Average Affiliate Makes Less Than $200 Per Month

There's a lot of factors that can skew that average down. As you said, there isn't any report on how many affiliates are actually active for Ebay.

Also, you have to figure that the vast majority of affiliate marketers don't know what they are doing or aren't putting a lot of good effort into it.

I think there are so many other affiliate opportunities out there that are better than Ebay that a lot of the big guys have moved on.

/\ Yep. Affiliate marketing is nothing like a job.

With a job, you can't fill out an application, then show up for work whenever you want. And with affiliate marketing, I'd estimate that 90% of people do this. I would also guess that its much worse in more popular affiliate programs like amazon or clickbank. You have all these WSOs pushing newbies to the programs, who make 1-2 blogs, don't promote them the right way, have no idea how to sell... and that will drive the average earnings down exponentially.

As someone who also did research for 6 years, I can tell you that statistics typically mean NOTHING. I spent a large part of my time, just looking for flaws in studies. And in any given study, if you know what to look for, you can find hundreds of flaws. Either variables that weren't properly controlled, misrepresented data, restructured data, people who produce results based on flawed methodology.

Now, I'm going off on a tangent, but I really need to do some type of official post on this. You see a lot of statistics in marketing... and nobody really understands what they mean. My professor in college, had done research for 40 years. She was a well known doctor who had hundreds of case studies published with the APA. When I had to do my thesis, for my degree, this woman showed me about 30 different ways, to alter data, just so the results would support the "hypothesis" I was trying to prove. When I initially did my study, I didn't find ANY significant results. But with her help, we restructured the data, and every single one of my results became "significant". So when I gave my thesis, it looked like I discovered something really important... when the fact is, it didn't mean shit. It was useless, but everyone in that room was still blown away. I eventually found out, that this was the case for like 70% of the people in my graduating class lol.

You could actually take a failed study (insignificant results), and make all your data "significant" just by changing a few numbers around. Because in real research, algorithms are used to determine if results are significant. If you understand how small alterations will effect the overall results, you can wind up with any result you want. And this is 100% ethical in any given study. You don't actually change numbers, you just alter the sequences of data, change units, remix variables in a way so it supports your hypothesis. This is not only approved by international research boards, but expected.

So just imagine the type of results you'll see, when you have journalists, who don't know shit about research, or marketers... trying to report "data", from studies that haven't even been APPROVED for formal publishing.

Again, sorry for the rant. But when you learn a good deal about statistics & research, you learn to ignore 99% of what you read.

-Red

I'm surprised it's even that high.

Most people sign up and don't really do much. It's good that Ebay is tougher on qualifications to join

Shawn

It would be interesting to know how much, for example, the top 500 affiliates each make. Then you could gauge what's possible when you know what you're doing.

Averages are pretty meaningless in isolation. The average family has 2.6 kids but no one family actually has that number.

Cheers

Neil

yeah, I would consider that pretty high.

Ok, how about this?

Before people start saying stuff like "I consider that high". Lets handle this like professional researchers / people who TRY to use the scientific method (aka people who still fail at statistics, but nowhere near as bad as WF members).

Operationally define the term "affiliate marketer".

Is it someone who has filled out an application and been accepted?
Is it someone who works 4 hours, then never does it again... but is still in the system?
Is it someone who works 60 hours a week?
Is it someone with 3 months experience in affiliate marketing?
Is it someone with 3 years experience?

Do you see the point yet?

Nothing is "high" or "low".

The results will ALWAYS fit the mold, of your own personal opinion aka "hypothesis".

For an affiliate marketer who works 60 hours a week, has 5 years experience, they might say that average is really low. Because they don't consider anyone who is in the system, an "affiliate marketer".

This is why statistical debates are nonsense imo.
Even in a FORMAL setting, where people give a damn about the scientific method, the majority of these debates are STILL useless.


-Red