Category Archives: Business on the Web

Associated articles about running and managing a business on-line whether it is a business based exclusively online or it is your business represented on-line.

WordPress and Thesis talk GPL and the debate over license

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From time to time this issue raises its head in the blogosphere and it pretty much came to a head recently. Its interesting to see the difference in the points of view of the supporters of Open Source and those that work on it but sell theirproduct in the typical fashion, namely for profit and their reasons and issues with this process.

WordPress GPL

WordPress, developed by Matt Mullenweg has a General Public License (GPL) which means that it is distributed freely to all and as such it has allowed development from 1000′s of people who are part of the user base and community. With 11.4 million users out there hosted on WordPress and an estimated 12 million more on self hosted solutions it has established itself as one of the top platforms to use for a blog or website.

Thesis Theme

The Thesis Theme by Chris Pearson has been developed and sold as a separate entity (164 dollars for an unlimited license) but it is based on the WordPress platform. It has an estimated 27,000 users and is NOT under GPL (apparently it is as of recently but I’m still seeking confirmation on this.)

Chris as a business person is arguing that he isnt beheld to WordPress, the license and is resisting the GPL. Have a listen to the debate, arranged by Andrew Warner in the vid and see how you feel on the two sides to the story.

Personally I think Matt came across as more convincing and with a stronger basis for the “correct” thing to do in this particular situation. What do you think?

The start of a social media strategy

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The implementation of social media tactics

The final aim = To convert visitors to consumers.

If they do not become consumers then they should be converted to one of three things if possible beginning with the most important.

Primary Goal

  • Purchase and item or order

Secondary Goal

  • Email subscribers on the blog
  • Facebook Fan page members
  • Twitter followers

The Company Blog

With the inclusion of the blog we must look at it as the hub of the social media efforts.  It is the content provider that is used to compliment current promotional campaign efforts and as such is the focal point where visitors are sent.

Currently we are discussing sport as the next marketing effort.

To begin with, content about sport should be created in the generic form.  Rules about the sport or competitions and some history of the sport and its development are good areas to cover. Then, content should be aimed towards more up to date news about the current leagues, teams or individuals and their standings and form. Eventually and if possible, interviews are an excellent form of content from players or teams as human interest pieces are the most “sticky” and also it is the easiest content to produce as the players themselves fill in the blanks.

While being exposed to the content then visitors should also be exposed to the opportunity to choose one of the three options listed above AFTER they have been offered the possibility to purchase and item or make an order on the company site.

This is achieved by the placement of text or attractive graphics at the end of content articles linking to the necessary product order pages on the main commerce site. Should this option not bear fruit then the secondary options should be available for consideration at little to no effort for the visitor via floating sidebars or unmistakable icons placed on the page and linking to the relevant profile.

The FaceBook Fan Page

Once this drive of content is in place we must begin the social media effort of talking about sport on the FaceBook Fan Page (not exclusively but enough for it to be a major subject).  This can be achieved by adding in the content form the blog automatically to the Facebook page and asking the current fans if they are involved in a sport or know anyone that is.

Of course, much more of a response is forth coming the more fans the page has, so I would strongly recommend that the mail shot to the current client base be completed at the earliest opportunity in order to establish a base and solid foundation to work on in the FaceBook ecosystem.  Having this available allows more depth and feedback to be gathered and more reaction to different promotions and campaigns assessed quickly and honestly from the user base. Indeed, it can be an excellent way of helping to generate sales as old clients are reminded of the excellent service and quality provided by the company though simple conversation.

In regards the administration of the page one person will responsible for this at the initial stages.  By administration we mean that conversations will be monitored and keep in the realms of decency and on point and of course, members that single themselves out to be particularly abusive or have little or now positive input can be removed.  allow this may sound ominous, due to the members on FaceBook carrying their own names and faces, this rarely happens as it did in the past on anonymous forums whereby users posted on fake or unidentifiable names.

Other FaceBook Groups and Fan Pages.

In conjunction to this the company then need to source and join some sport or sporting related groups and engage these groups in conversation about the sport.  the engagement should not be overbearing or pushy at this stage.  It should be a process of listening, engaging and assessing the groups nature and context by reading the information already available on the wall then asking a series of questions such as:

“How are the team doing this year?”

“Who has the best average score per game?”

“When is the next match?”

“Are any matches local to my area (put the specific area)”

Gradually this may lead onto things about the team and its events commenting on the team strip and mentioning how the company have supplied other sports teams and showing the results of this service via photos or links to the product itself on the company website or blog.

This whole process can take seconds and be done in a single burst if the group and users are active or it can happen over several days as comments and replays are made and the company react to them. Several groups can be run at once of course and by several it can be two or hundreds depending on time and resource and if those groups are exist.

The group sourcing aspect can be facilitated by searching or asking your direct network for advice but the actually conversational process must be completed and maintained by the company are it is the company that are most familiar with the product, service and price.

Beginning with Twitter

At this early stage twitter must be considered a fall back option.  It is an excellent tool for networking and locating individuals to connect with so it should be available and maintained to some extent at this stage in order to gather and increase its natural follower count.

The account can be maintained via the blog as the content created there, much like Facebook, can be automatically feed into the Twitter profile updating the status and increasing the visible content.  Twitter should be monitored on occasion for information requests (all of this will arrive via email regardless) until such times as the the company account can be run effectively and in a more hands on manner.

Just what the hell is Affiliate Marketing?

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If your not familiar with the term affiliate marketing then you probably don’t even realise it but you have been an affiliate or even bought from an affiliate at some point in your life.  In fact it could be argued that every high street retailer is in fact and affiliate of the supplier of a product, but that’s going a bit far.  Affiliate marketing, in terms of the internet, has exploded over the last few years due to the stabilisation of technology and the creation of more secure forms of financial transaction and sales tracking.

Basically, when two websites start sharing revenue to sell a product or service, it is known as affiliate marketing. Amazon was the one of the world’s first recognised and trusted sites to start large-scale affiliate marketing with affiliates get paid anywhere between 4-50% for sales generated through their own websites. Payment is typically recorded and made at the end of each month on the number of registrations, leads or sales or as a combination of the above depending on the method agreed between the merchant (the supplier) and the affiliate (the vendor).

Just what the hell is Affiliate Marketing?Affiliate marketing works by cookies.  Not the type that have little bits of chocolate embedded inside them but rather, a small file, with little titbits of information that store essential data relevant to a person who clicks on the buy button on a vendors website .The cookie is saved in the person’s computer and this facilitates the tracking. When a sale is done then the vendor gets paid the amount of commission agreed and the whole record is stored in a CRM (Client Relationship Manager) available 24 hours a day to the vendor.

Incorporated into the CRM for affiliates get their daily statistics and reports on the number of clicks, sales, leads etc. Affiliate marketing connects buyers and sellers. This is how online marketing works. The amount of money spent online is increasing day by day. E-commerce is picking up at a very fast rate worldwide.

Britons spent a record £14.7 billion over the web last year – up 35 per cent, or nearly ten times the rate of growth of the total retail market. The number of people who bought goods online also increased by 24.7 per cent to 22.6 million, research shows. And they are spending over the internet more regularly – an average of 16.9 times in 2007, up from 14.2 times in 2006. Cheaper broadband and better availability of the service also lead to the increases, analysts Verdict Research claimed.

Affiliate marketing in the UK grew by 25% during 2008, taking the total value of online sales generated by this channel for that year to £3.82 billion*. The same report found that UK merchants involved in affiliate marketing drive 12% of their online sales via this channel and that despite the recession the affiliate marketing industry was worth well over £4bn by the end of 2009 and is expected to be even larger by the end of 2010 overall.

Valueclick, the owners of the affiliate networks Commission Junction, shopping.net, PriceRunner along with MeziMeida who operate Smarter.com and CouponMountain.com made their financial and fiscal data available.  Market watch reported:

In the fourth quarter of 2009, revenue in the Media, Affiliate Marketing and Technology segments exceeded the Company’s expectations, and all four business segments exceeded the Company’s expectations for operating income.
The breakdown, rounded up to the nearest thousand and based on affiliate marketing specifically is listed below:

Year 2009
•    Revenue total – $111,903,000
•    Cost of revenue – $15,617,000
•    Gross profit – $96,286,000
•    Operating expenses – $38,165,000
•    Segment income – $58,121,000

Year 2008 (for contrast and comparison)
•    Revenue total – $121,972,000
•    Cost of revenue – $19,374,000
•    Gross profit – $102,598,000
•    Operating expenses – $43,143,000
•    Segment income – $59,455,000

Not very impressive right?

They are only down 5 million on the year before and this can be attributed to the economy and the state it is currently in today.

Spokesman Malcolm Pinkerton said “As the cost of broadband falls, consumers become accustomed to internet shopping and retailers continue to enhance their online propositions, the channel will find itself extremely well placed to capitalize on the falling consumer confidence and lower levels of disposable income currently impacting the retail market”.

In light of these statistics and predictions it is clear that affiliate marketing should form part of an integrated and successful digital marketing strategy.

There are many affiliate marketing websites through which you can choose the products you would like to promote through your website. Commission Junction, Click Bank, E-junkie and Linkshare are some of the well-known affiliate marketing websites. Quite literally, thousands of publishers join affiliate marketing daily and while merchants join at a slower rate, it is increasing in velocity ensuring a much wider range of products or items are available.

Beginning to work as an affiliate or indeed using the networks mentioned earlier to have other people sell your products is a pretty simple process and in many cases the processes and opportunities are severely under estimated and under utilised, hence the reason for this article.  When I explain what affiliate marketing means and consists of and the benefits associated with this type of selling most businesses cant wait to get involved.

That’s when I need to explain the bad side.  Its not a major issue and it is handled well by the affiliate networks but its one that many have to consider before offering their products to other affiliates and its all about brand protection and reputation management. When other people sell your products you have little or no immediate control over how they approach the matter. While the likes of spamming are not permitted under the membership agreements of the affiliate networks, it wont stop people trying to take advantage and hope they don’t get caught.  If caught of course they and their details can be permanently banned from the network.

So, the question remains, what have your affiliates sold today?

* The eConsultancy Affiliate Marketing Merchants Report 2008