Let’s compare high level statistics on Commission Junction versus Linkshare versus MyAffiliateProgram (Kowabunga).

1) How many advertiser clients does Commission Junction have?  Around 66,930 or so versus 4,590 at Linkshare and 930 at MyAP.

2) Unique affiliate ID’s?  34,718 versus 21,336 at Linkshare and 2,072 at MyAP’s Kolimbo.

3) Number of affiliate domains?  51,625 versus 28,613 at Linkshare and 5,905 at MyAP’s Kolimbo.

4) Number of raw links floating around out there pointing at its network?  On the high end, CJ has 1,461,655 versus 41,414 pointing at Kolimbo.

So says Project Black Book, a “monthly print journal focused on interactive marketing and the affiliate space.”

Oh no… not again!  But wait… not so fast.  This publication promises DATA and hard-hitting commentary and so far they’re holding true (case in point its article on marketers “shaving” numbers—cheating affiliates).

The company claims it can us its proprietary data (which it harvests) to infer things like marketers’ footprint based on the popularity of its domain among affiliates—raw “affiliate count.”

Surprised to learn that Azoogle’s biggest link and domain king is Smileycentral.com?  How about CJ’s big advertisers? 

Here we see #10 ranked Zappos and #12 ranked Shoes.com.  Hmm… seems as if Zappos has put a hurt on Shoes in terms of active affiliate base AND distribution of raw product data feeds.  Then again, Shoes.com might just suggest it’s fine with having Zappos in this position since managing (controlling affiliates within) that kind of size and scale of an affiliate program can be costly and burdensome.

Not to rain on this publication’s parade (who me?) but, in the end, do marketers care enough about affiliate programs to Project Black Book publication like this for $350 to $500 (starting August 1) per year?  Is this kind of data combined with the type of content they’re showcasing enough to compete with the likes of Revenue Magazine?