Hey fellow IM'ers,
Man has this site grown since the last time I was on here! Anyways, This is a site I created with a few golf related products. It's golf club making parts, specifically shafts. Tell me what you guys think? It's kind of a hobby of mine and I have some knowledge in assembly of clubs. Any tips and suggestions on marketing the site or anything else? Thanks!
~swc

www.surplusgolfstore.com

Hi SWC,

Welcome back. Your new golf site is looking nice. Here are a few tips for you to help you get some search engine rankings and free targeted traffic.

You need do some research to find out what the exact phrases are that golfers are typing into the search engine in relation to golf shaft, clubs, etc.

Once you know that, you can build individual pages on those phrases providing informative content on the subject. Once you get the visitor by providing the info. he was looking for, then you have the opportunity to monetize him with your products or ads, etc.

A couple more ideas for you to consider for monetization are these...
1. Magazines.com - they have various golf magazines that you can suggest to your visitors. The commission is pretty good, if I remember correctly - about 30% or so.

2. Trivita - Trivita is primarily direct marketing, but they have some very good products that they market specifically for golfers. They are called Optima4 and OptimaFlex. They'd be a great 'fit' for yours site. They do a lot of infomercials in the US so they are getting more well known. It's nice if you can take advantage of their marketing to leverage it for yourself. If you get a new customer for them, they become your customer for life so you'd always get the commissions on their purchases even if they don't continue purchasing through your site. That's a big bonus in this industry.

Here's the thing. Because it is direct marketing, they generally want you to purchase at least $20 worth of the products yourself each month in order to get commissions. What they don't always tell you up front, though is that you can still become an affiliate member and only earn commissions on your first level without any personal product purchases. That makes it more like your basic affiliate marketing and much more appealing to the new webmasters who don't really want to get involved in multi-level-marketing at this point (or at all).

Anyway, if you think this is something you might be interested in, let me know and help you get set up right with it.

Keep up the good work with building your site.

Blessings,
Angie

Thanks for the great reply angie!

I will be implementing a squeeze page at some point in my marketing plan but I'm going to be messing around with the dreaded PPC from YSM and Google. I will be brainstorming ideas on what to write about with the incentive to visit the website in the end. Anybody have ideas?

I may implement the magazine idea but won't be doing it initially. I've been in several in the past - which were eh... Not to keen on visiting that realm again. What's the benefit of these vitamins over say centrum or any major recognized brand? I was with an unknown mlm company and they required similar min. order requirements with commissions etc. I usually walk on egg shells now when I see something similar.

~swc

To be honest, I wouldn't start messing with PPC until you get more content on your site. PPC can be an expensive venture if you aren't really good at it or don't know exactly what you are doing. Also, you want to be sure that when you DO spend money to get visitors, that your site has enough value and interest to keep them there long enough to make some money.

Just to clarify - Magazines.com is just a basic affiliate program, not MLM.

Trivita is the MLM company, but they also like to call themselves 'cooperative marketing,' etc. (I won't go into that here since it's not important to the point).

Anyway, like I said, they have a level called 'affiliate member' that takes out the mlm equation entirely and allows you to work it as an affiliate program without min. purchases (although it isn't highly publicized).

It sounds like it may not be your thing anyway. There can be a huge difference between vitamin supplements, I'm afraid. But, if you don't know/believe that, it probably wouldn't be of interest to you.

No worries. I just mentioned it since it would fit your niche so well. All the best to you.

Angie

As for the PPC - Too late

You gotta start from somewhere. Also, I've got some great resources that are helping me along the way so I'm not exactly a fish out of water. I'm aware that you need to convert your shoppers to buyers, or even info seekers to buyers.

The magazines.com idea is nice. I'll save that one for later

As for vitamins from Trivita, I've never heard of them. I'm not bashing them. They might very well be a fantastic company selling quality products. I'm a pretty dedicated gym rat and buy my vitamins and supplements from bodybuilding.com where brand recognition and quality information abound. I could only hope to achieve half of what they've done. I'm just cautious about unknown brands in regards to any field of consumer purchases. I mean unless it's brandless and doesn't matter ie wedding favors.

I think affiliate marketing would be another stream of income but for now I'm looking to work directly with wholesalers as its where my interest is at right now. I would like to establish that base first before moving on to AM type ventures.

I'm not a huge fan of MLM myself. Far too much hype and pressure for my taste. I've just given in and joined a company (AIM/BarleyLife) early this year for my parasite site because I'm very sold on some of their products (been around for 25 years and very effective) and felt I could honestly recommend them with confidence.

As for Trivita, they're about 9 years old I believe. I've been out of the country (US) for almost 12 years with only annual visits. I've seen their paid programming infomercials (for their B-12, etc.) and I'm of the understanding they do a lot of marketing on cable TV like the golf channels, etc., for their Optima product line. The product ingredients are good for joint pain and mobility, etc., so it isn't just for golfers, but they chose to bring the products out with that marketing angle. I guess it has worked for them pretty well.

I decided to go ahead and add them to my site because some of their products fill a gap in my niche. I ordered a number of different products to try them personally so that I'd no whether I could recommend them honestly or not. Some were more impressive and effective than others. I suppose it depends on what your current health needs are, too.

They are big on FDA approval and all that. I'm not. I'm sure it has it's place, but they are pretty much a joke in my opinion. They approve whatever is in their own best financial interests rather than what is actually good for the individuals. That's just my own personal opinion, of course. I suppose, though, it makes some people feel more confident about their products.

Anyway, that's just my own thoughts on the matter. I am so NOT a gym rat (though I probably should be!) but it sounds like you've got some insight into health products yourself.

All the best with your PPC campaign and your wholesale venture. Let us know how you do!

Blessings,
Angie