All I Want For Christmas Is…
Well I’ve made a Christmas wishlist to help my family who have no idea what on earth I want or need this year. Goes without saying boxers and socks are always welcome, along with a few specifics such as:
- Lowepro Fastpack 250
- Photoplus Subscription
- Nude Photography
- Nintendo Wii Charger
- Landmark Trust Book
However this year, I’ve asked friends & family to send me Kiva vouchers if they’re stuck for ideas. I know some people aren’t happy receiving charity Christmas presents, but right at this very moment, there isn’t a great deal I need. Rather than see friends and family wasting money as they have to buy me a gift, I’d much prefer to give it someone who could use it to make a change in their life for the better.
Since first mentioning Kiva in June 2009, we affiliates have donated over $3,000 and invested in over 100 different projects all over the world ranging from a Barber Shop in Tanzania (no use to me) to a Pub in Uganda (what a surprise for affiliates!).
So who’s in our Kiva group and who can join? Anyone can join, and the more the merrier… To name a few, we’ve got;
I hope in the run up to Christmas, we’ll see more affiliates, merchants and networks join our Kiva group and donate $25, or £15, helping make someone elses life a little more comfortable. It’s only the equivalent to 2 bottles of wine, 3 packs of cigs or 4 beers!
Read MoreCan Someone Please Wake Up The Networks?
As many of us affiliates know, today was the Official unveiling of the Top Christmas Toy Predictions for 2009. The announcements, made by British Toy & Hobby Association and Toy Retailers Association every year, are eagerly awaited by many as they form the basis of many marketing plans. Sadly someone forgot to tell the networks, agencies and merchants… Imagine if Santa was late?
I reminded a number of networks of this and even tried to help them further, by pointing them in the direction of the official website, suggesting they may want to prepare for it. As many affiliates have seasonal websites, it would have been both extremely useful, and beneficial to networks and affiliates alike, had someone taken this opportunity to shine. If a network had spared a few people, 2 hours each, an email could have been sent to a huge audience with deep-links to all the top ten toys.
I appreciate it’s not always the networks role, if for example, the merchant is “managed” by an agency… cough cough… But it just seems crazy that such a big annual event still goes almost unmarked, yet all other forms of media (news, print, TV) pickup on it, and report it.
During my own trawling of merchants whilst creating deep-links for all 72 Christmas presents, I was disappointed to see that 95% of merchants still have no Christmas banners in place. In some cases, I’ve had to revert to using some from Christmas 2008 and even bank holiday banners just to get something in place!
Come on networks, agencies and merchants. Christmas is the same every year – get a bit more organised… please!?!?
If you still haven’t got your affiliate pages in place, you may want to take a look at Easy Content Units which takes the hard work of creating your own deep-links. Also available is the Official Press Release and my final observation… Take a look at John Lewis, who this year seem to be VERY competitively priced.
Not a single Argos link was required! Happy Days! 
How Best To Promote A Niche Website
Whenever I’ve developed a new website, or had one developed for me, I’ve either left it to obtain traffic purely through search engines, cross promoted it via newsletter subscribers of my other websites or headed straight down the PPC route.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be launching three new websites that aim to do what they say on the tin, nothing more, nothing less – Buy Cheap Books. This time however, I am stumped as to how best to promote them and would welcome any suggestions people may have.
Had I been going to the A4U Expo this year, I would most certainly have posed this question to the Affiliate Doctors at their session on Day 1. I’ve still submitted it for possible inclusion via Keirons blog hoping that they may find time, or they may not have had many submissions.
Obviously I’ll be looking at swapping a few links and will most probably head down the route of writing a number of short articles which link back to my websites. This not only gives me links, but also gives friends/fellow affiliates a small piece of unique content for their website. Reciprocal “in content links” will, as always, be most welcome.
Due to taking far too many holidays this year, I couldn’t escape from work for the A4UExpo without my boss noticing. I’m sure had I been able to attend, I could have got all the answers to my questions. Hope all those attending enjoy it and look forward to catching up with some of you at next years Affiliate Summit in Vegas!<
Read MorePreparing For Christmas
OK, so Christmas is once again fast approaching, and most affiliates who have planned correctly, have most things in place for their Christmas websites. Once again, this year I will be offering merchants the chance of taking up tenancy on pages of my Top Christmas Gifts website.
Last year, I offered the sponsorship opportunities in November and all space were snapped up extremely quickly. This year, in line with better planning, I’ve decided to open the opportunity as early as possible meaning everything can be in place before the visitors start arriving in the 1000’s.
I’ve put together an overview document that should help explain and answer all your questions such as pricing, what’s on offer, last years statistics etc. I am in the process of passing this information around networks, and already am in discussions with a number of merchants wanting to reserve places. Please note it is offered purely on a first come first served basis.
The PDF Document is password protected, so if you’re a merchant or network that wants access;
Click here to download it in ZIP format.
Click here to download it in RAR format.
… and if you’re Zak from Prezzybox I’ll print it out and post it to you
Laborious Link Building
We all know that asking other web sites to link to your own is not only low cost, effective for inbound traffic and also helps with search engine ranking, but by god isn’t link building laborious!
Links aren’t only one of the most popular ways for people to find new sites, but as we all know, when you get inbound links from good quality sites it helps immensley in climbing the Search Engine ladders. But how do you get the links in the first place?
- Be Pro-Active
Make it clear on your website that you want links. Ask for them directly and make it easy for people to link by writing the linking code for them so they just have to copy and past. Remember to use keyword phrases in the linking text and explain why it will help: “If you’ve found this site useful, please link to us so that others can become a better cook”. - Tweet To Your Fans
Much has been said about Twitter and that 40% of it’s use is garbage (i.e. “I’m having a sandwich” or “Brown or white chocolate – help me decide” type of crap). If your website posts new informative articles regularly, then create a Twitter account that automatically updates your followers with news of your latest recipes. - Viralise Your Website
Viralise? Yes it’s a word I’ve just made up! Viral marketing is where an advert, for example, is emailed from friend to friend, colleague to colleague etc, spreading the word without people realising it. By simply adding an Email This Recipe not only means that visitors can send it to their own email account for later use, but can send it to friends and family helping spread the word. Viralise… remember where you first heard it! - Squidoo
Personally I don’t have much experience of this, as it’s not an avenue I’ve explored much. There have been mixed reports as to how effective it is, creating a Squidoo lens and how beneficial it is considering the time and effort made creating one. Maybe someone with experience could share their findings? - Contextual Linking
This is the holy grail of link building!Contextual links are normal HTML links to your website incorporated in story about your website or an article that relates to the same, or similar topic as your website.Some findings have shown that Contextual links on lower PR pages give more “link love” than many higher PR footer links or generic link pages. As well as increasing link love, these contextual links are more likely to receive a higher click through rate. - Buy Links
Again, depending on which article you read, there’s mixed reports as to whether these are effective or not. If you choose to buy inbound links, then you run a risk of being penalised by the major search engines.
With all that in mind, over the next few weeks I have 4 new website going live, all of which will solely rely on word of mouth, organic traffic and pushing them in existing newsletters etc. Therefore I’ll be on the lookout for anyone wanting to swap links, preferably InContext, in the following verticals:
If you have any related websites, then please do drop me a line.
Read MoreCreate An Affiliate Website In 15 Minutes
So you want to quickly knock up an affiliate website? Here’s how I managed to create one within 15 minutes… that’s less time than it took to write this post!
1. BUY A DOMAIN
You could spend hours searching for a generic domain that’s either free or due to expire in the next few days like Cufflink.org.uk by using the facility over at Caught.co.uk. Alternatively you could settle for a domain name that describes what you plan to offer such as Quirky-Gifts.co.uk.
2. INSTALL AFFILISTORE
I first mentioned Affilistore back in 2007 when I wrote a piece on making use of old domain names. Affilistore is a very simple tool that will create a website based on a merchants datafeed and it’s completely free of charge if you agree to leave the footer links in place. Affilistore also has a great (if somewhat small) set of forums, that means obtaining help is a breeze.
3. ADD A DATAFEED
OK STOP RIGHT THERE!
As we all know, merchants datafeeds differ greatly in size and quality and this is the main thing you need to consider when choosing a merchant to work with. For Quirky Gifts I chose Totally Funky on Affiliate Window has they had one of the cleanest datafeeds I think I’ve ever seen. This meant integration was as simple as can be, something Totally Funky should be proud of!
4. GRAB A LOGO
Either knock one up yourself quickly, create a Web2.0 logo online, or pop along to Logo Instant and tweek one of their free logo’s along and grab one of their free ones.
5. TWEAK
Once everything is in place, over the next few weeks you will need to tweak Affilistore, changing settings here and there, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Their forums are a great starting point!
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS PARTICULAR NICHE AND MERCHANT?
After the A4U Awards in London, Jane and myself shot across to Paris for a wee break and whilst there visited a quirky store called Pylones. On our return, I saw Totally Funky had joined Affiliate Window and after browsing their website, noticed they stocked a lot of similar products.
I found their site enjoyable to browse due to it’s clean, uncluttered, crisp feel and easy navigation system – and also fell in love with (almost) everything they had especially the Crayon mugs!
After having a look at their datafeed I found it to be like their website – clean and uncluttered – meaning integration would be a doddle. I know Totally Funky have a sister site (Strawberry Fool) which I would expect to have a datafeed of the same quality and are due to introduce a third site dedicated to VeeDub followers On top of this, with Existem-AM managing the affiliate programme, any requests you may have for specific graphics, content, links etc is you can be sure Mark and others will help you out quickly.
Remember… when starting off in affiliate marketing it’s often best to focus on an area you have particular interest in, something you enjoy, or an area you have partiuclar skills in. It just makes creating an affiliate site that little bit more enjoyable and less of a chore!
Read MoreSocial Stuff
