Starting with the network innovation, it will come as no surprise that the network in question is Paid On Results, yesterday they launched a new tool which deals with links from expired merchants, thus reducing commission leakage and hopefully improving the user experience, a lot has already been written about it so rather than me regurgitating it all read about it here:

• Dead Links are Alive!
• Look After The Pennies and the Pounds Will Look After Themselves
• The Links are Dead - Long live the Links!

On the merchant side the innovation comes in the form of a facebook application launched by Lastseason.com, as it is fashion related I wrote about it here Lastseason.com First With eCommerce Facebook Application, at present it is not an application that can be used as a revenue source by affiliates however I am sure that this is only the tip of the iceberg and more e-commerce Facebook applications will be developed, not only by merchants but by affiliates and networks too.

In fact why stop at Facebook come on you developers lets see some more wordpress widgets too, as far as I know only Prezzybox have gone down that route.

Lastseason.com are on Affiliate Window.

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In the wake of the cull of inactive affiliates that John Lewis are going to carry out, it warms the cockles of my heart to get an email from another merchant encouraging inactive affiliates to make their first sale.

I only recently joined the Currys affiliate programme on Affiliate Window, as they were running a few offers that fitted the model of my Discount Voucher site.

I’ll reproduce todays email in full as it should be framed and sent to affiliate managers everywhere as an example of good practice.

Hi,

Calling all Affiliates that are not currently promoting Currys (or who have achieved 0 sales to date)….

We are challenging you to make just 1 sale this Easter period and here’s the best bit, we are giving you all the tools you’ll need!

You can achieve the sale using any of the following:

New Currys Branded Widgets

Promotional Mega Offer Banners (available in flash and animated gif)

Or just pop up a text link and get people clicking!

To make it as easy as possible to enter not only have we supplied the tools but we have also given you the deals as well. Check out our feed posted in the a4uforum for some of our top Easter deals! (as no attachments can be added to this mailing).

Mini feed is in post here–> Currys - Mega Deals Competition for New affiliates!

PLUS, we have FREE delivery on all orders over £150 at the moment, so why not promote this on your site too?!

However you choose to promote, get selling and you will be entered into our prize draw, where you may be eligible to win any of the following:*

Achieve over 10 sales:

Win a 19” UMC HD ready digital TV and DVD combi

Achieve between 5 and 10 sales:

The brand new Pyromat wireless gaming chair with subwoofer!

Achieve only 1 sale!

Or, if you are just starting out, make one sale and you’ll be entered into the draw to win one of two Kodak Easyshare silver digital cameras.

NOTE: Sales performance will be based on those achieved between 20th March 2008 and 31st March 2008

Happy Easter and good luck!

From Currys Direct Marketing Team

Any queries please contact michelle.boxall@affiliatewindow.com 0207 553 0347

*All sales must be online sales with minimum order values of £50!

So everyone, down with those JL links and up with the Currys ones.

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Research your existing visitors

I brought up the subject of bloggers block in my last article Wagging The Long Tail For Blogging Ideas and the contents of that piece is a good place to start when your mind has gone blank and you are struggling for ideas. As well as researching how your visitors find your site or blog you can also research what they are looking for after they get there Search Meter is a wordpress plugin that gives a whole stack of info about what your visitors are searching for, this enables you to plan the subject of future blog posts.

Read everything about your subject

Research your subject constantly, both online and offline, always be on the lookout for something relevant that may form the basis of a future article, newspapers and magazines are an excellent source of material, cut out anything and everything about your subject and keep them in a file that you can delve in to from time to time when looking for inspiration. Sunday newspapers with their mountain of supplements are a particular favorite of mine.

Use Google News as a research tool

Google News is awesome when you are looking for relevant up to date stories to blog about just type in your keyword take golf as an example and you immediately get a list of all the latest news stories, which can be sorted by relevance or date.

Next it is important to ensure you never miss a newsworthy article with blogging potential so scroll down that page of results on google news and click the News Alerts link fill in your details and anytime something about your subject is picked up by google you get an email.

If you get an idea write it down

No matter where you are or what you are doing if a spark of an idea comes into your head write it down, ideas are potential articles and articles are potential income. So if you are in the pub and you see or hear something useful get out your notebook and write it down, although I’ve gone all techy now and simply power up word on my shiny new phone.

Don’t blog if you keep losing your train of thought

Finally (for now) don’t try to blog if you are getting constant interruptions, if the kids keep running in and out take a break, if the neighbours are using a pneumatic drill and you can’t drown out the noise even with Led Zeppelin, take a walk, get away from the computer, you are doing yourself no favours by struggling on, 30 minutes or an hour off and you will come back as fresh as a daisy and sail through the work.

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Everyone suffers from bloggers block at some stage, I know I do and my research is wide and varied.

One useful source of ideas is to review what search terms your visitors are using to get to your website, there are several ways of finding out this information, most people with cpanel will have AW Stats installed however my favorite is Google Analytics.

In my quest for ideas I power up analytics for the site in question and take a look at the keywords people have searched on to get there, then I list all the longer phrases of 5 words and over, you can view 500 keywords at a time via the google interface so its easy to scan them for long tail, you will soon get a fair list.

Here is a selection of long tail key phrases from my fashion blog:

• two stoned twisted denim jeans
• what to wear with white skinny jeans
• fashion women clothes shop in korea
• women’s fashion during the war
• buy adidas y3 black sprint trainers
• diesel men clothing fashion 2008
• fashion clothing trends uk spring 2008
• manhattan portage stockists in london
• mens designer slim fit fashion style
• pierre hardy boots, people magazine
• accessories tips bags shoes need not match
• société de vente d’objets en cuir ouvré

From just that small sample there are 3 maybe 4 which will become the basis of a blog post.

What I like to do is include as many of the keywords from the phrase in the title of the new article, and repeat them in the body of the text along with any that I have been forced to omit.

The benefits of this research method are many, a couple of them being that the new topics are in context with what is already on your site and you will find that month on month the list of new ideas grows longer and longer.

If you combine wagging the long tail with your other methods of researching ideas you will have a constant source of fresh blog content to feed the search engines and build up your web traffic.

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A couple of weeks ago I was asked to review The 26-week Internet Marketing Plan presented by David Bain of Purple Internet Marketing, I must admit I was a bit apprehensive when the box containing the materials for the plan arrived as it contained 4 DVD’s, 4 workbooks, a planner and 8 CD’s, however from the moment I put on the first DVD I was hooked.

The 26-week Internet Marketing Plan is a comprehensive training course which in my opinion should be added to the amoury of any company that is serious about building up their internet presence. David Bain has an easy going style which captures the attention of the audience thus enabling him to cover the topics to a degree of depth without overloading the viewer.

Take a look at this sample and see for yourself:

The 26-week Internet Marketing Plan is on schedule to launch today at 12 noon GMT.

I have just been informed that there are a couple of special offers available for early birds:

Firstly, the first 10 people to purchase the 26 Week Plan will receive a complimentary 45-minute one-on-one telephone consultancy call with David Bain. This call will take place in late April so people first of all have an opportunity to study the 26 Week Plan.

Secondly, everyone who purchases the 26 Week Plan within the first 7 days will gain access to a special ‘26 Week Plan Implementation’ teleseminar to be held in mid-April.

The 26-week Internet Marketing Plan is available from Purple Internet Marketing for an all inclusive price of £399 click here for more details and to purchase.

Popularity: 54% [?]

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