How long did it take until your first sale?

[itraykov]

I currently have a few content sites and have recently released a semi-content/semi-affiliate web site.

I would like to get some encouragement from the guys who have been doing it for a while. How long was it (in terms of $$$ and time) until you made your first sale?

p.s. Please mention, if possible, the average price of the product you're selling

[skibum]

You can sell things for $0.30 to more than $15,000.00 via affiliate programs. Conversion rates range from 5% to .05% and on average come in around 1%. If the ads and context of the ads are spot on you could see a sale after 20 clicks. It could take as many as 1,000 clicks if you are selling something more expensive, if the ads or the placement of them are not as good as they could be. Seasonality also plays a big part. Flowers for example will sell more frequenty around Valentines day that Halloween.

So, it depends.

It probably took about 2 years after the first aff links went up to generate my fist sale cause aff marketing took a while to sink it.:)

[juice]

on my first real affiliate site it went like this..

~sept 1 of this month i put the site online in a rough format.. after a week or so i had some click throughs and 1 sale.. i made some changes and added a nice feature to my site then i saw the click throughs and conversions really start to translate.. since the site is so new im really not getting any search engine traffic though its indexed.. I found a couple of coupons for adwords and overture which helped me to try a few things and gave me some credits to work with and from the ppc i'm getting about ~100 uniqes a day and seeing about 2 sales a day.. so for the first week of real traffic and sales i'm making about 20/day. i think i got lucky.. if you havent already tried ppc programs shoot me a pm with your email and i'll pass on these links for the coupons..

[Michael Anthony]

Published site, started Adwords campaign on day one. Received my first lead (in these terms, my first sale) on day one.

With PPC the traffic comes, guaranteed. No waiting, no fuss. Just costly if your site doesn't convert!

By the way, whilst you're "waiting" for your first sale, why not spend the time improving you knowledge, maybe start right here?

Waiting is for those who wish to stop growing, not those seeking success.

[disgust]

after I started recieving a stream of traffic (~300-500 uniques a day), I started getting occasional sales almost right of the bat.. first was an order for 13.00 or something, next was like 300

[itraykov]

>By the way, whilst you're "waiting" for your first sale, why not spend the time improving you knowledge, maybe start right here?

>Waiting is for those who wish to stop growing, not those seeking success.

Hey, I agree with you have said completely but what makes you think that i'm waiting? Trust me, that is not the case.

I've been trying to break into AM for about a month. In the past few weeks I invested a considerable amount of cash & time, converting 0 sales... I am now working on gaining organic traffic through SERP (content) and directory PFI.
My niche is fairly competative and considering that I lack knowlege of the potential conversion rate I'm having hard time competing in AdWords alone. A lot of my AdWords competators are redirecting traffic straight to affiliate web sites.

I guess I should have phrased my question more accurately: How long did it take until you figured out how to make a site proffitable with AM?

[fidibidabah]

My first shot at "AM" was December 2nd, 2004. I remember I was waiting till I turned 18 (Nov 29th) so I could sign up with CJ/AdWords and start doing PPC->Merchant advertising. On the 2nd is when I put up my first ad, not knowing what to expect. I was advertising a popular watch company by name (which, at that time, was ok with them) and my max bids I believe were between $0.50 and $0.75. Again, not knowing what to expect I remember seeing money piling up in my CJ account with each refresh. $15, then $60, then $120. It was successful. Unknowingly then, I hit a very rare thing in PPC marketing, a keyword with tons of traffic, a landing page with great conversion ratio, and a huge commission percentage. I've never found anything quite like it since then. Eventually when it got closer to christmas, the CPC's jumped over my league and I was choked out, but it was quite an experience.

If you're talking of AMing from a website I own, my first 'sale' would be from 1998, when TerraShare offered $3CPM and free hosting. I guess you couldn't exactly call it AMing, since I was being paid for impressions, not sales, but I'm sure there were some sales being made :D

That's pretty much my story. Since then, I now run one full content site ("flagship", with updates and articles), a few smaller lead/sale based affiliate sites, as well as a few PPC->Merchant campaigns that have proven profitable. On top of that, I've "diversified" by ebay sales of wholesale items, and investing in HYIPs, as well as FORDEX trading. All means of diversification.

I wouldn't say I'm rolling in money, but it was a lot of hardwork, and the harvest is getting larger every year.

[Procyon]

"My first shot at "AM" was December 2nd, 2004."

I'm glad you can see into the future. :) (Please give me that ability :)

[itraykov]

that is very interesting, fidibidabah,
diversity means longevity in this business!

[rfung]

My first sale was on my amazon books affiliate about a year and change ago - I sold some textbook and made like 1 buck or so. I can't tell ya how happy I was (I'm sure others can relate). Now I make about $20-$30 a day and the rush is gone...so I gotta shoot for the $100 a day anytime now to get that feeling.

Yeah, it's not the money I'm after, it's the rush ;)

[fidibidabah]

Procyon: You have no idea how long it took me to develop said ability. Try reading anchient japanese proverbs upsidedown, every 3rd characters, transliterated, and superimposed into the kabalah.

Oh, and I ment 2003 :D

[Procyon]

Sticky me a link to some japanese proverb books (with your affiliate ID of course ;) and I may just take you up on that offer! =D

[rbarker]

I combine PPC with affiliate programs and skip website development all together. I look for minimum bid opportunities and widgets selling for $50 and up paying a 7%+ commission to start. If it doesn't pay for itself immediately I dump the program. If it does I contact the merchant and ask for even more money. I usually tell them something like, "I'm using PPC to generate these sales and am barely breaking even."

I also do a lot of random keyword studies. That has put me onto some areas/terms untouched by other AM's. If I can't find an existing program for some available terms I'll contact good relevant sites asking if they have an affiliate program.

It's a lot of hard time consuming fun work. Once I find a vein and the money is flowing, I continue my search for another one.

[rfung]

rbarker:

do you do this full time, and mind sharing the average profit margin of the products you advertise?

do you find that products dry up after a while, or the products you have are slow and steady?

[fidibidabah]

As for the proverb I promised you:

Saiokina ga uma.

The story goes that one day his horse broke down the fence and ran away. When his neighbours heard, they commiserated with him over his misfortune, but he said `How do you know this is not really good luck?'. A few days later the horse returned, bringing another horse with it. However when his neighbours congratulated him on his good luck, the old man said `How do you know this is really good luck?'

Sure enough, some while later Sai's son falls while riding the horse, and breaks his leg. However this turns out to be good fortune when all the young men of the village are ordered to join the Emperor's army. Sai's son doesn't have to go since he has a broken leg.

[rbarker]

rfung:

I've been a full time SEO for nearly eight years. This past year plus about 3/4's of my time has been spent developing personal AM programs. On average I get $1 back for every $.50 spent on PPC. I run reports daily and pause ads when needed.

I've learned the hard way many of the products I sell are seasonal. My objective over the next few years is to keep developing more programs so that I have two or three going strong at any given time. I do have a few products that are steady year round though.

[mwrmwr]

>CPC's jumped over my league and I was choked out

This newbie would like to know what CPC means...

[disgust]

cost per click.

[Essex_boy]

Didnt get any until my site was getting 100 clickthroughs a day (from visitors) and the cookie was 120 days alive.

My biggest error was signing up with a firm offering 3 day cookies.

The lead up to the Iraqi war was the best time for me, I had US mill coming to the site and buying 10 of this and 15 of that! Mainly personal cooking stoves and compasses, youd have thought they would have these already as standard equipment.

[nakulgoyal]

I got my first sale on the day my site got googled...! It was a $2.82 commission, but then it kept growing till date :)

[djohnson]

The first time I tried the aff thing, it took a while to get a sale. Actually I think the first sale was me buying something through the aff. :) However, now that I have a job that allows me to program and web design all day, I have jumped back in with both feet and can happily way after 3 days off PPC->aff I have made 500% :) Now I have to find another deal and see if more people will bite!

[tsinoy]

hmmm....

not that long 2 days or so... but sustaining it is still my problem...

since I started last august.. 2 months gone by and I had this much only...

$20 - lead
$68.5 - commissions on about 5 or 6 sale.
$60 - adsense
-$22 - return
-$85 - ppc advertising cost

netting at about $41.50

[johnnie]

tsinoy, you have netted a positive result! Look at this fromt he bright side: you know how to make money off the net :) Now multiply, multiply, multiply!