First of all a happy new year to everyone. Hope 2010 will prove to be a great year for you all.

I've just been looking back at the start of my weight loss quest and seen that on the 1st August I weighed 95kg. I've started my new diet this morning and weighed in at 97.7kg. So my last effort yielded a 2.7kg gain. Doh.

Again I'm not going to follow a set diet, just try to eat sensibly, drink more water, less coffee, less stress, more exercise. I'm writing everything down on a weekly diet sheet (pictured right).

This is stuck to the front of my fridge and should help me keep track of everything I'm doing in order to reduce my weight.

I'm using it as a tracker, but you could also use it as a plan, writing down everything you are going to eat in advance, planning all of your meals and daily exercise, and crossing/ticking them off as you finish them.

I've set myself a goal of getting under 90kg by the end of March. That's a loss of around 8kg (17lbs?) in 12-13 weeks. Not much more than a pound per week, which should be achievable if only I could stick to it!

There are no birthdays or celebrations in the early part of the year so I have no parties to go to. The biggest problem is going to be work where I tend to overeat, mainly due to stress. I'm going to take a packed lunch and try to avoid the chocolate, crisps and biscuits which seem to be a staple feature of the kitchen.

Hopefully my wife will be more helpful this time. At the mention of diets she normally rolls her eyes and tuts (I think she knows how little willpower I have). She's going to have to stop buying crisps etc. in the weekly shop - I can't resist them if they are in the house.

If anyone else has set themselves a new years resolution of losing weight I wish you all the best and hope it goes well.

However bad 2009 has been for you, and it's been a bad year for many, 2010 is a fresh start. Think positive, try to make things better by your own actions. Don't wait for a miracle (I've just checked our lottery account online and we weren't the £10m winners!). You are in charge of your own destiny - improve your future!

New years resolutions are a good way to start, although how many people actually stick to them? That could be because they are often a bit airy-fairy. For instance, many people will be promising themselves they will "lose some weight". It's much better to say that you will lose 5kg by 31st March 2010. You have set yourself a measurable goal and have something definite to aim for.

Once you've set your goal make a plan to get there. Between now and the end of March there are 13 weeks so make a chart to plot your progress. Work out what you will eat for the next 13 weeks and when and what sort of exercise you will be taking. Write it all down and cross it off once you've done it.

Weight loss will definitely be one of my New Year resolutions. I also need to make some more money. This one is a bit harder to achieve. I am looking at improving a number of websites I own and getting them to produce a small monthly income if possible. I'm going to set myself a target of £50 per month by the end of March.

Once that target is reached I can then press on with getting to £100, £200 etc as the year progresses. It's going to be hard work and not as easy as it might sound to many who think the internet is a gold mine!

I've also been trying to tie up a lot of loose ends before the year ends. I've moved most of our accounts away from the godawful Lloyds TSB, just one more to go. I'm in the process of closing my poker account. I just don't get any time to play, and any spare time should be used making money. Although, saying that, I was in profit on my account but it just takes up too much time.

As I haven't played on my bingo account for ages I was also looking at closing that. I've used their money so far so I couldn't withdraw. I thought I would play it all and get rid of it. But I got a line and full house double win on my second game so ended up increasing my balance.

So I've decided to keep my account and use it as a distraction when I get a few minutes downtime. The bingo games only last a couple of minutes so I don't need a huge time investment.

Whatever you are up to tonight to celebrate the New Year have fun and stay safe. Don't drink and drive! All the best for a happy and prosperous New Year to all.

 

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Ours was very busy and I'm looking forward to a few days off now to relax (as much as you can with a 15 month old in the house!).

Nearly at the end of the year, in fact the end of the decade. It's a good time to look back on what's happened and take stock of the past, present and future.

2009 has ended well. My competition wins in December (three arriving in Christmas week) cheered me up no end. Although I have had a few problems this year, particularly with work, I am at least in work and nothing disastrous has happened this year in terms of death or illness.

We are a bit poorer financially than this time last year, a trend which looks like continuing for the forseeable future (lottery win permitting), but things could be a lot worse and there are plenty of people worse off than ourselves around the world.

I'm already looking forward to 2010. I've been hammering the competition entries over the last few days and am extremely confident that prizes will be showing up in January. I've already set up my 2010 competition wins page in anticipation.

I desperately need to lose weight and something drastic may need to be done on this front. My gym membership has had to be cancelled and I haven't had chance to try out my new running shoes with all of the snow and ice underfoot.

Need to do something with this website too. The money making DVD is still available as is the free money making ebook but neither have been making me any significant money so I'm looking at changing track. Not quite sure where to go at the moment but I have some time now to give it some thought and come up with some ideas.

Happy New Year to everyone. Hope 2010 brings you everything you wish for.

My latest competition win arrived today and has been added to my list of 2009 competition wins. It's an Anthony Worral Thompson Breadmaker from the Gadgetspeak website advent calendar comp.

According to the invoice enclosed with it it's worth around £100. A nice win. It's going to get some use to. My wife made some pate (following Jamie Olivers recipe from last week) and it is going to taste even better on some fresh home made bread.

We just need some time now to look at the instructions and work out what to do. Time is in very short supply at the moment as our toddler seems to get more of a handful with each passing day. At the same time I'm moving all of our family bank accounts from Lloyds TSB and it's taking a lot of time and effort to get it all sorted.

Unfortunately Lloyds TSB have let me down badly. I was with them for around 15 years but this apparently counts for nothing with them. Nor does the fact that during this time I paid all of my bills with them for loans, credit cards and mortgages on time by direct debit.

I'm still trying to sort out problems with my mortgage with them after several weeks in which they appear to have forgotten I exist. It will end up with a formal complaint being made and, ultimately, I will be moving the mortgage elsewhere too.

They are not only losing my accounts but those of my son and wife too. Don't suppose they care much, although they should do judging by the empty branch this morning when I went in. Only one other customer in, I've never seen it that quiet before. Clearly others are being treated in a similarly appalling manner and leaving in their droves!

Once you lose a customer in that way you will never get them back. I certainly won't be using Lloyds or any of their subsidiary companies again.

Good service on the other hand should be rewarded. I recently wrote about a good experience with Virgin Mobile. As a result I've upgraded my phone with them and taken out a new contract for my wife in addition. It has all gone through smoothly and she's happy with the new phone, and I'm happy with the tariff. I would recommend them to anyone.

This is probably going to be my last post before the 25th so have a Happy Christmas everyone and a prosperous New Year.

The first of my two "mystery" competition wins has arrived today and can therefore be added to my list of Competition Wins of 2009.

It is a pair of Salomon XT Wings running shoes, courtesy of the SAAB in motion website. They look absolutely fantastic and they will certainly get used as I will be starting running again soon now my gym membership has ended.

A quick search online shows them to be worth between seventy and eighty pounds. A nice win and the type of thing I could never justify buying in "real life". I would have to look for a second hand pair of running shoes on Ebay if I were paying for them myself.

Just in time for Christmas too. I might wrap them up for myself as we are having a VERY low-key Christmas this year. Than and I aren't really buying for each other and will probably only buy a couple of little bits for our son. He's still a bit too young to really understand what's going on at Christmas.

A lot of people I talk to at the moment are doing the same. For many people Christmas has lost it's magic. It's just become far too commercial and starts far too early.

As a reaction to this more and more people I meet seem to have an anti-Christmas feeling. I know I would rather be on the beach in Thailand supping a bear on Christmas day. Maybe when our son is older we will feel differently. But for this year we aren't getting involved.

Anyway if I don't post again before Christmas have a good one, whatever you are doing, and here's hoping 2010 will be a LOT better than 2009, which has been a pretty miserable year chez nous. All the best.

 

First things first, the Samsung Mobile Phone winner has been drawn. There were 730 entries in total and the winning number drawn was 304.

And the winner is............Georgina Parker from London. Your prize has been posted today and you should hopefully receive it in time for Christmas.

Good news too on my comping. Another prize win notification. Not giving too much away until it arrives but it is a decent prize - that's two good prizes in a matter of days, although neither have arrived yet.

This one was a win in an Advent Calendar competition. These are always a good source of prizes as there are lots of prizes available and entry is limited to one day per prize so there must be fewer entries for each. I've won a few prizes this way before.

This has spurred me on to enter even more competitions - I'm in a comping frenzy at the moment. Every spare moment seems to be spent on the computer, much to my wife's annoyance. But it will all be worthwhile if a nice holiday comes our way. Fingers crossed as it may be our only chance of a break next year!

If you want to find a list of Advent comps they are conveniently seperated on the Prizefinder site, my favourite competition site. Only seven more days to enter though so get in quick.

That's it for now, I'm back to my comps and dreaming of my next prize win. Good luck to you all.

 

Over the past few years I have dabbled with affiliate marketing with varying success. At the moment I don't have a steady stream of income from this source, although I have had in the past.

When selecting your affiliates you need to make sure that it could be worthwhile all of the time and effort spent amending your website and promoting their program. Some affilate programs don't last long and others pay a pittance.

If the commission payable is 3% and the average sale made is £20 then you are only going to receive 60p for each sale. You need a LOT of sales to make a living. Plus affilate links tend to have a poor conversion rate, so think of the number of visitors you need to generate even a tenner!

Concentrate on the bigger paying sectors. One of these that I had success with in the past was the finance sector. Unfortunately this sector is not paying out anywhere as much or as often as it used to. Plus finance affiliate programs seem to be closing all of the time at the moment!

Another sector that has paid me well in the past is the mobile phone sector. Payouts tend to be on a flat fee per sale and this could be around £30. A few sales here soon add up and could make into a viable business.

However, with the popular sectors competition is always going to be greater. If you are spending money to promote your site you are going to have to pay more for programs such as Google Adwords.

It is unlikely too that you can just set up an affiliate program on your site, leave it alone and watch the money roll in. At the moment I have several programs that need to be closed as the affiliates are no longer going and I need to find other programs to replace them. This is time consuming.

Plus you have to keep on top of promotions from the various companies and, if you have signed up to multiple programs, keep checking your various accounts for tracking and statistics.

So affiliate marketing can generate you income, but it is not as easy as it looks (unless you already have a high traffic site within a specialised sector) and is time consuming. As with everything, the more you put into it the more you are likely to get out of it!

Our second competition to win a Samsung U600 mobile phone has now ended. There were about 500 plus entries and I will be making the draw this weekend after they have all been collated.

I've also won another prize myself, although I don't want to publish it until it arrives. I was very excited as it is something I can use and which I really wanted to win.

I've been unsubscribing from hundreds of email lists in the last couple of days. Most of these subscriptions arise from my competition entries.

Although I normally tick the box NOT to go on the mailing list sometimes I miss it in my rush to enter and for some comps subscribing to the mailing list is part of the terms of entry.

My competition inbox is getting too full now so I'm having a good clearout and trying to get my emails back down to a manageable level. It will slowly creep up again in a couple of months and I'll have to go through the whole process again but that is just the way it is.

There is no news on our next competition. I don't have a prize to hand so unless something turns up over the Christmas period (which could well happen), or a sponsor wants to offer a prize it will be a few months before the next prize draw.