I know its a free site, but perhaps you can read a little here before you start:
1) I started this site as a hobby back in 1999. I created only content and nothing else. All the HTML, DreamWeaver, Paint Shop, PSP, search engine promotion etc is self thought. I was a student then with lots of time and no money.
2) Everthing in this site used to be from free service, I just rearranged it to look less obvious. Now i do pay monthly for the pop-up and mailing list, as well as monthly to Yahoo Geocities for hosting.
3) After trying to get traffic for months, it finally started coming in, and i though the best thing to do would be to put affiliate links. After trying many i found one that works, so i put more and more of it.
4) I was making $200 monthly average (in profit, since i didnt pay anything), and i reached my goals by getting myself a $3,000 guitar. It felt really good since i was doing what i loved and was making money out of it. I kept on adding content until the site grew to about 100+ pages.
5) The turning point came when the merchant i sold for quit the affiliate network and joined another. All the links went dead, and no matter how much i tried i could not reach my previous income level (currently $50 a month). I have since cleaned up the site and removed all the useless banners.
I dont want to work on it anymore. Instead i thought of subscribing to SBI and start from scratch, the right way. SO if you can please include comments on how i can avoid being burned again, and any recommendation on how to improve. My traffic level went down but i managed to restore it to 150+ visitors a day.
I feel it would be figting a losing battle to repair this site which has gotten out of control. I think SBI would be useful since i already have the content and the niche.
It's obvious you've put a lot of work into your site. I noticed you had all kinds of expired affiliate links, typo errors, graphics that aren't loading, etc. Personally, I would start over, I don't think your host gives you any credibility, so SBI would be a great option.
Being a musician myself, I was interested in your site. I initially thought about a music site when we started looking for site idea's and I still may do something in the future. My concern at the time was the fact that I don't know a single musician that would buy a guitar or any instrument without playing it first, being that no two identical guitars sound the same. (The exception being a custom build instrument) Altho Musicians Friend has the best return program. I think they will give a full refund within 30 days if your not satisfied for any reason.
Acoustic guitars are more popular than ever. There seems to be a tremendous surge in popularity due to bluegrass. Many people are opting for custom built guitars and these babies ain't cheap. Collins guitars, custom made in Texas are one of many. In fact I bought a custom built Resonator from Paul Beard, site unseen and paid a steep price. These custom builders have a reputation for building the finest quality instruments money can buy. This may be an untapped source for affiliate sales. I don't know of any custom builders that even offer an affiliate program. You can't buy these instruments from ANY online music shop! Not just guitars, custom built mandolin's, fiddles, banjo's, resonators. Prices starting at the minimum of $2000 to $10,000. The people that buy these have the bucks and don't mind spending it. Tim Scheerhorn Resonator's has a 4 year waiting list to have one built.
Take a look at this guys site. he has a great idea, but it's obvious he don't work his PR. I think he's got so many irons in the fire he doesn't have time. http://littlebrother.nlpd.com
Check out some of the acoustic guitar forums, you'll see what these folks are buying and why. The market is with people from 30 to 50 age group. They got the doe-ra-me.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5839 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 1:47 am Post subject:
I know what it's like to have a free-hosted site that grows and grows in all sorts of ways you didn't originally plan. It's very refreshing to start again in a more organized way.
I did a quick search at http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/ for "guitars". I see there are many thousands of searches done for a wide variety of search terms. Lots of opportunities there!
I also did a search at the AssociatePrograms.com affiliate directory for "guitar" and got 14 results. You should be able find several affiliate programs to try, so that you don't have all your eggs in one basket.
You also should be able to generate income using AdSense. _________________ Allan Gardyne
... earning a good living from affiliate programs since 1998.
Learn how.
Subscribe now FREE Affiliate Program Tutorial
Thanks. There are a lot of opportunities and many niche that you can find with the keyword "guitar". Actually I did go through your database and found a few good ones.
The fact that it was a free website put a lot of those affiliate programs out of my reach, especially AdSense that I figure would give good revenue to me. And I have also learned not to depend solely on a single affiliate program, even if it is clearly better than others.
Perhaps you're right, its better to start fresh.
Would you recommend i completely remove that site, or just stop updating it and let it die a slow death? If i were to remove it, is there any way I can get my traffic redirected to my new site? I really hate to lose what i built up over the years. _________________ The Definitive Guide To Using Wordpress for Adsense
http://www.easywordpress.com/go/was-apforum
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