October 15, 2006

Affiliate Marketing with Pongee Sticks

Day 1

After several weeks of intensive research and analysis (read 'waffling'), I decide to pursue affiliate marketing and content as a full-time effort. I haven't 'quit my day job' as the hype would have us all long to do. There's no day job to quit. I have, however, decided to focus my hitherto scattered efforts along a more tightly defined path.

This is not my first time to the dance - I tried my hand at affiliate marketing before. Long ago, I signed up for a ClickBank account, grabbed a couple of promising looking prospects, established the links on a page or two that I owned, sat back and waited for the riches to roll in. I couldn't have taken a more wrong approach.

Extensive traffic analysis showed that a whopping total of two people clicked on my link, of the hundred or so people who saw it at all. I think one was my mom, which means the other one was probably my sister. My family rep and exposure has skyrocketed as a result.

I run several websites and an online roleplay game. Of all the sites I run, Legends of Karinth, the roleplay game's website brings in the most traffic, followed by the actual Celtic Elegance store. I also run Fern's Great Northern, a gateway to the three major stores and our Amazon US associate site - a gallery site which supports Lewis & Clarke's Nature To Go - and the Nature To Go store itself.

The game has its own store at Dragon Hoards, which is the outlet for roleplay game goodies, Karinthian player fan goodies, and a ton of black t-shirts with messages on them (none of which you have to hide from your mom).

The post dates on this blog will appear strange for awhile. Think of it as a time machine...

I do a quick calculation on my expenditures to date...

So far I've spent $0.
My revenue is at $0.

I have successfully not spent about $500 on hidden secrets and ultimate authorities.
I have successfully not signed up for approximately $1500 in seminars and gurus.