The ultimate affiliate site inspired by Cheryl Cole

Yet another content site that doesn't sell anything itself, but makes money from affiliate marketing (promoting online merchants in return for a commission). Nothing new in that you might say.

But here's the thing - the interesting differences are the sites theme and its attention to detail. An affiliate site, Cherylcolestyle.com, has been set up around the styles of media darling Cheryl Cole, and selling similar outfits through affiliate merchants. It kind of takes the concept of ASOS.com to a whole new extreme.

I particularly like the way they categorise outfits according to when they were seen during Cheryl's strenuous judging duties on the current series of X Factor.

And according to the site's owners it's only going to be there until the end of the current X Factor series run. A brave move considering the time it could take to achieve real traction in natural search (They ain't doing too good yet for the phrase 'cheryl cole style', let alone more general search terms).

On the other hand, if they have some very clever SEO tricks up their sleeves (and the site founders are all from the SEO and web industry) then they could pioneer a new trend in 'tactical affiliate marketing' - short term yet well constructed revenue generating sites designed to tap into fads and trends.

Perhaps 'Jordan's Dating Site' will be next....

Why Wordpress is great for domain holding pages

I've always thought that spare domain names are only worth something if you actually do something with them.

If a domain can get indexed by Google and start to build some domain history it will start to gain real value. Or when you decide to add a proper website to the domain, you wont have to spend frustrating time waiting to get indexed.

But a single holding page (or even worse the dreaded 'under construction' message) does really look a bit naff.

So that's why we've been using the free Wordpress blogging software install (with a few tweaks) to build microsites on domains for a number of clients, and ourselves. Here's one of the most recent: www.mediterraneanconnections.com.

With a few pages of text, some clever use of RSS feeds, a free design template, a few Wordpress plugins, and a bit of time, you can create a holding site that should start to build sonme really useful indexing history.

You an even monetise your holding site with Google Adsense or some relevant affiliate banner ads from a program like Tradedoubler.

But dont forget, if you are oing all this hoping to sell on your domain for big bucks, remember that a second hand domain name is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, which might not always be what you think its worth.