affiliate store vs affiliate review blog question

5 replies
Hi,

In my research on creating an affiliate site for physical products, I am thinking about the benefits and drawbacks of two different routes:

1. A "ShopperPress" type store site pulling in affiliate products into categories, content about those categories, etc....

Pro: more like a real store, easy to link to lots of products in different categories, most likely less blog post writing
Con: more like a store, may have a higher bounce rate

2. A Flexability type review site that takes various products (or groups of them) and reviews them like posts.

Pro: more content for readers, can organize top ten lists, etc..
Con: most likely much more writing, less breadth of products...

Any thoughts on which might be a better way to go? I could do this by trial and error, but wanted to see if others have already played with these different approaches...

Could I not do #1 but then have a few scattered posts talking about the nice in a widget or something? Or have each category with a nice original writeup for the category of products?

Thanks.

-Adam
#affiliate #blog #question #review #store
  • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
    It should be about what you can provide for the consumer, no?

    So I'd lean toward the latter. Provide them the information they are really looking for. I also think this will be easier/better to rank in the long run (if that is one of your goals.)
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex.R
      Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter View Post

      It should be about what you can provide for the consumer, no?

      So I'd lean toward the latter. Provide them the information they are really looking for. I also think this will be easier/better to rank in the long run (if that is one of your goals.)

      Yes go with the second choice, as long as the niche has many products associated with it, then you can start with a one product review site.

      Then expand on this to include more pages with more products, that are linked to that theme. or link 3-4 one product sites as a theme, This is how one very high profile marketer does all his affiliate sites, as a 3-4 site theme, linked.
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
    Originally Posted by adamfdotnet View Post

    Hi,

    In my research on creating an affiliate site for physical products, I am thinking about the benefits and drawbacks of two different routes:

    1. A "ShopperPress" type store site pulling in affiliate products into categories, content about those categories, etc....

    Pro: more like a real store, easy to link to lots of products in different categories, most likely less blog post writing
    Con: more like a store, may have a higher bounce rate

    2. A Flexability type review site that takes various products (or groups of them) and reviews them like posts.

    Pro: more content for readers, can organize top ten lists, etc..
    Con: most likely much more writing, less breadth of products...

    Any thoughts on which might be a better way to go? I could do this by trial and error, but wanted to see if others have already played with these different approaches...

    Could I not do #1 but then have a few scattered posts talking about the nice in a widget or something? Or have each category with a nice original writeup for the category of products?

    Thanks.

    -Adam
    Hi, Adam. I would go for the second choice - building a niche site using affiliate marketing. Why? You need to have content to bring traffic to your site. More importantly, you want to bring in targeted traffic to your site. With a niche blog, you will be more easily able to bring targeted traffic because you will be providing people with exactly what they are looking for.

    Think of it like this. Let's say someone needs to buy a pair of shoes. The person has a choice between going to a "super store" of some kind where they sell everything under the sun, which means it's less likely they will have what the customer is looking for, or the person can go to a shoe store where they can find exactly what they need (and related items)--without all the other crap. They are able to get what they need and move on, which saves ton and chances are, money, too. The majority would choose the latter (the niche blog).

    The income from niche blogs is also residual. You do the work once and continue to make money without any extra work on your part. I have stuff I did years ago I am still making money off of. They are totally unexpected payments. It's awesome! You can also build various streams of income from one site. You also work around your own schedule. They are quite easy to manage, especially once you get everything up and running.

    Now is the perfect time to start a niche blog. The holidays are just full of opportunities to make tons of money, and you still have time to learn and implement everything you need to know to cash in. All you need is the proper training. For this, I recommend Unstoppable Affiliate by Andrew Hansen and Josh Stanton.

    It's an internet marketing training program specifically designed to teach the newbie marketer to make money online with niche marketing. The creators really know their stuff and teach a realistic and straightforward approach--without all the usual hype and bs. Outside of the basic course, there's also a coaching program you can choose to take part in, if you like.

    Good luck,
    Joey
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Option 2 for the reasons set out above. Plus, you can really give the articles a personal flair and go into details that option 1 doesn't.

    Option 1 is viable if you add content and/or video to the catalogue-style page. I've done this a few times and it can work. It's not my focus, but I've done it.

    There's no reason not to both, but be sure to add unique content to any web page you create, even with your option 1 set out.
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  • Profile picture of the author adamfdotnet
    Thanks for all the feedback.

    I think Option 1 makes sense.

    Given it would be a review/niche site, would it make sense to broaden beyond just amazon products and go with whatever affiliate has an interesting product in the niche? Or if once with amazon, just stick with amazon?

    -Adam
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