| Commission Junction is one of the 800 pound | | | | all this data? There are categories that aren't so |
| gorillas of Affiliate Marketing. CJ is part of the | | | | great at CJ. If your site is about web services |
| publicly held ValueClick, which earned $39 million | | | | advice, handbags, new age, car travel or rentals, |
| last year on marketing programs, including affiliate | | | | commercial insurance or weddings, I'd look |
| programs, email marketing and software for | | | | elsewhere. Another way to interpret the data |
| advertising agencies.CJ handles affiliate programs | | | | would be to say that the marketers CJ has for |
| for a lot of the big names, including Home Depot, | | | | those categories don't pull well. Still another would |
| Yahoo and Citibank.Can you make money with | | | | be that the type of sites that sign with CJ just |
| Commission Junction? Like most affiliate programs | | | | don't attract the type of people that would click |
| it depend on the theme or niche of your web | | | | on ads in those categories. No matter how you |
| site, and how well you match your content and | | | | slice it it still comes out the same - it seems like |
| the CJ programs.Our spider ran through the site | | | | CJ isn't the place to look to fill that ad space.Not |
| recently, and I've made a list of the major | | | | content with my mountain of data, I opened the |
| categories and their average Earnings Per Click | | | | firehose a little more. I ran a program that |
| (EPC). You will recall that EPC is calculated by | | | | compared the average EPC for Pay-per-sale |
| taking the total commission payout for the | | | | programs vs. Pay-Per-Lead programs. For |
| advertiser and dividing it by the number of clicks | | | | per-sale, the EPC was .36. For per-lead it was .67. |
| that advertiser gets, so EPC measures how | | | | Intutitively I would say that advertisers pay more |
| profitable each click is for the publisher. We used | | | | for sales than leads, so the clickthrough on leads |
| 7 day EPC, which measures EPC across the last | | | | has to be much higher on CJ, which also seems |
| seven days.The spider also only saves the top | | | | correct since less of a commitment is required |
| ten advertisers in each category/subcategory, | | | | from the visitor for a lead than a sale. So if you |
| and since some advertisers are in more than one | | | | have a choice in programs between sale and lead, |
| category/subcategory it tends to skew the | | | | take the lead program.So what did we learn here? |
| results a bit (higher). We came up with an | | | | It seems to me that if your site visitors would |
| average of .56 (fifty-six cents) per click across | | | | respond to banners or text links about mortgage |
| the board averaging every category and | | | | financing, insurance, gardening or web services, |
| subcategory.We've created a metric we call True | | | | add some CJ banners to the mix. What the heck, |
| EPC or TEPC, which measures the actual Earnings | | | | add them anyway if you have room, because |
| Per Single Click, rather than the earnings per | | | | experimentation is important to success in affiliate |
| hundred clicks that companies like CJ use to make | | | | marketing. If you have a site with content that |
| the numbers look bigger.Note: I only included the | | | | fits those categories or is a general interest or |
| first 5 categories here, and only part of the data. | | | | entertainment site, there are many good |
| All of the data can be found at a very interesting | | | | programs to choose from at CJ.Lastly, I did a |
| list by category:Category True EPC / Top Ad & | | | | quick comparison of the average Adsense payout |
| TEPCFinancial Services $ 2.41 / Get Smart $ | | | | (using 80% of the average of keyword bids for |
| 32.98 | | | | different categories), and Adsense comes out a |
| Insurance $ 1.25 / American Life $ 2.98 | | | | better EPC about a quarter of the time. So check |
| Home & Garden $ 1.16 / Sunsetter $ 8.21 | | | | Adsense first before you put up a CJ ad that has |
| Web Services $ 1.13 / Yahoo Hosting $ 3.75 | | | | an EPC of a dollar or more. A big banner ad vs. an |
| Computer & Electronics $ 0.87 | | | | Adsense ad may seem like a good idea because |
| Accessories $ 0.80 | | | | more exposure may translate into more clicks, |
| Health & Beauty $ 0.76What does it all mean? | | | | but you can fit three Adsense text ads in that |
| Well, to me it means that if you have a website | | | | banner space.There are many hidden insights in |
| that gets visitors interested in Loans, Insurance, | | | | the data, and I encourage you to go to the |
| Sunsetter awnings or Yahoo hosting, you should | | | | website, print out the page and take a look. |
| be a member of Commission Junction.More | | | | There might be some terrific-paying programs |
| generally, if you think you can get decent | | | | you can ad to your website.I'd like to put |
| clickthrough on Finance, Home & Garden, | | | | together a free weekly email service that |
| Insurance or Web Services, I would include some | | | | provides stats like the ones on this page. If this is |
| Commission Junction ads.Some commentary on | | | | something you might be interested in, drop me a |
| the top 4 ads: what strikes me right off the bat | | | | line.Matt DeAngelis runs Matt is the former CTO |
| is that the little Yahoo text ad at #4 pulls almost | | | | of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad |
| four bucks. I actually signed up for that program | | | | space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, |
| myself, and I'm going to put it on this site when I | | | | Matt devised the technology behind many of the |
| get the chance. My calculations tell me that 1:5 to | | | | most successful ad campaigns of the time. |
| 1:7 clicks results in a signup.What's the flip side of | | | | |