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A Journey Back Into Affiliate Marketing

Obviously it has been a while since my last post, been really busy. About a year ago I took on two large development projects. One was a side project and the other was a recode for a site at my full-time job. Both have finally settled down and now I have an opportunity to get back into affiliate marketing. I’m going to be posting some thoughts and steps that may help you as well. Here’s a quick status of where I am.

In order to get back in the game, I need to figure out where I am and what in the world is going on.

Naturally, I’m going back to the bread and butter store and niche type shops. So, this means EPN and Amazon. I spent some time over the last few days checking out the EPN terms of service and agreements. Looks like everything is the same as it was a year ago. Amazon, check. Pretty much good to go there.

Next, the current sites.

If you have been following me for any amount of time, you know that I have a bunch of sites. Essentially those sites have been on autopilot over the last year. I have not added any content, built any links, updated any code or even checked stats other than revenue once per month. Yes, that’s how busy I have been.

I checked my traffic stats and have been really surprised that a bunch of sites have really taken off traffic wise. However, as a whole, my revenue has been cut in half. Partially because when I left off, I was in building mode not really monetizing.

So, what are my plans to correct this and get revenue back up.

1. Apply updates – Number one revenue killer is not keeping up with software updates. Specifically to PHPBay and other plug-ins like it. URLs change and I have a feeling I’ve been missing out because I have been too busy to stay current.
2. Optimize page monetization – When I left off last year, I was midstream building around 9 sites. Those 9 are all on the top 10 search results but are under performing with revenue. Need to get those pages optimized with a combination of EPN and Amazon.

Again, the key for me right now is to take a look back at the last year and figure out which sites are not making what they should be and fix them!

From there I’ll be able to start building out new sites in 2012, which should be huge!