What thing that has often occurred to me is just how boring most of the banner ads are that are supplied to affiliates by merchants. Very often, you will just a selection of banners in some standard formats and the most imaginative they get is to have some animation.

But if you're a broadband merchant, why wouldn't you just supply a banner form that provides a postcode lookup function which takes the user to an availability page?

If you're a web registrar, why wouldn't you provide a domain search box for affiliates to put on their sites?

If you're the National Lottery, why don't you have banners that display results or are an entry form? Or maybe a number generator?

And if you sell books, how about a RSS feeds of your best sellers in various categories that could be integrated into affiliate sites?

It just seems to me that most merchants just come up with some boring ads for you to plonk on your page when they would be better off by using their imagination to come up with ways in which they can be seamlessly integrated to become part of the content.

Labels: affiliate marketing, affiliate tools, ideas

Ok, that's Christmas out the way and now just New Year to get through and everything can return to normal. I've been trying to think of some practical objectives that I hope to achieve in the next 12 months and have come up with this:

1. Master Amazon Web Services - I'm sure it's not technically beyond me but I've been putting this off for as long as I can remember, and I really want to get this under my belt so I can make better use of Amazon as an income stream

2. Get at least two of my websites mentioned in the national media. I had a site featured on the BBC's Click Online once and the traffic boost was phenomenal. Hoping to get some more of that lovely free traffic.

3. Master eBay Web Services. I've been sitting on an idea for a long time which could be a fantastic business model but need to give myself the push to make it happen.

4. Double my online income - I hope to earn at least twice as much in online income as I did in 2006. I will need a few serious breakthroughs for this to happen but I'm optimistic about the future.

5. Make better use of the user databases available to me as members of the sites I own. Target these users with regular and useful email updates which can create monetisation opportunities.

Labels: 2006, 2007, new year resolutions

I mentioned the other day that Google had released details of its search data from the last years to show what the most popular search terms.

I have Adsense for Search on a couple of sites and thought I would just take a quick look at the most popular searches across my sites since Jan 1st 2006:

• mcfly
• alg.exe
• svchost.exe
• mdm.exe
• frank lampard

And here's a quick snapshop of the last week - you might notice it's now more biased towards my problem exchange site.

• trowbridge hotspots
• stgsent
• erection problems
• free sexless marriage
• big boob,s agency

Labels: adsense, google, search

There was a report a few weeks ago which said that most websites are still failing disabled web users by not conforming to the most basic accessibility standards.

I try, as much as I can, to follow some of the basic rules. I don't always manage it but it's usually there in the back of my mind when I'm making a site. But as an affiliate, not all of the code on my site has come from me - I have to rely on the code provided to me by the affiliate network.

I thought it would be useful to conduct a quick survey of the code provided by affiliate networks for image banner links to see which followed probably the single most basic, and easy to implement, accessibility recommendation - the alt attribute on an image.

Often you will get the choice of a Javascript or HTML link - for this survey I will look at the HTML code produced for banners, since Javascript has issues of its own which mean its often not suitable at all for disabled users.

Affiliate Future
No Alt Attribute

Affiliate Window
No Alt Attribute

TradeDoubler
No Alt Attribute

Buy.At
No Alt Attribute

Paid On Results
Alt Attribute Provided!!!

Commission Junction
No Alt Attribute

Webgains
Alt Attribute Provided!!!

LinkShare
Alt Attribute Provided!!!

So in the survey, it's well done to Linkshare, Webgains and Paid On Results. And a disappointing result from the other networks.

Seems to me that it would be very easy to create functionality to automatically add in the alt attribute to banner codes ("advertising banner for merchant name") when they generate the link code if the networks were interested in providing accessible code to their affiliates.

Labels: affiliate marketing, affiliate network, web accessibility

Ok, this is a bit off topic, but I just had to get this off my chest.

I was watching the X-Factor final at the weekend, and was pleased to see Leona win. She seems like an amazing talent and hopefully she'll be given some decent songs because finding the right material for the winners of these programs seems like the hardest bit.

I was worried for a while that Ray - a.k.a. Eddie Munster - would manage to get enough grannies on his side to snatch victory but thankfully that wasn't the case. But his performances did produce the single most stupid statement I have heard in the past week, possibly even longer.

Ray performed "My Way", "That's Life" and "Come Fly With Me". When it came to the judges comments, Louis Walsh said "Ray, I thought you were a one trick pony but you proved tonight you're not". Hello?? He performed three Frank Sinatra numbers. How could that possibly disprove the notion that he's a one trick pony. Only to a complete fool like Louis Walsh, perhaps.

Labels: rant, tv

Google has released the 10 most searched for terms in 2006 and the list makes interesting reading. I have to admit I have never actually heard of 4 of those terms, which I guess means I'm worryingly out of sync with the current zeitgeists.

1. Bebo
2. MySpace
3. World Cup
4. Metacafe
5. Radioblog
6. Wikipedia
7. Video
8. Rebelde
9. Mininova
10. Wiki

Labels: google

With the end of 2006 approaching, it seems like the right time to reflect on what's been achieved in the last year.

Probably the single most successful online enterprise me in the last year was thanks to the browser, Firefox.

It just over a year ago - November 30th to be exact - that I was winding down for the evening and and suddenly had an idea for a website about Mozilla Firefox. It's no exageration to say that I had a domain registered and a small site ready to go within an hour or so. It's also no exageration to say that I've hardly had to do any work on the site since then - maybe another hour or so, here and there.

My intention was to pick up search engine traffic for a particular term including the word firefox. What I hadn't realised was that I was able to rank very highly on one search engine for the term "firefox" itself, which meant more traffic than I had anticipated.

Since that night last November, almost 10,000 people have downloaded Firefox through my site. When monetising sites works as brilliantly and simpy as that, this seems like the perfect job and if only every idea worked out as well, I'd probably be spending this Christmas on the beach somewhere.

Labels: adsense, firefox, progress

There was a discussion on LBC 97.3 today about the best shops and websites to get last minute bargains from. I carried on about my business (assembling a new bed) and thought no more of it.

And then right at the end of the programme, the presenter read an email from a listener who wrote in saying "I got all my Xmas bargains at xxxx-xxxxxxx.com". As soon as I heard it, I realised the opportunity that I had missed. Not sure if the email was from a genuine contributor or someone was promoting their own site but all credit to them if they were, although I reckon they've had enough free publicity for one day so I've x'd out the url.

I checked out the site and it''s just a basic price comparison affiliate website. Nothing spectacular but I imagine they got a nice spike in hits thanks to that mention.

I was initially annoyed I hadn't thought of it, and then I wondered what quality site I would have wanted to plug anyway and I'm not really sure I would have had one which kind of ties into to my earlier post on my plans to build some better online brands next year.

I can knock up sites and pages pretty quickly so have considered before making a page which matches a topic being discussed and then emailing it in to see if I can get it mentioned. Certainly seems a nice way of getting a quick, free plug.

Labels: affiliate marketing, web promotion

The new year is a few weeks away yet, but I feel like I've done all I can now to make the most of this Xmas season (which was really derailed when my toys and bikes sites disappeared from MSN) so I've started to look beyond 2006 and think about how I might do things different next year.

I guess my hope is to resist the tempation to go for cheap, spammy looking domain names and valueless sites and focus instead on trying to build up some online brands.

With that in mind, I today started fleshing out my new affiliate site which is going to be based around the Screwfix Direct product range. In terms of volume of sales, they've been a good performer for me with a low volume site I have called trade-prices.info. The new site which I will be launching is called BagOfNails.co.uk. I think just comparing the two domain names illustrates a better emphasis on potential brand building.

I guess there has to be more to it than just a less spammy name though and I will have to come up with some decent content that makes it a worthwhile site.

I wonder how far into 2007 I will carry this more noble ambition (that's assuming it lasts for the remainder of 2006!)

Labels: domain names, new site

I just switched to the new Beta of Blogger from Google and it's looking pretty cool so far!

The major ommission from Blogger was catagories, but they've eventually caught up and now you can label every post. Yay.

Labels: about this site, blogger, google

I got tagged by Tom over at the excellent Nothing Ventured blog to say five things you might not know about me.

Here goes:

1. I have a cat called Alfie who I'm training up to be an online marketeer but he doesn't always pay attention when I am teaching him.



2. My desk is messier than I realised.

3. The other thing I do apart from websites is run a small IT Support company, which is getting smaller all the time.

4. I was named after the actor who played Richard Hanny in "The 39 Steps", and Jesus Christ in "Jesus Of Nazareth".

5. I'm terrible at making lists and answering questions like this!

Labels: light relief

Like many other web site builders, I want to make truly useful websites that people link to for genuine reasons and bookmark because they want to come back. I've got a few sites like that which perform OK.

But I have another site, which I designed really with the intention of helping other people and then monetising as an after thought. It's called Problem Exchange and is a place where people can post up any problems they want to get off their chest and other people respond with answers or advice. It doesn't get a huge amount of traffic but its has regular, returning users. I've been told my several users that its addictive and it has helped changed peoples lives. That's a bold claim but that's the kind of feedback it gets.

But it's the hardest site to monetise I've ever had. Adsense ads go unclicked. Amazon ads ignored. Affiliate ads... well, I got thrown off TradeDoubler when I put a banner up because they didn't like the content.

Compare this is with a quick and dirty, keyword rich site in a high paying sector which canstart making a return in days, and you really have to wonder if trying to make a decent site can be a waste of time!

I went into my office yesterday and it was the first time in 8 days. I realised that this was an extravagance I really don't need anymore, and I was especially certain of that when I noticed my landlord still hadn't fixed the heating after several requests.

My attempts to get an office share didn't get very far, with the keenest person being a photographer who specialises in nude males who offered to "capture my vulnerability" as part of the deal.

I won't miss the constant road works about Greenwich. I won't miss Somerfields and the people who can't understand a queuing system. I won't miss the local stationary shop that charges a fortune to send a fax and an obscene amount for blank CD-Rs. The only thing I will miss is Greenwich Park which is a fantastic place and has its own special attractiveness for every season. Having that right outside the door is what's kept me there much longer than I needed to be.

The good news is that by not paying for an office anymore, as well as the broadband connection and petrol in driving up there, I will at a stroke create a massive saving each month and I will be able to keep more of the money I am making from monetising websites.

Labels: greenwich, office

I mentioned last month how I had bought a twenty quid website script to promote Prezzybox as it seemed a quick and easy way to get a new site up with not much thought.

I thought I would check on its progress and see how it's doing. I haven't really done anything at all to the site, just linked to it from a couple of other sites and traffic is still low as I guess should be expected. Just totted up the figures though and it has so far earnt £6.18 in affiliate sales.

Well, my house move is complete and my new place is about 90% done, so now things can start getting back to normal and I can focus on developing sites again.

After a break from blogging, it's actually tricky to get back into it, and find your voice again. So I thought I would start my resumption of blogging with what comes very easy - a moan and a rant about customer service.

First up, Iceland. I wanted to buy a fridge yesterday quite urgently, as I've been trying to mend a fridge all week and finally gave up. So I went down to Iceland and had to pay 50p just for the privellege of being a potential customer and park there. I went in, found a fridge that looked like it fitted the bill and approached a member of staff. "Sorry, we don't sell appliances on Sundays". I was taken aback and wondered if it stated anywhere in the bible that Sundays should be a day when appliances shouldn't be purchased but it turns out they just don't have staff to sell appliances on Sundays. Be nice if they had a sign to that effect before I parked up and paid, I said. I called the next closest branch and it was the same story.
That's why mums (who want appliances don't) goto Iceland (on a Sunday).

That was yesterday's customer service failure. Today's candidate is Misco. I had to order a couple of new PCs so went onto the website and completed an order for two computers and two monitors, coming in at £1200. I just moved so put in a new address. A few hours later, I get a phonecall saying they need proof of the new address, like a driving licence or utility bill. Hang on, I thought. I'm buying something as a business, using a business credit card and yet they want to see a personal form of ID such as driving licence. A limited company is a legal entity in itself so I found it a bit odd that they wanted my personal ID to complete the order. If they had asked for business ID like a letterhead I would have complied, but I've had problems with their customer service before when they literally tried everything to get out of giving me a refund on a faulty product, so I said forget it, cancelled the order and bought the stuff elsewhere.
More fiasco than Misco.