David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

I want to get onto the property ladder and hence need to earn around £30,000 from affiliate marketing per year to afford the mortgage.

For that, Mortgage Sorter estimate I could get a mortgage between £80K and £105K. Not much, and that's on £30K per year!

Essentially, carrying on the way I am now is going to get me nowhere.

So what has to change?
 
A lot!

My portfolio has grown on a whim and that was bad. Computer Chooser is a valid site and it is getting a few visitors but I have no clear direction for it.

Aim Number 1:
Decide on what to do with Computer Chooser and just do it! The more time spent deciding an idea, the more time is wasted.

Smart and Green has changed from a real estate site to a shopping portal site, whilst I was in a "if I didn't try it, I would never know" frame of mind.

Aim Number 2:
Do not touch Smart and Green. It has been designed to be ultra SEO friendly - it just needs time to be indexed and to grow. Feeds will be updated monthly (ish).

Compare Sat Nav is the most stable site as it has a clear foundation. It still has problems such as lack of sufficient content, lack of SEO optimised descriptions and a lack of backlinks.

I estimate that I need to find 500 backlinks to make an impact on search engine rankings. I equate that to be a months worth of work. (sidenote: I have just checked and realised Compare Sat Nav has a PageRank of 4. Nice!)

Aim Number 3:
Get 500 backlinks to Compare Sat Nav. Write SEO descriptions, and generally get more of a move on!

My aim a while ago was to have a portfolio of sites and spend on average a day a week on each. However, by doing this, the project as a whole now lacks direction. This is why I am not getting very far very quickly.

Aim Number 4:
Keep focussing on what is ahead, not to the side. How is my portfolio supposed to grow if I am forever chasing dreams?

Back to the main topic though, can I get a mortgage on an affiliate salary?

If I used Amazon to generate this, I would need to send £600,000 worth of trade to them, on the basic commission rate. That doesn't seem impossible - 60,000 sat nav systems!

Ultimately, it won't be easy but that's something I never claimed.But I feel I am getting decidedly closer to developing an affiliates formula.