Hey everyone I am currently making between $600.00 - $800.00 from 15 EPN (yes after the new model) websites via natural traffic without building tons of backlinks, articles, directories, redirect landing pages, etc. I thought I would share my experience also hoping others might have some ideas to help me take this to a different level. I signed up with CJ - now EPN which was my first leap into affiliate marketing. I really didn't research affiliate marketing but I had experience in coding websites. Initially I started by registering a large number of domains with relevant keywords in the url. About 1000.00 initial investment including domains, script, etc. Out of 100 domains I have about 20 which performed. No research, just what sounded good and that were easy to remember. I stayed with all .com's, tried to keep them short and to the point. - FYI don't use this method, but it was my first time. The sites back end was powered by BANS, each with a custom template. I reused the template between all the sites just with different images and text. Footprints to the original bans template were removed including modification to the php code to make my footprint different. I figured that was the best way to go as everyone was using BANS by the time I knew about it. Thus, that was about the only way I could think of setting up 100 sites quickly which still took some time. I changed the site-wide title and meta tags to be unique and more specific - but often didn't include the domain as a keyword. In the end I found out that it was better to develop fewer sites which had unique content so long as the domain ranked well for keywords. Yahoo loves the sites but most don't rank well on google.Probably the same for most people. In the end I put well over 40 hours in, made about 3K for the year. I found out the hard way natural traffic takes a long time to build. Today, I still run the websites and I see about 6-800 a month with my best month being 973.00 (1000.00 mark). So what did I change: 1. I started using Google's keyword tool to check the popularity of the keywords in the domain. I also tried to get more specific, under the 300K search mark. 2. I improved the templates of the websites to make them look more professional. This appears to have helped to produce return traffic. I added a mailing list to each one (which I still have not used but I am collecting e-mails) 3.I tried submitting articles to directories but found that to produce little traffic even for a 600+ word article which I wrote from scratch. 4. Today I only add articles to my websites, I don't submit them. I generally have a minimum of 40 articles on a website. I outsourced the content creation and cleaned up the sentence structure, grammar, spelling as you don't get much for 3.00 an article. This did produce results and natural traffic started to come in. 5. I added some back links on websites centered around the same subject. I tried to go for sites with a high page rank. In the end I just posted them on sites which were dofollow (100 back links for each one of my sites) and were about the same thing I was trying to sell. 6. I started to create hub pages, digg my articles and add squid lenses which did offer some additional traffic - but it didn't produce 1K a day earnings + it took a lot of time. In the end, I dropped this idea as I was not seeing large traffic and just submitted the articles on my site to digg. 7. I only promote items which don't require a sizing. Thus clothing, shoes, or anything which is widely available at Walmart - with exception of electronics. I also found e-bay motors to be the best niche for consistent revenue. 8. Blocked bots, bogons, and non U.S. / Canada traffic. That's about it, I earn the above with just that simple setup. I don't use any other affiliate networks at this time (that will be changing); as I plan to expand to protect myself from epn's instability. What I also learned is it takes a lot of work to use strictly free traffic. Before moving into the PPC , but I want to improve my natural traffic and my conversions first while I research the subject. Some of my sites receive 150 uniques a day with clicks; but I am not converting well enough. Perhaps it is what I'm promoting or where my backlinks are placed. My Question: Any suggestions on how I might reach the 4K per month.
Hello GunJunkie, Your post is from 2007. I'm curious to know if you're still using the same business model with eBay Partner Network. I also invest in keyword rich .coms and have done very well with ePN. You we're on the right track to exceed your 4K/month goal which I would guess you have done by now. How much unique content do you put on each domain? Have you diversified away from ePN? Is eBay Motors my best bet to increase earnings?
Hmmm...that is really interesting. There aren't that many people making that kind of money on the web. I notice that you pay $3 per article...which at times probably requires a little cleaning up to make the English acceptable. That is exactly what I have done in the past. Good luck with your venture.
Oh really? But as I can see it's too old. Are you still earning the same amount this year or have stopped from this? I am just amazed of the amount you are earning but I think it's too much? Sorry I am just curious about this.
So you are that one guy making some money after the switch to the new rip off the affiliate pricing structure. Kudos.
i'm making money on EPN.. Dec 2010 was my best month with EPN in 3 years. they offered a bonus in Nov and Dec which also really helped out. my bonus alone in Dec was more than I made in some months in the previous year. FYI - I use amazon turk to have my articles written. I pay $0.80 - $1.00 per 400 word article. they are very hit or miss, but you can reject any article that is really poorly written. sometimes i have to correct some grammar, and sometimes i get some really good articles.
well you really share a very good information with us and gave a clear idea about make money.but can you please explain it little more?