EPC & Affiliate Programs

I've been annoying the good people of LinkedIn with content all around earnings per click (EPC) and how to find high-paying affiliate programs.

So that's what we're getting into today.

WHY CARE ABOUT THIS?

‍Let me start by saying, I've wasted thousands of dollars and countless hours (literally) creating content for products that were not worth the price of the content itself.

Example: imagine you have a website dedicated to socks.

So you write content about all things socks... and you've recently written a new article on the "best basketball socks"

As we can see, this keyword should be fairly easy to rank for since it has a keyword difficulty (KD) of two.

But why is it so easy to rank for when 1,000+ people search it a month, Alex??

Because the earning potential is LOW.

Assuming some basic costs:

• $0.06 per word writer x 2,500 words = $150

• $20 a hour editor x two hours = $40

• $10 a hour publisher x one hour = $10

All in all, that article costs ~$200 to produce and publish on your site.

Your potential earnings?

• Average price per sock = $15

• Average commission rate = 5%

• Average earnings per sale = $0.75

So, you make $0.75 per conversion... how many conversions do you need to happen to just break even on this?

266 purchases (200 / $.75).

With of a potential traffic of 900 each month and assuming a 5% conversion rate, then. 45 conversions will happen a month.

266 total / 45 per month  = ~6 months just for you to break-even on this article.

But don't forget, us affiliate marketers are typically on net 60-90 terms, so you won't see that money fully back to you for about 8-9 months.

If you're writing 20 articles a month and they all cost $200, you can see how cash flow quickly becomes an issue.

I say all this not to deter you from affiliate marketing but rather to show you the importance of prioritization of affiliate programs, product price, and potential earnings.

Again, this is something I did very poorly on my first site and I wish someone had told me about this earlier.

So my lesson from today?

List out all your products within your niche. Then create a spreadsheet that shows product price, commission, traffic potential and thus potential earnings.

Then prioritize accordingly!

Note - if you're running ads on your site then you can justify these lower-cost items and you'll have to factor in your revenue per mille (RPMs).

Do some math in the beginning and save some cash in the long run.