One of the mistakes I see most bloggers making early on is trying to stick to things that give them the biggest pay out. Unfortunately, certain referral and affiliate programs might have high rates, but horrible conversion, and widening your net to include smaller paying programs might get more conversions and end up making you more money in the end.

Darren Rowse recently covered this on his blog where a reader asks why he linked to a product using an affiliate link when the money made on each sale was to be less than five dollars.

What we, as readers, quickly realize is simple: every penny counts.

Darren was able to make over two hundred dollars in one day, from a variety of affiliate programs and product referrals that each paid out small amounts, but together, made a real difference in his earnings. If he was able to replicate that result, each and every day, pushing a fair number of sales to a large number of less expensive products, he would make six thousand dollars in a month.

It was counter-intuitive to how I thought of making money online, but his site is proof positive that just because a product only pays you a few dollars per conversion, doesn’t mean it is worthless, as it could convert quite well.

Originally posted on December 14, 2007 @ 1:20 am