Ecommerce Blog

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 Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

10 step guide to selling your website

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Original post by Kieron

I can’t get enough of business type books at the moment. After finishing “ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six Figure Income” a week or so ago I went straight onto “Business Nightmares” by Rachel Elnaugh.

I chose this book as I’m always deeply impressed by business owners who have battled through adversity such as when Rachel’s company, Red Letter Days famously and very publicly crashed in 2005. At the time she was one of the Dragon’s on the BBC TV show Dragon’s Den so her profile in the media was huge.

The book goes into detail of how Rachel started the business, from very humble beginnings to the multi million pound leader of the gift experience sector. There is loads of interesting stuff here, and lessons learned about losing control of your company and expanding too fast into new markets. Rachel doesn’t go into too much detail about the collapse of her business, I’m guessing it must still be pretty painful. However there is still enough detail to understand what happened and why.

The rest of the book is a series of interviews and anecdotes from other business leaders/entrepreneurs who have struggled through tough times - yet come out the other side. People like James Dyson, Simon Woodruff, Jeffrey Archer, Donald Trump and Gerald Ratner. There are some great stories, and the overall message is “don’t give up”. Rachel now has a new company and as well as being an author she does a lot of public speaking and work with young entrepreneurs.

A good book overall, I love reading and learning as much as I can from people who have been in business, both successful and not. I always come away really motivated and wanting to pour some more energy into my own projects.

Also, as a result of reading Rachel’s book I’ve just started reading “Gerald Ratner - The Rise and Fall…and Rise Again“. So far it’s absolutely fascinating, and I haven’t reached the point yet where he made that speech. I’ll put a quick review up when I’m finished.

BTW Rachel has a blog here, great to see her still inspiring entrepreneurs.

What I’m listening to right now: Usher - “Here I Stand”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Rachel Elnaugh - Business Nightmares

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Original post by Kieron

Last year I wrote about how I think FaceBook ads are rubbish, in terms of return on investment for advertisers. I still think they are but the ads themselves seem to be getting better at targetting.

Take this one for example.

It’s clearly targetted at people who are 35 (me) and single (me) and it actually made me stop and notice it. I didn’t click on it (yet) but thought it was a good example to publish here of usre profile targetting done well.

What I’m listening to right now: Usher Ft Pharrell – “Flash”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

FaceBook Ads - good example of targetting users via their profile

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Original post by Kieron

Back in last November I wrote about online statup HungryHouse.co.uk appearing on the BBC TV show Dragon’s Den and securing a £100k investment from 2 of the Dragons for a 50% equity share. At the time I really couldn’t make my mind up if this was a good deal or not. It seems it wasn’t meant to be though, as James Caan got cold feet and backed out of the deal.

However due to the popularity of the TV show, some other investors expressed their interest with the result being that HungryHouse.co.uk have just announced a £150k investment for a lower equity stake. So it seems that appearing on Dragon’s Den does have its benefits after all!

Press Release:

DRAGONS’ DEN WINNERS FIND THEIR ANGELS

The deal is agreed, hands are shaken, and the cameras stop rolling. But what happens next for entrepreneurs that find success in the Dragons’ Den?

Hungryhouse.co.uk, the website that makes it easier than ever before to find a local restaurant and order takeaway online, was one of the successful pitches featured on the BBCs Dragons’ Den in autumn last year. They won a £100,000 offer of investment from multi-millionaires James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne, in exchange for an eye-watering 50% of the business.

But, as hungryhouse’s founders Shane Lake and Tony Charles were to find, the investment is far from secure when you shake hands. Four months after filming, post-show due diligence ground to a halt after Caan became unsure whether the business would take off.

Now, the hungryhouse.co.uk team have finally found their business angels. Bryan O’Connell and Andrew Fuller were among those watching that night, and liked the idea so much that they made immediate contact to explore the possibility of backing the duo themselves. Bryan asserts, “We have experience in investing in similar website models, and we immediately felt that this idea had legs. On meeting Shane and Tony, we were particularly impressed with their passion for the business. The team had achieved so much with so little that it was clear that our £150,000 would have a big impact on the growth. We didn’t get the equity deal obtained in the den, but then the business has grown significantly over the last 5 months and of course we aren’t the Dragons.”

Andy adds, “We felt strong empathy with the founders in terms of our technical and business backgrounds and the way that we started our first business. It was clear that we could make a contribution beyond the obvious financial help.”

Shane Lake comments: “After appearing on TV, we had literally thousands of people emailing us. It took about 2 weeks just to read through all the messages. We were so busy, we almost missed Bryan’s initial approach - which came right at the time we realised that the offer from James and Duncan wasn’t going to work out.”

Tony Charles continues: “It was great when we were offered the backing we so desperately needed by the Dragons. The exposure of being on TV was massive for us too. But when you go into the Den, aside from the positives, the one thing you can’t expect is a good equity deal! On reflection, we’re glad the negotiations with the dragons fell through – the new deal, £150,000 for a smaller equity stake - values the business at over 3 times what was agreed in the Den. It was a long process, but we finally have the money we need for our nationwide expansion.”

-About hungryhouse.co.uk-

Hungryhouse.co.uk was launched in Putney in 2006 by Australian entrepreneurs Shane Lake and Tony Charles. The website allows visitors to read customer reviews before ordering their takeaway online – helping them find their area’s favourite restaurant without the hassle of sifting through piles of unwanted junk mail.

Launched with 12 restaurants, they now partner with 400 and are beginning their expansion beyond the M25. The website shot into the spotlight in 2007, when it attracted an offer of investment from Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan in the Dragons’ Den (view the hungryhouse pitch). It has since been nominated by Yahoo! as one of 2007’s most innovative websites.

What I’m listening to right now: Ryan Leslie – “Rescue You”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

HungryHouse.co.uk Dragon’s Den investment falls through. The best thing that could happen to them?

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Original post by Kieron

Did anybody watch Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory that just finished a 4 episode run on Channel 4? I love shows like this, shows that show somebody struggling to set up and run a successful business, entrepreneurs with a real passion for what they do. Anyway, the show follows Willie Harcourt-Cooze who’s single goal in life is to create and sell the best chocolate in the world. He has bought a 1000 acre cocoa farm in Venezuela and as well as growing and refining his own cocoa beans into chocolate he is also marketing and selling it all himself.

The series follows his various exploits such as locating and purchasing refining equipment from Spain, setting up a factory in the UK and trying to get his chocolate listed in both Selfridges and Waitrose. What struck me from watching the documentary was the guys absolute passion and commitment to his product. He truly believes he makes the finest chocolate in the world and the enthusiasm he displays when showing the viewers his recipes that utilise his chocolate is quite mesmerising. It’s fair to say that he has put a lot on the line in getting his business set up too. With his bank loaning him the capital to get started up and the threat of bailiffs chasing him for non-payments I found myself really willing him on to make his first big sale. Last night’s final episode even showed him sleeping in his car rather than commute home from his factory - just because it saved time and meant he can spend more time making his product.

The series did end on a happy note, Selfridges listed his chocolate and very soon it was the best selling line in their food hall. The closing few minutes see Willie getting a long awaited phone call from Waitrose telling him that they will also stock the chocolate in their stores. The relief that Willie displays when he receives the news was brilliant to watch. Not so much the sight of Willie stripping off his clothes and running down the road though! It’s fair to say he’s happy with the news

So what about the missed opportunity?

Because Willie didn’t know where and when his next order would be coming and because he is only a one-man business (apart from the help from his wife, which is considerable, so am not underestimating her contribution at all) he didn’t have a lot of stock to meet demand. As the TV show grew in popularity a lot of people went online to see if they could buy it from Willie’s site. Unfortunately you can’t, also I hate to say this but Willie’s website is rather rubbish. Try reading the text on the homepage without a magnifying glass for example. I can’t help feeling that this is a huge missed opportunity, I’m pretty sure that if Willie had a decent website that allowed customers to order online, it would be a roaring success. However, after watching the show and seeing the pressure that Willie is under I can half understand why this part of the business was neglected.

So who exploited this missed opportunity?

Affiliates of course! Take a look at Venezuelan-Black.co.uk which isn’t Willie’s official site. Instead its a site clearly setup to gain traffic from people looking for Willie’s official site at VenezuelanBlack.com. Notice the affiliate banners for the likes of Green &amp Blacks organic chocolate and the many listing of Willie’s chocolate on eBay. Speaking of which, Willie’s chocolate is currently selling at 3 to4 times the retail price on eBay. Nice.

It seems that wherever there is an opportunity or vacant niche available online there is somebody only too willing to fill the space. Ethical? well as long as you don’t try to pass your site off as “official” then I don’t really see the harm. Selling Willie’s chocolate on eBay at 4 times retail? Well you know what they say about supply and demand

What I’m listening to right now: Ryan Leslie – “I.R.I.N.A.”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory - exploiting a missed opportunity online?

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Original post by Kieron

I found a few things on various blogs that you may not have seen, so I thought I’d link to a few today: 

ShoeMoney video

Now I get a few freebies but nowhere near as many as Jeremy, take a look at his video. Love the PIMP cup!

Affiliate Noobs

Oh Oh! Spotted this contest over at SitePoint.

Splitting up on Facebook

Don’t you find it rather sad when you see somebody’s relationship status change like above? I know we live in a social media world where we are encouraged to share our thoughts and feelings but when I see this I always feel a bit bad for the person involved (in this example above I’ve blanked out their name). Maybe I’m just feeling like this as Valentines Day is around the corner.

Wordpress Revolution Theme

The excellent WordPress Revolution Theme now has an affiliate programme. You can earn anything from $20 to $100 a sale. Nice.

The status of the “Make Money Online Blogosphere”

Mark from 45n5.com did a video about the state of the “Make Money Online Blogosphere“. Good fun, interesting that “affiliate” is the second most popular word used in blog titles. In his “Top 100” blogs (which currently list 287) I’m currently at number 40.

Reality Check - Make Money Online blogs are hard work!

While we’re on the “Make Money Online” theme Darren Rowse wrote a great post in response to the Wall Street Journal’s article revealing that his earnings from his blog are in excess of over $250k per year. Darren’s post is a sobering reality check that all me-too make money online bloggers should read before launching a blog to earn some “easy” money.

Justine reviews Cloverfield - kind of

Funny, but I also worry for her sanity. Would you go to the local cinemaplex with her?

What I’m listening to right now: Missy Elliot Feat Ciara & Jay Z - “Ching A Ling” (Remix)

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Weekend thoughts and blog links

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Original post by Kieron

I get quite a lot of emails from people looking to build their first affiliate site and asking just how they go about doing it. So I thought I’d write a quick and easy practical guide for beginners to point them to.

First of all, let me explain why I always recommend WordPress and not Blogger. Its easy really, WordPress is much easier to customise and has much, much more support and plugins available, all for free. Although I started this very blog using Blogger 3 years or so ago, I can say hand on heart that in my experience WordPress is the better of the 2 options and that’s why I use it now. Its what I use for this blog and on my discount code site, it works very well.

OK so here’s a step by step guide on how to build an Affiliate website from scratch using WordPress.

1. Think of something to write about:

Ideally, pick a topic/niche that you know a lot about and have a real genuine interest. That way, you’ll be able to produce rafts of unique content and hopefully enjoy yourself doing it! Take it from someone who has been there and done it, its so very much harder to write about something that doesn’t interest you.

2. Buy a unique domain name:

As I tend to only target the UK, I always buy a .uk domain name. Now, there are only 2 official UK domain extensions, .co.uk and .org.uk. Of the 2 .co.uk is by far the most popular but .org.uk will do too. As far as I can see Google and the other major search engines treat .co.uk and .org.uk’s equally and don’t give preferential rankings to either. And the benefit of owning a domain ending in .uk is that it is straight away identifiable as coming from the UK and will therefore be recognised as such in the search engines and ranked accordingly.

Personally I use 1&1 for my domains and hosting as they have been around for 20 years, are totally reliable and you can buy a .uk domain from only £1.99 a year and they even have regular offers where domains are free! Also, they have the most simple easy-to-use control panel that I’ve ever seen.

When picking a domain name for a potential site, I always try to find a URL that has 1 or 2 keywords relevant to my sector in the title. So, lets say that we are going to build a site about credit cards, head over to the Google AdWords keyword tool and also the DigitalPoint keyword suggestion tool and type in “credit card” into the search boxes. Soon you will see loads of popular search terms associated with that phrase, such as “best credit card”, “credit card deals”, “uk credit card”, “credit card offer” and so on. I then head back over to 1&1 and see which of those popular search terms ate available as domain names.

Quick note: I always try to buy the domain name with no hyphens in, i.e. bestcreditcard.co.uk, however if there are none available I will go for best-credit-card.co.uk. I always use a hypen “-” and not an underscore “_”. In my experience hyphens work better with the search engines. BTW at the time of writing, bestcreditcard.org.uk is available to register.

3. Install WordPress:

OK so you have your domain name and some hosting from 1&amp1 now to get WordPress installed. Go to WordPress.org not WordPress.com and simplay download the programme for free. There is extensive documentation here and a support forum here that tells you all you need to know to install it on your 1&1 domain name.

4. Customising your site:

One of the main reasons I use WordPress is because of the thousands of free themes available on the web that will give your site a unique look and feel. A good starting point is these, and a quick Google search reveals many more. To be honest though, at this early stage on your first site I wouldn’t worry too much about the theme. The main focus should be on getting your site up and running, so pick a them and then move onto the next step.

5. Install Akismet:

WordPress is great, off the shelf. But it can be made so much better by using the free WordPress Plugins that are widely available on the web.

I know we haven’t even built a site yet but there is one essential plugin that you need before you do anything:

Akismet - In many ways WordPress is a victim of its own success, as spammers will target your site using the “comments” function built into the system. However to combat this you should install Akismet, it does a great job of weeding out 99% of spam comments to your blog. So far it’s eliminated over 40,000 items of spam on this blog.

Just follow the comprehensive installation instructions and within 2 or 3 minutes you will have Akismet up and running on your new WordPress site. This will save you countless hours of wasted time deleting spam, when your site is successful and receiving loads of traffic

6. Writing content:

OK so your site is up and running its really important to add regular unique fresh content. The more you write, the more the search engines will come and index your site and the better you will do in the search engines. Some of my regularly updated sites can get indexed within 15 minutes by Google, as way of an example. Set yourself a manageable and achievable target, at the very least write once a day, but if you can write 5 pieces of content a day even better!

Its also important to write with the search engines in mind. Take this blog post about Butlins as an example, I used the title “Butlins February 2008 half term offers and free holiday brochure“. Now that may sound like a lengthy title but hopefully it will mean that it ranks well for the following search terms:

Butlins
Half term holiday
Butlins offers
February 2008 half term
Free holiday brochure
Butlins brochure

And so on.

So although longer titles for your blog post don’t always roll off the tongue, always rememeber to try and include as many search terms as you can in them. Google will appreciate it!

So by following the steps above you will have the groundwork of your very own first affiliate website. I always tell people that the hardest thing to do is to gather traffic to your site, its the most difficult process involved in making money online. BUT once you achieve this, its easy to make money. Yes easy. So with that in mind we’ll end part one of this tutorial here and in part 2 we’ll focus on getting traffic to your site once its up and running. But for now, go and build your site, and get some good content up there.

To illustrate that anybody can build a website using WordPress with no technical ability my cousin has set up a beauty and fashion blog called BeautyGlam. She has followed exactly the steps outlined above with the only exception being that I got her a custom theme designed - but only as I have access to a designer, as I said above this isn’t a necessity. At the time of writing this, the site has some good articles up, and soon she will be adding more affiliate links to start monetising it.

Look out for a follow up soon where I’ll talk about how to generate that all important traffic to your very first affiliate website.

What I’m listening to right now: Cameo - “Love You Anyway”

Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk

Beginners guide: How to build an Affiliate website from scratch using WordPress

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Original post by Kieron

What a great headline for affiliates. JackpotJoy are now offering a progressive jackpot of over £771,000 in their Deal Or No Deal game.

So why is this good for affiliates?

Well its good for affiliates as the previous record payout on Deal Or No Deal was £629,000. So the new prize is really big news. And big news means that this game will get a lot of press and attention in the media, and as we all know, we can really capitalise on that. I’ve had a quick look at the chat rooms on JackpotJoy and everybody is just buzzing about this jackpot. After all its not every day that gaming sites give away genuine life changing prizes.

But I’m not a gambling affiliate

It really doesn’t matter. Deal Or No Deal is one of the most popular shows on TV right now. So no matter what type of site you run, the chances are that your users are aware of the program - so thats half the job done. And who doesn’t want the chance to win £771,000? JackpotJoy make such a good job of making their games fun and accessible to the masses too that their conversion rates and retentions are fantastic.

So what sort of revenue can I earn from the JackpotJoy program? Are they any good to work with?

I’m glad you asked. Affiliates can earn £20 CPA and 20% lifetime profit share or a straight 30% lifetime profit share. By any standard that’s a decent rate and higher tiers are available for star performers. Speaking from personal experience I can say that JackpotJoy are a great merchant to partner with. For example, they have over 1000, yes 1000 different types of creative available in the TradeDoubler interface with 88 for Deal Or No Deal. LOL, I’ve seen merchants with like 6 banners to choose from in total. Also, they constantly communicate with affiliates to advise of jackpots like the one mentioned above, competition winners stories and all sorts of good stuff and content that you can use.

So my tip of the day: Look outside of your usual niches to find other ways to make money. Don’t be blinkered and think that you have to run a gambling site to promote a merchant like JackpotJoy. Look at how I marketed it over at UKOffer.

What I’m listening to right now: Duran Duran -”Red Carpet Massacre”

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Original post by Kieron

CashQuests.com has just been sold for $15,000 on SitePoint.

The blog has been around since December 2006 and in October 2007 generated $1390 in revenue, so based on that figure they achieved a selling price of around 11 x monthly revenue. So not a bad multiple.

What interests me is that in a relatively short amount of time the blog has managed to build up a user base of over 900 subscribers and quite decent traffic levels for a new blog (16,000 uniques per month).

So how did they do it?

Well they started by being slightly controversial, some of the earlier posts certainly didn’t pull any punches. The blog owner always picks linkbait-worthy topics to write about and often took deliberately controversial stances on topical debates. They also networked like crazy and managed to get mentioned/links in a lot of other popular blogs.

Whats the point of this post Kieron?

Well I wanted to highlight the fact that a reasonably new blog sold for $15,000. Now while that’s not an insubstantial amount of money its not enough to retire on. But, what if you could sell 10 blogs a year at $15,000? That’s $150,000 for a years work, about £72,500 in real money. Not a bad salary.

So is it possible to create and maintain 10 new blogs from scratch a year? Yes I think so. You could pick topics that you are knowledgeable about and can write about with ease. You could also sub contract articles out to third parties, for quite reasonable prices. As your blogs grow you can also invite guest bloggers to post for free. And lets not forget that during your first year you will also be making money from affiliate sales/adsense/text link ads and private ad sales on your network of blogs.

I guess what I’m saying is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to get a blog up and running on a Wordpress template. And even keeping 10 updated with regular fresh content isn’t that hard to do. And at the end of the day there is a huge after-sales market of bigger players looking to buy smaller blogs and absorb them into their networks.

Don’t believe me? Then take a look at these recent blog sales:

BloggingFingers - $6,000
OneMansGoal - $8,500
BlogOhBlog - $10,000

It seems to be that the average market value of recently sold blogs is around 12 x monthly profits. In my experience I think its perfectly achievable to generate £1000 per month in ad sales/affiliate sales etc. So allowing for a couple of lean months is £10,000 per blog sale achievable? I think so. And the beauty of letting blogs mature for at least a year is that they have a reasonable amount of time to get indexed in Google, build PageRank, gather new subscribers and generally get good placements in the search engines.

And don’t forget that the beauty of using Wordpress as your blogging platform is that its so easy to use, no technical skill is required. So all you need to do is write good content and be a bit clever when its comes to monetising and promoting your blog.

So is this a strategy for making money online in the future? Most definitely.

What I’m listening to right now: Akon - “Wanna Be Starting Something”

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Original post by Kieron