1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

I set an revenue record last month ($18,772)!

Discussion in 'Affiliate Programs' started by pinkstor, Sep 1, 2009.

  1. pinkstor

    pinkstor Active Member

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    #21
    To answer some questions:

    danaldinho: It's pretty even between LinkShare and CJ for me - both are between $3k and $5k per month somewhere.

    iBBnet: It's a great month for me, but it's not an outlier, really. Here's my revenue for the past few months:
    April: $10922
    May: $10486
    June: $11709
    July: $11647
    Aug: $18772

    My main sites are travel sites, so this isn't unusual - Summers are huge.

    Here are my past few years:
    2006: $47585
    2007: $102144
    2008: $110646
    2009: $92684 (so far)

    Keep in mind that until now I've done this part-time. I had a full-time job until a month ago.

    markov: You're totally right. Here's the advice I can give:

    1. Concentrate on the right keywords. Use tools like wordtracker and the google keyword tool to find profitable keywords without competition, and concentrate on those.

    2. Always do what's right for your users. Don't blanket your site with all sorts of crappy ads, users will hate the site and never come back. Put a non-obvious ad up if you want, but nobody bookmarks those sites with interstitials, smiley ads, and all that garbage. Make it clear you're providing something of value to your users - you can monetize later.

    3. Be patient. The big thing for Google right now is trust. So build a good site with good content, update it frequently, and be patient.

    4. Do everything you can yourself, but don't be afraid to hire someone for jobs you aren't good at. Learn html, php, mysql, etc. If you can't design worth a crap, hire someone to create a design for you. This flip side is true, too.

    Um... I guess that's it. Any other questions?
     
    pinkstor, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  2. discoverwebworks

    discoverwebworks Peon

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    #22
    Yeah, I've got another :).

    1. What defines a good keyword? I did some research on a keyword that Google said was searched 15,000 times in a month. for some reason wordtracker claimed it was searched only 2,000 times per month.

    I searched this keyword in google and it returned 65 million results. What's a good figure to stick with? Is that to much competition you think? What are good search volumes to target on google? Thanks for answering these questions!
     
    discoverwebworks, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  3. amit_at_digitalpoint

    amit_at_digitalpoint Active Member

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    #23
    Wow! thats quite a return.

    So you are doing SEO of your site and promoting via site.

    No article marketing and the likes ?

    Also what % of the revenue would be from product sales and % from CPA(from submits etc). Have you stuck all these years with these 2(nw's).
     
    amit_at_digitalpoint, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  4. pinkstor

    pinkstor Active Member

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    #24
    % of money from products: 100%
    % of money from CPA: 0%

    I don't use any CPA programs. ;) I think they tend to be somewhat spammy. I wouldn't think much of a travel website that had ads for Forex or Viagra, you know? Maybe there are some good CPA programs, but I haven't seen any yet. Just my 2 cents.

    No article marketing or anything like that, either. Just standard product marketing, with user reviews, etc. I want my sites to be ones that people like, bookmark, send to friends and family, and come back to.

    As far as the "good keywords" question, it depends on the # of searches, # of competitors, and monetization ability. What niche are you looking in? I could maybe find some examples. But some niches are tough - I have friends that always want to start golf websites with me, and I've never found any good niches, so I've never done it. Why go through all the work if you don't love it and can't make money doing it?
     
    pinkstor, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  5. iam.xavier

    iam.xavier Well-Known Member

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    #25
    Congratz... Excellent!!!
     
    iam.xavier, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  6. ariswin

    ariswin Peon

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    #26
    congrats!
    Can you share more, what is your affiliate network?
     
    ariswin, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  7. epdrama

    epdrama Peon

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    #27
    congrats! which keyword did u use for which site? i wish to take as reference.
     
    epdrama, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  8. afmark

    afmark Peon

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    #28
    Hi,
    Congrats that you are doing well in affiliate marketing. Do you redirect your CJ affiliate link? What method do you use to redirect your affiliate link? Thanks. I am still new in affiliate marketing.
    I am using .htaccess to redirect for e.g www.mywebsite.com/go/programname to the CJ affiliate link. I am using chmod 755. Is this correct?
     
    afmark, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  9. dukeofism

    dukeofism Peon

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    #29
    congratulations! Keep up what you are doing! Obviously there is a long list of things taht you are doing correctly!
     
    dukeofism, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  10. marshalprince

    marshalprince Peon

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    #30
    great man. CONGRATS for the great achievement. Me too want to come in the area of affiliate marketing but not got good site nor enough money to spend on it,
     
    marshalprince, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  11. NainaPriyanka

    NainaPriyanka Peon

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    #31
    Hey Congratulations on your success. I hope you make much more money from affiliate marketing in comings days.
     
    NainaPriyanka, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  12. TheRookie

    TheRookie Peon

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    #32
    Just curious how long you have had each of the five sites that are making you the money and how long you had them before you saw anything. Thats great news and its good to share that with people as it keeps them motivated.

    Just for more great news. One of the sites in my signature file makes me about 12000 a month the other two make around 150lol . Anyways great thread.
     
    TheRookie, Sep 2, 2009 IP
  13. TheRookie

    TheRookie Peon

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    #33
    I was kidding by the way, im hovering around 20 for all three combined. Anyways I really am wonderig how long you have had each of the sites.
     
    TheRookie, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  14. nfdcash

    nfdcash Peon

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    #34
    Congrats ! Really good work, keep it up
     
    nfdcash, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  15. pinkstor

    pinkstor Active Member

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    #35
    I've had the sites for about 5 to 10 years. I didn't start seeing any money for a year or so at the beginning, and it was a trickle - a few dollars a month (I remember when I made enough money in a month to pay for a cup of coffee!) That's why I preach patience. If I had gotten impatient and sent out too many emails, or thrown a bunch of ads on the sites I likely wouldn't have gotten to where I am.

    By the way, I'm not suggesting I know everything. I make plenty of mistakes and there's a ton to learn, every day. For better or worse, the field changes constantly, and you have to stay on the forefront of what's going on - or you'll get passed by. I certainly have some advantages (I've worked as a software engineer at a search engine for several years, and my genius wife has a MBA in business/marketing), but there's no substitute for hard work.
     
    pinkstor, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  16. AskTheTrainer

    AskTheTrainer Greenhorn

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    #36
    Your revenue was $18k but not a mention at all of expenses which could be $20k ???? How much were your expenses?
     
    AskTheTrainer, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  17. pinkstor

    pinkstor Active Member

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    #37
    Good catch - that's revenue after expenses. I really should have used the word "profit", not revenue.

    Here's my total expenses for the month (had to look this up on my AMEX card):

    8/1: Hosting - $30.95
    8/5: Hosting - $21.95
    8/20: Adwords - $67.49 (I don't do very much PPC, as I said.)
    8/23: Wordtracker - $59

    That's it.
     
    pinkstor, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  18. AskTheTrainer

    AskTheTrainer Greenhorn

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    #38
    That is very impressive, and none of your advertising methods are adult and/ or spam related? If so, that is what all of us webmaster entrepreneurs hope to get to, very nice :)
     
    AskTheTrainer, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  19. pinkstor

    pinkstor Active Member

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    #39
    Heh, no adult or spam. My very first site was an adult site (back in... 1997 or so), and I realized that I didn't want to work on projects I was too embarrassed to tell friends and family about. So I quit that after about a week. Oh, and no blackhat, either. I got banned on Yahoo many years ago on one site, and that just sucks hard. So everything is on the up and up.
     
    pinkstor, Sep 3, 2009 IP
  20. pinkstor

    pinkstor Active Member

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    #40
    Thanks for all the congrats, though. Hardly anyone in the real word can even understand what we all do! :) It can be a lonely business - I appreciate all the kind words.
     
    pinkstor, Sep 3, 2009 IP