I have been quite busy with my cash back site, especially in low cost advertising. I have found a few free promotion tools, that I thought might help you in promoting your website. Quidscorner.com managed to acquire a page rank of 1, which I really felt is great as the pages are password protected.
Submit your Website to Search Engines for Free!
Here are a few services that submit your site to search engines with a few clicks.
123 Submit: They submit your site to 21 major search engines
AddMe: They submit your Website to the top 14 search engines and directories.
Dream Submit They submit your site to major search engines (number not specifieD)
Submit Express Submits your URL to 20+ search engines for free.
Free Banner Exchange Services
This is another great way to advertise your site free on other websites. A banner exchange service basically enables webmasters to advertise their websites in exchange for placing banner on your websites. So if you deliver 100 impressions, your site will be shown around 80 times (this ratio differs on each banner exchange service). The ones that I personally use are:
UK banners
Very easy to setup and you get free hits to your site. I use them for both of my sites. They also send a report that tells you how many hits your site has received periodically.
Free Banners
Free banners are quite popular too, and require users to add a button in addition to the banner code.
Advertise on PTRs
I have personally found that advertising on Paid to read websites gives the banners quite a lot of exposure. Especially if the content of your site is related to earning money / discounts or sales, it's a great way to advertise.
QuidsCorner.com has quite a few advertising packages and discounts available. Check out the advertising rates of QuidsCorner.com here
If you have been looking to start a cash back site but lack the technical knowledge, you could start your own white label cash back site! Quite a few companies are now offering white label cash back site solutions.
As with every other approach, there are advantages and disadvantages of using a white label solution. The main advantage is that it's fairly easy to setup and run, and the main disadvantage is that you either have to pay a setup fee, or share the revenue the site generates or in some cases, both.
As I mentioned before, there are quite a few companies providing white label loyalty website solution and one of the most popular one is V A C Madia. The provide users with a custom made, fully maintained loyalty website branded to their needs and don't charge any upfront or maintenance fee!
Your customers can shop from more than 2000 participating retailers including M&S, Boots, WH Smith, Comet, Currys, Expedia, Avon, Esure, Carphone Warehouse, BT and more.
Features of V A C Media
No set-up or hidden costs
Your own branded loyalty portal
Branded newsletters
Integration to existing websites
Scalable technology
Industry leading revenue share
Customer Service Guarantee
Hosting and maintenance
Reliable tracking solutions
They host popular cashback sites e.g. eDealsUK, Froggybank, FreeinUK and more!
Start your own White Label Cashback site with V A C Media
I have been asked this question a few times, and I decided to write a post on it. Getting accepted into affiliate networks is your first step towards affiliate marketing. I have been accepted into over 25 well reputed networks, so I believe I have some authority on the subject. Here are a few pointers that should help you get accepted into affiliate networks.
1. Meaningful domain name
The domain name of your site is quite important. Needless to say, it should reflect the content of the site too.
2.No Free hosting
One of my biggest regret is that my blog is hosted free on Google. If I had bought my own domain name and hosting, 2 years before, my blog would have been taken quite seriously. As it is, the general opinion of free hosted blogs is that the owner / author of the blog isn't very savvy! Quite a few merchants disallow free hosted sites to promote them..
3.Original and Frequently updated Content
Your site should provide useful, original content and should be updated frequently. Frequent updation is quite important as it helps your site rank well in search engines.
4. Additional Comments
Most of the application forms have a field called comments. I have noticed that adding a few words on how I intend to promote the campaigns and what other networks I work for, goes a long way. I almost always get a positive response.
5.Phone Call
If you don't receive the phone call or any response from the network within the specified number of days, call them yourself. Most affiliate managers like assertiveness in affiliates.
Also, if merchants don't accept your application the first time, don't give up so easily. Most of them have dedicated affiliate managers, and you can contact them via email or Instant Messanger. Let them know how you intend to promote their program and they'll reconsider.
These are my observations and experience. Needless to say, it is important to be truthful at all times and maintain a good relationship with the merchants.
LimeExchange, is an online services marketplace, offering a platform to Small Medium Businesses & Entrepreneurs looking for options to outsource projects.
LimeExchange provides quick and easy access to freelance talent. LimeExchange currently allows exchange of services for Freelance professionals & experts across several categories including freelance writing & translation, graphic design, web designing and development, software development, networking, audio/video, multimedia, programming and more!
Similar to other freelancing sites, freelancers can sign up for free and create their profiles, define their skills and areas of expertise.
There are quite a lot of projects available on Lime Excange, including projects on data entry, typing jobs etc.
Why should you join Lime Exchange?
If you're looking to earn extra money or already are a freelancer, it will help you to create a profile on Lime Exchange and highlight your skills. As a buyer, you can post projects for free and outsource your work to professionals.
Join Lime Exchange
When I started my cash back site, I was already a member of quite a lot of reputable affiliate networks. A lot of affiliate networks frown upon incentivised sites, as the traffic sent by them can be of low quality. So, it's difficult to get accepted into networks if you have one incentivised site.
In this post, I have listed a few networks that have a good number of merchants allowing incentives/ my experience with them.
Affiliate Future
Affiliate Future is my favorite affiliate network. They have a number of offers (incentivisable and non incentivisable). The merchants have 5 days to reverse a transaction (if they deem it invalid). They have over 600 merchants! Minimum payment amount required is £20 and payments are made via BACs on 28th of every month (if 28th falls on a weekend, payments are made before 28th).
Join Affiliate Future
Affiliate Window
Affiliate Window is my next favourite network. They pay twice a month if your balance is £25 or more. Payments are made via BACs . To complete your application, you have to pay a fee of £5 which is added to your balance if you are accepted into their network. They have merchants with free trials (Mills & boon, Graze) and merchants paying per sale (Comet, Hallmark).
Join Affiliate Window.
Affilinet
Affilinet has quite a few good merchants too, but I don't particularly like the reporting. It can be a bit confusing. I joined them as I was interested in the BuyCentral Search program, and Pedigree puppy pack. After joining, I also found Sedo, See Tickets, Debenhams and first class prizes and promote them too.
Afform
Afform is another network that has a few incentivised offers and pays well. Minimum payout is £25.
Join Afform
BuyAt
BuyAt is another very popular affiliate network with very popular merchants I use Buyat to mainly promote Carsource, Kinglotto and ASDA. Payments are made on net 60 basis.
Join Buyat
Profitistic
Profitistic have very few cost per action offers that can be incentivized including Instant Win 4 now, Win 4 now, Elitemate dating, Voice in a crowd and PrizeDrawsUK. Some of these offers are available at Afform and pay more than Profitistic. Profitistic pays on net 15 basis, which means that if you earned £100 in January, you will get paid on 15th of February. You need atleast £20 in your account to be paid.
Join Profitistic
Max Bounty
Max Bounty claim to offer highest CPA rates in the industry. However, most of their offers don't allow incentive sites. The affiliate manager is very supportive and responsive too. You will get very few incentivised offers from MaxBounty, and you'll find it quite difficult to get accepted if your site is new as they have high standards.
Join Max Bounty
