Improved Free Advertising For Everyone On Facebook

Like many people I use facebook alot to keep in contact with my friends and post a few links here and there.

I do also use facebooks advertising service to display ads for a couple of my websites.  In general I find the click cost is cheap in comparison to adwords and other ppc advertsing. Having said that the conversions do tend to be lower so overall it isn’t as efficient as it may first appear.

There are a few of other options you can use to advertise through facebook that are in fact free.

You can create a facebook group and call it whatever you want………
For examples I get cashback from cashbackpages.com which is one I created for one of my cashback sites.
I’ve had a few people join this group and hopefully had a couple of people discover my cashback site because of it.

Any sort of free traffic is always nice!

I’m off to create some new free pages on facebook.
If anyone else gives this a go, let me know how you get on.

Are These The First Green Shoots?

No, Its not spring yet and the forcasters say we are stuck with the snow and at least the cold weather for some time to come yet.

But what I’m talking about is the economy which with all the bad news over the last few months is also cold as ice.
However you can be forgiven for not having noticed the first signs of green shoots appearing in the housing market, which haven’t been given that much coverage in the headlines.
(Come on the media, we could all do with some good news!)

The Halifax have announced that property prices have risen by 2% in January, which conscidering how long and how far the average price has fallen is very good news for the economy.

Could the housing market have bottomed out?
Obviously its still early days, but I think as long as the banks start lending customers more freely then people will start snapping up the bargains that are currently available in housing.

What does this mean for the wider economy?
In the short term probably not much, as we still haven’t really felt the full effects of the events of the past few months.
For the long term it could be just what we need to kick start the economy, after all it was the housing market (allbeit mainly in the US) that first triggered the credit crunch.

The good news is that if house prices continue to rise even just a little bit month, then this could get investors wanting to build houses again, which of course gets our builders building and creates more jobs for the whole industry.

What do you think…. Are these the first green shoots that we have been waiting for?

Top Websites To Help You Through A Recession

I know everyone is now starting to feel the effects of the economic downturn in one way or another.

Its certainly teaching me to be alot more carefull with my money, both business and personal.

I think the internet is one of the best tools to help you save money as there are so many usefull money saving websites packed with tips on how to get the most from your hard earned cash.

I’ve joined so many of these sites in the last few weeks, I think its starting to become bit of hobby to increase my income and at the same time cut the cost of the bills.

Without doubt I’ve saved myself 100’s of pounds a month.

I’m going to write a list below of my favourite money saving websites.

No doubt you will of heard of some and probably use a few yourself, but hopefully there will be a couple you haven’t seen before.

Please feel free to add to this list …… I’m always looking at ways of saving or making more money

The internet home of money saving has to be at moneysavingexpert.com

If you have never heard of this site before then spend about a week going through it because its full of great advice and will save you a packet. Also recommend signing up to the weekly e-mail.

I have signed up to a few cashback websites, but of course will not take less than 100%

My favourite has to be Top Cashback as I’m now receiving 110% cashback from them.

It still annoys me when I hear so many of my friends still don’t get cashback when they shop online.

Many just don’t seem to grasp the concept. It is quite simply money for nothing!

Just click a link its not difficult.

Another one I love is say no to 0870 which is a great idea as I hate running up big phone bills.

This simple little site has a database full of alternative telephone numbers which are either free or at least a cheaper option. Great for use at work and home.

For selling old stuff and making a bit of money of course there is ebay although the fees can be a little on the high side.

A good alternative auction site is ebids which keeps the costs down making sure you make maximum profit.

Get rid of old mobile phones and get some cash back at the Mobile Phone Xchange

Petrolprices.com is handy as it lets you know the cheapest petrol station in your area. Great if your filling up or planning a long journey. Saving a few pence on each litre of fuel then quickly adds up.

Using a price comparison site like comparethemarket.com is probably the most obvious way of saving money with the internet and there are loads around to choose from.

For maximum savings don’t use them on their own but along with a cashback site as mentioned above.

ie) Find which shop offers the cheapest price through the comparison site.

Then check to see if that shop offers cashback from the cashback website and click through from there.

This way your double quids in!

You can’t always get cashback from everywhere but its always worth a look.

I hope you find some of these usefull to you .

Anyone else got any sites to add to my list?

Beating the Google Adwords Slap

Just about all affiliates I would imagine, have or will eventually face the dreaded ‘google slap’ at some point and its one of the biggest headaches you will get in affiliate marketing as it can turn any of your campaigns on its head in an instant.

Free £50 Google Adwords Voucher Up For Grabs

I have been sent a £50 adwords voucher from google to giveaway.

The voucher can only be used on new accounts so unfortunately its not any good to anyone already using adwords for their ppc campaigns.

Its a great opportunity for anyone to start pay per click advertising who hasn’t tried it yet.
You can use the 50 quid to set-up your new ppc campaign/s without having any fear of losing your money.

What its worth?
That of course depends on how successfull your campaign is but you never know you may make a good few sales to keep you going and end up starting off for free.

Quick Example  : With 50 pounds of adwords credit at 5 pence per click you could have 1000 free clicks,
or 500 at 10p
A good little start ( I wish I had one when I opened my account )

If anyone is interested in receiving this free voucher please let me know and I’ll send you the details in full which includes what I get out of it as set out by google.

Thanks for reading
Mike

BTW I’m already trying to get hold of a few more

My Blog – One Month On

Its now been a whole month since I started my blog and I must say I’m suprised by how much I’m enjoying writing it.

The Keyword Experiment

I’m sorry if the following post doesn’t make much sense but I’ve got to settle my own curiosity when it comes to typos and keyword misspellings.

The Bright Side of the Credit Crunch

Many economists are now predicting the worst is over as far as the big banks are concerned, but unfortunately it still looks like the worst is still to come for the general public with the ongoing rise in oil prices which is pushing up prices for just about everything else we buy, especially fuel and food. There is still a long way to go before things start to calm down imo.

Deal or No Deal on PKR

Fans of the TV game show Deal or No Deal are in for a treat as pkr have launched their own version of the game into their ground breaking 3d software.

If You Can’t Beat Em .. Then Join Them

I must admit I was a little suprised at first to read today that ‘the Duckman’ Jason Dale has launched his own cashback website cashquack.com
I say suprised because as Jason is the first to admit in his blog, he has not always been the biggest fan of cashback websites and neither am I.

Don’t get me wrong as a consumer I love cashback sites – There is nothing better than scanning a few price comparison websites and finding the cheapest option and then banging the price down even further by discovering that I can get moneyback from that retailer on the highest paying cashback site.
Its saved me a small fortune I’d recommend it to anyone. (ahem!)

Now I always do this when I shop online and I’m sure other affiliates do the same, plus even use their own affiliate links on occassions. Its one of the purks of the job right?

The problem for me with cashback sites is they let everyone know how to do this and thats not really a good thing as far as affiliate marketing is concerned in my opinion.
I never shop online without getting some form of cashback or another ( why would I ? ) But soon everyone in the land will be shopping this way so you had better wave goodbye to your shopping portal and niche product websites because no one is going to pay you ‘their own commission’

In time the only way for affiliates to gain any decent income from retail affiliate programs will be to have a cashback site of their own which I think is why Jason has made the push to launch his new site. ( He hasn’t gone quackers after all )

Cashback sites aren’t as profitable as traditional links so affiliates are being forced to cut their margins.
There is already a large number of cashback sites and the growth of new ones emerging is going to accelerate at an amazing pace.
I’m sure it won’t be too long before families set-up their own personal cashback sites for each other to use as they hook on to the idea which will leave affiliates ‘high and dry’

This will eventually – all but kill the retail affiliate marketing industry as we know it.
Make hay while the sun shines I say because its all going to be spread a little thin for all retail affiliates pretty soon.

Thanks for reading everyone and good luck with the new venture jason
I’m off to get my own new CB site while theres still a chance of making a few quid

Mike