What Is Your Review Ratio?
Different Sites With Different Needs
We all create very different websites. Some create pure review websites reviewing products or services. Others create specific niche sites or just have a site to help out people with common problems. Some advice people how to deal with things, while others show how you can make money online.
Every website has a different need in regards to how we service our audience and while for a review site it is rather obvious to create more than one review, for a more niche related site it is not that easy to figure out how many promotional articles you would need to start earning with your site.
Any Site Can Make Money
Any website with any audience can make money, it all depends on the traffic you get and the way you are talking to them.
Writing reviews or creating promotional articles is a time consuming task, but when done right all that much worth it too. Having published a bunch of reviews is still not making you money per se.
Apart from that your reviews need to be engaging and interesting for one to read, they need to gain rank or have a lot of other related articles linking towards to gain traffic.
Review Ratio
With a review website you might be looking into a review ratio of 1 promotional article in 3 articles, while with a general niche site you could go as low as 1 in 5, maybe even lower.
I realised I had to do something, because I got over 160 articles on my site. The site is over a year old and has not made a penny. I realised that it had to do with my review ratio. Out of 160 articles, I got maybe only 10 reviews. That is a review ratio of 1 in 16 articles!
Are there exceptions to this rule? well of course! You could have a bootcamp site or a niche site that is promoting only one single or very few products. Than it is more a story of writing your CTA's and building internal links towards your main promotional content.
In my case it was my cats site and I definitely could write more reviews for all sorts of cat related products, which I started on straight away this week.
What is your review ratio? Leave a comment below!
Recent Comments
15
I don't really track numbers. I TRY to do 3 to 1, but realistically, that's not a real number I follow. Usually I'll start out a site with a bunch of non-affiliate content, then start adding a bunch of affiliate content after I start ranking and getting traffic.
However, there's no rule about that. In fact, I've never seen anything showing what's the "ideal" ratio. The only evidence I've seen is that too many affiliate links on one page can affect a page adversely, but it's unclear if that's due to the number of outbound links, or affiliate codes.
Even then, there are always exceptions to the rule!
Mine is over 90% reviews (depending on how you define 'review'). By 'review' I mean a post that reviews a product or products and has affiliate links. It may be a post about a specific health or behavior problem with reviews to appropriate products within it. Mine are not all just straight reviews of one product. Then are some with no affiliate links, but internal links to other reviews I have written. I had seen that recommended in the beginning (don't put affiliate links in all our posts but just use internal linking). Honestly, I do better just keeping it simple however and skipping that extra step.
I have a few that are not reviews at all and a few more planned that will not be either. My sites are making money on a regular basis now (sales increasing each month now) so I think I will stick with what works for me which is mostly reviews.
I have always had a pretty high conversion rate so it seems to work for me.
I realise that my statement wasn't clear enough I guess.
I see the "review" as the moneypage. The page that promotes usually one main product and has the most outlinks to the affiliate program.
I see all other posts as informational articles that can possibly link to useful products (moneypages), which are internal links to my reviews.
I have written only like 1 or 2 handfulls of moneypages, while the other 180 are informational articles that possibly have links to the few moneypages I got so far.
I really need to create more pillars.. that is .. more moneypages that can be linked with multiple of my 190 pages.
Steven
Niche site is 3 reviews 13 posts.
BootCamp 15 reviews to 26 posts.
Tried and True
Elaine
Hi Steven
Your post came around at just about the right time for me. I'm building a niche site that currently has 3 posts and a page and I'm now thinking that a review style post would hit the mix at about the right time.
Thanks for that - it has helped
I hate doing reviews especially for what I would call spam reviews. I hate knocking anything and telling people what is better. e.g something I am an affiliate for.
However I do promote WA and Jaaxy in lots of posts which are what I call a teaching post. I just tell them where I learnt the info. Sometimes I link to my main WA post or Jaaxy review sometimes they are just affiliate links to WA or Jaaxy.
I haven’t worked out a ratio, but all my posts link to an affiliate link in some way.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
I actually learned something from Nathaniell a while ago. You can promote things that you do not entirely agree to as well.
You do not have to say that something is good if its not, but there are always these people that believe it is good, even though you say its not.
People that cannot spend the most money for the best, would probably click on your affiliate link for that product that is just under par and you can still reap some benefits from it.
In other words, whatever you can find an affiliate program for, can be promoted.
In the same time it can also be something to promote something that doesn't have an affiliate program at all, because after all you want the best for your audience, not just for your wallet ;)
Just some stuff to think about / take into account.
Karen: also with bootcamp sites it isn't much about the ratio as it is with a niche site or review website, because you are essentially only promoting 2-3 main products. Perhaps a couple of side products. Like I promoted some hosting and domain registrars from other providers through ShareASale, while promoting WA and Jaaxy.
Steven
Yes I get that, never leave money on the table. I have done some posts and am an affiliate for lots of hosting sites although I recommend WA for this. This is the same for email autoresponders. I just don’t like doing a whole post knocking something.
That is what I am getting my head around too Karen. Doing a make money online site and the AFF. Bootcamp, I don't want to just knock other companies or products and say WA is the best. I believe it is without a doubt, but the way I am doing it, is just telling them straight up;
This isn't a post to slam this company but to give you the facts and detailed information so you can make your own decision. And to show you what I do and recommend, so you can make the comparisons etc.
I always put in my Aff Disclosure as well saying this post may contain links and link to the disclosure page. So I am not about saying something is a scam, but more that I am here to share all the information - and "you" the reader makes up your own mind, but of course give a bit of information about what I do so there is another option.
I have just started to do reviews. I'll think of writing reviews regularly. Thanks for posting about this.
:-)
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I am trying to get this number up. I realized that is probably my issue.