Associate Programs Newsletter #161
You could call Trevor Rieger of TVTalkShows.com one in a million, but it’s really more like one in 1.8 million.
Read on to find out why.
CONTENTS:
1. One-man fan site beats bloated competitors
2. 15,000 visitors a day isn’t enough to ensure survival
3. “Web site traffic is NEVER the problem”
4. Losing money? Ask your community to help
5. Earn $1,000 reward, $1,000 commission – or both
6. 35 million Americans use Internet auctions
7. New AffiliateFare network free to join
8. $171.06 in commissions from 30 visitors
9. New privacy issues will affect affiliate tracking,
and other news
10. Useful free resource: Shop.org
11. Thought for today: How to build your wings
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1. One-man fan site beats bloated competitors
=============================================
Trevor Rieger calls his site, TVTalkShows.com, “the biggest dysfunctional fan site on the Internet”.
Last month it had 100,000 unique visitors, and that figure soars much higher, such as in August last year when Oprah’s lawyers tried to get him to remove her name from the site.
He had 224,000 unique visitors that month.
According to PC Data Online, Trevor gets more traffic than the heavily promoted Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer sites.
“Who says you have to have millions of dollars to run a site?” Trevor says.
“When a fan web site can gain MORE traffic than a bloated million-dollar web site run by a media conglomerate, that just shows that when it comes to the web, everybody is equal.”
Trevor, a former Army corporal and Desert Storm veteran who lives in Oakland, California, runs the site with no employees.
His WebTrends stats show that in April TVTalkShows.com had:
101,487 unique visitors
235,017 user sessions
1,196,351 page views
Average visitor session length 11:51
10,091 postings on the message boards
Much of his advice on how to create and run a successful site is fairly unconventional – but it works.
“The first tip in building a successful site is you HAVE to have a PASSION for it,” Trevor says.
Trevor certainly has a passion for his subject. He has attended 200 TV talk shows.
“If you don’t have a passion for building a website, DON’T DO IT! That even goes if you want somebody else to create one for you, because you will never ever be satisfied by the way it looks and the design of it. So the first step is to build your own from scratch.”
Trevor also advises you to ignore “self-ordained, self-proclaimed search experts”.
If you listen to them, “you will only get a bad headache from worrying about your competitor and where they and you stand in search results”.
In a previous newsletter Trevor described how he ranked highly on search engines by not listening to so-called experts:
Dominating the search engines
To see how well he ranks at Google, try this search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=talk+shows
Trevor’s site is number one – out of 1.8 million search results.
“You should ONLY EMPLOY YOURSELF to run and maintain your web site,” Trevor says.
“I have no problems doing this since I already have two computer degrees. But for those of you that don’t know HTML, buy a book and learn the old 1994 HTML 2.0 code. The old code is just that – straight HTML. My site has NO frames, NO flash, NO javascript, NO graphics, NO buttons, just text, text, text. In other words … keep it simple, stupid!
“That way the search robots will have a very easy time crawling through your site no matter how big it gets.”
(Google has indexed 8,830 pages of TVTalkShows.com.)
“Simplicity is the secret to a successful website. You must have every page on your site load fast even for a 14.4 modem. If you want your web site to be very popular, don’t create a brochure on the Internet. Do not let your site be just a window display in a store.
“You need to have people not just come in and leave, but come in the store and actually mingle with the other customers. You need interactivity to be effective and give people a reason to keep going to your web site every day, even several times a day.
“Listen closely, I do not keep my site FRESH! I will say this one more time … I do not update my website on a daily basis. Why? I do not need to. I have my visitors keep my site fresh and do the dirty work for me by posting messages about talk show news and gossip on my boards.”
Dirty work? That’s putting it mildly.
If you’re easily offended, you won’t want to read some of the off-topic posts on Trevor’s unmoderated, uncensored message boards. Think of graffiti, and you’ll get the picture.
“I have employed thousands of people for free just by giving them a voice to be heard and posted on a forum,” he says.
“Once you understand that the Internet was created for people to communicate back and forth by typing text, then you will begin to see that your web site is just a tool for people to use.
“Because of this, people post over 500 new messages a day on my site, and since many of these posters are producers and staff on talk shows that post anonymously, the news media also check my boards on a daily basis for hot tips about these same shows.
“Because of this, the prestigious New York Post has written five articles about my site in the past 12 months. I have been interviewed on CNet Radio twice this year as well.”
Two years ago his site was filled with ads.
“I was an affiliate for at least 20 different companies. My web site looked like just a big affiliate site with very little content at all.
“The site was a complete disaster and I was pandering to sponsors that had no reason at all to hog room on my pages.”
So he got rid of all the affiliate programs.
“Now, I just have DoubleClick as my only ad banner on my site. I wouldn’t be making a lot of money if I was pulling in only the average 0.5% click-through rate, but since I average almost a 5% click-through rate, I am making a decent living.”
You can visit Trevor’s site here:
UPDATE, January 2002:
THEN: Google had indexed 8,830 pages of TVTalkShows.com.
NOW: Google has indexed 19,300 pages! Well over 100% increase in 8 months!
THEN: TVTalkShows.com was ranked #1 on Google out of 1.8 million.
NOW: TVTalkShows.com is ranked #1 on Google out of 2.3 million!
THEN: 500 messages a day were posted on TVTalkShows.com.
NOW: 1,100 messages a day are posted on TVTalkShows.com. Over a 100% increase!
Very impressive for any site, let alone a one-man show.
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2. 15,000 visitors a day isn’t enough to ensure survival
========================================================
While Trevor Rieger makes a decent living from TVTalkShows.com, a far more popular fan site is struggling to survive.
Rivenguild.com, a fan community for a series of computer games, attracts more than 15,000 visitors a day – but is in danger of closing down.
“Our finances are grim and we are struggling to stay afloat,” says Gordon Currie, who runs the site with the help of volunteers.
“Most fans don’t know that we have such large traffic that our bandwidth costs kill us,” Gordon says.
“I don’t mind working and devoting my time to the site but at what point do I sit back and say to my wife and children, ‘I have to work 60 hours a week for free, and by the way, we can’t go on holidays or to Disneyland because we have no money after paying this month’s web hosting bill’?”
He explains the full story here:
rivenguild.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000076.html
rivenguild.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000077.html
I asked Trevor why his site is financially successful while Rivenguild isn’t.
“My site is totally different … Gordon loads his site with tons and tons of graphics that eat a lot of bandwidth.”
Trevor says Rivenguild uses about 45 GB of bandwidth a day, compared with 1 GB a day at TVTalkShows.com.
The web hosting fees are crippling.
Some large Star Trek fan sites pay $10,000 a month in web hosting fees, and Trevor estimates Rivenguild pays $12,000 a month.
In contrast, Trevor’s “keep it simple” site pays only $100 a month for 50 GB of bandwidth, and never goes over that.
“Webmasters like him always have to outdo themselves adding Shockwave and Flash … I don’t need all that pretty garbage moving around on my site…
“I have DSL, and on some of his pages, it takes about 30 seconds just waiting to download his graphics (which are quite nice, I might add!). But if you go to my site, you will find my pages instantly download.”
Trevor says it’s sad that fan sites have shut down – Fandom.com was the biggest – “but when you check out all the fancy whiz-bang graphics they clutter their pages with, it shouldn’t be a surprise”.
Another advantage Trevor has is that on his simple pages, the banners stand out – increasing his click-through rate.
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3. “Web site traffic is NEVER the problem”
==========================================
If you aren’t generating useful income, perhaps your business model is flawed. Perhaps the best answer ISN’T simply trying to attract more visitors.
“Every webmaster out there thinks ‘traffic’ is their primary problem,” says Internet marketer Terry Dean in an interview with Amin Khan.
“They’re wrong. Web site traffic is NEVER the problem.
“The real problem they need to focus on is their selling system. If you can get your web site to the point where it consistently generates $1 to $5 per visitor, then you can BUY traffic … or you can simply start an affiliate program…”
Full interview with Terry Dean:
NicheChallenge.com/Archive/issue15.htm
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4. Losing money? Ask your community to help
===========================================
FanForum.com – https://www.FanForum.com – is a fan web site with message boards for favorite television shows.
On its web site it announced it would have to close on June 1 because of excessive bandwidth costs, Trevor Rieger says.
“So they signed up with Amazon’s Honor System and guess what? They already have 800 people paying them $5 each … EVERY MONTH!
“WOW! That is $4,000 collected in just two weeks!”
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5. Earn $1,000 reward, $1,000 commission – or both
==================================================
Ideas man Wayne Yeager has produced another winner.
Every month, his Trafficology newsletter pays people $1,000 for good traffic-generation ideas. Then he publishes all the best tips in the free newsletter.
“That’s why Trafficology is easily the best ‘How-To-Get-Traffic’ newsletter on earth!” says Wayne, without a hint of modesty.
Brilliant. The generous prizes entice people into revealing really good traffic-building ideas – the sort of tips they would normally reveal only to close friends.
If you submit a traffic idea, and it makes the monthly Top 3, you’ll receive $1,000, $250 or $100.
If you refer someone who earns $1,000, you will receive exactly the same – $1,000.
“Whatever they earn, you’ll get too,” Wayne says. “If they send in 10 ideas and get $10,000, we’ll send you $10,000 too!”
The affiliate program also pays 10% second-tier commissions.
I’m sure that when you read the original traffic-building ideas in the sample newsletter you’ll want to subscribe. I did.
One of the ideas tells you how to set up a simple offline affiliate program. I’d never seen the idea anywhere.
[UPDATE: Wayne sold Trafficology to the smart guys at Nitro Marketing – https://www.associateprograms.com/nitro In two years, Wayne assembled the world’s largest brainstorming session in the history of web marketing. With more than 200 unique ideas and contributions from 188 leading Internet entrepreneurs, his collection of highly original tricks and schemes is a MUST HAVE. Check it out: https://www.associateprograms.com/traffico ]=============================================
6. 35 million Americans use Internet auctions
=============================================
If you’ve wondered how large the market is for “Make Your Net Auction Sell”, consider this: 35 million Americans, or 31% of the US online population, participate in online auctions, according to a study by Harris Interactive. Source: https://www.shop.org
“Make Your Net Auction Sell” is well worth another look:
https://www.associateprograms.com/netauctions
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7. New AffiliateFare network free to join
=========================================
AffiliateFare is a new advertising network which costs nothing to join – for advertisers or affiliates.
“You choose the method of promotion that best suits your budget, and you also set the rate that you want to pay for a impression, click, or lead,” Frank Lucero says.
Launched last week, it has only one advertiser, but it could be worth signing up to see if it grows the way Frank expects it to.
[UPDATE: AffiliateFare disappeared.]==========================================
8. $171.06 in commissions from 30 visitors
==========================================
The first 30 visitors I sent to Wayne Yeager’s new ValueNic site earned me $171.06 in commissions, which is an astounding conversion rate.
Although a bit too small to measure accurately, it’s a whopping $5.70 per visitor.
Usually, if I earn $1 per visitor from an affiliate program I think I’m doing extremely well.
Wayne says that once customers have bought one of his domain names, many return and buy more. You earn follow-up commissions when they do.
I checked my ClickBank stats, and Wayne’s right. Three of my customers have now bought five domain names each, and another customer has bought three names.
If you know how to market to people who buy domain names, this is a good program. You also might like to grab one or two of those good names while you’re there.
[UPDATE: ValueNic was a good idea, but Wayne under-estimated how much work was involved. The site has closed.]__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
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9. New privacy issues will affect affiliate tracking,
and other news
=====================================================
New privacy issues will affect affiliate tracking. Unless both merchants and solution providers take action, the launch of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer version 6 could render some affiliate tracking systems useless.
https://www.affiliatemarketing.co.uk/may01.htm
PC Connection acquires struggling Outpost.com
https://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/10103.html
GORP terminated its affiliate program on May 24, and told affiliates the day after. Nasty!
Ingredients.com filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. (It’s dead.)
Primestreet has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (It’s attempting to reorganize.)
More closures: AllFramedUp.com, Burpee, Capital Resource, Decor de Campagne, egarden.com, Luxlook, Shades.com and Zany Brainy.
Programs missing, presumed dead: Ababor.com, Superbuild.com.
LinkShare has set up a UK affiliate network for UK web sites.
https://www.linkshareuk.com/
EBay, Half.com to combine sites
nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-eBay-Halfcom.html
Exclusivity Still Sucks, says Joel Gehman
clickz.com/article/cz.3959.html
Borders.com sees HTML e-mail click-through rates reach 20%
ecompany.com/articles/mag/0,1640,11591,00.html
The SULFNBK “virus” is a hoax. Next time, please check:
https://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html
https://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp?
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10. Useful free resource: Shop.org
==================================
If you’re looking for a good reliable source of statistics to drop into an article, or to help you decide which affiliate programs to promote, try Shop.org.
For example, sales of PDAs (personal digital assistants) nearly doubled to 6.9 million units from about 3.6 units in 1999, according to IDC. Sales are expected to reach a whopping 33.5 million in 2004.
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11. Thought for today: How to build your wings
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“If we listened to our intellect… We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” – Ray Bradbury
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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