The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Our ComputerAid SIG won one of 14 APCUG "Jerry" Awards at the Annual APCUG Conference. As you know, the ComputerAid project acquires and refurbishes computers, which are then sent to Third World countries through World Vision or are donated to local charities and volunteer groups. In three years of operation, they have distributed about 1,000 units. The "Jerry Awards" were named after APCUG founder Jerry Schneider.
Fourteen projects were judged both on what they do and on their documentation on how they do what they do. The purpose of the Jerry Awards is to recognise and reward these projects and to encourage new and expanded involvement. These projects exemplify how the mottoes of "users helping users" and "user groups helping user groups" have evolved into "user groups helping the community."
See http://www.apcug.net/ for last year's projects. Groups winning a Jerry Award received not only a certificate, but also a financial award to assist them with their project. These financial awards are due to the generosity of sponsors such as Adobe, Microsoft MindShare, CompUSA, Intel and National Cristina Foundation. Of the US$13,000 distributed to the winning groups ComputerAid received US$500 for third place in the "What" category.
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Affiliate Marketing
Finally I have seen the light - no, not the Hallelujah variety and not the one
at the end of the tunnel - I am talking about my flavour of the year: affiliate
marketing (AM). Last year I mentioned that I had previously rubbished the whole
notion but that I had made a start.
I had a few dozen pages on the Web with Google ads on them. They were making me
an average of US$2-3 each day, which was more than enough to pay for my domain
and Web hosting, but I was not getting anywhere. I should point out that this is
a very minor kind of AM; serious AM involves placing links to merchants on your
sites and these links are often complete catalogues of their products.
I met some of my affiliate marketing friends and marvelled at how some were
making over US$500 each day. Such people don't reveal what they sell, lest
others copy their technique and sell the same items, but they might point you in
the right direction. I am not ready to stop working for my clients, but my
affiliate income is well and truly something I will declare on my next tax
return. I check my statistics daily the same way many of you check your share
portfolios.
My secret is a minor one, so I can share it with you: I decided that I could not
build a site that would pull in millions of daily, repeat visitors, so I have
chosen to build catalogue sites. I get around five percent (sometimes up to 60
percent) of the sale, whether it is a book, digital camera, or cartons of toilet
paper. I have spent about US$300 to buy tools to churn out tens of thousands of
catalogue pages and about US$25 per month on hosting, but the income far exceeds
that cost.
To do this, you must learn how to build Web pages and upload them to your site.
It doesn't matter if your front page looks ugly - so does mine; people find my
pages in search engines because they are searching for products by catalogue
number, part number, brand name, and so on. They don't buy from me - their next
click takes them to the merchant site.
AM SIG?
If you would like to get involved in AM, we can form a SIG and we can help each
other. This means that if we can get 11 members who are already dabbling in AM
and will agree to be the speaker at least once a year, we can apply to form a
SIG. I am not interested to be the SIG leader and share my incomplete knowledge
as though I am an expert, but can help to kickstart such a SIG and support it.
If the SIG idea does not appeal, then would a training course appeal to you?
Write to me if you have any interest in this subject.
I truly believe that if Melb PC members form small groups and help one another,
then AM can be a rewarding hobby for all of them. There are hundreds of
thousands of affiliates out there, so helping a small group of people does not
mean you are helping potential competitors. Share the small stuff and keep some
to yourself.
Reprinted from the Jan / Feb 2005 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
