I need to get this written down somewhere so why not here!  At least I am accountable then.  I took a year or so out of Affiliate marketing as the main driver of our business but as mentioned before we want to get back into it in a big way.  The strategy is (so far) , to build a few data feed based sites and also leverage Ebay via BANs.  These give us lots of deep site functionality, then the plan is to load these sites up with original content which is waht we are currently researching and writing.

We have 10 sites scheduled to go live in the next few months - I am hoping for 2 / 3 per month.

My first biggest bugbear is that data feeds are not all they are cracked up to be.  I am using Affilistore to handle the feed end of the websites and it is great. My programming knowledge is okay but not my SQL or PHP so this tool is a godsend.

But looking and comparing data feeds even from the same affiliate network have issues.  Blank Fields, non categorisation of products.  It’s a nightmare! I was hoping to build (like everyone else) so sexy comparison sites for lots of products using datafeeds but alas no!  It is back to the drawing board.

I am also putting the finishing touches on my online marketing process for these sites as I am going to try and be organised and methodical. As opposed to the “frog on a hot rock” approach of jumping here there and everywhere trying to look busy! Each site will be promoted in exactly the same way so I can figure what works best.  Currently I have some sites that work very well in Google but can’t put my finger on EXACTLY why.  Figuring this out will save me lots of hairloss and sleepless nights.

Interesting times ahead….

About the Author

I have spent the last 12 years working with Finance and Insurance companies using the Internet. I have also worked in that time or consulted with all of the major Insurance and Finance aggregators including MoneySupermarket, Confused, MoneyExtra, Moneynet and others...