Mini Sites: how do you get the contacts first?

Merchants want to see your site first, right?

[HeyJim]

So lets say I go into CJ and look around a bit and see something that strikes my fancy. I can envision a nice mini-site focused just on this one product or niche and I'll use PPC to drive traffic to it from day one. (Day One being the day that the site is finished and ready for prime time.) I guess I can add another site to my profile but the site doesn't exist yet.

If my site is focused on my personal recommendation on a specific product with a link to the merchant, how can I build my mini-site until I have access to the merchants links? I'm not sure many merchants are going to give me an ok for their program until they see my site. I can't build my site until I can add their links to it. Catch 22. How does one get around that?

[fidibidabah]

Personally, I have a sort of "general" flagship site that really could cover anything on it.

Alternately, you could 'start' a mailing list (ahem, "start") with something having to do with their product, and add it as a site (cj lets you add mailing lists to your sites thingy)

[GuitarZan]

Hey,

In this case I will usually just go ahead and build anyways. Show them the site when you are done, with the recommendations pointed at their site, and you have a good chance of getting in.

All the Best,

C.K.

[fidibidabah]

True, worst comes to worst, if they reject you, tweak the site slightly for a different merchant that deals with the same potatos.