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Taking to heart a few suggestions from another thread I've decided to ply my (limited) web skills into making a serious, steady income. Of course, the first thing I did was sign up with a half-dozen affiliates and start posting links. Imagine, not even one sale yet. Then I ran across an affiliate who not only has brand recognition thru their brick and mortar side, but who genuinely wants their affiliates to succeed.
As I'm reading thru this book, I see that many of the concepts are those that I've used to promote my "regular" sites over the last year... things I've learned here at WW. So the reading is sort of a drag, but I'm going to read every word just the same.
My question is this: Besides keeping my nose in this ebook, and in these forums, is there a suggested reading list for the affiliate dummy? I'm only asking here because, sure, I can search for these on G anytime I wish, but you guys and gals are the cream of the crop and have done the research I still need to do. I know there aren't any magic bullets, but I'd like to avoid the duds if I can.
gracias
[edited by: eljefe3 at 2:24 pm (utc) on Aug. 23, 2004]
No suggested reading? Oh well, WW is probably the only authority I need anyway :)
[edited by: eljefe3 at 2:24 pm (utc) on Aug. 23, 2004]
Also, an early rule I learned in affiliate marketing is not to believe even 1/4 of what you read.
Sorry if I sound cynical. But, most of these guys usually sell off the "secrets" that worked for them three years ago - and usually convienently right as they stop working so well.
It's affiliate maketing we're talking about...a dose of cynicism, optimism, and reality are all likely to come in handy. It's the cynicism that has kept me away from this area, because I don't believe in get-rich-quick schemes and make $$$ daily schemes.
Still, having looked around around some I can see how it is supposed to work. A lot of what I've read here at WW about researching the topic and writing good content takes on a whole new perspective. And, until I do those things, I truly don't expect my "links" to produce even a penny.
Thanks all for the feedback. With any luck, I'll be doing 15K a month (doesn't Brett promise that?) in another year and, then I can afford to get to some conferences to learn even more. That reminds me, I need to re-read that gem, too.
See ya in the SERPS
The legitimacy of affiliate marketing is very real. It is those who pray on making the masses believe that it's easy and can be done by everyone that are not. ;)
Unless you have a lot of page views and know your demographics very well, then the prospect of making a decent amount of $$ from this type of site is low.
That leads to the second part, which I wanted to ask about anyways:
daily average of 677 unique vistors and 10670 page views.
How does that look?
I am doing this part time, and I don't personally know anybody in this industry, so I have no idea of how our numbers look like.
If someone could comment that would be greatly appreciated. In what category does our traffic fall (small, medium, I am sure not large). Also, with that kind of traffic, is it possible to make some kind of income with affiliate marketing?
thanks in advance
If the commission was $20 each, you would make much dollars monthly.
The key is finding a product that your pages really apply to.
If you find a program with a 1% conversion
what if your conversion rate was 1:1000 - which is about average for non-adsense "real sales" conversions.
---- Unless you have a lot of page views and know your demographics very well, then the prospect of making a decent amount of $$ from this type of site is low.
Hmmm, that is the format I have on my own site. And it certainly works well enough for me. You just have to approach a content site differently than a pure affiliate shopping type site.
what if your conversion rate was 1:1000 - which is about average for non-adsense "real sales" conversions.
What do you mean by this? I know that you are saying 1 in every 1000 people purchase, which equals a 0.10% CR. That is extremely low, and way below industry standard. I think the industry standard is at least 1%, but I would think that people would strive for at least 2%
All the Best,
C.K.
Ecommerce site conversion rates range from 0.5% to 8% (8% is the mega players, I have seen 15% and above on highly focussed sites but also 5% on general retailers is quite normal), but this is a content site we are discussing.
Marketing -> Site -> Banner/Link -> Merchant -> Sale
% of people present at each stage diminishes.
When you talk about CR are you talking about the % of people who get from the first stage all the way through to the end or just the last two stages? :O)
To increase conversion rate the content needs to take the visitor from being a casual browser to being an potential customer, preferably to a rabidly eager customer with their credit card out shaking with anticipation :O)
This is where the line blurs between "marketing" and "sales" ...
Those who are are 'pre-screened' by the search terms, PPC, or banners -maybe 1/20-50.
Depends on the item of course. )
I'd guess a 1/1000 conversion rate is generous for throwing ads at the -general public-.
well, I just started using CJ, for about 3 days, for a mere CTR of 0.03% and 0 sales (0% CR I guess)
I want to expose my strategy, to see if I am just naive or if it makes sense:
1) I am not putting the affiliate marketing banners on the top of the page, but rather right after every article. I figured that if a customer doesnt want to click the banner at the bottom, he wouldn't have do so at the top either.
The only risk is the people that don't scroll down and thus don't see the banner!
I also put a short info / funny line of text above every banner.
2) I also have affiliate marketing text links, right under the browsing buttons. They are visible without scrolling down, but they are not dynamic. They are the same on every page.
3) I have adsense as a tower on the right side, visible without scrolling. I didn't make much from Adsense till now, average click troug is 0.4% with a CPM of $0.29 (this for only 20 days, it is still oscillating quite a bit)
Any feedback on all this. Should I go all out and put the affiliate banners everywhere (I am just scared of scaring off ;) the customers)? Should I make the text links dynamic? and should I try to integrate adsense some more in the content? It would be hard as my pages have a pretty simple design and it would be hard not to makethe adsense obvious.
I am changing the CJ fed advertisment quite a bit, we'll see what it gives
