Affiliate Student Life & Times of a Affiliate whose also a Uni Student

Just a quick one to say I’m on Twitter:  Max99x

Not posting much or doing much Affiliate marketing really as ive got 6 exams in the next 20 days for 2nd year of uni degree so snowed under with revision

Few things i’m going to be doing after exam, launching 3 new sites, and possibly becoming a merchant myself!!

Oh and im off to barbados with AF next month and then a River Nile Cruise with the girlfriend the month after

Will post more when I can

Well known are the effects an incentive can have on an affiliate to start promoting, drive more sales, drive different sales and to make us favour the specific merchant over others!

Incentives can vary through out merchants in the UK, and I’d thought I’d mention some incentives both good and bad.

First, the Good

AffiliateFuture’s Barbados competition this year and the past 3 years has been one of the best incentives/competitions for UK affiliates that has ever been around (as far as im aware). The chance to win a trip to Barbados is such as great prize and thus I entered it, even set up a small travel site and I know many others did. The great thing with this incentive is that there were many ways to win, not just from delivering the most sales etc! I was lucky enough to win a place on the trip which I cannot wait for!

As you may have seen a few posts earlier I posted about All Up and On, and there little competition asking to review items on there site and which you would have for the prices of £50, £100 and £200! Now this is pretty innovative as it interests everyone! I blogged about it and won the stainless steel drinks party tub! Shall be great in the summer (if only I could fit it in my bag to barbados!) This is a cracking incentive and hope to see more of these!

Now, the bad

I’m not really going to name names (much) as I feel its a tad unfair to pick certain merchants out, but the merchants who don’t do any incentives always disheartens me! especially if I send them a fair amount of sales.  I know you will be rewarded in commission but an added incentive can really mean people send many many times more. A quick example a mobile phone merchant put me on tiers, from base rate of £35 for a particular offer, up to £50 when I hit 70 sales, I did 72 that month in comparison to the month before where I got about 20! massive incentive!

On the other hand Ive started to push sales for a gambling merchant on AF, at £60 a pop commission it isn’t too bad, and they have an incentive! great I hear you shout, well unfortunately in my eyes its a poor incentive. For 50 sales a month I get a bonus of …. £70 ! So for sending 50 players I only get the equivalent of  1.167 extra person’s signing up! Now I thought gambling merchants were nice and generous seeing as they make so much ! obviously not!

Anyway, whats key if your a merchant is …. have an incentive to win something or tiers to increase commission ! Us affiliates LOVE them !

P.s UK networks, take some tips from AffiliateFuture on incentives and competitions

Wow, well what can I say i’m off to Barbados in June with Affiliate Future and all the others who are going. I seriously cannot wait! These are just some of the amazing things that affiliate marketing has to offer!

Massive thanks to AF and Triviala

So I was set a challenge of explaining what i’d buy with the following sums: £50, £100 and £200 at All Up And On

The first sum: £50

The black Bin Bin - a designer waster paper.

Why this ? Well firstly it’s looks make it stand out rather than one of those standard boring looking bins. Secondly as a student I tend to make a lot of mess and often have to empty my bin more often than i’d like too so one that looks good would make that  a lot more fun, and finally the biggest selling point . . . it would match my clothes in my room (all crumpled).

Available here The bin is available for only £36 inc VAT at the below link, giving me a bit of pocket change from the £5o. Oh and its available in 3 colors.

The second sum: £100

The define stainless steel party tub

Well this comes under budget at £60 so £40 left for alcohol to fill it of course. Now obviously as a student it would more likely have some cans of lager, cheap wine and vodka in it, but this thing of beauty would make them look a (enter expensive name of wine/champagne here)!

Available Here Only £60 inc VAT (not available in black but of course not its snazy stainless steel)

and now for

…

The final sum: £200

The Fatboy Original Beanbag

Well what can you say it just looks emmensely comfortable and I could see myself watching tv on it, playing my xbox on it, doing uni work on it, sleeping on it, recovering from a drinking session on it and more! I want it!!!

Available here for £149.00 inc VAT (oh and did you notice I do kind of like the colour black thus why all the photos are in black but this is available in a variety of colours too)

So in essence I’d have a lovely bin, a cracking party tub and somewhere to recover after using the party drink tub in the morning afterwards! Remember its all available here All Up And On and for all you affiliates you can promote it via AffiliateWindow.

Just a very quick post as i’m at Uni, Manchester meet is at 5pm onwards at Kro Piccadilly. Hope to see you all there.

Sunshine are known for there innovative ideas to get affiliates working with them and to get existing affiliates to push more sales to them. This time they are offering 6 places to barbados. Yep you read it right not just 1 or 2 but 6 places.

Now some of you will be reading this thinking “I’m a newbie I don’t make many sales I’ve not got a chance” well your wrong! The 6 ways of entering are all varied so everyone has a chance. From making one single sale to get you in with a chance to coming up with an innovative way of marketing them theres something for everyone.

To find out all the various methods of entering and more > http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-future/102708-affiliate-future-barbados-trip-6-places-6-chances-win-sunshine-co-uk.html

I’m not going to lie and say I do loads of travel … infact I do very very little, but things like this make me want to start doing it again! My site Discount Hotels suddenly popped to number 1 in Msn search a couple of days ago which saw me get the odd sale or two and has made me think of developing this site more and more.

Now a great way I will be promoting sunshine is Niche! Please please please if your a newbie don’t set up a site that sells holidays everywhere. Start small. Focus on maybe Holidays in a town in a certain island, or just the island generally, you’ll have a much better chance of succeeding.

What kind of stuff do sunshine offer affiliates ?

Well they offer various methods all of which can be seen here > http://www.sunshine.co.uk/affiliates/ (the best affiliate portal for a merchant I’ve ever seen!)

What kind of commission shall I get ?

7% commission on accommodation and transfer sales. Oh and that chance to win a trip to Barbados!

Where do I sign up ?

Sunshine is available through AffiliateFuture. Sign up here

How long do I have ?

All the competition incentives finish on 30th April 2009.

So get promoting for your chance of a free holiday this summer as well as the chance to earn lots of commission too! (p.s your welcome to use the graphic at the top of this page to spread the word about this competition. Full size version can be found here)

Haven’t posted for a while on here, will try to get back into the swing of things and post more often.

Been busy with:
1. Affiliate Stuff
2. Tax (Got new accountant and so having to do accounts better and VAT stuff)
3. Uni work, now in 2nd year its starting get busier!
4. Going out, drinking, and general stuff with the gf.

Anyway, just to let you all know there is a Manchester Affiliate Meet up on Thursday the 19th from 5pm onwards at Kro Piccadilly

It’ll be a nice chance for a few drinks and informal chat. Mainly affiliates I believe, some agency staff, maybe some networks and merchants who knows

Thread on A4u about it > http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-marketing-events/102557-manchester-get2gether-thursday-19th-march.html

Another discussing it here > http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-marketing-lounge/100058-affiliate-events-up-north.html

So if your around that kind of time in Manchester come along!

Back in March I was contacted by Kirsty who is a well respected and large affiliate, well known for her travels! She wanted to do an interview with me and 2 other affiliates to post on her blog www.AffiliateStuff.co.uk and I politey obliged.
http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/general/meet-the-real-affiliates-max-bramwell-2-of-3/

A week or so back she PM’d me over at A4UForums asking if i’d like a follow up and of course I was more than happy to. To read to this click the link below.

The follow up can be found here: http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/affiliate-people/meet-the-real-affiliates-where-are-they-now-max-bramwell/

Hope you enjoy it

I posted a few days ago inviting questions on anything affiliate based to my life based and below are the questions with the answers

First Hannah’s Questions
1) What comes first Uni or Aff stuff? Bit of mixture really. Ideally should be uni but tends to be aff stuff
2) How do you decide which sites/merchants to push? depends on the area, commission, which network they are on, if they offer something good to the user etc
3) What do your uni lecturers think of having a successful Affiliate in class? They don’t know
4) What is your top time management tip for students/full time workers who are Aff’s too? hmm im not best for giving tips as i mix it up, but my general rule is … socialising(drinking) ahead of aff or uni work.
5) Ever posted pissed??? on a4uforum yes once slightly tipsy

These from Diane

6)How are students dealing with the credit crunch? Has it affected students at all? Are they exempt from normal economic issues? Students are just really feeling it in food shopping, generally just buying more own brand food items, general student stuff, buying in bulk etc. Students are not excempt i’d say but they are feeling it

These from Phil

7) How much time do you spend on affy marketing and how long has it taken you to get to this point? I’d say 10-30mins a a day, more checking forum tho.
If a student were to start now, what advice would you give them? Keep it as a hobby to do in your spare time at first, then see how it goes
9) What do you envisage yourself doing after you finish uni, and do you think it’s important to complete your degree considering the success you’re having already? Yes i want to complete my degree as its a waste of money otherwise, also after Uni ideally want to keep doing, maybe full time, and/or open my own offline business

These from Mike
10) How do you plan your day? Do you have a team of people working on various things or is it a one man band show? Do you design and develop your websites or get it done from someone else? Day is unplanned really, just see what needs doing and get it done, if I was full time I think it’d be different. I normally either outsource design or use a template and wordpress.

and these from Rob

11) Have you any travel websites? Yes only one though, www.DiscountHotels.org.uk small site really
12) Is there already / do you think there will ever be some academic courses on affiliate marketing, e.g. a Batchelors Degree? Im not sure there is at the moment, maybe some kind of e-marketing degree, im not sure a whole degree in it will become available any time soon to be honest.

Thanks for all your questions, some nice questions. Anymore i will answer in the comments below

Okay, someone asked me on msn earlier if december was a big month for me, and I told them no i’m doing a lot better this month, they asked how much better… Something I like and I know others like is seeing actual commission figures, not necessarily profits and in depth income reports but some figures be them small or large. I’ve put at the bottom of this post some examples of posts I’ve enjoyed reading with actual figures in them .

Okay, so most people rave on about how december is the best month for them, they make 3,4 or 5 times as much as other months etc, but for me december has always been a disappointment, my sites although varied have never seemed to have done very well in december.