Gold Can I make $20k? Affiliate Marketing Fashion Diary

[Honeybadger]

Affiliate Marketing Diary 2020
(September 22, 2020 - December 31, 2020)

This site achieved its $10,000 commission target in 2020. I started updating this site again in June 21 with a new 2021 target --> $20,000 (was $100,000 but unrealistic)

Spoiler

Affiliate Marketing Definitely Works

I lost my job due to Covid-19 and I have no other source of money so I started my affiliate marketing journey in lockdown with $25 invested in a domain name and hosting

Before I started I read in lots of place that affiliate marketing doesn't work so I decided to try it for 6 months full time 100% effort and see what happens

• Start date: August 2020
• Budget: $25
• Target: $100 a day by Christmas
• Niche: Clothing/fashion
• Commission range: 5-10%
• Traffic source: Google organic search

Month #1 Target

• $40 daily commission
• $1200 monthly commission

Month #1 Results

• $25 daily commission
• $750 monthly commission
• Visits: 30k
• Views: 85k
• Revenue: $12k

Month #2 Target

• $60 daily commission
• $1800 monthly commission

 

[Honeybadger]

Week 6 update
Just passed $1k commission milestone
Got burned by one program
Will read program terms carefully before promoting in future
Starting to plan ahead for Xmas/winter campaigns

 

[Honeybadger]

Week 7 update
Started promoting $100 products instead of $20 products
Result was 50% week-to-week increase in sales/commissions

 

[Honeybadger]

Some things that are working

1. Regular product research
2. Keep applying to new programs
3. Sign up to network and partner email list
4. Use 2-step verification where available
5. Find ways to increase AOV
6. Keep notes on analytic software

I learn this too FAILURE IS PART OF SUCCESS STORY

 

[Graybeard]

One success can make up for many failures.
Lose small --win big!
You are making progress so don't stop

 

[Honeybadger]

One success can make up for many failures.
Lose small --win big!
You are making progress so don't stop

Glad I found this community
Today I started learning PPC
My plan is to test Xmas products with SEO
Once I have a clear picture will start paid adverts

 

[Andy Hoang]

Awesome job, @EuronGreyjoy!

Keep it up! You are an inspiration for me. The festive season is coming, time to ramp up the skills for the upcoming kills.

And please, keep us updated as well!

Cheers,

 

[AmNovice]

Today I started learning PPC

Awesome! What's your overall budget and traffic sources? are you just doing Google/FB for ppc or other sources as well?

 

[Honeybadger]

Awesome! What's your overall budget and traffic sources? are you just doing Google/FB for ppc or other sources as well?

Good questions @AmNovice

1. My budget is my time - 5 hours a day for ave $50 = $10/hour (above minimum federal hourly rate)
   
2. 100% SEO - will add PPC in October for festive shopping as @Andy Hoang mentioned above (October-January) on specific products linked to long tail search queries (example 'brown mongolian cashmere winter jacket for women' which retail to $2k @ 5% commission = $100 a pop so if the PPC acquisition per sale is $10 then I'd make $90 on each PPC sale, minus the cost of my time)

For scaling very important to automate everything you can, that way you spend less hours and earn more money (keep track of hours and work), this week I'm automating all my reports and tracking work completed in Google Calendar

 

[InMark98]

Glad I found this community
Today I started learning PPC
My plan is to test Xmas products with SEO
Once I have a clear picture will start paid adverts

Awesome results, I'm working on an affiliate site with amazon and also cpa+paid ads. Can you please tell me what method you followed to achieve such results.? How you were able to make 750$ in the first month? is it only with SEO ?

 

[Honeybadger]

Can you please tell me what method you followed to achieve such results.? How you were able to make 750$ in the first month? is it only with SEO ?

Example formula

• Product A (blue sunglasses) cost $100
• You make $8 earnings per sale (8% commission)
• If you sell 10 sunglasses a day it's $80 (x 7 = $560/week)

Go to Wordtracker and search blue sunglasses
Keyword volume is 1,433 visits/month (US)
Further down list is blue mirror sunglasses 678 visits/month (US)
Now you decided to promote blue mirror sunglasses

• Register the domain name bluemirrorsunglasses.com for $1
• Register hosting for $10/year
• Register SSL for $5/year
• Set up CMS
• Install e-commerce platform
• Add products (ONLY blue mirror sunglasses)
• Start to rank on Google after 3-4 weeks

That's what I did now I'm earning $50/day ($1500/month)

To do this successfully I cannot stress enough how important it is to read and apply the Google Webmaster Guidelines

 

[InMark98]

Example formula

• Product A (blue sunglasses) cost $100
• You make $8 earnings per sale (8% commission)
• If you sell 10 sunglasses a day it's $80 (x 7 = $560/week)

Go to wordtracker and search blue sunglasses
Keyword volume is 1,433 visits/month (US)
Further down list is blue mirror sunglasses 678 visits/month (US)
Now you decided to promote blue mirror sunglasses

• Register the domain name bluemirrorsunglasses.com for $1
• Register hosting for $10/year
• Register SSL for $5/year
• Set up CMS
• Install e-commerce platform
• Add products (ONLY blue mirror sunglasses)
• Start to rank on Google after 3-4 weeks

That's what I did now I'm earning $50/day ($1500/month)

I got it, so you did like a wocommerce store with affiliate products. It's a good idea, but the big difficulties that I face is traffic. SEO is very slow, am I wrong ?

 

[Honeybadger]

I got it, so you did like a wocommerce store with affiliate products. It's a good idea, but the big difficulties that I face is traffic. SEO is very slow, am I wrong ?

Not trying to be mean but SEO is not slow
You are slow at SEO
Just read and apply the Google Webmaster Guidelines
Same as you read and apply Google Ads Policies

 

[InMark98]

Not trying to be mean but SEO is not slow
You are slow at SEO
Just read and apply the Google Webmaster Guidelines
Same as you read and apply Google Ads Policies

I got you. I'll try to figure it out and see how it goes. Thank you

 

[Honeybadger]

I got you. I'll try to figure it out and see how it goes. Thank you

This is what I did

1. Go to Google Webmaster Guidelines
2. Copy and paste into Google Docs
   
3. Highlight each point
4. Create SEO checklist
5. Apply to your website

Be under no illusions
It takes A LOT of time and effort
There are easier ways to earn (PPC)

 

[InMark98]

This is what I did

1. Go to Google Webmaster Guidelines
2. Copy and paste into Google Docs
   
3. Highlight each point
4. Create SEO checklist
5. Apply to your website

Be under no illusions
It takes A LOT of time and effort
There are easier ways to earn (PPC)

I think what you achieved is logic, category pages, and product pages are easier to rank than a regular blog post with a bunch of keywords. especially if you find the right spot, I mean good search volume with low competition. I'll apply your method soon. good luck with your journey, I'm following

 

[InMark98]

Sorry, not to be mean; but WooCommerce is not meant for affiliate products --you are not the actual seller when you are an affiliate ... You are the marketer/salesman for the program/network/vendor of the product or offer.

So, you have set up a fake WordPress/WooCommerce e-commerce store with links or redirects? --if that is what you have done --you will not get much SEO or organic referrals.
_________________________________________________________

Interesting comments about the BLUE sunglasses --that's a micro niche with substantial interest --you are working smart ... However, now every copycat out there will 'attack' your niche now

Yes I know it's not for affiliate marketing, I said it's the same layout and design. It's like an ecommerce store but when click on check offer or order from you're redirected to affiliate product. Anyways, it's a smart idea especially if you focus on specific niche with low competition with enough SV to make sales

 

[Graybeard]

I got it, so you did like a wocommerce store with affiliate products. It's a good idea, but the big difficulties that I face is traffic. SEO is very slow, am I wrong ?

Sorry, not to be mean; but WooCommerce is not meant for affiliate products --you are not the actual seller when you are an affiliate ... You are the marketer/salesman for the program/network/vendor of the product or offer.

So, you have set up a fake WordPress/WooCommerce e-commerce store with links or redirects? --if that is what you have done --you will not get much SEO or organic referrals.
_________________________________________________________

Interesting comments about the BLUE sunglasses --that's a micro niche with substantial interest --you are working smart ... However, now every copycat out there will 'attack' your niche now

 

[InMark98]

I'll consider this option it sounds interesting, thanks for sharing . Are you doing AM in the same way?

 

[Honeybadger]

Interesting comments about the BLUE sunglasses --that's a micro niche with substantial interest --you are working smart ... However, now every copycat out there will 'attack' your niche now

There's millions of niches
More than enough for everyone

 

[Graybeard]

'like' i see now
I don't even consider WP or Woo
If you understand HTML/PHP/JS you can use Bootstrap4 to do that sort of thing --Mosaic (jQuery) would be an option also for a Pinterest type website.
Bootstrap

 

[AmNovice]

This is what I did

1. Go to Google Webmaster Guidelines
2. Copy and paste into Google Docs
   
3. Highlight each point
4. Create SEO checklist
5. Apply to your website

Be under no illusions
It takes A LOT of time and effort
There are easier ways to earn (PPC)

This is very good. I've only been interested in PPC but you definitely sold me more (good job lol) on looking into SEO!

Example formula

• Product A (blue sunglasses) cost $100
• You make $8 earnings per sale (8% commission)
• If you sell 10 sunglasses a day it's $80 (x 7 = $560/week)

Go to Wordtracker and search blue sunglasses
Keyword volume is 1,433 visits/month (US)
Further down list is blue mirror sunglasses 678 visits/month (US)
Now you decided to promote blue mirror sunglasses

• Register the domain name bluemirrorsunglasses.com for $1
• Register hosting for $10/year
• Register SSL for $5/year
• Set up CMS
• Install e-commerce platform
• Add products (ONLY blue mirror sunglasses)
• Start to rank on Google after 3-4 weeks

That's what I did now I'm earning $50/day ($1500/month)

To do this successfully I cannot stress enough how important it is to read and apply the Google Webmaster Guidelines

Quick question: How much content are you writing/putting out for this sort of strategy? Thanks!

Example formula

• Product A (blue sunglasses) cost $100
• You make $8 earnings per sale (8% commission)
• If you sell 10 sunglasses a day it's $80 (x 7 = $560/week)

Go to Wordtracker and search blue sunglasses
Keyword volume is 1,433 visits/month (US)
Further down list is blue mirror sunglasses 678 visits/month (US)
Now you decided to promote blue mirror sunglasses

• Register the domain name bluemirrorsunglasses.com for $1
• Register hosting for $10/year
• Register SSL for $5/year
• Set up CMS
• Install e-commerce platform
• Add products (ONLY blue mirror sunglasses)
• Start to rank on Google after 3-4 weeks

That's what I did now I'm earning $50/day ($1500/month)

To do this successfully I cannot stress enough how important it is to read and apply the Google Webmaster Guidelines

This is very good. I've only been interested in PPC but you definitely sold me more (good job lol) on looking into SEO! Quick question: How much content are you writing/putting out for this sort of strategy? Thanks!

 

[Honeybadger]

If you are doing no-SEO AM using ad networks Bootstrap is the best way to do it

Totally agree Bootstrap is best way for that