Long time no updates, BOB has now launched and has been taking all spare time!
I have a simple aim for this weekend which is to get 10 posts up on BOB, already done 2 so only 8 to go 
Weekend Aims for 10/11th April 2010
April 10th, 2010Get Organised!
March 18th, 2010Just a quick note to say I am adding another daily aim for 18th March 2010 which is simply:
GET ORGANISED
I am a member of all the networks, 100s of merchants and I am starting to get lost, especially as theres lots of merchants that are on 2 or more networks so I am going to organise it all in a nice spreadsheet
To increase profitability I will be organising the merchants by commission rate so I am promoting the highest commissions
Daily Aims – 17th March 2010
March 17th, 2010Haven’t updated for the past few days as I was busy with offline things and didn’t really get a chance to work on any sites/affiliate marketing or this site!
My aims for the 13th and 14th March were:
- Purchase the prizes for the BOB competition draw – not done because I have found them on ebay and need to wait for the auction to end but I have them chosen! They are good 
- Have a total of 10 pages on BOB – Done
- Have at least 1 post in each category (there are 16 categories) – not done
- Have the merchant list completed with all merchants I have been accepted by – not done
- Decide on the weekly feature posts, one for each day of the week! – not done
- Install xml sitemap on BOB and submit to search engines – installed but not submitted as I want something in all categories before I do that
Not very productive on the affiliate marketing side but I own another site with another webmaster and I do all the technical stuff and a few weeks ago we decided to transfer to another server and to wordpress to get higher in search engine, they insisted they would be more proactive on the site once it was transferred, were they? No, I completely wasted my time and I am feeling rather bitter about it actually. Hours that could have been spent on my own sites that have more potential and I dont have to share completely waste it, I’ve completely officially had it with the site and the person in question. Lesson of the day – Dont join forces with other people, you will end up doing all the work yourself.
I have hired a writer for BOB, they are going to write a column based on the products featured on BOB and work on a 25% profit share, using click refs 25% of any revenue gained from affiliate links on their post will go to them. I think this has more advantages than hiring writers by post basis. For a decent article it would cost £5-10, would a single article ever produce £10? If one article therefore produces £100 in commissions and the other 9 earn £0, it would have only cost me £25 for 10 articles, if they all earn £100 each (doubtful but being hypothetical) then yes, it would cost me £250 rather than £100 for the 10 but if the writer is bringing me a huge boost in revenue then dont they deserve that £150 extra? /end ramble.
Daily Aims – 17th March 2010
- Do a page with the merchants listed on it
- Do a post for each category
- Put all the offers from the merchants I am working with that have emailed me this week on the site
- Submit the sitemap
It’s also time to consider ways to promote the site and decide which one I am working on next.
Daily Aims – 13th March 2010
March 13th, 2010I think I have identified a weak point, put I am not sure how exactly to define it. It has taken me a week to do 3 pages of content for BOB, failing every daily aim relating to content writing, not because it’s not something I am good at (heading towards a first class law degree would indiciate to some extent I can write) it’s just, well I dont know really! My problem was deciding what content to put on the site, content that wouldn’t clash with my other sites and leave another site naked because all the good content is on BOB. So is that my weakness? Too many related sites? Not being able to think of “perfect” content? Or always striving for absolute perfection when I should “just do it”?! A solution to these problems combined would simply be just write, if it’s not good enough rewrite it, at least I have some sort of article to start from and develop.
My Daily Aims for 10th March (and 11th and 12th) were:
- Write 5 pieces of content for BOB – 3 done!
– Have at least 15 article titles for content for BOB – done – and almost split equally between the three categories of the site which is great. I did have over 20 article titles in progress on Microsoft Word, my laptop decided to automatically update in the middle of the night and restart therefore losing the document and the auto recovery only recovered the first 2 lines, so that’s something I learnt the hardway – save, save, save!
On a positive note I have now received enough merchant acceptances to be able to start of the affiliate content rather than the content on the static pages.
My Daily Aims for 13th and 14th March (putting these together for the weekend!)
- Purchase the prizes for the BOB competition draw
- Have a total of 10 pages on BOB
- Have at least 1 post in each category (there are 16 categories)
- Have the merchant list completed with all merchants I have been accepted by.
- Decide on the weekly feature posts, one for each day of the week!
- Install xml sitemap on BOB and submit to search engines
As you have noticed I am concentrating mainly on BOB at the minute, once the framework of the site and main articles have been added it will be much easier to update on a daily basis with affiliate posts and I can then start on building backlinks and starting off my mini sites.
How much does affiliate marketing cost?
March 10th, 2010Affiliate marketing appeals to many because of the low start up costs, you dont need staff, storage and daily trips to the post office like a typical internet business and therefore there is little risk.
The costs are dependent on the individual you can use free hosting, no domain and free advertising methods or go all out buy a premium domain, dedicated servers and spend hundreds on ppc and media buying.
I am therefore going to record my spending and keep it under £500, once I have reached this I will not spend anymore until I have recouped it from affiliate revenue. My costs have been as follows:
15 domains x£7.03 – £105.45 (my first thought! wow i’ve spent over £100 on domains!)
Studiopress wordpress theme – £28.59
Woothemes Canvas theme -£48.56
1 year webhosting – £44.99
So in total: £227.59 – almost half of my budget and I haven’t even got a site up yet, hmm.. hope things take a positive turn
Daily Aims – 10th March 2010
March 10th, 2010Well yesterday was a spectacular failure!
Daily aims for 9th March 2010:
- Write at least 5 pages of content for BOB – not done, not even started!
I ended up spending about 2 hours I was supposed to be writing content in looking for domain names, why? I have enough already! I think its an addiction affiliate marketers have, well at least I didn’t buy any!
I think content writing is going to be my main problem when it comes to affiliate marketing, I thoroughly enjoy designing sites, playing around with the coding and css yet cant get motivated to write content, I dont want to outsource as I am perfectly capable of writing I just need to get started then I will be away.
Daily Aims for 10th March 2010
- Write 5 pieces of content for BOB
- Have at least 15 article titles for content for BOB
Hopefully today will be more productive.
Daily Aims – 9th March 2010
March 9th, 2010Yesterdays aim was to:
- Sign up too all networks and merchants I would like to promote for BOB and POP – which is done as much as possible now just have to wait for the acceptances or rejections. Hopefully I haven’t missed any out.
Daily aims for 9th March 2010:
- Write at least 5 pages of content for BOB
Only 5 pages as I haven’t decided what apart from the product reviews will be going on the site so need to get thinking, I cant do any product reviews until I know what I will be able to promote from merchant acceptances.
My domain statistics!
March 8th, 2010I have one site which I run with another webmaster so will not be including this in my statistics, this blog is solely for my own personal trip in the affilate world.
I own 15 domains!
I have 0 live websites!
I make £o per week per site!
My domains cover 6 sectors! 5 of which are related, one is a domain I shouldn’t have bought but will have it developed anyway!
Now hopefully I will not buy anymore domains, if I do I’ll end up with an unachievable goal with new domains being constantly developed and the finishing posts moving all over the place.
Daily Aims – 8th March 2010
March 8th, 2010Bit late in the day posting this but this is how I done with yesterdays aims:
- Create a logo for BOB - not done and will be waiting for profits to reinvest to get a professional logo designer to do one, I am creating a long term brand and for the minute text will look better than a basic on by me. Logos really aren’t my strong point.
- Change the colours on BOB and add a pattern – DONE and I am really pleased with the way it has turned out, I cant stop looking at it
- Change some of the coding on the BOB wordpress theme – DONE
- Install related posts plugin for BOB – DONE and also installed the all in one seo plugin and the pathless category plugin, does anyone have any others they would recommend?
- Do at least 2 product reviews for BOB – this I haven’t started on, I spent too much time on the design but so pleased with it I dont really mind being a bit behind.
My aims for Monday 8th March:
- Sign up too all networks and merchants I would like to promote for BOB and POP
So only one aim but it takes forever to signup to all the merchants and networks.
I am now off to see how many domains I actually own to develop especially as it is my long term goal to have them all developed.
Daily Aims – 7th March 2010
March 7th, 2010A day late at updating but I ended up not being able to do anything on Friday so my aims were transferred to Saturday and this is how I done:
- Finish the holding page for PP - this is semi done, the page is basic, has a list of the top 10 products on and 2 affiliate links but I want to put a quick description on for the products and some pictures. I attempted using the wysiwyg editor on my cpanel but the amount of time I spent faffing around I could have done it quicker in notepad, so time wasted but lesson learnt – dont bother with wysiwyg editors
- Purchase the Woo Themes Canvas theme to make modifying and creating unique wordpress affiliate sites easier! - DONE
- Finish sorting out the categories for BOB. – DONE
- Modify the canvas wordpress theme for BOB - not started, I am contemplating just using the studiopress theme I already have installed on the site now, at this stage I think it’s more important to get a site up and running and concentrate on the design later.
- Write the About page for BOB – DONE
My aims for Sunday 7th March:
- Create a logo for BOB
- Change the colours on BOB and add a pattern
- Change some of the coding on the BOB wordpress theme
- Install related posts plugin for BOB
- Do at least 2 product reviews for BOB
There isn’t much really but I know I will waste time making the logo and picking colours so there isn’t much point making a big list which I will just fall behind, setting achievable aims will stop me losing motivation.
I have a bit of a “going around in circles situation” I have joined 3 networks but need to join merchants, however those that aren’t auto accept will probably reject BOB in its current state yet I cant really add more content until I have affiliate links yet cant do that until I have content and so on 
Once these sites are completed my aims will be revolving around doing at least one thing every day to help get a sale on each site! I have heard this tactic mentioned a lot so it must work. Now I am off to complete my aims (and count how many domains I have as its creeping up slowly!)