"Real Affiliates" vs. "Fake Affiliates"

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AdJumpCM

Affiliate Manager
Nov 6, 2007
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www.ourfreestuff.net
Is anyone out there running a web store that's little more than a page with products w/ affiliate links? I am just wondering how people are doing with these kind of websites from a profit point of view.
 


I have one like that with moleskines.

Amazon links, 5 pages HTML, static.
Brings in a solid 2-3 bucks most months, more than that on christmas.

With a cost of around 1$ a month I make 100-200% PROFIT each month.

This year so far: ~35 Euros made, ~9 Euros cost = 26 Euros profit.

Granted, this is very little money, but then, that is a site I am literally doing NOTHING for after the initial setup. (Got a good domain name tho)

::emp::
 
shitty.

Yeah ok. Read all my posts and you'll get an idea of how little money I'm making at this game. But here's what I can tell ya.

First, you can do something like this:
2008 Calendars - 2008 Animal Calendars

I don't have to tell you that those are affiliate links, et cetera, do I? Amazon's got verything in the book that they can sell you.

Perhaps one of my problems is the lightbulb beam focus of the intensity of my work here.

You can set something similar up with allposters.com.

So yeah, you can do it, but unless you have more experience at this than me (which would require an intelligence greater than that of an earthworm, a shrew or maybe even a raven ), you're going to want something a little more focused.

Hey, shiiiinnney.
 
They might be creating a website just to list out there services/Products for clients who only wanna see them but they sell them by meeting personally.

What ever i wrote , does that make sense ?
 
OK, you should put up your own domain.

animalcalendars.net
animalcalendar08.com
animalcalendars08.com
animalcalendar2008.com
animalcalendars2008.com

Timeless:
puppycalendar.net
puppycalendars.net
kittencalendar.net
kittencalendars.net

are all free for the uptake.


I would not go with the 08, as the domains will be pretty worthless afterwards.

::emp::
 
As an affiliate manager, I can't begin to tell you how many of these cheap websites get submitted to me on a daily basis. I can tell you how many of them don't make it through my reactivation campaign-100%. People set these things up and just expect them to make money-sorry! They don't pay for PPC or any other means to bring traffic to the site, and pretty soon, just abandon it. And forget about getting an acceptance if you're site is being hosted for free. Show a little effort!
It's now at a point that all of these cheap sites are actually cannibalizing each other, and the really professional sites, so I won't approve. Something to think about if you are interested in pursuing something like this.
 
As an affiliate manager, I can't begin to tell you how many of these cheap websites get submitted to me on a daily basis. I can tell you how many of them don't make it through my reactivation campaign-100%. People set these things up and just expect them to make money-sorry! They don't pay for PPC or any other means to bring traffic to the site, and pretty soon, just abandon it. And forget about getting an acceptance if you're site is being hosted for free. Show a little effort!
It's now at a point that all of these cheap sites are actually cannibalizing each other, and the really professional sites, so I won't approve. Something to think about if you are interested in pursuing something like this.
Do you manage a program on network like CJ or Linkshare (and if so, what network), or do you work at a CPA network?

I've worked for companies where I've had to help out with affiliate applications on occasion, and some of the "Megasavings eMall" or "Johnny's Online Department Store" style sites just crack me up. Especially the ones that people paid someone hundreds of dollars to set up.
 
OK. I have a couple hundred websites. Not a lot really, but for handling by myself it's a handful.

SOME are basically as described- sites with all affiliate links and thats about it. The thing is most of mine do well in natural Traffic and do convert well on offers. The other day I got an email from a customer for a site I didn't even know was doing anything. She didnt like the service from one of the merchants ( a very major store with a website) and wanted to let me know since I "recommended" their free shipping offer or some shit. So I investigated and found I was ranked very high in Google for many Christmas Shopping KWs. And I had been making sales every day for at least the last month. This was a site that costs me around 14 cents a month for hosting, a $6.99 a year domain and that I "designed" ( I can't really say I design, its more like I "make a site"- barely) in a few minutes.

I dont get the people ( affiliate managers or even people on these forums in general) who think you need PPC with LPs to make any money with websites. I have found ( especially if you find domains with KW traffic such as Jon suggested in the "newbs with boobs $150 a day" topic) I can register a domain, throw up just about any half-ass content on it, do a half hearted link building ( sometimes it only takes 1 strong link) and have traffic. Of course going all out and doing PPC and optimizing for conversions and so on will get you that much more. But it's far from the only or easiest.

Now, I have had sites turned down by affiliates, but usually it is their loss as they couldve made money but I guess they make irrational assumptions about my traffic/conversion.
 
Done properly they can do ok. I have a few eBay affiliate sites using either BANS or free variations on the BANS theme that bring down cash every month, more than I could make with other mainly passive stuff like AdSense. I also have a couple running AOM that do marginally better than just parking the page.

The beauty on either approach is that much of the traffic just shows up; it's not huge but the sites do get a disproportionate amount of traffic relative to promotional effort/expense invested. And in the meantime, my domains aren't just sitting eating up my budget as renewals come around. As long as a site can make more than a couple of bucks a month it's paying for its domain renewals and contibuting to me being able to lower my overall server costs via volume. The fact that a couple of these sites do make low $xxx a month is just gravy.


Frank
 
I manage 4 Ecommerce sites that pull around 307k a month (Gross). That's with physical products. Each store gets around 1000-2500 uniques per day & is in a fairly niche market.

If you're heading down the Affiliate road chances are that things are a little bit more saturated. But at the same time you don't have much in the way of outgoings. The net Revenue of the stores is much less when you take out Warehousing, Staff, Goods, Affiliates, Packaging, Postage, Advertising etc etc etc.

Hope this helps ;)
 
Don't waste the money!

Do you manage a program on network like CJ or Linkshare (and if so, what network), or do you work at a CPA network?

I've worked for companies where I've had to help out with affiliate applications on occasion, and some of the "Megasavings eMall" or "Johnny's Online Department Store" style sites just crack me up. Especially the ones that people paid someone hundreds of dollars to set up.

I manage a program for a large online retailer. You can tell when dreamweaver classes take their final exams, or when someone sells a bunch of foreigners a template to produce those cheeeeeezy websites. Sometimes I just feel like screaming "SPELL CHECK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!"
 
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