Pick a Product

Get To Know Your Affiliate Account Dashboard

To browse products on the AffiliateWire network, all you have to do is go to the Products Tab in your Account and scroll through the complete list. If you have a particular product in mind, you can use our ‘Search Product Catalogue’ tool to define your search criteria.

To find suggestions for your first promotion, be sure to check out the “5 Newest Products” and “Featured Products” on the left hand side of the Products Tab in your Account Dashboard. The “5 Newest Products” are frequently not only new to the network, but brand new products to market as well. This offers the advantage of there being a little bit less competition in some cases, and in other cases you may be able to capitalize on any marketing buzz surrounding the launch of a brand new product. The “Featured Products” are the ones that have been hand selected by our affiliate managers as either consistent top performers or under-promoted products where there’s a real opportunity in the market. Either way, the products you find in these lists are very safe bets and an excellent place to start.

What Should You Be Looking For In a Product?

There are a number of key indicators to look for when you’re choosing a product. These are some of the most important factors for you to consider.

Conversion Rate

When it comes to software, the conversion rate of a product reflects the number of users who follow through the sales path to complete a purchase of the product upon visiting the merchant’s site or downloading the trial software. For example, a product with a conversion rate of 2% means two out of every 100 people that visit the site or click on the landing page actually buy the product, or convert to a sale.  A conversion rate of 3% and higher is considered very strong by industry standards, however this percentage will vary drastically depending on source of your traffic, and the extent to which your leads have been pre-qualified before reaching your sales page. For this reason, the average conversion rates for our products are not listed in the catalogue but instead we encourage you to discover your conversion rates through testing.

To determine your conversion rate on a product, you need to test that product against your traffic source and track the results of user clicks to conversions. The duration of your testing is up to you, but there are a few guidelines you can follow in analyzing your data. A minimum test period of one week should be observed to account for daily variation, with a 2 week test period being more reliable and a 30-day test run the most statistically viable of all.

You can calculate the conversion rate of a given product using the following basic formula:

Conversion Rate = # of Unit Sales of Product X / # of Visits to Your Sales Page

Commission Percentile

The commission percentile for any given product is the percentage of the final sale that is paid to you, and is pre-determined by the merchant. It is basically the amount of money you earn for every product you sell. For example, if the cost to the user is $30 and the merchant has set the commission percentile at 75%, you will earn $22.50 for each sale you make.

Earnings Per Click

To calculate EPC, you simply divide the total commission generated by the number of clicks sent to the product site during your test period.

Let’s say your commission percentile nets you $22.50 per sale. You send 1000 clicks and convert 22 of those clicks into sales. That is an EPC of almost $0.50 and a conversion rate of 2.2%.  If your cost per click on this campaign is less than $0.50, then you’re profitable! Remember, EPC (earnings per click) minus CPC (cost per click) = your return on investment.

5 Star Rating System

AffiliateWire’s Products Tab also features a ‘5 Star Rating System’ for every product, which you can use to gauge that product’s overall performance. This rating system is based on a unique calculation that determines a product’s score. The rating takes into account the product’s earning potential based on volume of sales, conversion rates and the number of affiliates who are promoting the product. The higher the star rating, the ‘hotter’ the product in terms of recent commission earnings and affiliate uptake.

Search Volume & Traffic Volume

Investigating the search volume on a product name and any related keywords lets you know how many users are actively looking for this product. The best indicator of search volume is frequency of keyword usage. A good place to start your keyword research is by using Google Trends.  Would you like to know how many people are searching for ‘registry cleaners’? This tool will give you analytics on how frequently a particular keyword shows up in Google searches. Within Google AdWords there is a Keyword Generator that will suggest bundles of keywords related to what you are using.  It will also offer you data on how popular those keywords are, how well they convert and how much they cost on average.

Researching the traffic volume to a merchant’s site will give you an idea of how well established that product is, and how many users are visiting the product site via multiple traffic channels. To shed some light on traffic volume for a product, visit Alexa and enter the merchant domain for the product you are interested in. This will give you a detailed breakdown of how many visitors this site gets, and from what sources those visitors are coming from. The insight you get will help you identify important opportunities. You can also follow the clickstream of how users arrived at the product page and get some ideas on additional traffic sources.

Product Knowledge

You will always have a higher chance of success promoting a product that you are familiar with. From writing your own content, to creative keyword generation, your first product should be one you’re comfortable promoting. If your users feel that you have a strong understanding of the product you are promoting, this will positively impact their purchase behavior and ultimately increase your conversion rate.

Industry Knowledge

The best way to learn how to create a profitable product campaign is through your own trial and error, and from the experience of others.  Join some affiliate communities, read industry blogs (e.g., affbuzz) and e-zines. Others in the industry are often writing about what they have tried, what has worked, and what has failed.

It’s a good idea to do some competitive research and investigate how this product is being promoted elsewhere. Think like your end user and test out some of the keywords you might use to find this product. What kind of ads does your search return? Is there an obvious keyword that is returning few ads? Perhaps this is your opportunity.

Remember: Your affiliate managers are always willing to help you pick the right product for your campaign, so if you need help, don’t hesitate to contact them at affiliates@revenuewire.com.