TRACKING YOUR AFFILIATE PARTNERS AND WEBSITE EARNINGS

TRACKING AFFILIATE PARTNERS & PROGRAMS

I use a spreadsheet to keep track of every affiliate program I work with. I track the following in that document:

• Program name
• Main merchant website address
• Dashboard or network website address
• Dashboard or network username
• Dashboard or network password
• Name of my contact at the program (if any)
• Email of my contact at the program (if any)
• Twitter handle of my contact at the program (if any)
• The original uncloaked affiliate link for the program (to create new cloaked links when needed)
• My cloaked link for that program (why I cloak affiliate links)
• The link to my review of the program or product (if any)
• The product niche
• The product commission rate
• Whether or not I have a special commission rate (helps me know who I still need to ask for a higher payout if I’m doing a lot of sales for a product)
• How the program pays me (direct deposit, check, Paypal, etc.)

I also list the link to my post on creating SID codes for the bigger affiliate networks for easy reference. You can get a free copy of the template for the above spreadsheet here. I keep the spreadsheet updated as I add new merchants.

TRACKING AFFILIATE WEBSITE EARNINGS

I use spreadsheets to track each website I own individually. It helps me know where to put my efforts, especially when I’m pressed for time. The below is what I track (note, I include all contextual and display advertising programs as “advertisers”):

• Website name
• Website address
• Date creatives were last updated
• SID code used for that website (I use the same SID for all programs for that site)
• A list of the merchants I affiliate with for that site
• Earnings from each merchant for that site by month
• Gross yearly earning totals for each merchant
• EPC for each merchant by month and yearly CPC average
• Gross yearly affiliate income for each month with all merchants combined
• A list of the advertisers I affiliate with for that site
• Earnings from each advertiser for that site by month
• Gross yearly earning totals for each advertiser
• Gross yearly advertiser income for each month with all advertisers combined
• Gross total monthly earnings – all in
• Gross total annual earnings – all in
• A list of expenses (things like domain registration, hosting, promotional costs, development costs, etc.)
• The net income the website generated – all in – by month
• The net income the website generated – all in – for the year

You can get a free copy of the template for the above spreadsheet here. I update this spreadsheet once a month. I have a lot of websites, so it takes me a full day to do so. But I’ve found it’s helped me increase my website earnings (by knowing what is performing and where to focus) enough to warrant the time.

They may not be fancy, but they get the job done. :)