I’m just gonna spell it out for you guys. You will fail. You will fail a lot more than you will win. That’s internet marketing.
I got a question about what my percentage of profitable campaigns is over failed campaigns. If you are asking for an average of over the past 3 years I’ve been into affiliate marketing, its probably somewhere around 10%. 9 out of 10 campaigns fail. But, that’s just an average. Sometimes I’d go 1 month with 9 out of 10 campaigns profiting. Some months I wouldn’t have a single new campaign profit. Affiliate marketing is never balanced, and you can never set a goal for yourself on the percentage of campaigns you want to be profitable.
It Is Not Constant… Ever.
Get the idea out of your head that if you don’t profit on your first 10 campaigns, you’ll never profit. It just means you are probably in at the wrong time, running on the wrong traffic source, or may need to seriously reconsider your targeting. Start looking at each conversion and seeing what contributed to it, rather than what looking at how much you lost. Obviously you shouldn’t disregard how much you are spending, but if you make back at least half of what you spend, you are already half-way to breaking even. That’s a big step forward.
I can sit here and give you bullshit percentages and numbers, but truth of the matter is it wouldn’t matter. I can tell you to shoot for 10% profitable campaigns, but again, that wouldn’t matter. This month you might have 90% profitable new campaigns, the next 0. It’s a constantly shifting percentage.
Don’t forget to check out my forums if you are interested in affiliate marketing case studies, free landing page downloads (currently over 70!), and other in-depth conversation! For more info, click here.
Subscribe to my newsletter now, and get access to my 'PPV Top 7 Secrets To Make Big Money' guide and other special bonus material, like image packs for Facebook/PoF and discounts to my 
Ed from htmlpress.net
Also remember Pareto’s law applied to affiliate mktg –> 80% of your earnings will come from only 20% of your campaigns. So if you can identify those 20% early enough scrap the 80% of your other campaings.
Ethan
+1 So true!
Riley Pool
Ed, no offense, but that is horrible advice.
Eleanor Edwards
I don’t understand Riley. What was horrible about what Ed said? Have you read Tim Ferris’s ‘Four Hour Work Week’? He says the same thing in a lot more words and no one told him his advice was horrible
Kang
Yeah even if the 80% of campaigns are only marginally +ve ROI, why scrap them?
By keeping them you are getting data and accumulating profits no matter how small.
Justin Dupre
Time management. Would I rather run 10 profitable campaigns making me $100 a day each, or 50 making me $20 each?
David
Entrepreneur success rate <5% … probably the same as affiliate mktg.
Wayne Cooper
Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog Justin.
As for your percentages in your post … it’s a sobering thought! I few more would be marketeers should take notice and not have exaggerated expectations.
Wayne
browie
WHAAAT? Less than 1? I’m in the wrong business I quit [/sarcasm]
I think all of the new guys should be forced to read this post.
Gary David | Build Your List Fast
That’s true, I totally agree with this. Especially in business, where success rate is very low, it’s really time to learn more, and be equipped with a lot of know-how’s to be able to succeed in business.
Kind regards,
Gary