Forum Moderators: skibum
it's that time of the year (year - day - month - pick what you want), where I am toying with the idea of trying to build an affiliate site to try and genereate some additional income my way.
I've been reading soe success stories on this board and it makes me eager to try it but I don't know where to start.
I think I would have the knowledge (been desiging and marketing sites for over three years - but not my own as I haven't got a really marketable / sellable products).
So where do I start?
The Process:
I've read some gems around here so I would know how to test and try to see if a product/site convert by mixing ppc and seo (only ppc first and if it work then optimise)
what I'm missing is how to start the site? Are you all fans of what your selling / affilated to or is this something that sells so you went into it. How do you write your site content if you are not a fan? How often do you update your site(s) and add new content?
Also, and that's my main question - what do you do first build a site, genereate traffic join affiliate program that matches your site visitors profile, or look on the aff programs what they offer and try to set up a site to sell that?
The Idea:
If you haven't got a hobby or two where do you get the ideas from? Again how to you keep up with getting your site interesting if what you promote doesn't interest you.
The market:
How do you determine (using the toills we know) that what people are looking for is to buy and not just info on something? When should you do your market 'analysis'? Before you start looking for an idea - to try and find one, or once you found one - to see if it's viable?
Ok guys, that's it for me - thanks for your feedback.
Leo
We all have ideas and interests. Explore some of yours. What have you looked for that you just couldn't find? That's often a good basis for a site. Something that solves a specific need that isn't currently being met will grow through organic traffic. Read my posts on The SEO fallacy [webmasterworld.com] thread for more details about the benefits of organic traffic over PPC and SEO.
