Affiliate Marketing Blog

How To Build Links Easily & Without Spending A Penny

2008-07-17T12:40:00.005+01:00

You know I'm always harping on about writing good content and the links will follow, well sometimes you need to give yourself a quick leg-up.

You have to start somewhere; so when you've got a site that really offers value, has something different or you're just desperate for links and eyeballs, here's what to do.

You probably won't have Google's Adplanner (which is awesome) or Hitwise, but you'll have access to Alexa, Dmoz Google and Yahoo!

If you had Google Adplanner you could just put in a few sites in your industry that come to mind and Google will list similar sites - here' you'll just export them to a xls and save them for the next step.

If you didn't have access to it you simply find a relevant directory listing in DMOZ and then think about relevant keywords for your topic. Put them into the Google Keyword Suggestion tool, and get yourself a good range of related keywords (say 50).

From this, just search Google and get some domains that rank well for those terms - add them to a spreadsheet and the continue to expand on them until you've got 20-30 domains (as a starting point, you could always do more if you wanted).

Then go over to Yahoo Site Explorer, and drop in the domains, click search and then select "Inlinks". Simply export them and then aggregate them into one spreadsheet and filter for unique links. It sounds complicated but it doesn't take long.

You'll now have a nice long list of sites for you to work through and see if you can establish a way for them to link to you. For one client I've got over 6000 links - some of their competitors are spamming with doorway sites etc - so I can ignore those.

Some of these pages will actually be blog posts and you can leave a comment. They'll probably have a nofollow on the links so there wouldn't be significant SEO benefit, but you'll still be getting eyeballs and visits from relevant people.

Other times they'll be directories, which is fine, but they're not as cracked up to be as some say.

Sometimes, it'll be a list of relevant sites that a website owner has created so you'll be able to get a link from them.

The thing is I hate the traditional method of searching for "sumbit url [keyword]" "add your site [keyword]" etc as every Muppet does that. Also most of the directories that you'll find are utter crap. Also more and more of them are charging for entry - and the title of this post includes "Without Spending A Penny".

Also you'd want to get links from sites/blogs which don't link to your competitors. So you've got to be clever. Conduct searches like "how does [keyword]" and post away. You could be even cleverer and try and spot blogs that reward frequent comments with "commentluv" - work out how to do that one yourself ;-)

You can also offer to write content for people and have your link included as a reference.

But don't forget, you need good quality content if you want to break out from the pack. Do something unusual with your site, do some research, put some graft in, or at the very least get lucky!

Also, don't forget link-building is exponential. The higher up the SERPS you go, the more visits you have and then you'll have more chance of attracting people that actually see value in your site and want to link back to you. In otherwords, it gets easier!

p.s. You could also use Google Answers and Yahoo Answers and reply with relevant answers ;-)

Everything You Could Possibly Want To Know About Google

2008-07-15T07:35:00.002+01:00

Except the algo ;-)!

I get lost when I'm trying to find certain tools or services offered by Google and I came across this "Google Cheat Sheet" which has a list of all these services, their country domains, various query types (search operators), all the google calculator commands (when I can't be bothered to reach for my calculator), a list of all their blogs and other stuff. I'm sure it needs a bit of updating - but its still useful.

Don't forget you can zoom in.

What The Heck Is Going On With The Economy?

2008-07-14T10:14:00.001+01:00

I've had a client blog about the CEBR report which shows that house prices in London have risen on average by 6.4% over the past 12 months. Now a client of mine who are estate agents in London has blogged about that they've seen house prices rise by a staggering 20% in some areas of London over the same period.

The thing is that we've been shown at every opportunity how bad the economy is. They're saying people are now in negative equity and some have seen 40% wiped off the value of their property.

We're also told that retail sales are down with Sainsbury and M&S shoppers are moving to Asda and Lidl, we're also told that car sales are down shed loads.

But what I see as going on is that over the past few years some people have made a serious wedge and are immune to the increases in utility and commodity prices - they'll spend what they like and how they like without taking a second thought.

Others are feeling the pinch big time and really struggling to cut costs.

I see over the course of the year a flight to "cheap", "discount", "offers", "free", and the such like keywords. I also see a move to lower-cost, even domestic holidays taking a greater share of the market. Merchants that offer real value for money will thrive.

I've seen it with another client recently where they're not offering products on sale and have seen revenue fall in the face of virtually every other competitor slash their prices.

Shoppers will flock to the internet in even greater numbers to find bargains - we've got to make sure that our SEO strategy is spot on to capture these "value-seeking" purchasers. Is your SEO ready for them?

Why I'm Paying For AdsenseLog

2008-07-13T19:52:00.003+01:00

I never click on ads on Facebook as I never see them as being relevant (apart from the Wedding ones and that's just a bloody cheek seeing I'm engaged). But today was different. I saw an ad for AdSenseLog which took me to this Fan Page.

Now I'm a stats junky so I downloaded the free trial and hooked it up with my account and saw the lovely stats I'd only bother looking at in Excel every now and then!

As I run some sites that don't really focus on CPA then this sort of data is becoming increasingly useful to me. Site's like Route Planners, Halo Movie, 3D Cinema are all long term sites with variable uses - some of them include using the obvious benefits of creating niche content sites. I've pretty much just used it over the past 3 years as bumf to fill pages and haven't done any MFA sites for ages. They used to make about £500 a day :-( (I'm trying not to fall into the trap of chasing the quick buck and doing them again)

So here's the sort of stats it can chuck out (my real data and it lets you export into gifs/jpg/pdf etc:

Impression data:

I can even show payment information:

And stuff like daily averages:

You can even compare different channels and their performance overtime. From this chart you can see how HG (my old Get Holidays MFA site) gradually got picked up by Google, then got knocked out, then came back in again and then suffered a slow painful death. The same can be said for GS (my old Get shopping site) which was raking in a fair few quid until Google got annoyed by that one too.

So now I'm refocusing on content sites and with some of them focusing on CPC rather than CPA, AdSenseLog will be a central tool in my decision-making process.

p.s. they haven't asked me to blog about it and I've not received anything for mentioning the product.

Please Don't Promote The iPhone

2008-07-10T09:02:00.002+01:00

So affilaites are only allowed to deliver incremental sales then? We're not allowed to ride the wave of hype to wonga-ville?

I got this email from Buy.at, and although I understand that CPW have limited stock and they don't want to be paying commissions on products they'd sell normally, but surely saying that we're not allowed ot promote the new iPhone in any manner including links from our sites and PPC is a bit daft.

And also reducing the commission rate for this product is totally ludicrous!! This can only come about because of the exclusive nature of the product! This is artificially keeping it's cost high and ensuring that the cost of acquiring each customer is as low as possible as the iPhone PR machine is letting everyone know you can't get it elsewhere.

I'm praying for a free and open market one day. Not impressed. Anyways, here's the email:

Dear Lee,

The much anticipated Apple iPhone 3G is due to go on sale on Friday 11th July.

Carphone Warehouse will be paying affiliates a fantastic £20 commission for all Apple iphone sales generated.

They will also pay commission for all Apple iphone orders from the 7th July that then convert to sales once the product goes on sale.

Commission is based on one important factor, affiliates are forbidden to promote this product under any means, including; links to the Carphone Warehouse Apple iphone page and pay per click. If any affiliate is found advertising the Apple iPhone, Carphone will not pay any commission on the sales generated. buy.at will be monitoring affiliate sites carefully to make sure there are no breaches. This is due to the very limited stock.

Please contact me on the details below if there is anything you are unsure of.

Kind Regards,

Sarah

But on a good note, I got this shortly after the buy.at email:

Thank you for ordering with Carphone Warehouse Online.

We are happy to tell you that we have processed your order. It will shortly be dispatched from our warehouse.

At least my iPhone is on its way :D

the bad news it's dispatched by CityLink - there'll be a good chance I'll spend the next week trying to get it delivered as they'll sniff at my front door and drop a card in.

Join Our Fantasy Football League

2008-07-07T11:57:00.002+01:00

So the footbally season is nearly upon us. Unlike previous years I've chosen my team way before most tours have started.

If you think you can beat my scientific calculations and thrash my team then sign up to our mini-league (I'm sure there'll be an A4U one too which you can tag yourself against too). The code to join is "26916-9485" and you can do so my clicking here

What do you think of my team?

I'm going to substitute Ronaldo out if he has his op as we won't be going to Madrid.

Tell Me Why ....

2008-07-07T09:34:00.002+01:00

I don't like Mondays ...

A week ago we were on our way back from Barbados where much hilarity was had and now I'm sat at my desk with a to-do list as long as my arm, the whether is crap, I've got a VAT return to do, I've got more emails I can deal with (even after deleting 2,000 yesterday), I'm moving into a bigger office so have to sort all that rubbish out, there's only 3 months until my Christmas site needs to be finished ..

So, i'm trying to look at the positives ...

1) I'm not affected by the credit crunch directly
2) I've got a roof over my head
3) The fridge is stocked
4) I've got some great memories of Barbados
5) I've got some cracking mates
6) I've got cash in the bank
7) I'm getting married next year
8) I've got some awesome sites in progress
9) I'm just about to book another holiday (although it's not for another 3 months!)
10) I've got some fantastic clients
11) She hasn't found the photos yet ;-)

So for all you miserable buggers - cheer up!

Learning From Your Mistakes: Austria-2008.co.uk

2008-07-07T08:30:00.000+01:00

I started my Euro 2008 blog over two years ago and it was my first foray into a mass-event blog so I was really feeling my way.

I didn't put too much effort into it, just the odd couple of hours a week but did enjoy it. But now as I'm starting in earnest on my World Cup Football and Euro 2012 sites I'm wondering what I've learned.

So here's my thoughts:

I didn't do enough link building. The site is in DMOZ and some other directories, but I should have worked harder link building and publicising it via blogs etc. I relied too heavily on links from other sites.
I didn't do enough link bait. I managed to get 2,000 visits in one day from a post about a fake England shirt but I should have carried it on and tried to do something every month.

You can see that spike here:
I should have focused on the successful long tail keywords and prepared them much earlier on. Despite there being 43,000 different keyword variations that the site was found from. I could have easily doubled it.
I should have looked to monetise it more in other ways that adsense and football shirts. there was loads of Sky stuff I could have done. I should have lost my dislike for the company and the affiliate programme and taken the cash.
I should have known that England weren't going to qualify as it was chuffing obvious that Mclaren was crap manager and we wouldn't make it.
I shouldn't have stopped working on the site when when we didn't qualify - I should have looked at the betting angle. I don't like betting, so again, I should have left my morals at the office door.
I shouldn't have had two holidays during the tournament. This seriously messed things up. I could have still kept the traffic flowing if I'd just done a couple of match review posts a day.
I should have worked closer with content providers and merchants and add content to the sites. I had some of the football shirt retailers sending unique content and ideas through, but I should have worked harder on this.
I should have started with a email-capture competition or a simple registration form so I could have mailed people through the tournament and increased revenue that way.
I should not have got fed up with all the spammy registrations on the forum and actually approved the legitimate people so they could post - and actually post myself.
Web 2.0 stuff like the Google My Maps and including them in your site not only provides useful information for users that they'll link to from other sites, but also you can get traffic from searches on Google maps itself. Check out my Basle stadium guide page. (I did these the day of the last match - I wish I bloody waited for us to qualify before I did them!)
Remember that dmoz isn't just there for being there's sake. It can actually deliver traffic and be a source for other site owners to find and then link to you. Dmoz was my second biggest site referrer:
I should have actually taken time to participate in relevant forums and built links and users that way.

It's all good fun though. My World Cup site is ready to be blitzed for qualifying. And I'll slowly build up content for my Euro 2012 site.

The work I've got to do now is leverage the 2008 site for links and traffic, and see work out if I'd just want to let it go out to seed or if there's anything else I could do with it. There's some PR on it and should I just turn it into a footy ShopWindow type thing or just forget?

The Olympics Doesn't Exist In Affiliate Land

2008-07-05T14:29:00.002+01:00

There may be a few travel merchants you could monetise your 2008 Olympics traffic - but what else. For virtually every event we're inundated with relevant offers and creatives to make some cash out of international sporting events, but I can see diddly-squat for the Olympics.

I can see the So You Know The Olympics which is no longer on TD and now I have to join Clash Media.

I'm getting a shed load of traffic and can only really monetise it with Adsense.

I know I don't want to put a great deal of effort into the site as a letter may be landing on my door-mat. But surely there must be some merchants that have relevant offers?

Does anyone know of any (I've applied for the Amnesty one)?

Manchester DGM BBQ RSVP

2008-07-04T13:06:00.002+01:00

So who's attending the Manchester BBQ that DGM are hosting on 21st July?

I couldn't make the recent A4U event in London, so would be great to meet some of you again that went to the AF Barbados trip and some of you guys I haven't seen for yonks (that's for you Helen).

It's one of my missions this year to do more with DGM - I owe it to them as they've got some cracking merchants for my Christmas presents blog as well as some my niche robot blogs.

So get along - it'll be a hoot!

p.s. I won't be asking any questions about my other affiliate blog - no matter how drunk you get me!

Welcome To The Affiliate Bitch

2008-07-02T16:04:00.004+01:00

I think sometimes we keep our opinions to ourselves and when we do express our true thoughts we're often caught up in the dilemma about our views harming our business relationships.

That's why I've created Affiliate Bitch where we can all have a moan, people can ask questions and get honest answers, without worrying about the repercussions.

If you'd like to air your views in secret then email affiliateb @ gmail.com with the email address you'd like as a login and we'll sort it out.

Don't forget, your email address doesn't have to identify you so you're safe.

It's about time all the corporate, less pass everything through the MD, rubbish was banished and the real views of people working in the industry was made available to all.

Update: we've already had some taker-upers!

More Affiliate Future Barbardos Trip - Selected Pictures & Videos

2008-07-01T12:55:00.005+01:00

Somehow I managed to blog yesterday about the first part of our Barbados trip. I'm feeling less of a zombie now so I'll continue.

On the way back from the first trip we decided that as we didn't see the caves and Hannah really wanted to, we'll pay another visit the next day and take in another beach or too.

So we trecked up to the Animal Flower cave via KFC for breakfast. Due to the dodgy signs in Barbados it took us longer than we'd hoped - but the reward for the trudge was outstanding.

I'd been in the caves a few years ago but it was still fantastic to go back. There's some sea anemones which were cool, however the highlight was swimming in the pool within the cave. It was fantastic swimming around with the "team" and watching them get washed up as a huge wave came in :-)

Hannah tested her underwater camera on various parts of my body:

We trudged on, after some refreshments to Crane's Beach and stopped for some photos opps on the way:

Crane's Beach is just fantastic. Apparently it's one of the top ten in the world according to some fella - could have been Jay Lill.

I'll have to get the vid off Joe Connor as he has a fab one of me body-boarding.

That night started off with some grub in the hotel and then a karoke. I've only uploaded one of James's tunes, although Naomi sang an awesome tune:

I even had a go!

We then headed over to the Ship for some live music and rum & coke:

and then back to the hotel for some more rum & coke.

I'm not sure what time I finished that night - but I felt it in the morning!

More to come tomorrow.

Affiliate Future Barbardos Trip - Selected Pictures & Videos

2008-06-30T19:34:00.002+01:00

I got back from Barbados earlier today. After looking through a handful of the most important emails I was re-acuainted with "her in-doors", but now its time to get some of those lovely pictures out in the open.

I've sensored some of the most incriminating, so were' left with the ones that won't lead to divorces and relationship break-ups!

Thankfully I was often behind my own camera and the others may have photos that comprimise my good name - including that one of me sans-clothes in the toilets on Frostie's camera. You'll be seeing a lot more of that epic series of high-class photography in the near future. In the mean-time here are some highlights:

So here's the first of many to feature Frostie:

Day 2:

and he carried on with the cocktails ...

and this is where the carnage began as we entered Harbour Lights (Frostie, Jay Lil, Mikey, Hannah and the Worminator I):

But Tom (Dad / Legend) was not to be left out as he cut an awesome shape!:

Hannah continued to pull some awesome faces as Nim Nim did some serious networking (actually we did do a lot of forward planning!!):

And it continued to get messy as can be seen by the various staines from James A:

The rest of the lads also found it difficult to hold their drink:

Now, wanting to protect the innocent, I'll pull the rest of the pics from that night!

Day 3:

We started with an awesome pose from Jay Lil:

and then moved on to a "power lunch" with Dilshan (is that correct) and the legendary Joe Connor!! Where it was great to mull over the industry's past and present:

before we headed over to McBrides to wash down some nosh:

This wasn't the best preperation for Team Fun's drive around the beautiful island of Barbados. I was "driving that day" (I'll let others comment on that), so I didn't get many photos apart from these:

After lunch we tried to find the Animal Flower Caves. We actually found them several hours later - as the place was closing. But here's a nice pic of some sea and rocks:

Then Team Fun (Me, Tom Quinn (iPoints), Hannah (mobiles.co.uk) and Naomi (Firebox) posed for the pic to prove that we actually made it there - before we fled into the sunset.

Having been nick-named "Pretty Boy" by the girls, I felt obliged to pose for some pics:

before going out to a great beach front restaurant for the night:

I'll add some more photos tomorrow.

Barbados Update #1

2008-06-24T16:46:00.003+01:00

Well I'll try and upload the photos when James Little finishes with the cable - he's like a pig at a tit at the moment - and was most certainly in his element last night after coming away with the details of a nice young nurse. How does he do it?

So after excessice amounts of beer, pimms and rum & coke at the aiport, a fairly early Sunday night, we got back into the saddle last night at Harbour Lights. Good fun was had by all!

I can't remember much of the night, but I'm sure you guys will be seeing the pics of me in a self-made mankini! I'm sure James will be more colourful with his prose to go with his photos.

Joe Bloggs Top Commissions Offer - Do You Have A Fashion Blog?

2008-06-20T11:45:00.006+01:00

Right, the Joe Bloggs Clothing site only soft-launched a month ago and we're still getting the developers to do some updates. The site is fully functional but without some extra content and tweaked titles etc and we're still adding more product.

So, I'm looking for 4 affiliates that wouldn't mind blogging about the products early-doors in return for going straight to the top tier and being one of only 5 affiliates that will have exclusive codes for the first 2 months of the programme - no other codes will be given to affiliates in that time.

You've probably noticed that I'm looking for four affiliates, but are giving 5 codes! Well that's because I've been talking to Keith about what sort of incentives would work well and he's tried the process out for me in advance. Here is his "Life’s Good When You’ve Got Your Bloggs On - Great Holiday Fashion" post as an example.

The process works in this way, we'll write the content for you if you wanted, give you images (or you can hotlink), select products, do the links etc. And then a few months before Christmas we'll get the programme live, whack you straight on to the top tier and make you one of 5 affiliates that will be allowed to use the codes for two months - after that time we'll still do exclusive codes but affiliates would be able to use a generic one.

I know its no free trip to Barbados, but I hope you'll all like to take advantage of the world famous brand that Joe Bloggs has.

They're doing loads of sponsorship including the Crhis Panayiotou car in the ELF Renault Clio Cup and we're hoping to offer VIP pit access to either affiliates as incentives or the general public as competition prizes too - all good stuff.

So if you'd like to take part you can pm me on the forum, msn me on leemccoy at hotmail.com, or email me on lee at pazang.co.uk.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Barbados Countdown T - 2 Days

2008-06-19T11:24:00.006+01:00

I've got some work to do whilst I'm out there so it'll be a good excuse to actually take myself off the beach and out of the bars to blog about the hoot we're having.

Last year I was forced to go to Antigua instead by the missus :-( This time I got our "family" holiday in early and went to Cuba last week. Phew.

So this is what I missed last year and one of the reasons why I worked hard (cough) to make sure I went this year:

If I had to put down a list of top ten pleasures (not linkbait of course), I'd put down "spending time with James Little". Mr Avery isn't bad either! ;-)

So I'm looking forward to all the hilarity and will make sure I post all the fun and intrigue (I'm sharing a bed with James Saturday night). And seeing as I'm taking a bottle of Mount Gay (no comments please!)for the hotel before we fly it should make for an interesting night!

Bonus Video:

Link Building: Fast Food Or Posh Nosh?

2008-06-19T10:32:00.002+01:00

I was going over the Matt Cutts blog just to triple check over my recommendations for a large client that was merging two domains into a new huge one (eek) and found this lovely interview he did about link building.

The bit I agreed with most, and I'd like all you noobs to read is:

Eric Enge: So, what I’d like you to start with, Matt, is just an overview of your thoughts of what the approach should be. And then, we can get into some more detailed stuff.

Matt Cutts: Yeah, totally. So, what are the links that will stand the test of time? Those links are typically given voluntarily. It is an editorial link by someone, and it’s someone that’s informed. They are not misinformed, they are not tricked; there is no bait and switch involved. It’s because somebody thinks that something is so cool, so useful, or so helpful that they want to make little sign posts so that other people on the web can find that out.

The thing is, this the gourmet approach, there are 1,000's of webmasters & affiliates how will read about creating quality content. These people will take in the information, they'll sit down and think "I've got to write a really good piece on XYZ". Then they'll get a few emails, some calls and some instant messages and they'll rush through and write a crappy "Top ten" post.

I really hate these "Fast Food" link building attempts that may fill you up in the short term, but in the long term they'll get you fat and may contribute to your site's death. I never try and do them, but occasionally its the only way to get your POV across (little and often and all that!).

Some site owners would have great success with them so they'll tell people about it and then every Tom, Dick or Harry will write them. On Spinn, Digg you'll find littered with them. You can't move for "The top 8 ways to beat procrastination", "The Best 8.5 ways to remove fluff from your belly-button", "The 12 2/3 most effective ways to get something done by someone you've never met"! Boring!!

I want to read original content written for the purposes of getting a message across, not because you want me to read it and lazily link to it.

The problem people don't realise is that as everyone is doing this the minimum quantity/quality of links you need to keep to achieve a given result is going up. Its turning into a situation where too many people are thinking of quantity and not quality.

For every 20,30 "top ten lists" you could spend the time doing some great research and get 10/20 times the benefit in terms of links.

I've got into Search Engine Land and received some links and traffic as a result as wrote something useful, topical and relevant to my target audience. I never aimed to achieve this.

So my advice to my peers and noobs - just think of the quality and usefulness of the content and the links will follow.

The Sunshine Of My (Affiliate) Life

2008-06-17T20:54:00.005+01:00

I'm a big believer in fate. Whenever I trust my instincts it always pays off. I've been stuck in the consumer products affiliate arena for a while and I'm getting a bit stale with it.

Consumer products can pay big money, I certainly cleared up with the Pleo last Christmas - doing around £500 a day on them and have got myself well prepared for this year's "top toys for Christmas". I've even been working on the general Christmas stuff since March and have made myself well and truly bored of the whole FMCG sector.

So I come back from my fantastic holiday in Cuba [pics] and was thinking about setting up a site about holidays to the island. I read about the fantastic incentive to promote Sunshine.co.uk that Chris had put on the forum. Then I get a message from Chris saying they're looking to add Cuba to their list of destiniations. So away I go - I start my holidays in Cuba blog.

Now I hadn't done much travel stuff since I used to do tonnes of flights sales using dodgy doorway page rubbish a few years ago. Those were the days :-)

So I'm a bit wet behind the ears on all this travel affiliate stuff. But the good thing is that these days if you right loads of great content (I'm sure I've written this before) and monetise it well then you're on to a winner.

So hopefully I can find 2/3 affiliate progs to partner with and are willing to work together on different aspects of the site - holidays, hotels, flights, extras then I'm sure there'll be a few bob in it for all of us.

Just time to finish off my review of the Melia Cayo Coco hotel that we stayed in and do all the usual useful stuff for the visitors and then get all the link-building, tools etc done.

So does anyone have any advice as to which merchants to promote. I've obviously short-listed Sunshine and the good lad at Alpharooms, but are there anyothers to work with?

Any help, much appreciated - I'm sure I'm not working in your niche!

P.s. I couldn't resist a fat git pic of me in the pool!!

P.p.s Normall ranting posts will be resumed soon. I've got back off my jollies and am well chilled. Off to Barbados this weekend so will be well pickled and hungover so won't want to start any arguments then either - you lucky people!

I Know I Won't Win, But ...

2008-06-04T20:44:00.006+01:00

I'd just like to congratulate either Jason or Kirsty on winning the best "affiliate marketing blog of 2008" at the awards tomorrow - which I won't be able to attend.

I suppose I've got as much chance of winning as the brand-bidders opening up their books for us all to see - but if I do ... Shut it! You won't!

Anyways, I've been doing some nice analysis of the brand bidders and its interesting to see that its not always the "usual suspects" that are doing all the bidding. There's a few "unusual suspects" too!

For instance, I thought BBC Shop had no brand bidding?!? But it doesn't stop "bargaincube" bidding via buy.at. or Ming Xiong bidding on American Express using TD links. I suppose it also doesn't stop Jason Tassie bidding on the Co-op Current Account brand with know-your-current-accounts.co.uk or Keir McConomy from Spear.co.uk bidding on Angels Dancy Dress with angelsfancydress.com - I suppose he must be allowed to!! Yes he is apparenlty!! I´m going to get me a nice domain to market them on ' easy money!

Would it be a good idea for merchants to publish the details of authorised bidders so people like me don't think the worst when some affiliates are allowed to bid? Wouldn't this be a nice bit of openness and transparency? [I just remembered the fantastic "Brand Watcher"!! Take a peak - Shane and his team have put a lot of hard work into this little bit of kit!]

p.s. if anyone wants a load of sky keywords here a sample, and you can download them here, they obviously need some cleaning out:

.sky, .sky.co.uk, .sky.com, additional sky box, b digital satellite sky tv, b sky b, b skyb, best sky deal, best sky deals, best sky offer, best sky offers, best sky tv deals, big sky coupons, big sky deals, big sky packages, big sky resort packages, box sky, broadband and sky packages, broadband sky packages, bt and sky deals, bt sky deal, bt sky deals, bt sky offer, bt sky offers, buy a sky box, buy a sky channel, buy a sky hd box, buy a sky+ box, buy sky, buy sky box, buy sky card, buy sky dish, buy sky gnome, buy sky hd, buy sky hd box, buy sky hd online, buy sky lnb, buy sky plus, buy sky plus box, buy sky remote, buy sky sports, buy sky tv, buy sky tv link, buy sky viewing card, buy sky vodka, buy sky+ box, buy skybox, buy skylight, buy skyy, buying a star in the sky, by sky, cheap sky, cheap sky box, cheap sky boxes, cheap sky cards, cheap sky deals, cheap sky digibox, cheap sky digiboxes, cheap sky digital, cheap sky digital receiver, cheap sky holidays, cheap sky installation, cheap sky multiroom, cheap sky offers, cheap sky package, cheap sky packages, cheap sky plus, cheap sky remotes, cheap sky sports, cheap sky tv, cheap sky tv deals, cheap sky viewing cards, cheap sky+, cheaper sky, cheapest sky digibox, cheapest sky package, cheapest sky plus box, cheapest sky sports, cheapest sky+, credit cards that offer sky miles, crimson sky cheat, deals on sky, deals on sky hd, deals on sky plus, deals sky, delta sky miles deals, delta sky miles offers, digital sky, digital sky tv, digital tv sky, digital tv sky one, discount sky hd box, doom skybox, find sky, find sky channels, fre sky, free call by sky, free digital sky, free internet phone sky, free internet sky, free sky, free sky box, free sky box offer, free sky boxes, free sky cards, free sky channel, free sky deals, free sky digital, free sky dish, free sky films, free sky hd, free sky hd box, free sky hd installation, free sky hd offers, free sky internet, free sky numbers, free sky offer, free sky offers, free sky on internet, free sky one, free sky online, free sky over internet, free sky phone, free sky plus, free sky plus box, free sky plus offer, free sky plus offers, free sky sat, free sky sport, free sky sports, free sky sports 1, free sky sports online, free sky subscription, free sky television, free sky tv, free sky tv box, free sky tv download, free sky tv online, free sky tv uk, free sky uk, free sky viewing, free sky+, free sky+ box, freeview sky satellite, gaytv sky, get a free sky+ box, get sky, get sky free, get sky hd, get sky plus, get sky plus free, get sky sports, get sky sports on freeview, get sky tv, get sky+, getting free sky, getting sky tv, how to get sky sports, ireland sky digital, itv sky encryption deal, john lewis sky hd offer, join sky tv, late sky deals, location free sky, london sky, london tv sky, media sky, new sky deals, new sky plus box, offers on sky tv, one skye, orange sky free download, order sky, order sky plus, ordering sky, purchase sky miles, refurbished sky boxes, refurbished sky+, replacement sky box, replacement sky boxes, replacement sky dish, replacement sky plus box, replacement sky+ box, rte sky digital northern ireland, sat sky, sat sky.org, satelite sky, satellite sky, satellite sky digital, satellite tv sky, sattelite sky, second hand sky boxes, secondhand sky digibox, sky, sky bank, sky cards cheap, sky digital, sky digital ireland, sky digital tv, sky hd, sky hd box, sky media, sky plus, sky television, sky tv, sky. com, sky..., sky.+com, sky.co, sky.co.nz, sky.co.uk, sky.co.za, sky.com, sky.com ireland, sky.com., sky.comuk, sky.conews, sky.newscom, sky.tv, sky.tv.co.uk, sky.tv.com, sky.uk, sky.uk.com, sky1 co uk, sky3 tv, skyairlines, skycom com, skycom courier, skycom express, skydeal, skydeal.co.il, skydigital ireland, skydigital tv, skye media, skye television, skye tv, skyhi, skyone co, skyone tv, skyphone, skyplus, skyplus box, skysatelite, skyshop, skysport co, skysport co uk, skysport uk, skytv, skytv co, skytv co nz, skytv co uk, skytv ie, skytv uk, skytv.co.uk, sport on pc free sky tv satliveonpc.com, tele sky shop, television sky, thomson sky deals, tv a cabo sky, tv listings sky digital, tv sky, tv skyone, tvs sky, tvs sky shop, tvsky, uk sky, uk sky digital, uk sky packages, uk sky plus, uk sky television, used sky digibox, used sky receivers, utv sky digital ireland, virgin sky packages, virginradio sky deal, wsky tv, www bbsky com, www ksky, www skybox, www skycable, www skycn com soft, www skycom, www skymovies co, www skymovies co uk, www skyone com, www skysport, www skysport co uk, www skytv, www skytv co, www skytv co nz, www skytv co uk, www skytv com, www skytv ie, www skytv it, www skytv nz, www skyy, www.bbsky.com, www.sky, www.sky.co.nz, www.sky.com, www.sky.com.mx, www.skytv.co.nz, wwwsky sports.com, wwwsky.com

The Death Of Affiliate Marketing? Declare Your Relationship or Go To Jail?

2008-05-29T16:19:00.006+01:00

Oh don't you love regulation? But I feel this is probably for the better given the gullibility of much of the general public!

So how many of you know about the "Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading 2008" regulation recently mentioned in Marketing Week?

It's aim may to bring us in line with "Europe" but it could have far reaching consequences to both social media geeks like me and PR companies that run stunts on behalf of their clients - if we're not clever we could end up time behind bars!

Thankfully I try and avoid things like stupid (but successful) linkbait. I always try and keep the brand under control by keeping things factual. Linkbait can be that you know!!

The important bit to note is "The new rules are designed to clamp down on sharp practice and aggressive selling tactics, but experts say it will have a significant impact on reputable businesses and buzz marketing firms." (Marketing Week 28th May 2008).

To quote more:

Osborne Clarke head of marketing and privacy law Stephen Groom thinks the new regulations are the “biggest shake-up in the UK laws affecting marketing and advertising ever.”

“For the first time, all the rules are being... pooled into an umbrella of rules focusing on unfair commercial practice,” he says. He adds that the regulations could create more complex issues for marketers: “Not just fringe merchants, but mainstream legitimate marketers. They might get caught offside if they do not pay attention to this. This will have quite an impact on a very hot, popular and growing area of the market.”

If you wanted a quick summary here it is:

The new regulations will make seeding positive messages about a brand in a blog – without making it clear that the message has been created by or on behalf of a brand – illegal.

Bugger!

What about affiliates being all gooey about their merchants to get sales?? Do we have to say we're "offical affiliates of merchant xyz" just as Sky's brand bidding clique have to?

Next to every link do I have to declare my relationship with the merchant?

Reading this bit I feel better:

However, Hyperlaunch head of buzz marketing Simon Quanse says the new regulations will only have the potential to affect those using “underhand” buzz marketing techniques.

“There are some agencies that do not have the maturity, openness and respectfulness to engage with people in the right way,” says Quanse. “As a result, the whole industry suffers.”

Can the network bigwigs and suited legal counsel please give advice?

My Response To Jeff Molander: Affiliate Cannibalisation

2008-05-28T15:41:00.004+01:00

This is an econsultancy email they recently sent out with an interview with Jeff Molander.

E-Con) More and more retailers are expressing concerns that affiliates are cannibalising other sales channels. But is it actually happening?

Jeff) Retail marketers find themselves struggling to balance objectives of their search marketing campaigns with those of affiliate programs. Affiliates, they've suddenly discovered, are competing. In fact, they have been for years. Affiliates pioneered paid search while marketers sat on the sidelines, all the while grabbing low-hanging-fruit opportunities like bidding on branded trademarks.

Lee) This is the issue many of us have seen in recent years. Affiliates who tend to be the most imaginative, industrious and inventive in the industry risked their own cash not only in paid search but researching and investing in natural search methods and websites.

Merchants were often very slow to highlight the tactics used and when they saw the returns that were actually being made, they decided to shut off these routes to sales one by one.

We saw some a steady stream of merchants saying you can't bid on their brand, you can't advertise direct to merchant in paid search and you can't bid on their most successful keywords - which us affiliates provided them in many circumstances in their log files.

So I feel many merchants are squeezing affiliates more and more into the lower return channels and methods.

But then there's still the brand bidding groups; the open groups and the totally closed (we are told) bidding groups. It amazes me that with such a positive ROI with raw brand-bidding that merchants don't solely do this themselves but rely on affiliates and their agency over-ride, oh and the network over-ride too to "manage" the really difficult task of promoting via brand terms.

I've still yet to recieve a clear reason why merchants should conduct brand bidding with affiliate tracking! The only reasons I can find is that merchants and agencies are conning (dare I saw defrauding?) merchants into allowing brand bidding groups for their own self-interest. The other reason is that the merchant is just plain lazy or stupid - come to me and I'll do it for a tenth of your current cost!

Jeff) Also, marketers are re-thinking the value affiliates contribute in relatively new terms. They're studying simple things like the type of customers referred by various types of affiliates. In other words, marketers see some affiliates contributing valuable customers with higher lifetime values and other affiliates sending less desirable customers. In many cases, affiliates are earning the same fee from advertisers and that, they believe, needs to be corrected. Of course, affiliate networks and affiliates aren't as eager to correct.

Totally, I see a big shift by the merchants to taking over the long-term relationship with affiliates that are able to deliver strong ROI in the long-term. Whilst I see it as the network's role to find "hidden gems" - affiliates that aren't performing but with the right assistance can turn into these major affiliates.

E-Con) Why does this matter when affiliate marketing is performance based?

Jeff) That's a common question that needs to be addressed. I like to think of it in these terms: Performance marketing is absolutely effective but is it efficient? We all know that it works but how well?

We're definitely entering a maturation phase where some marketers are much better at stretching their marketing dollars. During these difficult economic times that will only become more important. CMOs will only come under more pressure not less.

In simple terms, "performance-based" has become a bit of an industry darling. In reality, there's much more behind a performance-based marketing strategy than 'I only pay when I receive' the desired action from a customer.

There are behind-the-scenes, tactical issues that must be managed like fraud, returns and cancelled orders, managing multiple affiliate programs and/or multiple performance-based strategies, such as CPC search and affiliate.

When multiple performance-based programs are used, the concern for duplication or cannibalisation arises. Specifically, duplicate payments can be made (leading to cost inflation). Duplicate "scoring" of marketing strategies can occur which cloud true ROI measurement.

Marketers need to know what's working and what isn't. When orders are credited to multiple performance-based campaigns or channels this prohibits good analysis and stifles optimisation.

In summary, there are serious tactical-driven issues that need to be addressed: Behind-the-scenes economics that can seriously impact efficiency.

Lee) I think there's more segmentation. With the huge budgets being allocated to this channel there'll be this attention to detail and these merchants will take a good look at the value each adds to their overall bottom line.

However, with the merchants where affiliate marketing offers a smaller part of their revenue stream I'm sure that de-duping will play much less of a role in their overall affiliate marketing processes.

Now mix merchant apathy with closed, unethical or partial brand bidding policies then you've got affilate hell!

In some circumstances up to 70% of content affiliate's can be overwritten by brand bidding affiliate's cookies. If merchants don't go through the de-duping process then they will have no idea of the extent of how much their affilaite marketing spend is effectively going down the drain and how many content affiliates they are turning off as they'll see them as unprofitable.

So I call every merchant who wants to improve their bottom line and make a long-terms success of the industry to contact their agency and/or network and ask what they're doing to help you make the most of your budget and do they really care about your bottom line?

E-Con) Do you feel affiliate networks are doing enough to tackle the problem?

Jeff) Honestly speaking, the entire conversation is not one that affiliate networks are looking to have with clients because it shines a big spotlight on something that's been blindly assumed: efficiency.

Affiliate marketing itself has clung to effectiveness for too long. There must be a sense of accountability on the efficiency front. Marketers are demanding it.

That stated, networks are addressing the problem behind the scenes and have been for years - on an individual case basis. With affiliate solution providers aligned closely with analytics solutions, it's becoming increasingly simple to gather data; however, business-minded analysts must be called in to audit it.

Therein lies the challenge: human resources and, again, the commitment to act on findings in a way that may suggest one channel's "ROI superiority" over another.

Lee) Love it Jeff! The majority of networks don't want to raise the issue because 1) they don't want more work to do & 2) they're making more money by sweeping the issue under the carpet!

I'm affraid, if merchants and affiliates demand it, there will be a flight to networks that act openly - just like what happened a few years ago with the spyware issues.

E-Con) How do you feel affiliate marketing budgets might be affected if and when retailers move away from the "last click wins" model?

Jeff) What a question! I'm glad you asked. Here's an answer that you may not expect: CPA affiliate may very well prove to be a more valuable asset among all the various advertising cogs in the wheel - comparison shopping, affiliates, search, banner/display, etc. Budgets may very well see an increase.

Bottom line: This is where the action is - and things are just now beginning to heat up. Watch for companies like ValueClick taking all their performance-based media opportunities and roll them together for larger advertisers - using CPA affiliate networks like Commission Junction as an "indicator of purchase intent" in a more complex, yet highly predictable, shopper behaviour pattern.

Who wins on the publisher side? Those who provide the most value and the value game always comes down to actions. Influencing purchase intent is great but causing the sale wins every time. That translates to CPA shining brightly and standing to win the lion's share of what is sure to be a more complex payment model. Indeed, "last click wins" is all but dead as everyone from Microsoft to Valueclick runs toward a more appealing (to marketers and publishers) solution.

Driving all of this is convergence. As affiliate marketing units gets swallowed up by companies offering multiple strategies it opens the door for scale across all of these strategies.

Another driving factor: marketers typically aren't spreadsheet whizzes, but today's efficiency-focused environment demands use of basic analysis and what amounts to reconciliation. It isn't sexy or complicated, but it's a lot of bloody work!

Yes, it's vital to success when developing an efficient approach but it doesn't scale well. There's too much friction and a reliance on business analysts (in short supply). Once each channel's true performance is understood, it is possible to begin making intelligent improvements but there's a lot of manual, heavy lifting involved.

Lee) To me the "last click model" doesn't reward affiliates like me that educate and inform users. I may spend a couple of hours writing some content about "how to choose the best tv for bathrooms" or whatever. So I tell them model xyz is the best and you should buy it from Comet because they'll take your old one away, will deliver on time, are friendly etc etc. Then the user has a chat with their other half when they come home. The user then opens up their browser and types "comet electricals" and the affiliate that spent two seconds coming up with that idea get's the £5 comission - but it may happend 20 times that day. So I loose £100! It's really going to keep me being a content affiliate and will really make me want to tell the world how great you are!

There needs to be a solution. With all this clever wizzardry around at the moment I'm sure some network with balls will come up with a solution!

Come on you network techies - provide the pancea the industry needs. And you network CEO's get off the gravy train and offer your merchants and affiliates more value!

p.s. - was my spelling really that bad!?!!?! Jeez. Can someone start up a collection to get me a proof-reader please?

Lee, Why Arent' Your Sites Beautiful?

2008-05-26T08:46:00.002+01:00

At the buy.at gig an affiliate (I think it was Nick Smith from Freestuff.co.uk) asked me "why aren't your sites beautiful"? My answer was that "I want to get people in and out as quickly as possible!"

This is my view of what people want these days. Now Jakob Nielson shares my view.

Nick said to me that I seem to replicate the same template through-out my sites and then just write loads and loads of content - a virtually completely accurate summary of my strategy.

I reassessed what I was doing about 2 1/2 years ago. I looked at my strengths and weakneses. I know I can design nice sites but it'll take me 3 / 4 times longer than most to do this. I also realised that I hate updating sites with links. I also knew that I love writing content and giving my thoughts about stuff to people.

I then found Blogger and worked out how to make them look half-decent and perform well in the search engines.

But the main reason is content not only allows you to offer the search engines websites that they like but the textual part allows you to drop links in that people follow as I knew visitors are turning off from image ads.

Its now got to the situation that about 90% of my income is from editorially given text links. The other 10% is made of Adsense, banners and other stuff.

So if you've got sites really think about how quickly you can get what traffic you do get then really think about how you can convert page impressesions to validated commissions. Work out which link placements get more clicks, establish if using keywords such as "best", "great", "offers", "deals" etc next to those links encourage people to click and put them in a more "buying" frame of mind".

I'd thoroughly recommend the "Landing Page Optimisation" Handbook From Marketing Sherpa. It may be a few quid but it's well worth it!!! There are subtle changes that you can make which will result in fairly substantial massive increases in commissions.

Go to town on your content, think hard about how you're actually going to get visitors to take actions you want. Don't simply right some "stuff" and "whack some banners" on. You'll make more writing content and carefully selecting links and anchor text.

How Should You Select Merchants To Promote? Part 1: Networks

2008-05-21T08:21:00.005+01:00

It's entirely up to you to be honest, but here's the subconscious list I run through when I've got a product / merchant to promote.

There's several levels to think about, Network, Merchant, Product, but I'll just deal with the first today:

1) Collective Perception
We all have our favourite networks, but I think these networks forget that our views of them aren't just instilled within us at birth! They occur for many reasons. One of those reasons is that others may have had good and bad experiences with those networks. So I do read what others have to say on the forum and on messenger, those experiences help to form part of my reasoning on who to promote, and especially if I've never worked in that sector before or if I'm looking at a merchant on a network I've never used before. I've been told stuff on the d-low about some networks that obviously they don't want to get out in the open, some names try and have a clean reputation, but the truth is somewhat different - I won't mention names.

2) Individual Perception
I think all of us have had issues with every network from time to time. I've had issues with CJ, TD (still do and they don't seem to care about my issue), Buy.at with HMV, a credit card merchant with OMG (who called everyone else that was promoting it to tell them but not me - that cost me a few £k), Affiliate Window (back in the days - I can't even remember what it was about), Affiliate Future (getting me recked and leaving me naked in the bath - Pete was off duty then). So I've got my own list of networks that I try not to work with much.

I know others haven't got a great perception of Buy.at because of all the ~~dodgy~~ brand bidding stuff. Many see them as just a brand bidding network. I see that they had a great temp/work experience/placement person in Nicola White who helped with content and getting samples from her merchants. So that was a thumbs up.

3) Ease Of Creating Links And Finding Products
When I've got a long post or article to write I need to find relevant products and create the links very quickly - time is money and all that.

At the moment Affiliate Window is far and away the easiest to do this. With their Shop Window product I have created a site that I use just for this purpose (being indexed and ranking is just a bonus). If I wanted to write a post about "diamond rings" for example I'd just search in the Shop Window site and get all the images and links I need. It even gives you a redirect link which blocks Google out of crawling and you don't have to upload the images - you can hot link them! Perfect!!

I know another large network is launching similar product soon, they're already high up my list so I use their fairly rudimentary tool too.

Paid On Results also have a great link building tool. If I know what merchant I want to promote I'd go straight to the site find the products and drop them into the POR tool. I'm sure I could use POR much better - they have some great tools - just that I haven't got round to using them all yet. Also I don't have to worry about putting their links into a hidden redirect of my own as their links are ok.

TD is on my naughty step big time! But it's very easy to create links, just not so easy to find the products. Because of my network perception (1+2) above I try not to use them.

Webgains is also affected by 1 + 2 above. I haven't tried hard enough with them and I feel the same is true in reverse. They've go the link building tool within the merchant creatives section. But, I'm afraid, Webgains is never in the forefront of my mind when populating my sites with merchants or products :-(.

CJWho? I only use these if I really have to! Like I do with Hotel Chocolat.

Buy.at had their tool which allowed me to search on their merchant's products. It was just a shame that I only ever really found books (could they post here which merchants currently have feeds?)

4) Payment Terms
As I'm now solely a content affiliate it doesn't really affect me. I earn well from consultancy so my affiliate earnings are pretty much just for retirement, but payment terms are still important. Affiliate Future pay very quickly (are they the quickest), and their payments are guaranteed (does anyone else offer this?), Affiliate Window pay twice monthly (more bloody work for me creating invoices ;-) ) and know there's a "payment on demand" network somewhere.

I'll be lucky to get money out of TD, CJ seem to take ages and POR I have to remember to request payment (I can't even remember my niece's birthday!).

5) Trust
This may relate to the others. But I know that that when a network first starts up I won't use them, unless I know the people there and had built up a good relationship in the past. Look what happened to Zanox and that "sea"-related network (are they still around?) etc. There's too many other networks I trust and too much to do to risk spending my limited time on networks that just smell a bit fishy.

6) They Communicate In A Manner That Makes It Easy For Me To Promote Their Merchants
Webgains have a great blog (perhaps there's too many posts??) but they keep you informed in a manner I like. I've added their blog feed to my reader and can search easily on product names and merchant types within Google Reader.

Affiliate Future have great news updates and merchant content areas within the login.

I don't feel most of the other networks see blogging as a central element to their affiliate communication. TD and CJ seem to be non-existent on the forum.

Only Linkshare (Darren Newmark) is in daily contact with me on Messenger. The other networks (and agencies) speak to me weekly (which is fine).

6) Experience In The Industry
AF are obviously great in travel - which I no-longer have as a core sector, but they are strong in other areas like gifts that I work in.

AW are very strong in gadgets and consumer products so I push them up to the top of my list when looking for products / merchants to promote.

Buy.at are generally week in my areas, save for Thorntons and Ethical Superstore.

TD, I feel also aren't strong in my areas. I get the feeling that the ones they do have in my sectors are poorly converting. I'll revisit them later on.

POR - I feel bad. As I know they'll have great merchants for my Christmas blog but will have a day populating my current posts with their merchants.

Linkshare - they have some great merchants that I've got to build in.

7) Relationships
It is important to build relationships with people within the networks. Some networks have worked at talking to me and bringing me along to events.

I had some great relationships with people at OMG. I've got to rebuild those. AW work hard at building relationships. Affiliate Future I feel are the best, Pete, Mary and even Maz are/were great at really taking an interest in what you do. Ken at Altogether Digital/Ads is great. James Little is a little angel ;-) for keeping you informed and feeling valued. Julia at Affiliate Window is a helpful contact. I couldn't mention anyone at CJ and TD don't seem to care. Clarke at POR is there if I need him. And I even know anyone at Buy.at would help if I asked.

There are some great network staff if you think about it.

From all this what are my perceptions of the networks? Which do I look at first??

1) Affiliate Window - just because they make it easy for me to promote their merchants. OK, it's very easy and they have loads of great merchants in my sector. I just which they were as approachable as AF.

Joint 1st) Affiliate Future - Great people, great product, great offering and pay quickly.

3) Paid On Results - Makes life easy, no fuss, no crap, they just get on with it

4) LinkShare - Still a bit untested, they've got rid of much of the Americana, still a bit to go but I know Darren is there on hand.

5) Webgains - so much potential for me. Its my fault I've done next to nothing with them

6) Buy.at - some great merchants, very helpful staff but that closed-BNB still annoys me.

7) Altogether - great people. A client does nicely with one of their merchants and I'm building them into a new site.

8) OMG - helpful but I've been too lazy/busy lately to look at their retail stuff as I've still got it in the back of my head that they're a finance network

9) TD - some good merchants but have really pissed me off

10) CJ - I stupidly applied to a load of yank merchants when I had a US site and they now just get in the way. I can't get my head around the payments and see them as too clunky to use in a hurry!

You Say Wa? Wierd & Interesting Keywords

2008-05-17T09:45:00.004+01:00

I was just wondering what drives people here (other than the desire to read fantastic, insightful SEO & affiliate info - cough).

So here's a list of some of the 2,179 keyphrases that has bought the blog search engine traffic:

lee mccoy - shit I'm hot ;-)

initial city link - the enemy!

google trademark policy - topic du jour

myvouchercodes - dodgy gits that steal other affiliate's codes - if I'm wrong either tell me or sue me!

facebookoff

eeepc buy - do you really want to?

ocean finance - one of the reasons we're in this mess perhaps: easy credit
affiliate future - nice people. And even better with the great fuzz ball that is joining them!

brand bidding - the tactic of the lazy and greedy

pazang - I consult for them

search logic - who? Aren't they starting again with new people - tres suspicious if you ask me!

thorntons chocolates - my heros

asos marketing - all about brand not incremental sales

darren newmark - shame he supports a crap footy team, but he works his backside off!

dilbert marketing - a book most merchants seem to read

goods loaded onto a van - ah back to shitty link

working for asos - why?

kier marston photo - you sick puppy!

mark pearson - tosser. Fanstastic with coins and pancakes apparently

seo recession ppc - think about it!

sheenu aggarwal - lovely

beauty icon - I wish I could write what I really thought

quick google indexing - come speak to me!

going to barbados - maybe hey?

millwall tattoo - why the hell would you want one?

nick robinson asos - misguided

page similarity checker - useful!

pr guaranteed - yep we offer that

the lazy affiliate - Brand bidders of the world unite

direct to merchant google - try building content sites

div visibility - dodgy!

duplicate title tags - don't do it

helen southgate - my hero

kennedyassissination - yep I ownt the domain name

neil mitchell search logic - ah my lamb chop

sam applegate - was bidding on brand terms when he should be!

got a degree in economics - yep, but don't hold it against me!

mazda rx8 altogether ads - I'm waiting

nic cordingly - never seen his glass empty

advanced mp3 josh - great guy

affiliate cash flow - many affiliates forget about htis

affiliate future brand bidding - they'll rip your head off!

affiliate marketing illegal - who told you that?

affiliate programme advice - where is she?

affiliate redirects - crucial

affiliate shop window - doesn't work with non alphanumeric terms

affiliate window cost of set up - ask them not me

affiliate's favourite network - not telling ya.

baconology - yep I'm starving

bidding on brand terms - try working for a living

brand bidding closed groups - get some mints and knee pads. Yes Kieron I know you don't like me saying that but I don't give a shit

brands social shopping - going to be hot

buy.at closed groups protection - no comment!

can you make money on facebook - yes

consultancy rates 2008 - email me

consumer is king - yep, even stupid ones

content affiliates - my friends

dgm affiliates good brand policy - I'll ask Helen

dgm team olympics - so looking forward to that!

dilbert mccoy - that hurt!

div seo invisible div - look I said don't do it alright!?!

does lovehoney.co.uk use amazon - I don't know. Have you tried looking?

emma delaforce - the happiest person at Webgains :-)

female phones - you turn them on by pressing a button. I'll get my coat!

find-me-a-gift seo - very good

gadget shop - could do better

get visible lee mccoy - that's me

google affiliates scam - new one to me!

google don't forget - nope! Except for my Christmas present last year!

gravy tanker - wha?

hmv fraud - intersting

how much can you make affiliate - lots

how to get visible on google - ask me

how webgains works - ah, mmm.

i got my pleo from iirobotics - good for you

marketing chickens - we're all chickens

marketing age group 31-40 - you don't have to tell me I' m getting old!

massage parlor warrington - that wasn't me!

mccoy beer - please buy me one!

neil hutchinson affiliate - successful. But a bit of BNB me thinks

paul smith, iwoot - does a good job

pc piri piri chicken - eh?

pleo lee mccoy - it's doing nowt now

promoting massage during a recession - did you really want to search for that?

satish jayakumar - another good guy

seo chocolate - love it

seth godin is shit - nope, just wrong occassionaly

sky seo - they should first start with good customer service and not ripping me off

thorntons affiliate manager - It was Nicola White. Great lass.

top 10 affiliate strategies - do tell

ukwebmedia - how did they get there?

ukwebmedia day part bidding - oh very clever. I never thought of day parting or geo-targetting so merchants and networks can't spot brandbidding!

until what time on a sturday can i expect a city link delivery - never

voucher sites - boring

we're going to barbados - gits

what do i need to know to become a successful business man? - work hard, be different, don't believe the hype

what do you need to work in marketing - a thick skin

what's the uk's nickname - are you kidding me? I could say so much here!

why use affiliate marketing - because it's the most accountable form of marketing

why would i want to work in affiliate marketing - because you work with some great people

woolworth's 0% affiliate commissions - don't get me started

laser tvs mccoy - why you searching for that? What do you know?

lee mccoy lovehoney - nope I don't do anything with them. I consult for a competitor

what is affiliate de-duping? - something that all merchants and networks need to get their heads around!

why i effectively left affiliate marketing - because I saw the industry was getting shafted my selfish people that'd break any rule just to add another fiver.

Giving Control Of Your Site To A Merchant - Would You Do It?

2008-05-16T20:21:00.005+01:00

Well I have. I've given Subside Sports access to my Euro 2008 blog.

We're running a competition and the winners will get a free football shirt of their choice. We're also working on some content that they can update ...

It looks like, but we haven't finalised the details, we'll create an alternative Euro 2008 tournament. The idea is that we match the games that are actually being played with shirt sales and create alternate group tables - just for a laugh.

It needs some thought I know, but I wanted merchants to contribute directly to some of my blogs as they often have the most relevant information and the desire to make it work.

I'm sure that there are many affiliates that think I'm barking, but I believe in trusting merchants and building strong relationships with them in my key areas. They know its not in their best interests to take the ....

Would any of you affiliates let merchants contribute to any of your sites/blogs? If not why not?

If there are any non-football shirt merchants that would want to contribute to the site then let me know (top right of the blog). It regularly gets around 2,000 visits a day so it'll be worth your effort.

p.s. Would Affiliate Window affiliate 73195 please stop bidding on their brand! They don't allow it!