Affiliate Time Frame

[aready]

I was wondering approximately how long does it normally take newbies to get from creating their first website to their first sale? I have my first website up, but haven't gotten any good traffic yet. (but it has only been 2 days, so I'm not that worried) Here are a few questions:
1- Do you pay for keywords to get people to come to the site first? Or do you generate your own traffic and then get several weeks of content first, and then buy keywords?
2- How long does it normally take for affiliate programs to approve you? I haven't had approval from any, but some I jsut signed up for yesterday. Just wondering if I just wasn't approved, or if I just haven't waited long enough?

Thanks! You guys have been great with getting me started! I love this forum!

[Linda Buquet]

Hi aready,

The question about time is relative because the important variables are
# of clicks and conversion rates.

One affiliate could put up a site, never get any traffic and 6 months later have only 20 clicks,
therefore 0 sales.

Another could market, get 1000 untargeted clicks in 1 week but send them to a merchant
that does not convert and make 0.

TYPICALLY if you send 200 TARGETED clicks to a good merchant that converts you should make at least one sale. Many merchants convert better than that but it can take time to get the right combination of merchant, traffic, ad placement and everything to get really good conversions.

So in my mind your 1st mini-goal should be getting those 1st 200 TARGETED clicks.
That could take alot of time through natural search if you don't know how to get
good ranking or are in a super competitive niche.

PPC is the fastest way to get those targeted clicks but it will cost and you need to know how
to play the game to make it work. Even then, based on the merchant's conversion rate, commission and cost per click, the number may not work out profitably.

[aready]

Thanks for the response. How about the time for how long it takes for approval. I signed up over at commission junction, as you suggested. There was one that was an automatic approval, but the others are manual approvals. How long do those usually take?

Thanks

[Larwee]

The manual approvals depend on the merchant. Some are fairly quick. Some are a little slow and some do it when they finally get around to it.

There will be times when you will see it is the same day or the next day or two. Some might take up to a week and some can much slower. There is no exact answer that will be correct for every merchant.

[Linda Buquet]

From an affiliate manager/industry guru viewpoint, I think PRO-actively managed programs
SHOULD approve apps in 48 hours MAX!

However things happen, like vacations and AMs being out sick.

Many programs are under-staffed or don't have an AM at all, so approvals can take a long time.

Then again with very large programs that get TONS of apps, I'm sure some AMs so some cherry picking. Scan and approve the 3-4 bar earners and skip over the 0 bars until they find time when they are caught up with everything else. Hate to say it, but I remember doing that. When you have 14 hours of work and only have 8 hours (in a corp job) to do it all, sometimes you just do the best you can to try to keep up.

I think if I was an affiliate right now if a merchant I REALLY wanted and needed didn't approve me in a 4-7 days I'd email them. If it was a so-so merchant I didn't critically need, I might wait 2 weeks then either contact then or just say forget you and find another merchant.

I'm sure when you are just getting started and need approval to finish the site the hours probably feel like days and the days like weeks. Waiting isn't fun.