Swine Flu Medicine
With Swine Flu not far from everyones noses (hopefully not too close to be honest) with it occupying the main news headlines on TV and in the papers it is little wonder that people are now starting to get a little anxious about it all.
I thought the Avian Bird Flu was bad with birds having the ability to fly but it appears that pigs (yes, the animals that are penned up and wallow in mud) have managed to get their flu virus out there and into humans, which is kind of making me think that perhaps Pigs might actually Fly!
So it was with some relief that I received an email about a Swine Flu Medicine. It looks like Lemsips pharmacists have been working hard and made a new version of their Lemsip Max that is used to deal with our everyday cold and flu symptoms and made a Swine Flu Medicine called Oinksip Max.
Easiest free holiday to win was even easier
Two weeks ago I blogged (Prezzybox with the easiest affiliate competition!) about the pretty brilliant incentive that was on offer from Prezzybox, that was open for literally anyone to enter and that Zak posted on the a4Uforum.
All you had to do to win a weeks ski/snowboarding holiday with Prezzybox was tell them how you could improve your promotion of them this year. That was it, very simple and with 2 places available for anyone who really wanted to go then there was plenty of scope to get yourself on the trip.
Unfortunately I couldn’t enter as I’m already going away snowboarding on Sunday myself but I spoke to Zak anyway to find out where they have decided to take their lucky affiliates tomorrow and he told me they are off to Austria which should be pretty cool (as in wicked and not cold, although it will be cold too)!
The conversation went on and it turns out that only 3 (yes THREE) people emailed in to enter, one of the entrants subsequently emailed to say they couldn’t make the dates and so the 2 places of the FREE HOLIDAY went to the other 2 affiliates who could be bothered to email in, making one of the easiest to enter free holiday for affiliates even easier!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of a holiday being won so easily before and surely there must be plenty of affiliates out there now who are kicking themselves for not entering, I know just 5 minutes of creative thinking could well have seen you packing your bags tomorrow for a week on the pis(te)!
Prezzybox go above and beyond many other affiliates programmes to offer the best incentives to affiliates and I bet they must feel totally flat over this one, let’s just hope this doesn’t curb Zaks enthusiasm too much and the next incentive they get inundated (well unless it’s another snow related one and I can enter then please make it as easy next time for me) 
I just hope it works out well and the 2 lucky affiliates who won the free holidays go on and make loads of money for Prezzybox and themselves 
This is a great example of how affiliate incentives and competitions are not always only available for the big and established affiliates, you could of been a total newbie to gadgets and gifts and won a brilliant holiday!
Wardy starts to Twitter
Well as I always seem to be one of the last to get on the latest “craze” (Facebook, Blogging etc) I have now jumped onto the next one and joined Twitter - http://twitter.com/wardy7
Following a few posts made by Kieron on his blog I finally decided last week to sign up to see what all the fuss was about.
Now, I am still slightly getting my head around it and am certainly not hooked on it but as it’s where many affiliates I know seem to be handing around kicking their feet I shall stick it out and see how useful it is.
At the A4UExpo last year I was at the Wordpress SEO optimisation seminar presented by Yoast and I remember him mentioning Twitter as a great place to get new sites or important announcements “out there” and so hopefully I can see what it can offer my affiliate business.
I shall update further when I’ve had a bit more of a play, in the meantime why not follow me, you never know it might be the best thing you do today (or not)…http://twitter.com/wardy7
Prezzybox with the easiest affiliate competition!
When I logged into the A4UForum yesterday I saw a post from Zak (Alias Spreader on the forum) titled
“WIN 2 Skiing Holidays with Prezzybox - the easiest affiliate competition EVER!” - clicky
There is two reason I thought I’d have a look at this post on the forum:
1. I’m a snowboarder and I thought I fancied a piece of the action.
2. Zak (Prezzybox) is someone who I want to get working with much closer. Many UK affiliates will know of Zak, he is widely known as one of the best affiliate managers out there and comes from a similar mold as Graham Keen (Buyagift) who I have worked closely with for quite a few years and have been treated above and beyond any other affiliate programme I have promoted.
I have in the past dabbled but never achieved much on Prezzybox (my doing through not putting enough effort in) despite loads of offers of help and encouragement from Zak.
So with these 2 points in mind I had a look at the incentive on offer. There is Two 1 week skiing trips on offer to go with Prezzybox on the 14th March for a week when they take the winners of the Christmas Incentive away, the best bit was just how easy a competition this one looks to win and it is really open to anyone, all you need to do is email in and say how you plan to promote Prezzybox throughout the next year, the bigger and better the idea will win the holidays.
- Email Ben on ben @ prezzybox.com with the Subject “take me skiing”
- Tell Ben how you propose to promote Prezzybox.com this year. the more exposure you are willing to give Prezzybox, and the more elaborate your ideas, the more likely Ben is to pick you as one of the prize winners. Your name will then go into the hat.
I am actually personally pretty gutted because the week that Zak is taking everyone away is the week that I am already heading off myself snowboarding so as much as I want to win my place (and trust me I would have pulled out the stops to win myself a place) unfortunately I can’t enter!
So, for anyone who wants to get on what is likely to be an absolutely brilliant week, have a think how you can get Prezzybox integrated into your sites and how you can promote them throughouth the year. They provide a brilliant set of creative, Vidiboxes, content units, interactive gift wizards that you can view here
Middlewich Salt Gods save you from skidding!
Well as the snow and ice seems to be the main topic of news at the moment and the fact that councils are running out of the grit and salt they need to spread on the roads to make them safe I thought I’d do a quick blog post on this of how Middlewich is trying to save your bacon (well more stop you from skidding on ice if we want to be precise!)
Mountain of Salt being used for the gritting
Living in Middlewich, Cheshire, we have the British Salt factory on the opposite end of town as we are full of Salt & brine below us, so I thought I’d take a quick wander over and see if everyone is coming to them with their begging bowls (trucks).
I didn’t get too far before I hit the back of the huge line of trucks and lorries all queued up waiting for their turn to get their deposit of the mother load of salt!
British Salt manufacture the table salt we all have week in week out (British Salt have 57% of the UK salt market) and any low grade salt is mounded up in a huge pile and just sits there doing nothing, they have been doing this for 15 years or so I believe.
Queue of wagons waiting for the precious Salt
So just to prove for all those people who are worried that their road is going to be turned into an ice rink there may be a salt god at hand in the form of British Salt to save the day.
Driving past all the lorries it was clear to see that the drivers have been there for hours waiting and waiting, although for one lucky chippy right next to the queue they looked to be doing a brisk trade, no doubt asking if the drivers wanted Salt on their chips
Apparently up to 200 lorries were queued up yesterday and it looked like it was a none stop shift of lorries turning up today as well when I went past with the queue stretching a very long way!
Spotify invite for a Logo
Well as this blog of mine is still relatively new and I’m not all that good when it comes to designing logos I thought I’d see if anyone could knock me a logo for this blog together in exchange for a Spotify invite.
If you haven’t heard of Spotify then you can read about it on Shanes Blog or on David Naylors to get an idea.
In a nutshell though it is a way to listen to music online in an instant and really should be seen and tried to be believed how good it is!
Currently you can only pay to get access to Spotify for £9.99 per month unless you can get your mitts on an invite which by chance I have a spare one available, so if any music loving creative monkey out there wants to get their own Spotify invite in-exchange for a logo then let me know
Buyagift like drunk affiliates!
On Thursday a couple of parcels arrived, one containing 7 standard sized bottle of Bollinger Champagne, I was pretty sure that this was possibly from Buyagift (who I promote through their affiliate programme) before even reading the card as they have over the years supplied me with numerous bottles of Champagne, enough that I could open up my own champagne store or enough to leave me in a permanent state of intoxication from Christmas to Valentines day each year!
I got there in the end
Opening up the second larger box and there was a wooden case with a Jeroboam of Tattinger Champagne (3L). Now a Magnum is twice the size of a standard champagne bottle, the Jeroboam is twice the size of a Magnum or four times the size of a standard bottle of Champers!
It has taken me until today to get my way into the wooden box which was harder than it first looked, but with a bit of creative thinking I got there in the end!
So I have to say (as I probably will be incapable of saying anything after I open the bottle) a huge thank you to Buyagift and inparticularly Graham who has been for me head and shoulders above other affiliate managers for years and also to Dan the MD of Buyagift who are both top blokes, they both know how to treat their affiliates and how to have fun, and lots of it (I’m sure Mr Slots will be wary come May when the next Buyagift incentive winners finally roll into Vegas…)!
"Little" & Large
Without going on and on, Buyagift have treated me to some of the most unforgettable experiences I will ever experience over the years, numerous driving experiences, racing yacht trip and two trips to Las Vegas which has included driving supercars out in the Nevada Desert, shooting guns, Indy car driving, helicopter trip through and landing in the Grand Canyon and the chance to do some dog fighting in some small fighter planes!
Also, it was nice to see on Monday, Grahams status on his MSN change to inform that on Monday it was Buyagifts best ever affiliate day for the company so a huge well done guys!
Once again, a huge thank you & Happy Christmas to Graham & Dan and all at Buyagift, it is always a pleasure working with you all, such a nice bunch of people and who I consider some great friends! hic hic…
Dear Technical Support
My girlfriend gave me a newspaper cutting the other day with this on it and felt it was worth sharing. Fortunately, Sheri (my girlfriend), doesn’t have a problem with Ladsnightout 3.1 & Football 4.5 though
“Eighteen months ago i upgraded to girlfriend 1.0 from drinking mates 4.2, which i had used for years without any trouble.
However, there are apparently conflicts with these two products and the only solution was to run girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off.
To make matters worse, girlfriend 1.0 is incompatable with several other applications such as ladsnightout 3.1 Football 4.5 and playboy 6.9. successive versions of girlfriend proved no better.
I tried a shareware prog Slapper 2.1 but it had many bugs and left with a virus in my system forcing me to shut down for a few weeks.
Eventually i tried to run girlfriend 1.2 and 1.0 at the same time. But when these two systems detected each other they caused severe damage to my hardware.
I upgraded to Fiance 1.0 only to discover that this soon had to be updated to Wife 1.0. while Wife 1.0 tends to use up all my available resources, it does come bundled with cookingplus and cleanhouse 2008.
shortly after this upgrade i found Wife 1.0 unstable and costly to run. Any mistakes i made were stored in wife 1.0s memory and could not be deleted.
Wife 1.0 needs updating regularly, requiring Shoeshop Browser for new attachments and hairstyle express.
when Wife 1.0 attaches itself to my Saab 93 convertable harddrive it often crashes. It comes with an irritating pop-up called mother-in-law.
Recently I’ve been tempted to install Mistress 2008, but it tends to delete all of your money before uninstalling itself…
MESHed about by Mesh Computers
This is a post I’ve been meaning to get put up for a couple of weeks now but haven’t got round to doing so.
I finally ordered myself a new computer from Mesh Computers on Friday 7th November after taking an age to decide on which one to get. As I knew Christmas was coming and I was after the computer sooner rather than later I opted and paid (it’s £39.99 for fast track) for the fast track build which would give me “GUARANTEED” 3-5 working days for delivery!
MESHed about by Mesh Computers
I received a call and an email to confirm delivery would be Friday 14th November. So Friday comes and I wait in to make sure I’m here for delivery, come 4pm I decide to ring and then only get rung back at around 5.30pm to tell me that the computer hasn’t been dispatched yet as it’s still in testing.
So much for that GUARANTEED 3-5 days I’ve paid extra for!
So after much ranting and raving on my end about the situation and not getting anywhere very fast about how I’d paid all this extra and also made sure I was in all day I was told delivery would be Tuesday at the earliest.
Monday afternoon comes and I phone to check where my order is up to and I ask to speak to the supervisor so I can express my displeasure at paying £40 for a service that I haven’t actually received. I was then informed that they were still waiting for the graphics card which would of been towards the end of the week and potentially mean it would be another week for delivery, so I ended up having to get a different graphics card just to make sure I didn’t have to wait even longer.
Now I was refunded the cost of the express build and the difference between graphics cards but to me it was the whole principle of the matter about being GUARANTEED something and paying for this guarantee and not receiving it, it’s like me guaranteeing to be able to satisfy my girlfriend after a day on the beer when actually with a few too many Stella’s down my neck there is a very good chance I’m going to actually be fast asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. If you can’t guarantee something then how can you get away with advertising (and charging) for it?!
The computer did finally turn up on the Tuesday although it was missing the 8GB flash drive that was promised to me if I ordered over the phone and not via the website (I had originally planned on buying through my affiliate link but after speak to the online “live support” and bartering them down slightly on the price of the machine I was told I had to ring).
The machine seems pretty good and no problems (touches wood), although the whole Mesh Computers delivery problems have lefty a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, they have absolutely superb online support pre-buying and then failed to deliver and were not as on the ball post getting my money!
I had in-fact been so impressed with the pre-sale help that I even started promoting them through their affiliate program, that has now been stopped due to me not wanting to promote a company who I no longer fully trust so don’t feel I can whole hearted recommend them.
So Mesh Computers, if you can’t Guarantee something then don’t and I wouldn’t be here now having to have my little rant about it, I don’t like being MESHed about!
Gifts for content
With websites the old saying “Content is King” still rings true and always will. If you can provide plenty of unique content that is better than is on offer from any other website then you will (well hopefully should) see yourself rising to the top with your rankings.
Now employing content writers is one way to help with this task as this opens up new perspectives on a subject and different writing styles helping keep things from sounding too “samey”. If you get to a stage where you have so many sites that it is impossible to be writing content for them all due to there not being enough hours in the day then content writers is the natural way to go.
However there is some cases where you have quite a niche area would happily write content all day long but you just don’t personally have enough unique content in you to be able to and also employing content writers also isn’t really an option.
As an example I run a driving experience review site, unfortunately it’s quite hard to go out and find professional content writers who have actually been on a real driving experience day so I had to take a slightly different tack and posted on some of the car related forums that I post on requesting write ups of driving experiences in exchange for a freebie/gift.
The results have actually been quite good although as with most things I would of liked more responses.
In exchange for the write-ups I sent out different rewards, as an example the best review I have so far received was sent a Picoz RC Helicopter while others have received personalised mugs.
While I’m on the subject, if anyone reading this has done a driving experience such as the type of thing you can buy from Buyagift then send me a message and we can sort you a reward for a write-up