In this edition of the Affiliate Buzz, host and Instructor of the Affiliate Marketers BootCamp, James Martell, is joined by his wife Arlene Martell. This episode is full of information to help you make the most out of your online marketing with advice on breakations, attending meetups and running your own podcast.

James and Arlene also discuss this week, the newly refreshed format for the Affiliate Buzz and there is even a quick look back at the very first couple of Affiliate Buzz podcasts.

Last week had been a bad week with some issues in the business getting them down. James and Arlene therefore realised it was time to get away from it all and take a breakation. A breakation is time for you to reward yourself for all your hard work and for doing a good job. Yet in this instance, it helped James and Arlene to unwind from the troubles they had experienced.

During the weekend away they barely looked at their laptops. James admits he may have posted some photos from his phone, but had not looked at any business stuff the whole time they were away.

James and Arlene highly recommend breakations to those who are perhaps spending long hours in front of their computer but not getting a satisfactory amount of work done.

For this breakation the couple went to Hope, BC which is considered the gateway to holiday land. They consider it a beautiful area with homes dotted around the lake. They had been there before, with one of the first times being almost 30 years ago. During this trip they happened to find the original cabin they had stayed at and talked to the owner about some of the changes he has made.

The area has an interesting history, being the location for the movie Rambo, and every year fans flock to the area to see where the film was shot. There is also the Kettle Valley Railway which goes from Hope to the centre of BC. It was built in the 19th century but was closed down because they couldn’t maintain the tracks with all the snow.

After Hope, BC they went to Yale where Arlene’s mother has a trailer. Yale is beside a beautiful river and is a location where individuals can own their own camping spot.

After spending some time in Yale, James and Arlene headed off to the Harrison Hot Springs Resort. They were initially disappointed with the room they had and Arlene was able to get them an upgrade using a tried and tested method.

Arlene’s tip for getting an upgrade is to take a $20 bill and fold it up with a credit card you give to the person behind the counter and then ask if there is a chance for an upgrade. Arlene says this has worked at many hotels including the Paris Hotel in Vegas.

This is a method which James has tried at the Mirage with great success.

James and Arlene had to leave their breakation on the Monday in order to go to the Internet Masterminds Meet-up in Vancouver. This is one of the largest in the world with over 36,000 subscribed to the event.

There are meet-ups all over the world and James really recommends that if you have a chance you get yourself to one. Matt Astifan does a meet-up every Monday in Vancouver, except through the summer.

Any meet-up is a great place to learn, find, and drive business. It is also an opportunity for you to get away from your machine and speak to people face to face. Arlene really enjoys the meet-ups as there is such a diverse group of people to talk to.

James talks about the opportunities he has to speak at these events, most of the time this is on the topic of podcasting. The Affiliate Buzz has been running for 11 years and 2 weeks, the first episode went live on June 13, 2003. In the beginning it was an interview with James conducted twice a month. James recalls the first episode and episode two, which are still available on JamesMartell.com. James says there was no Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Pinterest at this time and therefore those early podcasts have not been shared.

This was during a time when podcasting was not a term yet created and James called it an audio newsletter. There were also several problems with the production and delivery of podcasting as James explains.

James recalls his most recent talk and discusses in the podcast:

• 
  
• How many people in the group wanted to take up podcasting.
  
• What a report by Tom Webster, VP of Marketing at Edison Research, has stated about the penetration of the Smartphone.
  
• The benefits of podcasting.
  
• How a podcast can build up content over several platforms including: your website, Stitcher, Spreaker, Webmaster Radio, iTunes and YouTube.
  
• The future of podcasting including the new Apple service: CarPlay.
  

At the talk, Arlene discussed her experiences running a podcast EpilepsyMoms.com. This is a podcast which Arlene admits was never going to be long term project and she tells us the lessons learnt from planning to do a set number of podcasts. James also comments that the podcast had generated over 100,000 downloads by the time they swapped it from Drupal to WordPress.

James ends this episode talking about the new format for Affiliate Buzz. For the past few weeks they have switched over to a 60 minute episode and they are going to continue on this path. They are also hoping to dig deeper into discovering what is currently working in online marketing.

There will be more interviews with top professionals in the online marketing industry. Last week they spoke to Joel Comm from joelcomm.com. James has Jen Goode and Jim Kukral coming up in future episodes. The new format will allow for more reviews of tools and a new speed round to find out more information about their guests.

James also reminds people they can also subscribe to the Affiliate Buzz here.

• 
  
• Internet Masterminds Meetup
  
• Matt Astifan
  
• First Episode of The Affiliate Buzz
  
• Edison Research
  
• Stitcher
  
• Spreaker
  
• Webmaster Radio
  
• WordPress
  
• CarPlay
  
• EpilepsyMoms
  
• Joel Comm
  
• Jen Goode
  
• Jim Kukral
  
• Kettle Valley Railway
  
• Harrison Hot Springs Resort