A4U Awards for Agency and Account Manager of the year are fixed !

Thats what most people would think until they actually experienced dealing with the EXCELLENT Existem Affiliate Management agency. They scooped the coveted Affiliate Management Agency of the year award for the third year in a row !

Existem’s Managing Director – Mark Russell started the company in 2006 when he spotted a gap in the market for an affordable and effective affiliate marketing agency.

Mark and the gang were so pleased they were not all dressed up for nothing

Complimenting Mark Russells drive and ambition to succeed, is the charming Hannah Swift who also scooped the highly sought after “Publishers choice of Account Manager of the year award” which was VERY well deserved and humbly accepted by Hannah (who I think was more smitten with Jason Manford at the time !)

Hannah couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, until she saw Jason Manford

Having dealt with both Mark and Hannah on numerous occasions, in my opinion they were more than deserving winners as they really understand the affiliates and their mindset. Many a time I have logged onto Facebook or Msn late at night or the weekend, and Hannah is STILL online doing something for the affiliates or their merchants.

For me, Existem AM are head and shoulders above the rest of the agencies out there, who really have their finger on the pulse and will bend over backwards day and night to help you.

Congratualtions Mark, Hannah and the rest of the team, I look forward to next year to see you accepting the award for the 4th year running

22 inch tyres cost a small fortune ! not anymore though

Ok so it was my fault I insisted on getting 22″ alloys for my wife’s BMW X5. They look great, but when it comes to replacing a tyre you need to take a out a small loan to cover the cost.

A few weeks back, we needed a new 22 inch tyre for the front wheel, as it would have failed the MOT without a new one. I phoned 2 local tyre fitters and both of them quoted me in excess of £315 for 1 tyre ! 1 bloody tyre !!!! So I thought “wait a minute, I LIVE on the internet, so there must be somewhere online that sells them cheaper than that”. I was right !

The X5 didn't like it's old house - it much prefers to live in it's new dwellings

I found mytyres.co.uk who sold the exact same tyre for only £183.60 delivered to my door. There was then a £11.75 to have the tyre fitted in the local garage so by ordering from the internet, I managed to save myself over £115 for the EXACT same tyre. Sometimes I forget the internet world I live in, and things are staring me in the face so obvious that I miss them sometimes.

The best part is THEY DON’T ONLY SELL 22 INCH TYRES ! They do EVERY size of tyre and are upto 50% cheaper than anywhere else I have ever seen. If you want my advice, next time you need new tyres, check them out first !

Sir Alan Sugar – your fired ! not this time though…..

Sir Alan Sugar will keep his role on The Apprentice after the corporation ruled his new Government job did not compromise its position.

The 62-year-old multi millionaire who will take a seat in the House of Lords following Gordon Brown’s Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, said he was “glad” about this decision.

Looking back, Sir Alan Sugar didn't realise how much he looked like his friend the late Jeremy Beadle

Sir Alan is quoted as saying “I’ve been loyal to Gordon Brown and the Labour Party for quite a while but I have my loyalties also with the BBC.”

Phew I am glad he wasn’t fired, as Sir Alan is another of my personal idols and I would only have Dragons Den left to watch !

Dance music was dead – until Paul Van Dyk saved the day

I hadn’t heard a good dance track for ages, and then I heard a “mash up” of the original dance track Paul Van Dyk  – For an angel, on the Judge Jules show. Wow what an awesome track I thought, then I realised it WASN’T a mash up, but in fact it had been re-released for 2009 ! This has inspired me to get soooo much more work done as music is what motivates me to get stuff done !

I was on a natural high when I listened to this version for the first time, and it brough back memories of the good old dance music days from the late 1990’s when dance music was at it’s peak !

The mashup version below which is Paul Van Dyk vs Rachel Mcfarlane – Lover is also up there with the greatest dance tracks of all time and makes me want to reach for the lasers every time !

Bargain hunt on BBC daytime TV – A business idea gone wrong ?

I am sure that lots of you know the popular daytime tv program “Bargain Hunt” but how many of you have actually noticed that the show is flawed ?

After watching a few episodes recently (procrastinating again) I noticed a major flaw in the idea of the program. One of the first rules in business is to buy items / services for as cheap as possible and sell them onto someone else for as much profit as possible. With this in mind, the program starts off by sending two pair’s of contestants to antique fairs to look for items which they think they could take to auction to sell on for a profit. Sounds simple enough yeh ? well it is actually totally backward.

Even Tim couldn't tell the difference between the trash that was being auctioned

The normal people who are at the antique fairs are the people who will be at the same auctions, looking to buy bargains to sell on at the antique fair for a profit ! I would say that 9/10 shows that I have ever watched over the months, has resulted in the contestants making a loss – and the “antique experts” cannot understand why.

Whoever the brains behind bargain hunt is, Seems to be suffering from role reversal and needs a basic lesson in business strategies. Do I detect a hint of the BBC wasting licence payers money again ?

Viagra to be sold in Boots ! an end to viagra email spam ?

Boots is the first pharmacy in the UK to offer this service, and will do a pre-screening questionnaire, ask about your medical history and conduct a series of blood tests.It will cost £55 for the initial screening and then £26.59 for 4 tablets.

Does this mean the email spam with the subject “get viagra here” will stop being sent ? I very much doubt it, as the viagra emails normally entice people to buy this viagra from their website with a firm promise of a cheaper price.

Viagra sales have risen sharply since the internet

During a pilot trial in Manchester, Boots reported that men travelled from all over the UK to this session to obtain viagra over the counter.

Not alot of people know that Viagra was actually first clinically tested in trials, in my local Hospital in Swansea – Morriston hospital. Now I am not sure why it was trialled in Swansea, or what that actually is trying to say about men who are from Swansea ? !

New addition to our household – Baby Alfie

“Oh no not another baby” I hear you cry – NO !

3 is MORE than enough for anyone to cope with. Alfie is our new staffordshire bull terrier puppy, who is now 8 weeks old today and has slowly wormed his way into my new office (and bedroom)

Alfie just didn't understand the importance, of looking at the camera for his picture for my blog.

He is very adorable and cute, but also hard work at the same time with all the usual puppy behaviour and mess they make. Who said dog’s were easier than children eh ?

2 Premium generic domain names sold for £100k each this week !

Congratulations to James Dale this week (owner of www.financialadvice.co.uk) who has sold the domain names horseracing.co.uk and onlinecasino for £100k each. Not a bad amount of money in anyone’s book. James previously sold the domain name www.phones.co.uk for £175,000 late last year.

James didn't realise his shopping trip to Lidl's would pay off so well

This is also great news for the UK domain market as a whole, as it increases awareness even further of how valuable premium generic domain names are becoming, and adds to an already rising market in which I feel has yet to peak in the UK. This will bring joy to fellow domainers who have some gems hidden away, waiting for their buyers (myself included)

Lindsay Lohan goes topless on twitter

Yep that is right – Lindsay Lohan has tweeted a topless picture of herself on the increasingly popular Twitter.

I have to take my hat off to her, as it is not often a hollywood celebrity posts a topless picture of themselves on the internet, before the paparazzi gets there first.

You've been framed, eat your your heart out !

Regardless if it was for a publicity stunt or not – it has definatly worked as people are talking about it all over the world and I will bet that people are looking forward even more to Lindsay Lohan’s further tweets !

Unemployment may be a blessing in disguise for some people

After reading this story on the BBC it made me think. Unemployment is a nasty word. It conjurs up images of no money, boredom, and worry for most people. For others it sparks off with new found enthusiasm to better themselves.

It was through unemployment that I arrived at where I am today. I have always been entrepreneurial since the age of 6, when I used to spend my £2 pocket money on button badges, and go to the local market with my parents to sell them for a profit of approx £15-20, not bad in 1985 eh ? Anyway basically I found my way into self employment by literally walking away from a well paid job and by taking a big risk on someone who had no experience in being self employed or internet marketing. That person was me.

After some narrow misses with various ventures, I really started to find my feet and realised that as long as I kept my head above water and all my bills were covered, then anything I earned above that was going to be reinvested back into my business. This was key to my success to where I am today. The reason I am explaining this, is to show that unemployment may sound like the end of the world, but if you can turn those negative feelings into positive feelings it could turn out to be the best decision you ever make.

Internet marketing is very scary to begin with and you may not even have a clue where to start, however if you concentrate on something you enjoy doing and have knowledge on, then you will find tackling this alot easier. There are plenty of resources to help you on your way, and it is possible to start an online business with as little as £50. I started with just £100 a few years ago, and whilst I am not going to reveal how much I have made during this time, I will say that during my journey which I am still travelling, I have managed to buy outright 2 nice cars, a 4 bedroom detached house with all the trimmings, nice clothes, nice holidays, everything my wife and kids want and most importantly some fantastic premium domain names and online businesses which continue to earn me enough for a very comfortable level of living for a long time to come.

There is nothing stopping YOU achieving the same as me. I am no-where near financially retired or secure (I am only 30), but I know I have more than enough for those rainy days and will keep working hard until I achieve my personal security level. Positive mental attitude can get you alot further than you can imagine, and if you are passionate about something, and someone trys to talk-down your ideas, then they are just talking rubbish ! A true entrepreneur knows what they have to do to make things work.

I will be covering more on internet marketing / online businesses in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled, and in the mean time – avoid ANYTHING which says it can make you rich in just 30 days – they are all scams. I also recommend 2 books for you to read to make you see ven further how possible it is to acheive success – Richard Branson “Losing My Virginity” (He is my entreprenurial hero) and Duncan Bannatyne “Anyone can do it” The cheapest place I find for books is amazon (and you get free delivery) so here is a link to each book for your convenience -