Clickank Affiliates: what is the absolute Lowest Commission you'd take per initial sale?

Depends on what your upsell chain is like.

I'd promote something for $18 commission if there was a $197 product on upsell 1 backing it up.

I've promoted some things that were free as long as there were One Time Offers in place that could bring in more money.

I had one product that converted really well but paid only about 9.50 commission. I was happy to do it. Hey, it was still a good profit margin!

Hey,

For me personally it really depends on several factors, first is the niche market. If it is outside internet marketing I am usually willing to go as low as nine or ten bucks per sale / customer.

In internet marketing I usually promote stuff that pays at least 50% commissions and the product has to be solid. I want to know that besides getting paid my subscribers who purchase will get a solid product that will help them if they take action and implement.

Best,

Yes and no.

Serious affiliates tend to search by e.p.s. (earnings per sale) with a lower cut-off below which they won't normally go. (I don't often look at anything with earnings under $25. I don't care what the percentage is).

But it's not quite as simple as that. Other points to bear in mind include the following:-

(i) Serious affiliates with a ready-made market (usually in the form of a big list) are often adding additional products, and just want whatever they're happy to recommend and stand by that they think will convert their traffic best - these are the affiliates who can judge this reasonably well from the sales page and the product (obviously, anyone who promotes it without actually seeing the product isn't, by definition, a "serious affiliate" - and won't have a big list, either). In such cases, people may well search below their normal e.p.s.-threshold anyway;

(ii) People don't know for sure how well a product converts because this information isn't made available by Clickbank (rightly, I think);

(iii) The more "serious" the "serious affiliates" are, the more likely they are to have a list of criteria which they apply, pretty methodically and scientifically, before selecting products to promote (mine are listed here) - earnings will rarely (if ever) be at the top of the list;

(iv) It's possibly a mistake for vendors to price their products and fix their commission structure so that the affiliate's share, net of Clickbank deductions, comes to some figure like $19.90 (which might miss the attention of affiliates who enter $20 as their minimum e.p.s. into Clickbank's search function) or $24.90 (similarly for a $25 cut-off). I've seen products paying 60% commission which leave the affiliate an amount of money which is 1 or 2 cents under an "obvious e.p.s. threshold", and I'm sure those vendors would be far better off financially by paying 61% commission instead, because they'd attract more affiliates. Similarly, a $37 product paying 75% commission leaves the affiliate just under $25, after Clickbank deductions - a $39 product produces just over $26;

(v) Higher-priced products (I'm talking about retail prices, not just commission percentages) often tend to affect lower total affiliate numbers, but a much higher proportion of more serious, more experienced, more professional affiliates, and they can make a lot more sales, (not just "more profit") too. I look pretty carefully at $97 products, but perhaps less carefully at $37 ones;

(vi) For a large variety of reasons, actually, contrary to what one might imagine, it's generally a mistake, from the vendor's perspective, to "try to attract as many affiliates as possible". 90% of the affiliates make 10% of the sales. The affiliates whom vendors ought to want to attract are the other 10%, who are attracted in different ways.

(vii) Serious affiliates often don't think in terms of commission percentages, because they understand that 40% of $97 is worth more than 75% of $47; and they're more likely to appreciate from experience, too, that a $97 product doesn't have to convert at any lower percentage than a $47 product (i.e. contrary to what a less experienced affiliate may sometimes mistakenly assume without testing).

This is way too open-ended. It depends on a a lot of things.

1. How is the affiliate promoting the product? If they are just promoting to a list then obviously they won't need as big a commission to break even. They will be more inclined to promote products based on the quality of the product alone, rather than how big the commission is. If an affiliate is promoting using paid ads or PPC then they will have a certain figure they need to recoup before they are turning profit.

2. How big is the market? I might be able to make more per sale promoting product A but if it's a small market then I will be limited by that. If product B pays a little less but has a much wider appeal, I am going to be able to spread my promotions much further and close more sales faster - hopefully. Also the average CPC for that niche will come into play - how much will an affiliate need to spend in order to earn that commission - it's something you need to think about. The best way to do this and put your affiliates minds at rest is to promote your own product as an affiliate using PPC and make sure it is profitable for you BEFORE you try and get others to promote.

3. What is the refund rate?

On and on it goes. I think the only things you need to make sure you are doing is:

a) Offer affiliates the highest commission you can afford. Remember, these are sales you would not have made otherwise. Even if you only make a couple of dollars per sale you are still getting a brand new customer introduced to your business who you can then follow-up with and sell more stuff to.

b) Make sure the product and customer service is quality so the refund rates are as low as they can go.

c) Provide the affiliates with as many ready-to-go promotional materials as possible and encourage them to contact you if they need any further custom promo materials.

d) Reward your best affiliates. This is why it can be good to ask for the email address of your affiliates. If you reward your best performing affiliates with special unannounced bonuses or giveaways, they will be more likely to keep promoting for you and tell others about your cool affiliate program.

I like to see at least $20 or $25 per sale BUT what I really prefer is recurring income. I would take $10 a sale if I thought the site would rebill well. There is nothing like a big batch of rebills to get you through lean times.

it really depends on the target market. but to answer your question, we actually promoted a $7-10 commission product with SEO, and when our site is rank #1, we get almost a sale per day. At the same time we have sites promoting $50 products that have NEVER converted... See where I'm going with this?

25% on high ticket ($100+)
50% on med ticket ($50 - $100)
75% on low ticket (under 50$)

I have been marketing on middle east forums for low cost products for long time and gess what its far much better than expensive ones as people get to buy them in larege quantity thats why my gaining was always high

good luck

It all depends on the volume you can push. For example I'm promoting an adult affiliate program which pays $1.5/free signup and I can push many of those, so it does worth it!

no less than 50%.

if its a low ticket item pretty much all the top CB vendors do 75%.

A lot believe 50% of the sale price is good, But if you make something its better than nothing as long as your not spending more marketing than its worth.
Good Luck,
stews

I promoted a product to my list that paid out $0.16 commission on a recurring basis (no joke) because I liked the product and thought it was pretty good.

Didn't really care much about the money that day ...

... made zero sales!

Oh well!

Honestly, as someone just starting out in the CB and Amazon Affiliate scene, I would take as low as 3% as long as it converted well.

I'm all about EPC, if that is high, it doesn't matter how much the product is selling for.