Saturday I did some work on the Shicon proposal first thing, then watched the Merseyside derby, then went to meet a few mates in Tooting for the 6 Nations clash between England and Wales at Twickenham (Rugby HQ according to the Saes – they’ve clearly never been to the Millenium).  Sat eve, got home around 7ish, worked for 3 hours on Impact Radius stuff – just trying to famiiarise myself with all the cool functionality, so I can sell it in better should opportunity arise.

Sunday was up and off to YO! Sushi – St Pauls for a sushi making course which was awesome.  I bought it for my mate Colin for his 40th last year, and got myself one too.  Through Red Letter Days, top 3 hours learning all about the history, origin, tradition and heritage of sushi, plus how to make maki, akimaki, nigiri, and even made a hand roll. Straight from there to Stamford Bridge, to the Hotels4u box, and Chelsea vs. Arsenal.  Top spot of lunch and cracking game, shared with Steven Moore – client at Hotels4u, plus his boss, and his son, his son’s mate – a girl who looked like the ugly sister of Angelina Jolie, and was apparently a mate of Carla Bruni.  Her stuck up attitude was tedious, but I didn’t speak to her much so didn’t phase my afternoon, nor change my view of stuck up birds.

I left there around 7ish, quick pint with Steve and the lads from Artemis8 and Sletoh – couple of decent affiliates for Hotels4u, and went home.  Ignore temptation to go to Colin’s superbowl party at his place in Earlsfield, and got the laptop out again to complete the Shicon proposal for this afternoon’s meeting.

It paid off.  Got the business, and it’s a nice proposition, and piece of work for us.  Top clients, and really buoyed by being completely honest and upfront about what we offer, and getting the brief.

Also picked up a design brief from Red Letter Days (Corporate) this afternoon, which is a key moment in the evolution of Hatmatic, and very excited about that too.

What was my point? I think not to take the weekend off, and not to work yourself to death all week, just maintaining a happy medium, busy of course, but happy, and keeping the fires lit on all fronts.  Monday (today) wasn’t a baptism of fire, a get over hangover, a remind myself what I do, it was a simple continuation of the mindset and effort put in over the past two weeks.

I’m all for more of the same.

Currently working on a proposal to help these guys generate customers: Shicon. It’s taken me a while to get to a point where I think I know what they need to do! It’s interesting because we’re not talking standard affiliate program.  The customer proposition is quite unique and the TA is very defined.  It’s not a case of driving shoppers to a basket.  This is a thinker.

I’ve also written my 6 month and 12 month dreamlines and really working towards those. These are dreams you want to become reality and by writing them down in a kind of task manager / to-do list it makes them more achieveable.  So says Tim Ferriss.

Blorking then – blogging about working. Geddit.

The past week has been a long walk to new business, I’ve devised a new approach to prospect mining and remain hopeful that soon traction will take hold and Hatmatic will progress with a forward lean.  Into a headwind – of this there is no doubt, there’s always been one – but one which we can confidently lean into.

With that in mind I must lean on.

We’re listening to this in the office at the moment: As Heard on Hatmatic Radio II

Last week was very productive for me.  Had a lot of meetings about prospective projects, as well as a couple of referrals for meetings which is always nice – getting a letter from someone saying you should talk to Matt Brown about this because he is an expert on subject X.  Really gives one a lift.

Today I’m sat on the sofa working on a few things, not least a start-up t-shirt printing and delivery service for key seasonal Sports markets – hoping to collaborate with a friend out in the Alps.  Think Timothy Ferriss: 4 hour Work week mentality, creating a Passive Income business. I like the idea of building some horizontals within the Hatmatic service offering too.

Interestingly while researching off the shelf PHP/ASP solutions I remembered these dudes who my Brother Phil has used before to promote his PBTs from some of his illo work on Good Infection. Top proposition from RIPT Apparel, nice UI, nice journey, created short term demand frenzy.  All good.

Also writing a document right now about what we do, and why we are good at it.  It’s for a pitch for these guys: Notcutts (don’t worry that’s a holding page; the e-commerce site is at design desk). I’m enjoying being direct and honest and writing simple straightforward copy about what you need for Affiliate Marketing & SEO and why Hatmatic are good at helping.

Got three other business pitches next week, and what’s satisfying is that the story is becoming quite uniform in terms of what we offer, which I’m delighted with because for a few years I was happy to say we do “whatever you need” online.  We know a lot about online but we are specialists in Affiliate & SEO.  The other reason why I’m delighted is that the feedback we’ve had this year so far from interested parties has been very positive.  If we can turn that positivity into revenue then we must be doing something right.

Lastly, as I want to get this stuff licked before Toulouse v Harlequins (need Quins to do us a favour so there’s something to play for next weekend – Cardiff Blues visit The Stoop. Not sure how authentic I’ll sound cheering Toulouse but there we are.  It’s complicated. So lastly, for Soccer Millionaire I’m pleased to report 38 new customers since we launched on Impact Radius with Rob Berrisford & CK Net – top work and hopefully going to launch with another key partner next week.

Drop us a note if you want to chat.

This is what we’re listening to: As Heard on Hatmatic Radio

He died on July 31st 2009, after a very short illness.  It was really unexpected when he was diagnosed on June 12th, but in a way in was good for him that he died quickly as he had a very serious case of the big C.  Kidney was the main problem, had spread to liver and lung by the time it as spotted. Game over.

Such an unnecessary way to go, for a self confessed hypochondriac!

That said, he died without pain I think, despite a 6 weeks of confusion and concern and worry and bad advice and bad GP. (for another time).

He made it home and died the day after – fuck sake!! When I think about it OH MY GOD! It was brutal, clinical, swift.

I want to say Big Up to Peter J Brown.  My father. My hero.

Julie York and Bex Haggart are the two heroines I have worked with. They are ace.

They help these people look really professional: A4uExpo. It’s fair to sat that the London event last October was spectacular.  The next one’s in May in Munich.  Last year’s affair in Amsterdam was awesome.

They also work with these guys: Artemis8, and they are wicked people.  Setting the mark for Performance Marketing.  Load of ace people there too.

Most relevantly, Julie and Bex have been working most recently on the UK launch of Impact Radius, and I’ve got to know them both quite well through this. They occasionally come to London from their Cornish base.  Last time they came up was for the Hatmatic Christmas Gathering at the Market Porter in Borough Market, which was sweet of them.  Unfortunately I wasn’t very well that day, and I left very soon after they arrived.  They deserve better.

They also sent me a wonderful Christmas present – I haven’t picked it up yet from the depot in Streatham – but it’s widely believed to be a package containing Cornish Ale.  Bless them! As soon as I pick this up I will be thanking them directly.

I doubt that the UK launch of IR could have gone as well as it has, with key industry commentators commenting, without the expertise of Julie and Bex.

If you are looking for a company who are at the top of their game in PR, particularly for companies working in the Digital & Media space, there are none better.

Big Up to Julie and Bex!

I was taken immediately by the concept of the product when I was first told about it back in October last year by Nicky Iapino, who was working on a consultancy brief with the development team behind the project: Estelea.

Per Pettersen, the man behind the world’s first affiliate network technology – Commission Junction – runs Estalea, and when Nicky explained to me the calibre and heritage of the management team involved with Per I immediately took note.  Todd Crawford, Wade Crang and Lisa Riolo are the three co-founders along with Per who is CEO. They are based out in Santa Barbara, a short hop from the Estalea HQ.

Nicky was integral to developing the product for the UK market and I enjoyed a 6-month contract working full time with her and Ricki Jones. Ricki remains the on the books of the UK business, heading up the team.

So what is Impact Radius?

Impact Radius links performance advertising to TV, radio, print, outdoor and online distribution channels—delivering to advertisers and media partners opportunities for growth and profit. By providing the tools and technology to negotiate and manage relationships directly on a single platform, Impact Radius is changing how performance deals are transacted across all media channels. With its “clear box” philosophy, Impact Radius is championing a new direction for performance advertising by increasing transparency in relationships and improving decision-making for media partners, advertisers and agencies.

We’ve been working with them beyond my contract period, and have launched a couple of campaigns on the platform – New Year – New business.  It’s taking time to get traction because due to it being a silent product for so long, there aren’t many media partners signed up to the directory at present.  This will change of course.

I really like the concept of advertisers being able to engage directly with key media partners and affiliates.  As we all know, Pareto’s principle is magnified in this channel traditionally, and it truly is the 5% of partners who generate 95% of revenue in all but very few cases.  For these 5% partners, the super affiliates, margin is key and if there is an opportunity to earn a higher bounty as a result of the advertiser having more commission to play with then it has to be a good thing.

In turn, advertisers know who their key partners are, so it must grate slightly to see increasing levels of revenue generated through these partners, with the incumbent affiliate network taking ever increasing levels of override. By working direct advertisers – and agencies – can remove the traditional override cost level – anything from 15% to 30% – and work with Impact Radius at an override cost starting at just 10%, and going downward as volume increases.

The three functions which every performance campaign needs are incorporated by Impact Radius into their built-for-purpose platform are tracking, reporting and payment.  The UI is really clean and logical, there are still a few bugs, and that’s to be expected.  There will be subsequent product releases, which will make the platform even slicker.

All in all it’s about time – the market’s right for this product, and there isn’t really anything else out there like it, certainly not where they are charging on the traditional – and hugely discounted – override model.  Tradedoubler have the Toolbox, DGM have a Lite, stripped down version of their interface, DC Storm have gone sideways with their PPC tracking and reporting tool and now offer an affiliate tracking solution, but they all charge on a hybrid cost model – CPC, and access fee.

Impact Radius have introduced an activation fee – £250 I believe, and that’s it.  Everything else is starting override of 10%.

It’s an obvious agency tool – provide your clients with an additional service, launch new campaigns with direct relationships with half a dozen key partners, then look to appoint a network to generate sales through the long tail – the 1 or 2 sales per month from the 50+ partners also signed up to the campaign.

Looking forward to seeing how the industry receive it.  I expect a few players will push out some ‘challenging’ PR, but ultimately the UK networks are going to have to evolve, and up their game, and demonstrate to clients what they do for the fees they charge.  Exciting times ahead.

Isle of Wight photos – Jan 1, 2010

Enjoy!

Looking forward to working with Hotels4u in 2010 and to kick things off we’ve launched an affiliate competition for January. Now’s a great time to start thinking about getting away from it all for a couple of weeks later in the Year.  Hotels4u.com offers low prices on fabulous hotels across Europe and Africa – Turkey, Egypt, Greek Islands among the favorites – and the UK affiliate team have just launched an awesome competition throughout January to encourage program take up as well as try to achieve higher sales volumes through existing affiliates.

Prize details:
A free 7 night stay at the 5 star, all inclusive Mitsis Rodos Village in Rhodes, from 21 April 2010 to 28 April 2010.

Competition details:
For every validated sale made on the Hotels4u affiliate program  between 1st and 31st January, you will receive one numbered ticket  which will be entered into the prize draw. At the end of the month,  winning numbers will be selected at random.

Affiliates are entitled to an unlimited number of tickets, so the more sales you make, the greater the chance of one of your numbers being selected.

We’re also working on some top projects including Diary.com, as well as pushing Impact Radius through the right channels to the masses. Soccer Millionaire and Spot the Football are offering very competitive commissions for new first deposits, the latter paying revenue share on all transactions for 12 months. Well worth checking out the game plays on both these sites anyway – you could win a large sum of cash for predicting the scores of the next round of Premiership games, or you could win a brand new Range Rover for playing the old classic Spot the Football.

Please drop us a note or leave a message if you have any questions about any of our clients.  In time we’ll develop a campaign category, but just keeping the news ticking over for the time being.

I have had a lot of people asking me how the volunteering went, and after two or three attempts to summarise while incorporating all the relevant details, I found I needed to refine, re-engineer my response.  I had been describing the centre, the set-up, the role of the volunteers, the message, the building shape and form, and the jobs I undertook.  I didn’t really get the response I was hoping for; truth be told I didn’t really have a response anticipated in my head.

What I now say to people is that I was fortunate to meet a wide range of people who live under the radar of “normal” daily life in London (careful).

People, some of whom choose to be on the street, or out of home, and are perhaps too stubborn or proud to ask for help from friends or family.  People who see this as a short term problem, one that they are keen to work out themselves.  Certainly this was the case for Armad (sic) a Greek gentleman who believed in the power of positive thinking.  He was a Forex trader before the bank stopped his credit facility and he was unable to buy stock, and he then couldn’t pay his bills, then his home was eventually repossessed.  He lives in a doorway of a block of flats in Chelsea, and was visiting the centre to be somewhere warm, and have hot food and a drink. He talked about the psychology of being successful, rather than the learning of a particular trade or skill that one shouldn’t worry about money or else money will consume you. He gave me some papers to read.  Papers he himself reads daily, thus training his mind to be positive.  We chatted for about 3 hours, and I saw him on subsequent days, and he was always very polite and always smiling. Incredible really. He was grateful to me that I had taken the time to sit with him and chat.

I met Richard, a fragile pale skinned chap in his late 40s who sleeps in his car in Epsom, and had been given a lift up to Hammersmith by a friend so he could potentially find more suitable, longer term sleeping arrangements. He seemed to me like frightened man, and I tried to imagine what his world had been like before he was homeless, but it’s impossible because every guest is so different. Every situation is unique. I can only anticipate that he was dealing in his own way with his situation. That’s the only commonality: the situation.

I talked with Michael, a gentleman who initially was quite bitter about the Christmas effort of Crisis, how it’s a short term fix for a chronic long term problem, and I listened, and retorted, and our conversation evolved into the power of hope, and how will and intent and blind faith will see you right.  He talked about leaving UK and its problems and going to the New World.  I offered that perhaps the New World was a tad warmer than this place, and he seemed to like that! He quoted passages from the Bible, beautiful excerpts about the message from God.  He was interested in my view, and he took the time to listen to my thoughts on wide ranging subjects.  He struck me as a wise man, and I wondered why he was homeless.  He had a mobile phone and was chatting about plans for the following day with someone at the other end.  He went on the bus at the end of the first day, which was taking guests to the overnight centre in Becton.  He said he usually sleeps on the street, but a bed’s a bed. I didn’t see him again.  He acted like the world owed him, and the world had let him down, but I didn’t question why he felt that way.  Apart from the obvious predicament he was currently in, it wasn’t my place to question his feelings, only to listen and offer my response, in a non-aggressive way.

Richard and Michael were like chalk and cheese and I found myself wanting to keep them separate in conversation.  Richard was timid and Michael was bold, and there was no need to try to talk to them together.  I found myself wanting to protect Richard from Michael, and I took him down to the reception area to find out about lifts to other centres.  I was drawn to him, and felt I should do all I could to help, though honestly there wasn’t much I could do other than show willing.  He was grateful, and asked if I was going to be there the next day.  I wasn’t, and he seemed disappointed. I didn’t see him again either.

The point is I was fortunate to spend quality time, hours, with individuals each with their own story, their own challenges, their own journeys. It has completely changed my initial perception of the homeless people of London, and the desire to help in any way at all, for a few days over Christmas is really no big deal. I plan to do this again next year, and mot probably with the same Crisis group – Hammersmith Afternoons.  The reason for this is that I was also fortunate to meet an amazing and diverse group of individuals who were volunteers.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about the post Christmas feeling – one of reflection, perhaps reflecting on the feast of food and wine of Christmas, the tree, lots of gifts from friends and family, warm fire, lots of TV, no work, phone calls from afar, general merriment, and now the lapse prior to another large and frenetic party mood around the celebration of the coming of another year.  Friends and songs, and intentions and plans, what you’re going to do more of less of etc.

I  spent Christmas with a good friend and her family and it was a fun packed day, carols at the local church, stockings full of gifts, a tremendous lunch – turkey and all its trimmings, champagne and red wine, and beer, and games, the Queen, laughter, thoughts of absent friends and family

This year I’ve been working with Crisis for Christmas and it’s been a real eye-opener so to speak. In between the traditional Christmas event I have been at a temporary homeless centre in West London, helping Crisis – the national charity for single homeless people.  It is quite a humbling experience.  The guests are an assortment of individuals, men and women, old and young, who for a variety of reasons live on the streets of London, or have until recently done so, and are now in sheltered accommodation of one form or another.

My tasks have varied across the four shifts I have so far done.  Door opener, Canteen mingler, befriender, information provider, car park attendant, corner watcher, bin emptier, light turner-offer, common room cleaner.  There are approximately 100 volunteers per shift, and approximately 150 guests come through the doors per day.  The purpose of the cntre and its volunteers is to offer free advice, support, help to the guests.  A hot meal, a place to sit in the warmth, a hot drink, a cold drink, TV, chess, hairdressing, nail-clipping, massage, showers, a chat, a cuddle, clothing, advice, introductions, biscuits.  Dignity. For seven days between 23rd and 30th December this is Crisis for Christmas.

I’m off there again this afternoon.  It’s peeing with rain outside – we’ve been lucky with the weather so far.  It’s been very cold, but only rained a little on the first day. It’s nearly 1pm now and it’s been raining since dawn.  There are homeless people outside now who do not have anywhere to go, except a doorway, or an underpass, or a piece of cardboard. Such thoughts really do create a significant sense of perspective.  And the acknowledgment that the Homeless people in London take every day as it comes as a challenge to find the basics of food, clothing and shelter – the things most people in our society take for granted.

I’m going to leave my home shortly and head to Hammersmith to start my 3.15 – 22.00 shift, and at the end that’s the end of my work for Crisis for Christmas.  I’ve had the privilege to meet some incredible people, with tales, and honesty, and strength.  And laughter.  Equally fascinating people the volunteers and the guests, the latter with the more formidable challenge, but I guess all facing challenges.  I’ll be sad when it ends, but can’t forget for the guests it only ends if they meet the challenge and find a way to get off the streets and into a bedsit, or a council flat, and on some benefits, possibly working again, possibly reuniting with lost family or friends.

A huge big up to Crisis and all the key volunteers and Green badges, and also the guests who I have spoken to and learnt about their lives.