How I Got Rich

Why being rubbish at Affiliate Marketing sucks

After a slow January, February 2011 hasn’t gotten off to a cracking start. I’m working hard on trying to get links for my sites after two years of neglecting this aspect of affiliate marketing. Up until now my work cycle for a new site went something like this:

• Build domain keyword site
• Add a few pages of content
• Hope site got ranked
• Add a few more pages of content
• See site hasn’t ranked
• Decide niche too competitive and move on

I think most of us in affiliate marketing and SEO land would agree that without back links or adding a shed load of (good) content to a site the chances of getting it ranked are pretty small.

Even though I knew this I still scrimped on adding content and totally pretended back links didn’t exist.

As some of my sites DID rank with little content and no links I figured I’d just been picking the wrong niches.

Perhaps I have been picking the wrong niches but unless I get some links for those sites (and content) I will never really know.

So this year I have been focussing on the links side of things. I’m still adding content but links are taking a priority. In February I am trying a number of different backlinking methods on a few of my sites to see if I can find one or a combination that works. So far I’ve written a few of my own articles and submitted them to article sites. I’ve also had some articles written for me and submitted them. I’ve paid for my sites to be submitted to lots of social bookmarking sites. I’m going to get a load of back links via xrummer to point to my articles. Plus a few other things I’ve stumbled across. Nothing I am trying is ground breaking or unknown but its hard to find out from other people what works or not – mainly because what works for one site might not work for another and also its hard to get people to share sometimes!

This might sound like an ‘if I throw enough mud at a wall some of it might stick’ approach and it is probably is but I want to try a few things as I am really keen to get the ball rolling in 2011.

So what does this have to do with the title of this post? Well as you may know, dear reader, I live out in Thailand at the moment which is great but I just got some bad news from back home about a member of the family. I’d love to go back and see everyone but due to my low income from affiliate marketing I can’t really afford to drop ₤1000+ on a trip home. This does suck but it has spurred me on to get more productive and get more profitable from internet marketing so I am ready the next time something like this happens.

Stay safe.

Weekend Break

I went away for the weekend as it was the King’s birthday and therefore a long weekend.  We heading off to Koh Chang which is one of the Thai islands.  Koh Chang means Elephant Island and we saw quite a few elephants wandering around and also went for a ride on them which involved swiming with them at the end.

I decided to leave my PPC campaigns running over the weekend as I had been doing quite well leading up to the weekend and on the Sunday I found an Internet cafe and had a quick check of my stats.  Unfortunately most of the items I was promoting with PPC has sold out so although I was getting the traffic and clicks through to the merchants hardly any sales were made.

I am now trying to find some more items to promote that are popular but still in stock as I reckon there is about another week left of people buying Christmas presents online.

I’m away next week until the new year so will be trying to make the most of the Christmas shopping before I go.

Anyone know how to find which Christmas items are proving popular so far this year?

First Day In My New Job

Since giving up the day job and moving to Thailand I have been trying to make a go of it with affiliate marketing but as my regular readers will know things didn’t really pan out in the way I had hoped and I’ve not been earning enough to live off out here even with the low cost of living.

Due to this I have started a new job teaching web design in English at a Thai school.  Since Thailand has strict laws on immigration it is only possible to get a work permit for a job a Thai person cannot do and that really only leaves teaching hence the teaching job.  Most people teach English but when I saw this job I thought it would be ideal as it combines something I have done in the past and know a fair bit about (web design) with the requirement to teach.

However the first day nearly broke me and it was touch and go whether I’d make it to the end of the day.  The main reason for this was the kids were so badly behaved and I didn’t have the teaching skills to handle a class of 35 unruly Thai teenagers who had little respect for their farang teacher!

The job is only part-time and I get paid a bit more than the going rate for teaching English and it works out to about £35 a day.  Not a lot for the effort and grief but better than nothing.

The one good thing to come out of this is that it has really spurred me on to make something of my affiliate marketing efforts.

Surely from the 35-40 sites I have it shouldn’t be too hard to make £35-40 a day from them?

At the moment that is too much to ask but I am going to be working like a dog from now on to make it happen.  This weekend I’m staying in and not venturing out or down to the pool even though the sun is out and its nice and hot.

From now on I am going all out to make the dream of giving up the day job a reality!

Greetings from Thailand

Sawadee krap!  I’ve been in Thailand for about four days now (seems a lot longer) and have just got the  Internet setup in the apartment.  It’s very hot and humid here so the air-con is coming in handy!

I’m planning to stay out here for a while and live off my earnings from Internet marketing.  I’ve got a few debts from back home to pay off which is a bit of a shame as it means I will need to earn more than I would’ve done from affiliate marketing but the cost of living here seems pretty cheap so far so I should be ok.  My goal for September was to earn £500 a month which is about 28,000 bhat.  This should be enough as long as I don’t go to too many western-type places or buy too many gadgets (I’ve already succumbed to a fake mini iPhone).  By Christmas I will be aiming for £1000 a month from affiliate marketing and if I don’t make that will probably have to  get a part-time job.

Anyone got any recommendations of things to see and do in Bangkok?