Well, along with many other “tail end” types, I’ve just gotten myself and Duncan sorted out to go to the Expo just before the early bird discount rate was cut off. I am so excited, it’s going to be absolutely great!

As many of you will know, we are so keen to attend Matt & team’s great event again this year that we have postponed leaving on our honeymoon to Thailand and Malaysia on our way back to Australia for 3 weeks to make sure we don’t miss it.

We’ve booked our hotel, tickets, and flights so we’re locked in and ready for another great round of networking and informative conference sessions.

Not Booked Yet? Here’s Some Good News!

The early bird rate of £199 (instead of £299) has been extended for another month! You can still save £100 on your ticket and come and meet with myself, Duncan and loads of other affiliates and merchants for what will most definately be the “not to miss” event of the year.

Highlights include:

- 3 parties, including a Thames riverboat cruise (sounds lush!)

- Lunch everyday included in the price.

- Chill out area with refreshments laid on.

- All the usual conference freebies, giveaways, and competitions.

If You’re Not Sure About Going…

I have to say I could not recommend this event more for total beginners and experienced affiliates and merchants alike. If you’re shy or don’t want to come alone… don’t worry! By the end of the conference, you will know dozens of fellow affiliates. Everyone is very friendly and I personally guarantee I’ll gladly talk to anyone who wanders up for a chinwag about all things affiliate. Particularly if you turn up with a refreshing Whisky and Coke for me

You can still register for the affiliate event of the year Here. Don’t delay. If you don’t, you’ll regret it!!

See you all there

NB – The logo above is an affiliate link, the text link is a nice plain one. It’s your choice!

I was having a bit of a browse around online a few days ago, feeling a bit sorry for myself and in need of a bit of retail therapy to cheer me up. The following series of events probably show a couple of things. Firstly, I’m an affiliate-o-holic and Secondly, it gives a small insight into how you can feed personal interests into finding a niche. So yeah. This is a tutorial in how to work yourself too hard… and some full on niche detective work!

It all Starts With Placing Yourself In The Position Of The Buyer…
So anyway…. there I was sitting at my desk, all burnt out and crabby (I could tell I was because Duncan was hiding from me – not easy to do in a two bedroom apartment, but manage it he did!).

“Bloody working all the time” I thought. “I’m fed up! Time to buy myself some nice stuff.”

Then Comes The Realisation Of A Unique Selling Point or Product…

So off I trot around the internet looking for some funky handbags and other things women like to buy when they’re feeling overworked and harassed. After stumbling around the internet for a while I happen upon one of the handbag pages from YesStyle and see they have a bewildering array of really cool and unusual handbags (I particularly loved their RooTote bags but they can’t ship them to Australia cos of some distribution agreement – gah!!)

After That, Your Affiliate Investigation Skills Set In…

“Hmm…”, I think. “They have an affiliate programme with Webgains, don’t they?”

YesStyle have always been on my radar as I’ve always seen various affiliate programme posts by their affiliate managers. I’ve just never gotten around to looking at their site. At first look, whilst I liked the products, the type of things for sale on there were quite alien to me as the overall feel is very “different”. This immediately struck me as a good thing. Obviously many of the brands are targeted at Asians. So there was the first, obvious, niche. Asians overseas wanting to buy their favourite clothing, skincare, and accessory brands.

“Hmmmm” I thought (again). “…but there must also be other people buying the products on this site. They appeal to me, so who else?”

It was at this stage I thought I should just drop the affiliate manager a line and ask him straight what their markets and bestsellers were. YesStyle have over 20,000 products so it seemed prudent to save myself a day or three! I checked their EPC on Webgains and decided it was good enough for me to devote some research time to. Stefan Janssens got right back to me (Literally ten minutes later – well done Stefan!)

Here’s What I Found Out From Stefan: -
“YesStyle are a merchant based in Hong Kong but mainly sell overseas. Australia is one of our major markets (but also US, UK and Europe). We have lots of stuff you wont find anywhere else. “

This makes their products very interesting. If they can’t be bought anywhere else, and you can work out a way to drive highly relevant traffic to them, they will convert like the blazes!

“Oh ho.” I thought. “I wonder what kind of products go well in those countries?” So again I applied my patented technique. I asked. Over the course of a few e-mails flying backwards and forwards I discovered this from the lovely Stefan: -

Our beauty products sell well in the UK, but always for specific brands and
product

There are several reason why people buy them from us
- Exclusive gift sets
- Pricing: This depends very much on the brand and the country on the
customer. We have one world wide price, while usually beauty brands will
have different pricing strategies by country.
- Products suitable for Asian skin (not necessarily from Asian brands. Also
US / French brands will have products especially for the Asian market, and
overseas Asian may want to buy them. )

There are the top brands for UK and Australia

Austraila

Anna Sui, Biotherm, Dainty, Lancome, Shiseido

UK

Anna Sui, Demalogica, Kose, Shiseido, SK-II

I also discovered that in the UK market…

Currently Our Men’s fashion does really well
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Men.aspx (any brands — mainly casual shirts,
t-shirts, and jeans) .

Also Womenswear brands such as Dodostyle
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=235782 , Sechuna
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=238769& , and more
elegant styles such as Nabi
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=235262& sell very
well in the UK.

Well! Not bad for an hour’s work I don’t think! I found out bags of information about a merchant I’d absolutely no idea would convert all that well in the UK. What’s more, they might well be a good fit for me to try things out in Australia with a couple of test mini sites.

Ummm…. Kirsty, Weren’t You Supposed To Be Taking A Break?
Is what Duncan whispered cautiously when he found me a couple of hours later feverishly researching keywords and fiddling about with product feeds.

“Oops.” I said, and promptly went back to online shopping.

Make A Test Purchase…

Given how impressed I was with YesStyle’s range I actually went back and popped in an order with them (good way to combine work and play!). I got myself a bikini, a dress, a really cool bag, Anna Sui Eyelash curlers, and an Anna Sui gift set for $200 US all up which was then delivered here to Australia for free. Pretty good what with the weak state of the US Dollar at the moment.

So there you have it. A tale of me trying to have a relaxing night of indulging myself and ending up finding literally hundreds of products I should find a way of pushing in the UK market (and indulging myself eventually!). It’s pretty typical of me really.

Whats that? Yes, perhaps next time I should relax OFFLINE!

For anyone that’s interested, YesStyle have affiliate programmes in Australia (on Clixgalore), UK (on Webgains), Europe (Zanox) and US (Shareasale), but all of them will track worldwide.

N.B – YesStyle didn’t know I was going to make this post during my dealings with them. I was impressed with their info and responsiveness. I thought my experience with them really showed how you can use your own shopping experiences to find something you could promote.  Naturally, if they’re really greatful they can show their appreciation spontaneously….

You’ve got my address guys

At last my shiny new blog design is complete, and I absolutely love it! I was so fed up with my horrid old look that it was actually putting me off adding new features and developing my blog further!

I still have a few things to tinker around with, plugins to add, fiddling around with the order of the menu items etc… but I think it looks 1000% better than it has done. Some new features I think I will add…

• Most popular / useful posts for people who’ve just found the blog. I’ve written a whole heap of beginners info now and the best of them should probably be put in some sort of logical order.
• A photo gallery for my various travels and networking events (My mummy even reads this blog to see my pictures – hi Mum!!).

There’s also the thorny issue of blog sponsorship. I’ve been considering this for some time now, my work schedule means that I can’t post as much as I’d like simply because I am totally restructuring my affiliate business this year. I’m missing posting though, so I have reasoned that if I could monetise the blog just enough to get a little back for the time I put into it, I’ll be able to justify putting out more quality content.

As you’ll see, there’s now a “Sponsors” section in the menu which I will move to a more prominent position once I have found a relevant set of supporters for the blog. If anyone is interested in sponsorship they can Contact Me for a chat. No purveyors of MLM or shitty e-books, I’m not having that kind of stuff on here!

Finally Kudos To The Blog Designer…

Dan Cregin of Baltic Blog Design has done a great job on this theme. I particularly loved how he incorporated the strong theme of travel into his suggested designs. He was recommended to my by Kieron - whom he has done a fair bit of excellent work for, so thanks to him for the heads up.

Dan charges a very competitive £300 for custom blog designs, but because he is such a lovely chap he has offered readers of Affiliate Stuff a 10% discount. If you are interested in his services, simply Contact Him via the form on his blog with an outline of your requirements and tell him Kirsty sent you to get your discount!

Its a good, cheap way to get an affiliate site on the go.

If anyone has any suggestions for features they’d like to see on here, do give me a shout. I hope to add in some new bits and pieces in the coming weeks.

Hurahh!!

Yet more thoughts from me on how to improve your copywriting skills. I seriously had no idea that so many people had real issues with writing copy until my initial post on the basics which was followed up with my suggestion that people having trouble might like to try some speaking software.

This resulted in yet more feedback. This time it changed from “I can’t write copy – what should I do?” back to “I don’t know how to write about products – what should I do?”

I thought what might be a useful add-on to the other two articles might be a bit of help regarding how one structures a bit of copy and works out what to say about a product. Obviously I’ve already written generally about finding keywords, topic areas, and how you should write generally about a subject. I thought it might be handy to look at how to use products to come up with additional articles for your landing page.

So here it is… Product Copy 101 For Affiliates!

OK. So I will pick out a real life example to try and make it more relevant for you guys!

Lets say I have created a landing page about Calvin Klein bikinis and am looking to write some articles about some of their products to help make the page more relevant. I’ll base my pontifications on House Of Fraser’s Calvin Klein section as they seem to have a decent range of products.

– The first step is finding something to actually write about that will add value to the page and might help me target a few niche search terms. The key to this is to take a look at the products on a page and ask yourself “which of these has features someone might be looking for?”

I’ve selected this Calvin Klein Swimsuit

This is a really good example because I’ve a choice of features to focus upon.

1. It’s a designer swimsuit
2. It’s a halterneck swimsuit
3. It’s got retro styling on the cut

The first thing I always do is come up with a good strong title for SEO and use it to determine the content and structure of my product article. Here’s a few examples of what I’d use as a title with this swimsuit: -

– 50′s Style Swimsuit? Calvin Klein Designer Chic with Tiny Palms
– Designer Halterneck Swimsuit – Calvin Klein Tiny Palms
– Retro Swimsuit From Designer Label Calvin Klein – Tiny Palms

As you’ll see from the above titles, what I’m trying to do is capture niche search terms such as: -

- Calvin Klein Tiny Palms
- Calvin Klein Retro Swimsuit
- Calvin Klein Designer Swimsuit
- Retro Swimsuit
- Designer Retro Swimsuit
- Halterneck Swimsuit
- Tiny Palms Swimsuit

I’ve tried to structure the titles so that they include “niche term”+”designer”+”collection name” to make my chances of ranking as versatile as possible.

Once I have formed my title, its just like they told you when you sat your exams at school – “use the question to structure your answer”. Or in this case “use the title to structure your content!”

So, if I were to choose ” – Retro Swimsuit From Designer Label Calvin Klein – Tiny Palms”

In the first paragraph I’ll describe why that particular swimsuit fits the description I have bestowed upon it thusly: -

Looking for retro style swimwear with designer chic this summer holiday season? Designer label Calvin Klein’s beautiful Tiny Palms swimsuit is going to be red hot for 2008 with its palm effect pattern and terribly trendy 50′s style cut. Definitely a hot fashion option for looking cool by the pool!

I’ve got loads of keyword rich search phrases in there, made it read well enough to pass muster, and I’ve made sure I’ve mentioned all my phrases from the title.

OK, so the next thing to do is use the product description to give myself something to bulk things out a bit, referring back to my title search terms whenever possible!!

Styled in devilishly trendy turquoise and brown, the Tiny Palms halterneck swimsuit features a sexy plunging neckline with ring detailing. The padded cups are moulded to give your bust a little bit of extra lift and support. Featuring this seasons trendy 50′s style low leg cut, the swimsuit offers good rear coverage and fastens securely behind the neck. The wide halterneck band accentuates your bust and creates great shape that’s sure to have you and your swimsuit looking great poolside.

And we’re not finished there ladies and gents! Just to round it off, use any other related product info to squeeze another sentence or 3 out.

The Calvin Klein Tiny Palms swimsuit is available in sizes 32C to 38C, and the Tiny Palms range also includes a halterneck bikini and adjustable hipster bikini bottoms in the same pattern.

OK, so there it is! My basic guide to how to write a reasonable bit of SEO copy without having to think about it too much. The above method will pretty much work in any sector, it’s just that I’ve spent the day writing about swimwear and would have found it too difficult to change it over my post dinner glass of wine!

Aahhh….. those chaps at Figleaves really do know the way to this affiliate’s heart. After some lovely sales figures recently from my new Lingerie site, Figleaves’ affiliate manager Simon felt it was time I got some nice gear for myself and sent me a giftcard!

As winter is fast upon us here in Queensland, I decided to get myself some nice affiliate Jim Jams. Seriously, they reported on the news here the other night that

“Temperatures will soon drop below 20 through they day. Remember, get rugged up and be prepared for the weather.”

I was struck by the thought that any temperature in the 20′s in my native Scotland brings out a rash of scantily clad people with pale, wobbly flesh. The next day, 60% of the country has third degree burns because our skin can’t take anything but clouds and drizzle!!

Anyhoo… mad Queenslanders aside, anyone who knows me in any way at all will know I have an unhealthy obsession with pyjamas and spend about 60% of my life wearing them. In fact I’m unashamed to announce that I’m sat here at 2pm writing this post – resplendent in a very fetching pink chemise and blue dressing gown *bliss*

Playing Customer Got Me More Than Some Free Gear…
As always for me, the opportunity to play customer has proved really useful. I don’t promote much sleepwear but today discovered Figleaves has some beautiful high end boudoir wear I should really think about promoting (particularly in light of honeymoon season coming up soon!!). I really should go shopping on my merchants sites more often…. every time I do this I come up with some little idea or angle to push some of their products in a hitherto overlooked niche.

I got myself…. this Pyjama set by Pour Moi plus a matching camisole. Unbelievably, I have actually been getting cold recently and this set looks lovely and warm, with the added advantage that it’s decent enough for me to answer the door in should I get caught out at 2pm still in my jim jams (happens all the time – horribly embarrassing!!)

Shameless Figleaves Plug (Which They Didn’t Ask Me To Do – I Just Like Them!)

The Figleaves.com affiliate programme is run by the gorgeous Simon Goldsmith and can be promoted via Tradedoubler or Linkshare. They pay 9% to 11% commission and in my opinion have the best range of lingerie, bras, and sleepwear in the UK. Their affiliate info page is here

Just when I was starting to think I had answered most of the “types” of questions I’m asked via e-mail, I got a bit of a cracker from Christopher, who I’d previously corresponded with about the need to add good SEO content to your site on an ongoing basis. He came back to me with a thorny issue. The backside had fallen out of his conversion rates after he had just started to think his new affiliate site was a right wee goer!

Here’s his question (his niche and site have been removed as he really has found a totally cracking area to work in and I don’t want him getting 100 competitors because of my blog.)

I’m getting a bit worried now and thought i would ask for some advice. I’ve
been adding articles daily to my website, i added 7-8 yesterday and 5 the
day before to try and increase visitors. At the moment it’s sitting at
around 80 visitors from search engines but conversions are hitting rock
bottom now – this may be normal but here’s some stats to paint a picture.

Thanks for any help Kirsty.

Well Christopher…

It’s Way Too Easy To Have A Knee Jerk Reaction…
Generally speaking, I think the best advice is don’t worry at all about the variations in conversion rates. Its way too easy to over analyse these things. Sometimes there is a reason for conversions turning to shit. Towards the end of the month for example people have less money and are browsing ahead to see what they’ll buy when they get paid. Conversions always surge after the last Thursday / Friday of the month (for my niches they do anyhow!).

Also weekends can be dodgy, public holidays, good weather days, major sporting events. Even when your traffic is the same, conversions drop. Seems only window shoppers stay at home on special days.

Its important when you see a drop that you don’t overreact and totally re-jig your whole site. There are lots of external factors you should take a look at first before you start to blame your own handywork. If it worked fine up till now, why should that change?

Here’s a few things to think about.

Affiliate Serendipity
However, sometimes you are just unlucky for a few days!! I had a day recently where for no apparent reason I LOST money. WTF? I mean come on! Nothing had changed, just serendipity.

The Best Thing To Do Is Wait And Collect Data…
I’d give it a good couple of weeks before you go changing anything. Sometimes as an affiliate the best thing you can do is to just sit tight and wait. Of course, the less positive way to look at this might be that those few days of ace conversions were the exception rather than the norm. If that turns out to be the case I’d analyse what happened in those few days that might have made the difference.

Where Did The Increase In Conversions Come From?
Were you suddenly ranking for a term you’d not previously cracked? If so that might be a good one to try out some PPC on, or orientate some good SEO content towards.

Check Your Other Data…
– If you are really worried, check your “bounce rate” on the days your conversions have sucked. i.e. how many people visited the site v’s how many went through to the merchant. Has that changed? If so, something might be up somewhere.

– Broken links, a merchant site down, or merchants tracking being broken can all also be causes of sudden loss of conversion rates too. Have a link audit, check the merchants site and look for any notices about site maintenance and downtime that might have slipped past your radar.

If you see a drop in conversions and just can’t find a reason within your own site, drop the merchant a line. Ask how things are for their traffic. Quite often I do this and the merchant comes back telling me their site has seen the same type of conversion reduction as mine and can give me some more insight into market conditions causing this.

– If you have a feeling tracking has been wonky, politely ask for a tracking test or two to be done through one of your affiliate url’s by the merchant. You’ll either be reassured or help them discover they have an issue!!

– Check what keywords people came in on during those days when conversions dropped. Were they relevant? Had they changed? That might explain a drop in conversions too.

Analysing what has been happening before, during, and after any issues can really help you to see what was going on with your site. If you just can’t see anything wrong… there’s probably nothing to change. Sit tight and keep analysing your data. Most of the time, checking your data will show you where the issue lies.

Christopher Says…
Thanks for info on analyzing – i would never of thought this but i suppose thats why your own data is so important. I think i’ve pinpointed the keywords and the reasons why it was so high in comissions. My conversion rates and EPC for certain merchants are really good still but the surge in sales i think was due to an offer Merchant X where having as well as being #3 for a very good term, which im number 10 now.

So there you go folks. I think this particular Ask Kirsty shows the importance of analysing your sales data, search engine rankings and merchant activity as much as possible. I do this on a daily basis and the valuable information that gets thrown up is unreal.

If you have an Ask Kirsty Contact Me using my contact form and I will do my best to get back to you!

Yeah, you didn’t really think I was going to settle down over here in Australia and not come up with some more ridiculously outlandish travel ideas, did you? Tsk, tsk, tsk you really should have known better!

Actually, these plans are not imminent but seeing as we have to get on a plane to go to the UK for our wedding… It’d be a shame not to go and visit a few places while we’re out and about, wouldn’t it?

OK, so here it is… my travel plan so far…

Obviously we are sticking around after the wedding to attend the most excellent A4UExpo – hope to see you all there for a chat and to toast our nuptuals! Before that, we’ll have been on a short honeymoon-ette somewhere Eupropean and warm.

Right after the Expo we’re getting our bahookies on a plane and heading for….

Singapore!

We’ll be jumping off the plane here and rampaging round one of the worlds cleanest and tidiest cities, not forgetting to visit the Raffles Hotel and have one of their fine Singpore Slings. Given our newlywed status I very, very nearly booked us into the Raffles. However the girl inside me who was brought up in a 2 bedroom council house just couldn’t let me do it. I can afford it, I just can’t bring myself to spend that much cash on a hotel room!!

After the hangovers have worn off (come on, I’m not only going to have one – look at the money I saved on the hotel room!) its back in a taxi to the airport where we will fly to Phuket and then jump a ferry to…

Railey Beach!!

Wooo hoo!! I’m absolutely delighted to be revisiting this isolated and chilled out beach. You have to catch a water taxi (aka a Thai man in a dodgy longtail boat) to get there as it’s not reachable by road.

However, we will not be slumming it fear ye not. We will be yumming up a bit of luxury in our hotel room complete with private outdoor spa at Railay Village Resort. Its going to be hard, but I’m going to tough my way through it.

Following on from that we will grab another boat and head for….

Koh Lanta!

We didn’t make it here on our last trip to Thailand, so we have decided to have a bit of a look at it and chill out for a few days. After that, we’ll be getting a ferry to….

Langkawi, Malaysia!

“What the hell” We thought. “Malaysia is right next door to Thailand… we’d be mad to miss the opportunity to sample what it has to offer!”

After this we head on back to Singapore and fly back to Queensland. The end of our fun? Nah! About ten minutes after we get back…

Chris Frost Arrives For His Holidays!!

For anyone who doesn’t know, Chris Frost is the jaded fellow on the far right. As you can see, he doesn’t mind a gin fizz or ten (so we all get along just great!) and we will be spending 2 to 3 weeks showing off the very best of Australia’s East Coast to Chris. We will probably take in Fraser Island and some other tropical gems as well as a trip round every bar in Brisbane! As Chris is a keen diver, himself and Duncan will be making like Charlie’s Angels and getting into their wetsuits for some underwater fun.

Once Chris has headed back to the UK, we will be working for 3 entire weeks. Then we’re off to…

Auckland, New Zealand!!

We will be spending a couple of weeks in this beautiful city catching up with Duncan’s family and swapping travel stories (our wedding has meant an awful lot of European trips for his parents and sisters!). We will be spending Christmas and New Year here before heading for…

New Zealand’s South Island!

We thought we’d better round things off with a bit of a tour of the South Island seeing as we missed it the last time. I’m desperate to see sights such as Milford Sound and the Glaciers.

Then…
It probably will be time to go home, because we will have spent 3 and a half months travelling here and there. We will probably have bought a house just before we leave so it’ll most likely be time to put away the backpacks again and do a bit of DIY.

Until….
2 months later when we get them back out again and go to a wedding in Ireland! Given my extreme talent for turning a simple journey somewhere into an outlandish travel extravaganza… anything could happen here, lol.

Phew… I’m not sure how all this happened, but I reckon its going to be a great start to our married life and of course will produce some rather amazing pictures to show off here.

Hurahh!!

Well, once again I’m delighted to have been put on the shortlist for the Affiliate Blog award at the 2008 Affiliate Marketing Awards.

It’s really fantastic to have had people pay me the huge compliment of giving this blog the nod because they’ve enjoyed reading my random outpourings on here. I am made up, so thanks all!

Affiliate Cinderella Has to Stay At Home…
The only injustice here is that I’m not going to be able to attend the Awards Ceremony on June 5th at the Park Lane Hotel, London. Anyone who knows me well will know that it has long been an ambition of mine to don a designer frock and attend just such a glittering occasion. *sigh* This wannabe glammed up affiliate dolly bird will just have to wait for another time

The other esteemed blog nominees are: -

• Jason Dale (www.onelittleduck.co.uk)
• Kieron Donoghue (www.here.org.uk)
• Lee McCoy (www.leemccoy.co.uk)
• Paul Wheatley (www.mooseontheloose.co.uk)

I read all of these blogs regularly and am delighted to see them up for the big prize. Particularly Jason, who’s often hilarious take on the world of the affiliate (and a fair bit of affiliate politics), is an extremely refreshing read. You got my vote Jason!

You Can Vote For Your Best Affiliate Blog Choice Here (and all the other awards also!). I’m not sure it’s entirely fair that Kieron only gets to hold last years title for 8 months – but hey, there’s every chance that won’t matter if he wins again!

Good Luck To All Nominees!

P.S. – Might I point out that once again Duncan hasn’t bothered his bahookie voting for me, despite being an A4U member. Still, not to worry. He can think about that when he’s sleeping on the couch this evening

Oh, you gotta love affiliate marketing sometimes. So the new Adwords rules went live on Monday and I was on alert for the search landscape to change. Nothing happened. Spin forward 24 hours, and as the new ads begin to show on big name brands such as Next and Currys… I give my Adwords account repeated checks for unexpected clicks from long forgotten adgroups. It was all fine.

“Phew.” I thought. “My long-term bad habit of always deleting the contents of old adgroups but leaving the ads up in case I later decide to promote the merchant another way is OK – I’ve not missed anything!”

With a happy heart and secure that all was well, I wandered off and spent a rare night having quality time with Duncan (as opposed to obsessing over affiliate-world).

Happy Happy Joy Joy…
Imagine my sheer delight at the whimsical nature of Adwords when I awoke from my repose this morning and logged into my “A-OK” Adwords account and saw these two beautiful lines in a campaign that only usually has a spend of around £35 a day in total.

Yep. That’s right, a couple of old ads from before the dawn of time which had been prohibited due to trademark issues, suddenly lept into life, and buggered right off with my cash. The top one doesn’t even have an effing affiliate programme any more.

Of course, this is my own fault for being incautious, I had absolutely no idea those ads were there. I can’t even remember putting them into my account. I bet I wasn’t the only one getting a shock when I logged into my PPC account today!

My only consolation is that my adgroup budget saved me from losing any more than a couple of hundred quid… but it did put a wee bit of a hole in yesterdays profits.

Its a bit like Christmas in reverse is this. Google coming down your account chimney and leaving you a present to find in the morning. Except Father Google Christmas doesn’t leave you a nice present, he leaves you a big bill for something you didn’t want.

AARRGGGHHH!!!!!!!

Just as a follow up to my last post, after I’d went on and on about how you should write copy for SEO a few people came back to me and said “But I can’t write at all? What’ll I Do? Should I Give Up on Affiliate Marketing If SEO Copy Is So Important?”

There Is Another Way…
For the last week I’ve been getting Duncan to help me out with copy. He has never been able to express himself in the written format as he has some quite serious issues with managing to get it all to “make sense” on paper. However, Duncan is a very articulate person in terms of being able to discuss things verbally. Given that I’m currently completely stacked out with mountains of copy waiting to be written, and don’t need much in terms of the technical work and graphics Dunc usually does for me, we decided something had to be done!

We’d heard mixed reports about speaking software (the stuff that writes down what you say), but decided… “what the hell, we’ll give it a go!”

So We Took The Plunge And…

We tried Dragon Naturally Speaking – And although it’s far from perfect (I was going to do a tally of how many times Duncan has said the word “F*ck” as a result of trying to train it to understand him but totally lost count!). It has given him the ability to come up with articles that are nicely structured and only need a small amount of editing to remove a small number of “funnies” that the software seems to put in there.

It has gotten better all the time mind you, so we’re expecting that he will get quicker and quicker using it as the software “gets used” to the way he speaks.

Phew…
It’s a huge relief to have him contributing in this way as the need for content surrounding every new brand and merchant was becoming a bit of a bottleneck in our operation, despite us having the help of one or two people with some copy. It’s one of the reasons I’m not able to blog as much at the moment, and I’m really, really missing writing in this blog as it helps me wind down in the evenings. Hopefully Dunc’s new role as a copywriter will help me get back to posting more often.

The Verdict – It’s Worth A Go If You’re Having Bother…
All in all, I have to say if you can talk about something but you have bother writing about it, you can probably use this software as a way to create your own copy. At £110, it’s not cheap but then you’d use that amount for 2 or 3 articles from a copywriter.

We bought our copy from Amazon.co.uk for £110 which was £40 off the RRP (nb, that’s not an affiliate link!)

Duncan Says….
That he feels the system resources the product description says you require are actually underestimated. This software is quite resource heavy and we had to upgrade the RAM in his computer to make it work properly. Therefore he thinks you’d need at least a 2 GHZ processor and at least 1000MB RAM to actually make the software function as it was intended.

If you use this software, let us know how you get on. Like I say, it’s not perfect but its really helped us out!