I must thank the chaps at Affiliate Window for their excellent Christmas Coins competition. To win one of 455 prizes on 8 different levels, you had to login at 3pm on Christmas Day and scramble with all the other affiliates desperate for a prize in order to get something from the affiliate santa.

I wasn’t expecting much, “I’ll probably get a mousemat after sitting here like a nana on Christmas Day” I grumbled to Duncan as I sat furiously refreshing Awin’s Christmas tree page waiting for them to release the pressies. To My delight, I scored an ace Ipod Nano which had been donated by 24 Studio

Here’s what my winning screen looked like: -

(Click for bigger image…)

I’d like to thank Awin for putting on such a great Christmas promotion that really gave all affiliates a fair chance to win. There were a huge number of really great prizes. My mate Ray also got an Ipod Nano (we were sitting talking on MSN whilst furiously refreshing our screens and both got the same thing!). Other people won things like LCD screen TV’s (I REALLY didn’t want to win another one of those), mountain bikes, Tom Toms, Mobile Phones, Chocolate Hampers, Champagne, Board Games, A Free Website, and many more great prizes.

I think this has been really successful and hope they repeat it next year. It was absolutely the most exciting bit of Christmas for me this year. Well done, and thanks to Studio 24 for donating my prize!!

Phew!! Well, that was the Christmas rush and what a silly season it has been for me. I’ve spent so much time watching other people buy their Christmas pressies I’m very nearly sick of them!

I’m sure many of you will have been frustrated this year trying to work out exactly where all this Christmas money everyone has been screaming about was being spent. I’ve chatted to a fair few people recently who seem to be at a bit of a loss. It’s not easy to work this stuff out when you are “out in the affiliate cold”. If you’ve no idea, the best bit of advice I can give you for next year is to try out lots of direct to merchant PPC using their feeds to generate the search terms during the early part of the season.

I used this technique this year and found many surprising items that the punters just loved. I can now use this information going forward into 2008 for all the remaining gift seasons and feed the data into my strategy for next years campaigns.

Also, check out what is being advertised a lot on television, and pay attention to what the press are raving on about. This publicity will feed back into internet searches (but can be disasterous if you pick an item merchants can’t keep in stock!!).

Finally, my best bit of advice has to be not to copy what you see others doing or have them talking about. A certain someone who may or may not be reading this article right now has lifted a niche I spoke about wholesale. I can see from looking at his site that he’s basically read my work and re-hashed it into a new format. The similarities are blinding.

OK, I knew that would happen guys (hoped it would not out of respect for the free information I give) but the reason I give away the urls of my sites is so you can see how the affiliate mindset works… not so you can copy what I am doing.

Don’t worry though, I won’t stop sharing this kind of info. However, I do reserve the right to bankrupt the next person I see doing this by inflating their CPCs to a ridiculous amount. In fact, I might still do this to the current offender just to create a valuable lesson about the dangers of pissing off affiliates with deeper pockets than you… You know who you are, and you’ve been warned!!

I previously talked about how copying someone does not automatically mean you can duplicate their success and become a super affiliate. I’d like to re-iterate that now. Make your new years resolution to come up with something unique that you can build on and make your own. That really is the hallmark of a successful affiliate.

Merry Christmas Everyone, I’m off to roast chestnuts on the fire and drink the 18 bottles of really posh booze I treated myself to. Hurahh!!!!!

Well, after much moaning from me recently about a decided lack of festive love from merchants, Figleaves have decided to show me just how much they really do love me by sending me some free undies. Now don’t worry, I didn’t get any pervy e-mails from their affiliate manager, Simon Goldsmith asking me for my bra and underpant sizes… they sent me a £50 gift voucher in a beautiful wee gift box.

Mind you, Simon had popped in a bit of a note saying “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year To My Subtlest Affiliate”. I’m not sure why he’s chosen these words, but there is a small chance it was the public forum posts I made directed specifically at getting some free swimwear from Figleaves. The many e-mails I sent in a similar spirit may also have led him to conclude that subtlety is not one of my many virtues (can’t think why )

So thanks to Figleaves, I’ve some excellent hours ahead of me to spend browsing for swimwear for the next leg of our Neverending World Trip.

I quite like the creation below from Caprice’s lingerie range, but I must say I’m only buying it if Simon guarantees that my boobs and stomach will look exactly like the ones below. I wouldn’t mind them thighs either!

Figleaves / Simon Blatant Promotional Bit
Figleaves is on Tradedoubler and Linkshare and offers up to 11% commission on hundreds of lingerie lines. They’re extremely good at offering affiliates bespoke discount codes and similar and I can thoroughly recommend the programme as it converts very nicely and has a good average order value. A must for anyone considering what to promote this Valentines Day! You can find out more about it by contacting Simon . Goldsmith @ figleaves . com and telling him Kirsty sent you.

On an entirely different promotional note Simon is also single I believe, and will be accepting applications from beautiful affiliate ladies who’d like to date a rather good looking dynamic chap with access to loads of free underwear. Having enjoyed a nice drinking session with Simon at the Expo I can confirm he was awarded a 10/10 on the affiliate batchelor scale!

I very nearly posted a picture on here from his Facebook profile, but decided against it in case he barred me from future Figleaves freebies. Always look after those who look after you, that’s my motto!

Thanks for all the help this year Simon

Well, things have been quiet on this blog recently.. mainly because it’s Christmas and I’m working furiously either checking my campaigns or quickly creating new bits and pieces for areas that are performing well. I’m also well into my prep for the January travel season. I’m feeling a bit lost for inspiration as I’m writing loads of unique content for a new lingerie site… I’ve been working for about 16 hours most days (and loving it) but it does mean the time I usually spend chatting to my blog readers is taken up with either working or collapsing on the sofa with a massive glass of wine.

With that in mind, I thought I’d go off looking for all the various inspirational tales of how much money your hard work can create in this game. Part of my reason for looking for these stories is to motivate myself on to greater things in 2008. I wanted to find verifiable stories of success. After all, anyone can SAY they earn a squillion quid a month!

All Aboard For The Affiliate Inspiration Train!

First stop has to be Kieron’s Sitepoint Forum post which gained him notoriety on both sides of the pond. A while back, he posted a single page of his bank statement and showed off an extremely healthy affiliate business!

(Click For Bigger Image)

Naturally, we also have to make a quick stop at ShoeMoney Central and salivate over his massive bloody Google Adense cheque…
(Click For Bigger Image)

Next Up, something less about capitalism and more about lifestyle. The chap who runs Alex’s Coupons is supporting his entire family and paying for medical bills for his daughter’s fight against Leukaemia. Inspired by an increasingly frightening level of debt as a result of his daughter’s need for treatment, and the near collapse of his business after 9/11, he created a coupon site that has gotten the family out of debt and continues to pay for his beautiful daughter’s medical treatment.

There’s a news item about this affiliate success story below…

There’s also my erstwhile affiliate drinking chum Ray, who posted a while back about having gone from £25k in debt to having £50k in the bank within just one year. And he was working on his web business PART TIME!

Finally, if you’ve got an affiliate inspiration story (regardless of size), why not send it on over to me. I’m thinking of setting up an “inspiration” category where I’ll post a good story about someone’s affiliate marketing journey every now and again and give their blog / affiliate site a little bit of link love. Contact Me with your story if you want to share it with other affiliates!

Well I must say that Ray at Befuddled was right. Mega / Cyber Monday was great! However, I actually had an even better “Topping Tuesday” and “Wicked Wednesday” beat the pair of them hands down. I’m not going to bore you with stats because my Duncan’s made me promise not to constantly count up how much I’m earning and what the profit margins are . This is my best Christmas ever. A great feeling for me in view of the fact I’d done no preparation before we got home at the end of September.

The 90,000 keyword campaign I was chatting about just after I got home is a big part of this success, so I’m extremely happy all our wrestling with Google Adwords Editor has now paid brilliant dividends.

Alright, so I’m knocking on about the brilliance of Christmas. But what next? How am I going to build on my best ever Christmas to make sure it carrys on throughout 2008 to make sure this is my best ever year? Well, I’ve been formulating a plan in my mind of which sectors I’m going to promote this coming year. So I thought I might as well share it with you guys. After all, you might tell me if I’ve missed something!!

So here it is ladies and gents…..

My Affiliate Marketing Calendar 2008!!

January

- Everyone is freezing cold and depressed. Therefore they want to do 2 things. Know they will eventually get a break in the sun, and make indoors look nice and inviting. They will also buy themselves what they really wanted for Christmas in the January sales. Once they have done that, and after the over-spending of Christmas they tend to poop their pants about their debt. So my targeted areas for January will be: -
Gifts (people really do buy themselves things they really wanted), Fashion (January Sales!), Holidays, DIY, Furniture, and Credit Report Related Services.

n.b. - I could also target consolidation loans and 0% interest credit cards. However, it’s wickedly competitive and I’ve not had a chance to think through my traffic strategy properly. So perhaps January 2009 for this!!

February

Well, this is easy. ‘Tis the season of love and slushyness. Valentines day will be upon us and the spending shall commence once more. So targeted areas this month will be:-
All things gift related, flowers, chocolates, perfumes, lingerie, any old crap people buy in a panic so they don’t have to sleep on the sofa for a year!

March / April

Mothers day and Easter are upon us, and Spring has sprung. It’s back out to the gift shopping again and dashing outside to the garden to make sure it’s still there. Also, lots of schools will be going on their half term holidays. So there will be a few last minute holiday bookings on the go. Gift shopping is coming to a sad end for another year at this point. Awwww…. Another round of: -
gifts, flowers, chocolates, perfumes, garden maintenance tools and plants, with a tiny bit of travel promotion in there too.

May / June

Gah. No more wild shopping for gifts. But Wait!! It’s Father’s Day in the UK, so a last gasp for the gifts in the week running up to the 15th. But fear not?! What light through yonder window doth break? That’s right!! It’s British Summer! Time for us all to rush outside and get sunburnt / soaked to the skin in our gardens.
So now we add to the mix: -
Outdoor furniture, Barbecues, Garden Lighting, Parasols, Plants, and if I’m very enthusiastic about the weather… Wine and Food merchants.

July / August

Theoretically when BBQ and outdoor season is in full swing. Will it happen? Hmmmm. Won’t be my problem cos I’ll be in Australia!
However, these months are when people really go mad for their Summer holidays over here. They’re going to Marbella and they want to look their best.
So I will be targeting: -
Last minute holiday bookings, Fashion and swimwear, Cosmetics and Skincare, Hair products like GHD’s and all the above mentioned outdoor stuff (possibly sandbags if last years summer was any indicator of what to expect!)

September

Gah, what a depressing month September usually is. Everyone’s been spending their bahookies off for 8 months and they start saving up for Christmas. I usually batten down the hatches and panic in case the money is never coming back. However, this is also a good month to furiously get some last minute Christmas preparations done.

October to December

It’s silly season again!! Hurahhh!!! So We Target: -
Anything at all!! Toys, Games, Clothes, Makeup, Cosmetics, Perfumes, Gifts in All Shapes and Sizes, Hampers, Christmas Decorations, Flowers. ANYTHING!!

Phew. I think I need to go back to bed now, I’ve just lived an entire year of my life in 40 minutes. Ideally speaking, you should be preparing for each of the affiliate seasons a good few weeks in advance. Hence, myself and Duncan are now just monitoring all our Christmas things and have already started preparing our January campaigns. I will also be doing an SEO site for Valentines day this month in the hope of some traffic. Come the start of January we will be in Valentines mode… and so on.

I know there’s loads of sectors I’ve missed out on there, but that’s what I’ll be doing this year. If you are doing something exciting this year and want to add it in the comments, it would be interesting to see what other chaps are up to!

I had a note last week from Dave, like many new affiliates on a steep learning curve he’s invested a heap of his time into learning how to build a site, but now he’s getting a bit of traffic he realises it’s not doing what he wants it to - converting to sales! Here’s his question: -

Ive been dabbling with affiliate marketing and PPC for a few months this year, although I started researching it over a year ago.

Thanks
Dave

*Please note that Dave’s already actioned some of the points below.. so a few recommendations I’ve made won’t make much sense if you look at his site!*

OK, lets see if we can point you in the right direction. You’ve certainly
been working hard and all in all are putting roughly the right information
into your sites.

The Replica models site first. Definately the stronger of the two, which
does demonstrate you are learning and developing in the right directions.
A few points on it: -

Get rid of the Google Adsense. You have to ask yourself what’s worth
more, the adsense CPC or the healthy commissions you can get from the
replica models you’re selling. In that position on the home page you
should be hitting your visitors with your best offers rather than an
excuse to leave your site immediately.

On the product pages…

You have a nice call to action button on the top left of your content that
says “buy online”. Make it clickable so your users can get to the
goodies.

There’s too much text. If this were my site I would have a clickable
representative image for each brand which channelled the traffic through
to the appropriate merchant site section.

I’d also make the links to the individual product types smaller and
clickable.

I think the current background image is a wee bit confusing. It makes
your text hard to read. As I said above, show the user what they’re
visiting your site for as soon as possible, or they will leave. You kinda
have to be aware that people don’t really “read” web pages. Users browse
sites in an almost semi-conscious way, you really have to set up big
arrows to point them in the right direction (much like the road signs we
see on motorways when there’s road works!).

I once tripled my click through rate on a landing page just by adding in a
big bold text link like this: -

Browse X Products > >

You can bet your ass my users didn’t even read what the link said beyond
picking out a couple of keywords and seeing the arrows.

I think some of the product lists might be a bit too long. I would break
the site sections up a little more. For example, if you sent volvo
related traffic to this page: -

http://www.replica-models.co.uk/Road_Car.htm

I think users would leave immediately. Far better to have a dedicated
page for each car brand and break it up by model type. That way, users
will see the brand they are looking for immediately and know they have
come to the right place.

From an SEO point of view, you should get a bit more content in there. It
would also help your adwords landing page quality score. For example, you
could knock out a quick overview of each car brand or racing team history.

I think the text on the site could look a lot nicer. Nothing too complex,
just a simple stylesheet would fix it right up (I see you’re currently
defining some styles within the page code). It would also let you create
some

nice headers

and define their sizes.

http://www.freeonlineprints.co.uk/style.css

Here’s the URL of a stylesheet I use in a simple site I created as an
experiment a while back.

OK, your first site

www.online-bikes.co.uk

I think you are absolutely right when you say you’re not getting people
pushed on to the merchant. As above, you need a really obvious call to
action. A big link saying “shop online for xxx” would be a big step in
the right direction. Even better, create a small shopping section and
link to it all over your site in prominent places.

It’s not immediately obvious to me what you’re trying to sell on this
site. Create some content around saleable items. When putting together a
site, put yourself in the shoes of the user. Based on your keyword list,
what would your users expect to see on the homepage? If you’re PPCing on
puncture repair kits, that should be the first thing they actually see on
the landing page. Create a page for each product area you are trying to
push.

A very successful mini site of mine I created ages ago (in terms of EPC,
not sales volume) probably demonstrates this quite well. It’s for
delicate feminine products (medical, not naughty!!) http://www.vaginaldilator.co.uk

This site pays me around £1.20 for every visitor I send to the merchant
and the product is only retailing at £46. It’s highly relevant to what people searching on the key terms are looking for and therefore converts phenomenally well despite low traffic.

Don’t rely on the banners from merchants to channel your traffic. Once
you’ve got a few sales under your belt your stats will show that the vast,
vast majority of sales come via text or product feed links. Internet
users tune out banner advertising (that’s why those irritating banners
that move about the page were invented!!).

Again with this site, remove the adsense, and make the text look nicer.

Phew! Well, I could bang on about lots here but I suspect I might have
given you a fair amount to have a think about. In my opinion, your second
site is stronger because its more of a niche area. For a first effort I
might even have looked at creating an in-depth site focusing on one brand
of replicas. It means a lot less work to see if your methodology is
working!

I hope this helps, and do let me know how you get on.

Well, I’ve only just gotten back up the road from Newcastle after staying on for the weekend. I have to say that I’m absolutely knackered after a huge night on Thursday followed by a weekend of drinking with some family members I hadn’t seen for 4 years.

I must say, I had an absolutely wonderful evening. The only downside was that I had a little accident involving Duncan’s expensive camera he usually takes diving and the chocolate fountain. Umm.. lets just say I really do wish I’d left the underwater housing on it. He’s not a happy camper as they don’t make the cameras any more, and the underwater housing cost a bloody packet!! Fortunately, Ray of Befuddled Fame had his camera and lent it to me a couple of times.

There were many highlights to the great evening, but my very favourite bits were…

Being robbed of the last Buy.at Christmas cracker in the building by the above mentioned Ray, who then proceeded to spend an inordinate amount of time flashing around the free fiver that was in there.

Cheers Ray!!

Letting my fellow affiates know just how much I really love them…

*ahem* I’ll be issuing John Lamerton with his written apology for that one later

Learning what I’ve decided to call “The Scouse Shimmy” from my new dancing partner in crime, Chris Frost. For anyone not familiar with this little number that beats the pants off a Paso Doble any day… it basically involves manically jiving around the dancefloor with a hysterical Scottish girl in tow, and jumping right into the middle of as many bewildered revellers as possible. During this, you have to maintain a big scary Scouse grin at all times. I thought it was hilarious, but you’d be amazed how many locals thought that there’d clearly been a breakout from a nearby secure hospital.

Duncan and I having to scab money for nightclub entry from Mark Russell of Existem AM after we got to the front of the line and discovered neither of us had actually brought money with us. Thanks Mark!

Here’s some more magical moments from the evening…

“My” Duncan and Keith Bond have a beer.

Ray and I finally kiss and make up… is it me, or am I looking pissed?

Lee, Me, Duncan, Keith!

Elaine and I having a bit of girl talk (weddings, babies, anything really!!)

Kieron explores the joys of free Peroni with Elaine…

That crazy funkster Ray struts his stuff

I discover an early casualty and decide the kindest thing to do is take pictures of him at his most vunerable. Then…

…Try to crowd everyone else in for a pic only for him to wake up. In case anyone’s wondering, that’s my attempt at a nonchalant escape!

Chris Frost practising his manic grins for our dancing debut.

Duncan finally forgives me for breaking his camera in the Chocolate fountain!

The last picture Duncan’s camera ever took… Dan and the Evil Fountain of Chocolatey Doom!!