Forum Moderators: skibum
But I do not know what Im doing wrong, advice from anyone would help.
First be a webmaster, and then you can be an "affiliate marketer". But the webmaster part comes first.
It could be you're just in a bad niche and need to build sites on other topics. Or it could be you need to look at different ways to monetize traffic, advertising or adsense-type links or selling subscriptions or whatever you can dream up.
I have tried adsense, subscriptions cj, linkshare, amazon etc and I cant do any of it.
Frustrating isn't it!
The key is to take a look at why any visitors have come to your site. If they arrived from an SE what were the search terms? If they got to your site for a term like 'game cheats' or something they are obviously not looking to buy anything. You need to TARGET your aff progs at the visitors. Find out why they come and give them what they are looking for.
I have had many 'failed' (made no money)affiliate websites that were still successful in their own right. If you hook up the 'visitors only' site to another site that is fully loaded for sales you can start turning the 'read only visitors' into buying customers.
Ska
will try to remember that, thank you, any other great advice?
<LOOP>Build It, Promote it, Forget it</LOOP>
Forget it is bad advice.
Ok, forget it is bad advice. What I am trying to say is that once you have a formula for profit it's time to move on and put what you have learnt into a different niche.
I personally build sites that should, in theory, be able to run themselves. Once I have a site that levels out with reasonable turnover it is time to forget it and move on to the next. Obviously I do need to check occasionally but why work continuously on 1 site that could get busted next update when you can work on 1 site at a time whilst earning from the others.
It's the old Rinse and Repeat addage.
Ska
Search engines change and there is always risk, but if you build a quality site that organically generates inbound links, you have a pretty good shot at keeping a decent search engine ranking for the long term. And that means profits for the long term.
Small sites, mini-sites, sites you build in 2 hours all have their purpose. But someone looking to get into this business should think about what kind of unique, useful websites they can build that really have staying power.
Small sites, mini-sites, sites you build in 2 hours all have their purpose. But someone looking to get into this business should think about what kind of unique, useful websites they can build that really have staying power.
You are so right ;oP
I think to be a successful affiliate these days you either have to have a good financial backing or think so far out of the box you are in the next country.
I have 10 mini sites alongside my main projects. All less than 10 pages and all make £10 per day, everyday. Ok, so it's not amazing but it tops up my day job. None of those sites took more than 5 hours to build and I did no promotion. No submitting to SE's, no looking for links, no PPC, just a bit of simple SEO and away they go.
These sites are built on a subject that should never change so I don't need to be constantly updating them. I think these sites have their place just as much as the bigger sites that need daily maintenance.
If a site provides exactly what the user is looking for then it is a 'good' site. No matter what size it may be. If you can monetise it, BONUS!
Ska
and Im a lil rough around the edges when it comes to optimizing.
Vague? Damn right I am ;oP
It is not quite as easy as it sounds but in principle it's very simple.
For example, build a tiny site about one specific thing. Write something unique about that thing and squeeze a few aff links in here and there.
The important thing with SEO is don't overdo it.
On my small sites my SEO is limited to a good title containing the primary keyword, a good, succinct description, again with primary keyword and a very short list of very targetted keywords.
Upload, ignore and find something else stupid to write about.
Ska
That's it.
