Going By the Numbers

34
4.2K followers

I personally don't care too much for math, but I have been trying to calculate some things in regards to my site. I think it's worth doing, in order to have an idea of what to aim for. If anyone finds errors in my calculations, let me know, but be nice. I have been out of school for a while!

So, let's say that you want to earn a minimum of $5,000 per month from your site. I know that I would be pretty happy with that... But what does it take to get there? How feasible is it?

Well, let's consider how many visitors you have per month, because the rule of thumb that I keep seeing is that about 5% of your visitors will convert, or buy something, though I imagine it depends on niche, your own efforts in developing your site, and the spending habits of your target group. Still, for simplicity's sake we'll stay with that 5%.

What is your commission? It can vary wildly, but many of the programs I have seen offer somewhere in the range of 5% to 8%. Let's keep using easy numbers and say 5%. So that would mean that in order to get your $5,000, you would need sales of $100,000 in a month. That might sound pretty crazy, but is it?

How much would an average visitor spend on your site? Again, this can vary wildly. Let's estimate and say $50. So in order to get $100,000, you would need 2,000 visitors paying $50 each.... If only 5% of your visitors convert, then you'd need 40,000 visitors per month. Wow.

Ok, so in a month of 30 days, that would be 1,333 visitors per day. Huh. Is that doable? I am really not sure what the average member here gets in traffic, but I would think that with over 3.5 billion people online, that should at least be possible.

Let's calculate another way though. Assume you could get 200 visitors per day, giving about 10 who would buy. Assume they pay $50 average, giving you $500 per day. In a month, you'd have $15,000. If you could join an affiliate program offering 10%, that's $1,500 per month for you.

I'd love to know how plausible these scenarios seem. Presently, I can see the second one happening easily enough, but as for my first example, I think it would possibly take years to bring in that kind of traffic.

I think I am going to have to find a much better affiliate program, or try to run multiple sites.

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Recent Comments

33

Thank you for this post. I think your numbers are pretty much right. Because of this, I think the business model of setting up multiple sites that generate 500 to 1000 a month may lead to earning 5000 a month more quickly than having only one site.

Lydia

Great post Craig, I need to learn this calculation.

Excellent post. You show how to calculate the traffic numbers a site needs to generate levels of profits.

I am trying to work with what I am told is the average conversion of 5%. Certainly, some people will have more or less. And the wild variance of commission rates (3% to 70%) means that the same amount of traffic on different sites could represent a tiny income or a huge one.

good post

Hi Craig

Interesting post.

In my case, considering it's still early stages, I get about 400 visitors to my site per month.

Say 5% which is 20 people signed up to WA and according to Kyle 1 person out of 8 goes premium. Technically I should have 2 sales a month.

almost 6 months down the line I have 0 sales. So something is not right with the estimated math? lol :p

Overall I have signed up 16 people on WA but none have gone premium as yet. Maybe down the line they will.

Can only move forward i guess! ^^,

Regards,
Kamil

That shows either the numbers (math) are off or the quality of sign ups is not good.

Well, it's an average, so some will experience more, some less. It might also be the average after 1 year, or 2 years... I am not totally sure.

I wasn't trying to be negative or express doubt with my post, but was merely trying to wrap my head around what might be necessary to achieve a certain level of success.

Might be the math. Or as I replied it may also be the average for a more mature site.

No of course not Craig, I didn't view your post from a negative perspective at all, was just letting people know they should not be surprised if they don't get sales just because people are signing up or that the math "predicts" it. It certainly is frustrating but only motivates me more to understand why...

As Glen mentioned this might be a result of low quality sign ups.

It does take time to figure this all out and your questions and posts have cleared up a lot of doubt and confusion for me so thank you kindly Craig ;)

Regards,
Kamil

Craig, I think it's good to do the math so that you can set some realistic expectations. Obviously, we all need to get the most traffic to our sites as possible and I am learning that this means we will need to use every tool available especially all of the social media outlets which up until now I have had very little knowledge of. I have been following Paul Goodwin and he is making some fantastic numbers with LinkedIn and other social media sources. Of course, you must also have the products and blogs that people want to read and/or purchase.

Wayne

I need to look at LinkedIn more carefully, but I agree with the need to engage in social media. As I mentioned to someone recently, I joined a couple of groups on Google+, some of which had over 500,000 members... Just posting to a handful of groups gives potential exposure to well over a million people.

The solution is social media.

I believe so! That's where my traffic is coming from right now.

I say...don't worry about the numbers. Just keep working on your site..good content, increasing traffic...and the money will come. At least I hope so! Debbie

It definitely will!
I don't usually like working the numbers, but the idea is that if it's a given that about 5% of your traffic will convert, all you have to do is get X amount of traffic to get Y amount of income. Some people like to see it laid out like that, as it makes it easier to visualise.

The scenarios are probable. As you state, time is the factor. Running multiple sites is a good alternative. Best of luck

I think that at the moment, running multiple site would be way too much for me. Once I am comfortable with things and working efficiently, then I will absolutely add another site, or two, depending on my capabilities.

Not if you take more action. You can reduce time with more action.

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