First Affiliate Project for 2008
December 20, 2007
After finding only limited success with building multiple sites across different offers and niches, I have decided to tighten my focus for 2008. I am no longer going to simply choose an offer, build a site, and promote it for a few weeks. This strategy has not increased my income very fast, and I am starting to realize that you really need to saturate a niche in order to succeed.
Ironically enough, the first affiliate website/project that I built has been my most successful. After reading insights from the different guru bloggers I now understand why it has worked and my other ventures have failed. When I started my first venture, my entire focus was on one project. I wrote a nice array of content for the website as well as the article directories. I also took the extra time to build niche pages across other free platforms like blogger, squidoo, and hub pages. Although I doubted the return on my efforts for quite some time, I eventually woke up one day and found my site pulling in steady traffic from Google.
For some reason I chose not to follow this template for my other ventures. I have spent the last four months sifting through affiliate offers and starting two or three projects a month. My theory of course was to cast a wide net…but it has not produced nearly the return I was hoping for. So while it has taken me some time to see the error of my ways, 2008 is going to be a different story.
I have already begun laying the groundwork for my next project, and the focus is on building an entire network of related internet properties. This is going to take a significant amount of time, but I am feeling pretty confident that it will succeed. The hardest part is going to be writing the content for multiple outlets.
One thing I discovered with my first site is that you only need to update your feeder sites regularly for the first few months. After that you can let them simmer and focus solely on your main money maker. Of course you have to patient with getting only 25 visitors a day for a while…this is the hardest part. But once you get listed high enough in the search engines the money begins to flow.
So that is my unofficial resolution for 2008. Spend more time building a network for each project, and waste less time jumping from pond to pond. I have also learned some important lessons about choosing niches based on competition levels, which will give me a better chance to excel with each new venture.
Perhaps some of you find yourself treading water while you constantly try new products to promote. If this is the case I recommend taking your top three performers and building other sites that feed into them instead of trying a new niche. It is much more profitable to expand on something you know works as opposed to blindly throwing darts. Trust me…I’ve tried both ways!
December 31st, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Wishing you and your family every success in 2008.
I have followed your blog with interest over the last 3 months or so – you’re stll beating me by a long way but we’ve still got 6 months to go !
August 6th, 2008 at 6:29 am
I have just read your whole blog. I loved it!!! How are you doing now? I am a newbie and need all the help I can get.