Podcast 22: Building an Affiliate Site with Paid Traffic, The Story of ShoeSniper.com with Nick Loper
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I had the opportunity to interview Nick Loper of SideHustleNation.com a short time ago.
I was excited to interview Nick because he has a great story of how he was able to take a little side business he started and develop it into something full-time. That business was ShoeSniper.com, an affiliate site selling shoes. What's interesting about his strategy, is that almost all of the traffic is paid traffic…mostly from Google Adwords.
So, in this episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, I let Nick tell his story of why he got involved in the shoe business, how much the site was earning at its peak, some of the challenges that he's come across along the way, and what he is working on lately.
What's Covered in the Podcast?
During the course of our interview, we covered a number of topics and questions; including:
- How an internship introduced Nick to online shoe sales
- The early days of Paid traffic – linking directly to merchants
- Why Nick shut down his old shoe website and started fresh with a new domain.
- The story behind ShoeSniper.com
- Getting kicked out of Google Adwords the day after quitting his full-time job (ouch!).
- How he was able to build ShoeSniper.com to a $10k per month business at its peak.
- Is buying traffic still a viable option for affiliates?
- Nick's newest project: SideHustleNation.com
If you want to follow along with what Nick is up to now, check out his blog at SideHustleNation.com. You can also follow Nick on Twitter: @nloper
Listen to the Podcast Here
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17 Comments
Conversation
Hey Spencer, thanks for having me — fun show!
Happy to answer any questions about PPC and affiliate stuff as best I can. Feel free to reach out.
And if anyone needs some shoes … 🙂
Thanks Nick! Had a lot of fun interviewing you and hearing your ideas; especially got me thinking about paid traffic…thanks again!
Impressive sounding story! Glad you stuck with it. Best of luck!
That’s great that Nick was able to get back up and running with adwords, especially with Google beeing virtually impossible to get a hold of.
So Nick does his business but doesn’t recommend that others follow his path?
It’s hard to find good coaches for paid advertising. Most people find a strategy and keep it hidden for themselves. Makes sense though, because I think there is direct competition if you start inviting others to follow a paid traffic strategy. I guess the same might apply for niche sites though.
BTW, your ending theme song makes me think of Final Fantasy music (video game reference)…haha 🙂
Hey Josh,
Haha yeah I didn’t meant to sound negative on it, because it can definitely work. I just think AdWords is becoming an uphill battle, ESPECIALLY for affiliates. Their “bridge page” policy is a killer, and it 100% subjective, depending on who’s reviewing your landing pages on any given day.
If you have your own products though, it’s a different story entirely.
Are you doing any PPC?
I tried to run a campaign on AdWords 2 years ago and I was denied, go figure, haha! I’m sure that it’s become even harder to get in.
I’m swaying away from reattempting AdWords because everything I hear about it says that other PPC networks are much easier and more profitable to work with.
Currently i’m planning some PPC experiments with Facebook, but it’s just a side project at the time.
what’s the bridge page policy exactly?
I am not native, so not catch up with all the podcast, it’s better to upload on youtube
hi Nick
I feel like your story is valuable for anybody, particularly the individual looking to find alternatives to free traffic.
I understand you’ve mastered Adwords… did you consider Facebook ads or other paid options for your business before?
Haven’t done much w/ Facebook or other channels outside search — definitely an area of opportunity if the ROI is there. You?
Thank you!
Yeah, I’m all about ROI, particularly now when things are tougher for most individuals and businesses…
Hi Spencer,
I was wondering if i could get your take on a situation. So i have read over your great content on building niche sites, but i am located in Canada. I was wondering what is your take on .ca domain names for niche sites that are well searched in Canada. for example if i got JuicerForSale.ca instead of .com, can i still have success if “juicer for sale” has 2000 exact searches in Canada. (Random Estimates).
Just wanted to get your advice on this, and also was wondering what your take is on the future of niche sites since, “apps” on phones are starting to take over and the internet seems to be going mobile!
Thanks For Your Time!!
Sure. I think using .ca domain is a great way to rank in Google Canada.
I am def going to listen to it on the way to home tomorrow! 🙂
I enjoyed the podcast..thanks spencer for jumping back into the podcasts recently and Nick for your story and show as well. They make my long commutes less long and add to my potential to end them in the near future. 🙂
I always like your podcast and interview. Although at times you are dumb-folded, but you are sincere and tend to ask good questions. Thanks!
Hi spencer,
Could you tell me the song’s name at the end of your podcast ? I really like it.
Thanks