Sot Media

Site: Fitness Equipment Coupons

Coupon code sites are the big deal these days. They make an absolute fortune for those involved. The trouble is you had to get in early, the big players are there now and the niche is saturated. When this is the case and you want to set up a coupon code site you have to think nicher. That is exactly what I’ve done here. I’ve gone as niche as possible and this has potential. With the word “Fitness” in the domain name and that word featuring in the brands I want to rank for gives this site a lot of potential for success where rankings are concerned.

There were some very difficult decisions on how to present coupons for products that don’t have any codes. I’ve got round this by putting the price on them as I don’t think certain companies would be too happy if I didn’t. I’m probably being paranoid but this is a new company and they can be very particular when they start the affiliate marketing channel. I hope I’ve got away with it and those products get enough clicks but only time will tell.

The site had to be about fitness as I have all the agreements with those companies in place and it’s what I know. The design of the site is pretty crappy. The thing is that by the time I decided I wanted to change it the site was already half made. However the site is clear and I’ve fitted a lot of pages there in the navigation although that isn’t so clear from the home page. The bright red with white letters on the navigation is very questionable but it’s done now. I’m quite please with the site so we’ll see if it gets it’s rankings and we’ll go from there.

Site: Fitness Equipment Reviews in the UK

After the success of the fitness equipment reviews American site I thought it was only natural to make on for the UK. There are a few problems with whether this site will succeed or not. One is the UK has 3 times less internet users. The second is that people in the UK have less available space in their homes for fitness equipment.

For this reason this site will be competing with hardly any other sites which of course is not necessarily a good thing as it means there is no traffic. However a brief look indicates there is a small bit of traffic I could tap into. Unlike America where there are tens of review sites for treadmills and ellipticals the UK is relatively empty. As said before we have small homes so we are less likely to but fitness equipment and would rather go to a gym.

However I thought I would go for it as I have done with other sites I have. Either it will do well or it won’t only time will tell. The theme I’ve used is the same theme I use for all my wordpress sites it’s a theme I like and it’s easily manipulated. I just have to redo the header to make it look slightly different. Another problem with UK online stores is they have phone numbers literally everywhere on the site so I found one which wasn’t so bad. I also found the only one which didn’t have a discount code space on the checkout staring at everyone in the face so that’s all I’m going to say, let’s see how it does.

Site: Jogging Stroller Reviews

As usual Sot Media is all about reviews and we’ve gone back to our roots with this website. This is a review site combined with some price comparison going on. The reviews are also very thorough with a good summary of each stroller given. There are at least 4 to 5 shops on each review which means many prices to choose from giving value to the end user. We all know that value pays and that’s the aim with this site.

The color theme of the site was chosen using a brand new web program that gave me colors that would go with others and I think it’s done superbly with this site. I’ve deliberately chosen very feminine and baby colors. We all know it’s the women that buy the baby stuff and the men just hand over the money so this is built for the modern woman in mind.

Where ranking for this site goes you never know, I don’t think it’s going to be a major earner but I quite enjoyed making it abnd am pleased with it. If I can keep on top of new stroller models being released by the leading manufacturers like Baby Jogger then if I get them on this site straight away then it could earn a bit. It means it may have to be constantly updated but hey I do this full time so it’s about time I did spend time on it.

Site: Fitness Equipment Reviews

Continuing on the theme of a review site comes this fitness equipment site. We’ve taken all the experience we’ve got from our very first fitness equipment sites and used the knowledge here. This especially pertains to SEO knowledge. We’ve used a blog as Google loves blogs so much and you also get instant feedback with visitors and sales as Google ranks pages almost immediately.

The theme has been heavily tweaked to make it more visitor friendly and a custom header has been designed to enhance the site further. For the content we’ve written as much information as we can regarding the equipment we’ve reviewed. This will make the pages rank higher in the search engines and also get lots of long tail searches which can prove particularly profitable.

The results are very promising the site is doing well in the search results and the site converts nicely. Being about fitness equipment the site has the possibility to grow into a lot of pages as there are hundreds of pieces of fitness equipment available. With high rankings it’s getting this can only help us further. Promotion is going to be heavy link building which still needs some work. The site targets the USA as does all of our web properties.

Site: Jogging For Beginners

This site was created due to another site of ours ranking number 1 on Google for the term “jogging for beginners”. We thought it would be interesting to see if we can get a generic phrase like that to make money. We have some knowledge about jogging and running so this knowledge can be used in this site as can the running shoe knowledge gained in another site.

So the color scheme was chosen and the site was created. As usual it’s the simplest layout with navigation on the left and content on the right. We’ve tried to give as much information as we can combined with content pages containing affiliate links. Some professional images were used which we had to pay for separately and these look so good that it’s something we’re going to incorporate in a lot more sites in the future.

The site get a lot of visitors but as can be expected with a generic phrase the conversion rate is quite low. However we think this experiment was a success and shows you can make money with just about any phrase. People tend to stick top the first 3 pages and there aren’t any affiliate links in those so some adsense was used to monetize them.

Site: Jewelry Site Reviews

Straight after the first jewelry site and we’ve got a relationship with 20 or so jewelry merchants. I thought it only right to give jewelry another effort to see if we can really make money with affiliate marketing with jewelry. This site is in our classic formula of content on the right and navigation on the left with the layout similar to many other successful web properties we have.

The website is the longest we’d spent on a website at that time. The reviews of each of the jewelry merchants are the most thorough reviews you’ll find on the web. What we didn’t do enough of was research, from the domain name to whether the internal pages would get a decent amount of traffic. It was just built and that was it, no thought.

The result of the lack of planning was a site that makes an unsatisfactory return for the effort put in. It makes some money but as learnt from the other jewelry site the conversion rate is terrible so when the visitors are low anyway it doesn’t bode well. That said this site is responsible for the largest single commission payment received so far and it may do better than expected in time and with a little more promotion. It’s just a bit disappointing after all that work.

Site: eDiets Fresh Prepared Meal Delivery

One merchant I currently deal with changed their brand and main product entirely. This caused mayhem for my other sites that promote them so there was just one thing to do. Create a totally new site about the newly branded product. They say in affiliate marketing the best thing you can do is attach yourself to a new trend and be the first to promote it. The idea being that you’re likely to make a lot of money being the first mover.

I made this site using the color scheme of the merchant but being very careful not to copy the merchant or trying to be the merchant in the eyes of visitors. So I made it clear that I was promoting the merchant and used the merchant images as supplied for their affiliates in the site. The result is what you see and it took around 2 days to make.

The site ranked very well first until Google decided it wouldn’t rank keywords in a domain very highly anymore in a major update of theirs. This is a shame because the conversion rate of the site is the highest we’ve ever come across. The site remains online and has paid for the domain renewal however the merchant will probably brand itself again by next year so it’s days are numbered.

Site: Running Shoe Types

Running is a real passion so it was only natural that a running shoe site be made. It matches the general niches we always go for and it was worth a try to see if we could get some visitors in this niche. The niche is very small as the site is only about the types of running shoes and who would benefit by those running shoes.

The design is much like all the other sites in that navigation is on the left and content is on the right. A professional logo wasn’t used just a desk top publishing program for the site name. A lot of work was done to research for the keywords that would be beneficial for the success of the site. Unfortunately the design didn’t get the same amount of effort.

The site ranks ok and has managed to get some natural links from external sites without them being asked for. This is the benefit of going really niche and if you’re the only site in that niche and someone wants to quote a reference source then you become that reference source. The site does ok but unfortunately there’s no possibility of expansion with such a niche domain name. It’ll just have to stay as it is.

Site: Contact Lenses Online

This was a departure from the normal sites created. They were normally in the fitness and weight loss niches. However the owner wears contact lenses and the niche is popular and very profitable for those that do well so an attempt was made to compete. Organic rankings was the primary method of promotion which was going to be a struggle when you consider the competition in the niche.

A contact lens logo was bought from an online logo shop and the color scheme of the site was built around it. Like the diet food site the first pages of this site are very informational and helpful to try and make it look like a helpful portal in an attempt to gain favor in rankings. This was not overly successful although link building has been all but non existent in a niche where link building is crucial for success.

While the site doesn’t make a fortune the conversion rate is massive. What little visitors it gets converts into buyers very easily. It’s not surprising really in this niche as a quick tour of the leading merchants and you’ll discover they’re pretty much the same as the other. The site features coupon codes which needs a monthly update but the money made makes this 20 minute monthly effort worthwhile.

Site: Diet Food Delivery

This is another site created in 2007 and was trying to catch on the trend of diet food delivery and their services in the USA. They are ideal in that all the food you need to eat for weight loss is delivered, therefore you follow the diet by eating only the food you’re provided with and you lose weight. The trick for most however is sticking to the plan as it leaves you with a calorie deficit which some may find difficult to maintain.

The theme is a green one reminiscent of the green dieting section of the very first site. The site was designed to be the portal you need for the diet food delivery where there are sections that describe what’s it’s all about and how it could help. These pages are above the reviews of the services which are the monetized pages. The reviews are each around 1000+ words plus and serve as a guide to how they may benefit.

The site ranks well and has sitelinks in Google. The niche is now saturated but fortunately maybe due to timing this site has retained it’s rankings. There have been problems when merchants totally re brand their product and give it a different name but the site has rode through that. It’s only monetized with affiliate links and does ok.

Site: New Home Gym

With an extensive knowledge of using fitness equipment a gym site was created in 2007. This is a price comparison site with a design that’s influenced by Amazon. In the way that when you go onto an internal page the first thing you see is an image on the product in the left and the price on the right with a review below. The appeal of a price comparison is to increase sales by giving the customer a choice.

The site has a blue theme with a logo bought from an online logo shop. Interestingly the sales were made primarily with one site that really did have the best prices for the product reviewed, the site actually changed the whole look and design of their site to match this one. So maybe it was their biggest referrer at that point. Unfortunately they increased their prices to an uncompetitive level which were less appealing but it was a very profitable site for a while.

While the site made a lot of sales these were from PPC traffic for which the site was then “Google slapped” so this destroyed it’s income. Also it being an early project the organic ranking expertise was still wanting so the in site SEO particularly the keyword targeting and titles could have been better.

Site: LBC Radio Rocks!

Due to a real passion for the London radio station LBC Radio a fan site was created. LBC Radio is the first ever London commercial radio station and has been on the air waves since 1973. It remains popular to this day having gone though various owners through the years. It was the first media reporting of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the UK when the LBC New York reporter who lives near the towers phoned the station and made the terrible announcement while the attack was taking place.

The site is a very simple site because the radio station is a speech radio station. The design is that there should be no pictures because you don’t get that when listening to the radio. In order to maintain the appeal with no images there are various trivia points about each of the presenters which the internal pages describe. Some of the callers also get some of their own pages and one of those has gone on to make a career in TV and theatre.

The site ranks high for a variety of phrases and gets about 100 visitors a day. This has remained the case even though it’s information is now out of date and yearns for an update. The pages have links from Wikipedia as a reference source and the site has been quoted within Wikipedia. The site has other powerful links and remains online for that reason.

Site: Fitness Begin

This was meant to be a portal for beginners fitness information and went online in mid 2005. It contains information about exercise, health, dieting and nutrition from a beginners perspective. It has a unique color scheme that’s designed to fit each particular aspect of fitness and all pages within that aspect have the same color scheme.

The site slowly moved up the rankings ion Google and now ranks number 1 for a variety of terms and has site links on Google for the phrase “fitness for beginners”. The page about the recommend daily allowances is considered an authority and is linked to from school sites and teacher sites and ranks number 1 for the phrase in the UK version of Google.

The site is monetized primarily with Google adsense and is not updated very regularly. It serves as the first site in a varied portfolio and is a great introduction into the work and how the work has progressed from it’s site owner.

Site: Shoe Brands

This site was developed due to the merchant having a fantastic conversion ratio and a great dependable store for this niche. The niche is women’s shoes and must be the busiest sector. Certainly more so than men’s shoes let’s face it. The site is written by a man so we’re struggling with empathy and enthusiasm with content writing. However when the money starts flowing it makes you pretty enthusiastic about any niche.

The sites design is quite heavily borrowed from another with some design changes. Also the site targets America being a .us domain and the niche is different to the other site. The logo is there to try and get the point across that this is a girl’s store and is a more designer contemporary logo. The links and titles colors are to match the logo.

The ranking is poor at the moment and we believe we know the reasons which will resolve by themselves in a month or two’s time. Also the ranking may suffer due to having an affiliate link so far up the page. This maybe ok sometimes for PPC traffic and targeting but for organic rankings it’s too aggressive as information is what Google rewards the most so an affiliate link high on the page should be avoided. Avoided it will be with a little tweak here and there.

Site: Handbag Brands

This site is a kind of duplicate of the shoe brands site. That site makes a reasonable amount of money so why not replicate the process in another niche. The risk is that this niche doesn’t get the type in words that I’m hoping for but there’s only one real way to find out if that’s true and that’s to actually build it. This is being posted as soon as the site goes live so I won’t know if it’s successful until later.

The logo was chosen from my usual logo store and cost just $25 which I think is fantastic. It’s very professional and was chosen because I wanted a circular design like the diet food site and I also wanted feminine colors which I’ve got with it. All the other colors in the site are designed to match the logo and do. The are lifted directly off. I was fortunate to have a nice blue in there for the colors of the links. It needs to be obvious to people to click that link in order for me to make money so we’ll see.

The wording was quite difficult because some handbag brands really don’t say much about the brand or the history of the brand. So some of it I’ve had to blag it a bit. I’ve had to say how much they care about the design and the manufacturing process whether they say they do or not. It’s obvious they do so I put it into words for them. Anyway time will tell if it does well or not and if it doesn’t it will get deleted.