Firefly, Leeds 5th July 2007

There was a rare Northern affiliate get together in Leeds this week and it turned out to be a small friendly affair. Approximately 20 people met up at Firefly and enjoyed a drink or two and free buffet.

Events like these are a must to newcomers from across the industry and here’s my spin on Kieron’s article on ‘6 reasons not to attend‘ an affiliate event:
1. I’m only 18/17/65/85 etc. and only do this part time, I’m worried that I’ll be the youngest/oldest there.

Look at the picture. I’m clearly the youngest looking one. Oh well, front left any way That didn’t stop me attending an event.

2. I don’t want to let people know what sites I run and feel I will be under pressure to tell people about my business and the URL’s of my sites.

Ok, Elaine and I tried coaxing some information out of Stu – all in good spirits – but he stuck to his guns and shall remain a mystery for a while longer.
3. I’ve never been to an event and won’t know anyone.

This was my second event but they were all new faces. It was welcoming from the moment I went into the room and met up with Nadeem, who organised the event. There were some new people new to the industry there including merchants and agency staff.
4. I can’t afford it.

I live in Leeds and technically I have to go past this venue to get to my bus stop home. The first beer was free and there was an excellent buffet. Nadeem, I really only came for the free jolly
5. Are the Wurzels really playing live? Do I have to put up with “Combine Harvester” all night?

They weren’t in attendance but there was live jazz starting about 9pm. By then Elaine and the others were the last to leave.

6. I’m worried I might get in a similar state to Frostie in that picture taken in Vegas earlier this year.

I tried my hardest with several Staropramen
The event was wrapped up in less than four hours but I have gained from the experience from meeting new people across the industry.

Business wise, it looks like three new Exclusive discount codes will be on their way to my email inbox in the morning. I attended though to meet some of the familiar faces from the Affiliates 4u site and oh, get some more friends for Facebook

DrunkCelebs.co.uk reached a new audience last week after being featured within the “Showbiz & Fun” section of the Romanian website HotNews.ro

The full page article includes a picture of Paris Hilton drunk and lists a Top 10 of drunk celebrities. If I knew the site was going to get this exposure I’d have updated the list, which is based on Befuddle celebrity traffic. So here, in Romanian is the Top five …

Locul 1: Jodie Marsh
Modelul britanic Jodie Marsh este faimoasa pentru nenumaratele sale certuri in pubic cu supermodelul Jordan.

Locul 2: Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton si-a degradat imaginea din cauza inregistrarilor video compromizatoare facute publice prin intermediul internetului.

Locul 3: Cheryl Tweedy
Cheryl Tweedy, componenta trupei Girls Aloud nu este tocmai linistita in momentul in care isi petrece o seara prin club.

Locul 4: Charlotte Church
Cantareata pop Charlotte Church si-a sarbatorit implinirea varstei de 18 ani prin o petrecere care a tinut in jur de 14 ore si la care a consumat in bauturi in cantitati mari.

Locul 5: Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne se imbata cu prietenii, iar apoi devine prietenoasa cu alte persoane pe ringul de dans, dupa care este ajutata de prieteni sa mearga acasa.

Poor Paris Hilton, always famous for the wrong things. November 21, 2003 give or take a few days, sticks in my mind.

That’s the day that an unknown socialite called Paris Hilton became famous around the world. On the day her video went on the Internet I had a page of her that was the number one result in Google for the search term “Paris Hilton”.

My bandwidth was costing me £100 each day alone and I thought I’d have to close my site as I received 125,000 daily visitors. However, lots of people were wanting to cash in so I charged them $500 a day for a text link on the Paris Hilton page.

This was my first real introduction to affiliate marketing. I removed the existing affiliate dating adverts and replaced them with $50 download links (which were available free elsewhere.) Thankyou Paris!

Great headline in the Daily Mail to explain Gordon Brown’s ‘bamboozling’ last budget.

Now that I am not just a sole trader but a Director of my own company, I’ll start taking more interest in the business aspects of the Budget.

All the news has been of the 2p decrease in income tax. With my salary I’ll be a few hundred pounds better of because of this.

My new fledgling business though will be hit with a tax increase from 19% to 22% over the next few years. So if my grand plan of making £70,000 in profits come true, then this will mean I’ll pay approximately £2,000 extra in tax.

Befuddlement is not the word I have in mind.