[BobEwing74]

I've been accepted by a merchant who I've been a customer with and been very happy with their products and service. My concern; They list conversion rates as "above average" and no actual percentage. I would love to hear opinions/advice on working with a merchant under these conditions...

Sorry about the misleading title... wouldn't let me edit title..
"Above average conversion rate?"

[Chuck Hamrick]

Bob I updated the title. Since conversion is only show by a few networks you have to take it on faith when a merchant posts "above average conversion rate". If you can compare EPC in the same network for similar merchants then you have some indication if its true. Even EPC can be misleading but its relative.

[Marsha Liebert]

Hi Bob,

As Chuck said, EPC will be your best indicator. Very often overall site conversions can be lower than affiliate conversions since affiliate traffic tends to be much more targeted and the merchant is probably being a little too over-cautious in not publishing the stats. Test them out and see. You can always pull back or try reaching out to them if you don't see a return.

[davidh]

Some merchants/AM's will say anything that sounds good. In fact, it's rather commonplace for salesman-types to talk sideways like this. I've seen merchant descriptions that brag about how successful their affiliate program is... this information being posted to their detail page on the day that the program was first launched.

So long as they have the products you want to promote on your website, the best thing you can do is just give it a go and see how it works out for you. Any seasoned affiliate can tell you about merchants that have historically had high EPC's/conversion rates, but with whom they were barely able to make a nickel in commissions if they tried. And by the same token, some affiliates will do very well with merchants whose network-wide EPC/conversion rate is very low. Promote any and every thing that seems like a good fit for your site, and along the way, discard the things that start proving not to work out well for you, and concentrate your efforts on the ones that do.