Crossroads!

[angienewton]

I wouldn't worry about it and get it out of maintenance mode and live. If you have images on there that were not approved, etc. just delete them and move on. It would help to have your site up for us to give suggestions.

Looking forward to it.

[BarbHigbee]

Okay! I will do that! I already deleted all the David's Bridal logos! I've received two confirmations so far, so I'll leave those!

Thanks angienewton!

[Lynn Terry]

I'm so glad you joined the group where I can work with you personally to get your site and business on track this year! I am guessing the Niche Brainstorming workshop you listened to this week opened up a lot of possibilities and creative ideas? ;-) I'm off to your thread in the private members forum so we can dig in and start brainstorming the best next steps! *cheers*

[Chris NKC]

Thanks Chris NKC....you have some wonderful ideas! The affiliate links for images is excellent! I haven't really ventured out to affiliates other than Google yet! In my memo to Bridal Salons, I told them I would not charge them as I was expecting to reap some income from affiliates! So I kinda blew that one but great idea nonetheless!

Thanks so much for your input....I will use your site for reference!

I did put my site on maintenance and glad I did! Not sure if what I was doing was legit!

Thanks, Barb

Oh, I forgot to mention that I have looked at a lot of Bridal/wedding sites! Part of the reason I did this was to see if there was anything out there that was similar to mine. So far what I've noticed is a bunch of sites (great btw) that offer professional photographers pics of weddings to give people ideas, all the usual gown designers images, and other stuff for weddings, even sites who show them advertising on TV stations to give them reach. But after a while I noticed they all started looking the same! This is why I decided to just focus on bargains since I love bargain hunting these days!

Hi Barb !
You sound inspired and that is great ! I think everyone overanalyzes in the beginning. It comes from the excitement of doing something you really enjoy but not exactly sure how to do it- . I still find myself doing that and I have been doing things on the internet since 2001. Don't worry about it. Since you have joined the Mastermind group, you are going to get LOTS of help !

As far as the Bridal Salon you already talked to, you didn't blow it. You made a connection and established a relationship. That is VERY positive. Get to know them better, ask the owner to do an interview to post on your site, etc. Also, they are in the "Network", and if they like what you are doing for them they may tell others. Good ole word of mouth.

Find all the Bridal Salon's in your City/ State, approach them, and establish a relationship, just as you did with this one. If at all possible, go visit the stores. They will appreciate the effort you made AND it is harder to tell somebody no in person. Besides, as you found out, they are VERY busy and don't always have time to take a call or return an email unless it is a customer. Tell them about your site, what you are planning on doing, and offer them an ad in your directory. Ask or look at their website to see if they offer an affiliate program. If not, there is always advertising. Also check their website ( if they have one) before you go to garner some info about them.

Before you do ANY of this, get your site up, and put up some content. They will very likely want to see your website. And you will not get any affiliate agreements unless this is done.

Lynn will tell you- Content first, monetization second.

Lastly, Since you are focusing on bargains, you will find that once you have established relationships and have affiliate agreements, those companies will usually send you notices of sales and specials they have going on. That will save you a ton of time!

If you are needing some generic images, I use Public Domain Pictures (.net) and Istock. I also use public domain pics from Wikipedia. Think there is a sticky in the forum on image providers too I think. Make sure you always read the terms.