Manchester Domainers Meet – Fri 26th March

There will be a meet for domainers in Manchester on Friday the 26th of this month (March) at TigerTiger.

It’s being arrange over at AcornDomains see link below, and will have mainly people who deal with domains, resellers, drop catchers etc as well as James from Namedrive whose arranging it and has booked a place in TigerTiger.

More info: http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/ad-manchester/65560-manchester-meet-thursday-25th-march-2010-a.html

Let me know if your coming or fancy it :) or have any questions.

I’m looking for blog sponsors

I’m looking for merchants, networks etc who would like to advertise/sponsor on my blog to get in touch with me. I’ve got spaces at the top for a banner, and two 125×125 spaces on the right, i’ve also got an option for a vertical banner on the right.

If your interested please get in touch at the following email and we can discuss rates :)

A new look … and tax finished

I thought as its a new year and a new time for me to update this blog more often, i’ve decided to change the theme. Hope you like it.

I’ve also just finished my tax (yes the deadline was 31st jan) which is bit of weight off my shoulders, although it’s also a massive dent in my bank account! As it was for 08-09 which has been my best year the tax is hefty.

Just thought i’d post this quickly, anyone know what percentage of rent you can put against tax ?
:)

Turning 21 and the year a head for me and where ive been

Well it’s been a long time since I updated this blog, and i’m going to aim to get it back up being updated weekly at the least. I finally managed to transfer the blog to my new decent hosting! (altho you will notice in the posts no images are showing as of yet)

What have I been doing

Well i’ve had exams this january and as this is my last year of Uni they count and so I’ve had a lot of revising to do. Christmas was really good, I escaped to the lake district and rented a nice cottage, the snow made it brilliant to get out and go on walks etc and totally chill without my laptop! Altho the new iphone did distract me a lot!

New year meant a look back at the previous year and look forward to this year, Where i’m hoping a lot of exciting projects are in the pipeline more said later.

I’ve literally just got back from a weekend in Barcelona with 4 of my uni mates and 2 who are over there doing a year abroad, this was a reason to go over to see them and also as I turned 21 yesterday meant I could celebrate turning the big 21 in a different city with some great mates and lots of drinks (including a pint with baileys in it, not v. nice see picture below followed by lots of shots)

The future

2010 im hoping will be a very good year for me. The end of 2009 has been slow in terms of revenue, due to not being able/having time to work on sites, I sold a few and have ploughed a lot of my money into buying generic domain names.

The idea is to build some large sites on them and get them highly ranked, then I aim to either keep them for a few years and keep building more or sell them and start something big! maybe become a merchant etc.

I’m currently looking into finding a flat with 2 mates who still have a year left of uni next year, thus i’ll be working on affiliate stuff full time for the first time ever, I may also look into getting some work experience or do some volunteering.

Anyway with some of the domains Ive bought im excited for the year to come. I should have my first site live on my favourite generic very soon and may just let you all see it :)

Anyway i’m writing this in the evening and ive had about 9 hours total sleep since friday so im knackered and think im going out tonight as well so I’ll stop writing now and set this to auto post tomorrow (or today when you read this). As i’ve said I’ll try and keep this blog updated again and not let it fall into silence! I’ll leave you with a few photos from my trip to barca!

:)

Manchester Xmas Drinks – Thurs 10th (tomorrow)

Quick post! I’ve been so so so busy with uni work (3rd years sucks) so not had chance to post much or do much affiliate work either!

Anyhow! Some of us are meeting up for xmas drinks :)

The Paramount (a JD Wetherspoon) on Oxford / Portland Street
Thurs 10th December from 5pm

Anyone welcome :)

Hope to see some of your there :D

Thread chatting about it on a4u : http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-marketing-lounge/132832-manchester-christmas-drinks.html

What i've been up to

Well as many have seen this blog hasn’t been updated much … at all! Well my excuse is that I’ve been busy with new sites and the like.

I’ve been looking at the sites and domains I own and most are niche domains and sites with a few more generic ones, Now this is all well and good for making me some nice money but I’ve been thinking about going forward and trying to increase the value of sites I own or will own in the future. Therefore I’ve been buying a few domains at prices I’m not used to paying! Before the domains I’ve recently bought the most I’d paid for a domain was about £500, but I’ve been spending £xx,xxx on a single domain at a time, now this is big money for me, but I’m looking at them in terms of investments as well as new ventures.  There will always be risks when investing but I’ve weighed them up and believe that they will be (fingers crossed) good investments.

I’ve also bought domains which have the possibility of turning them into a non-affiliate business and becoming a merchant in a years time when I’ll have finished University.

Talking of University, I finished 2nd year this summer and now am going into my final year this september. I got a 2:1 in 2nd year and aim to keep that going third year while have crazy amounts of affiliate work too and of course while living the uni life (partying!)

If you own any generic domain names and are looking to sell them, get in touch with me :)

Also, i’m looking for people who may be interested in link swaps with some sites of mine. Including this site which features the latest range of outdoor shoes and other hiking boots.

I’ve also decided to head into sites which are my hobbies, such as my love for playing football has led me to purchase this football shirts website which aims to be the end all and be all of football shirt lovers, fingers crossed it will take off :)

Barbados 09 round up – Thanks AF

Well what can I say for an affiliate incentive that gets you a ticket to Barbados with 50+ others from the industry! This is what affiliate future offer every year and I was lucky enough to win a ticket thanks to Triviala this year.

Summing it up in one word I’d say …. amazing. I’m going to briefly sum the whole holiday up but I will no doubt miss many a story from it.

So me, Lee and the other Lee got a flight down from Manchester to Gatwick the night before so we didn’t have to have a crazily early start on the Monday, we stayed at the Hilton which was nice apart from the £20 breakfast, needless to say we didn’t take advantage of this. The evening at the Hilton we spent at wetherspoons having a meal and some drinks to start the holiday off, luckily didn’t feel too bad in the morning, we then all met at about 7am and got checked in. The flight was around 7/8 hours and time went quite fast after a few films!

Balacony ViewWe arrived and got a transfer to the hotel and this is the view from our balcony. We basically took over the hotel :) . We went out for a meal on the first night which although it took an age to get to us (was the fact that there was an extra 50 people in the place) it was good.

The second day we went on what was one of my favourite days. The Catamaran, as soon as we got onto it the bar was open and the music started. We then stopped atCatamaran some places including snorkeling with turtles which was incredible. We also stopped on a really nice beach which turned into fruit fight with little fruits that came off the trees on there.

The 3rd day was also one of my favourite days which was the rum ball rally sponsored by LoveitLarge. The rally involved about 12 jeeps and teams of 4 in each and we had to go around the island doing what we wanted and trying to get the best photos possible, we had some fun/random times, we went offroad on the car up a massive hill, we asked for directions from a local women who didn’t have a clue, she asked us to follow but we did a quick turn in the road and speed off, only to meet her at the next cross roads which was bit akward!

We also had the joy of seeing this monkey, bit worse for wear!deadmonkey but we also went to a animal reserve and saw some which were in better shape, as well as parrots, snakes, alivemonkeytortoises (all getting it on) caymans, geckos and loads more.

The rally was a lot of fun, and everyone had different stories of what they got up. This took up most of the day so we all got back tired, but of course we didn’t stay in (didnt once really)

Below is a photo of our team, named team dead monkey, or team shiner.

teamdeadmonkey

rally2

Of course most the evenings were spent drinking, rum and coke and banks were the choice drinks ! We often ended up in a maxi taxi (see my facebook for a video) and at harbour lights which was $50 BBD around £18 for all you can drink … which always ended up in messy times!

Barbados is an amazing place and the locals are all so nice, they will just chat to you and always are chilled and happy! if only people in the UK were all like they were there!

The beaches there were incredible, white sands and blue sea. Here are two contrasting beaches we visited. Crane Beach

beach

The holiday was a mix of having lots and lots of laughs,  drinking, relaxing, sunbathing, doing things wouldn’t normally do and all this with some amazing people! As others have said definitely made some friends for life from this holiday!

drink2 we also met dwight yorke on the last night :) dwight2

Highlights: Boatyard, rumball rally, catamaran, crane beach, harbour lights, maxi taxi’s, the radio, meeting all the amazing people.

Lowlights: Plane journey home (although it did involve a highlight in itself)

Im going to try my hardest to get onto this trip again next year! so so so so good. So massive thanks to Affiliate Future (James, Alex and Jess), Triviala for the ticket, and everyone who made it an unforgettable holiday! :)

More photos below (wish I could put all 250+ of mine up, as well as hundreds of other peoples too)

Im on Twitter & Exams

Just a quick one to say I’m on Twitter:  Max99x

Not posting much or doing much Affiliate marketing really as ive got 6 exams in the next 20 days for 2nd year of uni degree so snowed under with revision :(

Few things i’m going to be doing after exam, launching 3 new sites, and possibly becoming a merchant myself!!

Oh and im off to barbados with AF next month and then a River Nile Cruise with the girlfriend the month after :)

Will post more when I can :)

Incentives. Those that get it right & those that get it wrong

Well known are the effects an incentive can have on an affiliate to start promoting, drive more sales, drive different sales and to make us favour the specific merchant over others!

Incentives can vary through out merchants in the UK, and I’d thought I’d mention some incentives both good and bad.

First, the Good

AffiliateFuture’s Barbados competition this year and the past 3 years has been one of the best incentives/competitions for UK affiliates that has ever been around (as far as im aware). The chance to win a trip to Barbados is such as great prize and thus I entered it, even set up a small travel site and I know many others did. The great thing with this incentive is that there were many ways to win, not just from delivering the most sales etc! I was lucky enough to win a place on the trip which I cannot wait for!

As you may have seen a few posts earlier I posted about All Up and On, and there little competition asking to review items on there site and which you would have for the prices of £50, £100 and £200! Now this is pretty innovative as it interests everyone! I blogged about it and won the stainless steel drinks party tub! Shall be great in the summer (if only I could fit it in my bag to barbados!) This is a cracking incentive and hope to see more of these!

Now, the bad

I’m not really going to name names (much) as I feel its a tad unfair to pick certain merchants out, but the merchants who don’t do any incentives always disheartens me! especially if I send them a fair amount of sales.  I know you will be rewarded in commission but an added incentive can really mean people send many many times more. A quick example a mobile phone merchant put me on tiers, from base rate of £35 for a particular offer, up to £50 when I hit 70 sales, I did 72 that month in comparison to the month before where I got about 20! massive incentive!

On the other hand Ive started to push sales for a gambling merchant on AF, at £60 a pop commission it isn’t too bad, and they have an incentive! great I hear you shout, well unfortunately in my eyes its a poor incentive. For 50 sales a month I get a bonus of …. £70 ! So for sending 50 players I only get the equivalent of  1.167 extra person’s signing up! Now I thought gambling merchants were nice and generous seeing as they make so much ! obviously not! :(

Anyway, whats key if your a merchant is …. have an incentive to win something or tiers to increase commission ! Us affiliates LOVE them !

P.s UK networks, take some tips from AffiliateFuture on incentives and competitions ;)

I'm off to Barbados ! Thanks AF

Wow, well what can I say i’m off to Barbados in June with Affiliate Future and all the others who are going. I seriously cannot wait! These are just some of the amazing things that affiliate marketing has to offer!

Massive thanks to AF and Triviala :)

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