Affiliate Marketing Is Only a Starting Point (I Ditched My Website)
Hey everyone,
How have you all been?
It's been a while since my last blog post, and that's because I ditched my entire chess website that I had been working on since September 2023.
I let go of it for religious reasons — I'm Muslim, and chess can be impermissible in Islam in some cases.
I don't regret my decision one bit.
Even if we were to focus on the financial aspect, the chess niche isn't lucrative at all. Almost every chess blog that is somewhat successful financially would be a grandmaster's, and the main business model would be selling their courses and books.
(Would you agree, Eric?)
I was only an intermediate player who viewed chess as a hobby. Sure, there's the idea of promoting grandmasters' courses and other products and services, but how long was I going to do this for? There was no real tangible long-term plan.
New Beginnings
Since then, I've decided to switch things up and look at alternative ways of making money online.
The business model I'm trying now is something I like to call digital intermediation. Basically, you find a client who's looking for a service, and you find a provider of that service. You connect the two and earn a commission.
It sounds simple, but of course it takes a lot of time and effort. I still haven't made any money to this point, but then again, I've only been going at it for a couple of weeks, so that's natural.
Around a week ago, I thought I'd make a new website where I'll share my make-money-online journey with my fellow Muslims. My main business model won't be affiliate marketing, but I plan to have a few affiliate links here and there. I'll talk about WA when it's relevant, for example.
In my opinion, affiliate marketing is best when it's coupled with some main product or service you're trying to sell — not when it's the main business model.
Key Takeaway
The take-home message that I'm trying to get across is that affiliate marketing isn't the only thing you should consider.
Wealthy Affiliate is a platform that teaches affiliate marketing, but being immersed in this platform opens your eyes to so many online wealth generation opportunities.
Selling courses, eBooks, other digital products, consultation services, etc. The list goes on.
What the training lacks, members' experiences and blog posts make up for.
(Here, I'm talking about blog posts that are actually helpful, not the ones that scream of AI. Special shoutout to Diane, Mel, and previously Partha and Phil)
It's true that my first website didn’t bear many fruits financially, but I don’t consider it anywhere near a failure, because I learned so many new skills in these 8 months.
I learned how to build a website, how to design it, how to write articles, how to build a brand and establish a social media presence to market my website, how to build an email list, and so much more.
These skills will definitely come in handy in other online endeavours.
Thanks for reading,
Yusuf
Recent Comments
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Glad to see you are keeping at it and trying something new Yusuf. It's very interesting about chess being impermissible in Islam. I wasn't aware of that. I'm also curious to see if Eric chimes in here with his thoughts about the chess niche being lucrative or not. 😉
My observation is that "digital intermediation" sounds a lot like affiliate marketing, but maybe in the reverse order (?). In both cases, you are putting an interested audience together with products/services and making a commission for the referral.
Thank you Dave.
You make a very good point about the similarity with affiliate marketing, it didn't cross my mind!
The main distinction, though, is that you would look for prospects and reach out to them directly, rather than trying to garner traffic. Also, finding a reliable service provider is not as easy as just applying to an affiliate program.
It kinda reminds of of Angie's List (which is now just Angi). It's a service that puts people together with service providers.
Great to see you are still positive Yusuf, I feel the same in that I have learnt so much in the last year. My wife keeps asking me why I am still so into this project and I keep telling her that I am still learning every day and even if I stopped tomorrow i would still be really happy with the experience so far. I also get to to chat to cool people from all over the world :-)
Good luck with the new experiment and i look forward to reading about your success
Pete
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I appreciate your upbeat attitude about your skills you have learned even though you have decided to no longer do the chess website. I hope your new site will be successful and will be a great brand for you!
Take care and best wishes!
Karin
Thank you very much Karin!