Make Money with a UNIQUE Affiliate Marketing Tactic that NO ONE has used yet!

by LMC
37 replies
Hey Guys,

It's been a little while since I contributed some information to the forum so here comes a post. Below will represent a method that I use, it is a great method in very low competition markets and the method seems to convert like crazy. Use it to get your minds moving, use it as is... love it or hate it, here it is...

The materials used are:

1) Your own Domain
2) Wordpress theme or HTML site
3) Ebay Affiliate Network
4) Creativity

Here we go:

The first step in this model is to find a good niche to work in, that good niche is collectible items. Let's say for this example we use...

Superman Action Figures

The keyword itself gets only 880 exact searches a month. (1,000 phrased)
Competition levels are, 17,600 on the competing pages, the top ten is your normal top ten positions for products such as amazon. Easily beatable with some on site optimization and backlinks.

.net is available so it the .org... we would buy the domain name.

The Unique Position:

What we have done is created a unique position with the site:

"John Smith is the owner of many Superman Action Figures and he loves his collection but he is tired of hoarding all these action figures in his home so he decides to build a website where he is going to sell the action figures. He sells those action figures on Ebay."


The reason ebay is used is due to their quality traffic calculation through their affiliate program. The traffic produced from this website will be ultra targeted, extremely active, and some will turn into bids and sales.

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People searching a specific keyword like this are highly interested in the action figures, and since there is a HUGE selection of collectibles on Ebay it is the perfect marketplace to promote.

The site is simply a front for the collectible items. It is used to give that little personal touch with the prospective consumer. They come on and see that "someone" else enjoys these action figures as much as they do there is an initial "trust" being put into place.

All you do now is have a section called, see the collectibles on Ebay, and that traffic will roll into ebay at high volumes.

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Original content on the site is kind of simple. I would give a history of Superman and the history of the superman action figures. I construct an article that talks about the top selling action figures as well as comics or anything related.

I outsource all the content at $3 per 600 words for a re-write. I usually have them re-write information that is on Wikipedia and other public sources.

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Backlinks are generated through Blog Commenting, a few high PR site wide links, and a paid review or two... I keep it under $100 on this budget.

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I first have the content on the site and do the backlinks, I put NO outbound links on the site until I am ranked in position. Once ranked ( top three spots) I will place my links.

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This is not an award winning method, but it works, and converts well... add a little more to the foundation and you may do VERY well.

The Ebay affiliate program is great when you can't find a traditional advertiser that has your products. So this method is just another option.
#affilaite #make #marketing #money #tactic #unique
  • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
    Hi LMC I am surprised you did not get more responses on this. I see It is about to drop off page one so I thought I would bump it, as I enjoyed the thread.

    I think it is a good idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author michael scott
    Thanks! I just applied and waiting for approval. This seems to be a better alternative if the other networks don;t have the products that I'm trying to promote.

    Btw, is this the affiliate network that works with phpbay?
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  • Profile picture of the author Rsberg
    Sent you a PM...
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaZamora
    Great stuff man!! Love this approach!
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  • Profile picture of the author Blogger B
    Great basic strategy. Well thought out and targeted. Nice niche and system to get the specific visitors that you want. I like it.
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    Hey everyone thanks for the comments... Cathy i don't know why it didn't get much attention. Could do with the ebay affiliate network since most warriors i feel don't use it.
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    • Profile picture of the author bella5
      Thanks for sharing this LMC, I've never looked into the Ebay affiliate network but I'll definitely be giving this one a go.
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    bella thanks for the comments... it is an interesting program, you get paid based on the quality of your traffic not quantity
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    Great to see someone else utilizing the action figure niche and affiliate marketing. I have three sites set up in this niche and while I'm not using the exact method you are I've found it to be a great way to make money--especially in the 4th quarter!

    And if I ever meet a guy named John Cena I'm most definitely going to thank him for all his help
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    • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
      Originally Posted by BloggingPro View Post

      Great to see someone else utilizing the action figure niche and affiliate marketing.
      I am in the niche and cannot make a cracker.
      Bummer
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      • Originally Posted by Craig McPherson View Post

        I am in the niche and cannot make a cracker.
        Bummer
        Try making dollars instead, I haven't heard of anyone making crackers in a niche.

        That being said, take a hard look at what your doing and figure out where your mistakes are. Improving the way you build content, get backlinks or promote your products may be all that's stopping you from succeeding.
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      • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
        Originally Posted by Craig McPherson View Post

        I am in the niche and cannot make a cracker.
        Bummer
        There are so many action figures out there I don't see how your not seeing much success. Are you targeting the most popular brands and names or something?
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    I have heard that getting approved with Ebay affiliate program is frequently difficult.
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    • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      I have heard that getting approved with Ebay affiliate program is frequently difficult.
      Yeah I personally think the application process blows. I've submitted what I thought was a damn good site (great original content, good design, fresh and constantly updated) and they still denied me.

      I think they made it even more difficult when they changed how affiliates generate revenue.
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      • Profile picture of the author clkbm
        Originally Posted by BloggingPro View Post

        Yeah I personally think the application process blows. I've submitted what I thought was a damn good site (great original content, good design, fresh and constantly updated) and they still denied me.

        I think they made it even more difficult when they changed how affiliates generate revenue.
        I applied once and got denied as well. I was quite irritated due to the fact that I have never been denied at an affiliate network before. I am not sure if I will try again.
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        • Profile picture of the author ExRat
          Hi LMC,

          Below will represent a method that I use, it is a great method in very low competition markets and the method seems to convert like crazy.
          In my own experience it has been extremely hard to be accepted recently. I tried to get accepted with a big content site and they rejected me. They seem to like stores + content, and comparisons and within those comparisons you clearly position the ebay product as the best product to use.
          I'm confused. Are you actually using this method or not? Or are you saying the 'big content site' got rejected so you used a different kind to get accepted? If so, what kind - a small content site?

          How are you linking to ebay? Are you using the RSS feed and a plugin like phpbay or are you direct linking with text links, images?

          I've been doing EPN stuff since 2007 and if the average warrior was to follow the instructions in this thread, I promise you at least 95% of them (if not more) will have their sites slapped to death by Google to the point where they get zero Google traffic, which will render the project virtually worthless.

          The site is simply a front for the collectible items. It is used to give that little personal touch with the prospective consumer. They come on and see that "someone" else enjoys these action figures as much as they do there is an initial "trust" being put into place.

          All you do now is have a section called, see the collectibles on Ebay, and that traffic will roll into ebay at high volumes.

          Original content on the site is kind of simple. I would give a history of Superman and the history of the superman action figures. I construct an article that talks about the top selling action figures as well as comics or anything related.

          I outsource all the content at $3 per 600 words for a re-write. I usually have them re-write information that is on Wikipedia and other public sources.
          Sorry to be critical, but I'm just telling the truth. Google has zero tolerance for 'thin' ebay affiliate sites and has been this way for a couple of years and some of the usual traffic alternatives are either complicated, or unavailable.

          Another problem is this -

          The site is simply a front for the collectible items. It is used to give that little personal touch with the prospective consumer. They come on and see that "someone" else enjoys these action figures as much as they do there is an initial "trust" being put into place.
          Typically, collectors are the most knowledgeable people on their subject. They live, breathe, eat and smoke their niche. Trying to trick them into thinking that you are a fellow avid collector in order to inspire trust is nowhere near as simple as you suggesting, if not impossible for the average warrior - they'll get found out. Most of them could give most of us a lesson in how to buy/sell things on ebay.

          These are old, old ideas and have been done (and slapped) to death.
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          Roger Davis

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    • Profile picture of the author paulie888
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      I have heard that getting approved with Ebay affiliate program is frequently difficult.
      Bill, this is what I've heard too. It wasn't so hard to get approved in the past, but recently they seem to have become significantly more stringent when it comes to vetting applications.
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      • Profile picture of the author ExRat
        Hi Michael,

        Just wanted to say that this method works - I know a fellow IM'er who swears by this "easy" method and makes serious bank. The way she does it is buying keyword friendly domains or aged domains. (this is where Google trust comes to play.) Then do some on-site optimization - header tags, keyword density, a few articles, and keyword rich URLs. Theyre generally thin affiliate sites.

        But here's the kicker: she spends absolutely zero effort into backlinking because her sites pick up long tail phrases with a buying intent due to the dynamic/fresh content that comes from the ebay listings. So each time an auction ends, a new one pops up with fresh content and her site would rank for some new long tail keywords that people use to search. Yes, there are Google slaps for doing this but she uses the Phpbay plugin which cloaks the affiliate links as well as a forum that's dedicated to finding new strategies that works and getting around the Google slap. It was my initial business model when I first started IM until I saw another one in this forum that I'm now trying to master.
        Again, I beg to differ.

        I have a lot of experience of using aged domains to try and find a way to get traffic from Google to send to ebay. I tried this with and without backlinking. My tests involved multiple hundreds of domains over a period of years.

        I 'observed' the Googlebot coming to my sites and 'following' my cloaked links to see where they led to.

        On this note, I will end my participation in this thread. I hope you can see that my only motivation here is to offer some of my experience, which I have gained through years of testing, in order to help others avoid going down a route which I believe will be an absolute dead end for the majority of them.

        I will leave others to talk about this easy method, with it's serious bank and crazy conversions. It really makes no odds to me either way, but if you take a read of this forum you will see the incongruence all around - the forum is split into two camps. In the one camp, you have hype-laden talk about easy riches. In the other, you have people confused because they bought the blueprint, followed the script to the letter and got absolutely nowhere.

        Perhaps I'm just particularly unlucky in my tests over the years, and building thin affiliate sites to drive traffic to EPN is the newest, latest, easiest and most lucrative business model out there. Perhaps it's also unique and NO ONE has used it yet, too.
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        Roger Davis

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        • Profile picture of the author thriftgirl62
          Originally Posted by ExRat View Post

          Hi Michael,

          Again, I beg to differ.

          Perhaps I'm just particularly unlucky in my tests over the years, and building thin affiliate sites to drive traffic to EPN is the newest, latest, easiest and most lucrative business model out there. Perhaps it's also unique and NO ONE has used it yet, too.
          Hey ExRat,

          This ExBrickHouse is ready to take you on any terms, any time. Name the project and let the fun begin. You're just about as sarcastic as I am, maybe more if you try real hard. Just for you: http://www.ez-1.net/loco

          I used to be the ebay Queen about 7 years ago - never once lost an auction I went after. The trick to winning is knowing when you will. I got a lot of angry emails, one from a Policeman who was furious when I won the only 3x Bullet Proof Vest right out from under him using i_win_i_win_i_win which didn't help at all. :rolleyes:


          Now for my big question: What is the best way or method to use for selling a Yamaha Baby Grand Piano? Around 15 years ago it was $15,000 and now? Does 1/2 that sound right? WHO buys pianos anyway? I don't have a problem shipping it across these United States of American Piano players. Any ideas? Thanks and my proposition still stands ExRat!
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          • Profile picture of the author ExRat
            Hi thriftgirl62,

            Just for you: http://www.ez-1.net/loco
            I waited two minutes while it said 'loading' in the bottom left, then it said 'done', but still said 'hold on, still loading' at the top. So I'm afraid I have no idea what the video is about, but thanks.

            Now for my big question: What is the best way or method to use for selling a Yamaha Baby Grand Piano? Around 15 years ago it was $15,000 and now? Does 1/2 that sound right? WHO buys pianos anyway? I don't have a problem shipping it across these United States of American Piano players. Any ideas? Thanks and my proposition still stands ExRat!
            I'm not sure what you're asking or why - in particular, how it relates to Google's treatment of thin EPN affiliate sites and my views on that.

            Of course, I appreciate and utilise the lowest form of wit on a regular basis. But as for what you quoted, as well as being a little sarcastic, I'm also choosing to point out that my experiences may be the exception that proves the rule, rather than stating outright that I think others are completely mistaken.

            If you could elaborate on your post a little, that would helpful. Otherwise, I fail to see the relevance and I have no idea what your proposition is - although it's always nice to be propositioned, thanks.
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            Roger Davis

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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    In my own experience it has been extremely hard to be accepted recently. I tried to get accepted with a big content site and they rejected me. They seem to like stores + content, and comparisons and within those comparisons you clearly position the ebay product as the best product to use.
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  • I think this would have gotten more hits/responses had the title been less sensational and more focused on the benefits of this strategy, namely, making money with ebay's affiliate program.

    Great post though
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    That is an interesting thought, but these wouldn't be 'thin' affiliate sites, they would be content sites with a unique push of the product. Where did I say to just load up ads to ebay with no content?

    Google loves comparisons and if you truly show how Product A is better to be purchased on Ebay there is nothing 'thin' about your site.

    I like the sites with direct links for the most part, cloaked, not with feeds.

    Regarding content you said yourself how much information there is, and in the end its not about tricking anyone. Write an ebook on how to build a fence or have one do it for you, you are now an information source on building fences. Same nature applies here...
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    • Profile picture of the author ExRat
      Hi LMC,

      That is an interesting thought, but these wouldn't be 'thin' affiliate sites
      That's why about 2 years ago everyone switched from 'thin' affiliate sites to 'fat' affiliate sites. Then they got slapped too.

      You needed authority, trustrank and age etc. Then along came WPMage. Guess what happened next?

      they would be content sites with a unique push of the product
      What is the 'unique push'?

      Where did I say to just load up ads to ebay with no content?
      You didn't. Neither did I imply, or suggest that you did.

      Google loves comparisons and if you truly show how Product A is better to be purchased on Ebay there is nothing 'thin' about your site.
      I think you're confused about what a 'thin' site is. So how do you truly show how product A is better to be purchased on ebay? Of course, half of the listings will look cheaper because they are auctions with low starting bids. But people won't fall for that.

      Then you have to overcome the trust factor - many people are wary of buying off ebay because they have been burnt previously. So how do you show them that it's better to buy a 'superman action figure' or anything else off ebay? These people are probably collectors, so they are pretty switched on about where to buy already so I'm interested in how you convince them that ebay is better.

      I like the sites with direct links for the most part, cloaked, not with feeds.
      So are you using search terms to define the product when you make the link?

      it is a great method in very low competition markets and the method seems to convert like crazy
      When you say convert, are you talking about clicks or actual ebay sales? Since EPN changed to PPC and stopped paying seperately for ACRUs I have found that you need a LOT of traffic to make money with it. If someone asks about starting now as an EPN affiliate I have warned them against it (even though I still do it) because ebay is a household name now and is synonymous with online auctions, hence why they appear to be slowly winding down their affiliate program. Add to this that it's hard to be accepted into EPN, there are risks of being dumped from the program at short notice and Google is at war against ebay affiliate sites.
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      Roger Davis

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      • Hummm wasn't even aware ebay had an affiliate program. Thanks for the tip. I know exactly what I want to do now.
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      • Profile picture of the author sonic74
        Thanks LMC for sharing this,

        I recently started to sell physical products on Ebay and I find that the hard part is to drive traffic to my ebay listings.

        I'm starting with a blogger blog and I will post some original articles and do some backlinking .

        Also I'm going to create a twitter account for this blog.

        What you think ?

        Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    Maybe I am confused by this "thin" affiliate site term, but I don't think so based on many many experiments and testing the boundaries with sites to actually get them slapped so I know what not to do.

    First off, the site goes up with know links whatsoever it's about building trust with the content in Google, pulling the organic traffic and building a great site on the topic. The introduction of products in only after you have built trust with the search engines, I personally wait about two months, and it works, I have never had an issue.

    When I place ads on the sites I do a 'soft' push of the product, so let's say the content piece is discussing a 1980's circa superman action figure. After all the information is presented to the reader, buying options will be available.

    Ebay's push is the price, and market availability. In my example above Superman Action Figures are probably available in other places, and you probably could get a straight commission on sale for those products. When ebay comes in is on products that you can't get on a normal ecommerce site or affiliate program.

    Products that people collect, maybe OLD advertising, or OLD slot machines. Things not being manufactured anymore.

    Location + Price + Ease of not having the pick the item up, describes what would be pushed through the buying content on the site.

    --------------------

    I guess systems such as these need a lot more detail instead of just laying out a plan, but I used to build "thin" sites and they very much did get slapped a couple years ago so since then I have fine tuned what type of site is considered a "thin" affiliate site.

    I also agree you have to send lots of traffic, but quality traffic. Using keywords that are going to work for you with corresponding targeted pages is the key to producing a good revenue out of the network.

    I would also agree to the fact that I don't specifically recommend Ebay's program but it is an option, and the collectibles niche is a niche that works with ebay
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  • Profile picture of the author GenerousBoy
    Sounds like a good method... except I didn't quite understand all the steps. You become an affiliate selling toys - how? You sign up to a vendor advertising on ebay? Would be interested to get the full picture. Sorry, not very familiar with ebay at all...
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    • Profile picture of the author michael scott
      Just wanted to say that this method works - I know a fellow IM'er who swears by this "easy" method and makes serious bank. The way she does it is buying keyword friendly domains or aged domains. (this is where Google trust comes to play.) Then do some on-site optimization - header tags, keyword density, a few articles, and keyword rich URLs. Theyre generally thin affiliate sites.

      But here's the kicker: she spends absolutely zero effort into backlinking because her sites pick up long tail phrases with a buying intent due to the dynamic/fresh content that comes from the ebay listings. So each time an auction ends, a new one pops up with fresh content and her site would rank for some new long tail keywords that people use to search. Yes, there are Google slaps for doing this but she uses the Phpbay plugin which cloaks the affiliate links as well as a forum that's dedicated to finding new strategies that works and getting around the Google slap. It was my initial business model when I first started IM until I saw another one in this forum that I'm now trying to master.

      Here's an example on what happened to me recently that might've turned out successful if I had opt for the eBay network:

      I found an exact match keyword domain, vaultdoors.org which had about 1,000 local searches for the keyword. Each vault door costs about $2,500 so let’s say if I were to receive 8% commission, I would’ve raked in about $200 on each sale and about $2,000 with 10 sales per month. As excited as I was about the numbers, I couldn’t find a single merchant that sold vault doors except for this ONE merchant who’s repeatedly rejected me on other occasions. The EPN totally slipped my mind and left me in a road block so I never bought the domain and saved it on my “list” instead.



      Right after I saw this thread, I searched “vault doors” on eBay and found many doors available ranging from used to antique – exactly what people were searching for. This demographic wasn't searching for collectibles nor did they seem to be an expert in their niche. All they wanted was a vault door at the best price. EPN was where supply met that demand. So I decided to revisit the domain and found out that someone just bought it (registered 1/24/11) recently to set up a crappy static page with their store phone number.

      So that’s where I screwed up. I let a small gap hinder any further business initiative that I would’ve taken to rank the site #1 months from now making serious bank using the EPN.


      I think the point of this thread is that there’s so many ways to make money on IM and there’s absolutely no boundary when it comes to making money online even if the journey is long and hard. That’s what she said.
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  • Profile picture of the author unhills
    it shows up only 484 results in google on the competing pages
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Only one problem...e-Bay rejected my application. How the heck do you get approved as an affiliate?
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    • Profile picture of the author inter123
      Reading some of the posts here, maybe they are doing you a favour!

      Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom View Post

      Only one problem...e-Bay rejected my application. How the heck do you get approved as an affiliate?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike McAleer
    anyone can go on Squidoo and create a lens promoting ebay products but they can't make there own website? Something wrong with that.
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  • Profile picture of the author PabloVTB
    Solid method. I know it works because I've done it myself. In fact, I've made about 225 USD this week alone using a similar method described here.
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  • Profile picture of the author smile
    Hey thanks for the tip, I love little things like this i can do when i am bored
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  • Profile picture of the author Jouvan Johnson
    great strategy thank you for sharing
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