Does this make sense?

[rocksolid123]

I was thinking of building a website which provided a service to people. I was going to charge them a fee to join up but after researching I found a few sites offering the same service for free. Now I am still thinking of building the site offering membership for free and putting affiliate ads on to try and convert all the members into dollars. I will put ads that I think the people going to my site would be interested in and I am hoping they will not only use my website but click on some ads. Does that sound like a good plan?

[Linda Buquet]

Hi rocksolid123,

I don't have a lot of experience with membership sites per se, but affiliate marketing is all about getting qualified traffic to targeted offers. So if your service and the free membership angle is something that would attract lots of people and if the offers are targeted to your demographic then it seems it may work.

Just keep in mind certain types of sites/visitors aren't inclined to be buyers and don't convert well. For instance humor and entertainment sites don't convert well because people are there for the fun stuff and largely ignore ads.

Good luck!

[fitnfree]

My thoughts are that it would depend largely on what type of material you wish to have them subscribe to get at. I briefly contemplated doing that with my newsletter but then 15 minutes of research told me no way, for what I do it would never work. Then again, if you feel your material is that valuable, you could build the site with ads and try it for a while, see how it goes over. ??

[rocksolid123]

I just need to confirm this. Are there affiliate sites that offer free products. In other words people would click on the link from my site and fill out a form to get a free product or provide their email for free info or news letter and I get credit for it?

[Linda Buquet]

Originally Posted by rocksolid123

I just need to confirm this. Are there affiliate sites that offer free products. In other words people would click on the link from my site and fill out a form to get a free product or provide their email for free info or news letter and I get credit for it?

Sure that's one of the main markets - free trials or other free info in exchange for filling out a lead form - yes companies pay for that all the time. If you've seen ads for win a free IPOD or get a Free Horoscope reading or Free Samples, chances are they were affiliate offers someone is getting paid on. Some bigger lead based programs are things like insurance where the user is getting a free competitive quote from 5 insurance companies and if they fill out the lead form you get paid.