Changes at Nag3

It is with a heavy heart, dear reader, that I tell you of an important personal decision I've come to.

Here's how it happened...

As an avid horseracing fan and part-time internet marketer, I am interesting in all sorts of ideas relating to this fantastic thing we know as the internet, and to marketing more widely.

As such, I subscribe to a lot of newsletters. The same kind of subscription emails that you probably receive: for instance, the one that told you about this blog post. Or those that offer products and / or information, be they related to racing or other interests you may have.

A while ago, I received one such email, from a guy called Tim Lowe. Some of you may know Tim, or at least know of him. He's a big guy (in all senses!) in direct marketing: that is, marketing via letter mailshots. He also has a speciality of newspaper advertising in the small 'Business to Business' classifieds.

Tim is a multi-millionaire and has grown a fledgling business from scratch to turn over more than £15 million in the last six years. And Tim has big plans for the future.

In order to meet his plans, Tim identified that he needed a 'right hand man', a General Manager if you will, and so he advertised via his weekly newsletter for the role.

He received over 100 applicants and, to cut an already long story a little shorter, I was offered the job. The offer itself was not difficult to accept.

But there is a condition: in order to avoid any possible conflicts of interest, I am obliged to give up my current business activity to focus solely on a role that will take all of my energies anyway.

My remit? To maintain the existing level of business and, furthermore, to help to grow the business to between five and ten times its current scale.

Ambitious it most certainly is and, for me, it's a challenge I'll relish. But the hardest part of the decision was about turning my back on nag3. This little blog gets anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 visitors each time its posted to, and many of you have been reading my news, views and reviews for many months: indeed, a significant number of you have been with me from day one, way back (or so it seems!) in February 2007.

It is actually very difficult for me not to be sentimental about the decision I've made, and people close to me had suspected that I'd not been able to do it. You see, nag3 is not just a blog. Nor is it simply a marketing tool.

It's not only a means of building a community of like minded racing fans. It means more to me than that: it's actually my online catharsis. It's where I've shared much more than horse racing with those who have been prepared to read.

And it's where many of you have been kind enough to share your own thoughts, stories and experiences which aligned to whatever personal sermon I was jabbering on about on any given day.

But move on I must. And I hope that you will not care an iota, as long as the nag3 way is upheld. [I know, and am grateful, for the fact that many of you will be sorry to hear this news.]

So, once my decision was made, about three weeks ago, I had another decision to make regarding nag3. The options were:

1. Sell the business for a healthy five figure sum

2. Pass nag3 onto someone I could trust to maintain the balance of racing tips and entertainment

3. Close the site down

I only really considered options 2 and 3, despite the fact that I could have picked up around £50k (conservative estimate) for my online portfolio. Option 1 was not considered for one simple reason, and that is this:

I am immensely indebted to you all for the loyalty you've shown me over the last few years, not just through nag3, but also through your trust both in my own products and in the opinions I've shared on other people's products. You'll know that I rarely recommend a product but, when I do, it's decent. And if a product's bunk, that's what you'll learn about it.

I didn't want to risk selling my portfolio to someone who might not have the same business ethos as I do. And I don't need to tell you that most people in this game do have a different business ethos from mine!

Option 3 was favourite for a while, and would have been the only option had I not been able to find someone I could absolutely trust to continue the traditions of the site: integrity, fun, and some bloody good winners. :o)

Luckily, and I say that on a personal level as well as a professional one, I know Gavin Priestley to be just such a man. Gavin and I have been great friends for pretty much half of our lives.

I met him when I was 18, and working in the civil service (Job Centre, in case you were wondering!) in Parkstone, Dorset. In my lunchtimes, I used to go to the local independent bookmaker and wager a quid or thereabouts on a placepot.

My local independent bookie? One Gavin Priestley, who'd expanded his burgeoning empire to three shops at that time. Gavin's family are steeped in racing, and have owned betting shops for two generations. So he knows this business all right!

Over the years, we've had many a great coup, and many a whopper slip off the hook, punting wise.

In fact, I'm also proud to say that I am godfather to Gavin's son, Dylan, a young man with boundless energy, a cheeky smile, and hand-eye co-ordination that is so natural and effortless as to virtually assure him a career in sport, should he wish. (How many two year olds do you know who could run up to a plastic golf ball, and smash it straight at daddy with a plastic golf club unerringly every time?! He's a little older now, but no less accurate! Poor daddy...!)

And I hope that your introduction to Gavin's writing and tipping skills over Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby meeting has whetted your whistle for more of the same over the coming months.

Gavin is also keen to review more products for you, and has taken on board your comments from the last survey to ensure that the products he looks at are the ones you may be considering yourself. I'll leave it to him to explain more in due course, but I think you can expect more backing products and more bot (automated software) products.

So, as my tenure in the editor's seat at nag3 draws to a close, Gavin steps in and will take it from here. There's masses to come over the Summer, before we get the jumps off in September, so make sure you stay tuned.

All that remains for me now is to thank you all most sincerely for the time you've spent reading my online blusters and for your loyal support, and to wish Gavin good luck and every success.

Until the next time...

Matt

p.s. If you’d like to leave a comment, feel free to do so using the link directly below this sentence that says, ‘0 Comments’ (or perhaps a bigger number by the time you read this!)