Affiliate Future - Impartial Review of the UK Affiliate Network
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Affiliate Future delivers tens of thousands of sales and leads each week to seven hundred merchants ranging from small stores run from home to FTSE 100 companies.
The network is owned by Progressive Digital Group, a direct marketing company which is listed on the London AIM market. Progressive Digital Group bought AffiliateFuture's parent company TMN (IBG) on 14 December, 2007.
IBG was founded in 1996 to offer web design and hosting services to small to medium sized clients. With over a decade of experience in technology, design and marketing under its belt, IBG has developed into a highly profitable company with a portfolio of successful websites. The majority of design and development capacity is now focused on enhancing and supporting core operations such as AffiliateFuture as well as a portfolio of online stores.
As well as a web hosting service, IBG ran e-commerce sites such as Henoo. An evolution in IBG�s consumer activities was Plentypoints, an online rewards programme that tied IBG�s key B2B operation, AffiliateFuture, to the e-commerce properties; it remains to be seen whether this will be merged with TMN's similar MutualPoints. In June 2006, IBG acquired PopupAd.net for £65,000, AffiliateAnnouncement.com for $80,000 and, a month later, the company purchased a number of small travel websites and 75 domain names which are variations of CheapHolidayDeals, CheapAccommodation and CheapShortBreaks for £355,000 in cash and £745,000 in IBG shares. In early 2007 IBG also bought a freebie portal, NetFreeStuff.
Launched in February 2002 with just one merchant, AffiliateFuture grew at an explosive pace. By the end of 2002 it boasted 60 merchants and was doubling turnover every two months. By January 2003 the company had grown to such a degree that a dedicated forum was launched for it on the industry's PerformanceIn Forums.
From the moment go, AffiliateFuture has distinguished itself with the efficiency and stability of its service and the accessibility of its support team. While networks with far more resources keep on releasing 'features' which don't work and cause endless frustration for their users, Affiliate Future seems to rigorously test for bugs before improving its offering.
While some networks seem to view affiliates as a pesky irritation, Affiliate
Future boasts some of the friendliest staff around who are always available to
lend affiliates a hand. Several successful e-entrepreneurs have commented on
how the Affiliate Future's staff have gone beyond the call of duty
to assist them in developing and monitising their websites in the early days
of the network. Says, Philip, an affiliate: "While other networks don't seem to have time to deal with affiliate enquiries, Affiliate Future always responded to my emails, even when I was starting out and only making a few pennies a day. I am now making over �1,000 a week profit from my travel website and have remained loyal to AF".
To this day, Affiliate Future seem to genuinely welcome communication and provides several methods for affiliates to contact them: email, telephone, Windows Live Messenger Messenger and via the A4U forums.
Affiliate Future UK has over 770 affiliate programs in 50 categories. However, one of the weaknesses of the network is that many of the merchants are little-known e-tailers with fairly average-looking websites. These 'mom and pop' stores usually lack the know-how and resources required to be major players in the online arena (the Big Boys are usually on Affiliate Window, TradeDoubler, Commission Junction, Buy.at and DGM). The one sector that AF have managed to snap up big brands is travel and so if you intend to delve into the field it would be essential for you to join the network. Their travel merchants include Singapore airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Going Places, Butlins and Purple Parking.
One thing that distinguishes Affiliate Future from other networks is they
promise to pay affiliates their commission even if a merchant goes to bust or
refuses to hand over their payment for some reason or other. It is thankfully an
infrequent occurrence but does happen and can leave affiliates thousands of pounds
out of pocket. When Splash DVD went into liquidation, some super affiliates on TradeDoubler affiliates had to swallow four-figure losses.
The growth of Affiliate Future over the last decade and a half has been well-deserved and truly staggering. It accounts for nearly three-quarters of IBG's business and the
company's share price used to give an insight into the network's meterioric rise.
From being worth 3.25 pence in February 2002, IBG's shares had rocketed to 30 pence four years later. However, there was an almighty drop in the share price on one day in June 2007, in which the shares halved in value. They were hovering around the 14p mark. The shares were controversially bought by TMN at below their price. TMN is a tightly-run ship by the astute Mark Smith and TMN's share price has risen of late with talk of the company being bought up.
With an phenomenal range of small and large merchants, a reputation for honesty and friendliness that is second-to-none in the industry, and a seismic shift in advertising from television and print media to the internet, it looks like Affiliate Future is set to grow and grow. It will be interesting to see if the recent push into the highly-competitive American and raw European markets will succeed, but it is definitely worth join the UK network if you haven't done so already.
Azam Marketing is delighted to award the network 4 stars out of 5. It would have received 5 out of 5, but a lack of useful features such as content units to showcase a merchant's products and banner pools means we didn't feel able to give the network our highest rating. Still, Affiliate Future has a massive array of pluses which far outweight the negatives. If you're looking to make money from a UK web entity, Affiliate Future, one of the top four affiliate neworks in the country, is worth considering.
| Pros: |
Cons: |
| Fantastic
support provided to all affiliates large and small |
Basic and buggy interface |
| Guaranteed
commission payments even if merchant doesn't pay network |
No banner rotation, contextual or shop product links |
| Huge range of merchants |
Most merchants are little-known 'mom and pop' retailers |
| Regular free events for merchants and affiliates |
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