Flightblogging.com

Yesterday (Monday 18th June) was a record day for Flightmapping.com, in terms of visitor numbers. In total, 9977 people visited the site, leaving us an “unlucky 13″ short of the big 10k.

If we include the 47 visitors to our new (but fast growing, of course) blog, then the total pips just over 10,000 for the first time.

Naturally, we still want to see Flightmapping.com reach this in its own right, and you can rest assured that we will let you know when it does. In the meantime, next time we come close like this, I think it will be time for an internet cafe crawl around Coventry.

That might have brought us to 9979 - ok, maybe not such a good idea then. Cheers!

Flightmapping’s MD James Avery will be on BBC Radio CWR, in Annie Othen’s travel slot, from around 11:40pm tomorrow (Tuesday 19th June).

Topics set for discussion include:

• Summer 2007 travel opportunities from the Midlands - where the best bargains are.
• New flight routes for 2007.
• The impact of the recent government decision on Coventry Airport’s future.
• How the aviation industry is responding to its environmental critics.

As always, James promised to be on fighting form, so tune in for some interesting discussion.

Please use this thread to give us any feedback regarding our route information, or any of the text on the Flightmapping.com site:

Known issues:

• The routes database is usually updated at least once each week, although it has not been amended this week (ending 17th June). This should be refreshed on Monday 18th June.

Please use this thread to give us any technical feedback, especially with regards to page loading, search facilities, etc.

Sometimes, these issues are beyond our control, but if we can fix them, we will.

Current known technical issues:

1. Thomsonfly search facility for flights from Coventry, Bournemouth & Doncaster does not always carry the search query through. We are working with Thomsonfly to resolve this.
2. The flight search facility will sometimes take you to a blank page, if the route is only operated by one airline. We will be working with our developers on this next week.

If you have a question to ask about your flight, we’ll do our best to answer it.

Anything along the lines of - what can I take on board, can I use this device, what is this airport like for connections, etc.

If we can’t answer it, I’m sure we’ll find someone who can.

Here at Flightmapping.com, we’ve never tried to pretend that environmental issues are easy to solve, or that we should just bury our heads in the sand.

But with all the hype which we are bombarded with every day, is there a chance for some more level headed discussion?

We certainly hope so, and if you think so true, please come and join the Envirorealists group on Facebook:

• Envirorealists

Antithesis of: Enviro-fundamentalism, eco-puritains, ecoterrorism, eco nazis, doom and gloom, environmental doomsday.

A few things we believe in (especially when it comes to travelling):

• We love this planet, but we’ve got to get around it somehow.
• We love buying nice things, but try and get as much use out of them as possible.
• We’re happy to do without some bits of useless technology - like GPS systems!
• We don’t think the world is going to implode tomorrow.
• We’ll do what we’re best at, respect our neighbours, and leave the complex science to the real experts.
• We don’t believe everything we see on Panorama.
• We know that Global Warming is a challenge - so is extreme poverty, sorting out the Middle East, controlling communicable diseases, and keeping the economy ticking over.
• We are aware that stress and depressive illnesses are two of the biggest challenges for western health systems. Sometimes it is nice to take a holiday to get away from our busy lifestyles, without feeling the guilt from the incessant bleatings of the green lobby.
• We just wish that organisations like Greenpeace would get their facts right for a change.
• We’d love to get hold of Tony Blair’s BA Executive Club card, and just wish he’d done something useful with all those trips he’s made.
• We don’t mind paying green taxes - if they go towards environmental projects.
• We’re fed up with all the hype against the aviation industry - especially when the recent doubling of APD has just has environmental groups salivating for more. How come domestic energy use, which is responsible for far greater emmissions, continues to get off Scott free?
• We’ll take the train, because it is a better use of our time.

I will be speaking at the Eye For Travel summit in London tomorrow. Below is my reply to some questions sent by the conference organisers. 

1.    What in your opinion have been the latest trends when it comes to affiliate marketers using search in an optimal manner?

I suppose the one basic trend is that affiliate marketers are often much better at SEO than merchants!  This might sound arrogant, but it is simply a question of resource allocation. Most travel companies are in business to put bums on seats - but actually providing these services, or even providing booking technology, is not the same thing as creating relevant content and playing the never ending Google game.

With the constant cat and mouse race between white hat and black hat (ethical and allegedly unethical) SEO techniques, it is always going to be far easier for affiliates to take risks, than it is for large-scale corporate merchants. Ultimately, there will always be some merchants out there who view affiliate marketing as an unnecessary cost, but I certainly think that affiliates are a very good value proposition, and an excellent return on investment, compared to outsourcing search engine marketing activities, which can often be extremely risky.

(more…)

Well as if this week hasn’t been eventful enough already, we seem to be having a problem with our server right now.

By the look of things, this is a DNS issue, as some traffic (about a third of the usual levels) seems to be getting through, we certainly can’t see, or edit, the site ourselves.

I am not sure of the reasons for this - it looks like some gremlins have buzzed into our server, but I don’t know if it has anything to do with clock changes.

As soon as I find out anything else, I will post and update. Our blog sites are totally un-affected, as they are hosted elsewhere.

James

UPDATE: This problem was due to a DNS issue with our hosting company. It was fixed on Sunday afternoon (25th March).

We ran an article on Flightmapping last week about dropping adverts for Flybe, because they has asked for all affiliate marketing activity to be suspended. The reason for this was quite clearly stated - they were approaching the financial year end, and the budget had reached its limit.

Then they told us that it was all a mis-understanding, they just wanted affiliates (sites like ourselves) to cool things down a bit, and actually we could carry on advertising them, but could we just tone down any suggestion about them being short of cash?

We made a few small changes to the story, but they then wanted us to go further, explaining exactly how we’d made this mis-understanding, and adding some general comment about what a nice airline they were.

Unfortunately, we just can’t do that, and our commercial arrangements with them are suspended by mutual disagreement, with immediate effect.

For further details about this (from the perspective of the affiliate industry), please see my personal blog post on the subject.