Greetings, and welcome to the third, final, and long overdue installment in the “where are they now series”.  Today’s lovely interviewee is the legendary Chris Frost whose last chat you can take a gander at here.

As you will all no doubt know, Chris and I met up in Sydney and enjoyed 2 or 3 good nights out and himself and my Duncan braved the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb together.  We were supposed to do an interview there, but were having too good a time and had to do it via e-mail when he got home!

So without further ado, I’ll let the star do the talking

In our last chat, you said you’d increased the amount of time you’re spending on affiliate marketing from 4 hours to 10 hours a week. You were also predicting that’d rise as you were looking to develop some new niches. How’s your workload these days?

I’m still experiencing peaks and troughs on the amount of time I spend online, and expect this to continue. It’s more to do with me and my CGAS mentality when it comes to affiliate marketing.

Obviously the winter months usually results in longer hours, as there’s less inclination to get myself down to the gym when it’s blowing a gale outside even though I have another 10k run planned in London this year (running for Diabetes – http://www.justgiving.com/chrisefrost )

Has the recession affected your income at all? Have you found new opportunities from changed times?

I wouldn’t say the recession has affected my income but has certainly affected the programmes which generate my income. Previously great performers have generated less, where other merchants have picked up so it’s equalled out roughly. I’ve suffered a bit with the rubbish £ vs $ rate change over the past few months but that’s something that I can’t really control.

I know you’ve been having some issues with Google on one of your major sites which was slapped just before the busy Xmas season, and it seemed like you were feeling a mite frustrated with it all when we met up in Sydney. Have you any plans to try and recover from your “Google-itis”?

My main frustration in Sydney was turning 35!

Being slapped just before I was due to have a bumper Christmas wasn’t exactly great timing – had it happened in January I wouldn’t have cared too much. It was only the other day that the possible reason behind the slap was found (thanks to the Real McCoy). I’d checked and changed a lot of stuff but still hadn’t seen any change, and Lee found something that was blindingly obvious and one that’s a basic error but was an accident on my behalf. It was so stupid that I’m not going to divulge any more but have been reminded by Lee that if I make Barbados this year, then I owe him a few beers!

You predicted a £3m sales generation figure for your merchants in 2008. I know you more than succeeded with that with £4.8m being your closing figure for last year! What is it that you think makes you able to keep growing your affiliate business in this way and still not working at it full time?

Who said I can keep growing? Being honest I don’t expect to see any rise in 2009 mainly because I’m focusing on areas outside of the UK so my current websites are taking a bit of a back seat.

It helps by having niche sites that are seasonal based such as Christmas, Valentines and Mothers day and again, after following Lee – maybe tap into the easter egg market next year? At least that way my work load is spread out more evenly meaning currently I can cope… just…

Speaking of going full time as an affiliate… any plans to quit the day job on the horizon?

Not a chance!
The recent Google slap confirmed the risk and my respect I have for you full-timers. Unless you have shed loads of money to chuck at PPC campaigns, then I feel at times Google has too much of a strangle hold over a business. Something I plan to do this year is concentrate more on MSN and Yahoo positioning rather than having tunnel vision where only the Google logo can be seen.

If you could go back in time to our last chat and warn yourself about one thing that’s happened over the last 12 months, what would it be?

One thing? My god I have lots!

• Don’t let Kirsty go shopping with Jane while stuck up a bridge with Duncan (costs a fortune) (*Eds note – I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.  What happens on the shopping trip, stays on the shopping trip!!)

• Don’t offer a bouncer a mint! (Get knocked back)

• Don’t get drunk with Keith, Shane and Paul the night before your flight home from (you end up missing it)

• Don’t introduce affiliates to the world of Scuba Diving (I still laugh at the vision of James Avery strolling around a wreck on the sea floor, stood bolt up-right at times – classic!)

What’s been the best thing that happened to you over the last year?

It has to be packing in smoking

71 days to date (24 March 2009), 1215 cigs not smoked, saving over £500 and meaning I’ve now extended my life by a possible 4 days and 5 hours. Although this extra time may be spent in an old people’s home p’ing myself so it may not be a plus point after all!

Second on my list has to be popping over to Australia and hooking up with you guys and DGM, researching the Australian market. I think there’s great opportunity to move away from the UK yet not struggle too much with language barriers.

What will the rest of 2009 bring for you as an affiliate?

Hopefully more sites in different countries. I’ve found myself getting a bit tired of the UK and wanting to venture out into other countries. The difficulty is forgetting how Brits browse and search and learn how other countries do it along with their terminology.

Apparently credit cards in Oz is dead easy and very profitable

• An Interview With… Me!
• Surprise Winner in A4U Awards Blog Category!
• Off For Some Affiliate Fun in Sydney!