Accidental Affiliate - Part 3

byhalinphilly

2.4K followers

Updated 7 years ago

Brief Recap

If you haven't read the first two parts, here are the links in case you want to get caught up. Reading the first two parts is now completely necessary , however, to get some enjoyment and benefit from Accidental Affiliate - Part 3

Part 1
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.co...

Part 2
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.co...

Dr. Demento

When I left off in Part 2, I was telling you how I managed to get a song voted to the top two of the Funny Five on Dr. Demento's popular radio show in the 1990's. Once I had gotten a taste of the social power of this new thing called the Internet, there was no turning back...

While this was happening, I had been developing some skills in developing websites. And now that I had a song of mine actually played on the radio, well, naturally, I thought myself to be a great "expert". Little did I know how little I knew, but I was too enmeshed in my own projects to see that at the time.

My next step was to build my own website to help develop my HTML skills, learn to be proficient in Photoshop, and learn audio/video formats fro the web such as Quicktime, Matchbox, RealAudio animated GIF's, etc. Most of us back then had a 28k or 56k modem. If you wanted to be in the website business, you had to have DSL which is still blazingly slow by today's standards. At any rate (pun intended), I got DSL as soon as it was available.

And Then It Hit Me

While all this stuff was going on online, something else happened offline. I was a member of an organization called NAS (National Acacemy of Songwriters). One day, about not too long before all this internet stuff came along, I was in the NAS offices in Hollywood and, while browsing their book section, caught site of a little blue book called, L. A. Open Mics. It was a listing of all the places in and around Los Angeles that featured live music and hd an open mic night. Often times, venues would hire musicians form their open mic nights for paid gigs, so it was also akin to an audition in some cases. I think they were selling this little blue book for about 5 dollarss. I was a lover of open mic nights, so I made a mental note to pick up a copy of the book in the near future. I knew of and had performed at a few open mics, but I was always searching for new venues.

Shortly after the New Year, when the holidays had ended and Dr. Demento was no longer playing, "I Met Santa On the Internet"on his Sunday radio show, I was in Hollywood, and stopped in the NAS offices to pick up a copy of the Open Mic Listings book.

It. Was. GONE!

I asked the guy at the desk if they were getting any more copies in and said, "I think the guy that publishes the book stopped doing it." I was dumbfounded.

"Why?", I asked.

He replied, "I think it was too difficult for the guy to keep up with the changes. A lot of open mics come and go within a year and he could only afford to update his guidebook once a year... so it wasn't worth it." And then it hit me...

My New Niche...

Songwriters! What better way to keep songwriters and musicians informed and up to date about the latest open mics and showcases than a website. I decided I would find every bar, restaurant, hotel, motel and coffee house that had live music and post a guide with my personal reviews about every one of them. I would make it my mission to personally perform at every one within driving distance and have my musician friends keep my informed about the ones closer to them. I would review every aspect from the parking, to the host to the ambience, the rules they had for participants and keep it updated daily. The internet afforded capabilities that the little blue book never could.

There was also another reason I wanted to create this site. Since I was able to take that silly little novelty song from obscurity to #2 of the Funny Five on the Dr. Demento Show, I thought I could inspire other songwriters to follow their passion. So, my songwriting site was born. I was even able to get a well known independent music publisher and also a New York music attorney to contribute articles to fill it out quite a bit with some great content.

I signed up for Link Exchange and Web Rings which helped me network the site with other site of the same or related niches.

I got a local music teacher and a guitar repair shop to buy banner adds on my pages and even some of the venues paid me for enhanced listings in my open mic guide and showcase guide. The author of several books about music and internet promotion, actually called to offer me a commission for sales of his book. My site was actually bringing in extra income!

The Accidental Affiliate

Then it happened. In 1996, Amazon announced this thing called the "Amazon Affiliate Program". Suddenly, you could sell Amazon products and get paid a commission. Back then, if someone clicked on your affiliate link, they would get a 30 day cookie, which means that if they didn't buy anything right away, but went back a week or two later and purchased something, I would still get credit for the sale. So, of course I signed up!

I created a book store within my site and hand selected a huge selection of books for songwriters and musicians, reviewed some music gear and audio equipment and pretty soon, I was making money from my little book store. It wasn't huge money, but it was a nice supplemental income. And I did all of this without any instruction. Just basic instinct.

Wealthy Affiliate Today

So where am I now? Why did I discontinue work on this amazing sounding website?Several reasons. Here are a few...

1. Well, for one, it was an incredible time-suck for me. In retrospect, perhaps I could have stuck it out or collaborated with someone else to keep it updated. It is, in fact still there, so I have that option.

2. Hackers got into my Forum, which had become my means of keeping the guide updated by outside contributors. Unlike SiteRubix, I didn't have the security or support with my host at the time to keep the message board from constantly being hacked and spammed. Eventually, one of those menaces completely erased the entire board and my then hosting company (Visionhead) - gave me no support whatsoever.

3. Others picked up where I left off. As the internet grew, proffesional songwriting organizations came online and pretty much took over most every aspect I was covering. I couldn't compete with their resources, and to be honest, I felt some of them did a much better job more effortlessly than I could.

No, I have a new niche and a new website here at WA. Yes, I have virtually started over from scratch and hve made very little money so far. The difference is, THIS time. I am doing it the right way; building a strong foundation and monetizing, marketing and promoting step by step. I know, having done it before, that I will absolutely do it again, because this time, it won't be by accident.

And once I get this running smoothly and can maintain my site with just a little effort each week, I'ill be starting Affiliate Bootcamp and begin yet another site!

Stay positive. Stay focused. You got this!