David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Like a Blue Peter Tracy Island, here's a sticky back plastic version of Pay Per Click. (incidentally, I've got a Blue Peter badge so I am qualified to give out this advice!)

It may not suit everyone but I'd appreciate your thoughts and comments on this.
 
STEP ONE

Buy a domain name. Preferably a three or four lettered one. A maximum of six letters I suppose.

Go for something like "abc" or "poi" or "qpafd".

If it's a proper word, great! If it's not, don't worry.

Here's one I made earlier: http://www.dbfcs.co.uk

Means something to me but nothing to you. That doesn't matter.

STEP TWO

Have a brew! The chances of you finding a good combination of letters in Step One are slim so relax! Rest your head.

STEP THREE

Create an index page. This is a page that explains what it is you will be doing (i.e. "showcasing the best UK websites").

Incidentally, DBFCS is the name of my website design company, so it doesn't display what I've just said above. I only used the name www.dbfcs.co.uk as an example.

Put a bit of effort into creating this index page. It needs to look professional (don't go over the top and pay £1,000 for it. If you are paying for it, pay no more than £20.) as this is what affiliate networks will judge you on when you apply to each affiliate program.

STEP FOUR

Create about 5 dummy pages. Dummy in the sense that they don't contain affiliate links. Link to Amazon (affiliate links available if you wish) and some other websites like Focus DIY, Time Computers, Morrisons, Clinton Cards and McDonalds.

It is important you choose substantially different companies as it shows a wide range of your website. If you choose 5 hotel websites, the chances are you will be rejected when you apply to Car Insurance programmes.

Link to these pages from your index page.

Make everything look nice and fancy on your index page when you add the links.

STEP FIVE

Apply to some affiliate programs.

It makes more financial success to go for the ones that either pay a lot percentage-wise or ones that pay a fixed sum.

STEP SIX

Sit back and wait (and wait and wait and wait)

STEP SEVEN

Create a page with your affiliate links. Take http://www.dbfcs.co.uk/thorntons.htm as an example. I created that in less than a minute. It shows. It's a far way from nice and fancy, but needs must. There is time later to make it fancy. At the end of the day, your aim is to push visitors to the intended site.

STEP EIGHT

Here comes the clever stuff!

Google AdWords now charges based upon your click through, your ad relevancy and your ad quality.

So, you may have a great advert (see mine below) and great ad relevancy but if your landing page is far from good, Google will charge you more.

So, for Thorntons, I would use an advert similar to:

Mothers Day Chocolates
Luxury Premium Chocolates
Free Delivery On Orders Over £25
Dbfcs.co.uk/Thorntons

Whether I could use the term Thorntons anywhere in my ad would be explained on the network's site so worst comes to the worst, it would be forward slash Chocolate.

The relevancy of my landing page can be determined with the AdSense Preview Tool for Internet Explorer

Bearing in mind this is a brand new page created in under a minute, look at the AdSense results.



I think you would agree that it must be highly relevant to get those ads showing.

All that is left to do is generate a good set of keywords and to monitor performance.

STEP NINE

Repeat over and over again.

SUMMARY

Like I said at the top, this is a basic guide but it provides the framework for developing good quality landing pages, according to Google. Plus, get the SEO side of it sorted and you should hopefully get some organic traffic too.