Interview With James Little

Here's a quick little email interview i did with James Little. It was just a bit of fun really - a boring Sunday afternoon and all that!

Lee: Renee is fantastically attractive, Ken has a great sense of humour ... How does it feel working with people superior to you?

James: Are you trying to suggest that I’m unattractive, boring and can’t crack any jokes? I feel offended Lee, though you may be correct! I must admit that it is a challenge to come into the office every day and work with them both, I just have to remind myself that I can bully them into doing my work but Renee has stopped making me tea after I changed her job title to “Chief Tea Maker”.

Lee: You not only blog on the Corporate Altogether blog, but your own personal ones. Do you find it difficult making sure that there is no personality on either of them?

James: I have quite a few blogs and must admit that I find it hard to continue to update them all – quality over quantity is the way forward I feel, however many people will say that mine do not have either I am sure! :) I’ve been quite adamant that blogging is a fantastic way of getting traffic to a site and with the right tools can generate thousands of impressions on a daily basis. I’ll give you all a tip now, have a look at how to get into google news; this brings a wealth of traffic and if you can find a way to monitise it you are on to a winner.


Lee:  We met on a boat in the Carribean, was it love at first sight or do we have to work at it?

James: I’ve worked at it harder than you – you hardly ever answer my calls these days and I swear you’ve blocked me on MSN on a few occasions!
The Carribean (is that really how you spell it?) was fantastic though, the best incentive that I’ve ever come across and have already paid to go again this year.

Lee:  Many of the large established networks seem to attract the larger brands. But do you feel that your team have something different to offer them other than size?

James: Do we really have to talk about work? :) I think we’ve got a good proposition at Altogether Digital/Ads. We’re already got about 15 merchants on board, some bigger than others but because of the level of service that we offer clients we’re getting some good people on board. I’m still sceptical about larger brands to be honest – affiliate marketing to me has always seemed to work well for some of the smaller players and that is what we are seeing with our campaigns; if the product is good and the website converts then it doesn’t often matter what it says on the tin. Some people say that bigger brands have a better EPC but often this is because of the brand name bidding that networks allow the chosen ones to do & distort the figures!!

Lee:  You've been in the industry ages now, but you never seem to look any older. Do you recommend a diet of Cockspur or Mount Gay to keep you young?

James: Mount Gay Rum is the way to go – I don’t like Cockspur and will be forever in debt to Pete Dickenson for introducing me to the wonders of this drink! I’ve been doing affiliate work for 6 years, starting as an affiliate back when I was a developer for Onetel – I’m still only 25 though so hardly an old man like you (happy birthday btw!).

Lee:  I'm been lucky enough to meet your kids and they're great. I take it Lyndsey is the one that brings them up?

James: She’ll kill me if she reads this and sees that I have not corrected you for spelling her name wrong, it’s Lindsey! Hahaha, Yes she does the hard work as a full time mum and I just try and bring in enough money to support them all The kids are great but it’s bloody hard work and I don’t know how she does it!

Lee:  I know you're a Crystal Palace fan - they're doing well but do ever feel the urge to suport a bigger local team like Grays Athletic?

James: They are not even doing that well lately! I haven’t been to Palace since I ended my season ticket last season, which is a shame because you can’t beat the thrill of watching your team loose over and over again, honestly. When I’ve got the cash and the time I’ll try and get another season ticket but I have threatened to go and see Welling more regularly (my real local team) and hope to get to see a few games this season. After winning an award at the buy.at football tourament last year I think they might want me in their team though, Affiliate Ninja’s all the way!! (When are buy.at doing that again?)

Lee:  On a serious note. You've got a 10 word pitch for affiliates to promote each of your current merchants. What are they:

James: Sign up to Altogether Ads do everything in our power to make you rich! (slightly over 10 works, sorry!).

Lee:  What are your plans for Altogether Digital this year? Which sectors do you have new merchants coming on board?

James: We’re trying not to niche ourselves just yet but are aiming to ensure that we bring on some decent clients and follow our inhouse best practice guidelines – we work on a purely performance basis so it’s in our interests to ensure this is the case.

Lee: And to wrap it up. How are you going to replace Renee? :-(

James: We can’t – she’s irreplaceable! It’s a real shame to see her being kicked out of the country and tried everything we could to get the government to let her stay but I’m sure she will land on her feet back out in Australia after her long stint travelling around Europe (I’m not jealous in the slightest, honest!). For the mean time I’ll be taking a more hands on approach for a while so expect some more phone calls from me asking why you’re not promoting all our merchants, and that goes for everyone reading this blog!

Lee: I'd like to say thanks to James for breaking the boring SEO talk on this blog. Pics of the team would have been nice hey? But I forgot one: When are you going to get a chuffing haircut?!?!