Ecommerce Blog

So they’re making a movie of Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires” all about the early days of Facebook and the enemies that Mark Zuckerburg allegedly made and the meteoric rise of the social networking site that we all now accept as part of our lives. I’ve read the book and if I’m honest wasn’t that impressed. A lot of the book is pure conjecture and speculation. Ben Mezrick uses quite a lot of artistic licence in piecing together what might have happened early on in Facebook’s life. But given that Mark  Zuckerberg hasn’t written his autobiography yet, this is the best that we’re going to get to the real story of how Facebook started. BTW I love the subtitle of the movie, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies“. Brilliant.

This got me thinking though, I think there’s a much better story out there waiting to be told and it’s all about eBay and affiliate marketing. For those of you who don’t know, in August 2008 eBay filed a civil suit in America against Shawn Hogan, Brian Dunning and Todd Dunning from Digital Point. eBay alleged them of “cookie stuffing”, in other words generating hidden forced clicks of their eBay affiliate links. No big deal I hear you say, I know loads of affiliates who participated in cookie stuffing “back in the day”. Yes, so do I. But get this, between 2006 and June 2007, Shawn Hogan earned approximately $15.5 million in commission from eBay. Shawn was eBay’s number one affiliate. Yes that’s $15.5 million in commission from one programme in just over a year. So it’s unsurprising that eBay are taking this seriously. To make matters worse (for the affiliates in question) criminal charges have now been filed and if they are found guilty they could end up in prison for up to 20 years. 20 years in prison for cookie stuffing, can you imagine? You can read a much more detailed account of the whole case here.

What makes this case really interesting to me is that having been around the affiliate business for 10 years or so I can remember loads of affiliates who did the whole cookie stuffing thing. In particular one or two of the early voucher code sites were a tad naughty. I’m pretty sure none of them generated as much commission from it as the Digital Point guys though, still, it’s food for thought. And before anyone asks, no I won’t name these affiliates on here. In fairness though, affiliate marketing was a bit “wild west” a few years ago and things like cookie stuffing were very much a “grey”  area as no real rules existed. Brand bidding was also open to pretty much anyone, ah those were the days.

If there is only one blog post you read today you MUST read this one

In response to the eBay allegations Shawn Hogan has written a blog post about his experience with eBay as an affiliate. You simply must read this, it’s absolutely fascinating and reminds me so much of years gone by when while not commonplace there certainly was an element of the “brown paper bag business” about affiliate marketing.  Now that would make a good movie….

What I’m listening to right now: Strictly Bass, part 6

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Brown paper bag money

Original post by Kieron

So, I wrote a review of the iPad. I wasn’t motivated by money to write the post, I didn’t plan to monetise it, I just wanted to put down some thoughts on the iPad. Then after the review started getting a lot of traffic I thought that out of interest I would replace my standard links to the iTunes store with affiliate links. With the apps in my review costing between nothing and £3.99 I didn’t do this to raise a lot of money but more of an experiment, to see if people would click through and buy/preorder these apps.

Anyway, I knew the Apple affiliate programme was on the TradeDoubler network so I hunted it out to see if I could put some links up. However once I got into the TD system I got an odd error message saying I couldn’t apply for a closed programme. Confused, I emailed TD support and was told it was a closed programme and they would ask the account manager to get in touch to see if they could help. Fair enough, there are lots of closed programmes on all networks and I don’t have a problem with that. To their credit TD came back promptly with an email asking for the following:

Please get back to me me the following details:

1. Site Name

2. General site description

3. Why your site is a good fit for the Apple program

4. Unique users per month

5. Page impressions per month

6. Estimate monthly sales you can generate

Hmm, so I was just contemplating if I could be bothered to answer these questions and especially pondering if they would accept 0 - 100,000 as an answer to question 6 when I came across Jason’s blog post entitled: Apple Not Paying Commission on iPads. Now I wasn’t planning on actually promoting the iPad via affiliate links but this attitude of Apple’s really annoys me. They seem to think that affiliates are good enough to promote all of their other products but when it comes to something as hot as the iPad then they don’t have to pay us commission because it will sell on it’s own without our help. Then I remembered that it had happened before, and before that, and before that. And it will probably happen again.

At this point I was about to go into a rant about treating affiliates unfairly and only giving commission on products that aren’t “hot” items such as games consoles, iPads, iPhone etc. is grossly unfair but I just haven’t the heart any more. It happens every year and it unlikely to change.

OK maybe I will a little bit…While writing this post I’ve been tweeting about this very situation and a couple of people have said that Apple will still sell a lot of iPads without affiliates so it won’t harm them commercially. Well yes and no. Yes they will still sell a ton of them but it’s about respect. It’s like saying, hey affiliates we want you to promote all of our other products but just not the iPad. It will sell a stink load without you guys so just back off OK? Not OK. I think it’s grossly unfair to treat your “partners” like this. Either we’re good enough to promote all your stuff or none. Make your mind up. People were also arguing whether or not my post (or others similar) will bring in incremental sales. Yes they will, I’ve listed some tweets below that I received in response to my review. Sure this is only anecdotal evidence but it’s the best we’ve got.

So, Apple, I won’t be joining your programme thankyou very much. To be blunt, I think you’re unfair for not offering commission on the iPad. Just so you know, more than one person has today told me that they pre-ordered the iPad as a direct consequence of reading my review. My review that cost you nothing.

Some tweets about my iPad review…

What I’m listening to right now: “Cool, groovy, soulful music” - awful name but brilliant playlist.

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Dear Apple, it’s OK I don’t want to join your affiliate programme because it’s too unfair

Original post by Kieron

So, I wrote a review of the iPad. I wasn’t motivated by money to write the post, I didn’t plan to monetise it, I just wanted to put down some thoughts on the iPad. Then after the review started getting a lot of traffic I thought that out of interest I would replace my standard links to the iTunes store with affiliate links. With the apps in my review costing between nothing and £3.99 I didn’t do this to raise a lot of money but more of an experiment, to see if people would click through and buy/preorder these apps.

Anyway, I knew the Apple affiliate programme was on the TradeDoubler network so I hunted it out to see if I could put some links up. However once I got into the TD system I got an odd error message saying I couldn’t apply for a closed programme. Confused, I emailed TD support and was told it was a closed programme and they would ask the account manager to get in touch to see if they could help. Fair enough, there are lots of closed programmes on all networks and I don’t have a problem with that. To their credit TD came back promptly with an email asking for the following:

Please get back to me me the following details:

1. Site Name

2. General site description

3. Why your site is a good fit for the Apple program

4. Unique users per month

5. Page impressions per month

6. Estimate monthly sales you can generate

Hmm, so I was just contemplating if I could be bothered to answer these questions and especially pondering if they would accept 0 - 100,000 as an answer to question 6 when I came across Jason’s blog post entitled: Apple Not Paying Commission on iPads. Now I wasn’t planning on actually promoting the iPad via affiliate links but this attitude of Apple’s really annoys me. They seem to think that affiliates are good enough to promote all of their other products but when it comes to something as hot as the iPad then they don’t have to pay us commission because it will sell on it’s own without our help. Then I remembered that it had happened before, and before that, and before that. And it will probably happen again.

At this point I was about to go into a rant about treating affiliates unfairly and only giving commission on products that aren’t “hot” items such as games consoles, iPads, iPhone etc. is grossly unfair but I just haven’t the heart any more. It happens every year and it unlikely to change.

OK maybe I will a little bit…While writing this post I’ve been tweeting about this very situation and a couple of people have said that Apple will still sell a lot of iPads without affiliates so it won’t harm them commercially. Well yes and no. Yes they will still sell a ton of them but it’s about respect. It’s like saying, hey affiliates we want you to promote all of our other products but just not the iPad. It will sell a stink load without you guys so just back off OK? Not OK. I think it’s grossly unfair to treat your “partners” like this. Either we’re good enough to promote all your stuff or none. Make your mind up. People were also arguing whether or not my post (or others similar) will bring in incremental sales. Yes they will, I’ve listed some tweets below that I received in response to my review. Sure this is only anecdotal evidence but it’s the best we’ve got.

So, Apple, I won’t be joining your programme thankyou very much. To be blunt, I think you’re unfair for not offering commission on the iPad. Just so you know, more than one person has today told me that they pre-ordered the iPad as a direct consequence of reading my review. My review that cost you nothing.

Some tweets about my iPad review…

What I’m listening to right now: “Cool, groovy, soulful music” - awful name but brilliant playlist.

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Dear Apple, it’s OK I don’t want to join your affiliate programme because it’s too unfair

Original post by Kieron

So, I wrote a review of the iPad. I wasn’t motivated by money to write the post, I didn’t plan to monetise it, I just wanted to put down some thoughts on the iPad. Then after the review started getting a lot of traffic I thought that out of interest I would replace my standard links to the iTunes store with affiliate links. With the apps in my review costing between nothing and £3.99 I didn’t do this to raise a lot of money but more of an experiment, to see if people would click through and buy/preorder these apps.

Anyway, I knew the Apple affiliate programme was on the TradeDoubler network so I hunted it out to see if I could put some links up. However once I got into the TD system I got an odd error message saying I couldn’t apply for a closed programme. Confused, I emailed TD support and was told it was a closed programme and they would ask the account manager to get in touch to see if they could help. Fair enough, there are lots of closed programmes on all networks and I don’t have a problem with that. To their credit TD came back promptly with an email asking for the following:

Please get back to me me the following details:

1. Site Name

2. General site description

3. Why your site is a good fit for the Apple program

4. Unique users per month

5. Page impressions per month

6. Estimate monthly sales you can generate

Hmm, so I was just contemplating if I could be bothered to answer these questions and especially pondering if they would accept 0 - 100,000 as an answer to question 6 when I came across Jason’s blog post entitled: Apple Not Paying Commission on iPads. Now I wasn’t planning on actually promoting the iPad via affiliate links but this attitude of Apple’s really annoys me. They seem to think that affiliates are good enough to promote all of their other products but when it comes to something as hot as the iPad then they don’t have to pay us commission because it will sell on it’s own without our help. Then I remembered that it had happened before, and before that, and before that. And it will probably happen again.

At this point I was about to go into a rant about treating affiliates unfairly and only giving commission on products that aren’t “hot” items such as games consoles, iPads, iPhone etc. is grossly unfair but I just haven’t the heart any more. It happens every year and it unlikely to change.

OK maybe I will a little bit…While writing this post I’ve been tweeting about this very situation and a couple of people have said that Apple will still sell a lot of iPads without affiliates so it won’t harm them commercially. Well yes and no. Yes they will still sell a ton of them but it’s about respect. It’s like saying, hey affiliates we want you to promote all of our other products but just not the iPad. It will sell a stink load without you guys so just back off OK? Not OK. I think it’s grossly unfair to treat your “partners” like this. Either we’re good enough to promote all your stuff or none. Make your mind up. People were also arguing whether or not my post (or others similar) will bring in incremental sales. Yes they will, I’ve listed some tweets below that I received in response to my review. Sure this is only anecdotal evidence but it’s the best we’ve got.

So, Apple, I won’t be joining your programme thankyou very much. To be blunt, I think you’re unfair for not offering commission on the iPad. Just so you know, more than one person has today told me that they pre-ordered the iPad as a direct consequence of reading my review. My review that cost you nothing.

Some tweets about my iPad review…

What I’m listening to right now: “Cool, groovy, soulful music” - awful name but brilliant playlist.

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Dear Apple, it’s OK I don’t want to join your affiliate programme because it’s too unfair

Original post by Kieron

I’m delighted to announce today that ShareMyPlaylists.com has taken on some seed funding from Buy.at founders Steve Brown, Malcolm Cowley, David Brown and Paul Fellows. These are the 4 guys who took Buy.at from a startup to a $125 million sale to AOL a couple of years ago.

I’ve known Steve, Mal, Dave and Paul for a number of years now and am really excited to be working with them on SMP. They all have unique experience, skills and talents to bring to the business and I’d also like to extend a very warm welcome to Steve who will be joing the board at SMP as a non-executive director.

There will be exciting times ahead as we plan the next stage of growth for the business and further enhancements and developments to the site. I’m very excited about this project and working with the original Buy.at Dream Team.

We’re also recruiting a senior developer, details here.

Full press release below:

A North East entrepreneur, Kieron Donoghue, has launched a social media website that is set to be the largest globally for the Spotify online music community after receiving a six figure investment from four successful internet business investors.

Sharemyplaylists.com (SMP) was developed by Sunderland based Kieron after he noticed a gap in the market to make music discovery easier for Spotify users and give them the ability to share playlists.

Spotify is an online music streaming service that allows subscribers to create their own playlists from any artist, album and genre free of charge.

After developing and launching the site and seeing it grow virally, Kieron pitched the opportunity to Steven Brown, David Brown, Malcolm Cowley and Paul Fellows - the ‘dream team’ that set up www.Buy.at from Newcastle which eventually sold for $125m to AOL in 2008 - who quickly spotted the potential of the business in the wake of other social media successes such as MySpace and Facebook.

Offering a social network so music fans can talk about their favourite artists and bands, as well as the opportunity to discover and rate other people’s music compilations, SMP already works with the major record labels and ran a promotion with Warner Music UK over Christmas to promote the latest R.E.M. album. Celebrity playlists are featured on the site from the likes of Robbie Williams, The Gorillaz, Will Young, The Saturdays, Leona Lewis, La Roux and Alicia Keys amongst others.

SMP will fund its growth through targeted online advertising sales to those wishing to reach music lovers on a national and global level.

Over 16,000 playlists are currently listed on SMP, the largest number on any site of its kind. Its success to date is such that the team are looking for new premises and to recruit full time developers.

SMP founder Kieron Donoghue has been self-employed for ten years and through running UK Offer Media Ltd and Content Now LLP has vast experience of online commerce. He said: “As a big Spotify fan, I was extremely excited by the opportunity to develop a complementary site that would further enhance the offer and just knew the concept had huge potential. Music is a real passion for many and Sharemyplaylists.com allows people to meet others with similar tastes to themselves, bringing in a real social networking element.

“Gaining the support of the former Buy.at team has been a fantastic leap forward and it’s a real privilege to have their expertise involved with the business. A key next step for me now is to use some of the investment to find new offices and get a talented and experienced workforce in place.”

Investor and ex CEO of buy.at, Steven Brown sits on the SMP board as a non-executive director and is also excited by the venture and working with both Kieron and the investment team once more.

Steven commented: “The online music sector is high growth and Spotify is a fantastic application that offers legal streaming music – a service that will quite simply become the normal way to consume music in future. Sharemyplaylists.com is brilliant in its simplicity and not only plugs a real gap and allows friends to connect through their common passion but, most importantly, is being launched at the perfect time. We have great ambitions for the business and firmly believe it has all the attributes to be tremendously successful.”

A spokesperson for Spotify added: “It is great to see Sharemyplaylists.com and the Spotify ecosystem continue to flourish. Social and sharing features are very important to Spotify and Sharemyplaylists.com has been at the forefront of playlist sharing since early on.”

What I’m listening to right now: Usher - “Raymond v Raymond“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Buy.at dream team invest in ShareMyPlaylists.com

Original post by Kieron

It has been announced today that Malcolm Cowley, one of the original founders of Buy.at has invested in Existem Affiliate Management and will be joining the board.

Malcolm left Buy.at in 2008 after it’s sale to AOL Advertising. During that time he’s kept his eye on the affiliate marketing sector and feels that now is the time to step back into the arena.

For my money this is a great move, I’ve always rated the Existem team as one of the top affiliate management agencies in the UK and often refer clients to them. Malcolm will be a great addition to the team and I’m sure will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to take the business to the next level.

Congratulations guys, I’m expecting big things!

What I’m listening to right now: Gorillaz - “Plastic Beach“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Malcolm Cowley invests in Existem Affiliate Management

Original post by Kieron

After weeks of speculation that Buy.at was on the market and a few affiliate networks and consortiums were interested, it has been announced today that Affiliate Window (now known as Digital Window) have acquired Buy.at. Announcement here.

Being completely honest here I’m glad that Affiliate Window have acquired Buy.at and not one of the other networks who were in the running. Affiliate Window are without a shadow of a doubt the most proactive and innovative network in the UK. And now that they have snatched Buy.at away from the corporate red-tape monster that is AOL I’m very much looking forward to seeing Buy.at return to their former glory.

So, congratulations to Affiliate Window and Buy.at who are now officially the UK’s largest affiliate marketing network. Well done guys.

What I’m listening to right now: Kieron’s R&B Mixtape Vol. 4

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Affiliate Window buys Buy.at

Original post by Kieron

It’s that time of year again, can you believe it’s the 4th annual A4U Awards. This year it’s at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, Mayfair on the 9th June. As previous years it promises to be a glamorous night to remember, black tie and posh frocks will be the order of the evening and champagne will be on tap.

The important bit - if you’re involved in affiliate marketing in any way, shape or form then you MUST vote. If you don’t vote then you can’t complain at the winners, so head on over now before the closing date of 1st March.

Tips for entrants

It’s no secret that I’m on the judging panel for the awards so I thought I would give some advice on what makes an entry stand out.

Don’t be shy with figures

This is not the time to wear your tin foil hat and shout conspiracy. To give the judges the best idea of your business then please ensure that you give supporting figures in your entry. If you tell us that you increased sales year on year by “a lot” then I’m sorry but that won’t cut the mustard as much as cold hard sales figures. Please trust me when I say that the judges won’t steal your ideas, copy your business plan or share your figures with anyone else. It was a shame but last year I didn’t give some entries as high marks as others because they didn’t give enough information. So please, give yourselves as much a chance as possible and give us as much detail as you can.

Good luck, see you in Mayfair in June!

What I’m listening to right now: Kieron’s Valentine Mix

Post from Kieron’s Blog

A4U Awards and tips for entrants

Original post by Kieron

I’m not sure how this managed to pass me by but I’ve just noticed that DFDS have a rather brilliant affiliate incentive on the go at the moment. There are 11 prizes up for grabs including a £4500 Bang & Olufsen BeoSound5 and 10 Premium Spotify subscriptions!

The B&O BeoSound5 is a really cool sound system that picks the next song that it will play based on the sounds from the previous track, or you can just play albums and playlists you create yourself. The screen also displays album artwork as well, adding to the look of the whole system. Ideal for the home or (affiliate) office.

Like all good incentives it’s really easy to enter, all you have to do is make 1 DFDS sale for 1 entry into the prize draw. Obviously, the more sales you make the better chance you have of winning.

Out of the 10 Spotify Premium subscriptions on offer, 5 are to give away to people who add a piece of content about DFDS Seaways to their site or blog etc. For every bit they add DFDS give them an entry into the draw and obviously the more relevant and good quality content they add the more chance of getting sales and winning the top prize too!

The 5 remaining Spotify Premium accounts are for all those affiliates who didn’t make a DFDS sale in 2009 or have joined the program so far this year. So basically incentivising inactive affiliates.

The incentive runs until 28th February and full details can be found here.

MASSIVE TIP: As a rule entries into affiliate only competitions tend to be really low. No matter how good the prize it seems we can’t be bothered to enter. So make sure you enter and you may be surprised to find yourself a winner.

What I’m listening to right now: J. Holiday - “Round 2“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

DFDS affiliate incentive - £4500 B&O sound system and Spotify Premium up for grabs

Original post by Kieron

I’m not sure how this managed to pass me by but I’ve just noticed that DFDS have a rather brilliant affiliate incentive on the go at the moment. There are 11 prizes up for grabs including a £4500 Bang & Olufsen BeoSound5 and 10 Premium Spotify subscriptions!

The B&O BeoSound5 is a really cool sound system that picks the next song that it will play based on the sounds from the previous track, or you can just play albums and playlists you create yourself. The screen also displays album artwork as well, adding to the look of the whole system. Ideal for the home or (affiliate) office.

Like all good incentives it’s really easy to enter, all you have to do is make 1 DFDS sale for 1 entry into the prize draw. Obviously, the more sales you make the better chance you have of winning.

Out of the 10 Spotify Premium subscriptions on offer, 5 are to give away to people who add a piece of content about DFDS Seaways to their site or blog etc. For every bit they add DFDS give them an entry into the draw and obviously the more relevant and good quality content they add the more chance of getting sales and winning the top prize too!

The 5 remaining Spotify Premium accounts are for all those affiliates who didn’t make a DFDS sale in 2009 or have joined the program so far this year. So basically incentivising inactive affiliates.

The incentive runs until 28th February and full details can be found here.

MASSIVE TIP: As a rule entries into affiliate only competitions tend to be really low. No matter how good the prize it seems we can’t be bothered to enter. So make sure you enter and you may be surprised to find yourself a winner.

What I’m listening to right now: J. Holiday - “Round 2“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

DFDS affiliate incentive - £4500 B&O sound system and Spotify Premium up for grabs

Original post by Kieron

I’m not sure how this managed to pass me by but I’ve just noticed that DFDS have a rather brilliant affiliate incentive on the go at the moment. There are 11 prizes up for grabs including a £4500 Bang & Olufsen BeoSound5 and 10 Premium Spotify subscriptions!

The B&O BeoSound5 is a really cool sound system that picks the next song that it will play based on the sounds from the previous track, or you can just play albums and playlists you create yourself. The screen also displays album artwork as well, adding to the look of the whole system. Ideal for the home or (affiliate) office.

Like all good incentives it’s really easy to enter, all you have to do is make 1 DFDS sale for 1 entry into the prize draw. Obviously, the more sales you make the better chance you have of winning.

Out of the 10 Spotify Premium subscriptions on offer, 5 are to give away to people who add a piece of content about DFDS Seaways to their site or blog etc. For every bit they add DFDS give them an entry into the draw and obviously the more relevant and good quality content they add the more chance of getting sales and winning the top prize too!

The 5 remaining Spotify Premium accounts are for all those affiliates who didn’t make a DFDS sale in 2009 or have joined the program so far this year. So basically incentivising inactive affiliates.

The incentive runs until 28th February and full details can be found here.

MASSIVE TIP: As a rule entries into affiliate only competitions tend to be really low. No matter how good the prize it seems we can’t be bothered to enter. So make sure you enter and you may be surprised to find yourself a winner.

What I’m listening to right now: J. Holiday - “Round 2“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

DFDS affiliate incentive - £4500 B&O sound system and Spotify Premium up for grabs

Original post by Kieron

After a short break of 7 months or so I’m really glad to welcome back Buy.at as a blog advertiser. In the time that they’ve been away they’ve managed to shake off the awful “Platform A” rebrand and go back to the good old Buy.at brand that we all know and love. Welcome back guys

Buy.at ShopCentral

It’s fantastic to see that Buy.at are still innovating too and have just lanched ShopCentral. It’s basically a simple-to-use storebuilder (hey, even I can work it) which can give you a full-on affiliate site crammed with thousands of products up and running in a matter of minutes, example here. Whilst there are quite a lot of affiliate networks and third party suppliers that offer content units, there aren’t that many that offer full storefronts. And in my humble opinion there aren’t any that are as easy to use as ShopCentral.

What makes it extra special cool

You can use a tick box when setting up to “use search engine keywords” so perfect for PPC affiliates and even for parked domain names. I’ve seen this in practice and it’s very clever how it works and because it’s a live-feed it’s always up to date. Like I say, very clever and simple, just how I like it.

Well done Buy.at, great to see you guys are still innovating.

What I’m listening to right now: Mary J. Blige — “Skycap (Feat. Timbaland)”

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Buy.at ShopCentral

Original post by Kieron

Back in September we launched the ContentNow.co.uk News Service, this is where we deliver fresh, unique news content to your site anything from 10 times a day to twice a week. Since launching we’ve had lots of clients take up this service and I’m delighted to say that it’s been really well received. I’ve been saying for that years that fresh content added to your site as often as possible is one of the best ways to rank well in the search engines, hence creating this service.

The reason for this blog post is that I wanted to make sure that some of the smaller sites could make the most of this service. Our competitors in this sector usually won’t entertain clients who spend less that £1000 a month. Not us however, we realise that some of the best sites out there started from small acorns with modest budgets. Which is why we’ve introduced our “starter pack” which consists of just 2 news items per week. You can choose from the following news article lengths, all prices are based on a 4 week month.

200 word articles twice a week = £104 per month
250 word articles twice a week = £128 per month
300 word articles twice a week = £152 per month
350 word articles twice a week = £176 per month
400 word articles twice a week = £200 per month
450 word articles twice a week = £224 per month
500 word articles twice a week = £248 per month

Our hope is that the introductory packages above will serve the sites with more modest budgets. We are always willing to be flexible too and if we don’t have a package to suit your needs then we’ll create one for you. We don’t tie you into long term contracts either, we operate a rolling 30 days notice agreement.

More details of the ContentNow.co.uk News Service, and what separates us from our competitors:

Unique - researched and written specifically for you and no-one else.

UK Sourced - all of our content is written here in the UK from staff who speak English as their first language.

Specific focus for the pieces rather than a generic sector focus.

Grammatically and syntactically correct.

Keyword balanced and detailed keyword balance control (contains an appropriate keyword density / number of occurrences of your target search terms without being over-optimised which could risk a search engine penalty or render the content unreadable).

Formatted according to your requirements (we can deliver the content to you with some basic HTML formatting based upon your specific requirements or simply as plain text if you prefer).

Cost effectively produced (because we do this day in day out, there are significant economies of scale in terms of training, management and in-depth understanding of search engine optimisation and content optimisation).

Permanently yours (some other news providers will retain the copyright to the content they produce and will require its removal if you cease to be a client).

Delivery mechanisms (XML / RSS / email / CMS).

If anybody would like more information or samples of our work then please email kieron.donoghue@contentnow.co.uk

What I’m listening to right now: Trey Songz - “I need a girl“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Unique News content to your site from just £104 per month

Original post by Kieron

Back in September we launched the ContentNow.co.uk News Service, this is where we deliver fresh, unique news content to your site anything from 10 times a day to twice a week. Since launching we’ve had lots of clients take up this service and I’m delighted to say that it’s been really well received. I’ve been saying for that years that fresh content added to your site as often as possible is one of the best ways to rank well in the search engines, hence creating this service.

The reason for this blog post is that I wanted to make sure that some of the smaller sites could make the most of this service. Our competitors in this sector usually won’t entertain clients who spend less that £1000 a month. Not us however, we realise that some of the best sites out there started from small acorns with modest budgets. Which is why we’ve introduced our “starter pack” which consists of just 2 news items per week. You can choose from the following news article lengths, all prices are based on a 4 week month.

200 word articles twice a week = £104 per month
250 word articles twice a week = £128 per month
300 word articles twice a week = £152 per month
350 word articles twice a week = £176 per month
400 word articles twice a week = £200 per month
450 word articles twice a week = £224 per month
500 word articles twice a week = £248 per month

Our hope is that the introductory packages above will serve the sites with more modest budgets. We are always willing to be flexible too and if we don’t have a package to suit your needs then we’ll create one for you. We don’t tie you into long term contracts either, we operate a rolling 30 days notice agreement.

More details of the ContentNow.co.uk News Service, and what separates us from our competitors:

Unique - researched and written specifically for you and no-one else.

UK Sourced - all of our content is written here in the UK from staff who speak English as their first language.

Specific focus for the pieces rather than a generic sector focus.

Grammatically and syntactically correct.

Keyword balanced and detailed keyword balance control (contains an appropriate keyword density / number of occurrences of your target search terms without being over-optimised which could risk a search engine penalty or render the content unreadable).

Formatted according to your requirements (we can deliver the content to you with some basic HTML formatting based upon your specific requirements or simply as plain text if you prefer).

Cost effectively produced (because we do this day in day out, there are significant economies of scale in terms of training, management and in-depth understanding of search engine optimisation and content optimisation).

Permanently yours (some other news providers will retain the copyright to the content they produce and will require its removal if you cease to be a client).

Delivery mechanisms (XML / RSS / email / CMS).

If anybody would like more information or samples of our work then please email kieron.donoghue@contentnow.co.uk

What I’m listening to right now: Trey Songz - “I need a girl“

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Unique News content to your site from just £104 per month

Original post by Kieron

Well, 2 days ago I put UKOffer.com up for sale and I’m pleased to say it’s now been sold. I thought I would write a blog post about it to share some of my experiences and lessons learned. However I won’t divulge who bought it as they wish to remain anonymous. What I will say however is that the buyer is an experienced and successful affiliate who will be adding UKOffer.com to his portfolio and I wish him the best of luck. I’ve known him for a few year now and he’s a very talented guy who I have the utmost respect for and I just know he will hit £100k profit for the site in 2010. At least.

Before I talk about what I’ve learned I just want to point out that this wasn’t a really well thought out and planned “exit” from the business in the traditional sense. When I was writing my goals for 2010 post a few days ago I came to the decision that I should really sell UKOffer so I could focus on my other core businesses. Even as I was writing that blog post I didn’t have a strategy or really plan it other than having the thought in my mind that I should sell it. Even then, it was only two days ago when I wrote my “for sale” blog post that the idea crystalised in my head. It was actually when I was writing the blog that I thought I really should do some digging and find out what the site earned in 2009. But that’s just the way I work, I’m not a details kind of person and can be very “of the moment”. I decided that the only way I would market the sale of the site was through this blog, the Affiliates 4U Forum and the Acorn Domains forum. That was it, I wouldn’t even use my contacts, instead I would just wait to see what the response was from people reading my blog etc.

So what did I learn?

Setting the right asking price - It’s fair to say that the majority of the people who have commented and who I’ve chatted to about the sale have said that my asking price of just 2 x years annual profits was too low and I should have asked for 3 or 4 years. Maybe, maybe not. If I’m totally honest I think that I could have possibly set the sale at £80k to £90k (i.e. under that £100k mental barrier that makes things looks expensive) and possibly negotiated down a few thousand pounds if need be. I was very conscious though of getting people’s attention and I thought that setting the asking price just that little bit lower would get people interested. From that point of view it worked, as I’m writing this I’ve just had 2 more emails come in expressing interest, bringing the total number of enquiries up to 28, 29.

Bidding wars - one thing that I didn’t feel comfortable doing, but could have easily done is set the sale as an auction. I was truly taken aback at the level of interest that I received for the site and it became clear early on that there were a few serious players who had the cash to spend. However, I didn’t want to get into “x has made an offer of £y, can you beat it?” As, in my mind at least that can leave a bitter aftertaste in people’s mouths. Instead I agreed to just stick with a fixed price and not mess people around. Could I have gotten more for the site if I gave more people the opportunity to place a bid? Possibly but it didn’t feel right.

Wiggle room - the only problem with setting the asking price at basically the lowest amount I would accept was that it left me no “wiggle room”. Everybody likes to negotiate and get a “deal” but by setting the price at my absolute lowest I would accept then I wasn’t giving people the perception that they could get a discount. It may have been a better idea to set the price at £70k even and allow myself to be talked down to my real asking price of £62k. Live and learn. What this did mean was that I got a couple of offers straight off the bat for £50k. Now generous as that seemed I had to politely decline and state my case that £62k was my lowest price and I’m really sorry but I can’t budge on it. Which led to other complications…because everything was done so quick and the buyer wanted to conclude the deal today it meant that I hadn’t even received offers from some people (after all it’s not many people who will buy a site for £62k in 48 hours while only seeing the most basic of stats) or I had received low offers of £50k or so. This meant that in some cases the next correspondence they got from me was “thanks for your kind offer/interest but I have to politely decline as the site is now sold”. Most people were gracious and thanked me for letting them know, sure they wish they could have had a shot at it but hey life would go on However one or two seemed very aggrieved that they had offered me £50k and not had the chance to negotiate higher. I would point out that I honestly didn’t think it realistic that they would increase their offer from £50k to £62k in the space of an hour or two. They would then reply that yes of course they would. Well if that was the case then maybe that’s the offer they should have come in with in the first place and they could have had the site. Which leads me neatly on to…

Jumping through hoops - Some potential buyers would ask for the stats spreadsheet that I had prepared for 2009 and that was it, that was all they needed. They would maybe ask a couple of top level questions about traffic, rankings etc etc but overall they were easy to please. However some potential buyers would want War and Peace. They sent me mega long emails filled with question after question, after question, after question. And then some more questions just to keep it interesting. Now again I don’t have a problem with this either. I know some people like the details and want to know every last bit of information possible before making a decision. Fair enough, as £62k is a fair chunk of change and I must stress I didn’t have a problem with this. However, the buyers who asked the “easy” questions were the emails that I responded to first. I wasn’t being mean I was just being lazy, I always try to clear the easy tasks before tackling the harder ones. So I guess what I’m saying here is that there is maybe a balance to be made when purchasing a website. Ask yourself, do you really need to know the answer to the questions your asking to help you make a decision? Maybe I’m being unfair as the guys who asked the most pertinent and relevant questions were the guys who had been around the block a bit and knew the affiliate sector very well and what makes a site work and what doesn’t. These guys asked stuff about stats, traffic and rankings and that was pretty much it. To the point, quick and easy. It’s possibly unfair that the guys with a bit less experience in the sector didn’t get a crack of the whip but unfortunately that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Payment terms - despite me stating in my original post that I wasn’t interested in developing the site as a going concern with somebody I still got asked a few times. Seriously guys, read the blog post. Then there were people who wanted to pay me in installments or if the site achieved certain targets and so on. Now again, all valid propositions but the guy who offers me the whole cash upfront is the one who will get my attention.

Transparency - one of my really big bug bears is people who advertise sites for sale like this “site for sale, in highly lucrative gaming sector, email me for details”. Seriously, this is how they conduct business. They are so bloody paranoid that others will come along and “steal” their great business idea that they don’t even give out the URL of their site, never mind offer any stats or revenue figures. Madness. I mean, if you saw an ad in say Auto Trader that said “blue car for sale, ring for details” would you? Of course not. But yet, day in and day out on certain websites and forums you get numptees trying to sell their site in this way. What they don’t seem to grasp is that any potential buyer is going to ask for all this information anyway so why not just get it out there? Paranoid androids, the lot of them.

It’s 2010 baby - I find it kinda cool that the whole deal took place via MSN Messenger. I didn’t speak to the buyer once or indeed meet in person. Yes I’ve known him for years and there was mutual trust between us. But still, it was cool to thrash out the negotiations via MSN then finally agree on terms. Sweet.

End of an era - I was actually quite touched as a few people have said that they’ve followed me and UKOffer.com over the years and that the site has been used to train affiliate network staff and just generally been featured a lot in the industry over the years. I never really thought about this until I started reading these comments but I guess it’s true. Which leads me to another problem, I have loads of email addresses but my main one is info at ukoffer.com. I’m going to have to use another one now, it’ll seem, well, just odd.

So there you go, my experiences summed up. What I would like to say is thankyou to each and everyone of you who either enquired about the site or passed on my details to somebody they know who may have been interested. You guys are awesome. It’s also reminded me of how many people with class there are in the affiliate sector. There are some real gentlemen out there (and ladies) with whom I’m proud to be associated with. Well done Team Affiliate!

What I’m listening to right now: Lamont Dozier - “Breaking Out All Over“. Tune.

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Sold!

Original post by Kieron