Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Challenging My Comfort Zone
The good thing about having a site that ranks well for loads of keywords in its sector, is that the brands and manufacturers involved in the sector can't help but notice you. It's a good thing, and it's almost a bad thing too because it presents opportunities which are also quite challenging and not what you expect when you decide to make a site. Like when I was invited onto the BBC's World Service to discuss an issue relating to my site. I'm just a website owner / content creator. I don't really want to go on the radio to discuss the subject, but I could see it was a good opportunity although I turned it down and regretted it.
Now I've been invited to a product launch at a top London hotel by one of the key brands in the sector. On the face of it, yes, it's great to be noticed and there's the promise of a decent freebie, but going along to a launch, probably alongside more bona fide gadget journalists (reminding me of the "is a blogger a journalist" debate) sounds a bit daunting. I mean, I can almost imagine the small talk now....
"Hi, I'm Rory Cellan-Jones , Technology correspondent at the BBC... "
"Err yeah, Hi, I'm Rob... I knock up shallow content and plaster it with ads for a living, but I managed to get my site to #1 in Google so they had to invite me too".
Actually the site in question is doing well and I need to give it more attention this year. It's been making regular money for a few years so I have mainly left it to its own devices with occasional updates but without wanting to rock the boat too much lest I do anything which might spoil things.
What I should have done earlier is recognised I actually have the foundations of a decent brand with good traffic, my best page rank and which seems to rank well when I do take the time to add content, and spent my time developing it further and really mining what is a potentially great asset rather than be endlessly distracted by new sites in areas I know nothing about. So one of my belated resolutions is to work harder to get more out of my existing quality sites, and I guess that may mean having to accept the invitation to the product launch!
Now I've been invited to a product launch at a top London hotel by one of the key brands in the sector. On the face of it, yes, it's great to be noticed and there's the promise of a decent freebie, but going along to a launch, probably alongside more bona fide gadget journalists (reminding me of the "is a blogger a journalist" debate) sounds a bit daunting. I mean, I can almost imagine the small talk now....
"Hi, I'm Rory Cellan-Jones , Technology correspondent at the BBC... "
"Err yeah, Hi, I'm Rob... I knock up shallow content and plaster it with ads for a living, but I managed to get my site to #1 in Google so they had to invite me too".
Actually the site in question is doing well and I need to give it more attention this year. It's been making regular money for a few years so I have mainly left it to its own devices with occasional updates but without wanting to rock the boat too much lest I do anything which might spoil things.
What I should have done earlier is recognised I actually have the foundations of a decent brand with good traffic, my best page rank and which seems to rank well when I do take the time to add content, and spent my time developing it further and really mining what is a potentially great asset rather than be endlessly distracted by new sites in areas I know nothing about. So one of my belated resolutions is to work harder to get more out of my existing quality sites, and I guess that may mean having to accept the invitation to the product launch!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
"Can I Have Some More, Please?"
Here's an interesting scenario that's just come up for me. I've done some quite good work with an independent program over the past couple of months, and it's been a nice, unexpected success. That same independent program has just joined one of the major networks. I guess they would do this in order to reach out to new affiliates etc.
Now, it will be more convenient for me if I just switch my links over to the new networks links, and have the earnings paid to me along with other network earnings without the need to create invoices, which I currently do for the independent program.
The commission is the same on both programs, so I can't see any downside from me switching to the network program. The only downside, as far as I can tell, is for the merchant themselves who were able to pay me direct and would now have to pay me through a network, and therefore, have to pay the network too.
So it seems to me, it's in the merchant's interest for me to stay working direct and they should really incentivise me staying with them through giving me a better commission rate. But do I have the cheek to actually asking them for a bit more? Should I ? Would you ? If you would ask them for more money, how would you put it without looking excessively greedy?
I suppose one option is to just switch over and do what suits me best. If I am significant enough for it to be noticeable (quite possibly that won't even be the case), they may contact me to get me back on the independent program and make their own offer of an incentive. Another way that could play out is they could kick me off the network program and tell me it's direct or nothing, since we already had a relationship which I guess would be understandable too!
Now, it will be more convenient for me if I just switch my links over to the new networks links, and have the earnings paid to me along with other network earnings without the need to create invoices, which I currently do for the independent program.
The commission is the same on both programs, so I can't see any downside from me switching to the network program. The only downside, as far as I can tell, is for the merchant themselves who were able to pay me direct and would now have to pay me through a network, and therefore, have to pay the network too.
So it seems to me, it's in the merchant's interest for me to stay working direct and they should really incentivise me staying with them through giving me a better commission rate. But do I have the cheek to actually asking them for a bit more? Should I ? Would you ? If you would ask them for more money, how would you put it without looking excessively greedy?
I suppose one option is to just switch over and do what suits me best. If I am significant enough for it to be noticeable (quite possibly that won't even be the case), they may contact me to get me back on the independent program and make their own offer of an incentive. Another way that could play out is they could kick me off the network program and tell me it's direct or nothing, since we already had a relationship which I guess would be understandable too!
Labels: affiliate network, independent
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Some More Link Building Ideas
Link building is the boring, never ending duty that most of us website owners have to engage in. I've mentioned before about some link building ideas which have worked for me, including using snail mail.
Get Links Without Asking
Here's another idea which I have used once or twice with mixed success, but the good bit about it is, you don't have to actually write one of those grovelling emails asking for a link.
Here's what you do - you just link to the site that you want a link from. Easy, huh? Give it the ideal anchor text you think they would like, and even click on it a few times too if you want to up your chances of getting that link back.
If the site you are linking to is a Wordpress blog, the site owner will probably see your incoming link when they login to the admin page, where inbound links are listed on the front page. I think something similar might be in place for Typepad blogs but I'm not sure. Also, if the site owner has any kind of stats package in place, they should see that you have created a link to them and naturally be curious as to this source of new traffic, possibly be flattered and may well consider linking back to you.
Keep an eye on your own traffic logs and see if you see any clicks from the target domain, possibly including from the Wordpress admin pages ("/wp-admin/) or from an Awstats type page. If you notice they have checked you out, and haven't linked back within a week or so, you can abort that mission and take down your own link (unless of course you think it really is good and deserves a link). If you don't see any sign they have looked at your site, just give it a few weeks and double check their links page or blog roll and, again, take your own link down or leave it up if you think they deserve it.
Basically all this is doing is notifying another webmaster of your sites existence through creating a presence for it in their stats, and hoping there's enough goodwill to get you a link back. If you don't get one, nothing has been lost, and if you do - great, move on to your next one.
Write A Blog Post Asking For Links
Put a post on your blog saying explaining that you are looking for incoming links to your sites. You might want to explain what site you have, and what kind of site you want a link from... just like this:
Get Links Without Asking
Here's another idea which I have used once or twice with mixed success, but the good bit about it is, you don't have to actually write one of those grovelling emails asking for a link.
Here's what you do - you just link to the site that you want a link from. Easy, huh? Give it the ideal anchor text you think they would like, and even click on it a few times too if you want to up your chances of getting that link back.
If the site you are linking to is a Wordpress blog, the site owner will probably see your incoming link when they login to the admin page, where inbound links are listed on the front page. I think something similar might be in place for Typepad blogs but I'm not sure. Also, if the site owner has any kind of stats package in place, they should see that you have created a link to them and naturally be curious as to this source of new traffic, possibly be flattered and may well consider linking back to you.
Keep an eye on your own traffic logs and see if you see any clicks from the target domain, possibly including from the Wordpress admin pages ("/wp-admin/) or from an Awstats type page. If you notice they have checked you out, and haven't linked back within a week or so, you can abort that mission and take down your own link (unless of course you think it really is good and deserves a link). If you don't see any sign they have looked at your site, just give it a few weeks and double check their links page or blog roll and, again, take your own link down or leave it up if you think they deserve it.
Basically all this is doing is notifying another webmaster of your sites existence through creating a presence for it in their stats, and hoping there's enough goodwill to get you a link back. If you don't get one, nothing has been lost, and if you do - great, move on to your next one.
Write A Blog Post Asking For Links
Put a post on your blog saying explaining that you are looking for incoming links to your sites. You might want to explain what site you have, and what kind of site you want a link from... just like this:
- I have a website about Mayfair in London and am looking to trade links with any London centric sites, or travel sites and blogs.
- I have a website about designer watches and am looking to trade links with any fashion sites, such as clothing or accessories.
- I have a website about Toys and am looking for links from any related sites.
- I have a website about personalised gifts and am looking to get links from any gift related sites.
- I have a website about a hit US drama and am looking to trade links with any other TV program sites.
Labels: link building
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Spoiler Tactics From Tesco, Or Am I Just Too Cynical?
I have been paying particular attention to a toy called Butterscotch the Pony. Not especially from an affiliate mindset - although perhaps I should of done as it seems to have been a hot toy last Christmas - but as a general customer, as someone in the family wanted it as a gift. We managed to get hold of one, but it broke, so now the hunt is back on for a replacement.
Prices have been fluctuating quite heavily on this toy, but for most retailers the price has been put up since Christmas, perhaps to take advantage of stock shortages as it tends to go out of stock quickly.
One shop hasn't put the price up though. Before Christmas, Tesco were selling Butterscotch for £199.99, although it was out of stock from the time I first saw it. I signed up to get an email when it came back in stock, and the item never came back into stock. In fact, it is now marked as discontinued. But oddly, the price on the Tesco website has been put down to £149.99. So despite the item never coming back into stock, and therefore never having the chance to sell it as a revised price, they are listing the item with a price far cheaper than anyone else is selling it for, although they aren't able to supply it at that price.
So maybe I am just being cynical, but it looks like to me like they have cut the price just to make their rivals who do have stock look more expensive. Are these the kind of murky games that retailers play?
Prices have been fluctuating quite heavily on this toy, but for most retailers the price has been put up since Christmas, perhaps to take advantage of stock shortages as it tends to go out of stock quickly.
One shop hasn't put the price up though. Before Christmas, Tesco were selling Butterscotch for £199.99, although it was out of stock from the time I first saw it. I signed up to get an email when it came back in stock, and the item never came back into stock. In fact, it is now marked as discontinued. But oddly, the price on the Tesco website has been put down to £149.99. So despite the item never coming back into stock, and therefore never having the chance to sell it as a revised price, they are listing the item with a price far cheaper than anyone else is selling it for, although they aren't able to supply it at that price.
So maybe I am just being cynical, but it looks like to me like they have cut the price just to make their rivals who do have stock look more expensive. Are these the kind of murky games that retailers play?
Blogger Vs Wordpress
Blogger and Wordpress are both useful blogging platforms, and each has their fans. I happen to use both of them and thought I'd briefly go through what I perceive to be some of the pros and cons of each in order to work out which is best.
The Case For Blogger
Blogger is a simple to use blogging system from Google. It's free to use and allows someone to very quickly get a blog up and running, either under the blogspot.com domain or under a custom domain name of their own choosing. I prefer to publish by FTP to my own website. You login to the Blogger website and publish posts, which generate static HTML files. Because it generates HTML files, you can publish these to any web server to which you have access by FTP.
The Case Against Blogger
There's no technical reason for it, but Blogger blogs often don't look as good as Wordpress blogs. There are a variety of templates available, but I genuinely haven't seen many with a "wow" factor. The method of commenting on a Blogger blog isn't great either. To add a comment requires you to be taken off the blog site and to a blogger hosted page. This gives a slightly fractured feel to the user experience when adding a comment. Making a change to a large blog, or publishing a new post can be really slow because each static page needs to be recreated (if you are using FTP publishing).
The Case For Wordpress
Wordpress is really nice to use with some features - it actually makes blogging a pleasure. A wide variety of attractive themes is available, and switching between them is a doddle. There's loads of useful plugins available that extend the functionality of Wordpress.
Another thing I like Wordpress is that I can write posts in advance that don't show up until on or after the timestamp that I give them. I'm currently writing a blog about a TV show airing on BBC one. I've already seen all episodes in advance, and can write blog posts recapping episodes, and timestamp them so that the posts will automatically show up after the show has been aired.
Wordpress allows you to take control of the URL structure and create SEO friendly pages. The ability to create "pages" as well as "posts" gives Wordpress makes it feel more like a CMS than just a blog.
The Case Against Wordpress
Wordpress often needs updating, as new versions come out or security risks are discovered. Because it's run from a database, if there's any problems with the server hosting the database, the whole blog goes down. Whilst you can run mySQL and Wordpress on Windows web hosting, you can only get the benefit of SEO-friendly URLs by using mod-rewrite, which is available on Apache web server which is usually part of a LAMP hosting environment. Setting up Wordpress is a bit more of a technical challenge than Blogger, although some hosts do offer a "one click" installation.
In summing up, both Blogger and Wordpress are useful tools which will allow anyone to get a decent looking site up and running and allow them to concentrate on content. My own personal opinion is that if I am creating a new site which is a dedicated blog, I will plump for Wordpress. If I am adding a blog as a section to an existing site, and probably just using it as a means to regularly add content, I tend to use Blogger.
Using the logic above, this website should actually be on Wordpress and I do hope to migrate across sometime this year.
Let me know if I missed an advantage of disadvantage of Wordpress or Blogger...
The Case For Blogger
Blogger is a simple to use blogging system from Google. It's free to use and allows someone to very quickly get a blog up and running, either under the blogspot.com domain or under a custom domain name of their own choosing. I prefer to publish by FTP to my own website. You login to the Blogger website and publish posts, which generate static HTML files. Because it generates HTML files, you can publish these to any web server to which you have access by FTP.
The Case Against Blogger
There's no technical reason for it, but Blogger blogs often don't look as good as Wordpress blogs. There are a variety of templates available, but I genuinely haven't seen many with a "wow" factor. The method of commenting on a Blogger blog isn't great either. To add a comment requires you to be taken off the blog site and to a blogger hosted page. This gives a slightly fractured feel to the user experience when adding a comment. Making a change to a large blog, or publishing a new post can be really slow because each static page needs to be recreated (if you are using FTP publishing).
The Case For Wordpress
Wordpress is really nice to use with some features - it actually makes blogging a pleasure. A wide variety of attractive themes is available, and switching between them is a doddle. There's loads of useful plugins available that extend the functionality of Wordpress.
Another thing I like Wordpress is that I can write posts in advance that don't show up until on or after the timestamp that I give them. I'm currently writing a blog about a TV show airing on BBC one. I've already seen all episodes in advance, and can write blog posts recapping episodes, and timestamp them so that the posts will automatically show up after the show has been aired.
Wordpress allows you to take control of the URL structure and create SEO friendly pages. The ability to create "pages" as well as "posts" gives Wordpress makes it feel more like a CMS than just a blog.
The Case Against Wordpress
Wordpress often needs updating, as new versions come out or security risks are discovered. Because it's run from a database, if there's any problems with the server hosting the database, the whole blog goes down. Whilst you can run mySQL and Wordpress on Windows web hosting, you can only get the benefit of SEO-friendly URLs by using mod-rewrite, which is available on Apache web server which is usually part of a LAMP hosting environment. Setting up Wordpress is a bit more of a technical challenge than Blogger, although some hosts do offer a "one click" installation.
In summing up, both Blogger and Wordpress are useful tools which will allow anyone to get a decent looking site up and running and allow them to concentrate on content. My own personal opinion is that if I am creating a new site which is a dedicated blog, I will plump for Wordpress. If I am adding a blog as a section to an existing site, and probably just using it as a means to regularly add content, I tend to use Blogger.
Using the logic above, this website should actually be on Wordpress and I do hope to migrate across sometime this year.
Let me know if I missed an advantage of disadvantage of Wordpress or Blogger...
Monday, January 07, 2008
3 Skypephone, and How To Engage With Bloggers
I was recently contacted by 3 Mobile Buzz, which has been setup to help the mobile company 3 engage with bloggers, and get them talking about 3's products. They kindly loaned me two Skypephones.
In case you haven't heard of them, 3's Skypephones are cool mobile handsets which have Skype fully integrated. Just press the Skype button (you really can't miss it) and up pops the Skype application, just as you know it from the desktop. You can make unmetered Skype calls across 3's data network for no cost, as long as you're on a contract or have recently topped up if you're on PAYG.
I thought the best place for the actual 3 Skyphone review was over at myHotpots.co.uk, so check that out for more info.
I think getting in touch with bloggers is a great way to get the word out about new products. It's especially cool that they send two so I could lend one to a friend to test the functionality. I think I read elsewhere that Toshiba were doing something similar with their laptops recently.
I want to do some more video reviews this year, and that gets a lot easier when companies are willing to provide kit for review purposes.I'll be sending the handsets back soon but thanks to 3 Mobile Buzz for sending them out.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
What Does The Future Hold For Affiliate Networks?
Well, the answer to the question in the title is that I don't really know and "thought leadership" isn't really my bag so I won't try to answer it. But I read this interesting blog post recently and I haven't seen this blog on any of the usual blog aggregators, so thought it was worth flagging it up.
It looks at some of the challenges facing networks and wonders how they can stop themselves being sidelined by direct deals between the merchants and the 20% of affiliates who provide 80% of the traffic. As far as I can tell, the blogger isn't directly involved in affiliate marketing, but is a venture capitalist interested in opportunities within the sector so his perspective is worth a read...
The affiliate network is dead: long live performance marketing
It looks at some of the challenges facing networks and wonders how they can stop themselves being sidelined by direct deals between the merchants and the 20% of affiliates who provide 80% of the traffic. As far as I can tell, the blogger isn't directly involved in affiliate marketing, but is a venture capitalist interested in opportunities within the sector so his perspective is worth a read...
The affiliate network is dead: long live performance marketing
Labels: affiliate marketing, blogs
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The Joy Of Wordpress: New Look Site In A Few Clicks
One of the best things about Wordpress is all the themes that are available, which you an easily get hold of and apply to your site in just a few clicks. Ok, there's nothing new there - we all know that. But I just gave a site a total new look and thought I'd share the example.
I started a personalised gifts website in the months before Christmas and applied a Christmas theme. Now with Christmas out of the way, the site has regenerated like something out of Doctor Who, and with a few clicks, now has the look of a personalised gifts website for Valentines Day.
Before...
After...
Once the new theme was applied, there was a bit of tinkering to be done to get it just right, and I need to edit the text on a couple of pages where it directly mentions Christmas, but essentially I have a totally new look website all ready for the next major gift giving occasion with virtually no effort.
Here's a great 101 on Wordpress over at Kirsty's blog. By the way, after putting that link to Kirsty's site, I couldn't remember the origin of the term "101" so Googled it and found this out from Wikipedia: "101 (one hundred [and] one) is the natural number following 100 and preceding 102". Thanks Wikipedia, where would we be without you!
p.s. Happy new year.
I started a personalised gifts website in the months before Christmas and applied a Christmas theme. Now with Christmas out of the way, the site has regenerated like something out of Doctor Who, and with a few clicks, now has the look of a personalised gifts website for Valentines Day.
Before...
After...
Once the new theme was applied, there was a bit of tinkering to be done to get it just right, and I need to edit the text on a couple of pages where it directly mentions Christmas, but essentially I have a totally new look website all ready for the next major gift giving occasion with virtually no effort.
Here's a great 101 on Wordpress over at Kirsty's blog. By the way, after putting that link to Kirsty's site, I couldn't remember the origin of the term "101" so Googled it and found this out from Wikipedia: "101 (one hundred [and] one) is the natural number following 100 and preceding 102". Thanks Wikipedia, where would we be without you!
p.s. Happy new year.
Labels: wordpress
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