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Here is a rough outline of the process I use to create an affiliate site.

1. I look for a merchant with an affiliate program that fits a profile. Their site looks professional, they have a good reputation among affiliates in general, they stay away from parasites as much as possible, their products seem to selll well, and may by more upscale than down. And, finally, the program terms meet the criteria that I expect from a good program.

2. Once I find a merchant that I am interested in, I will contact the affiliate manager. I ask them specific questions, like, "What kind of products sell well for you?", "Are there any niches or groups of products within your site that are not, perhaps, exploited as much by other affiliates?" ( I.E., any opportunities to sell with minimum competition?) , and "What angles would you recommend for me to take, in regards to making your products appealing to people most likely to buy from you?" More often than not, if they have catalogs, I ask them to send them to me, so I can leaf through them, maybe get some content ideas.

3. After I am satisfied that I have found an acceptable merchant, and a niche that I want to work in, that is when I begin to search for a product specific domain to register or purchase. Up to this point, I haven't even concerned myself with a domain name. The domain will probably be a .com, but really, when it comes right down to it, I concern myself more with a keyword than an extension. If I have to, I qualify the surfer by adding something like "buy" in front of the domain, "buyrvparts" etc. The point is, your site, stumpsomeone dot com looks like a good site to go to to have fun, and if you get enough traffic, a small percentage of that traffic will click through to other stuff and maybe buy something. But that's not the kind of traffic you want. The traffic you want has already qualified themselves: they want to buy something specific, and they want it right now. When they see your domain in the search engine results, they know intuitively, I've found it.

4. I build the site around that particular merchant, almost exclusively, in an attempt to generate as many sales as possible for 1 merchant. Others will argue that you should use many merchants, and I do, but generally 1 merchant per site. That way, if the site is successful, you will be able to go back to the merchant later, and politely ask if the merchant would be willing to increase your % or set a bopnus level for you to reach, something that would make it a little easier for you to afford advertising for that merchant. Generally speaking, once I average 50K-60K in sales every year for a merchant, they know I'm serious, and that rewarding me will actually make them more money.

5. I work to get the site found in the search engines. I look at competitive sites, to see why they are ranking well or if there are angles that I may not be thinking of. I advertise via google, or in some cases offline. I submit to as many human edited directories as I can, and down the road I add several pages focussed more on content than generating sales.

6. Go to step 1, find a new merchant, new site.

Some sites you will end up letting go of after a year - but some will earn their keep for years.

05-15-2008, 12:37 PM	· #13
RogueWriter The Buddha Of Bubbas Location: Smalltown USA Trader Rating: (70) Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3,957 NP$: 77.25 (Donate)	Here is a rough outline of the process I use to create an affiliate site. 1. I look for a merchant with an affiliate program that fits a profile. Their site looks professional, they have a good reputation among affiliates in general, they stay away from parasites as much as possible, their products seem to selll well, and may by more upscale than down. And, finally, the program terms meet the criteria that I expect from a good program. 2. Once I find a merchant that I am interested in, I will contact the affiliate manager. I ask them specific questions, like, "What kind of products sell well for you?", "Are there any niches or groups of products within your site that are not, perhaps, exploited as much by other affiliates?" ( I.E., any opportunities to sell with minimum competition?) , and "What angles would you recommend for me to take, in regards to making your products appealing to people most likely to buy from you?" More often than not, if they have catalogs, I ask them to send them to me, so I can leaf through them, maybe get some content ideas. 3. After I am satisfied that I have found an acceptable merchant, and a niche that I want to work in, that is when I begin to search for a product specific domain to register or purchase. Up to this point, I haven't even concerned myself with a domain name. The domain will probably be a .com, but really, when it comes right down to it, I concern myself more with a keyword than an extension. If I have to, I qualify the surfer by adding something like "buy" in front of the domain, "buyrvparts" etc. The point is, your site, stumpsomeone dot com looks like a good site to go to to have fun, and if you get enough traffic, a small percentage of that traffic will click through to other stuff and maybe buy something. But that's not the kind of traffic you want. The traffic you want has already qualified themselves: they want to buy something specific, and they want it right now. When they see your domain in the search engine results, they know intuitively, I've found it. 4. I build the site around that particular merchant, almost exclusively, in an attempt to generate as many sales as possible for 1 merchant. Others will argue that you should use many merchants, and I do, but generally 1 merchant per site. That way, if the site is successful, you will be able to go back to the merchant later, and politely ask if the merchant would be willing to increase your % or set a bopnus level for you to reach, something that would make it a little easier for you to afford advertising for that merchant. Generally speaking, once I average 50K-60K in sales every year for a merchant, they know I'm serious, and that rewarding me will actually make them more money. 5. I work to get the site found in the search engines. I look at competitive sites, to see why they are ranking well or if there are angles that I may not be thinking of. I advertise via google, or in some cases offline. I submit to as many human edited directories as I can, and down the road I add several pages focussed more on content than generating sales. 6. Go to step 1, find a new merchant, new site. Some sites you will end up letting go of after a year - but some will earn their keep for years. Please register or log-in into NamePros to hide ads __________________ Join the United Domainers, Our Cybernations.net Alliance! Have fun, rule the world.