A 40% commission sounds more attractive than a 10% commission until you ask what the percentage applies to, who qualifies, how often people buy, and how much is reversed. Your offer shortlist needs both a reader-fit test and a measurement plan.
The scorecard below is a coaching tool, not a predicted earnings model. Use it to expose missing information and avoid building a campaign around a rate you do not understand.
Apply hard gates before scoring
Do you have permission to use the intended channel? Can you make accurate claims with the evidence available? Is the offer suitable for the audience’s task and market? Can you meet the program’s requirements? If a gate fails, stop or resolve it before promotion. A high numerical score cannot cancel a prohibition or an unsupported claim.
For each product, keep the official terms URL, review date, qualifying action, rate basis, exclusions, attribution conditions, approval process, payment threshold, and permitted promotion methods. Ask a specific question when a rule is unclear.
Score five practical dimensions
- Audience fit: does the product solve the actual task under the reader’s constraints?
- Evidence: can you demonstrate meaningful benefits and limitations?
- Offer clarity: can a reader understand eligibility, full cost, and renewal or return terms?
- Program clarity: do you understand what qualifies and when a commission becomes payable?
- Maintenance capacity: can you keep the recommendation and live claims accurate?
Score each 0 for unknown or unsuitable, 1 for partially supported, and 2 for well supported. Write one evidence note beside every score. The total is a discussion aid. Review the weak dimensions individually rather than treating a threshold as a profitability guarantee.
Model a scenario before you have results
Hypothetical Offer A has 200 tracked clicks, a 3% purchase rate, a $100 eligible order value, and a 10% commission. That implies six orders and $60 gross commission. If one order is reversed, approved commission would be $50 and approved earnings per click would be $0.25.
Hypothetical Offer B has the same 200 clicks, a 1% purchase rate, a $200 eligible order value, and a 20% commission. That implies two orders and $80 gross commission. If one is reversed, approved commission falls to $40 and approved EPC to $0.20. The larger rate did not produce the larger approved EPC in this example.
These are arithmetic scenarios, not expected conversion rates. Two or six orders are far too little to establish stable performance. Change the assumptions to see how sensitive the outcome is before committing budget.
Use consistent definitions
Approved EPC = approved commission for the defined click cohort ÷ eligible tracked clicks in that cohort. At zero clicks, report “not available,” not zero. If the network cannot connect commissions to the same click cohort, label your figure a period-based approximation and explain the timing mismatch.
Keep network reporting and your own outbound-click analytics distinct. They can differ because of measurement definitions, blockers, repeat clicks, attribution windows, and delays. Check whether a network’s displayed EPC is per click or per 100 clicks before comparing it with your calculation.
Approved commission is also different from money received. Payment thresholds, holds, currency conversion, and payout schedules can affect cash timing. Record pending, approved, reversed, and paid amounts in separate columns.
Connect the result to costs
If the example campaign produced $50 approved commission and incurred $30 in direct costs, its contribution before labor, tax, and other overhead is $20. If it took eight hours, that result helps you judge the experiment’s economics; it is not evidence of a sustainable hourly income.
Do not use an early EPC estimate as permission to buy traffic. Paid promotion may be restricted, and a small sample can be unstable. First verify the rules, reporting, and whether your downside is affordable.
Set a review date that matches the program
Review content questions and broken links weekly. Review commission economics after the relevant approval and return periods have had time to settle. Keep a change log so an offer modification or tracking change is not mistaken for an improvement in creative performance.
At the review, choose one action: continue collecting data, improve the page, clarify the offer, replace an unsuitable product, or stop the experiment. “Make more content” should not be the automatic response to every result.
Your next step: fill the offer scorecard and review sheet in the Affiliate Campaign Kit. Use the existing commission calculator for additional scenarios, keeping its assumptions separate from observed results.