LeeBandoni.com | Affiliate Marketing | Business Views |

For anyone who thinks I have retired from affiliate marketing and joined the army I am sorry to disappoint but you have the wrong Lee! This is Lee “Big Tony” Bandoni and he has just been issued his Army cadet force uniform. The army cadets are the oldest and largest youth development organization in the UK and tech young adults teamwork, friendship and leadership.

You can find out more about the British Army Cadet Force Here

Popularity: 2%

Today I thought I would give a guide to how I first got started in affiliate marketing with no fancy tools and a very small budget. The concept I used was not new and is still being used today but with a planning and “thinking outside the box” I created a nice weekly income of almost £1500 a week until I moved onto larger projects.

The Concept:

The idea was to have people sign up to my AdSense template program and training course using a newsletter based system. Once signed up they were introduced to the AdSense program and offered 150+ free sites in return for signing up to a hosting account.  After some initial tweaks my site was converting up to 80% of my visitors with me receiving £70 for each “free” sign up.

The Method:

I had very little in the way of money or design skills but had a old copy of Photoshop and Dreamweaver and the entire online community to look for inspiration. I soon came across some sales pages and used the “thin” page concept as a model for my project.

I knew that I needed to get people excited by my offer so I asked a guy I met online for a screengrab of his AdSense account which he was happy to give. He also gave me some hints and tips which I could include in my training course to tech my users how to make money online.

After I had my screengrab and some tips I created my text which explained how it was possible to make lots of money with AdSense and that if they signed up for my free package they would learn the tricks of the trade. The catch for the user was that my busy schedule only allowed 5 lucky people a day to take advantage of my offer and if they were lucky enough to get a personal reply then they were eligible to take part in the offer.

As some of you have properly guessed the last bit was actually a sneakily little trick to make users feel they have achieved something if they were accepted but in reality everyone was a winner!

Turning A Subscriber In To A Customer

My landing page was bringing me plenty of subscribers but now I needed to turn these money hungry users into paying customers of a well knowing hosting company. The method I used was to dangle a carrot and wait for a bite, I never used any special tactics apart from withholding the sign up opportunity for the first 24 hours. The first email they received was sent around an hour after they signed up and showed then more examples of massive AdSense profits and an introduction to my free package but NO WAY TO SIGN UP!

About 30% of the users would email me right away for a sign up link but I always used an auto responder to explain that there turn would come and to hold tight. This gave them the mindset that the offer was 100% legit and worth waiting for.

The next day they would get their second email with sign up instructions and step by step guide. On almost every occasion I would get a confirmed affiliate commission email within a couple of hours. The delayed sign up and feeling of winning really helped convert the offer and made me a small fortune.

Questions & Answers

How did you come up with the idea?

I was messing around on eBay when I found a AdSense Template Package with resale rights for $30. I immediacy realised I could use this as a basis of an offer and bought it right away.

How did you manage all the communications?

Managing email is a knight mare but thankfully I found and used Aweber from the very start. For $20 a month it lets you send opt-in emails using time stamping which meant I just needed to set my program up once and it done the rest. The Aweber system also allows you to send personal emails by capturing personal information during sign up so the user thinks you are sending that email just to them. Learn more here..

How did you advertise?

I simply used AdWords and stated bidding on simple search terms relating to AdSense. I was an early adaptor to the long tail search and paid almost nothing for traffic. I also put a footer link in every site built for customers. I used an ad like the one below:

$10,000 A Month With AdSense!
Learn From The King Of Content
Only 4 Spaces Left Today! - GO
www.domain.com

How did you build all these sites?

That was the simple bit! I simply used Dreamweaver search and replace and churned the sites out in a few minutes each. Later on I had someone build a script which done the complete install using just ftp info and AdSense Ids.

How Did The Host React?

At the time I received every payout on time with no questions asked. They know I was using an incentive based model and were happy as long as I never mislead anyone.

Would you do to again?

If I needed some quick cash then I would use the same model again in a second. The key to making cash out of this is find a product which people want (arcade scripts etc) and do the same refreshed for 2008.

How much did you make from this offer?

That would be telling!

Popularity: 6%

I try and limit my time reading other blogs and forums as it hurts productivity but there are a few blogs I always have in my reader which I enjoy reading.

HERE.co.uk - This blog belongs to Kieron Donoghue who is one of the best know affiliate marketers in the UK. Kieron originally found fame after posting revenue screen shots on Sitepoint (A trick he learned from Jon) and since then he has been writing great quality content ever since. The blog is a mixture of affiliate marketing, ideas and examples of his projects.

Techcrunch.com - Is the place to be if your into Start ups and has a number of local versions to keep you updated on activity in the US, Europe and the Middle East. The owner of Tech Crunch, Michael Arrington seems to know just about everyone who’s anyone in Internet land and its a known fact his blog can make or break a company.

Loiclemeur.com - Is the personal blog of french entrepreneur Loic Le Meur who started in 1996 as a web designer and went on to create on of the largest web hosting companies in France. After selling the company to Wanadoo and working on a few other project Loic moved to San Fransisco to launch Seesmic a web 2.0 video service.

Selfmademinds.com - Is a great resource and contains a lot of great information on affiliate marketing, traffic and business in general.

Dougs Moutpiece - Operated by the main man behind ASAP ventures this blog is a good look at what can be achieved with funding and smart ideas. I think Doug has a phobia about rich fat people  eating money but apart from that its a fun read and worth checking out.

TylerCruz.com - Is the personal blog of Tyler Cruz web entrepreneur and  gambling expert. The blog has some good information but could do with less advertising posts which can feel a little spammy. Unlike a rock star, Tyler has a Hate Club with hundreds of people who slag him off at any opportunity. I know Tyler takes it all in good fun and as they say any publicity is good publicity.

Valleywag.com - For insider news about whats happening in San Fransisco there’s no better place to be. These guys post some really crazy stories which normally end up being true so if your looking to get gossip on Facebook or Google then this should be your number first port of call.

UberAffiliate.com - An affiliate marketing blog by 19 year old Paul Bourque who claims to make six figures a month. This blog is very American but has some good information for the newbie affiliate markerter.

Shoemoney.com - Cult marketer Jeremy Schoemaker is the king of spin but a must read even if just to see who is launching what. Shoemoney is most famous for posting a six figure AdSense check and since then he has been a hero young publishers everywhere. Shoemoneys latest project is Fighters.com which is a mixed martial arts site which he intends to sell out for millions.

Once you have made all your millions then I suggest you do not follow the lead of Greg Lasrado who’s story has just been published by the Brisbane Times. The guy went from having a $60 million business to broke due to overspending and keeping the wrong friends. Take a read here

Popularity: 11%

As someone who hates to fly I am a  big fan of cruise ships which in my opinion are truly the safest way to travel.  Later this year I have an event to attend in San Fransisco which means a 6 day trip acoss the Atlantic on a Cunard Liner.

I seen on the Malta News today that Cunards latest liner, Victoria accidentally crashed into a quay when going into port yesterday evening. The good news is Cunard have said the ship will be ready to roll again right away after overnight repairs and guests can look forward to the next stop in Gibraltar on the 17th.

On another cruise related issue I am just about to launch a large cruise site and am looking for writers and contributors. If you are a regular cruise ship passenger then I would love to hear from you and help share your story with cruise fans new and old.

Popularity: 10%

I was having a chat with a good friend who deal is super premium domain names and he was telling me about a chap in the industry who is pissing everyone off by registering all the best dropped domain names using a modified domain catching script. When he told me that so many people were going nuts I had thoughts that he must have been attacking other servers during the drops or doing something illegal but the truth was he was simply manipulating th system better than anyone else.

For people who do not know a drop catcher simply queries a domain name until its available for registration then when it becomes available it register it using a encrypted PGP system. This method of registration has been used by Nominet for years and in my opinion needs a serious update as its outdated and not efficient.

Nominet Tag holders pay a yearly fee to have special access to the whois system which allows a limited number of searches in a 24 hour period. This chap simply registered a number of tags to increase his chances of obtaining the domain name.

When I looked at creating a drop catching system I had the exact same idea as this chap is using as I know it would be the best way to obtain a competitive edge over other systems. I did some costs and realised that even after setting up a number of shelf companies, leasing multiple servers, purchasing multiple tags and query licenses and having the system coded it would be possible to pay for the entire project with the registration of a single premium domain name.

I personally do not understand why these other domain domainers have issue with what this guy is up to as they are doing the exact same thing by using a competitive advantage then selling the domains back to the public at an premium price. If it comes to ethics then the question for the domainers should be is it ethical to charge a company 100 x the registration value of a name because you manipulated the system to get it.

I often see the exact same argument in affiliate marketing when someone comes up with a innovative concept to improve conversions. We have all seen the problems caused by innovative voucher code sites which at the time were said to become the final nail in the coffin for affiliate marketers, a few months later and the concept is now being used by a ton of sites.

Domainers and markerters are trading in a market which is still in its infancy but there actions are what are being used to define how the industry matures. I see no problem with using forward thinking tatics to make money as long as the end user gets the result they are looking for.

Popularity: 11%