Hi everyone...
I'm new to the world of affiliate programming, but only because I let it pass me by so many times. A buddy of mine was bugging me to get started with this stuff in 2003, but I said "no, no way anybody really makes any money with that stuff"....
Of course, in 2004, I got a job working for somebody else who really was making money with that stuff. A couple hundred million, to be exact...
And yet still I didn't try it on my own. And my next employer, who also made money with that stuff, tens of millions, and I still didn't start doing it. And now I'm with a third employer, who (guess what?) is making hundreds of millions with SEM and SEO, and I'm getting kind of tired of thinking "gee, I bet I could do this!"
So I'm giving it a shot myself. I'm a web programmer who knows plenty about the mechanics of web sites and has built pretty much everything from landers to bid management systems to A/B test engines, and yet I find myself wondering how I put it all together.
My first project is a credit card directory, because I have everything except the marketing strategy laid out for me. And yet I'm still kind of wondering, "should I do X, or should I do Y?" and I find myself thinking more about the specifics and not executing as quickly as I should. Damnit! This is why engineers always work for other people...
Anyway, I'm building this credit card site, and it's mainly a proof of concept for an affiliate marketing site engine I'm building. It's hot! It's got A/B testing (slicing up traffic based on session ID), all sorts of logging (I'm working on a feature that'll add a JS tracking bug to the bottom of each page, so I correlate its stats with page request stats and see whether or not users are loading the page, or just clicking the link and clicking off), and even a little touch of Ajax.
And yet I'm wondering about specifics! This engine is based around a directory of offers... perhaps I should be focusing more on a single product at a time? I'm learning about keyword marketing, and I realize now that credit cards are such a competitive niche that I'll probably not make any money with them, and need to focus on something else. And I've got ideas! But I need execution...
I'm excited, can't wait to get started with this stuff. Wish I'd been open to the idea 4 years ago; maybe I'd be living in Barbados by now.
Savage Z
I'm new to the world of affiliate programming, but only because I let it pass me by so many times. A buddy of mine was bugging me to get started with this stuff in 2003, but I said "no, no way anybody really makes any money with that stuff"....
Of course, in 2004, I got a job working for somebody else who really was making money with that stuff. A couple hundred million, to be exact...
And yet still I didn't try it on my own. And my next employer, who also made money with that stuff, tens of millions, and I still didn't start doing it. And now I'm with a third employer, who (guess what?) is making hundreds of millions with SEM and SEO, and I'm getting kind of tired of thinking "gee, I bet I could do this!"
So I'm giving it a shot myself. I'm a web programmer who knows plenty about the mechanics of web sites and has built pretty much everything from landers to bid management systems to A/B test engines, and yet I find myself wondering how I put it all together.
My first project is a credit card directory, because I have everything except the marketing strategy laid out for me. And yet I'm still kind of wondering, "should I do X, or should I do Y?" and I find myself thinking more about the specifics and not executing as quickly as I should. Damnit! This is why engineers always work for other people...
Anyway, I'm building this credit card site, and it's mainly a proof of concept for an affiliate marketing site engine I'm building. It's hot! It's got A/B testing (slicing up traffic based on session ID), all sorts of logging (I'm working on a feature that'll add a JS tracking bug to the bottom of each page, so I correlate its stats with page request stats and see whether or not users are loading the page, or just clicking the link and clicking off), and even a little touch of Ajax.
And yet I'm wondering about specifics! This engine is based around a directory of offers... perhaps I should be focusing more on a single product at a time? I'm learning about keyword marketing, and I realize now that credit cards are such a competitive niche that I'll probably not make any money with them, and need to focus on something else. And I've got ideas! But I need execution...
I'm excited, can't wait to get started with this stuff. Wish I'd been open to the idea 4 years ago; maybe I'd be living in Barbados by now.
Savage Z
