Blogging: The Root of all Evil?
Is blogging the root of all evil? This argument is swaying, even for me as a blogger.
On some level, I have to agree. Blogging has turned many people into increasingly poorer writers. This “First draft culture” that he describes isn’t too far off, I’m afraid. This ties into a post by Jim Kukral a couple weeks back titled Your Grammar & Spelling Is Going to Ruin Your Career. I have to agree, as grammar and spelling have ALWAYS been pet peeves of mine; even in casual conversation it KILLS me to hear someone say “more better” or “funner”!
Remember that web content doesn’t go away. Archives endure and even if you completely delete your blog…chances are cached pages will exist somewhere. So do yourself a favor and treat blogging like a real job that you’re getting paid a lot of money for if you ever want to advance your career and actually get paid to blog.
And listen to some of these points and try to straighten up & fly right, will ya? 😛
Read MoreDays 2 and 3 of Affiliate Summit East 2008
Well, while I’d intended to recap each day… that didn’t exactly happen as you can tell. I do intend to post the notes I took from the sessions and the impressions to help everyone learn the great stuff I learned. Some of the more hot button sessions can’t be covered in mere bullet points, so it will take me a day or so longer to get my thoughts together for those.
I covered Saturday & Sunday (mostly… the ShareASale party was nice although I didn’t stay long), so let’s jump right into Monday & Tuesday, the busiest days of the conference.
Day 2 – Divide & Conquer
- In many ways this is the day that the summit starts. In the past the breakout sessions have only been on Monday & Tuesday, however this year they were extended to Sunday. Regardless, the keynote was given on Monday by Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker. If you didn’t want to jump up ready to go, you didn’t listen to what Mayor Booker had to say. It was a great speech, and I already posted my thoughts about it.
- The blogger’s lounge helped save my sanity. It was nice to be able to go in there in the 30 minute breaks between sessions & chat with people and do a little bit of work. Had the wifi worked out better for me (not sure if it was my ancient laptop or the actual connection that was the issue) I would have been able to get more posts up during the actual conference. I hope to have a better laptop by the next show I go to so I can just live blog it!
- Of the 3 sessions I attended, the best was Content That Kills. It was informative, had great tips and information, and there were good questions asked by the audience. I may be biased being a writer by heart, but it was good stuff.
- The other sessions I attended that day were the Performance Marketing Alliance Q&A, which turned more into a witch hunt filled with personal issues unfortunately, and How is Social Media Changing Affiliate Marketing, which apparently it isn’t because that question was never really answered. More on those in their own posts.
- The Great Affiliate Road Rally was a slaughterhouse win! With just three cars in it this time, the first place car took off like a shot and left the others in their dust! Congrats to them & to the others? Well remember the entry fee went to charity & you won’t feel so bad 🙂
- Monday night I had dinner with a lovely group of new friends & colleagues and then headed over to the LinkShare event at Tia’s. The event was a whole new group of people to talk to and had a great time talking some shop and reminiscing over Police Academy flicks with Wil Reynolds & Jim Kukral.
- Oh no, that wasn’t the end! After that we headed back to the hotel where we shut down the bar there and moved across the street to a small bar by the water & had a great time chatting with people and generally schmoozing before rolling into bed.
Day 3 – Epic Games
- It was a matter of sleep vs. sessions I wasn’t overly excited about attending, so I missed the Ask the Experts table discussions & The Future of Affiliate Marketing to sleep in & get refreshed for the Copywriting Clinic, which I very much wanted to attend. I hear I didn’t miss much.
- Speaking of the Copywriting Clinic, Lisa Riolo did an excellent job moderating and the panelists were excellent. I took 3 full pages of notes on this session, so you’re in for a huge post later on!
- The Ethical Issues in Affiliate Marketing session turned into the biggest fail session of the conference for me. The moderator Haiko de Poel Jr was doing a pretty bad job… usually when you’re the moderator of a panel of “experts” your job is to pass questions to the best suited panel member, not challenge the question back to the audience member who asked it. I have much more to say, so I’ll save it for later.
- The un-keynote was very relaxed and I actually got up & talked…which was big for me knowing that it was being video taped! I just hope when I look back at it that I don’t look like a fool lol.
- Luckily I was able to attend the Red Sox vs. Rangers game at Fenway with some fellow baseball loving conference attendees. Being a moderate baseball fan I was really thrilled to be there & the game was crazy! The Red Sox almost blew a 10-0 lead in the 1st but came back in the last inning to tie it up and then ultimately overtake the Rangers with an epic score of 17-19 Red Sox. We only spent a few innings in the stands before the rain started, but I got some great pictures and we continued watching the game from inside near the concessions so it wasn’t a waste.
- More bar shenanigans, then some piano playing until late kept me up long enough to decide not to go to bed before my early flight out of town. Overall what a great end to a great conference.
Final Thought – Springer Style
Overall I had the best time at this conference – not just because it was fun and I met a lot of terrific people who I’ve had the chance to get to know online and now have had the opportunity to meet in person – but because I just learned so much that I “get it” now. I remember back in February going to the Affiliate Summit West and having a conversation with my husband that I was actually starting to understand more and more about the industry and that I really felt like this was an industry I could get excited about.
And I have… and this reinforced so much for me how much I really like this industry! I’m back to the “real world” here and ready to conquer it!
Read MoreAffsum Keynote Cory Booker
(c) Shawn Collins on Flickr
The keynote given by Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker was great… if you didn’t leave that speech leaving jazzed and excited to get in there and learn, network, and conquer the world – you weren’t listening. It was a terrific speech; very clear why he’s in demand as a public speaker, in addition to his mayoral duties. One note that was given by emcee Jim Kukral – 36% of the attendees of the show are affiliates.
Bullet Point Review!
- Knowing who you are is key before doing anything.
- You can always do a little more.
- “Poverty of Imagination” – nice quote from Corey.
- The world you see outside is a reflection of what’s inside.
- A challenge is just a hidden opportunity.
- What are you as an individual doing to improve the world?
- In the tech industry it was all about size…the bigger the better. Which was a reflection on the world before the mid 1980’s. Then everything switched from being about size to being about speed – faster is better.
- Newark, NJ is the #1 city in America reducing violent crime over the last 2 years – just in Q1 in 2008 murder has decreased 75%.
- What can we do to show our true selves?
- “You’re on the front line of America” to Newark cops. Booker actually went out on patrol himself at night that quarter.
- Get involved in changing the spirit of your community if you aim to help.t
- The primary cause of human suffering is forgetfulness.
- Deciding to do something is a cognitive process, not an act.
- Make your life resonate with what you do.
- Live your highest ideals to the most logical extreme.
- Believe in the miraculous.
- If you’re seeking success, find ways to live with resonance – believe in love that’s not just transactional.
- The heroes that we name days after are never the greatest ones.
Overall, everyone should have attended and it was an incredibly motivating talk that actually almost made me cry. Good choice for keynote!
Read MoreDays -1 and 1 of Affiliate Summit East 2008
Just a quick recap of days negative 1 and 1 of Affiliate Summit East 2008 before I head off to the Share a Sale Under the Stars party that started an hour ago (give me a break, I’m fashionably late!).
Day Negative 1 (a.k.a. Saturday)
- The Affiliate Classroom Live event went well overall. I feel like the people in most of my discussions were picking up what I was putting down. I feel like I could have been better prepared, but that was really my own fault. I hope that I’m asked back in the future of other events and can do a bang up job! Also met some cool peeps.
- AffSpot.com forum meet-up was fun – got to meet some new people like Angie & Roger from Snow Consulting, talked at length with the ever charming Lisa Picarille of Revenue Magazine, finally met the lovely penguin Jen Good of JGoode Designs, was thrown schwag by Sam Harrelson & Aunesty Janssen the admins of the Spot, and met Bill (Beachy), Ron (7daysRon), & some others that came & went. As I was looking down reading something on my phone outside the bar I recognized Jim Kukral of Scratchback soley by his mandals with socks walking by! Love it.
- Speaking of Sam, he had to bail on the Affiliate Dinner last night so he graciously gave me his ticket! I went and had a great meal, lots of laughs at the expense of the roastee Connie Berg of FlamingoWorld.com, and talked at great length with apparently my #1 fan Kim Rodgers from 4Checks.com. It’s funny that I JUST ordered my new checks from them for the first time last week, so we had a great discussion! The highlight just might have been Brian Littleton from Share-a-Sale dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow for Connie’s love of all things Johnny Depp.
- Finally, while the concept of recording a live podcast for GeekCast live was a terrific idea, it ended up being a FAIL of epic proportions. It was an insanely fun time talking and having fun with peeps but between the audience, topics, & Shawn’s BeerTender, it was too much of a party. It was a blast though that kept me up until 3:45am.
Day 1 – Affiliate Summit Kicks Off
- Registration was incredibly easy now that they’ve come up with self check in kiosks. Love it!
- Missed the PPC and Social Media tracks I wanted to attend thanks to a righteous headache this morning (no, I DON’T think it was a hangover!) but heard the social media was good.
- Headed into the Meet Market and MAN was it packed! Got my fare share of awesome schwag, bought myself an “I Gave Back!” button, and got some good info on some cool networks and programs. It was a zoo in there so I had to bail, bu t it was good that I did since I’d lost track of time and was able to get to the NY tax laws session.
- The day isn’t over! I’m shutting this bad boy down in lieu of blogging about the other session I attended today and I’m heading over to the ShareASale party on the Odyssey Cruise yacht… can’t promise how long I’ll stay but it should be a blast!
Online Video Toolkit – Live Today!
Today is the date, kiddies! The launch of Jim Kukral’s latest joint, OnlineVideoToolkit.com, has brought your freebie early this week. Jim himself has said he’s never been the kind of guy to put up a 3 mile long sales page and sell the information he knows, so he’s giving it away! That’s right, all you have to do is sign up… give him your preciously guarded email address and the keys to the castle are yours!
I signed up a couple weeks ago and was invited to check it out yesterday before it was technically launched. So far Jim has 10 really informative videos up, covering the basic aspects like sound, editing, lighting, wardrobe, and of course your choice of camera. For anyone looking to seriously jump into online video and produce well made content for reasonable prices, this toolkit is a must have.
Jim’s been doing online video for some time now, and he’s one of the most vocal proponents of online video and it’s potential. Jim currently produces The Daily Flip on his website JimKukral.com and records the Video Ninjas podcast on GeekCast.fm with Magnify.net’s Steve Rosenbaum. So, brother knows what he’s talking about here! This is really the perfect resource for beginners and intermediate online video fans, and it’s free! So there’s really no excuse not to at least go check it out.
I’m already enjoying it, and it’s inspired me to make some more video. I know, I said that about podcasting too but I SWEAR I’m working on some of that as well! So I’m going to stop wasting time and go watch more of the videos at OnlineVideoToolkit.com in preparation for my trip to Boston next week, and I suggest you do the same!
Read MoreWho’s on YOUR A-list?
What does it mean to be on the A-List? It’s subjective, I’m sure… A-List can be different depending on the industry, niche, subject, category, you name it. An actor on the A-List would never show up on the A-list of an affiliate marketer.
My A-List is pretty much the same people who appear in my sidebar links – I’ve chosen to give them the link love. Most of which are affiliate marketers like Shawn Collins, Missy Ward, Sam Harrelson, etc. But I’ve also got to give shout outs to some other good blogs out there like those belonging to Linda Sherman, Jim Kukral, and Andy Beal. These are the blogs I learn the most from, and these people are my A-Listers.
So who’s on your A-List? Give them some love & a shout out!
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