Serious question for the Pros...dare you answer!

[Ambski]

Hi all,
Just been reading 'How to build a site that sells for 6 figures' by John (inspiring article btw) and, along with lots of other advice I've read, the same 'newbie question for the experts' returns:

If you could have started you affiliate marketing differently what would you have done?

It would be interesting to know if there is a familiar pattern of pitfalls or mistakes that many affiliates make when starting out.

NOTE: Eek! Can an admin please correct the thread title spelling to 'Serious' please!

[LouisaR]

Done Ambski. I'll have a look and see if we can change the settings for thread title changes.

[Ambski]

Done Ambski. I'll have a look and see if we can change the settings for thread title changes.

Thanks Louisa! Wow, support email sent 10:51am, support completed 10:55am.

It's official...this is the best forum ever!

[tbp]

Wouldn't call myself a pro, but for me the following would be things I wouldn't too again:

1) Jumping in and spending months building a site without doing any proper research

2) Buying loads of domain names that seemed like a good idea at the time, but aren't that great. Again this comes down to lack of research.

3) Putting in a user registration system into my biggest site quite late - missing loads of potential sign ups!

Think that probably covers it for me. Thankfully, my mistakes cost me very little money, it was just my time that I wasted!

[ep90]

1) If planning on a big site, try to get the .com and .co.uk domains. Buying them later when your site is established may cost you big money.

2) If your rubbish at graphics pay someone to do them for you.

3) Try to resist checking your sales stats every five minates - write your self a list of jobs to keep you productive.

[Ambski]

1) If planning on a big site, try to get the .com and .co.uk domains. Buying them later when your site is established may cost you big money.

2) If your rubbish at graphics pay someone to do them for you.

3) Try to resist checking your sales stats every five minates - write your self a list of jobs to keep you productive.

Thanks. Great info so far.

C'mon you affiliate big-guns don't be shy!

[Mogga]

Maybe the big guns have no regrets?
;-)

[ian-d]

Don't create a site based around good potential keywords with minimal competition only to find that its not a product most would buy online (don't ask!)

Make sure there are plenty of merchants on affiliate schemes for the products you are launching, as if one drops out of a scheme, do you have a backup, and likewise, give the consumer choice.

Keep an eye on your advertising spend (PPC), it can get expensive very quickly.

[MortimerJazz]

1) Jumping in and spending months building a site without doing any proper research

What kind of research do you do? Presumably you need to make sure there's a demand for your website but what kind of things do you wish you'd researched before spending months building your first site?

And where might one go to do this research? :-)

[ian-d]

MortimerJazz - think that might be a conversation for a seperate thread

[MortimerJazz]

MortimerJazz - think that might be a conversation for a seperate thread

lol - fair enough

[Ambski]

Maybe the big guns have no regrets?
;-)

Lol! Fair enough. Maybe if I ask them after too many 'Bristol based Shandys' !

Good points ian-d also.

[tbp]

What kind of research do you do?

For me, it was finding out whether there was a need for another shopping directory (NO!) lol . I mistakenly thought that because there were so many, they're must be a real demand.

Instead I found out that its been done to death, and it has to be incredibly different for anyone to take any notice of it out of the thousands and thousands out there. It was incredibly hard to promote because of this, to the point where I just gave up in the end.

This comes up frequently on A4U, and the advice is NOT to start with a shopping directly. If i`d just gone and read a few posts I`d have picked this up lol

[loquax]

If you could have started you affiliate marketing differently what would you have done?

Difficult to say - mainly because the decisions made ultimately got us to this point, and I'm pretty happy with that. Je ne regret nowt really!

But, as in John's article - we probably should have done enforced registration sooner than we did, at the beginning of affiliate marketing we were probably too one dimensional and didn't jump in soon enough to alternative markets, and thirdly I wish we'd got into finance/freebie/discounts/broadband/cashback and anything else that's doing well now before everyone else!

Jason

[Ambski]

I wish we'd got into finance/freebie/discounts/broadband/cashback and anything else that's doing well now before everyone else!

Jason

I hear that.
I bet someone out there thought "Buy Shares in that Google thing? Nah, it'll never fly" at some stage. Hind-sight is always 20/20.