If You HAD to Start Over - What would you do Different???

[masm50]

I think I would have bought a domain and joined some advertising programs/networks earlier.

I had a site on my ISPs free hosting for 3 or 4 years, with my site as a subdomain.
It was short and I was only young (about 13 when I started). This was the only reason I was rejected from various ad networks as my traffic was pretty good (and I have spoken with the people who rejected my site since).

I could have made a packet in the dot com boom, but missed out by being too late and omains are cheap, as is professional hosting.

You live and learn...

Tim

[craigallyn]

This is a great topic, and I knew right away what my answer would be.

We sell women's skirts via our website. Early on, we went down the wrong road by hiring a publicist and having a $10K fashion show to create "buzz" and generate media interest, with the goal of branching out beyond skirts. This was a mistake because this somewhat traditional method (going after magazine and new articles) did not match what we were at the root -- a website. Don't get me wrong: press is always a great thing. But we spent a lot of money chasing it, and it gave us mediocre results. This strategy may have been great for a chain of brick-and-mortar stores or a clothing label seeking placement in department stores, but it did not leverage the Internet in any way. It did not give us what we wanted: traffic. In hindsight, I see that a purely Internet-based marketing strategy would have been best for a purely Internet-based business. It sounds so obvious now, but at the time we were not sure of who we were as a company, and we were caught up by the persuasive urgings of our publicist, who was pushing traditional strategies because that is all she knew. She knew nothing of affiliate programs, PPC advertising, and other Internet marketing opportunities - nor was she supposed to. We were supposed to know about that!

Lesson learned: Know who you are from the beginning and make plans that leverage this identity. Don't embark on a plan that "sort of" fits you.

The second lesson learned has to do with narrow product lines. At first we thought we would start with skirts and expand into other apparel, and even beauty products. Only after beginning our SEO and PPC activities did I realize that a narrow focus can be great! Theoretically, every female English-speaking on-line shopper in the world could be our customer. With a potential customer base this large, there is no need to expand product lines for the sake of getting an even larger base. It is far easier to maintain effective SEO and PPC campaigns when you are focused on a certain product as opposed to a few offerings of many products. As a result, our site is truly about a limited set of keywords and our content is deep on these topics. This is ideal for SEO. [Caveat: we are unusual in that we make each product after it is ordered. So we do not face the dilemma of pre-ordering from a distributor and hoping things sell. Product variety definitely dilutes risk in that case.]

Lesson learned: When the world is your marketplace, you don't necessarily have to offer a smorgasbord of products as though you were a traditional retailer.

[purplebear]

Awwhhh now since I'm on the fourth page I can't go back to read all the previous emails. I got your email Linda so came here to post but think or will attempt lol at least to make it quick cos I'm way behind on things. Ooops the page stopped loading and now I can read them all
I've already commented on this before the contest started but love reading all these comments.
But.....if you don't know....how can you do all these things. Obviously for me the first thing I would have done at this point is have a genie or somebody grant me some wishes so I could make friends with all of you affiliate smarties I knew absolutely nothing about anything computer related and knew nobody when I first got online so obviously I didn't have a clue where to go to learn anything. lol My ideal wish would have been I guess to have enough money to hire somebody to be a mentor but then without knowing anything I wouldn't know if I was just being ripped off or not. Didn't have the money anyway. I'm still quite confused as to who some of the so called "bad guys" are in the affiliate world or affiliate managing area are since everybody seems to have different opinions from listening to things at forums. I'm very clear in my mind at least who my little group of "good guys" are based just on how I've been treated by them. Without this little group I don't know who I'd have turned to for any questions.
First thing the I'd have asked the nice little genie guy would be to tell me who all these people are online that know what they're doing so I could try to learn from them. Soooooo much time went by before I knew any of these people. I've said before so might as well say again. My first lucky break came when I somehow stumbled onto a very nice aff. mgr. who took the time to answer my questions and that helped enormously along the way with his suggestions where to try to learn more.

So....
Billy Kay - I don't expect you to give away any secrets or anything but in regards to "Do my homework and research and compare similar merchants so as to avoid the "dogs"

I know this is a stupid question, but ummmm how do you go about doing that? I know from being at forums seems like the ideal thing is to stay away from any of the major networks...lol but don't know how that's possible unless you're only focusing on one type of product. I think I've made several bad decisions with being involved with some sites but not sure if that's from my not knowing any better or it's a problem with the sites themselves. I don't have a clue as to where to go to research or what it is I'm supposed to be looking for to compare them.

As usual, I've made this waaaay too long. Linda...it's your fault you sent me the email and I can never turn down nice emails sent to me Although...I know was probably just regular ole generic email sent to everybody. been through that explanation before. lol All anybody has to do is ask...and oh well just the way I am...so don't be making fun of me...don't want to hurt anybody's feelings just in case by them thinking I ignored them.

[MattMcWilliams]

Linda,

This is a GREAT topic. I decided to post BEFORE I read others but look forward to reading everyone else's.

These are two things that I DID change my second time around based on bad experiences in the past. I actually wrote these down a week before I started as affiliate director at HometownQuotes and made it a goal to accomplish both within 30 days. Here they are...

1. I made sure that I did not try to do it all alone and would hire an assistant from day one. I am best at helping affiliates get better and helping with design, marketing, and the like, but I struggle with things like budgets and billing. Now that I leave that to my assistant and others in the company who are best suited for those things, I am doing what I do best and our affiliates are happier and more productive because of it!

2. I became more knowledgeable about the technical side of our system, such as XML, cobranding (our forte), and the inner workings of our system. Because of this, I am now able to ask our tech team "why don't we do this?" and know that it is possible and how to make it happen. Some of our best ideas are as a result of this!

[asorensen]

I haven't been doing this long, but have already learned a lot. I would definitely stick with your gut instinct on promoting. When I began promoting, I promoted everything in a gung-ho way and just jumped right in. But I didn't "feel" what I was promoting. I was a mom of 3 children, and I was targeting men in bodybuilding. What was I thinking. That did nothing for me, and my accounts were $0. Gee, I wonder why. Now, I'm taking my time, making sure all of my promotions are what I'm passionate about, and, of course, know something about. Also, the big key is PATIENCE. No matter what the ad says, you will not make $1000 in your first week. You're lucky to make $1 your first week, but that will show yourself your dedication and you will stick to it just to prove that you could do it. So, PASSION and PATIENCE have got to be your agenda.

[Linda Buquet]

WOW! Glad I finally sent out the forum email. NOW this thread is getting the kind of interaction and responses I had hoped for!

Everyone makes such good points and has great storied to tell.

Hey asorensen, that was your 1st post. A good one too!
Welcome to 5 Star and I love this like you wrote:
"So, PASSION and PATIENCE have got to be your agenda."

[Pyewacket75]

I think I'd start my OWN affiliate website instead of signing up with another company to get it. That way I'd have control over how and when I want to add/delete things instead of getting someone else to do them for me and having to wait longer than I have to. With my own site I can have things done quickly and on MY terms.

[Billy Kay]

Billy Kay - I don't expect you to give away any secrets or anything but in regards to "Do my homework and research and compare similar merchants so as to avoid the "dogs"

some quick and easy things to do:

1. Send an email to the AM before applying... with a question - any question. Such as "How often do you update your coupons?"

See how long it takes to get a response - or even IF you get a response.

2. If the AM's email address is MERCHANTNAME-at-linkshare or valueclick (etc), rather then john-at-MERCHANTNAME, then you can assume the merchant cares so little about it's affiliates that they hire network wanks to deal with all the issues, so don't expect much from that merchant

3. Of course, if the AM's email ends in 5staraff, partnerc, amswo, etc... these merchants are paying someone to run their programs because they care about the success of their program

4. Do a test sale - or search the boards for someone who did a test sale - to see if sales even track

5. Go to the merchant site and follow the order process all the way thru - until the final "the next click will bill your credit card" link - to see what suprises the merchant throw out. For example, if you enter the wrong coupon code at a merchant, the screen says "Please call us and place this order by phone". You wouldn't see this if all you do is check links to see they work.

there's more, but those are basics I do before joining a program

[Ferret Lord]

I would do 2 things differently.

First, Research, research and then some more research into webdesign and advertising.

Second, don't pay someone else to do my marketing for me. Learn how they do it and do it myself. I would have to get help with graphics and layout, but the rest is up to me. I lost thousands over the years on empty promises from marketing companies. Then, realized that I could do everything they were doing and do it better in some cases.

[Billy Kay]

Don't forget to mix it up!

If you have a website devoted to car parts, and it's been making a killing for years, also make one for totally unrelated stuff like Easter Bonnets You never know if your breadwinner product will dry up.

If you get good google rankings with your car parts site, optimize other sites for other search engines. If google suddenly drops you for car parts, you're still #1 for easter bonnets at Yahoo.

And you won't be stung as hard.