GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 14 - October 2010

What time management tips can you offer us? I cannot claim credit for thinking up any of these systems but these are things I have copied from books or other people that I find work for me. Here goes: Write yourself a to-do list of everything you need to do. Go through that list and make a note next to each task estimating how long it will take to complete. Decide what is urgent, open your di- ary and plug in when you will do those tasks. Decide a start and end time. Now apply the ABCDE system. A is for things that are VERY important and NEED to be done, B is for things that will have an impact if you don’t get them done, C is for things it would be nice to do but that would have no real consequence if you didn’t, D is for things you can delegate to someone else to do and E is for everything you can eliminate that shouldn’t have been on your list anyway. You can now plan any A’s in your diary, and if you run out of A’s then add in the B’s. However, I suggest keeping 10 to 20 percent of the time free in your diary for unforeseen things that will crop up. The more you use this method the bet- ter you will get at predicting what will come up and at planning your time. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A few other affiliate-specific tips to help you avoid time-wasting distractions include: Get a really good spam filter; I prefer Spam Arrest. You really don’t need all those time-wasting e-mails and you can blacklist time wasters so you never have to see their e-mails again. Get a telephone screening system so that you’re not interrupted during the day with sales calls or affiliate manager calls from guys you have never met, usually from casinos you have never heard of. After 26 such calls in one day I had to invest in a call-screening system, and it has been the best invest- ment I ever made! What does your family think about your chosen profession? Some of them work for the company! My brother Rob is now our operations manager, my father (Mar- tin) is the webmaster for freeslots4u.com and my uncle Tony is our bookkeeper. My wife thinks my job is great and loves going to all the conferences; she would have me attend every one and take her to them all if she had her way. When I first started as an affiliate, no one really got it. My mum would tell people, “He plays on his com- puter all day and casinos pay him for it.” I suspect all her friends thought I was a pro- fessional gambler. 1. 2. You’ve been a GPWA member for over eight years. How has the organization changed since you joined? When I first joined Cindy ran the show. Membership was a bit of a kudos factor and some webmasters used to put “GPWA Member” in their siggys on e-mails. In the early days when I was more involved in the link-building side of our business it really helped me find great link partners. It is also a great source of knowl- edge and can help keep you up to date with industry news and goings-on. I feel very strongly that affiliates should stick together; organizations like the GPWA help make that possible. If one or two affili- AGE: 33 HOMETOWN: Hull, U.K. LIVINGIN: Cranfield, Bedfordshire, U.K. FAVORITEFOOD: Fish-and-Chips MUSTREAD BOOK: The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz SOMEOF MANYSITES: Slotsjam.com freeslots4u.com, freevideopoker4u.com onlineslots4u.com slotmachines247.com Andy (center) in the band Lockdown. 47 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series