Sun Bingo Take Note

I have been a bingo affiliate for around four years now and have inevitably run in to a few problems along the way.  This includes pushy affiliate managers, programme down time and just down right aweful programmes which I would never work with again. 

Now, I work with Premier affiliate network and I have to say they have made the sun bingo affiliate programme very easy to work with and profits have grown gradually every month for me, which is great! I would love to thank PAN for their hard work.  I am sure all the people promoting the sun through buy.at will feel the same.

Unfortuenetly this praise stands for nothing as the sun have made the decision to pull their affiliate programs temporarily.  This will annoy a lot of affiliates (including me) and people may think twice about promoting the sun in the future.  After all many affiliates will be out of pocket (even after compensation) and will lose all the rev share players they have built up forever.  In my opinion this is not a great way to treat your affiliates! 

We had to wait a long time for the sun affiliate platform in the first place and it only lasted about eight months.  I would love to know what other affiliates think about this farce. 

Popularity: 35% [?]

Tech Merchants and Networks send me some free stuff for extra exposure

As some of you may know, I run various affiliate sites including strong sites in the bingo and gadgets niches.  In the past various merchants and companies have sent me free stuff and in return I have tested and written reviews and posts about the products.  It’s a win win situation as you gain exposure and I gain free stuff!

This request is not to dissimilar from Kieron’s send me free stuff and I will blog about you plea.  My request comes in preparation of a few trips I have planned this summer culminating in a two week break to New York.  This would mean your product would get a thorough testing in a exciting location (I am thinking cameras, tech toys etc).  You don’t even have to give me the product if you want as I can always send it back once I have arrived home (although I do like true freebies for keeps!).

If you would like to send me some free stuff then please feel free to contact me including details of your affiliate program where appropriate.

Popularity: 28% [?]

May Update - sorry for the delayed response

I have been so busy lately that I have neglected this blog, for this I am sorry and I feel I should probably explain what I have been up to!  May was a really busy month for me and was thankfully a profitable one.

Bingo commissions seemed to be on the rise (a trend that I hope will continue) and I made a few new contacts in the bingo affiliate world. Some of them were good and some where down right annoying.  I completely sympathise with comments on the a4u forum that have discussed pushy affiliate managers and also affiliate managers that expect the world and give nothing but hassle in return. That said May was quite a productive month.  I had time to write a handful of new reviews and built up quite a lot of new content for my gadget site - I averaged four posts a day on that site as well as keeping up appearances on my other established websites - this may explain the reason I have not been posting on this blog

I have decided to focus largely on two main sites now and try and shy away from starting any more projects, my smaller projects will continue to be babysat over the coming months until I can judge whether the niche is worth pursuing further.

Another bit of news is that I have to apply for VAT now, this is something that seems to be a royal pain in the backside. It is also something that will undoubtedly line the pockets of my accountant further! Any way that was about it for May - not very exciting but I will do my best to get some guides and advice out later this week. In particular look for my guide on discovering if a niche really is worth pursuing.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Panasonic Imaging Event At The Dali Universe

Yesturday we were lucky enough to be invited to the Dali universe in London to meet with Panasonic at their imaging event.  The aim of the day was to discover a little more about the company and their aims and to also test some of their great new digital cameras and camcorders.

We left Weston-Super-Mare at 6 a.m (well 6.12 as the train was late!) and needed to change trains at Bristol temple meads at 6.40. This would have been simple if our first train had been on time! Fortunetly we only had to hop over one platform on arrival to Bristol so we made the train to London with seconds to spare.

The journey to London was only halted once (by sheep on the track) and we arrived early to Paddington station ready to tackle the London underground.  I have to say I do not often venture into London on the underground and found the experience of being crammed into a tube train like a sardine exciting but almost scary!  Country folk like me would look at a carriage crammed full of people and wait for the next one - Londoner’s just squeeze on in!  That said we arrived at Waterloo tube station with no problems and walked  a couple of minutes to our venue of the Dali Universe. 

As we were early we took some time to take in the sites, Panasonic had chosen wisely for the day as we could easily walk to big ben, the houses of parliament, the London eye, tower bridge and Buckingham Palace (to name but a few) so there was lots of things to photograph and film. 

When we arrived at the Dali Universe we were directed to the conference room where we met some representitives from Shinyred and some of the managers and engineers from Panasonic.  As we were the first people to arrive it gave us an opportunity to talk with people and play/review the cameras before any other blogger’s arrived.

The day started with some presentations from John Dixon (Panasonic brand communications), Mark Robinson (Panasonic Lumix UK) and Barnaby Sykes from Panasonic’s camcorder division. There was also a guest speaker from the Royal Yacht Association (Peter Bently) who discussed how Panasonic cameras are used to help coaching staff and also how the olympic games is going to filmed in HD by Panasonic. You can read more about these presentations at my gadget blog.

Next we were asked to choose a camera or camcorder to review, I chose the Panasonic HDC-SD9 to review becuase my current camcorder is a non high definition model and I wanted to measure the difference. Dave decided to go all out and review the top spec Panasonic L10 digital SLR camera.  Both reviews can be read on our gadgets blog.

Next we were told to go out to the pier because we would be taking a trip on a high speed rib along the river Thames! 

Once on board we cruised down the river and took in the sites, I took lots of video footage with a few stills using the camcorder and Dave took about 90 photos with the Digital SLR.  This was quite easy until the driver of the boat decided to floor it and bank heavily left and right all over the river - It was great fun but the footage was all over the place!

When we got back to dry land Panasonic had put on another PR event next to the London eye. Two jugglers were throwing, kicking and balancing the new SW20 shock and water proof camera to test its durability.

When we arrived back in the conference room Panasonic had laid on free refreshments for us and laptops and other media equipment was available to use - all of these little touches made the whole event run smoothly.   There was also opportunites to talk to the designers, engineers and PR team as well as other bloggers - it was a good opportunity to network with like minded people.

The whole event only took 4 hours and covered a great deal, if other manufacturers could organise events like these for bloggers I am sure they would get a lot more coverage. I certainly learned a lot from the day and look forward to future events.  Thank you Panasonic for our great day out in London and a huge thank you to Laura from Shinyred for the invite and all of your help on the day. You and the team did a great job at keeping all attendees happy - good job!

In the past I have put off going to events and lived to regret it after, if someone from your niche contact you to go to one of these events you should do your best to get there because you will meet new people, put names to faces and hopefully gain a fuller insight into your niche or product - also you might get some freebies which is always nice!

Popularity: 89% [?]

Happy Easter Everyone

Happy Easter everyone,

 Let me start by apologizing for the lack of activity on this blog recently but I have been very busy with a number of projects as well as my long term ones!  We have some interviews coming up over the next couple of weeks as well as some conferences to attend so blog activity should pick up. We are interviewing premier affiliate network later this week, this should be posted early next week so if you have any questions for the guys as PAN let please feel free to contact me.

One of the events I have been invited to is a testing day for Panasonic in London on the 9 th April, if any one is going I would love to meet up before hand or after. The day is set to be a good one as it includes testing events, networking and even a cruise on the Thames. I will post pics and video of the events over the next couple of weeks and a couple I have attended in the past - they are always good for a laugh!

Any way happy Easter everyone!

Popularity: 63% [?]