[Case Study] How To Create A $20,000+ p/m Affiliate Site Like Thisiswhyimbroke.com
This will be the first of many case studies on successful affiliate sites (depending on how well the post is received) looking at what they do, how they do it, why they are so successful and how you can emulate their success.
The first case study is on $20,000+ affiliate per month site ThisIsWhyImBroke.com a incredibly cool site far away from the typical mini review site that 90% of 'bedroom affiliate marketers' focus on.
Disclaimer: Just in case it's not obvious I am not claiming that if you create a site like TIWIB you will be guaranteed to make $20,000 - you might but you might also make $0. It's an example of what's possible.
What is This Is Why I'm Broke?
This Is Why I'm Broke (TIWIB) shares unusual items, cool products and geeky gadgets across multiple categories that they find around the web - gadgets, wearable items, food & drink, home and office, toys and more.
TIWIB was NOT the first website of this type but it was the first that really focused on user experience and engaging the visitor over just listing unusual products and trying to make money.
Why was the site started?
The site was born in 2011 by Adam Freedman who had previously struggled to make money online with many failed ventures. (Source)
He started the site because he followed similar websites and thought he “could improve on their experience with a better website design and higher quality products presented” (Source)
For example it was the first site of it's type to use infinite scrolling, add humor and wit in the product descriptions, spend time improving product images, carefully selecting products rather than just adding anything slightly unusual and put a lot of thought into what order products appear on the site.
What is the site promoting?
Unusual, cool, geeky and sometimes useless products from space invader chairs to camera lenses coffee cups to jetpacks to bacon vodka.
You'll find gadgets, gizmos, gear, quirky products, concepts and more.
It includes products from big retailers such as Amazon and Ebay to niche stores like ThinkGeek and Firebox and sites like Etsy and Kickstarter.
Not every product on TIWIB is on sale they feature any products they think have the 'wow' factor even concept products that have not yet been created.
The reason behind this is so to create value. If every product they feature just leads to an Amazon link it just becomes about getting affiliate link clicks rather than sourcing out and sharing unusual and cool products.
They find products to feature by signing up to the RSS feeds of 100's of different blogs and retailers around the net that feature or sell unusual products and check on a daily basis for inspiration.
What affiliate programs does it use?
The site utilizes the Amazon associate affiliate program, Ebay Partner Network and various other affiliate programs such as Think Geek, Firebox, Wicked Lasers, Hammacher and more.
Not all products are affiliate products or even on sale. Many simply have the wow factor that it takes to get featured.
How much does it make?
An estimated $20,000+ per month from Amazon alone which accounts for 66% of their income. (Source)
This is not including income from other affiliate programs and Google Adsense.
Amazon is the main affiliate program they link to as most people will never buy the products they feature but go on to buy something more practical from Amazon which still nets them a commission.
Why does the site convert so well?
The site is designed to get affiliate link clicks due to the large enticing images, well positioned buttons and great calls to action that send you off to the retailers websites.
Almost everyone who visits the site will end up on a retailers site whether they planned to or not and this sets the affiliate cookie.
Even if you don't make a purchase immediately the cookie will last for a certain duration and any purchases you make throughout that time will result in an affiliate commission being paid.
How many visitors per month?
2, 800,000+ per month (Source)
Who visits the site?
Primarily men from the United States of college age. (Source)
How many social media followers?
Facebook: 305,000 followers
Twitter: 5,236 followers
Pinterest: 7,358 followers
G+: 11,388
Twitter: 5,236 followers
Pinterest: 7,358 followers
G+: 11,388
What makes TIWIB successful?
- Branding and a great nameThe name is memorable, quirky and fits in with the concept of the site.
- Cool conceptIt's not unique nor the first site of it's type but the effort put into the design, style, user engagement, quirkyness in the content combined with the unusual products makes it a great site that people want to visit time and time again.
- User engagementThey engage the user with their humor and wit, the infinite scroll feature keeps you browsing an endless amount of products, and they get you interacting with them on social media and in the comments.It's built with the users in mind and to give them a fun experience not aimed solely at 'making money' even though it's great at making money.
- Ease of sharingIt's designed to get people sharing the products featured which spreads the word.
- Product placement
Most people won't realize this but a lot of thought goes into the product placement and order on the site to keep it fresh.For example they will place a cute animal toy next to chainsaw gun next to house gift which adds to the shock factor.
- Designed To ConvertThe site is designed to entice clicks from visitors even if they don't intend to buy the product.Instead of 'buy here' buttons they use clever copy such as 'check it out' which gets people clicking to see more and landing on the retailers page.
They might not intend to buy anything at that point but the cookie is set and anything they buy throughout the duration of the cookie gets them a commission.People use Amazon to buy all sorts of products on a regular basis.
Where does TIWIB get traffic?
The traffic is driven almost entirely by social media though people sharing their content.
In the beginning they used Reddit and Stumbleupon paid ads including the legendary “Not Safe For Wallet” ad on Reddit but it didn't really kick off until someone posted about it on the first page of Reddit causing it to go viral all over the web.
This was the catalyst which caused a storm of social media sharing across all platforms which continues today.
They now do very little in the form of paid advertising or marketing relying on their users to share across the web on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, G+, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, forums, blogs and more.
Search engine traffic is near non existent (likely due to the short descriptions most products have). (Source)
The owner Adam has stated that their best converting traffic source is a little known link exchange network called Knowd (Source)
Lessons to be learnt from TIWIB?
- Create something that you love and that other people want or need.
- Don't focus on 'trying to make money' but on a great user experience, engaging your visitor, making your site a fun / useful place for people to visit.
- Give your users a reason to return time and time again and tell their friends about it and if you've picked a solid idea that is monetizable the money will follow.
- Continually be optimizing your site for clicks. TIWIB are split testing and making changes constantly to try and improve conversion rates.
- Create something that has the potential to go viral across the web.
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Things That Could Be Improved On
- Email marketing – they have an email list but depending on what design they are split testing sometimes there's no email opt in on the site which is a huge mistake.
- Content marketing – they have a blog but it's often neglected for months at a time and isn't given the attention it deserves.This could be used to draw in search engine traffic and blog readers who might not really be into the style of site TIWIB is but still like to read about gadgets and cool products.
Ideas For Similar Sites You Can Create...
Simply trying to copy TIWIB straight up isn't the way forward unless you can better their design, improve on user engagement, write better product copy and create better images.
They do this too well for most people to compete.
There's already dozens of competitors out there doing similar such as dudeiwantit.com, shutupandtakemymoney.com, thegreenhead.com, walletburn.com and thegadgetflow.com fighting for scraps.
The trick is to create a site similar to TIWIB but 'niched down'.
All of these sites are promoting much of the same products and trying to appeal to everyone and anyone with gadgets and cool things from multiple different categories.
By picking one single category and focusing just on that you could create a niche site that appeals to one type of person yet still has the cool factor and viral appeal of TIWIB.
Instead of focusing on all cool products and gadgets focus just on kitchen / food & drink or home and office or unusual pet products.
Or pick a demographic like 21-30 year old males or 35+ year old women and publish things they like only.
You could create a whole site around geeky kitchen items or weird office products.
There's no shortage of products and niches that the TIWIB style interactive layout would work with.
Examples of niche sites using the TIWIB style:
- http://mommyiwantthis.com/
- http://www.cool-camping-gear.com/
- http://shoeporn.com
How can you create your own TIWIB style site?
There's 2 ways, a manual way and an automatic way
1. Manual Way:
Get yourself a theme such as Pinfinity or SympaGrid and search out unique products in your niche of choice and manually add them to your site.
Build up your presence on social media, blog about your site, build your email list, get involved in Reddit and submit your products to Stumbleupon.
It will take time to source out the products and add them to the site plus a lot of patience to get get to the point where you have traffic and people sharing them however.
2. Automatic Way:
Use the worlds first viral affiliate WordPress theme for an easier point and click option.
The theme is based on Thisiswhyimbroke's design and unlike all the other themes out there has all the best features from the site.
Why this theme will make your life easier (and more profitable):
- Product slider at the top of the page which immediately engages your visitors & get clicks.
- Big clickable images and buttons to boost conversions.
- Social share buttons in the right places to encourage sharing.
- The ability to automatically build an email list through a product 'wish list' system.
- Can automatically add products from Amazon, Ebay and any retailer on Commission Junction (thousands!) based on your keywords.
- Easy to obtain traffic as visitors enticed to share which spreads the world and increase chnces of site going viral.
- Facebook comments are enabled which means your site auto posted to visitors FB groups.
- Visitors can follow you across all social media platforms with 1 click meaning it's easier to bring them back to the site over and over.
Conclusion:
TIWIB is a fantastic example of a clever affiliate site away from the typical 'Amazon review site' that so many internet marketers focus on.
The site isn't reliant on unpredictable search engine traffic and no matter what Google does it will not be affected.
It draws in traffic virally from social media with almost no advertising or marketing on their part.
If the numbers are true and they really make $20,000 from Amazon per month (I suspect it's higher!) then it's a golden affiliate business model that can work for anyone who uses the concept and design with their own niche or range of products.
You can take one of the many categories from TIWIB or it's many clones such as kitchen, home and office, or pet and focus solely on those or apply it to different niches completely.
Follow their lead in terms of product selection, design, user engagement, social media interaction but also put a lot of focus into list building and blogging to increase success.
Either build a site manually using the Pintify or Sympagrid themes or go for the one click viral WordPress theme option to set up a profit pulling affiliate site on autopilot.
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