hekke's Amazon Affiliate Journey

[Jesse Custer]

Sweet! That fixed it. Thanks blasterweb.

 

[whiteblackseo]

I love affiliate journeys, gonna follow up on this.

 

[hekke]

Do not be discouraged boy, keep working hard.

Money will roll

Yes, I've had some major problems with my writer and the loss of my debit card, which have slowed down the progress massively. I am back in the game with my 5th debit card in a year (lol) and the writer seems to have gotten his sh*t together.

Thanks for the motivational boost, it means a lot!

Hekke, I have a question and an inspirational movie "Ingenious" (2009). You can find it in IMDB but it's great for entrepreneurs.

My question is about the product comparison with tablepress. It's not responsive. How did you get round this? Did you buy the plug-in?

On my cellphone it doesn't show a few of the columns.

Thanks for the suggestion of the movie. I will watch it tonight!

About your problem, I don't have it. I list 5 products and when I visited my site through my iPhone it did show all products/columns. Great that blasterweb helped you out on that one!

I love affiliate journeys, gonna follow up on this.

Thanks for following!

UPDATE
I've received 5 more articles. Blah blah blah. Here are the ranking of this site. It's is starting to show up for more keywords almost daily and this is with like 16 articles and no backlinks - with a few backlinks on this site, I am sure it will take of greatly. The link-building should start in 1-2 weeks.

UPDATE
I got 5 articles today for this site as well. Here are the rankings for this site so far, quiet bad as of right now but this niche is not as easy as BLUE so it is understandable. Since last time, I've posted 10 videos on 10 different video-sharing sites. Not the strongest links but they surely help me diversify the link profile of mine.

Today I will do some .pdf sharing as well. And I will also order a web 2.0 package today for this site. On the second page you can find the one I personally use, I don't want to throw the name out there all the time as that might seem like I am trying to promote his/her service. We'll see where the site lands after that and I will go through what my thoughts/plans are link-building wise.
____________

I am currently getting into working out again. I think this will make me feeling better and healthier, lately I've just been treating my body wrong and I think it is time to pick up the healthy lifestyle. My efficiency in IM will for sure increase with this as I got more energy waking up at 9-10 am instead of 2 pm lol.

Oh well, that's it for this post! I think that this journey will become more interesting now when I start building links and starting to rank higher and higher. I think that BLUE should be able to get it's first sale soon enough as well - fun stuff!

Until next time,
hekke

 

[Lixs]

I've been following you for a while, I thought I'd finally say hello!

I'm currently doing something very similar to you.

I have 2 Amazon sites and I'm making the third one right now.

The first site is pretty tough competition. I made it before I really knew what I was doing. I didn't do any keyword research (stupid right?) and dived straight in. However, I'm on the second and third page of Google for some high volume keywords. Hopefully it will budge soon.

The second site is medium competition but with a really expensive Amazon product. I only made it recently, so not much has happened in SERPS thus far. Currently on 3rd page for my keywords.

Now, I'm making my third site. It's going to be quite big, as there is tons of categories I can add that have very low competition. I did a lot of keyword research before hand and I'm feeling pretty excited about it.

Currently trying to pump out articles myself, as I don't have the money to outsource unfortunately. But hey, it'll be worth it in the end, right? (I really hope so).

I'll keep following you. Good luck!

 

[hekke]

I've been following you for a while, I thought I'd finally say hello!

I'm currently doing something very similar to you.

I have 2 Amazon sites and I'm making the third one right now.

The first site is pretty tough competition. I made it before I really knew what I was doing. I didn't do any keyword research (stupid right?) and dived straight in. However, I'm on the second and third page of Google for some high volume keywords. Hopefully it will budge soon.

The second site is medium competition but with a really expensive Amazon product. I only made it recently, so not much has happened in SERPS thus far. Currently on 3rd page for my keywords.

Now, I'm making my third site. It's going to be quite big, as there is tons of categories I can add that have very low competition. I did a lot of keyword research before hand and I'm feeling pretty excited about it.

Currently trying to pump out articles myself, as I don't have the money to outsource unfortunately. But hey, it'll be worth it in the end, right? (I really hope so).

I'll keep following you. Good luck!

Hey! Your plan seems great so far!

I also started my first site without research and I guess I got lucky that this niche blew up. I am currently sitting on 5th spot for a non-buying keyword that gets 60k searches a month and on 5th page on one that gets 300k a month keyword. I get quiet some traffic from this 300k keyword even though I am sitting on 5th page. I was really lucky with the niche selection as the keyword research I did before was AWFUL!

I know the struggle of writing articles. I did some before when my first site was young, they were absolutely horrible and I wrote them in 2-3 hours, wow. After a while I understood the niche much better and I was able to write a homepage (1600 words) for this site in an hour approximately. Fortunately for me, I got some start-up cash that I could invest due to my small success in CPA.

Keep on working and you'll succeed! Thanks for following this journey, I appreciate it!

 

[hekke]

UPDATE
So, I am continuing to publish a few articles per day. I also ordered 2 more articles for some informational posts with easy-to-target keywords, sure, these won't bring me any money. But, if I rank well enough I could ask companies if they would want to have their services promoted in this article, easily monetizable.

No link building on BLUE yet as I've actually run out of money. Although, I received my check from Amazon a couple of days ago so I am going to cash it on Monday - the bank is closed during the weekend. As usual, my writers are OK with late payments and I've built up a trust with them.

Might do some manual easy web 2.0 profiles on SoundCloud, Wordpress, etc. as this will help diversify the link profile once I push some web 2.0's.

UPDATE
Order placed for 50 web 2.0's a few days back. I asked the provider to use 50 different generic anchors, such as "find out more on this website", "read more about it here", etc. After this push, I will see where I land in the serps and do the judging from there.

The web 2.0's won't have any tier's built on them, so these are just plain single page web 2.0's. From my experience these work great. I might build some tier's later, but that is unlikely right now as I am sure these single page 2.0's will do a great push themselves.

Recently, I put up an article talking about a type of this product and the price shocked me. Some of the products I talked about is up in the high $xxx range and one of them is in $x,xxx - a sale of that means a commission of high $xx, so 2 sales of that per day would break the first goal of this site.
_________

I will update with rankings on both sites as I progress. Right now BLUE got the advantage of an easy niche, so it ranks better now. It is great to have a site in a easy niche as I most likely will start getting an income sooner with this site. Although, RED got the advantage that the size & searches for this niche is huge. I get surprised daily of how many types & products there are for this niche; a lot of money to be made.

"Why are you earning so little with the sites?" and "Why isn't you ranking yet?" are some questions I've gotten mainly through Skype. And to answer everyone, the age matters a lot to a sites ranking. I 2015, we cannot just put a site online, spam a couple of thousand backlinks and rank on top - that's not the way it works.

I am not at all worried about my sites ranking or my earnings so far. It's been what, 2 months since I started RED and 1 since I started BLUE? People seem to be in love with their fast money, that's not what this journey is about, then I would have focused on PPC or something else than SEO.

SEO takes time and is something that you have to take carefully. If you over-do it, you'll get punched in the face by Google and your sites will be gone for good (pretty much). If you are into fast money, this isn't something for you. Especially since in this journey we are focusing on building up passive income - that doesn't require much to maintain.

One saying that I personally like, which comes from Pat Flynn "Work hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later", that is just what this journey is about. Sorry for bringing up my first site, but it is quiet relevant here. At its current state, I can just sit back and relax and it still brings in mid $x,xxx per month, which goes to show that it is possible.

I know that there are many people here that have naysayers, that doubt that you'll make it anywhere. I've always been motivated by these people as I want to prove them wrong. I know that as a young marketer, especially internet marketer, can have a hard time being taken seriously. The best way to shut the naysayers up is to prove them wrong.

Fuck the naysayers!

EDIT: Sorry for this rant, didn't know it got this long, lol.

Until next time,
hekke

 

[Jesse Custer]

Keep ranting, a lot of what you say makes sense. Also, even though you are young, you have the successful experience to back it up.

Thanks for this "Journey" thread, I'm learning a lot and I wish you the very best of luck.

 

[junk312]

Hi hekke,

How are you creating your comparison charts? Is there a wordpress plugin that you would recommend?

 

[hekke]

Keep ranting, a lot of what you say makes sense. Also, even though you are young, you have the successful experience to back it up.

Thanks for this "Journey" thread, I'm learning a lot and I wish you the very best of luck.

Thanks Jesse! You're probably the most active follower of this journey, I really appreciate it!

Hi hekke,

How are you creating your comparison charts? Is there a wordpress plugin that you would recommend?

Already answered this on second page.

 

[Jesse Custer]

Hekke,

I am also building a website at the same time so this really helps me. Unfortunately, I have to write the articles myself so it is a sloooooow process.

Like you said above, it's not too bad as it allows the domain to age a bit and look more natural. Also, I am not after a "quick buck".

I've done a lot of copywriting before, but I am new to IM. Your posts help a lot. Thanks.

 

[ZJelle]

Order placed for 50 web 2.0's a few days back. I asked the provider to use 50 different generic anchors, such as "find out more on this website", "read more about it here", etc.

Is s/he making 50 new Web 2.0 profiles for you, or does s/he use already established profiles to put links on?

The web 2.0's won't have any tier's built on them, so these are just plain single page web 2.0's. From my experience these work great. I might build some tier's later, but that is unlikely right now as I am sure these single page 2.0's will do a great push themselves.

What do you mean with tiers on the 2.0's?

 

[ZJelle]

I am also building a website at the same time so this really helps me. Unfortunately, I have to write the articles myself so it is a sloooooow process.

Don't mean to hack hekke's journey. But here's a thought.

Offer your services as a copywriter to others and with this money you order the content for your own site. If you pick your customers well, you might make money with one article which takes you an hour, so you can order 3 articles for your own site.

 

[Jesse Custer]

Zjelle,

Thanks for your thoughts and apologies to Hekke for going Off-Topic.

I was a copywriter. I have asked for samples from copywriters for my site. Unfortunately, (or fortunately however you look at it) the quality I'm looking for is around $20 - $30 for 500 words...You may think you can find somebody cheaper and that's great. However, I've read the sales pages, samples and websites of quite a few providers here on BHW and that is my take on it.

Today, I finished a 3,600 word article. This is essential for my website's silo "Power Page" / category page. If I outsourced that I would be paying well over $100. It would take me too long to become "established" again as a copywriter. I did all sorts of articles last time and then worked for one company for a couple of years. I have a full-time job and a young-family so at the moment I write in what little free-time I have. I doubt I'm the only one...

Going back to your question for Hekke, you need to check out some videos / articles on "Tiered Link Building". What I think he means is, first he will get accounts created on Web 2.0 properties like weebly, Tumblr etc, etc. Usually, people will have a "Tier" below these (Tier 3 I think) and they will have many low-quality links pointing to their Tier 2 links. This way their money site is protected from the low-quality links. It's like a pyramid, with your actual website ("Money Site") sat at the top. It is buffered by the 2.0 Properties below it from the low-quality links.

However, Hekke is saying he has found a low-competition niche. So he believes the Web 2.0s linking to his Money Site should be enough. I'm sure he'll give you a better answer when he returns...

 

[ZJelle]

I was a copywriter. I have asked for samples from copywriters for my site. Unfortunately, (or fortunately however you look at it) the quality I'm looking for is around $20 - $30 for 500 words... [...] I have a full-time job and a young-family so at the moment I write in what little free-time I have. I doubt I'm the only one...

If you need the best quality, than you probably should write it yourself.

Going back to your question for Hekke, you need to check out some videos / articles on "Tiered Link Building". What I think he means is, first he will get accounts created on Web 2.0 properties like weebly, Tumblr etc, etc. Usually, people will have a "Tier" below these (Tier 3 I think) and they will have many low-quality links pointing to their Tier 2 links. This way their money site is protected from the low-quality links. It's like a pyramid, with your actual website ("Money Site") sat at the top. It is buffered by the 2.0 Properties below it from the low-quality links.

However, Hekke is saying he has found a low-competition niche. So he believes the Web 2.0s linking to his Money Site should be enough. I'm sure he'll give you a better answer when he returns...

Thanks for the explanation! Make sense. I thought it would be something like this: except he mentioned "one page web 2.0's", which threw me off. Hopefully hekke will say something about this too.

 

[hekke]

Is s/he making 50 new Web 2.0 profiles for you, or does s/he use already established profiles to put links on?

What do you mean with tiers on the 2.0's?

He is making me 50 web 2.0 BLOGS. They are freshly created and anyone can do this manually, I just prefer to outsource it since I rather work on other aspects of the site and it's off-page SEO. If you're just starting out and don't got a budget for this then create them manually.

Get articles to use from articlebuilder or something. They seem to work great for 2.0's!

Don't mean to hack hekke's journey. But here's a thought.

Offer your services as a copywriter to others and with this money you order the content for your own site. If you pick your customers well, you might make money with one article which takes you an hour, so you can order 3 articles for your own site.

Good idea! However, if you want high-quality articles and you can write yourself; you probably should. One article per day is about enough and it shouldn't be too hard for a former copywriter to write one per day.

Good luck to your journey Hekke

Thank you!

Zjelle,

Thanks for your thoughts and apologies to Hekke for going Off-Topic.

I was a copywriter. I have asked for samples from copywriters for my site. Unfortunately, (or fortunately however you look at it) the quality I'm looking for is around $20 - $30 for 500 words...You may think you can find somebody cheaper and that's great. However, I've read the sales pages, samples and websites of quite a few providers here on BHW and that is my take on it.

Today, I finished a 3,600 word article. This is essential for my website's silo "Power Page" / category page. If I outsourced that I would be paying well over $100. It would take me too long to become "established" again as a copywriter. I did all sorts of articles last time and then worked for one company for a couple of years. I have a full-time job and a young-family so at the moment I write in what little free-time I have. I doubt I'm the only one...

Going back to your question for Hekke, you need to check out some videos / articles on "Tiered Link Building". What I think he means is, first he will get accounts created on Web 2.0 properties like weebly, Tumblr etc, etc. Usually, people will have a "Tier" below these (Tier 3 I think) and they will have many low-quality links pointing to their Tier 2 links. This way their money site is protected from the low-quality links. It's like a pyramid, with your actual website ("Money Site") sat at the top. It is buffered by the 2.0 Properties below it from the low-quality links.

However, Hekke is saying he has found a low-competition niche. So he believes the Web 2.0s linking to his Money Site should be enough. I'm sure he'll give you a better answer when he returns...

If you need the best quality, than you probably should write it yourself.

Thanks for the explanation! Make sense. I thought it would be something like this: except he mentioned "one page web 2.0's", which threw me off. Hopefully hekke will say something about this too.

This is not off-topic at all! Yes, Jesse summed it up great. Many want to make their web 2.0 blogs stronger by pointing lower quality links to their tier 3 or so, this will pass more link juice to their money sites but in my case I don't really need the web 2.0's to be stronger than they are from start.

As I previously said, I've always targeted low-comp niches and got almost no experience in high-comp niches so I've never tiered my web 2.0's before nor plan I to do so. I might do it later especially for RED as it got a slightly higher competition and might need that extra push. Also, with these sites I plan to get some guest posts, which will be the main focus in the coming 1-2 months. I want to make the sites look like authority sites and not niche sites; which they currently look like.

On BLUE I got 2 informative posts and on RED I got 1 informative post. I want to make the site more authoritative and cover more topics, not just reviews & best of-articles. Although, this is just a base that I will build upon later to make it bigger and bigger each day. I have ordered a few articles from other writers recently to test their quality as well, all of these articles are informative.

Once the sites look more informative and doesn't look like a site "made to make money", I will do some outreach to the authorative sources in this niche. There are tons and tons of authoritative sites in this broad niche. Actually, RED and BLUE is actually quiet related to each other and the broad niche is the same for both sites. I will use different emails to contact the authoritative sites and different typing styles, actually, might need to change theme for one of the sites as they currently look exactly the same.

 

[hekke]

Finally, my writer is back to work. I've ordered one article for BLUE and will do some keyword research and order a new one for it before I got to bed. Tomorrow I will order quiet a few articles for RED as I've prioritized BLUE for a while, don't really know why.

This is the last week I'll be home for the next 3 weeks. First off I am going to Malta then to a summerhouse in Sweden - it is a relief to get away from the capital city for a few weeks and just hanging out with my family. I will have access to internet during these three weeks so the work won't stop. I will of course work on my sites during the afternoons and whenever I got time for it.

The good thing about passive income is that I can, for a few weeks (or months actually), just stop working on it and still make the same amount of money. Although, the sites covered in this journey are still pretty young so they will need some maintenance. 1 hour per day should be enough if I got some content & keywords ready.

Ask me questions or give me tips on what to cover more in this journey. At the moment it is just about building the sites up with content - seems like the types of products are starting to run out now so I think the bases are done for both sites, which is great. Now I just want to create more informative articles, diversified with articles like "Best Cheap/Affordable XXX", "Best XXX for Kids" and so on.

Daily rant, as I clearly like to rant. I sincerely apologize in advance if this will be a long rant, just need to clear my mind a bit. Heh.

So, today, I tried to deposit my check at my local bank. When I handed over the check to them they asked if I had the same amount of money (or more) on my bank account already. I said no as I didn't have any left as all have been invested in projects. They said that they couldn't deposit the check if I didn't have the same (or more) amount in my account. EXCUSE ME WHAT?

If I ran this business who recently had a sale for $100k, am I supposed to have $100k+ in my bank account? Sure, this amount was only about $1k and my mom could lend me the money for a day but when I start to receive checks that have a larger amount of them (next month) how am I supposed to have $4k+ on my bank account? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Tomorrow I will try to contact Payoneer so that they can approve my account so that I can get paid that way. It just seems like the workers at the bank are elders who doesn't get the digitalized world. They even asked me what Amazon.com was, I found that a bit funny. They also asked if I had worked for this money... NAH, YOU KNOW, I AM JUST GETTING PAID FOR NOTHING.

I didn't get to deposit my check today so I will give it another try tomorrow when I got money on my account. This way isn't sustainable as I will need to expand my business and cannot really afford to save a few grands a month just to be able to deposit my check. Will try to get my Payoneer account approved within the coming week so that I can get paid that way.

Done with daily rant and this small update. I will try to update this journey during these 3 weeks but I want to make the most of these three weeks. When I come back I start school again. Although, this year will be kind of chill for my part as I've decided to that the optional courses next year instead.

Until next time,
hekke

 

[splishsplash]

So, today, I tried to deposit my check at my local bank. When I handed over the check to them they asked if I had the same amount of money (or more) on my bank account already. I said no as I didn't have any left as all have been invested in projects. They said that they couldn't deposit the check if I didn't have the same (or more) amount in my account. EXCUSE ME WHAT?

If I ran this business who recently had a sale for $100k, am I supposed to have $100k+ in my bank account? Sure, this amount was only about $1k and my mom could lend me the money for a day but when I start to receive checks that have a larger amount of them (next month) how am I supposed to have $4k+ on my bank account? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Tomorrow I will try to contact Payoneer so that they can approve my account so that I can get paid that way. It just seems like the workers at the bank are elders who doesn't get the digitalized world. They even asked me what Amazon.com was, I found that a bit funny. They also asked if I had worked for this money... NAH, YOU KNOW, I AM JUST GETTING PAID FOR NOTHING.

I didn't get to deposit my check today so I will give it another try tomorrow when I got money on my account. This way isn't sustainable as I will need to expand my business and cannot really afford to save a few grands a month just to be able to deposit my check. Will try to get my Payoneer account approved within the coming week so that I can get paid that way.

Done with daily rant and this small update. I will try to update this journey during these 3 weeks but I want to make the most of these three weeks. When I come back I start school again. Although, this year will be kind of chill for my part as I've decided to that the optional courses next year instead.

Until next time,
hekke

Open up a business account and you won't have problems like that. A business account is the only way to go when you're making anything more than $100/mo

 

[hekke]

Open up a business account and you won't have problems like that. A business account is the only way to go when you're making anything more than $100/mo

After today's horrible experience I decided to switch bank.

So, I went in to my local bank. I told them that I wanted to deposit the cheque I received from Amazon. The cashier didn't know what to do with it so she started to ask her colleagues if they knew - nobody knew how to deposit it. Then the "boss" came to assist the cashier. He helped her fix everything but then after a while they said, we'll take $200 + additional fees to deposit the check. WHAT?

Sure, they need to take some fee's but at other banks this fee is around $20 - not $200. That's not the only problem either. They also added that it will take 4-8 WEEKS for it to come into my bank account - WHAT? I need to expand my business, I don't got time to wait until the money is deposited, I need to have money to run my business.

Anyway, I decided that it wasn't worth just making a huge deal out of this and I left the office quietly.

When I got home I registered my company (yay!) and also sent in the last documents that were required in the application to Payoneer - we must have missed them before. Now I will receive the money via Payoneer instead of via cheques.

Mom is kind enough to lend me some for content until I receive my money. I am so grateful that I have such supportive parents that supports me in everything I do. Content might decrease a little until I receive the money, but it shouldn't stop this project or any other project I have running.

Until next time,
hekke

 

[008Rohit]

After today's horrible experience I decided to switch bank.

So, I went in to my local bank. I told them that I wanted to deposit the cheque I received from Amazon. The cashier didn't know what to do with it so she started to ask her colleagues if they knew - nobody knew how to deposit it. Then the "boss" came to assist the cashier. He helped her fix everything but then after a while they said, we'll take $200 + additional fees to deposit the check. WHAT?

Sure, they need to take some fee's but at other banks this fee is around $20 - not $200. That's not the only problem either. They also added that it will take 4-8 WEEKS for it to come into my bank account - WHAT? I need to expand my business, I don't got time to wait until the money is deposited, I need to have money to run my business.

Anyway, I decided that it wasn't worth just making a huge deal out of this and I left the office quietly.

When I got home I registered my company (yay!) and also sent in the last documents that were required in the application to Payoneer - we must have missed them before. Now I will receive the money via Payoneer instead of via cheques.

Mom is kind enough to lend me some for content until I receive my money. I am so grateful that I have such supportive parents that supports me in everything I do. Content might decrease a little until I receive the money, but it shouldn't stop this project or any other project I have running.

Until next time,
hekke

Hats off to your dedication!

 

[splishsplash]

After today's horrible experience I decided to switch bank.

So, I went in to my local bank. I told them that I wanted to deposit the cheque I received from Amazon. The cashier didn't know what to do with it so she started to ask her colleagues if they knew - nobody knew how to deposit it. Then the "boss" came to assist the cashier. He helped her fix everything but then after a while they said, we'll take $200 + additional fees to deposit the check. WHAT?

Sure, they need to take some fee's but at other banks this fee is around $20 - not $200. That's not the only problem either. They also added that it will take 4-8 WEEKS for it to come into my bank account - WHAT? I need to expand my business, I don't got time to wait until the money is deposited, I need to have money to run my business.

Anyway, I decided that it wasn't worth just making a huge deal out of this and I left the office quietly.

When I got home I registered my company (yay!) and also sent in the last documents that were required in the application to Payoneer - we must have missed them before. Now I will receive the money via Payoneer instead of via cheques.

Mom is kind enough to lend me some for content until I receive my money. I am so grateful that I have such supportive parents that supports me in everything I do. Content might decrease a little until I receive the money, but it shouldn't stop this project or any other project I have running.

Until next time,
hekke

What a bizarre backwards bank. 20% for a cheque lol. You can get them cashed instantly by the shady cheque shops for 10% here. A proper bank that you have a checking account with saying they'll take 20% AND it'll take up to 2 months to cash. That's beyond a joke. I would have said to them there and then I'm closing down my account and demanded the balance of my account in cash on the spot.