Ah, WordPress Black Friday & Cyber Monday, it’s a time of deals and savings. It’s not for everyone, I totally get that. The web will be awash with Black Friday pages, all vying for your valued click that leads to revenue through affiliate earnings.
If you’d asked me a few years ago about building a Black Friday page?
Well, I would have said no thanks. I don’t want to build one of those pages. But I did, I did for this year, and I made one for last year as well.
Last year was a roaring success and had plenty of traffic, but I never used affiliate links, was I an idiot for this approach?
Yes, I more than likely was.
This year? Well, if an affiliate link is available, I’ll use it.
Why the change?
It’s quite simple really. I am one person.
I do not have a team of writers, everything you see on LayerWP, is created by me. As LayerWP is a passion project for me, and believe it or not I am passionate about WordPress, I need the blog to earn revenue.
To help with the increase in the cost of living (which affects us all) and a drop in salary in my day job. I need to earn, to keep the lights on, and me taking the holier than thou approach when it comes to affiliate links, doesn’t pay the bills, or help look after my family.
I don’t mess around
I’m a no nonsense kinda guy, and I hope that spills into everything I do on this site. Not only that, but I love having an independent viewpoint, and telling it like it is. It allows me to air my thoughts, showcase cool products, and plugins/themes, I believe could make a difference.
That will never change, it’s a staple of LayerWP, and I will continue to do just that, write articles from a human perspective, and detail my own thoughts.
Doing things differently when it comes to Black Friday
I, like some of you WordPress product owners, struggle with traffic, especially when search engines are gamed by some bigger sites (I will not mention names!), so I have to think differently.
My 2022 Black Friday page is different. It’s totally different from others that are popping up around the web. I have to go big, or go home, I have to take that approach on absolutely everything I do from now on in.
It’s what will get the site remembered for. Look, I like to have fun, and I hope the BF page is a clear indication of that. I need to be different, I need to go to town, otherwise I’m lost in the ether.
That’s not fair on the people who have submitted a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal, and to be frank, it’s not fair on me with the amount of time I took to create the bloody page!
I don’t need to tell you how many blogs there are on the web pushing WordPress, you know the answer, it’s sh*t ton. I need to stand out from the throngs, and if it takes me longer to create content, so be it.
I’d rather take my sweet time, and serve something up that’s valuable to fellow users, and useful. I’ll take that any day of the week, over 30 posts in a month, that quite frankly are awful.
Do I sound angry?
This post sounds like I’m angry, doesn’t it? I’m not, truly. For a long time I’ve begrudged other WordPress blogs, bemoaning their content, either it’s misleading or pure spam.
I’m channelling this negative energy into LayerWP, and the Black Friday page is the nexus of things to come.
It’s all about having fun, informing, and highlighting products.
Self belief or lack thereof
Take for instance my independent WordPress directory. I never expected it to do so well, and that’s part of the problem for me. Not believing in myself, and not giving things a chance.
Well, fast-forward 5 months later, and I now have over 80 products listed. The WordPress million dollar page, what started as a bit of fun, now has 42 advertisers on it!
People believe in what I’m doing, and I need to start believing in myself more so.
I’ve had direct messages on Twitter saying they love what I’m doing in my small corner of the internet. I cannot begin to tell you what that means, especially when you feel low.
It spurs me on, and I’m striving to be different. It’s the only asset I have in my arsenal, and by Odin’s beard, I’m going to use it.
Add a deal or submit a product, down to you
If you’d like to submit a deal to this 2022’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday page, please do. You are more than welcome to do so.
It’s free to post an offer, I do have sponsorship slots open. If you’re not looking to offer anything for Black Friday, then maybe you’d like to consider adding your product to the directory?
Anyway, the takeaway, I’m doing everything I can to be different from other WordPress blogs, and I hope that perhaps, you’ll join me on the ride.
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.
Hi Ben.
You really are doing well and have come a long way which is great to see.
One of these days the FTC is going to make an example of someone big for not disclosing ownership and other relationships. Lots of newer WP people may not have been around since the early net days (I started business in some form online since 1996) and the FTC every now and then has taken massive action in the Make Money Online sector – thats where all those earnings disclaimers come from – the same will happen for testimonials and reviews one day.
Dale.
Hi Dale,
As ever, thank you for your support and kind words. It’s nice to know that somebody is liking what I’m doing.
With reference to the disclosing relationships and such, I really do hope this comes into play. You and I both know who the main offenders are, but we dare not speak their names for fear of reprisals.
As you say, and rightly so, anyone new to WordPress, will not know this. They will invariably fall prey to their schemes. Which, and let’s face it, they are without question schemes, to deceive and relieve people of money.
I’d love to actually write a proper piece on the deceptive practises, and who’s doing what.
But, the fall out, well, that would be of epic proportions. All we can do is educate people, have fun along the way, and from a mental health perspective, that’s a more productive use of my time.
ATB
Ben