Need advice on setting up an affiliate theme

[NoahsDad]

I have a couple of domains I'd like use to set up a nice looking affiliate website.  Not so much to make money, but to be a helpful resources in the niche I'm in.

I"ve been trying to find a nice way to do this, and it looks like this theme is the best want to do what I want to do.  I'm wondering if you guys have any experience with this and what I need to do.

For example one of the domains I have is Downsyndrometoys.com.  As some of you may know we have a site where we are telling an online story about our son who was born with Down syndrome.  There are no great sites that show a good range of toys for children with disabilities.  So I'd like to create one, broken down in to categories and sub categories (0-6 months: boy/girl; 6-12 months; boy, girl) etc...and than be able to even do a search by what type of toy it is...for instance if it's good for fine motor skills, speech, etc.....

I'd like to link to the amazon page for each of these with my affiliate link.  I couldn't find anything like this when our son was born last year, and hope I can make a good resource.

http://www.woothemes.com/2011/02/bookclub/

What do you guys think of that theme above? Would that be the best way to do what I'm trying to do?  Or do you guys know of any other options? (Hopefully less expensive since I doubt this site would make a ton of money...and since that's not really the reason I'm doing it.)

Thanks so much!

[EGOL]

Just tell the story.... tell what worked... tell what didn't... don't try to sell.... include as many photos as you can... where you have found success it might inspire people to purchase... place a link to the affiliate site nicely near the inspiration points of your content.

The story and the photos are more important than the design.

[NoahsDad]

We are telling the story on our NoahsDad.com page.  We do just what you mentioned on that site.

This site would be a resource for people looking for toys.  Maybe able to rate them...leave their review, etc....

This wouldn't be a place for a narrative.  It'd be what I described in my post.

And I think the design is very important.  If you look online there are a billion different affiliate type websites..most of which look like they were made in about 5 minutes.

Do you you have any feedback on the best way to do what I was asking in my question like feedback on that theme, or other themes / plugins to do what I'm trying to do?

Thanks.

[KeriMorgret]

You'll find that EGOL's very content-heavy in his responses. He makes some good points, and I'll add a couple of thoughts as well.

Not everyone is going to come from your blog to this site, ideally many are going to come straight to this site from a search engine or a referral. They're not going to know the backstory about Noah, or that on a particular day he used this toy and had a great result, or that it's a good lower-cost version of what they use in the OT clinic.

If you have a beautiful design but it's just a copy of what Amazon has, even if you have it in nice categories, that's really not going to be of much use to your customer. You need a point of difference beyond just a nice design. You need to make sure that what you have to offer doesn't look like it was thrown together in about five minutes.

I don't have experience with any shopping themes, so I'm afraid I can't answer you from that perspective. What I can say is think about making your site THE place to go to for people looking to buy toys for children with Down Syndrome. Your blog can be for your personal story, and this site can be the go-to place for finding toys and everything relating to play.

Have you run across Rae Hoffman yet? She goes by Sugarrae online. She got into online marketing when her first child had an undiagnosed stroke at a few weeks of age in the mid 1990s, and has become a very successful affiliate marketer. One of her affiliate sites is BBgeeks, where they review everything related to the Blackberry phone. She has a post about how she formed the site. She has a different perspective on things than you I'm sure, but I think you can still pick up some interesting things from what she has to say even if you aren't a fan of her particular style.

When I was deciding between a blackberry and an iPhone three years ago, I sent a tweet to BBgeeks. They responded right away, and we had an email conversation where one of her employees answered a lot of my questions, and actually recommended that the iPhone might better meet my needs.

edit: editor problems, this got cut off before finishing.

They haven't made any money directly off of me, but anytime I know of someone who just got a blackberry, I refer them to BBgeeks for help and reviews.

That's also something you can consider for this site is helping people pick out toys. Look on Twitter with a search like [anyone know down syndrome toy] to help find people asking about Down Syndrome and toys, then offer to provide help.

Rae writes about how for a review of BB games they spent a week downloading and playing every single game they reviewed. They didn't just copy the description off the manufacturer's page, but instead went and got to know each game they reviewed and wrote REAL content about it. I think that's what EGOL is going for. Spend your time and effort on writing the best information out there about each toy and how it relates specifically to an individual with Down Syndrome.

[SuperlativB]

Great idea, that karma is gonna get you paid in the long run. The future is helping people and the philosophy "earn little by many"