Affiliate Marketing

Last month I published the second of my monthly Affiliate Income Report series with my June Affiliate Income Report, which is basically a report of how much income is being generated by me via affiliate marketing.  As is the case on most blogs that do similar reports each month, this has grown to be one of my most popular posts, so I figured I would continue it again this month.

July Affiliate Marketing Income Report

So, how’d I do?

• E-Junkie - $1916.60 ($1279.10)
• Clickbank - $181.90 ($159.64)
• Commission Junction - $0.00 ($4.79)
• Amazon Associates - $10.50 ($0.54)
• eBay Partner Network - $122.88 ($195.31)
• Other Miscellaneous Affiliates - $776.00 ($398.35)

• Gross Income: $3,007.88 ($2,037.73)
• Advertising Costs/Banners Purchased: $680.20 ($108.00)
• Total Net Income: $2,327.68 ($1,929.73)

**All numbers in quotes represent the previous months income figures**

July was a very interesting month for me personally.   I dropped promoting some of my BANS sites to see what would happen and it definitely made a difference in a bad way.  BANS is still generating great income though without purchasing PPC income and everything after the first three months has all been pure profit.   I always said that my goal with BANS was to get domains to pay for their own renewals so I can grow my domain portfolio (sitting at about 250 right now).   Going forward, my plan is to take my BANS income and start renewing the domains I want to keep now so that I won’t have so many come up for renewal all at once.  Google also trusts domains renewed out more than a year or two so this may have a positive influence on my site rankings as well.

The other thing you’ll probably notice right away is that both my E-Junkie income and my miscellaneous affiliate accounts both went up quite a bit.   My hope is that this is a trend that will continue, though I haven’t been able to pinpoint which changes made the big difference.   If I figure that out, I will share my findings in a future post!

You’ll also notice the expenses went up quite a bit.   For one, I had a number of domains come up for renewal.  Also, due to my lack of design abilities, I have been purchasing some new logos a few of my sites, and I also managed to make a couple significant domain name purchases that I am REALLY excited about.  I won’t be releasing any details at this time, but I have possession of the domains and will let you know when there are details to announce.

Expectations for August’s Online Income

I mentioned last month that I had a big project I was working on through July, and a couple of days ago you probably saw my announcement of that project, which was the Success with WordPress eBook.  Sales have been good so far and those that have read the eBook have given it some great reviews, so I hope this trend will continue (this income wasn’t disclosed above because it isn’t affiliate generated income).   Remember, even if you don’t want to purchase the book, you can make some extra income by promoting Success with WordPress.  See the affiliate page for additional information.

For the month of August, my hope is simply to get these two new domains developed and started generating some income.  In the meantime, I’m hoping my existing affiliate sites and blogs will continue to generate a similar income to July’s income.

A couple of emails and comments recently have come to me inquiring about why I don’t provide specific examples of my affiliate sites, BANS sites, etc.   While I certainly understand that it would be ideal if I provided specific sites you could click over and examine closely, there is actually a reason that I don’t.  Well, there are actually two reasons that I don’t, and I figured I would share them in this post.

1. Niche Theft - Maybe even more so than the Make Money Online niche, Affiliate Marketers (especially upstart ones) often take each others ideas.   That is why I stressed in my previous post how important it is to find people that you trust.   If I shared on this site which niche sites are making me the most money, I guarantee I would magically see several clone sites within a few days.  This is especially true for BANS sites, as it is pretty darn easy to mimic someone else’s BANS site because most of the changes will be in the stylesheet, which people ‘View Source’ and copy on to their BANS themes.
2. Experience - Trust me when I say that experience is HUGE in affiliate marketing.  In other words, no matter how much myself or anyone else helps you, you will only learn how to truly succeed through trial and error.   I would say 3 out of every 5 sites I launch fail, but these are the experiences that I covet the most and that motivate me to keep refining my techniques.

Though I encourage everyone just starting out to do plenty of trial and error, one thing I do recommend is once you find a niche that does well, or at least is profitable, attack that niche!   Make a cluster of websites in that niche before moving on.   An example would be if you find success in the Barbie (toy) niche, maybe launch a Barbie poster site, Barbie clothing site, and/or whatever other Barbie stuff is selling.   You could also inter-link these sites (as long as the content is similar) and benefit that way.

On a side note, I have launched a couple actual sites (not niche sites) and plan to blog about some of these sites here and what methods I’m taking to monetize them.  Hopefully some of you will have an interest in that.

You may have heard before about the four “P’s” of Marketing.   This is a common saying within the marketing niche to describe Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement.

This is something people will often think of when talking about marketing in our day-to-day lives, but I’ve found that it also extends itself well to internet marketing as a whole, and affiliate marketing specifically.

The Four P’s of Affiliate Marketing

1. Product - Researching and finding the right product to sell.  Would people want to buy this?  Is there are a lot of competition?
2. Price - This one goes two ways.  Is the product affordable to the consumer and is the affiliate payout worth your time?  Find a product that is in demand and that will pay you a decent share of the earnings (usually 20%+).
3. Promotion - Possibly the most commonly forgotten.  Most affiliate marketers use a variety of PPC tactics to get traffic, but there are also link building and article marketing methods to promote your new site(s).
4. Placement - Have you strategically placed your product on the correct domain name?  Especially when dealing with small niche sites, strong generic domains or strong keyword domains will go a long way to help you find success.

Many people think affiliate marketing is easy money.   In my June income report, I mentioned that I made around $2200.00, most of which was profit.   This was an accurate figure, but when you factor in roughly 40-50 hours a week working on it (on top of 40 hours at my day job), that only works out to about $10.00 an hour, which is nothing to get excited about.

The thing I like about this is that work I’ve done in the past continues to generate income each month, so the work I’m doing now will hopefully add to that income.   That is the brilliance of affiliate marketing, especially when a niche you find stays relevant for many years.

Overall, it is all about perspective and motivation, which is why I’ve worked so hard to set you guys up for success.  I have a bunch of things I’ve been trying, but have a lot more risk involved and I don’t want any of you to fail early on and get discouraged.   That is why my early focus has been on things like BANS and keyword sniping.   Things that at worst should make you your money back and help you get use to the world of affiliate marketing.