David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Articles About Website Revenue Streams

16/04/08 - The Taxman Wants A Share

It's that time again when the tax return has to be submitted. I was expecting a paper form but this year I received a one page letter encouraging me to submit my return online.

I did this last year and it was a breeze compared to the paper form. I've tapped in my rough figures and it's done all my calculations for me instantly. that's when I discovered the tax man wants a fairly large chunk of my earnings! More

06/12/07 - Tell Me Why Your Cancelling Commissions

It is 2007 and as of yet, some networks are incapable of actually passing information through to affiliates. Some have taken the bull by the horns and actually tell you why commission is cancelled. As far as I'm aware, Affiliate Future do as does Paid on Results. My bug bear is with DGM today. More

22/11/07 - Understand Your Visitors And Market To Them (Blended With Top Gear And A Motorhome)

I run a site that generates mostly AdSense revenue. It accounts for a substantial amount each year. However, I've always found it difficult to monetise because it's in a very tight niche.

I took a punt at adding some loans merchants to the site on the basis that a lot of my traffic are looking for jobs and training. More

05/11/07 - Are You Forgetting To Target Your Market?

Sometimes your stats throw up some useful information. I could spend hours going through the keywords lists mine generate (popular one's this month so far include several voucher code phrases including "my hmv promo voucher doesnt work" - quality!)

Anyway, when I set up Price Tapestry Templates, I set everything in GBP. Why? Because I live in the UK. However, after checking a few months of stats, over 75% of my visitors are outside of the UK. More

19/10/07 - Which Is Better - Books or Car Insurance?

Time to help sort out another dichotomy in the world of affiliate marketing - is it better to chase the big bucks or is it better to chase the smaller bucks? More

03/10/07 - Will Cashback Sites Commit Suicide?

Sounds a bit dramatic but will the success of cashback sites be their own wrongdoing? Here's why I think that if cashback sites aren't careful, they are at risk of killing themselves unless they adapt and evolve. More

12/09/07 - Successful Affiliate Business Models

I thought it would be interesting to develop a who's who of affiliate marketing (in the UK) and where they are making their money.

I will also take a look at each business model and offer my opinion on it.

I will be using my affiliate marketing blogroll as a source of UK marketers. More

01/09/07 - Diversification My Friend, Diversification

Ever since I started in affiliate marketing, I have always had one thing in mind: diversification.

Read through the AdSense forums on the web and you'll read the same thing time and time again - "don't rely just on AdSense. the phrase about eggs and one basket comes to mind. More

31/08/07 - Going After The Big Bucks

I was asked to run a time limited campaign on Compare Sat Nav for an insurance product tht offered a tie into sat nav systems (visit the site and you'll see who I'm talking about). After a few days, I've checked my stats and noticed something interesting. More

27/08/07 - It's A Long Hot Summer

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed a drop in sales but I have and I'm blaming the Summer. What with people jetting off to Benidorm or simply lounging out in that rare thing we call sun, there are less people flexing their credit cards.

I suppose that some of my sites are seasonal and Summer for me is a low point for these sites. More

15/08/07 - Thank You Auctionchex.com

After reading this A4U Thread about VAT and Google Adwords, I reclaimed a nice wad of cash. OK, maybe not that nice as it was only $25!

The problems came when I tried to cash a US Dollar cheque in the UK. More

09/07/07 - Website Revenue Analysis

I haven't done an analysis for a while so I thought I would write one - oh, and I've just made my first sale on Hotel Room UK so I'm quite chuffed at that! More

29/06/07 - AdSense Just Got Better

Google AdSense just got better!

They've introduced more referral products and rounded adverts! More

22/06/07 - Does Anyone Use ClickBank As An Affiliate?

I'm just skimming through Revenue Magazine as recommended by Fraser Edwards and noticed an advert for ClickBank.

It got me thinking - are there many affiliate marketers who promote (and prosper from) Clickbank's products? More

01/06/07 - Tax Doesn't Have To Be Taxing

So they say but this year I have the pleasure of a 'Long Tax Form'. The last couple of years have been the nice and simple 'Short Tax Form'.

Mind you, it only happens once a year. Nope, still as painful as always! More

23/05/07 - Credit Where Credit Is Due?

A bit of a rant here but nevertheless, still valid.

I dropped a cookie, made a sale and will never receive the commission for it. More

14/05/07 - I've Signed Up To The Digital Point Forum

I'm trying to break away from A4U Forum (incidentally, a new version should be live this afternoon) and have registered over at Digital Point.

It's a bit more restrictive than A4U, what with infractions, etc. Hopefully A4U won't go that way. We'll see! More

11/05/07 - Commission Junction and Argos

I'm a little bit annoyed and a little bit curious.

Visit www.argos.co.uk and everything's fine. Use this affiliate link and you get this: More

30/03/07 - Lost Commissions?

I've just noticed that some of my affiliate links I use are in the format weblink?u=[pub_id]&p=123&.....

The thing is I've not changed the [pub_id] by accident and have used these links on a high footfall website. More

30/03/07 - White Label Cashback Site

The people behind Greasy Palm has now set up White Label Cashback.

This means that affiliates can tap into the established systems used by Greasy Palm to have a fully managed white label cash back site. More

26/03/07 - Calling All Affiliates Who Are Footie Fans

I've just had an email from OMG which may interest football fans in the land of affiliate marketing.

"MBNA are delighted to offer you the chance to win 2 tickets to see Aston Villa play Everton at Villa Park on Saturday the 31st March. " More

14/03/07 - Am I An Affiliate?

The last time I looked, I was an affiliate.

So why am I having to compete against the merchant of all people? More

13/03/07 - Quick Update

The lack of a post today so far (it's now 1942hrs) suggests I've been busy.

I have been working on How To Solve today plus another site I'm racing to get off the ground.

You see, I had a brainwave (just the one!). More

06/03/07 - Allocating Your Time

Following on in my mini series of deciding which ideas are the most profitable, you have to allocate your time effectively if you are to get anywhere in this industry.

Here's how. More

28/02/07 - Combinations and Permutations

"OK, so you've told us how much money we need to earn each day to create a reasonable living but how easy is it to generate (for example) £100 per day?"

I suppose that would have made for a better post but nonetheless, I'll clear that up now.

What are the calculations for working out how many visitors you need? More

28/02/07 - Making a Living Online

I think to make a living online, you need to be earning £20,000 a year. That's twice the national minimum wage though should be viewed as a starting figure.

This equates to £55 per day. So, you need to earn on average £55 every day from affiliate revenue to realistically live off it. More

22/02/07 - ebuyer Leaving Tradedoubler

Yet another decent affiliate program that is closing.

ebuyer are reducing their commission to a pathetic 0.1% on Saturday 24th March 2007 and then leaving in May.

Congratulations on the advanced warning but I don't see why they are running the program at 0.1% for a month and a bit. More

14/02/07 - Making a Successful Website

So far in this project, I have harped on about creating niche sites.

All good and well but on it's own, it will not necessarily be a successful website.

So what can make or break a site? More

11/02/07 - Build a Niche Store - Ebay Affiliate

I am not sure about this product I have stumbled across: Build a Niche Store. It's not a new product but it is certainly very interesting.

Basically, you tell it an eBay category number and it creates a set of pages based on live eBay results. More

07/02/07 - Credit Cards, Loans, Mortgages and Insurance Products

Here's another site in my portfolio: make us happy.

I have a confession - unlike all the other domains I have used on this project, www.makeushappy.co.uk is not new. SHOCK!

However, before you go shouting about how bad this is, the domain is relatively new (1 year old) and had only ever had 43 visitors in it's entire life. It was in the Google index though as a holding page. More

05/02/07 - Comet to Leave DGM

Comet are leaving DGM and hence will be leaving Compare Sat Nav.

The programme closes on 15th February 2007 and hence will be removed prior to, or on 15th February. More

24/01/07 - Loans and Mortgages?

How depressing is it writing about these?!

I suppose that if you are into you mortgages then it is OK but it is as dull as dishwater to me.

I am not interested in loans and mortgages but I am more than willing t see if I can make some money out of them! More

08/01/07 - I'm Not Convinced about PPC

I have read a few websites about Pay Per Click advertising and I'm not convinced that it will work for my site.

Each sale of a £200 navigation system is worth around £2 (worst case) and at a click through of currently 0.25%, for every 400 visitors, I generate one sale (statistically).

Lets assume that each click on a PPC network would cost £0.03 (approximately $0.05). Using the 400 visitors required above, I would end up spending £12 to generate £2 in commission. More

05/01/07 - Ways to Make Money on the Net

My last post assumes that you are looking to create a website with affiliate advertisements.

For me, affiliate programs have always been exciting yet never successful until recently. I had always had them in the back of my mind but never really exploited them as best I should have done.

I was having a think about other ways I could make some money, besides affiliate marketing. More

20/12/06 - Domain Name Appraisal

This follows on from the other day where I presented a selection of tools to find out how much your website or blog was worth.

Okay, the value they come up may be pie in the sky but it's nice when someone tells you that you and your work are worth a bit of money!

I have stumbled across a domain name valuation tool. Again, it may not be 100% accurate but you never know until you sell the name.

I am not interested in selling any of my names but in the interest of science (?), I have valued three names. More

19/12/06 - A Lesson On Affiliate Marketing

I was reading Multiple Streams of Internet Income: How Ordinary People Make Extraordinary Money Online last night and something was mentioned that intrigued me:

Let the merchant get on with their job, you focus on yours.

So what does this mean? More

16/12/06 - Google AdSense Ads Removed

I have removed the Google AdSense ads as a trial to see whether that will affect the overall number of sales.

I stress that this is a trial only!

The benefits are that the site designs are now identical and that more people are directed off the static content pages and onto the price comparison feature.

Will I put the ads back on? More

14/12/06 - The Importance Of Content Matching Ads

Let's assume you have signed up to some affiliate networks. I am currently using:

• Affiliate Future
• Commission Junction
• Deal Group Media (DGM) - used to be known as UK Affiliates
• Tradedoubler

Let's also assume you have some content of some sort.

How do you go about maximising the amount of revenue these ads earn you? More

13/12/06 - Satellite Navigation First Sale!

Not so long ago I reported that the Google AdSense ads were earning me money (albeit pennies last time I checked).

Now, I have received commission from one of the retailers listed on the site.

How much? More

08/12/06 - Revenue Earning Has Started!

Believe it or not, whilst I am working on the site, there have already been clicks on adverts and as a result, I am currently sitting on a grand total of:

10 PENCE!!!

Not enough to cover the £40 set up fees (so all I need to earn to break even is £20 per year as the hosting and domain name are registered for two years) More

04/12/06 - To Adsense or Not? That Is the Question!

A major question in developing a design is whether to include Google Adsense or not.

The reasons to include Google Adsense are simple. They can create an instant revenue stream for the site as well as update themselves automatically.

So why would I not want Google Adsense? More

01/12/06 - Revenue Analysis

I have purchased web hosting and a domain name. So how much potential is there for a sat nav website?

I created a spreadsheet with all the potential advertisers that I could use. The list is not comprehensive but is adequate for a quick analysis.

The image below shows a screenshot of the spreadsheet. I have blurred the commission as I am not sure whether there is a restriction on this information (I know Google Adsense do not allow their users to display particular financial information). More

29/11/06 - Is There Revenue In Those Niches?

In Lecture 5 we looked at how to derive a niche.

Lecture 6 is all about extending this further and looking at what makes a good niche.

The example that I used last time was inkjet printers. I will continue using that example now. More