Year: 2008

GeekCast 23: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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This most recent episode of GeekCast is the best we’ve done.

We spend a great deal of time talking about the ABW and Performance Marketing Alliance controversy and our own frustrations with how things are playing out.

GeekCast 23: Can’t We All Just Get Along? : GeekCast.fm: “The show kicked off with discussion around the ABestWeb forum thread on the Performance Marketing Alliance initiative and whether or not affiliate marketing as an industry is being helped or hindered by the organization and whether or not some of the comments there were helpful to the industry as well. This theme comes around at the end of the show. So, make sure to listen to the whole thing for the proper context.”

Be sure to listen to this one if you’re interested in the industry organization movement.

There’s lots of other good stuff in the 80 minute podcast as well (you can find the whole description on the GeekCast page as well as link to the streaming player).

And here’s the mp3 for your downloading pleasure

AffiliateClassroomLive in Boston

I’ll be leading a workshop on social networking stuff for affiliate managers at the AffiliateClassroomLive event the Saturday before Affiliate Summit in Boston this August:

affiliateclassroomlive.com | Home: “Join us for a half-day workshop dedicated to Affiliate Managers. In the past, our LIVE Affiliate Manager Workshops have taken place over a full day and have been comprised mainly of presentations.”

And here’s the description of my session (no, I didn’t write this or refer to myself as an extraordinaire!):

Web 2.0 Practical, Successful Applications for Affiliate Managers
Sam Harrelson
Web 2.0 extraordinaire, Sam Harrelson, will talk to you about the various community networking platforms, applications and systems. He’ll discuss how affiliate managers can apply Web 2.0 techniques to their jobs for more effective affiliate recruitment, communication and motivation.

Lots of good people leading workshops like Trisha Fawver, Peter Figueredo, Heather Paulson, Lisa Riolo, Brad Waller and Lee Gientke.

I promise mine will be interesting, so stop by if you’re in town that Saturday.

Android News

I’m a fan of Apple in general, but I’m holding out for Google’s Android initiative before I move away from my BlackBerry (rather than going with the Android 3G).

This is mostly because I’m a fan of the open platform and open source approach to software and hardware. Plus, Google has so much of my data in their cloud because of my usage of their web products.

Just wanted to let everyone here know that the best blog I’ve found for Android updates is a blog called AndroidGuys.

Good stuff if you’re into the mobile side of things.

Russert

As I head into my first Father’s Day as an actual father, the news of Tim Russert’s passing hit me like a ton of bricks for a number of reasons.

First, I love politics. I love the art of politics and the science of politics and the religion of politics. Russert was, to many of us, the priest of politics. Sunday mornings without him on Meet the Press will never be the same for me.

Second, I love Meet the Press and its format. I have religiously watched the show for years (even in college when Sunday mornings at 9am came way too early most weekends). After I watch, I download the audio and listen again to the show throughout the week:

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It was a daily ritual that will be tough to perform without Russert.

Third, Russert loved what he did. You could see it on his face and it was inspiring to see someone so happy, fulfilled and challenged by their job.

Lastly, Russert is leaving behind a close family. Russert’s passing makes me take pause as this being my first Father’s Day with a child.

As professionals, we have a lot to learn from Russert’s example. Love your family, love what you do and seek to build bridges and find understanding instead of following the path of least resistance which normally resides on the plateau of negativity and greed.

NASCAR TV on Ustream

I’m not sure how happy the Speed Channel and networks that broadcast NASCAR races would be about this. But until they start streaming the races in a similar format to MLB.tv, this is a nifty Ustream workaround for those of us stuck in offices during qualifying or races:

http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/133638Online Video provided by Ustream

Pay attention networks… people want to do things like watch NASCAR races or football games or soccer games. Hulu is excellent for dramas and sitcoms, but there’s huge opportunity here for content producers in the sports and live events content creation business!

Buying Links: Good or Bad?

At the https://www.fusionquest.com/cgi-bin/main/hotlinks.cgi?aflt=afc1&client=affsumAffiliate Summit West this year, one of the most talked about moments was the back-and-forth between SEO expert Wil Reynolds and Jason Calacanis during Wil’s session.

Here’s Wil’s take:

Well the BIG topic – buying links to help boost your SEO rankings, let me say again…if you properly analyze your landscape you can determine if you may or may not need to buy links. If you do, you should buy ones that are actually on GOOD sites – while producing great content is the ideal, you may have to prime the pump a bit with a few strategic bought links. This is an advanced tactic, if you don’t understand what makes a good vs. bad link, don’t buy one!

As you can imagine, Jason was not too supportive of the link buying tactic and has called out Google and SEO’ers many times over the issue (and created a company to combat the problem he sees in search today).

And thanks to the power of the interwebs, you have the chance to see the throw down (not really) between Wil and Jason (or head over to YouTube to see the annotations that Wil has added to the video… they don’t carry over to embeds):

The video also shows why you should be going to the https://www.fusionquest.com/cgi-bin/main/hotlinks.cgi?aflt=afc1&client=affsumAffiliate Summit in Boston this August. Unlike many of the shows I go to, there is both real substance and real discussions that go on during the sessions. This is just a taste of that.

TwitterCounter

Over in the sidebar, you might notice a neat new chicklet that shows the amount of followers I have on Twitter:

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I’ve been pretty prolific on Twitter since 2006 and have written extensively about it here, so it’s definitely an important component to my online existence. Now that Twitter is recovering from its recent troubles, I’m back to using it regularly.

Most of the people that read this blog follow me on Twitter (and I reciprocate if you’re not a bot), so please consider doing the same here.

RedHatBlueHat

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Since we’re on a political kick here, head over to GeekCast and listen to the latest RedHatBlueHat podcast.

Despite Shawn’s rather biased show description, it was a well balanced and heated show where I do what I do every week… ask policy questions and have to fend off the politics of personal destruction that the Red Hats keep retreating to any time the water gets warm.

RedHatBlueHat : GeekCast.fm: “The fourth installment of RedHatBlueHat featured Tim Jones, Shawn Collins, Mike Allen, Sam Harrelson, and Todd Crawford getting worked up about money and war.

This week focused on a John McCain interview on the Today Show where he made comments about Iraq and ‘big oil’ that got the Obama camp worked into a tizzy.”

Even if you’re not a political junkie, it’s a fun show.

Here’s the mp3 for your downloading pleasure.

If I get some time this weekend, I’m going to make a dedicated site for the show at the www.redhatbluehat.com domain. Thanks to Jim Kukral for the logo!