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Street Magic

Hi! I just recently discovered this board. I recently learned about affiliate marketing about two weeks ago, and I have a website almost ready to launch. I decided my niche market would be magic tricks, street magic in particular, since magic is a deep passion of mine, and I own many of the products of my merchants. I am still somewhat unsure of how I will be earning money from my website... I plan to have articles, a review section and direct links (with descriptions) to certain merchant products under the categories of card, coin, mental magic, etc. I'll add some adsense on there as well.
I am also unsure of which merchants to select, since many offer the same products. Should i stick to one or use whoever offers the cheapest prices?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tony.

Also, when I launch the site, how do I check my traffic and stats... does the hosting company offer such services, or do I obtain them seperately?
 
HI Tony,

Welcome to 5 Star.

KUDOS on picking a good niche you know about and are passionate about. Sounds like you have a good plan. I don't know how many merchants are in that space, but suggest you pick 2 that look best. Look for highest payout, long cookies and also look at the sites to be sure no leaks like 800 #s or Adsense. Then since you know the biz and have bought many of the products pretend you are a customer and narrow it down by the 2 merchants you think you'd want to buy from based on price and/or site features.


You can use as many merchants as you want. I'm suggesting 2 to get you started and 2 instead of one because some programs convert better than others so you will in part be testing to see which one is best. COnversions are key. One site could pay higher commish but if no one ever buys you won't make a dime.

Most hosting companies offer stats. Any host worth anything does at least. Most offer Awstats and Webalizer at minimum.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Linda. Most magic merchants do not offer high comission... most are around 10-15. This is why I'm considering having some clickbank ebooks that have 50% commission. I read somewhere that you don't like clickbank products, but I think the ebooks are good ways for beginners to learn magic.

Does anyone know of any sucessful affiliate websites I check out and take notes on?
 
One of my biggest concerns about CB centers around all the "get rich quick" type ebooks that capitalize on newbies and that all the Internet marketers are trying to sell to each other. Too many n00bs try to start in that space and then give up because it's too tough.

I don't have as much of a problem with unique and nichey how-to ebooks on CB except for the fact that CB tracking *****. :p

Word of warning. I really hate to help make you jaded, but better for you to lrean early rather than late. You shouldnt share too much about what you are planning th do in forums. If another affiliate reads it and likes the idea they will become your competion. It's good you shared the niche and it's one many affiliates would not know about enoughto want to get into. But you shouldnt share industry names, keywords, merchants or other key info.

Thats also the reason most affiliates wont share their sites and the reason it would be unethical for me to show you any affiliate's sites. Too many idea and site stealers in the industry so you have to be careful.
 
Well I think Yahoo is probably cost effective but have not heard how GOOD it is.
Always check your potential hosts reputation out at www.webhostingtalk.com. Like any forum there is noise. incorrect info and whiners HOWEVER it's pretty easy to figure out after a few complaints, kudos and reviews what hosts are good.

So I'd check Yahoo's rep for support and uptime 1st.

I just searched high and low for a new host. I needed a dedicated server and excellent support that could migrate all my sites, set up a reseller account and also specializes in Vbulletin hosting. The support has been incredible. I called the company late Friday (holiday weekend no less) got the owner on the phone. He really knows his stuff. Moved 3 sites for me Sat and Sunday (New Years Eve!) He's copying all my databases this weekend and changing my namesevers for me too. NO ONE does all that in the hosting industry.

Their starting package is 8.95 a month
http://realwebhost.net/hosting.php

Just checked Yahoo and it loks good - lots of space but many hosts OVERsell and that can cause problems. I see they also have free phone support which is good and they give you a free domain. They go up to 11.95 after the 1st months. Not bad. Just double check their support and uptime at WHT.

Here are a few threads about Yahoo:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?searchid=1878482

NOTE in the past I recommended Yahoo Small Biz in a couple threads for n00bs because you can get a FREE domain with hosting. But according to some people in those WHT threads, once you get the free domain with Yahoo if you need to switch hosts due to poor support or whatever they keep the domain and you can't move it to another host. Double check their TOS to see if it's true but a heads up warning you need to check this.

Hope this helps and best of luck!
 
I'm writing an article on performing magic. One necessary element of performing is absolute confidence. Would it acceptable to throw out a link to an "Unstoppable Confidence" ebook?
 
On your site? Sure that sounds like a good fit. I wouldn't just throw it out there and an sure you weren't planning to. Be sure to do a little pre-sell along with the link that relates to importance of absolute confidence when performing and ties the book in with the art of magic.
 
To give an update of how my sites been doing since I launched it on Jan. 5th:
I'm still developing my site, posting new tricks and reviews and what not
I get about 300-500 visitors daily and sold a few products and I get about 25 hits from google, yahoo and aol per day. Not bad for a complete noob :)


Is there any way I can find out how much money certain google adsense ads generate per click? I noticed that the ones on my site range anywhere from $.03 to $1.75
 
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