ctownflyer

Average CPA, even for the best banks, is nowhere near $200.
And it isn't "clicked through on one referral linky" that pays the bills. It's approvals.

IMH

More than $200 happens on occasion, too. It's probably safe to use an average figure above $100 per approval for "how much are they raking in?" guesstimating.

HMPS

The more an item is repeated, the more it is accepted as facts. You can make millions in DC !

StartinSanDiego

I concede to your expertise. You would, indeed, be knowledgeable about the inner workings of affiliate click throughs. Thanks for the input.

Although, correct me if I'm wrong, but some affiliate referrals pay for click throughs (aka "leads"), and some pay for actual sign ups (in the case of banks, that would be an approval.). Wouldn't that depend on how the advertising was set up in the first place?

HMPS

Thanks both of you.

As I said before at $200 per approval , many would enter the arena and like selling insurance, exit whenn they have exhausted working their friends and families !

sbm12

Depends on the type of affiliate as well.

The vast majority of the CC deals these days are per approval; other markets and ad types may be per click or per lead. But when it comes to the CC links in blog posts it is generally safe to assume approval is the trigger.

Raffles

Remember that only MMS, TPG and Points Guy did enough Amex volume to retain their links - with everyone else chopped, even Ben and Gary.

IMH

TPG = FTG?

Which strongly suggests arithmetic driving automatic decisions rather than any assessment of blog post quality.

stackm

I was surprised to hear MMS does more AMEX volume than OMAAT or VFTW. The latter two blogs do provide a higher level of useful content.

If you are only going to read one or two of the point/mile blogs, why are readers supporting the inferior MMS blog?

Is it possible that all of the photos of Emily and the down-home style of the travel/food reviews are actually appealing to the readers? Maybe newbies prefer the simplicity of having restaurants noted as one of (good, very good, really good) and nothing more.

Or are people getting turned off by the increasingly luxurious trips of OMAAT and VFTW and are choosing not to further line their pockets?

Will this cause Gary to start planning Disney vacations and reviewing various McDonald's and Pizza Huts to boost income?

IMH

I suspect that a large part of their revenue comes from occasional or one off visitors. TPG and MMS seem to be best at SEO, based on a few sample searches using keywords that might be entered by people new to earning miles and points from credit cards.

Astrophsx

It could be that MMS does a better job of spelling things out for new readers. I would assume that people new to the game are not going to be shooting for Ben's aspirational trips. I'm sure a large majority of new readers are going for the Southwest or Chase UR earning cards. In order to get the bonus you have to meet spending requirements... something Ben and Gary do not often detail how to do. So while Ben and Gary have a more clean looking website and have more interesting content, MMS is geared more to people starting out and people who do not want to wade through 2,000+ post threads on FT in order to learn how to meet spending requirements.

Kagehitokiri

this >

there is plenty of quantitative data like that

edit - and IB acquired FTG (for a reason)

specific target market, and 100% focus

HMPS

that is great marketing.....get them at entry level and keep them coming back ?^

Kagehitokiri

successful by keeping people relatively uninformed and requiring hand feeding?

id think "great" [marketing] implies not having to do things like that - not sure.

HMPS

No laws against building a better mousetrap. Go for it......