Google Ban
by: apmfree
Life on the otherside
Would you cheat if your Affiliate Manager gave the OK
today while surfing the net doing my usual research in the affiliate marketing space i came across a few blogs post where a CEO sent out a newsletter encouraging affiliate to use any means possible to get the sales in.. basically saying cheat if you have to. below is a short sample of the newsletter.
Are you ready for a kickass affiliate newsletter? I hope so.
I’m [Name here], the founder and president of [Company Name here] — We are the company that owns and runs [URL here] and 9 other retail websites. I’ve temporarily taken over duties as the affiliate marketing manager. I’ll only be doing this for a couple of months, so I figured I could do it my way.
I’m a straight shooter, I’m not very politically correct, and I sell weird shit for a living, so expect some unusual things in these newsletters…
Today’s newsletter is going to be a good beginning. 4 Things Affiliate Can Do To Get More Traffic
1. Create some … content…
2. Use every opportunity to optimize your site…
3. Let other people know about your site…
4. Cheat — That’s right, I’m telling you to take every shortcut you can. Why, because you are an affiliate, you have very little to lose. I would cheat if I could, but I’ve got a warehouse, 11 employees, three kids, and a building mortgage to pay. I also can’t change my domain name overnight. I have to follow the rules. You do not. So use the strategy du jour to create link farms, buy forum links, pay people to write phony reviews. I don’t care what you do and no one else does either. Make your money now before Google figures it all out. Then, if you get banned, try something else…
i see alot of responses to this newsletter from people in this industry condeming such a stance. in my own opinion this probably happens alot more behind close door.. there was a recent case with Ebay and there no.1 affiliate Shawn Hogan, who is the man in charge of digital point solutions and is currently being sue by Ebay for Cookie stuffing. Even though it was Ebays idea in the first place .. my point being is that money makes people greedy and greed can corrupt even the uncorruptable… Business is a dog eat dog world to stay on top you have to do shady things sometimes.. im sure lots of companies do bad stuff..but most dont get caught doing them.
You know what.. i like his attitude he has balls and i like that!!!!!
I’ve Become a SuPEr AfFiliaTE
I been working as an affiliate marketer for a few years now, though only until now i wouldnt have considered myself successful at it. During my struggles i always wondered how other affilaites get on and how many of them make it!
I started to look around for some statistics regarding the affiliate industry. The most recent published Affiliate census i found on the internet was done in 2009 by Econsultancy. This report composed from 1000 UK affilaites painted in interested landscape on the affiliate industry.
SOme interesting stats i found is that only 18% of those surveyed where female. though as i suspect the industry is still mainly male orientated.
38% of those surveyed were self employed affiliates, that puts me in that group.
One statistic i was interested in was regarding earnings, i was very interested to see the spread across the industry and where i was in that. According to the report 9% considered generating over £20,000 – £50,000 per month in sales would be classed as a SUPER AFFILIATE. 17% considered generating over £50,000 to be in the SUPER AFFILIATE class.
Now if that is the defining level for a SUPeR AfFilIATE then Bloody Hell.. im like a SUPER AfFilIaTE!!!
Ok well if you want to see more graphs and charts then check out the Affiliate Census 2009
http://www.affiliatewindow.com/documents/merchants/documentation/Affiliate_Census_2009.pdf
Win £1000 with Ebuyer.com
Ebuyer is one of my favourite online stores to get geek stuff. Recently they have a new competition to win £1000 in ebuyer credit.
I decided to try out my luck for the month of October. Im gonna see if i can win £1000 refering as many people as i can for the site. This sort of thing is right down my ally since the process of refering a friend is in essence affiliate marketing.My exact strategy will be disclosed next month … that is if i win.
Why Onlive Cloud gaming isnt for me!
Recently Onlive has launched in the UK with its Cloud gaming service. I signed up with their free account not really having any preconcieved ideas about what the service would be like. Now With their free accounts you can only demo a select number of games they have availible and the demo sessison last 30 minutes.
The first game i demo’ed on the Onlive platform was Dirt3. Loading was relatively quickly however you soon notice once the game gets started, is that the graphic quality just isnt quite what i hope for. Game play was like as if it was being played on your own system but there was a couple of cases even on my 50mb fiber optic line there was abit of stuttering.
So do i think Cloud gaming has any threat to traditional PC gaming, I actaully dont think so. I think Cloud Gaming will appeal to some but in this early stages its just not for me yet. Until Full HD quality gaming is availiable and being able to move to south korea i think Cloud gaming has still time to mature.
Zopa – Peer to Peer Lending
I came across Zopa just under a year ago. The idea behind Zopa is simple and yet innovative. The basic idea behind the site is that you can lend out money up to £20,000 and set your own rate. Or if your a borrower you can borrow directly from lenders cutting out the greedy banks. Now thats such a great idea!!!
Since Zopa is dealing with other peoples money, those that borrow money are credit checked to an inch of their lives to the extent that i would say its harder to be accepted for a loan on this site without a near perfect credit score. But with that those that do get accepted are given much lower rates of interest.
For those interested in lending money like myself there was question that needed answering. Such questions like is my money safe? and if i lend how do i know ill get my money back? From the information on the site it indicates that in both cases the answer is yes, as Zopa using the same risk assessment and precautions banks do when lending money. if by any chance there is late or no payment, they deal with the logistics of debt recovery.
Currently i have just alittle under £1000 lent out at average of 8% as an experiment, and as time goes on i fell more confident to increase that lending. if your interested in a completely different assest class to your normal investments then i recommend you give Zopa a go. With an average of 8% return its better then any savings account!!!
for more information check out Zopa – P2P lending
BlackHat + Tradetracker = €50,000 Fine
I dont often read terms and conditions of Affiliate Networks, but the other day for some unknown reason i found myself checking out Tradetrackers terms. Most of the terms set by the network seem all reasonable until i came to Clause 8.5
8.5 If an affiliate (partially) violates the provisions of Clause 3.15, the affiliate will, without further warning or notice of default and without the need for judicial intervention, pay TradeTracker an immediately payable penalty of € 50,000/- (Fifty Thousand Euros), without prejudice to TradeTracker’s other rights, such as the right to terminate the agreement or claim damage compensation.
3.15 The affiliate may not in any manner, contribute to creating artificial traffic to the linked websites. The affiliate must immediately notify TradeTracker of all known or suspected improper or wrong use of the affiliate’s links to the TradeTracker website and/or an Affiliate Program, in any manner whatsoever.
Holy crap…now is it me or is that totally unreasonable…. so a warning to all those Blackhat affiliates CAREFUL with Tradetracker!!!
Hello World!!
Welcome to LiveWise.co.uk
This blog is nothing more then my own personal musings. What you read in this blog is mostly true but at times may not be true. It is just up to you to decide what to believe.
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