Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

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!<

As many will know, I’ve been following Kierons previous blog competitions with a close eye seeing what the reaction and uptake was like by fellow bloggers and visitors. After a couple of discussions with him during October, I decided to create a competition myself in order to gain some back links and review for one of my websites – http://www.discountcodes.co.uk/.

WHAT IS THE PRIZE?
Well, I’ve teamed up with a mixture of 26 merchants, networks and agencies in order to create a truely unqiue and limited edition version of Monopoly. The game is procuced by Hasbro, the makers of the original Monopoly and looks exactly the same with one big exception.

Instead of purchasing Pall Mall for £140, you can purchase Figleaves.com….. as for Old Kent Road, £60 will now add Prezzybox.com to your business empire!

These unique boards cost over £80 each and of course, you have to have the permission to use all associated tradmarks and company names, so they really are a one off limited edition!

HOW DO YOU ENTER THE COMPETIION?
There are two simple ways to enter the competition;

REVIEW = 3 Competition entries
Write a 150 word review of Discount Codes on your website, blog, review site (ciao, dooyoo etc) or myspace page and include a minimum of 2 text links*

LINKS = 1 Competition entry
Link to Discount Codes from your website

* Text links should point to http://www.discountcodes.co.uk/ and contain the following anchor text phrases;
DISCOUNT CODES
DISCOUNT VOUCHERS
VOUCHER CODES
PROMO CODES

THE RULES:

• All reviews must be a minimum of 150 words and contain a minimum of 2 links
• The more reviews you do, the more chances you have to win. If you write 2 reviews on two different websites, this entitle you to 6 competition entries
• Any reciprocal links to Discount Codes in place before 20 October, will not be inlcuded in the competition.
• You can enter from anywhere in the world
• All entries must be submitted before 31st December 2007 to competition@discountcodes.co.uk (remember to include your name, and where we can see your review/link)
• Winners will be drawn and announced on 7th January 2008

EXAMPLE OF A REVIEW
Discount Codes are becoming increasingly popular with online shoppers in the UK as a way of saving money when buying gifts online. Nearly all online shops, including big brands such as Dixons, Boots and Firebox, offer discount codes meaning buying your goods online often works out a lot cheaper than if you were to buy them from a high street shop.

Discount Codes is an online website that have realised the amount of savings online shoppers can make, and have collected a whole load of voucher codes for you to use. The promo codes are organised by company and by category making it easy to find the promo codes you are looking for, whether its to get money off your weekly grocery shop, or to get a reduction on the latest gifts and gadgets.

Visit Discount Codes today and see how much you could save next time you decide to shop online.

EXAMPLE OF A LINK
Discount Codes – a wide variety of online discount codes for UK online shops.

If you have any questions, you know where I am to ask. GOOD LUCK!

A question I have seen many times from many an new affiliate is “My site is featured in PublicationY, can I expect to see any additional traffic?”. In my experience it’s hard to gauge what type of additional traffic you will see, if any at all, from a mention in a book, TV or Radio show or Magazine/Newspaper. I have had websites mentioned in all aforementioned media, and have seen differing results.

Here are my findings to date, and they cover numerous websites that have gained exposure over the past 5 years;

BOOKS – I’ve had a wide range of websites reviewed in the Good Website Guide over the past 5 years, however the book contains 1000′s of websites including my competition.
RESULT: No noticeable traffic increase.

TELEVISION – a niche website featured on a niche program which listed only a further 2 websites. Sadly as the websites were mentioned 10 minutes into the start of the program, which lasted over 1hr, it resulted in people forgot by the time the program ended.
RESULT: No noticeable traffic increase.

RADIO – similar to Television. If most people’s listening habits are like mine, the radio is on in the car or as background noise while doing other things such as reading, gardening etc. If a website is mentioned, unless I am at a computer at the time, I forget the URL or simply don’t hear it in the first place.
RESULT: No noticeable traffic increase.

MAGAZINE/NEWSPAPER – by far the best in my experience. In 2001 a website of mine was reviewed in the Sunday Times and the increase in traffic was noticeable, 4 years later it was reviewed in Computer User (from memory) and a spike wasn’t even evident.
RESULT: Differs every-time.

I was recently asked by TradeDoubler to take part in an interview with the Readers Digest about how the affiliate industry works, and how people can turn a hobby into an income. They wanted to quote me as Chris Frost who runs xxxxxxxx.co.uk so I had a chance of free promotion. As the Readers Digest typically attracts the silver surfer age group, it couldn’t see it helping increase traffic to a Lingerie or Sports themed website so I opted for my re-designed Discount Code website. The reason for this was that the design was new, and also I’m aware of my folks shopping habits – always looking out for a bargain.

I received a copy of the publication at the weekend, and sure enough there are quotes from me talking about the affiliate industry along with comments from TradeDoubler. The article is short and sweet and I guess time will tell if the Readers Digest will increase inbound traffic or not.

Over all I always welcome free opportunities to publicise my websites, however it’s more of a little ego boost that little old me is mentioned in a publication rather than a dead cert to gain 1000′s of new visitors free of charge.

Nicola Reed from TradeDoubler asked whether I would take part in a short phone interview with the Readers Digest about affiliate marketing. Nothing too big, just a general chit chat about how it works, whats involved, can money be made etc.

It was actually quite a good opportunity, not only to get a bit of self publicity and push my websites as examples, but also to help explain the whole affiliate industry in lamens terms. I have always said for many years now, and noticed that Fraser podcasted the same message not so long ago, that when you first start off in this industry, choose a subject that you are interested in, and not the one that can earn you the most money.

I have been told that a copy of the magazine will be sent to me and when I receive it, I will post a copy of the article hear for all to read. I just hope that I have represented ‘our’ industry well :o