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Help Making my First Conversion

Hello all!

This may be particularly a question of Rob, but anyone can help! I am taking Rob's advice (among others) and searching for new places to set up affiliate links, et cetera, and I am trying to dig through the Commision Junction set up and the Paydotcom set up processes.

I got the Patdotcom up nd going, but I haev to say, unless there is something more to it that I am missing, they don't seem to have anywhere near as many choices to promote and it is much harder to search than the only other programme I am used to at this point: clickbank.

I am having trouble with CJ as well. I can't seem to even figure out how to get signed up with them. The jargin is completely different from the other sites and it is not very user friendly (for a n00b such as myself.) Any suggestions or tips? Any thoughts on whether hard products will work better for me than soft ones? (Starting week ten of my affiliate marketing life and still no conversions. I am hoping this may help.)

Okay. Thanks again for all the help!
Will
 
I am not really sure how to answer this one cos I am not sure I understand the question.

You go to cj.com, go to "publishers" >> application

Fill out the application form.

From memory, they automatically approve you (make sure you have your own domain and matching email address just to be safe).

Then you log in and choose an advertiser, apply to their program, then go to "get links" and take things from there.

It's more or less the same with most other affiliate programs I am with though some will do manual approval so you ight have to wait a day or two.
 
Good simple explanation, thanks Rob.

Here's a short, simple video that may help.

Commission Junction (CJ) Tutorial
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HEY! Great news, all!

I made my first conversion! Nothing big, just $16.55USD, but a conversion none-the-less!

Of course, $16.55USD every two months is not going to pay any bill known to man, so I have to keep at it, but the hope is there!

Thanks for all the tips and pleaswe keep them coming! (Oh - and BTWm that was a conversion on the product whose keyword I had targeted and got me the good rankings and traffic. I guess it took about 300 page hits to get one conversion, so it is time to look for a better product and let that one do what it may while I concentrate on something new, perhaps...)

Thanks again!
Will
 
Big Congrats Will!

The 1st sale always takes forever, then after that they start coming easier and hopefully faster. :)

300 clicks is not enough to judge though. I'm guessing maybe the 1st 200 where not as targeted or your copy was not as good as you were learning and building things up. It's possible in 50 clicks you'll make another sale. So I'd hang tight, maybe add something but don't get rid of that one yet unless you find there are leaks or something.
 
Thanks Linda!

I won't simply ditch my sitse, especially not the one that made me my first conversion! But I will semi put it on the back burner and let it gather clicks while I work on the new projects. I definitely see a great difference between my page copy on the first attempts and the more recent ones. I did think that I picked my niche product fairly well, but I also think that now I have a better idea of how to approach targeted customer, et cetera. Perhaps what I should do is go back after i get to a good "stopping point" with my newer projects and rewrite the copy for those first pages and then remarket it to a more targeted audience...

Thanks again for you support! I am working on some target posts right now. Maybe I will have my second conversion before the end of the weekend. Finger Crossed.

Will
 
"I won't simply ditch my sitse,"

No I wasn't talking about ditching your site - I was talking about not giving up on that product yet.

You said "so it is time to look for a better product."
 
Oh. Sorry. Miscommunication...

I was under the impression that maybe I had picked a bad product for my first campaign since it took so long to get a conversion. Do you think I should go with my plan of letting it do its own thing until I get the next campaign in place and then go back and see what can be done for it, or do you think that I should take the time now to be sure that first campaign is the best it can be before focusing on the next project (which is already almost in place)?

Thanks!
Will
 
Sorry Will I don't have enough info to go on to know what you should do.
I was only cautioning not to give up on a merchant or product too quick.
 
keywords and products

I'm facing the same problem as Will. After reading the posts in this thread, I'm slowly getting the idea of how things are suppose to start but there are still things that are not too clear to me.

What if I used the keyword research method you posted and found a gook keyword phrase but can't find a product to go with it? How do find products that match keywords?

~ Shoukei ~
 
Hi Shoukei,

If you find a niche that you think is good, to find products to sell 1st search Google for "key words in quotes" Pay attention to the Adwords ads on the side. If it's a subject that can be monetized you'll see ads and can get a feel for what types of products people are selling.

Then Google "product key word" affiliate program to find some programs, or join Commission Junction at cj.com and do some keyword searches to see what types of programs are out there. CJ is good for research because they show a variety of metrics that let you easily compare programs. CJ may or may not be the best net network to start with and the programs you find there may or may not be the best, I'm just saying to start researching it's the easiest place.
 
I went to cj to sign up and one of the required information is my website. I've an account each at blogger.com and squidoo.com and I have some blogs there. Those blogs are part of my efforts of converting my products that didn't work at all so I don't actually have a website of my own and I'm thinking of some other affiliate marketing websites. Can you recommend some suitable ones for newbies?

Or should I set up a website and then find a niche and then find a product related to the niche?:confused:
 
I think you can probably sign up with CJ with a blogger account. But then to get approved by some merchants is harder and you may need a site related to the product for some.

"Or should I set up a website and then find a niche and then find a product related to the niche?"

No the 1st step is finding your niche. Then check to make sure there are affiliate programs with products to sell that would appeal to that niche. Don't join any yet, just research.

Before you build a site you need a niche and need to do niche research. Then once you know that's the niche you are going to target, you try to find a domain name with your main 1 or 2 keywords in it.

Again, that's very general advice because there are lots of different ways to approach it. But for both customers and search engines it helps if your niche and your domain share common keywords and then the products you add later are related to the niche.
 
Then check to make sure there are affiliate programs with products to sell that would appeal to that niche. Don't join any yet, just research.

What does the above mean?

Actually, I registered a domain name specially for the pre-sell pages. I don't use one domain name per pre-sell page. For example, if I found a niche about dog food and I want to make a pre-sell page for it, I the url for the pre-sell page will look like this:

Domain name: h ttp://example.com/
Pre-sell page: h ttp://example.com/dogfood (this is just an example)

Is that appropriate for a pre-sell page? And you said its better to have 1 or 2 keywords in the domain name. Can the example above do?
 
Hi Shoukei,

That depends on what is your domain name. If your domain is "tarotforyou", it will be confusing if you put /dogfood.

hope that help. :)
 
Hi, mwong.

That's what I thought... but if I were to use a domain for each product, it would cost me if I had many products. So I was thinking that if it were that hard to get a domain name for each product, can I use a blog as a pre-sell page?

~ Shoukei ~
 
I understand how frustrating it can be to work under budget. I have been there. :(

Here is what I think:

1. Indeed you can use blogs to help promote your products but can you update all your blogs in time? Because you need to constantly update your blog with content to make it standout. What do you think if the blog you read only have 2-3 posts and is outdated?

2. Can you put similar products under one domain? Then you can save your cost.

3. Can you just focus on few of your niches and drop other niches? Because I am afraid you will lose focus if you need to promote too many products in one time.

Hope these helps. :D
 
Hi, mwong.

Guess you're right. I'll try to focus on one niche. Can I promote a few products of the same niche? Or do I focus on promoting only ONE product per niche first?

I've been into affiliate marketing for at least 3 weeks already and I think all the conversion tricks are not working and I haven't earned anything. So, is it advisable if I leave all I've done so far aside and start with one new niche, one new product and one new website?

~ Shoukei ~
 
MI
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