David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Lecture 3 outlines some aims for this project including:

1. Create a website using no links from existing websites
2. Create a relevant, and perhaps topical, website that will appeal to people primarily in the UK
3. Document every step in the process
4. Actively encourage fresh link building to both http://www.davidfiske.com and the test site (to be named later)
5. Create passive income revenue streams for the site
6. Set a target for passive income!

As I said in the last lecture, these need to be looked at again.
 
Create a website using no links from existing websites

Whilst this aim had good intentions, it fell foul once I stumbled across the hosting issues. Half the site is held over at Compare Sat Nav whilst the other half is held over at Satellite Navigation Price Comparison. As a consequence, Satellite Navigation Price Comparison is now indexed on the DBFCS sitemap. Due to this, I will now be promoting Compare Sat Nav on the DBFCS site. This will help it get spidered much more quickly.

Create a relevant, and perhaps topical, website that will appeal to people primarily in the UK

Satellite Navigation is becoming more and more popular now. As we are getting richer (apparently!), a couple of hundred pounds to help get from A to B is nothing really. In fact, some car manufacturers now offer sat nav as standard on some models. There is nothing on the site (yet) that is really topical though there is scope to introduce various advertsements and promotions relating to car insurance, car tax, petrol prices, etc.

Document every step in the process

I would like to think that this series of lectures is proving useful to you!

Create passive income revenue streams for the site

You may remember reading last week that I have officially made 10 pence from Compare Sat Nav! Okay, so it is not going to buy me a lot (perhaps a packet of Tesco Value Noodles though I am not sure whether that would halp anyone?!), but it is a start.

The key here is that the whole purpose of this site is to create a passive income. What is a passive income? It is the opposite to an active income! Imagine, if you will, a (female) hairdresser. She owns a salon and relies on this making enough money to pay the bills and help to build a nice profit margin. However, she has to work to earn income. The more heads she shaves or perms, the more money she makes and the more likely the chances that she will be able to make a profit.

Now take me. I am developing Compare Sat Nav so it will have a passive income. This means that I can sleep, shop, go for a walk, take my partner out for a spin in the car, perhaps search for the cheapest sat nav system around! But whilst I am doing all this, I am earning money.

The Internet is a great opportunity to develop passive incomes. Yes, it takes time to develop - I have spent a week building the site and now will spend the best part of two months promoting it and making SEO tweaks to it. However, once this is complete and I have a steady flow of traffic to the site, I can ease off the accelerator and let the site start moving itself.

Set a target for passive income!

Crunch time! How much do I think Compare Sat Nav will make? More to the point, how much do I want it to make!

Let me clear something up right here. The Internet differs to the real world in many ways but the major one is that the Internet allows small businesses (exactly what DBFCS is) to reach the entire UK or even the entire planet.

This means earning potential is relatively consistent and constant. If I have 1,000 visitors this week, the chances are I will have around that next week and so on. Yes, it will never be the same but it will average out. One of my sites averages 2,000 visitors a month and has done since I implemented SEO tactics. This is growing but not very fast since I moved concentration to other projects (like this one for instance!).

So, back to the main questions, I would like Compare Sat Nav to earn me £30,000 a year in affiliate commission. This equates to £83 per day in commission which would then equate to
about 10 to 20 sat nav systems a day.

So is this realistic? To do this, I using the 10% rule, I would need around 6 million visitors a year. This may be a little too high for what I have seen in my career!

2,000 visitors a month is easy to get so let's look at that. Based on a commission of £5 per customer (this is an average not a fixed figure), I would net £1,200.

Oh.

So where is the cash going to come from?! Well, 2,000 visitors is easy to do with a weekend of SEO here and there.

I could use a system of leverage whereby I used paid advertising to attract visitors to my site and then earn affiliate commission. Risky but potentially profitable. But I have never used paid advertising and do not intend to start now! I prefer doing things organically and cheaply!

So, back to the overall aim. Despite being very high, I would still like to aim for the £30,000 mark (though I would be very happy if £20,000 was netted) and will work extremely hard in promoting Compare Sat Nav. At the end of the day, this website would not be interesting if I said that I have now done everything and it is now a case of sitting and waiting.

The Internet is not like that - build it and the will not necessarily come! Web visitors aren't all equipped with a map and compass - just Google! Google is the key to my success though it is not the be all and end all. A strategic attack on all major search engines using the very best SEO techniques will help in achieving my goal.