With a number of new affiliate blogs emerging (meaning next year this blog could be more like Hull City) I thought I’d look at the other nominees and see why I think they’re top of their game. Perhaps by looking at what they all do well individually it’s possible to give a blueprint for the “perfect affiliate blog” to a wannabe affiliate blogger?

Affiliate Stuff
Kirsty McCubbin provides an incredibly well written and informative blog for all affiliates – newbies to full timers. There are a lot of useful tips and suggestions usually included within her “Ask Kirsty” posts and these are interspersed with tales of travels around the world. Her self analysis of her own sites are insightful and her infectious enthusiasm for the affiliate marketing industry and those working in it comes through. Always willing to help out or offer advice, it’s no surprise that Kirsty has such a popular blog… despite the odd picture of deadly Aussie spiders (scary).

Lee Mccoy
Lee’s site is a must read for everyone within affiliate marketing. Lee is always willing to back up his experiences with stats and data, yet is able to convey any serious message in a well written, entertaining and informative way. Despite the slightly dubious recent rebranding I’d love to see Lee win this year! Lee has also eaten at least a tonne of chocolate just to create a single website.

Lammo.net
Easy Content Unit genius, John Lamerton provides something a little different to the other nominated affiliate blogs and it’s great to see his blog get the recognition it deserves. Lammo.net is very well written and his in depth affiliate marketing guides are mixed in with articles about business and the occasional mention of Plymouth Argyle. John also has the shiniest ever “me” image of any blogger… ever!

Here.org.uk
Double award winner Kieron Donaghue probably has the UK affiliate blog with the most comments and discussion replies. And that probably tells you that his blog is not only incredibly popular but his articles inspire feedback from it’s users. Everyone in AM reading his blog can take inspiration from his ventures, especially those that relate to his latest success Sharemyplaylists.com. Can Kieron make it three in a row? Probably!

So What Is The Blueprint For The Perfect Affiliate Blog?

Well based on the above, the perfect affiliate blog should contain articles to help newbies, an accessible and enthusiastic writer, case studies on your affiliate marketing exploits whilst remaining down to earth, well crafted articles on a variety of business and AM topics, a shiny image avatar and a bumper audience of readers who are inspired to comment based on the quality and consistency of the articles.

What’s quite scary about writing the above is that OLD doesn’t do many of them… but there’s a good reason for that! It just wouldn’t work – and that’s the point.

For all of you wanting to be an affiliate blogger or who are just starting (or about to reembark) on the blog treadmill the message is simple – be yourself! Don’t try and be a Lammo or a Kieron or a Lee or a Kirsty or even a Duck!

Write content about your own experiences in affiliate marketing and be consistent. Most affiliate bloggers fail simply by not writing regular articles. All the blogs above produce top notch content week in week out! Be inspired by the top guys and girls – don’t try and be them! Stand out, be unique and you could be amongst the top UK affiliate bloggers!

So what are you waiting for?

Ah yes.. you want one last bit of good duck advice? If you do decide to give affiliate blogging a go don’t ever be afraid to speak your mind and write from the heart! The rest comes a lot more naturally after that.

It would be great this time next year to see five totally different affiliate blogs amongst the nominations for A4uawards 2010.

Big brands adopting affiliate marketing isn’t new! Last year for example every brand and their dog was opening up a white label bingo site. Bingo providers were falling over themselves to sign up brand after brand. From Woolworths to New Woman Magazine – branded bingo was plastered every where. The frenzy for this “must have” has subsided in recent months, indeed several white labels have fallen by the way side (for example lastminute.com).

Shopping and cashback are now the current flavours of the month. Sky are the latest company to take on a “Shop Window” in association with Affiliate Window. They are following in the path of Metro and The Sun, who have sinced dropped “Shop Window” in favour of a white label cashback site (ask yourself why!).

So should affiliates be concerned by the rise of the big brand affiliates?

Of course there are more competitors squeezing into the affiliate marketing boat but big brand doesn’t always equate to big affiliate business. Ask anyone what Google does and they’ll probably say “search”. Ask them what The Sun does and they’ll say “newspaper”. Ebay is “auction”. Facebook is “social network”. In other words, brands become pigeon-holed and they, just like any traditional affiliate have to constantly promote and push their marketing channels that are outside the “norm” for the majority of users. That is not always easy whilst focusing on your core USP.

Flavours of the month are also just that! When the next “must have” addition to these ever growing big brand portals is bandied around, the previous incumbent will get shunted down the list or even booted off if it turns out to be a poor revenue stream.

We also need to remember that new cashback sites have to compete with those already established in the sector, so let’s see how two well known cashback sites doing in comparison to say the biggest 100% cashback site, a popular deals site and let’s say the infamous voucher code site (Google Trends)

You can’t glean too much from the above, but it does show vouchers on the up (orange), deals looking good (dark blue) and cashback (100% is light blue, the others green and yellow) looking a bit stagnant (this may not be reality of course in terms of revenue – but it’s an interesting graphic)! Big brands may well breathe life into the cashback sector, but I still don’t think their presence is sufficient reason for traditional affiliates to think their end is nigh.

Online shopping isn’t some new phenomena and cashback has been featured in many a publication and also by internet media celebs like Martin Lewis for several years now. This means that The Sun et al still have to get in there and convert new people to cashback because most of those who already know about it will probably be getting 100% elsewhere. On top of that they have to retain them and make sure that they (The Sun) are earning revenue from the channel.

Will they be successful? Only time will tell!

Granted “media muscle” (lol) will be a factor, but there are still plenty of opportunities open for traditional affiliates. Remember you have the advantage of working for yourself, being swift and nimble in your promotions and can also gain from the exposure online shopping will receive from big brands. Watch what they’re promoting – use their advertising spend to your advantage!

You also have to remember that big brand affiliates will still face the same issues those of us who have been doing affiliate marketing for a while have to face – users not using your affiliate links, shoppers picking up voucher codes elsewhere, users forgetting to go via your cashback, tracking problems, cookie issues etc. – and they may not be as forgiving!

Whereas a traditional affiliate may be able to adapt to changes in the market place, big brands tend to have a habit of reducing or even dropping channels that don’t earn them money… like their bingo white labels!

Be concerned, but the end is not nigh (well at least I hope not)!

I clicked on it, and immediately wished I hadn’t!

The clicking was the first indication that all was not right at the freeoffersandmore site I ended up at, and lo and behold up popped the “your PC is not protected” banners. I did get chance to read part of the site, albeit the white writing on the black background wasn’t the easiest to fathom. Anyway, here’s apparently how you make money from Affiliate Future (this was next to a gaming site banner btw):

Now, ok it’s not the greatest site in the world, and anyone with an ounce of sense will dismiss the site… but I don’t want that kind of caper being linked from this blog!

Site owners/bloggers should remember that links on your own site are often seen as a recommendation by you to your users – I’d not want to send my user to this site either direct or through a widget as it’s just not of a standard I find acceptable.

I’m guessing there’s no quality control at Blogrush, which leaves it exposed to all kinds of potential problems and issues. Therefore until such controls can be installed sorry Blogrush but your 5 minutes on One Little Duck are now over.