The Life and Times of an Affiliate Widow

My good friend Jason has posted a thought on the forum asking ‘why network staff back “social” blogs but not one’s with real issues about AM written by affiliates?’ He is of course referring to another newbie blogger, like myself, Robert B. Now while I’m sure Robert is a very nice guy and this is not in any way a dig at him, he’s blogged about how wonderful Mal is and of course shot straight to the ‘Top of the Blogs’ being backed by everyone at Buy.at and their mothers, grandmothers, next door neighbours, etc (I know I am liable to exaggeration at times), yet these same people never back a blog about Affiliate Marketing! Are networks too PC or are they a little bit scared of backing a controversial post? If affiliate A posted about network X would it be backed by any staff from network YZ? I doubt it very much, maybe because the way staff move around, maybe because today’s competitor could be tomorrows boss? maybe it’s simply because they lack the balls! Of course this doesn’t apply to all as some network staff are very supportive of affiliates issues and will back certain blogs.

What are your views on this?

 Oops, found this saved and I thought I’d already posted it! 

Ok, so last week is now a dim, distant but very happy memory. Yep, you’re right they’re all back! First one home was Tallulah who walked in, sat down and promptly fell asleep,so far so good thought I, until that is she started to unpack and there was an explosion like the Persil advert, clothes and girls stuff everywhere. It was tidied, sorted and laundered, no problem. Sunday, the boys came back - so now I have Paul’s suitcase (still not unpacked) in the hallway where I’m sure it will stay until either I move it or he goes away again. I think it’s funny how he is always half packed as if he’s not sure how long he’s staying before he’s off again on his travels. I know some women have a problem when their husbands / partners / whatevers go away on business / holiday / whatevers, I however relish it when Paul goes away. We are together 24-7 and we can and do grate on each other.

The big bombshell however is the fact that he’s come back from a week away and has turned …. VEGAN! I think it’s a ploy to piss me off quite frankly,as if it’s not bad enough having to cook for all different tastes everyday he now throws this into the mix. I’ll keep you all updated as to how it goes!

Right I know I said I would update regularly and I haven’t, but, in my defence if I’d posted this last week when it happened, you wouldn’t have been able to read it for all the swearing I’d have used in it. Now I’ve calmed down a little so am able to post.

My other half Paul (Qui Gon Jinn to many), posted on the A4U forum regarding PC World going back to TD (!) and how TD were really, really helpful with the program when they were last active with them (yes, that was sarcasm) in trying to sort out commission issues which I can’t go into too much detail about here. Somebody who shall remain anonymous (at the moment, anyway) phoned the lovely peeps at the forum and asked for the post to be deleted, which they did. When we noticed it had been deleted we re-posted it, as you do.

The next morning I get a phone call from somebody being very abrupt wanting to talk to Paul (who doesn’t do mornings btw), when I said he wasn’t available this person was demanding to talk to him sometime today - I asked for his name and number several times and when he told me who he was I was not suprised. Mr TD (as I’ll call him) was quite agitated by the post and called it nothing more than a rant and even used Joe’s post below it to point that out. I told him that they (TD) are only happy when people post positive things about them and as soon as opinion swings the other way they demand posts get removed. He replied with ‘Well, I never expected to be talking to such an angry person this early in the morning’. How to make friends and influence people? I did feel my response was calm when I replied with ‘Excuse me, Who the hell do you think you are talking to?’ he had no answer but to hang up on me. I’m still awaiting an apology Mr TD, you have my number and my email address, I won’t wait forever, nor will we remove the post. Also, he said he’d spoken to Paul at least 20 times about the issues we had with PC World which it turns out to be just the once, you’d well remember any conversation you’d had with Mr TD.

Anyway, something else which has been bothering me (here we go you all say), is while at the most excellent A4U Expo or rather in the bar at some indecent time of the morning, whilst having an indepth conversation a young lady who works at a network sat down opposite me and started chatting - I thought it rather rude at the time as I was already talking to other people but answered her questions. She is very new to the industry so I stayed as pleasant as possible when she asked me if I’d been shopping. I replied that no I was actually here to attend the expo and she was very suprised and that as I was so close to London I’d have made the most of the opportunity to go spend ‘my husbands money’. For one - I’m not married, two - I have my own sodding money thank you very much, earned for being an affiliate and three - we’re not yokels, I actually live closer to central London than the venue was! Her boss could see she was peeing me off and gave her the nod to piss off and annoy someone else.

 That has been bubbling beneath the surface since - I feel better now I’ve got it out, so to speak.

I’ve had a good day so far, which is some kind of miracle for a Monday - my PC is working again thanks to Daniel from PC Help@Home.

RANT ALERT - RANT ALERT 

Been monitoring Woolworths for the past couple of weeks and I’ve noticed my epc has taken a nosedive. Upon further investigation it would seem somebody has been BNB on the program, we’ve asked Awin and they’ve told us that yes, a trial has started on a closed PPC group.

I’m intrigued that no-one has told us that has been happening, I don’t want to line the pockets of other affiliates thank you very much. I don’t want to be in the closed group, but I reserve the choice to not be in competition on PPC with a closed group. I’m very surprised and disappointed that Awin haven’t notified affiliates that this is happening and I look forward to their response.

I’ve posted the above on the A4U forum and I await Awin’s response with baited breathe - somehow I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with it!

Rant over, back to work.

Ok, here goes.

I was bored on Thursday night and I decided to set up a blog (which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time) so, I set up an account on blogger and wrote a small about me thing. I sent the link to my other half Paul, who is currently away on holiday and, typical of him I might add, he wanted me to have a ‘proper’ one. The Life & Times of an Affiliate Widow was the name I always said I’d use if I had a blog so the ‘baby was born’ the domain name was bought, Eric (wonderfully clever and technical Eric) was contacted by MSN at about 3pm (GMT) on Friday afternoon and told what roughly I wanted. By 8pm the whole bloody thing was live! Obviously there are still things to be tweaked, or so Eric tells me - I’m slightly tech-phobic - but here we are! Don’t worry the flower at the top of the page will be going although I’m not sure at the moment what will replace it.

This blog is not going to be just about work and the affiliate industry but also about life in general, the weird things I do (believe me I have so many quirks) and the madness that exists in my household.

For those that don’t know me I’m Welsh and moved to Surrey 13 or so years ago, I have no Welsh accent unless I’m drunk when bits of Welshness slip out. I’m a mother of 3, but I always says I have 4 kids - it’s just that the eldest one happens to be 41! I work full time in the Affiliate Marketing industry and I’m very passionate about what I do. I’m very straight talking so please don’t try to blind me with science there is black and white, very seldom anything in between, even though we are ruled by ‘grey areas’. I make mistakes, everybody does, apologise and move on. I try not to hold grudges but sometimes somebody will do something which I will see as so bad I can’t forgive or forget it - you know who you are! I’d rather sit alone in packed place than sit with people I cannot trust. On the other side of the coin I make a very good and loyal friend, just ask my friends and they’ll tell you that.

My kids - I have Keri who is 22 (I was 12 when I had her), Toby who is 11 and Tallulah 10. Of course Tallulah is not her real name, it’s the name I wanted to call her and actually the name she prefers, Tamarah is her ‘official’ name, but she is so much more a Tallulah!

I think everybody is suitably bored now, so I’ll try to post again soon. My mind is buzzing with stuff and I did promise Paul to spill on how I always walk to the left and not in a straight line, how I walk into things which I know are there and I can’t avoid them and my inability to deal with odd numbers! I know I’m a freak but so what - live and let live!

Hello and welcome to my blog. If you don’t know what a blog is you must be older than me or blonde (I’m allowed to say that as I’m blonde). Almost everybody I know now has a blog, my other half, my friends, my work collegues, even my kids want one.

I have decided to start mine to tell people what it’s like to live in my mad world. It’s very quiet this week because everybody is away and I’m home alone - for the first time in my entire life - I cannot believe the other people who share my life are so messy, I haven’t done housework this week because there isn’t any housework to do. I’ve decided, not that it’ll last for long though, that I’d like to become a man - not any kind of man mind you - I’d actually like to become my old man. I’ve been living his life this week, getting out of bed when I want, eating when I want, going out when I want. A major difference however is that I don’t have a me to bring me coffee, cook my food or pick up my dirty laundry off the floor and turn the leg of my sweatpants the right way around before they put it in the laundry and then hand it back all clean and smelling nice and the best part is men can pee standing up! Anywhere!

I work full time and have 3 kids, the eldest is at uni but spends as much time as she can at home eating her way through the food. I have a son aged 11 and a daughter aged almost 11 (no typo, really). I’m lucky that I work from home at our own business so I’m always around for the school run, trips and the phone calls to say ‘you’re son/daughter has had an accident and we’ve called the ambulance’. True, it’s happened more than once.

Anyway, I don’t want to bore anyone on my first post, I’ll try to post on a regular basis, unlike my friend Jude who hasn’t updated her blog since May.

If you’re still reading this far down God bless you. Catch you soon.