Michael Zimmerman and the Story of electronicshunt.com
It certainly isn’t a stretch to say that today’s world is dominated by electronics. It seems like no matter what you do, you need some sort of gadget to do it properly. Whether it be doing work or play, everything that we do these days requires the best electronic gadgets to be at your disposal. A particular niche of note is audio equipment. Everyone is always on the lookout for the best way to listen to music, movies, and more.
I have a long history working with electronics, and audio products specifically, which prompted me to throw my hat in the ring and start electronicshunt.com.
My Background/What Motivated Me To Start A Site
Anybody who can do a cursory Google Search can easily find that there are thousands of different affiliate sites out there selling the same products that I am, so what motivated me to start electronicshunt.com? I have a genuine passion for audio products. I spent much of my life working for companies (such as Harman Consumer Group, DIRECTV and Comcast), where I both sold consumer home electronics components and trained consumers in their use.
My passion began early as I developed an intense fascination with electronics during childhood. By high school, I would buy all sorts of home audio equipment that I could afford like receivers, speakers, turntables, cassette decks, etc. to compare the sound quality and to tinker with them to produce the most stunning high fidelity sound. I was a fan of both digital readout and analog dial receivers as well. I even stumbled across several old tube quad receivers that I had to have and really enjoyed the warmth and power of the sound quality they reproduced.
In college, I refined my interests and built on my passions even further and to go into audio technology. I obtained a degree in commercial music and hoped to make it big in the music industry. I had become a manager of several local jazz performing artists in the Atlanta, GA music scene, even procuring one a recording contract with an Independent music label in 1991. While that venture didn’t quite pan out to the level I was hoping for. I gained some valuable experience that has helped me in every endeavor since these crucial learning years.
My online career started off when I began reviewing a few products that I myself happened to enjoy using (a pair of Sennheiser headphones for anyone wondering) and before long I was writing a ton of different reviews. There was no shortage of audio products to review and different niches to explore.
However, I didn’t immediately go straight towards being an Amazon only business. Over the years I did try to experiment with the various passive income business models.
Anyone who is familiar with online businesses will no doubt know what I am talking about. I tried a lot of things ranging from creating YouTube videos to email marketing, and many other things in-between.
I found that none of them offered the fantastic opportunities that building an Amazon affiliate website does. Amazon affiliate marketing combines a low cost of entry with the unique ability to use Amazon’s already multi-million-dollar brand to your advantage. This is how I ultimately settled on creating sites like electronicshunt.com as the best method for generating a passive income.
The Concept and Ideas Behind electronicshunt.com
The concept behind electronicshunt.com is very simple, I use my expertise gained from many, many years of working in the industry to help people find the absolute best electronics on the market. I do this through a combination of informative product reviews and informational content.
I like to think that my expertise gives me a good insight into what the average consumer is looking for when it comes to audio products like headphones.
I try not to make my reviews cold and impersonal. Instead, I aim to make my product reviews as passionate and as informative as possible. I have stated before that I am not necessarily some recognized expert on this subject, however, I am someone who does have a deep passion for the products that I sell.
The way that I do my reviews isn’t how one would typically expect product reviews to be done. Rather than just writing one long, plodding review of a single product, I instead do multiple product reviews and compile them into a single article that is usually based around a theme (such as the best x under $xxx).
I also don’t just aim to review the absolute best products, I also look at ones that offer good value or that may be good for newcomers.
Challenges In The Market Today
I think when you are dealing with anything electronics based, but especially dealing with niche topics within the field, the biggest issue that you encounter is so many consumers who are interested in that sort of stuff already have pretty good ideas about what they want, and they aren’t particularly interested in reading any sort of generic reviews.
So, reaching these types of readers is always difficult, you can’t just phone it in. These types of readers really want quality content, and you have to work overtime to deliver the sort of content that gets them reading and that genuinely speaks to them. I definitely think that my time spent working directly in the audio industry is what sets me apart here.
Of course, I am also not immune to the struggles everyone else faces when it comes to building an affiliate site. I have to compete with the many competitors out there and I have to work to get eyes on my site. When it comes to overcoming this problem, all I can say is that the old adage of work smarter not harder is the best option. Posting tons and tons of content may work for some, but I find that the best way to build your successful affiliate site is to post the right kind of content.
You also can’t talk about the challenges of doing online business without talking about the one challenge that everyone has to face in the online world, which is SEO. At the end of the day, a large portion of your success is going to come down to whether your site gets ranked on Google. Mastering SEO is an essential step for anyone seeking to build a successful affiliate business.
Finally, there is also just the persistent reality that most affiliate sites don’t work out. They have a low cost of entry and each individual site doesn’t require a ton of work in the grand scheme of things, so individual sites failing isn’t too big of an issue overall, but it can be a disheartening challenge that needs to be overcome.
The Opportunities In The Market
I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, I think a lot of people overly focus on the downsides of trying to start an affiliate site, especially one that is centered around selling products.
While there are plenty of pitfalls, I also think there are a lot of good opportunities for affiliate sites like mine that sell specific products.
First off, one of the biggest opportunities is found in the complete decline of brick and mortar stores, especially for anything related to technology or electronics. Someone starting an affiliate site like electronicshunt.com in say 2010, would have had to compete with stores like The Source, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Circuit City. Nowadays, the vast majority of people looking to buy things like stereos, speakers, and headphones are going to go online, with most ending up on Amazon.
Because a lot of the products that I sell tend to be on the pricier side, a lot of consumers want to check reviews first. No one wants to spend $200 on a pair of headphones, only to find out that they absolutely hate them.
So, I have found that if you can write genuine, informative reviews, you can attract a surprisingly wide audience who are actively in the market to buy the products feature on your affiliate site.
Also, as my own site demonstrates, with the right niche, there are almost an endless array of products to feature, so you should never have to worry about not being able to have content.
My Recommendations For Others Looking To Break In
Much like there are tens of thousands of affiliate sites out there, there are also tens of thousands of sites offering you easy strategies and quick guides to break into the world of passive income. They often promise you quick returns. I find those guides, while not necessarily wrong, often give people unrealistic expectations and they often don’t have any useful tips, so let me remedy that by giving you some tips that I wish I had known when I started.
An SEO Course Is Always Worth It. Without a doubt one of the best tips that I can give is to invest in a good SEO course or program. SEO is probably the fastest changing part of the affiliate business. Google is always changing how it ranks sites and a savvy website builder has to keep up with the latest trends. So, getting some professional guidance is well worth the price of entry.
Plan For Success. Another really key piece of advice that I would offer is to plan for success. I don’t mean be cocky and assume that you are going to succeed, but rather, be prepared for how you will react when one of your sites eventually hits it big. Just because a site is successful doesn’t mean that you can rest on your laurels (not yet anyway), you have to put the site in a position to continue succeeding and you have to plan for your next successful website.
Remember That You Are Playing The (Extremely) Long Game. It is a bit of a cliché but it is worth repeating that Amazon affiliate websites, while a great way to build a passive income, aren’t a fast road to success. It is going to take a while before you have the number of successful sites needed to have a true passive income, and that’s okay as long as you are prepared for that.
It Should Be A One Man Show. While running an affiliate site business with a partner can seem like a tempting prospect since it splits the workload up, I would recommend against it. Early on there won’t be enough profits to really make it worthwhile to work with someone on creating the sites. Also, I find it can lead to a case of there being too many cooks in the kitchen. It is much better for there to be one single vision for the business and having someone else in the picture can make achieving that harder.
Try To Be A Jack Of All Trades. Building affiliate sites and working through Amazon requires a lot of different skills. You have to be able to build attractive sites, write good content, and know how to get eyes onto your content. If you don’t think that you have these skills, don’t worry as there are a ton of different places that can help you out. Places like Warrior Forum are filled with helpful content that lets you learn and improve your skill set.
Finally, Just Be Prepared To Work Hard. My final piece of advice may seem like an obvious one, but it is also something that needs to be stated repeatedly, which is that you have to be prepared to work extremely hard. Passive income businesses and activities like affiliate review sites are often sold as an easy way to generate money, but that is only true in the later stages. The early stages involve a lot of work and a lot of learning, so if you want to reap the rewards, you have to be prepared to put in the hours at the beginning.
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