Statistics on Blog / Content Monetization via Affiliate Links

An affiliate network owner in a country where affiliate marketing is just developing has reached out to me recently. They are looking to attract more bloggers (and other quality content producers) to affiliate marketing, but with the majority of them monetizing via CPM and CPC models, getting them to switch to CPA models (CPS, CPL, etc) isn’t always easy. So, to have some stats in his arsenal, he has asked me about the “share of the affiliate market that content affiliates take in the West” and “any other pertinent statistics” that I may provide.

In response to this, after delving into the reports that are available to us today, I have put together the below compilation of charts and conclusions:

Over 60% of Affiliates Blog

Per Affiliate Summit’s AffStat Report 2012, at least 60% of affiliates are using “blogging” as their primary method of “driving traffic” to their website. Taking into account that some other methods listed above (e.g.: “guest posting”, “search engine optimization”) may add a percent or two here an there, I believe it is safe to assume that the actual number of blogging affiliates is larger than the 60% that use it as their primary method.

55% of Full-time Bloggers are Affiliates

The above chart comes from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2011 report (it doesn’t look like they’ve released one for 2012 yet) which revealed that nearly 55% of “professional full time” bloggers monetize via “affiliate advertising links.”. Additionally, affiliate marketing is also being actively used by “professional part time bloggers” (over 50%), entrepreneur blogs (over 45%), and even corporate blogs (some 38%).

Content Affiliates Register 75% Visitor Engagement

Discussing various types of affiliates, a4u’s Peformance Marketing Guide 2013 (which they have put together in conjunction with Commission Junction) underscores that being “rich in original material” content affiliates are “considered by many retailers to be the ideal publishers.” They also report that bloggers “have a tendency to demonstrate high levels of engagement” with “up to 75% of users for some content sites visiting once a week or more frequently.”

Clearly, bloggers (and other producers of quality online content) have a tremendous potential to be/become powerful affiliates. If you run a blog, but aren’t yet monetizing it via affiliate links, think again!

As always, if you are aware of any other statistics on the subject, I would really appreciate you sharing it through the “Comments” area below.