Highlights of Affiliate Management Software User Survey

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An April-May 2001 survey of 90+ users of Affiliate Management software systems gave some very valuable feedback about nearly two dozen of the applications they were using to manage their programs. Here are highlights of the survey.

Affiliate Program Categories

As I studied user comments and the features of the various programs, I found that Affiliate Management Software falls into five different categories, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

1. Commission-based ASPs (Application Service Providers). Payment is a percentage of sales revenue. This group comprised the largest number of respondents (37%), with the bulk giving feedback on Commission Junction. These respondents also reported the largest number of affiliates.
2. Fee-based ASPs. These are hosted solutions that charge a flat monthly fee for services. 29% of our respondents gave feedback on programs in this group, largely on My Affiliate Program.
3. CGI Programs: These are Perl programs hosted on the merchant's Unix server that don't charge recurring fees or commissions. Only 6% of our respondents used this type of program and these seem to be represent merchants with the smallest number of affiliates.
4. E-Commerce Programs that incorporate an affiliate program. Several of the ones listed are for sales of digital goods. Synergyx had the most respondents here.
5. In-house Custom Applications. While theoretically merchants can get anything they want, these were ranked lower overall (5.8 out of 10) than most off-the-shelf applications.

In a companion article for paid subscribers I discuss the strengths and weaknesses each of these categories of Affiliate Management Software, and give my Editor's Choice picks for the first four categories. While I drew from the user ratings I received, I also spoke with representatives of most programs to get a good idea of the features of the leading programs. 

Top Rated Programs

Many of the programs only received feedback from one respondent, or the respondents hadn't implemented the program yet. Excluding feedback from only a single respondent and respondents with less than two affiliates, these were the rankings:

But that doesn't tell the whole story. All programs are not created equal, and you might be surprised at the criticisms users level at some of their program vendors. In a companion article I discuss these more thoroughly and offer my Editor's Choice picks. 

Respondents with 1,000 or More Affiliates

The largest affiliate programs tend to be administered with a small number of software vendors -- LinkShare, in-house programming, Synergyx, Be Free, Commission Junction, and My Affiliate Program. 

Web Commerce Today subscribers can view the entire list of affiliates and ratings.

The left column includes links to user-feedback (for paid subscribers of Web Commerce Today). I have edited user comments for spelling and grammar, but have left in their blunt -- and glowing -- evaluations. You'll learn much more from reading these comments than from talking to salespeople. 

You may purchase the entire 108-page report in PDF Format (or sell it through our affiliate program). "Fantastic job ... by far the most thorough analysis of the choices available I've seen anywhere." -- Allan Gardyne, AssociatePrograms.com