I’ve had quite an interesting from Rich. It is yet another question regarding the selection of niches, but with a twist… is it really OK to try to compete where there is already one or more established sites within the same niche.

Here’s his question: -

Kirsty, first of all, some brownnosing – I love your blog and the help that it gives people like me who are newish to affiliate marketing. Instead of “chest beating” you give some really helpful advice and I remember voting for your blog in the A4U awards last year, you should have won!

Rich

Well Rich,

Wonderful compliments, thanks… I must get you to drop me a line the next time I’m feeling sorry for myself!

Of course, I don’t know which particular niche you are talking about. Lets face it, you don’t want me publishing that info or you’ll have 100 shiny new competitors by this time next week! Therefore I’m going to have to generalise and cover a few bases with this.

So long as what you have identified really is a niche I don’t really see any issue with you going up against an already established site. However, if you have chosen a “genre” instead of a niche then think twice about setting yourself up for a huuuuugggeeee task. To clarify for anyone who thinks I’ve gone barking mad, a “genre” would be something like shopping, whereas a site such as my Lingerie Brands site is a niche within that area. Geddit?

As you rightly point out with your voucher code sites example, Affiliate Marketing is an industry defined by its competitiveness. So long as nobody is ripping off anyone else’s site or content, it is all fair game. Any affiliate with a shred of common sense has no problem with this. It is the competition in this game that makes us all push on to achieve greater and bigger things every year.

You are an individual. As such you will probably find you deal with your subject matter differently to the owner of this other site, and create something with your own distinct touch to it.

If I were you, I’d sit down and try to actively think of ways to differentiate your site. Get a notepad out and have a real old brainstorm. First off, sit down and write out all the features you can see on the existing site that you think are really working. Once you’re really familiar with it, you will find all sorts of ideas to improve on their offering popping into your head. If, as you say, it is an area you are interested in you should find this happens really naturally (which is why I’m always harping on to people about following their interests in this game).

You might think you can’t do this right now… but seriously… you will surprise yourself. This will have the added bonus of giving you different avenues from which to extract search engine traffic

To close, the best thing for you to do next is a bit of advice I’ve heard loads of bloggers give to new affiliates: – You KNOW what you want to do. Stop thinking!!

Do it Now!

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 )

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.

Hey hey everyone, and greetings from beautiful Coffs Harbour, NSW. I am currently answering Ask Kirstys from the back of my smashing wee camper van over a nice beer at the end of a days driving.

Now, the above title isn’t the only question I was asked for this particular ask Kirsty, but I’ve decided to feature them together as they are all related to that time when you are choosing your very first niche and working out what offers you should feature, and how you should present them.

Now, I must apologise to Nick H who asked these questions. It’s taken me over two weeks to get around to answering. Sorry Nick, but I got there in the end

Hi Kirsty,

Nick H

OK, I will answer these in turn!

When do you decide to call it quits on an offer or niche?
Generally speaking, I tend to give a niche 500 clicks to cut the mustard. However, that depends on how much I am paying per click and whether or not any sales are being generated at all. If there’s been absolutely nothing after a couple of hundred clicks (and where I’m convinced I’m covering all bases) I tend to call it quits. I do imagine this is much more cautious than a lot of affiliates… but its never done me any harm.

If some sales are happening, but you aren’t making a profit, it’s important to analyse what has been selling.

One thing I do always say to would be affiliates is that it is VERY important to track which keywords are converting when trialling a new niche. I don’t think I have ever found more than 4 or 5 niche areas where SOMETHING didn’t make me a profit. Sometimes a single search term can convert and provide a good EPC whilst the rest of the campaign, possibly hundreds of key terms, is a dodgy load of old poop.

It seems like you promote most of your offers through bigger sites with plenty
of content and several pages, is that right?

Hmmm…. yes you do need a reasonable amount of content to create a site that Adwords will like. However, that does not necessarily mean you need to spend huge amounts of time creating a site that really works. I’ve created sites in a single day around a small range of products (or even a single product) which are perfectly acceptable for Adwords and bring in a decent EPC.

I would recommend that a newbie try to identify a single product that they feel would convert well and creates a mini site around it. An old site of mine http://www.vaginaldilator.co.uk converts really well, has a decent amount of info and works fine for adwords. It was quick to make, ranks well in search engines giving me free traffic, and didn’t take much longer to create than a single page Yahoo effort.

Admittedly Yahoo can be a reasonable way to test things. However, I rarely do this and I think you’d end up spending a lot of time working for very little traffic. I’d recommend spending a wee while extra on your content to get a few hundred percent more visitors from Adwords. I’ve also found that not all niches convert well on Yahoo, probably due to their slightly different keyword matching techniques.

Do you find that the EPC that the Networks report is accurate enough to base
your max bids on?

Gah… no, not really. EPC is an average, and like all averages can be skewed by many factors. EPC can be artificially inflated by heavy presence of discount code and cashback sites. Also, if the merchant is allowing brand name bidding that can also make things look healthier than they will be when you give their products a whirl.

Similarly, the EPC can be lowered by the presence of one or two low quality affiliates who are sending less relevant traffic in high volumes to your target merchant.

As you are likely to be looking at promoting a small group of merchant products the EPC data won’t be terribly accurate. The best thing to do is follow these steps: -

- Work out what you think the average basket size for your product grouping would be.
- Ask the affiliate manager for a rough idea of the conversion rate. If this isn’t forthcoming… sit down and ask yourself if you think the EPC data you are seeing really is accurate. If it seems to good to be true – it might be.

What I think I’m getting around to here is…. yes, there is an element of “finger in the air” with this one. Unfortunately the only thing that will help you with this is trial and error and the application of some common sense. Eventually, you will get a “feel” for what is going to work and which sites will convert.

The most important question to ask yourself is “Would I Buy From Here?” If it’s a no – stay away!

I hope this helps…. good luck!!

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

I’ve had a bit of an e-mail from a nice chap called Eamon this week. It was a bit of an impassioned plea.

“Oh ho.” I thought. “Here’s a would-be affiliate at the end of his tether and no mistake about it!”

Basically, he’s been asking people for opinions on his carefully crafted affiliate site, and gotten a LOT of negative feedback and absolutely no suggestions about what to bloody well do about it!

Here’s his e-mail: -

Hi Kirsty,

Any kind words of encouragement?

The Site: http://www.dogfightuk.com

Hi Eamon,

Glad you found the blog useful!

The site is at least quite clean looking in terms of design and you clearly know how to manipulate datafeeds. With that as a start, you’ve really done a lot… the rest is just due dilligence and can really be done quite easily…honest!

OK, I will start with a bit of harsh criticism (sorry!). I really hate that domain name. As a web user it makes me wonder exactly what I’ll see when I click that link! OK, from a posh branding point of view it might make a degree of sense, but I think you need to find a brandable name that’s more obviously connected to men’s grooming. Without a multi-million quid advertising campaign I think the trendy-sounding domain you have will put new users off before they even click through from a search engine.

But Criticism aside….

Here’s a bit of a checklist for you to work through. I’m sure you’ve heard all the other criticisms before so instead of demotivating you I’m going to tell you what else you need to be doing to make this site work.

1. Content, Content, Content – Much like the mantra of those irritating TV real estate agents the old adage about content being kind is just sooooo true. You need to put in a whole load of work to create some truly unique content about your products. If you want an ice cube’s chance in hell of ranking for some of those brand terms you will need to write some unique copy about each of the brands you are going to be featuring. I’ve been doing this for a new lingerie site of mine -
http://www.lingeriebrands.co.uk

It is absolutely what you need to do to make the site work. No ifs, buts or maybes. Follow this up with product reviews, how to articles, skincare advice and as much male grooming type things as you can cram in and you will be on a winner. It’s a huge job and no question about it, but if you want to make a go of affiliate marketing you need to be able to provide
good content.

You might consider adding some of this content in a blog format as Google really yums this kind of stuff up and indexes it real quick.

2. Get Some Link Lurrrve!
You need to spend a bit of time getting some nice, relevant incoming links. Again, a blog section can help you to do this as you will be able to submit yourself to blog directories and target other bloggers for exchanges.

I did an “Ask Kirsty” about building links a while ago, perhaps you might find it useful if you’re not familiar with basic techniques.

affiliatestuff.co.uk/getting-started-as-an-affiliate/ask-kirsty-how-to-quickly-build-effective-links/

A few links in combination with some compelling content, and you’ll be up to 150 SEO visitors a day real quick!

3. A Bit Of SEO Jiggery Pokery Goes A Long Way…

Your pages are clean cut and look quite nice, but a few simple SEO Tweaks will make them just as attractive to the search engines as to your Metrosexual site visitors.

- Get some nice relevant text high up on your home page. Part of the box currently containing the picture of that smashing young fella in his jimmy jammies would be favourite. I think the current design looks nice, but could be put to better use. Perhaps leave the chap sitting there and add some nice text and links about your key content.

The reason this is a good idea is that search engines see the home page of a site as the most relevant to your content (hence it’s called the index page). It’s therefore given additional weighting in the search engines, and optimising it gives you the best chance of ranking for really generic search terms.

- Fiddle about with your navigation and move the breadcrumb menus I noticed you were using on some pages. I thought it should be at the top of the page rather than below product descriptions. Very minor I know… but that’s where users will look for it!

I also thought you should extend usage of your breadcrumb menus throughout the site. You seem to have them at individual product level, but not on the actual brand feature pages.

- Your use of the brand logo on each page is good. However, I reckon you need to get that pushed down the page a bit and pop in a nice looking bit of header text saying the same thing. The content towards the top of any web page and the contents of fields such as headers are used by search engines to work out what the page is about. The more text of relevance to your brand names you can get in, the better from an SEO standpoint.

- Improve Your Cross Linkage
Again, the more pages in a site which link to your main areas of content the better. Once more this is because of how search engines will analyse the structure of a site to determine which are more relevant. The more incoming external links to your page, the better they will rank.

Phew! Well, I could say more but I reckon I’ll have given you about 3 months hard yakka with that one.

I did get a follow up mail about this from Eamon as I double checked to make sure he’d realise I might post his query! He says he’s off to have a re-think. I thought the site was pretty savable, but I’m thinking that Eamon has maybe decided to try something a bit smaller for his first attempt. Getting a site with that breadth of content right is a lot of hard work when you’re not sure if what you are doing works.

Good luck Eamon, do let us know how you get on!

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 guys, here I am back in Melbourne again suffering from a healthy dose of jetlag and a nice cold which Duncan kindly passed along to me so I could enjoy it on the plane!

Dubai was a pretty interesting place, well worth a visit. Unfortunately we didn’t do much when we were there as we were so knackered we spent a LOT of time sleeping. When we arrived I wasn’t at all sure I was going to be able to stay. The night before our flight out, my dear old Grandmother had a heart attack. I ended up flying not knowing how serious it was or if she might have passed away by the time we got there.

Fortunately it transpired that she is OK (as ok as an 83 year old having her second heart attack can be!). However after all the worry and various teary outbursts from good old Kirsty on the journey we were both bloody knackered. We did manage to go and have a bit of a look round on the Dubai Big Bus Tour, so we got to see all the sights. Here’s a picture of windswept little me in front of the Burj Al Arab, the famous 7 star hotel (I don’t earn enough to stay there just yet!!)

We’ve no pictures of Melbourne as the sum total of our activities have been sleeping (for 17 hours last night) and putting our van into an aircon repair place ($700 for a new compressor before we’ve even got into the bloody thing!).

Hopefully things will be a bit less exhausting from this point on, and I’ll be able to get a few affiliate related posts up and running. Speak to y’all soon!