The Naked Affiliate - How I Make Money Naked!

Less is more with landing pages

2008-01-16T11:19:00.000Z

Well the festive season is done and dusted for another year, the food has been eaten, booze has been drunk and I can start to think about shifting some of this weight. Happy New Year by the way (16 days late).

Last year saw me starting to play with adwords; I was scared at first, I thought I was going to blow thousands with no return. Basically I was going into the unknown with a credit card and I didn't know if I would make it out the other side. But I have come out the other side and what's more I have come out the other side in profit with 300% ROI, Nice!

So what have I learned?

Well so far I have learned that Kirsty is a saint. Her advice and a willingness to take a leap into the unknown are all you need to get started. If Karma exists then she should be given a skip load of it. Seriously forget the eBook just read her site.

Copy is important and small changes can make a big difference; test multiple ads and use the google analysis tool.

Tracking; track everything.

Finally I have learned that less is more with landing pages the more distractions the more likely they are to go off somewhere else. It's all about funnelling the visitors to the merchant.

How about you, what works for you?

Leaving the porn industry

2007-12-19T15:00:00.000Z

Lately I have been taking a look at my AM efforts from a business point of view and the overall view is that things are going well; not quit the 9-5, live on a beach and go to work in a speedo well but they are on track.

However going through stats, sign ups and payouts I have noticed that the money I am making from porn is way down on what it was 6 months and so I am thinking its time to hang up the naughty naked hat and focus on my nice respectable sites that I can tell my mother about. In a nutshell it's far too much work. I am going to keep the sites live but not keep them fresh; I just haven't got the time to keep people cumming (sorry) back for more!

I will be keeping a couple of the more 'specialist' sites just so I can still live up to my name of Naked Affiliate and not feel like a fraud.

Impossible is nothing

2007-12-11T16:43:00.000Z

Sorry if posting has been a bit quiet recently, I have been busy trying to build links and tidying up my SEO. All fun!

I was starting to get a little pissed off with the way things were going, November wasn’t as great as I had planned and I seemed to have a million and one things to do. It really was a case of one step forward and two steps back. Basically I was thinking that this money making online might be harder than it looks. And following a conversation with a friend about starting to feel the strain a friend sent me a link to this video, the email was titled ‘Impossible is nothing’. If Rick & Dick Hoyt can complete Ironman triathlons and marathons then I am sure I can make affiliate marketing work for me.

A question for my readers + News

2007-12-04T11:15:00.000Z

First the news; I have been featured on John Chow... sort of! See the screen shot below for details. Maybe next time I can aim to get a link or something on there!

And Now A question

Help! I have 1 last site to redesign and baiscally it's a bit weak; it has maybe done £10 in sales in 6 months (mainly because I haven't done anything with it) but it made the cut and is the last of my sites to be developed but I can't decide if it should be a blog with a store tagged on or a store with a blog tagged on.

Which do you think is the best way to do it?

Odd Posts

2007-12-03T11:20:00.001Z

Over the next couple of months please don't get worried if I start posting some random titled articles on here, also don't freak if some of the posts seem controversial; the bottom line is I want more readers.

I have been blown away with the number coming here already and with most visitors not bouncing off after a few seconds it means people are actually reading what I have to say. Thank you guys and girls!

Anyway back to business, like I said - I want more visitors not because I want to make more money from this blog but because I have a secret ambition to make it into the Top 100 Money Making Blogs. Since I have very little time to spend getting links I figure it might be more efficient to write content that brings the links in. I'm talking about link baiting. I am also going to set up another blog (on blogger of course) and see how much traffic I can generate just from writing catchy content.

How about you, do you think link bait is an easy way to drive more visitors to your site?

How not to ask for a link

2007-11-30T22:46:00.000Z

At some point your going to need to build links and to get the best results you are going to need to email another webmaster to see if they would like to swap links. The following is a guide on how not to do it (the following is from a real email).

Dear sir/lady,

After looking at your website I noticed that we are in the same sector and I think it could help both our sites if we swapped links. My site is XYZ.com and I would like very much for you to visit my site and swap links with me.

Regards

Dr. No
XYZ.com

Now this wasn't exactly warm and friendly in fact I get the feeling that it had been sent in a mass email to all webmasters in my sector.

A better way to do it might have gone like this (using this site as an example):

Hi there,

I just wanted to take time out to write an email complimenting you on your recent article about how not to ask for a link. I know that in the past I have also been on the receiving end of some mass link request emails.

Recently I launched my own blog about SEO for the affiliate industry and I would appreciate it if you could offer me some feedback on the site. The site is XYZ.com; I look forward to any advice you may have.

Warm Regards,

Dr. No

Obviously I am more likely to head over there now and see what the site is like. Then after leaving a comment or emailing back with a comment about the site 'Dr. No' is in a position to suggest a link trade.

You wouldn't walk up to a beautiful woman at a bar and ask her to strip and climb into bed with you straight away; Try 'chatting up' the webmaster first with origional lines and you are more likely to get that link trade. Who knows you might turn out to be a linking PUA.

Uniquely Over Rated?

2007-11-28T20:27:00.000Z

I have been thinking about this for a while and I am now going to stand up to say it loud and proud - I think UniqueBlogDesigns are of poor quality!

Now before the flames start appearing in the comments section slagging this site off please remember that I didn't drop a bunch of cash on this site; I didn't even bother with a domain name! However I do run a couple of other blogs which are wordpress based and quite popular in their niche and if I paid Nate and his merry men for a UNIQUE design then that's exactly what I would expect, not a design with the same layout as everything they have done only with different colours. If I wanted to be the same I would just download a free theme.

Halfway through writting this I noticed Small Potato over at wpdesigner.com posted a simmilar post last month;

I think it’s sad how UBD and its paid themes have gotten to where they are, in a short period of time, all thanks to exposure and not quality in services and products because they don’t strive to make WordPress more attractive. Furthermore, Unique Blog Designs custom and pre-made products are not unique.

Compare Nate Whitehill’s (owner of UBD) and John Chow’s (redesign by Nate) blog designs and you’ll get the picture.
- Read the Full Article

This isn't a personal attack on Nate; it's that I don't think that the sun out of his arse in the world of blog design. Like so much in the world if it's hyped enough people will buy it, even if it is shite.

Let the flames begin.

Ugly Naked Guy Bring More Traffic

2007-11-26T10:41:00.000Z

I think I should use a half naked fat man on all of my sites!

You may remember a few posts back I wrote about how mybloglog was providing me with a few hits here and there due to (in my opinion) a naked fat guy sat at a computer; Well it seems that the world can't get enough of my naked fat guy!

I recently signed up to EntreCard and so far it is sending this very blog around 30 unique visitors a day (hello if you found this by clicking the naked fat guy) so it seems that if you have a unique display picture it could be a great way to get people to your site and that’s even before you start placing your card on other peoples sites (I'm not currently running any ads). In my very simple naked opinion it brings more traffic; therefore EntreCard is good (plus in our naked state it's obvious we approve of the EntreCard booth girls (the one on the left, the one on the right, not so much!)).

If you want to read a better review you can pop over to ShoeMoney.com.

So if you haven't signed up already what are you waiting for, it costs you nothing and it brings a good few hits.

Getting Started with PPC

2007-11-23T11:29:00.000Z

I have always shied away from PPC; there is something risky about it that as an affiliate with little money to put into it that kind of thing put me off trying it. Give me SEO any day, good old trust SEO. Sure it takes a while for a new site to get going on Google but after a few links here and there and some good optimisation the money starts coming in.

Well all that was before I started actually making money online (something that I thought was a myth during my darkest hours). Now I actually have money to play with, not a lot but there are fund available to try. Once again I am still quite hesitant about it but I know that once I find my feet I will be up and running. Finding my feet is going to be even quicker now that Kirst from Affiliate Stuff posted this frankly ace guide to keyword research (tip – read the comments as well for more advice.) Keyword research has always been something that stumped me in the past, I mean how long should the long tail be?

Using the above as a guide, I am going to create a weekly run down of how much I have lost for the week on PPC.

Feel free to comment every week to tell me what I am doing wrong.

Mr Brightside

2007-11-21T09:15:00.000Z

For the last few days I seem to have had a run of bad luck and last night it was topped off by my beloved xbox360 displaying the ring of death. I gave up on the whole life thing and decided to go to bed. This morning I woke up and switched on the TV and the coke Christmas advert is playing. Ok so that put a smile on my face, next I switch to MTV and they are actually playing something that isn't ~~crap~~ pop, things are looking good. Drive into work - light traffic, get into the office to see a coffee sitting there waiting for me. Load up AffMeter and see that not only has the merchant who inspired my pre pay rant not only topped up but it's turning out to be an ace month.

10 Goals

2007-11-19T14:26:00.000Z

A year ago today I launched my first affiliate site; it was basic, it wasn't optimized but it was online. Looking back at it now I know it was a pile of crap but who cares because it was a stepping stone to get to where I am today. I could have sat around thinking about every little detail and not actually getting round to putting it online but I didn't, I launched it and I haven't looked back since.

So now I need to start thinking about the year ahead and where I want to be this time next year.

Be able to pay mortgage without having to dip into my 9/5 salary, leaving more money for toys and holidays.

Improve my blogging skills and actually build a decent readership

Learn more about PPC.

Spend more time on my sites.

Post more helpful articles on here.

Learn to be more patient when building links.

Stop my random domain buying

Buy my own server

Become a part of the affiliate community

Appear in the top 100 Money Making Blogs

Looking at the above list, some (9,8,7) are very easy to do, but others such as #1 will take a lot more work but I know I can get there. Obviously #11 would be make enough money to relocate to a beach somewhere and just check stats in between surfing sessions... a boy can dream.

How about you, where will you be a year from now?

Nearly Done

2007-11-19T11:14:00.000Z

As you might have noticed (unless you are reading this on a feed reader or email) the site is under going a bit of a transformation but things will be back to normal soon.

I will be making the template downloadable when it's ready and I am happy there are no bugs.

Pre Pay Rant

2007-11-15T07:31:00.000Z

It's October, sales are going well, traffic is good and I am feeling up beat about my affiliate marketing. I do a naked dance I am that happy. Then November comes and everything dies, I check my sites - all live and kicking, clicks are tracking except that is for one merchant - the merchant who accounts for a good 50% of sales. I'm in a state of panic; clicks are tracking but nothing has changed, the merchant is still active I have no idea what's going on. I phone the network; they tell me that the merchant hasn't topped up their account so no stats or sales are showing.

WHY COULDN'T SOMEONE HAVE TOLD ME THIS IN AN EMAIL?!?

I have to wonder how many other affiliates were in the same position as me yet still think something has gone wrong for them because nobody has let them know about the merchant who hasn't topped up. I understand the reasons why the merchant might not have topped up but I just think it might have been nice if someone could have let me know.

A comment is worth a 1000 words

2007-11-13T15:25:00.001Z

Wow! People are actually reading this thing now?!?

I haven't posted for 13 days due to being so busy that my head hurts and I return to find actual comments. Its nuts, with those three comments I have a whole new lease of life towards my blogging. I actually feel motivated to take time away from my affiliate empire and write.

Following on from my previous post about knowing when to cut and run I had a think about which sites were best for me and kept a small hand full and have decided to leave the rest to drift into the emptiness of cyber space. I have also culled 90% of my blogs by applying the following formula:

Value= time taken to maintain (month)/Monthly income

Store affiliate site - £1000/12= £83 per hour
Blog - £300/30 = £10 per hour

I think I had a similar rant earlier in my blogging vs shopping post.

Anyway I am back and blogging. Thanks for commenting.

When to cut your losses

2007-10-29T12:09:00.001Z

I have a site it's in a great niche with little competition, the products are heigh value and the commision is ace. The site ranks well but traffic isn't good. In fact I have sites that I don't bother with that get more traffic so I am now starting to wonder if I should just stop working on this site and work on something that is actually going to make me money (after all why else would I be interested in affiliate marketing?).

It's a tough call; I thought this idea would be the big one for me but it's just not working and after months of trying I think it's finally time to move on. I think that if I hadn't been so hands on with this project I would have noticed this a while ago but I was blinded to this fact.

I think that's my important affiliate lesson of the day - if something isn't working after a while, scrap the idea and move on.

High PR? I would rather have the traffic

2007-10-26T10:00:00.000+01:00

Looking through my reader this morning and it seems like the hot topic is Google bitch slapping blogs and lowering their PR... But really who cares? Like it has been said on many, many comments - there is no search penalty simply a lowering of the page rank.

What annoys me most about Page Rank is the obsession by new or naive webmasters that the higher the rank the better the site. So if you are a new or naive webmaster here this - page rank means jack; it's all about traffic and search position! The only time that page rank is seen as being the slightest bit important is when you are selling an advert on your site but even then it's not important:

Site A is a PR5 and gets 14 - 30 unique daily hits
Site B is a PR3 and gets over 1000 unique daily hits

Now which would you rather place an ad on?

Theo Paphitis gets mugged on Dragons Den

2007-10-23T08:58:00.000+01:00

I was going to break from my normal Monday, Wednesday and Friday posting routine to post about Theo Paphitis getting mugged out of £200k on Dragons Den by two affiliates who really don't seem that good; however Kieron wrote a much better post which can be found here which covers everything I was going to say.

One thing I would add is that I'm not a big fan of the design and if Theo happens to read this how does 100k for 50% of my bingo site which simply blows theirs out of the water? Oh and I also rank well and am making some decent money from it all ready.

How a naked fat man brought more readers

2007-10-22T09:55:00.000+01:00

Have you signed up to mybloglog yet? Well neither had I until a few days ago but now that I have, I am glad that I did. For those who don't know; MyBlogLog basically tracks vistiors to your site who have also signed up for MyBlogLogs service and displays a list of those recent visitors on your site. The profile image that I use is a naked fat man on a computer and because the image is next to the username 'Naked Affiliate' I had a feeling that this would make perfect link bait... I was right. I have gone from 3 readers a day when I first started (who I guess surfed in by clicking bloggers 'Next Blog' link to around 20 a day and my feed reader is now up to a whole 11 subscribers.

This got me thinking; if I start reading new blogs and venturing out it's going to result in more exposure of my naked fat man meaning more clicks on my profile and with luck more people ending up on these very pages. So that's basically more traffic to my blog just for reading. Very nice!

A big Thank you to those guys that have already subscribed to my feed, if you like what you are reading why not leave a comment to let me know.

How I stopped trying and started succeeding

2007-10-19T17:00:00.000+01:00

When I first started affiliate marketing I had very little cash to put into my sites so I decided that SEO would be the best way to go due to it costing nothing. The only down side being that it would take time to make money. Not to worry - some nice long tail terms and I should be getting sales in no time. This worked but it wasn't brining in the big bucks. Most of the affiliate guides that I have read went on about how affiliate sites never ranked for the big terms, how you could only succeed with long tail terms, well today I am here to say that is the worst advice ever.

Affiliates can succeed at getting into the SERPs for big terms. Dream big! Don't listen to eBooks. Long tail is nice to start with but big bucks require big terms... and you CAN do it!

What brought this on I hear you ask? Well this mornings ranking check showed me in the top 10 for a huge term (>15 million results, well searched). Don't be afraid when you see the number of results for big terms because with some good SEO you can get there.

Here's how to do it.

Go back to basics! Basic SEO done well combined with links and smart cross site navigation will get you results.

That's seriously all I have done and it works. If you are starting your first affiliate site and don't know about SEO just find a good beginners guide and start. SEO isn't hard. True it takes time but like Guinness - all good things come to those that wait.

Making Money: Blogging Vs Shopping

2007-10-17T10:38:00.000+01:00

This blog hasn't been set up with the intention of making money. With this project I just want to be able to post and not have to worry about optimising and if I make a few pounds here and there then that’s nice.

Don't get me wrong, I know that you can make thousands every month from writing a blog; I don't doubt that for a second. I just think that I personally can make more money from selling products online.

Here's the science part

Most people who read blogs are quite tech savvy, they know ads mean money for the site owner and as such you have to really give them a reason to click. In my experience text links get more clicks than ad links for some of the affiliate blogs that I write. Text ads look like part of the content, they make the reader feel that are gaining something by clicking the link. Readers of most my 'affiliate blogs' don't want to be sold to in a 'click my ads' type of way. This means more work for me.

With an 'affiliate store' I can put it up, run my optimisation and it takes no real effort after that. I don't have to be clever with affiliate links, I don't have to constantly write posts because people aren't coming in because of what I write, they are coming in to find out how much. If I stopped posting on a blog for two weeks un-announced, I think that I could loose 70% of the readers. If I didn't update a shopping site for two weeks, nobody cares because they are just on the site for the price and to check out the product.

I think in a very long-winded, confused way what I am trying to say is this:

In my opinion blogs take a lot more work, not only do you have to build a readership but you also have to keep your readers happy and interested to make any real money. With a shopping site you optimise for the term 'Banana Holders' and people surf in, check they like the product, see if they like the price and then go through to buy. Simple! So for now I think I will be putting most my time into shopping sites.

Oh feel to prove me wrong by clicking the affiliate links on this site and making me rich!

Affiliate Program Review – Alt.com

2007-10-15T11:01:00.000+01:00

As you might have guessed with a name like the Naked Affiliate I do dabble in the Adult Affilaite sector. The porn industry has constantly been at the forefront of the internet in terms of technology and marketing. They were early adaptors to online payment, XML and affiliates.

Recently I created a new site and ALT.com was the obvious choice for advertiser.

The introduction email was extremely helpful, not only had my details but had banners for all the different advertisement methods with my affiliate ID already included and a few useful tips.

As the site only went live on Sunday I haven’t sent any clicks through yet, however this morning in my inbox I noticed a very helpful email from Alt.com.

Thank you for joining ALT.com's affiliate program on October 9, 2007.

We noticed, however, that you have yet to send traffic to ALT.com. We are here to answer any questions and to help you maximize your profits through the ALT.com affiliate program.

The email then went on to include banner links and also ideas to get more clicks. It’s nice to receive mail from merchants like this and if everyone else was more like ALT.com the affiliate world would be a much better place. ALT.com possibly the most affiliate friendly merchant I have come across their emails are helpful, and everything seems very affiliate centred. It’s almost as if (dare I say it) they actually care about their affiliates and want to work closely with them.

I look forward to sending some traffic to ALT.com and hopefully building a good relationship with them.

How early to launch a Christmas Campaign?

2007-10-12T11:52:00.000+01:00

Today I find myself pondering upon the following question:

How early should I have started to work on my Christmas SEO?

In my 9/5 I started to work on the Christmas SEO way back in July and we are starting to get some good results from this now some three months later, I do work in a hugely competitive sector so the logic went that the early bird gets the worm and it looks like it's paying off.

However I seem to have forgotten to create some christmas landing pages for my naked network of sites; I have around two months to get the pages online, get them ranking and get some sales out of them. It's going to be tough but it can be done.

Well there's the first weeks posting done and I am actually quite enjoying this. Lets see how long that can last before the "sorry I haven't posted for a while" posts start creeping out.

Pilot Episode

2007-10-10T16:58:00.000+01:00

This blog tells the tale of a small time affiliate who dreams of earning millions while sitting on a beach earning my 10%... A man has to dream.

I have been thinking about starting this blog for a while now as I am really starting to get to grips with affiliate marketing and actually making some cash from it.

I want this blog to basically be the kind of resource that I would have loved when I first started 10 months ago, the kind that cuts the crap and get right down to it. The kind of site that says look affiliate marketing is not hard, you will earn money it's just a case of how much.

My Long Term Game
I know that affiliate marketing isn't a short term game and the longer I keep building, linking ~~and spamming~~; the more cash will come in so I have a simple 5 years plan... Try to double ever year. So this year I might make say £1 which means next years target is £2, year three £4, year four £8, year five £16. Obviously I'm aiming a bit heigher that that, but you get the idea.

The Naked Affiliate

2007-10-08T14:53:00.000+01:00

I am going to take some time and compose an 'about me' section for this site so you at least know a little about me and how I got into affiliate marketing.

Firstly - No, I'm not fat and usually not naked (although there are times when I do write this sans-clothes). I just thought a naked fat guy would make some cool link bait because everybody loves nudity. It actually worked- site is growing! I also dabble in the world of Adult entertainment again because everybody loves nudity!

The main reason the site is called the naked affiliate is down to the fact that I want to write the type of blog that's stripped of all the mumbo-jumbo and just gets down to making money online, the type of blog that not only says 'I made £xxxxx with such and such a program' but actually tells you how.

The second reason is that I need a place to bitch and rant when things aren't going my way or if someone/something pisses me off - my girlfriend has suffered my affiliate rants for too long now so I thought it time to ease the suffering on her.

By November 2008 I will have been doing this for two years and want to be making enough to pay the mortgage without having to dip into my 9/5 wages and I guess the dream is to be free of the 9/5 world one day; allowing me to sit on a beach - surf, swim and earn my 10%.

I post on affiliates4u under the name of YoungBlood if you wish to message me on there feel free.

If there is anything else that you would love to know just leave a comment!