Sizing up Affiliates

Are you a Whale or Pond Scum?

[OrlandoTodd]

I've always heard that the top affiliates make up the bulk of sales and they something like 2% of all the affiliates. I wonder what would define the top affiliates as. Does anybody know what the highest paid affiliates make? I'll take a stab at it, but I'd like to hear what you guys feel the breakdown should be.

Whales $50K - Higher/mo
Big Fish: $10k -50k/mo
Medium Fish: $5k-10/mo
Little Fish: $1k-5k/mo
Minnows: $100-1k/mo
Pond Algae: $1-100/mo

Not to offend anyone with the Pond Algae. If you fall in that category, then you're in the right place to learn. We all started there and it's a fun swim up. :)

[rfung]

so which one are you?:)

[jcoronella]

Indeed. Lets hear it Todd!

(and maybe a list of good keywords/programs ;) )

[knoir]

im an amoeba :-)

[seindal]

Oh, how sweet it is to be a whale!

(and no, I'm not :-( )

[eyeinthesky]

I can only wish to be a sperm whale....

[mfishy]

Where does two bologna sandwiches and a half a pack of smokes fit in? :)

[OrlandoTodd]

I'm a little fish wanting to grow up. Man that sounds like a cheesy.

As for keywords/programs. Keep playing with the Overture suggestion and bid tool. There's a simple comparison tool at Search Engine Garage. But really it's just finding some niche and good content.

I could tell there were some whales at the pub conference... if you've never been, you owe it to yourselves to check one out.

[ska_demon]

Great big fat whale eating whale ;)
Ska

[lukey]

Giant squid would be much more appropriate!

http*//unmuseum.mus.pa.us/squid.htm

[OrlandoTodd]

Anybody care to respond to the breakdown? Do you agree or disagree and what do you think the breakdown is? Maybe I should have used animal crackers. :)

[seindal]

The breakdown is probably ok, but you'll have a lot of problems getting people to tell you what they are, especially in the upper categories. Most people just don't give away such numbers.

René

[jimh009]

Just a little fish, with the occasional foray into the medium fish category around Christmas time.

[Michael Anthony]

Top affiliate for one program I work with makes £77,000 per month. Top E-Bay affiliate earnt over $1 million according to another post I read somewhere.

However, this is unlikely to be a guy working from his backroom. High traffic sites such as MSN etc. still run aff programs, and it's generally this type of operation that makes the big bucks.

There are also loads of scumware affs, such as Gator, WhenU, 180 solutions, etc. who do fantastically well at someone else's expense.

[OrlandoTodd]

Thanks Michael... that's more what I'm looking for. Aside from the corporate MSN's and scumware aff, how the average joe's are doing.

I guess the subsequent question is how are they doing their taxes... Anybody change their citizenship to an island somewhere? :)

[Michael Anthony]

There are lots of creative solutions to tax avoidance, but I doubt if anyone's going to spill the beans on here.

Get a good (as opposed to cheap) accountant and you'll get their costs back several fold. Ask someone real rich that you know to recommend one, as opposed to using the Yellow Pages or similar random method. That's what I did anyway.

[eyeinthesky]

Top E-Bay affiliate earnt over $1 million according to another post I read somewhere.

... that would be a Godzilla.

Most of us are in the small to medium fish size and trying hard to grow up. Genetic engineering may help...