Affiliate Marketing Blog

An Interview With Mike Field - MDS Battery New On Webgains

2009-07-03T10:16:00.001+01:00

So MDS Battery are now running their programme with Webgains, and to celebrate their relaunch I'm giving away 1 ticket to the Existem Summer BBQ to top MDS affiliate on Webgains this month.

From what I can recollect MDS Battery is merchant ID 1 on Affiliate Future and first began in the world of Affiliate Marketing back in 2001. Although there weren't by any stretch of the imagination the first merchant in the industry, I'm sure their MD Mike Field has some views that many of the more recent merchants may find interesting.(*)

1) Back in 2001 what made you take the bold step and start an affiliate programme and why Affiliate Future when there were some more established players in the market such as DGM and Commission Junction?

IBG were developing our eCommerce website and decided that it would be a good idea to test their affiliate tracking solution and so set it up for us - we just went along with it as we thought it would be interesting to see how it turned out. There wasn't a conscious decision to look at affiliate marketing as method to increase our sales back then - we just fell into it.

2) Over the past 8 years or so you must have seen a huge change in the industry, not least the nature of affiliates. How have those changes affected you?

We've seen a huge number of changes in the industry not least the greater number of professional organisations that have affiliate marketing as their major revenue generating method.

Previously we would see a number of niche sites just adding the odd link in to our site. Today we've seen a substantial growth in generalist sites that don't cover any niche in particular, just shopping or offers in general.

3) I would have thought that you'd have hundreds of affiliates climbing over themselves to promote you guys seeing as you've got a great number of high-value products that can't be bought in the high street and with the model numbers it should be really easy for affiliates to PPC them. What is the nature of your affiliate base? Is it highly geared towards PPC or SEO?

The affiliate base is actually very reflective of the UK marketplace, with an even spread of affiliates in the PPC, reward and voucher code sectors accounting for the majority of sales. It would be fair to say that there is great potential as you say in PPC as there are lots of very specific searches. Similarly customers searching for the MDS brand will naturally gravitate towards reward sites if they are members. As MDS believes in providing the best prices it does not issue voucher codes, however the ranking of certain voucher code affiliates in natural listings accounts for their sales. There is a wider and untapped opportunity with content driven affiliates that will be the focus of the coming months.

We do have a very substantial PPC affiliate base as it would appear to be much easier for them to find keywords from our website or glean them from our product feed. I would put this down to the fact many professional affiliates wouldn't have websites targeting our niche.

Furthermore, there are relatively few battery merchants compared to gifts or more traditional electronic products so some affiliates would not consider it worthwhile to targeting our niche - even though you're right in saying we stock a good number of high value batteries.

4) I recommended that Existem AM took over the management of your affiliate programme after I spotted and valued the "abuse" of brand-bidding. Is that something you're looking to continue?

We're still in early days of our new more professional approach and we're keen to have a better understanding of what affiliate marketing adds to our bottom line and the benefits of leveraging the knowledge and experience that using an agency offers.

We've never had our campaign professionally managed so are looking forward to seeing what Existem can offer us.

5) Many affiliates just don't understand (sorry) how affiliate marketing fits into an overall internet marketing strategy (this is just my view as a very basic rule of thumb), let alone a complete strategy. How steep has the learning curve been for you with working with affiliates?

The main issue is that we have to work together. I feel that often other retailers use affiliate marketing because their competitors are using it, without actually understanding the pro's and con's. I see affiliate marketing as filling the gaps or niches that we can not fill as well as giving us greater exposure and sales in the more generic areas where we just could not hope to cover ourselves. There's so much demand for batteries and there's a lot of knowledge that affiliates have that allows us to mutually benefit from that fact.

One thing it took us a bit of time to realise is the exact nature of how affiliates promote us and which product ranges they advertise. Obviously they gravitate to the higher value products and we need to make sure that we still cover the lower unit price but higher sales volume products ourselves with SEO.

6) What have been the biggest mistakes you've made with your affiliate programme and how have you rectified them?

Basically not to manage the programme for the past 5 years. It's a definite mistake. Affiliates can offer you so much when you work with them - that's something that we've neglected. At first Lee [Ed: that's me] made us aware that of a few issues that we had with the programme whilst he worked on other areas and recommended that we hired Existem AM to get to grips with the programme and sort it out by ensuring that our affiliates got all the information and tools that they needed. We've rectified the situation by taking on professional help and making sure we're aware of our targets and that the programme is heading in the right direction.

Not managing it properly for the past 5 years. This is rectified by myself and Existem AM.

7) You've now launched your affiliate programme with Webgains. What was the impetuous for that decision and how do you feel it will enhance your customer acquisition strategy?

Basically when we took on Existem AM we thought it would be a good idea for a clean break, to start again and push forward with a new mindset. We'll be looking to grow the programme rapidly and feel that we are able to really do this with a fresh start as we'll be forced to re-evaluate every aspect of our programme without falling to the trap of taking the easy route of letting things stand as they are.

We've also made massive strides in the last 6 months / year to improve our conversion rates by constantly improving the shopping cart and user experience. So combined with that new start with the other forms of online marketing, we thought it'd be beneficial to continue that through our entire marketing efforts.

8) With the range of batteries you offer being so diverse and with the knowledge that you are incredibly popular for motorcycle batteries, do you feel that a future strategy to increase your affiliate base is to look for more generic affiliates that know how to drive volume, or to look for niche affiliates that have the ability to productively target specific niche audiences?

Both really. I'm interested in niche markets as we have a real passion for batteries and how people use them and it would be nice to increase our exposure on motorcycle websites, computing sites and the such like. However, I'm realistic and understand the fantastic volumes that the generalist sites can offer, hopefully some of those sites will choose to give us more exposure as we'll be offering them more communication and the site does convert exceptionally well.

9) Personally I know affiliate incentives can work really well. But I also know that it’s very easy for them to fall flat on their face if you can't get the coverage. Do you have any planned?

Affiliate incentives are tricky things to administer to ensure that they achieve sufficient exposure. However they do provide a benefit to affiliate recruitment levels and ongoing sales. Given that the MDS product range includes items that would be dear to an affiliate’s heart such as Laptop batteries, I would envisage that we will run an incentive at some point in the not too distant future.

10) Its all doom and gloom at the moment. But how is business?

Business is booming here. When people get into financial issues they don't buy new products they just try and "mend" them with a new battery or chargers. For instance, new motorcycle purchases are down 17% on the year. We've got a good selection of motorcycle batteries and chargers and they've been flying out of the door recently. The same can be said for our large selection of laptop chargers and accessories - they're doing really well at the moment. Also we've been selling quite a few digital camera batteries as people just aren't buying new cameras and instead just looking to spend much less on a new battery.

11) If you could give one tip to retailers launching an affiliate programme for the first time, what would it be?

Get someone to manage it that knows what they're doing.

Great Quote From Awin - And So True For SEO

2009-07-02T13:11:00.003+01:00

The following quote can be found on an intriguing page on the Affiliate Window website:

But I think it makes so much better sense as:

But to me SEO is not only a science but an ART!

I'm sure most SEO's recognise the problem when those people you're involved with too easily see a set of circumstances and automatically assign causality to something that best suits their agenda.

I'm anal about getting down to real cause and effect. I obsess over data. I've proven over and over again that each visitor is not created equal.

The issue often arises in communicating cause an effect. This is difficult in traditional industries, but when you mix in the huge number of factors that affect rankings and revenue per visitor it leaves even more room for misunderstandings to arise.

Here's an example. Say you change the focus of your "intent" keyword and achieve a nil-sum improvement in terms of traffic numbers, but you get better converting traffic, what data should you be looking at?

Ok, here's some "intent" keywords from a client and the conversion rates from the keyphrases that include that particular keyword:

(site average) 3.54%
buy - 2.66%
best - 5.56%
cheap - 2.79%
cheapest - 3.70%
deal - 5.26%
price - 2.65%
delivery - 5.88%
" uk" - 6.56%
sale - 11.25%

Now it's just too simplistic to say that you should focus primarily on "sale" as it converts at 11.25% when you need to build in the volume of traffic available into your strategy.

Good SEO, to me, is about weighing up the keywords that drive traffic, those that convert, the product data available, their/your ability to implement SEO improvements and the overall marketing objectives of the organisations you're involved in.

One thing that does annoy me in this industry (Mark - I'm moaning as requested) is that people too easily say "X" is a cause of "Y" when there are several factors that go into event "Y" occurring - some in our control, some not; some are as a result of SEO, some not.

My biggest fear is SEO has turned into an "in box, out box" industry where people only care about visitor numbers and don't look into profitability or completely disregard the impact of SEO.

To me SEO isn't necessarily about increasing total visitor numbers, its about increasing the value gained from each visitor whilst ensuring that SEO contributes positively to the bottom line - just like affiliate marketing should do.

My hope is that affiliates, merchants and website owners become a bit more analytical and use the power that the analytics tools availabe to them. The only issue is that we all need to look at the data that matters and think long and hard, explore all other less convenient answers before assign causality.

Luckily I've been in the game for 12 years and spent the previous 3 years studying statistics and causality via an Economics degree, so I've seen all the "~~excuses~~" "reasons" under the sun. The real reason is often something a bit more tangential than you think.

Now go and read Freakonomics for real world examples of why relying on the most obvious conclusions can be the most misleading - and this has never been more true than with today's Search Engines.

N.b. I'm still catching up on emails sent during my jollies. So if I've not got back to yet, hold tight.

Thanks Guys For Barbados But I Won't Be Going Next Year

2009-06-30T11:13:00.004+01:00

I must admit that this year's Affiliate Future Barbados event was fantastic and I must really thank Chris from Sunshine for making it happen and the guys for making it so enjoyable. The biggest thanks to two people though: firstly J Lil for being a great host and being there for me when I nearly went to prison! And also Charley Shiner making the nights hilarious - I still don't believe you found those knickers on the floor of the McBrides! I'm sure they were personally retrieved! But also thanks to him I've got inspiration for a cracking blog! A cracking domain name has just been purchased :-)

Also a big thanks to Ant from Love it Large (launching soon) and Cho Yung Tea (going to put an order in!) who sponsored the Rum Ball Rally and made it such a hoot. It was hard work trying to organise it with J Lil but I'm sure everyone enjoyed it.

The thing is that I won't be trying to win a ticket for next year. The reasons being that despite there's talk of even more people going next year, I feel that its about time that people that have never been before should have more chance of going - I've now been 4 times (3 with Affiliate Future) and its such a hoot that others should enjoy it. Another reason is that, what with getting married this year, hopefully Laura will be about 7 months pregnant (if all things work out) so I can't really leave her.

But here's a few pics to leave you with (I didn't get my camera out much)

Risking life and limb:

Team Fun II Celebrating finding a goat, or was it a sheep?

Birds do it, bees do it. Even educated snails do it:

Might as well get another pic in whilst we wait for the beers to arrive:

Is it illegal to drink and drive in Barbados?

Didn't find any

Not the only day that Tom wished he didn't get up in the morning:

He was pretty pleased to catch this fish

Nadeem takes a break from Marilyn:

Sexy Beast Ray:

Its Still There:

Fat Rain:

Bird:

Lizard thingy:

Kat hitting the waves

Scene From James Bond:

Not Scene From James Bond:

Just look at the colour of the sea:

It was only a couple of feet:

I just love Crane Beach:

The effects of over-exposure to the sun:

Avoid Paid Posts - So Official It Hurts (Or Should Do)

2009-06-17T08:55:00.001+01:00

Don't you just love those people that start businesses based on a misunderstanding of Google's T&C's or at least don't modify them as they change?

Going back over Matt Cutt's presentation "Straight from Google: What You Need to Know" (.ppt) there's a slide (44) that is entitled "Avoid paid posts" - how much more obvious does it need to be? But if you still can't grasp the concept here's the slide:

But what does "spam" mean and what does "not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites" mean? To my mind it's a bit too muddy for my liking.

If people take the "spam" element as content that is completely, or largely unrelated to the theme of the site the "content for links" sits on then there are a number of people that should be VERY worried!

And what's more, the declaration element is getting even fuzzier when you consider that Matt allegedly dumped Shoemoney on Twitter for a paid-per-tweet. As a side note, I did think Shoemaker's reply a bit childish!

Ahhh! So There's A Name For It: Katamari Philosophy

2009-06-15T10:22:00.000+01:00

I've always believed in this tactic but never knew the name for it. My view has always been that as an affiliate blogger that you should focus on a small niche such as "trainers for one-legged pygmies" (no offence to people with one leg or pygmies of course!) and then you should gradually roll out of that niche as you gain a level respect and coverage of that is sufficient to sustain it.

So reading Matt Cutt's presentation: “Straight from Google: What You Need to Know” from WordCamp San Francisco and in particular slide 33 and then searching on it I found Andrew's description of the Katamari Philosophy:

I know that I missed this presentation, but I can't be aware of EVERY piece of SEO dialogue :-(.

Other things that Matt said was that you shouldn't obssess about links and page range. And I completely agree with that. If I'm in a niche that I'm totally confident about then I spend about 0.5% on overtly thinking of links, 95% thinking of content and 4.5% thinking of (and implementing) the on page SEO.

There's many affiliate blogs that have worked well at gaining a reputation that in term generate inbound links and it doesn't take me how to do it, every second tweet seems to be about it these days, but just try and be original and don't fall in to the trap of having a formulaic approach to building reputation by thinking that if a post has A,B and C that it will DEFINITELY work.

I'm currently implementing the Katamari Philosophy on the small niche (relatively) that I bang on about into a less small niche and its a fascinating process. What's more interesting and satisfying is when you work in only slightly related niches and as you imply the Katamari Philosophy they're consumed by the new site:

An example of this would be my Easter Eggs site linking towards my generic chocolate site - relevant and fair to link.

But then you can also use other, generally non-related sites but which has a slightly related post to help gain support (links and traffic) to both your other niches and the Katamari site. This may be a post about a chocolate football on my old Euro 2008 site linking to both the chocolate site for that product or the Easter eggs site via a link to a general post about football Easter eggs.

Again, as you dominate the micro-niches and then the larger niche then you can use those to spawn new micro-niches and start the process again.

Am I the only one that finds affiliate site evolution interesting? :-(

Want To Work With/For Get Visible? SEO Consultants Required

2009-06-09T13:44:00.003+01:00

Things are going a bit mental here. I'm getting a flood of potential business through and I'm just not able to deal with it all. I'm looking for some people with a proven track record to initially sub-contract and then, if desired, become an employed SEO Consultant.

Things are a bit fluid at the moment and I'm yet to work out the final details of what's needed based on client requirements etc, but if anyone is provisionally interested as consulting for Get Visible, then could you drop me a line with your experience, location and details.

Obviously your details will be kept in the strictest confidence and IR35 would need to be considered.

The Day The Media Died [Video]

2009-06-09T12:35:00.001+01:00

Ahh I remember the day when offline media was "woop-woop". I actually worked for the first internet company to advertise on TV in this country. Back then I was thinking "why waste your cash offline". They went bust.

But this video is about the death of traditional media advertising - but its more interesting as its sung to Don McLean's Amercian Pie.

Thanks For The Cheer Guys ...

2009-06-03T15:37:00.002+01:00

... and for voting me second in a great bunch of nominees - Kirsty thoroughly deserved her award!

There's a few things that came to light in the whole process; one of them was that I realised that all those nominated offer something different, be it great advice for new and seasoned affiliates; the tackling of issues that desperately need raising as well as lot of insights into their affiliate lives - and the odd bit of showing off ;-).

Another thing I realised was this blog is appreciated for taking on those contentious issues that some may not wish to tackle. In fact Mr Pearson was "annoyed" that I hadn't bitched about him as much the last few months ;-) - what are you like? You can spend some of that £2,218,000 you had cash in the bank on 31st July 2008 on me you cheeky bugger! (That's not an invitation for prostitution, well maybe ;-) )

Perhaps I've got a bit of time before Barbados to go through all the voucher code sites and see what the state of play is for them to keep Mark happy - I'm thinking, however, that I'll have to make the data anonymous?

Also I'd like to say well done to all the others that won, were commended and nominated - even to those that didn't make it to that stage. Some of the decisions I found a tad strange, but you're always going to get that.

And the highlight of the night? Well it was all great, but hooking up with the Jmeister is always a hoot - see pic. But it's gotta be the reunion of "Team Fun" - a great bunch of guys and gals!

Testing Google Moderator - Anyone Got Any Questions?

2009-06-01T08:48:00.004+01:00

I know you guys are all clued up to the nine's but I'm testing Google Moderator to see how well it can be used for Consultant -> Clients (with many peeps) and wondered if it could be good for an SEO / Affiliate Q&A.

Feel free to drop over some if you have any? You can access it here.

Who Says Work Has To Be All Reports And Invoices?

2009-05-31T19:56:00.002+01:00

Last month I thought I'd redistribute some of my affiliate earnings in the form of chocolate to a client who I knew had young kids. I decided to spend some of my Hotel Chocolat bonus on their own range of fantastic chocolate for kids to say thanks for being a great client (ahh gush). It was nice to get a nice little thank you back from the kids too:

So all you miserable buggers out there, buy your clients some nice stuff every now and then - you make enough! And if you're an affiliate, you don't have to have a yacht to treat networks, agencies or merchants - the odd small gift here and there would be much appreciated by them!

And if you're wondering what's in the picture, I think I got them some Fruity Chocolate Puddles, the Strawberry Sensation Egg Sandwich and some other stuff.

Crutial Data To Track For Large Sites - It's Not All Visitor Figures

2009-05-29T08:08:00.005+01:00

I was doing a post about how to decide on what information to take on board as a new affiliate, but as the content below began to grow, I decided to leave that bit until Monday and extend this bit - what data should you track?

Back in 2007 I had a post that was featured in the search cap of the day on the Search Engine Land site. That wasn't my intention, but my post "Google Analytics Please Give Me For Christmas" was aimed at trying to get more useful information for affiliates and SEO's. Now, obviously Analytics has improved immensely, and Google Webmaster Tools has become a source of essential information, but I still feel site owners should do a fair bit of their own leg-work.

For many of my client sites I track a number of non-obvious KPI's that will help you gauge the impact of any changes that you'll make after reading "hints" and "tips" from affiliate or SEO blogs and forums.

* Obviously track the total number of pages indexed in each section. Also keep track of the total number of pages present in each section, which will allow you to do the next one.

* Track the total number of pages in a given section against the total number present in Google's database (site:www.sitename.com/section/ or site:sitename.com/ "unique text") - this shows you the level of indexation - your goal should be to try and increase this ratio. (Be careful to track actual pages indexed and not just the links to those pages being indexed)

* Another element to track is the total number of pages in that section against the landing pages to that section (for the site as a whole data you'll need to track total search engine traffic). This will show the effectiveness of the changes that you make. The chart below gives an example of what it could look like (with fictitious data)

Obviously there's no ratio to aim for - its the change in the ratio that counts. You could set yourself targets, but remember, if the total ratio is going up, you may have a certain sub-section doing well, but other pages may be declining. This could be the case if all the pages within that section aren't linked to equally.

* Track the relative performance of "intent keywords" which you should be building into your site's structure. Choose keywords such as "best", "buy", "cheap", "cheapest" etc then make sure you create reports that show you the performance of those keywords. If you start to target specific keywords then make sure you track visits from key phrases that include those keywords.

- * From that look at which pages get traffic from those keyphrases and then look at the other keyphrases that deliver traffic to that page and then consider tracking some of those keyphrase stems.

* If you can, track the ratio of users that use your search service when they actually found your site from a non-brand search phrase. This may indicate that Google isn't delivering the user to the most relevant page and would suggest that you should re-optimise that phrase or extend your content to cover it.

Obviously you should add other KPI's such as:

* Ratio of non-paid search traffic to referral traffic (and the net figures)

* Ratio of brand to non-brand related searches - your brand, of course.

* And a whole host of goal/sale orientated KPI's - but that's for another post.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, look beyond visits and the how much you're getting from Google. There's stuff under the hood that you need to know about and track whilst you're listening to information on the 'net and modifying your site following guidance from "gurus".

But whatever you do, keep a change-log, if you're tweaking so you can match your "improvements" to site indexation and traffic - and don't be afraid to un-do stuff.

As a parting note, make sure you're aware that different changes you make will take varying lengths of time to be reflected in the search engine databases.

Online Marketing Job Vacancy London

2009-05-28T11:31:00.003+01:00

As a favour I'm posting an "online marketing job vacancy". Feel free to review the details below and then send your CV & covering email to the address below.

We have an exciting opportunity for an online Marketing position with a high growth business (online transport marketplace – www.shiply.com). This is a challenging role, with a wide scope and excellent future opportunities. The candidate will be working with the company director on the various marketing methods in London.

If you are passionate about the internet, are marketing savvy and up for a new challenge, then this is the role for you.

The role will include the following;

SEO and PPC marketing

Keyword Research – search market volumes, brand and product awareness
Competitor research – identifying common trends and competitor weakness/strengths
Onsite optimisation – internal linking, meta data, page title propositions, optimised page content
Link building – natural ways to build links (brand and generic) – unique content distribution
Creating, maintaining and optimising Google Adwords campaigns
Landing page optimisation
Report and analysing – Google Analytics - increase traffic - Enhance site conversion – maximise ROI

Online marketing / branding

Planning and establishing relationships with potential web site partners / advertising opportunities
Finding new, relevant traffic sources

Social Media marketing

Establishing presence on the major social media sites / relevant forums
Monitoring, building and engaging conversations online
Rolling out new interesting content / link bait
Adding new content to the blog

Affiliate marketing

Setting up affiliate campaign and working with network (Ed: no cold calls from networks please)
Establishing new affiliates
Liaising with affiliates to showcase new products and updating product feed
Preparing and sending new banners
Checking commissions

Other marketing methods

Assisting with Offline PR marketing where needed and liasing with our PR agency.

The right candidate should be able to demonstrate the following attributes:
- Good proven experience with managing SEO & PPC campaigns
- Highly creative and keen to give ideas and suggestions
- Bright, enthusiastic, proactive and dedicated
- Self motivated and not afraid to take on a challenge
- Good IT knowledge as well as a keen interest in all things internet related
- Has a high attention to detail
- Has excellent written and spoken English/copy writing skills
- Has a high proficiency in Excel and Word
- Has good analytical skills
- Is a team player

A starting salary will be proposed according to relevant experience.

Please apply to this advert with a covering letter by email to the following address: recruitment@shiply.com- with the subject title - Online Marketing Position

STRICTLY NO AGENCIES.

You're Getting Rat-Arsed - Courtesy of CantBarsed & Your's Truly

2009-05-26T15:03:00.002+01:00

Ok, so £200 won't go a huge way with 50+ of us going. But Joe from the promotional codes site CantBarsed (cough, anchor text) has decided to convert the £200 of chocolate he won into £200 of Barbados Dollars to spend on my stag do! So everyone say thanks to Joe!!

An Interview With Someone You SHOULD Know - Judith Lewis Search Director at i-level

2009-05-21T13:32:00.004+01:00

Don't take me posting two interviews in a row as me being too busy to expose more of my successes and failures, just take it as a good thing - I'm not bitching about stuff ;-)

I heard about the i-level affiliate SEO and content surgery from the mighty Matt Bailey and thought it'd be worth finding out more about the event and the person behind it - Judith Lewis, so I fired her off a few questions and found her responses intriguing and enlightening.

Hi Judith. Give us a quick run down of who you are, what your background is and what you do at i-level.

I’m one of the Search Directors here at i-level but I work across a variety of different departments as we offer fully integrated solutions so my expertise in various fields helps me work within several different departments.

One thing I love about your blog - SEO Chicks is its down-to-earth nature. I often say that a blog should be like having a conversation in the pub - are you really that much of a "hip chick" in real life? What do you get up to away from SEO and i-level?

If you ask my husband, all I do is network when I’m not networking :-) I got online in 1986 and I have to admit that I have had experiences with trying to be someone I’m not online. I got it out of my system and now I’m completely me online and offline (though I try and not swear as often online as I do offline)

If you're like me, you'll have a million and one ideas to blog about, how do you sift through what is useful, what is entertaining and what could offend those in our industry? Do you care?

I do care that I’m adding value somehow. Sometimes it’s just my thoughts about what is happening, sometimes it’s about conferences or new trends. I also write regularly for Technology Weekly so no matter how many ideas I have, there are never enough.

Talking about SEO. I love all these people that bang on about links as if they're the most important invention since Marmite. When you first beginning reviewing a client site where do you start? In-bound links, internal navigation, title tags, scope of content, coding errors, positioning, competitor sites? And why?

I like to start at understanding a clients marketplace and keyword targets. Then I like to look the site over with a technical eye which as I have been doing this for years will include a peek at title tags and meta descriptions. You *MUST* get the basics right first and that means the coding is correct, the title and descriptions are unique and contain a call to action as well as keywords, each page has a focus and the site has a theme.

Once you get the basics right you can look at link building, baiting, competitor sites and the like. If a spider can’t crawl your site, or if you’re trying to target the same keyword in each page, there is no point in adding to the mess., Clean it up then start getting fancy.

I'm amazed that many SEO's still recommend each other. Here I am, MD of an SEO Agency openly recommending that affiliates turn up to your event. Why do you feel that SEO's regularly recommend their "competitors", are we a particular breed?

I think at heart we’re mostly engineers and as such, we don’t feel threatened by competition. Rather it is something we recognize as offering something we don’t, or don’t have time to, or simply don’t work in that vertical. I think we do need to present a unified front to CMOs and the like and embrace the diversity of the agencies around us.

I see you're offering an SEO Surgery for Affiliates but what place do you feel hands-on, Q&A-style events should play in the improvement of affiliates' SEO knowledge seeing as there's just so much miss-information on the internet?

The misinformation out there at times upsets me so much. I am passionate about helping everyone do a better job at their SEO because at the end of it all, everyone will have clarity, focus, excellent build and understand user intent. It makes the web easier to use, celebrates diversity and enables a small jewellery seller to compete with HR Samuel.

Which part will be most interesting - your's about SEO or Matt's about technology in the affiliate space?

I think they will both be interesting to different people :-) I would say that though, wouldn’t I?

You obviously look at many affiliate sites on a daily basis, what would be the most-common mistake you see people making?

Not adding value. That’s the biggest mistake. Thinking you can slap anything up there and let it ride and make a million. Being a good affiliate can be like a full time job at times. You need to add value, differentiate yourself and stand out.

I have a friend who blames me personally for the quality (or lack thereof) of the search results in the travel vertical. That’s not a vertical I play in but it is one I pick on regularly as giving excellent examples of SEO gone wrong and thin affiliates and bad results.

I see many affiliate sites using technology to build a database of offers or products which are often very similar to others in terms of the content and structure. Do you also feel that many affiliates don't do enough differentiate their offering or their content?

Yes :-D

If you could highlight the biggest revolution (event or technology) in the past year for Affiliate SEO what would it be and why?

London A4U Expo. I’ve chosen a conference which may seem weird. I could have chosen update Vince which favoured brands or new ways of getting reviews on sites but I chose a conference. Why? I feel that A4U Expo brought together in London some of the best names in affiliates and SEO and get them together and they SHARED and didn’t hold anything back. It was the most amazing thing to be a part of. I haven’t been to the London CAP event so I can’t comment on it but A4U Expo London was revolutionary.

I'm a big believer in the future of behavioural advertising for online retailers. But what impact do you think that'll have on affiliates? Is it an opportunity or a threat?

Behavioural targeting creeps me out a bit but then again it might be my surfing habits :-)

I think that looking at peoples patterns of behavior is a mistake for a few reasons. One is that I am a very complex person. What you se doesn’t touch on all things I’m interested in nor do I surf the web looking at the medieval re-enactment sites I’m interested in, fantasy book sites or technology sites. If you fail to serve me an ad about a new steam punk computer because I’ve never shown an interest then you’ve potentially lost that sale and possibly that brand awareness.

Is it a threat? Depends – brand awareness is key. If you can get out there, build trusty and awareness within a niche, it could make a huge difference to your sales but the key is exposure - early and often.

Many are saying that Facebook is diminishing as a marketing channel in favour of Twitter. Would you say they're correct, or do different opportunities exist with each of them?

I think different opportunities exist in each market. Each one is used in a different way, at different times. Understanding how people utilize Twitter differently from Facebook is going to be key to leveraging both those channels effectively.

Time though is a factor and possibly the most critical one. Do not try and engage over social media unless you have the time. If you start and abandon it can look as though your presence has been removed from the web and you are possibly no longer trading. Perception is critical – make sure you get it right.

Now I know you love your chocolate, perhaps as much as I do. But if you were a chocolate, which would you be, and what would Matt be?

If I were a chocolate I could be a "Frrozen Haute Chocolate," a blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the most expensive and exotic from around the globe. The dessert is infused with 5 grams of edible 23-karat gold and served in a goblet lined with edible gold. At the base of the goblet is an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds. [Ed: I best get one of those (on expenses) to review :-)]

The sundae is topped with whipped cream covered with more gold and a side of La Madeline au Truffle from Knipschildt Chocolatier, which sells for $2,600 a pound. [Ed: Someone want to tell them to do a html version of the site and ditch the flash?]

It is eaten with a gold spoon decorated with white and chocolate-coloured diamonds, which can also be taken home.

I think Matt Bailey would likely be an Espresso truffle – looks innocent but packs a powerful punch ;-) [Ed: I bet he doesn't look good in a pink bow like my reviewed Espresso Truffle (see link)]

And finally the details for the Affiliate Surgery, where and when is it and how do affiliates book to attend?

The surgery is May 26th at the i-level offices here in W1 Fitzrovia from 5pm – 7pm. You can email matt-bailey@i-level.com - he’ll be giving away tickets until there are none. We’ve got limited capacity but if the demand is there we will add more seats if we can. You can ask right up to the day but I won’t guarantee that there will be spaces that late ;-)

An Interview With Purple Martin - Someone You May Not Know

2009-05-20T09:44:00.012+01:00

Here's an interview with a hero of mine - Purple Martin! Its not his real name of course! Purple, as he's affectionately known is a successful affiliate who doesn't like to brag about it. He's also very open to his close circle about his successes and failures. I've been nagging for a while for him to do an interview - and he finally gave in!

So Martin, you're an old-timer in the affiliate world. I remember talking to you on Messenger about 7 years ago about useless rubbish to do with the industry back then, but when did you get started in the industry and how did you get yourself into this racket?

Hi Lee, and thanks for asking to interview me.

You are making me feel old by looking back to when I first got started!! I first went on the internet when I was at Uni at Anglia University in Cambridge in 1993. In those days the internet was all text based using lynx. In my final year the uni got some apple macs, and we were allowed some webspace, so I did a little webpage there.

I did not go on the internet for a few years after that until I got the internet at home, and some free webspace. I did the usual shopping directory sites. The first affiliate programmes I promoted were probably Amazon and Streets Online (An online music store owned by Woolworths at one point). The site got very little traffic but I made money by buying CD's online for mates and pocketing the commission.

I then started promoting music festivals and on a search for companies, I found Latestevents.com. This site was run by Kevin Brown who later expanded his affiliate programme with a few more merchants, and he called the service Affiliatewindow, I was one of their first affiliates. Affiliate Window had a message board and a employee of Affiliate Window at the time was Jessica Luthi who pointed me towards the affiliates4u forum run by Matthew Wood. I pretty much lived on the affiliates4u website at this time, sharing knowledge and chatting to other affiliates through the night. I started setting up sites in lots of different verticals.

Most people know you as "Purple" - how on earth did you get that nickname?

Hmmm why the nickname Purple? Well I get asked this a lot and I would love to come up with some amazing story but it is all together quite boring!! When I lived in Essex I used to go out with my mates and we all had different nicknames over the years. On one night out a mate of mine mentioned that he was watching a wildlife show and there was a bird called a purple martin . The Name Purple stuck so when I signed up to affiliate4u message board that was the nickname I chose.

I do not particularly like the colour purple, however when I went to my first big get together in London, I turned up at Tradedoubler office, dressed in Purple Shirt and Tie !!!

Most people actually know you for your concert and festival ticket site "Warn Tickets" but is this your main site, or do you do niche sites off it as most affiliates do?

I do not have a main site any more, I had one site for about 8 years and then Google torched it and my whole income stream went. Over the years I have gone from just the one main site, to having 100s of domains and sites. In the last couple of years I have clipped back my sites to about a dozen which are all in different sectors and get busy at different times of year.

I know you work full time in your day job. Well I use the term "work" loosely. How do you find time to do that, look after the kids, manage your sites and look after your social marketing strategy?

I do not know how I fit everything in, I have been asking fellow affiliates if they have found the 40 hour day yet, when they do I will be using every hour. I manage to do everything as I enjoy all of it. I still enjoy working my day job which gives me some security and a change from affiliate business. My Blackberry has been a revelation it allows me to keep track of my emails , MSN and Twitter wherever ever I am.

My wife is very supportive without her I would not be able to balance everything. My wife and children are everything to me, I still do not see affiliate marketing as work as I just love doing it, and if I was not earning money online I am sure I would be wasting time on the computer in a less productive and profitable way.

I know you're keen on Twitter as a useful marketing tool, but does it work and can you give an insight how you go about using social media (without giving too much away)?

I love twitter it is a very important tool for me, it is instant gratification. I have a decent following for some of my twitter profiles and you can get to know your visitors better, I ask a question or make a comment and I get loads of replies in a instant.

Twitter is also laser guided for finding new customers, it is customer acquisition on acid - it’s awesome. However, it is addictive and if you get too involved your hard built following will unfollow you as quickly as you found them.

I remember talking to you 2/3 years ago about Squidoo and other social content sites. To me they're no longer part of my social media strategy, do you use them now, and which would you place more importance on now; Facebook or Twitter?

Social Media is evolving all the time, Squidoo is still a excellent Social Content site, I do not use it as much as I did when I mentioned it to you a few years back, However Squidoo if you put the time in can give you instant presence online and can help you own the SERPS. Other Social Content sites I would recommend include Wetpaint, Hubpages and Pagerank10. Leeky who runs pagerank10 is a genius and I would recommend giving his pages a go.The secret to these social content sites is how much effort you put into the content you put on these sites.

If you slap on some spammy, affiliate thin content they will not succeed. However if you put together something generally useful it will succeed.

Depending on what niche you are in there are some awesome Social Media site, ones are like that people might not know include ZiiTrend - the Social Prediction Site. All social media sites you get the most from the from getting involved, slapping a RSS feed to Facebook page, or twitter profile is not getting involved, Join the debate, it is all common sense at the end of the day. If you want to stay on top of the latest social media trends and news, Mashable is a must for your RSS Reader.

And blogging, how has blogging changed your affiliate strategy? I know you've embraced Wordpress, but do you spend any time now installing new features, or do you focus most of your time on content?

I mentioned that I started using the internet in 1993, but for my sins I have never really learnt how to code, be it HTML or datafeeds. I have done sites using basic HTML editors and have had a few sites coded for me using scriptlance etc. However my affiliate strategy changed forever when I started using Wordpress.

Wordpress is so easy to use, you could get your Gran blogging, if they can type they can blog. I am not one for messing around with design and the backend of a website, to me Content is King so Wordpress allows me to churn out lots of content without worrying about all the messy backend stuff.
I do use Wordpress plugins, and I tend to listen to what the experts suggest, like Yoast.

Without giving stuff away, as I know you like to keep things under your hat and don't like bragging about things, but what other niches are you involved with? I know you're giving voucher codes a go with your Twitter account but anything really sexy?

Yeah I have joined the bandwagon and have a Discount Codes which is powered by Leeky's fantastic Icodes site. Other sites I am involved with includes a Horse Racing Tips site which is a joint venture with Keith Bond and Lammo and my latest project is a World Twenty 20 Cricket Site

If you could name three tools and three people (or companies) that have had a positive impact on affiliate marketing for you, who and what would they be and why?

I have worked with lots of amazing people so to list just 3 means I am missing out lots of people.

Tools:

* Wordpress - It has revolutionised the way I build and run sites
* Tweetdock - A excellent idea by one of affiliate marketings rising stars Mark Boyd aka hairycornflakes
* A4uforum - Without THE FORUM as it is known, I would not be doing affiliate marketing today,.

People:
* Keith Bond - Has had a huge influence on my affiliate marketing career, he has helped me no end since I first come across him on a4u forum. Any hour of the day he listens to me, but also has been a great role model. I am pleased that last year I got to work with him on some joint ventures.
* Lee McCoy - He is not everyone’s cup of tea, a bit of a marmite! But he has kept me motivated to keep working hard at a time when I was ready to jack it in, lots of his posts on this blog have given me the buzz back and got me thinking in a different way and not to follow the crowd.
* Chris Bowler ( Aquanuke) Chris was a early influence on me back in the day, this guy was a genius and he provided tools to make fellow affiliates life easier when, content units and datafeeds were not even born. He made me realise they was gold in these websites!

Does your wife get involved in what you do? I take it she understands it, but does she help out with content or stuff, would you want her to?

My wife is very supportive, and she is starting to get involved with a Holiday Parks site. I would love her to do more sites, she has a much better idea for design, and she is very in touch with modern culture and fashion. She has a few fashion sites that she is planning which I hope she can launch in the next quarter.

What's the best ever prize/incentive you've ever won being an affiliate?

I always think I have never won anything in affiliate marketing but over the years I have won all sorts. The best was at Christmas when a merchant treated me to see Fulham v Chelsea in a corporate box, as a huge Chelsea fan this was awesome.
However the best prize could be yet to come as I am off to Barbados with Affiliate Future thanks to sunshine.co.uk.

I know you work late into the hours and often hear about you falling asleep at your pc and waking up at 3am with a keyboard imprinted in your forehead. How do you keep motivated to put the long hours in?

My motivation to keep getting keyboard print on my face at 3am is the love of the industry, there are so many great people working in the industry, and I still get a huge buzz from a new site, or with a new merchant.

If you could give any new affiliate any piece of advice, what would it be?

I would say read Kirsty's Blog for getting started info and the other affiliate blogs, read the a4uforum. I would suggest starting by thinking small. I would say get a Wordpress blog and write about something you’re interested in and keep it fun. Affiliate Marketing is not a get rich scheme, you reap what you sow.

What are your general plans for the rest of the year in terms of affiliate marketing? Is there any tactic or niche you're going to focus on?

I plan to go to the A4Uexpo in October as I still haven't been as well as starting a few sites hosted in the US and targeting the US market.

Do I Just Blog For The Freebies And Should You?

2009-05-13T10:00:00.006+01:00

Today I got myself some nice bars of chocolate from Montezumas (on Webgains) which Nicky kindly arranged for me and Matt at Hotel Chocolat was saying he'll send some more over and that got me thinking: "Do I just blog for the freebies"?

Well the short answer is no, but they're a nice fringe benefit. The real reason is the profits that can be made. Now I'm not daft enough to call myself a "super affiliate" as to me that's as desirable as "wag", but the profits to me made can be nice as part of an overall affiliate strategy.

Just looking at one site, you can guess which one (but I have many), I was doing well over 200 sales a day all from natural seo which were adding up to over £500 a day.

And what was the cost? Well only my time and some hosting. Virtually all of the products reviewed were sent to me by the merchants, although I did nip over to Tesco and Sainsbury's to get some other products to review. This is in no way "bragging" or "taking advantage" of the merchants as they were able to increase sales because of it. I ranked for generic phrases which complemented their own search marketing agency and added value - as long as I made sure I didn't damage their brand image with anything I said.

But if you wanted to do the same, here's a few tips or things to think about:

1) Receptive Merchant / Agency or Network
For the chocolate one I had a very helpful Hannah from Existem who was always helping with content ideas. I had Matt from Hotel Chocolate that was a great sounding board, previously Buy.at were great with Thorntons, but got lost in new staffers this year, Paul Nel was great with Cadbury's who, along-side Nicky at Webgains helped with stuff.

So my advice would be to choose a merchant/industry where you feel you've already got good relationships with key figures, or you feel you will be able to do so.

2) Choose a product that you're interested in
Chocolate is only one of the things I can tolerate writing about. I'm involved in other niches as well (but I might not mention them here). But with chocolate I don't find it difficult spending an evening or weekend reviewing products.

3) Choose a product / industry that you can wax lyrical about
Some products you may be interested may not have features that are different between them. With chocolate you've got white, dark, milk chocolate with a varying degrees of cocoa content and fillings. You've got different textures, methods of manufacture, market targetting (kids, adults, gourmet, etc). All this leads to the ability to write verbosely about the various features and pick up long tail keywords.

4) Choose something in high demand
Easter eggs alone are a £200m market annually. Although each sale could vary from 30p to £8ish, there's good volume available. Do some research on sales volumes.

5) Choose a product you can easily buy online
There's loads of merchants that sell chocolate, there's not many (if any) where you can buy cigarettes. Think about what options you have to promote that product.

6) Are those products "want" or "need" products?
My theory is that people are more easily swayed with content if they are a "want" product. No one physically needs chocolate, but they may want it. If you can play on people's compulsions, and get people excited about its ability to make them feel good, then you're more likely to encourage online sales, rather than them researching online and then going to Tesco to buy.

7) Is it a continually evolving market?
What I love about chocolate, and other markets I'm involved in, is that it is always evolving. There's always a new chocolate bar, there's always a new toy or gadget. You'll never be stuck to find things to blog about.

8) Think About Returns
I may be wrong here, but I think there's a much lower return rate with chocolate than other products? Only a small point, but worth thinking about.

9) Think About Social Media Spinning
Think about how easy it would be to get other's to market your site for you by referring and re-tweeting. This is a great way to get your site into places that you didn't think possible.

10) Think Voucher Codes
Are there regularly voucher codes available where you can encourage people to buy there and then via your site rather than continuing their internet searches? For chocolate merhcants, most do them. Are there many in your target market?

11) Think Product Feeds
Are there many merchants that offer product feeds? Adding a Affilistore shop to a blog is a very valuable exercise.

12 Think Product Samples Now
Now you think product samples - as they're not actually crucial. I've got affiliate blogs that do well purely based on news flows for the manufacturer, other review sites and merchants supplying information such as stock levels, voucher codes etc. I've also got blogs set up for future products where there aren't obviously any products available to sample.

Another way to think of the product sample angle is that how likely are you to get product samples from non-affiliated merchants? I get many samples for my chocolate reviews blog for retailers that I won't earn a penny from, but it helps with the diversity of the content as well as allows Google to view the site has a hub site purely because I link to relevant sites - don't be greedy with your links as an affiliate.

13) Think Next Year
Would you still be able to blog about it next year? Would you want to? That's the killer. Far too many blogs are started but die down quickly. You need to make sure that all the other factors above will remain (or are likely to) next year.

Unofficial Barbados Rum Ball Rally 2009

2009-05-11T13:46:00.008+01:00

[Edit: we may be coming up with challenges on the way to make it a bit interesting - anyone got any ideas? Like receipts for stuff from 3 or 5 bars / shops?]

I've decided to arrange and sponsor a Rum Ball Rally for those going to Barbados next month. The plan is get from our hotel to the Animal Flower Caves at the very top of the Island via any land based vehicle of their choice in the quickest time.

View Rum Ball Rally 2009 in a larger map

The winner will be decided by the first team (3 or more persons) to be fully seated on the benches outside of the cafe at the cave and we'll all set off at the same time.

I fully expect you all to drive within the speed limit (whatever that is) and this obviously isn't endorsed or supported by any of the organisers or sponsors just in case anything goes wrong and you can't sue me, or any of our party if it all goes wrong.

And the winning team will each get a bottle of Mount Gay rum to either consume there or take home with you - the prize will be paid by my fair self.

Also we'll have to choose a day between us when people haven't got anyother major events booked or planned - we can sort it out there.

Just fill out this form if you're interested:

Loading...

Good luck, and drive safely.

And for the official teams please check my post on the forum.

You've Got To Be In It To, Er, Win It - Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2009 Finalist

2009-05-11T10:01:00.001+01:00

At the time of writing I'm not aware of the other finalists for the Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2009 as judged by you lovely people affiliates4u.com and sponsored by www.sunshine.co.uk but I'm sure I'm in a crowd of some fantastic people and blogs.

It's nice to be recognised but I don't blog for acclaim, or anything like that, I just blog when I think I can add value or have a topic to get off my chest. Recognition is a nice bye-product from blogging, not its reason d'etre.

So thanks for getting this blog into the final few and if you want to make my mother a very happy women then feel free to vote for me - at least it'll give her something different to talk about at the WI than my five minutes of fame on the Steve Wright show ;-)

There's some fantastic, down-to-earth, helpful, inspiring, open people in this industry. Hopefully you can give those people some support at the Awards.

Mistakes, I've Made a Few, but Then Again, Not Too Few To Mention …

2009-05-08T11:00:00.001+01:00

Business is an evolutionary process and one thing I've noticed in the 7 years I've been building my own affiliate sites is that pretty much all the affiliates I talk with have been modifying what they do and how they do it. As I've finally (and belatedly) decided to transfer my sole-proprietorship business in to my new Get Visible Ltd it got me thinking of all the mistakes I've made in my affiliate business.

I don't think many, if any of these mistakes are unique to me, but I'd be interested to know if any of you have undergone the same process.

1) Much too much, much too young
I was looking at one of my blogger accounts and realised that I had over 60 blogs listed. Now some of them were to target the launches of new products, but others were set up knowing that I didn't have the time to really work hard on them and make the most of my initial investment. Back in my day when my, then, other-half's family was in Amway I remember one of their mentors talking about the shotgun and riffle approach and how its best to put all your effort behind one project and not divide your energies in to many projects - I wish I remembered that back when I first started in 2002 and even in 2006 when I got into blogging in a big way.

2) I shouldn't have rested on my laurels
Back in 2004 I think it was I had a made for Adsense site that was doing around £20k - £25k a month. I know that's big money. But I naively thought it'd last for ever. I spent much of my time faffing on Messenger and playing golf. Any numpty should have realised that it'll all end in tears. Thankfully when Google kicked it out I still had cookie sales coming through for a long time and those affiliate earnings kept going for a while.

3) I let my personal life affect my business life
Around that sort of time there were loads of personal things going on which meant I got distracted from my business and made some really stupid decisions. I moved to London for a while and did chuff all work for a few months. Money was still coming in and decided that Fosters was my friend and not Google - bad move.

4) It took me too long to find a way of doing things I was comfortable with
I still hate building sites, its the faffing around that does my head in. I'm no designer or developer. But when I was sat in Jules' pad in New York in January 2006 it finally dawned on me that I should started blogging as an affiliate. I've not looked back since.

5) Thought too much of "product" and not "process"
I should have been on the discount codes scene at the beginning. But at that time I was purely focused on products and not the process of people's buying decisions and how to monetise them. I'm not complaining a great deal as products like the Pleo made me a hefty packet a couple of Christmas's ago. Other products such as the GHD4 also contributed nicely.

6)I should have realised my own true worth ages ago
Around the time I was doing really well with those product sites I got bored again and decided to do some sub-contracting. This was a bad mistake. I was earning a fraction of my true worth and didn't allow me enough time to really build on those successes. The up side is that I have built up contacts and now get the buzz of client SEO and earn nicely from it and work with some great people. But that year cost me dearly

7) I should have bitten the bullet earlier and re-invested
I've made some nice profits in the last 7 years but when I first started I was skint, berasic, hard up, had nowt. This lead me to need a financial security blanket, which I suppose I still need. But now I'm reinvesting in my sites. The first stage is having new templates built by my brother for the handful of sites I've decided I'm going to carry on working on. I particularly like the Easter eggs one (still want to get the navigation CSS sorted - and remove the out dated voucher codes) and still yet to have my Activity Gift blog redesigned - but I'm having a lot more functionality built in to it.

8) I didn't think "brand" early enough
Pistol was always on at me about using hyphens in domain names, but my strategy was always of the "hit and run" nature. I wasn't worried about creating brands, just appearing in the SERPS with content that I could monetise. Now after the success of the Easter site with coverage on Radio 2, The Telegraph and Radio Mersyside for a domain with hypens and a .org.uk I wondered what I could make of a domain like my Chocolate Reviews one. And I knew what profits could be made out of it. So now I'm attempting to build a brand on that. Many affiliates have created cracking brands, not least Jason and Jude from Loquax who deserves the respect of every affiliate as well as the Chris' and gang who created Holiday Watchdog.

9)I spent too much time doing things and not enough time thinking about how I can do things better
So I started blogging at the beginning of 2006 in an attempt to make my affiliate business more fun and efficient. But it took me until only recently to realise I could use Picassa to quickly upload and (C) photos as well as saving on bandwidth costs. Also only did I find ShortUrl as a tool for managing, encrypting and tracking affiliate links (thanks to Purple).

10) I spent too much time ~~arguing~~ talking with people when I should have been working
I decided at the start of the year that I'd have to spend much less time on the Affiliates4U Forum for a few months and knuckle down and get some work done. I'm coming back next week. But in the past I used to fight my corner excessively. I may of played a small part in helping improve the industry (Spyware, Brand Bidding, Voucher Codes), but on many occasions my "arguments" really didn't contribute anything, and had no chance of doing so. I still have a strong dislike of people who are arrogant and say they're a "super affiliate" when they quite probably don't deserve the mantel, but at the end of the day; what goes around, comes around.

11) I didn't network enough
You'd be surprised how much networking, especially at the Affiliates4U ones can really help your business! You're able to cut through the online crap and speak to people face to face. At first I was networking like crazy, then I went into a self-imposed lull as I got work done. But now I just pick and choose which events I go to a bit more selectively. Hopefully I'll see you at the A4U Awards? But if you've never been to a regional event, then keep an eye out for them.

So: Mistakes, I've Made a Few, but Then Again, Not Too Few To Mention … but hopefully you'll spot some traits in your own business and put an end to them quickly.

But overall, I understand that failure is a fundamental part of success so don't get disheartened if your affiliate sites aren't going well, plug on, become more efficient, be focused and determined to succeed!

Google Even More Social - Direct Links To Social Neworking Sites & GStatic

2009-05-06T18:57:00.003+01:00

Having just reinstated the old Archive I was wondering how Google has reacted to it so I whacked my name in (who hasn't) and noticed the 11th listing:

Yeh, furry muff my Google profile is there but then they allow you to search straight into the social networks - nice feature.

Just a shame it doesn't form part of the top ten listings as it would be a nice little extra feature for those that have to SEO client's names (for various reasons - they're always interesting).

Also the links on the profiles are non no-follow and the page doesn't have any no-index stuff.
and if you look at their robots.txt file you'll see:

Disallow: /profiles/me
Allow: /profiles

And even better is that they're actively trying to promote them:

Also check out their Gstatic.com domain and site maps & here.

got to be worth a play around for those that have a bit of time on their hands?

Whilst we're at it has anyone heard anything about Google Ventures?

The Essential Guide For Affiliate Future Barbados 2009 Competition Winners

2009-05-05T11:37:00.009+01:00

If you're one of the lucky people that have also won a place on the Affiliate Future Barbados 2009 competition and this is your first time (or you can't remember last time) then here's some unofficial essential information.

I'm lucky enough to be going for the fourth time (thanks to the lovely people at Sunshine!) The first - I went with a touring netball party, the second - I went with Laura and the last time I went without the missus. So I've witnessed the country in various situations. I've witnessed the good sides of the island and the bad - nearly dieing of alcohol poisoning. So if you wanted a bit of guidance or just to get your bearings - here's a quick map with details of the places you may end up going and a bit of a FAQ.

View Affiliate Future Barbados 2009 - Essential Information in a larger map

Update: Added one for J Lil - Will Everything Go As Planned?
Before you book anything, before you arrange any connecting flights or hotels, before you tell anyone you're away for those days ... wait for a few days as things never go to plan. ;-) Oh J! :p

How Much Money Will I Need?
£300 should be a good start - but it depends how much you spend on booze. There's a cash machine opposite the hotel so if you run out you can easily get some more. Also all the restaurants obviously take credit cards - except Oistins Fish Night

Will I Be Forced To Do Stuff I Don't Want To?
Well its a group of lads and some ladies. There's obviously the traditional high jinx but you feel free to do your own thing, but its a great laugh doing stuff as a group. Just let everyone know what you're doing if you go off for a day or two (like last year) - definitely let J Lil or Pete know what you're doing just in case you get lost in the outback. The island is bigger than you think and its VERY easy to get lost.

Will We Have Planned Excursions?
Well it looks like J Lil and Pete have got a list of things to do. These include some nice relaxing days, some heavy nights of partying and some nice trips out. You won't have nothing to do - unless you want to.

Do We Go Out Together Every Night?Not always. If you're taking your other half and want some romantic times together then there's some fantastic restaurants on the Gap and along Highway 7 towards Bridgetown. Ask at the hotel for recommendations. On the night we get there its traditional for us all to go out to the Lucky Horseshoe - if you like HUGE steaks - you'll love it here! Also we do trips out to Harbour Lights which is one of the highlights of the holiday. Here you'll meet "The Snake". Don't miss this trip, but expect to stay out VERY late. There's also other organised nights out.

I Want To Drive Around The Island - can I?
Yes. But you'll have to get a Barbados Tourist Driving License. I've got a few days left on mine but remember to take your UK license and passport when you go to hire a car. It's best that we all arrange them together as then if we're all out around the island then we can always help out if people have any problems or get lost - swap mobile numbers before you leave. I can't remember how much it costs, but it is cheap. Make sure you fill up with petrol before you leave the south part of the island as there's chuff all up the top. A tank should last you a couple of days.

Can I Get Free WiFi In The Hotel
On the left-hand-side of the hotel and in the bar you can get it courtesy of the neighbouring hotel. Don't count on it though! There is an internet cafe 2 minutes down the road that is fairly cheap. Just don't sit on the chairs if you've been swimming - the women goes nuts!

What's The Shopping Like?
There's some duty free shops in Bridgetown and a big air-conditioned shop by Rockley Beach. As well as the Quayside Centre where you can get odds and sods. There's loads of supermarkets along Highway 7 as well.

If you want to get duty free, sort it out in the first couple of days so they can arrange it to be delivered to the airport. Unless just spend your money there.

What Getting Grub In The Hotel?
You may get fed up eating breakfast there. I normally get some milk and cereal from the little shop on the right as you walk out the hotel. If you get hungover you may not fancy venturing out.

What Are The Beaches Like?
Further down from the little shop there's Dover Beach which is great for water sports and a swim. There's also Rockley beach which is great to combine sunbathing with shopping. If you want a stunning beach to do some boogie boarding then head over to Cranes Beach - you could get a taxi, but its great to visit on part of your own island tour. There's also Mullins Bay for a gentle swim on the West Coast and for a wild adventure there's Lakes Beach, but I wouldn't go in the sea there - unless you want to be dragged out to West Africa!

This is Lake's Beach:

And Cranes Beach:

Does Everyone Get Dressed Up To Go Out?
If you're going out to Harbour Lights then don't bother - you'll end up with rum punch down ya:

But some people just have too much style:

Or not:

I'm Not In The Best Shape - I Don't Want To Strip Off?
Why? None of us are in shape:

Should I Get A Holiday Hair Cut?
J Lil - please do!

What Should I Drink?
If you like beer then you'll be drinking lots of Banks:

Or Rum & Coke:

Or the odd cocktail:

Should I Take My Camera?
There's stunning views all round:

What's The Food Like?
Well in the Gap there's a range of posh restaurants, street meat, international food and Mexican stuff:

What's The Weather Like?
Generally hot, sunny with the occasional rain shower:

Will I Get Lucky?
If you're single, then you could easily do:

Will I Make A Tit Of Myself?
Definitely:

Will I Need To Be Able To Sing?
No, but it helps. Here's some songs to learn before you go:

Bye Bye American Pie

The Foundations - Build me up Buttercup

Alan Jackson - It's Five O'Clock Somewhere

The Beach Boys - Fun, fun, fun

The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong

Whigfield - Saturday Night

Macarena - Velasquez

Puff The Magic Dragon (For Joe Connor)

Bee Gees - Tragedy

Hey Jude - Paul McCartney

Robbie Williams - Angels

Or you could listen to Keith Bond's Barbados Memories on Spotify.

Will I Have A Good Time?
You can put your life on it!

Thanks Matt From Hotel Chocolat - But It Won't Fit In My Chocolate Fridge!

2009-04-27T11:48:00.000+01:00

A big thanks To Matt Keys at Hotel Chocolat for sending over a great Chocolate Table as a thanks for promoting them. Well I did the the odd sale, and its always nice to get something as a thank you. The bonus will be taxed so its nice to sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labour in this way.

I've got a new chocolate reviews blog so I'll put it to good use on there and the commission on £40 isn't all that bad too.

Also a bit thanks to all the chocolate merchants that gave me increased commissions, content, products to review and was always there to answer questions and give advice. It proves that merchants, affiliates, networks and agencies can work very well together.

An Interview With Someone You May Know: Jules Bazley

2009-04-27T08:46:00.003+01:00

Jules is founder of eMarketingSolution and I've recently found out they've just achieved a bit of a coup in the affiliate marketing world so I thought I'd catch up with him and find out been going on recently:]

Hi Jules. You've been in the industry for a pretty damn long time now. I remember meeting you and Pete in the dinghy basement that Affiliate Future had for offices, but what's been going on with you since those days back in 2002?

Hi Lee, wow you are making me feel old - I was actually in a meeting a few weeks back and was asked to give my opinion as an industry veteran, I guess time flies when you are having fun.

I think I actually started looking at affiliate marketing back in 2002 – back then I had a few affiliate sites (mostly for fun). I started with AF in 2003 when it was just 3 of us in that little office! AF USA was my main project a year or so later and I was out in NY setting things up for a couple of years, then in 2007 I came back to the UK as Commercial Director of IBG until the group was sold to TMN about a year ago now.

It was certainly a great journey and as you know I have made a lot of great friends along the way.

You've now founded eMarketingSolution, what has those experiences of being at the front line with sales and managing US strategy for AF taught you in your current venture?

eMarketingSolution was a logical step for me. Over the years I have done a lot more than just affiliate marketing, eMS was the perfect way to put some skills in to practice and start building a company that adds value to clients in a way that suits my way of working.

In recent years many networks and agencies in the affiliate arena seem to have forgotten what affiliate marketing is actually about; Performance based online marketing.

At eMarketingSolution we offer services on a pure performance model. The results I think are speaking for themselves.

I see that you're a generalist agency, in that you cover affiliate marketing, ppc, eMail, social and other forms of marketing and consultancy services, but what do you feel are the strengths of eMarketingSolution and what sets you apart from the other agencies?

eMarketingSolution offers a full range online advertising services but the focus has been very much on affiliate marketing and consultancy.

We have a small team but collectively have almost 20 years experience in the online space between us. We offer a really personal service that gives true value to clients. With the exception of consultancy every service works on a true performance model.

The obvious example is for our affiliate marketing clients, I don’t really know of any other agencies that will manage and grow sales through the affiliate channel on a pure CPA basis – and lets face it, that’s what affiliate marketing is all about – generating incremental sales on a commission only basis. So many people have forgotten that these days.

I think our mission statement sums it up nicely:

"eMarketingSolution.co.uk's mission is simple, to provide fairly priced online marketing services that adds REAL value to clients without compromising on ethics. We believe that success grows through education, transparency and commitment. We aim to pass on our knowledge and ethical methodologies on to our clients to build successful relationships that grow with the industry "

Last year we were talking about your client base and I was amazed. How the heck do you manage to get these big clients? I'm in awe to be honest!

Many of our clients as you know work with us confidentially, but I think a good example of this would be AffiliRed.com. We have worked closely with AffiliRed and manage all aspects of their affiliate marketing. Together (using experience of our team) we have created a new product that really works.

With AffiliRed we have created a platform that allows clients to be on multiple networks in multiple countries at the same time. The system manages everything from validating sales to distributing invoices to different departments.

I think it is sensible innovation like this, that has lead to interest by our clients. AffiliRed focuses on the Hotel industry and in a very short space of time, it has attracted clients like Barcelo.com, Hotelopia.com and many more.

I think the bottom line is offering a genuine performance related solution to clients that increases their online sales without additional costs and most importantly being able to deliver substantial results.

But now I've heard that you've recently signed a big name, are you able to tell us who they are yet? (I've had my nose to the grindstone, I've not noticed you mention them yet).

I had a feeling this was leading somewhere ;)

eMarketingSolution have just signed with CDWOW to manage all aspects of their affiliate marketing. It’s very early days as we are still in the handover period – but its definitely going to be a great project. CDWOW were a powerhouse in the affiliate industry up until a few years ago.

Since then website was acquired by a new company (Stomp Entertainment) and over the coming months we aim to build the affiliate programme back to its former glory. You will see a lot of changes over the coming months as we role out a whole range of new promotional tools – I think its safe to say that this will be one of our biggest challenges yet and I am really excited about it.

I know the life of an affiliate management agency isn't the easiest, you've always got to deal with past reputations. How do you handle a brand that some may have lasting impressions of?

I think it’s important to learn from the past. Whilst often

So that's the past, what about the present. What do you hope to achieve for them?

Moving forward we have to look at the bigger picture. CD WOW are one of the most competitively priced sites out there. The product range is equal if not better than most of its competition and the brand itself is one of the highest converting sites I have ever come across.

Consumers love CDWOW and this means that the potential for affiliates is substantial. Currently we are looking at a range of new tools that will include things like proper data feeds, new creatives, widgets, plugins and a lot more – there is a lot of work going in to things and I think the results will speak for themselves..

And the future for you and the business. Where do you see eMarketingSolution being in 3 years?

You know me Lee, I can never stop working. The plan is to continue in a similar way to now. We are pretty selective with who we work with and will continue to make sure that every affiliate management client that we take on is something that will be interesting to affiliates and capable of growing into a well known success. As long as we continue to create ‘win wins’ with every client, I think the future is looking good.

We are also looking to role out some pretty funky tools in a few months, but I can really say to much more about that the moment, maybe we can have another chat in a few months and I can tell you more about that then.

What do you feel the affiliate marketing industry will be like then, do you believe agencies will have to adapt to the changing nature of affiliates?

Definitely – we work in the online space and things move along faster than anywhere else. As the industry continues to grow, agencies and networks will need to keep up with the times.

It is key that agencies and networks offering account management actually add value to the clients rather than just using this as an excuse to charge high monthly fees. Over the years I have heard some shocking stories about account management from agencies and I really hope that this is becoming less common.

At eMarketingSolution we try to add real value by creating tools for clients that benefit affiliates, merchants and networks – I really think this makes the difference and our clients seem to agree, so we must be doing something right.

What are the biggest challenges you feel that merchants have these days and what can be done to solve them?

I read a report recently by Econsultancy which had a quote from an affiliate about loyalty between merchants and affiliates – on the surface it was a fair quote but it really got me thinking.

“Voice of the affiliate - “Why should a merchant show loyalty? I have no loyalty; if another merchant pays me, then I will redirect traffic there. I don’t expect loyalty, as I can’t reciprocate.”

One thing that the affiliate industry needs is loyalty in both directions – I hope that over time this mentality can be adjusted – it’s the only way the industry can sustainably grow in the years to come. I also think that management agencies have a massive role to play in this – affiliate marketing is about creating long term successful advertising relationships. If this fundamental relationship is one thing that we can achieve for eMarketingSolution’s merchants and affiliates we work with, I don’t think there is much that cant be achieved.

And if anyone wanted to buy you a pint, or get you to buy them one .... which events are you going to this year?

It’s quite a busy year all round – I have already been to trade shows in Moscow, Berlin and Madrid but I hope to stay a little more local for the rest of the year.

Chances are that I will be at all the main affiliate events this year – I owe about 100 people beers at the moment, I guess its going be a pretty busy year ;)

Ed: Great stuff Jules, hopefully I'll be popping down for a beer soon.

Content For Links - Part Deux - Pot Shots

2009-04-25T09:22:00.006+01:00

Just A quick response to Kieron's post about content for links. I do have issues regarding some of the points, as I believe "efficient use of the truth" is a good way to sum up part of it, and with access to Risk Disk you can prove a few things. But I'm not really interested in that bit.

Now Simon and I have had quite a few discussions via email about "content for links" especially as I reviewed what could be labelled as their work. But out of fairness I took the post down as I didn't feel reviewing one possible client could be deemed as representative of the whole picture. Even though my conclusions were on the whole negative, I thought I'd give them unfettered progress in trying to do what they do as well as realising "who am I to judge?" There are for more important people (the search engines) that are best fit to judge.

But there was one bit in their response to the chatter that tickled me:

As a final thought, if the content-for-links approach is so “black hat” because it is motivating partners through the value of the content to include a link, where does that leave, for example, content affiliates who are paid for the traffic – some via natural links tracked via merchant’s own programmes . . .or many bloggers . . or possibly the bulk of today’s social media system . . .where does it stop?

It's quite simple. Google understands that websites, in the main, exist to make money. But the content I and other bloggers write is purely motivated by making the sale. Our ability to earn depends on our ability to write interesting and informative content. Our motivation is not to increase the search engine performance of those we link to. In fact our wish is that we don't, necessesarily, want to help push them up the SERPS as that'd mean more traffic may go direct to them.

I often link to online retailers that don't have an affiliate programme. I do this because often they have great products that I feel enthused about, I review them and link to them. Now should I rel="nofollow" them to fit your argument? Or should I do what Google wants and actually "vote" for them? Does it matter that they send the product that is being reviewed for free? Does that muddy the waters? I'm sure the sole purpose they do it is for the traffic and sales I send. If I get a whiff of anything about SEO from their side then I don't publish.

So Kieron and Simon, its very simple. Our content is designed to drive sales as the primary function, your content is designed to improve the search engine performance of your clients. It's that simple.

I've no issues with offering to increase the "value" of websites with great content and then getting a link back - that's what online PR is all about. It's just the quality issue I often have problems with.

And guys, I'd love to hear your opinion on Triond!

Does Offline Exposure Work? My Experience

2009-04-20T08:51:00.002+01:00

I'm a 99% online person. I eat, breath, sleep online marketing. The paradox is that my consultancy business actually started in its current guise with a press release I wrote over 6 years ago (I was consulting under a different name from 1998). However, I always try and make the most of any opportunities to gain exposure that come may way - and many did come my way.

Earlier in the month I was featured as "Geek Of The Week" on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show. When I heard it I was driving back home up the M6 and was thinking about whether the server could cope, how many sales I'll make etc etc. Then I thought that they haven't mentioned the domain name and they were mentioning my name over and over again so I was wondering how people would split themselves between searching for the product and my name.

So looking at the keywords for this blog over the month it looks like there were only 33 visits to the site with "Easter" in them with an obvious blip when the day of the show:

For those just searching on my name there was probably an extra 8 or 9 visits. So altogether there was no huge affect.

And there was absolutely no traffic to the Easter Eggs site with my name in which was probably a mistake not putting it on there in the first place, however, I could not have anticipated the Radio2 coverage.

Thankfully I had created a Twitter account for the site and it was ranking nicely for the product name and my name so I picked up a few more followers - but nothing special:

As aside, Twitter sent the site 190 visits - but I didn't track out clicks direct to merchants, but I'll be doing that from now on.

Now, I then got some nice coverage in the business section of the Telegraph. But the numpties messed up the link to the site. However, from experience I know that traffic from online versions of newspapers is often woeful so I wasn't worried about that. Furthermore, with the transitory nature link juice of internal pages within newspaper sites and the fact it has no cache means I've not "lost" much on the SEO front.

I was interested to know what impact the article would have on the site's direct traffic. Well it was referenced to on the front page of the business section so I was hoping for a fair bit. In the week before the site was getting around 200 direct visits a day and on that Good Friday it got just over 300 - which I suppose was good as it was a Bank Holiday, but nothing special. What's interesting is that its been fairly constant at around 140 ever since and is now a staggering 1/3 of all the traffic (over the past 7 days).

But, I was wondering about all this extra exposure about Easter eggs offline, I was wondering about if that led to an increased level of traffic from that search term. Now both years I've had top spot in Google UK for that term and 4th in Google global - there's a constant there. Actual traffic from [Easter eggs] was down 26.64% but all search traffic that included "Easter eggs" as part of a search phrase was up 94.08% (against all keywords driving 76.15% more traffic).

So are people going longer and longer tail as many are suggesting? I would say so. Hopefully Heather or Robin at Hitwise could shed some light on that?

I'm going to look at the social media/SEO/email impact on the site next time out and maybe throw in some examples of how keyword use changes as we get up to events such as Easter and Christmas - hopefully you'll find that interesting. I may even look at how conversion rates change by merchant over time too?