The 30th and 31st of the month are the busiest days for ShopCodes. These are the days that monthly offers typically expire and new emails arrive from merchants listing the offers for the days and weeks ahead.

I aim to remove all expired codes and sales from ShopCodes and not have them present just because I’ve got a page ranking well in Google for a nice search term.

This is made less painful when merchants replace a code with a new one or extend the expiry date. You’d be amazed at how many merchants only offer codes at Christmas time though, so some of the merchants pages look typically flat for some of the year.

To give you an understanding of the work I’ll need to do in the coming days, here’s some numbers.

78 promotions expiring 31st or expired on the 30th.

32 of those promotions involve Exclusive code merchants. These are merchants that have offered me a unique or branded code or landing page. If it’s the actual Exclusive code that is expiring and not just a generic sale, then I’ll have to send out up to 32 emails, to merchants and affiliate managers.

10 of those Exclusive code merchants have my Exclusive code expiring today. I’ve since sent 10 emails to affiliate and network managers asking for a new code or to extend the existing code. Having an Exclusive code extended is not a given and some merchants don’t reply to the email and some may say their business model has changed (See below). So you have to list the benefits of them providing a unique code, such as increased exposure above-the-fold or some sales figures.

Of the other 22 Exclusive code merchants, the unique code is ongoing and their monthly offer is changing. This is a simple task of me removing a line of information or replacing it if a new offer has arrived via email.

Once I’ve taken care of all the 32 Exclusive code pages (and I have 143 in total) I look at the generic codes.

Of the other 56 promotions expiring, 54 are codes and 2 are sales. (I only really promote sales where the expiry date has been set.)

I don’t just delete the expired codes, I do a search in my email inbox to see if there’s an update from that merchant. I filter all my emails and I currently have 39 unread emails in my inbox containing the word “code”. I’ll work on these emails before others. Now, it’s 44. Told you today was busy.

And finally 1 top merchant has informed me that he can’t extend the Exclusive code he’s provided as they are phasing out discount codes until the end of their financial year.

To some who promote Figleaves, this may be a blow. No more so than me, as they’ve been my number one merchant for quite some time.

I’ll be taking a closer look at their site later this evening to see what other content I can add.

As the voucher code debate rumbles on over at affiliates4u my own stomach has not rumbled a bit as my code site has been getting fatter by the day.

It’s been my focus this month to not to be too reliant on search traffic that includes the keywords “code” or “codes”. Basically because for 2 weeks I had very little traffic anyway.

By fattening my site I can capture those visitors looking for sales or other promotional offers. So I’ve spent more time updating merchants that haven’t got codes but do have some cracking offers, such as this example for Orange.

So my code site is adding more content. Maybe not down the line of writing 1000 word product reviews but it is a start.

{Tongue twister ahead} Here’s a warning to those content site owners that complain about code sites that don’t yet include codes on their own sites. Code Sites will become Content Sites!

Adding codes takes a lot of time and effort but over time these webmasters will become more efficient and be able to add codes more seamlessly.

This will allow them to fatten up their site with non-code related content.

The big code sites already do this. For a part time affiliate like me, I have to pick and choose which merchants I promote and how. This is often dictated by the perseverance of the affiliate manager.

Added Value

To show that code sites don’t just steal commissions from other affiliates. Here’s two lines from my log files this morning that demonstrate that ShopCodes brings in seasonal traffic and product traffic. The search term “sat nav voucher codes” goes direct to my Halfords page but could have been any merchant.

The other search is “halfords easter offers”. Now as it happens I don’t actually have their Easter offers on my page as I’ve not received their latest newsletter but I list about a dozen product offers.

So webmasters, why not start adding codes to your sites? As I’m adding non-code stuff to mine.

A week is a long time in Affiliate Marketing and with traffic and commissions down, my motivation to spend long hours updating new codes to my Shop Codes site is diminishing fast.

So I have been spending more time reading blogs and forum posts on the affiliates forum site to be inspired and motivated.

I should have just switched off the PC for there in extra large print was the Bible Code type message “affiliate future losers Ray Theakston”.

The future’s bright … if I stick to the day job!

ADDENDUM

Following Martin’s and Phil’s comments I thought I would revisit the page.

This put a smile on my face: “ray theakston living legend affiliate”!

Mr Business Bank Manager,

We’re meeting on Tuesday with your Investment Manager.

I know you’re keen to for me to invest the money that is sat in my Company Bank Account. I don’t blame you, many people will never be able to save that amount in a lifetime of working.

However, I think we shoud cancel that meeting.

You see, there’s a big problem. Even though on paper I am listed as the Company Director and the only share holder. I don’t actually have much say on the direction and fortunes of the company.

Even though I wake at 6:45am and respond to business emails before going to my day job, my business doesn’t grow as a result.

Even when I am adding new fresh content to my site at 12:30am so that tomorrow’s visitors will see new offers, I don’t benefit as a result.

You see Mr Bank Manager, I’m not responsible for whether my site and business is a success or failure.

Mr Google is.

Google as we’ll call him, is the big American search engine that sends traffic to my site for free.

When he likes me, he promotes me on page one of targeted keyword pages and I receive targeted visitors. By targeted I mean they arrive on the page they search for.

I then persuade those visitors to click on my links to receive a promotion that they wouldn’t necessarily receive without visiting my or a similar site first. So the visitor is happy and I am happy.

I am happy because if that visitor makes a purchase, I make a commission on the sale.

But Mr Bank Manager, I think Google doesn’t like me no more. You see I’m getting less than one tenth of the traffic that I once received and this traffic is not targeted.

Let’s just say that I would be living on beans without the toast if I had to eat from my profits.

You could say fair enough that Google is no longer sending me traffic. The site is only two years old and spreads itself thin by promoting over 800 shops and services. I never had a contract to say it’s obliged to send me visitors. But while it doesn’t send me traffic Mr BM, I receive no visitors that generate commission.

This means my bank account won’t grow. So Mr Bank Manager, while things are out of my control I’m going to manage the few things I have control of and one of them is deciding where my money should be spent.

Let’s meet up again when things are back on track and Google likes me again.

Yours,
Befuddle