Make Easy Money With Datafeed Marketing - Great for Newbies!

[derekwong28]

Make Easy Money by Shotgun Datafeed Marketing

As I approach my third year as a full-timer, I would like to give something back to the forum. I would like to outline a method that I use to make money. The great thing about method does NOT involve article writing, niche research, keyword research, copyrighting, and mailing lists. If you really focus and follow up on this, you should be able to make xxx to low xxxx per month quickly. However, it does require a little investment, and also some time and effort. Basically, the method involves generating affiliate and adsense websites automatically from publicly available databases. Typically, product databases from various merchants are readily available through various affiliate networks. Once the sites are indexed and making money, you can flip them if you want.

Method

1. Get Webmerge ($99) 4W WebMerge - Publish Your FileMaker, Access, or Other Database on the Web (No Affiliate Link)

2. Sign up for affiliate networks that provide merchant datadeeds. The one I recommend is Shareasale.com

3. Select merchant datafeeds from Shareasale. I would recommend those with between 500 to 5000 products, high EPC and newer merchants. I would recommend that you try at least 50 to 100 merchants.

4. Construct Webmerge templates. I would start off with 2-tier shops and then go on to 3 and 4 tier shops. The templates should include the ability for you to add adsense codes and edit header and footer information at ease. Here is a good tutorial here on how to construct mult-tier shops. FRANK's WebMerge Tutorial

5. Construct affiliate shops using the datafeeds with your Webmerge templates.

6. Mount under a .info domain. You may use more that one shop per domain. I would be wary of mounting too many products at once because it may alert the search engines to possible spam. Also use throwaway domains such as cheap .info domains

7. Promote the new sites as usual and wait for results. If you are lucky, you may get shops that earn a few hundred dollars for a single site per month. However, that is not likely to last more than a few months. Therefore do not be too excited if you get stunning results
at first, and conversely do not get too disheartened if the initial results are not that good.

8. Because the traffic may not last, I would recommend that you consider flipping your profit making sites.

Additional Information

1. Webmerge is quite a complicated piece of software and may be difficult to understand and use. I am definitely not an expert on it. There is a webmerge forum at Abestweb ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum - WebMerge (Fourthworld.com)

2. The results are highly dependent on the merchant and perhaps the webmege template. You should also bear in mind that a lot of affiliates are already doing this and so there are a lot of competitors. You will need to try a large number of merchants and really put in the time and effort to succeed.


Good Luck

Derek

[FourthWorld]

Thank you for the kind words, Derek.

It's been a while since I've visited these forums and I'm very sensitive to spam, so I have no interest in posting sales-related info. Just wanted to let folks know I'm available here if I can answer any questions about using WebMerge.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Derek, why would the sales not be long term from one of these sites?

I am not familiar with exactly what you are doing but do have some sites I use the datafeeds from Shareasale. I use a script which posts them to wordpress.

This is the first time I have heard that the sites would not be long term, so I am curious.

Jeannie

[Andrew Maule]

Do you have examples to show? Thanks for posting, looks interesting.

[FourthWorld]

Originally Posted by mrsleep99

Do you have examples to show?

There's a Gallery of examples at our site. I'm unable to post URLs here given how few posts I've made so far, but it can be found using the Gallery button on the right-hand side of any WebMerge page at our site.

[tiger325]

yes im curious too on why it would not be best for them to grow awhile ..long term unless you just want fast money ...is that correct??

[Jeff Hope]

It is a good method Derek, and thank you for posting it, as I've been a fan of if for quite some time. I would add the following for those reading:

The income doesn't usually last because there is no motivation for a search engine, in providing the best experience for their visitors, to have 3,482 websites listed that are essentially copies of the same set of products from the same merchant database, with the same descriptions and in the same order.

If you want the revenue from these sites to last longer, try adding some additional value for your visitors in some way. Takes a bit more effort, but well worth it

Jeff

p.s. - This can be very powerful when combined with Kurt's Bombs & Tuelz software and the techniques he teaches.

[derekwong28]

This the fourhworld gallery with example of sites

4W WebMerge - Gallery

Webmerge is definitely the most important piece of software I own. Conservatively, I could ascribe at least $50K in earnings to it.

I think the main reason why these sites do not usually last long is because a lot of other people are using the same datafeeds and hence there is a lot of duplicate. To make them last long, you must add a lot of unique content. The people at Avantlink recommends unique content of at least 75%.

By the way, I wonder if anybody could tell me where to find publicly available datafeeds that could be used such as lists of doctors, lawyers, libraries, recreational facilities etc.

Derek

[Jeff Hope]

By the way, I wonder if anybody could tell me where to find publicly available datafeeds that could be used such as lists of doctors, lawyers, libraries, recreational facilities etc.

Derek,

They're not free, but reasonably priced - check the data files available at Oddity Software - they're in MySQL, CSV, & other formats.

The CSV files work great with Webmerge, or you can use MySQL to have a little more flexiblity in creating your own CSV, combining, dynamic page generation, etc.

Jeff

[derekwong28]

Thanks Jeff, I have been trying to find these for a long time.

Derek

[biz_online]

Originally Posted by Jeannie Crabtree

Derek, why would the sales not be long term from one of these sites?

I am not familiar with exactly what you are doing but do have some sites I use the datafeeds from Shareasale. I use a script which posts them to wordpress.

This is the first time I have heard that the sites would not be long term, so I am curious.

Jeannie

Jeannie,
I am not familiar with shareasale scripts that can be embedded into wordpress. If you don't mind, could you please point me to some documentation that explains this?
Thanks!

[GuruGazette]

biz online, my ADPS script does this, you'll find documentation and examples in my sig file.

Using straight datafeeds without changing things up can make the sites not last too long in the search engines, because as has been said above it adds no additional value. Mixing things up and creating comparison style pages works very well for sustainability though, and drip feeding the pages out like I do in my WP system is excellent for keeping things fresh.

I started building standard datafeed sites back around 2004 or 2005, experimented with them in WordPress sometime in 2006 I think, and moved it all into the current WP system in late 2007/early 2008.

My datafeed sites built in WordPress get spidered quickly, ranked very well, and so far none of them has dropped off in search engine results. They also make great money in some niches too

[Jeannie Crabtree]

I use ADPS2, a wordpress plug in. It does a good job, and you can use more than one feed at a time to mix and match. This is a plus, as your site will be less likely to be duplicate to someone elses. Yes, it is from Kathy.

It auto posts, and you can have it build a number of posts, just by filling in a few lines and pushing a couple buttons.


My affiliate link is:
The Affiliate Datafeed Profit System Version 2

Without the affiliate link:
Powerful & Profitable Tools To Automatically Grow Your Websites...

Jeannie Crabtree

Originally Posted by biz_online

Jeannie,
I am not familiar with shareasale scripts that can be embedded into wordpress. If you don't mind, could you please point me to some documentation that explains this?
Thanks!

[napoleonfirst]

This is something recommended by Rosalind Garner in the Super Affiliate Hand Book. Cool stuff.

[jrsencio]

Originally Posted by Jeannie Crabtree

Derek, why would the sales not be long term from one of these sites?

I am not familiar with exactly what you are doing but do have some sites I use the datafeeds from Shareasale. I use a script which posts them to wordpress.

This is the first time I have heard that the sites would not be long term, so I am curious.

Jeannie

Interesting, which script do you use?

[Jeannie Crabtree]

jrsencio, just a few posts up, I gave that info to another person.

Jeannie

[peterj]

I use BlogAutoPublisher: Marketer's Blogging Software, ( not affiliated) it's a bit pricey but well worth it for what it does.

You can import the datafeeds, create your own html for how the datafeeds display, add your own or scraped articles, rss feeds etc, inject your affiliate links then shuffle them all up and set to post at random times. For good measure chuck in some caffenated content on topic.

Make it different!

Pete

[Loco.m]

Great post, I've always been under the impression that this type of affiliate marketing was possible, but I had never known how.
It looks like I need to get some more together, I'm interested in that wordpress plugin.

[bat55w]

As a certifiable noob, I can say that this doesn't look like a good way to start out. I had no idea what you were talking about for most of your post. I think its better to start out on something easier to understand and come back to this when you have some experience. Thanks for the post, I am subscribing to it for later.

[csm]

Originally Posted by GuruGazette

biz online, my ADPS script does this, you'll find documentation and examples in my sig file.

Kathy,

I purchased ADPS2 last year and have been trying to reach you in order to re-download it (I changed computers). Please check your PMs. I tried to reach you through the contact form on your website a few weeks ago, but haven't had a reply.

Thanks,
Susan

[Jon Alexander]

Is he really banned?

[Traffic-Bug]

Thanks for the great tips!

[piyurox]

Thnx alot tons..!!

[azizkasam]

Thank You Derek.
I have just downloaded webmerge. Good software....

[Fairuz Talib]

Datafeed marketing was very popular years ago. I purchase Mark
Hendrick's Secret Money Generator and earned thousands of dollars in
affiliate commission from shareasale alone.

But as it was mentioned before the profit from using this technique will not
last. Google dropped my site, and the sales stopped forever.

Fairuz Talib

[tayloredmedia]

thanks for sharing that

[rob6188]

I used webmerge about 2 years ago. Bit complicated for a newbie, but no problem with a little effort. It really is an awesome piece of software. Simplifies the task of building a huge site off a datafeed.

I have since learned php and build my sites that way since I can make a single dynamic page that is effectively the same as 5000 pages.

I actually do get a few hundred visits per month off a very simple database. I'll have to explore some of the links and sigs in this thread for some ideas on how to really monetize this technique. I have adsense and a few affiliate links built into it, but dare say I haven't even covered the cost of the domain annually.

[vicone]

Kathy,

Are you making any progress with adding extra datafeeds - like Amazon?

Ivan

[hotlanta]

webmerge is daunting ... i think it is easier to use wordpress and a autoposter or datafeed importer to post the datafeed content to a blog.

[dannycapri]

Has anyone else used datafeed for wordPress using other methods, e.g. plug ins - Jason Hulotts Import CSV plug-in.
Import CSV Pro - Import Affiliate Datafeeds and Custom CSV Files
website: speedieconsulting dot co dot uk / importcsv

Not used it myself, so any feedback welcome.

[Jay Sullivan]

wow.. those are nice tips for a newbie like me!

[helenaja]

Thank you Derek!

I'm still a noob, but don't feel intimidated to try something new. Just wondering how long does the process take? Building web sites with unique content can be quite involved and time consuming, but if one has a profitable niche and market the site well, the income could be recurring for an infinite amount of time.

But if this process requires a large investment of time, do you find the short-term income worth it? Is the learning curve relatively short? I'm definitely interested and open-minded. Thanks to all who can offer insight!!! : )

Helena

[derekwong28]

Helen, it is very difficult for me to answer your questions. It took me a few days to learn the basics. My templates themselves were modified from the ones given in the tutorials.

I have no doubts that it was well worth it. I do have a site with completely unique content that had earned around $100 a month for years. The big problem here is that the material on that site is on a scale of a huge textbook, and would be sufficient for a student taking a masters degree in Science.

Nowadays, I only spend a few days every 3-6 months to update affiliate datafeed sites. I look for new merchants and update the sites those who have performed quite well. If you find datafeeds intimidating, then you could try out services such as Goldencan and popshops first. They will give you preformed sites made from datafeeds, you only need to integrate a snippet of their code on your site. However, I prefer to make the sites myself by Webmerge as I would have total control.

Derek

[KristenArnold]

THanks for that post. I've looked at Datafeeds for some time but couldn't decide if it was really worth the time since it's one of the under-published methods

[Jeannie Crabtree]

I would like to suggest a way to make these sites more stable, at least this is how I make mine.

I make a html website with the index, contact and privacy statement pages. I make an article section. Some only have a few articles, but my goal is more than 10 articles per site.

Using software mentioned above, I put the datafeeds on a wordpress blog in a folder, not out on the index. This way, the sites have more depth, and datafeeds appear more like a "store" section.

And then, build backlinks, just like you would a regular site. Yes this means you have to spend some time on these, rather than pushing a couple buttons and you are done.

I also find that it helps to go back in and put in tags for the products in your blog. Google and Yahoo really seem to like the tags. Remember that those in the end stage of shopping are looking for items by name and model number, so put that in where ever you can apply it.

Hope that helps and could make a difference in whether the site lasts.

Jeannie

[jaradc]

Originally Posted by bat55w

As a certifiable noob, I can say that this doesn't look like a good way to start out. I had no idea what you were talking about for most of your post. I think its better to start out on something easier to understand and come back to this when you have some experience. Thanks for the post, I am subscribing to it for later.

At least you know how to subscribe to the post. I don't even know how to do that!

[vicone]

At least you know how to subscribe to the post. I don't even know how to do that!

When you post a reply, as you've just done, you can easily locate the thread at some future time - and others that you've contributed to - by going to the red menu bar above, clicking on "User CP" and then selecting "Subscribed Threads".

That will provide a list of threads where you've been active, as well as some details of recent activity.

Ivan