Affiliate Warriors please kick me in the butt!

15 replies
Thanks for reading this...
I've always had the knack for some great ideas on making money. That's it... Just a bunch of good ideas.
I believe I have some kick a$$ niche marketing ideas and I even own a few good domains to go along with them pertaining to fishing and motorcycling. Heck, I even have a decent start of a fair sized email list. I simply need to make the move to monetize the domains and learn what the heck to do with the emails. My wife keeps asking (not nagging) me if I've got my sites up and running, and I keep telling her, "not yet".
I'm not lazy! I suppose my biggest fear is that I don't really know what to look for when picking a good affiliate set up. I would like to have a great relationship with Google and Amazon where they send me some money every month, and down the road, I'd like to have a Youtube channel and an eBay presence that makes a few bucks too. What makes me even more sick, is that I have a friend who has a couple niche sites that make him money.. Its all simple click through money. He doesn't even capture emails nor desire to target that market. He just has a few great domains that require no labor at all, and he's making about $1200/mo. I believe my niches could do well, but simply owning the domains aren't doing anything. I have hosting, I just need to get them designed, and up and running. The good news is that my friend even offered to help me get traffic by putting links to my domains on his well traveled sites, for nothing!
The $60k questions I have for you Warriors have to do with trust.
1) How do you know if someone's design is any good and better yet, how do I know if the design will work? There is so much info out there, that for a neophyte like me, that its pretty damn confusing on who or what to trust. I think a lot of niche marketing is geared toward the niche of people wanting to do niche marketing.
2) What has worked or is working for you? Send me a DM or post up a reply with a link to your site. I'd really like to see your money maker in action
3) If you were starting out in my shoes, what would you do?

Thank you Warriors in advance for your selfless attention to my dilemma. Much respect.
#affiliate #amazon #butt #google #kick #kick butt #warriors
  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    Originally Posted by JaxLen3 View Post

    3) If you were starting out in my shoes, what would you do?
    In your shoes with your friend who makes 1200/month, I'd do what he does. Ask him to help you.

    After reading your post, my impression is you're afraid of failing or making a mistake so you don't begin. Not busting on you. I've been there and it's familiar territory.

    Earlier today, I directed someone to this thread and I'll recommend it to you.

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...unt-today.html

    Ken
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    • Profile picture of the author Claire Koch
      that was great advice Ken. Vry doable for newbies.... i second the gentleman who told the OP to get over his fear and just go for it. Thats the ticket. You will never be perfect.

      Originally Posted by KenThompson View Post

      In your shoes with your friend who makes 1200/month, I'd do what he does. Ask him to help you.

      After reading your post, my impression is you're afraid of failing or making a mistake so you don't begin. Not busting on you. I've been there and it's familiar territory.

      Earlier today, I directed someone to this thread and I'll recommend it to you.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...unt-today.html

      Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author ZNICK
    Don't spend time worrying about things like "which design is better". Either is more than what you have now.

    "Good" is good enough... you have forever to become great. Just get started with something, no matter what it is.

    Z
    Signature

    New Community Gives REAL Reviews of IM Programs. NO Affiliate Links - Free membership!.http://www.timbir.net

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  • Profile picture of the author Stevie C
    Just take action and start moving forward, you can tweak the design as you go along.

    As long as you don't fill your site with affiliate links or use any shady backlinking tactics you will be fine.

    I just noticed the post above gave you the same advice, so I validate his advice!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ricardo Furtado
    If your friend is making around $1200/mo, don’t you think he is in the best position to help you? After all, he is your friend right? He will help you right?

    So, go ask your friend to help you and start doing what he has done.

    All the best. Regards.
    Signature

    Ricardo Furtado

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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by JaxLen3 View Post

    Thanks for reading this...
    I've always had the knack for some great ideas on making money. That's it... Just a bunch of good ideas.
    I believe I have some kick a$$ niche marketing ideas and I even own a few good domains to go along with them pertaining to fishing and motorcycling. Heck, I even have a decent start of a fair sized email list. I simply need to make the move to monetize the domains and learn what the heck to do with the emails. My wife keeps asking (not nagging) me if I've got my sites up and running, and I keep telling her, "not yet".
    I'm not lazy! I suppose my biggest fear is that I don't really know what to look for when picking a good affiliate set up. I would like to have a great relationship with Google and Amazon where they send me some money every month, and down the road, I'd like to have a Youtube channel and an eBay presence that makes a few bucks too. What makes me even more sick, is that I have a friend who has a couple niche sites that make him money.. Its all simple click through money. He doesn't even capture emails nor desire to target that market. He just has a few great domains that require no labor at all, and he's making about $1200/mo. I believe my niches could do well, but simply owning the domains aren't doing anything. I have hosting, I just need to get them designed, and up and running. The good news is that my friend even offered to help me get traffic by putting links to my domains on his well traveled sites, for nothing!
    The $60k questions I have for you Warriors have to do with trust.
    1) How do you know if someone's design is any good and better yet, how do I know if the design will work? There is so much info out there, that for a neophyte like me, that its pretty damn confusing on who or what to trust. I think a lot of niche marketing is geared toward the niche of people wanting to do niche marketing.
    2) What has worked or is working for you? Send me a DM or post up a reply with a link to your site. I'd really like to see your money maker in action
    3) If you were starting out in my shoes, what would you do?

    Thank you Warriors in advance for your selfless attention to my dilemma. Much respect.
    Your problem is you live in florida with nice weather and you ride to much!!!

    Im going to start out with #3. If you don't already have one invest in a gopro 360 video camera. Daytona Bike week is right around the corner. Get some video Going down main street With all the bikes and chaos Video "The Loop" or "The Southern Loop" ( Daytona to edgewater ) Daytona to New Smyrna.. you get the idea. Oh what about your local rides such as the "Nice Ride"?

    Did you know J&P Cylces has an affiliate program? Try going into Adamec and have a talk with them about some possible partnerships of sorts.

    Think of it this way. get a blog started write about all the rides you take, all the places you stop. Get the process going. You are OFICIALLY the authority of bikes in Jacksonville. Once you develop a following you can goto all these places. And ask if you could offer discount coupons on your blog as a trial. Give it some time, and then go back and ask how much is it worth to keep that up.

    There are literally TONS of ways to monetize YOUR knowledge. You cant act on a 1 until you get started. Listen to your wife this ONE time, and get on it.

    All that talk at your local spot how this road was killer, and that road sucks, and don't ride with that guy cuz a preschooler could ride a straighter line o a unicycle. That right there is blog material... that is the initial step to it all.

    Bike cleaning tips.. how to keep that crome PURDY. How you deal with the salt. The products you use... its ALL marketable!

    And that's just the motorcycle side of it.Fishing? don't get me started! hahaha

    Hope that Helps!

    PS. as far as a design that works.... if it is black and orange it will be good enough!
    Signature
    Success is an ACT not an idea
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    • Profile picture of the author JaxLen3
      Wow! Tons of info and good advice. J&P? Really?? Cool...
      I own a condo timeshare on Ormond beach for bike week every year and what you said is certainly viable. I could even make it work year round. I live close enough to Myrtle beach to do the summer bike week there as well, and then Spooks and Scoots in Tampa or Biketober in Daytona. All year long I could make the biker niche work once I figure out what the heck a blog would do. Heck, one of the domains I own is JacksonvilleHarley.com ..Adamec didn't get that one, but unfortunately it's parked right now and doing nothing. My wife keeps asking me why I ever bought it..I guess right now, not even I know the reason why I bought it these days, but your ideas shed some new light. Although if I'm being honest here, some of what you said loses me. I'm not sure how a blog makes you money. I guess I better do some more digging to understand what better to do with my stuff.
      My fishing domains are even better. I've had some really good ideas including my old Ranger boat and a gopro... I used to guide on Okeechobee for about 9yrs, so I have thought about the gopro fishing videos, but Youtube seems really saturated with Basspro sponsored fishermen doing videos, so I'm left to wonder who the heck would want to listen to some ex bass guide?
      I'm gonna have to read up some more as to how people are using blogs to make money and then your biker ideas idea sounds very viable in the Harley realm or using my fishing/hunting resources and knowledge. As far as the biker realm goes, there's two huge 'bike nights' at a couple bars here as well as two huge monthly swap meets. (enter eBay)

      My friend who's making a decent wage niche marketing, actually does it with sites that have niches in the automotive industry, and he's got a ton of traffic. He owns 4 of the top 10 in his niche while his friend (i don't know) owns 2 of the 10. He means it when he says I can have links on his sites to help me drive or steal some traffic. However, I'm not going to 'do what he does' as someone else suggested, because that's not exactly what he's invited me to do. I mean who the heck finds somethin successful and tells their friends to do it too? Nobody I know anyway.

      I suppose I may have some fear of failure. No matter how I may make it sound, I lost my butt on a business venture, and although I own the Harley and a pretty old bass boat, I'm on a seriously tight budget. I simply don't have the cash to play with these days on something that may or may not work, So yea, I guess I do have some fears. I'd love to be making anything on these domains that I have parked right now. I'd love to have what my friend has coming in every month to add on to what my wife and I struggle to bring in now.

      Anyway, thanks again for the ideas and kick in the butt. I asked for it and y'all delivered.

      Do any of y'all recommend an Amazon 'store type' affiliate template I should purchase to get going? Thanks again for all the replies. Just the kick in the butt I needed.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by JaxLen3 View Post

        Wow! Tons of info and good advice. J&P? Really?? Cool...
        I own a condo timeshare on Ormond beach for bike week every year and what you said is certainly viable. I could even make it work year round. I live close enough to Myrtle beach to do the summer bike week there as well, and then Spooks and Scoots in Tampa or Biketober in Daytona. All year long I could make the biker niche work once I figure out what the heck a blog would do. Heck, one of the domains I own is JacksonvilleHarley.com ..Adamec didn't get that one, but unfortunately it's parked right now and doing nothing. My wife keeps asking me why I ever bought it..I guess right now, not even I know the reason why I bought it these days, but your ideas shed some new light. Although if I'm being honest here, some of what you said loses me. I'm not sure how a blog makes you money. I guess I better do some more digging to understand what better to do with my stuff.
        My fishing domains are even better. I've had some really good ideas including my old Ranger boat and a gopro... I used to guide on Okeechobee for about 9yrs, so I have thought about the gopro fishing videos, but Youtube seems really saturated with Basspro sponsored fishermen doing videos, so I'm left to wonder who the heck would want to listen to some ex bass guide?
        I'm gonna have to read up some more as to how people are using blogs to make money and then your biker ideas idea sounds very viable in the Harley realm or using my fishing/hunting resources and knowledge. As far as the biker realm goes, there's two huge 'bike nights' at a couple bars here as well as two huge monthly swap meets. (enter eBay)

        My friend who's making a decent wage niche marketing, actually does it with sites that have niches in the automotive industry, and he's got a ton of traffic. He owns 4 of the top 10 in his niche while his friend (i don't know) owns 2 of the 10. He means it when he says I can have links on his sites to help me drive or steal some traffic. However, I'm not going to 'do what he does' as someone else suggested, because that's not exactly what he's invited me to do. I mean who the heck finds somethin successful and tells their friends to do it too? Nobody I know anyway.
        Do you understand you have a lot going for you? You have a passion for what you do. You have expertise in what you do. You have x amount of years experience in what you do. You are HAPPY with what you do. Like you said you have a friend that is willing to help you ( That's a real friend by the way )

        You and your wife just getting by are probably happier than half the world right now. You have a story that people will associate with. No your not some pro bass fisherman, you do it because you love it, just like the people you need to reach out to and grab a few dollars from their wallets. You don't have the flashy boat and the brandy newest lure with 3x catching power... who does? ( the guys making the videos ) You have what everyone else has... that's YOUR angle... Those are YOUR people. People just like you!

        The more I think about it, the more I realize your 2 topics of expertise are a perfect match for each other. Aside from the weekend warrior types ( aka the Halloween crew as I call them ), your average biker is interested in bikes, and guns and fishing, and having a good time. That is the lifestyle. And again THAT is YOU!

        So you have a direction to go with the biker deal. I think you have an idea where to go with the fishing deal... now putting them together. You would obviously have 2 sites. You can use banners and the like to link the 2 to each other, and back across to your friends site ( From the Bike page only - they are a related subject - transportation ) Your buddy can link from his to your bike site ( again the related transportation thing )

        What exactly does your buddies site do with automotive? could it be duplicated with motorcycles? ( No need to answer these, just know that it was asked )

        OK so the blog. a Blog does a few things. #1 it helps in filling your page with USEFUL information. a place someone can goto to get information on the subject of your site.
        #2 It increases your sites over all site authority as it pertains to search engines ( How many pages does your friends site have? 4 or 60? )
        #3 it helps in placing your site on a search engine, giving you more possible avenues for that in coming traffic to find you. An example. yes you ride a Harley, and that is what you write about. But that article about your method to keeping crome clean is a universal subject. That will draw bikers in general to you vs. Harley only.
        #4 It helps in cementing YOUR story with the people that read it. you can put up static pages that say hey my name is bill and here are some of the rides I do and here is where I go when I'm here. But if you are writing hey me and my boys did this ride last weekend here is a video. we went and did this ( insert photo )and that and this place was not so good, My old lady enjoyed the other but we had a great time at this place. do you see the difference? Which would you prefer to look at?
        #5 Get the old lady involved... don't be pissed if more people read what she writes tho! Both of you can write about stuff etc.
        #6 You can directly tie in what you are selling with a link to an amazon type deal. The old lady says hey I got this ponytail braid thingy and its the best I ever got. I found it here Throw up a few pictures and you are in business.

        I understand your reasoning for wanting to develop a store looking type thing. but with tools such as wordpress ( this is used to build your site and to blog ) that are FREE, in your situation I am telling you, you really cant go wrong. See if your friend will help you set it all up. He will probably be able to knock it out in a 12 packs time. ( aka 2 hours ) hahaha

        Write all this stuff down, print it out, log on and show it all to your friend.. see what he thinks. and go from there.

        Hope that Helps!
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        Success is an ACT not an idea
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Geo
    @ Ken Thompson failing is the process of learning,, everyone has to fail in order to learn
    Signature

    Tom Geo

    Internet Marketer with a Msc degree in Communications Systems, and Network Management,
    Doing Affiliate Marketing Here:
    High quality Solo Ads here:

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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    Hello,
    After reading you post i feel that you afraid from doing mistakes but mistakes make perfect.We are colleagues in this forum and try to help everyone here then he is your friend so ask him Hope he will help you.
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  • Profile picture of the author dmarc
    There are some great, thorough replies already, so I don't really have much to add.

    However, I think this is worth repeating: Take action. Don't keep waiting and worrying. You shouldn't expect to get things perfect the first time. Try something. See what works. Test, track, tweak. The more action you take, the more results you will have to determine what works and what doesn't.

    Research and learning are important, but if you don't take action and find out for yourself what works for YOU, then you'll just have lots of knowledge and little profits.

    You sound like a smart guy. I'm confident that you can be successful if you start taking action. I don't think there's a single successful marketer out there who doesn't have a few failures under their belt. Sometimes the best way to learn is just by "doing it."
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  • Profile picture of the author gluckspilz
    *Kicks OP in the butt*

    Just toughen up and take action. Learn from your mistake and repeat!
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  • Profile picture of the author mrmickel
    in my opinion i think you need to make some mistakes, that's not a bad thing, but you won't learn until you make mistakes so you can realise what to do.
    Make mistakes, and make a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author alamest
    If I was in your shoes than I would just start with it... I would choose from the two option whether start blogging or building lead capture and bring traffic to it.

    For making lead capture you need investment let little of it but for blogging you don't need to invest anything, you can start with blogspot but I would not recommend cause you need to have your own domain and hosting so control it apart from Google controlling it.

    And secondly is please write in paragraph wise, it is very hard to read, give a break after every paragraph you right..

    I hope it helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author JaxLen3
      Thank you, thank you, thank you...to all of you.
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