Like the title suggests, I consider myself a 3 time newbie. I have a somewhat long winded post here, but please bear with me.
I started affiliate marketing about 1 1/2 years ago. I read a lot, did research, and began my journey. As I searched for guidance online, I found this forum. I lurked, read experiences, questions and advice. I knew I was ready and I dove right in. I was able to buy a domain, hosting, and built my site using Dreamweaver. I had a few affiliates and got my site online. When the site went live, I was able to gain more affiliates that would manually approve, since I had an active site. I had quickly gained over 300 affiliates through 4 affiliates providers. I was so proud of my site, and thought it was perfect. I had met someone that also did affiliate marketing and I started bragging about my site. I sent the link to him, and was crushed with the response. His response was something about a banner farm, and wanted to know where all of my content was. My initial reaction was that neither he, nor anyone on this forum knew what the hell they were talking about... out of frustration, and denial, however I knew deep down he was right. Within 2 weeks of going live, I had my first sale, which quickly was followed by 3 others. Wow, 4 sales in a week, I really had something going. I found out that ever sale I had was from family. My traffic was terrible. I had no return visits, my bounce rate was very high. I knew I was screwed, and after 2 months of working on it everyday....I took a break. Affiliate fatigue had set in with massive frustration.
A couple of months ago, I had gotten a renewal notice for my site and my hosting account. I had virtually abandoned it. I knew I had to regroup and not give up. I knew that I had violated every rule of a newbie, and vowed to be successful. I published a new site, on a different platform, with different techniques. I worked everyday for 3 months on building content and keeping my site fresh. I was ranking on google searches verified by google analytics, my traffic was dismal, and my clicks were minimal. This occurred this past Christmas of 2012, less than a month ago. I worked so hard on this new product, but again, it was not working. I had a suspicion of what was wrong and I intended to change it. I saw a sale on a site for 99 cent domains, and I thought really hard about what direction I wanted to go.
I had really thought about the posts I read here. I thought about getting out of the retail niche, and 300 affiliates (which was impossible to keep up with) and I bought several domain names dedicated to a niche. The niche I chose was something I enjoy. I had a good idea, I purged my affiliates to under 30. I learned from all of the mistakes I had made from both experiences. I found a theme that fit my vision, and I soon had another product. I launched my site, after all of the lessons I had learned from my first 2 attempts. I continued to push forward even though I had failed....failed 2 other times. my 3rd time as a newbie, I think I found a formula that works. I have had more traffic in one week than in a year with both my other sites. I have real subscribers, and real people that joined my forum. I have real return visitors. It feels amazing to work on something that people are using. I have developed a formula that so far is working. I have been online for 6 days, and have been more successful as far as traffic, clicks, sales, in 7 days than in one year. My time visitors time on site has gone from :05 with a bounce rate of 64% to :06:31 and a bounce rate of 7.74% I am not saying that I know everything, I am simply stating I have found a formula and a niche that is effective.
The lessons I have learned as a newbie, and still a newbie, I would like to share. I have learned:
1. Pick your niche...you may want to have a retail site, however pick something specific that you are interested in, such as camping.
2. Do not apply to more affiliates than you can handle. My email was overloaded, and I could not handle all of them. when you nail down a niche, it is much easier to handle only those in your niche.
3. Not all content on your site needs to be from your affiliates. I made a point in my other sites to make sure everything i posted was affiliate related.
4. Have real content...give your visitors something they will enjoy, and make them want to come back.
5. Be different.... know what your competitors are doing, and do it differently. I found out that my competitors had suggestion areas on thier sites or forums, and I read these, and took those to heart and tried to make mine better.
6. Have personality and be yourself. Do not try to appeal to everyone....
I could go on and on...but I am sure if you made it this far you are ready to ban me from posting. In closing, please do not give up! I had failed 2 times. I have still not succeeded. Being just online a week, I have so much more to learn. So far my niche is working, and I urge you to learn, be passionate, be original, and improvise, adapt, and overcome.
I truly apologize about the HUGE....long winded post. It has taken me a 1 1/2 years to get here and I am thrilled the product I have put together is working. It is working because of a combination of what I have learned from this forum, 2 failures, and not quitting. Thank You for this forum, and your support.
I started affiliate marketing about 1 1/2 years ago. I read a lot, did research, and began my journey. As I searched for guidance online, I found this forum. I lurked, read experiences, questions and advice. I knew I was ready and I dove right in. I was able to buy a domain, hosting, and built my site using Dreamweaver. I had a few affiliates and got my site online. When the site went live, I was able to gain more affiliates that would manually approve, since I had an active site. I had quickly gained over 300 affiliates through 4 affiliates providers. I was so proud of my site, and thought it was perfect. I had met someone that also did affiliate marketing and I started bragging about my site. I sent the link to him, and was crushed with the response. His response was something about a banner farm, and wanted to know where all of my content was. My initial reaction was that neither he, nor anyone on this forum knew what the hell they were talking about... out of frustration, and denial, however I knew deep down he was right. Within 2 weeks of going live, I had my first sale, which quickly was followed by 3 others. Wow, 4 sales in a week, I really had something going. I found out that ever sale I had was from family. My traffic was terrible. I had no return visits, my bounce rate was very high. I knew I was screwed, and after 2 months of working on it everyday....I took a break. Affiliate fatigue had set in with massive frustration.
A couple of months ago, I had gotten a renewal notice for my site and my hosting account. I had virtually abandoned it. I knew I had to regroup and not give up. I knew that I had violated every rule of a newbie, and vowed to be successful. I published a new site, on a different platform, with different techniques. I worked everyday for 3 months on building content and keeping my site fresh. I was ranking on google searches verified by google analytics, my traffic was dismal, and my clicks were minimal. This occurred this past Christmas of 2012, less than a month ago. I worked so hard on this new product, but again, it was not working. I had a suspicion of what was wrong and I intended to change it. I saw a sale on a site for 99 cent domains, and I thought really hard about what direction I wanted to go.
I had really thought about the posts I read here. I thought about getting out of the retail niche, and 300 affiliates (which was impossible to keep up with) and I bought several domain names dedicated to a niche. The niche I chose was something I enjoy. I had a good idea, I purged my affiliates to under 30. I learned from all of the mistakes I had made from both experiences. I found a theme that fit my vision, and I soon had another product. I launched my site, after all of the lessons I had learned from my first 2 attempts. I continued to push forward even though I had failed....failed 2 other times. my 3rd time as a newbie, I think I found a formula that works. I have had more traffic in one week than in a year with both my other sites. I have real subscribers, and real people that joined my forum. I have real return visitors. It feels amazing to work on something that people are using. I have developed a formula that so far is working. I have been online for 6 days, and have been more successful as far as traffic, clicks, sales, in 7 days than in one year. My time visitors time on site has gone from :05 with a bounce rate of 64% to :06:31 and a bounce rate of 7.74% I am not saying that I know everything, I am simply stating I have found a formula and a niche that is effective.
The lessons I have learned as a newbie, and still a newbie, I would like to share. I have learned:
1. Pick your niche...you may want to have a retail site, however pick something specific that you are interested in, such as camping.
2. Do not apply to more affiliates than you can handle. My email was overloaded, and I could not handle all of them. when you nail down a niche, it is much easier to handle only those in your niche.
3. Not all content on your site needs to be from your affiliates. I made a point in my other sites to make sure everything i posted was affiliate related.
4. Have real content...give your visitors something they will enjoy, and make them want to come back.
5. Be different.... know what your competitors are doing, and do it differently. I found out that my competitors had suggestion areas on thier sites or forums, and I read these, and took those to heart and tried to make mine better.
6. Have personality and be yourself. Do not try to appeal to everyone....
I could go on and on...but I am sure if you made it this far you are ready to ban me from posting. In closing, please do not give up! I had failed 2 times. I have still not succeeded. Being just online a week, I have so much more to learn. So far my niche is working, and I urge you to learn, be passionate, be original, and improvise, adapt, and overcome.
I truly apologize about the HUGE....long winded post. It has taken me a 1 1/2 years to get here and I am thrilled the product I have put together is working. It is working because of a combination of what I have learned from this forum, 2 failures, and not quitting. Thank You for this forum, and your support.
