A huge congratulations to Christopher aka Qdude for winning Septembers coveted Affiliate of the Month Award.

Having joined MoreNiche in June of this year, Christopher has racked up hundreds of sales thanks to a huge amount of hard work, tweaking and patience - in July of this year he took the big  jump to become a full time affiliate and is achieving some fantastic, consistent and growing sale volumes!

Congratulations, how do you feel about winning AOTM?

Great thanks, its always nice to get a pat on the back - Especially when you work in internet / affiliate marketing which can be difficult to explain to friends and family. Plus its great that More Niche take the time to do these, and helps us and helps motivate newer affiliates.

Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from, what’s your background?

I studied computing, and during my studies I helped a few businesses with their websites by offering consulting services part time. I built my first e-commerce website from scratch in 2004 for a client, and went on to look after the ongoing development and online marketing in my spare time (and still do!).

A few years later I was working at a Pay Per Click search engine and helped manage the integration of sponsored ads on large publisher websites in Europe, and then moved to working in a marketing agency where I built up their web development team, managed web development projects, and provided consulting to clients to help them integrate landing page testing, usability, and analytics.

In July of this year I took the big jump, and became a full time affiliate!

What were the key factors to get you here today?

I was working on a few affiliate projects during my spare time, and within a year an a half I thought I was ready to take this full time. When I did I was looking at various affiliate networks and potential niches, and found a good range here at More Niche.

How long did it take you to make your first sale?

Generally, I think it took me about a month to actually make a sale when I first started in affiliate marketing a while ago. I think the most difficult thing for most of us trying to make sales online is picking the right thing to promote!

What support have you received from MN?

The guys at More Niche have been great at suggesting things, the tracking and reporting are some of the best in the business, and its great to be able to chat to say Andrew the managing director on an informal basis.

Also this is one of the more transparent networks, its great to get an idea of what the conversion rates are like for products - Not many networks or merchants want to scream about that!

Is there anything you could suggest us to improve?

More focus on branded products which have already been marketed - These provide affiliates with great ways of adding value through reviews and content.

Come on, share some of your methods with others, what works for you?

Testing is an important factor - Many fellow affiliates I talk to, especially the ones starting out jump straight into niches and products, spend months on marketing and content, only to find that the product doesn’t convert, or yields little revenue. I always try to test the water with a quick PPC campaign to see if an offer converts, then I’ll decide whether to go for it.

Also I’ve had some good results with testing landing pages, benchmarking products, testing ads and even testing newsletter subject lines.

Getting that increased conversion rate, or click could make the difference between a profitable and a failing campaign.

In your opinion, what makes a great affiliate program?

That’s quite simple to explain but probably difficult to put together:

• Great products or services (which work and add value)
• Good margins on products so affiliates can get high commissions
• Recurring commissions
• Ongoing promotions to help sell the product and ongoing communication
• In depth product guides
• Quick payments to affiliates
• Pre-written content with information about the products
• Dedicated help from affiliate managers to motivate affiliates
• Effective tracking so affiliates don’t miss out on sales

I’m glad to say that MN excels at this.

What are the most important factors to succeed in affiliate marketing?

Determination, passion, a thirst for knowledge, keeping yourself up to date on most areas of marketing, and integrity.

Do you have any tips for new affiliates?

Find something you are genuinely interested in, find good products to promote in that niche, try and build something which will add value.
A lot of us learn the hard way by just trying to make money online using any means possible. It might work for some, but its not a long term solution.

Ok, what are your further plans with affiliate business and MoreNiche?

I’m planning on launching a new ecommerce site at the end of this year with some partners, and will be focussing on building on the sites I have, and looking into other areas.