» March 5, 2008 in
My favorite type of affiliate marketing is products. Good old fashioned stuff that gets shipped to your door.
The majority of my income comes from people buying things that show up at their door and I earn a commission on the transaction.
In the past most of my sites have been "niche websites", but moving forward and thinking bigger (a great read btw) I think I might try going at a larger product topic.
So I thought of a topic I like, I'm familiar with, I've spent money on in the past 6 months, i plan on spending money on, I want to know more about, and is pretty broad: Camcorders.
And so I bought the soon to be developed Camcorder.fm (and camcorders.fm to redirect to camcorder.fm)
I want to create a site on camcorders that is better than any other site on the web about camcorders. Which leads me to ask:
What Makes An Awesome Product Site?
First and foremost the rule should be "user experience trumps advertising".
With product sites it's easy to put ads on the site because most of the time the content is the ad, unless you are doing banner/adsense stuff. Either way the user should come first.
Then there is the obvious stuff:
- Reviews
- Forum Unique to each product
- Price, current and historical
- Videos
- Pictures
But what else?
Is the social shopping stuff a fad? Should the product site have profiles and that jazz or just basic info.
What do you think a great product site should have?
(sidenote: Camcorder.fm will be an affiliate site I'll be publicly building here, obviously. ;)
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ThoughtSponge says on March 6, 2008
I think you hit the nail on the head... People looking for products online are looking for accurate information before they buy. This might be anything from a simple customer review or even a forum post on some specific feature. When i personally buy something online my process is usually: 1.research(forms,cust reviews, general issues with that product)
2.price(price comparison on one site can save so much time)
Caroline Middlebrook says on March 6, 2008
I think one of the best things to have on a product site is ratings & reviews from other people and not just the site owner. I think that's why sites like Amazon do so well because people can get a good idea of the good books by the comments and ratings that other people leave. So I guess you could say that the community aspect is the best part of a good product site imo.
Hadi says on March 6, 2008
I agree with Caroline in that I find user reviews and ratings the most useful part of review sites.
I do wonder though - how do you plan to get hold of the camcorders to review?
There's nothing worse than arriving at an affiliate review site to find just standard specification details and an arbitrary review or rating based more on the commission the affiliate will earn than the quality of the product.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with...
Royal Radande says on March 6, 2008
Reviews and ratings are extremely important. Videos of the products would also be very nice.
James Mann says on March 6, 2008
I have started a couple of hobby sites.
Mark you were saying you have a definite interest in Camcorders, my hobbies certainly hold my interest and I know there is a ton of money spent each year on the hobbies I enjoy. I and my friends spend a lot of money on our hobbies, just ask our wives. :)
I think hobby sites that promote products is a great way to make money. My hobby sites are new so I think I will have to follow you closely, especially your videos so I get them running correctly.
45n5 says on March 6, 2008
thanks thoughtspones, caroline, james, royal, hadi
awesome feedback, I reckon reviews should be #1 on the page plus some other great suggestions
@james - sure thing I'll chronicle the building here.
@all - no doubt, products are where its at ;)
Josh Spaulding says on March 6, 2008
I haven't gotten too far into product sites, but if we're talking about review-type sites the one thing I always notice is that a good majority of them are full of reviews like:
"so and so is the best because of this and and that"
"this so and so is the great"
"this is the best"
"this is awesome"
...and then of course they all have affiliate links.
Obviously I don't have a problem with affiliate links, my thing is where is the honesty?
So my answer would be the first thing I look at when I stumble across a product page is does it contain honest reviews or is this some guy pushing good affiliate programs.
I do the "product review" search when I'm looking for physical products and some electronic products. Normally I'll buy from a site that seems to have honest reviews and not 100% gleaming reviews of everything.
I know you're asking for more here, but that's honestly the #1 most important thing for me anyway.
Whether it has a forum or anything doesn't matter. It I get an honest vibe I'll definitely consider the review.
Think Like An SOB says on March 6, 2008
You know Mark, you could have just emailed me this post in response to my email yesterday. lol
Exactly what I was talking about in my email to you. As for camcorder.fm make sure it is 20% better than the rest of the other camcorder sites...correct?
Zac Johnson says on March 6, 2008
I'm actually starting a new site/blog on a whole new "niche" area. Right now my main focus is on providing quality content/posts along with brand names. I also want to make sure that I can offer the products at decent rates, along with discount codes. So with the combination of quality content (to keep the user coming back) and providing sales content (that they are interested in), my aim is to have a very targeted site.
Vlad says on March 6, 2008
I find that being handicapped when it comes to programing is my bigger challenge... I wish I had some of your skills.
However with the widgets out there you can really do amazing staff. I have recently written about Affilistore. It's a script allowing you to plug data feeds. I have been using the script on and off since I discovered them. However their latest version has two "rating" functions. Visitors may rate both the product and the merchant.
I think the review type of sites might be the best when the long term value is concerned.
45n5 says on March 6, 2008
thanks all for the comments ;)
I chose the .fm cause I really liked the domain
camcorder.fm exactly the keyword I wanted ;)
digitalnomad says on March 6, 2008
How about easy navigation to a no-brainer transaction and checkout?
Most people do not do price comparisons either. Just think like shopping in the analog world.
Make it easy.
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