GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 36 - October 2016

it’s all work, no play. But I suppose that’s what it takes when your aim is to surpass all the competition. Once I reach my per- sonal target, I then have plenty of plans for spare time activities. What did you dream of doing, both pro- fessionally and personally, when you were a kid? Like many other kids that grew up in the ’80s, an air force pilot. It was the generation of action movies, and Top Gun was my favorite. If someone from out of town were vis- iting you, what’s the one place you’d take them to see? It would have to be the old town in the center. Great architecture, great weather, and authentic Spanish food and wine. When you need to get as far away from work as possible, where do you go? I have not reached that limit, but when I do, it will be Asia. It’s one area I have yet to see, but I would like to experience it as a lifestyle, not a holiday. If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be? First on the list would be David Bowie. His music is the first thing that gets switched on before commencing work. It helps with my creativity, and I found him to be an intriguing character. Then it would be Mick Jagger, Kurt Cobain, Axl If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why? The way affiliates are sometimes treated with contempt: Late payments, non-pay- ments, shaving, hacking. Erroneous soft- ware is rampant and needs to be cleaned up, which is another great thing about the GPWA. It’s a great resource to find out who is doing what. What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate? They don’t really understand it. I live quite far away, so when we talk it’s usually just family related. How do you manage your to-do lists? Do you use any special software to help you out? I have a daily routine, which I complete after updating the sites. Any- thing important I do straight away. For instance, if I add a new program, I will have five to six new pages completed for it within a few hours. How much time do you devote social networking for your sites? Not much. We do a little, but I have so far found that our time is better used creating organic results and repeat visitors. What’s the most difficult thing about running your sites? Time. There is not enough in the day, and I wish I could replicate myself. As many owners know, it’s hard to find someone like yourself to take on responsibilities. If they do exist, they are usually already in competition with me. What’s the best thing about running your sites? I get to choose who I work with, so I get to choose the best. No arguments. No stress. Just a great working team. What do you do to stay in shape — both physically and mentally? I used to work out regularly for many years, but in the last year or so I have dedicated more and more time to the work, mainly due to the increase in traffic. But I still aim to walk around 10 kilometers a day. Mentally, working keeps me focused and sharp. What do you do with your spare time? Spare time? What is that? At the moment, Rose and Eazy E, as they have entertained me so much in my lifetime and I would like to repay the favor. Name three things that people reading this magazine don’t know about you. 1. I left school and home at 15. 2. I have five cats. 3. I am a great cook. I had seen so much information — most of it wrong or based on old methods, or even on what others had heard or read — that I wanted to show it was possible to build a site adhering to Google’s terms and conditions, and at the same time lay down a roadmap of progress on what to do and not what to do. Mark rocks some fashionable stripes in his adopted country of Spain. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES Mark Taylor - WonderPunter 52 W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G