Reply to comment from previous post
“Anonymous” just posted the following comment on my last post about Web User magazine. I’ve decided to reply to it here as I think the topic is worthy of a new post. Here’s the comment first, followed by my reply.
“Out of curiosity, do you or have you paid for advertising in web user?
Nothing against you, I have the utmost respect for you, but there are hundreds of mobile comparison sites out there that do the job far better than yours. Either they want to keep you happy, or they are plain lazy.”
Yes I have paid for advertising in Web User 2 year ago. The results were dreadful, no additional traffic was driven to my site whatsoever.
However I did not pay for my sites to be reviewed, if that is what you mean. You can’t do that.
Yes, I agree there are hundreds of fantastic mobile phone comparison sites out there. A lot of them are very slick, have amazingly clever comparison tools and are huge sites with tons and tons of content.
But my site was designed to be the opposite of those sites. It’s aim is to give visitors a good selection of the latest deals on a plate. No searching, no trawling through lots of offers/combination of tariffs. Just the latest mobile phone offers handed to you on a plate - plain and simple, a bit like me 
I think its a bit of a myth that webistes need to be all singing and all dancing, utilising datafeeds and having huge databases full of information. I honestly believe that simpler is better. I really don’t believe that your average Joe Public web surfer is all that sophisticated and for that reason I always try to cater to the lowest common demoninator. That isn’t a slur on Joe Public by the way, it’s pretty much the KISS Principle that has been around and used effectively for years. KISS stands for Keep it Simple, Stupid and if you follow it your won’t go wrong.
Take Amazon for example, their basic site layout hasn’t changed that much in the last 10 years. It is still basically a 3 column design with navigation on the left and some shop tabs on the top of the page. Why do you think it hasn’t changed in so long? Because it works!
Trust me, you do not have to have a vast amount of technical knowledge to be an Affiliate Marketeer. You may be shocked to learn this but you don’t even have to know what a datafeed is! All of my sites are hard coded and there isn’t a datafeed in sight, yet they still work and still convert well. So please don’t think that just because your aren’t “technical” that you won’t succeed in Affiliate Marketing - it’s an urban myth!
What I’m listening to right now: Janet Jackson ft. Nelly - “Call On Me”
Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 1:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
Occasionally read your blog - well worth reading. keep it up! I have to agree with this posting 100%
August 10th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
I agree with your comments, good call.
I also think affiliate marketers should see them selves and marketing experts. Marketing managers don’t spend their days designing artistic adverts, taking photos for magazines or hard coding web pages; they get the experts to do it.
Affiliate marketing is just a name for a channel of marketing.
My only interest is how you got the reviews in Web User magazine or did they just “discover” you on the net?
August 10th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Kieron, do you use your hotmail account as your active email? Just I have sent you several emails without reply.
Best wishes,
George
August 11th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
anonymous - All I did was email Web User a press release, that did the job.
George, no that isn’t my main account. You can email me via the contact us page at UKOffer.com. However I did reply to your email but it bounced back.
August 11th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Did having your site featured make any difference to traffic? You say that paid advertising in the magazine wasn’t so hot… is being featured better?
Personally I don’t rate Web User as a publication - mainly because they’ve snubbed Loquax once or twice in features about competitions. The Swines!
Sadly that’s all that is really left of internet magazines in the UK after the demise of internet magazine. I guess .Net is still running, but that doesn’t really focus on websites in the same way as Webuser.
August 11th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
“Trust me, you do not have to have a vast amount of technical knowledge to be an Affiliate Marketeer.”
Completely agree with you Kieron! Good luck to ya!
August 11th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Hi Jason, I have seen a small increase in traffic, but nothing to write home about to be honest.