Getting into the game

Which areas should I choose?

[feeder]

I've been doing some small time affiliate work, and am now an addict. I've now got 24 hours a day to devote to this area and am a pro seo....game on.

If I can make 500 - 1000 per week, I will be most happy. How achievable is this? Given the existence of Froogle, what areas would be best to start in from scratch? Is Brett's strategy of a page a day still a good way to go?

[rcjordan]

>500 - 1000 per week, I will be most happy. How achievable is this?

We have more than a few here doing that, and some have just started in the last year, so it's not because they had old, established sites that happened to dovetail with an affiliate program.

[eljefe3]

If you are a "type A" affiliate you should have no problem of reaching your financial goal. All it takes is jumping into a few lucrative areas and putting up some good sites that rank well, and the $$ should flow in (especially if you are putting in a lot of time on affiliate marketing).
Finding those lucrative markets is the toughest part of affiliate marketing (unless you check your inbox and sort through all the spam).

[aek]

Generally the more lucrative a market is the more competitive it is (obviously). If you think you're good enough to compete with the real pros then Casinos and Pharmacies are probably the best places to start. However if you want to start with something easier then search for products in google and see how competitive it is to get in the top ten for those searches. You'll earn more placed at number 10 in google for candles searches than at number 21 for casino searches.

[Bio4ce]

Pharmacy sites...I've seen some of the monthly checks these guys get. $20K a month. How in the world do they do that? I'm sure they are getting special deals. But there is only 10 spots on google's front page for the "common terms" and PPC is incredible ($10-$15 per click). So what is the key? What other type of advertising do these affiliates do?

Bio4ce

[eljefe3]

>>>Pharmacy sites...I've seen some of the monthly checks these guys get. $20K a month. How in the world do they do that?

When you earn $40 per sale it's not that hard (not hard if you've got multiple sites and they rank in the top 20 for many terms) to earn 20K per month without spending any $$ on PPC. You just need to know which terms bring the $$ in and which terms do not convert. I've seen instances of affiliates earning in the 50-80K per month net.

[Bio4ce]

>>>You just need to know which terms bring the $$ in and which terms do not convert.

That is the toughest part. Especially for a newbie (even not so newbie). Although I do have a pretty good idea of what products sell the best, I just don't know what the conversion rates are for those products and how much traffic is needed to generate decent affiliate income.

I was talking to someone earlier today and they said they do the PPC and the SEO, but the majority of their income comes from other forms of advertising. That had me scratching my head. Banner ads, pop ups/unders, ezines? There is so many ways to advertise and most aren't very effective.

I guess the best thing to do is go out and build a ton of sites and hope that I've optimized well for google. :)

Bio4ce