insights from a blockchain developer, researcher & investor
exploring emerging opportunities in decentralized finance
3 DIFFERENT WAYS I CAN HELP
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Alert box on click through to offer
The following example will allow you to create an alert box when the user clicks through from your landing page to the offer page. This can be useful to remind users of your offers value proposition, sign-up requirements (double-opt in?) or just to increase conversion rate on the offer end. A working demo is available…
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A simple iOS / Android traffic splitter in PHP
The following basic PHP code will split traffic by device with iOS traffic going to the first out link, Android to the second and leftovers to the third. TIP: This uses a 301 redirect however you can do any type of programmatic variation based on the user agent. You can copy and paste this into…
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No More Forced Tablet Traffic On Adwords
At last Google has put an end to the way it was allowing bid adjustments for mobile and desktop but not tablets. For years this has meant that Adwords advertisers were forced into getting unwanted tablet traffic and paying the same rate for it as desktop. Here is the blog announcement from Google: http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/ads-and-analytics-innovations-for-a-mobile-first-world.html If…
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Splitting traffic to different offers on mobile
If you are buying bulk traffic to a mobile offer the chances are that you can split some of your traffic off to different offers. For example if you have a pin submit that only accepts android but has a much higher payout then you can separate your android traffic and increase your bottom line.…
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RAM & CPU Usage PHP Script | Server Health Check
This single file server health check script works on Windows, Linux and possibly others. It is written in PHP to show CPU usage, RAM usage, Incoming Connections and Hard disk usage. Update September 2020 Server Check PHP was getting a lot of downloads so I’ve updated the code and open sourced it on Github. If…
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Basic exit intent pop up script
The following script will launch a pop up and redirect if the user moves the mouse off the page. You can add this to your landing page targeted at desktop users, on mobile it wont work obviously. This is just a basic version but you can change the popUp() function to load an email capture…
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Resize youtube/vimeo iframe to maximum available height and width
Here is the code to make a flexible youtube.com or vimeo.com video fit both the height and width of the containing div. Like a flexible adsense unit it will take up the maximum available space on the page or be constrained within a containing object such as a div. CSS: .vcontainer { position:relative; padding-bottom:56.25%; padding-top:30px;…
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Book Review Finch Premium Posts 2016
It’s really hard to find any kind of information from experienced performance marketers. You generally have to wade through all the gurus who have no real idea or sign up to a paid forum full of newbies. Finch is an English guy I believe who now lives in Thailand, has been doing affiliate marketing for…
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Calculate distance between two geocooridnates
Here is a javascript function to calculate the distance between two latitude and longitude coordinates. function deg2rad(deg) { return deg * (Math.PI/180) } function calcDistance(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2) { var R = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km var dLat = deg2rad(lat2-lat1); var dLon = deg2rad(lon2-lon1); var a = Math.sin(dLat/2) *…
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Building Basic Websites
Every now and again you just need a basic site setup to have an internet presence. Normally this occurs for me when a friend or family member tells people I “do websites” and I get roped in to helping them out. So what options are there for a basic, modern website template. The obvious answer…
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Option to Disable Adsense Ads
In some cases it is beneficial to provide a link or option for visitors to a site not to see the adsense ads the first time they visit a page. Ads can sometimes be viewed negatively and for the first visit or under certain circumstances it is best to temporarily disable them. Here is the…
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What is required to dominate an online niche?
Here is a checklist of factors that need to be taken into account when building an online business. Money Site (main website) High Converting Optimised Landing Page Effective Sales Funnel Lead Magnet / Lead capture methods Designed for user The money site is where prospects will be converted to leads. An effective sales funnel is…
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Download: Basic Email Newsletter Template
Here is a template for a basic email newsletter: http://www.jamesbachini.com/misc/emailnewsletter.zip http://www.jamesbachini.com/misc/emailnewsletter.html Some important things to note when creating email newsletters: Inline CSS Only, no style sheets or <style> tags as they will be stripped by most clients. Make it responsive, a lot of email is read on mobile, it should collapse and expand beautifully. Add…
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Leading Ad Networks
Here is a list of the leading ad networks @ Dec 2015: Search PPC Google Adwords MSN Adcenter Social Networks Facebook Twitter Plenty of Fish Reddit LinkedIn In-text Ad Networks 50onRed Infolinks Clicksor Pay per view PPV Traffic Vance Lead Impact Media Traffic Clicksor Pop Unders Wiget Media Adcash AdsTerra Banner Display Networks / Exchanges…
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The truth about online advertising agencies and consultants
I see a lot of companies promoting online marketing services to small and medium sized businesses. The engineering company I am involved with gets emails every day from companies offering adwords optimisation or SEO (search engine optimisation) services. How many of these companies actually know what they are doing though? I would hazard a guess…
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Tuesday Morning Funny
What’s not smart? Not testing your dynamic tokens when email marketing: Like a pro!
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7 easy ways to make money with affiliate marketing
Build a blog and setup adsense banners This is where most affiliates start, all you need is a domain name and a wordpress installation with some hosting. Build your blog, do some guest posts, read about SEO and hope Google sends you some traffic. Monetisation is usually done with Google Adsense which means selling advertising…
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How to choose offers from an affiliate network
The most useful bit of information you can get from your affiliate manager is what offers are running the most volume. This is the only data I ever ask AM’s for because it tells me in no uncertain terms what is competitive on the network at the moment. AM’s are notorious for bombarding us with…
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11 Proven Headline Formulas For Affiliate Marketing
Here is a list of headlines, most you’ll probably recognise. They are all over the web because they work. Use the formulas and adapt it to your product/service. ONE SIMPLE TRICK TO A …[BENEFIT] EXPERTS HATE HIM FOR …[BENEFIT] WARNING: [BENEFIT] 1268 LONDONERS [BENEFIT] IS [PRODUCT] A SCAM? CAN [PRODUCT] HELP YOU [BENEFIT]? HOW TO…
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Automatic Redirect for Mobile Landing Page
Want a mobile lander with a 90%+ “CTR”? Simply add the following javasript: <script> function go() { location.href = ‘http://www.jamesbachini.com’; } function init() { setTimeout(function() { confirm(‘You have two friends who recommended this app’); },3000); setTimeout(function() { go(); },5000); } </script> Then run the init function on body load like so: <body onload=”init();”> This does…
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Dynamic Tracking Tokens For Major Ad Networks
Google Adwords Search term insertion {keyword=”leather couches”} {Keyword=”Leather couches”} {KeyWord=”Leather Couches”} {KEYWORD= “LEATHER COUCHES”} {device} {devicemodel} {placement} {creative} {adposition} {target} {network} {matchtype} Facebook No tokens 🙁 Plenty of Fish pof.com {age:} {state:} {gender:} TrafficVance %KEYWORD% MSN Adcenter {KeyWord} = Order Fresh Fruit today {keyword} = Order fresh fruit today {Keyword} = Order Fresh fruit today…
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Problems with running traffic to CPA affiliate networks
OK this might be a bit of an eye opener for anyone running traffic to CPA networks. This is obviously a negative post about some pet hates but there is a place for networks in the industry and they have their uses for sure which I’ll go through at the end. CPA networks have “internal…
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Checking landing page load times
Landing page load times can make a big difference to the conversion rate of an affiliate campaign. Here’s a great free site for checking load times and getting suggestions on how to improve the page load speed. http://gtmetrix.com As you can see I could do with tweeking wordpress to display the images a bit better…
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Setting Up Retargeting Pixels for Adwords and Facebook
Retargeting works by placing a image pixel or code snippet on your website. You can then launch advertising campaigns targeted at those specific users that have visited the page and “seen” the hidden pixel. This is how to set it up… Facebook Go to Ads Manager > Audiences > Create Audience > Custom Audience >…
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Fastlane Millionaire – BoM May
The Fastlane Millionaire is a self-help style book aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs. It does contain a lot of egotistical bull sh*t that you normally find in these style of books but there is also some gems of information. It is a bit like the 4 hour work week where if you can cut through the…
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Setting up Maxmind GEOIP2 Legacy Database with PHP or Javascript
This is the php code I use to access geoip data from Maxmind’s geoip database: <?php $gpath = getcwd() . “/GeoIPCity.dat”; if (isset($_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’])) { $myip = $_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’]; } if (isset($_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’])) { $myip = $_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’]; } include(“./geoipcity.inc”); $gi = geoip_open($gpath,GEOIP_STANDARD); $record = geoip_record_by_addr($gi,$myip); $city = $record->city; $countrycode = $record->country_code; geoip_close($gi); echo ‘countrycode = “‘.$countrycode.’”; city =…
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Golden Gems in Copywriting
Copywriting is an essential skill in affiliate marketing. Being able to persuade a user to complete an action comes down to communication and a lot of the communication on a website or landing page is written text. When I write copy I follow a build > breakdown > rebuild workflow. What this means is I’ll…
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WhatsApp being used for spam
This is the first time I’ve seen spam on WhatsApp in the UK. I got two messages from different numbers advertising the same site. I’d imagine they are utilising free sims along with an android bot of some sort to register an account and then target known mobile numbers from a list.
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SEO for Fun and Profit
SEO Summary Search engine optimisation can be broken down into onsite and offsite factors. Onsite Factors Domain age Domain relevance (Topics throughout site) Domain name relevance (keyword.com) Domain registration factors such as renewal date and private whois Site speed, page load times Site freshness, new daily content Title relevancy Keywords in meta description H1 tag…
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The intelligent investor – April’s Book of the Month
The intelligent investor is to fund managers what cashvertising is to marketers. First published in the mid twentieth century it now comes with an updated commentary which is as good as the book itself. Graham inspired a host of famous investors including Warren Buffett and this book mirrors my own opinions about going against the…
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Tool to generate a guest blog post request
This tool can be used to generate a guest blog post request for SEO purposes. This is a great way to not only build SEO juice but it also gets your name out there and helps interact with the community surrounding your niche. http://www.jamesbachini.com/misc/guestpostrequest.php Simply enter your name,site,niche and theirs and it will generate a…
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The balance of an online marketers skillset
Effective online marketing requires a balance of skills. A good campaign requires creativity, great design, effective programming and meticulous optimisation. Leonardo Da Vinci would have made a great affiliate. If he was around in today he’d find this easy because he had a great balance of artistic creativity and scientific inquisition. Good design is intertwined…
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Stack That Money Meetup STM London 2015
Stack that money has been a great meetup. I was surprised at the turnout which topped over 700 members. The talks were good, particularly some of the ones on the second day. Highlights included: Tim Tetra’s tricky little presentation where he sold a magic bullet to a crowd that should know better. Lars Kroijer one…
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The 4 hour work week – March’s Book of the Month
The 4 hour work week – Timothy Ferris This was a tough one to include or not. I really can’t stand the guy or his writing style but a lot of what he says is good advice. I’ve read this and the 4 hour body and am taking a break before reading the 4 hour…
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Funniest video I’ve seen in years
Damn those spammers!
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Designing Banners in Place
Something I don’t hear a lot of affiliates talk about is taking the placement in to consideration when designing banners. Sometimes if you are targeting multiple sites/positions this isn’t possible but for traffic sources like Facebook this is something every affiliate should consider. Simply take a screenshot of the page where you intend to advertise…
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Healthy body healthy mind – Fitness for the self-employed
I see a lot of fitness and health related post on affiliate marketing blogs, everything from how I got ripped abs in 3 weeks to why I gave up coffee for a month. These sound more like our landing page headlines than blog posts but there does seem to be a strong focus in the…
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Google Friendly Mobile Pages Test
Google have provided a tool which checks to see if a site renders clearly in a mobile browser. The tool looks like it is setup at 320px and if your site works at this you’ll get a “mobile-friendly” tag in your organic search listings. Here’s the link to check your sites: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ Some other good…
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The Innovators – February’s Book of the Month
The Innovators is a historical portrayal of the digital revolution. It starts at Ada Lovelace the daughter of Lord Byron who is credited with the first concept of a computer programme and goes all the way up to 2014. The book details the first computers including the one at Bletchley Park which is significant to…
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A Simple Mobile Landing Page Template
Here’s a quick design template which is very flexible for mobile app / pin submit type offers. You can view the page at: http://jamesbachini.com/misc/simplemobile.htm And download it from: http://jamesbachini.com/misc/simplemobile.zip Obviously be careful that your button is above the fold on old and new phones. Big image + long headers can push it below which wouldn’t…
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How to fill out a W8-BEN form
Updated March 2020 What is a W8BEN form? Officially a W8-BEN or W8-BEN-E form is a “Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting” This essentially means if you are not a US resident but are working with US companies then you need to sign this form to declare…
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Pics From Affiliate Summit West 2015
Some snapshots from ASW15 Meet market, people doing the rounds. The Charles Ngo Seminar Benjamin Yong doing his thing While I’m all for using public transport I’m pretty sure this isn’t how Ryan Eagle does it. Arriving into the strip on the Deuce with a blazer attached to a backpack. You walk a lot in…
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How To Optimise Online Affiliate Marketing Campaigns
This is going to be another long post about a seemingly boring topic of optimisation. If you ask a hundred affiliates how they optimise a campaign 90% of them will tell you they just get a feel for it. Very few affiliates actually have a set process or mathematical formula they use when optimising. Whether…
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Daily Calcs Profit And Loss Spreadsheet Download For Affiliate Marketers
Here is the spreadsheet I use to monitor my profit and loss accounts on a daily basis. It’s provided here as a downloadable spreadsheet but I would recommend setting it up how you want and then uploading to Google Docs so it can be worked on from anywhere by anyone. This document works by inputting…
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Cashvertising Summary | My Notes On Ca$hvertising
Cashvertising is a classic and would be my first choice for anybody new to digital marketing that wanted to learn about copywriting. I’ve published my personal notes here so people can get a summary of the book or use it as a reference if they have read it previously. It was first published a hundred…
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How Groupon’s landing page has evolved in two years
In 2012 Groupon was at the cutting edge of performance marketing. They had big budgets and were doing big business with affiliates. I thought it would be interesting to analyse a landing page from back then and then one they use today. The lander actually reminds me a bit of some of the dating landing…
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Forgetting to spin spun text in comment spam
This made me laugh today:
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How To Make Money Online
Historians will look back at this period of time as an information revolution in the same way we look back at the industrial revolution. In the space of 30 years we have gone from basic communications to having a small portable device connected to a network capable of delivering answers to any question, maps, shopping…
