Today, we’re blessed with a Day in the Life of an a4uaward winner – Mark Russell from Existem Affiliate Management, winners of “Agency of the Year 2008″. I’ve known Mark for years and years and years (yes, he really is that old), and he had his Affiliate Marketing apprenticeship at Big Idea Media where I taught him everything he needed to know about Affiliate Marketing – Which networks were bandits, never trust agencies, Friday afternoons are for the Pub, etc, etc. All of which is completely useless to him as MD of Existem AM, but I’m sure he also picked up one or two things that were useful..

Mark’s also a fellow Plymouth Argyle fan, and therefore knows what he’s talking about. We even managed to squeeze in a quick away win at Charlton last season the night before a4uexpo, a feat we’ll hope to repeat with an away trip to Chelsea around the 2009 event. Without further ado, it’s over to the big man himself..

John asked me to write this 2 months ago and hey just had a chance to do it…sorry!!

Well here is a normal day in my life running Existem Affiliate Management:-

7am Wake up and put the kettle on and make a massive cup of coffee, while feeding the dogs and letting them out for a run in the garden, get showered dressed and head off to the office, maybe having checked a few stats while drinking coffee.

8am Being a nice boss pick staff up on way to work (must start charging for petrol…lol) get into the office for about 8:30.

8:30am make sure the coffee has been put on and the aroma of fresh coffee is filling the office. Work through list of tasks for staff to do that day.

9am Start sifting through the spam, and some good emails from affiliates and clients, look at what news we have to promote to affiliates about codes, offers, and top selling products.

9:30am Go for a cigarette and have first call with Bruce to see what the plans are for the day from his side, and what he needs me to get staff to do.

10am Check through the forum, and check emails and reply to anything that has come through overnight.

10:30am Start checking stats for clients while filling in internal reports of trends from day to day and week to week, and then compare each client to see if there is any similar trends.

11:00am start sending out newsletters that we have been working on yesterday and this morning, get staff to send to me to check and add some details then get blogged, forum posted and emailed through network. Speak to affiliates about some promotions as we all know speaking to affiliates before 11 is never a good idea, (especially John who never arrives at desk before 1pm if you are lucky…lol).

12pm Look through affiliates websites and help affiliates by writing content for their sites (if you would like any unique content please email me, mark@existem-am.com).

1pm Speak to clients and recommend offers that they can run and start discussing promotions for the months ahead.

2pm Speak to Bruce again on the phone and discuss upcoming meetings events and any new strategies, plan diary for the next few weeks planning where and when we both have meetings and organise a time for Bruce to visit Plymouth office.

2:30pm check forum and add any more news that we need to let affiliates know about.

3pm Start filling in reports and filing paperwork, although you never believe it if you saw my desk!

3:30pm Work on new business look at any leads we have been sent or any clients that have contacted us and check we have sent everything that we should have and follow up any leads and calls.

4pm Speak to more affiliates about any promotions that we have and update our merchant discount code section

4:30pm Check on the latest football news, anyone who knows me will know I really enjoy my football and love the Greens, watch out premier league we are on our way!

5pm Check forum and emails again.

5:15pm Debrief with staff and plan the next days work.

5:30 Speak to my wife Lorraine and find out what time I need to be home for dinner (if I am lucky she will have something in the oven for dinner, maybe not at the moment as I am supposed to be fitting a new kitchen not sure where time comes from to do that..Eeek.

5:45 Check and update worksheets for the day and check emails, forum and update database, start thinking about what we are doing tomorrow.

6pm Go home taking staff on way home, (good boss aren’t I?),

6:30 Get home and have some tea and spend some time with Lorraine and the dogs (2 border collies Lucy and Pippa).

8pm One last check for the day on the forum, emails and statistics for clients.

10pm Settle down to catch up on daily news with Sir Trevor.

11pm Bed…must be getting old!

Throughout this day there are cigarette breaks, in the office premises I work from we have to go to bottom of the car park to the smoking shelter and this normally accompanied with my mobile where I make most of my calls, (I get comments from other residents about me always being on the phone) quite often these calls have the sound of a helicopter in the background (not mine but the airport is close and also the hospital).

Coffee machine is on constant flow in the office all day, if I was to add in each coffee the post would twice as long…I do like my coffee during the day although I really should consider decaf.

Many thanks for (finally, lol) sharing a Day in your Life Mark – If anyone else would like to be featured in this series (or has been promising to for months but not got round to it yet.. not looking at anyone in particular.. you know who you are!), then please get in touch – Lammo Readers are loving these snippets of your working days, and are hungry for more!

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