Time for another “think”
by Sapphire (January 19, 2007)
Every now and then I feel the need to ask myself: where am I, where am I going, and what am I doing to get there?
Where I am:
I can now depend on about $250/month to roll in just from ads. That’s a far cry from my original goal of $15, posited back when I just wanted ads to cover the expenses for my affiliate marketing biz. But the aff sales goal I had of $400 per month obviously isn’t happening. I’m nowhere near it. Why not?
Because my aff sites suck. They’re pure aff sites, with all the copy unaltered from the product linking code I found at ShareASale or CJ or whatever. Aff sites are gone. History. That’s not going to fly anymore, and there’s no reason it should: it’s crap.
Where I’m going:
My most recent aff sale came from Project Mai Tai - that sad little site that Google has given PR4 but not indexed. It’s not an aff site. It’s a blog. But sometimes I review products in it and give them an aff link. With jack-all for traffic and a total snub from Google, this site has managed to rake in a sale. That’s far more astounding than anything my aff sites ever did. The future of aff marketing, I believe, is to embed aff links in context in quality, original sites. This is not a new concept - it’s something I should’ve been doing two years ago.
I want all my sites to add value to the web from now on. The standard needn’t be too high. Project Mai Tai was designed to sell aff products, but the posts I wrap around those links have some value. I have an article reprint site that rakes in $50/month in ad sales with articles you can find other places, but it’s a tightly niched site that I’ve arranged and made as searchable as I can for visitors. It’s not of value I’m going to write home about, but it ain’t no B.S. AdSense site, either.
And I do have a couple of sites I’m wildly proud of, dealing with topics I feel are important for people to think about. Neither of them bring in much money, but maybe they will eventually.
What I’m doing to get there:
Building on sites that have the potential to contain aff links in good context. This means lots of posting. Whatever SEO you do, regular posting is the biggest help. Particularly if your posts are at all linkable and bookmark worthy. My big plan is to post, post, post and let the rest take care of itself. I know coming up with a linkbait scheme might be a good idea; but in the time it takes me to think of and reject 6 linkbait ideas, I could write a handful of posts. After all, good posts become linkbait. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Posted in Staying on Track
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January 19th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I’ve all but given up on some of my affiliate sites - because that’s all they are… hobbled together affiliate products, with little to no original content - because they’re feeds, etc. Looking to make a fast buck I suppose - and realizing (a little too late) that it takes more than just putting up a site and getting a couple of links too it. It actually takes work (go figure) and I really think if you like the subject you’re blogging about or building a site around - it will eventually go the distance.
… and that’s my 2 cents worth
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:46 am
I totally agree with that. All of it.
February 24th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
[...] January 19, I posted about where I was at and where I was going, and how I was going to get there. Basically, it [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 9:04 am
[...] Time for another ?think? Every now and then I feel the need to ask myself: where am I, where am I going, and what am I doing to get there? Where I am: I can now depend on about $250/month to roll in just from ads. That?s a far cry from my original goal of $15, posited back when I just [?] [...]