Online Marketing
Real Estate Negotiations vs. Website Purchase Negotiations
May 6th
After spending the last 2 or so years trying to buy a condo which I finally found a couple months ago I learned a lot about the negotiation process (after many failed offers). Here are a couple things that I think could be used to negotiating the purchase of a website or domain (if you aren’t already using them).
Time Sensitive Offers (BUYING) – One of the things that I picked up that I thought could be applied to the affiliate industry is the use of time sensitive offers. Basically what I mean by this is putting in an offer, but telling the person your offer expires in X # of hours. This way you put the pressure back on the seller to either accept your offer (if it is the highest at the time there is a good possibility this will happen) and risk losing it, or holding out for a better one. Typically if you come in around the amount they are looking to get, but a bit lower usually you will get the site you want and save some money doing it. I find that far too many people on PAL and other forums have the worst approaches to both buying and selling their sites. People post offers in a thread (which is now visible to any other potential buyers) and give the seller an endless amount of time to make a decision. For me personally if I am going to commit to a purchase I want to know if I have it almost immediately, which is why I like using this approach.
Offer Conditions (BUYING) – Another thing that could work with purchasing websites (like they do in Real Estate) is putting restrictions or conditions on your offer. Almost every real estate deal will have some kind of condition on the offer, so why not do the same with virtual real estate (or domains). This way you can come in with a good offer and ask the seller to take the site off the market if he accepts, but also give yourself some time to do some due diligence on the property you are buying to make sure there is nothing funny about it.
Holding Back Offers (SELLING) – One common tactic used in the real estate market is to hold back offers. Basically this means you set a sell date, and allow everyone to present their best offer anonymously. This can create bidding wars back and forth as the seller will then usually try to work with the top 2 offers on price. Sure, its annoying as hell from a buyers standpoint and it might discourage some, but this could also lead you to making a lot more on the sale of your property than you had planned.
Anyway, I am sure there are some other things and I didn’t really plan to write this post so most of this is off the top of my head.
Life Update… Well I have spent the last month or so getting settled into the new condo. It has been a ton of work, but its pretty close to done now. Just need a couple more small things. Other than that I have been trying to get some other projects going that I have been working on for a long time. One is a men’s magazine kind of site that is a cross between Forbes and AskMen.com. Another one is a Casino Site that I will post more about once it is complete. Then I have a few more sites that I will be developing further down the road which include a real estate site, a local furniture store site and a site about local restaurants. I am really just trying to dabble in a bunch of different industries to see what works and what doesn’t. I also hired a writer that is helping me get many of these sites ready.
Here are a couple of pics of the condo that I think I promised in the last post:
The View:
My Workcenter / Dining Room
Guest Bathroom:
View of most of the place (there is a new sofa now and the dining table is now white glass):
Kitchen:
Affiliate Tip: I don’t think I have ever really posted many good tips on how to make money for a while so, here is an easy one. Scour around for domains that have some good keywords in them (I know all the really good ones are gone, but if you look for ones with lower search volumes or find dropped ones its possible – preferably generic with things like “online” “poker” “review” “code” “bonus”, etc. in them). If you have to spend $50-$100 to get a pretty decent domain. Then get someone to build you a decent template that you can reuse for several sites (this will be the most expensive part but it is a one time cost and the more you spend the more you will get in return). You should be able to get something decent for around $400. Write around 25 pages of good content (the more the better) and add it to the site. You should instantly be able to flip that site for around $2000 or more depending how much content is there on your $500 investment.
3 Cool Tools For Tracking Visitors On Your Website
Oct 1st
Reading Justin Goff‘s latest facebook status update kind of inspired me to write this post…. So without further adieu, here are 3 cool tools for affiliates to use for cyber-stalking the visitors of your website that you might not have heard of:
ClickTale – Last week my friend John told me about this cool tool. Basically you add a couple of lines of code to your pages that allow you to see everything people do when they come to your site. By everything, I really mean EVERYTHING! ClickTale creates a video for you that tracks what every visitor is doing on your site including mouse movements, heatmaps and when they are scrolling down on the pages. This allows you to determine how effective your pages are at driving a sale and what aspects of the page are actually getting the visitors attention the most leading them to click (or not click) through on to your offers. There is a very small delay in the time it takes to create the videos (probably like 5 minutes) but it is pretty much live data. The free version allows you 100 free recordings per week or you can pay like $80 per month for the bronze package which allows multiple sites and something like 20,000 recordings.
HitTail – This is another live stats system that allows you to see how people are getting to your site from referral sites or search engines. It shows you exactly what they searched to get there or the specific page where they clicked a link to your site. I know most of this information is available in Google’s Analytics but its nice to have this info live so you can see what is causing traffic spikes on your site. It also helps you understand where the visitors are coming from (ie. Google.com/Google.es/Google.ca etc.) to reach your site.
Woopra – This is a cool tool that allows you to track the people on your website live. You can see what pages people are on, how they got to your site, and how they have moved about while on your site. One of my favourite features of Woopra is it even allows you to send a message to the people on your site if you want to “help them out” or ensure that all their questions have been answered to help drive the sale better. (Shout out to Cheryle for telling me about this one)
Of course Google Analytics is also one of the best, but I left it out of the list because I assumed everyone already was either using it, or knew about it. Hope this helps and if you have any other great tools you want to share post a comment below.
LOL – “I will sue if you don’t remove your site from Google”
Oct 1st
Came accross this funny pic. Best line “If you don’t agree to remove your site from google for this keyword we may go upto any extent and may sue you for this”:
People make me laugh sometimes!
No Way That Is Her!
Jul 31st
I was just on facebook when the following ad caught my attention:
No way that is her in the after!!! I actually thought this was a great ad though because it caught my attention and I clicked the link to see if there were more pics of the hot girl. Unfortunately there were not 
They did have a cool site though with a bunch of good affiliate links in it and am sure they probably make some money from this.
Anyway, this just goes to show that sometimes the best ways to grab people’s attention is to make them not believe you.
/end of weird blog post
Affiliate Managers Contacting Through Facebook
Jul 23rd
I understand, its hard to get new affiliates to promote your room but sometimes I just want to tell these people to LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE! It’s one thing to send emails to addresses associated with sites, but sometimes the contact becomes a tad too invasive. I get random people adding me to MSN with no clue who they are, and a few times now I have even received messages to my facebook account.
Like I said, I have grown used to the emails, but I look at Facebook as a more personal venue. Even though it can be used as a great networking tool for people you have actually met or talk to, it should NOT be used as a method to promote your brand and contact potential affiliates. It is actually just kinda creepy to me.
Anyway, I decided I would try and turn this into something productive that hopefully other affiliate managers could take something from and provide pointers on what I don’t like about these or most forms of “first contact” from affiliate managers.
Here is the message I received from NAME REMOVED of Cool Hand Poker with things in bold that could be improved if you had to use this method to contact an affiliate for whatever reason:
Hi Graham,
Not some mad stalker – I promise!
I am sure you prefer the term “e-stalker”. “Stalker” is so real world.
I am an advertiser interested in promoting our Poker room – Cool Hand Poker via your network. Network eh? I bet you couldn’t even list some of the sites I have.
Been doing research to find appropriate media partners for my client, Belle Rock Entertainment. The company owns various online gambling sites (Poker, Bingo & Casino) and have been operating for over 10 years. If you had done your research properly you could maybe tell me a few of my sites and why you think they would be a good fit for your room.
Cool Hand Poker is a relatively new and small poker room – it was launched late last year and we are aiming to grow the business. It is quite unique in its marketing, as the target market is “everyday people” or people wanting to learn & play poker socially / newbie poker players onto the site. We are not aiming for the big-stakes Professionals who usually go to the more aggressive sites such as Full Tilt or Poker Stars. More on how this is a retarded idea later. Do you really think you can keep out the “sharks” from a site. Also, you do realize those are the ones that make money, not the guy who plays poker once a week.
We are focusing our marketing efforts on the UK, Canada Europe and Australia & NZ (not USA or Africa) – would be helpful to understand your traffic split (USA vs. target countries above) and targeting capabilities better?
In order for me to motivate for any media deal, we must provide as much detailed information as possible. Besides Cool Hand Poker, we also market Casino and Bingo – further opportunities to work together! Oh, I forgot I was trying to sell you on why I should promote your stupid site.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards
NAME REMOVED
The thing that annoys me more than anything is NAME REMOVED has probably copied and pasted this message to hundreds of affiliates. Anyway, since it wasn’t an email I will let facebook deal with the spammers roaming their site:
Her messages lack personal touch, and really do nothing to make me want to work with them. For further proof here is an email from NAME REMOVED with the things that need improvement in bold:
TITLE OF EMAIL: Advertising/Affiliate partnership (FuzioPoker) First off, the site is Fuzion Poker (instant points off for spelling mistake)
Hi Graham,
By way of introduction, my name is NAME REMOVED and I am the Poker Affiliate/Publisher Manager at COMPANY REMOVED. And, you already lost my interest. I don’t give a fuck who you are, why are you contacting me! It’s bad enough you creeped my whois info to get this email instead of looking for the site contact email.
I am an advertiser interested in promoting our Poker room – Cool Hand Poker via your website. Would be grateful if you could contact me to discuss opportunities? “Cool Hand Poker”, really, thats the name you went with? Ummm… I don’t care about opportunities, you contacted me, remember. What do I get out of this?
My aim is to find appropriate media partners for my client, Belle Rock Entertainment. The company owns various online gambling sites (Poker, Bingo & Casino) and have been operating for over 10 years. Whatever.
At this time, I am specifically focusing on our Poker room – Cool Hand Poker – the emphasis being on fun, free or low-stakes, social poker games. Especially for newbies wanting to learn poker in a friendly, safe environment. Fun, free, low-stakes? Let me guess, you probably want me to send these players that will make me no money on an MGR deal too, right?
We are focusing our marketing efforts on the UK, Canada Europe and Australasia – would be helpful to understand your site and traffic split better? Do your own research.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Not likely.
Warm regards,
NAME REMOVED
Anyway, I hope someone learns something from this post so I don’t have to use you as an example for one of my future posts.
Back in Canada
Apr 2nd
Well, I’ve been back home for about a week now and have been kinda sick since getting back. Definitely miss Argentina and can’t wait to head back again.
Tax season is upon us now and one of my least favorite times of the year. Nothing is more fun then sending the government a big fat ass check that they are just gonna blow on stupid bullshit.
Missed out on Amsterdam this time, but looks like everyone is having a blast as usual. Trying to decide which conference to go to next. Where is everyone else going?
Jeremy Miller launched a blog recently. Please, turn off the stupid “YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO COMMENT”… where’s the fun in that!
Been having some awful poker sessions as of late. Just the other day was playing some 2/4 PLO and hit a set on the turn in a decent sized pot. The other guy bet, I reraised big, and he shoved me all in on a JT53 board (I hit 5′s). I made the call, and he showed AA97??? Anyway, river came an Ace… gg asshole. I need to stop playing.
This weekend is the Toronto FC opener and my brother is taking me (allegedly). I don’t always believe everything he says, but he seems to be serious so hopefully its a go because I really want to go to the game. Gotta pick up a new jersey for that.
Other than that, life is boring… can’t wait to travel again.
/end boring post
How Do Retarded People Get Jobs as Affiliate Managers?
Mar 10th
Recently I received an email that was titled “Attractive Proposal” so I decided I would investigate further to see what this affiliate manager was offering….
Original Email:
Dear Webmaster,
My name is NAME REMOVED; I am an Account Manager at
www.Affiliateclub.com.
I find your website very attractive for our brands:
www.casinoclub-poker.com,
www.pokerkings.com
Our affiliates are getting fantastic conversion rates!
Do you want to hear more about it?
Kind regards,
NAME REMOVED
Account Manager
My response:
Hi NAME REMOVED,
I am in the process of trying to find a room to get a league going
ASAP. Here are my requirements that I have been asking rooms for:
Hybrid CPA/Rev Share Deal
Tourmanent Prizes
Tell me a bit about your software and what you can offer.
Regards,
Graham Rowlands
GNG Media Inc.
Her reply to my email (notice how she doesn’t even READ MY FUCKING EMAIL!!!):
Dear Graham,
Thank you for your reply.
We have 2 brands with Boss Media software:
1. At www.casinoclub-poker.com – we offer 100% up to 200€ Welcome bonus ( here we can make a special promotion for you)
2. At www.pokerkings.com we offer 100% up to 300€ Welcome bonus
WE are usually working on Rev Share Deal.
What do you think about it?
Kind regards,
NAME REMOVED
My last and final response ever to Natasha:
Well NAME REMOVED, here is what I think about it…
For one, you never even gave me a proposal, but rather decided listing the standard
bonuses on your websites would get my attention. I am not sure how that is supposed to
sell me. I think you started this off with a great attention grabbing title to your
email, but you really need to work on the follow through.
And two, there was nothing “attractive” about it. I get a million of these kind of
emails all the time, and this kind of junk just wastes my time. Don’t beat around the
bush, sell your brand, tell me what I am gonna make, and give me good reasons why I
should promote your brand, over one of the competitors.
Anyway, hopefully this helps you in the future and thanks for giving me something to
write about on my blog.
Better luck in the future!
Graham
Affiliate Manager Tip: Learn To Spell
Dec 18th
Just received a nice email from good ol’ PAP and after reading the first line was turned off from reading on:
You have received a new private message at Poker Affiliate Programs – Affiliate Community for Poker Affiliates from hanford, entitled “Affiliate oppertunity“.
The email came from some crap site called Cool Hand Poker (Coolhandpoker.com) which is obviously the site of choice for the math team judging by the picture on their ugly homepage. The site itself looks very poorly put together and the name is awful. I guess this is what happens when people don’t want to spend more than $6.95 on their domain registration.
The rest of the email was all about the standard crappy bonuses and typical commissions. Can’t anyone be original anymore!!!
Anyway, keep on spamming your crap site, but really its just a waste of time as there is no way I would ever promote Coolhandpoker.com.
On a side note, it seems like I have been getting a ton of spam PMs lately over there, but since I don’t go there anymore I could really care less. Way to keep those spammers out PAP. Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten rid of all your mods!
This Blogging Thing Is Harder Than It Seems…
Oct 14th
So, its been ages since my last post and a lot has changed/happened. Thanks Giorgio for the reminder that I need to get back on this thing with an update on what is going on in my life. To celebrate this new post, I thought I would change the theme on the blog to something that I didn’t hate as much. The old theme was really getting to me and I think I need a change.
I think part of the reason for the lack of updates, has been a lack of motivation overall from me over the past few months. So, in an effort to combat this, I am gonna get some things off my mind in this blog post.
I, like many other affiliates I know, am falling into ‘the trap’ and becoming very lazy. Part of the reason for this is because when I was at IBM my job was a complete joke and 95% of my time was spent sitting around doing nothing. Funny enough, with the remaining 5% of the time when I actually worked I managed to get the highest promotion levels and reviews from my managers… go figure. This wasn’t because I didn’t want to work, there just simply wasn’t any work to be done. Could you imagine what they would think of me if I really busted my ass the whole time I was working putting in 100%!!!
To some people this would be the dream job, but I’ve never been like that and have always appreciated a good challenge. In fact, this could be partly why I am getting lazy lately, because I figure if I do nothing or very little work, things will get harder for me and I will have to start busting my ass again…. WRONG!
In fact, being lazy is actually having an opposite affect and it seems that every month keeps getting even better. I guess I am riding the fruits of my labour in the past as they are starting to pay off, but I know this won’t last forever so I really am making a strong effort to turn this bad cycle around.
I’ve tried taking vacations, breaks, getting up earlier, excessive drinking, but really nothing seems to be working. The reality is, none of these things are gonna change anything and I am the only one that can do that. So, going forward I am really going to make an effort to change this. I am going to make more goals and set more targets for myself. I think that will help. Anyone got any suggestions on staying motivated?
Hell, I’ll do 2 back to back blog posts now to prove that I am trying to break the laziness!
Additional Shout Out / Poker Affiliate Tip
Shout out to Chris from Poker Affiliate Solutions (or PAS for short). Chris told me tonight that he had my blog in his blog reader (Google reader is my choice) and was also hinting that I should do an upate. I am just glad that I finally know who the other RSS reader is beside me 
JK… i know there are a few of you out there and appreciate that you care what I have to say. Anyway, PAS provide services to affiliates such as the ability to create a rakeback section on your site and offer deals that you wouldn’t be able to get normally without knowing someone. I have created a rakeback section on my site using their software and so far it has been great, though I am sure Chris is thinking it would be greater if I sent them more players They have a really cool admin back-end and it makes things really easy. All you have to do is bring the players, so if you haven’t checked them out I recommend dropping them a line today if you are looking to offer something like this on your site. Chris also has a blog over on PAS which is even more overdue for an update than mine! You should get on that Chris