AffiliateProgramy.cz

Download audio file (ASW09-Automating-Websites-and-PPC-Management.mp3)

This session, Automating Websites and PPC Management, took place Sunday, January 11, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Learn advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks (such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API.

• John Hasson, President, JAH Media, LLC

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

Paul Nichols, long seen as the face of Ebates.com, has left the company to start up a new consulting business.

Here is a note he sent out with more details on his startup, Publisher Focus Consulting Group:

It is with a great deal of excitement that I announce the launch of Publisher Focus Consulting Group. That’s right, after 10 happy years at Ebates.com I am leaving to run my own business. As the name implies, Publisher Focus Consulting Group addresses the needs of publishers in the affiliate marketing industry.

Here’s the elevator pitch: Basically if a company is an affiliate marketing publisher and it has a project to develop or manage, we would love to handle it for them. The Publisher Focus Team is a collection of experts in a broad array of fields associated with affiliate marketing. Whether the subject matter is web design or site development, SEO or SEM, conducting focus group interviews or usability studies, or anything else that is relevant to affiliate marketing, Publisher Focus Consulting Group will provide the publisher with top notch service at a reasonable rate.

More information at www.publisherfocus.com.

zanox, an affiliate network based in Germany, is kicking off their $2 Million Application Store Contest at the Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco, March 31 - April 3, 2009.

The contest, being held in conjunction with the M&A advisory company Corporate Finance Partners, will award the winning business model(s) an investment of up to two million US Dollars for the best monetizing application based on zanox Web Services.

zanox will also introduce the new zanox Application Store at the Web 2.0 Expo.

The zanox Application Store is a platform for developers to introduce and distribute their applications directly to zanox’s network of more than one million publishers and over 2,000 international advertisers.

The platform will hold more than 50 million product offers and can be retrieved automatically via zanox Web Services. The zanox Application Store was designed to help developers monetize their innovations, such as applications or widgets for the Internet and mobile, including the iPhone, Facebook and iGoogle, as well as all other platforms.

More details at http://www.zanox.com/us/zanox/press/news/pr20090503US.html.

Download audio file (ASW09-The-Ultimate-Pitching-Guide.mp3)

This session, The Ultimate Pitching Guide, took place Sunday, January 11, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Experts share their best (and most outrageous) secrets for getting attention from merchants, media and the masses. You’ll learn the tips, tricks and techniques to get the attention you seek.

• Lisa Picarille, Consultant, LisaPicarille.com (Moderator)
• Anita Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, SmallBizTrends.com
• Jim Kukral, Owner, TheBizWebCoach.com
• Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter (HARO)

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

The buy.at team has introduced Quigo Sponsored Listings, which could be an interesting opportunity for affiliates.

Quigo Sponsored Listings are pay-per-click text ads featured on premium sites. Participating sites have at least 5 million monthly impressions, including ESPN.com, CareerBuilder.com, FoxNews.com and TheStreet.com.

The minimum spend is $100 per month, and bids vary by placement. You can see the maximum bid, the top three bids, and the minimum bid to help guide what you’d like to spend.

More information at http://marketplace.quigo.com or email adsonarsales@platform-a.com with any questions.

Do you know someone who is deployed?  Help spread the word about this awesome FREE program from Canvas On Demand! 

We at CanvasOnDemand.com want to show our deep appreciation for our deployed service men and women and to the person that worries about them every day…their Mom.  That’s why we are giving away 16×20 canvases, so the deployed troops can give them to their Mom on Mother’s Day.  Read more about Operation Hi Mom.

Here’s where you come in.  We need your help spreading the word.  If you know someone who is deployed, please forward the above link.  Thanks for helping to make this Mother’s Day special for our awesome military Moms.

CanvasOnDemand.com takes your prized photograph and transforms it into an amazing canvas work of art.  You have two rendering options to choose from; PhotoRealistic, bringing your photo to full life even more vivid than the original, or BrushStroke, which appears to have been produced by delicate strokes of an artist’s brush.

In addition, CanvasOnDemand.com has two primary finishing options.  The canvas can simply be stretched and framed to your specification, or it can be Gallery Wrapped, stretching the canvas over a wooden frame so that the edges of the material are drawn around it.

Now is the perfect time to order that special Mother’s Day Canvas for the Moms in your life. Order early to insure it is received by May 10th.

Affiliate Benefits:

• Pays you 10% commission on every sale
• Average Order Size $224
• Over 6% Site-wide Conversion Rate
• COUPONS available
• Affiliates may NOT bid on tradenames (or misspellings) NOR may affiliates bid on tradenames that are included in a phrase. Affiliates may use the tradenames in ads and may use the destination URL in the advertising links.

CanvasOnDemand.com is available at Google Affiliate Network and ShareASale.

For more information contact:

Stephanie Sorrels

Affiliate Manager for CanvasOnDemand.com

CanvasOnDemand[at]eaccountable.com

512-736-5644

Outsourced Affiliate Program Management by eAccountableOPM

I was excited back when AdSense video units rolled out in 2007, and had great expectations for the new ad option.

Truth be told, I never managed to make much money with it, and I guess I wasn’t alone, because the Google AdSense Blog announced today that they’re closing down AdSense video units at the end of April.

If you’d still like to display video content from YouTube, you can do so through YouTube.com directly. Visit any specific video page and look for the code in the ‘Embed’ box, or sign in to your YouTube account to create a playlist. In addition, please note that this change won’t affect the availability of other video-related ads options — video ads may appear in your AdSense for content ad units if you’ve opted into image ads, and AdSense for video is still accepting applications from eligible publishers who produce video content.

Starting today, the option to sign up for video units is no longer available to new publishers. If you’re currently displaying video units, we recommend that you start removing the video unit code from your pages as soon as possible so you can optimize your available ad space in advance. Please be assured that any earnings you’ve generated from video units in the past will still be credited to your AdSense account.

On a side note, you’re welcome to embed videos from my YouTube account. And while I won’t pay you in cash, I will issue you a bunch of good karma.

More details at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/sunsetting-video-units-feature.html.

Download audio file (ASW09-The-Black-Ink-Session.mp3)

This session, The Black Ink Session, took place Sunday, January 11, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Behind-the-scenes review of one of Jeremy Palmer’s successful affiliate sites. Learn how to plan, develop and market your own profitable affiliate site with a hands-on case study.

• Jeremy Palmer, President, Quit Your Day Job, LLC

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

I held out as long as I could, I always do as I’m always resistant to trying the “latest thing” till I’m sure it really is that, and not a flash in the pan I’ve ended up wasting my time with.  However it does seem Twitter is huge and now entrenched in the online scene, so I’ve been and created myself an account.

“Jilly Come Lately” strikes again!

Want To Follow Me?

You can do so here: -

http://twitter.com/AffiliateStuff

An Affiliate-Focused Twitter Account!

I’ve decided to keep the affiliate stuff account as affiliate focused as possible.  I’m going to try and populate it with little nuggets about things that I’m doing, how I’m thinking about them, and interesting affiliate facts I’ve found on my internet travels.

The blog doesn’t always lend itself to that kind of thing, so I’m hoping it’ll actually provide another half decent glimpse into the mindset and day to day workings of a full time affiliate.

Tweets Coming To A Sidebar Near You!

I think it’ll add some value to my blog and to the readers popping by, so I have decided to add my tweets to the blog sidebar.  Sorry if it looks a bit basic at the moment I’m a bit short on time today… promise it’ll look more polished over the next few days!

Course, there’ll be the odd personal thing on there, but I’ll probably create another account should I get an overwhelming urge to “tweet” every time I visit the lavvy or its time to cook tea… etc etc etc.

All That Remains To Be Seen…

Is how much time I spend Twittering instead of working!!

This post is from: Kirsty's Affiliate Marketing Guide - Affiliate Stuff UK

I’ve Finally Given In And Created a Twitter Account

I just saw that Baveo.com has launched. This startup, a blog platform for new and expecting parents, was founded by Ari Greenberg, who you might know from Magnify.net or past Affiliate Summits.

I’m mentioning it for two reasons… one is that I think it’s a neat idea (one of my first ventures online, back in the 90s, was creating online baby announcements), and also there is an affiliate angle.

The baby blogs on Baveo.com have registries, and most of the registry links are affiliate links. According to Ari, that’s the primary business model.

More information at Baveo.com and follow them on Twitter @baveo.

Download audio file (ASW09-Future-of-Affiliate-Marketing-Offline.mp3)

This session, Future of Affiliate Marketing - Offline, took place Sunday, January 11, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Purpose of presentation is to outline our vision or the future of affiliate marketing and seeing an expansion of affiliate marketing to offline transactions and offline media channels (publishers).

• Jonathan Treiber, EVP Biz Dev & Co-founder, RevTrax

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

I’m very excited about two things - one is that it’s finally spring, even if it’s only about 36 degrees in New Jersey.

The other good thing is that I bounced back from a weekly weight gain after going to South by Southwest. While I picked up two pounds for the weigh-in last week, I ended up dropping four for this week.

But this week brings a new challenge, as I have another conference - Search Engine Strategies in New York City.

The plan is to exercise some discipline with the eating and drinking, and actually incorporate some exercise this time around.

But back to springtime, I am excited about a break in the weather, so I can get out to shoot hoops and take walks.

One thing from my affiliate fatblogging video last week, Tim Jones of TheRealTimJones.com mentioned in a comment that he started at about the same time and weight as I did, and he’s down to 213.

So I’m just going to say it here and now - I’m gunning for you, Tim Jones. And I’m going to win.

Anyhow, I currently work out at a gym called Lifetime Fitness, and it’s a great place to go, but there are days when I just can’t find the time to get over there.

We do have an elliptical in the house that my wife uses, but since I use one at the gym, I’d rather do something else at home. Also, we ended up putting it in a room where the drop ceiling is sort of low, and I’d literally have to take a panel out of the ceiling to use it - and the few would be horrible.

I’ve never really worked with weights, so maybe it’s time to get started with them. But I don’t have the first idea about the various brands and whatever, so if there are any affiliates that can recommend some sort of basic setup for me to buy (with their affiliate link) in the comments, I’ll go and buy it through you.

Just some free weights - nothing crazy. I figure I can set it up in the garage, which is next to my office, and then I can go in there sometimes to blast music, grunt, and pump some iron.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 221
This week: 217

Doing this post as much as a diary for myself as for any other reason, anyone want anything adding just give me a shout.

• 26th March - London Pub Meet Farringdon (sold out) - managed to beg a place for this last minute.
• 2nd April - Linkshare Symposium - I cant get to this one unfortunately
• 28th - 29th April - a4uexpo Amsterdam.
• 2nd June - A4uAwards - win tickets with Existem AM
• 19th June - Affiliate Future Barbados event - fingers crossed I can get a ticket again loads of ways to win including Sunshine who sponsored my ticket last year and are giving away 6 places this year.
• 13th August - Existem AM Summer BBQ - Plymouth
• a4u expo roadshows - dates and venues tba
• 12th September - Think Visibility - Leeds
• 13th - 14th October - a4uExpo 2009 - London - the big daddy of events if you only get to one make it this one

I’m sure I have missed something :0

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2009 Must Attend Affiliate Marketing Events

Greetings, and welcome to the third, final, and long overdue installment in the “where are they now series”.  Today’s lovely interviewee is the legendary Chris Frost whose last chat you can take a gander at here.

As you will all no doubt know, Chris and I met up in Sydney and enjoyed 2 or 3 good nights out and himself and my Duncan braved the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb together.  We were supposed to do an interview there, but were having too good a time and had to do it via e-mail when he got home!

So without further ado, I’ll let the star do the talking

In our last chat, you said you’d increased the amount of time you’re spending on affiliate marketing from 4 hours to 10 hours a week. You were also predicting that’d rise as you were looking to develop some new niches. How’s your workload these days?

I’m still experiencing peaks and troughs on the amount of time I spend online, and expect this to continue. It’s more to do with me and my CGAS mentality when it comes to affiliate marketing.

Obviously the winter months usually results in longer hours, as there’s less inclination to get myself down to the gym when it’s blowing a gale outside even though I have another 10k run planned in London this year (running for Diabetes - http://www.justgiving.com/chrisefrost )

Has the recession affected your income at all? Have you found new opportunities from changed times?

I wouldn’t say the recession has affected my income but has certainly affected the programmes which generate my income. Previously great performers have generated less, where other merchants have picked up so it’s equalled out roughly. I’ve suffered a bit with the rubbish £ vs $ rate change over the past few months but that’s something that I can’t really control.

I know you’ve been having some issues with Google on one of your major sites which was slapped just before the busy Xmas season, and it seemed like you were feeling a mite frustrated with it all when we met up in Sydney. Have you any plans to try and recover from your “Google-itis”?

My main frustration in Sydney was turning 35!

Being slapped just before I was due to have a bumper Christmas wasn’t exactly great timing – had it happened in January I wouldn’t have cared too much. It was only the other day that the possible reason behind the slap was found (thanks to the Real McCoy). I’d checked and changed a lot of stuff but still hadn’t seen any change, and Lee found something that was blindingly obvious and one that’s a basic error but was an accident on my behalf. It was so stupid that I’m not going to divulge any more but have been reminded by Lee that if I make Barbados this year, then I owe him a few beers!

You predicted a £3m sales generation figure for your merchants in 2008. I know you more than succeeded with that with £4.8m being your closing figure for last year! What is it that you think makes you able to keep growing your affiliate business in this way and still not working at it full time?

Who said I can keep growing? Being honest I don’t expect to see any rise in 2009 mainly because I’m focusing on areas outside of the UK so my current websites are taking a bit of a back seat.

It helps by having niche sites that are seasonal based such as Christmas, Valentines and Mothers day and again, after following Lee – maybe tap into the easter egg market next year? At least that way my work load is spread out more evenly meaning currently I can cope… just…

Speaking of going full time as an affiliate… any plans to quit the day job on the horizon?

Not a chance!
The recent Google slap confirmed the risk and my respect I have for you full-timers. Unless you have shed loads of money to chuck at PPC campaigns, then I feel at times Google has too much of a strangle hold over a business. Something I plan to do this year is concentrate more on MSN and Yahoo positioning rather than having tunnel vision where only the Google logo can be seen.

If you could go back in time to our last chat and warn yourself about one thing that’s happened over the last 12 months, what would it be?

One thing? My god I have lots!

• Don’t let Kirsty go shopping with Jane while stuck up a bridge with Duncan (costs a fortune) (*Eds note - I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.  What happens on the shopping trip, stays on the shopping trip!!)

• Don’t offer a bouncer a mint! (Get knocked back)

• Don’t get drunk with Keith, Shane and Paul the night before your flight home from (you end up missing it)

• Don’t introduce affiliates to the world of Scuba Diving (I still laugh at the vision of James Avery strolling around a wreck on the sea floor, stood bolt up-right at times – classic!)

What’s been the best thing that happened to you over the last year?

It has to be packing in smoking

71 days to date (24 March 2009), 1215 cigs not smoked, saving over £500 and meaning I’ve now extended my life by a possible 4 days and 5 hours. Although this extra time may be spent in an old people’s home p’ing myself so it may not be a plus point after all!

Second on my list has to be popping over to Australia and hooking up with you guys and DGM, researching the Australian market. I think there’s great opportunity to move away from the UK yet not struggle too much with language barriers.

What will the rest of 2009 bring for you as an affiliate?

Hopefully more sites in different countries. I’ve found myself getting a bit tired of the UK and wanting to venture out into other countries. The difficulty is forgetting how Brits browse and search and learn how other countries do it along with their terminology.

Apparently credit cards in Oz is dead easy and very profitable

This post is from: Kirsty's Affiliate Marketing Guide - Affiliate Stuff UK

Meet The Real Affiliates - Where Are They Now? Chris Frost

ReImage.com has an average order size of $62.50, that is over $45 average Affiliate payout. 

Reimage’s instant, online, PC repair tool is a revolutionary new concept in PC repair that, for the first time ever, makes an old PC work like new. Reimage provides end user and professional tools, structured around it’s core technology. This technology increases the PC repair quality, and efficiency, by performing Windows XP repairs, in about 30 minutes requiring no set-up, at the click of a button.

Reimage is an on-line tool that automates PC maintenance and repairs so that any PC will run like New, Everyday.

By emulating the human brain and automating the way software problems are identified and repaired, Reimage has redefined the very concept of PC repair.

Reimage removes the guesswork in PC repair, removing the need for diagnostic decisions based on superficial symptoms. Reimage simultaneously studies every single software object and interlinked dependency, and compare this with a huge repository containing over 20 million objects. The technology then surgically pinpoints only faulty objects and dependencies. Throughout the process, user data and preferences remain untouched. The repository automatically corrects any malfunctions, with no need for prior preparation. The whole process takes no longer than 30 minutes, and the PC is as good as new.

Reimage’s patent-pending technology emulates a PC technician’s PC repair process. By scanning hundreds of thousands of potential causes of disruption, Reimage significantly improves PC repair outcome and brings the computer to its most stable condition possible, taking into account all software on the machine.

With Reimage, any software component can be brought back to its original working state. The simple and swift restoration of missing parts and the removal of redundant parts, is far more efficient than the conventional method of reinstalling.

By accessing the millions of working components and logical items within the proprietary Reimage repository, the technology is able to replace and fix any missing or corrupt part.

The repository is an ever-growing organism that "learns” how to fix further applications, based on how they look when they are fully functional. Each day, the Reimage repository grows. Each day, the potential for component recognition and restoration improves.

Affiliate Program Details:

• $62.50 Average Order Size
• 75% Affiliate Payout- OVER A $45 Average Payout!
• 3% Conversion Rate
• Keyword Policies: You may NOT bid on the trade name or misspellings.  Affiliates may use the tradenames in ads.  Affiliates may use the destination URL in the advertising links. 
• Reimage works only with Windows XP and you should market ONLY in English speaking countries (US, Canada, Ireland, UK, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand).

For more information contact:

Stephanie Sorrels - Affiliate Manager for ReImage.com

reimage[at]eaccountable.com

512-736-5644

Outsourced Affiliate Program Management by eAccountableOPM

Bookbyte.com is moving to the Google Affiliate Network. As a top producer for the Bookbyte affiliate program we want to make this easy for you…

And, we are offering you an INCENTIVE to do so!

Go sign up at the Google Affiliate Network and we will increase your payout to 6% per sale from the current amount of 5% per sale!

Not only that, but you can make even more money at the Google Affiliate Network as we now have tiered commissions and you can earn up to 7.5% per sale!

With Average Order Sizes of over $60 and Conversion Rates of 10%…

Yes… Conversion Rates of 10%

You will be making more money faster!!

We would like to have you moved to the Google Affiliate Network April 18th… please don’t delay! Here’s the link:

Signup link for affiliates
http://www.connectcommerce.com/partner/view_available_client.html?reltype=V&client=21000000000183709
For new-to-network affiliates, please use this link:
Signup link for non-affiliates
https://www.connectcommerce.com/secure/partner_app_alt.html?ccmid=K183709

Bookbyte.com is an on-line college bookstore. We specialize in buying and selling college textbooks with discounts of 30% – 90%. In addition to college textbooks, we carry trade, and K-12 textbooks. Others types of inventory are supplied through drop ship relationships. We offer our customers fast same day (within 24 hrs) shipping. We have a 14 day from the date of delivery “no-question” return policy, plus we provide industry trained, live in-house customer service representatives.
We offer commissions based on complete sales or book purchases. Please visit our publisher display information and our site for more information.

· The number of Transactions per quarter between 0 and 250 will pay 5.00%.

· The number of Transactions per quarter between 250 and 500 will pay 6.00%.

· The number of Transactions per quarter between 500 and 750 will pay 6.50%.

· The number of Transactions per quarter between 750 and 1,000 will pay 7.00%.

· The number of Transactions per quarter more than 1,000 will pay 7.50%.

These tiers are based on accumulated quarterly sales.

We look forward to working with you saving students money.

For more information contact:
Stephanie Sorrels
bookbyte [at] eaccountable.com
512-735-5644

Outsourced Affiliate Program Management by eAccountableOPM

10% off any order of $75. or more.  COUPON CODE: 10off75

15% off any order of $150 or more. COUPON CODE: 15off150

For over 60 years and across two generations of renowned curemasters, we at Johnston County Hams have hand crafted "cured" country hams inspired by the techniques used by America’s early colonists.  Johnston County Hams have a unique, lightly smoked aroma and mellow, lightly salted taste unlinke anything else and are truly a gourmet delicacy. 

Order deli thin ready to serve slices of our cooked country ham - perfect for sandwiches, biscuits, croissants, etc. Ready to serve! Ready to eat! Or, enjoy the unique flavor and sweet aroma of country ham gone Italian. Or, try the unique flavor and sweet aroma of country bacon- Dry Cured and Hickory Smoked so it doesn’t shrink when cooked!

In addition to our famous country hams, Johnston County Hams is also pleased to offer a finely cured and delicately aged prosciutto, a sweet honey cured ham and traditional favorites from our smokehouse including dry cured bacon, smoked turkey and delicious country sausage.

Affiliate Program Details:

• 2.0% Site-wide Conversion Rate
• $85 Average Order Size
• 10% Affiliate Payout
• Coupons Available!
• You may NOT bid on the tradename but you CAN use the tradename and the destination URL in your ads!

JohnstonCountyHams.com available at ShareASale merchant ID#19485!

For more information contact:
Durk Price - Affiliate Manager for JohnstonCountyHams.com
jch[at]eaccountable.com

970-328-4260

Outsourced Affiliate Program Management by eAccountableOPM

The anticipation is building for the winners of our Christmas incentive, over the imminent Roadtrip from San Francisco to Las Vegas. However, not content with one great incentive we’ve decided to run another - this time in the run up to Father’s Day. As with our Christmas incentive we are opening the voting for affiliates to decide which prize they’d prefer to try and win. Take a look through the options below, and vote for your favourite.

Voting closes on Tuesday 31st March.The incentive will run from 1st April until 20th June, with a whole host of categories giving all affiliates the chance to win a place - including most improved, best new, top affiliates and prize draws. Full details will be announced once the voting has closed. The event will be hosted by Buyagift and Affiliate Window and will take place in July 2009.

Grand Prix Karting Day - Kent - 22 Places
Follow in the footsteps of F1 stars Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton with this fantastic sprint race day at Buckmore Park outdoor Kart circuit in Kent. You will compete in a number of sessions to try and get your place in the grand final, driving RX7 sports karts capable of 80MPH.

Caterham Slalom Day - Silverstone - 12 places
Go wild in one of these amazing two-seaters around a tightly coned circuit against the clock. You will have a full day getting to grips with these powerful beasts, taking part in a number of practice laps before going against the clock to try and get the fastest time - slipping, sliding and spinning are obligatory!

Round the world Yacht experience - Southampton - 14 places
Enjoy a full day on board a true racing thoroughbred in the waters of the Solent. Sit back and relax, or muck in on this former Round The World race yacht. Includes a 3 course lunch on the Isle of Wight.

Stock Car Championship - Northampton - 18 places
Race against fellow affiliates in a high speed stock car championship, driving real F2 stock cars. And that’s not all… Get behind the wheel of a stripped down Sierra for the Professionals off-road challenge and take the Delboy Challenge in race prepared Reliant Robins!

Any questions please contact Graham by any of the following:
email: graham@buyagift.co.uk | phone: 020 8275 5231 | MSN: grahamatbuyagift@hotmail.com

Greetings esteemed blog readers, and welcome to another thrilling installment in the K.McCubbin stream of consciousness series.  As you may have already gathered I’ve been thinking a lot about the way I work recently  As this occupies a lot of brain time I figure blogging about it will mean y’all don’t form the mistaken opinion I don’t love you any more as I don’t seem to be able to lucidly think about much else!

How Does Effort Convert To Cash In Affiliate Land?

Todays epistle has been brought to you courtesy of a new friend of mine, Kathrin, who has been asking  questions about my difficult to understand career!  She basically asked me why I didn’t work 5 days a week instead of 4 and thus make 20% more money.  I explained to her that with the world of affiliate marketing, that 20% more effort didn’t necessarily equate to 20% more money.  When I reflected on this, I realised I’d touched on a powerful and simple truth I needed to vocalise on here.

Thinking Smartly and Efficiently Is More Important Than Blindly Pushing “Onwards and Upwards”

And I reckon that’s where our old mate Del Boy went wrong with his “Onwards and upwards Rodney” frame of mind.  The “scale and replicate” principle has been a particular preoccupation of mine when considering the expansion of my very own minature empire and I have talked about it often.

“Scale And Replicate” Is Just So Last Week.  Lets Try “Maximum Revenue With Minimum Effort” On For Size!

However, I now realise its also important to also bring a considerable amount of smart thinking to this process.  Some of the affiliates I’ve met don’t always work all that hard.  In fact, many of them barely seem to lift a finger!  Why?  How?  They’re just lucky smartassed sods, reaping it in while we do the hard yards right?

Urr, nope.  They’re not lucky, and they could well be sods but they most definately are smart. When they can be assed Why?  Because they have perfected the fine art of smart thinking.  They are able to find lots of things that will create the maximum amount of revenue with the minimum effort.

I don’t do that dreadfully at this kind of thing myself, but I wouldn’t say I’ve the midas touch you’ll see from the likes of Jamie Harwood or Mr Affiliate bling himself, Kieron Donoghue, either.  I often suffer from not seeing the affiliate revenue wood for looking at the trees and thinking how much work it’ll be to cut them all down myself and then painstakingly craft them into revenue bearing masterpieces.  However, now I consider it, some of my biggest earners are things that took very little to put together. With an affiliate chainsaw and mass production sawmill. (if you will indulge my increasingly flamboyant use of analogies!)

For example, I have a single landing page I send painfully generic traffic to via Yahoo and MSN search.  It took 3 hours all up to build the page and compile a keyword list.  It makes me £15,000 a year, I never have to do a thing to the page, and I don’t even really know what gave me the idea to try it. Suddenly it was out there, and it was obvious despite my having struggled with generating consistent cash in that niche for almost two years.

The Moral Of The Story?

I’m not sure if there is one.  I can’t tell anyone how this happens.  Nor how they can acquire such a skill. For me personally it is a fleeting bit of magic I’m privelliged to experience every now and again.  I wish I could come up with one of those beauties every day I can tell you, cos I’d be sitting writing this on my own private island if I could!

Could I Come Up With A Midas-esque Idea Every Day?

Well, perhaps not every day.  But I have a feeling that the trick is to take a step back every now and again and simply stand on a mental hill observing the undulating nature of your revenue streams from afar.  By doing that you may well see the goldmine nestled in that half hidden valley beside something you already think you’re 100% on top of.  Recently my new intensive work system has given me the chance to take that step back in the form of my extra day a week off.  Since then, I’ve found that there are a lot of things I can multiply significantly with just a few hours work. I don’t know how I couldn’t see it before.

The Best and Most Lucid Advice I Can Give Is…

Work out grab yourself a vantage point to observe the fruits of your labours!  You’ll have to come up with your own way to allow those great ideas to reveal themselves to you.

And The Obvious Disclaimer That Has To Be Made?

The above may make it look like there’s an affiliate holy grail out there that allows you to work little and earn lots.  The truth is 99% of affiliates that make decent money work very hard at it. Nay, supernaturally hard. Do not read the above and delude yourself that this job does not require a lot of dedication, I merely wish to make the point that you can often make your hard work more productive… by being able to think clearly about where the work is directed.

This post is from: Kirsty's Affiliate Marketing Guide - Affiliate Stuff UK

Smart Thinking is More Profitable Than The Hard Yards in Affiliate Marketing!

Regular blog readers will know that I’m a big fan of Nate and the guys at Unique Blog Designs. They designed this very blog, as well as a couple of my other sites.

These guys know the affiliate space very well and have today launched Affiliate Theme. Affiliate Theme is a customisable WordPress them designed especially for affiliate sites. What makes this really special is the fact that you don’t need ANY technical knowledge whatsover to use it (ideal for me then). You can change the layout, colours, fonts, button sizes and more, all from the options panel. No coding necessary!

I’ve said for years now that WordPress is all any affiliate marketeer needs in order to get a fantastic website/blog, and Affiliate Theme just makes it even easier to get a great looking site online instantly. Even though it’s very easy to use you can also access video tutorials, articles and post questions in the support forum - all included in the price.

Speaking of prices, it’s incredibly good value for money. Here’s the options you can chose from:

Affiliate Theme - Single-Use Package - $97.00 (one time payment)

* Use Affiliate Theme on a single domain/website
* Six (6) unique page templates
* Access to Video Tutorials, Knowledge Base, and Support Forum AND Affiliate Interviews

Affiliate Theme - Multi-Use Package - $147.00 (one time payment)

* Use Affiliate Theme on a UNLIMITED domains/websites
* Six (6) unique page templates
* Access to Video Tutorials, Knowledge Base, and Support Forum AND Affiliate Interviews
* Free Lifetime upgrades
* BONUS Ten (10) pre-made UBD Niche Header Graphics for various affiliate marketing niches

Affiliate Theme - Super Affiliate Package - $197.00 (one time payment)

* Use Affiliate Theme on a UNLIMITED domains/websites
* Six (6) unique page templates
* Access to Video Tutorials, Knowledge Base, and Support Forum AND Affiliate Interviews
* Free Lifetime upgrades
* BONUS Thirty-one (31) pre-made UBD Niche Header Graphics for various affiliate marketing niches
* SUPER AFFILIATE PAYOUTS! Super affiliate payouts! Earn 50% (compared to the normal 30%) of all Affiliate Theme sales you refer to us.
* BONUS Get access to new UBD headers graphics, every month!

As you can see this represents fantastic value for money, especially on such a quality product from one of the biggest and most well respected blog design companies on the web.

I’ve embedded a video below that gives a bit more of an overview of Affiliate Theme in action. I would love to hear feedback from anybody who buys it too.

Click here for more info on Affiliate Theme.

What I’m listening to right now: Chrisette Michelle - “Epiphany”

Post from Kieron's Blog

Affiliate Theme launches today - brilliant new WordPress app for affiliates