David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

I'm sure time goes faster when I'm working on my websites. I'm sure I get 3 hours days unlike those days that most people get.

To combat this, and to tie in with my Christmas planning, I've made a time plan!
 
Some would say that running an affiliate marketing business full time is the best way to get your time back. Forget 9 - 5 hours, deadlines and the like. Affiliate marketing as a career enables flexible working hours - if I want a 2 hour lunch, I can - and so forth!

That's all good and well but I find that without a plan, or timetable I spend too long on particular sites and not enough on another.

Here's How To Create a Time Plan (If You're That way Inclined)

Step One

Work out how many hours a day you want to work. For me, I like the idea of planning a 10 to 5 day, with a one hour lunch. In reality, that will change but that's more or less my day. So, I've got 6 hours to play with.

I also want to keep weekends free to do other things. What's the point of working for yourself but having to do it 7 days a week. Having said that, if I'm bored during the weekend or have nothing to do, I'll either surf eBay or tweak with some of my sites (there's the dab of flexibility!).

Step Two

Make a list of all your domain names. I've got just shy of 60 at the moment though some are .co.uk/.com variants. I worked out how much money comes from each of them and then ranked them in order of preference (it just so happens that the most favourable websites are those that earn the most!).

I've decided that I will be focussing on 8 domains. Some of these will be new domains, some will be existing domains.

Step Three

Knock up a spreadsheet with the days of the week down the side, then allocate tasks some time and fill up your days.

I've planned for 5 hours a day, which leaves an hour a day to check emails, etc.

Step Four

Action your plan!

Why Bother?

Well, for a start, I started with a time plan and added my regular activities. I could only fill 2 hours! That made me wonder where all the rest of the time goes to!

Also, by planning out what gets done when, I can ensure a regular flow of fresh content onto my sites - something I've not been doing well in the past.

Are All 8 Sites Profitable?

No. It's important to understand that sometimes you need to put effort into unprofitable sites in order to benefit the rest of your portfolio. Most affiliate bloggers use their posts to provide some link love to their own sites. I do it, Kieron does it, Lee does it - we all do it. I earn £0 from this blog though perhaps in the future, I could sell some 'sponsors' space. However, I often see traffic on other sites derived from this site.

Essentially, it's just like corporate blogging. Corporate blogging serves no financial purpose directly but could help to boost sales for the company indirectly. For example, Blog Southwest doesn't sell anything. The blog makes no money. There's no 3rd party advertising. However, the chances are that a large proportion of their readers have recently flown Southwest Airlines. No direct sales but perhaps indirect sales as a result of regularly reading the blog.