[Editor's Note: You don't have to be brilliant to earn good money with web affiliate programs. In this article, Rupert proves that his first affiliate success wasn't a fluke. See May 2008 update at end of article.]
My second affiliate site has earned over $1,000 a month for the last two months.
This article shows you exactly how I did it, how long it took and why I think Site Build It! is an essential tool for anyone who wants to own a popular and profitable affiliate web site.
Now I return to affiliate marketing as the master...
Actually, I'm not the master but at the time I thought I was the greatest affiliate on the Internet. This isn't a bad attitude for an affiliate to have since I wasn't being paralyzed by all the things I didn't know. I was focusing on what I did know.
What I'd proved was that Site Build It! works and I had succeeded even when I knew nothing about affiliate marketing.
If you haven't read about my first affiliate site you can read my original Site Build It! case study here. It covers the basics of using Site Build It! and getting started on an affiliate site. It also discusses what you need to do once you have a site up and running.
This case study has many more ideas for affiliates who already know the basics. I won't bore you (and me) with all the details covered in my first Site Built It! case study.
Better planning from the start
I've never been a hard-core planner. In fact the thought of planning something is usually enough to deter me from doing it. Luckily for me, building affiliate web sites is as easy as making breakfast. There really are only five main steps and Site Build It! makes each one easy to do.
1. Think of some topics you might like to do a site on. [Editor's Note: Or find a hungry market you wish to serve.]
2. Do some keyword profitability research with Site Build It!
3. Research affiliate programs that relate to your topics.
4. Write a web page on each keyword, optimizing it with Site Build It! tools.
5. Drop in your affiliate links
The keyword research just takes a few clicks to do with Site Build it! I already had a couple of ideas for affiliate web sites. One idea was desktop computers. After doing about three keyword researches with Site Build It! I found that there were some very profitable keywords in this topic.
You can find out more about how keyword research and web page building is done in my first Site Build It! case study. Site Build It! is very easy to use with endless online help.
Let's just continue on and I'll show you what a profitable keyword niche looks like.
Profitable keyword niches are where you find them
Site Build It! is the best tool on the Internet for finding a profitable topic for your affiliate web site. It finds related keywords and ranks them in order of supply and demand. Profitable keywords are search phrases that have a high demand and low supply.
Take a look at my keyword list. Sorry it's a little bit coffee stained and creased but as the main plan for my site it was carried around and referred to quite often.
This keyword list is ranked in order on demand, with the most searched phrases appearing at the top of the list. I simply scanned down the list and built a page for each keyword that looked profitable.
You can see that I highlighted the profitable keywords in the list. These keywords were the basis for my site. Further keyword research in Site Build It! uncovered many more profitable keywords on the topic.
It is very important to do as much research as possible before you start building your site. I suggest you do extra keyword research with the Wordtracker free trial. You can sometimes find a few extra keywords by doing this and you can also double-check your most profitable keywords before you start.
For example "cheap computers" looks to be a very profitable key phrase. The demand figure is so high (above 25,000 is very good). I did further keyword searches using "cheap computers" and found other profitable keywords such as "cheap computer cases" and "cheap computer desks". The topic was looking very promising with a wide range of other profitable keywords related to "cheap computers".
Can you see the theme building in the keywords? You probably won't be surprised to find out the domain name I registered for my site was...
This allowed me to have my most profitable keyword in my domain name and help me optimize my index page for the keyword "cheap computers". I raced ahead writing articles on how to build your own cheap computers from cheap computer parts. I wanted my site ready for review by Yahoo! as soon as possible. The sooner I got into the Yahoo! directory the sooner I could put up my affiliate links.
This brings me to my next topic, choosing the right web affiliate programs.
