Introductions Thread

Ryuzaki said:
Fantastic. Are your ebooks still pulling in any passive income? I know a lot of people chased Kindle sales like they were old school micro-niche sites. YouTube is similar still, but rapidly changing.

What's the angle on your new site? Is it strictly an SEO play? Are you going to sell your own products again?

Glad you joined, looking forward to learning from and sharing with you.
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Yes, the ebooks are still pulling in a little bit of money every month, nothing life-changing, but lower three figures. Really not bad for pieces I haven't touched in years.

As far as my new website goes, there are three lanes to my content strategy.
  1. News pieces. These are for building the community and building relationships with the brands I'm working with. Really short, <500 words, but they do manage to pull in a few branded SEO searches.
  2. Buyer intent posts. Easy enough. Partially SEO, but not focusing on it as far as writing goes.
  3. Long SEO articles. Top X lists, Best X, the basics. They're what I used in the beginning to jumpstart traffic, now I'm not publishing them as much.
I have a content writer for the 1st that I've trained to basically work on autopilot. What sources to use for content creation.

I'm working with 2 freelancers for the 2nd point. By next Friday they should both be up to speed as far as what I'm looking for from them. Looking forward to seeing how they improve the website overall.

Right now SEO plays a major role in traffic. So far this year, I'm looking at 80% organic, 11% direct, 7% social, and the rest referral and the almighty other. That's certainly not how I want it to look in the last 2 months of this year.

One thing I've learned is that push notifications are awesome. I get about 6x as many "sign-ups" with push notifications than email subscribers, and 12x as many clicks to the articles.

Sell my own products? I totally could, but I would leave the digital product realm and go into physical. I've been tossing around a few ideas, either starting my own brand in the same vertical and using this website as a promotion tool or starting a multi-vendor ecommerce section on the website. Or both.

But right now I'm focusing on affiliate marketing and selling ad space.

I cut my first post short, but I'm 2 months from graduation and am certainly on the cusp of being able to do this full time. I am looking for a job after graduation though, to a) push more money into this project and b) see how an agency works on the inside to see holes in my operations.
 
Hey Guys,

New to the forum, found out about this wonderful place after seeing Charle's youtube video about his case study of his tech affiliate site 3 month case study.

I got really intrigued that there was a community who were supportive when it comes to making you document your goals and actually have a somewhere you could have people help you through every step.

I mainly do client SEO and I am really happy with how it has been going over the past few years, I recently started my very first Amazon affiliate site and I am definitely looking to learn a thing or two in that arena.

Looking forward to being part of this great community! :smile:
 
Nice, glad to hear your client work is going well. Is this Amazon site your first attempt at a site of your own or just your first Amazon site?

Amazon sites aren't really too different from any other form of site. You'll need to do keyword research to find commercial keyword opportunities you can rank and then optimize for conversions and click-throughs to Amazon from there. And we need to support those commercial pages with information-intent pages, since Google is actively going after affiliate sites that are purely commercial in intent. From there it's all the same story. Get links, social shares, promote, get traffic from Google and elsewhere, make money!

If you start a thread about your project in The Laboratory section, people will definitely pipe in with their opinions, support, critiques, and all of that. Best of luck and hope to see you in there.
 
What's up BuSo!

I finally took the plunge and signed up after lurking around for a bit in the general threads I could find.

Quick rundown:
  • Previous contractor with Google
  • Previous contractor with Bing Ads
  • Previous contractor with Nielsen Data - Facebook division
  • Been online for a decade doing all sorts of shit
  • Been everything from Director of Marketing down to a Greenhorn data analyst
  • Building custom systems/workflows is kinda my thing. If I can automate and leverage multiple systems doing the work of a team of 50, I'll bootstrap and get it all running swimmingly.
  • Helped take a fledgling fitness company and turn it into a 100 location franchise program via local marketing
  • Helped take a fledgling IT company and grow it to $1.5 million a month in 6 months (current stint)
  • About to launch my own blog/brand/business service for online entrepreneurs, building game plans, execution maps, tool resources and more for everything from digital nomads to starting up pay per lead agencies
  • The best way I can describe the info I have stored in my head is a Rolodex full of Lego blocks, and talking to online businesses like you all and others helps me get that gunk out and into the real world as someone's business plan, complete with roadmap.
Personal shit:
  • Live shows
  • Whiskey and bourbon
  • Cigars for daaaaaaaays
  • Here for a good time, not for a long time
  • All about helping out when I can.
Glad to be here!

Colonel Kurtz
 
Hey man, Thanks for dropping a reply!

It's my first Amazon site, so learning the ropes of how a site should be laid out in terms of structure and content.

So I need to pad out my site with more informational content that commercial pages right? Then interlink everything in a silo structure as with most location based SEO for clients.

I have the links, social shares, promotion down, as I do this for my clients. It's just getting the site laid out correctly along with some good informational content.

I will look into doing a Journal in The Laboratory section as I would really love the support along the journey!
 
Kurtz,

I'm glad you found us. That's quite the amount of experience and skill set you've gathered over the years.

Have you considered putting these skills to use for yourself outside of the meta-activity of doing it for others? Like starting your own businesses or buying small ones in order to grow them and flip for a large profit? I can imagine that if you're able to negotiate for a percentage of increased revenue there's no real need.
 
Ryuzaki said:
Have you considered putting these skills to use for yourself outside of the meta-activity of doing it for others? Like starting your own businesses or buying small ones in order to grow them and flip for a large profit? I can imagine that if you're able to negotiate for a percentage of increased revenue there's no real need.
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@Ryuzaki absolutely, I'm in the process of building out a personal branding site with a lot of trainings recorded for various types of clients, alongside run a PPL business in the home services niche. Having a lot of luck beating out HomeAdvisor and some of the other big boys on a local scale with a couple button clicks and waiting 12 hours to take the leads/calls.

I've been toying with the idea of revshare deals, but with the personal site and the PPL management, it's a bit to handle all at once. Once I can get passive and shove about 4 VAs in my seats for doing fulfillment, I'll be good to explore that option and find a partner who wants to make their competition hurt.
 
Hey all

Found my way here via Jason's podcast about core values (or alignment on here) and interested to see what you guys are up to. I have been self employed within affiliate marketing / SEO / web development for over 14 years now and just about to pull all 3 of our kids out of school and head off around Europe in a motorhome (RV) full time home / road schooling them :smile:

Thanks
 
That's interesting. Will you have access to decent internet enough to maintain your properties? Are you sustaining yourself with SEO & Affiliate Marketing or are you mixing it up with client web development work?

14 years is a long time. You've seen it all, essentially. I miss the glory days around 5-10 years ago when it was all wide open for the taking. I should have taken far greater advantage during that time.

Glad to have you onboard.
 
Wow, what an introduction reading Day One of the Crash Course!

My name is Tom Livingstone, easynow everyone!

I found this Society through a friend Charles Floate who is killing it, and after spending just a few hours absorbing the forum, I think I've just lucked in. Everyone seems super helpful.

Being 33, I was a late starter to the game. I've been in SEO for around 6 years first off as an exec, then working through the ranks at various agencies before partnering up with a sales dude 2 years ago to launch an agency. We're 11 staff strong now, with scaled systems and processess in operation allowing me the freedom to dive into my next venture...

Affiliate.

I'm about to start building an affiliate empire. I've set up a new company, I've got around £5000 budget initially. The beauty of this budget is I have access to a dev, a content team, and an outreach team, which is going to keep overheads super low.

Now I'm not naive to the challenges I'm going to face. I've got a lot to learn, but I'm fucking hungry for this.

I'm going to start a follow along in the Laboratory later on where I will go into more detail and my initial strategy. I'd love to hear from others that have been where I am.

I will participate and help where i can in other threads as well.

First things first, read the crash course over the next few days and then get my research head on and unearth those low competition, high spend niches with massive amounts of buying intent.

Anything I should know before I get stuck in?

Till the next time...
 
Thanks for the warm welcome.

I'm sustaining myself mostly through SEO / CRO combined with web development for eCommerce clients these days but still do smaller WordPress based work for some clients. I'm not doing much affiliate marketing wise these days as the industries I was in are either not as profitable as they were or too competitive now. I plan to use campsite WiFi, cafes as well as multiple 4G sim cards and plans to keep connected whilst on the road to maintain everything but will let you know how it goes!
 
Welcome, you'll be in a good spot since you have some experience.

It's a whole different world working on your own brand new site versus some company's established site, which is why one of the things I'd suggest you look into with some of your budget is either:
  • Buying an aged domain with a decent link profile in the niche you want to tackle, maybe with some content you can resurrect.
  • Buying an aged and live site that already has links and content but not much traffic. You can then optimize the content, get links, and add more content.
Either one will give you a head start. If you start on a new domain, you can expect to work for about a year before you start seeing any really good results. It's simply how Google is throttling everyone to try and dissuade spammers.

Looking forward to your Lab thread!
 
Cheers!

Yeah I won't be starting any on a new domain, I'll buy a v.good aged domain. Buying a live site is something I'm considering for sure :happy:
 
Hey BuSo, it's been a while so I figured I'm overdue for a re-introduction, lots of new faces here.

I took a break from forum posting, Skype chats, FB groups, Discord... all that stuff, for quite a while. I just wanted to keep my head down, there's a point where you know enough to do the work, and anything else is just procrastination.

'Origin Story'
I was introduced to a lot of the IM world through the lens of a pretty toxic forum where I know a lot of you also came from, and I think that gave me kind of a jaded view, so taking some time away was really good for me. I was never a super toxic person, but I'd definitely waste too much time on lols and being unproductive, and needed to mature as this industry matured.

I'm way more interested in being helpful and kind to people now, whereas years ago I was probabally a lot more interested in shooting the shit. If neither of those had a measurable ROI, at least one of them could be useful to somebody else.

I've been in maintaining-mode for a while, and now I'm looking to grow and catch up on some things I should have been doing for years. I found some old "to do" lists from ages ago, and they're way too similar to my current to do lists, it's like I've been living Groundhog Day.

In the meantime, I had been honing my skills on some pretty cool projects, but they weren't my own. Now, I'm looking to put everything I've learned and practiced into use in a bigger way.

I started off writing for clients, and I've been doing that since the beginning (on and off, depending on what I had going on at the time), but it's always been something that I saw as more of a stepping stone.

"I'll write for other people's sites until my own stuff is earning enough that I don't have to anymore...", and that's been the case before, where I've built sites, sold them, "but just when I thought I was out, they dragged me back in!"

I never promoted myself properly because I got a lot of word of mouth and repeat clients, or clients who would give me as much work as I could handle, which ultimately lead to complacency and me relying too much on other people. I've advertised my writing services one time, on a small forum, probabally about 7 years ago, and just rolled with it ever since.

I was doing pretty well, with a solid stable of clients that kept me very busy and well fed, but coincidentally most of it wrapped up around the same time last summer, like within a week or two my 3 biggest clients were done with their projects for various reasons (Good reasons, like selling the business, or my work being finished.)

Realization #1: Steering Into It
I had the realization that I was trying to steer away from what I'm good at, and using it like some kind of escape plan for something bigger, but different and unrelated.

I've done the SEO content thing, I've done viral articles that have had millions of readers, I've had my content shared by some of the internet's biggest creators, I've assembled and managed large, successful teams of writers --- so why the hell am I trying to get AWAY from this, instead of steering directly into it?

What I mean by seeing my writing business as an escape plan is that I would think along the lines of writing enough articles to save up enough money to afford to:

- Have an app developed,
- Or master paid traffic,
- Or to give me enough free time to start a blog about "The Best Dog Toys" or whatever topic I was completely uninterested in that had search volume and buyer potential...

I was using my writing business as a path towards something unspecified and unrelated, instead of focusing on growing the business I was already running, that I enjoy doing, and that I'm great at.

Steering into it means that I can still learn paid traffic, I can still have an app developed, I can still blog... but why on earth wouldn't I learn paid traffic promoting my content business, why on earth wouldn't I make an app that helps writers or helps me serve clients, why am I not blogging about creating content?

Realization #2: Auditing my Goals
I completely neglected setting goals that fit with my personality and what I actually want to achieve, so not only did I not invest myself fully in achieving them, but even if I DID, that's not really a win. I'm not a hotshot billionaire CEO type of person who wants all of the responsability that comes with it - not to mention the incredible work it takes to get there, and I think realizing this was an important moment.

I have respect for the people who are striving for that, and maybe what I'm saying is blasphemy in some circles, but it's just not my goal. Obviously I'd love to have a billion dollars, but I'm not prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. I think that's okay, and I think acknowledging it has helped me a lot.

There are people who aspire to step over the skulls of their competitors as they ruthlessly climb to the top of their field, and that's a really helpful trait to have in business, but I just don't have it. I think I bought into a lot of the romanticized ideas about success and entrepreneurship, without taking the time to think about what I want.

Realization #3: Fostering the Right Energy
I think some people get charged from debating online, or calling someone out on their BS and having a back-and-forth, it's like a fuel for them. For me, it leaves me feeling anxious and drained, and it took way too long to realize that. On the other hand, being more positive leaves me feeling motivated and charged, so avoiding engaging in negativity stops the drain, and actively seeking more positive encounters is a huge boost. This is some pretty basic Barney The Dinosaur stuff, but making a point to acknowledge it and remember it has been huge for me.

What's Next?
Continuing to work on the things I mentioned above, and applying them to my business.

Doing less things that don't matter, and getting better at the stuff that does.

In less abstract terms, I'm going to continue working on my projects, and continue serving clients, but I'm going to do a better job of leveraging my skills and making sure everything that I'm spending time on is aligned.
 
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Potatoe said:
I took a break from forum posting, Skype chats, FB groups, Discord...
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Me too. I had trimmed down my contacts list to about 50 users and left every chat but one that had a lot of friends in it. It was made easy since Penguin essentially killed off a lot of the low-level SEO community. All that's left is the dirty bottom level of spammers that can't form a coherent sentence. I ultimately dropped Skype altogether except my private account that my small inner circle has contact with. I chat with about 4 people total these days, irregularly. My productivity is way up.

Potatoe said:
I've been in maintaining-mode for a while
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I did a similar thing where I tried to bootstrap everything for a few years when I sold my last money-earning properties and was sitting on cash but had no cash flow. It worked out and I'm back to a full time income, but had I invested (in content) I'd possibly have gotten there faster. It's hard to break out of that habit once you're there, but I'm trying. I've been paying for guest posting and some content but I'm really about to ramp up my spending on content. If we aren't scaling our efforts we'll never break past where we're at, we'll just maintain altitude, and that's dangerous in this game.

Potatoe said:
Obviously I'd love to have a billion dollars, but I'm not prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.
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There's a problem with these type of goals that help people sabotage themselves, too. Everyone says "Shoot for the stars and you'll at least hit the moon" or whatever. That sounds good from an outside perspective but anyone who's been in the trenches knows that those aren't S.M.A.R.T. goals with any specificity. Everything has to be chunked and tackled one rung of the ladder at a time. Sure, you can get systems in place to hit 2 and 3 rungs at a time, but nobody goes from the Earth to Neptune in one leap. There's lots of planets in between to stop at, get accustomed to their atmospheres and ecosystems, and learning what it takes to launch to the next planet in line.

Great post, there's lots all of us can take away from it and apply to our own lives and businesses.
 
I am new to the Amazon affiliate marketing program and I got some questions before I submit my application. I have already set up the site and uploaded three articles. My question is:

After how many articles should I consider applying to the Amazon Affiliates Program?

Thanks.
 
I'm not sure there is a precise answer to this but I would recommend that you consider that Amazon doesn't want affiliates that use thin, ugly or unhelpful sites where possible.

With this in mind, I would try to cover a topic in at least some reasonable depth, make your site attractive and have a regular publish rate before applying. If you want a precise number of articles, having 30 to 40 articles on your site seems like a reasonable number before applying.
 
Three articles will likely get your application rejected. They regularly disapprove sites for having "thin content".

I agree with @Prentzz above. I'd try to have 25-30 articles or so with substantial text with a bare minimum of 500 words per post. Don't have it all be quotes from other reviews or just rewrites of the technical specifications and crap that can be found elsewhere. They look at all of that.

Even if your goal is to have shorter posts that you can fire out faster, you need to go above and beyond at the start so you can get accepted into the program. Then you can slack a little bit, but be aware that they routinely check sites and ban people later for the same offenses that they reject applications for. I'm not saying that's your intention, it's just a heads up.

Also, they have some newer expectation that you get a certain number of sales in the first 3 months (I think). So there's also that hurdle to leap. And you can't fake it by ordering from your own site or having family or friends do it. They know, they're a huge data company. It's got to be legit sales.

You can do it though! All of the work you do in making great content and an attractive site design will also help you get your first sales. Best of luck.
 
Ryuzaki said:
Three articles will likely get your application rejected. They regularly disapprove sites for having "thin content".

I agree with @Prentzz above. I'd try to have 25-30 articles or so with substantial text with a bare minimum of 500 words per post. Don't have it all be quotes from other reviews or just rewrites of the technical specifications and crap that can be found elsewhere. They look at all of that.

Even if your goal is to have shorter posts that you can fire out faster, you need to go above and beyond at the start so you can get accepted into the program. Then you can slack a little bit, but be aware that they routinely check sites and ban people later for the same offenses that they reject applications for. I'm not saying that's your intention, it's just a heads up.

Also, they have some newer expectation that you get a certain number of sales in the first 3 months (I think). So there's also that hurdle to leap. And you can't fake it by ordering from your own site or having family or friends do it. They know, they're a huge data company. It's got to be legit sales.

You can do it though! All of the work you do in making great content and an attractive site design will also help you get your first sales. Best of luck.
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Thank you for the guidance. I think I will have to do 40 in-depth articles (about 1500 words each) before I can apply. I appreciate your support and I hope this goes well.
 
Ernest Dancy said:
I think I will have to do 40 in-depth articles
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That should be a good place to start.

I can't say what will or won't get you approved, but I can tell you my experience. I recently (within the last couple months) went through the application process and got approved. I had less than 40k words. I think it was about 30 posts at the time they reviewed.

I only had one straight up review ("best of") article, however, with the rest being informational and tutorial type articles. Just make sure your articles are adding value and original (I would want to do this regardless). Also be sure to have contact, about page set up, disclaimer in footer or on every page somewhere.

I do know that in the past if they rejected it because of 'thin site' then you are welcome to reapply. But of course that policy could change at any time. Good luck and keep us updated.
 
Ernest Dancy said:
@Seabiscuit
Do you mean I should add the affiliate disclaimer before I submit my application.
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Not to speak for Seabiscuit, but yes. That's one of their rules. They're not going to accept your site if you're not following their rules. I would go ahead and have that in place when you apply.

Also, you don't have to have it on every page. It can be on a separate page that is linked site-wide, such as a "Privacy Policy" style page.
 
Hey everyone!

My name is Matt and I'm 28 years old, originally from North Carolina. I've been studying and reading up on Affiliate Marketing (mainly SEO) for awhile now, I'd say almost 7 years or more. I'm one of those "Study, Read, Read" but never really take meaningful action kind of folks. I'm getting better though, and am forcing myself to take action even if it's not perfectly planned out.

I've always been interested in technology, building websites and programming since I was a kid, and I loved the "technical" side of SEO and using tools like Scrapebox and GSA. I'm also infatuated by the lifestyle it affords - working for myself is one of my dreams and being able to travel as well is just icing on top of the cake.

I've made probably around 5 websites, and none of them have really taken off. I have made some money though so I know it's possible.

I'm currently focused on three websites that I am fairly confident will bring in money if they are done right. I'm working on getting my marketing and copy writing skills up, something I totally neglected back in the day. I would also like to create some landing pages and pay for traffic to them, and see if I can sell things.

I definitely have a laziness issue and also some mental blocks that do a really good job of sabotaging my work. I check my results way too often, and lately there has been no result to check which puts me in a depression and throws off my mindset. I should see a lack of results as motivation to work harder, but my mind goes directly to "You're a failure, you can't do this, you could never run a business on your own".

Some other things I'm trying to work on:
  • Time management
  • "Getting Out There" more (I'm introverted and dislike social situations, this is one of the main things holding me back I believe. I think finding a community like this will do wonders for me)
  • Eliminating distractions and narrowing down the most important task I need to be working on.
  • Staying on track and sticking to the plan

Some things I think I'm fairly good at:
  • Web development and other technical aspects
  • Creating good content
  • Learning new concepts
Thanks for reading, I'm happy to be a member of the Builder Society!
 
Hey Matt, nice to see you here! Always room for more web devs. You sound a bit like me in the programming dept. I started coding back in the 80s when I was 12 or so and it has been a passion I've been able to make a living with. Looking forward to hearing about your projects, especially the web dev aspect.
 
WaveRunner said:
even if it's not perfectly planned out
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I would 100% say that any action is better than no action or delayed action. Later on, not planning your moves may restrict your growth when you need to focus on "needle moving" activities. But at the beginning, you're better off planting a ton of seeds, so that you have some data to guide your decision making process. Sometimes you do have to throw shit at the wall so you can find out where the real target is. That's when you start planning carefully.

WaveRunner said:
I'm currently focused on three websites that I am fairly confident will bring in money if they are done right.
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You'll find a lot of people here, specifically @CCarter, encouraging people to focus on one project at a time. Everything is far more competitive at this point, so splitting your attention and energy reduces every projects chances at success. Having 3 or 5 projects rocking and rolling might have the benefit of being able to look at which is doing the best so you know which to focus on. But in general, until you've found success and are outsourcing most of the work, narrowing your focus is going to increase your chances of getting where you want to be.

WaveRunner said:
I check my results way too often, and lately there has been no result to check which puts me in a depression and throws off my mindset.
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Yeah, if you're focusing on SEO exclusively, frequent checking of results in the first 6 months and even a year is going to disappoint you. That's what Google does. They demoralize spammers by delaying results for a long time, and it affects us all. If you want immediate results you have to jump into some active marketing on social media, outreach campaigns, and anything else that can send traffic now.

Glad to have you around. Sounds like you have experience, knowledge, and even a few launch pads to boost off of. I predict success in your future!
 
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