Forum Moderators: skibum
If you target more than one vertical do you target a several, and specialize, or do you target dozens? If not you do you know anyone who does? What's it like for them?
Do you mix your revenue streams: Affiliate, Chitika, TLA, etc? Do you take all comers?
Do you aim for a certain percentage: X% Adsense, X% PPC > Merchant, X% other?
Do you do "all and only leads"? I guess that's possible. Still, is there a back-up that you keep running? What's the natural or smart back-up for selling leads?
I've read so many times that one should diversify but I have read nearly as much about approaches people take the diversifying.
Have trends changed over the last 3 years so that it's now wise to allocate resources differently than 1, 2 or 3 years ago?
It seems to me that there's any number of ways to take on affiliate marketing. Perhaps my question goes beyond pure affiliate marketing since I've adding in revenue streams such as Adsense.
What I'm looking for is concrete advice about strategic blending and diversification. It seems to me that if you go "all in" on any one approach that you can suddenly find yourself with a leaky roof and no income, so imagine most everyone has some idea of how best to approach diversification.
Mind sharing a bit about your approach and the thinking or experience that underlies it?
Thank you.
I have certain domains that benefit from type-in traffic. They're in line for development first.
There are some that relate to product categories so I plan to work with merchants in those markets. Some are pretty well targeted and I'd like to take on at least 2 merchants on the same website, to run a bit of parallel testing. Good or bad idea?
There are some domains that relate to real estate. It appears that that market is leads based, with Adsense is an alternative. It looks to me that selling leads may prove more profitable: Real estate listings and mortgages. Is it better (more profitable) to pursue leads - where you can get them - than to pursue Adsense?
I've got some "implied high credibility" categorical domain names. It strikes me that such domains might have some leverage if married to some low cost / lowest on the totem pole Adwords ads. Anyone have any experience marrying a high credibility domain with the least expensive approach to Adwords? (I hate to use the phrase "bottom feeding" so would someone please tell me the politically correct terminology for going after the lowest bid/placement?)
I hold a few domains that likely will attract direct advertisers. For the moment I'm looking to avoid the responsibilities and duties of customer service and customer interaction. Still, a blending of income makes sense.
Newsletters? Eh? Anyone offer them? Big topic, I know, but anyone insist on making them a part of the diversification package?
So, my immediate plan is to diversify across a number of retail merchants. Start with a few leads programs. Mix in a variety of contextual or subject matter ads. Possibly begin to play with PPC in a very limited, very targeted, as low cost as possible way.
I'm a beginner, so any help or guidance is welcome.
Pick a merchant, make a page, get started. Make mistakes, fix them, test something, keep doing what works, stop doing what doesn't. (That last point is often surprisingly difficult!)
If you ever want to get more than type-in traffic you'll need to develop real sites, but you can start with one appealing page.
Your mission is to create a message that will pre-sell the product or service so users will click through in a positive frame of mind, open to do whatever it is that the merchant is willing to pay for.
Keep your pages tightly focused. Diversify your income stream by making different pages / sites about different things, not by trying to pack too many ads on one page.
That said, you'll need to watch the balance between "diversifying" and "spreading yourself too thin". Watch out for the labor requirements of things like newsletters or blogs. My preference is to look for ways to diversify that are easier to scale.
DON'T BE AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES. The only mistake that is fatal is to let the domain name lapse. Everything else is part of your education.
A second-rate project that is actually up and running will put more money in your pocket (and teach you more) than world-class ideas that are stuck on your mental drawing boards.
Right now I'm down to making choices. Sooooo many domain choices. It's a wonder that the list has been narrowed to about .5% as actual development targets, filtered for diversity and a variety of other factors (hopefully) calculated to afford the most fun and highest ROI for time invested.
It's a bit like having too many toys. Thank heavens for parking. Not really my bag/gig but it's helped move things along.
Thanks again.
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JUST DO IT!
Do you mix your revenue streams: Affiliate, Chitika, TLA, etc?
The old saying 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' is soooooo true. It’s possible I could make the same amount of money with only AdSense but why take the risk. A web site has many potential revenue streams our job is finding them.
Do you take all comers?
Just Adsense and affiliate (also signed up for YPN), others just don't have appeal; but definitely a mix - more of some in some "places," less in others.
>>Do you aim for a certain percentage: X% Adsense, X% PPC > Merchant, X% other?
Affiliate takes sales while Adsense takes clicks (and so is easier), but while there hasn't been a goal of any particular percentage, which I don't know how someone could contol anyway, the ultimate goal has been for affiliate sales to bring increasingly more revenue than Adsense, since it's more varied (with different merchants, different verticals) and has a different type of potential.
For product oriented programs, it really does take experimenting with different verticals and product lines (and merchants) to see which are worthwhile pursuing and which aren't. Of course, eventually it can lead to having some sites it's a thankless chore to keep updated because they didn't return enough benefit for the effort put out, but there are also some that give enough return so it's certain they're worth pursuing and building up.
