So if you’re on the outside… the inner workings of the mind of an affiliate seems like a strange and mystical thing indeed, doesn’t it? Affiliates are quite clearly King Midas personified. Everything they touch turns to pure internet gold. They are blessed with an uncanny ability to make money. If you fail at affiliate marketing once, thats it. You should give up cos you’re clearly crap. Right?

Ummm… wrong!

I have an earth shattering nugget of information… Affiliates in every shape, size and form are normal human beings, and they make bad judgements at times as well. OK, they usually offset them with their good judgements. But, to kick off this insight into the affiliate mindset I thought it would be good to show you a few examples of affiliates having bad ideas or getting something badly wrong.

One of the best examples I found was from one of the most famous affiliate success stories - ShoeMoney Himself. In a great post, Jeremy details his top ten worst ever business ideas, including my personal favourite… an idea to garner advertising revenue from “Topless Chix In A Ferrari Cross Country”.

The Domains I’ve Bought Whilst Drunk pale in comparison to some of Jeremy’s bloopers! Well, except my idea for a sex toy reward points site… that’s kinda similar in the lameness stakes,

Affiliates make mistakes too. Big mistakes. Let us not forget the massive lapse in judgement which occurred when a Tesco’s affiliate decided to register lots of naughty domain names, attempted to argue at the High Court they were totally entitled to the £26,688 in commissions which Tesco reversed, and umm…. Lost!

Rights and wrongs of any of the above aside… you can bet that the affiliates who fell foul of Tescos are still making money and we certainly know Jeremy is living the dream. The point I’m labouriously trying to make is that all affiliates make mistakes and come up with dud ideas. What makes them a success is that they don’t let the failure define them… Why? Because they learn from every mistake and pass that knowledge into their next attempt. Affiliates do not give up.

Wow Kirsty… thats like, totally profound. What other qualities must an affiliate possess?
For a start… they don’t need money. It’s not money that makes an affiliate a success. It’s their success that makes them money. Understand?

And see, a lot of people manage to find something that will make them a bit of cash. But what next? You need the Imagination to be able to Replicate and Scale UP your success.

To do that, you need to have the Focus to find your “thing”, stick to it and do it well over and over again. Or you may be an ambidextrous affiliate… and have many “things”! Finding your money making method will not happen overnight. Life doesn’t work like that, so why should affiliate marketing? You must have tenacity to have success at anything in life.

And once affiliates have found their success… do they sit down? Nah… they proactively seek out new deals with networks and merchants. They ask for higher commissions in exchange for greater volume, they approach people with ideas, they network, they work bloody hard on their business.

And once you have all that… you’re home free, right? Nobody can take that revenue stream away. Ummm… well except if that method you sweated blood over is suddenly deemed to be wrong by someone like Google. This happens to affiliates all the time. Who can forget such hilarious Google japes as the Florida Update and we all know and love the Google Adwords slap. So affiliates have to constantly innovate to stay one step ahead of (or deal with) the changing requirements of the industry.

And that in a nutshell is what it comes down to. Work hard and don’t ever give up. I have a motto I bought as a painted postcard from an artist in Chiang Mai, which I immediately loved.

And that is what I am now. I’m an alchemist. Every time something goes wrong I look at my beautiful little postcard from Thailand, and I “feel” the affiliate mindset. I take what’s happened and turn it into a positive, the same as many other guys in this industry. Affiliate marketing is not an easy ride, and I take my hat off to all my affiliate colleagues for their innovation and tenacity. It humbles me every day, and inspires me on to greater things.

It’s all the encouragement I need! I hope everyone else feels it too

Alright.. so it was a Saturday night and I was playing on the internet with a glass of wine in hand (yeah I know… how much excitement can there be in one girl’s life!!).

I’ve been thinking a bit recently about the way that I think about affiliate marketing and how I come up with my ideas. Much like my keyword research techniques, I’ve always had trouble describing exactly what my thought processes are.

Most of my ideas seem to come from nowhere, but I’ve always had this odd thing where I make rapid “associations” between different topics. What people who are talking to me seem to find is that I change the subject randomly.. A LOT. However, there is always some kind of connection… it just seems that I make somewhat “obtuse” connections between things.

I *think* this is one of the things that helps me come up with business ideas… and as I’m not sure where it all comes from at times, I thought it would be fun to note down where I went on some of my internet wanderings… and what made me do it. So

Welcome to the murky world of my mind late on a Saturday night…

“Hmmm…. I wonder which personal blog will be listed first in Google for the search term ‘blog’?”

Unsurprisingly, a blog by one Matt Cutts appears on the horizon, about halfway down the search results (which is odd, cos today when I looked it was Seth Godin… SERPS timeshare perhaps?).

“Lemme just have a look at this. I wonder if he’s got anything on here that will give me a bit of blogging inspiration” (see, I think about you guys all of the time).

So what catches my eye. Blinding secrets about all things Google revealed? Contents of Sergy and Larry’s underpant drawers? Nope. Its a totally random post about a business card he found in a book he bought once.

“That’s odd. I’m sure I remember a Billy Connolly concert that mentioned something similar to that. I wonder where this comes from?”

So off I go in search of the origins of this particular saying… on my way I land up on Pats Palace.com and discover that the site owner Anthony Glesner is a truly remarkable guy with an inspirational CV.

“Cool,” I thought. “This guy’s been in the Navy and the Coastguard then did a Masters degree after he retired, before re-entering the workplace, circumnavigated the globe in a boat, and finally got a job as a History instructor at Western Michigan”

But that didn’t find me the answer to the pressing philosophical question “where does the saying on Matt Cutts’ business card post come from?”

So off I trot back to Google (via the fridge for some more wine) and ended up…. on a law enforcement forum where I learned an interesting piece of Military Trivia.

“Ooohh… I’m on a winner here and no mistake about it. Look, there’s a bloke with that quote with a funny name below it. Hurahh!!”

So I Google Erin Co Braugh. Pah! It’s not a name, its Irish and it means “Ireland Forever”.

“Ohhh… That’s interesting” I think. “I wonder what that other bit in his forum signature means?”

Nár laga Dia do lámh is duly Googled. I discover it means “May God Not Weaken Your Hand”

“Oh, how beautiful.” Thinks our by now well-oiled intrepid internet wanderer. *Cue Misty Eyed Celtic Moment*

“That was dead set profound. Ahhh… I remember I used to read a tome by a mystic type chap to give me inspiring moments at uni… those were the heady days, eh?”

Which led me to go off in search of all things Kahlil Gibran related.

“Oh, shit. What was I meant to be doing? Ah.. affiliate blogging inspiration. Hmmm… there’s not much here is there? I know. I’ll go and look for some inspirational quotes I think might apply to affiliate marketing.”

So here’s what I came up with guys: -

“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”
Truly good affiliates see all the same stuff as every other affiliate. Yet somehow again and again, they come up with blinding ideas and make seemingly-impossible niches highly profitable.

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.”
One for the newbies I reckon… this reminds us that there are more than a few future super affiliates out there. The way to spot them is to look at their determination. A lot of people say to me “I really want to make money as an affiliate”. Very few say “I will do whatever it takes to make this work”.. which is the hallmark of a super affiliate in potentia.

Look, I’m going to stop these internet wanderings right here. There was a whole load of other stuff afterwards including an exploration of life after death, investigation of lucid dreaming techniques (might help me with my keyword research), oh and my all time favourite… the Color Personality Test.

The above either shows you how an affiliate marketer thinks or reveals that I have Attention Deficeit Disorder. I will leave the diagnosis on that one up to you guys!

*NB… My next post will really be about how an affiliate does and should think… I really must stop trying to get blog ideas after 5 glasses of wine!

Greetings from sunny Maroochydore on Queensland’s gorgeous Sunshine Coast! We are currently staking out the caravan park in Cotton Tree….

I’ve got to admit, right now the furthest thing in the world from my mind is affiliate marketing. I know y’all probably want me to say what a great time we are having, but err…. I have to say I’ve been feeling very uninspired recently both in terms of trying to get work done and also in thinking of things to blog about. Why? Well, until the middle of last week we were up to our behinds looking for a place to rent.

Its A House We Want… Not MI5 Security Clearance…
Would you ever believe how stressful it is to get a bloody place to live over here? Tenants compete to prove how good they are, and landlords pick their best option. Suddenly, Duncan and I were both incredibly stressed by the atmosphere of competitiveness and urgency to rush down to the letting agency and ram a big fat application down the throat of an unsuspecting realtor. Fortunately for us, we found a really cool realtor (yes, they DO exist) called Michael and we charmed him with our tales of world travel (as luck would have it he is a reformed global wanderer)… and then we surprised the hell out of him when we submitted our proof of income, lol.

I don’t enjoy shouting about my income. But I’d be a big fat liar if I said that when I’ve got to tell folks such as banks and letting agents how much I earn… that I don’t get a kick out of the look on their face that says “YOU, earn THIS?”. Must be the way I dress or something.

So after our application was accepted (after 6 nailbiting days) I am pleased to announce my glorious new affiliate HQ, which we will be moving into on the 26th of March. And guys.. she’s a total beauty. 40m from the beach, private rooftop terrace with sea views, pool in complex, and my very, very favourite… an ENSUITE BATHROOM!! No more 3am hikes in the dark to the camping site loos!

Check this out…

Not a bad wee stopgap till we find somewhere to buy!

So once that was all sorted… back to work… right?

Umm… no, after all the effort involved in getting our pad sorted I’ve just not gotten into the swing again. At the same time, I feel too damned guilty about not working to get out and do anything fun.

I’m in Affiliate Limbo guys…. Help help!!

G’day, G’day folks (sorry, just practising). Just a wee note for those of you who may not have read it… after my “Real Affiliates” Series, the lovely Chris Frost asked me to answer my own questions and has published them on his blog.

You can read my interview here.

In his intro, Chris has kindly referred to me as a “Haggis Chaser”, this is very upsetting. As a devout Scot I don’t chase the buggers… I eat ‘em. I should therefore like to point out to Chris that my proper title is “Haggis Muncher”. I’m a well off affiliate - I pay other people to chase them!

I could make many, many jokes about Kappa tracksuits and black curly wigs… but in the spirit of affiliate relations I shall refrain (I love him really!)

Hope youse enjoy the interview, it was a great idea and it was good of him to suggest it.

Well, here is number 3 in my “Real Affiliates” series and I can’t think of anyone better to finish off with than Chris Frost, my erstwhile dancing partner and Scouse Shimmy expert. Chris is another chap who works as an affiliate in his spare time (and does extremely well at it). There’s a rather nice picture of Chris below, which I have nicked off his Blog, Which You Can Read Here.

How did you first hear about affiliate marketing? When did you decide to try it out?
I first heard about affiliate marketing after I’d created a website that had been up and running for about 3 months. I stumbled across a newsgroup, the name I forget now, and the newsgroup in turn introduced me to A4U forum many moons ago.

I first learned about affiliate links when I was browsing an A4U members website. On it I noticed a banner whereby anyone could apply for a free BT Mobile sim card. As my very first website was geared towards freebies, I decided to dig a little deeper. First thing I noticed was that the URL, when the mouse hovered over it, didn’t point you to BT’s website, so being curious and careful I thought I would checkout when it was going to send me. It turned out to be a CJ link and that’s when the penny dropped!

What was your first ever revenue making idea? How did it work out for you?
If I am to be completely honest, the idea that got me started in this industry wasn’t actually a revenue making idea. I’d just received news about being made redundant from Cadburys and so started looking around, not for ways to make money, but ways to help keep costs down whilst I was making the most of gardening leave.

Obviously when I was aware money could be made, I had no idea how easy it was, especially if you already had a large number of visitors. It was simply a case of monetising an existing website.

How long did it take you to make that first commission?
Within a day of adding an affiliate link, I made commission and within the first calendar month I had generated close to £500. Not bad for 2001 when most of my time was spent outside making the most of my gardening leave :o)

What sectors do you work in?
Up until 2 years ago, I tended to focus on one area only. Since then I’ve realised money is to be made elsewhere and so now my sites cover a mixture of sectors. I’ve just updated a Broadband website which although 4 years old, has been sat there for 1 year, out of date, and doing nothing at all. Already I am seeing the benfits. Not great, but definitely worth the couple of hours effort it required.

I also dabble in seasonal websites such as Valentines and Chrismtas and in the past had a quick (lazy) dabble at gaming. I soon gave up after seeing no return and found it to be a market I don’t think I will crack, or attempt to in the near future.

The most influential factor that decides which sector to tackle, is the interest of it to me personally. If it’s a subject I have no interest in, I find it very hard to develop content, lose patience and end up with half finished websites dotted around doing nothing. Promises of huge commissions that can be seen in the gaming industry, isn’t enough to drive me. It has to be something I have a passion for.

Want to share one / some of your sites with us?
If it means I will get a free link then hell yeah! How many do you want me to rattle off?
broadband-providers.co.uk
shoppingdiscount.co.uk
home-tests.co.uk
adoptananimal.org.uk

How do you generate your traffic?
Different sites different methods. Naturally, PPC is a good fix to generate initial traffic, however if you can generate the same numbers through SEO or word of mouth, then obviously your profit margins can rise substantially.

I started an experiment towards the end of last year, creating a Wordpress website and I was determined not to spend a penny on advertising. It now gets googled within 10 minutes of an update, gets around 800 uniques per day, has a facebook group following of over 300 people and generates a few quid here and there.

It was Lee McCoy’s session at the A4U Expo that got me looking into the possibilities of social networks as a source of traffic. As yet the results arent fantastic, but I see it growing month on month.

How much time do you currently devote to affiliate marketing?
I am famous for saying in Frasers podcast not so long ago, that I spend no more than 4 hours per week, however since saying that I’m finding I have less and less time on my hands due to work commitments (yes I work fulltime still!).

All said and done, I’m somehow finding myself finishing websites and churning new ones out quicker than in the past. I can only presume I’m just missing out on sleep in order to fit everything in!

I would say an average week is now up to 10 hours, which still isn’t bad I guess.

Will that change in the next year?
If I keep getting asked to take part in podcasts and interviews, yeah it will go up ;o)

I think this year, I am more determined than ever. Occasionally I do get bored of the internet as a whole, but still try to plod on. I have a number of sites that are well overdue for a re-design. I also have a few ideas for some niche websites that will require a proper developer to create as my skills and time are limited.

Initially the time I spend will go up considerably this year, however come August/September time, I hope to be in a position where I can start cutting back again for a few months recovery time.

What has the money that affiliate marketing brings done for your lifestyle?
It’s got me out of a lot of trouble. Having gone from being £17k in debt (credit cards alone – I wasn’t even a student!), purchasing stuff like cars, TV’s, washing machines etc on loans or interest free options, I am now in a position where I have no debts (other than UK mortgage) and an Amex card – and that gets paid off every month!

Being in debt taught me a valuable lesson, and I’ve gone from being a spender to a saver. I wanted a new car last year but this time, I waited until I had the reddies and then bought it in cash. I now panic if my bank account even gets close to being overdrawn as I don’t trust myself, and don’t want to be where I was 5 years ago.

As for lifestyle, its given me opportunities to do things I probably wouldn’t have had before. I don’t think its changed me as a person, or at least hope it hasn’t – you’ll have to ask others. I’ve managed to go to some amazing places such as Newcastle, Bristol, London… OK seriously, Las Vegas for the Summit was fun, and I am tempted to head over to Miami later this year.

The biggest change, and most important one to me personally, is the meeting of new people. There’s some fantastic peeps in this industry some whom I consider close friends. I’m always welcome in Newcastle (Kieron), been on the pop in Sheffield (Shane) and of course London always means you will find some network, agency or merchant willing to go out for a few jars. Next on my list, as you know, is Australia for some serious diving!

What’s your definition of a super affiliate? D’you reckon you are one?
A super affiliate to me doesn’t exist! A Key Performing Affiliate, however does!

I consider a Key Performing Affiliate to be one that is a Non Brand Bidding affiliate that generates large volumes whilst adhering to the guidelines and restrictions in place by the merchant. I don’t consider someone who has brand bidding rights, or someone who flaunts the rules of a network or merchant and gets away with it, as a super affiliate.

Am I one? No, I enjoy being an OK Affiliate that sticks to the rules, generates sales without the use of Brand Bidding, and is happy to offer new affiliates advice.

Last year I generated £1.8m in sales for merchants, this year I expect it to be closer to £3m however compare me to the likes of Duncan Jennings and you will soon realise I am small fry. What merchants should remember is that a few of us small fry can do just as much business as 1 big fry. I have ambitions like everyone else, but its equally important to be realistic in life – therefore, being an OK affiliate is just fine by me.

Lots of people will want to know how well you do in terms of income. You don’t have to mention figures.. but do you feel like giving us a clue?
Enough! Let’s just say it’s a great deal more than what I make in my fulltime role and that aint bad!

My fulltime job pays for my daily life. I have always ensured that the two never cross and therefore I never rely on money generated by my websites. It means that an money from affiliate marketing pays for the extras in life. The things that would normally have to be paid over longer terms such as cars, or things I would never dream of owning, like a second home.

How do you motivate yourself and keep your passion for Affiliate Marketing going?
I get motivation from others. Whether it be networks, merchants, agencies or fellow affiliates. Its always good to see a new introduction in terms of Affiliate Marketing and also nice to see network reinvent themselves when they know they have gone down the wrong route.

There are some individuals that really inspire me, and they are the ones with a love for the industry rather than a love for the money it generates.

Tell us one thing that’s REALLY worked out well for you in the last year…
Networking!

Previously I saw affiliate Get2Gethers as nothing more than drinks with friends in an industry I enjoyed. Now I actually talk shop, and Im more than happy to visit networks to discuss current issues affecting the industry and planning how they can be tackled in the future.

Where will you be as an affiliate in 12 months time?
In what respect?
I still want to be a fulltime employee and plan to continue until the day comes where I no longer enjoy it. To me, enjoying your work is something that money can’t compensate for. With that in mind, I expect to still be in the UK.

In terms of markets – then Australia is the region I would like to look at tackling next.

Size? Well I have no intentions of becoming an £85m generating affiliate, so I will continue to be an OK affiliate.

What achievement in your life as an affiliate are you most proud of?
Two things…

I remember the very first time that a website of mine was featured in the Sunday Times. It was a moment where I was actually quite proud of something I had created out of nothing – to think they were writing about my website…

I guess more recently, being in a position to purchase a holiday home outright all thanks to affiliate marketing.

Whats the best bit of advice you can give to an aspiring affiliate?
When developing a website, don’t choose a sector that bears no interest to you whatsoever. When it comes to building a website, everyone knows CONTENT IS KING and if you choose a sector that you have no interest in, you will struggle to complete it, and find it even harder to have the drive to update it on a regular basis.

Choose a subject you enjoy and go from there.

As promised, here’s the second of my three interviews with real affiliates. Now, Ray Theakston has mentioned his luck has been on the decline since he spoke to me but I can assure all my readers (and my remaining interviewees) that it’s just a coincidence and that there’s no “Kirsty’s Curse”.

Next up on the affiliate podium is Max Bramwell. Max is just 19 years old and a university student. He has been involved in affiliate marketing for two years and run a number of affiliate sites in a range of different sectors. He manages to hold down his Uni work while pushing thousands of pounds of sales to merchants a month. We can safely assume there will be no red-eye shifts at Burger King for this young chap!

His blog can be found here: AffiliateStudent.co.uk

How did you first hear about affiliate marketing? When did you decide to try it out?
I was chatting to someone who I had online from a mobile phone forum, and he told me about a white label mobile phone site where you earn money per contract sold, I investigated it and signed up and PhoneCompare.co.uk was born, and from then I created more and more sites and moved away from white label to using my own links.

What was your first ever revenue making idea? How did it work out for you?
Apart from the white label I made a site listing offers which I advertised in my signature on forums, it made a few sales nothing major but it opened my eyes to the possibilities.

How long did it take you to make that first commission?
For me to make my first commission that wasn’t a family member or friend going through me was at the end of 2 weeks if I remember correctly. What a brilliant feeling it as too.

What sectors do you work in?
I work in many sectors such as mobile phones (my first and still large area for me), travel, freebies and general shopping. I will never exclude the possibility of pushing a merchant because of the sector it’s in.

Want to share one / some of your sites with us?
A few of my smaller sites are DiscountHotels.org.uk, CompareFreeBets.co.uk, and onlinewineoffers.co.uk. I as many don’t disclose my larger sites. As well as sites I also do quite a lot of Direct PPC to merchant sites.

How do you generate your traffic?
I’d say I currently have a ratio of 65% PPC and 35% SEO, I’m working on increasing the balance.

How much time do you currently devote to affiliate marketing?
Due to University work and the fact that I also love socialising (drinking) I don’t have any where near as much time as I’d like for affiliate marketing. I currently spend around 30mins a day updating sites, checking stats and editing advertising campaigns. However I also spend a part of my evenings when I’m in on the affiliates4u forum.

Will that change in the next year?
I’m not sure what the 2nd year of university will bring me, be it more or less work. However my aim is to spend more time on my sites though, I’m going to make myself have set hours to do work which I believe may make me more productive.

What has the money that affiliate marketing brings done for your lifestyle?
It’s really had a great effect on me, aged 17 it allowed me to buy my own car and pay for the insurance (which isn’t cheap as a 17 year old male) something my parent’s wouldn’t do due to several reasons. It’s also allowed me to go on several holidays over the past two years. Also the smaller things such as being able to buy my family nicer presents for birthdays really makes me happy.
Finally it’s allowed me to indulge in my love for clothes more than ever, I end up going to Selfridges, River Island and other shops in gaps between lectures nearly every week.

What’s your definition of a super affiliate? D’you reckon you are one?
I don’t have a set definition of a super affiliate; I think it really depends on everyone’s own ideas. However I’d say that a large affiliate pushing profits of near £10k onwards would be classed as a super affiliate in my eyes. From my definition I’m not a super affiliate yet.

Lots of people will want to know how well you do in terms of income. You don’t have to mention figures … but do you feel like giving us a clue?
I worked out last November that I would need to work 18 hours a day every day for the whole month including weekends to make what I did that month. Let’s just say University will be costing me £18,000 over my degree (3 years x £3k fees + £3k accommodation) and it will be paid off and my bank won’t be empty  at the end of this business year for me.

How do you motivate yourself and keep your passion for Affiliate Marketing going?
Affiliate Marketing for me is something I really enjoy, I don’t come in and think “argh I can’t be bothered to check emails, update site, check A4U etc” I come in and that’s one of the first things I do. I think the main things that keep my passion alive are the people in the industry, the excitement of it and the rewards you can get out of it.

Tell us one thing that’s REALLY worked out well for you in the last year…
Reading up on PPC and getting my head more around it has vastly improved my campaigns meaning I have a lower CPC and get better positions overall leading to a much better return on investment.

Where will you be as an affiliate in 12 months time?
Hopefully I will be pushing more and more sales and making a higher profit than I’ve ever done before. Another aim for me is to focus on one of my sites and get it to be in the top 3 affiliate sites in that area.

What achievement in your life as an affiliate are you most proud of?
I think my personal achievement that I’m most proud of was passing the £50k turnover mark while passing my A levels and successfully getting into and starting University.

What’s the best bit of advice you can give to an aspiring affiliate?
Keep at it!

Very simply don’t give up, keep going and you will find out how rewarding affiliate marketing can be and at the same time what an amazing industry it is. If I’d have given up when I first started and sales were slow then I wouldn’t be in the position I am today. It’s well worth the hard work 

I’ve been wanting to do some interviews with other affiliates for some time now. Many people publish interviews with massive super affiliates who are very inspiring and whom we all look up to. But I wanted to do something a little different. We all know I think it’s more than OK to be a Pretty Good Affiliate or even Just Good Enough… so I wanted to give a bit more insight into the life of a more “typical” affiliate. Now don’t get me wrong… a “typical” affiliate can still be pretty bloody extraordinary and have an enviable lifestyle.

With that in mind… I’d like to introduce Y’all to Ray Theakston, the first in my series of 3 “Pretty Good” affiliates who I think are just as inspiring as those multi-millionaire affiliate megastars.

As you can see, Ray loves his affiliate cash so much he’s more than happy to pose with every individual note!

Here’s Ray’s responses to those burning questions every affiliate gets asked! Ray’s Affiliate Blog is Here if you’d like to subscribe.

How did you first hear about affiliate marketing? When did you decide
to try it out?
I used to work with DoubleClick DART in my day job, updating the
website so knew of web advertising. I always wondered how small sites
could display advertising and in 2000 I found and signed up to TradeDoubler.

I added DatingDirect and Figleaves to my Befuddle site in 2002 and made
£314 commission that year.

What was your first ever revenue making idea? How did it work out for you?
My first site Befuddle had pages of hundreds of celebrities drunk and I
didn’t launch it or operate it to make money. But in Autumn 2003 that
changed quickly when a certain Paris Hilton had a video published on
the Internet.

I was the number one result in Google for the search term “Paris
Hilton” and from day one I had emails from advertisers how they could
get promoted from my site.

I cheekily said they could have a single text link on the main Paris
Hilton page for $500 a day. Surprisingly they were happy to pay that.
Within a few days I had several advertisers competing for top positions.

At the time I was attracting 125,000 visitors daily and being on free
hosting I had to serve my images on a different domain. I had to pay
£100 a day just to keep my site up and running.

I learned two very important lessons during this period …

i) Don’t trust anybody in business. I agreed to do a revenue share with
one man and he didn’t pay out, so I lost $2000.
ii) Don’t base a business model on the assumption you’ll remain Number
One on Google. I didn’t stay there long and as soon as the traffic
disappeared, the advertisers pulled out.

How long did it take you to make that first commission?
My first recorded commission was 25th October 2000 in TradeDoubler for
PriceRunner. They paid per click and it was likely my click!

In 2003 my TradeDoubler commission was a healthy £12,000 and this is
the year that I took ‘making money’ seriously.

What sectors do you work in?
The site that I maintain day-to-day is ShopCodes and this includes any
shops or services that offer promotional codes.

I’ve made a lot of money in the past from Pay-Per-Click advertising. I
used to promote Domino’s Pizza heavily at the weekends and brand bid
for other merchants well before it was restricted.

Want to share one / some of your sites with us?
ShopCodes.co.uk is now two years old. I’ve acquired the ShopCodes.com
and ShopCodes.mobi domains and I am looking to build on its current
success this year.

How do you generate your traffic?
All my traffic is from SEO. No matter how much I spend on Pay-Per-Click
I don’t receive a reasonable return of investment. All my traffic
arrives free and it converts well, so I don’t need to buy and traffic.
I also have 500 subscribers to my RSS and newsletter which is good
armoury to have if the traffic drops.

How much time do you currently devote to affiliate marketing?
All of my time. Even if it’s just reading my emails or monitoring my statistics.

Will that change in the next year?
A lot is changing this year but I am not committing myself just yet.
Firstly I’ve invested in the ShopCodes.com domain to really see how far
reach I can attain. If the revenue is right and the workload is too
much to manage then I may have to leave my day job.

Leaving my day job wouldn’t be a small ask. It pays very well. I may
have the option of taking an unpaid sabbattical from 3 to 9 months.

If accepted this would allow me to work at home on my business and see
how far I can push it. If say the revenue didn’t increase exponentially
or if I couldn’t handle working at home and not having interaction then
I could return to my day job.

This seems a likely option for me.

What has the money that affiliate marketing brings done for your lifestyle?
For the past few years I’ve been abroad 3 or 4 times a year on holiday.
That spending money is from affiliate marketing.

This year I met with my accountant and bank to arrange to pay off all
my personal debt.

So this year I should be able to have a comfortable lifestyle with my
day-job salary whilst any money made for my business will just make the
company bank account even larger.

*You can read all about Ray Paying off his Debts in a year on his blog here*

What’s your definition of a super affiliate? D’you reckon you are one?
My definition of a super affiliate is one who has built up their large
business or revenue from a tiny acorn and not started with an
investment, whether it be launching a site on free hosting or
depositing just £100 into an Adwords account.

I’d like to think I tick most of the boxes to be considered a super affiliate.

I use ethical tactics.
I am more than happy to share my experiences.
I am able to turn a ‘hobby’ site into a profitable one.

However, my turnover is not above VAT threshold so there’s probably a
financial benchmark to be considered one.

Last year I generated £1.25 million worth of sales. Other affiliates
can shout higher figures but I can say that it was free traffic served
on a website that offers free hosting too. So I’m on about 90% profit margins.


Lots of people will want to know how well you do in terms of income.
You don’t have to mention figures.. but do you feel like giving us a clue?
I’ve been hovering just below the VAT threshold level for the last two
years. This year I think I may have to be registered. With my day-job
salary combined I’ll be bringing in approximately £100,000.

How do you motivate yourself and keep your passion for Affiliate
Marketing going?
Google keeps me on my toes. There is a direct correlation with the time
spent on my site and the traffic I receive from Google. If I go on
holiday or even date for a week then traffic drops.

I am a believer in myself though. ShopCodes wasn’t born from scratch.
It’s predecessor was also two years old and didn’t make money. It was
the same content and same design - just the domain name was completely
wrong. Acquiring the domain ShopCodes.co.uk was single handedly the
best possible thing I could have done.

Tell us one thing that’s REALLY worked out well for you in the last year…
Since October I just can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. I’ve been
rewarded with free gifts worth over £1,000 from incentive competitions
and a trip to San Francisco. I won’t be expecting those gifts next
Christmas, as that will mean I’ve had a few lean Autumn months.

Where will you be as an affiliate in 12 months time?
Operating ShopCodes for multiple countries on multiple platforms. All
still from my bedroom with my ‘Publisher of the Year’ award sat proudly
on top of the tv

What achievement in your life as an affiliate are you most proud of?
I’m really proud to have acquired ShopCodes.com. It could really set me
up. I already know Google like the domain as they started linking to it
at the expense of my current site.
That domain wasn’t cheap and so to even think about buying it, shows
how far I have come.

If I can get a version of my site on a mobile portal, that will single
handedly be my biggest achievement to date.

Whats the best bit of advice you can give to an aspiring affiliate?
If you don’t have the correct domain name for a site you could end up
flogging a dead horse. I spent a day reading a dictionary to find the
right phrase before I found and fell in love with “Befuddle”. One week
later my “wonderfully titled” drinking site was named as a Yahoo! Pick
of the Week.

Similarly for ShopCodes it does what it says on the tin and Google
loved it from day one.

OK, that’s been a month off… it’s long enough… time to get back to the internet coalface, and resume a little bit of the work that makes sure my Duncan can continue to live in the style to which he has become accustomed (oh, and me as well!). We had an absolutely lovely time in Auckland, and even had our very first wedding present bought for us by Duncan’s family. They suggested an artist, Helena Blair, they thought was pretty damned good and let us commission a painting to remind Duncan of NZ.

Here’s one that his folks actually bought and upon which we partly based our commission (excuse the image, it really doesn’t do justice).

So, anyhoo… I’m having my usual “rusty” start to work. I have totally lost sight of where I am up to with things and there are a lot of campaigns I’ve simply switched off because I couldn’t keep enough of an eye of them. Now THAT is the sign of a truly good holiday.

However, it’s definately time to get back into things. The Lingerie site I’ve been talking about so much recently needs lots of TLC in its formative months. I need to add content like the very blazes in the early stages to keep that lovely free traffic coming in!

I’m feeling really bad about not having had much of a chance to post to this blog… so I will be trying to make up for my slackness during March. There will no doubt be the odd real estate agent related rant slipping into things as we are both about to spend a lot of time dealing with them.

http://www.realestate.com.au - my new bible!

More from me soon

Hello. Remember Me? Kirsty? Yeah, I know there’s been the odd bit of tumbleweed floating around this blog recently but as the title suggests I’ve been taking a wee step back and having a bit of a break.

See, what a lot of people tend to forget once they really get into the cut and thrust of affiliate marketing, is how this really is a wonderfully flexible way to make a living. Remember when you first heard about affiliate marketing? “Oh man… that’d be brilliant. No more working for the man. No more of the 9 to 5 grind, I could do anything…” Scroll on a year or 3 and….

How many full timers d’you reckon actually find that time to have a break, kick back, and let things take care of themselves for 3 or 4 weeks? Not many! There’s too much of an obsession with being a “super” affiliate and not enough on being “just good enough”

Right now, I’m feeling like all the effort I’ve put in during the last 4 months has been just that. “Just good enough”. In the last 6 weeks I’ve earned what used to be 12 months salary, selling just short of £400,000 worth of holidays to Brits desperate to know they have something to look forward to once the winter doom and gloom has receeded. I’d fully intended to keep up the pressure during this bit of my trip… working a few hours a day and keeping things rolling. However, after all the stress of leaving the UK I’ve pretty much flopped out and decided to enjoy a bit of the sun here in Auckland. Right now, we are at Duncan’s home having a jolly nice time meeting all my future in-laws and generally touristing about the joint.

Unfortunately, this has meant I’ve neglected the old blog. For this, I apologise unreservedly. Even now when the guilt has gotten too much I can’t think of much affiliate related stuff to be pontificating about. Except how I feel. Right now my feeling about affiliate marketing is that “it’s time to kick back and enjoy waiting to be paid!”.

Normal service will be resumed shortly. In the meantime, why not take my Affiliate Quiz and see if you need to kick back as well? While you’re doing that, I’ll be spending a lot of time here in New Zealand doing stuff like this….

*That’s the back of my future mummy in law’s head on the right!

It’s a great old feeling when you can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labours.

PS. If anyone has any Ask Kirsty questions now would be a great time to get them answered… I’m not really doing much else! Contact Me via my form if you’ve got a question you just can’t get around!

Well, I’m sitting in my office here at Affiliate Stuff towers gazing out of the window at 12.20pm on an absolutely miserable Scottish day. The heating is up full pelt, and I am sat in my favourite pair of pyjamas (the blue ones with yellow stars on) and my big fluffy red dressing gown (yep, you’ve guessed it… there are stars on it!).

There really is no finer feeling than watching all the normal folks struggle on past the window in the cold on a day like this. People with “real” jobs, not ones living in affiliate fantasyland like I seem to be!

I think the only thing that could make me feel better would be if I were able to buy some nice personalised affiliate jim jams. I’ve been keeping an eye out for personalised adult pyjamas for years. I’d dearly love a set of flannel jim jams for winter and a cotton set for summer emblazoned with this…

In my opinion, there’s no better way to spend a day than in your jim jams. The fact that I also get to make a topping income and travel (alas not in my jim jams), makes my days spent in my favourite mode of attire just perfect!!