Tweaking my "Authority Site"!

[thehobbster]

Warriors,

I have gained and lost interest in IM a couple times in my life. Finally about 6 months ago I decided to give it a real shot. I started by writing a ton of articles for my first site, which I hope to develop into an Authority Site. This first site was not keyword researched, nor is it intended to be a money maker. I read a lot of books and know that I retain knowledge if I write about what I read about. So that's how the site came about. It's called "Meditations | Thoughts for the Scholars of Consciousness" and it's in my sig.

I know it's not a money maker due to the topics. So I want to use it as a way to learn Adsense and understand how to maximize it's profitability. Once I establish this site with some decent traffic, I'll move on to profitable niches. But this is a learning experience.

Right now I know there are still problems with it. I need a main page, and I'm looking at getting Parallel's to run Windows on my Mac so I can snag some automation programs. But my first question I wanted to ask relates to Amazon's Affiliate Program.

I have been accepted into Amazon's program. As most of these thoughts are derived from books I am reading, I considered linking to the books throughout the site. Now here is the dilemma. I know books don't sell for much, so my percentage is going to be really low. I know I could hope for folks to buy a TV when they buy a book, but I don't think that's extremely realistic.

So my question is... Is it worth having those outbound links to Amazon just for books? I know it'll leak out some PageRank, but I'm more concerned with them being another "exit point" which ISN'T Adsense. Are percentages of book sales worth creating more ways to leave the site than just Adsense?

Thanks!

[Social-Media-Marketing]

Originally Posted by thehobbster

Warriors,

I have gained and lost interest in IM a couple times in my life. Finally about 6 months ago I decided to give it a real shot. I started by writing a ton of articles for my first site, which I hope to develop into an Authority Site. This first site was not keyword researched, nor is it intended to be a money maker. I read a lot of books and know that I retain knowledge if I write about what I read about. So that's how the site came about. It's called "Meditations | Thoughts for the Scholars of Consciousness" and it's in my sig.

I know it's not a money maker due to the topics. So I want to use it as a way to learn Adsense and understand how to maximize it's profitability. Once I establish this site with some decent traffic, I'll move on to profitable niches. But this is a learning experience.

Right now I know there are still problems with it. I need a main page, and I'm looking at getting Parallel's to run Windows on my Mac so I can snag some automation programs. But my first question I wanted to ask relates to Amazon's Affiliate Program.

I have been accepted into Amazon's program. As most of these thoughts are derived from books I am reading, I considered linking to the books throughout the site. Now here is the dilemma. I know books don't sell for much, so my percentage is going to be really low. I know I could hope for folks to buy a TV when they buy a book, but I don't think that's extremely realistic.

So my question is... Is it worth having those outbound links to Amazon just for books? I know it'll leak out some PageRank, but I'm more concerned with them being another "exit point" which ISN'T Adsense. Are percentages of book sales worth creating more ways to leave the site than just Adsense?

Thanks!

If you write reviews of books you read, get the reviews to rank, and link to amazon... you "could" make a steady little income. The key really is how you market your site. Do you think you can get your pages to rank so that you can drive traffic? Or are you going to buy traffic with PPC like Adwords?

I would not worry about the tiny amount of PageRank that might leak as a result of a single extra link on the page. Most pages have 50-100 or more links on them so adding 1 more does almost nothing to the amount of PageRank passed out. For example, adding a link to a page with 50 links means you're passing "about" 1/51 instead 1/50 of the total PR available to pass out. Not a lot of difference. Instead of 2% it's 1.96%...