Affiliate Programs
What Pays and What Hasn't
What commissions have I earnt from my participation as a publisher in affiliate marketing programs?
Well... the proof is in the pudding so they say... so after reading all about my "experiment" in affiliate marketing (please start here), what do you think the result is?
Commission Based Programs
These are based on sales being generated by the people that click through from your affiliate site to the merchant site. With commission rates varying from around 1.5% (for computer systems), to over 25% (for adult oriented material, you'll find an average commission rate offered is between 5% and 8%.
There are two types of these programs.
Managed Programs
So far (in almost six months) my merchant campaigns running at Commission Monster have received over 14,000 ad impressions.
There have been 450 click throughs (a rate of 3.35%, which is pretty good by most standards), netting me an affiliate commission from sales of just $4.00 (from one sale over 3 months ago).
Now, I am NOT blaming Commission Monster or their merchants in ANY way for these terrible results... my previous experience with both Commission Junction and Clix galore actually saw many more impressions, for absolute ZERO income.
At one stage, Commission Junction even told me that because I wasn't "performing" I would have to pay a fee to continue! In that case, I'd served over 350,000 ads for the merchant, who made NO conversions to sales... and I wasn't performing???
Individual Programs
These are the private arrangements you might make with individual websites. My experience here is a limited, with only one program to report on.
My careers website needed a "what career suits me" type of test, and I found a good one to link to. It allows people to take the test and see a short report for free. It provides an extended report at a cost.
The result for me? In the first quarter, I received a commission cheque for $68 USD. And 2/3 of the way through this quarter, I'm owed another $83 USD.
All up... in five months, 1443 referrals, 37 sales - a 3% conversion rate from referrals - for an income of $152 USD. Not too bad really...
If you're interested in their banner click-through rate - it's 0.6%, or 1 in every 164 exposures, has resulted in just 244 visits. So where did other 1200 (the rest of the 1443) referrals come from? The various text links and button ads that I have placed in selected places on my site!
Pay-per-Click/Lead Programs
These are based on payment being made for each person that clicks through from your affiliate site to the merchant site. These rates can be as low as $0.01c a click-though... you'd need a LOT of those to make anything :)
My experience with another company (discussed in detail here) has resulted in being paid $0.20 per click for every visitor I send them... and the more, the merrier! In the six months I've had their links on my sites, I've been paid for the 3000+ referrals I've made to their service.
Of the other Pay-per-Click/Lead Programs I've recently implemented with my Commission Monster merchants (in the last two weeks actually) I've earnt a grand total of $3.40! Of that, $0.40c is for 5 referrals at $0.08 each, and the $3.00 comes from 1 lead generated from the 15 referrals I send to another site.
Another pay-per-lead program I've also implemented in the past fortnight with another provider, has paid $1.00 for the 1 lead from the 27 people I've referred...
So far, I seem to be getting much better results from these types of programs, even though the earnings are extremely low!
So... to sum up the value of affiliate publishing programs...
Continued fine tuning, and playing with different merchants, and different structures, has lead me to some interesting conclusions...
 NEXT - My Conclusions
Are affiliate programs worth the bother? More...
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What techniques give better click through results? More...
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