Another commission and some new plans in the works

by Sapphire (August 16, 2005)

I just got another commission from the affiliate site I thought was going to flop. Considering it only has about 50 unique visitors so far this month, that’s definitely turning my head. I’ve been concentrating more on CPC and selling ad space - with mixed results, some pretty decent - but now I’m thinking I need to concentrate a little more on my affiliate sites. Think of it this way: if 50 unique visitors bring me $20, then 500 uniques would theoretically bring me $200. I can’t say for sure it’ll work that way - maybe as I bring in more traffic, I’ll lower the quality of traffic, resulting in fewer sales per visitors - but it’s worth pursuing.

To that end, I’m going to run a very cheap little AdWords campaign, with such a low bid that I won’t place anywhere near the top pages. Why? Because I don’t want to be the first site people see. I want them to have searched and searched, to be tired and ready to have it OVER ALREADY when they hit my site.

I really should start up some more affiliate sites, particularly with the holidays looming ahead, but the problem with that is: time. There’s only one of me. I have several sites already, taking up a lot of my time. I have a life offline as well. So, I came up with a compromise.

I’m going to build a little affiliate store on the site I call my “B-2 Bomber”. It’s for a type of product I wouldn’t set up a whole new affiliate site for, because I don’t really think there’s much profit in it. But as an add-on to an existing site with built-in traffic…? Definitely worth a shot. And it’ll add some spiderable pages for the search engines. Like I said, I really should be building new affiliate sites, but this is the best use of my time and energy that I can make right now.

Plus, I’m building on existing resources, and that’s the beauty of this whole online thing. Once you’ve established some sites - which takes grueling months of labor and problem-solving - you’ve got a rhythm going. You can build on what you have, in many cases, which means anything new you create starts out with a leg up. For example, my ChillyCool directory and blog site took off big time when I opened it just a few weeks ago. It’s not a money-maker yet, but it’s getting lots of submissions to both the directory and the blog, and all I have to do is figure out the best way to make money from that. The point is, because I was able to give it some press here and at other sites that have worked with my other directories, that boosted it hugely. I didn’t have to waste time struggling to get it noticed: I already had a system in place.

It doesn’t apply to every new venture, obviously, but I think the more you keep at it, the more ways you’ll find to use what you already have to boost the new stuff.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, PPC
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