CJ: One Product, One Page, $200-$400 a Month
I’ve never really been much of a Commission Junction fan, since they terminated my account without reason a couple of years back and then didn’t allow Malaysian registrations.
(That’s about the time I quit Internet marketing until about mid-2005 when I decided to get back in again.)
While I was writing my Wordpress Adsense System ebook, I signed up for CJ again since the hosting company I wanted to promote, HostGator, was using CJ as their affiliate marketplace. And till today HostGator is the only product I’m really signed-up for.
So this case study is simple:
- One product: HostGator
- One landing / salespage
- I make $200 - $400 a month on autopilot
Who Needs a Recommendation on Hosting Anyway?
Everyone!
Even though I was already with another hosting company, one fine day I just wanted something better and I moved to HostGator. A lot of people jump from one hosting company to another.
The good news: Hostgator pays you $100 commissions for sales of ANY hosting package you sell.
At first glance it really doesn’t make sense. If you sell their $9.90 hosting package, they pay you $100. Huh?
But when you understand the hosting market, this is not really that surprising. A lot of hosting companies will pay you more in commissions than the total sales you generate for them, simply because:
- The web hosting market is insanely competitive
- They understand (and have calculated) the lifetime value of their customers
They know how much they make from a single satisfied customer. Lets say on average, a customer that has bought the $9.90 hosting package stays on for a year before switching to another company (and never returns), then their lifetime value for that customer is $118.80.
That’s assuming that the customer buys ONLY one hosting package. A satisfied customer usually gets more than that.
So now the insane commissions make sense. Right?
Selling From One Page
My strategy for this product is to create a single sales page recommending Hostgator, which you can see here:
http://www.easywordpress.com/go/hostgator
On that single page, I explain why HostGator is the best hosting company to go for. It’s all from my own experiences with HostGator, as I have been using them for over a year now and last November I upgraded to their Dedicated Server plan that costs $174 a month.
See the lifetime value in action?
So all sales are generated from this single page. I don’t litter my sites with the direct link to HostGator simple because:
- You have to sell visitors instead of sending them directly to the HostGator page. The HG pages are standard web stuff, listing their packages and so on.
- It make it easier to manage a single page
- It make it easier to track a single page
So on my site and in my ebooks, I merely put a link to that single salespage. You have to really sell a visitor if you’re trying to promote web hosting. All web hosting companies and their sites sometimes look the same. All their packages cost about the same, and differentiation is rare.
If you’re sending a visitor to the web hosting site directly without selling them (and I mean selling, not pre-selling), you’re going to get pretty bad conversion rates.
That single page produces $200-$400 in commissions for me, from the sale of 2-4 hosting packages per month.
What Worked and What Could Be Better
The entire salespage you see now was written very quickly once, and I never had a look at it again. So looking at it today, here’s what I’ve found works, and how I can improve it.
What works:
- The angle: I’m targeting users that want to set-up Wordpress and use Cpanel
- A short, direct presentation of why HostGator is better
What can be improved:
- Have only ONE link directly to the order page, instead of 3-4 links going out and having irrelevant links on the page itself.
- Send the visitor directly to the order page, since HG’s affiliate program has that feature
- Do better tracking so I can compare it with a banner ad I just put up
New Target
With the same amount of traffic, and everything else unchanged, I want to double my conversion and make $400-$800 a month with HG. I think it’s possible. In fact the salespage you’re look at right now may already be the new page.
So fi you’ve had similar or better results, please feel free to share in the comments section.
14 Comments »
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That is a good income. Will try to do it in my blog in the future.:)
That’s a very good idea. Am in the midst of setting up my hosting domain and blogs.
Yeah, CJ isn’t my favorite either - they kicked me out several years ago when I was first getting started. Then, last year I joined them again - but they kicked me out again without a reason and they won’t return my e-mails.
But that’s a good tip - setting up a one-page pre-sell… I have to do more of that.
Hi Hannes, are you serious? So I guess that happens quite a lot if you’re a non-US affiliate huh?
Well the second time around I registered as a Singaporean, not Malaysian. I think it’s safer that way…
Hello Gobala,
Happy Birthday (and New Year)! I’m no fan of Commission Junction either for a number of reasons but I love this tip. I never thought about adding a webhost to the recommendations on my blog and it’s great for my readers. Thanks again.
Huh?? $100 per sign up?? That’s a very good $$$. I also knew that being the fact CJ is not popular in Malaysia but I didn’t expect HG will pay double in commission in CJ compare in it’s own affiliate program.
I feel like cheated by HG, it paid me $50 per sign up currently. I think after this, I will sign up HG under CJ to earn higher commission.
What..? I didn’t know that HostGator had 2 different affiliate programs. Are you sure it’s the same hosting company you’re talking about…?
Dude if it is you’ve been losing commissions man
But isn’t it a bit unfair to have 2 different affiliate programs paying different commission rates?
I just looked at their affiliation rates at http://www.hostgator.com/affiliates.shtml
They do have different commission rates:
1-5 a month : USD50
6~10 a month : USD75
11~20 a month : USD100
20 a month : USD125
hmm… Thank you Gobala for this nice idea. I am starting up on my own currently, till I got insomnia lately. Aiyo…
wah, that gud explaination
its look like easy to get income, its time to try it
It’s not easy income. you’re welcome to try for it but it’s not easy..
Hello Gobala
Can you tell how you drive traffic to your hostgator sales page ?
Thanks for post! I also have website about web hosting and I use Hostgator affiliate program. Gobala tell me please, how much cliks or impressions = $200-400 ?
Sir,
Can you give me same type of sales page for same product.
help me please. My id is gold_opp@yahoo.com mail me.
Thank you