New Monetisation Stream
A few months ago, I wrote about a new type of AIS that I had been planning to utilise - I'm now able to give some results;
- It took me around 10 minutes to build a site (as the provider has templated stores ready for you to use.
- I already had a domain name and hosting.
- I uploaded the site, then blogged about it in that previous post.
- Because other projects got in the way, I did not promote it at all!
Yesterday, the site made it's first sale which gave me commission of $80. Had I been more pro-active over the past few months, I reckon that I would have earned a fair amount by now, just from this one site. I'm ashamed to say that I had actually forgotten I had the site.
Anyway, the beauty of this type of set-up is that the provider does absolutely everything - it's basically a highly evolved form of dropshipping I guess. All you need to supply is the domain name, hosting and a way of promoting the site. Here's the link for you all to have a read, I know that the 80/20 rule will apply, which is why I'm quite happy to give the link out, as I know that hardly anyone will take the time and effort to build and promote 
Joe Bucks - herbal affiliate program. These guys have around 30 or so different stores (mainly herbal products; acne, quit smoking, regrow hair to name a few) on which you earn a cut of each product ordered through your own "sub store". It's easy to set up and easy to maintain (I've not even looked at my store in the last 3 months)…
So, who is going to take the plunge? If anyone does, let me know and I'll make a new post on ideas of how to promote your "Joe Bucks" Store.
Comment by burt — September 12, 2006 @ 8:37 am
Update, I found that the Joe Bucks people also give free hosting for any of their stores. Thus all you have to provide is the domain name - $0.88 for a .info anyone?
Comment by Oli Allen — September 12, 2006 @ 11:46 am
Shame it's a US site, so offline promotion methods are off limits to us UK folk.
Comment by Chance — September 12, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
This is attractive, especially for those of us who have dedicated servers and would like to monetize the excess space and bandwidth.
I'll set up some shops once I get Portal Labs up and running, but until then I'm not allowing myself to start any other projects, no matter how easy they look
Comment by Jaro — September 12, 2006 @ 6:47 pm
burt, I went for it, purchased a few info domains, registered at joebucks.com and uploaded a website. You can see it at http://weakhair.info (not sure if domain has propagated yet).
I'm going to promote it at my new blog jaroad.com and add to a few directories. It would be great if you could show us some few more ways how to promote these sites. I'm just starting to do the business online and I'm thankful for every advice.
Comment by Empress — September 12, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
I'm game for this one
Comment by Jaro — September 13, 2006 @ 9:39 am
I noticed that the websites are poorly optimized (no use of hn or strong tags). There is a space for webmasters to improve the websites and get better results.
Comment by burt — September 14, 2006 @ 10:26 am
Good for you guys! Interesting to note that there was over 100 views of this post, but only 34 clickthru's to joe bucks.
In a future post I will come up with some ways to promote the store…
Comment by Oli Allen — September 14, 2006 @ 11:00 am
Based on those figures, there were probably 4 signups at JB, and only one of them will ever put enough effort in to make any money
Comment by Peter — September 14, 2006 @ 2:46 pm
burt,
They advertise on WebMasterRadio (I heard them on all of ShoeMoneys shows) but I was never able to work out what the URL was from the ad LOL!
Comment by Chance — September 14, 2006 @ 2:48 pm
I registered 12 domains yesterday afternoon and signed up- I'm going to give it the ole' college try when I get some free time.
I wait with baited breath for your promotion ideas post.
Comment by burt — September 14, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
Excellent guys, I'm hoping that anyone who does give these stores a go will blog about the successes (or failures) they have?
I'm also going to set up a few more, as I decided not to go ahead with that other (real, eBay) business I previously blogged about…
Comment by Peter — September 14, 2006 @ 3:29 pm
burt,
I've just signed up to Joe Bucks and was looking forward to generating a nice 5% life-time referral commission for you - until I came back here ans saw it was a vanilla link - change it quick; I'm sure no one who reads your blog would mind you taking an override on their Joe Buck earnings as it won't affect their bottom line.
Comment by burt — September 14, 2006 @ 3:43 pm
Peter, many thanks for the thought
I specifically made the link a "not affiliate" link as I wanted to give everyone the idea without thought of "what's in it for burt"…