Post value calculator

The formula

visits × signup rate × share of signups who pay × average payment

It is an estimate, as good as the rates you enter. Your real rates differ from one channel to the next, which is the reason to measure them per post. The live demo shows what that looks like on an example project.

Where to find each number

Visits. The visits that arrived through the post, not your whole traffic. Put a tag on the link you share (the link builder does it) and read that tag in your analytics.

Signup rate. Signups divided by visits, over a normal month. If you only know it for your whole site, use that, and expect a post from a niche community to do better or worse.

Share of signups who pay. Paying customers divided by signups, over the same period. Your payment tool gives the customers, your database or auth tool the signups.

Average payment. What a new customer pays you in their first month, or their first order for a one-time purchase. Leave out renewals: they belong to the months that follow.

A worked example

On the example project IndiePDF (Example), a post on r/SideProject brought 1,204 visits. 88 of them signed up (7.3%), 9 of those paid (10.2%), for an average of $48. Multiplied together, that is about $431.

The same project's LinkedIn carousel had 842 likes and 0 signups: worth $0, however popular it looked. Likes are not in the formula on purpose.

Questions

Is it the real revenue of the post? No, an estimate from average rates. The real figure needs each payment tied to the visit that came before it, which is what upTake does once your payment tool is connected.

What about people who come back later? They count, as long as you can tell where they first came from. With a tag on the link, the first visit is recorded with its source.

From this tool to your own project

This calculator uses assumptions. Your project's dashboard shows recorded activity instead, with estimated matches labelled and unmatched payments left untraced. The example shows that view.

Enlarge screenshot ↗