affiliatemillions.com Blog

Statistical methods to compare programs?

Tony, first let me say how impressed I am that you actually participate in this discussion board! I expected this to be a forum of affiliate marketers helping affiliate marketers and I never expected that the author of the bible itself would be on hand to answer questions. So big kudos to you!

Now my question. I know in Affiliate Millions you say that the best thing to look at in CJ is the earnings bar for comparing programs. Five block bars are better than four block bars, etc. Are there any other more numerical methods that can be used? I put together a spreadsheet that looks something like this:

I use an assumption of a $100 monthly budget and I use bid amount and commission (deleted here for space reasons) to calculate the break even columns. My question is, is it valid to compare the programs based on number of transactions needed to break even on a $100 investment and the needed conversion rate to break even? For example Program 2 had a 1% break even conversion rate while Program 1 had a 14% break even conversion rate. Would that make Program 2 a better risk vs reward choice than Program 1?

I’m looking for some mathematical way to compare programs before I take the leap. Any ideas?

CJ EPC Listings

A question about Commission Junction. Why is it that the 7 day and 3 month EPC that is listed for a particular program seldom matches the 7 day and 3 month EPC listed under that same program’s Keyword Link information box? Sometimes, there will be a 7 day/3 month EPC listed for a program and then when you click on the Keyword link for that program the EPC boxes will say N/A. Is that a case where keyword links will not give any payout?

Also, while I’m here … I’m new to affiliate marketing and I suffer from a mixture of impatience and paranoia . How can I be sure that the URL links I put in my ad campaign are working? I’ve had a campaign up for a bit over a week (more than 10,000 impressions, 46 clicks) and no commissions yet. CJ shows a click count for the campaign. If I see clicks in CJ, can I assume the URL I’ve posted is working? Does anyone here have a method of testing their links?

Thanks,
Matt