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 newsletter 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I have also been posting on message boards that have been archived online.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.

Learn 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, November 2011:

Traffic and revenue has dropped a bit in recent months, perhaps partly because of the Panda (Farmer) Google update, and perhaps also because the site has been a bit neglected for several months while my assistant was busy with other projects. In my experience, Google prefers sites that keeping adding fresh content and attracting new links. So we need to get back to doing that.

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 this little part-time experimental project is still producing useful revenue: