4 Discount Shopping

[Chris]

http://www.4discountshopping.com

Its not done yet. I plan to add an average of one site per day for the rest of the year (or so I hope). I also need to better integrate my previously made Amazon AWS sites.

As for right now though. I have a database of over 1 million products from linkshare merchants alone and I haven't even turned all of the linkshare programs on yet.

[Shawn]

Nice.

Are you doing the work personally?

[chrispian]

Linkshare has that many datafeed affiliates? I've been missing out!

[incka]

It all looks very good Chris...

I've signed up for that linkshare thing too, I'm gonna make a price comparision thing with it...

[Chris]

Yes, I did all the programming. It wasn't much though. The system is very modular and scalable -- not counting the graphical header it takes me only a couple minutes to create a new site. Feed pulling is automated too.

[incka]

Won't it be hard to get enough PR to all of them to make a decent amount of sales?

[incka]

Linkshare has that many datafeed affiliates? I've been missing out!


Join the merchandiser program. It costs $250.

[Mike]

Nice idea, a lot of domains you've used ;)

[moonshield]

It Looks like a good site. The idea is great. Probably will make some good money... How big is the database, in MB?

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Nice - How many pages overall do you expect to create?

BTW the title tag for cute threads is reading discount luggage

[r2d2]

Nice idea :) Starting to really wish I had time to dedicate to this stuff.

Not sure a sentence in the first para of the site makes sense?


We have a directory of discount ecommerce stores for your shopping please.

[Chris]

I expect to eventually have around 3 million pages, not counting the Amazon ones.

Thats with linkshare, I plan to do the same for BeFree merchants and I do not know how big they are.

Currently the database is just over 1 gigabyte, thats of active products. Like I said some datafeeds aren't turned on yet. Walmart's feed alone is nearly a million products and it is not turned on yet (if ever).

[incka]

Buy.com's one is over 1 million products...

[James]

Wow, Chris. If you actually make one site a day you should be able to make some very good income. The PR from the sites interlinking alone and the amount of pages they have should be able to give you some fairly decent rankings.

[incka]

I would actually buy PR for a network of sites like that, or if I had some high PR sites point them to it...

[chromate]

I think Chris is banking on the idea that with over 3 million pages, if even a tiny fraction of them rank well, there will still be some money in it. There also wont be as much competition as there is for AWS. Looks like a nice network :)

I just wonder how Google will take this. How is it set up? Are the sites being served over a few different IP addresses?

(BTW, Some of the categories in your diet food shop aren't working)

[incka]

The thing also repeats the same listings.

I would use at least 10 ip addresses for the sites that are currently there...

I think when I looked there was 2.75 million products on the datafeed in total, so it would make a great price comparision system, which is one of the things I plan to do with linkshares merchandiser datafeed.

[chromate]

I don't think there needs to be 10 IP addresses really. The content for each of the sites is mostly different anyway.

I think the price comparison system will be hard. How are you going to tell what products are the same from different feeds in order to compare them? It might not be easy as they will probably have different titles etc. So you will have to compare similar products and with 2.75 million products - that will take a fair bit of processing.

[Kyle]

Chris,

Have you considered putting AWS on your online-literature site? Perhaps making a general books section that people can browse and search through.

[Chris]

Ya, but Buy.com gives really low commission so I don't plan on using them.

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

Yes, I did all the programming. It wasn't much though. The system is very modular and scalable -- not counting the graphical header it takes me only a couple minutes to create a new site. Feed pulling is automated too.

How do you automate the feed pulling? How frequently do you pull the feeds?


Thanks,

Peter

[Chris]

Daily with cron.

Cron pulls the feeds with wget, unzips them, and then runs 3 different PHP scripts to parse them.

[abelony]

Hey Chris, how come your are not using a redirect script for your Click To Buy button?

[Chris]

I don't know. Just didn't. It would be an easy thing to add though.

[Chris]

In case anyone is interested -- despite only being slightly (I'd say 2000 pages total) indexed in search engines the system is already profitable.

[r2d2]

How are you defining profitable? You've made back cost of domain names?

[Chris]

Making back the cost of hosting. I bought a seperate dedicated server for it.

I guess technically its also making back the cost of the domains.

I figure once it is fully indexed it could be a couple thousand a month earner easy, and in fact if I'm lucky maybe 5 figures.

Its hard to tell, but after this weekend I'll have over 2 million product pages, and right now I only have 2 thousand indexed. From a purely statistical basis, if income progression was linear with index progession then it'd end up earning me 6 (possibly even 7) figures monthly if it was fully indexed. Of course I don't have any pipe dreams of that actually happening.

[chromate]

6 or 7 figures monthly -- now if that ever happens and you need a link partner, let me know! ;)

I guess we also have to keep in mind that these figures are based on the Christmas spending period? So any projections would only be relevant to this time of year.

Glad it's going nicely for you though! Keep us updated.

[r2d2]

Making back the cost of hosting. I bought a seperate dedicated server for it.


Ah I see, good going so far then :) And Yes, 2 million product pages indexed would be very nice - you have any estimates on how many will get indexed? Or do you think they all will, but it'll just take time?

[moonshield]

already profitable? Good Deal! Good luck with the thousands a month.

[Chris]

I think it could be fully indexed eventually, or mostly so. I just don't think income would increase at the same rate as indexing. The deeper product listings will not have as high of rankings etc.

[Kyle]

Chris,

I admire you. Making these comments publically will motivate many webmasters and encourage them to compete with you in this specific area, given that it doesn't take much skill or experience to be successful at it.

Very cool.

[Chris]

It takes more than AWS, thats for sure.

[AndyH]

Not many have the PR that he can send to them and therefore he gets more pages indexed and porbably ranked higher.

Sounds like it is going great. :)

[Kyle]

Getting generic PR is easy these days. Anyone can get a PR6, which is all you need to get a network of AWS sites going.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Getting generic PR is easy these days. Anyone can get a PR6, which is all you need to get a network of AWS sites going.

Do you mean from mass link exchanges ?

[incka]

You can buy yourself a PR7 for less than $5000 a year.

[MarkB]

I have 3 PR6 sites that I'll be using to push onto a new network (as well as related PR5 sites). Hopefully this will help - I've not had fantastic luck so far.

[jrap]

Is there a reason why you aren't hiding the affiliate links (using like out.php)?

[Chris]

No reason.

[Chris]

I'm sorry, I don't often feel the need to brag, but I am just so excited I have to....

One of the things I do on my datafeed sites is list the most expensive items the merchants sell first. Well, someone, some wonderful rich person, bought a $30,000 dollar watch through Overstock that was featured on my homepage. My commission? Over $2000.

That has got to be the single most expensive item I've ever sold through an affiliate program.

[moonshield]

WOW, that is awesome. Isn't capitalism awesome. I think it is awesome that some people can buy things like that and spread the wealth like that. Yes, that is awesome.

[Mike]

:eek: :eek:

Very nice!

[chromate]

Wohoo! Nice Christmas bonus! :) Let's hope they don't send that one back! haha

[AndyH]

Link to watch?

Nice bonus right there.

I'm happy when I see somone has bought a $1,000 Laptop and I get my what - $10? :D :p

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

That's a nice bonus Chris :).

Do you use LinkShare for all your data feed sites?
Do all LinkShare merchants offer data feeds or just some of them?


Thanks,

Peter

[Chris]

Right now its all linkshare (and amazon, with 1 befree merchant). But I plan to expand it in the new year. First to Befree and then to CJ. Only some LInkshare merchants have datafeeds.

[Chris]

Here is the watch:

http://www.4overstockedshelves.com/item/133369

[Mike]

Chris none of the sites in 4discountshopping are loading for me.

[r2d2]

Just tried a few and they all worked for me..

That $30k watch, I'd probably want to pay more than $3 for shipping!

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

Right now its all linkshare (and amazon, with 1 befree merchant). But I plan to expand it in the new year. First to Befree and then to CJ. Only some LInkshare merchants have datafeeds.

Can you elaborate on how the datafeed download works? Is it different for every merchant offering data feed? Does each merchant give you an FTP access to download the feeds or you access the datafeeds through linkshare's interface?


Thanks again,

Peter

[jonnyhilfiger]

Great sale....but that link shows Regular price $32,500, Sale price $87,662, doesn't seem like much of a bargain :eek:

John

[Chris]

John--

Overstock has an error with their datafeed where the prices are switched.

Peter--

With linkshare its 1 FTP account, all linkshare feeds you get are posted there for you to download.

[ASP-Hosting.ca]

John--

Overstock has an error with their datafeed where the prices are switched.

Peter--

With linkshare its 1 FTP account, all linkshare feeds you get are posted there for you to download.

Thanks Chris

[r2d2]

Does it matter too much what you put in your merchandiser application? Can you just say, 'Im starting a shopping network, will build many sites and partner with many different merchants.' ?

[Chris]

I don't know, I didn't put in a merchandiser application.

[pickled]

You must have thought of this, but I'm surprised to see you doing this with the different domains Chris. The engines will see that as nothing more than a link farm of affiliate sites, no? You can get past the bot check but all it would take is a competitor to send them the url of the main site...I am a little over paranoid with my network though.

Why not put it all under the one domain? That would avoid pretty much any risk since even a human would have to see it as nothing more than a unique site.

[Chris]

Its not a link farm, and there is no specific rule against affiliate links.

One unique site would have a harder time getting listed.

[Mike]

Hows it going now anyway?

[Chris]

Its good....

[ogito]

Chris,
what kind of items are the most selling ? I mean which categories? jewelry? electronics? sport?

[phazex]

I was so motivated by Chris' shopping network that, I decided to develop my own last year. Surprisingly its doing well, but not all of the sites are completely indexed.

[cwsteam.com]

Chris, I read all this thread. I thought it's only me on the web. :) Just Kidding. Beleive, me, REALLY GREAT work. Three Cheers.

[pierrebenoit]

Hi Chris, (or webmasters who launch a datafeed website)

I would like to know if your network is doing well... What average of $$$ you can make???

My first project for the new year is to launch many datafeed website (I have 200+ merchants in my list) and I need advice:

- Build website per merchant
- Build website by theme or categories (health, golf, lingerie, billiard, fishing...), mixing many merchant

What is the best option?
What is the good tricks to get indexed very fast (blog and ping, High inbound links, using Wrdpress???)

Thanks

[Chris]

Its not doing that well. Amazon sites are doing better, but the Linkshare based ones aren't... the SERPs are just ignoring them now. Google has gotten very good at spotting datafeed sites.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Google has gotten very good at spotting datafeed sites.

Is this suplicate content Google is spotting or more generally the format of the sites, do you think?

[Chris]

I'm not sure, I'm willing to bet they did some custom work to get the format of feed sites from popular affiliate networks.

In anycase the end result is the same, poor rankings.

[john190]

I sold something for Overstock for around $1,300 or so and earned just under $100's for the sale.

Infact I had sold that same product twice, but the first sale got rejected as the person must have cancelled the sale or something.


I'm sorry, I don't often feel the need to brag, but I am just so excited I have to....

One of the things I do on my datafeed sites is list the most expensive items the merchants sell first. Well, someone, some wonderful rich person, bought a $30,000 dollar watch through Overstock that was featured on my homepage. My commission? Over $2000.

That has got to be the single most expensive item I've ever sold through an affiliate program.