The next big thing? Affiliate opportunity - Sony eBook Reader
I remember at last year’s A4U Expo when I was on the “Ask the Super Affiliates” panel, we were all asked what the “NEXT BIG THING” will be. To be honest I don’t think any of us gave the real answer as why would we? We all wanted to keep our thoughts to ourselves so we could make the most of it with little or no competition.
The thing is that the “next big thing” comes along quite often, if you keep your eyes and ears open. Another case in point is the FitFlop. A few weeks ago there was some chat on the A4U forum about this product, so much so that a representative from FitFlop joined in the debate. So…always being on the lookout for opportunities I created my very own fitflop landing page and watched to see what would happen. Sure enough Google liked the post and before long I was appearing on the first page of Google for a load of fitflop terms and I’m making some nice money from it.
So this time I thought rather than cash in on the “next big thing” I thought I would share it with you guys. Not only that but I’m going to give one away too 
The product in question is the Sony eBook Reader. It’s available from Sony Style for £199 and as luck would have it, Sony Style have an affiliate programme on TradeDoubler whereby affiliates can earn 5% commission on this product. So approx. £10 a sale, not bad.
So what makes you think the Sony eBook reader is the next big thing?
A few things actually. When I read this piece in the Independent the following paragraph really stood out to me:
What has been the Reader’s impact in the US?
Last year, online book giant Amazon.com launched its Kindle reader and Sony introduced the Reader, which catapulted e-books into the mainstream consumer environment. Industry experts say that sales growth has been gradual rather than meteoric, but the fact that Amazon now offers more than 140,000 different titles for the Kindle demonstrates the potential.
It was the figure of 140,000 eBooks on Amazon that highlighted the potential for this product. Also, Waterstones will be supporting the Sony eBook Reader in the UK and already have about 25,000 titles to buy.
Want more? A bit of research shows that the product is certainly picking up press:
iGizmo
Trusted Reviews
Telegraph
PC Advisor
T3 online
Even though eBook readers have been around for a while, nobody has really perfected the technology and brought it to market. I think that’s about to change as the Sony model has the capacity to store up to 160 books on the reader (more via SD or memory card) and has decent battery life (7500 page turns on average). There is no backlight, it has clever “eInk” technology and is also very slim and lightweight, unlike previous models.
So, take all of that on board and the fact that we’re coming up to Christmas - I would certainly envisage there being a high demand for the Sony eBook Reader.
So how can affiliates capitalise on this opportunity?
PPC - You can’t bid on the brand term “Sony” but you can bid on “ebook reader” and variations. A quick check on Google shows that there isn’t that much competition on these terms, so I’m sure there is opportunity there. You could also get really creative and use the titles of some popular books that are available as eBooks in your search terms. These key phrases can be bought *really* cheaply and the volumes on some of them are huge.
SEO - As per my example with FitFlops if you have an established site/blog then why not dedicate a page to the Sony eBook reader and see how it fairs in the search engines? I’m thinking that there isn’t much competition about so you should be able to rank quickly and easily. Just in time for Christmas
The Sony Style affiliate programme on TradeDoubler is being managed by i-level and being on the ball, they already have some creative live featuring the Sony eBook reader. The guys at i-level are very keen to work closely with affiliates on this programme too and are available to help with enquiries and tips on how to get the best from the programme.
If you’re already signed up to the campaign please use this deeplink replacing XXXXXX with your TD affiliate ID.
http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p(57701)a(XXXXXX)g(17066594)url(http://www.sonystyle.co.uk/deeplink.do?s=external&ss=promotion_e-reader_en_gb)
If you are not signed up to the campaign currently, please go here.
Win a Sony eBook Reader
If that wasn’t enough then I’m delighted to announce that I’ve teamed up with i-level who are managing the Sony Style affiliate programme - to give a Sony eBook Reader to one lucky affiliate!
To be in with a chance of winning the excellent new Sony eBook Reader, simply put some links up on your site. When your links are live, please send the url along with your Tradedoubler affiliate ID to sonyaffiliates@i-level.com. Entries must be received by 13th September 2008 and one entry will be selected at random on that date to receive the Sony eBook Reader.
How easy is that? Fair too, as any affiliate can be in with a chance of winning. Good luck!!
What I’m listening to right now: Robin Thicke Feat Mary J Blige – “Magic (Remix)”
What i-level are listening to:
Matt – The Reynolds Girls – “I’d Rather Jack”
Aftab – Glenn Medeiros – “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You”
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Networks, Affiliate Programs, Competitions, Making Money. 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 13th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Top tips Mr D and very generous of you too.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Fantastic post. Some ideas brewing from this
August 13th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Definately a good call- I saw a review of the Sony ebook on The Gadget Show and it looked great.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
That looks awesome. Thanks for the tip - though I’ve heard about it in passing before, this is the most in depth coverage I’ve seen about the potential for making money and benefiting from the wave.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I don’t know if this is me being pedantic or not. Like you, I’ve been calling this the Sony eBook Reader. However, the actual name given to this by Sony is - Sony Reader eBook PRS-505. Ignore the model number part, it just doesn’t read well (IMO). Why does this matter? SEO. The way people search for this item will determine how I present the on-page SEO. Any thoughts anyone?
August 14th, 2008 at 11:13 am
What are the rules about using a brand name in the URL? Could someone purchase SonyeBookReader.co.uk and join the program? What about creating a landing page at SonyeBookReader.myhotproductssite.co.uk?
Might give it a go for a laff. Guess a few other people here will too?!!
August 14th, 2008 at 11:35 am
You won’t be able to register sonyebookreader.co.uk without a good chance of trouble, and many ppc campaigns forbid a subdomain like sonyebookreader.myhotproductssite.co.uk appearing in google ads (although I don’t know about this particular one) though most allow a directory like myhotproductssite.co.uk/sony_ebook_reader.html.
ebook-readers.org.uk is available as I type!
August 14th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I was actually looking to promote ebook readers about 6 months ago now as I had a feeling they were going to be big but couldn’t find them for sale in the UK anywhere. Looks like I was right!
August 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Thanks aqls, I would have thought as much. Makes sense!
August 14th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Hi Winston,
AQLS is dead right. Ts and Cs prevent use of the brand term in the domain name, but your subdomain is yours to do as you wish with.
I would rather you didn’t try it ‘just for a laugh’ as the client and my search team will be all over me within about 20 seconds!!
If anyone here would like to speak to us at i-level about how we can help them promote this product and the Sony Style campaign over all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at sonyaffiliates@i-level.com. We’re really keen to get talking to people to help them push this.
Thanks,
Matt
Head of Affiliate
i-level
August 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Just got http://www.EbookReader.org.uk
Will give it ago
August 14th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Just thought I’d highlight the following promotion on the Sony Style website:
“Pre order your copy now and we’ll give you £5 off any of the stylish Reader accessories available by using the following voucher code AMEREADER2008″
It’s worth bearing in mind when promoting the Sony Reader
August 15th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Yes aqls is right. Registering a domain that contains a trademark is not permitted as it both infringes the trademark and also potentially results in a ‘passing off’ claim, ie. you are pretending to be the owner of the trademark.
Note that I said ‘registering’ rather than ‘using’ a domain. Even if you aren’t using the domain, the view is that if you’ve registered it, you intend to use it at some point in the future. It’s simply not worth it.
I put a page up on my Gadget Blog ( http://www.gadget-blog.co.uk/ebook-readers/sony-ebook-reader-prs-505-prs505/ ) yesterday and have just seen that it’s ranking on the first page og Google for UK searches. Whilst that’s ok, it’s on the fifth page for Worldwide searches due to the fact that this product has been out in the US since Oct 2007.
This is going to take quite a bit of effort to rank well but hey, nothing comes easy in life!
August 18th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Quick heads-up for everyone. There are tracking issues with Waterstones.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’m told the tracking issues have been resolved. However, having sent 200 visitors to waterstones I’ve only seen 4 sales.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Call me sceptical but I’m not convinced with this whole eBook device malarky. It was a bit of a gimmick a few years ago when HP or IBM or someone called them the next big thing (which it wasn’t), but now we’ve got better mobile devices like the iPhone, N95/96, Blackberry’s, etc all which can display documents (at least my N95 does with PDFs), why would you want to have yet another thing to lug around with you on your travels?
September 1st, 2008 at 1:47 am
even though the ebook reader is one of the big things of today, i cant see the device in vogue for so long.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 am
One of the problems I’m having at the moment is getting my two related sites to rank in the UK searches. I can get on the first page with quite a number of terms worldwide, hitting the 1 or 2 spot on a good few of these, but am finding it much harder for UK only
@Tijan I guess it depends on how you define an eBook reader. The iPhone after all can read eBooks and I do consider this an eBook reader. There is also a new device on the way with a rollable screen - think mobile phone - could these enter the mainstream?
Whatever the ‘device’ is, electronic books/reading will not be going away.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:52 am
After taking inspiration from this post, I added a review to my http://www.gadget-blog.co.uk on the new Sony Reader. All unique content so all was good. One month later and I’ve sent 350 unique visitors to Sony Style & Waterstones, of which I’ve had zero commission!
September 7th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Gadget - the thing to remember is that this product only launched a couple of days ago. As stock levels and availability grow so will the Sony PR machine and we’ll start to see loads more of the Sony Reader in magazines etc. This will have a huge effect with online search and I’m sure you will start to see the sales coming through. Especially in the run-up to Christmas.
September 7th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I feel your pain gadget! I’m making sales on other reader brands (although mainly in the US) with only a fraction of the clicks.
We are however at a disadvantage. Waterstones are stocking the Reader in store and all the media hype has been around the Sony/Watersones Reader. I find visitors are searching out information regarding Waterstones not Sony.
Unlike the U.S. where eBook readers have been around for some time, and there are plenty of brands to choose from, this is not the case in the UK. This means punters want to see the thing in person before buying - My guess is that they are buying in store at Waterstones.
As the months role by I expect the orders to start coming in (like I get for Sony US). Perhaps if SonyStyle could give a few pounds discount for buying online with them, we might have an advantage over Waterstones.
Best of luck
September 28th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Congratulations to our winner, Richard. He promoted the Sony reader here: http://brands-uncovered.co.uk/sony/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-134 and http://e-bookreaders.co.uk/.