Introductions Thread

You're right about that.

My main focus to start out with would be writing content that sells fitness supplies. I also have an MBA (Merch By Amazon) account that I could throw fitness related shirts onto, and promote through the site.

The weight loss offers I have found so far on clickbank are absolute bullshit. All "Tea Detoxes" and fucking "Magic Beans" found in the rainforest. I don't think I could look myself in the mirror if I promoted those things.


Those are unfortunately also the best selling offers. If I were to make my own info product, I'm not sure it would see much success. People want quick solutions to a problem you can't solve quickly. I could be wrong, but that seems to be the case from my admittedly limited research.
 
Hey all! I’m a longtime software developer (Ruby + JS) that’s starting to dig into SEO, affiliate marketing, a whole world of things that I’m super inexperienced at :smile:

I launched a project at the beginning of the year (job board) that has been struggling significantly with traffic: enough so that I decided to start learning a bit more SEO, content marketing, etc. I came across a post on affiliate marketing and the problem solver in me was hooked immediately - I’m working on my own Amazon Affiliate site right now, writing down my experiences in a Notion doc to hopefully share at some point in the future (along with the success or failure of the project)

Happy to be here and have found this community! I’m not much of a forum poster usually, but I’ve already gotten a TON of value out of the content here so I’d like to give back as best I can, or at least cheer on folks who are a bit farther along than me!
 
Not new to digital marketing, but new here. Spend most of my days churning out words, tricking for links and traveling heavily. From what I've been told this is the place for the sharpest minds around so I look forward to being the village idiot.

bernard said:
Welcome, hope you stick around and will be active.
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I'm too opinionated to ever shut the fuck up for more than a couple days.

BoxF said:
Welcome to the community.

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Thanks, I too enjoy a good anime.
 
Newbie here. Might not post much.

Logged in just to say thank you for the awesome digital strategy crash course. I've been reading up on online business, but everything I found started with Day 1 and then skipped to Day 4. Day 3 - Market Research - is exactly what I needed. Thanks for that, @CCarter .

I found this forum because someone here posted a comment on a wallstreetplayboys blog post.

I'll be lurking. Have a good one.
 
Who I am

Just a normal guy that wants to break free from the chains of the society and be free. So in order to do that, I am now walking on a path leading into the unknown. I will be using every resource I find on the way to light up my path so it becomes clearer. I must especially say thank you to members of this forum for making my journey a bit easier.

My experiences

I have some experiences in creating and maintaining blogs. As well as driving traffic to them. But I have never gotten serious about doing it. So nothing remarkable to bring up here.

Other skills I have are programming (Mainly C# and Python), web design, photoshop and learning new things relatively easy if I try.

My goals

My short-term goal:

  • Get at least 100 sales from my e-commerce store under 2019
  • Conversion rate around 2%. Preferably 5% or more but it will certainly depend on the quality of traffic I can bring.
  • Have around five different "main" products. Right now there are variations of each "main" product.
  • Profit margin around 35-40%. This means I will need to pay attention to my expenses, especially ads.
  • Get on top 10 in SERP for most of my main keywords. But I will not focus on this too much.
  • Maybe 10k followers on one of the social media accounts? We will see.
  • 1,000 e-mails on our newsletter list. I will try to divide them by demographic.
  • Maybe gain a bit more muscle. Around 1 kg under 2019 would be nice.
  • Learn at least 400-500 kanji. Can't wait to the day I can watch anime without subtitles.
My long-term goal:
  • Create a system that will free up my time. This will also make it more attractive for a future buyer.
  • Expand the operation to Asia. Right now I will focus solely on Europe & North America.
  • Can't think of anything more right now. But the end game is to sell the site when my average net profit is around $5,000 / month so I can use the fund to start a much more ambitious project.
  • Freedom to travel anywhere I want. And eat good food.


I have now realized that this is not what an intro post should be. Anyhow, I am looking forward to having interesting discussions with all of you in the future. Please look after me as I walk on this rough and steep path.
 
Howdy Hey, it's nice to meet you and everyone. Writing down our goals is not always easy and a majority of people have never even thought about having a goal, much less write it down. So Good on Ya:happy:
 
wanderinwendy said:
Howdy Hey, it's nice to meet you and everyone. Writing down our goals is not always easy and a majority of people have never even thought about having a goal, much less write it down. So Good on Ya:happy:
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Nice to meet you too ^_^

I feel like having a goal written down just make it easier for me to stay on track and focus on the most essential things that will lead to my goals and new ones.
 
Hi all,
I am a middle-aged, currently wantrepreneur. I have been in the the IT world for the last 20+ years and finally had enough of the corporate BS. I have not worked in a corporate job for the last few months and living off some passive income and savings. I am trying to figure out what to do next and thinking about an affiliate site. I think I have a bit of a mental block though since I find it difficult to find which direction to go in.
Well thats it for now really. I will try to learn from everyone here and see where it gets me.
Thanks,
Stoic0
 
@stoic0, welcome! Have you seen our Digital Strategy Crash Course? It has an entire section designed to help you think your way through niche selection in a way to help you avoid pitfalls, make sure there's enough money in it to be worth your time, etc.

Just be aware that it can definitely take a solid year to get decent earnings on a new website these days if you depend on SEO only. There's a lot you can do to get out there and attract traffic to your site instead of waiting on Google to bless you, which actually ends up causing Google to bless you sooner too. It's a double dip.

We're here and excited to help you out. Hope to catch you around the forum.
 
Thanks, Ryuzaki. I appreciate the encouragement. I am going through the Crash Course and hopefully that will help me with the niche selection.

I am OK with investing some money into ads or other channels and not relying purely on SEO (which I understand changes constantly anyway due to the Google algorithm changing).
 
Welcome to BuSo @stoic0. Nice to see more folks close to my age in here, especially those that have been in the IT field for > 20 years. As @Ryuzaki mentioned, the Crash Course here is worth more than pretty much anything you can buy from one of those self-proclaimed "Gurus" out there. Glad you're taking the time to check it out and I look forward to seeing you on the forum.
 
SmokeTree said:
Welcome to BuSo @stoic0. Nice to see more folks close to my age in here, especially those that have been in the IT field for > 20 years. As @Ryuzaki mentioned, the Crash Course here is worth more than pretty much anything you can buy from one of those self-proclaimed "Gurus" out there. Glad you're taking the time to check it out and I look forward to seeing you on the forum.
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Great to meet, SmokeTree. Love that Yogananda quote too. "Life of a Yogi" is a great book!
Looking forward to chat further.
 
Hi all,
I am Michael. I live in central Texas.I have been self employed for the last 28 years first in asphalt construction while also doing the cowboy thing. Lost that during a divorce and quit the cowboy lifestyle due to the marriage. I did odd jobs for a couple of years and then started a bath and counter refinishing biz which the housing boom collapse choked it to death slowly. I currently do home repairs and have for several years. The two just kind of melded into each other. I recently (7 months ago) decided to start an online biz after learning I hated real estate. I stumbled onto the rank and rent biz model and got started. I devoured every seo course I could find and afford. Joined several FB groups as well. I soon realized how much misinformation there is floating around about how to do seo. I stumbled onto this forum while researching and alternative Serp Shaker and found a post on here. I decided to have a look and read a page in the Digital Strategy Crash Course and was FLOORED! The content in that thread is beyond top notch.
THANKS! to all who contributed. I look forward to getting to know everyone and learning even more here.

P.S. I was not looking into Serp Shaker for any black hat stuff. Refuse to do that. I want a long term sustainable biz. Just looking at a way to create lots of pages faster. Working on a site to run a campaign from a PPCall network.
 
Welcome to the club! How's your current project going? Did you continue down the Rank & Rent path?
 
Ryuzaki said:
Welcome to the club! How's your current project going? Did you continue down the Rank & Rent path?
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Thanks for asking Ryuzaki! I have great news! I found out today that I am #1 for my main keyword and 3 and 6 for 2 other keywords. This is my first try. The site is done with nothing but on page seo, no backlinks or anything else. It was built to help a roadside assistance biz in Buffalo NY. Only 77 days old. Just put a tracking number on her today. Pretty pleased with the results. Gonna get started working on some other local sites I built soon.
 
Hello — I’ve been lurking around for the last couple days. This community has a lot of knowledge and I’m glad I found it. I have a tech background in the military, I’m a retiring warrant officer who works in the digital forensics/cyber field. I’ve found the idea of creating some type of website associated with Amazon referrals appealing. I am familiar with programming, devops, etc — I’ve just never published a website. For Amazon referrals is the website suppose to be built first before signing up as an affiliate? If so, is there some resources on how that initial website should look? Should it already be a finished product? If anyone has any advice for me about getting start — I’m all ears! Thanks!
 
I don't know anything about Amazon, but just want to welcome you to BuSo. Sounds like you have an interesting background as well. I could see myself leveraging that into a site about personal security/surveillance/internet security for parents. Hope you stick around, good luck!

----

Rank and Rent in construction and home furnishing is something I wish I had the background to work in. So much opportunity and money, even if more companies and tradies are getting tech wise.
 
jarbz said:
For Amazon referrals is the website suppose to be built first before signing up as an affiliate? If so, is there some resources on how that initial website should look? Should it already be a finished product?
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Welcome to the club. Don't be quiet! The more voices speaking, the merrier.

Yeah, you need your site before you apply as an Amazon Affiliate, because you have to get approval based on your website first. After that you can add as many sites to your account as you want, but the first one requires approval.

The main reasons people get rejected that I see are two-fold. 1) Your content can't just be a rehashing of their own product listings. You have to be adding value. 2) People don't have enough content on their sites when they apply.

Regarding both of those items, it seems like Amazon isn't happy if your site has nothing but "bottom of the marketing funnel" content. So if you have 15 posts that are all "Product Review" and "Top 10 Best Products" then you're not adding much additional value or preparing the user to buy a specific item. That means Amazon is likely going to end up paying you commissions just for generating a click and not pre-selling the buyer, which they don't like.

On the other hand, if you come in with 30-50 posts, and half of those are informational content like:
  • How to Get the Most Use Out of Product
  • 7 Genius Ways to Use Product They Don't Tell You About
  • How to Use Product: A Picture & Video Tutorial
And stuff like that, you're likely to get approved. They've become more stringent in the past year, so I've heard. You need to come in like a real brand offering real value, versus a "thin affiliate site" that is only trying to rank for terms like "best product" and "product reviews." Those are fine, but you need that educational and informational content too.
 
I think you're also required to generate a certain number of clicks with 90 days of signup. Possibly a conversion as well, so it's nice to have some traffic (though I'm sure it's easy to fake).
 
Hello, everyone.

I figured I'd start out with giving my background.
I have studied game development, and chose the specialisation of programming.
During my studies I created a game engine (nothing to be used professionally, but it was good enough for 3D PC games with realistic physics), modelled a lot, created textures and level design. I got pretty decent at drawing and Photoshop as well.

After my studies I decided started working in a big Health company. It was hard work, and I learned a lot.

This job did not last unfortunately. While looking for a job I started doing a little freelancing work.
I got contacted by a bank, to see if I could help them out with their homepage. (Not sure why they asked me, maybe they heard from someone I know)
I sold myself well, and showed them designs made in Photoshop how I intended what the final result would look like.
So somehow I managed to get a bank as a client. I had no Idea what html or css was, and never created a website before, that wasn't wysiwyg.
With significant effort I managed to hack it together and deliver the product, and I got paid.

I created a webshop in Wordpress, with mild succes.

Later on I decided to go in consulting (the webshop wasn't even close to a living wage).
The biggest upside I saw is that I would get to work in different environments with different technologies, and have quite a lot of opportunities to learn new stuff.
I decided against going into the game development industry because game developpers in my country are underpaid and expected to go "above and beyond". I don't mind giving my all, but back then my weekends where sacred. When I do overtime I expect to be paid. I heard quite a few horror stories of people that graduated before me.

My first project was creating a huge website for one of the biggest companies in my country. I had never created back-end for a website before. It was with C#. I only had 6 month's of lessons of C# to rely on, and that was multiple years ago.
Luckily, what I learned from freelancing was good enough to get started. While working on the front-end I slowly got accustomed to the back end. And the project became one of the bigger successes of my company. I have to admit my team lead was a very good developer that worked very hard, and I had the best Project manager I have ever met still to this day.
Anyway, we managed. Yay!
A few month before the finishing of this project, my webshop had it's biggest succes ever. In a week time, I sold products for more than 2.5k$. My margins where low, so I only made about 250$. The succes was almost entirely because I did a good facebook campaign (posting in the right groups).

Traveling to my job took 4 hours/day, and I could not keep up. I was burning out, so I gave up on the webshop.
I hate that I did that.
Eventually I managed to do some freelancing on saturdays.
It was a brick and mortar store, that wanted to increase their web presence.
My job was to increase their SEO.
I knew almost nothing about this, except the stuff I read for my own website.
Unfortunately, I got paid very little per hour ($8/h), so that was not reallty progress, so I quit that as well. But the people I worked with, where amazing to work with. They reminded me how much I love selling.

So, now I began knowing front-end development pretty well, and was getting better in C#. My confidence in my skills grew (while at the same time starting to see the insane mountain of knowledge ahead of me).

This is startign to get long, so I will try to keep it short.
After readling a lot on r/juststart, and Hublmesalesmand threads, I wanted to go into IM.
The I found BuSo, read the whole 30 day course, anda lot of threads of CCarter and Ryuzaki, and decided a simple affiliate site
wouldn't be the right start for me.

I want to restart my webshop. Rebrand, rebuild, and start selling. At least locally.
Currently I still have stock of back then. It's worthless now, and I'm deep in the red bacause of that. I don't care, I learned a lot.
(Keeping stock is a risk!)
I figured out ways to minimize the risk in my niche, and maximize profits. I have a new business plan.
If just posting in facebook groups can bring me $250 in profits (before taxes), before I have any name recognition, I can only imagine what the ceiling would be. Especially if I would use NORMAL margins (more than 10%...).
Unfortunately, with my new business model, I will only be able to sell the NEW things. I will not be keeping stock.

I speak multiple languages, apart from my countries language I believe my English is quite good, and apart from that I'm pretty good at German and French (French the least, but it's at least good enough to live in France, and read most stuff and get the gist).

I want to get the shop started locally and start selling, create revenue. Just list items, and promote on facebook.
Start to become an authority in my niche. I used to be one, as a person. But I couldn't keep it up.
To do this I will:
Write articles in my native language. First evergreen content, and mix it up with emotional pieces (I have a list of titles and subjects, as instructed as homework in one of the CC9 threads).
Create a system that auto-updates some of my posts, that will be used by a lot of people in my niche. (I don't think it will lead to sales in the short run)
Extend that system, with even more useful functionality. (I'm hesitant to say, because I think it's not smart to reveal my niche)
Use one of my friends (who is a real authorithy in the niche), to draw attention to my website.
Create a discord/forum/... that's closed to anyone that is not a customer or donator.
Me and my friend will at first be the main reason why people will want to join (gain insights of experts).
Extend the list of authorithy figures in the forum (will cost me some money).
Translate all the content to English, to extend the reach of my website. All the links to sales will not go to my shop, but to affiliate links. The English speaking pages will not have a link to my shop, since I don't sell there anyway.

I'm planning on rebuilding the website in Pico. I will have some questions regarding that.
The most pressing is this: I try to modify the Attache theme of Pico. But when I visit my pages with Brave, NOTHING shows.
Atm I expect that it is because Brave blocks javascript. I don't want people to not see anything because they use the wrong browser. If some things load, the user might figure out that they need to change some settings, but if nothing shows they will leave 100%...
I do need to do a lot more research on Pico, so I apologise if it is a dumb question.
Maybe I should open another thread for this...

For now, I want to do this while keeping my job (but maybe lowering it to 4/5 or 3/4 or something).

Apparantly I'm telling my life story here, and that's not the point. So I will end it here.
Thank you for reading!
 
That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it and welcome aboard.

WinMore said:
(I'm hesitant to say, because I think it's not smart to reveal my niche)
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Yeah, usually it's safe to share a vertical like entertainment, health, fitness, technology. But you never want to get too specific. Competitors, the nosey, and saboteurs are around every corner.

WinMore said:
I don't want people to not see anything because they use the wrong browser.
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In general, I think 0.2% of all internet traffic ever has javascript disabled, and like 40% are TOR users purposefully disabling it. I don't know of any normal-people browsers that have it disabled by default.

I think you should take a look at some off-the-shelf CMS's (content management systems) for eCommerce shops rather than recreating the wheel. It'd be like coding your own blogging platform when Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, and a ton of others exist and have at least a decade of effort put into them already.
 
Hi @jjj_...
The business already existed. The owner was looking for help getting more leads in a FB group. We started talking and he wanted me to build a site and rank it, so he could get more calls. I guess you could say that the site is rented already.

Hey @bernard,
Maybe we could help each other out?
 
Awesome, thanks for the feedback everyone. It’s much appreciated. Personal Security for parents does sound interesting. I have teenage daughters, so I’m well versed in monitoring and just flat out saying no to certain platforms. Social media can really be toxic for children.
 
Ah yes I did not explain properly. My current idea is to use openCart to do the webshop part.
But the rest of the website would be with Pico (or similar).
The way I currently understand it, they both use twig. If think that by manipulating the template correctly, I think I can make it so user don't see a difference.
This way, only the webshop uses a database. And my articles and info pieces can be as fast as possible.

Currently I made it like this:
qqGfidm.png

(Apparantly I can't use the link to show the image... Maybe because I am new?)
Maybe it's better to place in IN the Pico folder, I'm still working that out.
The idea is to create quality content the Pico way, since the articles shouldn't change over time.
And let openCart handle the ecommerce.

I originally used Wordpress with Woocommerce, but I felt it was too limiting. Maybe that was because I didn't have enough experience back then. I hope openCart is as good. If not I guess I don't mind going back to wordpress. It's just that after reading here a lot, I have lost faith in it.

If I understannd you correctly, I shouldn't worry about the fact that my site was invisible on Brave.
So I won't.
 
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