JohnOBrien.com

Many of you will have heard of the legendary Kireon Donoghue from UK Offer in the affiliate marketing world, and he has kindly stopped by the johnobrien.com affiliate blog to answer a few of your questions.

PPC Forever;
Some of your websites are really taking off in the SEO wars and getting ranked very highly in google’s first pages i.e. bingo.org.uk ranked 13th for the keyword “bingo” and ranked 19th for the keyword “bingo online”, so do you plan on carrying on your massive ppc campaigns indefinitely or do you see a time when you will be earning comfortably enough off from your sites through the organic search traffic like you receive on bingo.org.uk?

Bingo.org.uk was actually number 6 not long ago for “bingo” so looks like I need a bit more work to do on that one! Anyway to answer your question, yes I still plan on running PPC campaigns, indefinitely. However I have cut back on some of the lower margin/high maintenance ones, such as the Broadband sector. For me its all about spreading your risk, so if I can make some money from PPC and another chunk from SEO then it just lowers the risk. The SEO side of things is going amazingly well at the moment too, its quite a novelty for me to earn money for “free” and I still get really excited about it. Right now I’m trying desperately to not be one of those webmasters who monitors Google every ten minutes to see if their rankings change!

Your Infamous Sitepoint Post;
When I first heard you had posted details of your affiliate earnings online I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, even dangerous perhaps with so many untold eyes looking into your finances, but now I can see how this has helped you firmly establish yourself as the top UK affiliate marketer, I humbly admit I have been following your blog for nearly 3 years and closely follow the advice you post, So why did you do it? what was your motivation for revelling all? or was it part of a bigger master plan?

I did it for a number of reasons, the main one being linkbait. That post is now almost 2 years old and yet still brings in new traffic every single week. Its also added massively to my online reputation and has given me some “credibility” as there are so many people out there who claim to be making money online and passing themselves off as gurus – when in fact they are anything but.

On Winning The A4U Affiliate Marketing Blog Award;
You are now officially the best in the business, how does it feel?

Really privileged to be honest. At industry events and get togethers I always get people coming up to me saying they read my blog and enjoy it, and I always get a real buzz from it. So to recognised in an official capacity feels really, really humbling.

Your Affiliate Marketing Plans For 2008;
With the new year just around the corner and new merchants / affiliate programs going live every week I was wondering what your plans are for 2008? Have you any new sites planned? or new vertical’s considering entering?

Yes, I’m going to be launching a fashion/health and beauty site very soon. But rather than spread myself too thinly I’m going to spend a lot of time maximising and optimising my existing sites to get the very best from them. Its all too easy to launch sites and forget about them but I’m now in the fortunate position to have a lot of “aged” domains in the Google index which are ripe for optimisation.

Your Blog Music Comments;
I am very curious about your “what I’m listening to right now” comment after your blog posts, Kieron are you sitting there raving it all day with your headphones on?

 Yes – apart from the headphones bit, I love to play my music LOUD!

And The Final Question, Just How Rich Are You?
2001 - 2007 have been the golden years in UK affiliate marketing, and I was wondering just how great these years has been for you?

Very great J As I’ve mentioned before though what I love about Affiliate Marketing is the fact that it allows me a lifestyle whereby I’m not tied to a desk/office. If I want to work I do, if I don’t then I don’t. So its not all about the money, it really is about enjoying life and the people near and dear to you.

And to keep in with Kireon’s here.org.uk blog style heres my;
what am I listening to now “I wanna be adored” by The Stone Roses.