When I was putting AdSense on the site I did a fair bit of reading from so-called experts who allegedly made a living from AdSense but it looks like they’re probably making a living because of all the people who visit their site trying to find how to become rich via AdSense! In short the only way off making a useful amount from Adsense is to have a lot of visitors and write about topics which bring in big-paying advertisers who will pay more for people clicking on their adverts (insurers, etc). This is not what my blog does so I guess I can give up on that idea, but I think that I will keep the adverts as long as they are unobtrusive and still earn me a little money.

Currently there are offers for Burger King, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Strada, Café Rouge, ASK, Zizzi and plenty of others. Yesterday I printed off a voucher for for ASK which offers 2 for 1 on main meals, and went out to ASK in Canterbury with Emma. I had Polpette al Forno, Garlic Bread, and a coke, whilst she had the Terrina Mediterranea and a coke and this came to and a grand total of £17.45. Bargain.

If you are planning on going out for a meal then it’s worth remembering that there are plenty of offers out there, and a couple of minutes on the web can save you a fair bit of money.

Tom posted a list of ‘Targets for 2010‘, and clearly defined them as “not new year’s resolutions” which is probably the way to go as I would say that New Year’s Resolutions usually have some negativety attached to them rather than being something positive to aspire to e.g. Give up sweets, drink less alcohol, etc.

So I might as well put a few targets on here, and see if I can complete any of them, and just like Tom I’ll try and keep you updated as at least I can always come back to this post as a reference.

1. Decorate spare room – I have a room that is currently storing junk, but which needs to be fully decorated (plastered, painted, carpeted, etc).

2. Pay off credit cards – I’ve currently got £2439.30 on my credit cards which is mostly debt I racked up whilst renovating the house having spent the majority of my savings on my deposit (plus some other bits). It is interest free until May, so I’ll try and get rid of some of it and then find another interest free card to transfer over to.

3.Lose a substantial amount of weight – OK, this is always in there. We know what needs to be done, so just do it.

4. Cycle to work at least once a week – I like cycling, I am only 2.3 miles from work, so I should cycle more. Yet again it’s that simple.

5. Take more photographs - and ones that other people may find interesting.

6. Visit more places - Okay so quite wide-ranging but I now have a ladyfriend who I would like to take to places other than Thanet.

That’s it for now then, and we’ll see how things go.

Customer service is an important part of running an organisation for many reasons, the main being aiding retention, gaining new customers, and improving the organisation. This is even more important nowadays as there is more competition, customers are better informed, and customer have higher expectations making them more valuable

It is clear though that there are a lot of companies around who miss out on opportunities for positive publicity and are clearly lacking in regards to their customer service. Research into customer service and specifically the cost of poor customer service suggests that £1 spent on preventing poor customer service will save £1,000 in subsequent lost trade through delivering poor customer service. Businesses need to realise that without customers they are nothing, and that they are not an interruption to work but the reason for it. This seems to get lost on some and at the end of the day it will mean lost business at a time when they should be doing everything they can to increase it.

I’m sure we’ve all received good and bad customer service and the fact is that if I receive good service I will promote that business to 5 other people, but if I receive bad customer service then you can be sure that I will relay that to 25 people, and the fact is that no matter how good your advertising may be it is word of mouth can make or break you.

I enjoy promoting local businesses and if I’ve had a good experience then I am more than happy to promote them on this blog or recommend them to friends so I think I will start writing a few posts on here to reward those who have provided good customer service. Those who have failed miserably can no longer expect support from me (you know who you are). This should not only give good businesses some more exposure but should also help you the customer when deciding on where to spend your money. Of course these are only my views and customer service is something that needs to be constantly monitored and improved, but I know you are all intelligent enough to know this and to use this information as a guide along with other information available to you.

You can read the details of the offer on the Eurotunnel website, but to benefit from it, simply call the booking centre on 08705 700 800 and quote ‘15 years’. You can’t book online or on the day of travel and booking must be made at least one day before you leave. Tickets are non-amenable and non-refundable and the offer will last until all the cheap tickets run out so book quickly!

What a good offer.

I’m contemplating getting a day off work and getting some booze and bits for Christmas and New Year… oh and baguettes, you can’t go to france without buying a baguette… it’s the law!

I added Google Adsense to the blog on 11th June 2009 with a banner advert and a sidebar advert which pays varying amounts depending on page impressions (visits to the site) and also actual clicks on the adverts. It’s a slow process to get income on this blog as its got a wide range of content, most of it personal, and so it doesn’t have a certain type of reader to whom I can target. Since 11th June I’ve had 42,267 page impressions and 300 advert clicks which have earned me the grand total of £42.50 which isn’t a great amount for just under 5 months, but it’s been picking up and I suppose it’s better than nothing.

I decided this week that it would be good to see if there were other ways to earn money from the site and so I came across Tradedoubler, which allows you to put specific adverts on your site from a variety of sources. You have to have your site approved by the advertiser and once that’s done you can choose from a variety of their adverts to put on your site. On Tradedoubler there are hardly any, if none at all, that pay for impression and clicks like Google does, and most of them work on a commission basis, so if someone clicks on an advert on your site and buys something you will get a flat fee or a percentage of the sale which varies from advertiser to advertiser.

So these adverts do different things and Google will give me a daily income, whilst I’m hoping that Tradedoubler will pay larger amounts but less frequently.

The good thing with Tradedoubler is that I can select which adverts I want on the site so you can be assured that there will only be adverts relevant to my readers and which I think people may find useful. So if you do see an advert on the site for something you were going to buy then I would be grateful if you followed the link on this site and earned me some money!

Here is an example of the types of adverts, and if you hover over it you should see that it has a referral link which will then forward to the actual Waterstones site:

Update (4/1/10): I’ve stopped using Tradedoubler as it was earning me nothing. Google Adsense is still earning money but I need to get site hits up so that I get more clicks.

The glasses are called Savannah Bauhinia by the way...

I knew they would be a little while coming because I’d got an email via Facebook from one of the ex-students where I work who is now employed by SelectSpecs *hello Chris* and works on their web-development and marketing. Coincidences eh?

The offer is still running so I think I’ll actually put another order in for a different design whilst stocks last and if you want more convincing then have a listen to what Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has to say:

Things like having to get a new alternator on the car as well as having to renew my car insurance have not helped, and I’m sure not having a car would save me money but it is one of those things that I do actually use a lot. So basically, cutting down on socialising is the way to go from now on.

Evil things....

This post was also inspired by the fact I spent yesterday night worrying about my new Virgin creditcard I signed up for in August as I received my statement this month which said I’d not made my minimum payment, I’d been charged a late fee (£12) and that I’d also been charged interest (£28.48), and that my 0% interest free period had been taken away which should’ve been going until May 2010. Scouring the forums shows that this is something that Virgin and MBNA are quite happy to do without any warning and usually state back to their ‘terms & conditions’ to uphold the ruling. My problem was that I believed I’d paid more than my minimum payment, £65 more in fact and so I got onto the phone to Virgin today, went on hold for about 10 minutes, and then got the answer that I’d paid too early!

The statements come on the 15th of each month, and you are asked to pay your minimum payment by the 3rd day of the following month, and anything else you pay in outside of these dates just goes towards repaying your debt and not counting as a minimum payment! So basically you have a 2 week window to make the minimum payment which sounds absolutely stupid. Anyway the point is that I managed to get the 0% offer reinstated, I’ve recouped the £28.48 interest, and my mind is a little more at ease but this has made me realise that I need to get rid of as much of my credit card debt by that May 2010 deadline to avoid massive hassle when I have to start paying interest on top. I couldn’t get the £12 late fee back because in their eyes I hadn’t made the minimum payment (although I’d paid earlier), but I will settle for that and have now set up a direct debit for the minimum payment to avoid this happening again, so I’m safe until May.

I really don’t like being in debt, but that is what buying a house does to you (along with associated costs) and so I must remember that my lifestyle must change too. Not drastically but a few less nights out a month, a few less takeaways, and it’ll give me an extra £100 a month to pay off my debt. Getting rid of the debt is a priority. I miss being debt-free  (which I was 6 months ago) and will do everything I can to be debt-free. I’ve got some ideas and every little bit counts. I cannot be lazy and just let the time idle away.

Mission: Pay-off £2,018 in 7 months. It can be done.

I have the moneysavingexpert.com newsletter sent to my inbox and one of the links today was for 9 months balance transfer with Virgin and with 0% balance transfer fee. Bonus! Normally there is something like 3% of the amount transferred as a fee, and as I want to transfer around £1,250, my fee will have been £37.50. I thought it was worth applying, and after going thought the application process I have been approved and my balances will be transferred shortly.

This all means that I’ve saved money and it also gives me a deadline of 9 months to pay off my debt.

No Balance Fee... Bonus!

A little more of this would be nice

Before I bought my house I went through my budget with a financial adviser to see if I really could afford to own my own house. Now putting together a budget seems pretty easy but it’s not until you actually own the house that you can see all the drains on your salary there really are so I thought it would be prudent to go through my budget again and see how things balance out.

A quick search on Google brought up the MoneySavingExpert.com Budget Planner, a free to download Excel spreadsheet (they also do an online one too), and so I’ve had a run through and I’m happy to say that I still budget to spend less than I earn which is the way it should be.

I have to admit that I’ve been spending over my limit these past couple of months but am comfortable with that as it was for one offs such as a new kitchen, etc, and now that they’re in place I don’t envisage paying out again for a few more years to come. This has left me with a bit of money on my credit card, but I am comfortable with the amount and will now work to reduce that over a set period, something I can work out with my budget planner.

OK, so not a very interesting post but as I’m paying out money left, right, and centre it’s good to know that I’ll be fine in the long run, and can work my way back towards having some savings.