Affiliate Future Barbardos Trip - Selected Pictures & Videos

I got back from Barbados earlier today. After looking through a handful of the most important emails I was re-acuainted with "her in-doors", but now its time to get some of those lovely pictures out in the open.

I've sensored some of the most incriminating, so were' left with the ones that won't lead to divorces and relationship break-ups!

Thankfully I was often behind my own camera and the others may have photos that comprimise my good name - including that one of me sans-clothes in the toilets on Frostie's camera. You'll be seeing a lot more of that epic series of high-class photography in the near future. In the mean-time here are some highlights:

So here's the first of many to feature Frostie:

Day 2:


and he carried on with the cocktails ...



and this is where the carnage began as we entered Harbour Lights (Frostie, Jay Lil, Mikey, Hannah and the Worminator I):


But Tom (Dad / Legend) was not to be left out as he cut an awesome shape!:



Hannah continued to pull some awesome faces as Nim Nim did some serious networking (actually we did do a lot of forward planning!!):



And it continued to get messy as can be seen by the various staines from James A:



The rest of the lads also found it difficult to hold their drink:



Now, wanting to protect the innocent, I'll pull the rest of the pics from that night!

Day 3:

We started with an awesome pose from Jay Lil:



and then moved on to a "power lunch" with Dilshan (is that correct) and the legendary Joe Connor!! Where it was great to mull over the industry's past and present:



before we headed over to McBrides to wash down some nosh:



This wasn't the best preperation for Team Fun's drive around the beautiful island of Barbados. I was "driving that day" (I'll let others comment on that), so I didn't get many photos apart from these:







After lunch we tried to find the Animal Flower Caves. We actually found them several hours later - as the place was closing. But here's a nice pic of some sea and rocks:



Then Team Fun (Me, Tom Quinn (iPoints), Hannah (mobiles.co.uk) and Naomi (Firebox) posed for the pic to prove that we actually made it there - before we fled into the sunset.

Having been nick-named "Pretty Boy" by the girls, I felt obliged to pose for some pics:



before going out to a great beach front restaurant for the night:



I'll add some more photos tomorrow.

Barbados Update #1

Well I'll try and upload the photos when James Little finishes with the cable - he's like a pig at a tit at the moment - and was most certainly in his element last night after coming away with the details of a nice young nurse. How does he do it?

So after excessice amounts of beer, pimms and rum & coke at the aiport, a fairly early Sunday night, we got back into the saddle last night at Harbour Lights. Good fun was had by all!

I can't remember much of the night, but I'm sure you guys will be seeing the pics of me in a self-made mankini! I'm sure James will be more colourful with his prose to go with his photos.

Barbados Countdown T - 2 Days

I've got some work to do whilst I'm out there so it'll be a good excuse to actually take myself off the beach and out of the bars to blog about the hoot we're having.

Last year I was forced to go to Antigua instead by the missus :-( This time I got our "family" holiday in early and went to Cuba last week. Phew.

So this is what I missed last year and one of the reasons why I worked hard (cough) to make sure I went this year:



If I had to put down a list of top ten pleasures (not linkbait of course), I'd put down "spending time with James Little". Mr Avery isn't bad either! ;-)

So I'm looking forward to all the hilarity and will make sure I post all the fun and intrigue (I'm sharing a bed with James Saturday night). And seeing as I'm taking a bottle of Mount Gay (no comments please!)for the hotel before we fly it should make for an interesting night!

Bonus Video:

Link Building: Fast Food Or Posh Nosh?

I was going over the Matt Cutts blog just to triple check over my recommendations for a large client that was merging two domains into a new huge one (eek) and found this lovely interview he did about link building.

The bit I agreed with most, and I'd like all you noobs to read is:

Eric Enge: So, what I’d like you to start with, Matt, is just an overview of your thoughts of what the approach should be. And then, we can get into some more detailed stuff.

Matt Cutts: Yeah, totally. So, what are the links that will stand the test of time? Those links are typically given voluntarily. It is an editorial link by someone, and it’s someone that’s informed. They are not misinformed, they are not tricked; there is no bait and switch involved. It’s because somebody thinks that something is so cool, so useful, or so helpful that they want to make little sign posts so that other people on the web can find that out.

The thing is, this the gourmet approach, there are 1,000's of webmasters & affiliates how will read about creating quality content. These people will take in the information, they'll sit down and think "I've got to write a really good piece on XYZ". Then they'll get a few emails, some calls and some instant messages and they'll rush through and write a crappy "Top ten" post.

I really hate these "Fast Food" link building attempts that may fill you up in the short term, but in the long term they'll get you fat and may contribute to your site's death. I never try and do them, but occasionally its the only way to get your POV across (little and often and all that!).

Some site owners would have great success with them so they'll tell people about it and then every Tom, Dick or Harry will write them. On Spinn, Digg you'll find littered with them. You can't move for "The top 8 ways to beat procrastination", "The Best 8.5 ways to remove fluff from your belly-button", "The 12 2/3 most effective ways to get something done by someone you've never met"! Boring!!

I want to read original content written for the purposes of getting a message across, not because you want me to read it and lazily link to it.

The problem people don't realise is that as everyone is doing this the minimum quantity/quality of links you need to keep to achieve a given result is going up. Its turning into a situation where too many people are thinking of quantity and not quality.

For every 20,30 "top ten lists" you could spend the time doing some great research and get 10/20 times the benefit in terms of links.

I've got into Search Engine Land and received some links and traffic as a result as wrote something useful, topical and relevant to my target audience. I never aimed to achieve this.

So my advice to my peers and noobs - just think of the quality and usefulness of the content and the links will follow.

The Sunshine Of My (Affiliate) Life

I'm a big believer in fate. Whenever I trust my instincts it always pays off. I've been stuck in the consumer products affiliate arena for a while and I'm getting a bit stale with it.

Consumer products can pay big money, I certainly cleared up with the Pleo last Christmas - doing around £500 a day on them and have got myself well prepared for this year's "top toys for Christmas". I've even been working on the general Christmas stuff since March and have made myself well and truly bored of the whole FMCG sector.

So I come back from my fantastic holiday in Cuba [pics] and was thinking about setting up a site about holidays to the island. I read about the fantastic incentive to promote Sunshine.co.uk that Chris had put on the forum. Then I get a message from Chris saying they're looking to add Cuba to their list of destiniations. So away I go - I start my holidays in Cuba blog.

Now I hadn't done much travel stuff since I used to do tonnes of flights sales using dodgy doorway page rubbish a few years ago. Those were the days :-)

So I'm a bit wet behind the ears on all this travel affiliate stuff. But the good thing is that these days if you right loads of great content (I'm sure I've written this before) and monetise it well then you're on to a winner.

So hopefully I can find 2/3 affiliate progs to partner with and are willing to work together on different aspects of the site - holidays, hotels, flights, extras then I'm sure there'll be a few bob in it for all of us.

Just time to finish off my review of the Melia Cayo Coco hotel that we stayed in and do all the usual useful stuff for the visitors and then get all the link-building, tools etc done.

So does anyone have any advice as to which merchants to promote. I've obviously short-listed Sunshine and the good lad at Alpharooms, but are there anyothers to work with?

Any help, much appreciated - I'm sure I'm not working in your niche!

P.s. I couldn't resist a fat git pic of me in the pool!!

P.p.s Normall ranting posts will be resumed soon. I've got back off my jollies and am well chilled. Off to Barbados this weekend so will be well pickled and hungover so won't want to start any arguments then either - you lucky people!

I Know I Won't Win, But ...

I'd just like to congratulate either Jason or Kirsty on winning the best "affiliate marketing blog of 2008" at the awards tomorrow - which I won't be able to attend.

I suppose I've got as much chance of winning as the brand-bidders opening up their books for us all to see - but if I do ... Shut it! You won't!

Anyways, I've been doing some nice analysis of the brand bidders and its interesting to see that its not always the "usual suspects" that are doing all the bidding. There's a few "unusual suspects" too!

For instance, I thought BBC Shop had no brand bidding?!? But it doesn't stop "bargaincube" bidding via buy.at. or Ming Xiong bidding on American Express using TD links. I suppose it also doesn't stop Jason Tassie bidding on the Co-op Current Account brand with know-your-current-accounts.co.uk or Keir McConomy from Spear.co.uk bidding on Angels Dancy Dress with angelsfancydress.com - I suppose he must be allowed to!! Yes he is apparenlty!! I´m going to get me a nice domain to market them on ' easy money!

Would it be a good idea for merchants to publish the details of authorised bidders so people like me don't think the worst when some affiliates are allowed to bid? Wouldn't this be a nice bit of openness and transparency? [I just remembered the fantastic "Brand Watcher"!! Take a peak - Shane and his team have put a lot of hard work into this little bit of kit!]

p.s. if anyone wants a load of sky keywords here a sample, and you can download them here, they obviously need some cleaning out:


.sky, .sky.co.uk, .sky.com, additional sky box, b digital satellite sky tv, b sky b, b skyb, best sky deal, best sky deals, best sky offer, best sky offers, best sky tv deals, big sky coupons, big sky deals, big sky packages, big sky resort packages, box sky, broadband and sky packages, broadband sky packages, bt and sky deals, bt sky deal, bt sky deals, bt sky offer, bt sky offers, buy a sky box, buy a sky channel, buy a sky hd box, buy a sky+ box, buy sky, buy sky box, buy sky card, buy sky dish, buy sky gnome, buy sky hd, buy sky hd box, buy sky hd online, buy sky lnb, buy sky plus, buy sky plus box, buy sky remote, buy sky sports, buy sky tv, buy sky tv link, buy sky viewing card, buy sky vodka, buy sky+ box, buy skybox, buy skylight, buy skyy, buying a star in the sky, by sky, cheap sky, cheap sky box, cheap sky boxes, cheap sky cards, cheap sky deals, cheap sky digibox, cheap sky digiboxes, cheap sky digital, cheap sky digital receiver, cheap sky holidays, cheap sky installation, cheap sky multiroom, cheap sky offers, cheap sky package, cheap sky packages, cheap sky plus, cheap sky remotes, cheap sky sports, cheap sky tv, cheap sky tv deals, cheap sky viewing cards, cheap sky+, cheaper sky, cheapest sky digibox, cheapest sky package, cheapest sky plus box, cheapest sky sports, cheapest sky+, credit cards that offer sky miles, crimson sky cheat, deals on sky, deals on sky hd, deals on sky plus, deals sky, delta sky miles deals, delta sky miles offers, digital sky, digital sky tv, digital tv sky, digital tv sky one, discount sky hd box, doom skybox, find sky, find sky channels, fre sky, free call by sky, free digital sky, free internet phone sky, free internet sky, free sky, free sky box, free sky box offer, free sky boxes, free sky cards, free sky channel, free sky deals, free sky digital, free sky dish, free sky films, free sky hd, free sky hd box, free sky hd installation, free sky hd offers, free sky internet, free sky numbers, free sky offer, free sky offers, free sky on internet, free sky one, free sky online, free sky over internet, free sky phone, free sky plus, free sky plus box, free sky plus offer, free sky plus offers, free sky sat, free sky sport, free sky sports, free sky sports 1, free sky sports online, free sky subscription, free sky television, free sky tv, free sky tv box, free sky tv download, free sky tv online, free sky tv uk, free sky uk, free sky viewing, free sky+, free sky+ box, freeview sky satellite, gaytv sky, get a free sky+ box, get sky, get sky free, get sky hd, get sky plus, get sky plus free, get sky sports, get sky sports on freeview, get sky tv, get sky+, getting free sky, getting sky tv, how to get sky sports, ireland sky digital, itv sky encryption deal, john lewis sky hd offer, join sky tv, late sky deals, location free sky, london sky, london tv sky, media sky, new sky deals, new sky plus box, offers on sky tv, one skye, orange sky free download, order sky, order sky plus, ordering sky, purchase sky miles, refurbished sky boxes, refurbished sky+, replacement sky box, replacement sky boxes, replacement sky dish, replacement sky plus box, replacement sky+ box, rte sky digital northern ireland, sat sky, sat sky.org, satelite sky, satellite sky, satellite sky digital, satellite tv sky, sattelite sky, second hand sky boxes, secondhand sky digibox, sky, sky bank, sky cards cheap, sky digital, sky digital ireland, sky digital tv, sky hd, sky hd box, sky media, sky plus, sky television, sky tv, sky. com, sky..., sky.+com, sky.co, sky.co.nz, sky.co.uk, sky.co.za, sky.com, sky.com ireland, sky.com., sky.comuk, sky.conews, sky.newscom, sky.tv, sky.tv.co.uk, sky.tv.com, sky.uk, sky.uk.com, sky1 co uk, sky3 tv, skyairlines, skycom com, skycom courier, skycom express, skydeal, skydeal.co.il, skydigital ireland, skydigital tv, skye media, skye television, skye tv, skyhi, skyone co, skyone tv, skyphone, skyplus, skyplus box, skysatelite, skyshop, skysport co, skysport co uk, skysport uk, skytv, skytv co, skytv co nz, skytv co uk, skytv ie, skytv uk, skytv.co.uk, sport on pc free sky tv satliveonpc.com, tele sky shop, television sky, thomson sky deals, tv a cabo sky, tv listings sky digital, tv sky, tv skyone, tvs sky, tvs sky shop, tvsky, uk sky, uk sky digital, uk sky packages, uk sky plus, uk sky television, used sky digibox, used sky receivers, utv sky digital ireland, virgin sky packages, virginradio sky deal, wsky tv, www bbsky com, www ksky, www skybox, www skycable, www skycn com soft, www skycom, www skymovies co, www skymovies co uk, www skyone com, www skysport, www skysport co uk, www skytv, www skytv co, www skytv co nz, www skytv co uk, www skytv com, www skytv ie, www skytv it, www skytv nz, www skyy, www.bbsky.com, www.sky, www.sky.co.nz, www.sky.com, www.sky.com.mx, www.skytv.co.nz, wwwsky sports.com, wwwsky.com

June 2008 Review

Ah the memories! June was the month of the Affiliate Future Barbados trip, so there weren't a great deal of posts on the blog!!

One of my pet hates are those link-building companies that email all-and-sundry promising that they'll help them but actually it possibly won't.

I forgot, I had two holidays that month :-) so it was really a slim month on the blogging front!!

And I knew I wouldn't win the A4U Award - controversial posting is not going to enjoyed by everyone.

May 2008 Review

The month started with me being nominated as a finalist for the Affiliate Marketing Awards for best blog of 2008. I did'nt win, but that wasn't a shock.

During May we saw that it looked like that the powers that be are looking to step in to protect consumers from online advertising where its not obvious who's behind adverts or stunts. Be careful what you're doing is the watchword!

I posted a comment about the views of Jeff Molander which I now see as being consistent with my views on the unfettered use of voucher code sites. The debate continued.

I commented about why my sites aren't beautiful but aim for them to be a tool of getting people from the search engines to the right merchants as quickly as possible.

A post that may have annoyed some was about how I choose networks. I'm sure I need to review this now.

I exposed some of the keywords that people use to find this blog. There were some pretty strange ones.

Previously I discussed working jointly with affiliates on my sites and now I mentioned doing the same with merchants. Some just didn't get it. And some still don't get SEO.

I also commented how online journalists were turning into pure revenue generating (I want to swear).

The post I enjoyed the most was showing the long tail of one of my sites.