First Post (Hello and welcome from Tha Odogg)

January 26, 2008 Tha Odoggs Game reviews (pc & xbox360) 1 Comment

Hello all, this is my first post and to be fair with you all not a review.. just to say hi…. ill soon be reviewing pc and 360 games on itchy pig.. the best up and comming auction site on the web… so tomorrow will be my first review, ill be reviewing both call of duty 4 for the xbox and UT3 for the pc. Thanks all for reading and if anyone would like to play me, my xbox live gammer tag is Tha Odogg… till tomorrow… party hard game harder! Thanks Tha odogg

Make Money Online Part 2.

January 25, 2008 Earning Money Online 148 Comments
Hoi Piglets,
Last time during Making Money Online through Affiliates Part 1 we outlined the most common form of making money online through with different affiliate companies. Part 1 outlined the basic principles and basic formula of how the affiliation works and gave examples of different affiliate companies
These issues we shall be discussing how implement the different techniques the affiliate companies supply for advertisers. The most common forms to place adverts on WebPages of Blogs are banners, text link and inline ads. We shall deal with xml files in another BLOG part.
Banners 
The use of banners and small images are a quick way for webmasters to quickly add an advert their webpage, with the idea that people will see the banner, click and buy from the merchant webpage. Banners come in many shapes and sizes so can easily fit into any webpage layout and design. With the banners being based on scripts most merchants will update their banners for seasonal or promotional effect to maximize their chance of attracting custom.
Personally, I believe implementing banners on a webpage to be the most difficult way to secure revenue through advertising. My opinion is because they have been used since the very early days of the internet and most people just skim over them due to people just seeing ‘Advert.’ I mean how many of the WebPages you read use banners? Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t see such a widespread of use of them now. I’m not saying that you can’t ascertain a healthy revenue stream using banners; it’s just there are much better proven ways to do it. 
For example, many Websites now are more dynamic and interactive, than ever before, yet the banner, although changing for seasonal or promotional effect will still be for the same company/product type. Therefore, it is usually up to the webmaster to implement the banners of a certain type or content to co-inside with specific pages or categories within their page. 
Text Links
Text links have become very popular in recent times due to companies such as Google with their Ad sense, Albright and Yahoo! Ads. Text links generally have a title and a description of the content (optional) and therefore give more of an overview of what the potential customer is looking for, therefore increasing the chances that the advert will appeal to them and thus increasing the likeliness that they will click. 
An excellent feature of text ads from the above companies is that they are dynamic and depending on the content of the webpage/Blog will show an advert which is as closely related to the content as possible. It is of utter importance that the webmaster arranges he’s ads around the content and maximizes the chances of attracting the potential customer’s attention and due to this dynamic feature text ads are a widely used technique for webmasters.
In-line Ads
In-Line ads are another way to generate revenue for those pages which are heavy on content. The Ad is initiated by the user and appears over certain keywords throughout the document. With the ads being anchored to keywords, the reason why it has a significantly higher conversion percentage is because the user reads through the content and the ad appears embedded within the sentence.
Inline ads are automatically anchored by the advertising company and therefore the webmaster does not have control over which and what keywords or ads will be shown. My advice for people using inline ads is to actually create the in-line ad yourself. Obviously, this is only available to those who understand the underlying code, or if you are actually allowed to dig into the code in fact. Yet, due to the higher conversion rate and as advised earlier trying to match the ads to your content this can be a very lucrative way to boost your revenue.
So there you have it next issue we will be dealing more with advertising such as what to do with those xml feeds, and much, much more. Please remember that these ideas are just the opinion of the author and with the success of our adverts on www.itchypig.co.uk we hope that you will be able to get success too. Thank you for your time

Make Money Online Through Affiliate PT1

January 23, 2008 Earning Money Online 185 Comments

Hi Piglets

 We have been inundated with emails regarding making money online or through people’s webpages so today we will run through a multiple of approaches on how you can make money through your website/blog.

This will be a 4 part blog where in part 1 we shall deal with affiliate companies.

Affiliation is the most common way for webmaster to make money online. By aligning oneself with different affiliate companies you will be able to link to merchants where each refferral is tracked and the refferer(you) is given a pre-determined % of the amount which is brought. Merchants range from small companies trying to generate and grow, to large corporations who find that others selling their products can be more lucrative then sales generated solely by themselves.

 Most affiliate companies are free to sign up to and after a basic check of your blog/Webpage are happy to welcome you to the program. Even those affiliate companies which require a payment upfront credit the amount into your account so once you reach the required amount you will get the money you put in back.

Free Image Hosting

AS you can see the system is very simple yet companies who affiliate will generally increase their profits by 36%.

There are many many affiliate companies out there and to help you we will list the most popular ones with their pro’s and cons.

 

 

Free Image Hosting Webgains is a popular affiliate system offering free sign up and quick registration process. Upon being accepted to their affiliate system you will find a whole host of affiliates which include many high street brands such as game , gamestation Hmv, Play.com and many many more.Features:Full 24hr supportContinuous updates of newest features and Newest Deals(almost bordering on spam)Excellent merchants including many high street brands

Good reporting system allowing you to track your progress

Xml support allowing you to take product feeds and display them in your own webpage

Negatives

Difficult navigation of merchants not allowing you to search for a particular type of merchant such as clothing merchants or gaming merchants
Free Image Hosting Buy.at Is most probably my favourite affiliate company although they offer very similar merchant companies as webgains the whole package is presented in a much more acute and detailed way. The management area 3.0 really does make this affiliate company stand out from other i have used and makes the whole process of improving your money making potential of your webpage.Features:Full 24hr supportContinous updates of newest features and Newest Deals( AGAIN almost bordering on spam)Fantastic management area.

Includes an excellent widgets feature allowing you to easily display hot products or products of your choice on your webpage.

Shop window client which allows you to install a complete shop front into your webpage

Fantastic reporting facilities

Xml support allowing you to take product feeds and display them in your own webpage

Negatives

the passwords are NOT memorable and does not allow auto logging in and therefore by having to have a remote file to store your password may cause a security risk if multiple people use a single workstation.
Free Image Hosting Affiliate window is one of those affilaite companies in which require you to pay a sign up fee before they even review your application. Like i said you will recieve the money deposited into your account once the application has been reviewed and confirmed. The Sign up amount is £5.00. Due to having a sign up amount the would be merchants have faith that those who do sign up to this affiliate network are those who have a good idea of how they will promote products. Affiliate Window have the best and rarest merchants including PCworld and many othersThe Rarest and best merchants you will definitely be able to find a merchant which suits your webpage/blog.Full 24hr support and will answer queries as quickly as possibleContinous updates of newest features and Newest Deals( not spammy)Fantastic reporting facilities allowing you to see which techniques you employ work best for you.Xml support allowing you to take product feeds and display them in your own webpage

Negatives

Some people are put off by the sign up cost. Even though it is refunded.
Free Image Hosting WWW.pigthis.co.uk is not like the affiliate systems described above. Pigthis is a shopping network where people will be offered cashback on any purchases they make online. It is very familiar the way in which the flow diagram above shows but instead of the refferer taking all the % they offer the actual cutomer a pre determined % back into their account. Once they reach £25.00 the amount is cashed directly into their account. The webpage has a excellent £5.00 welcome bonus and for every refferral made the refer will again recieve £5.00 with the person they refer also recieving their £5.00 welcome BonusFeaturesover 1400 High Street Brands meaning that they have something for everyoneFree to take surveys in which you will be paid money just for taking some time to fill them outFreebies and free trials to for webpages

Excellent cashback offers

24hr support desk

There are many more affiliate programs. If you search the word affiliate you will get an exhaustative list of different ones. I use the ones above because they fulfill all my needs for our webpages www.itchypig.co.uk www.pricepiggy.com and i feel that commenting on those affiliate programs i do not use to be misleading, Even though they all work in the same way.

Tomorrows blog Make money online through affiliate part 2 will discuss different ways of implemting these affiliate programs into your webpage/Blog and how to maximise the chance that people will choose you.

Robert Mark Williamson

Co-Owner Www.ItchyPig.co.uk

ItchyPig Online Auction Blog Page

January 22, 2008 ItchyPig Announcements No Comments

Hi and welcome to the  ItchyPig Blog page.

As a company we are always striving to increase the ways in which our customers can be informed about the what’s going on’s with our company. This blog is intended to be a medium of infomation for our users. We are lookign to become an online marketplace where our users can not only but items new or second hand via our online auctions, but also make it a place where people can gather information about buying online, network socially and ways to save money/ earn money online.

This blog is just one of the multiple steps which we will be intending to do this and over the course of the next few motnhs we promise a large change in the way in which itchypig will not only look, but what we are used for. With our excellent price comparison webpage www.pricepiggy.com and our ever growing cashback webpage www.pigthis.co.uk people are really beginning to sit up and take notice of the potential of our Brand. so without further waiting happy new year and we will see you soon !