SecretSales.com launch discount codes for affiliates
As some of you may know I manage the SecretSales.com affiliate programme on Buy.at. As well as a recent redesign and a 25% conversion rate I’m delighted to announce that for the first time we have some discount codes to offer affiliates:
• Free delivery
• Discount code: D12RxdF
• Valid until midnight October 31st 2008
• 5% total discount on any order
• Discount code: sm4rtBuy
• Valid until midnight December 31st 2008
If you would like to get in touch to discuss how we can help you promote the programme then please email me at secretsales@ukoffermedia.co.
We are offering up to 10% commission on sales as well as 25p for every new free email subscription. Full programme details can be found here.
What I’m listening to right now: Eric Benet:”Love and Life”
Ask the Super Affiliates a question
With the A4U Expo only a few days away now, myself, Doug and Jamie are preparing for our “meet the super affiliates” session. This year though we thought we’d invite questions from the audience in advance, just to kick start proceedings off. You can still ask us questions on the day, we just thought a few questions in advance may be interesting.
So if anybody has anything that you’d like to hear us talk about then please either leave a comment here or get in touch. We’ll then pick a few questions to get the ball rolling before our session next Wednesday afternoon.
What I’m listening to right now: Keri Hilson Ft Lil Wayne – “Turn Me Off”
Grab a bargain - CompareCameras.co.uk
I’ve noticed a few domain names selling for way below their market value lately, well I certainly think they were good purchases. For example:
Competitions.co.uk - £5.5k
Directors.co.uk - £3k
Promotions.co.uk - £2650
Pcs.co.uk - £5k
All of the above were absolute bargains I believe, especially competitions.co.uk which will make a return staright away based purely in type-in traffic.
Anyway I spotted this auction the other day for CompareCameras.co.uk which is only at £300, with the reserve already met. While the name isn’t as generic as my examples above it’s perfect for capturing traffic from users typing “compare cameras” into Google. There are also tons of electronics and specialised digital camera merchants offering decent commissions so no problem monetising it.
What I’m listening to right now: Robin Thicke – “Everybody’s A Star”
Spotify launches today
Spotify - the music streaming service (think a little bit of Pandora mixed with iTunes) officially opens its doors today. Thanks to a very kind friend who knows I have a passion for music, I’ve had a beta invite for a while now and have been testing it out. However, until now they have requested that nobody blog about it.
I have to say my first impressions have been very good. I love the fact that you can state your musical interests (see screengrab above) and Spotify then presents you with a selection of songs from artists in your genre. What’s perhaps more impressive is the quality of the music stream, I only have a 512k connection and the stream is always faultless and quality high.
At the moment you can either buy a day pass for 99p or pay £9.99 a month. Or…I have a couple of free invites, so if you want to experience Spotify for free then simply leave a comment below. I’ll pick a couple of deserving winners over the next day or two.
Interesting point, Spotify was created by the former Tradedoubler team.
What I’m listening to right now: Fantasia - “Baby Makin’ Hips” courtesy of Spotify
How to sell your 2 year old blog for £8.5m
Unbelievable as it may sound but a 2 year old WordPress blog run by just 1 person sold this week for $15m (£8.5m). The blog is Bankaholic.com and the press release about the sale can be found here.
On the surface this looks like a too-good-to-be-true scenario for the owner. After all the blog does reasonably well in terms of traffic and visitors but it’s certainly no Facebook. The site receives about 8500 visitors per month, is ranked 41,904 by Alexa, has a Google PageRank of 5 and has approx. 27,220 inbound links.
So whilst traffic and links etc. are certainly very healthy, is a site with that level of traffic worth £8.5m? I believe that the secret to such a high valuation is down to 2 things: the sector and the keywords that it ranks well for.
The Sector
The purpose of Bankaholic is to provide information on US bank accounts, credit cards, and other consumer finance products. The site is simple, easy to use and most importantly contains useful and well thought out information and product reviews.
As any finance affiliate will tell you however, the finance sector is one of the most competitive but also rewarding sectors to be involved in. Affiliate CPA’s for this sector are pretty much the highest available of all sectors, and therefore competition is steep.
However, do well in this sector and as we have just seen, the rewards can be very high. By focusing on finance, Johns (the blog owner) has made sure that he can command a selling price that is comparable to the high payouts available in this sector. For example this sort of valuation would never happen in retail. If the blog was a blog about clothing, discount codes, gadgets or anything else from the retail sector then I doubt very much it would command such a high asking price - especially with comparable levels of traffic. There just isn’t the margin in retail.
So by picking an ultra-competitive but highly rewarding niche your traffic and users are 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 times more valuable than less competitive sectors. Something to consider if you’re just about to launch your blog but aren’t sure on what sector to pick.
SEO
I’ve always said that WordPress blogs seem to do well in the search engines natural rankings, and this certainly seems to be the case with Bankaholic. Look at this bit from the press release:
“Bankaholic is ranked high in natural search for both deposit and credit card keywords. We believe their organic traffic will increase our deposit and credit card revenue, and with a high composition of free traffic, will help to improve margins”
Those wise words were from Thomas R. Evans, new owner of Bankaholic.
It’s clear that the key to the value of this blog, is it’s ability to rank well in the search engines for finance related keywords and keyphrases. So how do you rank well in the SERPS? Well as I’ve always said the 2 most important off page SEO elements are fresh regular unique content and inbound links.
The site clearly has loads of fresh content that seems to be updated daily, a great starting point. More importantly, the content isn’t just some existing content just rehashed and cobbled together by robots, it’s written by humans and is interesting to read.
For a site that’s only just over 2 years old, having over 27,000 inbound links is also clearly having a positive effect in terms of the SERPS. Again the blog owner has understood the importance of this and clearly worked hard at it.
So to summarise, here’s how to create a blog that will sell for millions of pounds:
Step 1: Use WordPress - WordPress is just a fantastically easy tool to use and is free, another bonus. But most importantly the search engines seem to love it and it’s already configured to create pages for you that are search engine friendly.
Step 2: Pick a profitable niche - If you’re creating a blog with the intention of making money from it, gathering a user base and eventually selling it on. Then pick a sector where there are lots of buyers with lots of cash to throw at you when the time comes.
Step 3: Write original, fresh and interesting content regularly for your users - I can’t over-emphasise the importance of this. A lot of people try to game the search engines by just throwing low grade content at a site/blog and hoping that some will stick with the search engines. It may do, but not for long. A much better option is to sit down every day and write an article that you yourself would like to read if you were reading your blog. This will ensure that not only will the search engines eat it up but your users will keep coming back for more as well as recommending your site to others. A prime example of this, is this very blog. I have never ever seeked out any links to it, yet according to Yahoo! Site Explorer there are over 12,000.
Step 4: Get other sites to link to yours - If you do Step 3 well you will find that other sites will link to you without being asked. You will become an “authority” in your space without ever asking for a link. Then if you actively start a linking campaign on top of all the natural links (by natural I mean the links that you don’t go out and seek yourself) you will see your site slowly start to rise through the SERPS. One thing I would advise against is paying for links. Never ever ever go down this route. Google doesn’t like it and will penalise your site if you get found out. Personally I much prefer a “clean” approach to link building, it may take slightly longer than buying links but you will stay in the SERPS with no danger of being kicked out for any wrongdoing.
That’s all there is to it! If all of the above sounds simple then it’s because it is. However don’t underestimate how much hard work steps 3 and 4 take. Both take up a considerable amount of time and resources and there are no “short cuts”. You need to invest the time to make your blog a success but if you do, the rewards will follow.
I didn’t write this article with the purpose of promoting my content writing and link building business but as I created the business to help me facilitate steps 3 and 4 for my sites, I would be remiss not to mention it here.
Let me start by saying that if you have the time to write your own content and do your own link building then you absolutely should. However if you are short of time and have a budget for marketing/SEO then I don’t see anything wrong in getting some outside help.
At ContentNow both myself and my business partner have and still do run websites and know the difficulties in getting inbound links to your site and writing engaging good quality content. Which is exactly why we set the business up, to meet this need. Like many other webmasters we have both tried to outsource link building and content writing to other companies - mainly with disastrous results. In the past I’ve found myself having to pay for articles clearly written by writers who don’t speak English as their native tongue and whose only talent is being able to cut and paste from Wikipedia. Likewise I’ve paid for linkbuilding services that have resulted in nothing more than links placed on the link building companies “farm” of 1000 sites.
So with our joint past experiences setting up ContentNow was easy, all we had to do was the opposite of what every other company who we have had bad experiences in the past does.
Our content writers, researchers and proof readers are all based in the UK and speak English as their native language. They all understand the culture, as they live here and they are all well educated and can write intelligently and even with humour when required. Likewise our link building managers are all UK based, and absolutely understand the industry and the approaches to take when dealing with potential link partners.
OK, I’ve already gone on far too long about ContentNow - I could go on for pages and pages as I’m passionate about it - but I don’t want to bore you all 
Instead I’ll leave the last word to our clients, here are some quotes from a couple of emails we’ve received this last week:
“The content has been fantastic and very engaging – exactly what we are looking for.”
“I have now received all 20 articles, thank you very much, it is clear that your writers have properly researched the subject and the writing style shows a strong command of the English language.”
What I’m listening to right now: Jazmine Sullivan - “Fearless”
Lamborghini 4 door Estoque…wrong?
I love Lamborghinis, I really do. To me they are the embodiment of what a super car should be, they are sexy, brash, exotic, menacing, Italian, completely over-the-top and not in the least bit practical.
So, when I heard that they were launching a “sensible” 4 door Lamborghini (the Estoque) at the Paris Motor show this week I had mixed emotions. I mean a new Lambo is an awesome event worth celebrating in its own right, but…a 4 door Lambo? What’s worse, a 4-door front engined Lambo?! Has the world gone mad?
And then I saw the pictures…
I really don’t know what to make of it. The front looks classic Lambo, I can see bits of Gallardo and Murcielago there. But what about everything else from the A pillar back? It just seems…dare I say…wrong? Lambo’s are normally these low-flying, growling angular beasts with razor sharp edges that scare babies, the elderly and the infirm. This however has curves and looks almost conservative if you cover up it’s nose.
At the moment this car is touted as a “concept” but with Aston Martin and Porsche bringing out 4 door “sedans” in the next year or two will Lambo actually put it into production? If so will it put you off Lambo’s forever if you see middle-aged corporate types driving these down the M1 on their way to meetings? What has the world come to?
What I’m listening to right now: Trey Songz – “She Bust My Windows” - AWESOME!
Sponsorship opportunity - eToys.co.uk
It’s that special time of the year again and my toy site, eToys.co.uk always does particularly well in the run up to Christmas. During September 2008 the site received approx. 50,000 hits and this will most likely double, triple or even quadruple in October, November and December; if previous years are anything to go by. Actually January is always a really big month too.
The 2008 “Dream Toys” are announced on October 15th this year, in other words the Top 10 Toys list. This always generates massive interest, press and therefore traffic. I am expecting a huge Christmas this year in the online toy sector.
So, with that in mind I am offering 1 x sponsorship slot on the site. The position is the 468 x 60 banner that you see on the top of the site and which sits on EVERY page. The price is £799 a month, fixed fee. If you are interested in getting some exposure for your toy/gift/gadget site in the “Golden Quarter” then please get in touch.
What I’m listening to right now: Jennifer Hudson Feat Ludacris – “Pocket Book” - what a tune!
Cold Is The New Hot
Has anyone seen the TV ads, billboards and press ads stating that “Cold Is The New Hot”? That’s pretty much all the ads say apart from telling us to visit ColdIsTheNewHot.com on October 1st and all will be revealed
At the time of writing, the site is just a landing page with a countdown clock - 1 hour to go! - However I was intrigued enough to do some research to see what it was all about. So, some serious googling later I found that the ads are for Proctor and Gamble’s new Ariel Excel Gel. Which apparently is a new washing gel that enables consumers to wash clothes at 15 degrees. Riveting.
However I must say I was impressed enough with the advertising campaign to go and visit the website, and to write this blog post, so hats off to their advertising agency for a job well done. What’s the betting from tomorrow if you type 15 degrees into Google, you’ll see some sponsored ads?
What I’m listening to right now: Omarion Ft Missy Elliott – “Boogie Police” - what a title for a song
Congratulations to the 2 winners of the A4U Expo tickets!
On Saturday morning I used the Truly Randon Number Generator to pick a winner from the 37 blog comment entries to my competition to win 1 of 2 A4U Expo tickets.
The first winner the generator picked out was comment number 11 from Doug. As Doug is speaking on the same panel as me, he clearly doesn’t need a ticket, so I tried again
The next number was 9 which was Christina Armstrong, a travel affiliate from Tenerife Holidays amongst others. She packed in her full time job as a solicitor last year to do Affiliate Marketing full time and this will be her first time attending the Expo.
Then came number 35 which was Johhny Ratcliffe from Topsearch.co.uk. Johnny currently consults on SEO and eCommerce for SMEs who need to rule niche searches, whilst branching into Affiliate Marketing.
If you haven’t registered for the A4U Expo yet then it’s not too late. You can also use the code SPK10 to get 10% off.
What I’m listening to right now: Keanthony - “A Hustlaz Story”
LG KS360 Mobile Phone review
The LG KS360 is a cool looking slider phone with a full Qwerty keyboard as well as a touch screen. The phone is aimed at the youth market and is priced as such, you can buy it from Orange for only £59.99.
I was pleasantly surprised with the build quality and the feel of this phone. It’s solid but not too weighty and the spring loaded sliding keyboard is robust and smooth. The full Qwerty keyboard takes a little bit of getting used to but once you do its very easy to use and writing texts becomes so much easier. It only weighs 108g too.
The buttons on the keyboard are clearly labelled, spaced just about the right space apart for ease of use and backlit. Clever integration of a lockable FN key means that numbers are easily accessed too and there are 4-way arrow keys which make navigation simple.
One of the best things about this phone is the large screen size (2.4 inch, 240 x 320) which is utilised to good effect by the menu and navigation using large text and a very logical and simple layout. The screen can also be viewed in portrait mode and landscape mode, and rotates when you turn the phone over, very clever. When the keypad is closed the screen can operate in touch-screen mode so there is no need to open the keyboard out to make a call, another neat feature.
The phone comes with MSN Messenger installed as standard as well as an email client so you can access Gmail, Hotmail etc. It’s obvious that the phone is aimed at the younger “Facebook” generation where keeping in touch by all and any means necessary is vital.
Other features include a very good 2MP camera, bluetooth, FM radio, GPRS, music playback and a microSD slot so you can boost the inbuilt 15MB memory.
This is a neat, good looking phone that will appeal to users who want a bit of extra functionality over a standar mobile phone but not necessarily all the features (and expense) of a smart phone. LG have clearly put a lot of thought into it and the result is an excellent low priced mobile that makes keeping in touch with your friends via a variety of methods, very simple.
The LG KS360 is available in either pink or blue.
What I’m listening to right now: Raphael Saadiq ft Stevie Wonder / CJ Hilton - “Never Give You Up”
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.
