Since I'm not making any money off these websites I should just go ahead and turn them over to you guys for advice. I launched these sites off about 3 months ago and have received about 2,000 unique visitors according to Google Analytics. All I've received off them is about $10 in Adsense clicks and $.20 in Amazon.com affiliate earnings. I haven't received 1 signup off the Blockbuster affiliate program which I thought was a little odd. Please let me know why you think they don't work. The one that receives the most traffic is www.TomHanksMovies.org. You can see the other 7 in my blogroll.
Let me first say I'm no expert just started out my self, but I noticed a few things when I went to the first tomhanks site.... I had no idea how to buy the film or rent it at first, the buy + rent links seem to get lost on the page. I'm not saying make them bigger or spam them but if people noticed them it wouldn't be a bad thing, amazon buy here button or rent here blockbuster button. Again no expert and I've not used the amazon network in a while but can't you add a widget to the site that shows what price new + used copys are going for on amazon? cheap prices might entise people to click. Another thing I would consider is trying to put adwords ads between your blog posts, they don't have to be intrusive and huge they can be like the ones here inbetween some posts.
Hmm... not really sure. Maybe you might want to consider writing your own reviews, visitors usually trust you more when it's in your own words and not a copy and paste from somewhere else (if you did copy and paste that is). Also it might be cause everyone is pirating movies nowadays =/
Some good points, content not stolen from wikipedia might also help. To give you an idea of some of the widgets you could use have a look at this: www.MyImag.es/P_miv1mE2.jpg - OR - www.MyImag.es/P_oI9Ao0s.jpg
I would change the name "Categories" to "Movies" or something and just list the film titles. Personally I don't remember when a league of their own was released. I would also add my own reviews and funny clips or memorable moments from each movie Also WTH hell man Big was an awesome Tom Hanks movie and it gets no love Good luck
The Tom Hanks site looks nice but maybe its the niche. The people visiting your site are gonna be fans of Tom Hanks. My guess is they already either own many of his movies already or they have already rented and watched them. Also, most movie buffs already have a subscription to either Blockbuster or Netflix already so it might not too suprising you haven't made an affiliate sale with Blockbuster yet.
I was skimming the website to find your Rent and it took longer then it should have. I would suggest making a button.
I think this is really logical and highly probable - maybe you could have links to similar era/genre movies as you might also like type links...
Yes, many of the people that are visiting TomHanksMovies.org probably already have many of his movies. But a lot of those people are also visiting the other movies sites that I setup. I'm really starting to lose my confidence in affiliate marketing. It's hard to believe that I would get such small conversions off thousands of visitors. You would think that a small percentage of those people would end up viewing other things on Amazon.com which would generate me more sales than just $.20 worth.
I think that the area of affiliate marketing is so wide, that some areas are weaker than others, or weaker depending upon how they are applied. I have always believed that the strongest affiliate marketing approach is the one that brings people to your site because you have them. Writing articles on your site that pertains to an individual offer. You could also have the offer shown several times on a page; and studies in the past have shown that two placements of one offer on a page is an optimum, and the offer most clicked on will be on the upper left of the page. It is probably true that Tom Hanks fans already have Tom Hanks movies. But you could try doing a little borrowing from Amazon, by going to their site and looking at what they come up with "People who purchased this movie also bought..." sorts of things. And augment these with books, article links, things that could make you stand out as a source of a service, and one service would happen to be the offer you link to in your affiliate marketing. Also, think about what movie goers as a demographic would buy that is not about renting or buying movies themselves. Try for the unique as well as the value given for the offering. Movie buyers would buy DVD and Blu-Ray players, they would buy camcorders and webcams, they would buy phones, all sorts of things that are not the site's topic, but relate to the types of viewers who would visit your site. And link everything with "_blank" so that they always return to your page after they finish looking at a link.
this is a really really niche site... your advertising needs to be in more prominent places on the site. you have all the images at the top, why not make that an active banner to amazon dvd page or something - at least you drop a cookie for that? what about adsense under the movie review? have you tried poster affiliate programs, you could have buy this DVD cover poster?
You need to promote a product with excellent customer service. Most people email a site before purchase. If they are waiting more than 12 hours for a reply they won't buy. We only promote a site that is serious about customer care.
Yeah, but they can immediately tell that the site they're visiting is either Amazon.com or Blockbuster Online. I don't see a need for them to personally email me. Not to mention those are trusted companies that have built up a name for themselves.
Making an allegory: you take a two year old baby to an eye doctor, and you tell him/her to read the chart. The baby stares at the chart. You say in frustration, "I'm starting to lose my confidence in eye exams". When the problem is not the exam, but the subject.
I would simply add couple links to top of the page 1. I am a Tom hank Fan or Tom Hank Fan club Add a auto responder (I like get response) form to that page and let them know by joining your list they will be the first to find out about movies and news about tom 2. BUY Tom Hank movies 3. Rent Tom Hank movies 4. Watch your favorite movie clips or something like that link them to the page that has his movie clips ( I would go to youtube and find clips of his movies and add them to my site) 5. I would Also add another category called Movies by name and list his movies alphabetical. You must remember Buyers are the laziest people on face of the earth (including you and I) So you must do the all the work for them. Keep it simple Don't push them but make them feel they are being taking care off. Good luck
You have to remember that I've only made TWO sales equalling $.20 through Amazon.com I can see how your recommendations can help INCREASE my sales but as far as I can see the landing page is a dead end. Even if I made one or two sales for every 500 people that visited my site it would still be a complete failure.
I may be "talking out of my ass" here, since I've never promoted movies online, but why would anybody buy something online that they could get quicker and more easily offline? With something like an e-book or a software download, people have an incentive to buy it online because 1) it's instant (the web is all about instant gratification), and 2) they can't get it anywhere else. If I really have to get my Tom Hanks fix, why buy a movie online and have to wait for it to be shipped to me when I can just take a trip to blockbuster or a dvd store and get it there and be watching it the same day? I'm sure Amazon and other merchants make a killing on movies, but the main point I'm making is that some products just lend themselves to being purchased online more than others. If it's easier or more convenient/more comfortable to buy something at the local store, then there's no reason to buy it online. Movie tickets are an exception. I just went to see "The Dark Knight" this weekend, and I bought my tickets online (I always do), because it saves me the trouble of having to wait in line at the theater. If I wanted to watch "Forest Gump" on DVD, there's no real incentive for me to buy it online. Hope that gives you some food for thought.
Well, I'm also promoting the Blockbuster affiliate program which is free for two weeks and not ONE person has signed up for that. I'm starting to doubt these stories of OUTRAGEOUS affiliate conversions that people are making. If I can't get 1 out of a 1,000 TARGETED visitors to buy some cheap movies then how can some people get 1 out of every 15 or 20 people to buy a product that costs about $30?