Affiliate Business – Short or Long Term?

So I guess a pretty big question when thinking about your affiliate business is what type of business do you want to start up. Do you want to focus all your efforts on a site that will bring in consistent money over the long term (6+ months)? Do you want to go on a super-hot tip and make a lot of money with a short term business (>1 month)? Or do you want to try to find what’s hot and run it for a couple months and then accept when it dies?

The inspiration comes from a campaign that I ran in the short-middle term range. I primarily want to talk about it because most “gurus” out there will tell you that it’s all in setting up the long term, “mini website” blah blah. That’s not the only strategy out there. I just got out a niche a couple weeks ago that made me $6,000 profit/day on average, but I only had it up for 17 days before it died. Although this only lasted barely 2 weeks, I still made 100k, which is a nice salary nowadays.

Another campaign I ran back in the day was dating…everybody thought they were cool because they though they found the only niche I ran. Well not the only, but dating was awesome for around 6 months (peaked around 20k/day for me…about 8k profit margins were lower).

After the dating buzzed died when spring rolled around, I broke into another niche and did 4-5k profit/day on that…that only lasted for around 2-3 months.

My point with all these examples isn’t to sound tough saying I made a lot of money, it’s to get the point across that running a long-term business isn’t the only way to make a lot of money. For the past year or so I’ve ran on short-medium term niches. Sure I have long-term sites that have been making less money but over a longer period of time. I’m actually in the process of building out a slower, more long term niche, so we’ll see how that goes and I’m sure it’ll do fine.

So when you ask your friend about this way to promote something and they say “uhh yeah that probably won’t last too long it’s probably not worth it”, that means they’re banking on it and you can hop on and ride the money train as long as it lasts…just don’t get upset when it dies.


50 Comments

  1. July 25, 2008

    I find it hard to find a solid long term niche.

  2. July 25, 2008

    There is still a ton of money to be made in the dating markets speaking you get cheap click cost which takes a lot of spend to get cheap clicks over time through historical data.

  3. lalalalalalalalaalal
    July 25, 2008

    You are a fucking liar. Face it.

  4. July 25, 2008

    The good thing when creating those sites is that, you remember what works. If you’re smart you’ll save your converting keywords, ad copy, and landing pages. And after your short term project died out or dried up, you start finding a way to bring this knowledge into a long term site. Just doing nothing with it anymore, seems stupid.

  5. July 26, 2008

    Actually, I’m not.

  6. Frank
    July 26, 2008

    How do the network reacts, when you make 100k and then your niche dies?

  7. Frank
    July 26, 2008

    And one more thing: If you really make that s*tload of cash – why would you need to set up an affiliate camp?

  8. July 26, 2008

    How do you find the short term campaigns? It seems tough to think of niches to make money over the long-term. But, I don’t know how to spot a profitable short-term campaign. Can you give us your insights?

  9. July 26, 2008

    Lol, that was random… I’m going to Xfiles this week- see, I can do it too…

    Anyways, nice insight on long-term vs short-term Paul

  10. July 26, 2008

    Why did I set up this blog? To help other people in the starting position that I once was.

  11. July 26, 2008

    They usually come either one of two ways :

    1) Pure luck in stumbling over something.

    2) Getting a very strong tip from another affiliate or affiliate manager on something that is very very hot at the moment.

  12. Frank
    July 26, 2008

    What makes you want to help people so bad?

  13. Andrew
    July 26, 2008

    What are the main reasons for your short term campaigns dying?

  14. Frank
    July 26, 2008

    Andrea, some things aint “hot” forever…

  15. Frank
    July 26, 2008

    Sorry, i mean “Andrew” not “Andrea” :)

  16. July 26, 2008

    I build all of my sites for the long term.

  17. invisible777
    July 26, 2008

    paul –

    would you say your big moneymakers were things you found on your own and duplicated their marketing process, things handed to you by an outgoing AM, info you got or traded with another affiliate, or just stuff you completely launched on your own with no influence from a third-party?

  18. July 26, 2008

    Helping other people makes some people feel good, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am without other people helping me.

  19. Steve
    July 26, 2008

    Agree 100% with Paul. The shelf life for most of my campaigns are a month or two… People that build for the “long term” will never have the high returns and there is something to be said for true trend riders.

  20. Greg
    July 26, 2008

    So just luck or networking? What about finding it yourself?

    They usually come either one of two ways :

    1) Pure luck in stumbling over something.

    2) Getting a very strong tip from another affiliate or affiliate manager on something that is very very hot at the moment.

  21. Moria
    July 26, 2008

    It seems the only comments that Paul replies to on his blog are ones that directly oppose him on his validity of being an actual affiliate pulling in the numbers he says he does.

    Look closely and you’ll see he only defends himself, he never replies with information to the people who actually seek it.

    And please, get rid of this idiotic comment approval system. If you had nothing to hide you wouldn’t screen comments.

  22. July 26, 2008

    I guess you could also tackle both strategies at once by developing for short-term, yet regularly occurring events i.e., holidays and special events.There’s a lot of money to be made from Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Tax Season, New’s Year’s, etc. The buzz only lasts a short time, but you know it’ll be back next year.

  23. July 26, 2008

    Perhaps you should read all the comment replies on this thread.

    The comment approval system is for keeping spam out and people that have nothing better to say than “fuck you”.

    If you don’t like this blog, then don’t visit it.

  24. July 26, 2008

    Paul,

    those people are simply jealous of how much you are earning… They are just losing crying over sour grapes because they aren’t earning the amount of income you are getting.

    I know for sure i am not earning your level of income but i respect you a lot simply because i know your income is real and you provide valuable content to your readers.

    To those who think paul is a loser, then please f off…Nobody ask you to visit this site and post comments that’ll only make you sound like THE ULTIMATE L*O*S*E*R*!

  25. tyler dewitt
    July 26, 2008

    I do believe that you making that much money becuase I know it can be done becuase I have several friends that make money like that and my self have hit 15-20 k days through other things online, but you make it sound like it’s simple which it is, but we both know that you have to have good historical data through AdWords before you can just jump into a market and get cheap clicks.

    And it takes a LOT of money or I should say lot of investment before you start getting clicks. Also the dating market is going very strong still, but there again it could take someone 6 months to strat breaking even speaking they are using a new account well I wouldn’t say 6 months, but letting your account run for solid 3 months before you start to break even due to historical data.

  26. Frank
    July 26, 2008

    But how come some people struggle to even make a few bucks and Paul always easily makes 100k or more? I dont get it? Cant be just luck. So if he isnt lying there must be some other secret to his success.

  27. Steve
    July 26, 2008

    Frank, you need to understand that this is a creative business. Yes, there are basic steps to follow that Paul has given on his blog, but if all you do is grab an offer, some keywords, and start promoting, don’t expect to be raking it in. The difference between a good landing page and a poor landing page can be the difference between losing $ and making 3x profits… I’ve experienced it all. The difference between testing $100 on an offer then calling it quits and testing $1,000 on an offer then optimizing is again, a make or break it type deal. The difference between an affiliate who tracks everything and optimizes creatively and one that just “wings it” – again, make it or break it in this biz.

    The fundamentals are simple, find offers, test them, optimize them… but most people don’t go the whole nine yards and thats why they will fail or do mediocre.

    How many affiliates do you talk to that haven’t tested well over 100 offers? or haven’t tested on Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, or Adbrite… I’m sure the numbers are staggering compared to those who have… and how many affiliates make $100/day and call it a success then go out and buy a new car or a house or random shit… tons! and they will all fail in the long run.

    When Paul says it’s “luck”, he’s referring to finding an offer that works… but getting an offer to work involves no luck at all, but pure skillz and hard work.

  28. July 26, 2008

    Frank, what makes you read people’s blog whom you don’t respect or agree with? If I were in your shoes, I’d be doing something more valuable with my time.

  29. Greg
    July 26, 2008

    another thing to mention is what about the unsuccessful campaigns, I’m sure the losses are a lot smaller, but what kind of losses do you have?

  30. July 26, 2008

    Seriously Frank – affiliate marketing success comes in 2 general flavors
    1) adding value to a purchasing decision by a consumer
    2) taking advantage of inefficiencies in a market

    #2 always gets closed up in time, but why not make the cash if one sees it? To take advantage of these situations you have to be really on the ball or (even though I despise the phrase), thinkiing out of the box. Think about it – in paid search one has to be one of the 10 best in the US or the world, including companies who have huge staffs, millions of dollars to blow, and larger margins. To offset this, we have to be infinitely more creative and more responsive to market conditions.

    I have a few offers that each make me $300-500 a month which is chump change, but it’s about 1000% ROI, took about 30 minutes to set up and I might put 5 minutes into it each month to tweak. Someone else will eventually take them over, but until then that’s a mortgage payment.

    If you’re wondering why Paul is doing so much better than most, also remember the rich get richer because their capital allows them into markets that noobs can’t touch.

    Example: I run an offer with many tiers for commissions. Most affiliates think the program sucks because they don’t make money. Here’s the thing – the merchant knows exactly what the epc is going to be, so the only people making money are the ones that can scale up to hit the top tier.

  31. Golferx
    July 26, 2008

    I like this blog…

  32. Alex
    July 26, 2008

    @Matt

    Very well said.

  33. July 26, 2008

    I’ve just learned that it is best to ignore those little internet trolls that pop up in comments. Seriously, don’t even reply to the little guys. But keep up the good work Paul

  34. wonderful post-amazing content …wow

  35. Frank
    July 27, 2008

    Thanks guys for your helpful answers! I wonder how many affiliates out there make 100k like Paul – any idea?

  36. July 27, 2008

    Hey Paul,

    Do you ever use the content network for these short term offers, or only search?

  37. July 27, 2008

    Frank, finally a proper msg from u. How many affiliates? That i don’t know because i’m not. in fact, i’m a noob in this industry and i’m losing money everyday. but if you are wiling to find someone with experience to really guide you, you stand a better of making better comments than those you did.

    btw paul, are you going to start another Q&A soon? Lots of people with tons of questions.

  38. TipJar
    July 27, 2008

    Hey Paul,

    I’m wondering…..you say you found a niche that was making you a profit of 6k a day (holy crap!) but how much money were you dropping into this niche? It’d be nice to see how many keywords, landing pages, ad costs, ad copies, etc. it takes to create such a profitable campaign. I remember Chad from CDF Networks had a post about how he scales and runs a campaign. And since it’s no longer one of your main campaigns maybe you could give us the niche itself :-)

    I tell ya, if I could make $100k (profit) in 17 days I’d probably be crying with joy.

  39. July 27, 2008

    I build all of my sites for the long terms

  40. NormanNormal
    July 28, 2008

    Wow, you have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

  41. Frank
    July 28, 2008

    @ WQ: I thought Noobs like you, who are losing tons of cash would be happy if someone had the balls to ask the rellay interesting questions, instead of all this “Great post, thank you” BS!

  42. JohnXY
    July 28, 2008

    If you just do ubercamp to help ppl, why isn’t it for free?
    If you really make that numbers, then you can sh*t on the few bucks you make with ubercamp.

    I also don’t get why you spend so much time on blog & helping ppl if you could use this time to earn even more with affiliate marketing.
    Sure others helped you, but nobody said you have to be like jesus

  43. Steve
    July 28, 2008

    For those of you who see 6k/day profit and wonder how to get to that point… first check your bank account.. you need at least $100k cash on hand or $100k credit limit… Once you find a profitable campaign, It’s simple… spend more $, make more $.

  44. Dan
    July 28, 2008

    How does a campaign like this die out so suddenly? Increased competition? Keywords that no longer drive the traffic they once did? Getting slapped? Can you share some specifics on why a campaign that was once so big died out?

    Much appreciated. Love your blog by the way.

  45. July 28, 2008

    hes right, although I don’t really like the quote, “it takes money to make money,” because its not always true, and you can be very ‘creative’ and make alot of money without investing money.

    But in PPC, its pay per click and it requires with no exception that you pay for traffic, and it is true that in this you do have to pay. You’ll notice most affiliates incomes are directly porpotional to that amount of spending abilitly they have.

    With that being said, more credit cards, more credit, do what you can to increase your spending ability and you’ll increase your ability to earn more.

  46. July 29, 2008

    I am in the middle of this very debate with myself. I think the question you have to ask yourself is “How much do you want to work on this?” My experience has been that with the short term stuff you have to work all the time to keep things rolling and in the end it dies. The longer term stuff obviously takes maintenance but you dont have to fiddle with something every day to keep it going.

  47. July 29, 2008

    Iam happy just to make a couple of sales lol.

    I believe that you need all three types of projects, the short term, mid and long term projects.
    Using the massive gains to fund the other projects. It’s always great to have a consistant and dependable income, even though it’s small. It’s smart to have backups.

  48. July 29, 2008

    I really didnt find anything useful in this post, nor the past 10 posts, you need to go back to writing useful content that actual affiliate can use and learn from instead of this dribble garbage filler crap.

    My 2 cents.

  49. Steve
    July 29, 2008

    Agree 100%. I was referring to PPC. Paul has listed some good ideas for free advertising in this posts (Message boards, classifieds, etc.)… I haven’t done this, but I would imagine you would be hard pressed to break $6k/day, maybe if you use auto bots and the like, but I’d recommend staying away from shady and/or illegal tactics.

  50. Steve
    July 29, 2008

    1) Offers get pulled
    2) Offers get updated and don’t convert as well
    3) Advertisers lower spend
    4) Competition gets fierce
    5) Offers get stale
    6) Media networks change polices/remove ads

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