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Affiliate Marketing income-earning capacity. What you need to know before you apply the many hours necessary to get a return

Can you earn money as an affiliate?

This is a question asked by anyone contemplating a career as an affiliate marketer. There are many parts to this problem and any one part. that falters needs to be addressed.

The volume of leads

This is fundamental to your plan, delivering opportunities to your partner so that sales can be made.

They may come from Social Media, blogging, YouTube, or a web page but you need to harvest the required level of inquiries. We will look at the percentages throughout this exercise however it does start with the core number of referrals.

The number may be measured in many ways but looking at both Google and Bing traffic will give you the basics and YouTube as well if you are using that location.
Google search console and Bing webmaster tools are two ideal starter points that take their traffic from Google analytics.

Many forget about Bing but it does have a big following, particularly in the older age group. When you buy a new computer ( not Apple) it comes loaded with Bing search console and many don't bother removing it or perhaps don't have the skill level to change to Google.

Furthermore, Bing still works on exact match Keyword search whilst Google has branched away to user intent thus different results will be noticed.

A good level of leads is a subjective figure except that any online advertisers want big volumes starting at a few thousand a months up to the hundred thousand level. So having a few hundred clicks a month simply won't get the business.

Monthly growth factor

If, for example, you write a few blogs your traffic figures may be counted in the hundreds however the greater your exposure the faster the growth of new leads. When ten blogs produce 100 leads then 200 blogs will produce 2000 as you build your portfolio.

Therefore continual application to your building process is critical to the results

The number of clicks

Here we start the money numbers. Unless you get a click-through to your selected partner you are really achieving growth only.
The more clicks you get the greater your chance of getting paid. However, littering your page with too many overt selling propositions does look a bit spammy so use constraint.

The percentage of clicks to searches will vary depending on what you are promoting. Links to a Mack Truck will be a lot less than to a service manual for the same, however, they are just as important.

As a general rule, a 3 to 5% click ratio would be a great starting point. This can be adjusted along the way so it meets either your expectation or reality.
If it is too low this is the first point of correction and establishing why it is so and what can be done about it.

Measuring the number of clicks will be done by your partner however using a product like Pretty links will confirm the numbers. Should there be an anomaly between the two that becomes the start of an interrogation process? Things do change so being wise early can save many problems.

The critical conversion number

When people click it does not mean they buy or even take any action. They may hesitate at supplying an email address or other personal information. The opening page may not satisfy their curiosity and they may bail at that point.
At Wealthy Affiliate, they presume an 8% conversion factor but I like to use something around the 2% mark. Remember that these start as guesses and end up as hard figures as you do your regular monitoring.

You can try different landing pages to asses the best results because it is only natural that some will work better than others..

Free trial offers and Money back programs will sway the results and also reduce your returns.

Not everyone loves your product

In a sales situation, you will have returns and money-back claims because of all sorts of reasons. In a free trial situation, you have another conversion factor guessing the numbers that will take up the opportunity.

Where monthly or regular billing occurs you will get drop-outs for all the best reasons. Therefore I like to put a fairly high factor in this area to represent reality. Peoples needs change and they will change their ideals and disappear as quickly as they appeared. This figure could be around 5% a month Although in the early stages a lot less and growing to this level after a year or so of marketing.
Many reports will ignore this important factor as it does reflect on your growth and income but it is a reality of marketing.

The dollar return

By Now you have a figure that wants to buy so that is multiplied by your income to give you a monthly and annual return.
If taxes apply they should be taken into consideration.

This income forms the start of your Profit and loss account where you apply your expenses paid along the way. We all have costs, domain names, hosting, training, various apps, etc that have helped us achieve these figures.

Look at the long-term results more than the monthly returns so that you will know that you are on the right track to success.

Affiliate Marketing income-earning capacity by the numbers

The time for analysis

All of the above inputs can be changed and in fact, a one percent per month change can really grow to a big difference in return. Apply this across the board and the results will amaze you.
Why are you only getting X number of clicks, what happens if you make a change? What can you do to get a better result? This is a moving feast and you are in control.

Enter advertising revenue

You may be kicking heads as an affiliate with money rolling in because your base has grown to such a level that you can't fail and then you add the funds from advertising on your site. This is usually measured in dollars per 1000 clicks and maybe just a few dollars or quite a lot but generally thinking is about $35 per thousand

Diversifying your affiliate partners

Who said you can only have one affiliate partner, you can have as many as you can comfortably promote. Therefore this exercise can be repeated many times over. However, your partners want volume and sales so don't go overboard with this.
It is also important that your partners all relate to an industry or to each other. You don't want Mack truck buyers looking at Baby prams.

Conclusion

There are many inputs that help all of these figures however the important issue is that you understand them and put them to good use.

Affiliate Marketing income-earning capacity by Peter Hanley

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