Webwork - 3:50 pm on Apr 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

mfishy - I just scanned a list of affiliate programs and, looking "in general" at what was being offered, I'm in agreement with your more expert opinion. About 25% of the programs do look workable. "The rub" for many non-contenders appears to be that the profit margins for mass produced items leaves little room for winning the consumer price war whilst also paying commissions. In other words, a merchant choosing to offer an affiliate program may win the affiliate and lose the many price savvy consumers. Still, we all know consumers who don't always buy on the cheap. ;0)

buckworks - It was a bit of a mind-rattle when I looked at the 1% issue from both sides. I'm inclined to agree that "the 1%" more likely reflects the percentage of effective affiliate marketers, not saleable affiliate offers, like mfishy confirms. The bulk of affliate offers/programs are more alike than one might appreciate - as are the bulk of affiliate marketers, as judged by the posts I've been reading across multiple forums and blogs - and yet I know a few affiliate marketers who manage to make a living whilst others keep searching or asking revealing questions, questions that suggest that the problem - a large scale absence of success - is more in the marketers than the products/programs.

skibum - That's my rough read early in the process - that there are affiliate programs that lack affiliate marketing and general online marketing expertise, and that "lack of merchant/offerer expertise" is a significant contributing factor to affiliate marketing un-success. I suspect many more programs would work if everyone involved knew a bit more about what works, how it works, how to execute, etc.

King_Fisher, John Blake - Thanks for the kind words. Any insights or perspectives I have to share come in large measure from schooling efforts, sharing and contributions of many here and elsewhere. There's so much to digest related to affiliate marketing, yet so little that actually triggers a "That's it!" response in my aging noggin. I'm just trying, in this thread, to remove some of the industry mystique that has heretofore been a fog on my brain. ;0)

Now, if we could just get a few more of the lions of the industry to weigh in on discussions of actionable issues of affiliate marketing . . . I've met so many savvy AMs through WebmasterWorld and PubCon. I'm still hoping to draw them out with assurances that, ultimately, there are skills and abilities they possess that simply cannot be gained or gotten just by reading what they have to share or say about any specific issue. ;o)

[edited by: Webwork at 4:07 pm (utc) on April 23, 2007]