HomeBlogTrafficWhat Affiliates Actually Earn

What Affiliates Actually Earn

Читать по-русски

Why there is no average answer, what income is made of and which figures in case studies to halve and which to divide by ten.

What Affiliates Actually Earn

The most frequently asked question, and the honest answer is dull: the spread is so wide that an average describes nobody.

Why there is no average

The same sample contains someone who lost money over a month of tests and a team with tuned setups and dozens of accounts. The average between them is a number nobody has.

What income is made of

Income = volume × conversion × payout − costs. Four multipliers that grow differently.

  • Volume is capped by fleet and limits. Grows linearly and slowly.
  • Conversion is audience and approach quality. Grows in jumps when a working setup is found.
  • Payout is set by the offer and barely in your control.
  • Costs grow with volume but slower — which is what makes scale profitable.

Reading case studies

Look not at the total but at three things: over what period, on what investment, and what is missing from the costs. Usually missing: accounts, time, and the failed tests before this one.

A realistic first quarter

Month one negative. Month two around break-even. Month three the first profit, if a setup was found. That curve means you are doing it right. How to count your own numbers is in unit economics.

Topic: Traffic

More on this topic: The tool for this

Read next

Unit Economics of a Setup

How to work out whether a setup makes money: every cost line people forget, and the formula they add up to.

ROI Versus ROMI

Two metrics people constantly confuse, and why the difference between them changes whether you scale a setup or close it.

Affiliate Marketing With No Budget

What can genuinely be done with no money, where the real minimum begins and why «no investment» usually means investing time instead.

Ready to put this to work?

Neurogram automates parsing, commenting and DM conversations on Telegram. Three days free — no card required.

Try it free