What do you prefer?

[iTec]

In recent topics within this category a number of people have been asking for affiliate programs with higher then average rates, and this has got me questioning what people look for in an affiliate program. So I am conducting a simple survey to see what you put more importance on when selecting an affiliate program.

Please be sure to post why you think this is important!

[Dan Grossman]

Although I've lost 27 of my advertisers at Commission Junction (they left CJ), I still find many programs worth promoting.

On one of my sites, I receive only about 100 unique visitors a day. I don't promote the site at all but reciprocal links and search engines bring in about that much on their own.

However, by choosing very targeted programs that are FREE for my visitors, I generate between 5 and 10 leads a day. All of these programs pay between $1 and $5 per lead.. so it usually ends up at $10-$20 a day. Not bad for spending $0 on promotion.

[Note: It is not the site in my signature.]

[jkcity]

Good commission rate, with low conversion rate
Poor commission rate, with high conversion rate

I don't see how either of them are differnet to each other, I can't see how you could prefer one to the other, It boils down to how much money you make.

anyway I picked the only promote what U use and trust, cause it was the closest to my what I do, although I don't use everything I promote I woudl do if I needed, But it has to be trusted which I think is very important.

[iTec]

Originally posted by jkcity
Good commission rate, with low conversion rate
Poor commission rate, with high conversion rate

I agree completly that it all comes down to how much you make. however there is a difference beetween the 2... many people only look at the rate ie:10%commision and would rather promote this over a product with say 5%commision. however the product at 5% may have a much larger conversion ratio, wich in the long run would mean you would make more $$ then running the higher commision rate!

[jkcity]

Originally posted by iTec


I agree completly that it all comes down to how much you make. however there is a difference beetween the 2... many people only look at the rate ie:10%commision and would rather promote this over a product with say 5%commision. however the product at 5% may have a much larger conversion ratio, wich in the long run would mean you would make more $$ then running the higher commision rate!

I know what you mean but them two options are the same to me, as either one of them could earn you more money.

I think you where tying to ask which I would be more instinctivly likely to go for, well if I did know conversion ratios before hand, cause if I did then it not really valid, I would go for the higher commosion rate.

[tdevil]

I tended to go for the lower rates when I was still with cj for instance.

But that still didn't get me anywhere

To find something at cj that *might* suit your site and to work out the possible conversion was taking up too much time in my day.

So I go for quality sites, that are easy to understand and navigate. And also those that have a good support service.

[Knut]

I often use a similar terminology when I try to seperate two types of programs: low-value, high converting, or high-value, low-converting.

By this I mean how well it converts to a general audience (Otherwise it wouldn't really mean much, because it's perfectly possible to get very high conversion ratios on a high-value product, etc)

For what I call low-value sites (entertainment, etc), I often prefer low-value - high converting stuff (CPA, CPC) that is of interest to just about anyone (free downloads, newsletters, etc)

For sites with more targeted and/or valuable traffic, I often prefer higher commission stuff (CPA, CPS)

Also, when I pick affiliate programs it depends on the site I'm about to promote it on, and on the site I'm about to promote.

I was perfectly happy to send 43000 clicks to one affiliate program last month even though they only paid me about 1 cent/click (they increased my commissions now, though), simply because they don't really "hurt" my other revenues and add "content" to my "low-value" site.

But I would "never" be happy with anything not amounting to at least 10 times as much per click for my most "valuable" traffic - and this is generally not possible with "low-value, high-converting" offers (newsletters, contests, sweepstakes, etc) because no "entertainment sites" can profit paying this much in the long run.

For me, I simply try to find out how I can make the highest CPM with whatever traffic it is that I have, and it varies whether this will be with CPC, or CPA/CPS - low/high converting - low/high value. :-)

Hope I made sense :-)