Online Casino Marketing Blog

Google Promoting Indian Cricket... A Bit Random?

2010-03-12T08:46:00.001-08:00

I thought this was a little bit random... I'd much rather see a link to Google.com/phone promoting the sexy new Nexus One. ;)

... just a thought Google..

Super-competitive SEO: You’re gonna need a bigger boat!

2010-03-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

This was recently published in iGB Affiliate Magazine, If you don't subscribe and you're in the iGaming Affiliate space, I suggest you do so ASAP. :)

Gaming SEO is as tough as it is monetizable. Top positions for big keywords worth millions in new player revenues. Attempting to compete for these positions requires scalability, efficiencies and budget. This article looks at a few aspects of delivering top rankings in the most competitive markets, including budgeting, financial justification, risk mitigation and most importantly; knowing when you’re gonna need a bigger boat.

David the Affiliate vs. Goliath the Operator

Both sides of the fence have distinct advantages, these can be summarised as follows:

Affiliate
Agility
Flexibility
Adaptablity

Operator
Equity
Inertia
Strength

It’s critical before engaging in any SEO that you understand your strengths, and play to them, in your selection of keywords. This article will focus on the affiliate’s strengths.

Agility
• New affiliate opportunities to explore inexpensively – if you’re a poker or bingo affiliate you might want to cross-sell to the rummy market, or dip a toe in the forex market.

• New self-service techniques to deploy – testing a new social ad platform is simple for example.

• To take a punt based on gut instinct – smaller affiliates have the freedom to experiment; use this to your advantage.

Flexibility
• Different commercial models to operators – an experienced SEO with self belief and confidence in their art will be happy to share the risk, providing there is a reward for over delivery.

• Deploy both long and short term strategies – Let’s say you run an odds comparison site with a home page (the most powerful page of the site) optimised for “compare odds” / “odds comparison”. You might want to leverage your home page’s authority and rank for “Cheltenham betting” for 3 weeks every year? (See Google insights comparison).

• A single product affiliate may diversify easily – adding poker, bingo, and niche casino games to your casino tips is quick and easy with most modern CMS systems. Going international is also relatively simple with a little local iGaming knowledge (note: always speak to an experienced multilingual search specialist beforehand).

Adaptability
• Greater freedom to adapt to Google changes - Eg. 26th June 2009 (Vince) - if you were displaced by larger brands who (let’s face it) deserve to be there, regaining position may be costly. Vince only impacted a very small number of queries; it may be the case that a more mid-tail term should be targeted, while you regain the position on the larger generic term.

• Greater freedom to respond to competitor activity – unlike a typical Plc marketing budget which is usually agreed and signed off in the previous year, the affiliate has the flexibility to adapt based on changes in the competitor landscape.

• Greater freedom to respond to wide market changes – the adoption of new gaming behaviour, driven by mainstream advertising may be pre-empted and form part of an affiliate’s medium to long term game plan.

All in all, the affiliate has a number of aces they can play to their advantage, but when it comes down to it:

“Picking a Keyword is Picking a Fight”

No one likes to get hurt, and picking a fight that cannot be won is one way to guarantee a painful defeat.

Don’t think that because you are an affiliate, you cannot compete for big keywords. If your site is optimised correctly and you have link history, you could still be in the running for a page #1 ranking for one or more of the big terms. Never fight a battle on more than one front unless you are very well resourced – target one keyword at a time (mixing up the anchor text, but ensuring your target keywords occur in the link anchor text mix).

The following tables show the estimated click through rate for a typical Google results page. The table on the left is applicable when there are 3 sponsored results at the top of page 1, the table on the right, was published by AOL and more closely represents the click though rates where there are no sponsored results i.e. in markets where gambling is prohibited by Google.

Basic revenue modelling for a given position is as simple as...

Monthly Search Volume X CTR X Conversion to Active X Lifetime Value

“If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in trouble” Sun Tzu

Note: If you’re planning to displace the brand in position #3 for a big keyword, you need to be adequately resourced; not only to achieve the position, but also to deal with the backlash that will occur once the position has been achieved – don’t expect your competitor to step down without a fight.

Here’s loosely how it will play out:-

Marketing exec reports Google organic player volumes to his boss
Marketing Manager completes his report and sends to his boss
Marketing Director asks WTF happened to our player volumes this month
Marketing Manager responds let me get back to you with the figures
Marketing Manager asks marketing exec WTF happened to our player volumes this month
Marketing Exec replies let me get back to you with the figures
Marketing Exec reports a one position loss which has pushed the result below the fold at a cost of ‘x’ players per month

I’m sure you can imagine the rest... Result: escalating aggression!

If you don’t have the required resource to deal with the escalation, the victory will be fleeting and expensive, particularly if you’ve only moved from position #4 to #3.

This becomes even more apparent when battling for position #1. Given the significant increase in traffic volumes when moving from #2 and #1, it’s important to anticipate an escalation in aggression. This retaliation will be proportional to the loss incurred by the brand you’re planning to displace.

When budgeting for SEO at this level:-

1) Ensure that you have sufficient resource to get there.
2) If your agency or in-house guy suggests £25K/per month in budget – allocate an additional 10% to cover margin of error.
3) Don’t haggle them down and expect the same results
4) Ensure you have additional budget to defend the position once achieved

Victorian social thinker, John Ruskin, once wrote:

It is unwise to pay too much, but it is unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.”

Nowhere is this more applicable than in iGaming SEO. SEO budgets in the most competitive markets can leave an affiliate financially exposed, you would be advised to take a measured progressive approach, fighting one battle at a time and incrementally up scaling , once your figures justify increased activity.

Assessing and mitigating risk

At Stickyeyes we operate a White Hat approach and operate ethically and within Google guidelines both on-page and off. That said, given Google’s dominance in the search market - having all your eggs in one basket carries risk.

It’s no one’s God given right to rank in Google, and if you’re operating outside of what is acceptable then you’re running a potential risk to your traffic, revenue or even your future employment prospects.

It’s important to know what’s at stake and factor this into your project. If you’re currently only ranking for brand terms, let’s say, your brand is delivering traffic. Some degree of risk mitigation is recommended if you’re planning to undertake any activity outside of what Google finds acceptable.

Your Google search traffic will dictate this level of risk, if you have a long term mission involving any level of brand equity, then I would advise you avoid off-shoring any link building activity to the lowest bidder.

One way to protect your brand traffic is be to create a new micro-site or use an existing web property which could be optimised for your brand. This would ensure that should you run into trouble, you’re alternative site will protect your business from the loss of brand traffic. Strong affiliate relationships can also help to some degree.

While a solid contingency plan can mitigate a risky strategy, the long term impact of burning a domain for financial gain could still bring about your downfall for a number of reasons which we won’t go into here.

In summary... believe...

In SEO, as per all endeavours in life, our limitations are entirely self-imposed as Shakespeare put it:

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”

With an executable plan, adequate resource and budget, there’s no reason why you cannot outrank the big boys. Good luck!

What is Google Really Looking For? Pt4

2010-03-02T04:07:00.000-08:00

One Month Later....

Something happened to changed everything. Between 3:40am Monday 27th July and 11:40 Tuesday 28th July, something apparently impossible happened.

Google claims that all their rankings are calculated algorithmically and while there have been claims by SEOs that Google occasionally adjust SERPs manually, Google have constantly denied these claims.

The graph above below shows Vodaphone.co.uk appearing from nowhere in position 3, climbing as high as 2 during the night. Vodaphone.co.uk is a misspelling of Vodafone.co.uk, with no algorithmic right to be anywhere near the top 500, certainly not position #2 for a query like “Mobile Phones”.

This was spotted on the morning of Monday 28th July by a member of our International Account Management team. We had been monitoring this update now for a whole month, and by now nothing would surprise us, however this made no sense (see below)

Our SEO team agreed that this was a ranking impossibility and made no sense whatsoever. There was no 301 trickery and no major backlink footprint:

* http://www.vodaphone.co.uk (190 backlinks)
* http://online.vodafone.co.uk (1,810 backlinks)
* Sitting on a domain http://www.vodafone.co.uk (69,945 backlinks)

And sure enough it was replaced by the correct site (online.vodafone.co.uk) around about noon later that day.

Could this be human error on the part of a search quality engineer? After all both these sites look pretty similar... Could this be a user behavioural consideration on the part of Google? Possibly, although why would Google favour type-in (possibly) in this way, sure that would favour commonly misspelt domains, impacting quality results.

At any rate, after seeing this I started to feel that Matt’s comments made more sense. Perhaps this wasn’t an update, at least in the traditional sense. Given that this impacted such a small number of queries, it would be feasible (at the very least) for this entire update to be handled manually.

The Million Dollar Question:

Q: If the rankings were manually adjusted, what’s the way forward for SEO?

A: While some sites appear to have been given a ranking boost we know that they are not held in absolute position, the boost appears to be relative to the previous position, meaning that a manually boosted site can be displaced by solid SEO activity.

Note: We generally use this data set to analyse precisely what component factors make a successful campaign run optimally, both in terms of cost and time, understanding the what signals Google is looking for enables us to overcome almost any kind of ranking correction.
Food for thought

I'd urge you take this evidence and take into account Matt Cutts' comments on this subject,

• Perhaps this wasn't an update as Mr Cutts himself suggested?
• Could such a small amount of changes be performed manually?
• How else could Google not only pin-point with such precision the handful of big brands that deserved a boost, but also boost them each appropriately?

What is Google Really Looking For? Pt3

2010-03-02T03:08:00.000-08:00

I guess the question still remains:-

Is brand building the new link building?

Stickyeyes has been recording vast quantities (1000+ Gb) of data across a range of major SERPs, including link structures, on page factors and ranking correlations for all competitors across all the vertical markets which Stickyeyes™ operate in.

Utilising this data and publically available data (see below), Stickyeyes™ made two key comparisons based on averages; by comparing key factors of sites before and after the adjustment.

Analysis 1 - We compared the averages across hundreds of keywords ,measuring the key metrics for each top ten, before and after the update.

Analysis 2 – We compared the big winners against the big losers following the adjustment.

Results of the Analysis:-

Analysis 1: New Top 10s (averages)

• Alexa Ranking: 53% improvement
• Domain age: 6% increase
• Brand Search Volume: 36% increase
• Google News: 302% increase
• Total # backlinks: 44% decrease
• % brand links: 14% increase
• % targeted anchor text: 3% decrease

Analysis 2: Big Winners (averages)
• Alexa Ranking: 79% improvement
• Domain age: 78% increase
• Brand Search Volume: 6,574% increase
• Google News: 282% increase
• Total # backlinks: 63% increase
• % brand links: 63% increase
• % targeted anchor text: 25% decrease

This analysis demonstrates some strong patterns across a number of key areas. However some findings could be symptomatic of something else, rather than actual driving factors behind the statistics provided – Stickyeyes conducted isolated tests in order to gain more accurate findings.
These findings raised more questions of course, but some interesting answers.

Q: Is Google factoring in brand search volume?
A: Not in isolation - Instigated by the 6,547% increase in brand search volume in analysis 2, we tested brand search volume as a ranking factor in isolation. Stickyeyes can confirm that brand search volume is not a factor (at least not in isolation).

Conclusion: Smaller newcomers who offer value are still able to out-perform large established brands providing they deploy a balanced campaign addressing a sufficiently broad range of quality signals and the financial backing to see a long term campaign through to victory.

Q: Is Google moving away from a link based algorithm?
A: No - We know that Google is considering other factors to determine relevancy including user behaviour, and have a number of social signals, however Google is still fundamentally a link based algorithm. We’ve seen a significant decrease in total back links, which appears to be the result of Google discounting low quality link and rightly penalised the spammers.

Conclusion: Ensure your link building is deployed naturally, acquire links on quality sites preferably within a legitimate editorial context, quality is essential, as is a mix of news-worthy PR, high quality on-site content and communities. Communities and other social factors are particularly important in many verticals.

Q: Is Google up-weighting non-keyword anchor text (link text)
A: Not directly - while the evidence implies this, it’s more likely to be symptomatic of the up-weighting of the proximity text in or around the link, another relevancy factor, or the contextual theme of the link. If this assumption were correct, it may explain the 63% brand link increase as well as the 25% reduction in targeted anchor text in our Vince Winners vs. Losers analysis detailed above.

Conclusion: It’s now more important than ever to ensure your link building is deployed naturally and with on-topic, newsworthy content in the mix.

One Month Later...

Something happened to changed everything. Between 3:40am Monday 27th July and 11:40 Tuesday 28th July, something apparently impossible happened.... (coming soon....)

What is Google Really Looking For? Pt2

2010-03-02T02:53:00.000-08:00

Following on the the previous part covering the impact of Vince in the Poker market..

So.... Why wouldn’t Matt Cutts want to call this an update...?

Looking at “Betting” on Google.co.uk

Strangely, the impact on the “Betting” SERP occurs 2 days later.

Betfred.com is displaced by media goliath Skybet.com sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Betfair.com is given a boost to third place, be it fleeting.
High street bookmaker Williamhill.com displaces both Skybet.com and Betfair.com on Sunday morning 28th June.
On Monday 29th June Williamhill.com and Skybet.com are both displaced by Ladbrokes.com
Bet365.com also joins the party “above the fold” on Monday 29th June settling in fourth place behind the two major UK high street brands and a global media giant.

Summary of Betting Observations

While the impact occurs slightly later than the “poker” example, we see a similar pattern of displacement, apparently by brand weight, leaving William Hill and Ladbrokes to battle for dominance. Note: by contrast, the “Online Betting” SERP remained unchanged.

Why would this “change” only affect a relatively small number of queries? Why would “Poker” and “Betting” be affected and not “Online Poker” or “Online Betting”.

Some working in SEO at this point, who didn’t have the right strategy, are likely to feel like calling it a day and booking a holiday... which leads me seamlessly onto another vertical to compare and contrast....

“Holidays” on Google.co.uk
It was reassuring to see a similar pattern mirrored across other verticals. The travel sector saw, once again, only major terms impacted, see “Holidays” SERPs

Otbeach.com kicks things off on the 26th, on the same day as two of the previous examples.
Later that day, UK travel giant Firstchoice.co.uk is pushed up into first position.
Thomson.co.uk displaces Firstchoice.co.uk the following day.
Thomascook.com appears sometime before 3:34 Monday 29th June, displacing otbeach.com, travelsupermarket.com and teletextholidays.co.uk

Further changes continued to occur for almost 2 months across all the “big” single generic keywords, confirming the official Google party line.

What is clear here is that broadly, known brands to benefited, clearly many deserved to be there, but how was Google able to determine who should rank where?

What is Google Really Looking For? Pt1

2010-03-02T02:01:00.000-08:00

Here's Part 1 of a multi-part article first in iGaming Business Magazine, iGB Affiliate and Econsultancy. I thought I best add it to my otherwise defunct blog, since it still ranks for my name. ;)

‘Vince’ - an apparent additional weighting towards larger brands which only impacted a few generic keywords. The impact in the UK began some time after office hours on Friday 26th June 2009 – Matt Cutts had this to say about vince

Google’s Matt Cutts Delivers the Party Line

Taking what Google’s Matt Cutts disclosed in the above video, when asked the question: “Can you verify that Google is putting more weight on brands?” Matt’s response included three key points:-

“I wouldn’t call this an update, but there has been a change... It affects a relatively small number of queries...most people haven’t even noticed it.”

This official response raises three questions:-

Why does Matt not want to call this an update?
Why would this “change” only affect a relatively small number of queries?
How could this largely go unnoticed?

Let’s first review the visible symptoms of the change, which Matt insists is not an update.
Tracking the Ranking Changes.

“Poker” on Google.co.uk
Let’s first review the visible symptoms of the change, which Matt insists is not an update, starting with how the adjustment impacted the “Poker” SERP.

he chart above shows the moving and shaking around the time of the Poker ranking adjustments.

Pkr.com moves into first place sometime before 8:31 on Saturday June 27th.
Partypoker.com enjoys a few hours in the #1 spot as the Party brand temporarily displaces gaming giants 888.com and their new found natural search threat Pkr.com.
Two days following the initiation of the ranking adjustment, 888.com finds its self on the ropes with Pkr.com posing a significant threat to 888.com’s dominance in Google.co.uk and by Wednesday July 30th Pkr.com are the new leader of the pack.
Wikipedia’s poker listing is repeatedly displaced, forcing the encyclopaedic reference standard down below the fold.

Summary of Observations

We can see that the adjustment to this SERP began in the early hours of Friday 26th June and continued through to Monday 29th June. Online brand equity appears to be playing a role, however the parameters behind the adjustment remain diverse. We'll look at the analysis from our data set tomorrow. For now, note that by contrast, the “Online Poker” SERP was not impacted outside of normal flux.

nice view

2009-11-10T04:49:00.001-08:00

View from econsultancy round table

Posted via email from Paul Reilly's Stuff

Social Media Gets the Green Light from the Fortune 100 | San Diego Metro Magazine

2009-11-07T06:30:00.001-08:00

via sandiegometro.com

Testing posterous...hmmm

Posted via web from Paul Reilly's Stuff

Will Forex Trading Become The Next Big Thing

2009-06-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

Having heard quite a lot about Forex at the recent Amsterdam Affiliate Conference, I decided to do my homework. At first I thought about the opportunity of becoming a forex affiliate, a great plan given the growth market, international popularity and insane lifetime values.

However as I began to learn forex the various platforms and educated myself on the subject, I soon found that I could make more money than I lost.

I recon over the next few months I'll begin posting more about the Forex Trading market and my experience with it.

Why Had To Buy an Asus EeePC

2008-03-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Just a few thoughts....

I've just got myself a white Asus EeePC, and it's the sexiest piece of kit I've bought in years. So sexy, that I'd say, it turns more heads that the new MacBook Air. It's all about portability baby.

Before i get into the tech spec or nuances of this machine, I've gotta add, that I'm writing this review on my White 4G EeePC, and although at first I struggled a little with the tiny keyboard, I've since got used to it... especially the close proximity of the up arrow key and the right shift key.

I'm running a test for battery life under 'normal' intensive usage – from a full charge with WIFI permanently on, having had a 10 minute Skype audio video call and watched several YouTube clips with audio, my EeePC still has one bar of battery left and it's been running for 2:27.

I've got my EeePC slightly pimped out with KDE desktop which is perfect for my use and doesn't affect performance noticeably.

So here's why I simply had to buy this beautiful, elegant machine....

I'm flying to Goa on Saturday and the EeePC's Web cam, Wifi and shock-proof solid-state hard drive is perfect for my needs. I'll be blogging from the beach – stay tuned.

Facebump.com - A New Digg Clone For All Things Facebook

2007-08-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

Facebump.com - a Digg style social news site for all things Facebook. This Facebook social news site aims to leverage the wisdom of crowds and find plenty of hot Facebook news. It's early days for the project so please be patient.

It struck me that there were so many emerging Facebook blogs that were becoming impossible to track, so a social filter was required to pick the most important news items from all the information.

Russell Grant in Spyware Shocker! He Didn't See It Coming!

2007-08-13T11:54:00.001-07:00

Camp clairvoyant Russell Grant never saw this one coming. Google have kicked his listing! His Site: RussellGrant.com is listed in Google as a harmful site. See Screen Capture below:-

So, if you're wanting to avoid a nasty dose of something itchy... You might want to read your stars from another of his syndication points... like MSN.com :) - Piff Paff Poof

Cover of a Remix.. Last Rhythm - Sylvie Carter Mix (Superdove 2007)

2007-07-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you about this Last Rhythm (cover of a remix)..... Apologies for the tardiness of this release, but my laptop crashed, I've reinstalled windows, lost all my software and the original masters are with Steve Cooper in the studio.

Well, it's been fu^&ing years in production so a few more days won't matter. When Steve first said "You can't cover Last Rhythm, it's a classic" I had to take on the challenge.

Anyway, it's due to be e-mailed to me this week. So it'll be made available to Facebook and Twitter friends this week.

Remember, it's a cover of a remix. So I'm not entirely sure of the legal implications. ;) With any luck, my heros Last Rhythm - who wrote and produced the track by the same name "Last Rhythm" might get in touch if they hear about it.. that would be so cool.

Squidoo Slapped by Google - Now it Doesn't Flow Pagerank

2007-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I mentioned how Squidoo was fast becoming a spammers paradise.

The ability to tag lenses in a single click is also an inspired move. The downside is that squidoo is fast becoming a spammer's paradise. I only hope Google don't set Domain_Flow_PageRank=Null. ;)

Well.. Jason Calcanis has caused enough bad press for Matt Cutts to give the order to set the Domain_Flow_Pagerank=Null.

Search Engine Land have the full story here including a timeline.

While my own lenses are still ranking. My blog which used to Rank 12th for my name "Paul Reilly" and was given a boost to 6th for the same query, following the addition of a link in my Squidoo profile.

Since Squidoo got slapped my blog is back in 12th place and my lenses still rank...

This suggests that Pagerank can be passed internally or inwardly, but not outwardly. So if you're using Squidoo for affiliate business, you'll need to tag your pages well and focus on hyper-niche terms - with a single focus per lens.

Last Rhythm - Superdove (Love) Mix - featuring Singshot Sensation - Jackie Hole (Free Mp3 to Twitter and Facebook Friends)

2007-07-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know me as an SEO or a viral marketeer, others may call me a spammer... but I'm proud to say, I've finally finished a project I've been working on for years... AND it's a little bit different.

My favourite house track of 1991, Last Rhythm by Last Rhythm inspired me to "have a go" at music production... Well I've finished the EP.

It's a remix of a cover version of Last Rhythm... namely the Sylvie Carter Mix (for the 1991 house music train spotters)

The 2007 remix features one of the sexiest voices on the planet - namely the Singshot sensation Jackie Hole

I'm giving away the Mp3 in CD quality audio (and also on request, the Logic Audio and Ableton Live source files.... yes... Last Rhythm by Superdove... goes Open Source...

It's free next week (or so) to all my Twitter and my Facebook friends go ahead and add me :)

Catch you soon

How to Merge 2 LinkedIn Accounts

2007-06-28T03:32:00.000-07:00

Having screwed up and accidentally invited people to join 2 LinkedIn accounts. This left me with a need to merge both LinkedIn accounts but It seems that there is no simple way to merge the accounts. Here's one solution to merge LinkedIn accounts.

It's not ideal, but I hope you find it useful.

Manchester United - Adding Fanaticism to the Affiliate Marketing Mix

2007-06-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

Since I mentioned micro-niche affiliate opportunites in a previous post and since I've also posted about how to ride mass media driven affiliate opportunities.

So this time I thought I'd post another micro niche opportunity that taps into big budget, media driven demand but this time I've adding I've added heavy fanaticism to the mix.

Fanaticism - Fans are fanatical by nature!

The benefits of targetting a marketing campaign which leverages fanaticism are (in retrospect) obvious! I learned this first hand when I took on a chart topping UK pop band as a client. As well as redesigning their website, built their e-commerce, optimised their site for the search engines and managed their email marketing.

The conversion rate for this band was like NOTHING I'd seen before and was driven by the fact that I was targetting a fan list... and fans, by their very nature are FANATICAL.

Fan's don't care about price point (although to be fair all their merchandise was competitively priced and good quality.)
Fans want the product NOW!
Fans don't want to miss out on a limited availability!
Fans can be mobilized easily!

Here's what to do to leverage mainstream fanaticism...

Find a mass media driven brand with a fanatical following.
Target their fans.
Find some product that the fans will love.
Sell it to them!

This all seems quite obvious and it is. Ticket touts have been making money like this for a long time.

Man United! Hmmm they've got a reasonably fanatical following...

For the sake of this experiement. I'll use Manchester United as an example of a brand with a massive media driven fan base.

Once again I'm using Superbreak's affiliate program to supply the micro-niche product. Largly due to Superbreak's high EPC (average earnings per click) - a product of high commissions and great conversion.

To make this quick and easy, I've built a squidoo lens dedicated to Manchester United Museum and Tour - The lens is still under construction, so watch this space.

Getting dangerously addicted to MyBlogLog

2007-06-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Having made a few friends on MyBlogSpot.com I thought I'd post my profile here. So please drop by and say hi! Hardly surprising Yahoo snapped this property up. It's the glue that's sticking the largely ego driven blogosphere together. :)

Seth Godin's Viral Monster, Squidoo - keeps on growing and adds new reporting features

2007-06-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

Squidoo.com has recently added new reporting features including keywords, traffic sources, and referring domains - very useful in enabling users to see where their long tale reaches.

The ability to tag lenses in a single click is also an inspired move. The downside is that squidoo is fast becoming a spammer's paradise. I only hope Google don't set Domain_Flow_PageRank=Null. ;)

Squidoo enables users (usually affiliates) to go from 0 to 60 in no time at all (depending on when the Googlebot next visits.)

... In the spirit of Web2.0, anyone can use it's simple interface. Affiliate marketing can be done by anyone.

Last seven days keyword tail for my London Hotels Near Millenium Dome Lens....

Keywords	Number
hotels near o2 arena +	48
hotels near the o2 arena	33
hotels near millenium dome	18
millenium dome hotels	15
o2 london	14
hotels near o2 arena london +	14
hotels near the o2 +	11
hotel near o2 arena +	10
hotels near o2 london +	9
hotels near o2 +	9
hotels near the millenium dome	7
hotels near o2 dome +	6
hotels by o2 arena +	5
hotel near millenium dome +	5
hotels near the o2 in london +	4
o2 arena london hotels +	4
hotels near london o2 arena +	4
hotels near the o2 london +	3
hotels near the o2 arena london +	3
hotels near o2 in london +	3
o2 arena accommodation +	3
cheap hotels near millenium dome	3
hotels millenium dome	3
o2 arena hotels +	3
hotels in london near o2 arena +	3
hotels o2 +	3
hotels close to o2 arena +	3
accommodation near the o2 arena +	3
hotels near millenium dome london +	3
hotels near the millennium dome +	3
the o2 london +	3
hotels in greenwich near dome +	2
o2 dome hotels +	2
hotels near the o2 dome +	2
hotels near o2 arena in london +	2
o2 hotels +	2
hotels near millennium dome +	2
hotels near to the o2 arena +	2
hotels close to o2 arena london +	2
o2 dome accommodation +	2
london hotels o2 +	2
hotel near the o2 +	2
hotels the o2 london +	2
hotels in london near the dome +	2
hotels near the o2 arena in london +	2
london hotels near the o2 +	2
hotels near the dome +	2
millenium dome accommodation	2
hotels at o2 dome +	1
london hotel near o2 arena +	1
hotels millenium dome uk +	1
hotels near millenium dome special offers +	1
hotels at the millenium dome +	1
accomodation near the o2 +	1
hotels near o2 arena greenwich +	1
hotels near london o2 +	1
the o2 arena (millenium dome) +	1
hotels near o2 greenwich +	1
hotels near to the millenium dome +	1
"o2, london" +	1
the o2 arena accommodation +	1
budget hotels millennium dome +	1
millenium o2 london +	1
london hotel o2 arena +	1
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Also...

Alexa Growth for Squidoo

Evangelizing Your Affiliate Network - Give Them The Cream

2007-06-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, when I was an affiliate marketer selling online hosted (ASP) solutions and information products. I recall a number of instances, where new products were rolled out to the affiliate network, prior to them being made available to Internal mailing lists and indeed existing customers.

This conveyed a clear message to me... That the affiliate merchant was prepared to put the affiliate publisher first!

They removed the dominant competition of the merchant, enabling the small, agile affliliate (like myself, to quickly benefit)

As a result, I become more and more evangelical!

Today, Superbreak will launch a brand new airport hotels section with 2 new micro niche products. Providing their affiliates with the following benefits.

1) Better conversion - addition of airport specific landing pages.
2) New product 1 - airport lounges
3) New Product 2 - airport rail tickets

Here's the best part!

They're NOT providing specific pages for airport lounges!! or airport rail tickets!

So… The smart affiliates who quickly optimise pages for these terms will benefit from the micro-niche products WITHOUT competition from the merchant - Superbreak.com

Looking at the Overture keyword suggestion results for Airport Lounges in particular, this means easy money for the agile affiliate marketers (providing they can rank well for airport lounge variations.)

Searches done in March 2007
Count Search Term
2106 airport lounge
237 airport lounge at newcastle
205 manchester airport lounge
174 heathrow airport lounge
148 usa airport lounge
147 newark airport lounge
141 gatwick airport lounge
100 edinburgh airport lounge
98 airport lounge at glasgow
85 aberdeen airport lounge
80 stansted airport lounge
76 airport cardiff lounge
72 bristol airport lounge
72 airport lounge luton
70 airport lounge access
69 airport liverpool lounge
65 airport bradford leeds lounge
62 executive lounge at manchester airport
60 airport executive lounge
53 birmingham airport lounge
39 airport humberside lounge
38 vip lounge manchester airport
33 east midlands airport lounge
32 airport lounge pass
29 airport executive lounge pass priority
22 airport lounge norwich
21 access airport edinburgh lounge
21 airport area gatwick lounge
21 dubai airport lounge
21 airport lounge leeds
20 airport harbour island kermits lounge
18 escape lounge manchester airport
18 airport executive gatwick lounge
18 airport glasgow lounge sky
17 aberdeen airport executive lounge
17 uk airport lounge
17 airport vip lounge
16 airport lounge offer
15 airport knoxville lounge
14 airport boca lounge raton
14 lounge sanford airport
12 airport akron lounge
12 airport albuquerque lounge
12 airport beach daytona lounge
12 airport belfast lounge
12 book airport lounge
12 cheap airport lounge
12 airport el lounge paso
11 airport lounge terminal 3 heathrow
11 airport lounge heathrow terminal 4
11 airport executive lounge newcastle
11 airport lounge worldwide
10 airport and business and lounge
10 credit card airport lounge
10 airport lounge card
10 airport doha lounge
10 glasgow airport executive lounge
10 airport fresno lounge
10 airport harrisburg lounge
10 airport lounge priority pass
9 airport executive lounge access
9 executive lounge birmingham airport
9 airport city lounge oklahoma
9 airport free lounge
9 airport lounge membership
8 1 airport lounge manchester terminal
8 free airport lounge access
8 airport lounge manchester airport
8 airport aviance lounge
8 bcp airport lounge
8 airport cairo lounge
8 heathrow airport executive lounge
8 vip lounge at gatwick airport
8 airport lounge nassau
8 sydney airport lounge
7 2 airport lounge manchester terminal
7 airport arrival lounge
7 athens airport lounge
7 diner club airport lounge
7 discount airport lounge
7 airport dominican lounge republic
7 dublin airport lounge
7 all executive airport lounge at stansted
7 airport free heathrow lounge
7 airport gatwick lounge viewing
7 heathrow airport vip lounge
6 access airport card credit lounge
6 airport ba lounge
6 bangkok airport lounge
6 airport book dominican lounge
6 manchester airport business lounge
6 cheap airport lounge at heathrow
6 hong kong airport lounge
6 airport lounge moi
6 airport lounge orlando sanford
6 airport lounge schiphol
6 airport lounge tucson
6 airport lounge wilmington
5 airport amsterdam lounge
5 airport book lounge schiphol

It looks like quite a gold mine

How To Cash In From The Grease is the Word TV Phenomena

2007-06-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

In the last post I talked about how the Grease theatre breaks and how their demand is heaviliy influenced by the viral-as-hell Popstars/Pop Idol 'type' shows.

Search engine demand is very heavily influenced by mainstream TV, and many moons ago I had a little fun with this demand myself, driving easy traffic from the keywords “Pop Stars” and “Hearsay” and monetizing it by selling information products to wannabee popstars. So having seen the media influencing Theatre demand here are a few ideas for easy affiliate profits from theatre tickets and theatre break packages.

Yes.. its well worth taking these kind of TV shows seriously from a search marketing standpoint.

The key is to act quickly and get your pages/niche promo sites in the SERPS as soon as you anticipate the inflated demand. Your gut feeling should tell you whether you feel a show is going to be a hit.

Here are the obvious things to look for...

Show format – is it an evolutionary or devolutionary step from a proven formula
Panel of judges - who’s on the panel are they currently en-vogue?
What channel does the show go out on?– is it aired on the major terrestrial channels or is it on an obscure cable channel?
When does the show air – is it prime-time Saturday tea time or is it aired somewhere between Jeremy Kyle and This Morning?

These four factors will give you a good idea of whether the show will be a hit. If all these factors are favourable, then it’s definitely worth looking at ways to monetize it through organic search and affiliate marketing.

Grease is the Word - Viral Buzz Marketing Also Works On Stage

2007-06-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

There's one thing that Popstars, PopIdol, Fame Academy all managed to do very well - They generated word of mouth on a massive scale. Since then the successful model has been tweeked and optimised for maxiumum effect.

These shows have sold millions of singles, albums, items of merchandise, countless tours, spin offs and now west end theatre tickets. So not surprisingly specialist tour operators are getting in on the action.

Theatre breaks are big business, but theatre breaks supported by this kind of TV show are huge. The supporting TV shows Grease is the Word and Any Dream Will Do are set to drive record breaking sales for Grease theatre packages and Joseph theatre breaks respectively.

Ray "Theatre Breaks" Jones offers his thoughts on the phenomena, having seen first hand the influence "How Do Solve a Problem Like Maria?" has on the stage production of The Sound of Music.

“TV series had an enormous impact. The Sound of Music always looked to be a winner, but it was the TV show and Connie in the lead role that set fire to public demand. The fact that she makes an excellent Maria helps too. I saw the show on the opening night and she was simply superb. When she became ill demand slowed and now that she is back and in great voice the show is topping our sales charts.”

"Hotels Near Manchester Airport" - Just how easy is it to rank for these terms?

2007-05-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Having done a few experiements using Squidoo as a host site, it's become clear that pages hosted on Squidoo require very little supporting anchor text in the form of back links to make them rank.

I've just created another Squidoo lens primarily optimised for "hotels near Manchester Airport" simply by tagging my lenses properly has resulting in a number of them achieving PageRank 3 from internal links alone following a G PR update.

I'll post again here once, G picks up the inbound links to this lens.

Gordon "Avaweb" Langlands Interview Part 2

2007-04-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I interviewed Gordon Langlands of Avaweb.co.uk. Part 2 is now available over at http://Pheedback.com/Gordon_Langlands

Gordon runs a hugely successful UK Hotel and Travel Guide website which has been around since 1999, you can also reach Gordon through his Squidoo lens here: http://www.squidoo.com/avaweb/

In this part of the interview, Gordon answers questions about the importance of being niche. What qualities he looks for in an affiliate program, click fraud, brand bidding and what he would do if he were to start out in affiliate marketing all over again.

Analogous Relationships Viral Applications & Nuclear Weapons; Business & War

2007-03-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

Viral widgetization isn’t exactly nuclear physics but it does obey the same rules.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_chain_reaction#Effective_neutron_multiplication_factor

I’ve put together a simple excel model. Feel free to play with the figures. (click here to download)

The model doesn’t take into consideration saturation effects or secondary user acquisition from clicks generated by a distributed widget.

Viral benefits of widgets..

They’re persistent... ie once in place equal effort is required to remove it leading to stability over time.
They’re centralized enabling version control and forward compatibility.
Unlike a distributed viral email, a widget is non-memetic and cannot evolve or mutate and won’t blow up in your face. :)

If we also recognise the analogous relationships between business and war as well as the analogous relationship between nuclear physics and viral distribution, then a super-viral business application is analogous to a nuclear weapon…

Within the Travel industry, TripAdvisor & WAYN.com are both major nuclear superpowers…

…if you're interested in joining the nuclear arms race you'll need a laboratory

Oh… and it’s probably going to take a number of attempts before you get it right.

Google Commence the Battle Against Scraper Spam

2007-03-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Google have announced that scraping content is bad and SEO consultants should not advise scraping as a strategy. Black hats beware...

Purely scraped content, even from high quality sources, does not provide any added value to your users. It's worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart.

They even offer the following advice to consider when choosing an SEO consultant..

Choosing the right SEO consultant requires in-depth background research, and their reputation and past work should be important factors in your decision.

Cleaning the scraper spam, out of Google's index has to be a mammoth task, I wish them the best of luck.

Twitter.com and it's Viral Widget Success... Why?

2007-03-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

Having looked closely at Twitter.com the always on solution to keeping in touch with friends.

I couldn't see how the attention it receives is justified by the value it offers the user.

There are almost half a million pages of cached content in Google's index, Twitter's home page Pagerank is 8 and it's for thousands of delicious link and viral exponential alexa growth, something seems to be working.

Although I'm not 100% sure about this, I've decided to add the twitter viral widget to my blog.

Parasitic SEO, Local Search Marketing & Tourism

2007-03-06T02:35:00.000-08:00

Let's see how a simple harrogate holiday apartments squidoo lens ranks for harrogate + holiday + apartments

I've included one or two authority outbound links from the lens, just for good measure. The spiders should have indexed the page by tomorrow evening. Let's see how it competes with existing sites in this space.

:)

Paul

Shufuni Affiliate Program.

2007-02-15T02:18:00.000-08:00

Ok... so here I go again.. Shufuni... The adult social media site, which I mentioned in a previous post.. Turns out to be the search term driving most of the traffic to this blog, unfortunately I can't seem to find an affiliate program to send the traffic to.

So I just thought I'd blog about it again and see if it doesn't result in a double indented google first page listing, for terms Shufuni and Shufuni Affiliate Program. We shall see....

Paul Reilly

2007-02-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

I finally get round merging my two LinkedIn accounts which I accidentally opened, here's my profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulreillyuk feel free to drop by and request an add.. if I've not yet moved you over to this account do click the above link and I'll move you over into this account too.

Paul Reilly

Tutankhamun Exhibition Visits London's O2 Dome (subject to confirmation)

2007-01-26T02:45:00.000-08:00

Since I'm particularly interested in Egyptology I became quite excited to discover that the Tutakhamun exhibition was visiting London this year and staying for approximately 10 months. Its been over 30 years since the Tutankhamun exhibition last visited the UK so for me, this looks like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'll no doubt write another post when I discover more details, till then here's my "Tutankhamun exhibition" lens on Squidoo.

Hittail.com Fuck Up

2007-01-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

I just logged into my hittail account to analyse the long tail potential of my hittail account and for some reason end up logged into Connors PR's ( the creators of hittail) long tail data. Here's the screen grab - I see that Mike Levin is 5th most popular term, one place behind "PR Firm" If you're listening Mike, you're a their 5th most powerful term and I hope you're being compensated accordingly.

Here's the screen grab

Adulttube / Xtube - Back in Business Shufuni.com Still in the Game...

2007-01-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

Now I don't want you to think that this is an adult social media blog, however human desire drives the cutting edge of the Internet and always has, so it's worth understanding the playing field within the adult arena for this reason and this reason only. In a previous post about adult tube we looked at the viral growth of adulttube / XTube (OK.. so there's one lesson - brand dilution from a launch name followed by the financially supported brand name.)

AdultTube.com or XTube.com as it's now branded - fell over last week due to massive demand, surely a success story, if ever I heard one...

Here are their comments..

We re-wrote the code and added another 6 servers to compensate for the traffic overload we experienced in late December, when we launched the Community. Now that everything is running smoothly again you can fill out your extended profile and write in your blogs, post polls and create quizes! What are you waiting for?! Get started in the XTube Community now, and who knows who you will meet there!

A couple of visitors anonymously dropped a hint at www.shufuni.com - probably a shill, due the anonymity of the post, but hey.. live and let live...

But check that, "6 servers" something's working.. based on the traffic that this blog is seeing purely from the adult social media commentary, I had to post more on this subject... don't hold it againt me please.. :)

Thresher's Viral Voucher Could Cost Big Money this Christmas

2006-12-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

UK wine merchant Thresher allowed their vouchers to go “wild”. The 40% discount voucher, which was seeded on the website of South African wine company Stormhoek and was downloaded more than 800,000 times prior to it hitting the mainstream news.

The offer was originally intended for Thresher’s suppliers and staff, according to one BBC report but proliferated virally by email, and blogging.

The influx of visitors brought their server crashing to its knees and the story was immediately covered by mainstream UK media. The media coverage appears to have been a disaster recovery strategy as they appear to be in fear of their bottom line profitability. While the raised brand awareness will be most welcome, its uncertain how much this will cost Thresher’s in lost revenue, due to the seasonal offer of 40% discounted drinks.

Ah well…. millions of pounds worth of free media publicity, just before Christmas is quite a result, especially given it all appears to have happened without the help of a viral advertising agency.

Let this be a reminder of the power of really simple viral marketing.

AdultTube / XTube - making it big!!

2006-12-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

AdultTube / XTube appears to be making it big with multiple viral components used to blend modern social media optimisation (YouTube style viral widgetization) and good old fashioned webmaster affiliate incentives. These influencing factors plus erm.. natural human curiosity appear to be driving viral growth of adult social media site

Currently ranked as 1,163th most visited (Alexa.com).

The alexa 'Daily Reach' graph below shows the consistent growth over the past 6 months and without much sign of slowing down. I expect this trend to continue, while sub 1000 postitions are becoming harder to achieve AdultTube/XTube has the viral model and user demand to keep running onwards and upwards.

Lastminute.com - bad review on YouTube.com let's see how it spreads

2006-12-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

I came across a negative viral video posted by an unhappy Lastminute.com customer Jimmybick who appears to be quite unhappy about his stay in Marrakech. One thing is for sure, bad reviews which make it to social media wont go away very easily.

This unhappy customer posted 3 videos of his bad holiday experience with Lastminute.com

Let's track the growth of a random travel related bad news viral on YouTube.com

Shower (2 page views - as of today)
Phone (26 page views - as of today)
Hairdryer (209 page views - as of today)

I'll keep returning to these YouTube videos and let you know how much it grows over the next year or two. I'm particularly interested to see if there's any consistent growth, either linear or geometric.

If Lastminute.com would like to comment here, then please feel free. Meanwhile I'll be tracking the growth or decline in the spread of this particular holiday nightmare

Superbreak Feedburner Experiment

2006-12-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

As a little experiment in getting feedburner.com pages ranked and indexed, I burned a feed using interview content tagged with the term Superbreak (http://pheedback.com/superbreak) ensuring the Superbreak brand term was included in the feedburner URL.

Now…I’ll leave it to the spiders and we’ll see how it ranks.

Totally Viral Hits UK TV Screens Every Week Night 10.30pm on UKTV G2

2006-11-23T06:03:00.001-08:00

Checking my email, I browsed through this weeks Popbitch to discover a new TV show Totally Viral. Although I've not seen it yet, judging by the information on their website, Totally Viral is a fusion of home made, video clip TV (see You've been framed) and user editorial (see Digg.com)

Totally Viral is the best of the web, found by you. Get involved and remember to watch the TV show every weeknight at 10.30pm on UKTV G2.

One thing I can now be sure of is that viral videos reaching mainstream audience via our TVs will give viral video producers a larger audence and provide businesses a better business case for exploiting social media and investing in social media optimisation.

At this point I'm interested to see how much of the editorial process is driven purely by users and how much of the descision making process is made by the shows producers? Could this be the first case of a spam opportunity (see gaming digg) reaching our TV screens and does this fusion indicate a new era in spam 2.0?

A Four Step Web 2.0 Viral Strategy for Plant Lovers.

2006-11-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

In the previous post, I mentioned an old saying "from tiny acorns, great oak trees grow." which took me back a one of the first part time jobs I worked when I was in my early teens.

I got a job working on a market garden centre growing various types of conifer. Now I'm not afraid of hard work, but I swear, this was truely back breaking. I'd spend all day bent over, carefully pulling up conifers and placing them neatly on a barrow to take away to be sold.

I can't remember the name of my old boss, but I clearly remember his wife, who would bring a cup of coffee around 11am and a cup mid afternoon. The reason I remember her so clearly was down to the fact, she could never remember who had sugar and who didn't, so her solution was to give everyone 2 heaped sugars and not stir it - If I wanted my coffee sweet, I'd stir it, and if not, I wouldn't. The system worked perfectly... unless I'd drink too far and... Yuck!!!!

But the reason I've mentioned it is simply this:- in that business as with any horticultural and indeed agricultural business cycle, there was never an option to "make immediate revenue" the simple fact was that a seed needed time to germinate and grow into a seedling and a seedling needs time to mature into the saleable product.

In market gardening it's very much a labour intensive business and the only other overhead or asset required is the land, and of course ideal growing conditions plus demand for the product.

Seeds are privided by nature, are there for free and so the analogy that a viral marketeer following this natural model seeks minimum or negligable media costs in the same way.

So here's how i see the 4 step social media strategy for plant lovers...

Solicit user generate viral content where possible - keep production costs to a minimum.
Seed & tag your user generated viral content appropriately - use the Web2.0 ecosystem (YouTube, Google Video, AdultTube - if appropriate)
Nurture your user generated viral content - tell a few bloggers, issue a press release of two
Back to step 1

I'm so convinced that viral social media is perfectly analogous to market gardening that the above 4 step strategy is all that's required (outside of actual social media optimisation) to grow in the medium to long term, "great oak trees".

To prove my conviction, I just created a new blog. http://slicksocial.blogspot.com

Web 2.0 Viral Marketing - is there a business case for social media optimisation?

2006-11-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

Now that the web is no longer young and many would say it's... "in it's second iteration". We find ourselves in a situation where Web2.0 now provides the platform from which to seed and host a piece of media to massive, self organising communities using technology which has already being optmised such that much of the resistance to viral propagation has been removed.

Widgitization, social networks, and send to a friend, now offer us a proven method to captivate audiences with our message, host our message and spread our message. The process of widgetization provides a persistant viral platform. Which will (providing at worst, the widget is not removed, or at least see positive attrition in numbers) spread geometrically.

But enough theoretical bollocks for now - the big question is....

Is there a business case for social media, and social media optimisation (SMO) in the travel industry? This was the question put to me by Holidaybreak Chief Executive Carl Michel.

Firstly, it was agreed that there must be. Potentially infinite distribution at negligable cost suggestes a very strong business case exists but lets now put some figures to that...

Today I came across a viral marketing experiment which in it's top line figures suggested an aquisition cost of zero, however it failed to take into consideration the production costs of the viral videos - this in it's self was ranted about over at threadwatch.

The comparison between PPC and viral video was flawed. OK so the production costs weren't taken into consideration ($9600) and the actual cost per acquisition was $9600 to acquire 62 subscribers (rather than customers)

To quote the totally justifiable rant from Brian Turner...

Either I completely misread this, or Marketing Experiments - recently acquired by Marketing Sherpa - by got it completely wrong.

In a study into video as a viral marketing technique, they:

- spent $9600 creating 28 videos for YouTube, Google Video, etc
- which over 60 days received 324,190 views
- which results in 4,162 clickthroughs
- which converted at 1.49% to newsletter subscribers

The article then goes on to laud video viral marketing as a success, and that it beats PPC hands down in terms of acquisition cost.

After all, the acquisition costs for new subscribers via the videos was $0.

But, hang on, what about the $9600 cost of the videos?

Maybe I'm being dumb here, but by my calculator, 1.49% of 4,162 is 62.

Which is $10k to get 62 newsletter subscribers.

I can't see any reason how this can be lauded as a success.

Indeed this IS a justifiable rant, however (as I posted in the comments over at threadwatch) a persistant viral can take some time to take hold. Imagine if only one of the widgetized video clips finds its way into some seriously high traffic and is spread and blogged about daily for a couple of months the multiplication continues to take place - potentially indefinately. Yes it happens.

I recall, back in the day, launching a viral e-book (the old skool equivalent of a widget - I suppose)... The ebook spread and one day it found it's way onto a massive traffic source. It took over twelve months to happen and to be honest I'd forgotten about it.

Now let's travel back in time to just after the dawn of the web 1.0 era....

People knew that they needed a website, they knew it would somehow help their business, and in many cases the only measurable benefit was that it satisfied their ego - Yeh, I'm talking about the electrician "who got a website" and the plumber "who got a website".

Of course there were those who got a website which was developed around their marketing plan and provided a serious contribution to their marketing mix, but the amount of times I had to day... "Listen man! you don't need a website!" or "Hey.. when was the last time you decided to eat in a particular resaurant as a result of an Altavista search?"

I'm sure you get the picture. Well now back to present day, it's November 2006 (oh and I'm almost 33) the Web 2.0 era is well and truely underway. We're in the same situation as we were back in the good old days.

Everyone knows they need a social media strategy but cannot justify it. Just as they couldn't back in 1996.

From tiny acorns, great oak trees grow. was the phrase I used to use back then, and that saying applies more today than ever. Whether it's Web 1 or Web 2.. 3... or 4.

Avaweb's Gordon Langlands Interviewed

2006-10-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Another interview.. Travel super affiliate, Gordon "Avaweb" Langlands (http://www.avaweb.co.uk) talks to me over at pheedback.com about his experiences as a travel super affiliate. This is part one of a two a part interview, so we kept the line of questioning for the newbie affiliate marketer. Part 2 will be up soon, with more advanced affilate marketing questions.

Nick Cust - Superbreak Managing Director Interviewed

2006-10-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Another in the series of interviews, this time it's Nick Cust, Superbreak's joint Managing Director, he's talks openly about his personal ambitions as well as his thoughts on disintermediation in the online travel game. Nick also talked about his favourite holiday location... you know i'd have never had him down as a Doors fan :)

Theatrebreak innovator interviewed over at Pheedback.com

2006-10-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

Theatrebreaks are the hot new travel deal. with high order value and relatively low supply travel affiliates are jumping on the theatrebreak bandwagon and there seems to be no stopping them. Last week I interviewed Ray Jones AKA Mr Theatrebreak over at pheedback.com and it was an interesting story he has to tell.. like the time he drank champagne out of the FA cup.

Viral Wizard Seth Godin's Squidoo Gains Google Trust

2006-10-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin author of many marketing must reads, including Unleashing the Idea Virus (one of the first books/PDF's I read on the subject of viral marketing) has gained the trust of Google with his site Squidoo.com.

If you're not been there, Squidoo.com is kind of a rev shared wikipedia. Rather than articles it allows users to create lenses. Which unlike Wikipedia, cannot be spammed by any random user/spammer.

Due to Seth's remarkable viral ability, the site is growing at an amazing rate and due to the size and organic growth of the site, many lenses are popping up in search results for the terms they're optimized for.

Make a lense for yourself here

Del.icio.us vs Furl - hmmmm.. the jury's out

2006-10-10T02:26:00.000-07:00

Until a few days ago, I've been a fan of Furl when it comes to social bookmarking, but I've recently started using del.icio.us (have first imported my bookmarks)

My bookmarks can be viewed at http://del.icio.us/paulreilly

I'm curious as to the creative ways to exploit such sites for viral/social and SEO potential.

Paul

Viral Clickbot Zombie Network - Not a Virus but a Trojan Distributed by P2P

2006-05-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

Just to clarify, the virally distributed zombie network I blogged about in my last post, is not actually a virus but a trojan. As such is growth rate (spawn rate) is not as high as it would have been if it utilised a viral transfer mechanism.

Clickbot.A is distributed mostly via P2P networks, so be careful what you download especially when looking for cracked software or P2P porn - you have been warned!

The Clickbot.A mechanism consists of two parts. The first is an executable file that launches a dynamic link library on the system, which later deletes itself. The second is a component of Internet Explorer that notifies the attacker that computer is infected, even allowing the control components to be updated. The bot then registers in the database of the control system, checking that the creator has given authorization to start clicking, and if so, will request the list of addresses from which to click.

OK... so a distributed clickbot isn't going to compromise your computer, but if you're moving in shady circles like these, then expect worse than just clickbots. I speak from experience. I once tried to install a crack from e-mule and it destroyed my machine on a low level. It was the worst nightmare i've had personally and will a) never forget it and b) learn from playing around in dirty water.

My advice.... back up your data and if you need the software commercially, get a legit copy! and if you want to try it out use a legit trial copy.

Click Fraud - Virally Distributed ClickBot Zombie Network - Clickbot.a

2006-05-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Having been working for the past 6 months as a the search marketing executive for a travel company. I've spent the majority of my time managing the PPC adwords campaign, I've constantly noticed some rather unusual click activitiy especially for such competitive phrases as "hotels in manchester" similar derivities for prime destinations. In some instances I saw click though rates as high as 60% on certain days and for certain terms..

While my ad copy writing and testing skills are pretty hot (thanks to the time I spent learning the art from my mentors and old friends Mark Joyner and Dr Joe Vitale) I was unable to explain such freek anomalies on an increasingly day by day basis.

That inability to explain the unusual click behaviour all changed when I stumbled across the podcast show "SEO Rockstars". Having being out of the SEO game for a number of years, in favour of email and viral marketing (.... yes I was short sighted enough to believe that SEO was dead as far back as when paid inclusion and PPC came along) I learned about just how prolific click fraud had become thanks the the insight of Mr Greg Boser (aka WebGuerrilla)

Long story short, last week I recieved an email from my Adwords Rep regarded potential click fraud rebate....

Today I learned that....

PandaLabs has detected a network of computers infected with the bot Clickbot.A, which is being used to defraud ‘pay per click’ systems, registering clicks automatically and providing lucrative returns for the creators. According to the data collected so far, the scam is exploiting a global network comprising more than 34,000 zombie computers (those infected by the bot).

See the full article on what they have uncovered go to Help Net Security.

If you are concerned about Click Fraud, I'd strongly advise you listen to Greg and Darren discussing the click fraud on That's a Wrap following his participation on the click fraud panel at Search Engine Strategies (New York)

Viral Campaign. Mini Cooper - Best Viral Branding Campaign I've Seen

2006-05-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

This has to be the smartest viral campaign I've ever come accross. Promoting the new mini cooper. It allows a totally personalized experience which is based on content submitted by the sender based on what you know of the recipient.

Name, where do the come from, whay they do for a living, how's his love life, how would I recognise him, what they do in their spair time, and biggest crime against mankind.

Here's the one I sent to my mate Steve

The production both audio and visual is fantastic. This has to set a new standard in viral advertising and branding. You can customise and send one to a friend from www.aveaword.com

Catering Supplies in York - Viral Link Acquisition Challenge

2006-05-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a challenge... I've been doing a little bit SEO for a york catering supplies company, so I started out by getting listed in a hand full of directories in the appropriate catering supplies catagories, and acquiring a few authority links, then get their pages correctly optimised for their keyword terms.

Being that they are local catering supplies company who I've known for some time now, I'd like to come up with a little something special in terms of a viral link strategy to help fast track their online catering business. So far 100% of their business is generated by adwords.

However, with catering equipments not being the sexiest product in the world. I'm finding it a little bit of a challenge coming up with a creative solution.

Any suggestions on this matter would be appreciated.

Viral Marketing Expert Paul Reilly (according to Google)

2006-04-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

I was doing a little ego-surfing and noticed that I was ranking #2 on Google for ‘UK Viral Marketing Expert’ and #10 for ‘Viral Marketing Expert’ it lead my to question Google’s algorithm, since this is a relatively new site, I started to wonder whether Google associated my name “Paul Reilly” with the term “Viral Marketing Expert”

Historically, my old site “www.SystemsInPlace.co.uk” ranked #1 for “Viral Marketing”, and there are many references to my name “Paul Reilly” in the context of being a “Viral Marketing Expert”

See here

.... until I torched it, and got blocked as a spammer, since those days I’ve cleaned up my act, and practice only, white hat, spam free techniques ;)

As I was saying… I wonder if Google is somehow associating my ‘Paul Reilly’ with the proximity text UK Viral Marketing Expert….

Any Ideas.. comment below.

Social Web - Transformation in progress (Pt 1)

2006-03-28T03:39:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking rather a lot about viral marketing in today's Web 2 mediascape and it appears that in every successful Web 2 site there is at least one or more viral component, which is largely responsible for the site's success.

As we become better connected through social networks pertinent information is now more viral than ever, with ever decreasing resistance, thanks largely to an increase in points of connectivity and improved usability.

Now that anyone can blog their thoughts online or set up a webpage, the hive has increase exponentially in numbers, making it easier than ever to reach a tipping point.

A couple of years ago, I stated in an interview that I felt the world was turning into a super organism, and that in the future, the human race would become more like a coral reef, at least in it's sense of macro community. Since then social web has become what it is today, and we're begginning to see this transitional phase gather momentum.

Internet means end for media barons - Rupert Murdock gets it!

2006-03-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Internet means end for media barons, says Murdoch: "'Societies or companies that expect a glorious past to shield them from the forces of change driven by advancing technology will fail and fall,'"

Rupert Murdock aged 75 - It's amazing how an old duffer like Rupert can get the picture, but so many descision makers in business fail to see the big picture.

What are the known triggers for sandboxing?

2006-03-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

SEO Forum - View topic - What are the known triggers for sandboxing?: "what are the known factors/changes that result in sandboxing and the various conditions underwhich that happens"

Is the question I asked a week ago over at Webworkshop.com there have been a number of reply, if you've got any thoughts on this, then go over and have your say.

Off Topic Bastard, You'll Never be a Blogger

2006-03-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

I've come to the conclusion that I'll never make a good blogger. I'm always off topic, talk about what ever interests me on a given day, and always stray from my specialist area..; Much like in my personal life, my Saggitarian personality leads me to find interest in whatever take my interest on a given day.

What's more, my contextual advertising (adsense at the top of this page) is always untargetted to this blog and rarely gets clicked. Need to learn a lesson from Jenstar about contextual advertising

Blog Metrics is Here Sign up over at Performacing.com

2006-03-15T02:32:00.000-08:00

Performancing Metrics is Here! | Performancing Site: "Performancing Metrics is a professional grade blog statistics service aimed at professional bloggers. We wanted to produce something a little better, a little different for the professional blogger, and I think we have."

This looks like a great service and guess what, it kicks the ass out of Analytics for stability. Let's hope it stays that way.

The Search, great reading :) you'll love it!

2006-03-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

Having just started reading “The Search” by John Battelle, it’s s great read so far with a full review on it’s way shortly. The Search documents the full history of search taking great care to tell the ‘behind the scenes story of the technology and business challenges faced by the pioneers of search notably Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, Excite. Judging by what I’ve read so far, if you’ve not already read this, I recommend you do, it’s essential reading for any Internet marketer.

New Firefox Extension - AllPeers P2P Client

2006-03-07T02:27:00.000-08:00

TechCrunch: "Uk/Czech Republic based AllPeers, a yet to be launched firefox extension for the peer to peer sharing of files..."

Here's an extension which will spread like wild fire around the firefox community, I just read about it over at TechCrunch. I expect it will give Mozilla the juice it needs to make up market share, expecially in the UK. I'll be keeping a close eye on this and reporting more here soon.

I'm especially fond of P2P as a concept and a technology. I'd like to blog here about the ethics of file sharing, just to give you my personal point of view.

"All Marketers are Liars" - Seth Godin speaks at Google - Google Video

2006-03-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

"All Marketers are Liars" - Seth Godin speaks at Google - Google Video: "'All Marketers are Liars' - Seth Godin speaks at Google"

The Godfather of permission marketing, and author of one of my favourite books "Unleashing the Idea Virus" talks at the Googleplex about marketing.

Web 2.0 the New Mega-Theme

2006-03-02T04:13:00.000-08:00

The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web - Mar. 1, 2006: "There's so much happening that the buzzword recently employed to try to encapsulate the era -- 'Web 2.0' -- now seems hopelessly inadequate, defined and redefined into near meaninglessness by squadrons of aspiring entrepreneurs, marketers, and other fortune hunters."

Web 2.0 has become one of the fastest growing meme's I've seen. When I first heard about it from my good friend Mark Taylor it was still quite underground. When I first described Web2.0 to my boss he looked at me and said... "Web 2.0 is a conference.. according to my sources". It would appear that Web2.0 has mutated into a mega-theme and for many, a way of life.

Microsoft Giving Away Free USB Sticks

2006-03-02T02:47:00.000-08:00

"Fill out a short form and Microsoft will give you a free 16MB USB drive loaded with information on Windows licensing."

I just saw this on threadwatch, and just had to fill out the forms. I'm just a sucker for a freebee

:)

Paul

Google Pages Goes Live

2006-02-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

Cue millions of more shitty pages of content to index and plug adsense into. Google have launched Google pages, so I thought I'd give it a whirl and see what if can do.

My initial impression is that the interface seems quite intuative although extremely simplified, I think it will provide a great tool for spammers and kids who want to build their first website.

Here's my home page attempt

:)

Paul

Inside My Viral Mind

2006-02-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

Just added tailrank to filter my blog subscriptions and post them under my furl'd links based on authority priority,

Inside My Viral Mind

Viruses of the Mind - Understanding Memetics

2006-01-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

The godfather of memetics, Richard Dawkins' article Viruses of the Mind

Viral Blog Marketing and the Digg Effect

2006-01-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

If you're planning on taking advantage of traffic and link juice from social bookmarking with either Del.icio.us, Digg and Furl etc. You'll want to check this post out from performancing.com

Furl added to side bar

2005-10-30T04:11:00.000-08:00

I've just added looksmart's furl to the right hand sidebar. Furl is a great way to find, save and share links. I suppose it's a kind of favourites version 2 with community implications.

Interesting view of google.

2005-10-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

I came accross this interesting perspective on Google. I'm hearing lots of interesting info about Google's post-public offering..

Epic 2014 updated version here

2005-07-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

Simply put, one of the most powerful presentations I've ever seen, and beautifully produced aswell.

http://www.idorosen.com/mirrors/robinsloan.com/epic/

Enjoy

Viral marketing not exclusive to dark-side marketing b*****ds

2005-07-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time I did something positive with this knowledge,my Project: Shining Light blog documents the evolution of an AI child now exclusively supports the Marie Curie Cancer Research Charity, I expect this should provide an extra component to it's proliferation through the web, whilst supporting a very good cause.

It's still not enirely clear how the traffic will be monetized, will post an update here, when this has been decided, To interact with Shining Light go to http://adoptmychild.blogspot.com

Trackback, now I get it!

2005-07-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I posted a queston on a message board to ask about trackback, what exactly was it and what was it's potentential for marketing.

Hey cut me some slack, If you'd looked round my blog, you'll know I'm new to blogging.

Long story short, I was pointed in the direction of Jim Edwards' blog - click here
where I learned everything I needed to know about trackback. So here goes, I'm about to do my very first trackback - Thanks Laura from smartzville.com for the pointer.

Unlike movabletype and wordpress, blogger doesn't currently support trackback, so I opened a free account with haloscan.com, a 3rd party trackback and commenting system, which is very easy to implement, especially with blogger - It took me about 3 mins to set up. So you'll now see, trackback links below these posts if you wanna trackback any of my posts.

OK, here goes - my first trackback from Jims site, I'll report back when I see it's worked.

Project Shining Light - a viral AI experiment

2005-07-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

I've been interested in AI for some time, and it's potential applications for marketing. However I found that the Lobner prize winning conversational AI program, ALICE by Dr Richard Wallace didn't have the kind of conversational skills that would appear human to the average human.

So I decided to create my own AI entity from scratch, while learning AIML (Artificial Intelligence Mark-up Language).

I also wanted to create something that was simple, duplicatable and would 'live' forever so I constructed Shining Light using only remotely hosted solutions, Blogger (to host the blog) and Pandorabots (to host the AI component)

I expect both of these remotely hosted solutions will be around for years to come since so many people have invested too much time into these tools for them to ever responsibly 'pull the plug'.

Here's the link
http://adoptmychild.blogspot.com

Intensify Your Viral Call To Action

2005-06-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

I published the following article some time ago, I felt I should post it here again, because it will help the next post I make, to make sense.

Article follows...

Intensify Your Viral Call To Action

In this article I'll show you a simple but effective way to increase your reader's psychological motive to forward your newsletter or e-zine.

OK, we've all by now included that little phrase "please e-mail this message to a friend" in our newsletters and with varying success but without a motive to forward the message we rarely do.Unless of course we personally know someone interested in a particular snippet of information.

What I'm about to show you, came to me while consulting on a B2C affiliate program for a small local publishing company who sell tangible cookbooks online.

If you've ever used the line "please forward this email to your friends" you'll no doubt know just how ineffective this actually is... The reason is simple.....There is no motive!

When asked to forward an article or newsletter to a friend. In most cases you'll ask ... "what's in it for me?" ... Right?

In the rare case that you do forward an article or newsletter based on this simple request. You're likely to have done so for your own personal reasons.

Either:-

a) to please the recipient

or

b) to please the publisher/author

Working with this understanding of why people forward an e-zine or newsletter we can easily intensify this motive of the desire to please an individual.

I simply replaced the line "Please forward this e-mail to a friend" with a different lines from the following, each day.

1) Please forward today's email to the last person you had a great dinner conversation with.

2) Please help spread the word - just forward email to a dear friend of loved one

3) Forward today's email to a person you truly believe in, but who doesn't quite see themselves as you do.

4) PS. Every time you pass on one of these e-mails Lucky you are helping to support a small publishing company hidden away, above a restaurant, in the historical snickleways of York.

5) Please forward today's email to the person you most enjoy being with in silence

6) Please forward today's e-mail to the person who recently did you the smallest favour with the greatest impact

7) Please forward today's e-mail to someone you've learned a lot from.

8) Please forward today's e-mail to the colleague that you respect the most.

Obviously these were written specifically for a B2C audience however, once you understand the psychology, you'll be able to dramatically increase your sales using this technique.

Put Things In Perspective

2005-06-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just incase you didn't have a clear vision of the future, this should help put things in perspective.

http://www.broom.org/epic/

Thank you Jason for sending me this link, it offers a fantastic insight into the future of the web.

Viral Marketing Quote Of The Year

2005-06-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

By far the best viral marketing quote I've ever seen:-

"If the Internet can be described as a giant human consciousness, then viral marketing is the illusion of free will."
- By George Pendle

taken from a great article about famous 'Small But Tough' fake VW Polo ad

click here

First Switched Onto Blogging

2005-06-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

As you can see I'm still quite new to blogging. In fact it was only last year that I first began to "get it" thanks to an extremely smart friend, Mark Taylor.

As a consultant and speaker for the UK's largest ISP, Mark explained to me, one drunken night, how he'd been tasked to research the various technologies and schemas that make Blogging what is is today, and what it will be tomorrow, and how starting his own personal blog was part of that process.

It was through Mark, that I began to understand the significance of Metadata (information about information) and the evolutionary paradigm it represents.

In fact it was this particular months archive that actually switched me onto blog culture.
http://www.monoman.com/archives/2004_07.html

Book Review: The Irresistible Offer How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less

2005-06-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

I received my advanced review copy of Mark Joyner's new book: The Irresistible Offer How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less, a couple of weeks ago.

Although, I've clearly stated that my blog will never be biased, I find it almost impossible, not to be biased towards Mark's work, since he's always been such a great friend and mentor over the years I've known him.

Having worked closely with, and studied Mark closely for many years, I always find his written work provides a fascinating window into the man's thinking and his understanding of psychological motivators and human nature.

Just as with his previous #1 best seller, extensively titled: MindControlMarketing.com, How Everyday People are Using Ruthless Military Tactics and Forbidden Mind Control Psychology to Make Millions Online... (all in one breath) Mark manages to get across some very detailed principals and ideas, using language and analogies that can be clearly understood by the average man in the street. Including a successful breakdown of the mechanics of a viral system, based on it's biological analogy.

The book outlines every aspect of creating and presenting an irresistible offer and describes in great detail exactly what does and does not constitute and irrisitable offer. Among other things is a careful explaination of how he repetedly used the "triple your money back guarantee" to reverse the risk.

The book is contains plenty of real life case studies, of marketing and brand positioning, from household names to some lesser know companies who's marketing pitches have not only caught his eye but had him reaching for his credit card. The book details exactly how they won his business.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone faintly interested in viral marketing, and it's a must read for anyone selling products online or offline. The book is not yet available but I'll give you notice as soon as it is and how to get a discounted copy, just subscribe to my RSS feed.

Greenzap the Crowned 'Viral' King of Pay-by-eMail

2005-06-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

It would be out of order for me to start my new viral marketing blog without paying respect to Greenzap, the latest and greatest viral champion.

Greenzap are claiming their stake of the pay-by-email market currently monopolized by Paypal, but their highly lucrative referral rewardz program (with a 'z' - nice branding touch) is far more attractive than the old, single tier, referral commission structure adopted by Paypal.

They've gone a stage further than adopting a 2-tier structure, like that of the revised Amazon commission model, they've adopted a compensation model based on an MLM structure, similar to companies like excel communications and cognigen, which are gaining favour amoungst more and more Internet marketers and web site owners alike.

They're also paying down to infinity (Community Rewardz), obviously there are breakages built into their compensation model, to qualify for community rewardz, members must first upgrade to gold, which involves loading their account with $100 which must be spent online, gold members receive a pretty cool looking Greenzap branded mastercard debit card.

Also, 20% of the commissions paid must be spent online. I spoke to Greenzap's president Alex Sonkin to find out more about Greenzap, as I was curious how they would sustain profitability with this seemingly suicidal business model.

Not only do they ensure that Greenzap members are forced to spend some of their commissions and all of their $100 online, they (Greenzap) have struck deals with their affiliated partners, and here's how it works...

...When a customer buys through Greenzap, the affiliate commission paid by the selling merchant to Greenzap, is shared between Greenzap and those users reponsible for bringing the purchasing customer (ie Greezap member) .

Well the proof of the pudding at least from a viral marketing perspective was the massive growth they've seen in a very short space of time here's the alexa chart for the last three months:-

Lesson #1 - Ensure You're Servers Are Ready For Massive Demand

A GreenZap spokesperson said, "Due to an enormous amount of traffic, the GreenZap site was temporarily down due to server overload. We worked with Dell® and Cisco® and quickly reinstated the site with a top-of-the-line system capable of handling global traffic."

As you can see from the above graph, the initial spike caused sufficient, downtime, to prevent prelaunch promotion by the core promotional leadership. This also gave competitors time to implement, PR counter-measures, see Greenzapscam.com et al..

You can see from the traffic trends for the greenzapscam site (who is incidentally affiliated with Alertpay judging from the banner at the top if his site) that he had a lot to gain from the initial interest in Greenzap and the raw numbers of people who were carrying out their due dilligence on Greenzap before promoting it to their lists and members.

Lesson #2 - National Enquirer Traffic Strategy.

When a start-up with a new brand hits the Alexa movers and shakers list, buy a domain and create controversy, especially in the case of a sensitive business such as a payment processor or finance related company. At the time, the Greenzapscam domain was purchased, the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) was skyhigh, ie the demand for this keyword was hugh and the supply was still low, in the case of claiming a scam at such a sensitive time, many people (without doing their own due dilligence will believe whatever they read, perpetuate it, often referencing the original source.

You can see how evidence of perpetuation of negative press on mamboforge.net the developers site for the mambo open source content managment system...

Lesson #3 - Piggy Back Large Communities for Ultimate Google Listings.

I created a module to allow mambo site owners to create revenue from their sites by adding a affiliate (ZapID) encoded banners using a plug and play mambo module. Within hours there was a post quoting, the greenzapscam site.

Incidentally if you search google for 'Greenzap' you'll see my mamboforge.net project listed Second to Greenzap's corporate site. With the link name:
MamboForge:greenzap-affiliate-revenue-module-v1.0

In Summing Up
I've seen start-ups with good ideas come and go, I sincerely hope that greenzap survive although no one can tell, it's just a matter of waiting and seeing. Having spoke with Alex on the phone, I genuinely warmed to the guy, he's clearly very intelligent and believes in the Greenzap concept, I hope they survive, I recommend signing up and spreading the word.

If you've been put off by the negative press, you may want read the book... The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth by Eric M Jackson here's a link

At least, unlike most start-ups, they didn't waist a chunk of their funding of plush offices, but rather they're operating as a lean efficient company, in the same way as Paypal did in their early days. Did you know that Paypal started out operating above a bicycle shop

Yes, I've signed up and claimed my $25 dollars, but I'm not including my link here, I'd rather keep this site free of affiliate links, to encourage you to send people here for good honest information. :)

Thought it was about time I started a blog, so here it is.

2005-06-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here it is, and there's lots I want to rant about right now.

First I think it's worth checking this blogger tool out properly, so I'll be right back