Regular visitors to my blog will know that I don’t really do affiliate marketing, as I have built sites solely to promote businesses – usually my own.
Domain development services seem to be based on affiliate programs and I suppose that’s a sensible place to start, given that no effort is usually required in order to make sales.
During the next few days, I am going to begin building an affiliate site based on Amazon’s affiliate program and I’ll be doing the entire thing in WordPress just to demonstrate what can be done – as much for myself as anyone else.
The object of this exercise is to see how quickly such a site can be done and whether the effort is worth it in terms of return of the time invested.If it is, then I’ll look at offering development for selected domains.
The domain I am using for this is GardensOnline.co.uk, a name I first regsitered way back in 1999!
It has some history for me.
Back then, I had a friend who owned a garden centre and was one of those people who was extremely passionate about what he did. Properly qualified and extremely talented, I was certain that we could make something happen online together.
The idea was really just to sell stuff and have it drop shipped. At the time, I approached a venture capitalist firm in London and was called to a meeting with them to discuss the concept.
The VC’s were very excited at what was only an idea. Their enthusiasm knew no bounds and before long they were talking about multi-million pound investment and the possibility of attempting to buy out the largest UK garden centre chain in order to provide the distribution network required to operate such a venture.
We didn’t really go beyond a couple of meetings, as luckily the dot com bubble burst. I’m not cut out for the corporate world of venture capitalism and high finance, but I have to say that for a couple of months, it was exciting to be talking to these people.
In 1999, Amazon only sold books. 11 years later and they sell everything and have some of the best affiliate tools on the market to help their affiliates make money.
So, I’m dipping my toe into the murky world of affiliate programs again, just to see whether I can recover 12 years of renewal fees!
Along the way, I’ll show you the development process – everything from taking a base WordPress installation through adding the content and the plugins I’ll be using to optimise the site. It’s only an experiment and something to do during the hiatus between Christmas and new year.
I’ll also report on the site’s earnings – if there are any!
Look forward to seeing the site David!
The thing I find about the Amazon Associate Program however (and this is just my humble opinion) is that the affiliate commissions tend to be rather low and don’t always constitute a good return on the time and effort that one has to put in order to a) build a site, b) add relevant, quality content, c) get it to rank for its relevant keywords), d) get visitors, e) make conversions.
Of course the affiliate revenue structure is tiered so that the more conversions you make the higher percentage of the sale you get and I certainly know of people who reap great rewards with the program, but you have to be promoting products that convert well in a niche that converts well, otherwise it’s just not an efficient way of generating income online. And again, this is only my opinion.
I operate a site about guitars and related accessories and referred almost $700 of accumulaive sales to Amazon.com in the week or so before Christmas, I maybe have about $40 to show for all that effort which can be a little dispiriting but the consolation is that being such a large niche, I can keep adding content/pages about the myriad guitar products on the market and build up an authority site, monitoring keywords and referred sales until I find products that convert well that I can then target and focus my efforts on.
In summary, it’s a lot of effort and one that you have to work at and refine constantly.
But if anyone can do it, David Carter can.
Peace.
Thanks for droppin by Jim! Low commissions is the reason why I’ve usually stayed clear of affiliate programs in general, but if a domain is doing nothing, then it might as well try and earn it’s keep to some degree.
There are plenty of domain developers and services that seem to offer development based on an affiliate model – I’m just trying this to see if it works for me. I strongly suspect it won’t, though that will probably be down to my non-promotion rather than anything else.
Amazon’s commissions are abysmally low, but that’s what you get with consumer products. Luckily though, Amazon does show you what it’s best sellers are, so in theory at least, all I have to do is identify the big ticket best sellers and make sure that they are prominently displayed in the relevant sections.
Come March, people will be looking for lawn mowers, shredders, garden jacuzzis etc – I don’t intend to do much by way of promoting smaller items, but even the pennies count when it comes to filling a bank account
I am also looking forward to the site. I am also in the process of using wordpress solely to set up an affiliate store regadring protein shakes – I think I might get started on it today but I am still trying to find out what theme to use and how to optimize the site properly. I want to just to “set it and forget it” basically but need to have a solid foundation before doing this. If you come across any good themes to use I would appreciate it
I use Artisteer for theme building though I also have a few Woo Themes and Thesis, but I haven’t really got to grips with the other two. For optimisation, I am moving away from Allinone SEO Pack and getting used to the far superior SEO plugin from Yoast – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/ – take that as a recommendation!
The items must be niche, expensive, easy/light to ship, a lawn mower will be something people use to compare pricing but go to the store to purchase. Buy it online is ok if it is supported by a bricks and mortar store. WP is great for affiliate sites, dont waste time making the site look great, the trick is to get them to click thru to amazon as quickly as possible and set the cookie.
@Greg, I agree entirely. This isn’t a major development project for me – just something I can knock up in a few hours. The site framework is there, I just have to do the theme which will take a day or two simply because I’m waiting for the site header, as I don’t do graphics.
I don’t make much via Amazon’s affiliate program but on rare occasion I will see a sale. However, after a year with Commission Junction affiliates, hundreds of thousands of impressions and not even one commission payout, I am not a believer in affiliate programs. So of late my projects are more focused on local geos where I hope to sell ad space and be less dependent on PPC.
@Leonard, I have simialr experiences with affiliate programs which is why I don’t often promote them. I don’t sell ad space, I sell services from my own and other people’s businesses.
Another major drawback of using Amazon is that their cookies only last 24 hours. So even if the customer you sent over at amazon does end up buying the next day .. you don’t even get the already industry’s lowest commission. Such a waste of time 
@Suneedh, you’re right, but plenty of people are making money with Amazon, just as they do with ClickBank, though that’s another nut I’ve never managed to crack. With a niche name, it’s a lot easier to make money, so I’m led to believe 
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