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Web affiliate programs experiment 2

Future directions for my site

The next feature of Site Build It! that I want to explore is the mail-out manager. This allows you to collect email address from your web site (without installing a script) and send out a newsletter. I've started collecting email addresses and will send out my first newsletter soon.

Building a list of people who are interested in the topic of your web site is a great way to make extra sales. You can also archive the articles online and use them as new pages for your site.

Another feature of Site Build It! that I have recently taken advantage of is the SiteSell Value Exchange. This is a quality link exchange program where the content of your site is matched up with other sites and links exchanged to maximize Google page rank.

I have also been posting on message boards that have been archived online. This allows me to get extra links to my web site. Getting new links helps boost PageRank and ultimately improves your search engine rankings and traffic.

My site is spidered by Google regularly now and it only takes a few days from when I put a page up to when it appears in the search engine rankings. This encourages me to put up new pages. In the future I intend to do more keyword research with Site Built It! and find some new profitable phrases to build pages for.

Read more about Site Built It! here


UPDATE, April 2004:

By Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com

One challenge Rupert has found as an affiliate of TigerDirect is that he has to spend more time updating affiliate links than expected.

TigerDirect has very low prices, which it achieves by arranging special purchasing deals - but sometimes it runs out of certain products.

If you're trying to maximize your earnings by linking directly to individual products, suddenly you're linking to a product that is not available.

One option is to link to TigerDirect's main page or to general categories instead of individual products. This reduces the time you have to spend updating links, but it also reduces your sales.

So if you're planning to be a TigerDirect affiliate, be prepared to spend time each week checking that your affiliate links are still working. Other affiliate programs usually require much less maintenance.

Since this report was published, Rupert's cheap computers site has had to compete with a rash of copycat cats and had to cope with major upheavals at Google. In spite of that, in January, February and March 2004 the site still earned over $1,000 a month.

The site has earned as much as $3,444 a month, a combination of affiliate commissions and AdSense revenue.


UPDATE, January 2005:

Rupert, who was one of my part-time employees, has moved on. The cheap computers site wasn't touched at all for the first nine months of 2004. While the site was neglected, earnings gradually declined, but still averaged just under $1,000 a month, with absolutely NOTHING done to the site.

It earned $1,007.49 in August, $1,033.17 in September, and $1,375.59 in October, 2004.

Another assistant is looking after the site now. After fixing a few faulty links and making just a few updates, income nearly doubled in one month.

The site generated $2,363.59 in November, 2004, and $2,382.50 in December.

This is an excellent illustration of how important it is to build a solid foundation. If you do so, an affiliate website can continue to generate useful income for a long time with minimal maintenance.


UPDATE, September 2008:

It's not wise to boast about how much your site is earning. We've been hammered by a rash of copycat sites. This niche is fiercely competitive now but the site is still producing useful revenue:

2005
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
$1,830.76
$532.25
$407.42
$438.45
$345.73
$696.70
$1,201.08
$1,259.32
$1,252.83
$274.23
$295.60
$594.46

2006
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
$1,534.02
$1,180.40
$1,159.24
$743.72
$781.01
$632.33
$674.91
$786.72
$699.41
$852.01
$533.19
$498.78

2007
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
$571.34
$527.70
$685.49
$376.76
$430.06
$487.23
$963.90
$977.90
$870.99
$711.77
$878.37
$907.67

2008
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
$904.49
$766.65
$816.77
$904.98
$809.48
$720.81
$739.91
$718.21

Our keyword-rich, search engine friendly pages created using Site Built It! are still earning a useful income long after the site was built. This little part-time project has generated many thousands of dollars.


Do you have a question?

Is there something you want to know about Site Build It!, the tool which Rupert used to build his website?

Click here and an actual SBI! owner/user will give you real answers based on direct first hand experience.


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Comments

Comment #1 (Posted by kaiser) |
I can't even find the name of your DJ tips site much less its URL. Would like to see the site for myself thanks. Oh btw great article.

[Thanks. Rupert did mention the domain name in the article. It's dj-tips-and-tricks.com . Allan.]
Comment #2 (Posted by Graham) |
Rupert mentioned getting a Domain but nothing was mentioned about Hosting, or am i missing something? Also when building new sites is a different Domain needed or do you have Sub Domains? Sorry if these are silly questions, but i am a newbie just reading up.
Regards Graham

[Web hosting is included in each Site Build It! package. When using the SBI system, a new domain name and a new subscription to SBI is needed for each new website. Allan.]
Comment #3 (Posted by Steve Blackmore) |
Great article. I have started an SBI site, great to know that it works! Not yet built enough pages to submit to directories but nearly there. By reading the article I now have an insight into what can be done. Having read loads of ebooks and trawled the net I really can recommend SBI highly. Thanks.
Comment #4 (Posted by Priya) |
Not able to see most of the images in this case study..."image not found".

[Thanks very much for the alert! You should be able to see the graphics now. Allan.]
Comment #5 (Posted by Jamie) |
Hi - great article. I really learned a lot. I went to your computer-cheap site to learn more about SBI and to see how it can be applied. I have a few questions:

The topics on the left nav are quite long. Will SBI let you put them into categories so the list is shorter?

Can you sell space and/or can companies put their banner ads on your site when you use SBI?

Did SBI supply the Privacy Policy or did you write it?

The page view was much narrower than my monitor. Can I change it so it's not so narrow? Or, does SBI limit that ability?

If I want to leave SBI, can I take my site with me? If not, what can I do?

Thank you much!
Jamie

[Hi Jamie, You can choose different ways to use SBI. One is to choose from a large number of templates. They're designed to keep everything as simple as possible. Ken Evoy refers to this as the "training wheels" system. The other choice is to use FrontPage or Dreamweaver or something similar to create your SBI site, putting you totally in control of how your site looks, iincluding the nav bar and width of the content. For your first site, I recommend you try the training wheels. Keep everything simple and concentrate on creating great content. Yes, you can sell ads. You can put banner ads on your SBI site. Many SBI owners join affiliate programs and incorporate affiliate links and banner ads on their sites, as well as AdSense ads. You own the website and you own the domain name so you can take them to another web host. I haven't tried moving an SBI site. I think it would be easier if you've created the pages in FrontPage or Dreamweaver. If you have any doubts, I recommend you ask an SBI Advisor:
http://makemy.sitesell.com/question/
Allan.]
Comment #6 (Posted by James Ising) |
Thank-you for a very useful and encouraging review. I say useful as it is very practicle and builds confidence that anyone can reproduce your results. I say encouraging as it does not boast BIG promises that you really know inside are rubbish. Instead the goals look achievable and realistic.

So thanks! I have been considering whether to invest in this system and I now think my mind is made up.

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