Commerce content is an attractive investment for publishers. It monetizes the advisory role they've traditionally played in people's lives and unlike other revenue streams enables them to generate revenue without compromising their editorial experience.

The key challenge is finding the path to scale. So we've distilled our expertise - from helping 60,000 publishers around the world create commerce content day-in-day-out - to help you understand how you can make millions from commerce content.

Write about more than one merchant
Publishers should write about a diverse portfolio of merchants. It provides a better experience for readers, with more options to choose from and it also performs better. Articles with multiple links generate 2X greater revenue than articles that focus around a single product. To best engage your audience and have the best chance of success, writing about multiple merchants is a must.

Start with evergreen content
Established publishers can find a commerce angle on most trending topics. For newcomers though, we recommend a focus on timeless evergreen pieces that won't age rapidly. These are the backbone of most publishers' commerce revenue: 50% of publishers' revenue comes from articles published in the previous year, and 65% of quarterly evergreen revenue comes from articles published in past quarters. Once publishers have a strong foundation of evergreen content, as they hire more commerce editors, they can grow production to include more timely pieces.

Focus on the key ecommerce metrics
A single view of your data is invaluable. To successfully scale commerce content, you need all your ecommerce performance data in one place which will enable you to optimize. With this data you can understand the merchants your audience loves and the kind of articles that will perform well. Earnings-perclick (EPC) is the key metric to look at: It helps publishers understand how much they can make per link from a merchant and lead them to optimize on that basis. Commission rate matters ' publishers need to link to merchants with high rates to scale ' but publishers also need to ensure they feature brands that their audience will buy from and that drive high order value. This is key to long-term success. [FF]

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Lauren Newman is Senior VP Revenue US for Skimlinks. She leads
publisher and merchant relations.

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Skimlinks powers commerce content strategies for publishers. As the world's largest commerce content monetisation platform, it helps grow a revenue stream that can contribute as much as a quarter of a publisher's overall revenue. In other words, this enables publishers to be less dependent on advertising.