FreshWebz Web Design & Affiliate Marketing Blog The Ups & Downs of an Affiliate Marketeer
  • Aug
    10

    Feed & Merchant issues on new datafeedr sites

    Having set up The Green Directory & been happy with how easy it was to set up my first datafeedr affiliate store, I decided to take the plunge & set up my 5 store account!! My Travel Extras has been doing quite well recently & I want that site to focus on the Travel Extras side (through its blog), rather than on theatre tickets etc.

    This means setting up two separate websites for the ticket sales & travel offers, which until now have been running on My Travel Extras & “diluting” the Travel Extras content considerably!

    Unfortunately, the initial excitement of setting up these two new sites has been tempered somewhat, by the discovery that 95% of the travel companies (the majority of which are on Affiliate Future) don’t seem to have product feeds, whilst I have been rejected by Ticketmaster which is obviously a major blow (although I have appealed through buy.at)! It’s just frustrating that I can’t be sure about the travel & ticket sites, because I want to rework My Travel Extras………..it’s a chicken & egg scenario!!!

    The moral of this seems to be; ensure that the merchants offer datafeeds BEFORE deciding on the theme of any new site! However, should either of these two sites have to bite the dust, I shall use my spare datafeedr capacity to build something else – I still haven’t done anything with cheapsmallbusinessbroadband.co.uk or cheapalicantecarhire.co.uk!!!!

    Also have to build the datafeedr travel accessories store for My Travel Extras AND the scifigoodies site, so still plenty to do in the meantime!!!

    2 Comments
 

2 responses to “Feed & Merchant issues on new datafeedr sites” RSS icon

  • from your exp do you think it’s worth it getting an affiliate based site? what sort of returns to expect? i am considering starting my own online business, and i wonder if i should start off with the affiliate side of things before starting to sell my own products. what are your thoughts please?

  • FreshWebz Web Design September 10th, 2009 at 15:07

    Hi Tina,

    Really these are mainly questions only you will know the answers to. The ideal affiliate site would be based on a product or service that you are passionate about, as this will help you write useful, informative content. The product should be in a small enough niche, so that you can become an authority site for people looking for information or products to do with that subject.

    In my own experience, I’ve probably built sites that are too general & have far too much competition from big players. This is why I have started to look at other sectors such as “cheapsmallbusinessbroadband” & “cheapalicantecarhire”, which will be easier to feature well in search engines for, than simply “car hire” & “broadband” for example.

    Returns from affiliate marketing can vary wildly & will depend on the sector you are promoting; there are stories of affiliates earning thousands per month & others that just make a little extra cash on top of their day job. The commission rates vary by product too, from 0.5% to 60% and you will also need to bear in mind the cost of the product & the volume of sales. Not to mention you will have competitors out there as well (which is why you need to research & find your niche product). It’s impossible to quantify – what are you expecting to earn? I’ve been working at this for a number of years & would say that only now am I approaching a point where I can see that it could become enough for a full time income within the next year or two!

    Do you already have products of your own that you can sell? If so, then why would you not start selling them?


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