Missed Christmas, Missed New Year, So Happy 4th January

Jan 4, 2011 by Jason Dale    3 Comments    Posted under: Affiliate Marketing

Happy New Year. OLD has been on hold for a few weeks as finally we’ve moved into our new house. The days of living surrounded by boxes and the are we going/not going this week are over. We were told we’d move in October (fat chance), then November (slim hope) and then by the start of December (possible). We finally completed on the 20th December.

And so in several inches of snow, complete with a replacement removal guy as the others were snowed in – we made it from one end of Swansea to another (well just outside now). The only major hiccup was me getting stuck on the driveway after Jude and the removal guys had left – taking the shovel with them!

Despite all the removal palava, we still managed to keep Loquax ticking over before and after – and even better had (for once) some semblance of a holiday period. Mind you, we don’t leave the site to it’s own devices for two weeks and go and watch Christmas specials on the box.

There are things to be done every day and there are users coming in too so the odd hour away from the mince pies and sausage rolls is well worth the effort. It also means you’re already moving when everyone else gets back to work.

So what’s the plan for 2011?

Hopefully this blog will have more regular content, but for that to happen it either needs to change focus a little bit (e.g. send me stuff to review/eat/drink/play with) or I need to get more enthused or enraged about affiliate marketing (so can some of you start doing stuff wrong again please!). Despite not blogging over the last few months, I was popping into A4U and looking at Internet Marketing Blogs but not a lot seemed to be happening!!

There’s the usual voucher code site stuff, merchants messing affiliates about, retargeting, performance vs affiliate marketing but it’s all lost a bit of “je ne sais quoi”! Perhaps no one cares? Or perhaps everyone is simply focusing on what they’re doing, making sure they’re doing OK and let anything else look after itself?

And maybe that’s a good plan for 2011?

One thing we did do during 2010 was let loose all the odds and ends (i.e. crap sites) that we were trying to run and concentrate a bit more on what was/is working. Another aim was to work a bit smarter. The latter has worked a little (I still do too much faffing about) but outsourcing a few things has helped (e.g. Content Now).

Leaving useless sites to their own devices proved to be a good idea! They earnt as much in 2010 as they did in 2010, but had considerably less effort put into them. They may have earnt bugger all, but at least no time was spent trying to earn it. In some ways OLD falls into that bracket (earns little/nothing) but it is award winning, so it just scrapes through.. and it has it’s additional uses.

Getting out of the office will be important this year (sounds like Mystic Meg wrote that bit)! I keep saying to Dom that I’ll try and get to Think Visibility, mainly just to keep him from nagging constantly, but this year I may pick up a flat cap and t’whippet and head t’north for t’conference. Apparently it’s pretty good! LAC is another possible but I’m not 100% just yet.

And that’s about as forward thinking as it’s going to get.

Let’s see what 2011 brings for affiliates and affiliate marketing (or performance marketing for the posh ones) – whatever comes forth I hope it’s a prosperous and happy year for you all.

PS A belated thank you to all who sent cards and gifts to Loquax for Christmas. Apologies as we didn’t send anything this year, the cards were at the bottom of a packing box ;o)

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