Firstly, wonderful blog. I love your style of writing and find all of your posts incredibly accessible, informative, to the point and really good, fun reads (and what with the weather here in Renfrewshire today being so miserable, I have literally read everything twice over!) But when I read this post in particular I just had to comment. Unless I am very much mistaken, we also reside in the same country…at time of writing anyway.

I’m actually in the process of immigrating to the Queensland area (application forms being processed, case officer assigned etc.) and hope to finalise the move by Spring 08. I have family in Brisbane and also in Mudjimba, not far from Noosa Heads as you probably know and couldn’t believe it when I read of the area you are looking for property in. My wife and I (and I mustn’t forget our black Labrador) are looking to settle in that region as it happens. We spent last summer touring the Sunshine & Gold Coasts and spent a lot of time looking at property whilst there, around similar a price range to your example actually. That whole area around Noosa left such an impression on us, heck I may even manage to sort out my abysmal work/life balance of 6/7 day 10/12 hr working weeks when I move Down Under as it’s such a beautiful country (not boasting about the hours put in as it means I’m working harder but necessarily NOT smarter!).

We are hoping using credit card points (with several cards being used to fund PPC campaigns they certainly add up!) to fly out business class and leave in style. Like you we plan to stop over in Dubai for a few days and possibly Singapore along the way. Well, that’s the grand plan. I may blow all my savings on badly managed PPC campaigns between now and then

Anyway, before I win a prize for the most boring and pointless post this blog has ever known and you peg me as some crazy stalker…, I just wanted to say I am also in the same field as you; more specifically we focus on price comparison and the cost-per-click model. We operate a network of such sites and probably spend around £10k per day on PPC advertising covering the US and UK (although I’ve recently been assigned to dabble with the Australian market too).

Recently we’ve been finding it more and more challenging to keep our ROI at levels that justify the hours we put in. Merchants are also becoming increasingly savvy about ensuring their referral sites convert and many providers such as Shopping.com now factor in conversion to sale metrics as the market moves towards performance based pricing. I may not like these developments as it impacts our earnings per click and % of revenue contracts, but I do agree this can only be good for the market and understand it’s a natural progression. As a result, we have begun researching the CPA model more closely. Aside from one or two leads based financial sites we operate, it’s not an area we have ever really made time for. I’ve been collating ideas and opinions from so many different sources for weeks now, my bookmarks list is ridiculous, we’re talking into the hundreds by now.

We are experienced and reasonably successful at what we do, and have been for some years. But moving into a different field has left me feeling like a novice once again, back to school time essentially. There are so many additional factors to consider with CPA. Although a number of elements overlap in terms of the basic principles [insert lengthy checklist here!], it’s certainly more challenging than the CPC model in my opinion. That said, we feel that long-term the CPA model for affiliate marketing will offer a more stable environment for our business. I would also say that your posts and many of the follow-up comments really do back-up what we are finding early on, and that is small, focussed niche sites offer the best platform to hone the skills. We’d rather make lost of mistakes when the stakes are not so high until the confidence builds and we have a successful model to replicate and scale up.

Anyway, I really just wanted to say huge thanks, but went off in all sorts of tangents, for taking the time out to regularly post, as after all, time is money. I’ve finally managed to get my bloglines subscriptions down to a manageable level but your blog will certainly be a priority read from now on. Sorry for rambling… I just felt compelled.

Steven.

I don’t think the other half will let me get through 2008 without doing one of them, having said that we’re viewing next door on Monday so may I won’t even get to 2008!

Anyway I have a 6 days break in Vegas (Hatton fight… erm I mean… Pubcon ) before heading off diving in Egypt for Christmas/New Year so I can’t complain too much.

If you get the house, you know a load of us will just turn up on your doorstep dont you! We now have the address! :p