My Relentless-1-Month Amazon Store Project

Dorifto

Dorifto

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Jun 17, 2010
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Howdy.

Firstly, I know the general consensus here for what is classed as a "newbie" is not someone who is new to affiliate marketing, but more so someone who just hasn't made bank from their marketing yet. So from that perspective, yes, I'm a newbie. But in reality, I've been doing this for coming up two years (I'm now 18) and I'm yet to accomplish anything profitable.

For the record though, this is not a sob story, I'm not being a standard newbie and coming crying to the successful for pity. I'm just giving you the full picture and an outline of a campaign with some good ingredients, but a foul end result.

Before you jump to the conclusion that I must just be lazy and not out there in the trenches actually getting shit done like everyone else, I'll just gesture toward the project in question -> right here.

I don't see what harm giving you my URL will do. If you're looking to spend a month driving 100mph toward a dead end, be my guest and use this idea. This was more of a test site anyway (he says), but here is my story. (Man, this is already TL;DR so I'll bullet point it... :/)

  • After failing hard in the past, I once again regain that excitable motivation to get productive, especially given the amount of free time you get with a law degree.
  • Reading WickedFire, every newbie thread asking for ways to get started always ends with members shouting "just get involved and stop wasting time - do anything!", so I did just that.
  • Somehow, I come to the conclusion that building an Amazon affiliate site is a good plan.
  • Cue the purchase of both the Flexishop theme ($35) and Shopperpress theme ($97), a domain (£7), hosting ($10 per month) etcetc. Why two themes? Because I was falsely told that the Flexishop could handle Amazon affiliates by the creator. Needless to say, it can't. Just a head up, it's e-commerce only.
  • Anyhow, I had my theme connected to Amazon and I was raring to go. Shit, I was on a roll, just a few steps away from making the monies, right!
  • I'm alright with Photoshop, so I did all the graphics and logo myself to reduce costs.
  • Signed up to Mailchimp, awesome free mailing service. Incorporated it into my home page.
  • Kept reading all over the SEO section that high quantity and quality content is necessary on your site for search rankings - cue the typing out of over 100 unique 400 word product synopsis' for every item I uploaded through Shopperpress. No outsourcing.
  • Naturally, at this point I needed backlinks, and being completely burnt out after working on this for 14+ hours a day, I decided to outsource...
  • ...but then quickly change mind because I can't bear to part with cash for something I could do myself, so I simply save a link wheel service image from the Buy & Sell area and set to work replicating it and SEOing the shit out of the site.
  • This meant 3 long Squidoo articles - 1, 2, 3.
  • About 30 600+ word articles on Ezine, GoArticles and Articlesbase.
  • Setting up a Twitter account, a Facebook account and a Stumbleupon account and continuing to add a shit tonne of people.
  • Posted Tweets and Stumbles errday, posted on related groups with hundreds of thousands of members on Facebook with links to my articles, Squidoos etc. Also went around liking everyone's status's, since people seem to follow that up with an add.
  • Signed up to a few forums, starting some epic 2,000+ view threads with my links discretely in the initial post mixed in with legit posts too so it wasn't a giveaway promo account. Also got told off for having my site in my sig, wat.
  • Set iGoogle as my homepage, subscribed to 20 iPad blogs, commented on each of them every day with the link back to my site (although they ended up hating on this because of the obvious-backlink-is-obvious and my comment content growing more and more vague and disinterested in these lame blog topics..)
  • I even made a quiz on Quizilla that actually got taken 60 times.
  • Still being motivated and working on the assumption that I'd hit that first sale sometime soon, I then purchased £100 worth of domains with my keyphrases in the title and uploaded them to Wordpress with spun articles linking back to the main site. .CO mostly.
  • Used exdeus's URL submission service to blitz some link building to 1200 sites with each of my keywords.

Oh and all the time I was doing this, I was also writing content for other users on WickedFire to actually pay for this shocker.

So, after all that, what are my results?

analytics.jpg


The visitor count isn't actually all that bad, especially since it's all from referral. There's about 20% search, 80% referral.

amazon.jpg


But yeah, conversion wise - painful.

So there we have it, yet another flop courtesy of Dorifto. A word of warning to any "newbies" - don't start an Amazon affiliate store. Unless you're a wizard.
 


To me, a month is hardly anything. Especially when you are only pulling in referral traffic which is all actively gained. Rank for some keywords and get passive traffic from the search engines.

I think you are giving up too early. Once you take advantage of search engine traffic you should be doing okay. I'd consider a sale in the first month a success, especially for amazon. Get more traffic to it is what I say. I wouldn't leave this one alone just yet. I'd just get it a little more hands off. Order some blog comments and social bookmarking, maybe some forum profiles.
 
way to early for search traffic. scale back th4e project. just focus on building links for it. start another site and repeat.
 
thehobbster said:
To me, a month is hardly anything. Especially when you are only pulling in referral traffic which is all actively gained. Rank for some keywords and get passive traffic from the search engines.

I think you are giving up too early. Once you take advantage of search engine traffic you should be doing okay. I'd consider a sale in the first month a success, especially for amazon. Get more traffic to it is what I say. I wouldn't leave this one alone just yet. I'd just get it a little more hands off. Order some blog comments and social bookmarking, maybe some forum profiles.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking, with regard to the low conversion percentage of Amazon stores in general and the low Amazon commissions, that my efforts would be better spent with optimizing a completely different type of site. In relative terms, surely an Amazon site receiving 10,000 visitors per month would rake in far less than, for example, some kind of eBook project where your site orientates around building a list, then sending them an offer every 5 emails and useful content in between?

I know people say that a project is only as profitable as you make it, but something so undirected as this site won't be convincing anyone to buy. It seems like now that I've set this store up as the foundation, I need to create some "squeeze page" copywrite orientated sites to attract the actual buyers, then link to this affiliate site, which then link through to Amazon. An altogether very drawn-out process.

Obviously, I've done this now, so I'm going to keep supporting it with new links and content etc, but I think next time it'd be wiser to go for the more direct-sell route. Either that or just take up PPC CPA.
 
I would at least start shooting links at every single page on there until they rank. You might not sell exactly what you hope to sell, but you'll definitely be delivering some cookies to browsers and some of those people will order other things. I've never done an Amazon site for this reason. Just low conversions at low pay in my opinion. But at this point you might as well take advantage and get some residual income, even if its a dollar a day.

If you have a server set up, I'd slap scrapebox on there and just start tossing blog comments at it in the background and forget about it. Come back in three months and check your amazon account and your traffic and then see if it's worth building out further.
 
Are you taking advantage of google analytics and heatmap?

I'd say its way too early myself...but before giving it up I would consider using some paid traffic. I didn't know about half the shit on the site, so perhaps some FB ad targeting could help you.

Just a suggestion...
 
thehobbster said:
I would at least start shooting links at every single page on there until they rank. You might not sell exactly what you hope to sell, but you'll definitely be delivering some cookies to browsers and some of those people will order other things. I've never done an Amazon site for this reason. Just low conversions at low pay in my opinion. But at this point you might as well take advantage and get some residual income, even if its a dollar a day.

If you have a server set up, I'd slap scrapebox on there and just start tossing blog comments at it in the background and forget about it. Come back in three months and check your amazon account and your traffic and then see if it's worth building out further.
Click to expand...

Fair dues, I'll definitely keep paying the hosting rent for it and I'll consider the Scrapebox route. What about Drip Feed Blasts? Or just getting a million Xrumer submits and see what happens after the inevitable sandbox?
 
metalshark said:
Are you taking advantage of google analytics and heatmap?

I'd say its way too early myself...but before giving it up I would consider using some paid traffic. I didn't know about half the shit on the site, so perhaps some FB ad targeting could help you.

Just a suggestion...
Click to expand...

Yeah man, the majority of my traffic is US so I think it's geographically finding the right customers, just not the right buyers. PPC campaigns never seem to work for me, no matter what I'm selling. I doubt this would be a good site to get back into it with. :/
 
this is what separates the men from the boys with affiliate marketing and making money online.

Im not trying to be rude, but here are a few thoughts:

1. Not everything you do will be a blockbuster for YOU. Who was it that tried 9,999 odd times to invent the lightbulb?

2. If you do 1 thing and it fails and you give up, you deserve to fail. You made 1 sale man, have you ever thought:
a. you didnt give it much time yet, 1 month is nothing
b. split testing your conversion funnel
c. starting a 2nd site while waiting for 1st to do good
d. taking out Aamzon and doing ebay?

3. Maybe getting into the iPad niche wasnt the smartest thing, i dont know anything about it really, but I know I have jumped into too competitive niches before and also too low competitive niches too.

4. Start optimizing those tweets, FB, and emails man.. I didn't hear you mention anything about those other then pushing your links.

5. Keep at it, you wont never make it giving up

6. you invested a fuck load of time into this 1 project, it would have been better if you had 20 small projects going on and did those and then seen out of those 20 which ones did the best and continuing with just those. You spent a lot of fucking time on 1 site/niche that was unproven to you.

7. I have been doing shit online since 1996. It wasnt until 2-3 years ago I hit the big money. Everything else was small shit paying some of my bills and getting me by. It took me 13 years to hit it big, it wont come to you just overnight.

Whats big to me and big to you is gonna be diff. Would you consider 100k a year big? if so that took me about 4-5 years to hit of trail and error and off and on work. Looking for those millions though? thats gonna be a decade of experience unless you just get lucky. So what level are you trying to get at?
 
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Dorifto said:
Yeah man, the majority of my traffic is US so I think it's geographically finding the right customers, just not the right buyers. PPC campaigns never seem to work for me, no matter what I'm selling. I doubt this would be a good site to get back into it with. :/
Click to expand...

You may be doing this already, but I would try and take advantage of some of the more unique items on your site.

Perhaps find a blog or forum where people are bitching about the ipad not having a stylus and post a link to your styluses. Go to where people are discussing the drawing apps and let them know that your styluses are perfect for it.

Do something similar with the speakers and other unique items.

I know that when I first got my iPad I went to ebay looking for a stylus, so I'm sure there are plenty of people discussing this shit.

I've seen youtube videos of people reviewing the Apple case. Go there and say F that case it gets dirty all the time, I use this one (your link)!

Do all this while still practicing your basic SEO. I'd even make a blog reviewing some of your items...or SOMETHING similar.

I honestly think you need to be more creative - but I've never had an eCommerce site. Hope this helps some.
 
eliquid said:
this is what separates the men from the boys with affiliate marketing and making money online.

Im not trying to be rude, but here are a few thoughts:

1. Not everything you do will be a blockbuster for YOU. Who was it that tried 9,999 odd times to invent the lightbulb?

2. If you do 1 thing and it fails and you give up, you deserve to fail. You made 1 sale man, have you ever thought:
a. you didnt give it much time yet, 1 month is nothing
b. split testing your conversion funnel
c. starting a 2nd site while waiting for 1st to do good
d. taking out Aamzon and doing ebay?

3. Maybe getting into the iPad niche wasnt the smartest thing, i dont know anything about it really, but I know I have jumped into too competitive niches before and also too low competitive niches too.

4. Start optimizing those tweets, FB, and emails man.. I didn't hear you mention anything about those other then pushing your links.

5. Keep at it, you wont never make it giving up
Click to expand...

Fair play man, this is the kind of post I need. No sugar coating. I appreciate that the timeline has been rather short, you're right. I guess I should take a step back and grab a little perspective.

I did actually just get my EPN confirmation today after getting a similar recommendation from mGrunin, so the Amazon swap is on the cards. Hopefully, that'll remove the frustration of sporadic Amazon ASIN code changes and price changes. That site is all over the place.

I've started on another site too, which is no doubt a good thing to add a little diversity if nothing else.

Optimizing by means of anchoring them with my keywords or making them more salesy? I guess both, right.

Cheers for the advice.
 
metalshark said:
You may be doing this already, but I would try and take advantage of some of the more unique items on your site.

Perhaps find a blog or forum where people are bitching about the ipad not having a stylus and post a link to your styluses. Go to where people are discussing the drawing apps and let them know that your styluses are perfect for it.

Do something similar with the speakers and other unique items.

I know that when I first got my iPad I went to ebay looking for a stylus, so I'm sure there are plenty of people discussing this shit.

I've seen youtube videos of people reviewing the Apple case. Go there and say F that case it gets dirty all the time, I use this one (your link)!

Do all this while still practicing your basic SEO. I'd even make a blog reviewing some of your items...or SOMETHING similar.

I honestly think you need to be more creative - but I've never had an eCommerce site. Hope this helps some.
Click to expand...

Ooh, yeah, good shout. Finding or creating a debate about this stuff always seems to bring in heaps of traffic. And as you just put forward, I reckon eBay is the way to go.

I've also bought a few related domains, so I guess they can make way for blogs too. Definitely got to get myself back in the saddle.
 
Don't see the problem here.

You just had the site for 1 month and right now you seem to be sitting pretty at 50 visitors/day or 1500 visitors/month.

Let it sit for another month and see how it goes.

As you did not provide the numbers, I guesstimate your visitor count at 500 for the month shown. (probably too much)

At $3.56 for that, your income for 1500 visitors would be roughly 11$.

At that rate, you would be at a bit above 0 in a year, returning all investments, including the cost for the software.

But!

The software is not an investment in that site, it is an investment in your business. You have unlimited installs, which effectively brings the cost for it down for each domain you install it on.

AND

You are not going to let it sit there, right?

You are going to reduce the effective cost of your software per domain by creating more stores, right?

You are going to experiment with the placement, the copy, etc.. to get a better CTR, right?

You are going to add more products, better descriptions and nicer pictures, right?

Thattaboy!

Go get em!

::emp::
 
emp said:
Don't see the problem here.

You just had the site for 1 month and right now you seem to be sitting pretty at 50 visitors/day or 1500 visitors/month.

Let it sit for another month and see how it goes.

As you did not provide the numbers, I guesstimate your visitor count at 500 for the month shown. (probably too much)

At $3.56 for that, your income for 1500 visitors would be roughly 11$.

At that rate, you would be at a bit above 0 in a year, returning all investments, including the cost for the software.

But!

The software is not an investment in that site, it is an investment in your business. You have unlimited installs, which effectively brings the cost for it down for each domain you install it on.

AND

You are not going to let it sit there, right?

You are going to reduce the effective cost of your software per domain by creating more stores, right?

You are going to experiment with the placement, the copy, etc.. to get a better CTR, right?

You are going to add more products, better descriptions and nicer pictures, right?

Thattaboy!

Go get em!

::emp::
Click to expand...

You got it, this thread has got me all psyched again.

I'll report back from time to time. Also, since last night I've had like, 4 potential conversions (just waiting for Amazon to update). My luck's either on the up, or some WF members are trying to get me motivated on the sly...

Anyways, off to grind. :B
 
I'd love to be getting 50 visits a day. That's what I'm working on. But I don't have you dedication to getting those backlinks. I need to get to work!

I went to you site and a couple things I noticed in my opinion:

1. Great start. But maybe loose the banner at the top of the page and at least one of the google ads. Having two ads on both sides of the pages screams I'm not for real. I think you should really just concentrate on the products on your website.

2. Exact same menu at the top of the page and on the left side. Just seems like too much. Maybe you could better use the space on the left side for product or a different menu?

3. Articles page needs a better layout. Maybe list the 'latest articles' where the menu is located on the left side of the page?

4. No links on the "links page". Is it really necessary? You want people to stay on your site.

Mike
 
eliquid said:
this is what separates the men from the boys with affiliate marketing and making money online.

Im not trying to be rude, but here are a few thoughts:

1. Not everything you do will be a blockbuster for YOU. Who was it that tried 9,999 odd times to invent the lightbulb?

2. If you do 1 thing and it fails and you give up, you deserve to fail. You made 1 sale man, have you ever thought:
a. you didnt give it much time yet, 1 month is nothing
b. split testing your conversion funnel
c. starting a 2nd site while waiting for 1st to do good
d. taking out Aamzon and doing ebay?

3. Maybe getting into the iPad niche wasnt the smartest thing, i dont know anything about it really, but I know I have jumped into too competitive niches before and also too low competitive niches too.

4. Start optimizing those tweets, FB, and emails man.. I didn't hear you mention anything about those other then pushing your links.

5. Keep at it, you wont never make it giving up

6. you invested a fuck load of time into this 1 project, it would have been better if you had 20 small projects going on and did those and then seen out of those 20 which ones did the best and continuing with just those. You spent a lot of fucking time on 1 site/niche that was unproven to you.

7. I have been doing shit online since 1996. It wasnt until 2-3 years ago I hit the big money. Everything else was small shit paying some of my bills and getting me by. It took me 13 years to hit it big, it wont come to you just overnight.

Whats big to me and big to you is gonna be diff. Would you consider 100k a year big? if so that took me about 4-5 years to hit of trail and error and off and on work. Looking for those millions though? thats gonna be a decade of experience unless you just get lucky. So what level are you trying to get at?
Click to expand...

+rep for telling it like it is!
 
eliquid and emp provide some very solid advice.

don't look at this site as a failure just yet.
how much experience did you gain from this one project? can you do the same in say 2 or 3 weeks now? maybe afterwards in just one week?

my only advice is to be a little more keyword oriented.
 
Just thought i would give my thoughts. You are ahead of 99% of people just because you have tried. If people could succeed after a month then that would be bad cos there would be tons more idiots saturating the market. Anyway.... some positive things you could try.

Your code doesn't validate: [Invalid] Markup Validation of http://ipadbeans.com/ - W3C Markup Validator
I know that this is not the be all and end all but it certainly helps. There are some basic errors in there that you can address such as missing 'alt' tags in images. Google is going to prefer a valid like for like site over a non-valid one.

Coudn't find a sitemap (sitemap.xml) - have you submitted one to google?

Not an expert on this one but maybe think about how you can build up trust on the site. An about us page with pictures of yourself... Maybe try and find a few more suppliers so you are not tied to amazon and you can maybe sell yourself as a 'finder of the best products' etc...

You have an articles section but i could't see any articles, unfinished website = less trust.

^ as someone else said, lose the links page.

Just my two cents and that is good for a months work.
 
very informative thread even when your not the OP, theres some great advice in there, thanks guys
 
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