Hi Rosalind,
Thanks so much for replying! I didn’t expect one to be truthful, as I am sure you are very busy. I’m rather flattered that you would consider doing a profile of us.
Our site is only 3 months old. In our first month, we made just a little over $500 US in profits after advertising expenses etc. Dec and Jan were excellent months where we doubled our sales and profits. Our subscriber list has shot from nothing to over 1000 virtually overnight. We have hired a programmer friend to take our site to the next level with a fully functional database driven site which will be a lot more interactive for our customers. We expect that to be ready and working in March.
As a former retailer (senior exec at The Bay) in the real world, one thing I knew for sure: I did not want to handle inventory of any kind. For me, this site was an experiment. Could I generate enough interest investing nothing in product and just market other peoples merchandise? What I and my partner, David, have found is that the demand for our site and its products is huge. We get many emails telling us how much people love our site and how they feel they “trust us”.
We have tried to be patient and take the process one step at a time. learning along the way and trying to develop good relationships with our affiliates. Many of them have taken the time to give us their nuggets about the business just for the asking. But most of all, this has turned out to be a lot of fun. We expect that sales will level out in the area of $4000-5000US in commissions per month by mid-summer. While this is peanuts for some people, it’s rewarding for us and it has cost us virtually nothing except some time and doing something we love.
Periodically, I go back to your e-book and look for new information. I find I always miss something and find something new again on a re-read. I try to study the newsletters we subscribe to for information about how we can do things smarter. The question I always seem to be asking is: could we use this on our site and what impact would it have for making it a better site for our customers? By trying to do things for our customers first, we have been getting the sales we need. For example, we decided up front not to do pop-ups on our our site when many of the marketing gurus were yelling about how effective they were. But they are also a great way to tick off your customers. And where are pop-ups today? Trash can!
I liked your approach to doing business from the start. Informative and soft sell. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing. LOL
Reading the Super Affiliate Handbook was just the motivation we needed to get us moving and doing something. While you made it sound easy, you were realistic about the work involved and the potential payoffs.
We hope to develop another couple of sites in different areas. Our goal is to have about 12 to 15,000US in commissions coming in every month. If it takes us a year or two to get there, so be it. In the meantime we’re having fun.
We’d be lying if we said that this is not a lot of work. It’s almost as much work as looking after our mentally challenged foster son who has lived with us for the past 9 years. We didn’t give up on him 9 years ago when everyone else did and he now has a great life and has developed many skills that the so-called experts said were beyond his ability. We are using the same determination on our web ventures. Now we’re the ones learning new skills!
Another thing we know is, if we don’t try, then nothing will happen.To be honest we are pleased with what we’ve learned and where we’re going. I find that there is something new to learn everyday. That in itself is a huge motivator for me.
I’m sorry it’s not a rag to riches story, but it’ s a practical one that I believe anyone can do. The big thing is “just do it!” Your E-book is what really got us started and we have you to thank for that.
Thanks, Rosalind. It means a lot to both of us.
Mike Lord & David Flowers