Ecommerce Blog

The one downside from working from home on a fulltime basis is that I’m never far away from the biscuit cupboard/sweetie jar As much as I try to be disciplined I find myself continually making trips to the kitchen to find junk to eat throughout the day. As a consequence of eating rubbish and drinking too much coffee I always tend to have low energy levels and come mid afternoon I feel tired to the bone. I’ve tried eating healthy and just snacking on fruit but that’s really dull and I don’t have the willpower.

So, when I heard about Graze.com I was very interested. The business was set up by ex LoveFilm.com people - and you can tell, compare the 4 step getting started guide to the one on Lovefilm and you will see what I mean Anyway the concept of the site is very simple, you order a box of healthy snacks and they get delivered to your door via first class post. Simple. What makes it really interesting is that they have approximately 128 different items to make up your Graze box. There are loads and loads of dried fruit, fresh vegetables, nuts and seed mixes, deli and bakery items as well as dipping sauces and natural indulgence snacks.

The way it works is that you pick the size of box you want - classic, luxury or specialist nutrition boxes such as a low GI box or post or pre workout boxes. All of which have been designed to give you a healthy balanced and nutritional supplement to your diet. Then after picking your box you get to “rate” all of their products by giving them a “bin”, “try”, “like” or “love” rating. After that you simply decide what days of the week you want your deliveries on then you’re off. They only bill you on the day that your box has been sent and you can cancel your orders or change your days at any time.

I’ve ordered a Graze Energy box to try and fight out the lethargy I feel in the afternoons. The first delivery is coming tomorrow and I’m genuinely excited! I’ve always wanted to eat healthier but just didn’t know what to eat and researching it seemed too much like hard work. So hopefully Graze will be the solution for me. However I’m now waiting for someone to launch a home delivery healthy fast food service. Again I want to cook healthy but I just don’t have the time to research, cook, prepare healthy stuff etc. So if someone could offer a service where they deliver hot, cooked healthy meals to my door then sign me up!

Going back to Graze.com, the site is an absolute joy to use, it’s very well laid out, logical and all of my questions were answered. It’s obvious the Lovefilm guys have took their learnings from Lovefilm and applied the useability to this site. They don’t have an affiliate programme yet but I’m told there is one in the pipeline. I will report back on my first ever Graze box tomorow!

What I’m listening to right now: Keri Hilson ft Lil Wayne – “Turn Me Off”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Graze.com - a very good idea

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Original post by Kieron

Unbelievable as it may sound but a 2 year old WordPress blog run by just 1 person sold this week for $15m (£8.5m). The blog is Bankaholic.com and the press release about the sale can be found here.

On the surface this looks like a too-good-to-be-true scenario for the owner. After all the blog does reasonably well in terms of traffic and visitors but it’s certainly no Facebook. The site receives about 8500 visitors per month, is ranked 41,904 by Alexa, has a Google PageRank of 5 and has approx. 27,220 inbound links.

So whilst traffic and links etc. are certainly very healthy, is a site with that level of traffic worth £8.5m? I believe that the secret to such a high valuation is down to 2 things: the sector and the keywords that it ranks well for.

The Sector

The purpose of Bankaholic is to provide information on US bank accounts, credit cards, and other consumer finance products. The site is simple, easy to use and most importantly contains useful and well thought out information and product reviews.

As any finance affiliate will tell you however, the finance sector is one of the most competitive but also rewarding sectors to be involved in. Affiliate CPA’s for this sector are pretty much the highest available of all sectors, and therefore competition is steep.

However, do well in this sector and as we have just seen, the rewards can be very high. By focusing on finance, Johns (the blog owner) has made sure that he can command a selling price that is comparable to the high payouts available in this sector. For example this sort of valuation would never happen in retail. If the blog was a blog about clothing, discount codes, gadgets or anything else from the retail sector then I doubt very much it would command such a high asking price - especially with comparable levels of traffic. There just isn’t the margin in retail.

So by picking an ultra-competitive but highly rewarding niche your traffic and users are 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 times more valuable than less competitive sectors. Something to consider if you’re just about to launch your blog but aren’t sure on what sector to pick.

SEO

I’ve always said that WordPress blogs seem to do well in the search engines natural rankings, and this certainly seems to be the case with Bankaholic. Look at this bit from the press release:

“Bankaholic is ranked high in natural search for both deposit and credit card keywords. We believe their organic traffic will increase our deposit and credit card revenue, and with a high composition of free traffic, will help to improve margins”

Those wise words were from Thomas R. Evans, new owner of Bankaholic.

It’s clear that the key to the value of this blog, is it’s ability to rank well in the search engines for finance related keywords and keyphrases. So how do you rank well in the SERPS? Well as I’ve always said the 2 most important off page SEO elements are fresh regular unique content and inbound links.

The site clearly has loads of fresh content that seems to be updated daily, a great starting point. More importantly, the content isn’t just some existing content just rehashed and cobbled together by robots, it’s written by humans and is interesting to read.

For a site that’s only just over 2 years old, having over 27,000 inbound links is also clearly having a positive effect in terms of the SERPS. Again the blog owner has understood the importance of this and clearly worked hard at it.

So to summarise, here’s how to create a blog that will sell for millions of pounds:

Step 1: Use WordPress - WordPress is just a fantastically easy tool to use and is free, another bonus. But most importantly the search engines seem to love it and it’s already configured to create pages for you that are search engine friendly.

Step 2: Pick a profitable niche - If you’re creating a blog with the intention of making money from it, gathering a user base and eventually selling it on. Then pick a sector where there are lots of buyers with lots of cash to throw at you when the time comes.

Step 3: Write original, fresh and interesting content regularly for your users - I can’t over-emphasise the importance of this. A lot of people try to game the search engines by just throwing low grade content at a site/blog and hoping that some will stick with the search engines. It may do, but not for long. A much better option is to sit down every day and write an article that you yourself would like to read if you were reading your blog. This will ensure that not only will the search engines eat it up but your users will keep coming back for more as well as recommending your site to others. A prime example of this, is this very blog. I have never ever seeked out any links to it, yet according to Yahoo! Site Explorer there are over 12,000.

Step 4: Get other sites to link to yours - If you do Step 3 well you will find that other sites will link to you without being asked. You will become an “authority” in your space without ever asking for a link. Then if you actively start a linking campaign on top of all the natural links (by natural I mean the links that you don’t go out and seek yourself) you will see your site slowly start to rise through the SERPS. One thing I would advise against is paying for links. Never ever ever go down this route. Google doesn’t like it and will penalise your site if you get found out. Personally I much prefer a “clean” approach to link building, it may take slightly longer than buying links but you will stay in the SERPS with no danger of being kicked out for any wrongdoing.

That’s all there is to it! If all of the above sounds simple then it’s because it is. However don’t underestimate how much hard work steps 3 and 4 take. Both take up a considerable amount of time and resources and there are no “short cuts”. You need to invest the time to make your blog a success but if you do, the rewards will follow.

ContentNow.co.uk

I didn’t write this article with the purpose of promoting my content writing and link building business but as I created the business to help me facilitate steps 3 and 4 for my sites, I would be remiss not to mention it here.

Let me start by saying that if you have the time to write your own content and do your own link building then you absolutely should. However if you are short of time and have a budget for marketing/SEO then I don’t see anything wrong in getting some outside help.

At ContentNow both myself and my business partner have and still do run websites and know the difficulties in getting inbound links to your site and writing engaging good quality content. Which is exactly why we set the business up, to meet this need. Like many other webmasters we have both tried to outsource link building and content writing to other companies - mainly with disastrous results. In the past I’ve found myself having to pay for articles clearly written by writers who don’t speak English as their native tongue and whose only talent is being able to cut and paste from Wikipedia. Likewise I’ve paid for linkbuilding services that have resulted in nothing more than links placed on the link building companies “farm” of 1000 sites.

So with our joint past experiences setting up ContentNow was easy, all we had to do was the opposite of what every other company who we have had bad experiences in the past does.

Our content writers, researchers and proof readers are all based in the UK and speak English as their native language. They all understand the culture, as they live here and they are all well educated and can write intelligently and even with humour when required. Likewise our link building managers are all UK based, and absolutely understand the industry and the approaches to take when dealing with potential link partners.

OK, I’ve already gone on far too long about ContentNow - I could go on for pages and pages as I’m passionate about it - but I don’t want to bore you all

Instead I’ll leave the last word to our clients, here are some quotes from a couple of emails we’ve received this last week:

“The content has been fantastic and very engaging – exactly what we are looking for.”

“I have now received all 20 articles, thank you very much, it is clear that your writers have properly researched the subject and the writing style shows a strong command of the English language.”

What I’m listening to right now: Jazmine Sullivan - “Fearless”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

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

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Original post by Kieron

Unbelievable as it may sound but a 2 year old WordPress blog run by just 1 person sold this week for $15m (£8.5m). The blog is Bankaholic.com and the press release about the sale can be found here.

On the surface this looks like a too-good-to-be-true scenario for the owner. After all the blog does reasonably well in terms of traffic and visitors but it’s certainly no Facebook. The site receives about 8500 visitors per month, is ranked 41,904 by Alexa, has a Google PageRank of 5 and has approx. 27,220 inbound links.

So whilst traffic and links etc. are certainly very healthy, is a site with that level of traffic worth £8.5m? I believe that the secret to such a high valuation is down to 2 things: the sector and the keywords that it ranks well for.

The Sector

The purpose of Bankaholic is to provide information on US bank accounts, credit cards, and other consumer finance products. The site is simple, easy to use and most importantly contains useful and well thought out information and product reviews.

As any finance affiliate will tell you however, the finance sector is one of the most competitive but also rewarding sectors to be involved in. Affiliate CPA’s for this sector are pretty much the highest available of all sectors, and therefore competition is steep.

However, do well in this sector and as we have just seen, the rewards can be very high. By focusing on finance, Johns (the blog owner) has made sure that he can command a selling price that is comparable to the high payouts available in this sector. For example this sort of valuation would never happen in retail. If the blog was a blog about clothing, discount codes, gadgets or anything else from the retail sector then I doubt very much it would command such a high asking price - especially with comparable levels of traffic. There just isn’t the margin in retail.

So by picking an ultra-competitive but highly rewarding niche your traffic and users are 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 times more valuable than less competitive sectors. Something to consider if you’re just about to launch your blog but aren’t sure on what sector to pick.

SEO

I’ve always said that WordPress blogs seem to do well in the search engines natural rankings, and this certainly seems to be the case with Bankaholic. Look at this bit from the press release:

“Bankaholic is ranked high in natural search for both deposit and credit card keywords. We believe their organic traffic will increase our deposit and credit card revenue, and with a high composition of free traffic, will help to improve margins”

Those wise words were from Thomas R. Evans, new owner of Bankaholic.

It’s clear that the key to the value of this blog, is it’s ability to rank well in the search engines for finance related keywords and keyphrases. So how do you rank well in the SERPS? Well as I’ve always said the 2 most important off page SEO elements are fresh regular unique content and inbound links.

The site clearly has loads of fresh content that seems to be updated daily, a great starting point. More importantly, the content isn’t just some existing content just rehashed and cobbled together by robots, it’s written by humans and is interesting to read.

For a site that’s only just over 2 years old, having over 27,000 inbound links is also clearly having a positive effect in terms of the SERPS. Again the blog owner has understood the importance of this and clearly worked hard at it.

So to summarise, here’s how to create a blog that will sell for millions of pounds:

Step 1: Use WordPress - WordPress is just a fantastically easy tool to use and is free, another bonus. But most importantly the search engines seem to love it and it’s already configured to create pages for you that are search engine friendly.

Step 2: Pick a profitable niche - If you’re creating a blog with the intention of making money from it, gathering a user base and eventually selling it on. Then pick a sector where there are lots of buyers with lots of cash to throw at you when the time comes.

Step 3: Write original, fresh and interesting content regularly for your users - I can’t over-emphasise the importance of this. A lot of people try to game the search engines by just throwing low grade content at a site/blog and hoping that some will stick with the search engines. It may do, but not for long. A much better option is to sit down every day and write an article that you yourself would like to read if you were reading your blog. This will ensure that not only will the search engines eat it up but your users will keep coming back for more as well as recommending your site to others. A prime example of this, is this very blog. I have never ever seeked out any links to it, yet according to Yahoo! Site Explorer there are over 12,000.

Step 4: Get other sites to link to yours - If you do Step 3 well you will find that other sites will link to you without being asked. You will become an “authority” in your space without ever asking for a link. Then if you actively start a linking campaign on top of all the natural links (by natural I mean the links that you don’t go out and seek yourself) you will see your site slowly start to rise through the SERPS. One thing I would advise against is paying for links. Never ever ever go down this route. Google doesn’t like it and will penalise your site if you get found out. Personally I much prefer a “clean” approach to link building, it may take slightly longer than buying links but you will stay in the SERPS with no danger of being kicked out for any wrongdoing.

That’s all there is to it! If all of the above sounds simple then it’s because it is. However don’t underestimate how much hard work steps 3 and 4 take. Both take up a considerable amount of time and resources and there are no “short cuts”. You need to invest the time to make your blog a success but if you do, the rewards will follow.

ContentNow.co.uk

I didn’t write this article with the purpose of promoting my content writing and link building business but as I created the business to help me facilitate steps 3 and 4 for my sites, I would be remiss not to mention it here.

Let me start by saying that if you have the time to write your own content and do your own link building then you absolutely should. However if you are short of time and have a budget for marketing/SEO then I don’t see anything wrong in getting some outside help.

At ContentNow both myself and my business partner have and still do run websites and know the difficulties in getting inbound links to your site and writing engaging good quality content. Which is exactly why we set the business up, to meet this need. Like many other webmasters we have both tried to outsource link building and content writing to other companies - mainly with disastrous results. In the past I’ve found myself having to pay for articles clearly written by writers who don’t speak English as their native tongue and whose only talent is being able to cut and paste from Wikipedia. Likewise I’ve paid for linkbuilding services that have resulted in nothing more than links placed on the link building companies “farm” of 1000 sites.

So with our joint past experiences setting up ContentNow was easy, all we had to do was the opposite of what every other company who we have had bad experiences in the past does.

Our content writers, researchers and proof readers are all based in the UK and speak English as their native language. They all understand the culture, as they live here and they are all well educated and can write intelligently and even with humour when required. Likewise our link building managers are all UK based, and absolutely understand the industry and the approaches to take when dealing with potential link partners.

OK, I’ve already gone on far too long about ContentNow - I could go on for pages and pages as I’m passionate about it - but I don’t want to bore you all

Instead I’ll leave the last word to our clients, here are some quotes from a couple of emails we’ve received this last week:

“The content has been fantastic and very engaging – exactly what we are looking for.”

“I have now received all 20 articles, thank you very much, it is clear that your writers have properly researched the subject and the writing style shows a strong command of the English language.”

What I’m listening to right now: Jazmine Sullivan - “Fearless”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

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

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Original post by Kieron

There was an interesting debate going on over at the A4U forum the other day where a user asked if people would pay “£50 to see a £50k Xmas 2007 Profit Strategy“. The post was made from a forum member called “Affi Liate” geddit? - and he seems to model himself on the Rick Jerk. For anybody who doesn’t know the Rick Jerk is an infamous “make money online” scheme from America that stands out from the crowd by being obnoxious, rude and full of it.

Reading through the thread it seems that quite a few people would happily pay the £50 for this report, no problem. But why would anyone do this? If you have something that does well, be it a PPC strategy, some tasty keywords that nobody else is bidding on or whatever - why would you sell it for a measly £50 a go when you can earn tens of thousands of pounds profit from it? Well it could be of course that it’s all hype and all you’re doing is selling some basic info that you have cobbled together from sites, forums and blogs over the years and then repackaging it as “Super Affiliate Killer Marketing Strategies That Will Explode Your Income Online” or whatever. Believe me, a lot of that goes on. Or it could be that you’re trying to build a reputation and a marketing list so you’re offering some genuine relevant advice. Now I’ve seen some of Affi’s stuff before and it’s not bad. It’s not rocket science however, but then again he openly admits that he is pitching for the newbie affiliates and not experienced affiliates. I haven’t seen what is in this 2007 profit strategy thing at all but if I were a betting man I would probably say that newbies will find it useful, based on the stuff I’ve seen so far anyway.

But then again it still begs the question, why sell it instead of just using it yourself? After all by selling it isn’t he just inviting more competition? I mean I have some PPC campaigns that make very, very good returns but I’m not going to tell anybody about them. Why would I? I’d cut off my income stream as soon as the new competition gets wind of it. Sure it’s a big market and the strategy probably isn’t limited to just one sector but still why would you give the competition an edge for the sake of just £50? Speaking of which how big is the UK market for products like this? The Americans seems to lap this stuff up but we’re a different culture and a lot more cynical. Even if he sells 100 copies, which I think is the maximum market if honest, that’s still only £5k. Hardly worth it.

I think that Affi is making the mistake of trying to replicate an American business model over here in the UK, when we just don’t have the appetite for it. I’ve just finished reading Click Here To Order by Joel Comm and was massively disappointed with it. I was hoping for inspirational stories of people who have made their living online but instead the book was full of anecdotes from “Master List Builders” and so called “Internet Gurus” who seem to do nothing else but sell the idea of how to make money online. None of whom seem to actually have any of their own ideas or real online business models they just repackage the same crapola over and over again and then sell it to our gullible cousins via God-awful sales letters and eBooks.

In my experience this type of stuff just doesn’t wash with us. For proof of this take a look at US based forum, DigitalPoint and compare it to our very own Affiliates 4U Forum. DigitalPoint is full of people hawking eBooks, online seminars, tutorials and other money making tat. Thankfully we have none of that at all, just a helpful community and very few hidden agendas. If the Make Money Online people to pop in to try and sell their wares then they soon get kicked into touch - just how it should be.

I’d be interested to know if any readers have bought and eBooks or other Make Money Online guides/strategies and if they found them useful?

P.S. Give me the Poor Loser over Rich Jerk anyday

What I’m listening to right now: R Kelly Feat Keri Hilson – “Shake It Like A Dog”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Sell it, give it away or keep it to yourself?

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Original post by Kieron

Following on from their launch in the UK in July, WidgetBucks have just launched their own customisable skin platform for creating your very own WidgetBuck widgets.

As well as being able to create your own branded widgets you can also choose from a wide range of pre-made templates that WidgetBucks have created for you. For example, Christmas is coming so you could use one like the one I’ve used below:

There is a really cool interactive demo of this new feature here, as well as a video here. A litle bit of design knowledge is all you need to get going. I’m thinking of branding up a UKOffer widget for use in the run-up to Christmas.

Remember you can also earn money by referring people to WidgetBucks. So when you refer a new WidgetBucks user, you will receive a 5% referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer.

Click here for more details on WidgetBucks.

What I’m listening to right now: Taio Cruz ft Busta Rhymes & Sugababes – “Like A Star” (remix)

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

WidgetBucks launch customisable skin platform - brand your own widgets

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Original post by Kieron

I remember at last year’s A4U Expo when I was on the “Ask the Super Affiliates” panel, we were all asked what the “NEXT BIG THING” will be. To be honest I don’t think any of us gave the real answer as why would we? We all wanted to keep our thoughts to ourselves so we could make the most of it with little or no competition.

The thing is that the “next big thing” comes along quite often, if you keep your eyes and ears open. Another case in point is the FitFlop. A few weeks ago there was some chat on the A4U forum about this product, so much so that a representative from FitFlop joined in the debate. So…always being on the lookout for opportunities I created my very own fitflop landing page and watched to see what would happen. Sure enough Google liked the post and before long I was appearing on the first page of Google for a load of fitflop terms and I’m making some nice money from it.

So this time I thought rather than cash in on the “next big thing” I thought I would share it with you guys. Not only that but I’m going to give one away too

The product in question is the Sony eBook Reader. It’s available from Sony Style for £199 and as luck would have it, Sony Style have an affiliate programme on TradeDoubler whereby affiliates can earn 5% commission on this product. So approx. £10 a sale, not bad.

So what makes you think the Sony eBook reader is the next big thing?

A few things actually. When I read this piece in the Telegraph the following paragraph really stood out to me:

What has been the Reader’s impact in the US?

Last year, online book giant Amazon.com launched its Kindle reader and Sony introduced the Reader, which catapulted e-books into the mainstream consumer environment. Industry experts say that sales growth has been gradual rather than meteoric, but the fact that Amazon now offers more than 140,000 different titles for the Kindle demonstrates the potential.

It was the figure of 140,000 eBooks on Amazon that highlighted the potential for this product. Also, Waterstones will be supporting the Sony eBook Reader in the UK and already have about 25,000 titles to buy.

Want more? A bit of research shows that the product is certainly picking up press:

iGizmo
Trusted Reviews
Telegraph
PC Advisor
T3 online

Even though eBook readers have been around for a while, nobody has really perfected the technology and brought it to market. I think that’s about to change as the Sony model has the capacity to store up to 160 books on the reader (more via SD or memory card) and has decent battery life (7500 page turns on average). There is no backlight, it has clever “eInk” technology and is also very slim and lightweight, unlike previous models.

So, take all of that on board and the fact that we’re coming up to Christmas - I would certainly envisage there being a high demand for the Sony eBook Reader.

So how can affiliates capitalise on this opportunity?

PPC - You can’t bid on the brand term “Sony” but you can bid on “ebook reader” and variations. A quick check on Google shows that there isn’t that much competition on these terms, so I’m sure there is opportunity there. You could also get really creative and use the titles of some popular books that are available as eBooks in your search terms. These key phrases can be bought *really* cheaply and the volumes on some of them are huge.

SEO - As per my example with FitFlops if you have an established site/blog then why not dedicate a page to the Sony eBook reader and see how it fairs in the search engines? I’m thinking that there isn’t much competition about so you should be able to rank quickly and easily. Just in time for Christmas

The Sony Style affiliate programme on TradeDoubler is being managed by i-level and being on the ball, they already have some creative live featuring the Sony eBook reader. The guys at i-level are very keen to work closely with affiliates on this programme too and are available to help with enquiries and tips on how to get the best from the programme.

If you’re already signed up to the campaign please use this deeplink replacing XXXXXX with your TD affiliate ID.

http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p(57701)a(XXXXXX)g(17066594)url(http://www.sonystyle.co.uk/deeplink.do?s=external&ss=promotion_e-reader_en_gb)

If you are not signed up to the campaign currently, please go here.

Win a Sony eBook Reader

If that wasn’t enough then I’m delighted to announce that I’ve teamed up with i-level who are managing the Sony Style affiliate programme - to give a Sony eBook Reader to one lucky affiliate!

To be in with a chance of winning the excellent new Sony eBook Reader, simply put some links up on your site. When your links are live, please send the url along with your Tradedoubler affiliate ID to sonyaffiliates@i-level.com. Entries must be received by 13th September 2008 and one entry will be selected at random on that date to receive the Sony eBook Reader.

How easy is that? Fair too, as any affiliate can be in with a chance of winning. Good luck!!

What I’m listening to right now: Robin Thicke Feat Mary J Blige – “Magic (Remix)”

I’ve just watched Dragon’s Den, Series 6, episode 2 and my jaw dropped. Why? More on that later, but for now here is how to easily impress the Dragon’s and gain some serious funding.

1. Tell them the turnover (not profit) of the biggest website that currently occupies the same niche as yourself. Obviously the bigger the better.

2.“Impress” them with some slightly average search engine results for a couple of key search terms. Judging by this weeks’ episode, position 9 and position 12 will get you over a quarter of million pounds investment.

That’s it!

On last night’s episode a website did exactly this. The site concerned is DiamondGeezer.com who last year had a turnover of £1.6 million but a profit of only £3,243.

However because the guy who was pitching said that the biggest site in this sector (BlueNile.com) had an annual turnover of $330 million - and that DiamondGeezer.com held position 12 on Google for “diamond” and position 9 for “diamond engagement ring” they actually made him an offer.

To top it all the offer was the highest ever in Dragon’s Den, it was £255,000 for 40% of the business. In fact so keen were the Dragons to invest that 3 of them (Theo, Peter and James) all wanted to be part of the investment. However the owner of the company - can you believe this - actually turned them down!! Apparently he thought that £255k for a 40% investment of his company, which made £3,243 profit last year remember, was actually too high!

I honestly can’t decide who made the worst decisions in tonight’s episode. Was it the Dragon’s for wanting to invest such a large amount of cash into such a small business, with slightly-above-average search engine rankings? Or was it the owner of the business who turned them down?

We all know that last year Theo made a similar mistake and blew £200k on another online business, but you would think he would have learned by now wouldn’t you? Obviously not.

Now I know a lot of affiliates who have much better rankings (positions 1 to 5 for example) for sites in much bigger sectors than online jewellery. The majority of which would probably call it a day if they didn’t make £3,243 profit in a week or less, never mind a year. So it makes you think what kind of funding we could all secure if we ever entered the Den with a real web business that was making good money, in a profitable sector and had good search engine results? Anyone up for it?

If you haven’t seen the pitch then please click here to watch it. And just watch how the guy manages to get James, Theo and Peter to part with their money by telling them about a few average serps results. Amazing.

What I’m listening to right now: Joe – “God’s Work”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

How to get funding from the Dragons for your website (because they don’t understand the Internet - as proven by DiamondGeezer.com)

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Original post by Kieron

I’ve just watched Dragon’s Den, Series 6, episode 2 and my jaw dropped. Why? More on that later, but for now here is how to easily impress the Dragon’s and gain some serious funding.

1. Tell them the turnover (not profit) of the biggest website that currently occupies the same niche as yourself. Obviously the bigger the better.

2.“Impress” them with some slightly average search engine results for a couple of key search terms. Judging by this weeks’ episode, position 9 and position 12 will get you over a quarter of million pounds investment.

That’s it!

On last night’s episode a website did exactly this. The site concerned is DiamondGeezer.com who last year had a turnover of £1.6 million but a profit of only £3,243.

However because the guy who was pitching said that the biggest site in this sector (BlueNile.com) had an annual turnover of $330 million - and that DiamondGeezer.com held position 12 on Google for “diamond” and position 9 for “diamond engagement ring” they actually made him an offer.

To top it all the offer was the highest ever in Dragon’s Den, it was £255,000 for 40% of the business. In fact so keen were the Dragons to invest that 3 of them (Theo, Peter and James) all wanted to be part of the investment. However the owner of the company - can you believe this - actually turned them down!! Apparently he thought that £255k for a 40% investment of his company, which made £3,243 profit last year remember, was actually too high!

I honestly can’t decide who made the worst decisions in tonight’s episode. Was it the Dragon’s for wanting to invest such a large amount of cash into such a small business, with slightly-above-average search engine rankings? Or was it the owner of the business who turned them down?

We all know that last year Theo made a similar mistake and blew £200k on another online business, but you would think he would have learned by now wouldn’t you? Obviously not.

Now I know a lot of affiliates who have much better rankings (positions 1 to 5 for example) for sites in much bigger sectors than online jewellery. The majority of which would probably call it a day if they didn’t make £3,243 profit in a week or less, never mind a year. So it makes you think what kind of funding we could all secure if we ever entered the Den with a real web business that was making good money, in a profitable sector and had good search engine results? Anyone up for it?

If you haven’t seen the pitch then please click here to watch it. And just watch how the guy manages to get James, Theo and Peter to part with their money by telling them about a few average serps results. Amazing.

What I’m listening to right now: Joe – “God’s Work”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

How to get funding from the Dragons for your website (because they don’t understand the Internet - as proven by DiamondGeezer.com)

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Original post by Kieron

The kids have broke up from school for the Summer holidays, the sun is out (mostly), the light nights are here and people are either outside enjoying themselves or going abroad on holiday. Either way, the back end of July and the whole of August are traditionally the slowest time of year for online businesses. In my experience things start to quieten down about now, August is pretty much completely dead and September will get off to a slow start, but by mid September we’ll start to see traffic getting back to normal levels, then growing right up until Christmas. So what can you do in this quiet period to keep your head above water?

Here’s some ideas:

1. Dust the cobwebs - I use this quiet time to mainly tidy up old sites that I’ve neglected over the busy periods. Have a look through your old sites, check for dead links, see if everything is working as it should be and generally administer a good old tidy up. Maybe add some fresh content, check for new affiliate merchants that will be suitable for the site and then put some fresh links up.

2. Prepare for Christmas - right now I’m updating my toys website, this sector always goes crazy at Christmas so I’m making sure that everything is up to date, links are working and I’m adding fresh content. What will be the big trends this Christmas? Do some research and make sure you’re in a position to capitalise on what will be big.

3. Sales! - we aren’t the only ones finding things quiet at the moment. Most retailers are too and the Summer sale season is well and truly here. As well as some fantastic sales happening right now I’ve seen merchants offering never-seen-before special offers and deep discounts. Are you making the most of them? There are some real bargains to be found online right now so push them out to your readers, you may find that some are just too irrestiable to turn down!

4. Content is SEO - Take advantage of the lull to build up and “bank” some content for release later when you don’t have time to write it! Remember you can never get enough good content so write away, file and save.

5. Try something different - have you always had a project in the back of your head that you’ve wanted to launch but have never had the time? Well now’s the time! Do something fun and not to make money, you never know it may just be the next big thing!

6. Get out and network - you can’t use the excuse that you’re too busy so why not attend the A4U roadshow in Glasgow on the 13th August or Manchester on the 10th September? More details here.

7. Arrange tenancy agreements - email your contacts at the affiliate networks and give them the first refusal for your prime “real estate” on your sites for the last quarter of the year. Do it now or you’ll soon be so busy that you’ll forget about it in the run up to Christmas.

8. Cleanup your email lists - tidy up, dedupe and get rid of the rubbish in your email database. Make sure you have as clean a list as possible for the silly season. Don’t have an email list? Well nows the time to get one put in place!

9. Get social - join Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, FaceBook and various webmaster forums. Subscribe to your favourite blogs, seek out new blogs and above all join in the discussion on all of the above. Get your name or your website known, build your brand and your reputation online. Every bit helps and more often than not we don’t have time for this in the day-to-day grind.

10. Take a holiday - if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. Take a break now and recharge your batteries before the mad Christmas rush as you won’t have time later.

What I’m listening to right now - Martine Gerault - “Revival”. Anyone remember this? It would make my day if someone did! Pure class.

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Summer’s here - 10 tips on how to survive the quietest time of the year

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Original post by Kieron

The kids have broke up from school for the Summer holidays, the sun is out (mostly), the light nights are here and people are either outside enjoying themselves or going abroad on holiday. Either way, the back end of July and the whole of August are traditionally the slowest time of year for online businesses. In my experience things start to quieten down about now, August is pretty much completely dead and September will get off to a slow start, but by mid September we’ll start to see traffic getting back to normal levels, then growing right up until Christmas. So what can you do in this quiet period to keep your head above water?

Here’s some ideas:

1. Dust the cobwebs - I use this quiet time to mainly tidy up old sites that I’ve neglected over the busy periods. Have a look through your old sites, check for dead links, see if everything is working as it should be and generally administer a good old tidy up. Maybe add some fresh content, check for new affiliate merchants that will be suitable for the site and then put some fresh links up.

2. Prepare for Christmas - right now I’m updating my toys website, this sector always goes crazy at Christmas so I’m making sure that everything is up to date, links are working and I’m adding fresh content. What will be the big trends this Christmas? Do some research and make sure you’re in a position to capitalise on what will be big.

3. Sales! - we aren’t the only ones finding things quiet at the moment. Most retailers are too and the Summer sale season is well and truly here. As well as some fantastic sales happening right now I’ve seen merchants offering never-seen-before special offers and deep discounts. Are you making the most of them? There are some real bargains to be found online right now so push them out to your readers, you may find that some are just too irrestiable to turn down!

4. Content is SEO - Take advantage of the lull to build up and “bank” some content for release later when you don’t have time to write it! Remember you can never get enough good content so write away, file and save.

5. Try something different - have you always had a project in the back of your head that you’ve wanted to launch but have never had the time? Well now’s the time! Do something fun and not to make money, you never know it may just be the next big thing!

6. Get out and network - you can’t use the excuse that you’re too busy so why not attend the ʎU roadshow in Glasgow on the 13th August or Manchester on the 10th September? More details here.

7. Arrange tenancy agreements - email your contacts at the affiliate networks and give them the first refusal for your prime “real estate” on your sites for the last quarter of the year. Do it now or you’ll soon be so busy that you’ll forget about it in the run up to Christmas.

8. Cleanup your email lists - tidy up, dedupe and get rid of the rubbish in your email database. Make sure you have as clean a list as possible for the silly season. Don’t have an email list? Well nows the time to get one put in place!

9. Get social - join Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, FaceBook and various webmaster forums. Subscribe to your favourite blogs, seek out new blogs and above all join in the discussion on all of the above. Get your name or your website known, build your brand and your reputation online. Every bit helps and more often than not we don’t have time for this in the day-to-day grind.

10. Take a holiday - if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. Take a break now and recharge your batteries before the mad Christmas rush as you won’t have time later.

What I’m listening to right now - Martine Gerault - “Revival”. Anyone remember this? It would make my day if someone did! Pure class.

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Summer’s here - 10 tips on how to survive the quietest time of the year

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Original post by Kieron

As of 10pm GMT today, WidgetBucks are launching their contextual ad network of shopping widgets for online publishers to the UK and European market.

So what’s so good about it?

Well a few things actually. First of all WidgetBucks gives bloggers and site owners another revenue stream via it’s widgets. But what’s different about their widgets is that publishers can earn via both CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions) and CPC (Cost-Per-Click). The way it works is that when you serve a WidgetBucks ad widget on your site, users based in the UK will see a short-duration display ad followed by a shopping ad widget that features UK-based merchants and products, listed in £UK pounds sterling. So you get to earn twice from one ad serving. Sweet.

Here’s an example of a WidgetBucks widget in action:

What else?

Well, for non-techies like me the interface is an absolute dream to use. After signing up and creating an account (which takes 20 seconds tops) you can access the “New Widget” page which gives you all the options on one single page to create your own widget. Again this process is simple and very straightforward, you can create your own widget, and preview it live within 10 seconds. You can also choose to either let WidgetBucks crawl your page and choose suitable content to be displayed within your widget or you can choose your own categories. It’s the simplicity and user-friendliness of the interface that I really like, it’s an absolute joy to use.

Sounds good, anything else?

Yes! You can also earn money by referring people to WidgetBucks. So when you refer a new WidgetBucks user, you will receive a 5% referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer. You’ll receive this 5% for the full 12 months after the new member joins. In my opinion this is a really good deal, if only UK affiliate networks offers these kind of deals.

Background

WidgetBucks isn’t just a new startup, they have been around for since 2005 as part of the Mpire Corporation. In the last 9 months, they’ve served over 6 billion ad impressions and are nearing 1 billion monthly impressions. In June of this year, they announced a $10 million investment, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a premier venture firm.

I’ll be plugging WidgetBucks into a few of my sites and blogs today and tomorrow. To sign up and try them out for yourself, click here.

What I’m listening to right now: Lloyd feat. Sway – “How We Do It In The UK”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

WidgetBucks launches in the UK and Europe today

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Original post by Kieron

125 x 125 ads are becoming pretty commonplace on blogs these days and thanks to the new Unique Blog Designs Block Ad Plugin, it’s as easy as a very easy thing to display them on your blog too.

As well as sites like Techcrunch using the 125×125 block ads, my new blog all about white cars will be using the plugin too. As you can see from the screenshot below (URL blurred out for now as not quite finished) the ads look really nice and neat in one block which can then sit in the sidebar of your blog.

As you can see from the screenshot below, you can easily configure the ads to display in the WordPress control panel. When it comes to using affiliate links for the ads, then all you need do is cut and paste the code for the 125×125 graphic (providing the merchant offers them) and then you instantly see a preview of what the ad will look like. You can also add weighting to the ads and see how many times they have been displayed and clicked.

It’s a really awesome tool and best of all it’s free! So what are you waiting for? Go get it!

What I’m listening to right now: Sergio Mendes feat Fergie – “The Look Of Love”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

UBD Block Ad Plugin for WordPress

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Original post by Kieron

I’m really pleased to announce the launch of my new business venture, ContentNow.co.uk!

I launched this service to meet the demands of what I believe to be the two key aspects for achieving strong search engine rankings, namely content writing and link building. I wanted to build a business that would operate to the highest service levels using entirely ethical methods. Let me explain in a bit more detail.

Content Writing:

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Content Is King” many times over the years, especially with reference to Google. The very fact that you still hear people saying it now is because it’s true. If you update your site on a regular basis with fresh, unique, hand written quality content then you will find that not only will Google like it and index your site more regularly, but also your users will too.

The problem we all have in this day and age is that we’re short on time and it does take a lot of time to come up with decent quality unique content. Well that’s where we can help, here are just some of the many benefits of using our services to write unique content for you:

1. All of our content is 100% written by humans. We do NOT use any automated tools to ‘borrow’ content from other websites and reword it in attempt to rapidly create unique content and fool the search engines.
2. We have a team of over 100 highly experienced content writers, researchers and proof readers, many educated to Doctorate level.
3. Our team are all native speakers. UK / English assignments, are always handled by UK nationals. We also have team members capable of writing in other major languages who are located in various countries including the United States. Search engines are becoming increasingly complex and are known to be highly sensitive to spelling, grammar and even semantics (the correct contextual use of words and the overall meaning of the content).
4. Our content articles are all keyword balanced. I.e. they contain an appropriate keyword density / number of occurrences of the target search terms for which the page or article in question is optimised, without appearing to be over-optimised which also attracts a penalty.
5. All prices include research and writing of content followed up by proof reading by a separate proof reading team.
6. Prices start from only £5 per article.

In a nutshell we will ensure that you receive the very highest quality unique content written by knowledgable authors on your chosen topic. We are lucky that our pool of writers contain many people who write not for money but because they enjoy writing. These people will often spend 3 to 4 hours or more researching and writing just 1 single 500 word article. It is then sent to another individual for proofreading.

The main selling point is that the content writing service we provide is QUALITY. Yes, you can get cheaper content written offshore but would you really want to? A lot of it is just existing content repackaged in an attempt to trick the search engines. Click here for more details on our content writing prices and packages.

Link Building:

The second service we offer is link building. Again, we all know how important it is to have links into your site - it’s another of the key determining factors for success in the search engine rankings. However, as above it can be very time consuming, and quite daunting to find sites on-theme that will link to you. The choice of link partners matters a great deal when trying to get good rankings for particular subjects for our clients. Accordingly, we adhere to the following guiding principles when identifying potential link partners for a client:

1. On-theme - link partners MUST have a close logical association with the theme of the client’s site. Inevitably there is a degree of interpretation involved here but the association should be intuitive.
2. Focus on the user experience - links should add value to our clients’ visitors.
3. Complimentary not competitive - there is little or no point in soliciting links from direct competitors to the client. Firstly they are unlikely to return the link and secondly the search engines are likely to see these links as “artificial” – after all, why else would two competitors trade links with each other? Rather, we focus on partners that have complimentary sites.

Link Quality:

Since we drive our activities by the presence of sites in the search engine results for relevant terms, there is an implication that sites must meet the search engines’ quality criteria to appear there in the first place. That said, there are numerous further checks performed in “future-proofing” our clients’ link equity. The search engine algorithms don’t stand still and, whilst some of them don’t always practice what they preach, the day will come when they will so we adhere to a number of best practice guidelines when assessing the quality of potential link partners which must:

1. Be on-topic based upon the complimentary theme approach described above.
2. Avoid link trickery - including “nofollow” tags, internal redirects and a host of other tricks which will result in little or no value to any links obtained.
3. Avoid excessive or off-topic linking - many sites have either been poorly advised or have adopted old fashioned approaches to linking with “anything with a pulse” resulting in endless, often off-topic links. Some deliberately employ these techniques in an effort to spam the search engine results. The more links there are on a page, the less the value of each link.
4. Avoid spamming techniques - many sites still employ keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaking, redirects and a range of other techniques designed to fool the search engines. Some have been around long enough for these techniques to be overlooked (we can explain why if requested) but are unlikely to remain so indefinitely and represent a risk as a potential link partner.
5. Avoid participating in visible linking schemes - this may sound a little strange coming from a provider of linking campaigns but many low rent campaigns use so-called link farms or exchange sites from which to return a link and tend to add code to the site which is visible to the search engines and screams “I’m desperate to link” - which isn’t a positive. Our linking technology was specifically designed at the outset to avoid creating this effect.
6. Have relevant content – sites comprised entirely of links or with very “thin” content are of little value.

Another key differentiator that we have which we think sets us apart from other link building services is our “Linking System Client Portal“. We believe that our Linking System is one of the best in the world. When you choose to run a link building campaign with us you will be given a login and password to our client portal where you can check the progress of your campaign at any time. Benefits of the linking system include:

1. Full visibility of your linking campaign 24/7/365 days a year.
2. Instantly see the status of all your inbound links.
3. Review your inbound links, see Google Pagerank and Alexa data for the sites hosting your link.
4. Built-in best practice: handles linking the way the search engines want it.
5. Extremely configurable: all client campaigns are deeply customised to ensure the best possible results for you.
6. Huge knowledge base built up over many years of running successful linking campaigns: a massive head-start.

For more details on either our content writing or link building services then please visit ContentNow.co.uk or contact me, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and can tailor a solution to suit the needs of your business.

What I’m listening to right now: Lil Wayne feat Babyface – “Comfortable”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

ContentNow.co.uk - Content Writing and Link Building services

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Original post by Kieron

First of all, how NOT to sell a website.

Do not post a message on a forum like Affiliates 4U saying something like…

“I have a great website for sale, pm me for details”.

This will get you the least number of replies from interested parties because you will immediately miss out from any “impulse purchasers”. These are the people who are not necessarily looking to buy a site but if they see a bargain or something that catches their eye then they will. However as these people are no in “buying mode” they will not go to the bother of sending you a private message or email to find further details. It’s a bit like when you’re wandering around a shop, see something that you kind of like, pick it up to see how much it is, discover there is no price on it so put it back. You didn’t desperately need the item so you won’t go to the trouble of finding a sales assistant and asking them for the price. Instead you put it back and the retailer loses the sale. Exactly the same thing applies when selling websites.

Don’t be fooled into the mindset that by asking people to email/pm you that you will only attract “serious” buyers. Not so. I’m the perfect example, I’m not looking to buy any new sites, however if you made a really great post on a forum giving me loads of details about your site, i.e. the URL, traffic, earnings etc. then I could be tempted.

Would you place an advert in Auto Trader when trying to sell your car saying “I have a really nice car for sale, call me for details”?? And if you did, do you think anyone would call? Of course not. So don’t do the same when selling your site.

Here’s how you should construct a “site for sale” post on a forum.

1. Tell us the URL:Yes it may seem obvious but there are so many paranoid affiliate marketeers out there tha they don’t tell us what the site is! Again, you see the usual “pm me for the URL” rubbish. I mean come on, you’re selling the site for goodness sake so just tell is what it is.

2. Traffic: Try and provide stats for at least the last 12 months, back up with screenshots. Not only that but tell us where the traffic comes from, is it natural traffic or PPC? If it is natural then from what search engines and from what search terms. If it is PPC then again, what keywords and how much do you spend?

3. Earnings: How much does the site earn? And from what methods? Affiliate programmes? AdSense? etc.

4. Niche: Tell us about the niche your site operates in, is it big? In terms of traffic and revenue. Remember although you may be an expert in your niche and know everything there is about it, don’t assume your buyer will.

5. Users:Do you have a database of users who have subscribed to your site? If so how many? Do you email them on a regular basis?

6. PageRank etc.:Yeah I know PageRank doesn’t mean much but the fact is its still one of the first things that people look at when looking at the potential of new sites. So include the PageRank, Alexa and Technorati (if applicable) rankings.

7. Hosting: Where is your site hosted and how much do you spend a month on hosting? All very important when working out ROI.

8. Backlinks: How many links to your site are there out there?

9. Workload: How many people work on the site at the moment? How many hours a day/week do you spend updating/managing the site? Again, all of this is vital when making purchasing decisions.

10. Unique Selling Point:What is the USP of your site? If say it’s a cashback site then what makes your site different from the 50 billion other cashback sites in existence? Really sell your site and tell the world why it is so special and the best thing since sliced bread.

If you follow the above 10 points I guarantee you will have a much better chance of selling your site, getting the most people interested and therefore the best price for it. So please, please no more “pm me for more details” type posts. When selling a site there isn’t room to be shy or coy about URL’s, figures etc. Instead, go the other way and divulge as MUCH information as possible about your site.

But where shall I advertise my website? I hear you ask. Well I’m glad you did Obviously a good place is the A4U forum but I would also try the SitePoint Marketplace. A lot of very good quality sites get bought and sold there every day and they have a massive audience of potential buyers. I’ve bought and sold a few myself from SitePoint and can highly recommend it.

Oh, and don’t bother trying to sell on eBay, waste of time.

What I’m listening to right now: Sean Garrett Feat Pharrell – “Patron”

Post from: Affiliate Marketi