The Idea

Build a tech deals aggregation site, drive traffic through SEO, monetize through ads and affiliate links. Curate PC hardware deals—GPUs, CPUs, SSDs—and make money when people click through to buy.

Time in the ground: 6-8 months

The inspiration: A YouTube video. Already a red flag.

What Actually Happened

I built out changstechfinds.com, set up the content pipeline, and waited for traffic to roll in.

Spoiler: it didn't.

Monetization Attempts

Google AdSense: Slow approval process, clunky to work with, and ultimately pointless when you're getting 50 visitors a day. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

Amazon Associates: Even when people did click through, the 1-3% commission on electronics means you need serious volume to make anything. I did not have serious volume.

The Numbers

Peak daily traffic: Less than 50. Not 50,000. Fifty.

Total investment: Time, some coding, and the cost of the domain. At least I didn't throw real money at this one.

Why It Failed

1. Competing with giants using a slingshot

Slickdeals, Tom's Hardware, Reddit's r/buildapcsales—these own the deals space. Google knows it, users know it. A new site with no domain authority trying to rank for "RTX 4070 deals" is basically shouting into the void.

2. Deals content is a volume game

Even if I'd gotten the traffic, the margins are brutal. Tech hardware affiliate commissions are low (1-4%), and deals shoppers are price-sensitive by definition—they're not impulse buying. You need tens of thousands of clicks to make real money.

3. No real differentiation

I was doing the same thing as everyone else, just smaller and later. There was no angle that made Chang's Tech Finds the obvious choice for anyone. No unique voice, no exclusive deals, no community, no reason to exist.

4. The YouTube Video Industrial Complex

Someone on YouTube made money teaching people to build deals sites. The real money was in the course, not the deals site. Classic.

The Takeaway

Not every idea deserves months of effort. This one showed weak signals early—traffic never picked up momentum, no organic growth, no community forming around it. I should have killed it at month 3.

The lesson isn't "deals sites don't work"—they clearly do at scale. The lesson is that competing in a commodity space against entrenched players, with no distribution advantage and no differentiation, is a losing bet.

Final Verdict

Worst Idea. Into the graveyard it goes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do tech deals sites fail?

Tech deals sites often fail because they compete against established giants like Slickdeals and Reddit's r/buildapcsales with no differentiation. The margins on tech hardware affiliate commissions (1-4%) require massive traffic volume to generate meaningful revenue, and new sites struggle to rank in search results against entrenched competitors.

How much traffic do you need for a tech deals site to be profitable?

With typical Amazon Associates commissions of 1-4% on electronics and average order values around $100-300, you'd need thousands of daily visitors converting at 2-3% to generate meaningful income. Sites with under 50 daily visitors have essentially zero chance of profitability through affiliate links alone.

Is starting a tech deals site a good idea?

Generally no, unless you have a unique distribution advantage (large existing audience, viral social presence) or a differentiated angle (specific niche like "budget Plex server builds" rather than general deals). Competing head-to-head with Slickdeals on general PC hardware deals is a losing bet for new entrants.