Forum Moderators: phranque
I've been reading the forums here, responding mostly to programming questions in the programming sections, as its what I do for a living. I develop web-apps for companies.. .I have my own servers at my office, I host all my sites on-site, I register my own domains.. I am pretty self sufficient.
To the point. As I said, I've been reading the posts here on this great forum. I pretty much 'get' what to do with developing sites for profit. From my reading here it seems like a lot of trial/error to find the right affiliate program but from what I am reading its worth it in the end. You make a site about a topic that you are interested in.. something that you can intelligently write 10-20 pages of content about. You integrate your affiliate ads/links, set up opt-in mailing lists, and most importantly work on your search engine placements (or do ad-words).
Now, of course that was a crude, overly simplified summary of the process.. or is it? Am I basically on the right track?
I am not stupid enough to come here asking "Hey what should I sell, how should I do it, and how much do you guarentee I will make?"! I would just like some advice as to if I am on the right track . I am a very hard worker, I want nothing 'handed' to me... I am just new to this end of the business and would love some advice.
Thanks very much in advance,
They provide a handy additional revenue stream and can be enough to support the costs of small sites, but I'd look elsewhere for your main income source.
Indeed, there are quite a number whose income is derived solely from affiliate marketing in keeping with what sharbel has suggested.
Go to [webmasterworld.com...] and spend some time nosing around. You're bound to pick up some good ideas.
Advertising online is far from dead, it has matured since the bubble,...the days of $20 CPM are long gone, having been replaced by my realistic amounts and performance based marketing. Here's the secret to making money online,...follow the money. Don't be afraid of the competitive marketplaces,...they're competitive because that's where the money is. The other thing to look for is online properties running traditional advertising campaigns,...that's always a good sign...I subscribed to YIL (Yahoo Internet Life magazine) not for the bullsh*t articles but to see what properties are advertising...the ads in YIL seem to be a quarter or two ahead of the trends you'll see on TV or in mainstream mags due to the nature of it's content.
Once you have decided on a marketplace the other pearl I have is test, test, test. Simple dynamic A/B tests will do (no need for full blown regression analysis for most teir2/teir3 sites), a small increase in your conversion ratio will impact your bottom line more that you think,...the only way to get that data is by constantly testing and improving as many things as you can.
That's all you get for free :)
Don't just pick a topic and then start looking for profitable affiliates or advertising. Start with the product.
Think of something that works on the net and involves high quantities and good amounts of cash, like travel, software/computer related items, car/motoring related. Thinkl of what people mostly get on the net (like books were for amazon) but stick to larger values with big markets. Don't try to sell sticers for 20c each, sell signed collectors items for 100$ each.
The net is good at letting you find the buysers, but only a fraction of potential buyers are online.
Once I considered a product or market niche, you should be set to find well paying affiliates or even becoem a agent/distributer for those running the business themselves. Perhaps you can even sell some products all on your own.
Consider "testing" the market using eBay or other ready to go commerce systems.
Mind you, these are the thoughts I've been coming up with. I'm a programmer myself and not a internet marketeer.
SN
By all means keep em coming!
To make advertising pay off you need to have content to draw people. There is a big swing going on to include much larger sized ads. This combination can pay off.
People don't want seven ads on a page but they are very tolerant about how big one ad can be. The rule is; if you wouldn't want your mother to buy the product being advertised don't run the ad.
Left and right tower gutter ads are better than a large top of page ad. Vertically splitting a page once you get beyond your masthead works too.
