Kieron
Q: You are a well known face in the affiliate scene. For those who do not know you though, please share some information about who you are and what you do?
I’ve been an affiliate now for around ten years. I first started as a PPC affiliate before Google Adwords even launched in the UK - I had to have a US account, still do. Since then I’ve diversified into building sites that gain traffic via organic methods. My main focus now is building affiliate sites that rank well on their own and aren’t reliant on PPC.
Q: What does being a super affiliate bring you? For anyone looking to make the leap, is the grass really greener on your side of the fence?
I think that being successful in any role has it’s advantages. Certain doors or opened and opportunities are presented just because I’ve been “around the block” and am reasonably well known in the space. Other than that, it’s no different really.
Q: How did you get started in the affiliate world?
I worked for a dot com startup in the late nineties and they were just awful. They eventually packed in their operation and made everybody redundant. So I thought I would take advantage of the time I had to myself and bought a book on how to build websites in MS Frontpage. I built my first site then started exploring ways to monetise it, which led me to affiliate marketing.
Q: Do you think it is still possible for an affiliate to start now and manage to pay their bills within a year?
Yes absolutely. In some ways now it’s easier than ever because we have WordPress which makes it so easy for anybody starting out to get a professional looking website live and for free with little or no technical
experience. Gone are the days where you had to learn how to use MS FrontPage :) The great thing is that the internet is still a rapidly expanding sector, what other sectors can say that in these turbulent financial times? That means lots of new opportunities, niches and sectors for affiliates to explore and monetise.
Q: If you were to start over from scratch, what would you do differently and how would you suggest someone start today?
With regards to doing something differently I certainly wouldn’t be reliant on PPC for as long as I was. PPC is great for instant targeted traffic but if you don’t know what you’re doing you can get burnt very easily. So I would have maybe launched my stand-alone sites earlier than I did so I had two revenue streams. For somebody starting today my advice has always been to build a site that you have a passion and knowledge about. This will mean that you can write good content (half the battle) and also it won’t appear like a chore or a job. Don’t chase the money either, don’t start a site in a niche just because you think it’s profitable.
Kieron (in loud red shirt) with Doug Scott
Q: What would you say were the stand out memories of your affiliate career?
Probably all the great people I met along the way, From the early A4U meetups which were 10 people in a pub to the A4U Expo event which I speak at and which is attended by thousands of people. I guess also, the point when affiliate marketing started to make me enough money that it allowed me to walk away from my 9 - 5 job, that was a good day!
Q: Have you made any mistakes along the way?
Loads, where shall I start? Anything from losing silly amounts of money on PPC because I was too bloody-minded to admit defeat to launching sites in unprofitable and tiny niches that just faded away.
Q: You do not just do affiliate stuff that you are known for, what other business ventures do you have going on?
At the moment ContentNow.co.uk has really taken off and it taking up a lot of my time. I started this venture with my business partner Simon as I saw the need for a good quality ethical link building and content writing
company. In my opinion those are the two most important off-page factors for SEO. We’re very lucky that we’ve grown very quickly and are working with a fantastic client base. My other big project is ShareMyPlaylists.com which is a social music site based around sharing Spotify playlists. This has really
blown up this year and we’ve went from a standing start in March to a point now where we’re generating 10,000 visitors a day and growing - all organically through SEO and Social Media.
Q: How did you get involved with Spotify and how on earth is that going to pay off for you?
My good friend Shak is close to the founder Daniel Ek, and he introduced me to the service when it was in invite-only beta stage last year. As a keen music lover I was instantly addicted to it and something in me just clicked. I just knew that Spotify would grow to be a hugely popular global phenomenon and there would be an opportunity to capitalise on it’s success and build a community around it. As although Spotify is great at what it does, it doesn’t allow for much interaction (intentionally) from users and the sharing of playlists. That was when I had the idea to build the best Spotify playlist sharing site and music community I could, and ShareMyPlaylists.com was born. At the moment I’m concentrating on building a user base and making
the functionality as easy to use and intuitive as I can. My aim is by building a community of music lovers this will become an attractive proposition for advertisers wishing to connect with this very specific
demographic.
Q: What is your obsession with white cars all about?
Kieron has a strange fetish for white cars ... we all need a hobby
I’ve had black cars for years and just wanted something different. A couple of years ago I started to notice a few cars launched in white and just fell in love with them. I bought my Range Rover in white and have never looked back!
Thanks Kieron! You can find out more and read his thoughts on all things internet marketing at his blog.
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