The latest trip is the highly anticipated CAP Euro Casino Conference that is taking place this weekend at the five star Hotel Princesa Sofia.

I shall be flying from Leeds tomorrow afternoon courtesy of Jasper and Claire of Jackpotjoy. They held the incentive ‘Go to CAP Euro on us‘ which I noticed had no replies on the forum at least.

All I had to do was register for the promotion and then refer real money players to the gaming site. For every player referred I got one entry and as Jackpotjoy is one of my most popular merchants on ShopCodes I had good odds.

There’ll be a few faces in Barcelona that I’ll recognise around the parties and bars. As well as Jasper and Claire, Matt Wood is attending; Hayley and Sammy from buy.at and fellow discount coder Barry will be working their way through San Miguel amongst the networking activities.

It should be good fun. I don’t do anything in the gaming sector aside from what I do on ShopCodes but maybe it will inspire me to turn my ‘Ca$$$h for Beer‘ domain into a site that will earn me cash for beer.

p.s. If you don’t already promote Jackpotjoy, you’re missing out on a trick as you get a nice monthly 30% revenue share bonus from them. Jasper has hinted at exciting times ahead and that they’re changing from being Jackpotjoy Affiliates.

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However I’m not that good with PhotoShop so I set my friends this morning a little task to win themselves some beer from me this evening.

The task was to build me a new logo.

Consolation prize goes to Stephen who took great pride in this facebook graffiti entry. He wins at least one pint.

The winner is James with his “ibiza holidayz innit” logo. James wins himself some nice Stella and as he doesn’t drink much there may be a rollover!

Thanks go to all the other entrants too.

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LinkShare had kindly paid $2000 for my flights and enough for a 4-nights stay in the Japanese style Nikko Hotel. So it was wise for me to get up early and attend.

It was Thursday and I’d arrived on the Tuesday afternoon after a 15 hour journey with KLM via Amsterdam.

On my first night in the United States, I made the mistake of venturing out alone in the dark, not knowing where I was going. Instead of walking into the bussle of Union Square I went in the opposite direction and was approached by people at every corner. I quickly retreated back into the hotel, switched on the 42 inch plasma tv and caught up on my sleep.

On Wednesday there were several people attending a LinkShare training day for advertisers and publishers and so I used this day to do some sightseeing.

It was a bright day and I got the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf up to Alcatraz, where I took pictures and ate plenty of sea food. On the return journey I took a detour via China Town and again, just for fun, got lost in the dark.

I returned to the hotel to find a goodie bag from the likes of Boden and Mr and Mrs Smith in my room, which included soap and jewellery.

In the evening I met up with Andy Greaves, the UK face of LinkShare, who I’d previously had a chat with at the a4uexpo in October.

At the hotel bar I discussed that it was timely that I was in the US at this time as I’d just acquired the domain ShopCodes.com that week. More on that development another day.

So, on the Thursday, the main day of the Summit, I went downstairs and ate breakfast standing as I mingled amongst the crowd.

It was pretty much a fifty-fifty split between affiliates and advertisers, so it was a good mix. I particularly looked out for affiliates that had ‘bargain’ or ‘coupon’ on their name badge. Interestingly, I found that several of these affiliate sites are rather large and have up to 25 staff each.

I also approached merchants that offer coupons and managed to persuade a few to offer an Exclusive code, once my new site is live.

The keynote speaker was Ian Ayre and his speech on the value of number crunching got me immediately thinking in how I could A/B split test my site using free Google software and compare the click through rates. I implemented that thought the same afternoon and I’ll share the results in the future.

David Schatsky also had a TrendWatch presentation and basically, we’re all going to do fine us affiliates as more people are getting online and retail shopping.

The closing party that evening was held at the impressive Slide club, with a slide for an entrance. I seriously took advantage of the free bar and danced the night away with the best of them. Belatedly I realised that the LinkShare party had long gone and the only people left dancing wore masks.

On my last full day I took advantage of the good exchange rate and went shopping with a seriously bad hangover before going for a quick drink in a nearby Irish bar with Andy and Account Manager Tiina.

The next event is the LinkShare Symposium 2008 in New York, 23rd-24th June. If you fancy a shopping trip it maybe a worthwhile event to attend.

I’d love LinkShare to somehow get me over there again. Hopefully I’ll have a ShopCodes.com site full of exclusive codes from their US merchants by then.

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As I work during the day I’m always out during the week when the postman arrives so anything that doesn’t fit or needs signing for gets taken away again.

That’s such a tease.

Only last week when in San Francisco on a trip I won from LinkShare. (No letter box is big enough for that prize.) I received a call saying I had a parcel waiting for delivery. It was with DHL and as it’s walkable distance from my home I went to collect the large box with my passport on my return.

I wasn’t expecting anything, so was curious. My personalised “The Apprentice” calendar from Getting Personal had already arrived. (Notes to merchants: That was sent to my works address) as had my free pants from Dead Good Undies.

So when I saw that the large box was from Sweden I was confused. It had “spare parts” on the label and that was making me even more curious. So I ripped the box open before I even got home.

Inside was a pack of cards and an 8GB Schwartz iPod Nano from PokerRoom. Now everything fell into place. They sent me an email during December saying that if I revisited them and played poker again with them via mobile, I’d be entered into a draw for every mobile real-money hand I’d played.

I’ve been lucky with these prize draws of late!

Now another card has arrived from Royal Mail and I don’t know what the contents are. I’m speculating that it can only be one of two gifts.

Either chocolate from hotel chocolat who just recently paid me £100 cash bonus for good Christmas sales. No, it won’t be them, as I was promoting an offer I shouldn’t have.

Or it could be another personalised calendar from Getting Personal, this time for Valentine’s. Well, someone has to love me.

I can’t wait any longer, so I’m going to walk from my office to the Royal Mail Delivery Office in Leeds to find out.

And this is why winning incentives gets dangerous.

Google maps tells me I have to walk across two roads, a railway track, a canal and the River Aire before another main road, the Inner Ring Road, some private property and back across the River Aire.

Collecting merchant and network incentives is a dangerous game but someone’s got to do it.

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All LinkShare UK affiliates were entered into a prize draw if they made just 1 sale during a 3-day period.

Well I made exactly 100 orders on that network during the month of December.

On Friday whilst browsing my email in the pub on my phone, I spotted one from Andy Greaves, which caught my attention “San Francisco Trip – Are you free?”

Too right I’m free mate. I’ve never been to America and this is an opportunity too good to miss.

“Sorry about the rather last minute of this, remember the advent calendar promotion … Well my US colleague randomly picked you.”

I’ve been really lucky the last couple of months with winning prizes (and money out of crackers.) Ever since winning a pass for a4uexpo in October I’ve not looked back. On Christmas Day I won a 4GB iPod Nano in the Affiliate Window draw; I’ve had 4 numbers on the lottery; won a pair of shoes and much much more that was documented last month.

The trip to San Francisco is to attend LinkShare Summit 2008. It will be an opportunity for me to see what coupon affiliates on the other side of the pond are up to and a chance for me to see how the LinkShare foray into m-commerce is getting on. An area that I want to dip my toe into later in the year.

The prize includes:

• Flight to San Francisco
• Four nights hotel stay in San Francisco (29 January – February 1)
• Complimentary attendance at the LinkShare Symposium 2008 conference
• LinkShare Summit after party and dinner

The conference is for 2 days, allowing me time to do a bit of tourism or shopping or have a shiutsu massage back at the hotel.

The New Year has already got off to a flying start and this trip may just set the agenda for the rest of the year.

First things first. There’s a North East Affiliate Meet on the 26th January in Durham.

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As a child I’d be disappointed to find that I’d get a small Christmas Day present as it was my birthday the day after. Then the day after disappointed to find, that the present I received the day previous was a joint Christmas and birthday present.

So I’ve been very pleased to receive gifts worth over £500 £750 throughout the month of December 2007 alone. Some of them are genuine Christmas presents, others have been won in prize draws whilst some have been awarded as sales incentives.

Here I take a look back at what Santa’s helpers have delivered since 1st December ….

HOTEL CHOCOLAT – ADVENT CALENDAR

Technically this gift arrived in November but as it wouldn’t fit through the letter box I had to arrange re-delivery at the weekend. So on 1st December I opened the recognisable box to find a nice advent calendar from Hotel Chocolat. How appropriate a day.

DIRECT WINES – 12 BOTTLES OF WINE

At the end of November, Steven from buy.at let me know I won an incentive for “biggest increase in sales last week compared to previous week” for Sunday Times Wine.

“We’ll be sending you the Christmas Collection of 12 bottles of wine.”

So I got the large box, which I think contains 11 wines and 1 champagne to my parents during the first week of December as I’ll be spending most of the festive period there.

TOTALLYSHOES – PAIR OF SHOES OF MY CHOICE

On 27th November I entered a Totally Shoes ‘Just For Fun’ competition that I spotted on the A4uForum. On the 5th, Brian Edwards announced:

“Congratulations to Ray Theakston of www.ShopCodes.co.uk who won TotallyShoes’ first just for fun competition by knowing that Chuck Taylor was a basketball player and is associated with the brand Converse.

He has selected a pair of Skecher’s Citywalk Footpath shoes.”

The second most expensive pair of shoes they had available were delivered to my works address by the next morning.

SLENDERTONE – SLENDERTONE SYSTEM

On the 11th Steven, from Affiliate Future, let me know that I’d won the latest Slendertone System, worth £120 for the “most improved affiliate in November”.

This is a great prize for me as January will be the month I try to shake off the chocolates and wine of Christmas, with the least amount of effort.

LEGO – £100 WORTH OF LEGO

On the 12th December, Mumtaz of LinkShare, announced that I was one of two LEGO November competition winners. I won £100 worth of LEGO for having the biggest percentage order increase during October.

I selected some Princess’ Palace LEGO for my two nieces.

WEBGAINS – VIRGINIA HAYWARD FESTIVE TRAY

On Wednesday morning I woke to the postman delivering a Virginia Hayward Festive Tray from the Webgains team. This was opened and shared during a poker game that same evening.

JACKPOTJOY – VINTAGE CHAMPAGNE

As each day and night of last week were merging into one with all the Christmas parties, I woke up late one day to see a box delivered by Jasper and Claire from Jackpotjoy. It contained a vintage bottle of Champagne.

It was a simple thanks for promoting them during 2007.

I now seem to have a little collection of champagne bottles going. Just need something to celebrate

FLEUROP – £75 DELUXE CHOCOLATE HAMPER

Today I received an email from Andy at LinkShare, saying I’d won the Fleurop Advent Calendar prize.

All I had to do was generate 1 click between 12th-14th December for Fleurop-Interflora to be entered into the prize draw.

“We picked you randomly out of the hat!!” was the good news and now a £75 deluxe chocolate hamper is being delivered to my parents house.

So my thanks go to the above companies and those that have sent me cards.

Merry Christmas!

ADDENDUM:

VIRGINIA HAYWARD – CASE OF WINE

No sooner had the dust settled on this blog post, I received an email from Alex at Virginia Hayward, informing me that I’ve won a ‘case of wine in one of the affiliate incentive competitions this year.’

Guess I don’t need to go out in January now with all the booze I’ve won!

R.O.EYE – BOTTLE OF WINE

The delivery man left a note that there was a parcel ‘behind the grey bin’. I ran out panicking, thinking ‘Got a green bin and a black bin but not a grey one’. There, out in the cold was a package from Virgin Wines. Inside was a nice wooden box containing a nice bottle of Rioja.

AFFILIATE FUTURE – POKER CHIPS

On Christmas Eve morning I delayed going to work as I waited for re-delivery of a “large parcel too large for the letterbox.” I assumed it would be just another bottle of wine to add to my collection of 30. In fact it was a poker table mat with some chips. Very different. Affiliate Future is a network I do very little on but now that I am clued up to their merchants promotional codes, I plan to do more business in 2008.

AFFILIATE WINDOW/ 24 STUDIO – 4GB iPOD NANO

Save the best until last? I cut my Christmas dinner short to log into Affiliate Window towards the end of the Queen’s Speach. Then, with 8 incentive coins I clicked on the gift box, changed my delivery address and won a 4GB iPod Nano!

So my total gifts won or received during December are valued at well over £850. “Well done Ray,” as one of my friends would say.

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Take a look and if you feel you know the answer, then pop the answer in the post.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
a merchant and network sent to me
Twelve bottles of wine,
Eleven …… ……,
Ten …… ……,
Nine …… ……,
Eight …… ……,
07 Football Manager,
Six metre pressure washer,
Five, yes £5
Four USB fobs,
Three safety tools,
Two chocolate slabs,
And a bottle of Brut champagne!

My thanks go to the merchants that have helped me out so far with this puzzle, with particular mentions to Hotel Chocolat, Wickes, Direct Wines and Robert Dyas.

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