I don’t really use an RSS feed, I have email updates coming in from some sites, but I prefer to do my daily reading if and when I can rather than have them pushed upon me when the publisher determines.

All of my daily reads are also integrated with Viigo, which allows me to read them all when I am on the tube with no network coverage.

These are in the order they appear in my bookmarks, for no particular reason:

BBC tech

TechCrunch

Guardian New Media

Backberry Cool

Crackberry

Mashable

Wired News

Gizmodo

John Chow

Shoemoney

The Equity Kicker

SearchCowboys

Yoast

Dave Naylor and Co

None of these sites are particularly techie, but give me a good overall view of what is happening in the online space.

Would be interested to know if there are any i should be reading and don’t.

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Essential Daily Reading For Any Online Marketer

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Josh ‘Triple J’ James is leaving eConversions this week for pastures new, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for an interview with one of the UKs most popular Gok Wan look-a-likes.

JJJ is a good friend of mine, and a regular weekend drinking buddy. I wish him the best of luck in the new role, and I am looking forward to actually doing some work with him (and being able to expense against him).

So Triple J, Last week at eConversions, you excited about the new role?

I’m really excited about taking on a new challenge working network side. I don’t think it will be easy but I’m all for pushing oneself so I’m going to be embracing the challenges rather than shirking them.

I must also add that I will miss the guys at eConversions immensely. It’s been a great three years working there and I’ve been presented with so many opportunities and learned a helluva lot.

Right quick back ground, tell both the readers of this blog how you got into affiliate marketing and what you do/ did at eConversions, (try not to bore people)

Those who know me know that I struggle to tell a story without repeating myself/boring people but I’ll do my best.

I started at eConversions three years ago as an account manager running paid search campaigns and got into the Industry purely by chance – I applied for a few marketing jobs, had an interview with Dunc (Jennings) and Rich (Foister) over a ping pong ball table where we spoke about the Internet and poker and I knew that this was the Industry for me.

After around a year in the job the need for a Head of Client Services arose at eConversions as the company grew we realised that we needed somebody to manage all client, network and agency relationships and the fact that I enjoy a good banter, my love for affiliate marketing and the fact that I had already started managing most of our key relationships made me a perfect candidate for the role. That and the boys wanted to get me away from using AdWords as I was useless. Definitely a more theory than practice kind of guy.

And what brought on the decision to move on?

It was a big decision to move on as the guys there are good friends and I really believe in the services they offer and the web projects they are working upon but quite simply I wanted a new challenge to develop myself more professionally… That and I wanted to be able to expense drinks when we go out.

What is your role at Affilinet going to be?

My official title is Director of Publisher Services and Strategy whatever that means, but quite simply I see myself developing relationships with affilinet’s publishers (both existing and new) and ensuring the service that they are receiving is the best in the Industry. Ultimately, helping to bridge the gap between publishers and merchants, to drive more incremental sales and commissions for publishers and merchants alike.

Is there any truth in the rumour that Pete Rowe only hired you so he would have someone to drink with?

I can categorically deny those rumours. We are both tee total.

What do you think you are going to bring to the Affilinet table?

Coming from an affiliate background I think I am in a unique position to bring a certain level of knowledge and understanding as to what affiliates are and are not looking for in an affiliate network.

Generally when I describe affiliate marketing to my friends and family, I describe a network’s role as acting an intermediary between merchants and publishers where necessary and in my new role that is exactly what I am hoping to do. Transparency has been a big talking point in affiliate marketing recently and at affilinet I hope to be as transparent as possible to our publishers and merchants to help build trust between parties to facilitate the maximisation of incremental sales growth for the benefit of all parties – this is a sales business after all.

I’m also looking to raise the profile of the company. affilinet invest a lot of money back into the Industry (they were platinum sponsors of the A4U Expo in London in October and are doing the same for upcoming A4U Expo in Amsterdam) however they seldom publicise themselves and are still relatively unknown to a number of affiliates despite being one of Europe’s largest affiliate networks. I’m looking to help improve this by engaging a lot more with affiliates, merchants and agencies alike.

Does your new role and move away from a Farringdon base mean that you won’t be wearing as many cardigans and skinny jeans?

If anything my collection of cardigans and skinny jeans will grow.

Is there any truth in the rumour that you were hired by Affilinet to help them gain access to the Mexican affiliate market?

The rumours that I have Mexican roots are completely unproven.

If either of the readers of this blog are female, Josh is Single!

Triple J, what are you looking for in a woman? And can you confirm you once lost a “who is better looking contest” with me?

I’m looking for a girl who is nice and huggable but at the moment I’m focussed on my new job rather than looking for a woman.

A “who is better looking contest”?!?! I’d never be arrogant enough to enter one of those. Though if I were to have a competition when drunk, I definitely wouldn’t lose… To you.

What i am wearing right now: Jeans, stan smiths and a polo

p.s. Josh did start a who is better looking contest on one night out in Islington, and lost, to me. Before sending text to people who he thought would vote for him. A classic reply to one text he sent:

“One of you is more classically good looking, the other is more interesting good looking!”

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Josh James Moves on

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Spotify has today announced that it will be opening up its API to developers. The system is called libspotify and the documentation can be found here.

It looks like the API not only lets you call albums, play lists and artwork, but may also allow for remote playback.

There is no mention of monetisation in the documentation, but i would presume when downloads become more popular some sort of rev share could be arranged. we shall see.

Could this be a quick way to get someone to build iPhone and Blackberry apps?

Time to start thinking of some cool stuff to do with this, then get someone with tangible skills to actually do something about it.

Playlist of the day - Doves - Kingdom of Rust

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Spotify Opens Up API

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below is what i have seen so far, I will update as i see others.

Please post any more you find in the comments.

So far we have:

Strange one from Google

Auto Reply from Gmail

Mildly Amusing Lost submarine commute from Shoemoney

Loquax tries to get you to shout at your PC

Please let this be an April Fools from The Hedge

GPS ‘Fottie’ ball from Google AU

The Guardian ditches print for Twitter only

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

April Fools Round Up

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The problem with traditional search is that the data that the engines provide the user with is already old.

The SEO rankings are at least a couple of weeks old, if not older. The news rankings usually show yesterday’s articles, and the paid search rankings are both normally old and are unlikely to show you any sort news.

Facebook have come under some criticism over their new somewhat Twitter esc layout, responding to the critics by suggesting that the future of the portal was in providing information close to real time as possible.

Search.twitter can be used to search for what is happening right now, not 2 weeks ago like SEO or even yesterday like the news rankings.

These rankings provide you with real time information on what your peers are thinking, doing and buying at that very moment.

Problems arise because Twitter search rankings are ordered from newest tweet to oldest and not on any kind of trust algorithm as with traditional search. The question is will this change, will Twitter use their ability to provide real time information in order to compete with traditional search media.

Also is there a way to manipulate these rankings without simply spamming the system (which they have been pretty good at stopping so far)

Twitter have to find a way to earn revenue sooner or later, they have stated that they will not charge membership charges to corporates, will they provide some sort of sponsored search listings?

Just thinking out loud.

Further Reading

Some examples of realtime search (great Blog by the way)

Facebook re-empahsises that realtime is it’s main thrust

Twitter Ain’t Search

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Are Twitter and Facebook the Future of Search?

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Rich Kershaw tagged me in on this one, seems a good place to start the RobBerrisford Dot Com Resurrection.

Right so here we go!

1.    I was born in Stoke on Trent, I know….. posh speaking home counties boy like me. When I was three months old I realised it was a kip so made my parents move too….

2.    Bagdad, yeah, I lived in Bagdad for a couple of years until I was 3. It was in the middle of the Iran Iraq war and my mum tells me we had to hide under the stairs when the bombs started coming down. But it is still nicer than Stoke, sorry to anyone who lives there, and to most of my family who still do, but it is horrible.

3.    I am trained chef and used to work in restaurants, which I actually miss quite a bit. The problem is I used to work 70 hour weeks for £14K a year. Which I wasn’t overly happy about. It is great fun in a busy kitchen and I am still a half decent cook.

4.    I own (well lease) 2 pubs, one in Swindon and one somewhere near Bath. I have only been to the one in Swindon once, I have never even seen the one in Bath and neither of them make any money. It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

5.    I like Rich flew in a dog fight over the Nevada Desert Care of Buyagift. I was muck! Wardy killed me 3-1

6.    I like to follow British sports stars and teams abroad, in the last few years I have been on The Lions Tour in New Zealand, The Ashes Tour in Oz, and seen Joe Calzaghi in New York and Vegas.

In New Zealand with the Lions I ended up on a almighty session with BOD, Tom Shanklin, Gordon D’Arcy, Brent Cockbain and Geordan Murphy. Stories I can tell here are few, but include me helping Shankin clean vomit off his jeans with bottles of Budweiser, Cockbain ripping D’Arcy’s jeans and Geordon Murphy refusing to buy me a curry.

7.     I used to be an ice cream man, which still features on my CV. Best job Ever!

Next Up

Matt Brown

Matt Bailey

Paul Wright

J Lil

Frostie

That will do

The Rules

* Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
* Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
* Let them know they’ve been tagged.
What I am wearing right now: Jeans and a grey polo! Keep up!

Spoitfy Play List of the day

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

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Right I appreciate I haven’t updated this horrible excuse for a blog since the 18th of November, but I am back!

Richie Boy Kershaw has given me a kick with his 7 things you didn’t know about me post, basically forcing me to resurrect this hole of a blog.

I will get that done today,

just a few quick highlights of the last 6 months since my last post

1. Christmas, that was good, both for business and for getting fat sitting in front of the telly.

2. Twitter has kicked off in a pretty major style, got a few projects in the pipe line to see if we can make some cash out of that.

3. Rio Carnival, I was there, whatever!

4. JJJ is leaving eConversions, which came as a shock (unless he told you obviously), he is moving to Affilinet. This is good news for me, because he can expense my pints when we go out rather than coming out of our own pockets.

5. My Boy Bailey became ‘The Chair’, well done fella, unlucky Duncan.

and finally 6. Chris ‘wideface’ Mockford is leaving buy.at and moving client side into the gambling space.

That is about it i think. Will be updating regularly (until I get bored again)

What i am wearing right now: Jeans and a grey polo, probably should have dressed a bit smarter seeing as there is some sort of get together tonight.

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Berrisford is Back

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Any iPhone users will have to be careful when the send emails. This “glitch” could get you into trouble.

What i am listening to right now: Spotify

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

iPhone Users Beware - Badness Might Happen

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They have taken a different and highly encouraged tact on the traditional incentive, guaranteeing affiliates a prize if they hit certain tiers.

You can walk away with anything from a Champneys Hamper right up to an £800 Tag watch

If you hit their tiers (from £1,000 sales value, up to £12,000) you will talk away with your choice of gifts.

This incentive shows a great level of transparency and gives all affiliates something to gun for.

They are a good bunch over at Red Letter Days, and i would encourage anyone interested in the campaign in getting in contact with either Joshna on 079 1863 2814 or Angela on 079 1874 7455.

They love the occasional drink too, so well worth looking out for them at the next affiliate get together.

What i am wearing right now: Jeans, T-shirt, Hoddy. It is bloody freezing out there

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Great Red Letter Days Incentive

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As many of you know the Slanket is due to arrive on UK shores shortly, and to commemorate this great moment i have managed to secure Rob Berrisford Dot Com readers an exclusive discount code on Slankets.

When buying a slanket through Prezziesplus you can save £6 on the mighty slanket.

Just go to Prezzies Plus and type ‘robberrisford’ into the voucher code box and you are away.

What I’m wearing right now: still no slanket!
What I’m eating right now: a banana, and a cup of tea.

Post from: Rob Berrisford Dot Com

Exclusive Slanket Discount Code

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