Thor's Archive
Today Twitter launched a purge that would have made Stalin proud. In a single sweep they blasted the "spammers" who were manipulating the Twitter system and posting irrelevant tweets to people's time lines.
There is no doubt in my mind that there are people gaming Twitter and there is nothing wrong with Twitter dispatching these spammers with haste. But when Twitter started messing with my valid network of friends and colleagues, then they crossed the line.
This morning my Twitter followers dropped from about 169 to a mere 81. I'm sure a few of those were spammers. However, it was odd that after adding more than 70 new followers from BlogHer alone I would drop so low.
After some research, I found that it was not a spammer purge that zapped my network of Twits. Twitter for some reason blasted relationships that were perfectly valid. Relationships that had active conversations. Relationships that were working the way Twitter intended.
For example, I met Guy Kawasaki at BlogHer 08 and started following him on Twitter. Guy followed me back. Suddenly Guy and I are no longer associated on Twitter anymore after the purge. I thought, OMG Guy's profile was DELETED!
It turns out that he was still in Twitter and so was I. Our RELATIONSHIP had been deleted for some reason by the Twitter powers that be.
So Why Did I Get Spanked Then?
In Twitter's blog post about how they were detecting and eliminating spam relationships they mentioned that they look for sudden spikes in friend requests.
When I went to BlogHer 08 I had about 99 followers. As I met people at the conference both online and offline, I started following them on Twitter. By the time I left the conference, I was up to 169 followers (a net gain of 70).
After the purge, I was down to 81 followers. So did all of the people I followed from BlogHer08 get kicked out of Twitter?
Checking Twitter's Work
Twitter screwed up big time. I don't just add people by default to my Twitter. I simply don't have the time to keep up with people I don't care about. So as I was meeting people and exchanging cards at BlogHer, I kept a very loose record of the people I wanted to follow on Twitter.
A quick check shows that the people I added from the BlogHer conference were the ones who were expunged from my twitter life - erased old-school Communist style. Tweets were gone, conversations were lost and relationships were broken.
SO I just went back and added them all again. It took about an hour, but no doubt that will show as another "spike" in Twitter's system.
What Did the Purge Do to You?
How did Twitter screw up when it blasted your contacts? Not everyone has a short list of the people they added last week, so I am sure there are some people weeping bitter tears over the loss. How were you effected?
No mater what your opinion of the Top Affiliate Challenge is, it was pretty undeniable that the Pepperjam Network team ran circles around the competition.
There are a lot of logistical reasons this happened - Jonathan VanClute and Carl Zetterlund (the first and second placing contestants) were both on that team. Ken McArthur guided the team unwaveringly throughout the show. They all worked as a team, and even in individual challenges, they won as a team.
Al of these things aside, there were some behind the scenes reasons why the team did so well promoting offers from the Pepperjam Network. We had a ton of great sponsors on the show who all went above and beyond, but only a few got the results that the Pepperjam Team enjoyed.
Kris Jones was PERSONALLY Available
For those of you who don't know, Kris Jones is a pretty laid back guy. He knows what he is doing, sets his mind on a course of action and then executes. If Kris was not up and on Google Chat, his wife Robyn was and between the two of them the Peperjam Network team had ANYTHING it needed day or night.
Payout bumps? Granted. Funds for buying traffic? Provided. 100% Transparency Rating? Granted. No matter what Ken and his team needed, the folks at Pepperjam were there to make things happen.
High Paying and High Converting Offers
Payout bumps aside, Pepperjam is stocked with offers that have a history of high-conversions and solid payouts. Getting an offer on the Pepperjam Network as an advertiser is a challenging thing to do. They don't accept everyone and they truly think about an offer from an affiliate's view point before they make it available.
The Pepperjam Network Team took the long term view and started promoting offers equipped with 45-day cookies. When all of the other teams were shooting for a single day payout, the Pepperjam Network Team took advantage of John Chow's lackadaisical leadership and started building an empire.
As you watch each episode of the show, when we threw a challenge at the contestants that took the better part of a day to complete, the Pepperjam Network team continued building their team bank accounts because their cookies were working for them, earning commissions from clicks that happened days ago.
Better Advertiser - Network Relationships
There were countless times on the show when one of the contestants wanted to do something that was not allowed by a program like incentivising a non-incentivisable offer. For the most part, the contestants did what any affiliate would do. They approached their affiliate manager and asked permission. MOst of the time it was denied because rules are set up for a reason.
The difference with the PepperjamNetwork is that they have relationships with their advertisers unlike anything I have experienced before. A simple request that would normally be denied could get approved because Kris, Robyn, or another person on the Pepperjam Network management team was able to go to the advertiser, explain the situation, show value, and get a positive decision. In an industry that is all about relationships, that kind of power goes a long way.
There was a lot that went on behind the scenes between contestants and affiliate networks that we simply could not fit into an episode. Over the next few weeks I will outline some of the other sponsors on the show and what they did to make a difference for the affiliates who used their network.
Have you tried Pepperjam Network yet? IF so what do you like about it? If not, why haven't you?
I have been using Text Link Ads for about three months now. I applied to Kontera first, but they took over a week to approve my application. Patience doesn't come easy to me, so I also applied with Text Link Ads.
Text Link Ads got me approved quickly, and soon I had their code installed on my blog. I was ready to start earning money, so I eagerly watched daily as TLA spidered through three years of my old content, adding my words and phrases to their inventory.
Within a week or so, I started selling the really spammy keywords like auto insurance, ringtones, Halloween, download music, free website, personal injury, Toshiba laptop and car loans.
At the end of the first month with Text Link Ads I had earned about $25. I was a little disappointed because I had nearly 600 posts on my blog at that time and I thought I should have been able to earn more. I took some solace in the fact that I just earned $25 for doing absolutely nothing - I was simply monetizing content I had already written.
The Secret Behind Making Money With Text Link Ads
But that is when the newbie magic took over. I quickly realized that webmasters who buy words and phrases tend to re-purchase them automatically month after month. My $25 grew to be $60, and a month later to $80 and in July so far I am right at $100.
That's not a HUGE amount of money, but it defiantly pays the hosting bill, and it took almost zero effort to generate. The growth has slowed a bit, but I typically add $20 or so a month as long as I post consistently, build my inbound links, be a part of the blogging community, and do the things that bloggers are supposed to do.
I heard some of the women at Blogher 08 talking about how you couldn't earn any money with Text Link Ads, but I think it is more of a patience game than anything.
As long as you keep running their widget, keep generating interesting content, and continue working to build your blog your Text Link Ads revenue will increase over time.
If you have tried TExt Link Ads in the past, but not given it a couple months to really talke hold on your blog, give them a second try. If you haven't, there's gold in your previous content and you would be a fool not to monetize it with Text Link Ads.
I swear the girls get the best schwag! At the BlogHer 08 conference there was a Joby booth where they were giving away FREE Zivio Bluetooth earpieces.
Giving away free bluetooth headsets at a women's blogging conference was a brilliant idea. Even if the women didn't want theirs they could give them away on their blogs. The combination of a $100+ item and scarce availability makes this a sweet giveaway item (sorry guys, keeping mine but Joby can send me another one to give away).
The Zivio headset its self is a pretty unique design given the current trends toward smaller devices and more technically complex noise canceling software. The Zivio is quite noticeable when it is worn at more than 53 mm in length. Despite its mere 13 gram weight, the Zivio conceals a retractable boom microphone that makes the unit a whopping 136 mm from top to bottom when extended.
Joby is clearly marketing this earpiece toward women. If all of the pictures of women on their website are not enough of an indication, the very design of the Zivio caters toward women's wireless headset concerns.
While the unit's retractable boom microphone provides voice quality that is unparalleled by any bluetooth earpiece on the market, it also can be used to indicate that the earpiece is in use. As a guy, I could care less if people look at me funny as I walk around talking to myself. Women on the other hand want people to know when they are on the phone, and the Zivio communicates that silently when its boom microphone is extended.
Additionally, this unit comes with more adjustable earpieces than any other bluetooth device I have ever seen. There are adjustments for comfort, adjustments for convenience, and adjustments for stability. If you don't like the over-the-ear hoop, just swap out the more robust in-ear adjustment and it stays in place with out the hoop.
Three simple buttons control the Zivio's overall functionality - power, volume up and volume down. The unit is relatively easy to pair with a phone as well. That said, it was funny to watch the poor techs at the Joby booth trying to pair 6 phones and earpieces using the default settings at the same time :-)
The headsets are not available for public purchase until late August, and I heard a rumor (unconfirmed) that they will sell for around $130.
I spent some time talking to the people in the Yedda booth at BlogHer 08. They have a service very similar to Yahoo Answers but with a blogger twist.
Yedda provides a widget that can be installed in your blog's sidebar so your readers can ask you a question specifically. The questions are then added to the Yedda system, where you can answer it.
So why in the world would you want to add content to the Yedda system instead of to your own blog?
Yedda is backed by AOL (AOL bought the company just 4 months after it was created) and if the Yedda system goes over as well as Yahoo Answers did, some of these user submitted questions will start turning up in search engine results.
Yedda says you can use the system to raise awareness about your expert status. More importantly, whenever you answer a question on Yedda, your blog's URL is included. While the possibility exists that you might gain some search engine placement boost from the backlinks, the natural traffic you can pull to your blog is far more valuable.
If you have a blog about making money on the Internet and you answer questions from people who want to know how to do it, some of them will click through to your blog because they think you are smart in an area they want to learn about.
Will this natural traffic convert into RSS subscribers or repeat visitors? Who knows. The service is still too new. But imagine if you would have dedicated some time to the early days of Yahoo Answers. Some of those original questions actually rank for keywords in Google. Because Yahoo skims out the spam, search engines can give the question pages - and your blog link - more weight than other results.
Yedda is not without fault though. They are getting spammed just like everyone else on the web and it appears that they are manually removing it. I saw this gem the first time I looked at their home page:
Yedda will probably be partnering with a variety of sites to create content that can be monetized, so there is probably a future for the service out there and that is most likely why AOL decided to incubate it. I answered a few questions about computer repair and business, so we will see how long it takes Google to index those blog backlinks, what they are valued at, and ho much organic traffic Yedda sends my way.
One of the booths at the BlogHer Conference was from a company called Adoptic. They are another traffic exchange company with a widget that you place in your sidebar to promote stories from other blogs. You can get 500 free credits in their traffic exchange if you sign up using the promo code "blogher".
The idea is that people reading your blog will also see a post from another blog in the sidebar widget. If they like in the story they click the link to read the other blog. When you sign up you can help the service deliver relevant posts to your sidebar by pigeonholing your blog into a few of their 27 different categories.
The idea is pretty simple - you share your readers with others and they send their readers to you. I have installed the widget on my blog to see how well it works.
I generally dislike sidebar widgets that pull from other servers because as more people use them they tend to get slower and slower. At the moment, the Adoptic widget loads pretty fast and it appears to deliver *somewhat* relevant content.
That's the good news. The bad news is that I can't find anything in Adoptic's service that gives it any competitive advantage over other similar services like BlogRush.
Worse yet, the Adoptic widget opens the featured posts in the same window your blog WAS in. If the widget does what it is supposed to do and delivers relevant posts which your readers will find interesting, they are going to leave your blog to read them. Maybe they come back maybe they don't.
With all of that aside, the widget is a good fit for people who are not trying to monetize their blog (people with monetized blogs want sticky readers and low bounce rates) who want to get some new eyeballs.
The only question left is how difficult will it be for people to game the Adoptic system? BlogRush suffered through its growing pains as people set bots to auto refresh their blog home page over and over to gain free display credits - essentially spamming their blog posts to everyone else in the network.
I am going to give them a whirl for a couple of weeks and see how I do with it, but I am not convinced they are any different than those who have come before.
If you use Adoptic, is there something here that I am missing that makes this service the best thing since sliced bread?
In my second BlogHer 08 session one of the attendees asked a pretty complex question.
The session was about public parenting and privacy. A younger woman stood up, took the microphone and asked how she can blog about her life and her child's life, tell other people about her blog, and attend conferences (she said "not hiding or wearing a mask out in public) yet have others respect her boundaries.
The question is complex, but the answer is simple. You can't. There is no way to receive public recognition for your blog without the accompanying public exposure. You can't market yourself, and not market yourself at the same time.
One of the threads I have noticed throughout the first two sessions here is that mommy bloggers need to decide WHY they are blogging before they start. Some blog to vent, others blog to share tips and ideas, while others blog to make money or gain recognition by monetizing their content in various ways.
The "pure" bloggers are there to vent, abhor those who make money with a blog. The only way you can retain your anonymity in the blogosphere is to never reveal who you are. You need to have a private domain registration (or use a freebie hosting service like WordPress.com), never post a picture of yourself or your family, and not disclose your location.
The problem becomes how can you possibly share much with your audience if you remove the "who" and "where" from the who, what, when, where, and why? You can't, so few "pure" bloggers are truely anonymous.
The woman asking the question clearly wanted to be recognized for the hard work she puts into her blog. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But the only tool you have as a blogger to defend your boundaries is your own decision on what to write and what not to write. even the best bloggers on the web have off-limits topics.
Of course, I am just the man in the back recording the session, but I wish I could have taken a microphone and asked the woman (very kindly of course) what exactly do you write on your blog that you don't want your readers to read and remember?
A blog is not a private diary.
I just finished my first session at BlogHer 08 and I was pretty surprised by some of the topics that came up.
To just about everyone else in the blogosphere, content is content, and if your writing is interesting, entertaining, or on the edge, you are rewarded with readership, advertisers, and if you are really good, a profit.
But there are some people who look in on the world of "Mommy Blogging" and believe that these mothers are exploiting their children and that motherhood is not a "real job."
With everything I have written about over the past few years, I have never had to fear someone accusing me of child exploitation or pimping. I can't imagine what that must feel like, especially when you have truly valuable things to say about the real-life experiences with your family.
I have blogged about my son - I have even posted a video of him abusing my new iMac on YouTube. The thought never even occurred to me that someone might look at that and say I was evil for exploiting the innocence of my son for content on a monetized blog.
I mentioned on a previous post that I was really hoping I could come away from BlogHer with some new perspectives on old issues. I just had my eyes opened to one component of what these women deal with every day and I am impressed with their tenacity because they keep doing it.
There was some discussion at the beginning of the session about whether mommy blogging was still as radical of an act as it was when the niche was first labeled. The audience seemed divided at first, but based on the fact some people think you are pimping your kid if you write about little Johnny or Susie, I would have to say that in the overall public eye it still seems to be a pretty radical thing.
God bless them for being radical. What do you think?
I have started to notice all of the Back to School pallets rolling out in the stores and like clockwork, Schrock Innovations started getting questions from parents and grandparents who were trying to get the best computer deal for the student in their lives.
After working through a few of these calls and emails, I decided to author a short 12 page Back to School Computer Shopping Guide that would contain all of the basics you need to know when buying a new home office or back to school computer.
The guide covers what kind of specifications you should look for in a new notebook or decktop unit, what pitfalls you should avoid, and some critical questions you need to ask before you make your purchase.
The guide is free and is current as of July 2008. You will need Abobe's Acrobat PDF Reader to view the Back to School Computer Shopping Guide.
Feel free to post any questions you might have and I will do my level best to get them answered for you quickly. For a faster response, you can call our office toll-free at 866-496-8772 or email us at support@schrockinnovations.com.
Just got settled in at the Westin St. Francis in San Fransisco for the 2008 Blogher conference. So what is Thor Schrock doing at a women's blogging conference?
My wife loves to write on her blog when she manages to find the time. Some of the stuff she writes is fricking hilarious (even though she would never take credit or accept the praise). Over the past year my wife has sacrificed so I could travel all over the place so it was time for me to return the favor.
Even though it is a conference for women bloggers, I will be helping out by recording some podcasts for their website. I always try to find opportunity in everything, so I am hopeful I will learn a thing or two about blogging from a perspective I may not have considered before.
I'd have to say the only session I am nervous about attending is the Progressives session - primarily because I am one of the rare conservatives on the web that is willing to endure a pounding to stand up for what he believes in.
This is the session description from the BlogHer Schedule:
Progressives: Engaging Those Outside the Political Blogosphere in Political Discourse...and Action
Is 2008 the year when every blogger is a proof point for the old battle cry that "the personal
is political"? We are seeing a tremendous amount of interest and action around political issues
and causes from bloggers who usually steer clear. They are galvanizing their readers to be more
engaged and get more involved in a variety of ways. We'll talk about some of those ways with
Twitter rabble-rouser Erin Kotecki-Vest, Momocrat Joanne Bamberger and a woman who
exhorts us all to exercise the Power of our Purse, Diane MacEachern.
All three women on the panel hold some pretty liberal views that I would generally disagree with. That said, from their writings online they seem to be reasonable, rational people. All things equal, I will do my best not to embarrass my wife by opening my pro-drilling, anti-Obama pie-hole.
One of the best lessons you can learn in life is that you can learn a lot about people by listening what they have to say and how they justify their arguements. That doesn't mean that they are right or wrong, but the first step in persuasion is listening.
Yesterday the last of the Top Affiliate Challenge Contestants headed home. I took a day today off the grid to ground myself back into real reality and refocus on saome other projects.
Over the next week or two we are planning to do a complete post-morteum on the show. We are going to identify things that worked, things that could have gone better, and most importantly, re-edit some of the early episodes.
Just off the cuff, the show was an amazing success. While we didn't make a pile of cash or win an oscar or anything, we demonstrated that what we set out to do could be done. Could it be done better? Of course. But to everyone who told us it could not be done at all, WE DID IT.
This was a pilot season designed as a proof of concept. We needed to create a show that would draw the eyeballs of one of the most desired demographics in the affiliate marketing industry - up and coming affiliate marketers. It was pretty clear that the experienced guys out there thought the show was a bit elementary for their tastes, but they were not our target audience.
There is no doubt in my mind that all 12 of the contestants on our show learned from the experience and are better affiliate marketers because of it. Even our show's winner, Jonathan Van Clute picked up some tidbits that he had never considered before.
While the show was a success through the prisim of its own internal goals, it is important to note that it was a success for our sponsors as well.
To be a part of the show this season, affiliate networks had to pay $1,500 to have their offers available to the contestants. Just about all of the participating networks had $1,500 or more pumped back through their networks, making the show an extremely affordable advertising and awareness vehicle.
There are definately some things we will improve for Season 2, and interest from potential sponsors is already trickling in. We should have an early-bird rate card by mid August.
Unless something massive changes, we do plan to hold the show in Nebraska again next season. Knock it if you want, but its where the show is going to be because that is where over 70% of our sponsors were from Season 1.
As taping of the Top Affiliate Challenge winds down, we finally found some time to reward our hosts and crew with a special diner at Shogun Restaurant in Lincoln NE.
Shogun is a Japanese style restaurant complete with open grills and chefs that prepare your food right in front of you with an artistic flare.
In fact, that is where you would normally find me - eating at the grill. This time however, Monica Durazo and my wife Kim were encouraging me to try the sushi. I decided I would give it a shot.
Call me a rookie, but I assumed that all sushi was raw fish. I was relieved to find out that was not the case at all. Wes Wyatt was there with us and he had a shrimp roll sushi that he insisted on dimming in wasabi sauce. Too hot for my tastes.
The flavors were pretty interesting (aside from the wasabi) and overall I enjoyed the meal.
I don't think I will be eating sushi every week or anything, but it was definitely a nice change of pace from what I was used to.
Overall we wanted to have really god food for the Top Affiliate Challenge contestants - lots of fruits and vegetables and variety.
Over the past two weeks I have probably gained 10 pounds sand eaten some things I would have never thought about touching before. Variety is the spice of life though ;-)
In an interesting turn of events on the Top Affiliate Challenge yesterday John Chow was eliminated from the competition as a guru.
Unknown to the gurus, we were keeping a tally of their wins and losses to determine which guru would claim the top guru spot on the show. It was designed to reward their leadership and dedication to the education of the contestants. After today's episode, it was mathematically impossible for John to win as a guru.
Shoemoney had to bow out for some vary valid family reasons, Ken McArthur was doing everything right, and John just seemed to be content losing every day in a bid to win the show for himself and one other contestant.
I have to note that John did nothing that was against the rules of the show, but his actions definately violated the spirit of the show.
With that said, most of today's episode was the fallout from the Chow elimination. Things get intense starting tomorrow as we start whittling itdown to the very best contestants.
Episodes 5-9 of the Top Affiliate Challenge are now online. Despite the bumps in the road we have all endured to get where we are at, I am really happy with the way things are shaping up for the show.
Over the past few days I have watched some extremely talented people accomplish incredible things both as teams and as individuals. I have seen moments of brilliance both on a moral and ethical level as well as a technical level.
We had to eliminate someone today and the contestant and I both got a little misty eyed in the confessional. Not because of the elimination its self but because of the impact that one contestant was able to make on the lives of those he worked with. I have seen some truly amazing stuff over the past week and a half.
As we press into the final days of the competition its is shaping up to be a real horse race. In talking with the eliminated contestants they are all walking away winners in what they have learned and the relationships they have built.
Heck, Collin De Ruyck is already planning a road trip from Canada next summer for a reunion!
What ever anyone else says about what has happened her in this hotel in Nebraska, those who were here know what an experience it has been. And those who are watching online have some major surprises in store with today's episode.
Thank you all for your helpful comments about Top Affiliate Challenge. We are really serious when we said we were willing to listen and adjust to deliver a product that is in tune with what you would enjoy watching and learn from.
Expect to see a LOT more teaching in the next 2 episodes. We adjusted the way the WebJamAds Leader Board Report works to remove about 8 minutes of meetings in the episode. We also added a new cross-shot interview that is much warmer than the deer-in-the-headlight interview style we were using exclusively before.
We also added "B" roll footage over the audio of some of the longer interviews to help them hold the viewer's attention for longer periods of time.
I was pretty surprised to see Ian Fernando give up so easily. Jeremy spoke very highly of him before the show and that was one of the reasons he made it in as a wild card. Ian is a very cool guy and he has a competitive spirit (he almost got in a bar fight here that night) but I think he expected this show to be something other than what it was.
Any decent PPC guy can take money that is handed to them and drive traffic with it. Part of the game in the first two episodes was to see how the teams would raise seed to fund their campaigns. I think Ian may have believed that the entire show would go that way and he may have made a judgment too soon.
It's been very interesting to see how Collin De Ruyck and Big Jason Henderson have been playing the game both on camera and off camera. Both of them have ruffled some feathers and it will be interesting to see how they manage to mend their fences in the future.
Meanwhile Team Pepperjam Network is STEAMROLLING everyone in its path. Is it all Jonathan Van Clute, or has Ken McArthur been able to mold a viable, scalable team that could go all the way?
Thanks for taking the time to watch the episodes. Let me know your thoughts on episode three and four. Both constructive criticsm and what you liked about them.
I finally have found a moment to write something on my shinny new blog since the start of the show. We have had some amazing things happen and were also forced to overcome some massive challenges. Here is what we have experienced from a technical side since the start of the show:
- Epic Failure with the Web Stream. We are streaming 200-300MB files for the show and delivering pretty good quality for the compression. At least we are now. When the first episode launched I dramatically underestimated the number of people who would tune in out of curiosity.
Between 1:00 and 4:00 on July 1st, more than 1,300 people attempted to play that stream.We had purchased Amazon bandwidth and had a really nice rack in place to handle the load. I overlooked the pipe. Rookie mistake and TOTALLY my bad.
We quickly exceeded what a 10/100 wire could handle and that is why the streaming crapped out.Since then we have added two dual core Xeon servers, a Frontier load balancer, and another chunk of bandwidth to our account just to be safe. The video has been served to over 1,000 viewers today with no problems (that I have heard about anyway)
- Spotty Wireless Internet. Schrock Innovations added routers to the hotel's wireless internet to help cover the few dead spots there were, but of course, those weak signal areas happened to be where our teams were working.
Schrock dropped a direct wire in place and now everyone has Internet. It's DSL and its getting hammered pretty hard, so it drops occasionally. We are working on getting a high speed cable modem in here by Monday..
- Drama vs. Education. When we started the show, we knew there was not enough time to be dramatic and be informative in a 30 minute episode. That is what we designed the bonus footage page for. We could mention an affiliate tactic and then drop a lower third referencing a second video for more information about the tactic.
I think I went a little overboard on the drama aspect. We will correct that in upcoming episodes. Expect a LOT more education and more predictable scenarios for contestants.
- Production and Editing. No one has ever turned a show around as quickly as we are doing. Even though we are now running on a 48 hour episode delay, we are producing each episode in a 24 hour period. Yes, there is some chrome missing, lower, thirds, and Monica's script is even visible in one of the shots.Even with all of that out there, I wish you could see our crew and editing team in action. Don and Miriam are amazing at what they do and they know exactly how much can get done and still have the episode out the door on time.
Some people have said some pretty nasty things about the quality of the show, but anyone who has actually DONE something like this can imagine the amazing pressure.
We have 24 hours to produce the show, so we edit until the wee hours, click render and then go to bed. If ANYTHING goes wrong we have to re-render. Then we have to upload the show. Then we have to test the show (God forbid it corrupted on upload). Then finally we can make it live at 1:00 and move the previous day's show to the watch page.
To be honest, the original concept for this show called for $1,000 camcorders. Thanks to Don and Mariam we have over $17,000 in gear and a live switching studio IN A HOTEL. We want the hotel in the shots because it proves a point. You can make money anywhere in the world with affiliate marketing. Even in a hotel in Lincoln, NE.
Every one of us knew that SOMETHING would go wrong. When things went wrong our cast has been AMAZINGLY supportive of our efforts and forgiving - probably more forgiving than I would have been. All of them have my undying gratitude for that. I am sure there is some grumbling, and maybe a little concern over all of the negative reviews on the web. All of the negativity even started to get me down a little.
Rather than stewing or fighting back or arguing I am just going to take some of the critics' advice and implement it. A lot of the people who have things to say about the show are affiliate marketers themselves. They are our audience and we need to deliver to them. That's the whole point of this show.
With that said, I would like to get your comments. I want to know what you think we should do differently. I have already tipped our hand a little, but if there is something specific you want to know about affiliate marketing - something you want to have explained from the show, then tell me. We will do our best to deliver.
The Governor of Nebraska released a statement from the Governor to make sure the contestants of the show knew that he would be watching the show when it airs on July 1st. Here is what he wrote:
Dear Top Affiliate Challenge Participants:
As Governor, it’s a privilege to welcome you here to Nebraska for this inaugural event. We are delighted to be your hosts. During the next two weeks your entrepreneurial skills will be put to the test, and I feel confident you’ll feel right at home here.
Nebraskans value ingenuity and resourcefulness. These are traits that have been passed down over the generations from the pioneers that settled our great State, and it is evident in the family-owned farms across Nebraska to the many startup and locally-owned businesses you’ll find in our capital city.
The Top Affiliate Challenge is a unique opportunity for personal and professional growth, and I want to thank the organizers of this event and everyone whose contributions will make it a success during the next two weeks. Congratulations to Thor and Kimberly Schrock on making this event a reality.
The true mark of an entrepreneur is the ability to excel under pressure and your selection to be part of this contest is evidence of your talent. I wish you the best as you compete in the Top Affiliate Challenge and in all your future endeavors.
Again, welcome to Nebraska and may the best affiliate marketer win!
Sincerely,
Dave Heineman
Governor
Shoemoney, John, Chow, Ken McArthur, as well as the whole cast & crew of Top Affiliate Challenge and some smart affiliate managers got their party on while touring Lincoln, NE in the Luxury Limousine Party Bus and enjoying some sweet alcohol courtesy of Randy's Grill 'n Chill.
Representatives form NeverblueAds, WebJamAds, and XY7.com joined us on the bus.
We stopped by at a few local sponsors' places and said hi and then made a pit stop at Shoemoney's house to get a box of Shoemoney and Fighters shirts.
We then set out for Billy's Restaurant and had an absolutely DELICIOUS steak dinner from the locally fanmous Chef Nadder.
After I thought we were done for the evening and heading back to the New Victorian Suites for the night, Shoe commandeered the bus, booted me off (he kept my wife on board) and took everyone out to the bars.
I tried to call the driver because we had an agreement, but as he pulled away in the lot he had a Shoemoney tshirt on and I knew at that point he had been compromised.
One day earlier, John Chow enjoyed a 50 minute ride from the Omaha Airport to Lincoln. He took the time to make a short movie about some of Nebraska's finer points along the way.
Ken has been his quiet, normal, kind self the whole time. I think he is kind of like a raccoon - really cute and firendly looking when you see him, but he has some nasty claws if you back him into a corner.
All around the cast of the show have all been awesome. As I write this I am surrounded by some of the latest computer and camera technology frantically transferring video and rendering some crazy cool stuff.
The first day of shooting a reality show is a bear because you have to do all of the getting to know you stuff. These first two days are going to be hell, but things will slow a bit after that.
At any rate, I have some scripts to write and some crazy twists to plan, so be sure you tune in at the Top Affiliate Challenge website on July 1st at 1:00 PM to see team Toolbarn, Team XY7.com, and Team Pepperjam Network face off for the first time!
In a mere two days 15 of the world's best online marketers will gather in Lincoln Nebraska under the roof of the New Victorian Suites and do something that has never even been attempted before.
I made the final check at the hotel today. Rooms ready - check. Internet connection maxed out - check. Governor's remarks rady for the welcome ceremony - check. Mayor scheduled for atendance - check. Contestants all scheduled to get in the air and into Lincoln - check.
This Sunday at 3:00 12 contestants, three affiliate marketing superstars, delegations from the State and City Government will all gather in the New Victorian Suites to mark the beginning of the first ever affiliate marketing online reality show - The Top Affiliate Challenge.
The show is all about how real affiliate marketers make real money on the Internet - and lots of it. Expect to see some great tips and tricks as well as some pretty good entertainment as well.
The first episode hits the web on JUly 1st in a pretty good sized streaming window (check out the existing trailer for an example).
If you are local to Lincoln or Omaha, please take the time to stop by the New Victorian Suites in Lincoln Sunday at 3:00 to say hello and welcome the cast and crew to Nebraska.
A couple years ago when my son was born I bought my wife a baby sling from Lucky Baby and from time to time they email me with coupon codes and the like.
I just got one today for $5.00 off through July 8th. Here are the details:
FREEDOM FROM BACK PAIN! For a limited time, get an extra $5.00 off of our already great prices. Just use coupon code: FREEDOM on checkout and don't forget to pass the coupon on to friends and family who wouldn't mind some freedom. Or use the discount on a gift certificate! What a fantastic gift. Share the sweet sweet freedom!
I know its not tech related or anything, but I figured someone might get some use out of it.
One of the cool things about the Internet is that it allows you to project yourself form what would normally be a small, obscure office to a much larger online community. While this is a huge asset for some people, it can also be a massive problem if you are not careful in the blogosphere.
For example, I was VERY quick to defend someone I thought I knew, Ty Hurd, when Shoemoney called him out because I had an inside line with him and trusted what he said.
It turns out that I was WRONG to defend this person and a simple Google search would have revealed the fact that his past was more checkered than I would have expected or been comfortable with.
Of course, I learned this too late and looked like a fool for standing up for a guy who sold $90,000 worth of stolen art that he took from his ex-wife's family.
As soon as I knew I started distancing myself form him, but the damage was done. I learned a valuable lesson today.
Your credibility is only as good as your words lead it to be. I am sorry to everyone who listened to what I said and believed it. Thank you to those who shoe'd me the facts.
Thanks to the awesome designers at Unique Blog Designs, my blog has a shinny new look and some awesome interactive features.
There are still a few tweaks to be made, but overall I am VERY happy with the end result. Among some of the features added:
- Twitter Integration - Follow me on Twitter
- Video Integration - YouTube and Revver embeds in the sidebar
- Email RSS Subscription is back
- Popular Posts are highlighted in their own section
- Some new Ad Inventory to sell ($50/month for a 125x125 while they last)
- Social media integration
- An SEO WordPress makeover
Now that things around here are looking a LOT better, I will try to pick up the posting frequency and even bring in a guest blogger or two maybe.
Last night my wife was doing some online shopping on the Victoria's Secret website. After 2 HOURS of digital shopping bliss she had managed to find a ton of nice tops on sale for some crazy low prices. Then it happened.
Internet Explorer suddenly stopped responding. My wife had not signed into her account before she started shopping and she frantically called for me to "just come fix it." Unfortunately there was no way to get IE to start responding again (insert FireFox joke here) and she had to close the window.
Don't worry I consoled her. Abandoned shopping carts are one of the biggest problems in the e-commerce world. Of course they would use a cookie or a session to remember your selections from the previous visit.
To my shock, when we returned to the website, it didn't remember a thing. It seems that unless you sign into your account, the site doesn't track what you have looked at or placed in your cart.
Amazon does it. Godaddy does it. Heck, every serious online retailer does it.
So here's my message to a company credited for bringing happiness to the evenings of so many married couples... Thanks for TANKING my wife's evening, making her upset, and forcing her to spend the wee hours of the RE-SHOPPING your entire website.
For all of you graphics guys in the house, check out the video here. It pretty much sums up any situation a graphics guy has been confronted by and the idiot business owners who employ them (like me).
We knew it was going to happen at some point, somewhere, before the show started.
The 12 Top Affiliate Challenge Contestants have created a private chat room on their own and have started networking with each other and getting a feel for what everyone is capable of.
Of course, the producers are listening in and learning as well. One of the things that impressed me the most about this group of marketers is that they are helping each other accomplish marketing goals in "reality" already.
Digg requests, stumble requests, opinions, page rank discussions, and the I can send more traffic than you smack-talk are flying behind the scenes and it is pretty nifty to see!
AT the same time, the gurus of the show have been caught stealthily researching the 12 contestants. If there was a doubt that the gurus were going to take the Top Affiliate Challenge as seriously as the 12 contestants, John Chow was caught poking around the web as the top 12 contestants were being selected.
Things are turning out so much better for the show than we had hoped. We have powerful and interested gurus, 12 contestants who are all strong in different ways, an a mini-community where everyone is vested in the project and we are vested in them.
The first Top Affiliate Challenge episode airs on July 1 and is slated for 1:00 CST. We hope to see you there :-)
**Update** 4-6-09
I talked with Brad and Brad's PC Repair is open for business. Brad is a good guy and stands behind his work and his promises.
We have received some calls lately from customers from Brad's PC Repair. Brad has moved on to another company and we wish him nothing but the best.
We had reported sightings of his company vehicle outside of another local computer repair shop, but his site confirms that he has folded and taken his expertise elsewhere.
We wish you nothing but the best brad! (And why didn't we get a resume???)
This morning Gmail was having issues, so I decided to throw some time into the black hole that is Digg.com. I was disappointed though because all of the top stories were genuinely things that had no bearing, relevance, or much impact on anything. Check out these Earth shattering headlines from the world's social news source:
Forbes: Why Firefox Matters
forbes.com — But don't be fooled. Firefox has become one of the most important pieces of software around today as consumers shift from using their PCs to run applications living on their hard drives to a communications device able to connect with applications living on distant servers. The new browser has plenty of these soon-to-be-ubiquitous features...
YAWN... OK, Firefox rocks. I use it, I get it.
Baseball's 8 Most Fragile Players
maxim.com — Eric Chavez, Oakland A’s -- Threadbare shoulder tendons, bulging discs in his back - Chavez has fewer unmolested body parts than Jenna Jameson.
Possibly interesting to the baseball buff, but I LIVE in the middle of what is right now the "Road to Omaha." With the College World Series happening in my back yard (literally) baseball is the last thing I want to think about today.
blog.makezine.com — How fast is the fastest clock in the world? Well, this one measures time to a millionth of a second. More…
Wow... I wonder if it's digital or if it has hands...
Co-Workers Who Drive You Crazy!
cnn.com — I have a co-worker who doesn't bathe nor wash her clothes and subsequently smells. I bought a bottle of Febreeze...she throws away her used tissues and often misses the garbage can, leaving them on the floor for "whomever" to pick them up. She NEVER misses work, so whenever she is sick, she coughs all over the microphone, uses the computer mouse...More…
Another Earth shattering story from the news makers at CNN...
On the move: Jackie Chan
driving.timesonline.co.uk — Chan's new movie, Kung Fu Panda, was kinder on his battered body: the animated film about a panda that dreams of becoming a martial arts expert required only Chan’s voice. “I think because, first, I’m the good guy and, second, my characters in the movies are always the underdog. I never show I’m the superheroMore…
Aside from the KungFu Panda McDonald's happy meal toy (which is super annoying to) has anyone really seen this movie?
Study: Bartenders Are Too Much Fun
latimesblogs.latimes.com — A new study shows that alcoholic drinks served in bars and restaurants are often larger than the standard size and contain more alcohol.More…
Where do these bartenders work? It's a little early for drinking here, but I usually have the opposite problem.
Euro2008: France 0-2 Italy & Netherlands 2-0 Romania
news.bbc.co.uk — Italy clinched a quarter-final meeting with Spain as they sent France crashing out of Euro 2008 with a deserved win. France had a nightmare evening, losing key man Franck Ribery to a serious injury after only seven minutes.More…
People in the US don't care about Soccer. OK story for our Euro friends, but again, YAWN...
Top 10 Tips for How to Green your Pet
treehugger.com — 1. Adopt from a shelter Pet breeders have only one goal in mind—to raise large quantities of purebred animals for profit. They’ve also been pilloried for misdeeds such as overbreeding, inbreeding, poor veterinary oversight, lousy food and living conditions, overcrowding, and culling of unwanted animals. Love knows no pedigree. More…
What the heck is this? A story about the environment or a rant on pet breeders? Two dogs with one stone I guess...
Brad and Kimberly have been tweaking the new look and feel of the Top Affiliate Challenge website and it is set to launch today!
Creating a hybrid video, text, and image website is challenge nough, but keeping everything organized in a way that people will be able to find it and enjoy it was a huge undertaking.
At the moment we have the old show trailer on the site, but we have a spiffy new trailer that should be on the site soon.
Check it out and let me know what you think when it goes online!
I am going on the air in 20 minutes (7 PM CST) with Gary James to talk about all of the day's Top Affiliate Challenge happenings. I invite you to join me by calling in.
If you have questions about who we picked and why, this is your chance to call and ask me directly - live.
Call (718) 664-9522 between 7 and 8 CST and you might get in. He has 10 lines available!
Today the producers and I need to pick the final 2 Top Affiliate Challenge contestants from the top 25% of all of the video auditions submitted for the show.
All three of us have diferent opinions, anddifferent names we would like to see on the show. There is also a massive email campaign going on for Eric Green the "DigitalGanster" and Gaj Subudhi.
I have neen receiving email from all over the world for these 2 for the better part of 2 days now. I can only wonder why they didn't ask these people to vote for them while the voting was still open.
Nevertheless, there are LOTS of very qualified and very entertaining people to choose from in the Top 25%. Originally we were planning on using these wild card picks to balance our cast. For example, if we had a bunch of veterans, we would bring in some newbies and visa versa. We are a little heavy on men, but that is also representative of the industry.
Some people think we should pick a couple women regardless of other factors to help gender balance the show. Others think we should bring on the two people who would be the best earners in our opinion because that is what the show is about. One of the producers has mentioned that by picking one of the more controversial contestants we would increase viewership. As you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider.
Who do you think we should pick? Who would you pick if you were in our shoes? The auditions are no longer up on the Top Affiliate Challenge website, but you can view the videos in my Revver account here.
What faces would make you watch the show every day?