Secrets to a higher "Conversion Ratio"

By David McKenzie
Posted Friday, November 19, 2004

As an affiliate promoting affiliate programs you need to know the conversion ratio of each program you belong to.

It is something you have control over.

But what exactly is a conversion ratio?

For affiliate programs, the conversion ratio (or CR) is the number of visitors that click through your affiliate link compared to the number of sales you make.

For instance if you had 100 visitors to one of your affiliate programs you were promoting and got 1 sale then your CR would be 1%.

One sale for every 50 visitors would be a CR of 2% and one sale for every 200 visitors would be a CR of 0.5%.

So what would be a good conversion ratio for an affiliateprogram?

Well after much research I have seen that a 1% CR is quite acceptable. A CR of 0.5% would be a little low and if you have a CR of 3% then you are on to a winning affiliate program.

Depending on what you are promoting your goal should be to achieve a CR of 1% to 2%. But how?

To get a higher CR you need to concentrate on the following factors:

1. Join quality affiliate programs that have products or services that are proven sellers on the internet.
2. Become an affiliate of a HOT selling product or service including marketing, travel, health & fitness and ebooks.
3. The more focussed your web site the better your conversion ratio. If you are promoting 100 different products or services your CR's will be low. If you promote 1 product or service at your site your CR will be MUCH higher. With affiliate programs the less the better.
4. How often you promote your affiliate programs. The more often you promote each program the higher your CR will be.
5. How many links on your site. The more affiliate links the higher your CR will be. But do not get carried away here. Do not let your web site look like a flea market because your CR will be bound to go down. By concentrating on these factors you should be able to achieve a CR of 1%. By doing these things even better you may be able to get it to 2%.

But do not expect the CR to rise overnight. A visitor today may only turn into a sale in 6 months time. So make sure you have 12 months of data before properly assessing the conversion ratio.

The most important thing is marketing your affiliate programs. More marketing means a higher CR which means more money for you.

So monitor your conversion ratio and make it your goal to improve it.

About the Author
David McKenzie of (http://www.brisney.com) For great ideas on promoting your web site or marketing your affiliate programs
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