of the study I got a kick out of. How many affiliate managers allow *adware* (loosely translated and subject to definition – *parasites*) into their programs??? 69% said they do not permit adware affiliates into their affiliate programs; 19% do; while 12% said they do not know. Just goes to show you that some affiliate managers are clueless.

Read the complete MediaPost article here. You may need to subscribe.