Roman History and Google Earth

Amazing times we live in, folks.

And simply amazing for those of us called to teach…

Google LatLong: Roman history comes to life in Google Earth: “Were you someone who struggled to stay awake in ancient history class? If so, perhaps this was due to those uninspiring ‘artist renditions’ in your textbook. Reading countless pages that described how a monument, building or city may have appeared at the time can be pretty difficult to imagine.

Well, today we introduced a new approach to learning about ancient history: the ability to go back in time and explore Rome as it existed in 320 AD — in 3D!”

Amazing.

I love Google and the interwebs.

Tonight’s the Night


I listened to Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night again last night. Amazing.

A comment on Amazon likens the album to Robert Johnson’s rawness and the Wikipedia article hints at the personal nature of the artistry behind the songs:

Tonight’s the Night (album) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Included with the vinyl release of Tonight’s the Night was a seemingly strange insert that added to Neil Young’s claim that Tonight’s the Night was the closest he ever came to art. Emphasising the personal nature of the album, the self-penned liner notes contained an apology: ‘I’m sorry. You don’t know these people. This means nothing to you.’ The original inserts/liner notes included in the vinyl release were quite cryptic in their conveyance.

On the front of the insert is a letter to the mysterious ‘Waterface’ character, no explanation is given to their identity, although in Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography by Jimmy McDonough, Young says that ‘Waterface is the person writing the letter. When I read the letter, I’m Waterface. It’s just a stupid thing – a suicide note without the suicide.'”

The album has actually crept into my “Top 5” list which goes something like (in no particular order):

Tonight’s the Night: Neil Young

Heartbreaker: Ryan Adams (even if it is named after a Mariah Carey song.)

The Beatles (The White Album): The Beatles (sure, Abbey Road is a/the masterpiece, but I’ve always loved the chaotic underbelly of the Beatles…for me, this is pure music perfection.)

Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan (if you haven’t listened to this album all the way through with headphones on, you haven’t lived.)

Nevermind: Nirvana (the album that made me like music and changed my life and my generation.)

It’s difficult to nail down a “Top 5” but it’s really difficult to nail down a Top 10 or a Top 25. We’ll do that another day.

That’s because today, It’s Neil Young’s birthday. So do him and yourself a favor and give “Tonight’s the Night” a listen today (or tonight).

Zoho and the Cloud Stability Question

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I’ve been a long time proponent of “cloud computing” and can’t imagine trading in my GMail or Google Docs on any machine I’m using for Outlook or Office tied to one machine or one OS.

Whether I’m on my Blackberry, Ubuntu laptop, Macbook Pro, Nokia N800, iPod Touch, Mac Mini, my wife’s Vista laptop, etc I can get to every piece of email, every document, every note (through Evernote) every task (through Remember The Milk) that I need.

It is beyond liberating and the type of freedom that any heavy user of computers should seek out. I simply cannot wrap my mind around people that continue to tie themselves to one desktop or laptop or even one operating system.

Firefox is my operating system.

However, the biggest concern I hear (and I have) about using “web apps” like GMail is whether or not they are stable and secure. What happens when their server goes down? What if you can’t get to your GMail because Google is doing maintenance? It’s a very good question and something I consider a cost for having the freedom of mobility.

This morning, Zoho is launching “Zoho Status” which monitors the health and stability of all the Zoho web apps (and they are numerous)…

Zoho-Status: “Today, we are adding a new section to our website – Zoho Status – which displays the health of all Zoho Applications. You can visit http://status.zoho.com to see if our applications are running and responding fine. The site provides you availability & response times for the past week along with downtime, if any. “

I find this highly important and relevant to web workers like affiliate marketers because many of us do use GMail or Google Docs on a daily, if not hourly or minute-ly, basis.

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Zoho is, yet again, pushing ahead past Google or other web app providers here just as they have done frequently in the past. If you’ll remember, Zoho was the first to integrate Google Gears with its word processor to allow for offline work that syncs to the server when you are back on the network. Google Docs now offers this. Just recently, Zoho released Zoho Mail. I honestly think it’s a superior product to GMail because it takes the best of GMail and melds it with the functionality of Outlook, all in a web interface, complete with Google Gears for offline mode. GMail doesn’t have Gears integration yet. I’m not switching just yet, but it is tempting given Zoho Mail’s range of functionalities that GMail is just starting to catch up to with its own Lab features.

So, as a web worker, if I’m looking for a stable suite of web apps to use in place of Outlook and Office, I’m looking closer at Zoho today. Much of what I do on the web is mission critical in one way or another, and having the peace of mind that Zoho Status provides (at least in a placebo effect way) is calming.

Jewish Temple’s Existence Questioned by Palestinian Negotiator

Whatever your persuasion on the question of the Jewish state and modern Near East politics, this is an interesting (disturbing) use of revisionism for political gain…

Jewish Temples never existed, says top Palestinian negotiator: “The Jewish Temples never existed and Israel has been working to ‘invent’ a Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem, the chief Palestinian negotiator asserted.

Ahmed Qurei, the Palestinian Authority official leading all peace talks with the Jewish state, made the controversial statements in a small media briefing Wednesday attended by WND as well as by a Palestinian media outlet and an Arab affairs correspondent for a major Israeli newspaper.”

Let us all pray for more education rather than propaganda

FriendFeed via IM: Twitter Looking Stale

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Back in its glory (and most useful/valuable) days, Twitter had great IM support. Being able to interact with fellow tweeting friends via IM and follow conversations via Track was stupendous, revolutionary and real-time.

Sadly, that all went *poof* earlier this year.

However, FriendFeed is quickly stepping up to the bat. First, they released a live “real time” feature to follow conversations and posts that was pretty nifty.

Now, they’ve integrated the service with IM to provide the real time experience many of us miss from Twitter.

I’m not ready to give up Twitter for FriendFeed, but if FF keeps adding new innovations while Twitter keeps removing features, it could become an option for me and the other “power users” who value the real time flow of trackable information across platforms.

FriendFeed Blog: Instant FriendFeed – Notifications and Posting over IM

MTV Music Portal is Nostalgia Central and Good for Affiliates

Sure, you can find most of that ancient medium known as the “music video” on YouTube, but having all those great videos from the 80’s, 90’s and early ’00’s in a neat searchable place is handy.

BTW, here’s a vid for “New York New York” from my favorite singer/songwriter Ryan Adams that was shot just a few days before 9/11. I was living just an hour or so away from the city in Connecticut at the time, so the video had a big impact on me (and still does):

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtvmusic.com:14102

Anyways, if you are doing anything music related on the affiliate side, this might be a site worth investigating considering the embedding options…

MTV MUSIC – Ryan Adams – New York, New York

Brian Littleton on SAS’ PPC Policy

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Brian Littleton, head of ShareASale, was in NYC for Ad:Tech and sat down with Shawn Collins, Missy Ward and Connie Berg to discuss a few topics including the network’s interesting “3 Strikes” PPC policy on AffiliateThing…

ShareASale Blog » Blog Archive » Ad-Tech NYC, the Affiliate Thing Podcast, and the PPC “3 Strikes” policy: “I was also lucky to have the opportunity to speak with Shawn Collins on his ‘Affiliate Thing’ podcast at the Affiliate Summit booth. Also on board were co-Affiliate Summitter Missy Ward, and Connie Berg. We had a good time talking about some industry news, issues, and it gave me an opportunity to talk about our PPC ‘3 Strikes’ policy as well. Since September 1st when the policy became active, we’ve received a great amount of feedback and reports. I would also like to thank all of the affiliates who have really stepped up their efforts to make sure that they are in compliance with the rules at hand. I know how difficult it is to keep up with so many policies, and your effort is very much appreciated. We know there will always be mistakes, hiccups, etc… and will continue to do our best to determine the difference between an honest mistake and a continued violation. So thank you…. “

The show really is a good listen.

Here’s the mp3 or head over to GeekCast.fm for the streaming version.

Facebook Buying Twitter??

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(Get it? (Beluga) Whale Face? Ugh, ok)

New rumors from the ongoing Web 2.0 Summit in SF this week (yes, web 2.0 is still around according to rumors)…

Oh, dear, here come the ‘Facebook to buy Twitter’ rumors | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone – CNET: “John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media, decided to have a little bit of speculative fun onstage Thursday with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit. It’s the sort of ‘speculative fun’ that could give tech bloggers a gossip-overload headache for weeks to come: Battelle decided to throw some fuel on the ‘Facebook might buy Twitter’ fire. Which, as far as I can tell, is a relatively new addition to the rumor-roasting pit.”

I put about as much stock in this as I put into Obama appointing Scoble as CTO. Just sayin’.

Gary V and the Example of Howard Stern

Gary Vaynerchuk uses Howard Stern’s bitterness to make a great point about cost-of-entry and the new paradigm on the web.

In other words, don’t be that guy when you make it to the top and web7.0 or whatever comes out 20 years from now…

http://www.viddler.com/player/9507943/

gary vaynerchuk » A reaction to Howard Sterns thought on Social networks, Social media and blogs. – my 2 minute take on life

37signals New Affiliate Programs

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37signals is the company behind such popular web worker products as Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise and Campfire. You’ve probably noticed the BackPack banner over in the sidebar, but now they’ve expanded the affiliate program to include their other productivity products. I’m pretty excited about that.

If you’re a small business doing online markeitng and not using Basecamp, you’re really missing out. It’s the hub of my online business life and people like Scott Jangro are also big fans.

I want to reiterate how reliant I am on Basecamp and Backpack for organizing my personal and business (and academic) lives, and also how you should be promoting these products if you’re in the B2B affiliate field.

37signals Affiliate Program: “The 37signals Affiliate Program pays you once after a customer’s first monthly payment, plus 5% of that customer’s future monthly fees for as long as their account remains open. “

Of course, if you’d like to sign up for any of their programs, feel free to do so with the affiliate links in this post (b/c CPN always needs and appreciates your support!).

Two Important Things AOL is Doing Right

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AOL has been on the receiving end of much negative press in the tech and marketing blogosphere over the last few weeks as the worldwide economic downturn continues to have ripple effects in the first tier advetising sector. I’m not immune to putting the heat on them either.

Amidst all of these reports, however, the press and bloggers are overlooking the very important moves AOL is making on two fronts these days: a better persona with a revamped home page and Platform-A.

1) New Homepage and More “Openness” Will Spur Better Social Web

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A revised portal is nothing new for any online company or property (especially one that deals with a variety of front-end services like AOL). Before this most recent update late last month, it had been 18 months since AOL’s last front page revision. The web changed a great deal in those 18 months, moving to a much more social and interactive nature. For the most part, web users have become much more savvy and demanding in terms of seeing beyond walled-gardens. Even Facebook, the most walled-off garden of web2.0, has had to open-up with its app platform in order to sustain momentum.

So, it was not a huge surprise that AOL would allow for thrid party content such as GMail or Yahoo Mail access.

However, the innovative trick in all of this is that AOL is also helping to spur access (and perhaps innovation) among its users for services such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace through a global status update manager. We haven’t seen this sort of push towards the social from the large portal sites, so I’m hopeful that more people will come to experience and love services like Twitter because of their reliance on AOL.

Not to mention there is a built-in RSS reader.

We who are well-versed in the social media space often forget there is a “great unwashed mass” of humanity out there who has no clue what to do with Twitter or RSS. AOL could help change that and in the process change Twitter (and even RSS) for the better.

Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President of Programming, gave me an exclusive quote on the revamp of the homepage and how it relates to their vision for better marketing campaigns and metrics:

“As the Web becomes more fragmented, consumers want choice and relevance in their Web experiences. AOL.com is the first traditional big portal to offer access to popular social networking sites all in one place. Now consumers can connect with their numerous networks and information sources all from AOL.com.

We have already seen success by opening up AOL.com to other e-mail providers. We will continue to enhance the appeal of our portal with the changes we are making today by adding more relevant programming, customization opportunities, greater integration of third party content, improved design and access to social networks directly from AOL.com.”

“We are creating opportunities for advertisers to reach consumers through engaging and relevant content. As part of this redesign, there are more robust capabilities for advertisers including customized wallpapers, increased rich media capabilities, much deeper and richer content integration opportunities and more.

For example, a recent one-day advertisement for the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull DVD provided a chance for the advertiser to own the AOL.com homepage wallpaper for the day to reach consumers in a highly customizable and measurable way.”

I don’t see this as a replacement for iGoogle or NetVibes (or myAOL), but I do see the new AOL frontpage helping to push people towards those types of services as they develop an appreciation for the ability of the social web to both solve problems and provide community. Fascinating times we live in, folks.

2) Advertising.com / Platform-A / buy.at

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I’ve long said that I’m bullish on AOL because of Platform-A. Simply put, I think they are doing things right across the board from large media buy type marketing down to direct performance marketing.

AOL has what every advertising company should be drooling for in terms of reach. As buy.at continues to be integrated with the overall AOL advertising family, I expect them to become leaders in our space. There’s no reason for them to fail at this point.

And with Platform-A’s reach across the globe with Advertising.com, the European ad company AdTech (not the conference), Quigo, and Tacoda to go along with buy.at, I expect AOL to come out of the global recession in fine shape.

If you’re somewhat unsure of the whole Platform-A experience, take a look at this video that the Platform-A team put together (plus, the video features one of my favorite songs…”Such Great Heights” from the Postal Service as the soundtrack… so they have good music taste as well).

At the end of the day, don’t count out AOL. The company is nostalgically synonymous with the internet in my mind (having been a teen in the mid-90’s and remembering the days of the ubiquitous AOL floppy) and given their push into the new social web as well as advertising, they could do very well at rekindling the magic.

Backlink Watch for Seeing Who Is Linking to You

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There are a number of tools (some free and some paid) that perform the same function as Backlink Watch, but if you need a quick and easy checker to see who is linking to you and with what anchor text, it’s not a bad little tool.

Regardless, you should be keeping an eye on these sorts of things for SEO purposes as well as reputation management. And if you’re running an affiliate site that is composed of more than just affiliate links, it’s always a good idea to see if anyone else is including you in their posts or blogrolls.

Backlink Watch with something like Google Alerts should get you to 99% of what you need in this realm.

Backlink Watch

GeekCast 43: Valley vs Affiliates

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GeekCast 43 is up and it’s a good listen. The entire gang of Shawn Collins, Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille and myself chat about online marketing, gadgets, web2.0 and all-things-geek for 70 minutes.

If you’re new to the show, start with this one b/c it’s one of our best (in my opinion).

Here’s the mp3 or head over to GeekCast.fm for the stream if you’re of that persuasion.

Show Notes:

– Shawn Got a Blackberry Bold
– AT&T’s Marketing Woes

– Calacanis Redux: Affiliates v Silicon Valley
– Of Runways and Layoffs
– Ad:Tech’s Mood
– Examples of Good Businesses (FatWallet, Zac Johnson, Scott Jangro)

– Twitter Woes and Feature Complaints
– Revenue’s Marketing

– Ask500People.com
– More AdTech Talk

– Branding: affiliate.com, Izea and Coke
– Netbooks

Jangro on Affiliate Networks and Social Media

Must read from Scott on why some affiliate networks “get” social media (or just social participation on the web) and some fail every time:

Affiliate Networks and Social Media | Jangro.com: “Commission Junction is, again, the only one missing from the party. Surely if Todd Crawford, Lisa Riolo, and Brian Caldwell were still there this would be a different story. Or me, for that matter.

It seems to me that the basic pre-requisite to a company attaining a successful social media presence is that they’ve got at least one person who is (a) interested and already heavily involved in social media, and (b) in a position that the company trusts them to represent.

How does that not happen at a company like CJ? This is not to judge (though I’m sure somebody will), but to ask the purely academic question, seriously, why?”

Personality, personality, personality.

(The Awesome) Remember The Milk Now in the App Store

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I absolutely love Remember The Milk. I’ve been an active (and heavy) user for well over a year and upgraded to their “Pro” level (best $25 you’ll spend this year) to take full advantage of their BlackBerry and iPod Touch syncing capabilities. Not to mention, they have amazing integration with GMail and your task lists stay in sync and in front of you whether you’re in GMail, on your mobile or on the web.

Obviously, I can’t recommend Remember The Milk enough. Honestly. Stop what you’re doing and go sign up if you already haven’t.

Anyway, my endorsement aside, they now have a designated app in the Apple App Store (for iPhone and Touch users). It’s free for Pro users (and works great as usual).

Remember The Milk – Blog: “To say that we were excited when Apple made it possible to start developing native apps earlier this year would be a massive understatement (we’re big iPhone fans!). There was no question that we’d be developing an app for the iPhone and iPod touch… the only question was, ‘how big?’ :)”

Go support a great company, team and platform that is constantly innovating… RTM is the embodiment of what we’ve all been asking for web2.0 in terms of real functionality and a business plan. Vote with your feet and head over there.

(end rant)

CPA Empire Rebrands as affiliate.com

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CPA Empire has been rebranded into the choice domain affiliate.com.

This move reminds me of how Pepperjam has successfully rebranded itself as a “next-gen” network in the mindset of many affiliates. It will be interesting to see if affiliate.com can do the same for CPA Empire, which hasn’t always had the sunniest of reputations on the affiliate forums, etc.

Here are some excerpts from the press release…

“affiliate.com provides us with a premier name to go along with our leadership position in the affiliate marketing industry,” said Steven Richter, President and General Counsel for Media Breakaway. “However, we are doing more than simply changing the name of our affiliate marketing division. Our goal is for affiliate.com to become the next generation of affiliate networks.”

The company also announced that it will be undertaking a number of key initiatives as a part of the name change. These initiatives include the development of a proprietary tracking system that will provide affiliates and advertisers with accurate, real-time reporting and an easy to use interface to access performance data on all their campaigns. In addition, business development efforts are being focused on bringing in more top performing international offers, as the company continues to increase its presence in the global market. The company will also be expanding its affiliate management and advertiser support teams and enhancing the affiliate manager training program to ensure that the team is providing the highest level of support in the industry.

“Through each of these initiatives and others we will put in place in 2009, we plan to take affiliate marketing to the next level in technology, services, and support,” said Richter. “We are dedicated to helping our affiliates and advertisers grow their businesses and become more profitable.”

Sounds like there may be some competition in store for Affiliate Classroom as well (“enhancing the affiliate manager training program to ensure that the team is providing the highest level of support in the industry”).

The affiliate.com team also has a blog up and running as well.

Shawn Collins also has a post about the rebranding.

Dunkin Donuts is Now on Twitter! OK, I Like DD Too Much

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Continuing the rise in the use of Twitter as a tool for companies to communicate with loyal and potential customers, Dunkin Donuts is now spreading 140 character goodness.

Twitter / DunkinDonuts: “Dunkin’ Dave here, Tweeting on behalf of the DD mothership. I’m an American and I’m certifiably running on Dunkin’. “

I have to admit that I’m a much bigger DD fan than Star$ucks, etc (and we don’t have Peet’s here in NC, Lisa).

Off to Dunkin now…