David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

Okay, so during the last lecture, I briefly explained that if you want to make money on the net, you need to write about a passion.

I already have a consumer electronics site (namely Compare Sat Nav) and so am looking to diversify and create a portfolio of affiliate based sites.

The first question has to be "how many sites are we looking for"?
 
Monday is Compare Sat Nav day - it is the day I update prices and will become the day I promote, edit and develop the site.

Saturday and Sunday is "me time". I spend the weekends with my partner (Cheryl) and will continue to do this.

This leaves Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the moment, all are 'free' in the sense that I do not have an ordered structure to these days - I have a list of things to do and get on with it.

Any good planner will tell you to plan for the unexpected. Things happen that you did not expect or could not predict. Your server crashes, a flood of emails have arrived and need responses for, etc. The 'big boys' of Internet marketing claim the way to deal with email, for example, is to outsource it. But on a tight budget, that is absurd. That's like buying a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren today because you may be able to afford it tomorrow. DON'T DO IT.

Friday now becomes 'fun day Friday'! It is for troubleshooting as well as monitoring. It is for creating reports and analysing the progress and performance of the portfolio. It also degrades neatly if I need to reallocate work to a Friday, perhaps if the Monday is a bank holiday, etc.

That leaves three days.

Three whole ------LONG------ days!

Oh.

As the David Fiske Project was based upon creating a new site and getting it to a level that is sustainable, it seems wrong to uses pre-existing sites to leverage the project. Therefore, I need three FRESH ideas.

Again, similar to Lecture 10, I need t concoct a list of possible niches for me to exploit.

89 lectures later and I am a little older and a little wiser. Back then, I considered:

• Chocolate Retailers
• Music Retailers
• Satellite Navigation

Sat nav has now been done.

Music is perhaps a bit too vague and even if I narrowed it down, could I get thousands of reviews written without investing in thousands of CD's or MP3's?

Chocolate is an interesting proposition as it is a seasonal product. Having worked for Thorntons in the past, here speaks a man in the know! It peaks around Valentine's Day, Easter and Christmas, besides all the birthdays and other occasions chocolates are purchased.

Another idea is to enter that ludicrously overcrowded market known as personal finance. It's all good and well selling sat nav systems and chocolate but the commissions are ridiculously low. To give you an example, I sent around £6,000 of trade to one retailer last year and my commission was around £120. That's a lot of effort for not a lot of cash. The land of personal finance pays more but converts less. Nonetheless, it should still return some conversions

Many (including myself!) dissuade people from entering the personal finance market as it is complex and boring. But I am looking into a unique angle!

If I went with these two, I need one more site. And in all fairness, I'm not convinced by chocolate!

Perhaps I am missing a trick here? Compare Sat Nav needs time to grow plus it needs a little persuasion from me. But do I really need several new sites to support it or do I need one site with several very different sections?

Assuming I scrap the chocolate idea (perhaps one day?!), that leaves one personal finance site, Compare Sat Nav and two days to fill. What if I created a site with several sections and focussed on one side today and another tomorrow?

That way, I rapidly develop a site with fingers in all pies. There would be electronics advertised, some books, DVD's and CD's, plus some mobile contracts and perhaps even some personal finance. The trick that I am missing is that I can integrate Compare Sat Nav with such a site.

So what am I thinking of?

I still don't know. Satellite Navigation systems are used by car drivers, van drivers and truck drivers. But do I want to go down that route?

I am not so sure.

This means that I now have to go back to Google and search for some feasible niches.

I'm afraid this series of lectures will continue into a third. I need to clear my head!