How many affiliate sites do you maintain?
Personally, I have about 7 sites that earn some degree of revenue. A few of them earn a few dollars per week and the rest usually somewhere between $5-$15 per day. On a good day I might see triple digits, but those are pretty seldom -- usually once every month or two.
In addition to those, I have probably a half-dozen additional projects that I let wither, but most all of them I plan to revisit once I've gone through some of my basic training here at WA.
In my opinion, the fewer sites the better. I've had a bad habit of coming up with what I feel is the next big thing, only to lose steam once I failed to see conversions after months of hard work. I tend to dive into niches that interest me, yet aren't that easily monetized.
My advice to anyone starting out in this business would always be to pick one niche and concentrate on building the best possible site that you can, with the goal of utter domination. It is far better to have one site which receives 10,000 highly targeted visitors per day than it is to have 20 sites with 1,000 semi-targeted visitors. Not to mention, the value of a high traffic authority site is not only exponentially greater than having a number of lower quality sites, but also the opportunities for money-making become far greater. Doors begin to open and people and programs start contacting you to become a part of what you're doing.
Once that initial site has reached perfection, then it's time to begin the next one; however, if you at any point find that the project - no matter how hard you work at it - does not appear to be a viable business, then it may be time to look at a new niche. This is something I have a tough time with, but part of being successful in business is knowing when to increase your efforts and when to quit.
My plan for the immediate future is to laser-focus on a particular niche, while also maintaining a few other niche sites with the help of outsourcing. If you're just starting out, then it's likely you're a one-man-show, which means outsourcing is probably not an option. But that's ok, because I think it's extremely important - especially when starting a site - that you/me contribute all of the content in order to establish the tone, authority and standard of the site. Once those things are in place, and a few bucks are coming in, then looking to sites like eLance or TextBroker for additional content creators can be a worthwhile move.
Oh, shoot...looks like I rambled on like I always do...
Anyway, in regards to my topic, and if you don't mind answering...how many sites do you have? I'd love to know! Thanks!
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Here at WA I am focusing on one site at a time . There was a time where i thought that having multiple income streams was the way to go. But, then I thought I can't be true to one and make a decent income if I'm trying to promote several. Eventually when I am so freaking good for my own good, I will start up other sites......I want the awesome value for the site I am working on now.......It's all I can do to write content for one site. Maybe it's my age.....the brain cells are not like they used to be...lol
That's a great approach! I don't always practice what I preach because I have too much of a...
SQUIRREL!
...attention span, plus I am addicted to starting new projects.
But, if you can begin a project and then see it through to perfection, then and only then are you ready to start a new one. The good news is, that once a site is established and ranking, the effort needed to keep it going is much less than when you were getting it established.
It's also a good idea to loo into niches related to your 'mothership' site that aren't too demanding in terms of new and fresh content. Micro niche evergreen product sites can be great to promote and they don't require a ton of maintenance.
Thanks for sharing!
Very funny! I appreciate your tip on how to look into other niches that are related to my first site. My first is where I make all my mistakes, I expect to be better at this blog writing by the next one.
Have a super fantastic week!
Angela
This is good advice as I am just starting a second and third site. My thinking is that right now as a start up, I need to figure out where I will be most successful.
My primary site is where I put the most time and energy, but I've picked a niche with a lot of big players so it will take some time and I may never dominate! Appreciate your sharing, I don't know how you manage 7!
"...I don't know how you manage 7!"
Not very well, I can tell you that! ;)
I typically have one or two sites that I zero in on for awhile, but a few of them are pretty evergreen, so it's not like they need a ton of updating. Some of them, however, are very demanding.
In an ideal world, I'd like to be able to focus on the publishing - with my writing being more of a supplemental and targeted nature - then have outsourced writers handle the routine freshness. I mostly enjoy building sites, formatting content and enhancing the user experience. I like to write, but I don't have enough time to do it all.
Best advice I can give is to keep it simple. Choose a niche that you are passionate about, but make sure it's something you can be very conversational about, and where you can be an authority. If you have the chops, it is possible to compete in a larger niche -- it just takes a bit longer and it's harder work, but that's where the related niches come into play.
If you can become a big fish in a small pond, then it's easier to build from that and attack larger markets. I built a site that within 3 weeks had nearly 4k unique visitors per day. Some of that was from targeted search marketing, but some of it was a result of authority I passed over from an established and relevant site. You just need to uncover the information that people are searching for that is not being provided by anyone else.
And even if it already is being provided, if you can deliver a better user experience, you can rank.
Go after the low-hanging fruit first, then once you start learning the craft you can try to compete in the larger markets with some decent results. Larger markets aren't that hard to become visible in as long as you zero in on finite search terms with the aim to dominate them.
Thank you for sharing, I am in the middle of re thinking some things for my site and going to create a new site, like you said "laser focus on the one" and then have the other one as a little trickle income, or with luck it will do better than that.
Thank you for the post. Kim :))
With whatever you do, I think the most important thing you can do is establish a 'brand'. Concentrate on building the most dynamite site you can - even if it's not in the most profitable of niches. As long as it's something you can put your heart and soul into, you will find a way to monetize it.
I'll share a mini success story of mine...
Years ago I started what was to become my most popular site, but even on its best months, I was lucky to crack $500 in earnings. Time and time again I'd experiment with new ways to try and monetize this site for better profits, but to no avail. Until...one day a light bulb flashed above my head and I decided to build out a small niche site that was related to my 'main site', only that site focused on purchasable items.
Within 3 months that site was earning $400 per month, and within a year it was bringing in $10,000 annually.
The traffic is valuable and you can get it if you dive into a niche that you can sink your teeth into.
I'm sure there are others here with a lot better success stories, but that's one I can offer up. Start with your passion then work from there.
Technology is my passion, helping others with their technology is my passion, technology is important, technology holds the secret to the future of freeing the mind.
Think about that and you may see what that really means.
Kim :))
Keep at it and don't give up. It may be six months to a year before you start seeing anything worthwhile in terms of revenue, but it will come. Just keep writing and adding content - even when you think no one is reading, because they are. Best of luck!
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HI iArtisan
I want to ask u .wish affiliate site do u recommend to join ?
I am new here , and I do not know wish sites are better and trust worthy
Thanks for replying