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50 Affiliate Sites Challenge
April 30, 2006
Edit: The way I've written this post, it sounds like Chrissie and I are going to develop 50 sites together. Actually, this is an individual challenge, so if things go well, we'll each have 50 new sites by October!
Chrissie and I have decided to embark on a "50 Affiliate Sites Challenge". Our goal? To develop 50 affiliate sites by the start of the Christmas shopping season (October or thereabouts).
It all started because lately I've been feeling "blogger burnout". I started a bunch of new blogs this year, and while I love blogging, the frequent blogging schedule has been wearing me down (not that you could tell from my rather infrequent posts here, and on my personal blogs, but I'm hoping that will change).
Also, with all of my new blogs still sandboxed, my Adsense earnings from my latest projects aren't yet matching the efforts I've been putting in. On the other hand, I've been seeing some nice commissions from a few older, affiliate sites. Sites that I put up way back when and haven't really touched much.
So the other night, I told Chrissie, "I'm going to put up 100 new affiliate sites by the end of this year."
She decided to join me in the challenge, but 100 sites seemed like a lot. Which it is. So we decided we would aim for 50 new affiliate sites by the start of the Christmas shopping season - the timing is good since any new sites added after that won't really get much play unless they are in really small, non-competitive niches. Not to mention the fact that between now and October, it's super slow season for my offline business.
We'll be counting as an affiliate site any standalone sites, as well as self-contained sites in folders and subdomains (making things much easier on the wallet). While we might add Adsense to some of the sites, the main focus will be on affiliate commissions.
It breaks down to ten new sites a month.
Ever since we decided to start on the challenge, I've been feeling super-motivated, and I've had lots and lots of ideas. I will be creating my sites in two ways. One set of sites will be based on product datafeeds, while the other set will be keyword driven, have a smaller number of pages and focus on merchants in small niches, or on a small number of products.
If any of you are interested in joining the challenge, I'd love to hear from you. You can let me know if you're going to play too by posting in the comments here or sending me a quick email.
The best part of this? I get to add yet another category to my really really long list of categories here.
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Posted by BJ at 11:03 AM in 50 Affiliate Sites Challenge | Permalink
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BJ and Chrissie have challenged themselves and each other to create 50 new affiliate site before Christmas - a lofty goal. However with the way they are doing it, by publicly announcing their goals and having their readers and each hold them accounta... [Read More]
Tracked on May 2, 2006 10:56:30 AM
Comments
I want to wish you both good luck - and I'll be watching to see how you do. I think this is a HUGE challenge, but if anyone can do this, it's definitely you and Chrissie! Definitely keep a weekly or monthly update going on this :)
Tara :)
Posted by: Tara | May 1, 2006 10:49:35 AM
I love it! I'm really tempted to join in, too. I have a question - who do you use for hosting? Because I've reached my limit for sites at Yahoo - they actually won't let me order any more... and I can't find a hosting place I like right now.
Posted by: jenn | May 1, 2006 1:04:38 PM
Jenn, I am totally in love with Hostgator right now. Their 24 hour live chat support is exactly that, and every time I've had to use it, the person I've chatted with has been very knowledgeable. Their up-time has been very very good, too. And their prices are very good. If you want to give them a try, my aff link is on the left side bar :)
I also use Dreamhost and Site5. I am not as happy with them, though. Dreamhost's support isn't as good as it was when I first signed on with them, although Site5 has had fairly good support. But there seems to be a bit more downtime with these two, although Dreamhost has improved dramatically for me since the fall.
And Tara! I was hoping you'd join us in this challenge!
Posted by: BJ | May 1, 2006 2:43:56 PM
Thanks for the recommendation! If I do this, I'll give them a try!
Come on Tara... it does sound fun, now, doesn't it?!? :)
And BJ, you're right about new sites doing well at first, that alone makes this pretty exciting.
Posted by: jenn | May 1, 2006 3:01:32 PM
OMG, unlimited domains for 9.99/mo - perfect! You will be getting some commissions from me.
This has really gotten me excited - I guess you can say I'm in - I'va already picked out several of my topics...
Posted by: jenn | May 1, 2006 5:26:04 PM
What a great challenge! I look forward to following along :)
Posted by: Lynn Terry | May 1, 2006 6:05:53 PM
Wow guys ...I am totally tempted to join you. Fifty freaking sites? Wow. BJ, I totally hear you ...i am getting so burnt out on blogging! Give me static sites for a change. It is a great goal. I'll be watching you guys!
Liz
Posted by: Liz | May 1, 2006 6:59:36 PM
BJ, I thought I was being ambitious with my plan to launch 10 sites in twelve months - your plan completely blows mine out of the water!
If you're interested, you can check out my progress at www.twofiftyaday.com
Good Luck
Peter
Posted by: Peter | May 2, 2006 9:42:41 AM
Ladies (BJ and Jen),
I would love to join you, but I'm working on a ginormous site right now which I want to get out of the way first... plus, I know me - I would NEVER get 50 sites up in that time period.. lol On the other hand, I can see the 3 of you launching 100 by "accident".. lol I'll live vicariously through you and maybe do it by myself later.
One thing I do wonder about how you're going to do it - is it going to be mainly mini-sites, or outsourced content? Because as good as BJ and Chrissie are (and trust me all, they kick BUTT when it comes to getting work done) that's still a LOT of content to have up in 5 months... Can't wait to see how you do it!
Tara :)
Posted by: Tara | May 2, 2006 10:56:15 AM
Jenn, I think you'll like Hostgator. I've been with them since the beginning of the year and they've been great.
Tara, I will post about how I'm doing different sites as I go along. I'm not too sure yet exactly how each site will be done - playing it by ear and it's been fun so far! :)
Good luck on your ginormous site - stuff like that is fun, too.
Posted by: BJ | May 2, 2006 1:10:47 PM
I am in love already, BJ, it has an awesome HTML editor as well... I think I may even transfer my others...
Posted by: jenn | May 2, 2006 5:30:57 PM
Gulp, I am prepping for my 50 sites. The plan is coming together and now that it is here for the world to see I am on the hook and have to do it ;)
Thanks a lot BJ LOL
Posted by: Chrissie | May 4, 2006 1:04:55 AM
This isn't completely on the Challenge topic, although what a great idea, I wish I could join in. I have a question about your statement in your post"...standalone sites, as well as self-contained sites in folders and subdomains (making things much easier on the wallet)." The obvious benefits that you mentioned aside, what are the pros and cons to mini sites in a domain folder versus having them with their own domain?
Thanks!!!
Posted by: Knox | May 4, 2006 11:48:11 AM
I started writing an answer to your question, Knox, and when I got into the fourth paragraph, I realizd it was probably more of a post than an answer in the comments!
I'll blog about it fully tonight. Thanks!
Posted by: BJ | May 4, 2006 12:08:55 PM
Fantastic! Thanks for your quick response and all of the great information. I'm looking forward to the post.
Posted by: Knox | May 4, 2006 1:20:50 PM
I like the idea of joining the 50 affiliate site challenge.
I could pump out 100 today if I wanted non of which would do any good. So I need a certain standard of site to stick to.
I'm thinking I won't call it a site until it gets 1 or more adsense clicks per day for 7 days straight.
WHO'S WITH ME?
Posted by: Richard Eastes | May 9, 2006 10:55:29 AM
Richard,
Good idea, I usually don't call it a site until it get 50 page views per day for a week straight...either way, a site isn't a site just because it is live :)
-Brandon Hopkins
Posted by: Business Cards | May 16, 2006 3:04:35 PM
Richard, I have some "mature" sites that don't see one Adsense click a day for seven days straight LOL
I won't be putting Adsense on any of these 50 sites, though (although I might change that down the road for the ones that don't perform that well.
Brandon, for me a site is a site once it's been indexed. Page views ... well, that's another matter :)
Posted by: BJ | May 16, 2006 4:56:56 PM
I'm curious what some of these sites are? I'd like to know how you're making them too, considering creating a bunch of affiliate sites can either take a ton of time, not be automated, or get crapped on in the search engines. Getting all three of those in the positive is tough to do, and I'd love to hear you share the love.
Thanks.
Posted by: nate | May 3, 2007 7:06:24 PM
