0 Tracking Affiliate Conversions: From Click to Commission

If you use affiliate marketing on your website, you better be tracking which of your clicks result in commissions.  Tracking affiliate clicks allows you to identify your top performing links and focus on them to increase your earnings.
Most people fall into the trap of setting up one link per affiliate program.  If you do that, conversion stats will be lumped together in your reports and you won’t be able to figure out which links perform better than others.  Consider creating a separate link (or sub campaign) for each major area of your online properties.   When you view reports, you’ll be able to see a detailed view of how much money is generated by each area.
For instance, you could setup a different link to the same affiliate program for:

• Your sidebar
• Your header
• Each post where a link is used
• A comparison table
• Your email list
• Your ebook

Let’s review how you can track affiliate conversions from a click to a commission.  First you’ll need to setup links with proper tracking codes (often called an SID) through your affiliate network.  Then you’ll want to incorporate each link on your own site using a redirect plugin.