* This is not a blog post about Liverpools anonymous season…
The new a4u has been live a few days now and one of the most improved sections is “The Pool“. Previously you had to wade through the constant onslaught of network promotions as the blog section was fed via RSS. Now that The Pool is fed via user submissions 99% of the articles seem to be interesting and relevant. There has also been a change in the way articles get voted on. Previously if you liked an article your name/gravatar got associated with it, and likewise if you “disliked” and article. The advantage was that it quickly becomes apparent when a blog post was being “spammed” to the top, but it might have put people off either voting against the post (as they don’t want to appear negative) or voting for it (as they cant be associated with the post for whatever reason).
The new system is totally anonymous which in theory should rectify the aforementioned problems. However, what seems to be happening is that more people are voting down the articles (it could be part of the algorithm that you lost points over time…). You just have to go to page 2 of the 4 pages of submitted articles to find posts in the minus points.
I know “The Pool” is new and the guys at the A4u are working hard to get the best algorithm in place to display the best content, but in my opinion this industry needs positivity over negativity. So is Anonymity the way forward?
The big news in the Affiliate world is the sale/purchase of Buy.at and the launch of the new a4u website. Both have been covered with more insight and detail elsewhere (check out “The Pool” section on the a4u.)
I thought i would give a shout out to the fantastic Affiliate Future Mothers Day Resource Centre. Available from the home page of your Affiliate Future account there is all the information you could possibly need to make sales this Mothers Day.
“There are plenty of incentives, landing pages and increased commissions to really help you ramp up those Mother’s Day commissions.”
Offers/deals/landing pages etc are grouped into really helpful categories such as Flowers, Chocolates, Experiences etc and are all just a click away.
Just a quick brief post to thank Zanox and SOXINABOX for the snow slider and sox in a box. I was one of the lucky winners in a recent Twitter contest.
The good news is the snow is still here in Berlin. Check out some of the icicles that are forming!
***UPDATED*** (08.02.10)
After much deliberation I’ve decided to sell spendlessonline.co.uk which is one of the longer established voucher code websites (launched in 2006). Building it was a great experience and it’s still not reached anywhere its full potential, although it makes a very tidy and growing profit every year. While you might read about websites for sale every now and again that shout from the rooftops of their massive earnings potential, returning visitors, ninja seo optimization etc etc, I think the stats for Spendless speak for themselves. It’s always been growing, with increasing profits, it’s well branded and professional, has never had a google penalty or drop in traffic. It’s reliability was a strategic decision, not to focus or rely on one specific merchant, in fact I’ve 1036 listed (so there’s still a few thousand more you can add) and make commissions for over 250 different merchants every month.
Selling it is a hard decision, because I know it’s not reached its peak. But I’ve other projects I want to pursue, such as the MBA that I plan to enroll in for this year. How much you should value a website for is a hotly contested topic. Following the advice of Kieron and the sale of ukoffer.com, I’ve also gone for 2 years profit which is £171k.
Let’s take a look at some stats:
Unique Visitors:
2006: 10,478 (from Oct-Dec)
2007: 79,971
2008: 340,282
2009: 662,781
Profitability:
Here you can see the profits by looking at revenue minus my ad spend.
2006: £1,380 revenue – £413 ads = £967 profit
2007: £20,887 – £6350 = £14,537
2008: £90,940 – £24,415 = £66,525
2009: £137,380 – £51,633 = £85,747
It’s not all about affiliate revenue, the site has also won a fair few prizes, including Philips 32 LCD TV, Bose DAB/CD Wave Music System, Philips 19” Widescreen LCD TV, Laurent Perrier Champagne, Dulux PaintPod, Sony 10.1 Cyber-shot camera, Sony DAB HiFi System, Thorntons Hamper, £100 Schuh voucher, £100 Totally Gifts voucher, £50 Red Letter Days Voucher and many more.
Inbound links according to Yahoo! Site Explorer: 3080
If that’s not already convinced you, let’s look at some of its key strengths…
SpendLess’s key strengths:
1. Age of domain/site. Goes back to 2006. Older than MVCs and VC.co.uk
2. Consistent growth in the face of ever growing competition. (See stats above)
3. Varied sources of traffic, not reliant on any one source.
4. Great Design + site runs on Wordpress so easy development.
5. Varied sources of income. Not reliant on any one merchant (1036 listed, approx 250 convert regularly)
6. Full PPC list of keywords included in purchase (including 6128 negative keywords)
7. Lots of mutually beneficial exclusive codes already in place for esteemed merchants in high value sectors such as (Interflora, RedLetterDays, Match.com)
Future potential of Spendless:
1. Site currently features 1019 merchants. Most voucher sites have over 3000 so there is plenty of space to expand niches where I’m already ranking successfully.
2. SEO is not my strong point, I would not say the site is highly optimized, vastly increased traffic and revenue growth could be achieved by someone with expert knowledge in this area.
3. It’s worth noting that from 2006 – Sep 2008 the site was run part time. Also from Jan 2009 – Sep
2009 I was travelling the world and only worked on it in small intermittent bursts, yet look at the growth in revenue! Way more could be achieved by its new owner working more consistently or with a team.
4. The new owner could expand to selling ad spots, this functionality already exists and this could add significant income(see the skyscraper banner on the right hand side of every deal page for example).
5. At present codes are administered via a custom built tool, however it would be possible to automate this management process by using a system like icodes or promotions.co.uk
The asking price is just two years profit, so £171k. This is fixed and non-negotiable. I would not accept a revenue split so please don’t suggest that. Of course I’d be more than happy to answer any more specific questions you might have, just drop me a mail.
***UPDATE***
A few people have been asking about the breakdown of traffic for the site. The breakdown is roughly:
45% Organic
45% PPC
10% “Other”
The growth of organic traffic has outstripped that of ppc over the last year or so as you can see in the graphs below. Any other question then send me a mail.
***UPDATE 2***
Just incase anyone is thinking i am jumping ship now that Spendless has reached its peak i thought i would add a small update. Looking at the stats for January, profits are up 23% year on year.
Searching for the perfect Christmas present is never easy. Especially when you want to combine it with your photos from a recent trip/event. In total i uploaded over 1500 photos from our round the world trip to flickr and was searching for a great present to combine them all. Then up stepped Zumyn.
This great little site will turn your photos into a stunning mosaic. The 2 main advantages of the site are that it automatically pulls all your photos from Flickr for you, so no tedious uploads. And secondly you get to determine how many times each photo is used (i went for twice to get a better overall clarity of photo). Other companies that i found will use the same photo up to 10 times in your mosaic which i find really takes away from the overall effect.
Here is my now framed attempt.
Zumyns quality and service both come highly recommended!
