I sent you the email with the invitation code/link. I’m seeing double from working on my site again so late… *great big yawn*, but thought I’d get that email out to you before I catch some Z’s.

The site has a few minor bugs I’m still ironing out, along with some layout designs I haven’t coded in yet…(so some areas/pages look a little better than others), just an FYI. So have a look around, let me know what you think, etc…. and feel free to contact me via this blog or preferably through my social network….where I can throw you a few more ideas without blasting it out into the net for whoever to read. (hehe)
Take care & talk to you later.

Jason

Let me know if you want me to send you that invite link… so you can poke around inside my site… and communicate with me that way, etc. It’s still got a few bugs, and I have a bit of design to add to certain pages… but its pretty much done.

Also, if you want any of these blog comments deleted… as far as the idea exchanges, etc… for whatever reason… just let me know.

Talk to you later.

P.S. I did’nt know that about the meaning behind his “Dedication’ song… thats cool to know though.

Jason

You should check out this template for zencart… it would be pretty easy to customize with a logo, and vitas images… or you could hire a freelancer to do it for you…

Zencart Template Example

I had been working on customizing a template based on another ecommerce shopping cart script, but got sidetracked and decided to set that project aside in favor of focusing on finishing up my social network. You just have to make sure template version is compatible with whatever version of zencart your using…and nothing outta the box is going to work perfectly… in fact at times… lol… it will drive you mad trying to get it all to work design wise…. but it might be something you want to consider…perhaps down the road.

Here is the shopping cart I had started to customize… and maybe someday I’ll finish it, but for now it’s just sitting there : Example of Store I had started to customize Just thought I’d give you a few ideas on how to customize scripts like zencart, etc.

By the way, whats your favorite Vitas song? I think my wife’s is “Opera 2″. Mine has to be “Dedication”, but a lot of his other ones are right up there in my favorites category.

I have not wanted to put too much commercial stuff on the Vitas site. I do not want to take away the focus from him. But things like Rosetta stone, etc. are helpful to fans so I don’t object to that. I link them for free there already. I did apply for affiliate, but I think they did sent me over to commission junction and then I never looked up the ads to link. Thanks for reminding me to do that!

I am also a russiandvd.com affiliate, but somehow my first affiliate account got broken and I had to start all over. Nothing has come out of that yet. I do get the email addresses from my orders at the store. The customers register there and opt in to newsletters. I plan to send one out very soon for the Christmas season, with a sale advertisement. It will be the first. Store opened last February, so it is about time one goes. The Vitas screensaver is a great idea if I ever have time-though I might want to make sure his producer does not object. Have to be careful about copyright. Actually I started making Vitas email stationary once, but got sidetracked….too many things I want to do, and far too little time!

I was thinking you might could look into signing up for a few different affiliate programs, similar to what types of programs are appearing within your google ads. What is happening more than likely, is the people that do click on your ads, might bring you in .25 cents to a $1.00 a click I’m guessing, but the advertiser who put the ad there… is probably making alot more than that.

For example, if you had affiliate links on your site to a program like Rossetta Stone( I think they use Commission Junction as there affiliate management program) : Rosetta Stone

There payouts are halfway decent, 15%.
So on an introductory course in Russian, you’d make about $32 a sale on a $219 course. They supposedly have a good product, and it is advertised on TV… so there might be some brand reconigition there. If you don’t think your audience would pay that much for a course in Russian, you could always find some other affiliate program that had to do with Russian languages that would be more affordable.

As far as the credit card processing fees, if your handling the orders yourself, hopefully you are capturing email addresses, and mailing them offers for other related Vitas cd’s…since they are already proven buyers. Also, you could always spare yourself the legwork and processing fees… and just promote Vita’s music and DVDs with an Amazon Affiliate Id… and you would still know people are getting legitimate copies of his music. You’d make about .80 cents on a $19.98 CD…which isn’t alot… but it’s 80 cents better than breaking even… and if they purchase other products… you can earn commissions on those too probably.

Another idea… is that you could find some software that makes screensavers & wallpapers that might also allow you to embed ads within them…. then create a few Vitas screensavers, wallpapers, etc…. link in some ads to affiliate programs that relates to Vitas… and offer the screensavers/desktop themes as a download…either before or after you capture their email address.

Lastly, there seems to be no adwords competition at all for some of the Vitas related keywords… so you could probably get away with paying dirt cheap prices for a PPC campaign… either for Vitas related products with your affiliate link… or to promote your site, etc.

I know your mainly running your site as a hobby, but I just thought I’d through out a few ideas…must be the marketing bug in me.(haha)

Anyways… I’m rambling again… too many energy drinks today.(haha) Take care & talk to you later.

Jason

My wife & I listen to his cd’s a lot, and it’s so funny because I have absolutely no idea what he is saying, but it doesn’t really matter… it still sounds out of this world. How lucky you are to have gotten to see him Live in concert. I’m hoping someday I’ll get to do the same.

And no, haha, I’m not a paid blogger or anything… I have been so busy working on this internet marketing social network site, that all I really ever do on this blog so far is either post a few things that interest me like Vitas, & a bit of random babble here & there.
Hopefully, once I’m finished developing that social network site, I’ll have time to focus on the content of this blog and post more often.

I checked out your site. Great info, I had actually visited it before. I know you only promote Vitas out of the admiration of his music and everything… but maybe you might want to contemplate monetizing your site a little. Who know’s, maybe over time, It could generate a little extra cash for another Vitas concert ticket… and that wouldn’t be too bad would it? (haha)

It’s cool that your #3 in google search results for the keyword “Vitas”. I noticed as an example, that it looks as if the keyword “Vitas Opera 2″ only got searched on about 95 times last month on google (estimate) but yet the youtube video Vitas Opera 2 has been viewed 3,056,994 times in 2 years. Thats an average of 254,749 views per month v.s. the 95 times the term Vitas Opera 2 was searched for in google.

Maybe after you setup some forms of monetization on your site, you could put up some vitas videos on you tube or where ever, link back to your site from those sites, etc. I dunno, food for thought… and I’m rambling again, lol… gotta get back to coding.

P.S. Diane…Did I say how lucky you were to get to go to one of his concerts?

Jason Counts