Do feeds actually work?

[jellifish]

Hello All
Ive got probably a question that is somewhat akin to "if i knew that then..." but id like to get some straight real experience views from people actually doing it out there.

Ive got a site which is making some conversions a month I currently use text links to direct the traffic to the various affiliates and ive been pleased with the results.

i am wondering if this can be improved on and wonder if generally linking in product feeds has actually proved to be a good move or not?

Also any pitfalls linking in product feeds / any networks that are better than others etc?

Thanks in advance for any advice with making this move or not would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

[Itchy]

Originally Posted by jellifish Also any pitfalls linking in product feeds / any networks that are better than others etc?

Yep loads of em

biggest problem is how inconsistant feeds are you can get feeds from the same merchant from different networks that are completly different in the amount of info provided once youve solved this then its not a problem

to begain with id used AF feeds just to get used to using feeds , then AW , buy.at, por etc the ones id stay away from is TD feeds these are pants although Mr pricethat has a fetish for them (we do use em but the ones we do use where hard work to convert them into something usefull) oh and CJ wants 200 dollar before itll let ya see their feeds so big swerve for them.

[pricethat]

Feeds are just another tool in the mix of things, asking whether feeds work is a bit non descript as it is only how you use them that matter. If text links work for you then you have to work out why they worked for you. If it was because they were very targetted to the information on the page then feeds will only work if you can manipulate them to replicate or automate what you do manually.

For us feeds work exceptionally well, but only as a reference point to automate the manual work that has to be done, not especially because they are feeds.

Regards

[jellifish]

Thanks itchy for the low down on the best networks that will save me lots of time getting to grips with feeds. As i venture out into the wilderness - ekk! I probably would have started with Trade Doubler as well )))

Just one other question - Did you find you need to update the feeds every day ?? Did you find one technology over another worked well? Do you scedule these things - hmm so many questions. Thanks again for any further advice.

[jellifish]

thanks Pricethat - again very useful information - i can see what you mean find the reason and stick to it ... Id be going from 6 ot 7 links to dealers site to loads of links to the dealers products i guess this is the key thing will my site work better at converting than the dealers sites?

Also how many hours a day is required when you start to get into feeds does this become a full time job this also has to come into play.

Im sort of interested also in how much people can make doing this - i do ok at the moment in terms of extra income but if you do it right and say use the feeds right can this mean a full time business opportunity as an affiliate. Possibly even an expanding business. Sorry for my niavity its just im kind of intrigued into what is possible - hope you guys can help me to get the perspective right??

Thanks again for answering the message.