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billbenson
12-29-2008, 10:51 AM
In the upcoming year I want to write some affiliate sites, ideally with multiple revenue streams. Does anybody have any affiliates or overall strategies that they recommend?

vangogh
12-29-2008, 11:44 AM
First a plug for one of our very own. thegoat just started a site that aims to be a tutorial on affiliate marketing (http://startupaffiliates.com/). There's only the one post at the moment, but it might be a good site to pay attention to.

Here's a great post you might want to read as well. It's from Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae and the post is how to survive the affiliate evolution (http://www.sugarrae.com/how-to-survive-the-affiliate-evolution/). Rae is a good person to add to your feed reader since she generally has quality and entertaining info to share.

I can't speak from experience about affiliate marketing, but I can share my general sense from what I've read. You're likely going to want to do the usual market research and then add affiliate products that match your content. You're not necessarily looking to sell the product on your site, but rather put your visitors in the right frame of mind to buy. Make sure to check the affiliate site to see how well they do at selling the product. Read their copy and ask yourself if you'd buy from them.

You'll do better if you've actually used the products (though I don't think you'd have to use all of them) and direct people to products that are worth buying.

Also you have to experiment. Try different things to see what works and don't be afraid to make mistakes along the way. I'm pretty sure you would do that without me saying it, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.

the goat
12-29-2008, 12:30 PM
Bill are you looking for specific merchant recommendations? Most companies don't have in house affiliate programs, they use a third party. I use linkshare, commission junction, share a sale and google. They have all paid when supposed to and between them you have access to thousands of merchants.

If you are looking for specific merchants, just let me know what industry and I'll give you some recommendations.

Thanks for the plug vangogh!

billbenson
12-29-2008, 12:43 PM
I don't really care about the subject matter within reason. I don't want to do get rich quick or adult for example. I'd like to build up a few content sites that can support a couple of different affiliates. If one doesn't pay, I can move to another one. I'll worry about traffic before I put ads on anyway, I just want to get a list of some affiliates I can work with.

I thought about CJ etc but was looking for direct affiliates first.

Post or PM me your affiliate and site info Goat, so I can see if it fits into what I'm trying to do.

the goat
12-29-2008, 01:02 PM
Well I have about 30 affiliate sites ranging from posters to sporting goods. The only company that I have a merchant account with that is not a part of an affiliate network like CJ is allposters.com. Even big companies like godaddy use a third party.

I usually pick a niche before I pick a merchant, and many times end up switching a few times before I find a really good converter.

billbenson
12-29-2008, 01:49 PM
many times end up switching a few times before I find a really good converter.

That sounds like good advice.

How big do your sites tend to be? That's more of a SEO question, but curious, as well as how do you typically approach the multiple revenue stream issue?

vangogh
12-29-2008, 02:39 PM
Glad to supply the plug.

Out of curiosity how do you go about creating content for your affiliate sites? That always strikes me as the most time consuming site.

the goat
12-29-2008, 06:18 PM
bill I have sites that are just one landing page and I have sites that are hundreds of pages of content. The one page sites obviously get little organic traffic from SEO. They either get traffic from my other sites, from things like article marketing or have a domain name that is searched often.

Getting domain names that are searched often is very lucrative, for instance I own rollingstonesposters.com and while it is probably my most hastily thrown together, ugly and not well optimized at all site, it is a great converter. People who are searching "rolling stones posters" are generally going to click the first non sponsored result and are usually ready to buy. It does not get a ton of traffic but it converts at a much higher rate than most of my other sites.

vangogh, I do a mixture of writing my own content, using free article sites and commissioning writers. I write my own for what I consider my "flagship" sites because as you know unique content is much better than copying and pasting. What I usually do is put up a site with mostly free articles, just to get it going. You can usually see within a few months whether it is a winner or not and if it is going to stick I will start replacing the content with my own. I started doing it this way once I realized that the failure/success rate is about 1/1. It is a lot less painful to take down/overhaul a failed site when it doesn't have 100 man hours of writing behind it.

textbroker.com is also a very good source for original unique content, you can get really well written articles very, very cheap.

the goat
12-29-2008, 06:35 PM
bill I just realized I didn't answer your question about multiple revenue streams.

I personally use adsense and affiliate links only. Adsense is not a big money maker, although I have recently started using youtube adsense on one of my sites geared towards younger people and it quadrupled that sites earnings.

With affiliate links I use a combination of stores, individual product links, banners, and coupons/offers. I find that generally coupons/offers used as text links embedded in content are best, followed by individual product links, then stores, and bringing up the rear in the almost useless category is banners, banners are terrible.

Also I will use five to ten different merchants side by side at first, usually one will break from the pack as far as conversions go and I will slowly weed out the others, for the obvious reason and because it is easier to keep track of.

I find that unless you can command a good amount of money for paid ads then you'll do better with a good converting product link in place of them.

seolman
12-29-2008, 07:27 PM
OK Mr Goat - I like what I read in the "About" page on your site. I tried a bit of affiliate marketing and after wasting time and money I went a different direction but I always felt there had to be a formula out there somewhere and I'm a willing disciple so please include me on your reminder list when the lessons start up on your new site. Looks good.:)

billbenson
12-29-2008, 07:41 PM
Goat, the guy's I've seen that make a lot of money at this, seem to try to build a site that will make $500 to $1k per month per site and just keep building sites. Some may have a higher ramp up time, some may never make much money and some may make a bunch. Over a number of years they end up with a bunch of sites that make a good living. How many sites do you think it is reasonable to manage? Do you spend more time refining old sites or building new sites?

If the strategy is to build a number of sites and keep tweaking them, I would tend to build a template of sorts that I can use for all the sites. By template, I mean, same css and layout, different colors and header. How do you approach this?

Thanks!!

the goat
12-30-2008, 04:57 PM
It is definitely a numbers game. Essentially you just throw stuff against the wall and wait for something to stick.

Like I said I have thirty or so and find it no problem to manage them. Many of my sites haven't been touched in months, some I update every few days. Nowadays I spend more time refining, but at the beginning I was cranking out a new site every week. Now that I have a good amount I am spending more time tweaking what I have to try and get the most out of them. I still build a new one every month or so though. You really do get out of it exactly what you put in.

I generally ditch a site after 3 months if it is not making $50 a month yet.

I now use wordpress for every site I build, it is just so easy to update and once you get good with tweaking templates you can make sites that people would have no idea are built on wordpress. Freelance Writing Services (http://www.ogcontent.com) for instance, it is not an affiliate site, but it is a good example of a non blog looking wordpress site.

With wordpress I can have a site up and running in a few hours.

seolman, thanks for checking it out, if you register you will get an email every time it is updated.

Harold Mansfield
12-30-2008, 06:18 PM
I don't really care about the subject matter within reason. I don't want to do get rich quick or adult for example. I'd like to build up a few content sites that can support a couple of different affiliates. If one doesn't pay, I can move to another one. I'll worry about traffic before I put ads on anyway, I just want to get a list of some affiliates I can work with.

I thought about CJ etc but was looking for direct affiliates first.

Post or PM me your affiliate and site info Goat, so I can see if it fits into what I'm trying to do.

I have tried that method of " trying out and see", and I wasted a lot of time and energy because I didn't understand the basic principle.

The first thing you should look at is what kind of content you have, or can provide to draw attention to your affiliate sites or links from real buyers looking for information about, or to buy products.
There are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there for every niche in the world, and you can get overwhelmed trying our every one because it sounds good.

I tend to do things a little backwards than most...many of my sits came about because I found a domain that makes sense first, and then checked out a product for it.

What works for me now, is not what I started out with.
Right now, Ebay (who runs their own program) seems to do the best for me.

I use a combination of BANS stores (http://www.buildanichestore.com/), with supporting blogs for content, and I also have some blogs just for traffic to direct to BANS stores.

Here is an example :

I have an EBAY / BANS store that sells Video Game Consoles, Used Games and such.


By itself, it didn't do much, but on a sub domain, I started a blog full of feeds from various game authorities. Adsense for games doesn't pay squat, but commission on game and console sales do.
*Feeds are not the best way to go, original content is, but in this niche, there is no way that I could compete on the content and I needed something.

The BANS store is resalegames.com (http://www.resalegames.com), and the blog on it is blog.reslaegames.com (http://www.blog.resalegames.com)

It is becoming my top EBAY earner, (which I can't understand because the SEO is lousy,and it is a very competitive niche), but the blog gives it a little more credibility.

Since I can't compete on the content, I also just started a blog that gives me a little more ammo to capture that demographic, and it has nothing to do with games.
www.bouncingbettys.com (http://www.bouncingbettys.com)(Warning :The content is not for everyone, I am just showing my methods)

As you see I walk the line on that one.

I also will use that site to draw traffic to other BANS stores that sell Harley-Davidson stuff, Sports Apparel and Accessories, electronics, and New and Used Ipods and Accessories.

I tend to do that sort of redirect...basically "sponsoring" a blog in the name of the site that I am promoting...kinda like the old radio days where soap operas were titled after the sponsor of the show. "The Ovaltine Cowboy Bill Radio Show"...you get the picture.

The best thing about doing it this way is that you don't need 1000's of visitors day to sell something.

I have never made any money with simple affiliate banners. Ever ! Without some sort of content, and by using as much media as possible (Podcasts, Video, etc), I would still be sitting back waiting for "Hope" and "Will" to kick in.

I am now trying to kick myself in the butt and get my article marketing going. You can draw some good SERP's with an article campaign as well, which you need to do for products that are not exactly tangible or entertaining (weight loss, insurance, gardening, etc)

If you have a game plan, you can promote any product on the planet through affiliate programs, but the most important thing is your marketing and delivery.

IMHO the days of simple banner placement are over. People are looking for information, and entertainment on the web, and you have to capture their attention in a split second or you are just wasting space on your site.

As The Goat said, I had to throw a lot of stuff on the wall before I figured out that my previous methods of just placing banners and widgets, were a waste of time.

For instance, I was pushing Music Downloads (which don't pay crap) on my dance music blog, until I realized that both an Amazon store selling new electronics and Dj equipment, and an Ebay store selling used audio equipment would do better. (took me almost a year of banging my head against the wall)

Right now, I too use Word Press for every site I build, BANS, and Amazon Stores (http://www.associate-o-matic.com/) for everything. I have been checking out a script that will allow EBAY, Amazon, Adsense, and Clickbank all on the same store....if I can get that together it will be "on and crackin" :)

It's not the product. I will say it again. It is not the product. that determines if you can make any money, it is your marketing method, SEO, Content, Expertise, Information, site/blog design, and so forth.

If you want to sell cow chips, and there is a market for it, you can sell cow chips if you know how to properly target that demographic.

And it won't cost you a lot of money, just time !

There are of course other things like targeted keyword research, linking, bookmarking, posting videos on You Tube, article marketing, and creative, yet informative content that goes into it, but that is basically the meat and potatoes....and that of course is just one method, and by far the cheapest.

There are easier ways, but, this works for me since I do not spend any money on adwords, links, or banners.... With the exception of hosting fees, and scripts to build unlimited stores (which I have already paid for), everything else I do is free, or open source.

Edited:
Almost forgot. For me, my best earning programs are:

EBAY
Joe Bucks (http://www.joebucks.com/)
Amazon

Right now I have 48 sites or blogs (including those on sub domains) and I spend more time refining old sites than opening new ones. I definitely have more sites waiting idle for me to do something, than active ones that make sales everyday.

seolman
12-30-2008, 10:25 PM
seolman, thanks for checking it out, if you register you will get an email every time it is updated.

Thanks Goat - and thanks for the insights.

vangogh
12-31-2008, 12:21 PM
Thanks for the info eborg and goat. I think those of us looking to get into affiliate marketing are picking up quite a few new insights.

Harold Mansfield
12-31-2008, 02:03 PM
I forgot to add a few things.
With all that "Meat and Potatoes" stuff, I forgot the most important aspect of affiliate marketing:RESEARCH !

You cannot do enough research. You have to research :

What people are buying.

How they buy it.

What information you can give or what problem you can solve?

Key phrases that you can capitolize on in your given niche. (Just use Google and it's key word tool and see how many search results are in a given key word or phrase...if the number is low enough, like say 5,000 and under, you can rank well for it and move you way up to the next popular one).

You can use a variety free resources like forums, groups, the news, and other articles written to see what they left out, (Tip: I also use demographic reports from radio stations to see who advertises on them given their target demographic...they have already paid for the studies and done the work )

There are 100's of ways to do it and it is not all saturated.

Another one that I have heard of, it's called "The Oprah Effect" but haven't tried yet is, checking out future listings on T.V. shows like Oprah, 60 minutes, and morning talk shows...sometimes they will do a story on a product, like "Acai Berry"...you just know that after the show (or during) traffic will spike to sites selling the products, and article about it for days and weeks later.

Everything else means nothing if you don't research your market, identify them, and target them.

There are many online resources and articles about consumer stages of buying...read them, it is helpful.
You have to anticipate and get into peoples heads. You cannot think like a webmaster, you have to think like a person that spends an hour a day online, and doesn't know what a cookie is, or what the RSS button is for.

You cannot just sit back, place a few banners (unless you have a ton of traffic) and expect to buy a new car.

billbenson
12-31-2008, 03:28 PM
Thanks Goat,

Eborg, I was hoping you would plop in on this one.

You guys have given me a lot of reading to do, but what are holiday weekends for :)

I'd like to put a crude plan together this weekend for next year. You guys have given me a lot of help here. Thanks!!