The Value of an Affiliate Link (Proof!)

Today we’ll look at just how much an affiliate link is really worth. You’ll get to see some of my affiliate income sources – and exactly how I earn those affiliate commissions. We’ll start with this one…

The image above is a screenshot showing about one year’s worth of affiliate commissions earned, from one affiliate link. The total is $339 in commissions. This is probably the worst example ever. It doesn’t convert very well because it’s not a strong message to market match, at all. We’ll talk about that more in a second…

Here is the blog post that contains that affiliate link, which promotes Netflix:

This blog post was published on August 27th, 2007. It ranks well in the major search engines for a variety of odd longtail keyword phrases, such as: free netflix account, netflix watch instantly free, netflix free movies online, watch netflix free movies, netflix watch movies online. You’ll see it here at #3:

proof-6

I actually plucked these phrases (not out of thin air! lol) but right out of my site stats for visitors that clicked through from those searches.

The commission stats I showed you earlier are just for the last year – January ‘09 to January 2010. That’s what a copy & paste of one affiliate link in ONE blog post can be worth: $339 for a few minutes of work – once, a couple of years ago.

Again, the $339 is not total commissions earned, just in about a year’s time –and on a really bad example of an affiliate promotion, as I mentioned.

The Netflix affiliate program is pay-per-lead, paying you for every person that signs up for a free trial of Netflix. The program is through LinkShare

How would you like to earn $300+, just to copy and paste?

Or even $300+/year for ONE blog post that you write? Ask yourself this: how much do you currently earn per blog post, or on each web page that you create?

Next we’ll look at a ClickBank example. I don’t actually like to work with ClickBank that much because a lot of people will back out of the sale and use their own link to buy a product, bypassing your referral altogether.

This is because ClickBank is set up for the last referral to get the commission. Unfortunate really. I would love to see them change it to first referrer, or at least put a 10-day cookie in place for the last referrer. But I digress…

proof-11

That’s over $10,000 in commission in a year plus a week or so. And like I said, ClickBank is not one of my favorite networks to work with, so I generally avoid them as an affiliate marketer if possible.

Let’s look at a specific product I promote through ClickBank…

Here you see a Google search result page for the search “think and grow rich audio”. That’s my web page that’s ranking #1 right there:

proof-7

There are not that many searches for that particular keyword phrase, but it does show up in my site stats. Here is a quick look at the search volume for think and grow rich phrases. You see “think and grow rich mp3” gets about 14 searches a day:

proof-9

Most online marketers wouldn’t bother with a keyword phrase that has such low search volume. My page ranks #3 for that phrase. I published that web page online several years ago, at least 4 years ago, and I haven’t touched it since. It consistently makes sales just about every single week.

This is one of my favorite methods – using SEO, and specifically longtail keyword phrases, to earn affiliate commissions passively. See SEO Content to learn more.

Here you can see my ClickBank stats for that product for a recent 90 day period, and you can see that it’s earning about $100/month all on it’s own. Passive Income. Sometimes it’s more, it’s rarely less – but it’s out there ranking, getting clicks, making sales, and sending me checks every single month…

proof-8

These are obviously bad examples…

They’re bad examples because the Netflix promo is a poor match for it’s keywords, and the Think & Grow Rich keywords have very low search volume.

I’m showing you these bad examples for a reason.

I’m actually quite good at Affiliate Marketing

I want you to see how even affiliate linking done badly… can easily earn you money. And consistent passive income – which is the best kind in my book!

Keep in mind these are not affiliate sites. These are affiliate links. One page, one blog post, or one link. Multiply that by the number of affiliate links and blog posts and web pages you imagine I might have out there on the web after 13 years…

Now imagine how many links you can create like that yourself in a day.

And this year, even.

None, if you don’t know how, of course.

That’s the reason I published the 2-part series on The Anatomy of an Affiliate Link. Trust me, it’s NOT rocket science. And you don’t have to get it perfect. I think I proved that with these two really bad examples.

Best,

p.s. Next, I’ll show you more of the “big picture” of my life & income as a Super Affiliate. Subscribe below to get updates by email so you don’t miss a single post!

Are you ready to start making consistent Affiliate sales yourself? You want to do 2 things: study the Super Affiliate Handbook, and join my discussion forum. It’s a great community, and a good place to get help anytime you need it…