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There are still a *lot* of people that I speak to who don’t get Twitter. They don’t know how to use it to get the best from it and they definitely don’t see any use for it in business. However it can be a huge source of traffic if you do it right.

The above pie chart shows the split of all traffic sources to my new site ShareMyPlaylists.com that I launched just over a week ago. As an experiment I used Twitter as part of the launch plan, to see if indeed it could bring me relevant traffic. The biggest source of my traffic (64.70%) is from direct referrals, people who have bookmarked the site or just type in the URL. The second biggest source of traffic however is Twitter, at almost 10%. Result.

I’ll share my findings in more detail along with how I used Twitter to bring in the traffic, in a more detailed post at a later date. For now though, I just wanted to demonstrate that Twitter can be good for business.

What I’m listening to right now: Modern Soul 2

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Who says you can’t use Twitter for business?

Original post by Kieron

There are still a *lot* of people that I speak to who don’t get Twitter. They don’t know how to use it to get the best from it and they definitely don’t see any use for it in business. However it can be a huge source of traffic if you do it right.

The above pie chart shows the split of all traffic sources to my new site ShareMyPlaylists.com that I launched just over a week ago. As an experiment I used Twitter as part of the launch plan, to see if indeed it could bring me relevant traffic. The biggest source of my traffic (64.70%) is from direct referrals, people who have bookmarked the site or just type in the URL. The second biggest source of traffic however is Twitter, at almost 10%. Result.

I’ll share my findings in more detail along with how I used Twitter to bring in the traffic, in a more detailed post at a later date. For now though, I just wanted to demonstrate that Twitter can be good for business.

What I’m listening to right now: Modern Soul 2

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Who says you can’t use Twitter for business?

Original post by Kieron

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Original post by Robert Scoble

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Original post by Robert Scoble

Business blogging can be a daunting task. First-timers can get scared off and end up missing out on a great business opportunity. How should you even get started? What should you blog about? How much time will you need? What if it isn’t good? Will anyone really follow it? Even if you are currently blogging […]

Original post by Kate

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Original post by Robert Scoble

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Original post by Robert Scoble

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Original post by Robert Scoble

The guys over at Econsultancy asked me to take part in an interview this week, you can read it here.

I talked about how I have seen Affiliate Marketing change over the last 8 or 9 years or so, if there are still opportunities for new affiliates and are the “salad days” over?

I hope you enjoy reading it and thanks to Linus for setting it up.

What I’m listening to right now: Ne-Yo - “She Got Her Own“.  P.S. that’s a Spotify link.

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My Interview with Econsultancy

Original post by Kieron

Econsultancy have just gone and launched an Affiliate Survey for 2009. If, like me you’re an affiliate then I strongly recommend that you participate. Why? So we can understand the sector that we all work in and help to get the word out that we’re not all “grubby” and that we are the most cost-effective route to market for advertisers, especially in the current economic conditions.

The survey is only open to affiliates and needs to be taken before the 27th January 2009. As a thankyou for taking part Econsultancy will give you a free, advance copy of the completed report just before it is published on the Econsultancy website in February. It only takes 5 minutes to take the survey so why not go do it now?

Click here to take the survey.

As a footnote. Econsultancy have recently revamped their blog, it has some great articles and I really recommend it.

You can also follow @Econsultancy on Twitter.

What I’m listening to right now: Git Fresh – “Priceless”

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Econsultancy affiliate survey 2009

Original post by Kieron

OK we’re already a few days into 2009 and just as I predicted, Twitter is going nuts at the moment and making the headlines all over the place. First the Daily Mail (sorry can’t bring myself to link to them) did an article about celebs that Twitter. Then over the last couple of days we’ve had the “scandal” whereby Britney Spears, Barack Obama and other high profile people’s Twitter accounts were hacked.

Then just this morning Jonathan Ross (@Wossy) outed Jack Dee (@jackdee) as being a fake too. He then went on to see if Jeremy Clarkson (@Jeremy_Clarkson) was real, I doubt very much he is but time will tell. See Twitter grabs below:

So I thought it would be useful to build a resource of real celebs that use Twitter. A couple of disclaimers first; to the best of my knowledge all of the celebs listed below ARE the real deal, but if you know better please let me know and I’ll remove them from the list. Secondly, some celebs (like Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry for example) use Twitter for a bit of  laugh like the rest of us and update their Tweets personally. Then on the other hand you have people like Britney Spears who’s Twitter account is used by her “people” as a PR machine and is therefore quite dull. Richard Branson’s Twitter account is much of the same, boring.

Finally I have only listed celebs that I have “heard of”. There are quite a few American minor celebs that have Twitter accounts, you know the type, the c-list TV personalities. I haven’t listed them as I didn’t think anybody would be interested.

Andy Murray
Britney Spears
Common
Erykah Badu
Imogen Heap
John Cleese
Jonathan Ross
Kanye West
Kieron Donoghue - before anyone says it, yes I know I’m not a celeb, it’s just a bit of fun!
Lance Armstrong
MC Hammer
Q-Tip
Richard Branson
Robert Llewellyn
Shaquille O’Neal
Snoop Dogg
Stephen Fry
Tina Fey
Will Carling

If anybody knows of any more celeb Twitterer’s then please let me know in the comments and I will update this page. Let me know your Twitter name too and I’ll credit you.

What I’m listening to right now: Cassie - “Summer Charm”

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Celebrities and famous people on Twitter

Original post by Kieron

I thought it would be fun to make some predictions of what I think is going to happen in Internetland this year. I’ve tried to stay away from obvious stuff like “more businesses will close because we’re in a recession” and have put my neck out on the line with some more specific stuff. Let’s see what happens.

1. Despite my advice we will see loads more affiliate discount codes and cashback sites in 2009. Disappointing.

2. Affiliates in particular will be best placed to make money from iPhone/iPod apps. We haven’t seen any big success stories here in the UK yet but over in the USA Joel is making $30,000 a day wih his iFart app. Come on guys we can do better than that can’t we?

3. Yahoo’s struggles will continue (their net income fell by two thirds between 2005 and 2007)  and they will eventually be mopped up and purchased by someone. Although I have to say I really can’t see any value in them as Yahoo! Answers and Flickr are their only decent properties.

4. Likewise Affiliate Window will finally be sold this year.

5. Professional SEO services will continue to be a high growth market as the economy continues it’s downturn and many advertisers decide not to pay the silly CPC’s in certain PPC sectors. Instead they will divert more funds into organic search and longer term strategies. A good year to be in SEO I think.

6. Google will buy Twitter. In 2009 Twitter will really come into it’s own. It’s growth in 2008 has been dramatic but I think this year we will see it become mainstream and must be the next high profile buyout that Google needs to diversify it’s revenue streams. Twitter already rejected a $500 millon offer from FaceBook last year but I’m sure Google could double that offer. BTW you can follow me on Twitter here.

7. Google Chrome will grab 10% market share by yearend, currently it has around 1%.

8. 2009 will be the year of the super-blog. Last year we saw Bankaholic sell for $15m and this is just the beginning. With super blogs like Perez Hilton already charging $54,000 for a banner placement for a week we can expect 2009 to be the year that “new media” overtakes “traditional media” in terms of advertising revenue. I’ve always said WordPress is a killer app and all you ever need to create a blog/site.

9. At least one major daily newspaper will close it’s doors. Increasing costs and an even bigger shift of advertisers budgets from “traditional” to “new media” (see 8 ) will be the cause.

10. ContentNow will launch a very exciting new content service in late January/early February

Does anybody have any more? Please let me know via comments

What I’m listening to right now: Chris Brown – “Take You Down”

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10 predictions for 2009

Original post by Kieron

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Original post by Robert Scoble

2008 seems to have just flown by, I can’t believe we’re at the end of the year already. To celebrate the year though I’ve included a list of some of my highlights below. I’ll follow up in early 2009 with some guesses of what I think the new year has in store too.

Affiliate marketing is bullshit

Jason Calacanis gave the keynote speech at Affiliate Summit West last year. It was meant to provoke controversy, and it did. But it also showed that the public perception of Affiliate Marketing is far from what it should be. I agree with Jason’s take on “thin” affiliate sites btw, unfortunately there are still tons of them around.

Why I don’t remove expired discount codes

This post caused quite a bit of discussion. My position hasn’t changed since writing it either, I don’t remove old discount codes from UKOffer.com

Beginners Guide: How to get traffic to a new site

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how to get traffic to a new site so I wrote this guide, hopefully its of use.

Invited to take part in Channel 4 TV show “The Secret Millionaire”

I respectfully declined.

A4U Awards judged entries finalists and meet the judges

I was honoured to be asked to be part of the judging panel in the A4U Awards. Likewise I was delighted to win “Best Affiliate Blog” for the second year in the row.

10 Affiliate sites that rock

Does what it says on the tin.

June 2008 - I launch ContentNow.co.uk

Back in June, my business partner and myself launched ContentNow.co.uk. We saw a demand for an ethical link building service and a quality content creation service; the two most important aspects of off-page SEO. In just a short six months or so since launch we’ve been absolutely taken aback with the level of demand that there is for our services. We’ve achieved our internal targets already, when we thought we would be at least a year away. We’ve got a great selection of clients, ranging from 1-man affiliate operations to multi national blue chip corporations. So far the feedback from our clients has been very positive and more are referring us to other new clients, always a good thing. In 2009 we’re planning to launch a couple of exciting new products, so watch this space.

WhiteCarWorld.com

To fuel my passion for white cars I launch WhiteCarWorld.com…and haven’t really touched it since

Coffee Revels RIP

Approx. 500 people voted that they prefer coffee over the disgusting strawberry that they have replaced it with. So why don’t Mars bring back coffee revels then? Well?

A4U Expo 2008

The second ever A4U Expo was brilliant, how will they better it next year? I don’t know but I’m sure they will though.

How to sell your 2 year old blog for £8.5m

Credit crunch? What credit crunch? A 2 year old finance blog in the US sells for big money.

Figleaves win my “Affiliate Marketing Numpties” award for 2008.

Sigh.

Alexandra Burke broke my server

The power of the X-Factor, and how to capitalise on it and other topical events.

Well that’s it for 2008. I would like to wish everyone who has taken the time out to read this blog the very best for 2009. I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2009. Happy new year!

What I’m listening to right now: Ne-Yo & Fabolous – “How We Do”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

My favourite bits of 2008

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Original post by Kieron

A big thankyou to the following affiliate companies for their very generous Christmas presents. In no particular order I would like to thank…

Webgains for the Christmas hamper
DGM for the adopted Svalbard bears
Affiliate Window for the deluxe champagne and wine hamper
Zanox for the wine vouchers
Getting Personal for the cool personalised Christmas card and tree bauble
Existem affiliate management for the Peroni
Market Ace for the hamper
3M Select for the boxful of stationery goodies
Orange for the mobile phone
Fiona and the girls at Equator for the coffee hamper and mental tank play house for the cat, awesome!
Anonymous for the NUFC.com diary!

Merry Christmas everyone!

What I’m listening to right now: Akon - “Freedom”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Christmas Thankyou’s

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Original post by Kieron