Web 2.0 Expo: Transforming IT with Cloud Computing
Session Description: Running your business in the Cloud is becoming mainstream and offers enormous advantages. Hear how companies are taking advantage of the Cloud to increase IT output while simultaneously reducing infrastructure, application development and deployment costs. Learn how this new approach is enabling IT to do more with less by focusing on innovation, not infrastructure.
This session took place Wednesday, April 1, 2009. The speaker:
- Trae Chancellor, CIO, Salesforce.com
Unfortunately a lot of this kind of went over my head. I guess the term IT in the title didn’t signal to me that this might not be the best session for me to attend. The notes are kind of short since I didn’t really get a lot of value myself out of this. Sorry!
Bullet Point Review!
- This transformation will touch the entire organization; everything has to be rethought.
- Gives you a competitive advantage.
- Cloud computing is able to deliver true innovation.
- Goals: improve productivity and innovation, improve efficiency, reduce costs.
- Implement CRM>customize>extend>commit>iterate
- Created their own dashboard and integrated that into their client offerings.
- Gets the whole business involved.
- Leverage the cloud.
There wasn’t really any useful Q&A time, and in reality most of this session was an advertisement for Salesforce, which is to be expected considering it was a sponsored session. The presentation was more tailored towards being a case study rather than a how-to.
They didn’t share the presentation on SlideShare.net so I can embed it, but you can download it here: Transforming IT with Cloud Computing (PPT).
Read MoreQuick Update on Web 2.0 Expo
Yes, that’s where I’ve been Wednesday and Thursday, and will return to on Friday. It’s been a different experience for me; this is my first time attending Web 2.0 Expo and I don’t have a full conference pass, so I’m limited to what’s open for all attendees, namely the expo hall and the sponsored sessions.
My original intention was the live blog the sessions, but with no tables in the session rooms at Moscone and a spotty wifi connection, that’s obviously not been happening. But as always I have my notes and will share them with you next week!
In the meantime I guess, look for my Twitter posts with the hashtag #w2e for my tweets from the conference.
Read MoreRecap of Lobby Day Against CA AB 178
Yesterday I had the privilege of accompanying 9 of my fellow affiliate marketers to the California State Capitol building in Sacramento to help lobby legislators against the passage of California Assembly Bill 178.
I have to say on a personal level, this was my first trip to the Capitol, and the most involved I’ve ever gotten with politics in general. It was a pleasant experience overall. And yes, I got a little “star struck” for lack of a better term walking by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office. I had to fight the urge to knock on the door and demand court!
Back to business. 10 of us were able to make it up, some coming from Southern California. We had appointments set for almost all day, so we split into two groups so we wouldn’t run the risk of running late or overcrowding offices. Our group had a few lack luster meetings with staff that really didn’t understand what we were talking about or weren’t really familiar enough with the bill to care yet. But we also had some good meetings with other staff members who were incredibly receptive to our message and offered us a lot of advice regarding how to go about the lobbying that we’re doing. Some even went so far as to call other offices we didn’t already have appointments with and help to make us appointments.
It was equal parts optimistic and pessimistic. While it looks like it’s going to be incredibly difficult to outright kill the bill because of the eagerness of the state to collect any income possible. Focusing on the message that it’s best to keep the bill as broad as possible in the definition keeps it as fair as possible. In a perfect situation the Streamlined Sales Tax Project to require the collection of sales tax across every state would make the playing field as fair as possible, but that’s already been in the works for almost a decade and doesn’t look promising to be enacted any time soon. So in the meantime, we do what we can.
You can still do what you can. Now that we’ve taken meetings at the capitol, feel free next week to take meetings in your district in California. The members will be on vacation and potentially available at their district offices. Staff will not be on vacation and will still be in Sacramento working, so if you weren’t able to join us under such short notice, feel free to schedule your own appointments and talk to the Assembly Members on the committee for Revenue and Taxation. The meetings were generally short, 15-20 minutes of a staff members’ time. We were able to leave behind the letter that Linkshare wrote in opposition along with the opposition letter from the Performance Marketing Alliance, co-signed by over 300 affiliates.
If you’d like copies of these documents for your own leave behinds materials and have the intention of taking a meeting either in the district offices or in Sacramento, please leave a comment and I’ll see how we can get those materials to you. Here’s information on the committee members to reach out to. If you live in their district, all the better (they prefer to hear from constituents whenever possible).
- The Committee for Revenue and Taxation: (916) 319-2098
- Charles M. Calderon (Chair) – Dem. 58th District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0058, Phone (916) 319-2058
- District Office: 13181 N. Crossroads Pkwy, Suite 160, City of Industry, CA 91746, Phone (562) 692-5858
- Chuck DeVore (Vice Chair) – Rep. 70th District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol Room #4102, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone (916) 319-2070
- District Office: 3 Park Plaza, Suite 275, Irvine, CA 92614, Phone (949) 863-7070
- Jim Beall, Jr. – Dem. 24th District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0024, Phone (916) 319-2024
- District Office: 100 Paseo De San Antonio, Suite 300, San Jose, CA 95113, Phone (408) 282-8920
- Joe Coto – Dem. 23rd District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0023, Phone (916) 319-2023
- District Office: 100 Paseo De San Antonio, Suite 319, San Jose, CA 95113, Phone (408) 277-1220
- Diane L. Harkey – Rep. 73rd District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol Room #4177, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone (916) 319-2073
- District Office #1: 29122 Rancho Viejo Rd., Suite 111, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675, Phone (949) 347-7301
- District Office #2: 300 N. Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA 92054, Phone (760) 757-8084
- Fiona Ma – Dem. 12th District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0012, Phone (916) 319-2012
- District Office: 455 Golden Gate Ave., Suite 14600, San Francisco, CA 94102, Phone (415) 557-2312
- Jim Nielsen – Rep. 2nd District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol Room #6031, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone (916) 319-2002
- District Office #1: 280 Hemsted Dr., Suite 110, Redding, CA 96002, Phone (530) 223-6300
- District Office #2: 1527 Starr Dr., Suite U, Yuba City, CA 95993, Phone (530) 751-8351
- Anthony J. Portantino – Dem. 44th District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0044, Phone (916) 319-2044
- District Office: 215 N. Marengo Ave, Suite 115, Pasadena, CA 91101, Phone (626) 577-9944
- Lori Saldaña – Dem. 76th District
- Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0076, Phone (916) 319 – 2076
- District Office: 1557 Columbia St., San Diego, CA 92101, Phone (619) 645-3090
They Say It’s MY Birthday!
Yes, I’m stepping closer and closer to the abyss.
Right now – at this VERY MOMENT OF 12:32pm PST – I just turned 28.
What? You didn’t hear anything? Well, just imagine muffled screams mixed with maniacal laughter and you’ll be close. I go back and forth between looking at some aspects of my life and wondering how I did so little by this age, but then I look at others and remember how hard I’ve worked to get that far so fast.
I’m takin’ the day off, so re-posting a meme type thing that Julie posted in her blog Julie’s Journal last month on her birthday.
Famous people who share my birthday
- Tom Brokaw, 1940 – Newscaster, NBC News
- Bob Marley, 1945 – Singer
- Babe Ruth, 1895 – Baseball Player, New York Yankees
- Axl Rose, 1962 – Singer, Guns N’ Roses
- Ronald Reagan, 1911 – Actor, 40th US President
- Rip Torn, 1933 – Actor
- Natalie Cole, 1950 – Singer, Daughter of Nat King Cole
Famous Events that happened on January 3rd:
- 1865- Robert E Lee appointed Confederate General in Chief
- 1918- Britain grants women (30 & over) vote
- 1933- 20th Amendment goes into effect: Pres term begins in Jan not March
- 1935- “Monopoly” board game goes on sale for 1st time
- 1974- US House of Reps begins determining grounds for impeachment of Nixon
- 1981- Beatles McCartney, Starr & Harrison record a tribute to John Lennon (OK, “Brady Brides” also debuted on TV the same day, but the tribute seemed more important)
Famous Capricorns
- Fredrico Fellini – Director
- Geena Davis – Actress
- John Belushi – Actor
- Wolfgang Mozart – Composer
- Opra Winfrey – TV Host
- Charles Lindbergh – Pilot
- Carl Berstein – Journalist
Affiliate Summit East 2009 Resolutions
They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So if I didn’t learn from my experience at this last affiliate summit, I’d be crazy. I’ve had some time to think long and hard about my experience in Las Vegas and I’m resolved to learn from these experiences. I wouldn’t say they’re mistakes, per se, but definitely opportunities for learning. Here’s some things I’ve figured out for myself that might just help you too (see, this isn’t my being selfish!)
- Make sure to secure internet for the trip! I had SO many problems this time around, I’m going to make sure the hotel I’m staying at has either wired or wifi connections, and bring my own Ethernet cable that I know for SURE works just in case. Being without internet for 5 days is killer!
- Don’t get sick! I’m going to finally try out Airborne and hopefully avoid catching germs from people. Maybe I’ll even go semi-germaphobe and carry around some PocketBac to help reduce the chance of germs jumping on board after shaking so many hands. I have some awesome peppermint sceneted stuff from Bath & Body Works in a tiny and manageable 1 fl. oz. size. I can’t afford to come back sick from a conference AGAIN!
- Lighten my load. My big backpack was too big – I didn’t need to cart around that much space. Luckily the Buy.at backpack I won is just right to carry my laptop & the essentials (business cards, beverage, wallet, antibacterial hand gel, that kind of thing).
- Get more information from my mentee! I don’t want to be a sourpuss and not do the mentor program again because I have even MORE stuff to tell a AS newbie, but this time I’ll be sure to find out when they’re coming to the summit, if they’ll be there all three days, and try to find out what they look like so I can spot them in a crowd to say hi!
- Attend “Ask the Experts”! I jokingly said that I’d never attend this unless I was one of the experts, but since I don’t see that happening I need to not be lazy that second day and get up and attend. Somehow sleep always seems to take precedent that second morning…
- EAT! I managed to go all day Sunday having eaten just a few snacks and no real meals until a 2am bowl of cereal (thank you Las Vegas for being a 24/7 town). This was not good. Since the provided Continental Breakfast and Luncheons don’t kick in until Monday & Tuesday, I need to remember that Sunday isn’t just the Meet Market anymore – it’s a full fledged day of sessions, so get up and get energy!
- Get a smaller camera. Or bring the smaller one I gave my husband, because I don’t take nearly enough photos and end up relying on the power of Flickr and Facebook tags to find photos of me at the show. My camera that I take most my pics with is kinda bulky and not really friendly “on the fly”. Next time I’ll have my Flip Mino (thank you MarketLeverage!) and will be sure to get video of some of the general events (not the sessions, that’s a no-no) and random people I encounter. I’ll be video happy!
- Pimp myself out. It’s nice to look professional, yes, but being branded like a cow gets noticed. I had my own business cards of course, but no cards for any other departments, no nifty swag to hand people, no visible affiliation with them other than the name on my badge, not even a postcard with the equivalent of a 30 second elevator pitch. Next time, you’ll know who I rep when you see me coming!
Affsum Session: Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages
Date: Tuesday, January 13th, 2009. Session 8b, 2:00pm.
Session Description: Learn how to optimize your landing pages and increase conversion rates by 50-500% using simple techniques and technologies. Get that competitive edge by increasing margins and return on marketing spend. The panel consisted of:
- Olivier Chaine, CEO & Founder, magnify360 (Moderator)
- Trevor Claiborne, Product Marketing Manager, Google
- Lisa Crossley Hunter, Senior Director of CJ Search, Commission Junction
- Beth Kirsch, VP of Marketing and Business Development, uAmplify
I was expecting some gems in terms of site optimization, and boy was I not let down! I’d heard Lisa and Olivier speak last September at CJU, so I knew I was in for good stuff from them. I mentioned this session as one I planned on attending before leaving and Trevor stopped by to say hi. I had a chance to chat with him briefly in the bloghaus after the session and let him know what a great job they did as well.
Bullet Point Review!
- 98% of your traffic is wasted.
- 2% is the average site conversion rate.
- Copy heavy pages perform better later hours.
- There isn’t one magic answer.
- Ask yourself these questions about your visitors:
- Why are they here TODAY?
- How do they THINK?
- How do they BUY/STICK?
- What kind of dialog is best?
- Google’s website optimizer is a free tool to do this for you.
- A/B testing is your friend.
- So is multivariate.
- Best practices: start now, test often.
- Resource: Google Website Optimizer
- Share search channels.
- Cooperate with other departments with
- Ad copy
- Natural listings
- Trademarks
- Display URL Usage
- After testing, what works for affiliates is often different than what works for search.
- One page tested, search conversions went up 60% but affiliate went up 454%!
- You could be losing tremendous amounts of revenue by not optimizing.
- Don’t start without a plan.
- Don’t just copy what someone else did, it probably won’t work the same for you. TEST!
- Don’t assume an optimized page today is going to be optimized 6 months from now.
Points brought up during the Q&A
Just make sure you’re sending the most qualified traffic to the merchant page; you can’t really optimize their site or spend your time trying to help them that much.- How much data is needed? Generally speaking 100 impressions per change, but really, use a tool – they’ll tell you when enough data has been collected to pick a winning optimization.
- Is there a hierarchy of what to test? Not really, just pick a few things and go small first. Multivariate is complicated so start with something more manageable.
In the end, I really enjoyed hearing more from Lisa and Olivier – their expertise seems to know no bounds! Trevor also nailed it with the information about the Google Website Optimizer – my fellow attendees and I speculated that he was why most people came, to learn about the free Google tool! Unfortunately I wasn’t impressed by Beth – her speaking was really mumbled so I couldn’t quite pick up everything she said, and most her slides related to case studies and not a lot of tactics. Maybe at a smaller venue or had I been closer to the front I might have been able to hear her better. Ultimately these tidbits did well, but the slides will really tell you the background behinds these notes, so here they are!
View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: asw09 affiliate)
Also, Mike Buechele strikes again: Affiliate Summit West 2009 Session Recap – Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages.
