CONVERSION RATES 101 FOR CLICKBANK AFFILIATE MARKETERS:

One of the most frequently asked questions by affiliates for product vendors is, "what is your conversion rate?" Likewise, one of the most frequently quoted statistics by product vendors for affiliates is, once again, conversion rate.

1 sale in 100 visitors = 1/100 = 1% conversion.
1 sale in 75 visitors, thats a 1/75 or 1.3% conversion.
1 sale in 25 visitors = 1/25 = 4.0% conversion

What is a "good conversion?" Many people in direct response marketing, both on and off the internet, quote 1% as a standard benchmark. This is also true in the ebook business, with higher numbers like 1.5-2.0% being exceptional conversions for regular daily business, with much higher numbers (even double digits) being common during special promotions, limited offers and launches for brand new products.

It's really difficult to say however, what is a "good" conversion without a context and especially without knowing the cost of the product as it compares to the cost of advertising. It's more about the profit margin, really, than the conversion. I have seen products with half a percent conversion rate which were very profitable and I have seen products with 3% conversion rates with such high expenses and lower retail price that the profits were rather minimal.

As an affiliate, it's also important you understand that conversion rates can vary depending on how you calculate the statistic. For example, are you talking about:

• our overall conversion rate on all traffic to our sales page (from ice cold prospects to red hot buyers), or
• your conversion rate from your traffic through your affiliate hoplink?

These can be and almost always are, two completely different numbers. Are you talking about an all-time conversion or the conversion on a one time mailing with a special offer and deadline (special offers, bonuses and deadlines always increase conversions).

Conversion rates can also vary from affiliate to affiliate based on whether the affiliate did any pre-selling or not and if so, how well. THIS is the part you should pay close attention to, because you see, you are not limited by the average daily conversion rate of our sales page.

Our sales page SELLS, and has been a PROVEN SELLER since 2003. How well it sells for you is very much up to you.

Pre-selling on your own web page has the potential to increase sales tremendously. Many burn the fat ebook affiliates who have mastered the art of pre-sell have conversion rates of 2-3% and a few as high as 4-7% - and that's even without special offers, deadlines or scarcity!

On the other hand, affiliates who do no preselling and send untargeted, unqualified cold traffic to the site can have conversions far below average. I know some affiliates who complain that they've sent a few hundred clicks already with no sales yet. Invariably, on further investigation, I found that they had done no pre selling or they used pay per click (PPC) with very generic, poorly targeted ads driving traffic straight to the sales page.

It's tough to have a good closing ratio when you're selling ice to eskimos. Better to sell food to a starving crowd or sell water in the desert don't you agree?

Good affiliate marketing has a lot to do with attracting the right prospects and tapping into their thirst. It makes no sense to try to "force" unqualified prospects to want what you have to offer. Find a thirsty or hungry crowd that wants what you have and sell right into their existing desires!

As you can see, it's impossible for me to promise you what your conversion will be, since so many factors are involved. What I can tell you is that we receive a huge amount of traffic to our sales page at www.burnthefat.com so we get statistically significant results very quickly, and the historical average conversion on overall traffic to our home (sales) page has been 1.1% to 1.3%

This means at least 1 out of 90. If you convert less than 1 sale after 90 unique visitors, then you are converting your traffic lower than our page average. This means you could work harder on improving the quality of your traffic and the effectiveness of your preselling strategies. If you are converting better than 1 out of 90, then you are doing a good job at qualifying and or pre-selling your traffic.

We have a handful of "ninja" affilites using Pay per click (PPC) to send traffic to their own landing page, then flippin them to our sales page and converting as high as 1 in 10 to 1 in 25 over extended periods of time). One of the best conversion rates we've ever seen was 15% (about 1 in 6) with no scarcity, extra bonuses or special offers whatsoever. This was achieved with a direct email endorsement of Burn The fat mailed by a respected fitness industry expert. His conversion rate was exceptionally high because he crafted an outstanding solo email endorsement and also because he had a stellar reputation with his customers and subscribers, who trusted his recommendations implicitly. If you do not have a "herd" of loyal followers, you probably cannot expect similar conversions, but endorsed solo emails almost always convert much much higher than normal.

Remember, there are no guaranteees of your conversion rate. I'm am providing this info only to give you a reference point, but also in the hopes that you will get some tips on how to increase your conversions by sending more qualified traffic to us. If you send unqualified traffic, "tire kickers" "freebie seekers" or people who simply arent even interested in fat loss diets at all, then your conversions will be on the low side.

A good case in point is spam emails. I have had thousands of visitors hit the site as a result of an affiliate (illegally) sending spam email. guess what? Zero sales. Zero conversions. But of course. The traffic was not only unqualified, the recipients of the email were pissed because the email was unwelcome. (we terminated that affiliate by the way. We have no tolerance for spam email, but spam doesnt work anyway... thinking about spam??? STOP.. and please read Seth Godin's book "permission marketing")

If you pre sell on your site, then based on other affiliate's results, we know that the potential is there to get much higher conversions than our daily average of about 1.1% and this is because, in contrast to unsolicited email or impulse visitors, your traffic will have "raised their hand" already and said, "yes! Im interested in this" before they even hit our sales page.

Although we still have a few affiliates who do well at sending google ad words traffic straight to the sales page, those people are particularly skilled at choosing keywords and writing good ads and making them match our sales page (not to mention doing this is contingent on whether google's rules allow you to do so).

The real keys in my opinion, to high conversions is pre-selling on your own web page and qualifying your traffic. This is particularly true with Burn The Fat due to the nature of our product (it's not a quick fix type of thing, but rather lifestyle approach and "serious" nutrition and fat loss diet program).

Burn The Fat definitely converts the best when it is pre-sold and when the prospective buyer is prequalified and knows in advance what kind of program it is and they know what to expect when they hit the sales page.

Having said all this, one thing we know for sure is that our sales page consistently delivers. If it didn't, it wouldnt be have achieved the record - still unbroken to this day - of 4 years straight at #1 in two clickbank product categories and still a bestseller to this day after 8 years in the clickbank marketplace. If you're not seeing the conversion rates you want, then take a real close look at your pre-selling and pre-qualifying strategies. For more information on pre-selling, read our complete article on that subject here:

http://burnthefat.com/affiliate_area/pre_selling_secrets.html

If you have any questions about conversion rates or any other Burn the Fat affiliate marketing related subject, you can contact me any time at:

http://burnthefat.com/contact.html

- Tom Venuto, Author of
Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle

Disclaimer: Burn the fat.com makes no promises, assurances or guarantees about earnings, commissions, conversions or income potential. Results of other affiliates are provided for informational purposes only and are no guarantee that you will do as well. Read the affiliate agreement and earnings disclaimer for more information:
http://burnthefat.com/affiliate_area/affiliate_agreement.html

Copyright, Burn the Fat.com and Tom Venuto. Do Not Copy! Absolutely no reproduction of this article is permitted.