Light posting
Going to be light posting as we get ready for Christmas. We’ll be getting back into the swing of things again after the holidays.
Happy Holidays to all!
Going to be light posting as we get ready for Christmas. We’ll be getting back into the swing of things again after the holidays.
Happy Holidays to all!
As you all have probably seen there is a game of tag going on. I was tagged by my good friend Ryan Williams who was tagged by Brad Pace. Brad was tagged by Jeremy Palmer.
So now it’s my turn. Here are 5 things that relatively few people know about me.
1. I’ve worked at more jobs than almost anybody I know. I’ve worked in home construction (clean-up crew), owned my own window washing company (as a teenager), made sandwiches at Subway, shoveled off roof tops in Park City and Deer Valley, washed cars for car dealers, been the Director of Marketing for an English as a second language school, co-founded a now defunct linux company (Linux2order), worked as an analyst for a venture capital firm, been a bean counter for a logging company, answered customer service e-mails for Netscape, worked in call centers for Health Benefits America and 1-800-contacts…and now finally I’m running my own business.
2. I accepted a job at Microsoft to be part of the adCenter team, then rescinded it the next day.
3. I live in beautiful British Columbia, Canada on a 700 acre farm.
4. I have lived in Guatemala, Belize, Canada, and 3 western states.
5. Never tried drugs or alchohol but am so addicted to the hit show 24 that I can hardly function until I finish a season. I’ll usually start a DVD at 10:00-11:00pm and go until about 1:00-2:00 in the morning. I do that every night until the season is over.
Ok, so here are the people I’m going to tag:
Matt Smith, Michael Arrington, Guy Kawasaki, Natasha Robinson, Jason Poteet
Apparently there is a game of blog tag going around the internet and it appears I have been hit. Although I’m not sure where it started it appears that Shawn Collins tagged Scott Jangro who tagged Jeremy Palmer who tagged Brad Pace who tagged ME. So, if I understand the rules correctly I must share 5 things most people don’t know about me and then tag 5 other people somewhere out there in the blogosphere.
1. I moonlight (day job is internet marketing) as a tour guide to Latin America. I lived in Guatemala and Belize for a time and fell in love with Latin America - I now typically lead 6 to 8 tour groups (ranging in size from 20 to 100) per year. Most of my trips are Mexico, Belize and Guatemala but I also lead cruise ship groups at times and include additional stops in Grand Caymen, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Jamaica.
2. My wife and I have raised our kids (3 with a 4th on the way) bi-lingual (english - spanish).
3. I get interview requests to discuss NBA Basketball on the radio all around the globe - particularily when Draft time approaches.
4. I helped start an orphanage in Guatemala that now houses over 100 children ages newborn to 16. I expect everyone that reads this to get involved and help:)
5. I was recently recruited by the CIA to be a “covert operative” but declined when told I would need to spend my first assignment in either Afghanistan or Iraq.
Ok, time for me to tag some people:
It’s going to be a busy 2007 if you plan on hitting the industry conferences. It appears there is a conference almost every month.
In 2006 I was only at Webmaster World (Pubcon) and CJU. Williams was at those two as well as ad:tech New York. How many do you usually attend each year?
January
January 21 – 23 – Affiliate Summit (West), Las Vegas, Nevada
January 25 – Search Engine Watch, Dallas, Texas
February
February 7-8 – ad:tech, Sydney, Austrailia
Feburary 13-15 – Search Engine Strategies, London, England
March
March 6-7 – ad:tech, Paris, France
March 26 -27 – Search Engine Strategies, Munich, Germany
April
April 10-13 – Search Engine Strategies, New York, New York
April 25 -27 – ad:tech, San Francisco, California
May
May 22-23 – ad:tech, Hamburg, Germany
June
June 5-6 – ad:tech, Singapore
June 12-13 – Search Engine Strategies, Toronto, Canada
June 18-19 – Search Engine Strategies, Miami, Florida (Latino emphasis)
June 26-27 – ad:tech, Miami, Florida
July
July 8-10 Affiliate Summit (East) Miami, Florida
July – ad:tech, Chicago, Illinois
September
September 9-11 – CJU, Santa Barbara, California
September 26-27 – ad:tech, London, England
November
November 13 – 16 Webmaster World (Pubcon), Las Vegas, Nevada
Unknown Dates
Linkshare Symposium (2006 date was June 21
Performics Client Summit (2006 date was August 21-22)
Google has partnered with GoDaddy.com and eNom, two leading domain registration services, to offer domains for $10 per year. Including private registration to protect your personal information.
I’m not sure this is a good thing. With all they know about webmasters, are you about to give them one more opportunity to see which sites you own?
The near overnight success of companies such as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Digg has motivated a slew of us into believing that we too can create the next big thing on the Internet. But does your idea truly have the potential to attract millions of monthly unique visitors in less than two years time?
read more | digg story
When 24 premiered back in 2001 it was a modest hit. When the DVD came out and those who hadn’t been watched from the beginning caught on to the show they became addicted. As people caught on to the fact that they needed to watch every week to understand the development of the show Fox realized the gem they had. As they soon discovered, an audience in mass proportions, could stomach a show like 24. The second season of 24 was a huge hit–sky rocketing from the 8.60 million viewers the first season was able to pull in, to an 11.73 million viewers. Here is a quote from watching24.com
“24 was beginning to shape a phenomenon that we only really got a glimpse of this year. After 24’s success ABC premiered Lost in 2004 garnering huge praise from critics and audiences alike. Serial dramas were off and running.
According to the TV Guide dated Sept. 11-17, 2006, which was the Fall Preview of all the new shows, 92 shows premiered and over half of them were serialized soaps, dramas, or thrillers. Now with shows like Heroes and Studio 60, who have tremendous production values, TV shows are beginning to look a lot more like extended movies rather than small screen ways to pass your free time.”
With my new addiction in mind, I’ve found some sites for you to get your 24 fix. (I’m currently halfway through Season 3, and I’m pacing to finish Season 4 and Season 5 before Season 6 premiers in January).
Ok, that’s probably enough posting about 24 on this site for a while.
I was just reading a post on Matt’s blog where he talks about Google copying Yahoo’s design for promoting the new Internet Explorer 7. Jeremy Zawondy takes a pretty aggressive stance against Google for this small infraction. Matt has decided that he’s taken the high road long enough. In his post Matt details Yahoo’s blatant copying of Google on AdWords color schemes, character specs, and usability changes. Interesting read, I’d encourage all to take a look at both sides of the argument and see where they land.
Another story popped up on my radar this morning regarding top Digg users being paid by PR Firms. As you might have guessed Netscape is taking this opportunity to point out the flaws of its competitor and has actually posted some interesting comments on their site regarding the story. One of the Netscape anchors had this to say:
C.K.: I want to weigh in here and note that if you work with a PR firm and are considering using such tactics here on Netscape, be forewarned: if we discover any evidence of this happening on Netscape, we will ban every member and every site associated with this type of action.
That means, if Generic PR FirmTM offers this “service” and you are considering using them, think again. If they get caught here on Netscape, we’ll ban them and all of their customers who we can track down.
First off, bad move by Netscape. I understand them wanting to take a stand and send a message, but you do this by using your paid staff to send the message on a constant basis by monitoring the site and purging unwanting activity. I do not believe, however, that you should threaten users (and potential users) about how and how not to use your site. This type of statement makes me less inclined to try Netscape’s new format.
So…with all this being said, when is it appropriate to stop taking the high road and point out the flaws of your competitors? Only once you’ve been directly attacked by your competitor? When the media or blogosphere points out your mistakes and not those of your competitors? When do you respond to negative comments regarding your views, strategies or tactics?
Ever wonder what websites the top Diggers are reading? This is a list of the 50 sites submitted most frequently by the top 100 Diggers. Find out which Diggers only submit from one website.
read more | digg story
One week later and we’re up to a Technorati ranking 1,495,095. Thanks for the link Dave.