State of the Industry

I’ve been chatting to another affiliate and we were discussing how strange it is that the big “traditional” affiliate networks in the UK are just not moving forward. DGM who have been around for a long time really messed up with their new interface which was already long overdue and in my opinion are still standing still. Today it was announced they are still in talks about a take over and it might need something like that to freshen up the company and get them moving forward again.

The same is true with Commission Junction who are one of the biggest global companies in affiliate marketing but to me they just seem to be failing to make any progress. They may well be making a lot of money, but is that making them lazy and sit back without looking to develop things further? Their data feed system is truly inadequate and has been the same for years. Initially they were one of the first companies to make data feeds available but since then they have done nothing with it. The recent attempt to introduce JavaScript links only shows again how much they are out of touch with affiliates. I won’t even start on the problems of VAT invoices!

I was looking over 4 years of payments from CJ and they started at $30/month went up to five figures in 2004 and last month I think I got paid about $30 again

What is it that makes these once forward looking companies seem to sit back and stop innovating and start to stagnate? Is it an affiliate marketing issue or is it something that all growing businesses need to face?

I’m reading The Search at the moment and it does remind me of the description of companies like Excite and Altavista who were the giants, the old established companies when the upstart Google came along and stole their business. I wonder if one of the current “smaller” networks is going to do exactly the same.

Technorati Tags: DGM, Commission Junction, CJ, The Search