In the day job I’ve experienced a change of managers, team, office, a split to a new company, responsibility and ways of working.

And I love it. It feels good to have that motivation back, that I was lacking during early 2009, as I continued to perform two roles as a tester and another as Director of my own business.

Significantly I’ve been doing the day-job as a part-time employee for two months now.

I only work in my career role for three days a week.

This means that the time spent in the office are focussed and demanding.

I get asked all the time how part-time life is treating me.

Generally I’ve found that I don’t like working at home alone for consecutive days in a row. I can handle two or three back-to-back but beyond that I yearn to get back in the office atmosphere around people.

And mentally I am still fine tuning the balance of my working weeks. Starting the weekend early on Thursday doesn’t make for a productive Friday.

When I started working part-time I pinpointed three areas that I would focus on and look at over time to see how successful it had been. I also had hard numbers for each so could actually measure any progress.

• Sleep
• Profit
• Engagement

Sleep

Having two jobs is very time consuming and I found that the thing sacrificed the most was my sleep.  Updating voucher codes or fixing Wordpress issues at 1am isn’t pleasant. Basically I wasn’t getting enough sleep.

Now with the aid of the Sleep Cycle iPhone app I can measure my sleep and I target the prescribed 7 hours. After 67 nights my average sleep per night is 6 hours 15 minutes. A huge improvement and I now have more energy to get me through the day and a few extra gym sessions.

I rarely do work beyond midnight now. Work can often wait until one of the four days I’m at home. I use my last hour of the day to wind down at the casino.

Profit

With all the changes at work I felt I had to make the decision to leave completely, do a sabbatical for up to nine months or work part-time. Carrying on as was, wasn’t practical. I couldn’t squeeze everything that needs doing in my own business into evenings and weekends.

Staying as was, also meant that profits would have nose dived as the sites that make money were updated infrequently.

A six month review of this year shows my commissions are up £5,000 on the first six months of 2009 from the retail side plus a few grand more from gambling merchants. The total figure makes for a nice salary.

I have the spent the last couple of weeks just auditing how efficient I am at working and with a simple spreadsheet I’ve found that I’ve only got 50% of the available voucher codes on my ShopCodes site at any one time that I could have. That’s actually really good to know and provides focus.

Engagement

There are lots of benefits of networking. You learn new skills, tricks, get new contacts and have an excuse to party in new places.

I specifically chose to have a Friday off work so that I could use the long weekend to travel around more and get to more events.

Previously visiting the a4UAwards or Affili.net poker evening would mean taking one or two days holiday and I’d find that by the time I get to the second half of the year I’d run out of holiday days to attend late summer or christmas events.

Now with an extra 104 days in my armoury I can get to a few more.

Also by engagement I’m thinking of  the relationships that I have with people online.

I’ve always got up to 3,000 unread emails.

I’m always dealing with my accountant, weeks after he wants to.

Now I measure these. Focus on them. Improve on them.

a

It was an opportunity to catch up with late night Vegas friends @ChrisClarkson, @KieronDonoghue and @BonyToad on my doorstep whilst also welcoming @ClarkeDuncan and his mate @ukstripclubs to sample the delights of Leeds.

It was again hosted in my local, Alea Casino, which is a great choice of location, particularly for the early Saturday morning start, which unsurprisingly I still missed.

I didn’t get to see all the talks, as the Peroni and chat was flowing at the Royal Armouries square but I did get to see my voucher code site on the Alea cinema screen.

ShopCodes on the Alea cinema screen with the Think Visibility SimpleUsability results

Thanks to @SimpleUsability for dragging people off the street to use my “very busy” site.  It was insightful to see how the users actually interacted and copied the voucher code and which links they clicked.

There were a few surprises and so I’ll be re-installing Crazy Egg, as there’s 7 Things Affiliates Can Learn From Heatmaps, writes @GetVisible.

At the end of the evening I signed up to a No-Limit poker tournament. I finished in the money but it was no compensation for my disastrous blackjack play earlier in the afternoon. Plus poker is a very long game, too long, when you’re missing out on a free bar and VIP entry to a local strip club!

Chip stack when 2 tables remaining

I’ve been to all three Think Viz’s and it was good to see people venture to and have a great time in Leeds.

Well done to @TheHodge and to all these people for another great conference and if you’re able to handle 5am finishes, then see you in September for the next DrinkVisibility.

a

I’ve plugged mine in as seen here:

There’s a choice of black or white and subtle and bold and you’ll need to select one as your old button will link to a “Sorry, we couldn’t find that.  We’re not sure what you were looking for” page.

Clicking the new buttons will take you to a submit page to the new ‘The Pool’.  Here you specify a title and summary and it’s worth expanding on the 250 character limit summary as this is what will prompt people to read and potentially vote for your content.

In the new system you can’t see which supporters you have for your content, the voting is all anonymous, which takes away part of the appeal and fun of it. But it does mean you can “slap” a post and hide.

a

Knowing that I’d referred a $3,500 paying customer I logged into the NeoGames Partners account to check on my total commission. The Scratch2Cash email included the caveat:

“If the amount is less than 100 EUR, we are not obligated to pay, as disclosed on the affiliate agreement listed on the website. Any amount under the “Minimum Amount” (100 EUR) will be written off.“

I’ve never read anything so ridiculous. Now I owe lots of companies less than 100 Euros and I just can’t write that off.

“Fitness First, you know that £38.75 you want off me for the couple of times I enter your gym, well I’m writing that off!”

“British Telecom, you know that £39.47 I owe you just to have a landline, well I’m writing that off!”

When I questioned this via email , they replied that they were closing my account.

“Since you unfortunately were not able to bring us €100 or more of traffic, we will close your account.“

Imagine if a reputable affiliate network chose not to pay you because you’d only made one sale – but not only that, not give you the opportunity to make more sales so that you could reach their self imposed payment tier?

Affiliates, you have been warned. I’d write-off the Scratch2Cash affiliate program today.

Still have that itch? Don’t Apply Now!

a

2009 has been a good year for my site ShopCodes, such that my accountant said to me before Christmas, “You need to lose your comfort blanket”. He was referring to my full time day-job.

To put it into context the turnover and profit, since Halloween passed by and the gift shoppers arrived, is exactly the same as what I earn as salary in my well paid day job.

For my business over 91% of my turnover is profit as I don’t withdraw a salary as a Director and the 9% goes on Internet and networking costs.

And with not withdrawing even much as dividends from the business, there’s enough in the rainy day pot for my accountant to say, “you can pay yourself a substantial salary for at least four years”.

And what if the business starts to suffer from more competition or other threats? “Start looking for work after two years”.

During early 2010 it’s all change in my full time job. Change of boss, job title and location. The office we’re moving to is on the same street I currently live. I’ve a fear that I’ll get cabin fever working, living (also exercising, drinking and gambling) in the same place.

But that’s also now the fear I have if I decide to leave my ‘comfort blanket’. I’ve never liked change and previously it was about financial security. Now, it’s about cabin fever.

So there’ll be more reflecting from me for a few months yet.

a

If you search for “argos voucher codes” or some other combination like “argos promotion code” within Google, my ShopCodes Argos page is either bottom of page one or mid page two but what is striking is that the search engine has chosen to display an Argos video clip integrated into my results listing.

So even on page two, it stands out from the crowd. And if the result were say fourth on page one, those below would probably get ignored as your eye is drawn towards the image.

So merchants start making those videos available as I’ve a feeling a few more affiliates shall take my lead and display them.

a

He then proceeded to project a collection of humorous tweets which seemed to be mainly from the legendary AlCarlton and a fair few from that Befuddle guy.

So I thought I’d mull over my live tweets from A4UExpo London 2009, which sadly aren’t that humorous but reflected what I was thinking at that time.

Blimey not been here 2 mins and Novotel Excel have charged me £150 for extras. Best abuse the free bar!
7:02 PM Oct 12th

As Chris Clarkson said on Facebook, “Lol, your reputation preceeds you!”

#a4uexpo pre-party has changed with bar well closed and everyone in bed before 4am. I remember when …
4:00 AM Oct 13th

OK it was 4am on the night before the actual event, so I’ll let people off. I loved that I woke up at 8:50am with my phone in my hand and 8:00 typed into my phone alarm clock but I’d fell asleep before pressing done. I skipped breakfast, grabbed a large Mocha and shuffled into Dave Naylor’s SEO strategies talk.

@3wdl it’s all waffle
10:55 AM Oct 13th
Voucher code session at #a4uexpo full of facts but not heard anything new
11:03 AM Oct 13th

I’ve got a vested interest in voucher code discussion but I don’t think the content answered the question that was posed.

This session is just a subtle advert for AOL buyat. Got to get out. Where’s the beer? #a4uexpo
12:33 PM Oct 13th

I was set to attend the Affiliate Doctors panel but from experience wanted to go to more challenging sessions, so I made the last second decision to pop next door for ‘10 Things To Do Before You Thrive As Affiliates …’

Did that say ‘10 Things’ because the slide they presented said only ‘3 things’. As for my Twitter comment, to me, it was a network basically saying ‘use a network and by the way we know of a network…’

Class! Walk late into #a4uexpo Twitter presentation to see my funniest status updates being showcased
5:30 PM Oct 13th
JoannaButler @befuddle They were legendary! @thehodge has a great tweet collection!
5:34 PM Oct 13th from Tweetie in reply to befuddle

The Hodge was showcasing some of my funnier Tweets, here’s one of my earlier ones:

befuddle: “just completed the Bupa online health check whilst eating a Balti”

Bored at #a4uexpo party but Al Carlton’s mugging sounds fun
1:15 AM Oct 14th

The free Oxygen at the party wasn’t enough to keep me perked up so I logged onto Facebook to catch up on Al Carlton’s evening, to which he replied ‘Lol, I’m still turning it over in my head, it was just odd.’.

End up arguing with dozen 02 bouncers for an hour after #a4uexpo party ends. No blood spilled.
3:23 AM Oct 14th

I went to the bar to order five JD & Cokes and paid twenty quid and Gulshan shot another twenty quid forward. I took that back as we didn’t need ten but after a quick count on the fingers, worked out we needed eight, so may as well get ten and handed forward another £20. Still with me? Well the bar lady wasn’t and lost it.

The 02 club bar staff, management and security told us we owed them £20, then we owed them £1.26 and then that they’d returned the full £40. All of which they’d seen on their camera. The £20 they owed us (and not us them) was irrelevant but I’ll always defend my corner. But when you’ve got the biggest bouncers – and these were huge – circling you saying ’stop playing games’ you know it’s time to just shut up and let them share the twenty quid between themselves and all the cleaners that were witnessing.

lammo77 Last men standing at the #a4uexpo bar.. @jasonjbrockman @befuddle and @duncanp
4:11 AM Oct 14th

Another 4am finish!

This is the life. Teresa from Stream:20 giving me a back massage on a #a4uexpo beanbag
1:24 PM Oct 14th

You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

@Thehodge Grab their beer tokens
2:32 PM Oct 14th

In reply that it seemed that not many were planning to stick around for the closing party though plenty did.

@3wdl Where do pirates chat online? Twittaaarrr
3:13 PM Oct 14th

My effort to ‘win’ some rum and coke from the Affiliate Future stand during their pirate hour.

My Leeds Clarence Dock neighbour Gary Beal offering half hour SEO site review (worth £4k) for free #a4uexpo
4:10 PM Oct 14th
andybanksuk @befuddle Half hour SEO review worth £4k???? Are you sure you got the figure right?
5:00 PM Oct 14th in reply to befuddle

By this point I was lagging and after freshening up, was ready to party …

Vodka luge my face off
5:52 PM Oct 14th
jimbanks @befuddle can i get it on video ? I am sitting right by it.
5:56 PM Oct 14th in reply to befuddle
claireellison @befuddle dirty b@st@rd ;o)
6:15 PM Oct 14th in reply to befuddle

Vodka luge, every party should have one! Stick Sambuca in it and then you go do and say crazy stuff …

Befuddle loves Elissa Benson who I’ve just met #a4uexpo
10:15 PM Oct 14th
jimbanks @befuddle easy tiger!!
10:37 PM Oct 14th in reply to befuddle

One big France Telecom love in

messydesk With @befuddle and @KeithBond having a good last night at a4uexpo
10:42 PM Oct 14th

Thanks for the Spotify invite Keith and more importantly mentioning my Hong Kong interest to Ken. My .hk site project may finally come off the ground.

jimbanks @befuddle im on the train going home but have video of @judithlewis doing the vodka shot and a full frontal (of the ice that is)
10:51 PM Oct 14th in reply to befuddle

I fortunately managed to avoid starring on Jim’s YouTube’s page.

Another befuddled #a4uexpo. Will return back to London soon, then next stops Vegas, Munich & Leeds
3:41 AM Oct 15th

Bed before 4am. Woo hoo! Joe Connor spotted that organiser Matt Wood was giving away free passes to Munich, I just thought they were beer mats. I’m off to Vegas in January with the likes of Kieron, Clarkson and Frostie then I look forward to seeing you all in Leeds for the third ThinkVisibility.

@befuddle Mucho love for Mr Befuddled at the a4u conference… less love for the vodka flu that has now set in
10:21 AM Oct 15th

After a night of champagne, Sambuca, Vodka and lots of JD I don’t know how I got to Kings Cross for my 10:35am train – but I did. And it allowed me time to catch up on my notes of the week, so I write …

I’ve got the taste and I want a lot more
11:34 AM Oct 15th

a

As soon as I posted a few pictures of me along with Joshna, Jess, Jo and Teresa onto Facebook, a close friend of mine said, ‘Ray you look like a butler??? class!!!’ instead of commenting on the pretty girls of affiliate marketing.

So, on that note, how can this Befuddled Butler help you for the next few days?

If you affiliate managers have one request of me, just one single thing that you’d like me to do, then please let me know.

I haven’t really updated my site since April and so I know there’s lots of requests and day-to-day nitty gritty tasks that just haven’t been tackled.

So, if there’s one single thing you’d like me to do between Saturday and midnight Tuesday then just let me know. I am moving home on Thursday and don’t even know when I’ll next have a broadband connection, so get in touch quick.

Resend that email that I’ve ignored and put the word butler in the message. I will action it!

a

What better testimonial can you get?

a

It was also good to be able to attend an event in a country alone and be able to socialise with people across the affiliate industry who are now friends. That is priceless.

a