Affiliate Marketing Blog

Until recently I have normally targetted offers and affiliate programmes that offer commissions of £15+ just because it is often hard to get low cost traffic even on freebie or low commission offers. I understand that they convert alot better but I prefer to get 2 or 3 sales than lots of 50p’s its just the way I am..however with many sectors getting increasingly hard to make a profit due to loads of new affiliates jumping on the bandwagon I have decided to try 3 or 4 offers over the next few months (in between Christmas promotion and some of my non affiliate ideas).

The plan is to target lower commission with the view of testing with ppc with a view to build up natural traffic in due course. I am not an SEO expert by any means but I have had some success with content based sites and I have decided to see if I can’t level out PPC / SEO.

Plus I would rather spend time than money on things as my google/yahoo spend seems to be increasing at a massive rate which although means I am making more I am still waiting up to 3 months for some commissions.

I have decided to concentrate on some clickbank and affiliate window based offers solely for the quick payout at once every 2 weeks

I shall report back in a week or two with some stats to show you how well I am doing through facebook ads / longtail keywords on google and if I can some how get

I have been rather ill over that last few days and so I haven’t had much time or va va voom to post anything useful other than me whinging about man flu and so I thought I wouldn’t bother.

What do other inspiring affiliates do when they are ill? Some people are lucky in that things can coast on auto pilot but some just refuse to stop working no matter how bad it gets, what type of affiliate marketer are you?

After browsing one of my campaigns on Adwords, I have noticed a crazy 58% click through rate for my name and with a cost of 84pence and 7 clicks later I can guarantee at least one of those clicks returned a sale of around £15-20 which is good money.

You are thinking, so what is he getting at?…Well I am enlighting those who don’t already bid on their domain name key phrases to do so even at a cost of a few pounds per day as most likely the people clicking the ad (apart from competitors) are returning high valued visitors who are much more likely to buy something after mulling it over.

If you hadn’t spent that 84p protecting your name and making sure your traffic comes back to your site then you are losing out on vast profits and potentially the difference between making money and not. Obviously if your domain is cheapmobilephones.com you will probably have the keywords covered in your campaign but perhaps not if your site is 12345mobiles.com.

Something to take into consideration as when I first started I didn’t do it as I was too focused on paying through the nose for the keywords I wanted people to find me for that the simple things went out of the window.

Some readers may wonder why the site has no nice theme like the other wonderful affiliate marketing blogs out there. The reason for this is I would like you to offer up your suggestions on what you want the site to look like. If you have any ideas or wish for me to sample a theme you have designed then drop me a comment below.

I am thinking that the theme will be something along the lines of a blue, simple streamlined look that isn’t the basic how wordpress comes theme.

Next weeks posts will include some pictures to give the page a bit of life

After a grueling 3 hours I have just created lots and lots of php redirect pages for my affiliate links for some of my websites. There are several advantages to this:

1/ If for example a merchant switches programmes or you work in a sector like gambling where its possible to switch and change to a variety of agencies to get the best deals you can update one single file and every link on every site will be updated.
2/ You don’t miss links when updating.
3/ It looks neater for your visitors (they feel they know what they are clicking)
4/ You are working with a small network that has a particular offer paying well - Keep your advantage so other would be affiliates don’t jump on the bandwagon by seeing where the links go.
5/ Erm..its late..You can think of your own 5th reason for php redirecting.

So for those of you who don’t already do this there is a simple way to create a php redirect:

<?php
header( ‘Location: http://www.affiliatelinkhere.com’ ) ;
?>

Save the file as merchantname.php or anything you like

Its a simple process that although can take time if like me you have lots of merchants, but as most of my sites are all individually updated and aren’t worked around a CMS this process will be implemented through my whole inventory when I get a minute.

Its nearly 4am so I am done for the night. I just thought I would post this so I didn’t forget.

Sat here on a Saturday night I thought I may unwind on GTA4 and forget that I still have a very strong hangover and it inspired me to write this post. So Sony like many companies are really feeling the pinch at the moment but I would like to congratulate them on something, there customer service is exceptional! Obviously I am sure that they have had their fair share of cockups but when my shiny PS3 broke down last Wednesday I swiftly rang Sony expecting 2 weeks of pain without my beauty and maybe a trip to where I bought it…No the lovely woman on the end of the phone asked me where they could pick it up from and how soon..SHOCKED FACE again, they came on the Friday swapped the console on my doorstep and that was that, no forms, no hassle, not even much press 1 for this and 2 for that.

For this reason alone I am very happy for purchasing a PS3 and I am happy to sing the praises of Sony.

The biggest tip I can give any affiliate that is driving half decent traffic/sales to a merchants site is be a cheeky bugger..I am and I am not afraid to admit it. I have asked for increased commission from about 10 merchants over the last 3-4 months and I have got it every time. If a network/merchant can get away with giving you the minimum and still get good leads then they will. Even if there is no scale for your particular offer or product ask for more because if your keen and can deliver then you will probably get it.

Asking for more commission means your risks are reduced, your profits are increased and you can afford to experiment with your campaigns if using pay per click.

I have been looking over my pay per click spend for the last few months with a shocked face thinking what I could have spent that money on in terms of alternate advertising. I am glad that I have realised early on that although PPC is a very good way of getting your foot in the door on the affiliate marketing journey it is not the only way to gather traffic and conversions.

Currently I am conducting an experiment that should show that a bit more effort a little less auto pilot on just one campaign can infact make for a great living compared to just plodding along. I can’t give you the exact name of the site as well would you reveal one of your best niches:-P but I will explain how I have / will build links and content to push my site to the top of google saving a fortune on costly clicks. It also helps that I have purchased the .com of my main keyword which shows..don’t just think oooo that name will be taken as at 3am when I checked it I had to rub my eyes and check there was no spelling mistakes. (on that note does any one want to buy www.ukcasioreviews.co.uk - ideal for watches not so good for casinos..lol)

I will be spending approximately 1/3 of my PPC budget on article writing/submission, link building as well as taking some advice on SEO. If this works and I get to the top of google I will continue a greatly reduced PPC campaign with more experimental and long tail keywords. I will keep this experiment updated - Since building the site i have received 200 uniques which would have cost just under £100 and the site is only indexed by ask and yahoo at the moment.

It has been a slow week in terms of progress on my new ideas due to a few reasons, partly due to my friends 22nd birthday and a few nights with no sleep. I have primarily been focusing my attention on my new site sure-bet as well as possible new niches that I can sink my teeth into. The sure bet idea is becoming a reality (finally) after 2 years of planning and changing the original idea.

Sure bet is not an affiliate venture and is not the first non affiliate business I have started..hang on I hear you cry is this an affiliate blog or not..yes is the answer and I am working on a variety of articles for your enjoyment so don’t panic.

I started off running IC Communications from the ground up offering a range of telecom services but since there has been a shift towards an affiliate focus whereby you can generate a campaign, rinse and repeat over and over without the hassles of increased problems and headaches that are associated with a “proper” business so to speak.

Its only recently that surebet has come off the back burner to be unleashed on the world. Sure bet is a guranteed betting service that allows customers to bet on all outcomes of a bet to give a guaranteed return. As you can gather its primarily web based. The service like everything I launch is a slow rolling start which means problems can be addressed as they arrise. The site even features an affiliate programme ;-). I am staring in a youtube video explaining fully how sure bet works this week and I will update you all on generating traffic through video sites in the coming weeks.

While still ironing out bugs and adding content as well as bookmakers to the system all week I have been pondering, how do you all promote services that regular people will want but are un aware exist? It has been bugging me for a while how to promote sure bet as it feels like a million miles away from the usual affiliate marketing I teke part in as, when potential customers see the landing page they will be hooked but the idea is also linked with the roulette systems and scam ebooks that have already given it a bad name before it is launched on the world.

Other than, PPC, Word of mouth and SEO if you can think of a way to get surebet out there to the betting market post a comment and the best suggestions will get a months free membership to sure bet worth £29.99!

Click here to get some inspiration from the sure bet site, as well as sign up to a VERY generous affiliate programme - Contact the site quoting this blog to negociate an even better rate

I was going to leave this until my blog is a flourish with visitors and content so people will come back but what the heck, why not check out some of my haunts if like me at nearly 3am you fancy getting your teeth into how to build the perfect landing page or why facebook advertising is the bomb.

- Shoe Money - Skills to pay the bills
- Here.org.uk - Affiliate marketing blog by Keiron Donoghue
- Affiliatestuff.co.uk - Kirstys Affiliate guide

There are more which I will add over the next few days but those are the top 3 I check out on a daily basis.