Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Great month so far, but how to build on it...
What a crazy month this is turning out to be. Adsense has been insanely good. PPC working a treat, and in fact the subject of my PPC has started to generate a few sales through organic search results too.
Add to that a load of enquiries from old PC support customers who all seemed to need help in one week and I'm too polite (or greedy?) to turn it down, and this has been an interesting month to say the least.
But oddly, the better my online stuff has done, the more nervous it makes me in a way because I don't feel like it has a really solid foundation. My plan is to make hay whilst I can and then invest somehow in the sites I have which I think could have potential as a brand with a future.
I'm toying with the idea in investing in a decent SEO for some work on a site I have which has the potential to make a whole tonne of money. My site has had success in the past but the market is so competitive, but mainly with other actual "merchants" rather than affiliates. In fact, it has to potential to make a breathtaking amount (the first big commission I got from it was worthy of ebook on its own but they're so hard to come by) of money and it's really on the fringes of affiliate marketing and has seemingly gone unnoticed by the mainsteam affiliate community. My paranoid fear though is that if I hired an SEO, that would understand the potential and could just build a rival site instead. Is that some completely groundless fear? Would it ever cross your mind before hiring an SEO and have you ever heard of it happening?
Add to that a load of enquiries from old PC support customers who all seemed to need help in one week and I'm too polite (or greedy?) to turn it down, and this has been an interesting month to say the least.
But oddly, the better my online stuff has done, the more nervous it makes me in a way because I don't feel like it has a really solid foundation. My plan is to make hay whilst I can and then invest somehow in the sites I have which I think could have potential as a brand with a future.
I'm toying with the idea in investing in a decent SEO for some work on a site I have which has the potential to make a whole tonne of money. My site has had success in the past but the market is so competitive, but mainly with other actual "merchants" rather than affiliates. In fact, it has to potential to make a breathtaking amount (the first big commission I got from it was worthy of ebook on its own but they're so hard to come by) of money and it's really on the fringes of affiliate marketing and has seemingly gone unnoticed by the mainsteam affiliate community. My paranoid fear though is that if I hired an SEO, that would understand the potential and could just build a rival site instead. Is that some completely groundless fear? Would it ever cross your mind before hiring an SEO and have you ever heard of it happening?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Working From Home Bears Fruit
Up until January of this year, I had been working from an office in Greenwich but took the decision to work from a home office in new, larger house I had just bought. I had two objectives. Firstly, to save money in unnecessary costs. And secondly, to make more money through being more productive thanks to not having my days broken up with journeys to and from work.
I'm pleased to be in a position now where both of those objectives are being met. The first one was easy and happened immediately thanks to the reduction in outgoings. The second target was slower to achieve but is certainly being met this month. In fact, my online earnings this month to date have exceeded my best ever figures for an entire month. Adsense earnings are usually comparable to my first job (IT call center), but this month, they're more akin to my third job (trade floor support).
There are downsides to working from home, which I might save for another post.
In other news, I recently started my first Wordpress blog called Did You See That which is related TV programmes that interest me. It's got off to a flying start with very respectable traffic and has actually been making money. I'm fond of this blog but it's accepted wisdom that internet marketers don't tend to click on other internet marketers adverts etc, so it's nice to have a blog that's actually making me money at last.
I'm pleased to be in a position now where both of those objectives are being met. The first one was easy and happened immediately thanks to the reduction in outgoings. The second target was slower to achieve but is certainly being met this month. In fact, my online earnings this month to date have exceeded my best ever figures for an entire month. Adsense earnings are usually comparable to my first job (IT call center), but this month, they're more akin to my third job (trade floor support).
There are downsides to working from home, which I might save for another post.
In other news, I recently started my first Wordpress blog called Did You See That which is related TV programmes that interest me. It's got off to a flying start with very respectable traffic and has actually been making money. I'm fond of this blog but it's accepted wisdom that internet marketers don't tend to click on other internet marketers adverts etc, so it's nice to have a blog that's actually making me money at last.
Purchase Report: Dabs.com did not track (again!)
Merchant: Dabs.com/Dabs4Work
Network: TradeDoubler
Product: Various
Click Recorded: Yes
Sale Recorded: NO
Very disheartening. My second order from Dabs4Work in a week and again didn't track. I have cookies enabled, I clicked through (which was tracked) and made my purchase in session and again, no sale recorded.
Network: TradeDoubler
Product: Various
Click Recorded: Yes
Sale Recorded: NO
Very disheartening. My second order from Dabs4Work in a week and again didn't track. I have cookies enabled, I clicked through (which was tracked) and made my purchase in session and again, no sale recorded.
Labels: purchase report
Friday, June 15, 2007
Apprentice Series 3 Episode 12 (UK)
My enthusiasm for this series has waned towards the latter stages, but I guess I should finish up by including a post on the final episode of the series which was shown on Wednesday night.
The finalists - Simon and Kristina - were tasked with coming with a new concept to replace the IBM building on London's South Bank. They were joined by some of the fired ex contestants. Predictably, both teams up came up with two large, glass-fronted "monstrous carbuncles" that showed little or no sensitivity for the existing, predominately low rise, architecture of the surrounding areas.
We never really found out who was judged to have won the task itself, but the show ended with Sir Alan hiring internet entrepreneur Simon Ambrose as his next Apprentice. I thought Kristina was the more suitable candidate, but Sir Alan obviously sees something in Simon which is I guess why he kept him in, even after the TV selling debacle in which he pretty must ballsed up everything. In fact, if you ever watch that episode again, you'd be amazed that the person who was so awful would go on to win.
So that's that. I think the series has been a tad disappointing. Some of the tasks were uninspired and too similar to previous ones. Despite everything Sir Alan said to the contrary at the beginning, this is all about a TV show and the business side of it is just the backdrop to that rather than being the primary focus in my opinion. And with that in mind, I found it distasteful how they hung Katie out to dry, as she was one of the most compelling characters in their TV show, since that's what it is.
I was amused to hear what the job Sir Alan has for Simon is. If you think of Sir Alan, you tend to think of cheap consumer electronics. But the job on offer to the Apprentice is nothing to do with that. Sir Alan wants him to be involved with a new hotel and golf complex he is building. The emulation of Donald Trump is complete.
Next week sees a new show called Tycoon on ITV1. The trailer I saw recently was terribly corny but it should be interesting. I'll probably blog about it over on my TV blog, Did You See That.
The finalists - Simon and Kristina - were tasked with coming with a new concept to replace the IBM building on London's South Bank. They were joined by some of the fired ex contestants. Predictably, both teams up came up with two large, glass-fronted "monstrous carbuncles" that showed little or no sensitivity for the existing, predominately low rise, architecture of the surrounding areas.
We never really found out who was judged to have won the task itself, but the show ended with Sir Alan hiring internet entrepreneur Simon Ambrose as his next Apprentice. I thought Kristina was the more suitable candidate, but Sir Alan obviously sees something in Simon which is I guess why he kept him in, even after the TV selling debacle in which he pretty must ballsed up everything. In fact, if you ever watch that episode again, you'd be amazed that the person who was so awful would go on to win.
So that's that. I think the series has been a tad disappointing. Some of the tasks were uninspired and too similar to previous ones. Despite everything Sir Alan said to the contrary at the beginning, this is all about a TV show and the business side of it is just the backdrop to that rather than being the primary focus in my opinion. And with that in mind, I found it distasteful how they hung Katie out to dry, as she was one of the most compelling characters in their TV show, since that's what it is.
I was amused to hear what the job Sir Alan has for Simon is. If you think of Sir Alan, you tend to think of cheap consumer electronics. But the job on offer to the Apprentice is nothing to do with that. Sir Alan wants him to be involved with a new hotel and golf complex he is building. The emulation of Donald Trump is complete.
Next week sees a new show called Tycoon on ITV1. The trailer I saw recently was terribly corny but it should be interesting. I'll probably blog about it over on my TV blog, Did You See That.
Labels: apprentice, review, tv
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
My Site Makes Independent's List of 101 Really Useful Sites
This post is not much more than a gloat post, so if the sight of a grown man boasting is unpleasant, you better look away now.
My wireless Internet site, myHotspots, has just been featured in a list of 101 really useful websites, as compiled by the Independent newspaper.
To be honest, whilst looking through the list, I think they could have featured a few more than just the one of mine but I suppose I should be grateful for what I got. Other recognizable sites from the affiliate world to be included on the list are myvouchercodes.co.uk and greasy palm.
Whilst I'm bragging about myhotspots, I might as well mention that it has had a traffic explosion in the last couple of days thanks to becoming the number one rank site in the Google UK results for the search term "wifi". It's quite a nice feeling to be running the UK's number Wifi site!
My wireless Internet site, myHotspots, has just been featured in a list of 101 really useful websites, as compiled by the Independent newspaper.
To be honest, whilst looking through the list, I think they could have featured a few more than just the one of mine but I suppose I should be grateful for what I got. Other recognizable sites from the affiliate world to be included on the list are myvouchercodes.co.uk and greasy palm.
Whilst I'm bragging about myhotspots, I might as well mention that it has had a traffic explosion in the last couple of days thanks to becoming the number one rank site in the Google UK results for the search term "wifi". It's quite a nice feeling to be running the UK's number Wifi site!
Labels: myhotspots, search engines
Monday, June 11, 2007
Amazon's 3rd Party Sellers Bad For Associates?
I ordered an SD memory card from Amazon the other day, and the price was a very cheap £5.00. Great, I thought, so I ordered it but was suprised to see that the postage was another £5.00. Seemed excessive I thought, but at least it will come quickly and probably be sent by recorded post.
But no, that's not what happened.
The item took about a week to come and was simply in a plastic envelope with a first class stamp. They must have had made as much, or more, profit through their "postage" costs as they did through the price of the item itself. Of course, this kind of practice isn't new. You commonly see it on eBay where the fixed price of items can be artificially low but with the money recouped through high postage.
But what's the impact of this?
For Amazon, I think it diminishes their reputation. The fact that it's from a 3rd party is a subtlety which will be lost on many users and I expect them to believe they are simply getting it from Amazon, and that Amazon are using this strategy of artificially low prices. That's not good for Amazon.
For Amazon Associates (on the Performance model, which includes 3rd party sales), it's a raw deal because the commission earned is on the price of the item not for the shipping costs. So if the seller has artificially low prices, the affiliate is missing out on the commission from where the profit is really made - on the postage.
Basically, it sucks.
But no, that's not what happened.
The item took about a week to come and was simply in a plastic envelope with a first class stamp. They must have had made as much, or more, profit through their "postage" costs as they did through the price of the item itself. Of course, this kind of practice isn't new. You commonly see it on eBay where the fixed price of items can be artificially low but with the money recouped through high postage.
But what's the impact of this?
For Amazon, I think it diminishes their reputation. The fact that it's from a 3rd party is a subtlety which will be lost on many users and I expect them to believe they are simply getting it from Amazon, and that Amazon are using this strategy of artificially low prices. That's not good for Amazon.
For Amazon Associates (on the Performance model, which includes 3rd party sales), it's a raw deal because the commission earned is on the price of the item not for the shipping costs. So if the seller has artificially low prices, the affiliate is missing out on the commission from where the profit is really made - on the postage.
Basically, it sucks.
Labels: affiliate marketing, amazon
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Case Study: What-Process.com
I thought I'd take a look at one of my websites and chart its progress as a website, from its initial design stage through to today, and how I've monetised it in that time. It thought it would be a useful exercise for me to go back over one of my more successful sites and see if there's any lessons I can get from it which I forgot, and I thought some of you might be interested. I'll even say how much the site has made, and I'm usually coy about that.
So tonight, What-Process.com, This Is Your Life....
The story of the site goes way back to a previous job where I wrote a small application for terminating Windows processes on remote computers to help me deal with a particular IT support issue. A year or so later I found myself sitting in the office for my new startup company twiddling my thumbs and decided to make use of my time by rewriting the application. Then it occurred to me that as well being able to list and terminate Windows processes, it would be cool if the tool could look up information about the process from some kind of website. Spyware was a major issue at the time and knowing what your computer was doing seemed like a useful thing to help with.
So after a bit of brainstorming, the idea evolved and I decided to create a process reference library online and link it to a desktop application. And in August 2004, I registered the domain name, What-Process.com.
Because I was giving the application away and it contained no adverts, I was able to quickly and easily get it listed on freeware sites. Next thing I knew, it was getting massively downloaded, my bandwidth limit exploded and it was getting reviewed around the world.
Observation: People love free stuff.
Everytime someone downloaded the application and ran it, they would get a list of the processes on their machine and if they clicked "what's this?", it would take them to the website. If information on the process it existed, it would be displayed. If it didn't exist in the database, it would automatically add it in. The site would never ever have a situation where it appeared not to know a process. If the application requested info, the page would be created immediately but with the warning "awaiting info on this process". This is where I fell in love with user generated content. I provided the tools and the users built the content. Before I knew it, I had a huge database of process names and comments from users explaining what many of them were. It became my first site to get a decent amount of traffic every day. With spyware and viruses so prevalent, my tool enabled my site to often be the first place that mentioned specific new rogue processes online purely from the fact that my users had attempted to find out what it was and added it to the site in doing so.
Observation: User generated content rules.
So things were ticking along nicely and I was seeing impressive (relative to my other sites) traffic. I had deployed Adsense around the rather crude looking site and it was the first concrete evidence that the internet money making avenue I was pursuing could definitely bear fruit.
Then one day, out of the blue, I got an email from an affiliate manager at a software company that make a product called WinTasks Pro. He suggested that my site would be an ideal match for the software and he asked me to sign up with Regnow affiliate network and start linking to the program. I did, and the sales quickly came in. This guy had gone to town in trying to persuade me to join up. He had sent me creenshots of all my key pages and had photoshopped them to include his adverts and showed me exactly where to place them for best results. Honestly, the approach he took to his affiliates puts a lot of affiliate managers in the shade.
Observation: There are some great affiliate managers out there and there are some pretty ordinary ones. If you're not working with the great ones, you're missing out.
It was staggering to see the kind of commissions that these software sales could generate. I had up until then been purely Adsense focused and now I was seeing commissions for $15-$20 per transaction and it was mind blowing. So things plodded along with my new income stream and the amount that had seemed amazing now seemed ordinary but I was happy with the site. Then one weekend, starting on the Friday, my Adsense money shot through the roof. Everytime I checked my stats and it had jumped significantly. Added to that, sales on Regnow were coming through at an almost scary rate. I had that kind of moment when you suddenly think yes, I've made it, my financial future is secure and I will probably never have to work again. Unfortunately I came back down to Earth within a few days and my earnings returned to "normal". But what caused that monster weekend? The website had featured on the BBC's Click Online program - shown worldwide - and had a recommendation from the host.
Observation: Exposing your website to a huge worldwide audience may lead to an increase in traffic and profits.
Sometimes, it would be fair to say, I've enjoyed the fact it reliably makes money and tried to squeeze too much out of it with a few too many ads. Maybe got a bit greedy and put money before the site's main purpose. When that happens, I usually find that the comments on the site start to turn hostile. I don't like to hear it but I generally respect that the users mostly made the site, and if they start to notice too many ads, I try and respond positively.
Observation: Your users don't mind you making money from the site, but they can get mighty ticked off if they think you're only in it for the money. Use them as a barometer. They'll let you know if they don't like what you're doing.
Since then, the site has carried on being a very solid performer. I've tried a few other things, such as placing Dell banners in the sidebar. Frankly, it got an appalling click through rate and no sales. I guess my thinking was that, these users are interested in computers, right? They're using a reference website to find out about their computer so they're into all that and they will surely buy loads of new PCs through Dell? No, I got it wrong. My users weren't looking for new computers at all and I was thinking too broadly to expect those banners to work. Only with the affiliate marketing that was very tight with the context of the specific page did I see decent conversions.
Observation: Where possible, adverts are absolutely in context and almost an extension of your content page perform great.
So, since then, the site has carried on working for me every day since and worked in a way which makes me love what I do. For the purposes of this case study, I just checked the Adsense stats for the related Channel over "all time". Total Adsense for earnings for the site have been $5,885.03. Affiliate software sales account for about £$200-$400 a month.
How it looked - Now and Then
(Aug 04) This snap shows the site shortly after it was born
(Jan 05) This was the site after it's first little revamp.
(June 07) This is the site as it is today. Heck, I think I preferred it how it was.
So tonight, What-Process.com, This Is Your Life....
The story of the site goes way back to a previous job where I wrote a small application for terminating Windows processes on remote computers to help me deal with a particular IT support issue. A year or so later I found myself sitting in the office for my new startup company twiddling my thumbs and decided to make use of my time by rewriting the application. Then it occurred to me that as well being able to list and terminate Windows processes, it would be cool if the tool could look up information about the process from some kind of website. Spyware was a major issue at the time and knowing what your computer was doing seemed like a useful thing to help with.
So after a bit of brainstorming, the idea evolved and I decided to create a process reference library online and link it to a desktop application. And in August 2004, I registered the domain name, What-Process.com.
Because I was giving the application away and it contained no adverts, I was able to quickly and easily get it listed on freeware sites. Next thing I knew, it was getting massively downloaded, my bandwidth limit exploded and it was getting reviewed around the world.
Observation: People love free stuff.
Everytime someone downloaded the application and ran it, they would get a list of the processes on their machine and if they clicked "what's this?", it would take them to the website. If information on the process it existed, it would be displayed. If it didn't exist in the database, it would automatically add it in. The site would never ever have a situation where it appeared not to know a process. If the application requested info, the page would be created immediately but with the warning "awaiting info on this process". This is where I fell in love with user generated content. I provided the tools and the users built the content. Before I knew it, I had a huge database of process names and comments from users explaining what many of them were. It became my first site to get a decent amount of traffic every day. With spyware and viruses so prevalent, my tool enabled my site to often be the first place that mentioned specific new rogue processes online purely from the fact that my users had attempted to find out what it was and added it to the site in doing so.
Observation: User generated content rules.
So things were ticking along nicely and I was seeing impressive (relative to my other sites) traffic. I had deployed Adsense around the rather crude looking site and it was the first concrete evidence that the internet money making avenue I was pursuing could definitely bear fruit.
Then one day, out of the blue, I got an email from an affiliate manager at a software company that make a product called WinTasks Pro. He suggested that my site would be an ideal match for the software and he asked me to sign up with Regnow affiliate network and start linking to the program. I did, and the sales quickly came in. This guy had gone to town in trying to persuade me to join up. He had sent me creenshots of all my key pages and had photoshopped them to include his adverts and showed me exactly where to place them for best results. Honestly, the approach he took to his affiliates puts a lot of affiliate managers in the shade.
Observation: There are some great affiliate managers out there and there are some pretty ordinary ones. If you're not working with the great ones, you're missing out.
It was staggering to see the kind of commissions that these software sales could generate. I had up until then been purely Adsense focused and now I was seeing commissions for $15-$20 per transaction and it was mind blowing. So things plodded along with my new income stream and the amount that had seemed amazing now seemed ordinary but I was happy with the site. Then one weekend, starting on the Friday, my Adsense money shot through the roof. Everytime I checked my stats and it had jumped significantly. Added to that, sales on Regnow were coming through at an almost scary rate. I had that kind of moment when you suddenly think yes, I've made it, my financial future is secure and I will probably never have to work again. Unfortunately I came back down to Earth within a few days and my earnings returned to "normal". But what caused that monster weekend? The website had featured on the BBC's Click Online program - shown worldwide - and had a recommendation from the host.
Observation: Exposing your website to a huge worldwide audience may lead to an increase in traffic and profits.
Sometimes, it would be fair to say, I've enjoyed the fact it reliably makes money and tried to squeeze too much out of it with a few too many ads. Maybe got a bit greedy and put money before the site's main purpose. When that happens, I usually find that the comments on the site start to turn hostile. I don't like to hear it but I generally respect that the users mostly made the site, and if they start to notice too many ads, I try and respond positively.
Observation: Your users don't mind you making money from the site, but they can get mighty ticked off if they think you're only in it for the money. Use them as a barometer. They'll let you know if they don't like what you're doing.
Since then, the site has carried on being a very solid performer. I've tried a few other things, such as placing Dell banners in the sidebar. Frankly, it got an appalling click through rate and no sales. I guess my thinking was that, these users are interested in computers, right? They're using a reference website to find out about their computer so they're into all that and they will surely buy loads of new PCs through Dell? No, I got it wrong. My users weren't looking for new computers at all and I was thinking too broadly to expect those banners to work. Only with the affiliate marketing that was very tight with the context of the specific page did I see decent conversions.
Observation: Where possible, adverts are absolutely in context and almost an extension of your content page perform great.
So, since then, the site has carried on working for me every day since and worked in a way which makes me love what I do. For the purposes of this case study, I just checked the Adsense stats for the related Channel over "all time". Total Adsense for earnings for the site have been $5,885.03. Affiliate software sales account for about £$200-$400 a month.
How it looked - Now and Then
(Aug 04) This snap shows the site shortly after it was born
(Jan 05) This was the site after it's first little revamp.
(June 07) This is the site as it is today. Heck, I think I preferred it how it was.
Labels: case study
Apprentice Series 3 Episode 11 (UK)
I'm a few days late as I was out on Wednesday and have finally caught up with this episode.
Episode 11 saw the five remaining candidates go through the "inteview stage", where three of Sir Alan's henchmen give them a verbal battering and see who comes out on top. From the clips shown, the interviews all seem quite hostile and designed to trip up and embarrass the candidates.
They gave their findings to Sir Alan who had to whittle the five down to two ready for next weeks final task.
Sir Alan didn't waste much time in firing Lohit, or putting him out of his misery as SAS put it. He seemed to have decided that Lohit wouldn't fit into his organisation. Lohit acknowledged that he hadn't been able to communicate to Sir Alan the value he had added to the tasks and sadly, the journey was over for him. I think Lohit did great to get so far without getting involved in the bitching and back biting that was common amongst the others.
Next to face the boot was Tre. Despite being on the winning team more times than anyone else, he lacked commercial experience - having mostly worked for a family business - and he stood accused of being argumentative, aggressive and I think I heard Margaret call him a bullshitter.
Now the real drama really unfolded. Sir Alan offered Katie a place in the final but then picked up on the fact she didn't seem overjoyed. The stumbling block seemed to be the issue of relocating her family and she decided ultimately to stand down and let Simon and Kristina progress to the final. Some will question whether Katie was only ever in this for herself and never wanted the job that was on offer, but the series wouldn't have been half as good without her, so I don't think the producers can hold it against her if that was her motive.
So, Sir Alan is left with Kristina and Simon - two candidates who both seem to really want the job. My money would be on Kristina, but next week we'll know who has failed and who will be... The Apprentice.
Episode 11 saw the five remaining candidates go through the "inteview stage", where three of Sir Alan's henchmen give them a verbal battering and see who comes out on top. From the clips shown, the interviews all seem quite hostile and designed to trip up and embarrass the candidates.
They gave their findings to Sir Alan who had to whittle the five down to two ready for next weeks final task.
Sir Alan didn't waste much time in firing Lohit, or putting him out of his misery as SAS put it. He seemed to have decided that Lohit wouldn't fit into his organisation. Lohit acknowledged that he hadn't been able to communicate to Sir Alan the value he had added to the tasks and sadly, the journey was over for him. I think Lohit did great to get so far without getting involved in the bitching and back biting that was common amongst the others.
Next to face the boot was Tre. Despite being on the winning team more times than anyone else, he lacked commercial experience - having mostly worked for a family business - and he stood accused of being argumentative, aggressive and I think I heard Margaret call him a bullshitter.
Now the real drama really unfolded. Sir Alan offered Katie a place in the final but then picked up on the fact she didn't seem overjoyed. The stumbling block seemed to be the issue of relocating her family and she decided ultimately to stand down and let Simon and Kristina progress to the final. Some will question whether Katie was only ever in this for herself and never wanted the job that was on offer, but the series wouldn't have been half as good without her, so I don't think the producers can hold it against her if that was her motive.
So, Sir Alan is left with Kristina and Simon - two candidates who both seem to really want the job. My money would be on Kristina, but next week we'll know who has failed and who will be... The Apprentice.
Labels: apprentice, review, tv
Friday, June 08, 2007
Friday Round Up
Well, just a short post so my blog isn't too neglected. This month going incredibly well, which is exciting. Thanks to one site moving from #2 to #1 on MSN.co.uk for a great search term, earnings in the past 8 days are equal to half of my total earnings in best ever month. June is looking to be a fantastic month and it shows that MSN can be very useful even if its just a small percentage of what Google can get.
Ideation (Thanks to Katie from the Apprentice for the silly buzzword)
Wouldn't it be nice if trendy green grocers, Abel & Cole had an affiliate program ?
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a Skype plugin that immediately googled numbers not in your contacts when they call you? (maybe there is? let me know!)
Ok, hands hurting with RSI - that's it for now.
Ideation (Thanks to Katie from the Apprentice for the silly buzzword)
Wouldn't it be nice if trendy green grocers, Abel & Cole had an affiliate program ?
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a Skype plugin that immediately googled numbers not in your contacts when they call you? (maybe there is? let me know!)
Ok, hands hurting with RSI - that's it for now.
Labels: ideas
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Purchase Report: Dabs.com did not track
Ordered some stuff through my own affiliate link yesterday, so here's a "purchase report".
Merchant: Dabs.com/Dabs4Work
Network: TradeDoubler
Product: Various
Click Recorded: Yes
Sale Recorded: NO
Only my 2nd online purchase since I decided to record the success/failure of tracking on my own purchases, and both times they haven't tracked. Hmm....
Merchant: Dabs.com/Dabs4Work
Network: TradeDoubler
Product: Various
Click Recorded: Yes
Sale Recorded: NO
Only my 2nd online purchase since I decided to record the success/failure of tracking on my own purchases, and both times they haven't tracked. Hmm....
Labels: purchase report
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Things I like About Affiliate Networks
I find that sometimes when blogging, the easiest thing to come up with for a post is a moan or a rant so I thought I'd come over all Pollyanna and try to be positive for a change and make a list of the things I like most about the affiliate networks I've signed up to.
TradeDoubler (sign up)
Detailed reports
Tradedoubler offers some cool reporting and allows me to quickly see from what site a sale has come, the time of the click and the time of the event/sale, and very often details of the actual purchase made i.e what products have been bought.
Easy to use "pools"
It's very easy with TradeDoubler to create a rotating advert pool. Once the pool has been defined, you can easily add new banners into it and adjust the weighting to determine frequency of impressions.
Affiliate Window (sign up)
Notifier Application
I love the little ker-ching when a sale comes through. I wish I heard it more often though, and it would be nice if it told me the merchant that was involved in the sale rather than just giving the figures.
Emails with affiliate links in
Others have already pointed out the usefulness of it - emails on behalf of AW merchants that contain details of current promotions and best sellers, with the affiliate link already built in so you can quickly copy and paste them.
Paid On Results (sign up)
Deep Link Generator
I love this. You add a javascript button to your favourites, then browse the merchant site - when you find a page you want to link to, just select the Deep Link Generator from your favourites and it will come up with a link for the page you were on. Magic.
Content Units
I've not really used these yet but I've seen the demos and POR's next generation content units look great.
Buy.at (sign up)
Hmm... I like Buy.at but am struggling to think of one outstanding feature but I'm sure there is one! I like the graphs in the new interface and the way you can quickly see how you're doing this month compared to last month. I guess I like the way if you contact support, you do get a confirmation email which contains a unique reference identifier in the message subject. I guess they're using some ticket system to manage them, which at least lets you know they've received the email.
Regnow (sign up)
Custom Coupons
I mentioned before how cool it is that I can create vouchers for specific products or for a merchant as a whole and determine how much they are worth by adjusting the value, which is taken out of my commission. With software sales, commissions are usually decent percentages which gives you quite a bit to play around with.
Emails when I get a sale
Like the Affiliate Window notifier, I want to know when a sale comes through. With Regnow, I get an email. It helps me keep track of how it's performing without me needing to log in frequently.
TradeDoubler (sign up)
Detailed reports
Tradedoubler offers some cool reporting and allows me to quickly see from what site a sale has come, the time of the click and the time of the event/sale, and very often details of the actual purchase made i.e what products have been bought.
Easy to use "pools"
It's very easy with TradeDoubler to create a rotating advert pool. Once the pool has been defined, you can easily add new banners into it and adjust the weighting to determine frequency of impressions.
Affiliate Window (sign up)
Notifier Application
I love the little ker-ching when a sale comes through. I wish I heard it more often though, and it would be nice if it told me the merchant that was involved in the sale rather than just giving the figures.
Emails with affiliate links in
Others have already pointed out the usefulness of it - emails on behalf of AW merchants that contain details of current promotions and best sellers, with the affiliate link already built in so you can quickly copy and paste them.
Paid On Results (sign up)
Deep Link Generator
I love this. You add a javascript button to your favourites, then browse the merchant site - when you find a page you want to link to, just select the Deep Link Generator from your favourites and it will come up with a link for the page you were on. Magic.
Content Units
I've not really used these yet but I've seen the demos and POR's next generation content units look great.
Buy.at (sign up)
Hmm... I like Buy.at but am struggling to think of one outstanding feature but I'm sure there is one! I like the graphs in the new interface and the way you can quickly see how you're doing this month compared to last month. I guess I like the way if you contact support, you do get a confirmation email which contains a unique reference identifier in the message subject. I guess they're using some ticket system to manage them, which at least lets you know they've received the email.
Regnow (sign up)
Custom Coupons
I mentioned before how cool it is that I can create vouchers for specific products or for a merchant as a whole and determine how much they are worth by adjusting the value, which is taken out of my commission. With software sales, commissions are usually decent percentages which gives you quite a bit to play around with.
Emails when I get a sale
Like the Affiliate Window notifier, I want to know when a sale comes through. With Regnow, I get an email. It helps me keep track of how it's performing without me needing to log in frequently.
Labels: affiliate marketing, affiliate network
Charity Link Meme
Thanks to Kirsty for tagging me for the charity link meme that's going around. The aim of this is to basically provide non-affiliate (gulp!) text links to charities to help spread a bit of "link juice".
Looking back at how it all started, I think it may have been intended that all the previous participants have their links included in the next tag to create some cumulative effect and that's become a bit disjointed somewhere along the line, but I will just paste in the ones from Kirsty's post too.
OK, that's the easy bit, now I got to come up with some names of others who I'd like to see do it. This is tricky because first you have to find someone who hasn't done the meme, then you have to make some assumption that they might somehow see you've tagged them but here goes...
Befuddled
Dan Morley
Fraser Edwards
Iain Dale
Looking back at how it all started, I think it may have been intended that all the previous participants have their links included in the next tag to create some cumulative effect and that's become a bit disjointed somewhere along the line, but I will just paste in the ones from Kirsty's post too.
- Breast Cancer Care
- Alzheimers Society
- World Land Trust
- Terrence Higgins Trust
- The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project
OK, that's the easy bit, now I got to come up with some names of others who I'd like to see do it. This is tricky because first you have to find someone who hasn't done the meme, then you have to make some assumption that they might somehow see you've tagged them but here goes...
Befuddled
Dan Morley
Fraser Edwards
Iain Dale
Labels: charity
Monday, June 04, 2007
Make-Money-Online.info for sale
For sale: Make-Money-Online.info
I got this domain a couple of months back and really like it.
I started a small Blogger blog there but to be honest, I haven't quite had the motivation to do anything serious with it (probably because the subject kind of duplicates what I already do here) , so I thought I'd offer it up for sale and see if anyone was interested in it. I guess a half decent site is going to generate some incoming links to it that automatically have great anchor text.
The trouble I have when it comes to selling stuff is that when I try to think of the reasons someone else would want to buy it, I end up convincing myself I should keep it.
Anyway, the domain is for sale - if you think you could do something with it, get in touch, otherwise I guess I'll sit on it for a bit and try to find some enthusiasm to do something with it later on.
I got this domain a couple of months back and really like it.
I started a small Blogger blog there but to be honest, I haven't quite had the motivation to do anything serious with it (probably because the subject kind of duplicates what I already do here) , so I thought I'd offer it up for sale and see if anyone was interested in it. I guess a half decent site is going to generate some incoming links to it that automatically have great anchor text.
The trouble I have when it comes to selling stuff is that when I try to think of the reasons someone else would want to buy it, I end up convincing myself I should keep it.
Anyway, the domain is for sale - if you think you could do something with it, get in touch, otherwise I guess I'll sit on it for a bit and try to find some enthusiasm to do something with it later on.
Labels: domain names
Friday, June 01, 2007
May Update: Blog Activity
It's at this time of the money that I like to check blog traffic from the previous month and see what interesting search terms brought people to the site.
Unique visitor numbers were almost identical to the previous month, with only a handful between the two.
The Apprentice features heavily in my most frequent search phrases alongside a variety of other interesting ones.
Unique visitor numbers were almost identical to the previous month, with only a handful between the two.
The Apprentice features heavily in my most frequent search phrases alongside a variety of other interesting ones.
- adsense vs tradedoubler (Fight!!)
- apart from sainsbury s where can i buy reggae reggae sauce?
- katie hopkins snake in the grass
- amstrad emailer bulk supplies (proof that product placement works?)
- closed groups ppc
- amazon web-services xml over http (the walkthrough is coming...!)
- science experiments involving lollies
- netklix (Oh yeah... Netkkix! Forgot about them!)
- how much do nick hewer and margaret mountford earn a year
Labels: about this site, blogs
May Update: Earnings
Google Adsense money was good last month, but about the same as the month before and I'm really looking to see some growth there. But hey ho, it's still the same as I earned pre-tax in my first job and I had to goto call centre everyday and speak to idiots for that.
Affiliate marketing from my sites was maybe a little below average - nothing to get excited about last month. Where networks/merchants show you what people order, it's always interesting in a voyeuristic kind of way. Someone on one of my sites must have seen Casino Royale and realised they actually quite liked James Bond, because an order came through for the complete Bond DVD boxset (all the EON productions), AND they ordered Never Say Never Again (which I have a certain fondness for too) AND they ordered the original Casino Royale with David Niven and Woody Allen, which has a great soundtrack and that's probably the best thing you can about that. It's kind of fasincating to know what makes someone think "right, I'll buy EVERY single Bond film possible".
Affiliate marketing from PPC was disappointing. I was worried at the start of the money how it was going. It recovered enough to mean I at least finished the month in profit - spent £340 on Adwords and made £420 in sales - but there were two periods of over 10 days with hundreds of clicks and no sales, which just doesn't feel right to me. I was intending to switch merchant at this point (it would be pretty seamless from site's point of view) but have decided to stick with it for another month and see how it goes because as was pointed out in the comments section, it may have been the previous month that was out of character and maybe this month was more typical. A third month to compare with should be useful to help tell.
Affiliate marketing from my sites was maybe a little below average - nothing to get excited about last month. Where networks/merchants show you what people order, it's always interesting in a voyeuristic kind of way. Someone on one of my sites must have seen Casino Royale and realised they actually quite liked James Bond, because an order came through for the complete Bond DVD boxset (all the EON productions), AND they ordered Never Say Never Again (which I have a certain fondness for too) AND they ordered the original Casino Royale with David Niven and Woody Allen, which has a great soundtrack and that's probably the best thing you can about that. It's kind of fasincating to know what makes someone think "right, I'll buy EVERY single Bond film possible".
Affiliate marketing from PPC was disappointing. I was worried at the start of the money how it was going. It recovered enough to mean I at least finished the month in profit - spent £340 on Adwords and made £420 in sales - but there were two periods of over 10 days with hundreds of clicks and no sales, which just doesn't feel right to me. I was intending to switch merchant at this point (it would be pretty seamless from site's point of view) but have decided to stick with it for another month and see how it goes because as was pointed out in the comments section, it may have been the previous month that was out of character and maybe this month was more typical. A third month to compare with should be useful to help tell.
Labels: earnings
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