It's the backlinks that allow it to rank. Getting them requires a lot of knowledge & work, like publishing articles on Medium or receiving links on HN.
Unsurprisingly, it looks like the creator is an SEO-expert with years of experience and dozens of projects.
It is a good site and I've used it before to purchase a drive or two.
However... What I've found is that it is not always 100% accurate and if you really want the cheapest TB/$ (and you can wait) you should be setting up alerts on slickdeals or another deal website.
As a data hoarder, I try to just wait for deals and not use this site.
Can anyone specify how the author approached this with respect to SEO. Paying for backlinks is tough, and writing your own articles seems tedious. Any hidden tactics in use perhaps?
I know the HN hivemind despises white space and padding and medium width paragraphs and deem them unneccessary and atrocious for some reason, but the design on the site is not that "functional" - on a window with width of 1035px or less, the main table moves all the way down below the filter column - I can imagine someone opening this with a tablet or something like that for the first time wondering where are all the articles until they scroll all the way down.
Exactly my point as well when I went to the site. Fast, click here, uncheck there, kaboom, instant change. No gazillion nested divs, precisely to the point of what it says it does. I guess Peter Voica, the article's author, cannot comprehend pages without having blank spaces at edges.
If you really want to learn good modern UI design from a business perspective, you need to look at websites that absolutely need to retain users and depend on high conversions to survive.
Example: Stake.com. Somehow manages to show a ton of information without feeling slow or sluggish. Isn’t pretty but has basic respect for legibility and whitespace.
> He created a website that looks like it was made in HTML with total disrespect for the user experience
I find that the filtering on diskprices.com works way faster than the typical search filters on Newegg, Canada Computers, and pretty much every e-commerce site I've ever used.
Disk Prices is definitely respecting my user experience by being snappy and not wasting CPU cycles and network round trips.
This is what happens when a web site, or any business, is actually useful for visitors. Too many sites now only focus on selling someone else's product through marketing. This site focuses on being helpful.
Look, I'm no businessman, but clearly if you manage to attract the right audience and find a way to get paid, you make money.
People asking for disk prices probably have looser standards in terms of UX. That's why it works. Backlinks and an audience who actually doesn't care about UX that much. Doing the same stuff in the fashion industry may not work.
> People asking for disk prices probably have looser standards in terms of UX.
Perhaps the opposite is true. A site like this works because Amazon is poor at finding products, never mind for comparing prices. Even e-commerce sites that filter data in a similar manner (and typically do a better job since they have more complete product details), this site is both faster and makes product comparisons easier.
While it is probably possible to tweak to UX to make it better, I would suggest the success of this site is due to providing a better UX for its target audience.
This site has an outstanding UX for its audience and users. This audience cares about UX. They/ we are not shy to tell you that most current web site's user experience sucks. So it's not a question of "looser standards". On the contrary it's a question of paying attention to your users.
I'm a bit surprised Amazon allowed this page to do affiliate marketing like this. I had a similar page but much more generalized to laptops and they told me my site had to have some other content: it couldn't just exist to promote the amazon products. If they've changed their stance on this then great!
Chances are he had a blog or something with content/pages and got approved. Then just re-used the codes/keys for the affiliate links on this new site. Once you start making money Amazon doesn't care.
Source: Me. I had a comparison tool for products with similar layout to this. They originally denied it citing 'lack of content'. Made a 2nd website with some blogs/reviews, it was approved. Re-used the code/api for the comparison tool and closed the other website. They haven't complained in 12 years.
This has "content". The filters and columns are different to those offered by Amazon's own search experience (the $/TB, for example). Did your laptop selection site just replicate the data from Amazon, or did it try and do something novel?
"Content" is not alway descriptions, reviews and the like. It can be aggregation, statistical and calculated.
> The following marketplaces have threatened or suspended our accounts and are unlikely to return to diskprices.com without clear policy changes from Amazon: amazon.jp, amazon.nl, amazon.it, amazon.sg.
Honestly that site has great UX/UI. Mobile view could be improved but it doesn’t have any distractions and a clear user interface with all the relevant information, so it’s ahead of most over designed “beautiful” websites.
This site is a good example of a simple, ethical affilate marketing site.
Of course, as other posters have alluded to, setting up a site like this does not just involve creating the web page itself -- it also necessarily would involve SEO and backlinks, etc., etc.
Again, as other posters have alluded to.
But that being said -- this web page still ranks pretty high in my book for simplicity (and elegance from that simplicity), in a money-making website.
It could be argued, successfully, that any website these days, any website at all -- would need visitors -- and if those visitors aren't coming from social media and/or Google ads -- then getting visitors there would necessarily have to involve SEO and backlinks.
Unless of course, you have some other creative and/or good way to get visitors to your website...
So, an excellent example of what a simple website can do -- if, if and only if you can solve the problem of getting visitors to your website, by one or more ways...
I assume this is using some kind of amazon pricing API under the hood. Does anyone know how to get access to that kind of API without already being a successful affiliate?
Interesting that this site makes money despite pcpartpicker existing. Gives me hope that there are a bunch of opportunities to build something like this for other hobbies.
This is interesting to me because I recently made a website for a niche type of product and was denied Amazon Affiliate.
“We want an associate site to be one that adds value to the customer by giving them insight on a subject or product they might not get easily.”
Listing all of the products available (Amazon and elsewhere) in one place (there are like 20 total ) so a shopper could compare features seemed liked it would suffice.
Perhaps I should reformat the website to be like Diskprices and try again.
[+] [-] toberoni|2 years ago|reply
It's the backlinks that allow it to rank. Getting them requires a lot of knowledge & work, like publishing articles on Medium or receiving links on HN.
Unsurprisingly, it looks like the creator is an SEO-expert with years of experience and dozens of projects.
[+] [-] MechanicalTwerk|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mlrtime|2 years ago|reply
However... What I've found is that it is not always 100% accurate and if you really want the cheapest TB/$ (and you can wait) you should be setting up alerts on slickdeals or another deal website.
As a data hoarder, I try to just wait for deals and not use this site.
[+] [-] to1y|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _the_inflator|2 years ago|reply
We only see the tip of the iceberg without really knowing what’s going on behind the scenes.
Some sort of marketing is always involved.
[+] [-] andrewstuart|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marklyon|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prakhar897|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spaceman_2020|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] politelemon|2 years ago|reply
Be careful not to confuse user experience with UI aesthetics and pages with padding.
[+] [-] Swenrekcah|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gualdrapo|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unnouinceput|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spaceman_2020|2 years ago|reply
Example: Stake.com. Somehow manages to show a ton of information without feeling slow or sluggish. Isn’t pretty but has basic respect for legibility and whitespace.
[+] [-] nayuki|2 years ago|reply
I find that the filtering on diskprices.com works way faster than the typical search filters on Newegg, Canada Computers, and pretty much every e-commerce site I've ever used.
Disk Prices is definitely respecting my user experience by being snappy and not wasting CPU cycles and network round trips.
[+] [-] assimpleaspossi|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] p3rls|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mahesh_rm|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamghee|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tremarley|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arter4|2 years ago|reply
People asking for disk prices probably have looser standards in terms of UX. That's why it works. Backlinks and an audience who actually doesn't care about UX that much. Doing the same stuff in the fashion industry may not work.
[+] [-] II2II|2 years ago|reply
Perhaps the opposite is true. A site like this works because Amazon is poor at finding products, never mind for comparing prices. Even e-commerce sites that filter data in a similar manner (and typically do a better job since they have more complete product details), this site is both faster and makes product comparisons easier.
While it is probably possible to tweak to UX to make it better, I would suggest the success of this site is due to providing a better UX for its target audience.
[+] [-] p0nce|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] creer|2 years ago|reply
This site has an outstanding UX for its audience and users. This audience cares about UX. They/ we are not shy to tell you that most current web site's user experience sucks. So it's not a question of "looser standards". On the contrary it's a question of paying attention to your users.
[+] [-] bazil376|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamghee|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] faet|2 years ago|reply
Source: Me. I had a comparison tool for products with similar layout to this. They originally denied it citing 'lack of content'. Made a 2nd website with some blogs/reviews, it was approved. Re-used the code/api for the comparison tool and closed the other website. They haven't complained in 12 years.
[+] [-] PaulRobinson|2 years ago|reply
"Content" is not alway descriptions, reviews and the like. It can be aggregation, statistical and calculated.
[+] [-] notzane|2 years ago|reply
> The following marketplaces have threatened or suspended our accounts and are unlikely to return to diskprices.com without clear policy changes from Amazon: amazon.jp, amazon.nl, amazon.it, amazon.sg.
[+] [-] cranberryturkey|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xnx|2 years ago|reply
I'm a huge fan of this type of well-done advanced filtering-faceting. Is there a standard/popular library/tool for this?
It's a shame the link to the parent organization on https://diskprices.com/faq.html is broken. I'd love to see more sites in this style.
[+] [-] Zetobal|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] assimpleaspossi|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] halayli|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theosp|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway63467|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crabmusket|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peter_d_sherman|2 years ago|reply
Of course, as other posters have alluded to, setting up a site like this does not just involve creating the web page itself -- it also necessarily would involve SEO and backlinks, etc., etc.
Again, as other posters have alluded to.
But that being said -- this web page still ranks pretty high in my book for simplicity (and elegance from that simplicity), in a money-making website.
It could be argued, successfully, that any website these days, any website at all -- would need visitors -- and if those visitors aren't coming from social media and/or Google ads -- then getting visitors there would necessarily have to involve SEO and backlinks.
Unless of course, you have some other creative and/or good way to get visitors to your website...
So, an excellent example of what a simple website can do -- if, if and only if you can solve the problem of getting visitors to your website, by one or more ways...
[+] [-] ProcNetDev|2 years ago|reply
They shut down shucks.top.
[+] [-] paxys|2 years ago|reply
> He created a website that looks like it was made in HTML with total disrespect for the user experience [...]
As I try to read more of the post:
> Create an account to read the full story.
> The author made this story available to Medium members only. If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.
Please tell me more about this "user experience" and "disrespect".
[+] [-] nomilk|2 years ago|reply
The website making $5k/month: https://diskprices.com/
[+] [-] jamghee|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stepbeek|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevesearer|2 years ago|reply
“We want an associate site to be one that adds value to the customer by giving them insight on a subject or product they might not get easily.”
Listing all of the products available (Amazon and elsewhere) in one place (there are like 20 total ) so a shopper could compare features seemed liked it would suffice.
Perhaps I should reformat the website to be like Diskprices and try again.
[+] [-] xnx|2 years ago|reply