David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

I was asked to run a time limited campaign on Compare Sat Nav for an insurance product tht offered a tie into sat nav systems (visit the site and you'll see who I'm talking about). After a few days, I've checked my stats and noticed something interesting.
 
The network running the campaign has an ace tracking system that appears to be in near real time. Not only can I see how many impressions, clicks and sales I have made, I can also see the number of quotes requested - i.e. potential leads.

I've not really promoted car insurance products as well as I could do. It's a saturated market and unless people are specifically looking for car insurance, a banner is more about brand awareness than preselling.

The question I thought of was "is it better to promote car insurance or something of low value, such as books?". I'd say car insurance as it pays out more per sale but that's the point.

A book sale is fairly easy to generate. Presell how good the book is and why your visitor should buy from (e.g.) Amazon and hey presto you should have some sales.

A car insurance product is more complex and inevitably price orientated. If you are pushing Insurer A who is more expensive overall than Insurer B, you're not going to get that many sales. Even if you are pushing the right insurer, what's to say the customer will buy on the Internet. Some people get quotes on the Internet, then phone up and haggle the price. Once they buy, you may not be credited (depending upon how sophisticated the tracking software is).

So when looking for a website idea, don't be caught out by the promises of high earnings. A high payout is often there for a reason - it's a difficult program to get new leads. You'll usually find the high payouts on financial products such as loans, mortgages and insurance products, all of which are chosen by customers primarily on their prices and fees over and above the perks or reputation.