Long tail keywords + affiliate programs

Does this still work as a solid strategy?

[njseo]

I've been thinking about getting back into promoting affiliate programs (been consulting exclusively for a while). I know it's not as easy as it once was to buy ads and make an ROI, but I'm wondering how many people are out there doing this and making a good amount of money.

My main concerin is Overture. I know it's darn near impossible to get cheap traffic on Google these days. After doing some keyword research, however I've noticed that loads of long tail keywords in very competitive industries have under 5 ads on Overture.

Of course Yahoo will fill in the blanks with broad match advertisers on many of these keywords, but even if they do that, the broad matched ones are always placed AFTER the ones that an actual overture.com search shows. To me this seems like a good opportunity for anyone who would like to create a nice salesy little site and promote affiliate programs. What I'm really wondering is how everyone feels about the amount of traffic that actually exists for these terms and whether it's even worth it.

Anyone still having success on the big engines?

[npang]

i've been doing this for years and still in business (knock on wood).

yes, i use overture (yahoo), adwords (google), and adcenter (msn). you can get traffic from yahoo for 10 cents and above. with google, i can get traffic from 1 cents and above (most are at 4 to 5 cents). with msn, i can only get traffic in the 5 cents range.

with that in mind, it depends what you're trying to sell and what the profit margin is and what the conversion rate is. this is different for every niche and associated products.

miva has cheap traffic but i find those leads useless...

good luck!

[npang]

also if you are looking for the long tail, those keywords are usually cheaper :-)

[vite_rts]

Hi npang

so you make money from affiliate programs, interesting,

Do I take it from your post that you don't use a website?

i ask because it seems to me thats the type of marketing njseo seems to be refering to,, plus

I've recently dipped my oe into the affiliate thing, but using websites,,, an so far, tis awefull

[npang]

don't focus on too much - that was my mistake 3 yeras back - -i try to sell everything amazon carried (via their web services API).

focus on a niche and provide a service. commission junction and linkshare are thriving so affiliates are doing some right!

[njseo]

Honestly I wouldn't think of doing this as a full time job. I have recently seen some very interesting things though. Do a Google search for "hoodia" (the hot new weight loss drug I suppose). I'm not going to post URL's, but the top advertiser for that isn't even a vendor, it's an affiliate. They don't even have the links above the fold either. There's a good amount of information and it looks authoritative, then there's links with prices to a bunch of different vendors. I'm not saying I want to go the diet pill route, it just seems non creative, but if this guy is bidding to #1 and making an ROI there must be something to it.

[npang]

you always try it out with a $100-$250 PPC investment on google first without even designing a web site. just use your copyrighting skills. i do this all the time to test out the water...

[vite_rts]

I suppose with this kinda affiliate , the vendor benefits from your advertising copy writing technique, plus you bear the costs and risk of poor ROI, if you succeed, they sell , you get commissions,

Question, you're entirely dependent on the statistics they give you aren't you, if you don't have a website platform

Another question, I don't think you can do CJ without having a website to place the adds on, or do they have a adsense/ysm direct to cj to vendor in place,

[npang]

vite_rts,

technically, yes you are right.

you can create a content web site or blog and then apply to merchants in CJ, LS, etc.

as for tracking, you can use your own redirects. but my numbers are within 10% of all the affiliate networks' numbers. i also use javascript and statcounter on each page so that's another layer of verification.