Unique News content to your site from just £104 per month
Back in September we launched the ContentNow.co.uk News Service, this is where we deliver fresh, unique news content to your site anything from 10 times a day to twice a week. Since launching we’ve had lots of clients take up this service and I’m delighted to say that it’s been really well received. I’ve been saying for that years that fresh content added to your site as often as possible is one of the best ways to rank well in the search engines, hence creating this service.
The reason for this blog post is that I wanted to make sure that some of the smaller sites could make the most of this service. Our competitors in this sector usually won’t entertain clients who spend less that £1000 a month. Not us however, we realise that some of the best sites out there started from small acorns with modest budgets. Which is why we’ve introduced our “starter pack” which consists of just 2 news items per week. You can choose from the following news article lengths, all prices are based on a 4 week month.
200 word articles twice a week = £104 per month
250 word articles twice a week = £128 per month
300 word articles twice a week = £152 per month
350 word articles twice a week = £176 per month
400 word articles twice a week = £200 per month
450 word articles twice a week = £224 per month
500 word articles twice a week = £248 per month
Our hope is that the introductory packages above will serve the sites with more modest budgets. We are always willing to be flexible too and if we don’t have a package to suit your needs then we’ll create one for you. We don’t tie you into long term contracts either, we operate a rolling 30 days notice agreement.
More details of the ContentNow.co.uk News Service, and what separates us from our competitors:
Unique - researched and written specifically for you and no-one else.
UK Sourced - all of our content is written here in the UK from staff who speak English as their first language.
Specific focus for the pieces rather than a generic sector focus.
Grammatically and syntactically correct.
Keyword balanced and detailed keyword balance control (contains an appropriate keyword density / number of occurrences of your target search terms without being over-optimised which could risk a search engine penalty or render the content unreadable).
Formatted according to your requirements (we can deliver the content to you with some basic HTML formatting based upon your specific requirements or simply as plain text if you prefer).
Cost effectively produced (because we do this day in day out, there are significant economies of scale in terms of training, management and in-depth understanding of search engine optimisation and content optimisation).
Permanently yours (some other news providers will retain the copyright to the content they produce and will require its removal if you cease to be a client).
Delivery mechanisms (XML / RSS / email / CMS).
If anybody would like more information or samples of our work then please email kieron.donoghue@contentnow.co.uk
What I’m listening to right now: Trey Songz - “I need a girl“
Sold!
Well, 2 days ago I put UKOffer.com up for sale and I’m pleased to say it’s now been sold. I thought I would write a blog post about it to share some of my experiences and lessons learned. However I won’t divulge who bought it as they wish to remain anonymous. What I will say however is that the buyer is an experienced and successful affiliate who will be adding UKOffer.com to his portfolio and I wish him the best of luck. I’ve known him for a few year now and he’s a very talented guy who I have the utmost respect for and I just know he will hit £100k profit for the site in 2010. At least.
Before I talk about what I’ve learned I just want to point out that this wasn’t a really well thought out and planned “exit” from the business in the traditional sense. When I was writing my goals for 2010 post a few days ago I came to the decision that I should really sell UKOffer so I could focus on my other core businesses. Even as I was writing that blog post I didn’t have a strategy or really plan it other than having the thought in my mind that I should sell it. Even then, it was only two days ago when I wrote my “for sale” blog post that the idea crystalised in my head. It was actually when I was writing the blog that I thought I really should do some digging and find out what the site earned in 2009. But that’s just the way I work, I’m not a details kind of person and can be very “of the moment”. I decided that the only way I would market the sale of the site was through this blog, the Affiliates 4U Forum and the Acorn Domains forum. That was it, I wouldn’t even use my contacts, instead I would just wait to see what the response was from people reading my blog etc.
So what did I learn?
Setting the right asking price - It’s fair to say that the majority of the people who have commented and who I’ve chatted to about the sale have said that my asking price of just 2 x years annual profits was too low and I should have asked for 3 or 4 years. Maybe, maybe not. If I’m totally honest I think that I could have possibly set the sale at £80k to £90k (i.e. under that £100k mental barrier that makes things looks expensive) and possibly negotiated down a few thousand pounds if need be. I was very conscious though of getting people’s attention and I thought that setting the asking price just that little bit lower would get people interested. From that point of view it worked, as I’m writing this I’ve just had 2 more emails come in expressing interest, bringing the total number of enquiries up to 28, 29.
Bidding wars - one thing that I didn’t feel comfortable doing, but could have easily done is set the sale as an auction. I was truly taken aback at the level of interest that I received for the site and it became clear early on that there were a few serious players who had the cash to spend. However, I didn’t want to get into “x has made an offer of £y, can you beat it?” As, in my mind at least that can leave a bitter aftertaste in people’s mouths. Instead I agreed to just stick with a fixed price and not mess people around. Could I have gotten more for the site if I gave more people the opportunity to place a bid? Possibly but it didn’t feel right.
Wiggle room - the only problem with setting the asking price at basically the lowest amount I would accept was that it left me no “wiggle room”. Everybody likes to negotiate and get a “deal” but by setting the price at my absolute lowest I would accept then I wasn’t giving people the perception that they could get a discount. It may have been a better idea to set the price at £70k even and allow myself to be talked down to my real asking price of £62k. Live and learn. What this did mean was that I got a couple of offers straight off the bat for £50k. Now generous as that seemed I had to politely decline and state my case that £62k was my lowest price and I’m really sorry but I can’t budge on it. Which led to other complications…because everything was done so quick and the buyer wanted to conclude the deal today it meant that I hadn’t even received offers from some people (after all it’s not many people who will buy a site for £62k in 48 hours while only seeing the most basic of stats) or I had received low offers of £50k or so. This meant that in some cases the next correspondence they got from me was “thanks for your kind offer/interest but I have to politely decline as the site is now sold”. Most people were gracious and thanked me for letting them know, sure they wish they could have had a shot at it but hey life would go on 
However one or two seemed very aggrieved that they had offered me £50k and not had the chance to negotiate higher. I would point out that I honestly didn’t think it realistic that they would increase their offer from £50k to £62k in the space of an hour or two. They would then reply that yes of course they would. Well if that was the case then maybe that’s the offer they should have come in with in the first place and they could have had the site. Which leads me neatly on to…
Jumping through hoops - Some potential buyers would ask for the stats spreadsheet that I had prepared for 2009 and that was it, that was all they needed. They would maybe ask a couple of top level questions about traffic, rankings etc etc but overall they were easy to please. However some potential buyers would want War and Peace. They sent me mega long emails filled with question after question, after question, after question. And then some more questions just to keep it interesting. Now again I don’t have a problem with this either. I know some people like the details and want to know every last bit of information possible before making a decision. Fair enough, as £62k is a fair chunk of change and I must stress I didn’t have a problem with this. However, the buyers who asked the “easy” questions were the emails that I responded to first. I wasn’t being mean I was just being lazy, I always try to clear the easy tasks before tackling the harder ones. So I guess what I’m saying here is that there is maybe a balance to be made when purchasing a website. Ask yourself, do you really need to know the answer to the questions your asking to help you make a decision? Maybe I’m being unfair as the guys who asked the most pertinent and relevant questions were the guys who had been around the block a bit and knew the affiliate sector very well and what makes a site work and what doesn’t. These guys asked stuff about stats, traffic and rankings and that was pretty much it. To the point, quick and easy. It’s possibly unfair that the guys with a bit less experience in the sector didn’t get a crack of the whip but unfortunately that’s just the way it goes sometimes.
Payment terms - despite me stating in my original post that I wasn’t interested in developing the site as a going concern with somebody I still got asked a few times. Seriously guys, read the blog post. Then there were people who wanted to pay me in installments or if the site achieved certain targets and so on. Now again, all valid propositions but the guy who offers me the whole cash upfront is the one who will get my attention.
Transparency - one of my really big bug bears is people who advertise sites for sale like this “site for sale, in highly lucrative gaming sector, email me for details”. Seriously, this is how they conduct business. They are so bloody paranoid that others will come along and “steal” their great business idea that they don’t even give out the URL of their site, never mind offer any stats or revenue figures. Madness. I mean, if you saw an ad in say Auto Trader that said “blue car for sale, ring for details” would you? Of course not. But yet, day in and day out on certain websites and forums you get numptees trying to sell their site in this way. What they don’t seem to grasp is that any potential buyer is going to ask for all this information anyway so why not just get it out there? Paranoid androids, the lot of them.
It’s 2010 baby - I find it kinda cool that the whole deal took place via MSN Messenger. I didn’t speak to the buyer once or indeed meet in person. Yes I’ve known him for years and there was mutual trust between us. But still, it was cool to thrash out the negotiations via MSN then finally agree on terms. Sweet.
End of an era - I was actually quite touched as a few people have said that they’ve followed me and UKOffer.com over the years and that the site has been used to train affiliate network staff and just generally been featured a lot in the industry over the years. I never really thought about this until I started reading these comments but I guess it’s true. Which leads me to another problem, I have loads of email addresses but my main one is info at ukoffer.com. I’m going to have to use another one now, it’ll seem, well, just odd.
So there you go, my experiences summed up. What I would like to say is thankyou to each and everyone of you who either enquired about the site or passed on my details to somebody they know who may have been interested. You guys are awesome. It’s also reminded me of how many people with class there are in the affiliate sector. There are some real gentlemen out there (and ladies) with whom I’m proud to be associated with. Well done Team Affiliate!
What I’m listening to right now: Lamont Dozier - “Breaking Out All Over“. Tune.
For Sale - UKOffer.com
As I mentioned in my 2010 Goals blog post the other day I have decided to sell my longest standing affiliate site, UKOffer.com. The reason I’m selling is that I really need to cut down on the amount of sites that I run as I can’t devote enough time to them. For example, UKOffer.com was last updated over 6 months ago in June 2009. Despite that though, it still earned 31k in profit during 2009, more of that below.
Launched in 2002, UKOffer.com was my first attempt at an affiliate site. It originally started as an online shopping directory, I then used it to create landing pages and price comparison for PPC campaigns. Then a couple of years ago I switched off all PPC and converted it into a voucher code/offers site. Google seems to like “aged” domains and over the years this has fared me well in terms of search engine rankings and traffic.
Some stats
2009 total unique visitors: 293,033
2009 total page views: 509,062
2009 total commission from affiliate programmes: £31,006
3075 inbound links according to Yahoo! Site Explorer
Selling price
In terms of a selling price/valuation, well that’s a tough one. How to value a website? Depending on who you ask the typical answer will be anything between a 1 year and 5 year multiple of annual profits. So in my case that means somewhere between £31,006 and £155,030. I’ve decided to go somewhere just below the middle and 2 years profits. So £62k is the selling price.
Potential
I genuinely think that the site can easily, yes easily earn £100k a year and more. If it made £31k with only 6 months worth of (infrequent) updating then just think what the site can do if somebody puts some effort into it and posts say 5 or more good offers/discounts a day - easily achievable btw. The other thing to mention is that the £31k it generated was from affiliate commission only. There is also a huge opportunity to sell banner spots and paid placements (such as the Top 5 “Hot Offers”). I would say anything between £3k to £10k can be made from these. Years ago, when I was sending PPC traffic to the old UKOffer.com I could make £30k a month on tenancy/ad sales deals so I know what’s achievable.
Will I do a revenue share deal?
I’ve already been emailed by a few people to see if I would be interested in a partnership where they take over the day-to-day running of the site and we split the profit. While I don’t mind these kind of deals I’m afraid that in this instance it’s just not for me. So a full sale only please.
Finally, here’s a look back at some earlier blog posts that show just what’s achievable with the site.
Alexandra Burke crashed my server. How to capitalise on topical and one-off events - This is a post I wrote in December 2008 and shows how well UKOffer.com ranks in the search engine results and the effects that can have on traffic.
Click here to reveal discount codes - why I will probably adopt this practice on my discount code site - I’ve never adopted the “click and reveal” approach on the site but if I did I think I could increase revenues dramatically.
Kieron, how do you find special offers to feature on your site? - One of my most asked questions. This post shows how easy it is.
Kieron, why don’t your remove your old discount codes? - Because they make good money, is the short answer.
If anybody is interested then please drop me an email to info @ ukoffer.com. I have a spreadsheet of revenue and traffic split by month for 2009 that I would be happy to send you. Likewise if you have any questions then please drop me a line or leave a comment below.
What I’m listening to right now: J Holiday - “Round Two“
My Goals for 2010
This year I’ve decided not to do a look back at 2009, instead I’m going to write about some of my goals and ambitions for 2010.
Business Goals for 2010
One thing that I’ve learned in 2009 is that I need to cut back on the number of projects that I’m undertaking at any one time. I often find myself spread too thin and doing lots of small projects and ignoring what should be my main focus. So with that in mind I’m going to sell off some of my affiliate sites starting with my first site UKOffer.com. I’ll be really sad to see this go but I have to start cutting back somewhere. Having said that, the site hasn’t been updated in over 6 months and still managed to earn approx. £25k in 2009. I’ll post full stats on this blog soon and see if anyone is interested in buying up a nice 8 year old site. I’ll possibly sell etoys.co.uk too but I’m a bit hesitant as it’s a brilliant domain and with a little bit more work will do wonders.
So, having said that I’m going to concentrate on just 3 areas in 2010. There will be a few other things going on too but these will be my 3 core projects and business priorities.
ShareMyPlaylists.com was without doubt the biggest highlight of 2009 for me in terms of business. I launched it a mere 9 months ago on March 2nd 2009 and in that short time it’s become the biggest Spotify community site on the web with almost 15,000 registered users and over 12,000 Spotify playlists. It’s serving over 1.5 million page views a month and is now used by all 4 major record labels to promote new and existing artists. As a huge music fan I’m absolutely delighted that the site has taken off in the way it has. At my first meeting with a major record label (Universal) I was sat in their London offices like a kid in a giant candy shop, it was like my dreams of being involved in the music business years ago had paid off. It gives me a massive thrill when I meet people who say they use the site and love it. We’ve even launched our very own line of t-shirts. And let’s not forget that NME.com called it “Genius” - yes I’m still dining out on that quote.
For 2010 I plan to really push the site out to a wider audience and make it the absolutely best site of it’s kind. Spotify will be launching in the USA this year as well as other territories so I plan to be there every step of the way and offer our playlist sharing and community services to a global audience. In order to help me do this I will be seeking some funding so if anyone knows of any Angel investors willing to be a part of the sites’ success please put them in touch.
ContentNow.co.uk is now a year and a half old and am proud to say is a thriving healthy business. For anyone who doesn’t know the business is a partnership between me and my business partner Simon and at the simplest level we offer content and link building services. The business is profitable and we have a lot of great clients who we work very closely with and would like to think offer good value. As this is unlike my other businesses and has real clients who we are answerable to I’ve seen more and more of my attention given to the business, and rightly so as a lot of our success is based on our reputation for integrity and ethical values. Content Now’s success has been at the expense of some of my affiliate sites if I’m honest, but that’s not a problem as I love Content Now and am happy to continuing giving it my attention.
In September 2009 we launched the Content Now News service which is a hassle-free way of getting fresh unique content published on your site daily or less if you need it. I’m pleased to see that this has been a tremendous success and we’ve managed to secure some really great clients with this service, all of which are really pleased with our work. We won’t be resting on our laurels though, in 2010 both Simon and I will continue to evolve and innovate the business to other more products and services, watch this space.
3. Bingo.org.uk
In June 2009 I relaunched Bingo.org.uk with an eye watering new design. It’s slowly been gaining traction in the search engines but for all the reasons given above it hasn’t gotten the atention it deserves (however it is number 1. on Bing for “bingo” so something is going right). However, as I wrote about last year I know that the opportunity in the online bingo sector is massive and coupled with the generic nature of the domain name is the reason that I will be giving Bingo.org.uk my attention in 2010.
I’ll also be teaming up with a person(s) as yet unnamed to bring even more focus to Bingo.org.uk. I can’t say who just yet as the ink isn’t yet dry on the contract. Suffice to say however that these guys are experts in their field, very well known and will bring a lot of experience to the table. I’m really looking forward to this one!
Personal Goals for 2010
Get in shape: A bit of an obvious/boring goal here but nonetheless an important one. For me the biggest problem with working from home is that my study is next to the kitchen and a mixture of convenience and sitting on my bum all day means that snacking at the desk is all too easy. So in 2010 I will actually make use of that treadmill I bought last year as well as my gym membership and mountain bike! I’m actually on a crash diet as of now in preparation for my trip to Vegas later in the month.
Create a Pop Quiz: This started as an idea with Laura a couple of months ago. The plan is for a couple of us in the North East to get together and host a regular pop quiz for people involved in the local tech scene. So it will be a good networking opportunity and a bit of fun too. We could possibly brand it as a ShareMyPlaylists.com quiz as it’s certainly relevant. We’ll probably have a charity angle too and give any earnings to a worth cause.
Cannonball Run: The Cannonball Run Europe involves driving 3000 miles across Europe over 6 days and is a mixture of winding roads, wild parties, exclusive world class tracks and 5 star hotels. What’s not to like? I think this will be a once in a lifetime experience and I’m determined to do it, watch this space.
Say yes more: It’s all too easy to stay within your comfort zone and stick with what you know. I’ve found myself doing this more and more in 2009 and it’s time to reverse the trend and say yes to more opportunities that cross my path and just get out and about more in general in 2009.
So there you have it, that’s my goals for 2010, what’s yours? I also wanted to give a big well done to Jason who is celebrating 10 years of being self employed. In this fickle old world of the web that’s a huge achievement, well done mate
What I’m listening to right now: The Top 100 Tracks on Spotify in 2009
10 ways to improve Twitter
It seems that years ago but in actual fact it was only April 2008 when I started using Twitter properly. I actually had an account since late 2007 but April was the turning point when I realised that you could use Twitter for other things other than telling the world what you were having for tea. Since then I’ve found Twitter to be those rarest of things, both fun and useful. I’ve used it to send visitors to my sites, as a business tool, as a method of connecting with my peers and finding new and interesting people to talk to and meet. Even to source root beer.
However, despite all of that Twitter still has some room for improvement. I’m not talking about making the platform more stable (I still see the Fail Whale) daily or even making DM’s actually work. I’m talking about enhancements to the functionality that won’t detract from what makes Twitter awesome, it’s simplicity but will instead enhance the user experience. So here we go, 10 ways that Twitter can be made better:
1. When I click on somebody’s Twitter profile I want to be able to see if they are following me. Tweetie 2 for the iPhone let’s you do this and it’s really useful.
2. Allow me to seamlessly switch between my different Twitter accounts without having to log off and then log back in again. While you’re at it, let me send the same Tweet to 2 or more Twitter accounts simultaneously. Tweetdeck lets you do this and it’s very useful.
3. Shorten URL’s for me automatically, just like Tweetdeck does.
4. Given me an option to publish my Tweet to my Facebook status to. If I want to.
5. Sort out the Retweet function. Sometimes when I Retweet I like to add a little comment of my own explaining why I’ve Retweeted it, so please let me.
6. Let me advertise to your users. Can’t understand why you haven’t rolled this out already.
7. Hyperlinks. Let me convert plain text to hyperlinks so I can send people to websites without using my valuable 140 characters on full URL’s that include http etc. I’ll even go one step further and ask that you allow me to show meta data when hovering over hyperlinks. I.e. a short description (similar to the alt tag on an image) that describes what the hyperlink is all about. This would also help when people annoyingly just post a hyperlink in their Tweet with no description to what it is. The only way to find out is to click it, very annoying.
8. Threaded conversations - when I click the “in reply to” link below some Tweets show me the whole conversation, not just the tweet that you replied to.
9. Allow me to send a mass Tweet to everybody in my Lists. So if I have a List dedicated to say just close friends then I may want to invite them all out to drinks. So let me Tweet to them all at once giving the details and time etc.
10. Allow thumbnails of Twitpics. If someone posts a link to Twitpic of another Twitter photo sharing service then display a small thumbnail of the image. Again this saves time on clicking pictures only to realise that they are of no interest to you.
Has anybody else any suggetsions on how to improve Twitter?
What I’m listening to right now: R. Kelly - “Untitled“
Win 3 free passes for Affiliate Summit West 2010 - Las Vegas baby!
It’s been 2 years since I was last at Affiliate Summit West Las Vegas so I’ve decided that I’m well overdue a return trip and have booked up for it again this coming January.
The event is without a doubt the biggest Affiliate Marketing event of any size in the USA and there are already over 3200 attendees booked up for it. It will be taking place from January 17th to 19th 2010 at the Rio hotel in Vegas. Passes start at just $149 going up to $1249. However, event organiser Shawn Collins has kindly donated 3 full Platinum passes worth $1249 each to readers of this blog. All you have to do in order to be in with a chance of winning is to leave a comment below saying what you will be looking forward to most if you attend the event. Closing date for entries is December 24th 2009. Travel and hotel accomodation is not included, you must make your own way there.
There are already about 10 of us heading out from the UK so if you’re interested in joining us please get in touch. We may be able to help you out with a good deal on hotels too
Some useful links:
The UK Las Vegas Affiliate Summit Roadtrip group on Facebook
Official Affiliate Summit site
Official Affiliate Summit Twitter feed @affiliatesummit
You can also save 10% on the price of an Affiliate Summit pass by using discount code ASW10HERE. See you in Vegas!
What I’m listening to right now: Pet Shop Boys Christmas
P.S. Last time I was in Vegas I saw Prince, unfortunately he’s not playing this time but what other shows/concerts should I see?
The BIG Affiliate Window Christmas Incentive
Affiliate Window are in my book at least, the most proactive and useful affiliate network in the UK. They have just launched their AWinter Wonderland site which is an absolutely essential resource for all affiliates wanting to make the most of the Christmas season. It’s jam packed with retailer offers, promotions, incentives and pretty much everything you’ll ever need. If that wasn’t enough they also have a dedicated Christmas Twitter account @AWinXmas as well as their regular Twitter account @AffWin and unlike most other UK affiliate networks’ Twitter feeds, these are useful and updated daily. Oh and let’s not forget their regular offers blog which is also updated daily. Seriously, Affiliate Window could not make it easier for affiliates to promote their merchants.
The BIG Affiliate Window Christmas Incentive
However, just in case you did need some added incentive to promote Affiliate Window retailers this Christmas then how about the BIG Christmas Present incentive?
This year one lucky affiliate can win a VIP luxury holiday and they can pick from 1 of 5 destinations including New York and the Caribbean. Here’s how…
Well, entering couldn’t be easier! Every time you generate a sale for an AWin merchant we will allocate you one ticket for our BIG Christmas draw; it really is that simple! No catches, no minimum order values, no maximum entries, just an opportunity for every single sale-generating affiliate to be in with a chance of winning.
How easy is that? It’s also worth mentioning that any affiliate who completes their Darwin profile will receive DOUBLE entries into the draw, so well worth completing it now
Hats off to Affiliate Window, what a brilliant and easy incentive. I’ll be pushing your merchants wherever and whenver I can.
What I’m listening to right now: Young Nate - “Mixed Messages“
Supporting London Nude Tech 2010
London Nude Tech 2010 is the idea of Milo Yiannopoulos, former TechCrunch and Telegraph writer and now “mature” Cambridge student. The idea is simple, get 12 ladies and 12 men involved in the London tech scene to pose for a calendar-girls style calendar and sell it for the charity, Take Heart India. As with most things that Milo gets involved in there has been a bit of controversy, but I have to say in this instance I just think it’s a case of some feminists getting their knickers in a knot.
So how can you help?
Well, due to increased printing costs Milo needs to find another £1000 or so just to get the calendars made. So he’s asking for anybody involved in the tech scene to put their hands in their pockets by way of sponsorship. I’ve already donated and so has Frostie. So who else is up for it? This is your ideal chance to get in front of 5000+ techies while at the same time contributing towards a very worthy cause. There has already been a fair bit of press for this project with more to come when the calendar goes on sale, a fantastic opporunity for some PR. Let’s not forget also that for every £37 we raise, we can change a disabled child’s life forever.
Contact Milo directly if you can help, but hurry! milo@yiannopoulos.net
What I’m listening to right now: Bonfire Night Playlist
Twitter Lists - big opportunity - ShareMyTwitterLists.com anyone?
Any readers of this blog or anybody who saw me speak at the A4U Expo this year will know that I’m a big fan of Twitter and use it for lots and lots of things, mainly as a marketing channel in it’s own right. When I was asked at one session to recommend a future niche with little competition and plenty of opportunity I said that Twitter community sites/apps had huge potential. Well, here’s an example of what I mean. Twitter Lists.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Twitter Lists are gradually being rolled out to all Twitter users as we speak - currently about 50% of all Twitter users can see the Lists feature, eventually everybody will after the full roll out. Anyway, Twitter Lists are really simple (like all good ideas), it’s a feature that enables you to keep track of people’s Twitter feeds by splitting out the people you follow into…you guessed it…lists. So lets say you want to keep track of everybody on Twitter involved in Affiliate Marketing then simply create a List called “Affiliate Marketing” or whatever, and add some nice affiliate people into that list. Simple. For some more in-depth explanations click here and here.
For example, when you have the List function enabled this is what you will see:
What this basically means is that 7 people have put me into their Lists. So if we click on the number 7 then it shows you just who and what the lists are called:
From this page you can follow other people’s lists and generally keep tabs on what lists you feature in. As you can imagine this is very interesting. BTW @Cmoz has me in her “onehb” list which I obviously thought meant “one hot boy” but disappointingly the name comes from a lecture at TED, 5000 days of the Web by Kevin Kelly, its 1 Human Brain, meaning the Internet is and ultimate thinking machine. This is where CMoz puts all her brainy, innovators & “smarties”. Clearly I don’t fit in that group but I won’t tell her.
Anyway, the point of my post is that while Twitter Lists is cool I think there is a potential for a community site to be built around it. In the same way that Spotify is a fantastic music app it’s not designed to help you discover new music and playlists, hence I built ShareMyPlaylists.com. The same thing applies here, Twitter Lists can be fantastic resources but the only way you can discover them at the moment is if you are featured in one. So instead of building ShareMyTwitterLists.com (available to register right now btw) I’m writing this blog post to see if anybody else wants a go at it.
Why do I think Twitter Lists will be big? Here’s why…a few Tweets I’ve noticed today:
What does everybody else think? Are we all going to be measured by how many Twitter Lists we are errm listed on?
UPDATE: Literally 20 seconds after I published this post someone tweeted me to show me Listorious.com. Just goes to show how fast things move. Anyway, it looks good, can anybody better it?
What I’m listening to right now: “Kieron’s Electro Vol. 1“
Going on a (digital) mission to New York, New York
A few weeks ago a friend of mine pointed out the Digital Mission website to me and said I should consider applying for the next “mission” to New York in November. Seeing as I have plans to launch ShareMyPlaylists.com into the USA next year (or whenever Spotify launch) I thought it would be a good idea. So I duly applied and filled in all the online forms stating why I should go etc. then I found out a couple of weeks ago that I had been accepted!
The Digital Missions are run by Chinwag in conjunction with UK Trade and Investment and are designed to introduce you to key people in the “digital” sector in territories that you want to grow your business in. I’ll be in NYC for 5 days and there is already a cracking itinery put in place to ensure we make the most of the trip, including drinks at the British Consulate, so yes I’ll be breaking the suit out
For me, this will be a really valuable opportunity to meet some key players in the USA but I’m also really looking forward to meeting and spending some time with the other attendees on the mission and sharing experiences of running a startup. The last time I was in New York was over 10 years ago so I’m also really looking forward to going back and seeing more of the city and doing the whole tourist thing.
Have any other companies/startups thought about applying for the forthcoming digital missions? It’s not something I would have known about until recently but maybe it will be of use to ranyone reading this blog. Let me know if you apply.
What I’m listening to right now: “Le List“
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other businesses. I thought it would be fun to blog, writing about my experiences in Internet 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.
