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anastasis
Joined:
27 Aug 2003
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18
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:32 am
Post subject: My first site makes me about $30/month.Some thoughts...
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My first site doesn't make the money I was thinking of. I started building it with sbi on mid august 2003.
After 6 months studying the internet and affiliate marketing field and working on this site I learned a lot and realised what my mistakes on that site are.
Mistake 1. I believed the overture keyword search numbers which were 45000-60000 searches/mo. Wordtracker's are about 4500-6000/mo. Yes that's 10 times lower. I have figured out why the difference was so big before planet ocean's february issue which gives an in depth explanation.
Consider also that I presell hardgoods with a 7% commision and you see why I am only making so little money.
Lesson learned : Go where the traffic is. (This one is my only complaint about the sbi action guide. Dr Ken's search numbers in the examples in it are much lower. I suppose noone can say the whole truth if he wants to sell something. I understand that)
Mistake 2. Not knowing much about the topic of the site. I have bought a greek (I am from Greece) book on the topic and translated some parts of it in order to have some decent content since the niche was specialized and I didn't have a clue.
Lesson learned : If you are going to upload garbage on the web my opinion is to stop there(my site is not garbage but the information in it it's just too little if you compare it with the authority site on that subject). I don't think you will be able to make decent money. If you think you can go ahead.
Mistake 3. If you don't know something about your topic what are you going to tell your visitors so they will give the email addresses and after that let you keep them and not request to unsubscribe after the first email you send them? By the way I didn't even ask for their email adrresses because I didn't have anything to send them.
Lesson learned : Now from the start what are you going to tell your visitors so they will give you their email addresses and let you keep them after you sent them some emails. If you can't figure out what you are going to tell them stop there and find another topic.
Mistake 4. Not being able to differentiate from all the other sites out there on the same topic (it's a big web you know).
Lesson learned : You don't only have to know what to write about but you also have to express it in a way that makes you different and people choose your recommendation instead of other people's.
Mistake 5. Preselling hard goods which are for a very specialized group of people and are only going to be bought from citizens of the US or at most Canada.
Lesson learned : Presell digital products that can be bought from all over the world.
I could go on but these are the most serious faults of my first site. If you pay attention you will realize that each one of these mistakes has to do with research. Don't reach the point of paralysis by analysis as Dr Ken says but make a thorough research first.
Compare some numbers of my first site with some of the second I already have started building.
Keyword count at Wordtracker:
1st. 150-200 2nd. 15000-20000
Number of incoming links of the first site when you search each site's keyphrase at google without quotes:
1st. about 800 2nd. about 12
Cents per click at most ppc engines:
1st. 30-40 2nd. minimum
Type of product:
1st. Hard good 2nd. Digital
Also with my second site it will be very very very easy to differentiate. In fact I think it's going to be (believe it or not) the only site of its kind on that particular niche.
I hope you get my point. The profitability numbers don't matter to me at all. I ma not trying to find lots of searches and small number of results any more. I have developed my own standards and still learning. I may be wrong but I will see how my second site will go.
And finally the mistake I think it's the biggest people trying to make a living online do. Not investing in a fast internet line. If I I wanted to stay about 8 hours a day online with my current dial up connection it would cost me about $100/mo and I am not talking about the speed of browsing and downloading. The adsl line which I am waiting to be activated on early april is going to cost me about $40/mo and I will be able to be online as much as I want and at 8 times faster.
I hope you got something valuable from this post
Anastasios Dimopoulos |
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onlineleben
Joined:
01 Aug 2003
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208
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Germany and the World
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:07 am
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anastasis,
very good summary. Although you had to learn it the hard way, I am pretty sure that the writeup of what you have done and what it resulted in helps you a lot in developing more profitable sites in the future.
Also your summary is very useful for people just starting out to setup their first sites.
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Debs
Joined:
16 Aug 2003
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4296
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NY
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:32 pm
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You also made several points in your summary, Anastasis, that indicate you didn't fully follow the action guide for SBI. I did the same thing  when I started, and I learned the same lesson! So don't feel alone, by any means.
Debs
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edburdo
Joined:
14 Jul 2003
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1760
Location:
Bangor, Maine
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 3:08 pm
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Also, if you want some tips on possible revamps for your site, post it in the Review board and ask for a review. People are more than happy to help you make something worthwhile.
$30 a month may not be rich, but it IS better than about 95% of the affiliate marketing population.
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Eric D. Burdo
They Made $6,513 a day With Clickbank Doing This... |
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DatabaseDesigner
Joined:
17 Nov 2003
Posts:
665
Location:
Norway
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 7:32 pm
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edburdo, 
Anastasias: My site is generating approx USD 200 a month in its beginning (ebooks, Adsense and aff. income(small part)) I-m not satisfied with that of course, but actually: It pays the whole SBI! game, in addition to giving me a great 1 month holiday in Greece each year 
I see the power of electronic products, and I will follow up that one. If you are dissatisfied with your site's income: Study Adwords. I found one product at Clickbank that I wanted to advertize: It costs me small money, and I'm in there. Great learning project for me too.
Best of luck to you, Anastasias,
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
Joined:
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6326
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by the beach, Australia
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:15 pm
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Anastasios, Sounds as though you've discovered a fabulous niche for your second site. Good luck with it.
Digital products usually have the advantage of paying high commissions.
However, in my experience it is possible to generate very useful income from hard products, too. Don't assume that just because the program you chose didn't work for you, that all hard products should be avoided.
Also, could you add AdSense to your first site? If you have lots of keyword-rich pages, that could boost your earnings considerably.
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Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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Phil CA
Joined:
19 Dec 2003
Posts:
1044
Location:
Canada
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:58 am
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Interesting thread. 
Whether you use all the great SBI tools including the manual or if you build sites using other tools etc.
You read everywhere why certain affiliates don't do as well as the small percentage who do. All kinds of reasons...
But succeeding at affiliate marketing is no different than succeeding in any other business.
Ken and many others write some excellent articles about success But the one thing that SBI and many other Affiliate sites etc. Don't cover very well is that you need to have a much better understanding of business in general. 
Even though Affiliate marketing is a Niche within business itself. If people New to the business of affiliate marketing would have a better understanding of business in general you would see a much greater success rate.
Even though a few Top affiliates didn't have much general business experience. If you do your research Most Do.
It's not just about search engines and content. It's all about understanding business and Creative marketing.
Yes, business is hard work But most of the quality business information is Free thanks to the internet.
Someone could build a Niche site addressing this Problem.
Here is a good thread and there are lots more all over the internet regarding the problem, SBI or not.
http://www.associateprograms.com/discus/viewtopic.php?t=3396
Just my thoughts
All the best
Phil |
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anastasis
Joined:
27 Aug 2003
Posts:
18
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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:54 am
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Allan I don't condemn hard goods but you need a lot of traffic to make money out of them. I must be doing the preselling right because I always have double or triple EPC than the certain store's average but my traffic is not enough. I have adsense on the site and from it I make the most money. Yes my next niche seems better. It is part of the adult arena. Now that I learned html and some other stuff and can build my site alone I will give it a shot. As you know with sbi no adult sites are allowed.
Anastasios Dimopoulos
Trying to make a good living online since August 2003 (not there yet but I am not going stop trying).
I hope Allan hasn't trademarked his words and give me trouble...
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By the way have you tried this program? It really works. Just set your homepage and keep doing what you do. |
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