Joining an Affiliate Network

How can I estimate the revenue potential?

[arieng]

I have very little experience with affiliate marketing and only from the advertiser side. One of my biggest competitors is a prominent member of a couple of affiliate networks. I'm guessing that he is making some pretty good coin from those programs, but I can't for the life of me get any reliable data.

He is promoting very popular, large-ticket items (though only offering a 5% commission). How many affiliates is he likely to have? How much volume can he be moving through these networks?

I'm trying to evaluate whether its worth trying to get into these networks for a piece of the pie.

[edited by: eljefe3 at 1:01 am (utc) on April 19, 2007]

[eljefe3]

How much he is making will be hard to find out. the only hints you might find would be to see what his program ecpm is, but that still only will tell you how much an affiliate makes per click.

If you really wanted to know, you could always sign up to be his affiliate and see for yourself how well it converts.

[Chuck Hamrick]

EPC is a tricky game. I know of a program that paid $500k per month at peak and had an EPC of $6.40.

[edited by: eljefe3 at 5:16 am (utc) on April 19, 2007]

[arieng]

Thanks for the feedback. These affiliate networks are very opaque, very hard to see how large a program is. I guess the only real way to find out would be to join, offer a higher payout, and see what happens. Anyway, I appreciate your expertise.