tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:39:59 +0000Affiliate marketing, SEO, web design and stuff from Welsh business, Day Trip Mediahttp://daytripmedia.co.uk/index.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)Blogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-1083247456186815548Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:31:00 +00002009-10-27T02:11:29.198ZWell it's been long time since my last post, and as I mentioned last time, my focus has been on making movie magic. I've taken a bit of an aside from my web based antics to joint produce a feature by the title of Devil's Bridge. You can see the trailer here. So far we're just about at the point where we have a visual first cut. But now we have to concentrate on giving the film a shit-hot sound http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2009/10/devils-bridge.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-2783845912587738691Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:29:00 +00002009-02-15T13:16:31.378ZI'm a great believer in the principles of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) when it comes to web design, you just need to look at any of my websites to see that. It still amazes me the way some people use the web and completely misinterpret the whole function and hierarchy of it all. I think a lot of casual users still struggle to understand what's going on. Running a number of websites, this is http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2009/02/when-people-dont-comprehend-web.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-6731217063946613495Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:13:00 +00002008-12-17T20:37:29.712ZI've been a massive fan of Webmaster Radio for a couple of years now, there's a few shows that are always entertaining and informative. There's also lots of audio adverts for webmarketing related products - one of which that drives me potty every time I hear it. It's still running which I find amazing as it must be costing money. It's amazing, because until today I still didn't know who the http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/12/importance-of-easily-understandable-url.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-2436117353194262959Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:59:00 +00002008-11-19T14:37:17.473ZBeen a busy few months, I've had a lot of work to do around getting new sites done and launched, updating broken affiliate links and preparing new projects for the off. It's all great fun, but I really feel like I could do with three clones of me, all of which knew how to implement the ideas I currently have. And if that's not enough, I've decided that what I really need to do is try out a new http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/11/changing-lanes.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-4849344052280000094Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:03:00 +00002008-09-25T11:26:54.999+01:00I'm just thinking I should call this the scam blog, following the popularity of my rogue publishing write up. Well, seems I fallen foul of some more criminal activity this week, as £1,400 has disappeared from my business account, leaving me well hacked off. So far one transaction has appeared on my statement for £650 spent at a BMW modification online store. I waiting for the rest of the money tohttp://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/09/stolen-bank-details.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-6840091558722823228Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:55:00 +00002008-08-10T11:17:14.360+01:00A lot of things have been conspiring to keep me from work recently, I crashed my car, had to search for a new one, trip to London, family visits, Summer holidays etcetera. I'm up to my eyes, I have roughly 7 or 8 sites that I have all the content for, but just need the time to sit down and put the actual sites together. I also need to look into getting another dedicated server for Playing Bingo, http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/08/888s-getting-me-in-state.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-4844029843178688867Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:19:00 +00002008-07-03T23:54:01.643+01:00I thought rather than moaning, I would take the opportunity to say something nice for a change. It was a toss up between writing about Globalcom's affiliate platform being very broke and user unfriendly or talking about my top analytics, as I upgraded my account yesterday (for the second time). So, as being positive being is a lot easier than talking about Globalcom, I instead want to big it up http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/07/in-praise-of-clicky-analytics.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-446423407996878641Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:43:00 +00002008-06-10T13:39:36.035+01:00Following a week of massive traffic surges thanks to ITV's lack of planning with their Bingo Night Live site, I was taking a look at the way the SERPs had moved in the last few days. It says a lot about Google that ITV have moved up to the top on some variations of the term pushing me down a couple of places. But then something struck me as annoying / amusing / WTF? The people at ITV are running http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/06/gambling-related-adwords-allowed-if.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-5225677822376242823Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:45:00 +00002008-06-05T14:22:37.035+01:00From May the 26th, some new laws that partially govern the way merchants advertise online came into effect. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) is a EU wide set of regulations that the is in place. The laws outlaw a number of practises that companies and businesses use to unfairly market themselves, in the aim of protecting consumers from being duped. The BBC have a good overview of http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/06/why-merchant-supplied-content-for.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-8370134500857340981Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:55:00 +00002008-06-04T23:42:22.366+01:00It's a good idea if you're going to launch a TV show with a major online element to do a bit of pre-planning and preparation to get your site well ranked ahead of its air date. Unfortunately, the people behind ITV's brand new show Bingo Night Live didn't think ahead and do a bit of ground work to get their programme's web site up in the SERPs. Currently they're down in 9th place, whilst my site http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/06/poor-seo-planning-from-itvs-bingo-night.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-3569253968457778398Sat, 24 May 2008 21:04:00 +00002008-05-25T01:20:03.505+01:00Is that your cheap link building agency will annoy your affiliates enough to say something about it. Step forward SpectraBingo, who have obviously just started a link building campaign with some cheap service from the Indian subcontinent.How do I know this? Well, I've seen a couple of really bad / incomprehensible posts at the Playing Bingo forum, both with IP addresses based in India and both http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/05/one-of-dangers-of-outsourcing-your-link.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-4512261325308200951Wed, 21 May 2008 06:59:00 +00002008-05-21T08:32:26.155+01:00If you do a lot of affiliate work, sooner or later you'll spot offers for affiliate incentives. In the Bingo field there's a lot of them about - extra bonuses and competition prizes ranging from cars, to cash, to free mugs. It's a nice little perk, and I've had some nice little treats recently as a result of affiliate incentive schemes. So, in the tradition of many other blogs run by affiliate http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/05/perks-of-trade-bingo-affiliate.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-6425110238526152810Thu, 08 May 2008 09:13:00 +00002008-05-08T16:01:42.714+01:00If you've been following this still fairly new blog, you'll have spotted I tend to be a bit of a moaner. Well, not wanting to buck that trend, I thought I would quickly turn my sights onto another thing about working with affiliate programmes that really ticks me off, this time to do with the actual creatives they supply. Today my gripe is about big banners, or more precisely, the lack of them. http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/05/big-banner-gripe-literally.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-2769390915565533152Tue, 06 May 2008 08:07:00 +00002008-05-06T11:00:24.024+01:00I'm sure what I'm about to mention could be applied to any number of affiliate programmes, not just bingo, and in applied, I mean by braver people than me. Why brave? Well, partially because it involves breaking copyright laws. Ok, so I'm checking a video feed on one of my sites to see the latest bingo videos, when I spot one for Madonna and Justin Timberlake. Slightly surprised, I visit this http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/05/new-and-dodgy-bingo-affiliate-promotion.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-5752112574081608161Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:01:00 +00002008-04-27T23:32:26.287+01:00I have to admit to being a serial website maker. I get ideas and bounce from one thing to the next. I'm not sure why I've worked that way, I think it comes from my background in Fine Art, the idea being you're always working on a number of new 'creations' at a time.Unfortunately, for the first few years of working on web sites, my ideas around monetising them were pretty crude. I've been running http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/narrow-escapes-sites-and-ideas-i-let.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-6396837023416664464Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:25:00 +00002008-04-22T22:47:04.363+01:00As a part of the ongoing eBay partner network upgrade, I've finally got my new and improved caravan site uploaded and running. There were some heart attacks along the way, like when the hosting company decided to make my account extra secure without telling me and render the BANS CMS inoperable. But that aside, I'm quite pleased with the work done as it's pretty much trebled the size of the http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/cheap-caravans-site-upgraded-and.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-5820473375435410039Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:14:00 +00002008-04-21T14:44:10.178+01:00One thing I've learnt the last couple of years working in the online gambling and gaming industry is it can be a pretty seedy place. I was spoilt working at the BBC, I realise this. No commercial concerns, an inclusive culture that embraced the internet and working to a certain level of editorial accurateness and balance. I've carried a lot of that ethos into what I do know, but as I've found in http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/some-things-that-p-me-off-about-gaming.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-5036899596885410249Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:45:00 +00002008-04-18T09:45:48.160+01:00I set about updating my editor kit javascript snippets on one site today, ready for the end of the month switch off of the eBay affiliate programme at Commission Junction. Rather unhelpfully the documentation at the eBay Partners site simply suggests that the best way to update your tracking codes is to completely generate a new code at the Editor Kit.That's all well and good if you've only usedhttp://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/easy-way-to-change-editor-kit.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-4161215989468075322Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:32:00 +00002008-04-17T11:52:07.913+01:00One of the best things about getting out of a typical office set-up and 9 to 5 job is the fact you don't have to deal with constant pestering from line managers, colleagues, etc. In fact, not having to deal with people like this was one of the main reasons I took a voluntary redundancy from the BBC and took the gamble in starting my own business. It's been bliss, but unfortunately I'm fast http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/affiliate-managers-small-rant-and.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-701899274625379480Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:10:00 +00002008-04-08T15:31:12.458+01:00 document.write(""); If you use the eBay affiliate programme as part of your affiliate marketing toolkit, you're no doubt currently busy changing over the links to update to the brand new eBay Partners Network (EPN). If you're not then you'd better get going, you have until the end of the month to switch your links otherwise your commissions will not be tracked and as a result, paid. http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/updating-ebay-powered-links-and-new.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951103484403549554.post-7810813889757713042Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:26:00 +00002008-04-08T12:25:21.054+01:00I initially set this site up as a public face for my new business that I started on taking a voluntary redundancy in June 2006. I quickly threw up a one page site with the intention of adding a load of galleries and pages about the work I'd done. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the cut and thrust of having to work at my business quickly put paid to the big project I'd had planned for http://daytripmedia.co.uk/2008/04/new-look-site-day-trip-media-v20.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Dio Bach)0