R.O.EYE Blog

By Andy Mitchell, Senior Programme Executive

I’ve just been reading about Microsoft’s Zune. For those of you that don’t know what the Zune is, it’s Microsoft’s version of the iPod. They have re-released it in an attempt to take on Apple’s dominance in the market. The newly updated version has got a few minor changes but it ties in with the launch of Zune Social. This is a Social Networking site and Microsoft is relying on it to catch-up with Apple.

Now this isn’t anything ground-breaking. It’s definitely not the first major brand to make a whole-hearted effort with Social Media. But it did get me thinking….If Microsoft think they can use Social sites to re-gain significant market share, then surely lessons can be taken from this and applied to the affiliate space?

So, are YOU using Social Media to its full potential at the moment? Are you even using it all?

With a bit of effort and a small amount of ingenuity, you could make a small fortune from social sites at the moment. There are so many opportunities – Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and WAYN to name just a few. There’s certainly plenty of hype around Social Networking, and to be honest, you may think it’s become a buzz word and not much else – but lets take a look a some actual examples, that work for affiliates….

Facebook probably represents the biggest opportunity for affiliates at the moment. And if you can crack it, then you are onto a winner. Recently a Facebook cashback site has been launched - http://www.isavedcashback.com/. A whole cashback site built specifically for Facebook. The advertising of it should be easy – get a decent membership and due to the nature of Facebook, it should grow automically.

There’s also widgets for Facebook – if you’ve got some decent technical ability, you should be able to build a quick widget – here’s some tips to get you started - http://developers.facebook.com/step_by_step.php

Take a look at ShoeMoneys blog post from last week, for example – a US affiliate was making $15,000 per day on Facebook! Yeah, he was bending the rules slightly, but that’s a lot of money he’s made.

Now that’s simple Paid Search, just applied to a new advertising platform. So if you are a PPC expert, or even a novice for that matter, did you think to look at Facebook as the next Paid Search network? Its probably worth a try - clicks are cheap. But, a word of warning - as Keiron highlights here – conversion is really bad! Give it a go, see if you can make it work and let us know!

Have you built a Squidoo lens yet? This is more “Web 2.0”, but it can be equally if not more effective. A Squidoo lens is just a simple page that, if you target a niche, tends to rank well for related generic searches.

We’ve been playing around with Squidoo in the office – our recruitment guy Ben has set up a great R.O.EYE lens at http://www.squidoo.com/ROEYE/. But in terms of making money, we’ve got a few affiliates who have built lenses for our merchants’ products and are producing great results – daily conversions from lenses that rank well for generic terms – fantastic!

Lee Mccoy often has some great Social Media tips, so if you are looking for hints to get started, or future opportunities, keep an eye on his blog – www.leemccoy.co.uk – always a good read.

Alternatively, if you are looking for some merchants to promote via Social Media – just give us a call – we’ve got plenty of ideas!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.