Finally Made A Plan

[kurtyordy]

Instead of chasing projects anymore, I have created a plan for breaking free of the 9-5. After years of hopping from project to project, I have decided to pursue the one area that has been nagging at me for about 2-3 years now. Affiliate Marketing.

My Goal is to be generating 10k/ month by next June.

Figuring $100/month/site, this means I need to have 100 successful sites by next year. This works out to roughly 2 successful sites/week. However, figuring on a 50% success ratio (yes I pulled this out of my behind, I will adjust my plan as I see what the actual % is). I need to launch 4 sites a week.

Based on my preliminary research, that means I will need to generate at least 40 pages/ week. So figuring 6 days/week to work on this, that gives means I will have to generate a little over 6 pages of content/day. Not too unreasonable.

The thing that intrigues me about Affiliate Marketing is that I can still be ADD while being focused at the same time. I still have 4 ongoing projects that will still be with me, but the lionshare of my focus will be on this one area.

Today- Bought domain for my keyword, set up aStore, opened new hosting account (screw 1and1).

I will keep you all posted on my progress. Thanks to the Affiliate Marketers here for all the help they have given so far.:yourock:

 

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[andviv]

Congrats on setting up your new goal.

You don't have to write all the content. That can be outsourced for a decent cost.

My suggestions? Templates, templates, templates. Check lists, check lists, check lists.

Good luck with this.

 

[Jonleehacker]

Congrats

Since you are going to do the same thing over and over and building 200 sites, make sure you include time in your plan for "continual improvement".

Meaning take the time to reflect on the process of creating each site and incorporate what worked ( grow it ) into the next project and eliminate what didn't work or was a bottleneck from the next site.

 

[Pinnacle]

I'm using 1and1. What's your experience with them?

 

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[Russ H]

I seem to recall the illustrious JScott Gecko (no relation to our JScott) once talked about the percentage of his sites that actually made money.

Jon Lee-- do you recall what the percentage was? I'm remembering 3-5% (was shocked at the time, since it was so low!)

He was doing different stuff- more referral based stuff to get the affiliate mktg $$.

His technique was to load a bunch of informative (but very, very boring) crap onto a page in a category w/high paying links. Surfers got there, started reading the copy .. . .zzzzzz.... then clicked on the ads.

Seemed to be a system that worked for him. :shruggie:

-Russ H.

 

[Jonleehacker]

I seem to recall the illustrious JScott Gecko (no relation to our JScott) once talked about the percentage of his sites that actually made money.

Jon Lee-- do you recall what the percentage was? I'm remembering 3-5% (was shocked at the time, since it was so low!)

He was doing different stuff- more referral based stuff to get the affiliate mktg $$.

His technique was to load a bunch of informative (but very, very boring) crap onto a page in a category w/high paying links. Surfers got there, started reading the copy .. . .zzzzzz.... then clicked on the ads.

Seemed to be a system that worked for him. :shruggie:

-Russ H.

Those sites that Gekko did where "made for Adsense" bordering on search engine spam.

They make money, but Google usually bans them... we don't want our man Kurt going down that path, as google is a lot more intelligent than it was 3 years ago when MFA sites were killing it.

Here's a quote by a guy that I really respect (Jack Duncan) who makes a lot from affliate marketing. It is the model that I try and follow.

the "big secret"...buy the affiliate product, put it to work, hammer it until you know it is a good product that will help people...then "review" it...but actually give people the "gems" from your research.

It's essentially an application of the Law Of Reciprocity.

"Give and it shall be given to you."

However, the real "power" was in what I didn't do.

Provide people with fresh ideas to their problems and they will often trust you to the point of sale.

 

[MrPink]

Are you going to try to arrange an affiliate program directly with companies or use a something like clickbank that has already done the leg work?

 

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[kurtyordy]

Congrats on setting up your new goal.

You don't have to write all the content. That can be outsourced for a decent cost.

My suggestions? Templates, templates, templates. Check lists, check lists, check lists.

Good luck with this.

Thanks, I do plan on using other peoples content. My attempt at aggressive content creation at torturemyself.com showed me this is best outsourced.

Checklists? To make sure I am covering all my basis? What in particular would you include? I you referring to a 1-10 that I cover with each site everytime? If so, that is a great idea that I had not thought of yet. If that is not what you meant, then thanks for inspiring it in me

Congrats

Since you are going to do the same thing over and over and building 200 sites, make sure you include time in your plan for "continual improvement".

Meaning take the time to reflect on the process of creating each site and incorporate what worked ( grow it ) into the next project and eliminate what didn't work or was a bottleneck from the next site.

Thanks, any tips you can give in this process, I am forever grateful. If you get a chance, can you go back to the speedway 2 thread, I had a couple followup questions.

I'm using 1and1. What's your experience with them?

Their site crashed for about 2 hours today. No access to admin or anything. Some folks reported their sites down, but mine stayed up as far as I saw, just thwarted my productivity for today.

Jon Lee-- do you recall what the percentage was? I'm remembering 3-5% (was shocked at the time, since it was so low!)

I was estimating 50% out of thin air. Jon Lee, once I get running, what is a good success rate to plug in here?

Are you going to try to arrange an affiliate program directly with companies or use a something like clickbank that has already done the leg work?

As of now, I am doing Amazon affiliate program as I learn the ins and outs of the business. After that, we will see.

 

[Runum]

Congrats on setting up your new goal.

You don't have to write all the content. That can be outsourced for a decent cost.

My suggestions? Templates, templates, templates. Check lists, check lists, check lists.

Good luck with this.

I agree with Andres. That is how I'm doing it. in order to be successful at any repetition templates and checklists. It will help you to be able to refine your processes. Good luck.

 

[mtnman]

Good mindset to get going... as in, it's great that you seem to have an understanding you may have to build a lot of sites to gain experience and get the hang of it.

Also, no matter how much you know, how much research you do, what anyone tells you, or what ANY form of metrics or numbers say, there is NOTHING like actively being involved in a niche.

Furthermore, by trying so many, you will find some where the numbers appear to lie. You will think it's gonna be great, and it won't be. But the opposite can be true as well.

Once you're comfortable, I would change your thinking just a tad. I think intending on building 200 sites to make 10k per month is overkill, unless you're intending on going mfa style with amazon or ebay or something.

Point being, when you figure out your preferences, you will probably find it better to focus on a lesser amount of sites, and put a bit more effort into them.

You may have to build 130 sites to weed out your choice markets, but 20 sites @ 500 pm sounds better to me.

 

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[kurtyordy]

I started my actual production work yesterday. I failed to hit my 6 page goal, but today, I am on track to make up the deficit and get back on track.

So far, after 4 days up, I am still not indexed. Hopefully, my SEO work will remedy this shortly. As of right now, I am using strictly Amazon as my affiliate partner. Once I learn the ins and outs of the business, I will branch out to other products.

This site is hosted at 1and1.com. My next site which I will start tomorrow will be hosted at my new host, dreamhost.com. This may slow down my production a bit as I learn the new host, but hopefully that will end once I get going. This will be in the same niche but with a different approach. This is to test which method is more effective.

Adwords started today, curious what effects this will bring.

 

[mtnman]

What kind of sites are you building?

 

[kurtyordy]

What kind of sites are you building?

Wordpress

 

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[LightHouse]

Should index the first day. Find some place that gets indexed constantley and link it, should be good to go.

 

[mtnman]

Update your pinglist if you don't ping and submit upon creation.

Be sure there are no 2nd tier duplicates.

 

[andviv]

mtnman, what pinglist do you use?

I have these:

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping
http://www.blogoon.net/ping
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogroots.com/tbpopuli.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

 

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[LightHouse]

mtnman, what pinglist do you use?

I have these:

ishinao.net
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
Blogbot
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
Blogmatcher.com - Blogs Resources and Information. This website is for sale!
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatt
Yahoo!¥Ö¥í¥° - multithread :: xml, car, family
Enviar post en Bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se
Datashed.net - data management Resources and Information. This website is for sale!
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping
Blogoon [¥Ö¥í¥°¡¼¥ó] ¥Ö¥í¥°¸¡º÷
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogroots.com/tbpopuli.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC
cPanel®
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

looks like mine haha i pulled it off google.

 

[kurtyordy]

I am currently using:
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2/
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://www.bloglines.com/ping
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

Should I be cranking this up a notch and including these others?

 

[kurtyordy]

Should index the first day. Find some place that gets indexed constantley and link it, should be good to go.

I spent some time commenting on related digg articles including my link. Will look more into this.

 

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[mtnman]

Either one of these typically. I tested it at one time, but things have changed.

ishinao.net
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.co.jp/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogdigger.com/RPC2
Blogmatcher.com - Blogs Resources and Information. This website is for sale!
http://blogpeople.net/ping
http://blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping
http://feedsky.com/api/RPC2
http://hamo-search.com/ping.php
http://holycowdude.com/rpc/ping
jungleboots.org
http://newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
Enviar post en Bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc
Blogoon [¥Ö¥í¥°¡¼¥ó] ¥Ö¥í¥°¸¡º÷
http://ping.blogs.yandex.ru/RPC2
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.fc2.com
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.kutsulog.net
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.namaan.net/rpc
http://ping.snap.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se
http://ping.wordblog.de
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://r.hatena.ne.jp/rpc
http://rpc.bloggerei.de/ping
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080
http://rpc.newsgator.com
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.reader.livedoor.com/ping
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.technorati.jp/rpc/ping
AutomaticPing
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://wasalive.com/ping
cPanel®
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://zhuaxia.com/rpc/server.php


Short List:

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
AutomaticPing
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.bloglines.com/ping
http://ping.feedburner.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
octora.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

 

[kurtyordy]

Thanks for the ping info-

finally indexed. today was shot working on the design. Finally learned a bit about editing css. What a joy that has not been. No content put out there yet due to too much time on the design side. If not today, tomorrow will have to double up.

 

[kurtyordy]

quick update- took a week off to deal with mailing list stuff.

ranking- third for one keyword- not high traffic. learning still
three days ago second keyword was not indexed, 450 yesterday, and 340 today, so going the right direction

First and only sale last thursday.

click through rate on adwords is averaging 12%. Is this good?

click through on the affiliate links is about 25%. Is this good?

What can I do to improve my ratio of 2% order ratio once they get to amazon? or is that good enough.

 

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[andviv]

Congrats on your sale.

The ratios look very good in general, but this also depends on the type of product and the prices of these products (product above $200 tend to have lower conversion rates and longer decision making process by the person buying... unless you get them at the end of the process and they have made up their minds to buy, your ratios will be low).

 

[kurtyordy]

update-

as of yesterday, ranked 340 for my most desired keyword bread maker reviews. By last night, jumped to 250. This morning 150, and now 140. This is some exciting increases.

Today, set up 2 more domains, bought 10 more domains. moved to new target product. Average price is around $500 instead of $200, so this will mean less conversions needed.

 

[CMCarlin]

I love this thread. This is exactly the kind of mindset that I need. Just go out and do it. Take action and just do it.

 

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[CMCarlin]

What exactly do your pages consist of? Is it a sales page or information content?

 

[andviv]

bump for update...

How much traffic are you getting these days?

 

[kurtyordy]

This was on my list for today, just only getting here now, thanks for the bump.

Organic traffic is starting to trickle in. I realized my main keyword was targeting too small a niche. I topped out at 100 for my secondary keyword, and have fallen back to 330. Started increasing my link building efforts.

So far, 3 sales.

2 struggles I am facing-

1. juggling both learning and doing time. I find it very easy to get sucked into learning.
2. creating quality content. Still working on this.

My mini goal to reach is to get to sustainable $70/month in income to pay for an aircard for my laptop. My daytime internet access is currently dial up, and it is screwing my up majorly.

Total earnings so far $12.50

 

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[kurtyordy]

Ok, still learning a ton about affiliate marketing. This is so much fun. My general status update is that I have taken a break from feeding my addiction of buying domains so I can create content. For me buying domains= fun, creating content= not fun. So I put a moratorium on domain buying until all current are launched.

Site 1- on hold now, first keyword I targeted I got to number 2, barely any traffic, live and learn. Second keyword targeted, got to 90-100, then fell back to around 300 when I stopped focusing on this site. Now back to between 80-90. Will be adding some article marketing soon.

Site 2- Launched site with only one sentence. That's right, only 1 sentence. We are now number 31 in google. Can't wait to see what actual content does.

Site 3-2 pages of content. Well indexed. Not great on keywords yet. This will serve more as a SEO building site for my mother ship site.

Site 4- the mother ship site. Targeting the larger niche. All the sites launched so far are concerning bread makers in one way or another. So they will all link up to the mother site. Have 2 posts a day added here for SEO purposes.

I have about 4 more sites to launch in this larger niche.

No new sales, still clicks to Amazon, but no new sales yet. Hopefully once I get to the top of some of these bigger keywords, I will see more.

 

[kurtyordy]

Long overdue for an update, seeing some positive results finally.

After much tinkering for my first niche, I have one site which is ranked quite well with google and is getting decent traffic. By decent I mean 20-3o/day with no advertising. Up till about three weeks ago, my rate for this site was in the high 80's to 90%. I considered this very poor for an affiliate marketing site, and I knew I could do better.

First thing I did was improve the content offering. Or rather I restructured the content to make it more easily navigated. This small step improved my bounce rate down to about 75%. Still not great. I was seeing about 10-20% click through the affiliate links, and conversion was spotty at best.

Sunday morning 8/2, I launced a new home page. I dropped the generic A store, and actually built up some nice content for the home page. I had been working on this for about a week, and I finally launched.

Sunday's bounce rate dropped to 38%. That was about a 50% drop the first day. Even better, I scored approximately 90% click through on my affiliate links, and one order was generated. Not great on the orders, but not bad considering all last month I had only 7 click through, and 0 purchases. So I was finally doing something right.

This was confirmed Monday when I scored a bounce rate of 59%. This was only a drop of about 20% from previous, but still the right direction. I also saw a 60% click through to my affiliate, and sold 5 products. My best day so far.

I finally seem to be understanding the smallest parts of affiliate marketing. I am just about finished with my first niche, and will begin building my second soon. I am laying plans for my third, and my fourth is looking to be an actual ecommerce site. Number four domain is purchased and will soon start sourcing from China to import.