Chris Clarkson (Sunshine.co.uk) Interview

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our latest blog interview, this time with one of Scotland’s finest, Chris Clarkson – co-owner of online travel agent Sunshine.co.uk.

You may have read my complimentary post about Sunshine.co.uk recently and you can find out more information about their affiliate program at the Sunshine.co.uk affiliate center – I have voted for them in the A4UAwards and really do hope that they are rewarded with an award for the time and effort they have put into their program.

So on to the interview…

Chris – thanks for taking part in the interview. You’re a well known figure in the industry but for the unaware readers why don’t you firstly start by giving a bit of background info on who you are and perhaps how you got into affiliate marketing…

2003: I was a Championship Manager addict and decided my time in front of the PC could be better spent. I bought a domain and some hosting in January, messed about with some HTML, moved onto PHP in the May; I hooked up with my business partner Chris Brown through A4U in June/July; we re-built HW from Aug and launched it on the 5th December. All from a standing start of knowing absolutely nada about anything internet.

You’ve obviously been doing travel stuff for a long time, what has been the best travel experience that you have had and where were you?

Well that would be a rugby tour to Newcastle in 1995 but I can’t really share the experience! Our first company “conference” in Tenerife was pretty special, as most of our friends and families were there too, as we’re firm believers in nepotism!

You recently sold Holiday Watchdog to Tripadvisor – have you made any exuberant purchases since the sale?

Funnily enough, the first thing we bought was Timeshare! Chris B and I both splashed out on the Disney Vacation Club as a present to our kids, and possibly our grandkids.

Sunshine.co.uk is a new entrant to quite a crowed marketplace – what makes it stand out from the crowd?

No sales pitch here, try it yourself and see. We were affiliates and know what’s required to squeeze out conversions.

With your affiliate experience I think it’s fair to say that you’ve been producing one of the best programs around; you seem a big lover for affiliate incentives, recently giving away a Macbook and now offering a couple of trips away to the Affiliate Future Barbados event. Did you find that as an affiliate you would give a program more of a boost if they were running a good incentive?

Show me an affiliate that doesn’t like winning stuff! The incentives are great for affiliates if they win, but they are obviously there to give our affiliate programme exposure. We’re working hard and shouting loudly to make sure people know we’re here and I’m 100% confident we have the programme to back it up.

That may have been a sales pitch.

As I just mentioned – you are currently in the process of giving away two tickets to the Affiliate Future Barbados event, can you give our readers a little more information about how to get involved?

We were keen to make the incentive as open as possible to any affiliates, so we set aside two tickets for our “Daily Dose of Sunshine”, where I get to set missions that anyone can complete and get themselves in the draw for Barbados.

Some of the missions will be used to walk you through building your first travel site, others will just be fairly random and we’re also going to throw in some other holidays as part of the fun.

We also have a draw for one ticket for affiliates who do over 100 sales and every 5 more gets them another entry in the draw and…wait, did you find yourself nodding off? LOL

Will you be making the trip across there yourself this year to take part in the festivities?

I’m afraid not, and Alan and James (who went the in 2006 and 2007 respectively) are a bit gutted that as merchants we won’t actually win any tickets this year!

And finally… I’m told that your alcoholic preference is a bit girlie. Isn’t it time you took up drinking something a bit more manly?

Let me explain. In my twenties my rugby club was based in the town centre, across from pubs that were “young”. Alco-pops had just arrived and they were always on 2 for 1’s. As you know, rugby players like a drink, especially a cheap one. Vodka Red Bull became a firm favourite as you could buy it in jugs; jugs are bigger than pints; follow my logic? I do actually like a Guinness, so I’m comfortable in my metrosexual drinking habits. Pass the woo-woo.

Thanks for taking part in the interview and good luck to all the affiliates who take part! Remember that if you want to take part in the incentives or find out more information on the Sunshine.co.uk affiliate program then visit the Sunshine Affiliates Site.