My 2nd Sale!

byhordol2013

462 followers

5 years ago

Yesterday, I officially made my second cloth diaper affiliate sale! My first sale was on December 15th, so this came just one month and one day later. I am pretty excited! I'm almost 4 months into this process, but have been working like crazy. I'm probably around 15-20 hours a week now, but was putting in 30+ when going through the training. It's been a time committment, but it's been so fulfilling and rewarding. Never in a million years did I ever think I had what it takes to have a successful website. I am hopeful for the future and can't wait to watch my business grow in 2019.

I should note, I'm not exactly sure if this counts as a second or third sale. I somehow have $7 in rewards for another affiliate program, but I have not gotten around to writing a post on that yet and have not promoted it, so no idea how that's possible. I think it's a mistake so I'm not counting it.

This official second sale was not an Amazon affiliate sale like my first one, so I still need to make 2 more Amazon sales in the next 2 months or so. I'm optimistic. We will see! Really hoping I do because I have almost 70 posts now, and replacing links would be a nightmare. But alas, it is what it is I guess.

I believe most of my sales are coming from people finding my website on Pinterest. Not totally sure, but unfortunately I'm not really climbing in the google rankings yet. The keywords for which I actually am supposedly ranking high aren't even the keywords I've targeted, and have very little to do with my subject, so that's disappointing. (Example: No idea how I'm supposedly number one (according to Google Webmaster Tools) for "Zarbee's". That is a homeopathic brand of children's supplements. I don't think I've ever mentioned that brand to my knowledge. I would also think Zarbee's own website would beat me? When I google it, I don't find myself. I question webmaster tool's accuracy sometimes...)

All that aside, I'm so excited to be seeing sales in my niche. The commission percentages aren't high (5% is standard for cloth diapers, and Amazon is 4% I believe) so I'm not rolling in the dough by any means. But this really goes to show you can make any niche into a profitable website.

Last week, I blogged about my worry that my niche might be dying. I was judging by the other cloth diaper blogs I visited, and they seemed pretty inactive in recent years. However, I've been exploring what little market research I've been able to find without paying $$$$, and I do think the niche is growing. Slowly, but growing. Google trends do show it slightly down since 2005, but that year a major brand was just introduced to the market, so I think it makes sense that there was a big spike in interest that year. Overall, it's still pretty steady. Exploring Google trends more and more, I was surprised to see how much more overall interest cloth diapers have than some of the more recent buzz words, like "zero waste." I think there is hope that this niche will start growing more and more. I was able to receive a sample of a market research report, and the info I was able to gather from that was encouraging and helped show me where I should put my focus in this niche.

Cloth diapers may be a small niche, but it's an industry that has been sustaining small and medium-sized businesses for years and years. I don't think it's going anywhere.

No doubt it's not the most lucrative niche though, lol! 5% commissions on $20 products will require lots and lots of sales. But I have other affiliate posts for other eco-friendly products with larger commissions, too, and I hope those posts will eventually take off.