At Christmas 'Delivery' Should Be A Key SEO Target

Just reading through Hitwise's report on the impact that last delivery dates have for Christmas and it makes interesting reading.

For my Wii site I went through and added all the variations I could think of when peopel were searchign for that term. But for my Valentines Day site I just couldn't be bothered. But I'm sure works just the same way when us blokes forget the big events!


It really does prove that if you've got a site targeted on Christmas or Valentine's Day that you should really have 'delivery' on your main pages - if not in the [title] tag.

The interesting fact is that you'll have to be creative, eBay was the site that recieved most traffic at Christmas with the word 'delivery' in the search string - and there were 348 seperate variations!!

But it was their analysis around the impact that having a later last delivery date has on the traffic for those days. It may seem obvious, but there does appear that people visit the sites earlier, don't buy (enough), remember and come back to buy (or for more).

Another interesting point is that as we get closer to the big day, users visit the sites of highstreet retailers because they'll get the products they want. And I would agree that these are the bargain hunters and not necessarily the 'last-minute' shoppers. It would be interesting to have a look at how the nature of terms over the period. Are people adding 'bargains', 'sale', 'discounts' and 'offers' to their 'delivery' keywords?

But anyway - if you do have Christmas sites, then think about the 'delivery' keywords to go with your other SEO efforts.

Update: I've been working on my blog about cheap Christmas presents and bloody forgot to add "delivery" as a target term! Doh. I'm going to have to build it in somehow!

5 Minute Blogger Tip: Labels & Duplication

I really do hate Google for their over-zealous fighting against sites that they think are spamming because sometimes they write short posts and are forced to have large templated navigation designed to help G-Bot around their blog.

It's a complete contradiction in my mind.

I've got one blog that I often write posts that are about 100 words long, but have a comprehensive templated-navigation system as its good for Google and good for the user.

The only issue is that on these short posts the amount of code that is present for the navigation can be twice/three times more than the post and as it's present on every page Google has got really upset with them.

Also if you've got posts and whish to tag them into labels you'll have problems if you don't have them more than several tagged with the same label.

So after looking over the stats and remembering what I've been doing I've established this strategy:

1) Write over 200 words for your posts;
2) Don't over-do your templated navigation. Use the MainOrArchivePage and ItemPage tags to make sure that the same content isn't shown on every page
3) Make your first post, copy the meta information below meta keywords, remove their tag to add the meta data in.
4) Make your own variable meta descriptions and meta keywords for the post pages
5) Remove the archive pages and make your own monthly summary posts
6) Wait until you've got sufficient posts before you label.
7) Keep a text version of the title and metatags for each label page directly on the server.
8) Realise that this is too much work and have a look at following the crowd and install WordPress.
9) Remember that its good to be different and when you've worked out your strategy its not all that hard work really.
10) Also remember that if it forces you to get your 'thinking-cap on' then its no bad thing!

I'm not going to give in and install Wordpress. Every problem has its solution and that doesn't always mean installing stuff on the server. It just means that you've got to really understand Google et al and find clever solutions. Its just so boring doing what everyone else is doing.

---

The blogger team seem to be spending a lot of time on foriegn language versions. Me being selfish, I want them to add more features such as archive snippeting, variable meta data for label pages, own-blog search. etc etc.

But they are bringing in scheduled posting, Blog lists, Subscription Links, the search :-), polls etc.

Guys you're taking longer than my plumbers and I still don't have a loo to show for all their hard work!

Interview With James Little

Here's a quick little email interview i did with James Little. It was just a bit of fun really - a boring Sunday afternoon and all that!

Lee: Renee is fantastically attractive, Ken has a great sense of humour ... How does it feel working with people superior to you?

James: Are you trying to suggest that I’m unattractive, boring and can’t crack any jokes? I feel offended Lee, though you may be correct! I must admit that it is a challenge to come into the office every day and work with them both, I just have to remind myself that I can bully them into doing my work but Renee has stopped making me tea after I changed her job title to “Chief Tea Maker”.

Lee: You not only blog on the Corporate Altogether blog, but your own personal ones. Do you find it difficult making sure that there is no personality on either of them?

James: I have quite a few blogs and must admit that I find it hard to continue to update them all – quality over quantity is the way forward I feel, however many people will say that mine do not have either I am sure! :) I’ve been quite adamant that blogging is a fantastic way of getting traffic to a site and with the right tools can generate thousands of impressions on a daily basis. I’ll give you all a tip now, have a look at how to get into google news; this brings a wealth of traffic and if you can find a way to monitise it you are on to a winner.


Lee:  We met on a boat in the Carribean, was it love at first sight or do we have to work at it?

James: I’ve worked at it harder than you – you hardly ever answer my calls these days and I swear you’ve blocked me on MSN on a few occasions!
The Carribean (is that really how you spell it?) was fantastic though, the best incentive that I’ve ever come across and have already paid to go again this year.

Lee:  Many of the large established networks seem to attract the larger brands. But do you feel that your team have something different to offer them other than size?

James: Do we really have to talk about work? :) I think we’ve got a good proposition at Altogether Digital/Ads. We’re already got about 15 merchants on board, some bigger than others but because of the level of service that we offer clients we’re getting some good people on board. I’m still sceptical about larger brands to be honest – affiliate marketing to me has always seemed to work well for some of the smaller players and that is what we are seeing with our campaigns; if the product is good and the website converts then it doesn’t often matter what it says on the tin. Some people say that bigger brands have a better EPC but often this is because of the brand name bidding that networks allow the chosen ones to do & distort the figures!!

Lee:  You've been in the industry ages now, but you never seem to look any older. Do you recommend a diet of Cockspur or Mount Gay to keep you young?

James: Mount Gay Rum is the way to go – I don’t like Cockspur and will be forever in debt to Pete Dickenson for introducing me to the wonders of this drink! I’ve been doing affiliate work for 6 years, starting as an affiliate back when I was a developer for Onetel – I’m still only 25 though so hardly an old man like you (happy birthday btw!).

Lee:  I'm been lucky enough to meet your kids and they're great. I take it Lyndsey is the one that brings them up?

James: She’ll kill me if she reads this and sees that I have not corrected you for spelling her name wrong, it’s Lindsey! Hahaha, Yes she does the hard work as a full time mum and I just try and bring in enough money to support them all The kids are great but it’s bloody hard work and I don’t know how she does it!

Lee:  I know you're a Crystal Palace fan - they're doing well but do ever feel the urge to suport a bigger local team like Grays Athletic?

James: They are not even doing that well lately! I haven’t been to Palace since I ended my season ticket last season, which is a shame because you can’t beat the thrill of watching your team loose over and over again, honestly. When I’ve got the cash and the time I’ll try and get another season ticket but I have threatened to go and see Welling more regularly (my real local team) and hope to get to see a few games this season. After winning an award at the buy.at football tourament last year I think they might want me in their team though, Affiliate Ninja’s all the way!! (When are buy.at doing that again?)

Lee:  On a serious note. You've got a 10 word pitch for affiliates to promote each of your current merchants. What are they:

James: Sign up to Altogether Ads do everything in our power to make you rich! (slightly over 10 works, sorry!).

Lee:  What are your plans for Altogether Digital this year? Which sectors do you have new merchants coming on board?

James: We’re trying not to niche ourselves just yet but are aiming to ensure that we bring on some decent clients and follow our inhouse best practice guidelines – we work on a purely performance basis so it’s in our interests to ensure this is the case.

Lee: And to wrap it up. How are you going to replace Renee? :-(

James: We can’t – she’s irreplaceable! It’s a real shame to see her being kicked out of the country and tried everything we could to get the government to let her stay but I’m sure she will land on her feet back out in Australia after her long stint travelling around Europe (I’m not jealous in the slightest, honest!). For the mean time I’ll be taking a more hands on approach for a while so expect some more phone calls from me asking why you’re not promoting all our merchants, and that goes for everyone reading this blog!

Lee: I'd like to say thanks to James for breaking the boring SEO talk on this blog. Pics of the team would have been nice hey? But I forgot one: When are you going to get a chuffing haircut?!?!

Get A High Quality Score And Pay Nothing!

Or: We're Like Google More Than You Thought!

That's right. If you get your adwords right and you're a service company you could end up paying nothing for a lead!

I've just started a new ppc campaign for Pazang whilst I work on some sector specific SEO for them and noticed that if you've got a high quality score then you'll end up with your contact details as a viewable option.


It all goes back to this immediacy thing I keep harping on about.

But the thing is, us affiliates should be using the same logic in our own sites. I try and do it but as I'm only almost as clever as Google (cough) I don't always manage to find a technical solution to getting my traffic to take the right course of action as soon as possible - and then come back and find an alternative if the first option wasn't suitable.

This is the paradox we have. For SEO we need loads of relevant information. But that information can easily swamp the revenue generating content that we need to line our pockets.

So for me, us affiliates are in exactly the same boat as Google. We invest our resources in creating the most relevant information that attracts users initially and then aims to retain them. And then we try and maximise the revenue obtained per visitor by looking at the performance of each 'advert' over time. You could say, just like Google, we build partnerships with our most important revenue streams.

Also just like the above example, sometimes we have to give things away free if its best for our users - come on, don't tell me you're greedy and you don't have any links to retailers where you don't earn anything - shame on you ;-)

Page Content Means Chuff All? But Wait ...

The Pen is Mightier than the Link

I love it when people are anal about tweaking their KWD from 5% to 5.5% in the hope that it'll move them up a couple of places.

My approach from 11 years of doing SEO (bugger I'm 32 on Wednesday!) is that everything should be natural. Of course I didn't think that when I first started. I was never a spammer on client sites but on my own I'd always "push" the envelope.

But the last week has really proven to me how little page content can play in good rankings.

First off a client (I hope they don't mind me mentioning them anonymously) hired an SEO company in India to improve their rankings. This company produced a whole list of key phrases that they got the client to #1 spot. But the thing is that they weren't totally relevant to the type of people they attracted and were based primarily on anchor text. There was no re-writing of content.

The second experience was that I created two new one page 
sites for two new robots coming out this year. I linked to 
them both from my toy robot blog. But the thing was I loaded 
the same site content on to both domains by mistake.

The upshot was that I ended up ranking #3 for the one word name of that robot with no mention of that 
keyword at all in the visible text or tags of the page. 
(The other site actually ranks #4 and #5 as well).

So some of you may be very quick and jumping to the conclusion that all you've got to do these days is to get a site  and link to it with your target keywords in the anchor text and not really worry about the page content and keyword variation.

Here's some reasons why its important not to do this:

1) Keyword variation will, by definition, help you attract a wider range of visitors. Just looking at my Easter eggs site. I have a range of around 30,000 different key phrases that attract traffic because I focus on thinking of all the phrases that people may search for and build them in naturally.

2) There's no point just focusing on getting people to  your site and then hoping they convert. I've seen this happen with so many sites. The content on your site isn't only there to attract people, but also to convert them into sales. Make sure you encourage those visitors to click on the right links.

3) You've got to think ahead. The search patterns people are using now, won't be the same as they'll be using a few months down the line. Try and predict how these search patterns will change.

4) The quality of your site will determine how likely you will obtain natural, free links. Many affiliates and site owner forget about this. It's not a case of building a site and the links will follow. On many occasions I'll just spend ten minutes seeding a site and then let the links naturally build up. I virtually rely solely on the quality of the content I create to achieve this. Perhaps its because I prefer 
writing than grovelling for links?

5) Of course Google does love unique content. If you're blogging, creating 'label' or 'tag' pages can course no-end of grief. Writing long, unique posts can help you break out of any internal-duplication problem.

6) If you write good, long, interesting posts it also gives Google a greater opportunity to 'theme' your site. This is important and many forget about this factor.

7) If you write good content you give yourself more opportunity to cross link to your other sites or create internal links in a more relevant and useful fashion.

So don't forget the benefits of writing good content - the benefits are there to be seen. Don't be lazy and try and get loads of KW-rich links, its just lazy and are more likely to be devalued in the algo than the content of your pages.

MyVoucherCodes Bad Press - Leopard Attacks Mark Pearson - We Wish?

I remember that many were marvelling at the press coverage MyVoucherCodes was getting in the run-up to Christmas. But you should remember that you're only ever on slip away from falling from greatness.

Now I'm not saying that the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald is a national opinion former, but it's comment made me laugh.

MVC have been expending a fair amount of PR effort promoting their "brand" and they must have thought they were on role. I know about PR because I consult for a PR company and know how difficult it can be to predict how the press would react to a story. But I doubt Mark Pearson thought they could have got bad press from their cheap and tacky sponsorship of two endangered snow leopards at Valentines Day!

The Herald had pretty much the same thoughts as me:

As well-intentioned as this tale of animal loving is, we were a bit concerned that the managing director of MyVoucherCodes, Mark Pearson, chose the following words in support of the project: "Having experienced the beauty of these luxurious leopards first hand, it is mortifying to think that these magnificent cats are within a whisker of extinction".

Now it's the use of word "luxurious" in this context that concerns us the most. We simply don't feel that it's a word one would normally associate with a wild animal unless of course it's wrapped around one's neck as a scarf or is stretched out in front of the fire, looking flat.

We can't help wondering that if the leopard in question gets wind of the fact that the MD has been referring to him as luxurious he may well wrap himself around the unfortunate orator's neck, and not with the intention of keeping out the chill either. For that, one requires a wind cheetah.

So hands up if you'd like to see an "affiliate death match"? Mark Pearson V. Snowy Leopard?

The Best Site Review Ever(ish)

I know I'm easily amused at times, but I did an innocuous post about the new KOTA The Triceratops that's due out some time this year. I just thought it'd be an ordinary post, but what I love about the 'net is that you don't always know who'll read your 'work' and what will happen as a result.

Well it was picked up on a forum for people on the Japan Exchange and Teaching program - of course they're my target audience! :-|

I recieve a fair few reviews of my sites, but most are well structured, educational, thought-provoking comments. But it was this one that really made me chuckle on a Saturday morning:

I would have even spent time alone with Creepy Tom the Sex Offender Down the Street for one of these when I was five.

The funny thing was that it drove a fair amount of traffic :-D

What's the most comical reviews you've had of your sites/blogs?

Webgains Voucher Code System - A Little Deeper

Webgains have launched their voucher codes system and from the looks of it it should be awesome.

The bit I like was in Hero's comment on the forum:

If a voucher exclusive to you has been used in the order, that transaction will be attributed to you overriding cookie data, preventing other affiliates from using your exclusive voucher.

I'm sure there are many affiliates that won't like this! But these are the are the affiliates that shouldn't be in the industry IMHO.

There was a bit that I wasn't fond of though:

"Voucher codes are reported in the Webgains system exactly as the merchant inputs them, in order to avoid problems with case sensitive systems. Please advertise them exactly as they are exported on the Voucher Tool."

as this may make displaying the codes not fit in with the system's requirements. On one of my sites I display them in capitals, I'll have to take a look at the actual implementation of the codes on the sites before I really comment.

But all in all, a fantastic development. Will MVC like it? Will it be a big boon for Voucher code sites if your codes are picked up by others and plastered all over forums by others? That could be an interesting debate!

I'm not sure that its just affiliates that take exclusive codes and transport them around the net.

What happens if I've got a code, someone places it on another site (legitimately) but then another affiliate adds value and then does actually drive the final sale? Is that fair? Well its fairer than some punk affiliate who's ego and greed is too big to respect other affiliate's codes - that's really not fair. And I'm glad Webgains are doing something to about it!

Who else will impliment this strict adoption of Voucher Code use and tracking?

Merchant RSS Feeds: A Win-Win Situation

I started a thread on the A4U Forum about a couple of years ago and not many merchants have added their latest products or top products RSS feeds even still.

But the thing is they help us affiliates promote you more. Here's an example. I wouldn't normally go to Savastore to find new products or reference them in my blogs. But because they responsed on the forum with their feeds I added it to my reader and when I searched for new products within it - up they popped with a new mp3 player.

Now this is a perfect way for you merchants to let us know without any additional effort on your part about what new products you have - its all there in an RSS feed. You can also have a feed of your top offers so discount code affiliates etc can keep on top of them.

I don't know why more merchants haven't responded! It's just so much easier for us all to make more sales. The best example I can find is Gareth from UrbanityStore who added a shed load of latest, featured and sale products - if you can aim for that, you're onto a winner.


So if you do have feed, go over to the A4U Forum and add your feeds! Savastore just got a new active affiliate from doing it!

£10 Boutique - Discounted Women's Fashion - New Client

I've been on a bit of a roll lately and am pleased to announce the signing-up of £10 Boutique.

I'll be managing their Online Marketing which at first will include SEO and then hopefully very shortly we'll be setting-up of an affiliate programme.

What is TenPoundBoutique.co.uk? Well if you take a look at the site you'll find its:

'an online boutique presented in a young up beat fashion magazine format, aiming to bring a fabulous mix of multi purchase fast fashion fixes, premium brands and boutique styles to your doorstep without breaking the bank!'

They have sections such as 3 for £10 where you can get three tops that are normally £5 for £10. They also sell knitwear, leggins, denim, t-shirts, shirts and accessories at very reasonable prices.

But what's more they have an Exclusive boutique of Katharine Hamnett fashion also at discounted prices.

If anyone wants to drop me a line to be notified as the programme is launching then my email address can be found on the right. (n.b. I use spam protection).

Merchants' Plans for the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

I know we've only just got over Valentine's Day and now we're gearing up for Mother's Day and then its Easter ... but what are merchant's plans for creative and offers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

I'm fortunate enough to be ranking very well for some of the search terms. But other than Adsense, I've hardly given it a thought how to monetise it.

People normally go for the HDTVs etc, but I'm looking for stuff more sports related. I know that the athlete's tops aren't as big sellers as football shirts during the World Cup. But what else is there? Are there merchants selling rowing boats?

Am I to hope that some of our team do so well that they start a craze in a less well-known sport and find a merchant that offers that?

I feel its a bit late to go down the travel route with putting extra effort into Beijing hotels or flights ... so I'm really struggling to monetise my good rankings!

Anyone got any ideas? P.s. The site is Visit Olympics. And yes, its not my best!

Thanks Thorntons Chocolates, Buy.at & Nicola White

Just following up from my post on the A4U Forum, I'd just like to say thanks to Thortons, Buy.at and Nicola White (the Buy.at account manager for Thorntons) for organising the delivery of these fantastic Thorntons Easter eggs for me to review!



As I've said, this is what networks are for - working with the affiliate to enable them to "sell" more of their merchants' wares and build up lasting relationships.

I wonder if Buy.at do "Employee of the Month"? It must be boring Tyson winning them all the time ;-)

A Busy Couple of Weeks - New Clients

Not only did I start doing the SEO / PPC for the contractor tax consultants at ICS but I've also started doing the social media optimisation for the site where businesss angels find companies seeking investment - Angels Den (Sorry Stephen :-( ) but have started to do the same with the new start-up, Walk Talk Tours. For Walk Talk I do the SMO, PPC and manage the affiliate programme which is just to launch soon - they've already got a company doing their SEO and linkbuilding, so I won't be getting involved directly there.

It's all great stuff with other clients in recruitment, estate agency, education, financial services and other areas. Keeping me damn busy! :D

Oh yeh, and we also launched the new Pazang website, where I do the e-PR bit. I don't work with TipJobJob.com, the PR team does, but we have a good range of clients already on board.

A4U Awards - Should I Enter?

Ok, so I've not really caught up with the arguments about how the awards are being voted on this year. I've been a tad too busy.

Should I bother enter the "Best Affiliate Blog of 2008" or shouldn't I as it'll go to the blog with with the greatest number of readers and who plaster "vote for me" all over it?

Or should I enter in the belief that'll be judged on merit and I can be assured that when I loose, it would have been a fair contest?

By the way, my vote would go to either Paul or Fraser as they raise real issues, affecting real affiliates and don't use it merely as a way to masturbate their ego. Just my opinion.

Play.com To Offer Music Download Affiliate Programme?

It looks like Play.com will be offering their own DRM-free music download store in the near future.

It seems they'll be under-cutting iTunes between 19p for top 100 singles and 9p for the rest. Alumbs in the top 100 will be £6.99 and the rest will be 'dynamically' priced.

So will they be offering a affiliate programme for this new service? They better had do as with the commission rates they can afford to pay at the moment, we need to squeeze every bit of value out of each visitor we send.

But when they decided to pay 0% on consoles a couple of years ago, I doubt they'll be inclined to offer great commission rates.

Mobiles.co.uk - Valentines Offer @ 17:25 The Day Before!

I normally plan ahead, usually a good year ahead if I can. I used to leave things too late and I'd get caught out. So a couple of years ago I'd thought I'd skip 6 months of opportunities and go for the long-term stuff.

So it makes me chuckle, added with a bit of annoyance when I see Mobiles.co.uk sending out Valentine's offers at 17:25 the day before Valentines!


I know it wasn't an affiliate communication. But even still you can't get next day delivery from them at 17:25 surely?

But there's been loads of affiliate communications that don't leave us affiliates much time.

At 9.22 this morning I had an email from TuiFly's affiliate team saying:

"Valentine's Day is right around the corner and TUIfly.com makes it easy to please your Darling."

Come on!!!

I don't mind the "last minute to buy" emails like The Beauty Room did yesterday evening - hopefully this'll remind affiliates to push stuff harder and then remove on time?

Even the Buy.at / M&S "Promote M&S This Valentines" was a bit late in my opinion being sent on 1st Feb.

Us content/SEO affiliates look at things way ahead and we'll like more communication about what your plans are so we can allocate the time and resource to make a great job promoting you.

For instance, I started working on my Easter eggs site in earnest at the begining of the year, about three months before the event. This has given me the time to talk to the relevant merchants, find out what their plans are and allocate resources.

Can more merchants focus on giving us more preperation time before these big events :-)

Information Required: New Client

I've started working with ICS in the past week, managing their PPC and SEO, they basically offer IR35 accountancy services as well as financial/operational advice for independent contractors.

I know a number of contractors read this blog, so I was wondering if any of you use these services and what you think of them?

I'm about to embark on sorting the site out in terms of its SEO, usability and conversion-optimisation tactics, but thought some of you may have some insights as you use similar services?

Any feedback would be most welcome.

I Love It When I'm Right! Duplicate Title & Meta Data

I was just looking over a client's Webmaster tools account and found a new menu item: "Content Analysis".

Now its a pretty large site, proably around 100,000 pages and last year I worked to make sure as many of them had unique page titles and meta data as possible. Even though the client was dubious about paying the developers to implement my suggestions. But we proceeded and by the looks of their data I've only got about 1% to go! But its great to have the inforamtion to hand to show the developers and say "we ain't done yet!".



What I love is that they highlight the issues that you may be having, especially Duplicate title tags, Duplicate meta descriptions and short meta descriptions.

Now its time to check over all my SEO client's sites - and there was me thinking I'd have a night off.

You may want to check it out for yourself, its under "Diagnostics".

Lastminute.com Founders Launch Furniture Affiliate Site

Ah they're doing something with their money!

I've not had a good look around it but Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox are involved with Mydeco.com.


If not had a good look round it yet, but there is a good review at e-consultancy.com.

I've seen some pretty big brands go all affiliate recently including the Guardian with their Eco store. Not sure what's going on! Not only do we have a couple of dodgy discount code sites with their iframes (not all discount code sites are nasty) and now we got even bigger people to compete against?

Nobody Here But Us Chickens

Well I've have had a couple of manic weeks and not really posted on here.

I've been doing a load of client work - taken on three, or is it four new clients. I've also been helping some affiliates offline and have been adding loads of content to some sites.

So what's been going on then?

I've caught bits and bobs of news when peeps ping me with the info.

So Buy.at have been bought out buy AOL, a huge brand buys out the brand sellers. Sorry couldn't not say it. I do admit Nicola White has been very helpful there in relation to one of my sites - so thanks!!

Wasn't there something about the A4UAwards and weren't some not happy that it wouldn't be a totally inclusive event - or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

There's been the rejection by Yahoo! of the MSN offer - to be honest, I don't really care, other than how it effects my clients.

So has it been an interesting couple of weeks - well nah! Boring!

Search Logic Closing

I was hoping that all the troubles could be sorted as there's some great people there, but this week the Search Logic staff were made redundant and this email was sent round just moments ago:

Dear Affiliate,

I am writing to inform you that it is with regret that Search Logic plc is closing the Affiliate Network. The reason behind this decision is that the Network has not been growing at a sustainable rate despite the best efforts of all staff involved and as such we have decided to focus the direction of Search Logic on our primary online marketing services of SEO, PPC and Website Development.

All existing active campaigns will be closed on February 29th 2008 to enable you to have reasonable time to remove any banner advertisements from your website by this date. All commissions will include any cookie activity as per the 30 day time period and will be paid out electronically using the bank details supplied through your Affiliate Control Panel Log-in upon receipt of full funds by the advertiser for the activity. Should you have any questions relating to this then please do not hesitate to contact accounts@searchlogic.com.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and wish you all the best for your future dealings with Affiliate Networks.

Kind regards

Simon Cleaver

CEO
Search Logic plc

My own view is that it could have been a success, but just like the Premiership, people couldn't wait.

In Memory: The Busby Babes

I've been a United fan for 28 years now. I've witnessed the highs of winning countless trophies and the lows of the barren years. But there's one thing that stays with me through-out, and that's the memory of those that died on that fateful day 50 years ago.


Roger Bryne, 28; Mark Jones, 24; Duncan Edwards, 21; Tommy Taylor, 26; Eddie Colman, 21; Liam Whelan, 22; David Pegg, 22; Geoff Bent, 25.

As well as Walter Crickmer, Club secretary; Bert Whalley, Chief Coach; Tom Curry, Trainer; Alf Clarke, Journalist; Don Davies, Journalist; George Follows, Journalist; Tom Jackson, Journalist; Archie Ledbrooke, Journalist; Henry Rose, Journalist; Eric Thompson, Journalist; Frank Swift, Journalist; Capt Kenneth Rayment, Co-Pilot; Bela Miklos, Travel Agent; Willie Satinoff, Supporter; Tom Cable, Steward.

Greatness is often an over-used phrase. Duncan Edwards was probably the best player ever and Harry Gregg with Bill Fawlkes are giants among men for their actions of saving many lifes by dragging them out of the reckage and then playing just 13 days later.

I'm just glad that we're playing football today that would have made all those players proud. The legacy lives on!

The Joy Of Blogging - Saying What You Like!

Giving Product Feed Faffing The Bird

I used to faff around with product feeds, I used to get stressed trying to work out how to used Tradedoubler's content units, I used to get pee'd off trying to make sure that my internal navigation was right with the hand-built Dreamweaver sites and I used to get fooked off ppc'ing to merchants that decided not to pay for sales for products they said were in stock on their site but weren't actually there.

Now I have the joy of blogging and its so much a relief! I can write about stuff that interests me and I can monetise them using tools like the Affiliate Window & Buy.at content units, a bit of Adsense, deep links from those networks that make it easy and few other bits and bobs.

Writing posts like Capello Gives Robinson The Bird may not be cutting edge affiliate marketing, but its slightly satisfying.

Why do affiliates spend hours faffing with product feeds when they can simply jot down their opinions and collate some information, add a few links and bamm - you're done.

Is it too early for a beer? Enough work done today.

p.s. Google are down with the homies! They're very clever you know!

The End Of Price Comparison Or Just Google's Love Affair With Them?

Sometimes I use price comparison sites to find products to add to my blogs, and this got me thinking about how useful they are to the general internet user.

I wish I had more information about the source of their traffic. But it looks like they're getting used less and less. Has Google lost its love affair with listing Kelkoo et al or have people decided that if they just don't like them any more?

Well, I remember when Kelkoo used to have over 1.5 million pages in the Google index, now they only seem to have 33,000. Comparestoreprices used to have well over a million (I think) and they're down to 861,000. But look at dealtime, they have over 13 million pages indexed. MyVoucherCodes have 54,900 as they now play on their voucher codes success and links by adding product feeds.

If you look at the chart, the traffic is falling, and despite a huge jump from Dealtime, which I believe co-incides with the increase in indexed pages - I think these sites really need to revist their seo and offering to the users.



But can affiliates learn anything from this? Well, I use the Shopwindow service solely as a way to refer users to products and not as a site in itself. I much prefer to hand-pick products and review them individually - and I feel this is the way forward. There are many blogs out there that are making shit loads (including a couple of mine) and they use the same methodology. Google loves unique content, users love it too, and so do those who have the ability to create links and use social bookmarking tools.

I wonder if the same will happen to discount code sites as they attract more and more affiliate attention. Google will start to spot duplicate content and offer codes just as they did years ago with the generic shopping sites and price comparison sites.

So get typing!

A look Back At January 2008

I was mentioning the other day (in the future as I'm looking back) that I don't often do blog posts about non afiliate stuff - but I love downloading music so thought I'd post about the Amazon music store.

I also talked about how stupid internet users can be when discussing my brother's site - there are some numpties out there (not all of them are in affiliate marketing!)

I made a post about something that is dear to my heart - the ease (or lack of) of creating deeplinks with some networks. Networks are making a move on this - at last!

I've turned the corner. Last year I was a negative poster - now I'm a positive one. And iiRobotics was the victim of my joyness in January.

This sun and light approach also saw Google be nicely cuddled! And even Advanced MP3 Players gave me some joy!

But I wasnt' too happy when people started to copy me! I'd like to see someone try and copy this blog's style! It did ok in 2007 - but not great, although I did learn a fair amount. One of the first things is that you can't expect merchants to be deliver within a few days all the time.

Ah but that wasn't about the discount code website I was asking for your opinion on after going PPC free and getting engaged!

I started evengalising the industry to others so had to create a list of affiliate networks for them to sign up with. Shame some of them can't buy some of my domains for sale :-(