I am new to affiliate marketing and just wanted to know 1) Do affiliate networks such as CJ, Google, Linkshare, etc. report sales in real-time or is a sale reported after the sale has been fully completed and non-reversal (meaning shipped and refund period expired)? 2) What is the average conversion/sales rate? My website promote various affiliate products, but for this campaign my target pages are credit card offers and handbags. 3) I just started with this campaign (about 2 weeks) and so far I've received over 2500 visitors to the site and over 500 clicks to my affiliates but have not made a sale yet. Am I being impatient? Or would you think it would be common to have made at least one sale with these stats? The affiliate network stats also confirm these. 4) Do affiliate networks every cheat or hold commissions for whatever reason? In advance, thanks for your answers.
1) They report if you made a sale. 2) You should ask your affiliate managers or if you r affiliate network provides the stats, you can view the conversion rate. 3) Do split testing - just google about split testing, you will find what it is. 4) Yes, aff networks stop your payments if you do fraud or if they find you doing any thing blackhat, so stay away.