What Type of Data You Need to Collect

Affiliate success, or any online business success for that matter is all about testing new things, tracking the right data, and then making educated decisions based on this data. So the only unknown element in this equation is indeed the data.

What should we track when it comes to our site’s performance? What is the most crucial data type? And even more importantly, what are the metrics that are not that important even though most of the internet is so obsessed about them?
1. Important: Traffic From Specific Keywords
It’s always much easier to grow traffic to a page that’s already attracting some traffic, than to build up a page that starts out with zero.
The easy part is that every analytics software will show you the traffic numbers you’re receiving from specific individual keywords your site is ranking for.
If you have a page that receives a noticeable number of visitors despite the fact that it doesn’t rank #1 for its keyword then this is the page you should improve next.
2. Not Important: Rankings Themselves
The sole fact of ranking for a keyword won’t bring you anything. What matters is if this specific ranking is driving actual traffic and if it can still be improved on. For instance, if you’re at #1 for a keyword and you’re getting 10 visits a month from it then the keyword is clearly not worth your effort.
3. Important: Conversions
Conversions are always the most important metric when it comes to the effectiveness of a sales page or an affiliate offer. There just isn’t a better way of growing your profits quickly than by spending time on improving your conversion rates.
Setting up goals in Google Analytics and paying attention to the reporting sections inside individual affiliate programs will let you in on this data.
4. Important: Individual Traffic Sources
While doing your day-to-day work, it’s quite easy to lose track of things and stop noticing the individual referrers sending you traffic. This is still an important metric, though, because it tells you where your ideal target audience is already at.
5. Not Important: Twitter and Social Media Following
Your numbers of followers and fans is just that…numbers. If your social media profiles don’t send you direct visitors then it might just not be a channel for your niche or site. The sole fact of getting X number of followers in a month may indeed mean nothing.
6. Important: Your Popular Content
Again, it’s always easier to improve something that’s already working. That is why you should devote most of your content muscle to working on pages that are already successful, instead of trying to fix the content that brings no results at all.
7. Not Important: Commission Size
It’s quite easy to get fooled by promises of huge payoffs for some affiliate programs. In the end, just because an offer gives 70% revenue share to affiliates doesn’t mean that it’s going to be profitable…70% of zero is still zero.
In other words, offers with smaller commissions that convert will always be more profitable than offers with huge commissions that don’t.
8. Important: The Offers Your Competitors are Promoting
Taking a look at what your competition is doing is always a good idea, regardless of the niche you’re in. In short, if someone has been promoting an offer consistently for months then it has to be profitable for them. Giving such an offer a go on your site can often become profitable for you as well.
What other types of data do you collect? Also, don’t forget to check out our new CAP Network. We’re devoted to providing simplified reporting, best offers and quick payments.