I would like to thank you !

[vatsia]

Hello,
it is my first post here, but i have been reading a lot for over a year The reason i did not post so far was that i had nothing to say.My experience in affiliate stuff was limited compared to the gurus here

Well ... now i have to say something:

Thank you all and thank you Chris for this forum. I started out with an aws shop, got lucky that i could snap a got .info domain for free, build a site with a strong modificated version of the aws tutorial and submited to every catalog i could find.

First day when i started i sent some traffic via adwords just to make sure that with the necessary traffic the site generates sales. Well i made my first sale at the first day

After 7 months without advertisment i got my first check of 150$ and now (the 8th month) i have allready $140 and it is the first moth of the quarter.
And i also get around $1 from adsense from the same page a day.

I have also other sites that are coming with more or less success, but i am definitaly sure there is still money out there. So my newcomer advice for AWS sites to everybody is :
- find a good product category and build a good looking site around it.do not build all in one shops and DO put some time into the site design, because it counts.

-submit to every catalog

-learn seo. even aws sites can have good positions in the serps

-read forums like this one here

Bill

[chromate]

Glad you're seeing some success with your sites Bill.

Hint... If you're having success with your AWS site, you should definitely try some other affiliate marketing stuff. Lots of money to be made in comparison with AWS.

Keep us updated

[Cutter]

Good job, there are millions and millions to be made out there!

[Chris]

The best thanks is a referral

[vatsia]

If you're having success with your AWS site, you should definitely try some other affiliate marketing stuff.

I have 'success' with aws with an average of 70-80 uniques a day. As far as i know it needs a lot more visitors to enter programs such as cj. What would you suggest to be the next step for me ?

[moonshield]

you don't need any more visitors to enter cj, linkshare, or shareasale. Just sign up.

[chromate]

You don't necessarily need to use Commission Junction.

Many people suggest building a content site around something you're interested in, and then when you haven enough visitors, put the ads / affiliate links in.

I have to admit, I would take a different approach - unless you're into something that would definitely make a lot of money! What I would suggest doing is browsing through the affiliate programs that are available on cj.com or other networks. Find one that you're reasonably interested in and then follow the normal research patterns; Find related keywords, see how many people search for them a day, see what the competition is like in the search engines.

As Chris says in his great guide to building a successful website, if you manage to get near the top of the search engine results for the product you're promoting, you'll strike "affiliate gold"

Not easy by any stretch though - which is why the research is so important.

[Emancipator]

Many people suggest building a content site around something you're interested in, and then when you haven enough visitors, put the ads / affiliate links in.

In my opinion its the best way.. you wont do it overnight but you will build quality.. its what i do

[James]

You'll also be able to keep it for a longer time without getting sick of it, and one big part of website success is in how long they've been around.

[Emancipator]

i agree James.. at some point I hope to be able to say that about my sites

[chromate]

Of course, if you can make money from your hobby - then that's definitely the best way. But it wont always be the case. If the person's intent is to make money from their site, I think it's wrong to just say "create a site about something you're interested in." Because it wont always make much money and the person may well never achieve their goal, no matter how many hours they put in.

Best thing to do is to aim for something you're interested in AND that will make money. For example, I've started a site on classic cars as it's something I'm interested in. There are enough searches/day and affiliate progs etc to make some money out of it. Eventually, I may even set up a section on the site where people can sell their cars through the site. Not all hobbies have the same scope and potential to make money.

[James]

True, making fluffy cell-phone covers is highly unlikely to be so profitable.

But no one says it needs to be a primary interest. Most people have more than one interest, or at least some things that they'd really really like to learn, so the best route is to just take a look at each objectively (not thinking about how much you enjoy them--the only thing, is that you HAVE to enjoy them at least a little bit) and see which would make the most, and be in the best category.

[vatsia]

Is there something similar to aws (feed driven) out there that is more profitable? I haven't started with content sites yet, and i guess putting Linkshare or Shareasale on an AWS is not a smart move

[Chris]

Linkshare and ShareASale both offer datafeeds that can be used (with a little more work) to make sites exactly like AWS.

[vatsia]

Hi,
just entered Linkshare and i am browsing around their merchants.
As far as i have understood you need a channel that needs to be approved by the merchants in order to get accepted. But, what is if you want to build a feed driven site upon acception, how do you do that

Just another newbie question : Are somewhere on the web performance stats for each of linkshares partners or is there some kind of rule based from experience how to choose the right partner?

While i was looking for networks i found zanox.com interesting, has anybody used them?