How I Got Rich

Why being rubbish at Affiliate Marketing sucks

After a slow January, February 2011 hasn’t gotten off to a cracking start. I’m working hard on trying to get links for my sites after two years of neglecting this aspect of affiliate marketing. Up until now my work cycle for a new site went something like this:

• Build domain keyword site
• Add a few pages of content
• Hope site got ranked
• Add a few more pages of content
• See site hasn’t ranked
• Decide niche too competitive and move on

I think most of us in affiliate marketing and SEO land would agree that without back links or adding a shed load of (good) content to a site the chances of getting it ranked are pretty small.

Even though I knew this I still scrimped on adding content and totally pretended back links didn’t exist.

As some of my sites DID rank with little content and no links I figured I’d just been picking the wrong niches.

Perhaps I have been picking the wrong niches but unless I get some links for those sites (and content) I will never really know.

So this year I have been focussing on the links side of things. I’m still adding content but links are taking a priority. In February I am trying a number of different backlinking methods on a few of my sites to see if I can find one or a combination that works. So far I’ve written a few of my own articles and submitted them to article sites. I’ve also had some articles written for me and submitted them. I’ve paid for my sites to be submitted to lots of social bookmarking sites. I’m going to get a load of back links via xrummer to point to my articles. Plus a few other things I’ve stumbled across. Nothing I am trying is ground breaking or unknown but its hard to find out from other people what works or not – mainly because what works for one site might not work for another and also its hard to get people to share sometimes!

This might sound like an ‘if I throw enough mud at a wall some of it might stick’ approach and it is probably is but I want to try a few things as I am really keen to get the ball rolling in 2011.

So what does this have to do with the title of this post? Well as you may know, dear reader, I live out in Thailand at the moment which is great but I just got some bad news from back home about a member of the family. I’d love to go back and see everyone but due to my low income from affiliate marketing I can’t really afford to drop ₤1000+ on a trip home. This does suck but it has spurred me on to get more productive and get more profitable from internet marketing so I am ready the next time something like this happens.

Stay safe.

Paypal Woes

I use Paypal to send money to the people I use to write my content and build link and although the website interface is quite hard to navigate to find things the service itself seems to work ok.

That was until recently when my two main subscriptions to Easy Content Units and Hostgator for my webhosting failed. I retried them but neither was able to take the money and for ECU I had to start a new subscription.

I emailed Paypal support and although they could see that the subscriptions failed they could not tell me why.

Once they continued to fail I got this great response, bear in mind I have had this subscription going for nearly two years now:

Unfortunately, I can neither give you detailed information as to why our
security system has flagged your transaction nor am I able to override
or manually change the security settings. Please be assured that this is
a standard procedure for all transactions going through PayPal and it’s
carried out in accordance with our User Agreement.

I’m not really sure what the point of this post is as there is no alternative to Paypal so they can do what they like and we still have to use them.

I guess the lesson is keep an eye on your emails if you are on holiday as if you miss notifications of your subscriptions failing your hosting account could be suspending which would probably result in a loss of income from your websites not being accessible!

Missing Person – Casper Flagg

Some dude has gone missing from the Affiliate marketing community so this website has been setup to help track him down: Casper Flagg

He went missing in the Bath area on Sunday 27th November.

If you live in the Bath area repost, retweet the link etc.

Fingers crosseed he turns up soon.

First Day In My New Job

Since giving up the day job and moving to Thailand I have been trying to make a go of it with affiliate marketing but as my regular readers will know things didn’t really pan out in the way I had hoped and I’ve not been earning enough to live off out here even with the low cost of living.

Due to this I have started a new job teaching web design in English at a Thai school.  Since Thailand has strict laws on immigration it is only possible to get a work permit for a job a Thai person cannot do and that really only leaves teaching hence the teaching job.  Most people teach English but when I saw this job I thought it would be ideal as it combines something I have done in the past and know a fair bit about (web design) with the requirement to teach.

However the first day nearly broke me and it was touch and go whether I’d make it to the end of the day.  The main reason for this was the kids were so badly behaved and I didn’t have the teaching skills to handle a class of 35 unruly Thai teenagers who had little respect for their farang teacher!

The job is only part-time and I get paid a bit more than the going rate for teaching English and it works out to about £35 a day.  Not a lot for the effort and grief but better than nothing.

The one good thing to come out of this is that it has really spurred me on to make something of my affiliate marketing efforts.

Surely from the 35-40 sites I have it shouldn’t be too hard to make £35-40 a day from them?

At the moment that is too much to ask but I am going to be working like a dog from now on to make it happen.  This weekend I’m staying in and not venturing out or down to the pool even though the sun is out and its nice and hot.

From now on I am going all out to make the dream of giving up the day job a reality!

First Post from my Home Office

Today I decided to setup an ‘office’ in the spare bedroom.  So far since we moved I’ve been working on the sofa in the living room which has been very comfy and I hadn’t even thought about moving until I had a look around the spare room today and realised it would be prefect for a little office.  It even has a desk in already!

So far I have just moved my laptop in but have plans to make it more office-y.  My progress has stalled over the past few months so I am hoping a change of scenery to a slightly more professional environment might help me stay motivated.

I plan to put in a whiteboard behind my laptop so I can write down ideas and targets and maybe even stick up a few inspiring images of a nice car, house or holiday destination.

There is no TV in here which is a good thing as it was too tempting to put it on during the day and watch some Premier League re-runs from the weekend or an old film.  Working in here should keep me focused and on track.  There is even air-con to keep me cool.

Things to get for my new office:

• whiteboard
• post it notes for ideas
• notepad (a paper one)
• speakers for my laptop
• money cat
• cool lamp

Where do you work from?  Purpose built office or wherever you lay your laptop?

As requested here are some photos.  It doesn’t look very inspiring yet but hopefully in a few weeks it should look more homely.

Greetings from Thailand

Sawadee krap!  I’ve been in Thailand for about four days now (seems a lot longer) and have just got the  Internet setup in the apartment.  It’s very hot and humid here so the air-con is coming in handy!

I’m planning to stay out here for a while and live off my earnings from Internet marketing.  I’ve got a few debts from back home to pay off which is a bit of a shame as it means I will need to earn more than I would’ve done from affiliate marketing but the cost of living here seems pretty cheap so far so I should be ok.  My goal for September was to earn £500 a month which is about 28,000 bhat.  This should be enough as long as I don’t go to too many western-type places or buy too many gadgets (I’ve already succumbed to a fake mini iPhone).  By Christmas I will be aiming for £1000 a month from affiliate marketing and if I don’t make that will probably have to  get a part-time job.

Anyone got any recommendations of things to see and do in Bangkok?

Samsung NC20

I finally got my netbook.  In the end I went for the Samsung NC20.  This is a ‘larger-screen netbook’ and it has a 12.1″ screen as opposed to the 9″ and 10″ screens more commonly found on netbooks.  It has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 which again is bigger than most other netbooks on the market.  The downside of this extra screen space if of course a heavier and larger netbook but I was pretty sure the smaller resolutions would not be practical and a smaller netbook would end up not being of as much use as I hoped it would.

Samsung NC20

I’ve had it a day now and I am used to the smaller keyboard already.  The right shift key is quite short but I am now hitting it every time as I type.  The Windows key and the right-click key have been swapped over for some reason which is a bit annoying but what can you do?

So far I am very happy with it.  The battery seems to last for five hours so it will be perfect for taking out with me in the day and doing some work from various locations.  I think five hours of work will be enough!

The Samsing NC20 comes with 1gb of ram but I have also ordered a replacement 2gb stick of ram but at the moment it is doing everything I ask of it without complaining but I have yet to install Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

If you want a very portable laptop for a reasonable price I can’t recommend the Samsung NC20 enough.

Samsung NC20

I’m now on Twitter

Being a bit anti-social networking I’m a bit late to the party but I’ve signed up with twitter as I think it might be useful to have an account to follow other affiliates and keep up to date with all that is going on in the world of SEO, AM and PPC.

I can be found at http://twitter.com/affking (affiliate king; lame I know but I couldn’t think of anything else).  I will be using this account for mainly affiliate marketing purposes so if you do follow me you shouldn’t have to read about what I had for breakfast and stuff like that (although I make no promises!).

Anyone got any good affiliate marketing twitterers to recommend?

Which Netbook?

I went into town today and whilst I was there I had a look at the netbooks that are currently available.  I’ve had my eye on a netbook ever since the first ASUS Eee PC came out.  The screen on that one was too small but as more netbooks were released I got more interested.

From the reviews I’ve read and the products I’ve seen in the stores the Acer netbooks and the Samsung netbooks seem to be the leaders of the pack.  Although that first ASUS netbook cost around £200 the newer ones can cost as much as £350 which is almost the price of a full-sized laptop.

The Samsung netbooks get the better reviews but are higher priced whilst the reviews for the Acer Aspire One netbooks are almost as good but cost a little less.  But the choice isn’t as clear as Samsung vs Acer as both have many netbooks with more appearing all the time.  The main Samsung netbooks seem to be the NC10, the NC120 and the new NC310.  But there is also the NC110 and the NC120.  The NC310 looks the best and has a rubber looking case with rounded edges and comes in an array of colours.  It also has the scrabble type keyboard which is pretty nice to type on.  There doesn’t seem to be much difference between the Samsung NC10 and the Samsung NC120 apart from the latter costing about £50 more.  All three have 10″ screens.

The Acer Aspire One netbooks are a bit cheaper and have the same spec as the Samsungs although the Aspire One 751 has an 11.6″ screen and a reported 7 hour battery life which would be nice to have on the road.

My main concerns are battery life and screen resolution.  As an affiliate the main task I will be doing on it, apart from web browsing and email, will be web design and the odd bit of logo design.  Due to this my main priority is screen resolution which doesn’t seem to be mentioned in most of the specifications for these netbooks.  I use my current laptop with a resolution of 1280 x 800 which is good enough for me at the moment.

I’m still not sure which one to get.  I am currently using a 4 year old Acer laptop with a 13″ screen which is still working well although a little short on disk space and a well worn down battery. Do I spend £350 on the Samsung or Acer and have it as a replacement to my current laptop or go for a cheap Asus Eee PC netbook for under £200 that I can take around with me and not worry too much about damaging or losing.  When I go away next month I plan to do a lot of work on the road, away from home so perhaps something a bit cheaper might be best.

Have you got a netbook?  Which one have you got and how do you find it?  What do you use it for?  It would be good to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for the comments.  Then general consensus seems to be that the screens as too small to do anything practical on the netbooks.   Since finding that out I’ve been looking at the Samsung NC20 which has a 12.1 inch screen and resolution of 1280 x 800 which is the same as my 13 inch screened laptop.  It retails for about £350 so I will definitely be considering it.  Anyone used one?

Blogroll and Links Added

I was having a bit of trouble with adding the links widget to this theme in WordPress but have now resolved it.

This means you can now see the links I have added to this blog.  The blogroll contains links to other affiliate marketing blogs I read and there are also links to other sites I have found useful or interesting.

You can find them on the right side of the page a bit further down.