Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

As we enter the last minute of 2009, I’d like to post a very quick entry to thank everyone for their kind words and wishes. Special thanks to the following companies who, over the past few weeks, have filled my kitchen cupboards with a host of goodies;

• Affiliate Window (Hotel Chocolat Hamper)
• BBC (Nature’s Great Events Book)
• Demon (Food Hamper)
• Existem (Food Hamper)
• Gone Digging (Bottle of wine)
• House Of Fraser (Sweet Hamper)
• Laura Ashley (Christmas Stocking)
• Linkshare (Duchy Food Hamper)
• Paid On Results (Bottle of JD)

My 2010 resolutions…

• Invest monthly in new startups
• Move a few websites over to the WordPress platform
• Enjoy Affiliate Summit West in 2 weeks time
• Stop and buy The Big Issue from our local seller whenever I see him

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, is enjoying their New Years Eve… and here’s to 2010!

Modern Art? Viral Ad Campaign? Whatever it is, I’m actually find the Sony Ericsson “Hoppers In A Warehouse” quite addictive.

Sony Ericsson have filled a warehouse in London, with one of the classic toys of the 70′s and 80′s – the Space Hopper. They’ve got a bunch of blokes in white uniforms, wandering around pumping the Space Hoppers up every time someone Twitters using #pumpt as a hashtag.

Your TWEET will appear on a projection screen at the back of the warehouse, also shown live on their website, giving everyone their 15 seconds of fame! If that’s not enough, you can send suggestion to @chiefhopper, and if you’re lucky enough, you’re idea may come to life.

No idea what it has to do with Sony Ericsson products but I guess it’s different, its creating a buzz on Twitter and yes, I did end up making my very own Hopper… Watch what’s going on over at SonyEricsson.com

Having just got back from a mini road trip in Canada in which we covered close to 2000 miles (3219km or 0.95 x Mars radius for the clever people out there), once again I’m finding I’m loving the online tool Animoto.

I know I’ve blogged about it before, but I really can’t get enough of Animoto’s simplicity. It links directly to your Flickr account so creating a short video is an absolute breeze. It also spares my parents from sitting through what would otherwise be 4 hours of torture :)

Animoto has already been used for many commercial purposes, allowing photographs from business networking events to be brought together and presented in a professional yet fun way – maybe something for the A4UExpo that’s taking place? Some businesses have even used it to promote their services such as hotels and photographers.

If that’s not enough, you can download the video’s you’ve created and store them on your iPhone or iPod touch with the Animoto application from iTunes so you can share them with friends and family even if you don’t have an internet connection!

Simply love this little tool and know that ex CJ Heide is about to start using it. Looking forward to seeing some of her compositions :)

Who’s idea was it to make the last 1km of a 10km “fun run” a constant uphill struggle? I’m runner 6070 in the picture, just in case you didn’t recognise my contorted features.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who sponsored me, I managed to raise £590 online, £78 offline, and with the addition of £158 gift-aid, it brought my total to over £820 for @DiabetesUK smashing my £500 target.

Sadly with a finishing time of 1hr 10mins 46secs, I was nowhere near beating my Manchester 2008 target, but having said that Manchester is FLAT! At the 2km mark I felt my left quad screaming out, which I managed to run off by the 4km point.

At 7km my right knee kindly decided it was carrying more weight than what it was designed to carry and buckled sending me stumbling diagonally towards McDonald’s (I’m sure it looked like I was trying to go via their drive-thru!).

After running up a very steep hill I was so happy to see 2 mascots giving everyone High-5′s. Thinking I’d battled and won the uphill finish and expecting the finish line to be round the next corner, I gave each a hefty High-5 feeling very proud of myself. I then passed a sign saying 9km! Still 1km of uphill running to go… the little misleading bstards!

Afterward the run, I headed to Zizzi’s with Jane (she came with me as moral support, driver and chief medical advisor) and we met up with Shane for some grub – he was a little late arriving because of road diversions due to “damm runners”. No more than 2 minutes had passed from my ass hitting the seat to having a chilled Peroni in my hand and ordering fatty food in large portions. Well worth it!

Although I enjoyed it, I found this a real grueller and therefore won’t be taking part again. Got the medal now! Not sure which one to do next year….

Oh… Sorry to the small child I hit when throwing my water bottle!

If you play golf and have an iPhone or iPod touch, there’s FREE software that acts as your scorecard and helps you keep track of whether you’re game is improving or not.

Oobgolf is a great little utility that I now use every time I play a round. It means I can look back at how bad my game really is, when previously the paper scorecard used to get thrown in the bin the minute I got home.

The >iTunes application is available on both iPhone or iPod, however if you have an iPhone you benefit from advanced features thanks to GPS. The application will help pinpoint iPhone users in realtime, providing yardage to the green, meaning club selection should be even easier.

Even for those who only have an iPod touch, like myself, it’s definately worth downloading and joining their website. Instead of scribling on a piece of paper, you simply type it in to the iPod as you go round. Once you dock you iPod at home or within Wi-Fi, you scores are automatically updated online.

For iPod users, just remember to Create Scorecard, select your course etc, whilst you have Wi-Fi connection.

I’ve been using the Oobgolf applciation for a few weeks now to keep track of my scores, fairways hit (or missed including left or right), number of putts, penalties, and sand shots. The application also leverages Oobgolf’s course so you have all the usual information you’d normally find on the paper scorecards such as PAR, Yards, Stroke Index etc.

Even if you don’t have an iPhone, only an iPod Touch, then Oobgolf is a great way to keep track of your game, and share your scores (if you want) with friends, or even set up an online golfing group for a bit of competition.

If you do download and join Oobgolf (all free remember), then be sure to become a member of the Affiliate Marketing Golfing Society. It’s just a bit of fun, and no matter how good or bad you are, all are welcome.

I challenege anyone to get a worse score than mine, and for your info, the headline image is Sophie Sandolo, the Italian professional golfer!