After no less than 20 days on holiday I’m finally at the point where I can just about relax and enjoy myself! Like many addictions the withdrawal from my usual working routine has been somewhat painful.

The Sky is Falling In!!!!

At least that’s how it felt for the first few days.  Several times a day I got the “affiliate horrors” because I wasn’t working (and after all, doesn’t that mean everything will go wrong???!) and I kept on getting my knickers in a right old twist over whether I was doing everything I should to keep my beloved business running smoothly.

However, like Chicken Licken my anxieties were ill placed. It transpires that to ensure my own personal sky remains roughly in the right place I don’t actually have to be permanently glued to my office chair.

As Important As It Is To Have Your Finger On The Pulse…

It’s also important to find some large chunks of time to exorcise the ever present spectre of affiliate marketing from your mind. Even when on holiday us affiliates are not great at stepping back mentally from their job. I think a large part of the reason for my semi regular pangs of panic has been that conflict between the part of me that is knackered after 8 months of work with very little break and the other part that is completely addicted to affiliate marketing.

Performance athletes couldn’t eat, sleep, and breathe their occupation 24/7 without burning out completely.They pause for significant rest periods to ensure they are fighting fit to give their absolute best when it really counts. Of course, Tom Daley doesn’t book himself a relaxing fortnight in the sun only to turn around on the beach and see an Olympic sized diving pool has sneaked up on him unexpectedly. For an affiliate the mere sight of an internet cafe can be enough to send them dashing from the beach back into the warm and welcoming arms of a good old internet sesh.

And The Final Fatal Flaw In My Relaxation Plan?

So here I am droning on about the importance of giving your mind a break and where am I? That’s right, in my office writing on this blog. A few major pangs of panic have been over the fact I’m not updating on here as much as usual. The signs of true affiliate addiction methinks

The solution?  It’s clear I need to give myself permission to take a break. So dear readers, Kirsty will be attending “Real World Rehab” until the A4U Expo commences on 12th of October.

I’ll talk to you guys then.

Kirsty Out

God Bless You Google – It’s Never Dull!

Ahhh… it’s always the same isn’t it? You decide to take a well earned affiliate holiday and Google turns around and changes all the rules on you!

The introduction of Google Instant Search this week has created widespread anxiety all over the internet. So is it the end of SEO as some have claimed? Frank Paul certainly doesn’t think so.

Of course the new structure of the Google SERPS will definitely mean we’ll see some changes. So far my own stats and traffic levels are pretty much unchanged but as always my attitude is that if I do take a hit I’ll not only find a way to fix it, but also to exploit it. I stand by my earlier comments about affiliates and adversity.

Paul Wright has made some interesting points about the impact of this on affiliate marketing with regards to brand bidding and the possible impact of the consolidation of search phrases away from those longtail searches that are so valuable to all us affiliates. On the other hand, Gregory Lyons thinks that the longtail will see an increase in volume over the longer term.

So to sum up, it’s uncertain business as usual in affiliate land. I’d rather look for opportunities in all of this than threats, I just hope my current “sabbatical” will still allow me to see them in a timely manner.

Speaking of which…

My Week Off The Web

I’ve not had a lot of time for blogging this week with the arrival of our guests, but I thought you guys might like a teeny glimpse of what’s been keeping us apart

Me discovering that Elephants have runny noses.

Meeting a Monitor Lizard at Mapleton Falls.

Proof positive Australia's beaches are NOT overrated (or overcrowded)

Duncs doing some waterfront BBQ-ing... How's the serenity?

So would I like to move back to the UK? Hmmm.....

Short one this week… I’ve been far too busy trying to get my affairs in order to spend much time reading up on interweb type stuff. However I’ve decided to take a wee break from cleaning out my pantry (I kid you not, things were falling on me when I opened the door) to get a post pushed out.

Wanna Know What The Most Popular Affiliate WordPress Themes Are?

It’s a question that’s not too far from the lips of any affiliate either old or new. Check out this juicy snippet from the 2010 Affiliate Summit Affstat Report which was created from a survey of over 1100 affiliates and get the lowdon on the WordPress themes other affiliates rate.

On a related theme, I also found the gen on the most popular WordPress plugins.

Mackays Self Catering – Are You Serious??

Twice this week I’ve had spammy comments like the one below submitted to my travel website: -

I must confess I have absolutely no idea if this sort of activity actually works. I’m far too scared to try it because of the risk of penalty related heart problems. It’s surprising to see a business like Mackay’s Self Catering indulging in this. Such spammy blog commenting is usually from nonsense websites of an erectile disfunction or casino type nature.

Unsubscribe Me!

In other news, I’ve been streamlining my inbox in preparation for my 4 months of limited working time. I get hundreds of unneccessary mails a day, often relating to programmes I’ve no intention of promoting in the near future or merchants I do work with who don’t send out information of value to the way I promote them.

With that in mind, big up unsubscription related kidos to Affiliate Window and Webgains who have a handy little link at the bottom of each mail sent out to help you manage your communication preferences.

Yah boo sucks to Buy.at and CJ whom are going to cause me to have to perform some (possibly fruitless) searches of their FAQs and general affiliate admin areas.

Yeeeehaaawwww!!  Saddle up them affiliate horses because we’re shaping up to have a good old fashioned aeronautical hoedown here at Affiliate Stuff towers.  We’ve now officially booked an awful lot of flights and are T minus 1 day and counting away from taking a 4 month holiday.

As you can imagine, I’ve not had a lot of time for the old blogging this week as my head is awash with trying to get things shipshape on the business front, and making travel arrangements.

My Itinerary (So Far!)

September 1st to 30th – general Australian fun and close to home adventures with two close friends of ours. We will be based loosely at home but will be roving all over SE Queensland for some travel type fun.

October 1st – Fly to Bangkok – We’re staying here for 3 nights in an as yet undecided hotel. If anyone has any recommendations for tip top swish type places I’d love to hear them. Duncan and I will be giving ourselves a belated wedding anniversary treat so nothing less than lavish will do!

October 4th – Scotland!! We will be spending some time in the South West corner and having a family weekend to spread my grandmother’s ashes. It will be great fun and very sad all at the same time.

October 12th - London. We’ll be at the A4U Expo on the 12th & 13th before spending a weekend with our close friends some of whom we’ve not seen in 2 years. Very exciting!

October 21st - Mediterranean Cruise. We’ll be spending 10 days on holiday in the Med. We decided a cruise was the way to go because its a good way to get round lots of major cities fast and see lots of cool stuff in the limited time we have available. My Mum and Dad have come over all adventurous and are coming with us.

November 5th – Fly to Thailand. We are going to spend 6 nights winding down after our European fun in Koh Chang. Well, we think. Nothing booked yet so could go Samui or somewhere else it’s easy to fly to.

November 13th – Arrive back in Australia and head on home to collapse for a couple of weeks. No work will be done, just chilling.

A Great Way To Round Off Our Skive!!

December 1st – 2 of our fab friends from the UK are hitting Australia to do some touring, so we decided to spend some quality travelling time with them.

No plans other than we have booked a beachfront apartment on Bondi Beach for 6 nights around New Year. We’ll be in town for the famous fireworks too.

Anyone Else Around?

If there’s anyone who’d like to meet up with us at the Expo or even any Bangkok  affiliate types who’d like to join us for a drink one night do please drop me a line. Always keen to socialise with my fellow internet marketing addicts!

Nervous Excitement – Will My Work / Outsourcing System Do It’s Stuff??

I’m filled with nervous excitement about all of this – I will be trying to keep all the various bits of outsourcing running smoothly so have been trying to work out roughly how much time I need to find each week to do that and also keep half an eye on e-mails and so on.

If it works well I’ll know I’ve really cracked it so I’m excited and dreading it all at the same time. In the past such jollies for me have ultimately meant things sort of fell to bits as I travelled. If this works properly I should be able to do this and still make good progress with the business. The question is – will I manage it????

I’ll let you guys know in January!

Meanwhile I will still be updating this blog, but with what remains to be seen. A lot of my posting inspiration comes from my working experiences and thoughts – so we shall see what comes out of the complex maze laughingly known as my brain as things progress.