LYNN.....NEED ADVICE ON A MASSIVE ONLINE PROJECT.

[grafx77]

Dear Lynn and/or anyone else who has advice to share,


I have been working diligently on my first affiliate website for a few weeks now. By the time I complete everything I have mapped out on paper for the website, this will be a massive project in itself. The reason I am asking you, Lynn, for particular advice on this project is because it is based off of a more "online shopping/eccommerce" type website than your normal affiliate "presell with content" type site. Somewhat like your dartboard supply site that you have up on your blog, which I have been peaking in on for weeks.

I am going to take a risk here and share some information about my website through this thread since, I do not have a one-to-one contact email address from you.

My website will be based on "tangible widgets" that I sell from within a database. The database will be internally searchable and can be sorted according to personality traits, likes/dislikes, Age, Price, etc, etc. Without going into too much detail and making this more complicated than what it is, the site will be setup almost exactly like Surprise.com.( ).
This is a magnificent website that incorporates everything that, I think, an affiliate website that sells tangible products should have. You will notice that the website does sell other merchant's goods as an affiliate. The "wish list" panel, occasion reminders, gift guide, and their whole repertoire of searchable venues makes this affiliate site stand out.

The website that I am setting up will have the same scripts installed, but I will be selling a different product line. After reviewing over the site carefully, you will notice how intricate it really is.

My background is in Web Development/Multimedia/Graphic Design. The technical aspects of this website does not deter me from conquering it, but I am worried about whether the profitability is worth the work.

I notice that most tangible goods sold through affiliates only get a 5-15% commission at best. I was curious to know, Lynn, if you have had great success with such websites? I am a member of several affiliate forums and all I have ever read on the any of these mediums are about preselling a product with unique niche content, but never hear anything about websites that are setup like online shopping websites(with descriptions) on any of these forums.

It seems to me that, if you have VERY well organized website, easily accessible, added features, newletters, and a brief description of each product, then great affiliate sales should be attainable. I do not know this from experience though, what are your thoughts?Do these type of affiliate websites stand a chance against the formiable content based sites?

I wanted to get some feedback from you on the type of website I am constructing and if I may be biting off more than I can chew for my first affl. site. I have the technical know-how and determination to do it, but could my efforts be put to use on something more practical and less complex for more income on the return?

Well, enough of the rambling(for now). I do thank you for your time in reading this thread. I would greatly consider subscribing to your "Turning Ideas into Dollars" membership if you would be able to advice me, one-on-one, with this type of site.

Regards,
John

[Lynn Terry]

I really like this affiliate model - it's simple, straight forward... relatively easy to set up and maintain. The only two drawbacks I've noticed is that the commission is lower (as you mentioned) and it is not as easy to get inbound links for "commercial sites" as it is for informational sites. If your niche is relatively well covered, there will be plenty of sites to exchange links with of course... it's just that people dont usually link to store pages as often as they do content pages.

Even so, you can optimize "online store" pages just the same as you can articles or content pages. The title bar, text header - and then the item name & description too.

I'm not sure how the database will work, or affect your SEO efforts. I notice that Surprise.com optimizes it's category pages, and there are no actual product pages (once you click on a product it takes you to the merchants site). Its very well done - definitely a great model to go by.

I'd be happy to work with you on this project through TIID. We could certainly brainstorm the details and keywords, walk through the optimization, and of course help you add ideas to the drawing board.

[grafx77]

Lynn, thank you for getting back in touch with me so quickly.

The "surprise.com" type website I am building will be database driven and will most likely have the extension of .php or .asp for some of my webpages, which I understand cannot be indexed by search engines. Surprise is setup the same way and I do believe that most of their marketing is based on PPC and such.

I plan to use PPC, Ebooks, articles, inbound links and more on down the line to promote the website. SEO may be difficult to achieve with the database driven product line, but this is the only way of doing this type of website with ease and organization.

Does your "online store front" type websites generate enough income for you to be worth your time and effort? I would consider 2 to 1 income to expense ratio a success.

I just finished reading over the entire page of TIID and am now definately considering the membership, especially at the price listed. Anyone should be able to afford mentorship at this expense. I do have one question though on TIID. When you state that yourself and Andre will be mentoring along the way, will this be in the form of forums, emails, or phone calls?

All-in-all, I feel comfortable with the knowledge I have in the Internet Marketing field, but would feel more comfortable with some guidance on the "online shopping" type website I will be constructing from someone who has already done this with success. Like I've said earlier, its seems as if most affl. websites are revolved around the "content rich" websites and I feel like I may be stepping out of the box on my first attempt.

Hope to hear from you shortly,
John

[grafx77]

[Lynn Terry]

[grafx77]

Thanks again for getting back at me Lynn, I realize we all have busy lives and for you to get back to me means alot. I read up about your grandmother on your newsletter and give me condolences.

Surprise.com and a few other websites I have bookmared are models for my main website and I hope to achieve the success that they are experiencing as well. The only main concerns that I have are the low commissions that I will be recieving on the tangible products, but will continue to search out more promising commisions from other merchants.

I would definately feel more comfortable with your assistance on the TIID website through the process in hopes of having a more marketable website. I plan on optimizing the website as much a possible with the scripts that I will have involved. Thanks again for taking the time.

Graf-X
(Johnny)

[Lynn Terry]

You are definitely moving in the right direction, and asking all of the right questions. I have a couple of product-based affiliate sites myself, and yes - the commission is low... but what you really want to shoot for is "passive income" and getting the volume of sales that make up for the percentage in commission.

For me the goal is to get the pages to rank well, or to get consistent traffic via PPC, that does not require constant time and attention in order to maintain a certain level of income.

[grafx77]

Thanks again for the great advice Lynn,

I have a few other questions, but I will sign up to TIID shortly and ask you more for your valuable advice at that time.

[Lynn Terry]

Sounds great - I'll watch for you there

[grafx77]

[Lynn Terry]

[grafx77]