Affiliate Marketing Blog, Social Media and SEO Consultancy

To prevent site duplication I've had to move the homepage away and just link into the latest posts.

I hope this is ok with you guys!

Latest Posts:

How To Build Links Easily & Without Spending A Penny (Jul 17, 2008 11:40)
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.. » Read on «

Everything You Could Possibly Want To Know About Google (Jul 15, 2008 06:35)
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 .. » Read on «

What The Heck Is Going On With The Economy? (Jul 14, 2008 09:14)
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.. » Read on «

Why I'm Paying For AdsenseLog (Jul 13, 2008 18:52)
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 th.. » Read on «

Please Don't Promote The iPhone (Jul 10, 2008 08:02)
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 .. » Read on «

Join Our Fantasy Football League (Jul 7, 2008 10:57)
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?.. » Read on «

Tell Me Why .... (Jul 7, 2008 08:34)
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 Christm.. » Read on «

Learning From Your Mistakes: Austria-2008.co.uk (Jul 7, 2008 07:30)
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 i.. » Read on «

The Olympics Doesn't Exist In Affiliate Land (Jul 5, 2008 13:29)
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.. » Read on «

Manchester DGM BBQ RSVP (Jul 4, 2008 12:06)
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 p.. » Read on «

Welcome To The Affiliate Bitch (Jul 2, 2008 15:04)
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 affi.. » Read on «

More Affiliate Future Barbardos Trip - Selected Pictures & Videos (Jul 1, 2008 11:55)
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.. » Read on «

Affiliate Future Barbardos Trip - Selected Pictures & Videos (Jun 30, 2008 18:34)
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.. » Read on «

Barbados Update #1 (Jun 24, 2008 15:46)
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 L.. » Read on «

Joe Bloggs Top Commissions Offer - Do You Have A Fashion Blog? (Jun 20, 2008 10:45)
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.. » Read on «

Barbados Countdown T - 2 Days (Jun 19, 2008 10:24)
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 .. » Read on «

Link Building: Fast Food Or Posh Nosh? (Jun 19, 2008 09:32)
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 sh.. » Read on «

The Sunshine Of My (Affiliate) Life (Jun 17, 2008 19:54)
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 .. » Read on «

I Know I Won't Win, But ... (Jun 4, 2008 19:44)
I'm off on a few days in the gorgeous Carribean , well this side is in the Atlantic, but hey!! So I'd just like to congratulate either Jason or Kirsty on winning the best "affiliate marketing blog of 2008"!! Well deserved if I do say so myself! 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.. » Read on «

The Death Of Affiliate Marketing? Declare Your Relationship or Go To Jail? (May 29, 2008 15:19)
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 .. » Read on «

My Response To Jeff Molander: Affiliate Cannibalisation (May 28, 2008 14:41)
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 sudd.. » Read on «

Lee, Why Arent' Your Sites Beautiful? (May 26, 2008 07:46)
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.. » Read on «

How Should You Select Merchants To Promote? Part 1: Networks (May 21, 2008 07:21)
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! .. » Read on «

You Say Wa? Wierd & Interesting Keywords (May 17, 2008 08:45)
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 w.. » Read on «

Giving Control Of Your Site To A Merchant - Would You Do It? (May 16, 2008 19:21)
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 shir.. » Read on «