Rakuten LinkShare has announced the lineup for their upcoming Rakuten LinkShare Symposium New York 2012 event, which is taking place at the Waldorf Astoria on June 25-26.

This year’s opening keynote session will highlight the findings from a new study that explores the direct and indirect value that affiliate marketing brings to advertisers in today’s multi-channel marketing environment.

The commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Rakuten LinkShare, includes an updated forecast on spending in the channel, a consumer survey of US online buyers and qualitative interviews with both advertisers and publishers.

Key topics include consumer use of affiliate sites, the impact of affiliate marketing on brands, and why the affiliate channel will grow to $4.5 billion by 2016.

Get more details on Rakuten LinkShare Symposium New York 2012.

Affiliates were asked a series of demographic questions for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

The age ranges were well distributed, and I fall into the 36-45 group, which is the largest with 25%.

When it comes to married vs. single affiliates, the married folks account for 58%.

I’ve always been a married affiliate – got married in 1996 and became an affiliate in 1997.

The majority of affiliates have kids, too, with 61% saying they’re parents.

I wonder how many affiliates are trying to teach the craft to their kids. I’ve been working on it with my oldest (so far).

Most affiliates work from home, too, with 72% always working from home, and 20% more sometimes working from home.

My first 7 years as an affiliate were while I worked for others, but I’ve been solely at home since 1994.

And finally, there is the Mac vs. PC battle, and the PC wins a resounding victory. Cue the Mac users insisting their beloved machines are the best thing ever.

I love my PC’s, and yes, I got a Mac years ago to try it out. That “one you go Mac, you never go back” is not true.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Affiliates were asked “Are you currently using any WordPress plugins or widgets designed for affiliate marketing efforts?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

One third of respondants said yes, they are using affiliate marketing specific WordPress plugins or widgets.

There are a variety of WordPress plugins and widgets being used by affiliate marketers, including many created by affiliate networks and individual affiliate programs.

The most popular plugins and widgets, based on the survey, were from Amazon, ClickBank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare.

The two plugins I use most often are Datafeedr and Pretty Link.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Affiliates were asked “Are you currently integrating video in your affiliate marketing plan?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

A large majority of respondents, at 70%, said no, and the remaining 30% are currently dabbling in video for their affiliate marketing efforts.

I started playing around with video as an affiliate several years ago, and that was partly because there were not many affiliates doing it.

My Affiliate Summit partner, Missy Ward, and I ran a successful affiliate site for years called WeViews. We recently closed it down, due to time constraints.

We reviewed all sorts of gadgets and random items starting in 2007.

The video with the most views during that time was apparently popular because I had crazy eyes (I was trying not to blink for the whole thing).

What’s holding you back from trying video, whether you’re an affiliate or merchant?

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Affiliates were asked “Does your affiliate marketing plan currently incorporate marketing on social networking sites?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

The majority of respondents, at 71%, said yes, and the remaining 29% indicated they are not bothering with the social networks for their affiliate marketing efforts.

When it comes to the various sites, Facebook and Twitter were most popular, by far. Note that this data was collected before the emergence of Pinterest, so that would have likely shifted numbers around a bit.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Affiliates were asked “Do you cloak/redirect links?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

The majority of respondents, at 59%, said no, and the remaining 41% indicated they do cloak their links.

I’ve been cloaking affiliate links for as long as I can remember – first through meta redirects, then via an .htaccess file, before I moved on to using a WordPress plugin called Pretty Link.

I also came across another useful affiliate redirect WordPress Plugin called ThirstyAffiliates last fall.

Additionally, I use bit.ly Pro, which is a free service that enables me to use my own domain to make redirect links. I use aff.bz there.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details at affstat.com.

Affiliates were asked “What is your preferred method of commission payment?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

It looks like affiliates are not so keen on getting their commissions issued by check anymore, as only 25% cited this as their preferred deliver of funds.

Direct deposit is favored by 41% and 30% like PayPal.

I used to get so excited to receive my paper checks, but convenience trumps mailbox excitement for me these days.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Affiliates were asked “What is your preferred method for finding out information from an affiliate manager?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

Checking in on the company site was the most popular with 34% of affiliates choosing it. This was followed by 26% preferring mass email, and then 14% from network internal email.

Blogs only tallied 8%, and just 2% for Twitter. Facebook wasn’t the preference of any affiliates responding to the survey.

I think it just goes to show that affiliate managers ought to be communicating with all of these methods, because there is no uniform way that affiliates like to receive information.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Affiliates were asked “Have you successfully requested an increase in commission from an affiliate manager?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

Twenty-six percent of affiliates responded “yes” for this survey question.

I’ve found from countless conversations over the years that many affiliates are unaware of the magical trick of asking an affiliate manager for a raise.

In my days as an affiliate manager, I nearly always gave affiliates an increase when they asked for it, since they were engaged and anxious to do more.

As Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.