New site

Any suggestions

[ppii]

This may come as a strange request , but we have two unused sites that we only use the e-mail side of . We had a little discussion about them and was wondering if it was viable to turn them into affiliate sites , or what ever , we actualy do not have any product to market on them ourselves .
I stumbled across this forum by accident , so I thought that why not ask you people for some advise and see what happens , not even sure if this is the right forum to post this on .
Any advise and direction pointing would be appreciated .
Many thanks
RA

[guitaristinus]

Welcome.

For info about affiliate sites, have a look at Advertising Sales and Affiliate Programs [webmasterworld.com].

[ppii]

Hi Guitaristinus ,

Thanks for the reply , welcome and link .

I will move this question over to there .

Best regards
RA

[Marketing Guy]

Depending on what your main business is, it might be worthwhile to develop the domains into industry-related sites to channel some additional traffic to your main site (and you could support it with advertising on the sites as well).

Scott

[ppii]

Hi Marketing Guy ,

Thanks for your reply .
We are actualy in the computer industry . We mainly work in the computer systems engineering and consulting , with some software research thrown in . Actualy software research is a little pet project of mine . We are in Australia , a very small outfit and our market is very limited and very stiff competition here because of this , but we manage to survive , just . With the sites there , and doing nothing much we thought that we may suppliment the income some how , so I started to research into this part of the computer world about a month ago , not much sleep since then , I have read where advertisers are looking for sites with lots of visitors , we basicaly have none , only accidental visitors average about 160 a month . Do you just contact them and ask if they want to advertise on your site or what happens there , I have also read about , you must have a good theme to attract people to your site , well as you say , relate it to our business , our business is done to death on the web .
Anyway , thanks for the input , it is all apreciated very much , we are very green on this side of the fence , of course , knew about it all happening , but to busy in our own patch of the world at the time .
I guess what I am trying to do is to learn from others mistakes and save some time , energy and heart ache .
I certainly do not beleive the "make a squillon dollars , use our tried and proven system ", etc .

Best regards
RA

[Marketing Guy]

Granted there are a tonne of IT related sites out there, but you could churn out a locally focused site - eg, a directory of local suppliers - give yourself banner advertising on it, optimise it for some regional keywords (your widgets in your town, your widgets in your neighbours town, etc).

Another possibility would be to develop a content based site with basic "How to" type articles - perhaps get local educational institutions involved and develop it into a resource for students. Or speak to the local papers and get local businesses involved.

To be honest, unless you are planning on driving some decent traffic to the site (either high volume or high value), the income won't really impact your business much.

However, if you can target the sites as resources for your main business's potential customers then channel that traffic to your own site, you may see a greater benefit.

Targetting home users? Then offer PC home maintainence information.

Targetting businesses? Then offer content that profits them - IT glossary to better inform them - case studies to show how your service can save money / make money.

You can still add advertising to these types of sites - it just means you can also develop some of your own business as well. ;)

Scott

[ppii]

Hi Marketing Guy ,

Thanks for the reply and advice .

Actualy we have been thinking some what along the lines as you state , some local content , target our area , business etc , do some how to's and so on .
I have been reading the posts on this site now for some time and picking up a lot of good advice , suggestions and learning a lot . As someone said here some where in a post to someone , just do it and keep trying , changing , trying things and so on .
Yes , we certainly do not think that we will throw up a site and start making a fortune straight away . We have the site's , so we thought that we might as well do something with them .
I realize that anyone that has a money spinner is not going to pass it on to increase his/her competition , but any other help is always appreciated , as you have done , it saves a little time and some heart aches . Every little bit helps .
Once again thank you for your help , and anything else you think of will always be appreciated .

Best regards
RA