There's a ton of $ to be made out there. I never think about it this way since I own the business I sell for....but if I were a sales rep and getting paid a modest 10% commission from the sales I've brought in on my site I'd be making much more than $3-4k per month ~ ~ ~ and (this is sad) but I have even brought my lap top to Cubs games and worked from the upper deck.
I'll have to find more, good, programs. I'm just getting started with affiliate sites and I hope to make money.
I was just thinking that today Thing is about the internet is it's a numbers game More visitors x conversion = more sales cash Get digusts website and do it 4 more x and away you go (you always need to run a couple of sites) Now, about those ideas I had.....
Disgust, On your hobby site, are you the article writer Mogknight? They seem to be the main article contributor. Secondly, from what I see, a short 1-2 paragraph article, announcement, or statement is posted, then visitors are allowed to add commentary of their own regarding the original posting. How is that being done? a script? And do the search engines see that as original content on your site too?
I can "super-size" it on a good day with my Adsense income from Alek's personal web site ... so I'm WAY behind you guys ... but this is a hobby for me and I'm enjoying it ... so hopefully that counts for something! ;-) alek P.S. Interesting stories - I got my MBA 10 years ago (yea, I'm an old fart! ;-) but sounds like some good case study possibilities here, especially with disgust's Final Fantasy stuff ... hey, she could be the next Michael Dell, Bill Gates, etc.
the news stories are just a fraction of what's on the site in total.. he's our main news-writer, although we'll be moving to something different soon (along the lines of the system webmasterworld uses, but with a syndicated RSS feed). haha
digust, congratulations!! keep up the great work... at 18, i was thinking about movies ,musics and all.... you are so cool!!!!
Disgust, How are you running it legally. Is it private, AdSense cheques paid out to your personal name or do you run it as a company and pay VAT etc. If it is private, do you file your income for tax etc? Just wondering how to start off my own venture.
it's under my own name, I don't have much in terms of living expenses right now, so I'm not letting myself spend more than 50% of what I make (although hopefully taxes won't be quite THAT high..) I'm just keeping records of everything (both what I get paid and any related expenses I might have), and then I'll just hire someone to go over it when I need to pay taxes
I would suggest meeting with a tax advisor sooner rather than later for a couple of reasons. 1. You get to know them when you are not under time pressure to do something. Do you communicate effectively with them, do you feel comfortable with them, does their approach to things match yours, do they have some idea of how your business operates, how much is this going to cost? 2. Many tax reduction techniques require time and have to be done in advance. There are often tax reasons to buy something(s) now instead of later, or do other things that shift the timing of income and expenses.
I net 2 - 5K per month. A very small % of that money is made through Adsense and other affiliate programs. Most of it is made through what I guess is a somewhat unusual form of SEO. Without going into every detail, the basic concept is that I postion myself as a "salesman" for the company in question. I invest the financial/time resources to drive traffic to their site and I receive a % of the sales I generate for them. It can be a little risky...most of the time it takes a substantial investment of time or money, or both, and if your strategy doesn't work you're out the $. The details of the accounts I manage vary, but I think you get the general idea.
So how do they monitor it? Isn't that just affiliate marketing then? Or do they simply compare their turnover month on month, before and after?
It all depends on the circumstances…in some cases I've set up separate websites with a new toll free number that connects to an answering service I use. For this particular client, the leads are funneled through me (via multiple channels, all stemming from the web though) before the primary company ever even knows about them. This client/company already has a sales force and compensation plan in place. I take less commission than a typical sales person would (since I never have any direct interaction with the new client) but on the plus side if a client I find becomes a regular customer of theirs I make a % of every purchase they ever make. I guess you could classify it as "affiliate marketing", except for none of the companies I work with have any sort of structured affiliate program. I look at myself as more of a salesman for the companies I work with, I just use online techniques to generate my sales. I guess you could also argue that affiliate marketing is just another form of being a "salesperson". Most of my clients are service-related companies - accountants, lawyers, printing companies, lawn care, etc, etc. I really don’t do too much work for clients who are product focussed. I do some, just not much. The payouts are too low to make it worthwhile most of the time.
That's a good idea as long as you are paid upfront and have tight controls in place to track the sales/referrals.
Most of the time, as a matter of fact almost all the time, I am not paid up front. I actually meet just about company I work with. They are almost all within driving distance. There has to be a certain level of trust for it to work, and meeting the people helps build that trust.
Different strokes for different folks. It sounds like it is working great for you. Sometimes it can be fun visiting customers, etc. Now can you do 5 times that biz? Lots of little money makes big money
Disgust, Very Cool! It took me 3 months to hit my first $100 with adsense, but originally I only saw it as a way for paying for server space... you've challenged me to think about it in a very different way