ElvisManson posted up the idea of evaluating your track record with paysite programs by looking at Value Per Click (VPC).
The idea he presented is to take the total amount of revenue you received from a sponsor and divide that by the total number of raw clicks you sent to that sponsor.
The end result is a $ amount of how much each click to a paysite was generating for you.
Example:
The sponsor stats show you sent 500,000 clicks to the site.
The total amount of commissions received to that program is $20,000
$20,000 / 500,000 = .04 per click
If you do this analysis on each program, then you have a way to measure your campaigns and spot which is providing you the best return.
The simplicity of this formula doesn't care about shaving, conversions, chargebacks, etc. All of those factors are rolled up into the net result of how much you got paid. These factors could explain why you have a low VPC for a particular program.
Another way to possibly look at the ROI of your efforts is to take the total amount of commissions received in a month, and divide that by the number of hours spent in generating that revenue. This might be the DQYDJ stat (Don't Quit Your Day Job). If your DQYDJ value is constistanty higher than $20/hr then you could quit your day job
Any other ways of measuring success of a program besides conversion ratio and VPC?
Fight the Numbers!