Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2008 has been a good for your affiliate marketing business.

I’ve had a great month of December. So far, my earnings are 3x more than what I normally make in a month. Obviously it’s due to the Christmas season, but still impressive considering the current economic climate. Even more impressive is the fact that I really haven’t worked on my affiliate sites for the past couple months!

My Main Earnings Source

The majority of my December earnings have come from a Nintendo Wii BANS site that I setup last Spring. I can’t even remember the last time I worked on that site, but MSN decided to index it and rank it fairly well for some good terms.

The rest of my earnings are coming from a combination of BANS site and WordPress blogs running phpBay.

I’m not lazy and I put in a lot of hard work setting up my sites, but it amazes me that they can essentially run on auto-pilot for a few months or more, and my earnings still go up 3x during the Christmas season.

Sweat Equity

I credit my success to all of the “smart” hard work I invested in getting my sites setup.

I also credit my good training from Wealthy Affiliate, and the great keyword research I was able to perform using Micro Niche Finder and NicheBOT. Remember that there isn’t a software tool or training resource available that’s the silver bullet for making a profit with no work. (Trust me when I say I spent countless hours researching my niches, setting up my sites, and marketing them.) However great tools can make your hard work be more efficient, for the best results possible. I’m very pleased with the results I’ve obtained from the tools I rely on.

Happy Holidays

I’m looking forward to 2009, and wish you and your family the best this holiday season. Here’s to all of our ongoing success!

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February BANS Update

Here’s my Build a Niche Store status update for February:

• I just got a check in the mail from Commission Junction for $97 and change.
• My pending balance is $29.42 and climbing. At least this is over the $25 payment threshold, so I’ll be getting another check next month.
• I created another new BANS site around

Read more

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January 2008 Earnings Update

My earnings have dropped off significantly the past two weeks. I’m not sure what to attribute this to, other than the Christmas shopping season is over. I will definitely be keeping an eye on things, and hopefully this will turn around.

On a bright note, Commission Junction just issued a payment to me. It wasn’t for as much as I had hoped, but anytime you get commissions is a good thing. It’s very encouraging and motivational to keep going. I’ve been at this since September–only working part time–and I still feel like I have a lot left to learn and even more left to implement. So making money where I’m at… which I feel is still somewhat at the beginning stages… is very encouraging. How much more can I make when I keep plugging away and get a chance to implement more and more of my ideas?

Hopefully the sky’s the limit!

On another note, I’ve recently been experimenting with a few different methods for getting backlinks and traffic to my sites. I’m still somewhat in the “experimental” phase, so I’m not quite ready to talk about them. Stay tuned though, because whether the methods succeed or fail, I plan to discuss them here. For the most part, I plan to let you know what I tried and whether or not it worked.

Well, until then…

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January Mid-Month Progress Update

I just wanted to give an update on some of the commissions I’ve earned so far this month through my Build a Niche Store sites. After the first 13 days of the month, I’ve earned $39.40 through my Commission Junction account. That brings my CJ balance up to $72.71 (when you include commissions from last month). I also earned another $13.01 from Amazon’s affiliate program through one of my BANS sites, when someone clicked on the Amazon ad on the page to buy the product.

So just from BANS alone, after only half the month so far, I earned $52.41, with a total balance of $85.72.

Now that small amount of money isn’t going to go very far, and I did have some expenses along the way also (such as web hosting fees). However… and this is the really good part… I’m just getting started here folks! You see I only have four BANS sites up and running, and have only actively promoted one of them. I’m still learning proper online marketing techniques, and so I really believe the sky’s the limit.

Sure, for the amount of time I’ve invested, I could make a ton more cash moonlighting at the local convinience store every evening, but it wouldn’t be as much fun. I’m having a blast learning about affiliate marketing, trying and experimenting with new ideas and strategies, and see how some things work and some things don’t. And even though my CJ balance isn’t that huge, there is a sense of accomplishment whenever I login to check my stats, and see that earnings balance tick upwards by a few more dollars!

Besides, the owner of the local convinience store is probably going to expect me to show up at a certain time, on certain days, without exception. As an affiliate marketer, I can set my own hours and my own goals. If it’s been a tough day at work, and I just want to relax in front of the TV or play with my daughter, then I can do that. If I want to spend 6 hours in the evening working on my affiliate marketing, I can do that too. It’s completely up to me!

As I said, the sky really is the limit. I could probably get a second job making $10/hour… working for the man… burning myself out for a little extra income. Or I can have a blast running my own affiliate marketing business… answer to no one but myself and my family… and potentially earn thousands of dollars each month doing it.

Like I keep telling people who ask, at least I’m trying something that could better myself and my family. Compared to playing video games, or watching TV all night, or going out to drink at the bars three times a week… even if I fail at affiliate marketing (and I won’t) at least I went down swinging… making an attempt to better myself and succeed.

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