When I heard that Dina Riccobono at MarketLeverage was participating in Operation Shoebox, I wanted to help.  Being in California, I can’t really participate with her and her group, but I can tell you all about it in hopes that some of you are in the Orlando area and can help, or alternatively, would like to make donations for future package parties Dina plans to host.

Operation Shoebox puts together care packages year round for our active troops, and ships them out either on a one-time basis, or directly connects you with a troop (1 solider = a troop) to interact with for the duration of their tour. While Dina wanted to help as many troops as possible, she really didn’t have the budget to shop for 50 troops herself…so she enlisted the help of some friends. They sent letters, emails, tweets – all asking various companies to donate their products for the packages. They solicited non-perishable items from friends, family, dentists, and co-workers, put out ‘Op Boxes’ in their offices to collect supplies, and stocked monetary donations to assist with shipping costs (the most expensive item for Operation Shoebox by far).

So far, Dina and her group have been able to get donations from the following companies:

• Xshot – 53 of them!
• DoYouPoken.com – 108 Pokens!
• Pingo.com (Brian Hawkins) – 200 International Calling Cards
• Quaker Oats – 50 Gatorade Vouchers
• GBL Public Relations for Pentel – Hundreds of Pens, Pencils, Hats, and t-shirts.
• FujiFilm – 60 One-Time Use Cameras (SeeHere.com)
• CharmFactory – 60 American Flag Pins
• TheDistrictDish – Matchboxes
• Burn Cream MD – Medical Supplies
• Orlando Ichiban – Space for the Packaging Party with Discount Sushi and Drinks

It’s not just companies getting involved.  Dina has been able to attract some individual sponsors as well:

• Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com
• Various members of the MarketLeverage team
• Vanessa Swanepoel of PokenGirl.com

The packaging party – where they will organize all 50 shoeboxes and put the sponsors items and donations together for individual shipment to the troops – is TODAY in Orlando!  If you’re near Orlando and want to help, Dina and her group are happy to have you!. Orlando Ichiban has been kind enough to donate space to use to put the boxes together, and also some discounts on food and drinks. They will potentially live stream this packaging party, and then Deb Schroeder and Dina will drive all the boxes to Operation Shoebox HQ the first week of December and hand deliver the packages. She’ll be filming that journey as well.

Please, if you’re in the Orlando area or know anyone who is, go help them out.  It’s a great thing they’re doing.  You can also organize something similar in your area.  You can go to OperationShoebox.com to adopt your own troop.  Dina hopes to do this quarterly if all goes well this time.  If you’d like to sponsor any items or donate funds for shipping, you can reach out to Dina directly at dina-at-marketleverage.com.

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Poken seems to have taken over the techie space as the next big thing in conferences and networking.  Don’t know what a Poken is?  Well, it’s basically a USB drive with a cartoon character for a cover.  The drive has software installed on it that automatically connects to the Poken website when you plug it in.  It also has a sensor on the hand that flashes when you “high 4″ with another poken, effectively exchanging virtual contact information.

I first learned of this product at Affiliate Summit East 2009, thanks to Peter Shankman mentioning them in his keynote.  It seemed like everyone wanted a Poken after that – and many people bought some from Peter before the conference was over.  Peter has obviously identified these cute little virtual business cards as a significant advance in sharing contact information, a “game-changer”, even.

But are Poken really the wave of the future?

It depends who you are.  If you travel and network a lot, they could be incredibly useful as they pick up popularity and more people are available for you to “high 4″ with.  Shelly Good-Cook says of the device, “I bought one a couple months and other than my twin sister, for whom I also bought one, I haven’t found anyone to “high five” mine with.  I took it to a networking event I attended in Arlington, VA recently where most of the attendees were young, hip and computer savvy, but none of them had heard of it yet.  I even met a reporter who covered that beat and it was new to her, so I gave her the scoop on it, hoping she covers it.  They may have won a Tech Crunch Award in Europe, but they still have work to do in the U.S. before they get wide spread adoption.  For me, this is like the early days of the fax machine.  I have one but there isn’t much value in it until a lot more people get one.  Most of the people I talked to about it at the networking event thought it was a great idea, although some of the men were less than thrilled with the limited design options.  Most thought $20 was reasonable for the functionality although a few balked at the price point, stating it was much too high.”

Poken has responded to the cartoon complaints and come out with a more professional looking Poken, the Poken Pulse, that looks much closer to a traditional USB drive and boasts 2GB of space and traditional USB drive functionality in addition to the Poken networking features.  At a higher price point, I actually expect more professionals will go with it over the cartoonish regular Poken as it does have that added functionality.  Most of the feedback I get about Poken are from my contacts in the affiliate marketing community, and I wonder now that there have been a couple more conferences if they’ve gotten more use.  Elizabeth Hannan said of her Poken, “I have had a experience with Poken at SXSW 09 where I was first introduced to Poken. It was incredibly helpful and made awkward introductions into easy conversations.”.  I can definitely see how that is beneficial for those of us that are friendly but not incredibly extroverted.

Whether or not these are the wave of the future, time will tell.  The buzz has seemed to died down in the last few months, but they’re not being tossed aside with that m100 Palm Pilot just yet.  Do you Poken?  Share your story!

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 Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 14 [42:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!

Once again, our schedules just were not fated to correspond this week.  So we enlisted the help of good ol’ Eric Nagel, the king of awesome business cards, to co-host with me.  Watch out Mike – Eric may give you a run for your money!  It was a good conversation, a bit more focused than some.  And in Eric’s honor – no intro music!  It’s a short & sweet episode coming in at 42:30. In in this episode we discuss:

• CJ Keyword Links expiring – how will this affect affiliates?
• Affiliate Day on Monday September 14th
• Twitter changed it’s Terms of Service, and strangely announced it via email.
• Wordpress getting hacked last week and some discussion of upgrading Wordpress, plugins, and Wordpress MU.
• CJU, ShareASale ThinkTank, Affiliate Summit West, Affiliate Convention all on the West Coast – no love for East Coast!
• The phenomenon of Poken, custom logo Poken, and more business-like Poken coming soon.

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