Planning is a wonderful thing…until it’s not. Sometimes, good decisions turn out to be nothing more than lucky decisions. We can plan and plan and plan, and if we’re lucky, those plans bear fruit. Nevertheless, the very best plans sometimes don’t work out quite like we thought they would.

When it comes to making decisions on which money making strategies to try, I do try to match up relevant offers or products with the interests of my users. But occasionally, programs that I would have sworn would have been interesting to site visitors turn out to be duds. And sometimes, random things that I try “just because” turn out to be real winners.

Don’t be afraid to occasionally try something that you aren’t sure of. No matter how wise we might think we are, we really can’t predict the future. And the reality is that what our site visitors want at any given time in the future is simply an unknown. Just because I’m looking at a site about cars, doesn’t necessarily mean I want to purchase a hood ornament. I might, however, really really want that way cool pink gizmo that is “as seen on tv”.

I try all kinds of affiliate programs on my sites. Most don’t pan out, honestly, but if I don’t try them, I’ll never know. A good example is one new affiliate program I saw tonight. It hasn’t even launched yet, but they are already letting people sign up. We have absolutely no way of knowing if the products will even be any good, but hey, that’s no reason not to sign up, right? If it’s worth it, I’m ready to go. If not, 3 minutes of my time was wasted.

This one promises to sell Internet Marketing products at extremely discounted prices, with only one product being offered per day. This is similar to the way Woot works. I love Woot, but I have no idea if the same kind of idea will work in this niche or not. The products might be terrible and cheesy, or they might be things I’d love to own, if only the price was right. We’ll see. The site launches in a couple of days.

The affiliate aspect is intriguing, since they are offering permanent, life-time 2-tier commissions, with you earning 35% of purchases from anyone you refer, and 15% commissions for any of their referrals’ purchases. And the really nice thing is that there is no cookie expiration date. If someone you refer purchases something 10 years later, you still get the commission for it. (Ok, that’s assuming the site is still in business in 10 years, but you get the point).

I figured I might as well sign up and try it out, just as I do with many other programs. Maybe I’ll get lucky. If not, I’ll go back to one of my well-thought-out plans.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on September 15th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Making Money Online