Ask Me Anything How much money do you need to get started with affiliate marketing?

[comegetbravo]

This is one of the most common questions you'll get asked if you're a full time affiliate.
And the answer depends, there's a lot of variables.
First, there's the vertical you want to get started with.
There will be a huge difference between promoting a $48 CPS Nutra offer, than a $0.2 CPI app install. Because the amount of data needed to get statistical significance will vary greatly.

Most people will say the sweet spot is between $1-3k and an additional disposable monthly income which you can live on and add money towards your AM budget.

A simple breakdown of costs:
* Server: $10 digitalocean VPS / month
* Tracking: $89-$99 Voluum or adsbridge /month
* Traffic costs: $30/day - $100/day -> $900 - $3000 / month

These are the essential costs, which you absolutely need to make, if you want to use a spy tool, you've got to add another $99-$200 per month.

Personally, it took me 3 months just before seeing profit. I had spent nearly $4k and made $2k revenue ($2000 loss) before I first had a profitable campaign.

If you only have $1k-$3k to get started with affiliate marketing, make sure you can afford to lose it.

Read more on: eskilnord.com

 

[comegetbravo]

Just to get it out there. I recommend having a paid tracker. Don't really know how these trackers without a pricing model are generating their revenue..

 

[medvih]

Great post. What kind of traffic were you running when you spent 4k ? And what was your first profitable campaign? mobile/nutra/mmo etc... ?

 

[comegetbravo]

Great post. What kind of traffic were you running when you spent 4k ? And what was your first profitable campaign? mobile/nutra/mmo etc... ?

Thank you!
Were running the same as I am now. Gotta be consistent. Mobile all the way.

 

[medvih]

Thank you!
Were running the same as I am now. Gotta be consistent. Mobile all the way.

Your numbers make total sense. Too many people suggesting that with only 500 dollars you can run paid traffic. This may have been true several years ago, but with today's competition, you won't make money with a budget of at least 5000 dollars.

 

[comegetbravo]

Your numbers make total sense. Too many people suggesting that with only 500 dollars you can run paid traffic. This may have been true several years ago, but with today's competition, you won't make money with a budget of at least 5000 dollars.

If you're working smart (and get a bit of luck) you can probably get profitable with only $1-2k, but it's stressful and you should really try to save up more money before starting, myself, I started selling women's underwear over the phone when I was 17, just to save up money.

 

[SirOdds]

@comegetbravo - Running my first campaign, hope to hear some advice.

For me, the key question is what exactly is "statistically significant"? Mind you, I do understand statistics fairly well, and have no issues doing A/B and MV tests with hard numbers. That is easy.

what I am unsure about is when one first launches a campaign and is getting cold data for the first time, without anything to compare it against. How soon would you trust numbers to make decisions on optimisation, like to drop an OS, a carrier, or a placement, etc...

50 visitor, 500 visitors, 5000 visitors? What is your logic process?

thanks!

 

[medvih]

@comegetbravo - Running my first campaign, hope to hear some advice.

For me, the key question is what exactly is "statistically significant"? Mind you, I do understand statistics fairly well, and have no issues doing A/B and MV tests with hard numbers. That is easy.

what I am unsure about is when one first launches a campaign and is getting cold data for the first time, without anything to compare it against. How soon would you trust numbers to make decisions on optimisation, like to drop an OS, a carrier, or a placement, etc...

50 visitor, 500 visitors, 5000 visitors? What is your logic process?

thanks!

Here you go A/B testing statistical significance calculator - Visual Website Optimizer

 

[comegetbravo]

@comegetbravo - Running my first campaign, hope to hear some advice.

For me, the key question is what exactly is "statistically significant"? Mind you, I do understand statistics fairly well, and have no issues doing A/B and MV tests with hard numbers. That is easy.

what I am unsure about is when one first launches a campaign and is getting cold data for the first time, without anything to compare it against. How soon would you trust numbers to make decisions on optimisation, like to drop an OS, a carrier, or a placement, etc...

50 visitor, 500 visitors, 5000 visitors? What is your logic process?

thanks!

Don't optimize based on the amount of visitors, unless the cost is crazy, optimize based on conversions. That said, if an OS has done 5-10x the offer payout and still no conversions, I pause it til later testing. If a carrier hasn't done 5-10x the offer payout, I check with my AM and check if everything's cool. Otherwise, pause. Honestly though, also take into account that it might be you, who is the factor.

 

[SirOdds]

Don't optimize based on the amount of visitors, unless the cost is crazy, optimize based on conversions. That said, if an OS has done 5-10x the offer payout and still no conversions, I pause it til later testing. If a carrier hasn't done 5-10x the offer payout, I check with my AM and check if everything's cool. Otherwise, pause. Honestly though, also take into account that it might be you, who is the factor.

Right, I get the concept but that is where I start scratching my head.

How can I test based on conversion if I dont have them? Or don't know how to trust them?
In social sciences the test variables (in this case CR) can only be judged based on the population,
and baseline standard n = 30 - which I have always thought it was way too low, but in universities across
the globe science papers are published based on this metric.

What I mean is, if you do have conversions going, then you can start optimising, we all agree on that. That is more or less where I trying to get at. Sometimes you may start optimising way too soon (and loose valuable info) or too late and loose money.

say for instance your offer is $2, but your CPC is 0.2, then it would takes 1 in 10 visitors to break even.
3x the offer, that would mean 30 visits. But then there is statistical variance, which can seriously skew data at this level. Say 5 CR in a row, or 3 missed CRs, and the data is way way off.

If I do 10x the payout, then I need 300 visitors. That would cost $60. I would need at least 30 CRs to break even. Now a few conversions up or down are still very significant, but starts to even out.

I'm trying to figure out, without a control of course (A/B is easy peasy), how I can achieve 95% statistical significance that the offer is actually converting well, regardless of statistical variance. That is where the gold is at.

__

 

[comegetbravo]

Right, I get the concept but that is where I start scratching my head.

How can I test based on conversion if I dont have them? Or don't know how to trust them?
In social sciences the test variables (in this case CR) can only be judged based on the population,
and baseline standard n = 30 - which I have always thought it was way too low, but in universities across
the globe science papers are published based on this metric.

What I mean is, if you do have conversions going, then you can start optimising, we all agree on that. That is more or less where I trying to get at. Sometimes you may start optimising way too soon (and loose valuable info) or too late and loose money.

say for instance your offer is $2, but your CPC is 0.2, then it would takes 1 in 10 visitors to break even.
3x the offer, that would mean 30 visits. But then there is statistical variance, which can seriously skew data at this level. Say 5 CR in a row, or 3 missed CRs, and the data is way way off.

If I do 10x the payout, then I need 300 visitors. That would cost $60. I would need at least 30 CRs to break even. Now a few conversions up or down are still very significant, but starts to even out.

I'm trying to figure out, without a control of course (A/B is easy peasy), how I can achieve 95% statistical significance that the offer is actually converting well, regardless of statistical variance. That is where the gold is at.

__

Haha, you're like me, only 12 months ago.
You're overthinking it, seriously.
What you need to do is launch, launch a lot more, until you get conversions.

 

[SirOdds]

Haha, you're like me, only 12 months ago.
You're overthinking it, seriously.
What you need to do is launch, launch a lot more, until you get conversions.

Yes... I'm on a tight (and getting tighter) budget..

Hope I make it through to next year like you !!

__

 

[realtormallorca]

Interesting discussion, I´ve learnt a few things. Yea, when it comes to affiliate, def its not as easier as people pretend it to be ...