


Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Celebrate Life
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Journalisum News
On the whole, it caught the main points. While it's not how I would have presented it (specifically the graphic) but I guess they had to get the redundency thing in somehow (technically being the opposition to Hold the Front Page, which is a Northcliffe side-line). Anyway, I've been asked to write a 'Comment Piece' for their site, which I'll cross post here, in the next few weeks.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Pizza Pi(e) of Rassilon [from iPhone]
Being Pi day, and my birthday tomorrow (42, I *am* the answer to the ultimate question), the loverly @SparklyJem spend 2hrs in the kitchen trimming Montery Jack into shape and creating the mother load of cool pizzas for a few assembled guests.
The 'piesta resistance' being this, the Pizza of Rassilon (additional 'Dalek bread' not shown). Home made pizza dough. Home made pizza sauce. More pics (inc. creation process) on Facebook and Twitpics.
My idea of a prefect birthday cake :-)
Monday, March 09, 2009
Plugging Wyoming

Sunday, March 08, 2009
WTF is 'Affiliate Marketing'?
It must be one of the new buzz words going around.
I was asked by a client the other day "Do you do affiliate marketing?". I said yes, it was something I could sort for them on blogs etc. to get a token gesture ROI back on their campaign, then I was asked "Er, great, what is affiliate marketing?". Despite the familiarity of the phrase, it's still true that a lot of folks are just not aware of what it is and what this 'type of marketing' is all about.

It never really dawned on me that the door swung both ways. It does. Both sides are getting something from this arrangement, and it pays to play both sides. "Endorse me and I'll give you a cut, but if I don't sell what they want then I'll do the same for you". While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.
For me, in my halsian SEO days, it was also a bit of grey-hat cheeky spamdexing too. A way to get your site ranked for selflessly (textually) linking out to related topics. All good stuff, but incredibly time consuming. Things, thank heavens, have changed.
A lot of people are enticed with affiliate marketing. It looks easy money and business can be run from the convenience of the laptop. There are, in fact are a number of programs and information that can help you get started should you be tempted.
Here’s a few I’ve tried at different times:
Advertising | The PPC everyone wants. I’ve done my time in the trenches on this one. I ran the 2nd biggest campaign in the UK for a year (shudders). | |
Review | Get paid to blog reviews of products. | |
Advertising | Links are sold ‘in an area of your site’. | |
Advertising | Textual linking from your articles, a personal favourite I’ve included on some BIG clients sites. Not usable with Blogger, alas. | |
Advertising | Ad banners, links, etc for your site. | |
Advertising | Integrate ads into your pictures. Can be fiddly. | |
Commission | Sell items from ebay. | |
Commission | Sell items from Amazon. Good click-through rates in my experience. | |
Commission | Show ads on your site based on direct bids. |
Anyone can add this kinda thing to their blog or site, and I recommend you do. If you have good content that brings in traffic, this is a perfect small revenue stream that soon accumulates. It’s not something I really do any more, but it’s certainly something you should consider to make a few pennies back. Writing good content should be rewarded, and if no one else is going to do it you may as well do it for yourself. If you have a niche topic, so mush the better for targeting.
Put it this way, this blog is about nothing. Jack, nada, bupkiss. Zero except my momentary rantings, and it's made between £15 and £65 a month on AdWords for the last 4 yrs. That's a lot of long-term Scooby Snacks for sweet FA.
Optimising this stuff to get max coverage is a hardcore dark art, and alas I’m a different kind of wizard (the 1d4 hit points kind) even though the merchant side of AdSence (AdWords) is probably still second nature. All the optimization of a big campaign isn't really your problem though, and not really needed where your just directing traffic and not paying for click-throughs (we're not The Daily Mail lets face it). The only tactic you need to consider is getting genuine visitor value in your keyword rich content and keep on trucking your SEO etc. Anyone can use affiliate marketing nowdays, and in moderation how's it gonna hurt?
So, WTF is affiliate marketing?
It's money in the bank and easyer than you think ;-)
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Saturday Morning Watchmen
Got together for a geek tweet-up to see Watchmen at the midnight showing last night, and WOW. Okay, it's really, really, really, good. Alas, to these fanboy eyes, it's just shy of making the grade to excellent for reasons of cannonicity.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Social Media Rap (Online for Hours)
The infamous SEO Rapper turns the spotlight on to Social Media this month. If you don't know Mo Serious, aka @chuck, then you should check him out.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Social Media Marketing Overview
A good simple over view of Social Media Marketing by @perrybelcher.
Check out his other stuff at his blog, and thanks for popping by.