Gadooney.com

We left off last time after reviewing the three main ways to make money as an affiliate: pay-per-click (PPC), traditional affiliate programs, and quotes and leads. While there’s no rule that says you have to pick one model (in fact, many of your sites will probably be a hybrid mix), for the sake of simplicity we’re just going to focus on choosing one to get started with. I’m also going to pull back a bit and touch on the thought process that should be running through your mind as you try to decide not only what model to use, but what subject your first site is going to tackle.
I’ll throw out a few musings here which should be rolling through your head, then clarify them a bit:

• Focus on what you know and enjoy.
• Be honest with yourself as far as the time available to work on your site.
• Be realistic about your goals.
• Have no monetary expectations whatsoever for the first few months.
• Be focused.
• Try new things and don’t be afraid to fail miserably.

Yeah, I know, very general and broad. But now I’ll get into nitty-gritty details, trying to recreate my thought process when launching a new site, with the above as a framework.

Okay, it’s time to get off my ass and whip up some new sites, now that Bill Frist and company bent me over and imploded all of my online gambling affiliate ventures with the UIGEA legislation.

In the past I’d just crank some generic content out and slap some Adsense banners on it, targeting people looking for certain search terms, such as hotels in Phoenix or a divorce lawyer in Boise. I’d poke around a bit and do some research to get a general sense if those terms would pay me a decent amount per click then I’d throw together a site and get generic, not-so-exciting content up that was related to those terms. So I’d build a page for Boise divorce lawyers, then one for Ketchum divorce lawyers, yada yada yada. I’d actually start with major cities and work my way down, hitting every damn major metropolitan area, just grinding out content that was solely designed to get search engine traffic for those terms, which I would make money from if they landed on my page and then clicked through one of the Adsense ads.

But man, I’ve done that before, and it’s hard sledding, despite the fact that it’s a pretty sure way to make money. If you have no interest at all in the subject (and believe me, I don’t), it’s really hard to get excited and motivated about building a site like that. It also takes awhile for any site you build to get fully indexed in Google and other search engines, so there’s a lag time (usually a few months) where you’re working your ass off, churning out boring content, and seeing nothing at all for your labors. You can’t avoid that aspect, as any site you launch you put tons of work into it at the beginning with no return at all, but it’s much harder to do when you have no interest in the content.

So let’s scratch that one off the list. The poker blog was a valuable lesson, as that led me into the online gambling affiliate arena, which I did very well in, and was a good lesson for me, as I had no plans at all to try to turn the poker blog into a tool to make money via affiliate programs. Lo and behold, it turns out that it’s much easier to make money off doing something that you enjoy and love than it is to grind out content for the sake of grinding out content.

Hmm, so what other hobbies or interests do I have that’d make a good affiliate site? Or, more to the point, what interests or hobbies do I have that lend themselves to not only content for a site but also can make me some money, as that’s a big part of all this. Pet rats? Metalcasting? Pirates? Monkeys?

What about launching a site that’s about the whole affiliate business, showing people how to launch their own sites? I’m definitely interested in that stuff, content would be fun to write, and, as much as I hate to admit that I’m good at anything, putting together step-by-step guides for people is pretty much right in my wheelhouse, ala the whole Beginner’s Guide to Casino Bonuses that made me beaucoup bucks. And there’s money to be made in that arena, as I know Web hosting companies offer pretty nice payouts for clients you refer to them, and domain registration, too. Google Adsense ads would also kick in, too, as many of the posts would be filled with search engine friendly content.

It also has legs because it’s similar to the casino bonus stuff as far as it being a win-win situation. I’d walk people through the steps of getting an affiliate site up to make some extra scratch and, at the same time, make some extra scratch myself. It’s always much easier for a project like that to fly than to start a site hawking die cast models or something similar, as the surfer always wonders a bit as to why the site exists, if all you do is refer them on to someone else who sells the actual product, etc.

As an extra bonus, it’s easy to get it up and running and to start up other sites, too. It’s pretty narrowly focused and manageable, leaving time for other stuff. So it’s not like I’m planning on writing a biography for every major league baseball player throughout history or some other project with a huge scope that would leave other time for additional ventures. Since you never know exactly what sites will take off, or which will morph into something else, it’s always good to have as many irons in the fire as possible.

Okay. So I’ll start a site that’s a guide to affiliate marketing in general. I’ve already got hosting set up, so I need a domain name. Let’s call it something stupid like Gadooney.com.  Okay, done. Register the domain name, add it to my hosting package, and let’s rock and roll. That took two minutes. Sweet.

I’ll use Wordpress and grab a theme here. It’s infinitely easier to adminster affiliate sites using Wordpress instead of doing the HTML by hand and creating graphics and images yourself, and you can pretty much instantly be rolling with a decent looking site. If you’re a Web designer then sure, do your thing, but for the rest of us average monkeys with just a basic working kowledge of HTML, Wordpress is an absolute godsend. Using the blog format is also a good idea as it’s conducive towards comments and interactions with users, which will be pretty crucial to the project.

I’m not going to get bogged down with how the site looks, as I can always tweak it later. I’m also going to resist the urge to keep it under wraps until it’s brimming over with complete, comprehensive content. One cool thing about the project is that I can let it unwind in real time, as I learn stuff and pass it along to readers, so I’ll launch it pretty quickly, filling in gaps here and there over time, as well as adding new content daily. That’ll keep my motivation high, as it’s frustrating to put much work into a site with nothing live, no users, no comments, nothing.

All righty then. Done and done. Whee. 

So there’s a little insight into my monkey brain. Remember, this is all about you, though, so don’t feel like just because I veered in one direction that it’s the way to go. Some affiliates make amazing money mass generating sites that are solely designed for PPC traffic. They get off on the idea of bombarding the world with 162,182,192 pages, knowing that if they cast a wide enough net, they’ll catch a few stray clicks, which suddenly add up into serious money when you have tons of sites and pages.

Other people have hobbies that lead them in different directions as well. If you’re a digital camera nut, you’d probably avoid PPC programs like the plague, as your sweet spot is writing reviews and guides to all the new digital camera models, and cashing in big time when someone buys a new digital camera through your link and you get 5-10% commission on their total purchase.

It all depends on your interests, really, and what skills and knowledge you bring to the table. This is getting longish so I’ll shut up for now, leaving you that to mull over, but this is a topic that I’ll hammer on a lot in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.