Going Head to Head with an A4U member with rival sites

[aero_mansoor]

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i think i am in as well...

[LearnAffiliateMarketing]

Hi Guys,

As Paul said, this idea was taken from the post that TheBoyMitchell made a few weeks ago. After we read this, we thought it could be good fun to compete against each other and share our experience with everyone here on A4u...it will also be great to get some feedback on what we are doing right and wrong!

We will try and document everything we do so that we can give as much information as possible. It is also great that other people want to get involved in this project...should be a lot of fun!

Game On!

[aero_mansoor]

do we all have to give out our respective domains? and how often do we update to forum?

and

I am assuming ECU are ok as they dont fall under:- Automated Csv/xml product datafeeds are forbidden

right?

Mansoor

[suedeapple]

ECU can be used - but if you used their paid service then you must calculate that as a cost against your site earnings.

To play on the same playing field as us you must declare your domain on the 1st nov - obv you don't have to stick to our rules, we're not stopping anyone from doing their own thang. But it would be nice if the parties involved stuck to the simple rules

in terms of posting/updates - do this as offen as you like - I'm hoping to collate all the postings and document it in some kind of blog giving everyone a decent backlink to their sites.

Me and lazypages will be posting updates every couple of days or so - I'll be posting about the dilema of my domain choices later on today.
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[aero_mansoor]

ECU can be used - but if you used their paid service then you must calculate that as a cost against your site earnings.

To play on the same playing field as us you must declare your domain on the 1st nov - obv you don't have to stick to our rules, we're not stopping anyone from doing their own thang. But it would be nice if the parties involved stuck to the simple rules

in terms of posting/updates - do this as offen as you like - I'm hoping to collate all the postings and document it in some kind of blog giving everyone a decent backlink to their sites.

Me and lazypages will be posting updates every couple of days or so - I'll be posting about the dilema of my domain choices later on today.
Posted via my Mobile Device

I actually bought my domain... its a .eu domain... i thought it will be a nice challange to get that to rank as well...

[Cheapdvds]

so if ECU isn't Automated Csv/xml product datafeeds what is it?

[suedeapple]

so if ECU isn't Automated Csv/xml product datafeeds what is it?

Basically you can't use the merchants product datafeed to auto populate your site. Setting up something on affilistore wouldn't be deemed fair as that system relies on the raw csv feeds.

Ecu are ok - as they are a dirty way to get content on your site - and don't really add any seo value as such, and you are kinda restricted to what you can do with them.


Basically the 'no datafeeds' rule was put in place because I could wipe lazypages ass If I could use them - so decided to agree on no datafeeds to keep it fairer.
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[LearnAffiliateMarketing]

because I could wipe lazypages ass If I could use them

Haha! Yep, that's the truth right there!

[warren_p]

Basically the 'no datafeeds' rule was put in place because I could wipe lazypages ass If I could use them - so decided to agree on no datafeeds to keep it fairer.
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Do you mean whip his ass?

[LearnAffiliateMarketing]

Yep, that's what he meant!

Maybe we should allow datafeeds...might give a fairer reflection on what some affiliates can achieve when they enter a niche...If people think it would be better to allow datafeeds, then I am fine with that - I will just have to learn how to use them, or be even more creative with my site!

[suedeapple]

haha! whip/wipe, whichever he prefers! lol

I'm up for some datafeed action - Although I'm not quite sure how I would use them in this niche aff site.

[suedeapple]

*******************
Domain Choice
*******************

A few days ago I gave myself the task to research available domains, and what kind of oak related product I would like to sell.

At first glance it was obvious that most of the top level domains had already been taken e.g oaktable.co.uk | oakdiningtable.co.uk | oakcomputerdesk.co.uk

I did ponder about getting the available .eu, or .uk.com styled domains, but didnt feel comfortable on how these would rank in Google.

Being a bit bummed out, I then thought about searching for longer tailed/niche domains e.g.

solidoaktable.co.uk | solidoakdiningtable.co.uk

These types of domains were available, however the amount of traffic they would bring in would be far less than the simple "oak + product name", domain.

I then decided to go back to stage one, and try and find a "oak+product name" top level domain.

I did a bit of research on some Oak furniture sites, and made a list of all the oak related products they were selling, and the types of keywords they were using.

I then ran these through the domain name checker, until I hit jackpot on a couple of available "oak + product name" domains.

Did a quick check on the available traffic on google, and the price point of the products (i.e. would people buy this product online).

I safeguarded both the domains by purchasing the top level com/.co.uk cuplet. Just so no other sneaky affiliate could dupe my site/idea. Obviously I could have bought the .net .org.uk as well.. But wasnt too bothered about them.

With my two domain names, I had to whittle it down to one. The first domain targetted a more expensive item (potentionally more ££ commission per sale), and the second targetted a less expensive item (potentionally more Sales, but less commission per sale).

After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, I decided to go with the more expensive Oak product.

I'll reveal my domain on the 1st November.

*******************************
Site development
*******************************

Due to other (paid) projects, I've not yet made a start on my oak site. Bums!

However when I do get some time I will be..

- Using an inhouse CMS system
- Looking into which products ranges I want to advertise.. i.e. Do I showcase a couple of products, or do I list ALL the available products (mimicing a store front end)
- Looking into some Themes, and site design
- Some possible Jquery Monetising widgets

[Smartphone]

haha! whip/wipe, whichever he prefers! lol

I'm up for some datafeed action - Although I'm not quite sure how I would use them in this niche aff site.

Would you tell us how you use datafeeds so we can whip/wipe our own asses? :blush Sounds interesting.

[kylah16]

Just out of interest did the choice to use an oak furniture related niche have anything to do with the oak site I was selling a few weeks ago?

[suedeapple]

Just out of interest did the choice to use an oak furniture related niche have anything to do with the oak site I was selling a few weeks ago?

I did notice you had an oak site for sale, as you listed it on this site. Maybe thats an option for one of the people on here. They could BUY your existing site.