Forum Moderators: skibum
I normally read about things for 6-12 months before jumping into it (hence my nick)...
What was your first 'experience' into affiliates, what I mean is HOW did you get into it? Should I start off with PPC or just build a site and let Google bring in the traffic gradually?
How long did it take you to bring in $1000/month?
Timing: I am coming into this very late in the game, meaning the established big players have marked their spot and their are only crumbs left for people like me?
TIA!
PPC or free traffic? Do what you feel is right for you. Do you have a handle on ppc and ROI? Need to learn how to convert on a site first? It depends on where your current experience is.
Lots of variables to determine time to making a grand a month. How hard will you work at it? How much time do you have for it? How much do you already know/need to learn? (Basic webmastering, etc)
Then sometimes it's just the roll of the dice. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you don't.
Late in the game, yes. But that doesn't mean you can't make it. It's just not nearly as easy as it used to be.
I can assure you this, you won't make a cent if you don't give it a shot.
About the big players and timing: don't be afraid of big names. They have their niche which is mostly internet marketing so people like you and me buy the cure for everything from them. Find something that YOU are interested in and that YOU can promote. Research it extensivly and then start creating content. Tie in some links to merchants and all the rest is 'just' webmastery.
Good luck and let us know about your adventures in affiliateland
[edited by: Drastic at 8:46 pm (utc) on Dec. 8, 2003]
[edit reason] no self promo please [/edit]
BTW, thanks for the wonderful welcoming. Its nice to know that people share what they know, especially when it involves money.
The beauty of this business is that its so potentially HUGE, telling others doesn't really affect your own bottom line (since pple talk so generally here anyhow).
I know the web very well, infact I am a web developer so HTML, FTP and administrating a dedicated server is not really an issue.
Question on Content:
#1
From what I know, 'content' can mean 2 things for affiliate modelled sites depending on how you expect to draw traffic (tell me if I'm right or wrong!):
1. If you draw traffic to PPC, your content is merely promoting the product
2. SERP model, you need articles etc. to draw traffic from keywords (at least there is more weight on real article content)
Is that correct?
#2
ROI using PPC, this is something that can be learned before doing or is it trial and error? I guess the key here is to start small so that you limit your initial losses
TIA
ROI
With organic traffic, the more content you have, the better.
Think of it this way. Do you want this to be strictly a numbers game and revenue generation only? Or would you like to be able to have fun building a site while making money at the same time?
Granted, not all the big money topics can be a ton of fun to build a site on. However, in your firt endeavor, I recommend doing something you would enjoy working with.
I probably want to make some $ before having fun, but yes def. I want to build something that is enjoyable.
Issue:
I don't want to market online dating, casino oriented sites etc.
And even pharmacetical products I want to shy away from. Basically all the popular money makers are sort of out for me.
This really makes it a bit harder for me I guess.
I enjoy technically oriented topics, so I'm going to try and push software and other web related topics.
I guess my first step would be to join CJ and browse through their affiliates .
Is that a good start?
ROI using PPC, this is something that can be learned before doing or is it trial and error?
In my opinion it is mostly trial and error. Nothing like experimenting with it, to really learn it.
Another great benifit from a PPC campaign is keyword/keyphrase data that you can use later on a web site.
