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Born to Question

My friend, mentor and hero Prof Larry McGehee does a weekly column called “Southern Seen.”  This week’s edition is a must read and tugs at your heart strings (especially if you know Larry and Betsy):

Betsy won her first round and stayed on for the second, both taped the same day. She won that one, too. Then she returned next day for her third appearance, adding an unbuttoned sweater to her attire, and this time she was defeated by a uniformed serviceman—a sailor, best I recall.

For her two wins and her three half-hour shows, Betsy received a set of Compton’s Encyclopedia (which we gave to her niece and nephew the next Christmas) and $1,225 (her memory–I recall it as $1,210).

Elizabeth was born November 2nd in what was then New Haven Hospital (now Yale Hospital). Betsy’s Jeopardy winnings paid the hospital and doctor’s bills. That fall and spring we house-sat a professor’s home for a year while he was on leave, and the absence of rent coupled with funds left from Betsy’s winnings made it possible for her to give up her teaching position. A year later we moved to the University of Alabama for my first post-graduate administrative job.

Thank you, Larry.

ShareASale Under The Stars Party at the Palms for ASW

Just heard from ShareASale’s piano man Brian Littleton on Twitter that the “Under the Stars” party for Affiliate Summit West will be held at the Palms (btw, that’s the 100th post for the ShareASale blog… congrats to the SaS team on that):

ShareASale will be hosting a cocktail party Sunday night February 24th in Las Vegas, in celebration of the Affiliate Summit which is being held in Las Vegas Feb 24-26.

If you’re going to be at the Summit, this is a can’t miss event.  Hopefully, no one will thrown into the pool with all of their clothes on again.

We’re Falling Behind Here, Folks

Not to continually beat up on CJ, Linkshare, Performics, ShareASale, LinkConnector and now pepperjamNETWORK but why aren’t affiliate networks doing this??

Overlay.tv is an upcoming video network that lets you add hyperlinks and image overlays to video content in order to monetize the clips. The Overlay technology and network won’t be launched until Valentine’s Day, but the service is getting some early press thanks to its funding news. $4.6 million in Series A financing has been provided by Celtic House Venture Partners, EdgeStone Capital Partners and Tech Capital Partners.

Seriously.

There’s a ton of money and traction to be made in the video space. The tech doesn’t look that difficult considering the amount of money that the affiliate networks are making.

Lead us to the promised land of innovation, oh great networks. Please.

WSJ on Blog Monetization

Affiliate marketing gets a brief mention in a Wall Street Journal article on blog monetization today. We’ve really got to get out from the Amazon.com umbrella:

Many of the most widely used ad programs — such as AdSense and Amazon.com Inc.’s affiliate-marketing program, where publishers get a cut of all sales generated from ads on their site — also are trying to make ads more appealing. For instance, they have rolled out new features in recent months to give publishers more control over how the ads look and where they are placed.

Most of the article is more geared towards widgets and video advertising.  Affiliate marketing is getting left in the dust and missing out on very good exposure to new potential merchants and publishers as a result.

Random Rant: Techmeme and Online Marketing Blogs

If you are in the world of online marketing / content monetization / affiliate marketing, you’ve no doubt seen the dozens of posts covering the launch of pepperjamNETWORK.  It’s a major event for the online marketing world and the amount of coverage generated in the first 12 hours since launch has been impressive.

Randomly, I decided to check Techmeme to see if any of the pepperjamNETWORK coverage made it there.  Even though blogs with high PR ratings and thousands of readers and subscribers that have been on Techmeme numerous times (this blog, ReveNews, Shawn Collins’ AffiliateTip, VinnyLingham.com, etc) covered the release, none of them made it onto Techmeme.

Not to mention that it’s the day of Steve Jobs’ keynote at MacWorld, so many people in the tech space will be looking for a few glimpses of non-Apple news.

I’m not complaining about the echo chamber yada yada, but it is interesting to note that if and when TechCrunch or ReadWrite/Web covers the launch of pepperjamNETWORK, it will be on Techmeme immediately.

There really is no place for the geek marketer.

I guess it all goes back to the misconceptions of affiliate marketing that people outside our industry have.

pepperjamNETWORK Launches

Pepperjam has launched a new affiliate network called the pepperjamNETWORK. I’m sure you’ll see a great deal about it on the various online marketing and affiliate blogs, but it looks like a nice new alternative for affiliates and publishers looking for something different.

I’m particularly intrigued by the “web2.0” cleanliness, the instant chat support feature and the better tracking options for search affiliates (much needed in the affiliate networking space).

Here’s are the details from an email from Pepperjam’s Kris Jones about the network:

– Pepperjam Network addresses two of the most significant shortcomings found on other existing affiliate networks: (1) poor, unreliable communication tools and (2) lack of affiliate transparency.
– With Pepperjam Network, affiliates and advertisers can communicate in real-time via Pepperjam Chat™, thereby providing a reliable communication system to build stronger, more profitable partnerships.
– Pepperjam Network provides advertisers with an unprecedented measure of affiliate transparency, which helps to establish trust, protect brand integrity, and lays the groundwork for open, long-term, profitable relationships.
– Pepperjam Network uses Web 2.0 technology to provide affiliates and advertisers with an easy-to-use, clean interface.
– Pepperjam Network offers industry leading SID-level tracking and reporting (great for sophisticated search marketing affiliates)
– Pepperjam Network introduces pepperjamADS™, which is a first-ever affiliate marketing widget that affiliates can use to serve customized contextual ads from multiple Pepperjam Network advertisers at the same time.
– Pepperjam Network contains a knowledge vault, which is exclusive to Pepperjam affiliates. The vault contains exclusive access to a list of tools and educational resources used by Super Affiliates.
– Pepperjam Network represents over eight years of research and development and the combined ideas, feedback, and intelligence of hundreds of affiliate marketers and advertisers.
– Pepperjam Network launched with over 100 merchants and growing quickly, including Blockbuster, Jelly Belly, AeroGrow, Oscar de la Renta, BabyPhat, Rocawear, Ben Sherman, FlyCell, SinglesNet, SEOmoz Premium, and many more.
– Pepperjam Network has its own affiliate program that pays out up to $7 per approved publisher application
– Check out the Pepperjam Network Blog for videos, commentary and updates on Pepperjam Network and the broader affiliate marketing community.

Should be interesting to see the blogger and wider affiliate response today. I think this will be a hit for some publishers and affiliates looking outside the box.

Shawn Collins has put together a nifty video showing how to sign up for the pepperjamNETWORK as well.

As a caveat, Pepperjam is advertising here and on ReveNews to announce the launch (hence the banner in the sidebar) but this is something I would have covered regardless.

Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Announced

The Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards have been announced on the Affiliate Summit Blog.

I’m honored to be among such esteemed people in this year’s Pinnacle Awards. Carsten and Shoemoney are two of my favorite affiliate bloggers and I am completely flabbergasted to be considered in their ranks.

Best Blogger

Carsten Cumbrowski
Sam Harrelson
Jeremy Schoemaker

The awards will be given at this year’s Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas in February. If you’re involved in affiliate marketing, you need to be there.

Affiliate Summit Blog

Ben Edelman on Sears Holdings Community Install

Ben Edelman has a new report and investigation of in install of “Sears Holdings Company” complete with his expected thoroughness and attention to detail:

Late last month, Benjamin Googins (a senior researcher in the Anti-Spyware unit at Computer Associates) critiqued a ComScore installation performed by Sears’ “Sears Holdings Community” (“My SHC Community” or “SHC”). After reviewing the installation sequence, Ben concluded that the installation offered “very little mention of software or tracking” and otherwise fell short of CA and industry standards. I agree.

I write today to add my own critique. I begin by presenting the entire installation sequence in screenshots and video. I then explain why the limited notice provided falls far short of the standards the FTC has established. Finally, I show that Sears’ claims of adequate notice are demonstrably false.

Happy New Year and Network with Thomas Jefferson

Happy New Year from Asheville.

While you’re recovering today, compare your library to Thomas Jefferson’s (and join LibraryThing while you’re at it… it’s my fav social network):

A unusual member has finished adding his 4,889 books to LibraryThing—our third president, Thomas Jefferson!

Jefferson, 264, was assisted by sixteen LibraryThing members, led by jbd1. Together, they cataloged 4,889 books (6,487 volumes), added 187 of his reviews (a treat), and tagged them 4,889 times, according to Jefferson’s own innovative/weird classification system.

It was hard work, but it only took them four months. They worked from scholarly reconstructions of Jefferson’s 1815 books, tracking down records in 34 libraries around the world. As is well known, Jefferson sold his books to the Library of Congress, replacing the one the British destroyed during the War of 1812. This 1815 library is Jefferson’s best-documented library. (Of course, Jefferson spent the rest of his life building up another personal collection.)

LibraryThing: Happy 1815! Thomas Jefferson in done.

In Memory of Carl Sagan

Today is the 11th anniversary of the death of my hero Carl Sagan (thanks to Bad Astronomy for the reminder).  Personally, it has been an emotionally trying year with the birth of our first child and soon thereafter the death of my childhood best friend and cousin (more like brother) in Afghanistan. I find wisdom in Dr. Sagan’s words about life, the cosmos and humanity today.

Echoing my post from a year ago, here’s the passage from Cosmos which I’ve read at the end of every class I’ve ever taught… whether science or religion bound:

“The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest conemplations of the Cosmos stir us – there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet ourspecies is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millenia we hav emad the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

Those explorations required skepticism and imagination both. Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never where. But without it, we go nowhere. Skepticism enables us to distinguish fancy from fact, to test our speculations. The Cosmos is rich beyond measure – in elegant facts, in exquisite interrelationships, in the subtle machinery of awe.

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles. The water seems inviting. The ocean calls. Some part of our being knows this is from where we came. We long to return. These aspirations are not, I think, irreverent, although they may trouble whatever gods may be.”

And here’s the video version:

This being my first year with a child, I can only hope that I pass on to her the wisdom, confidence and humbleness to always look up at the night sky. 

Thank you, Carl Sagan.

Google Checkout Widget Coming?

googlecheckoutwidget.jpg

Problogger has a post on an interesting new AdSense format being tested with pictures. This definitely puts the widget marketing world in a precarious situation if a Checkout widget does roll out…

There’s been lots of testing of new ad formats going on at AdSense recently – but this one is really interesting – it’s a much more interactive looking AdSense unit that looks and functions a lot like Chitika’s eMiniMalls and WidgetBucks units.It seems to be called the ‘Google Checkout Gadget’.

New Interactive AdSense Unit with Pictures Spotted

Kyte.tv Gets Funding, Distribution and Celebrities

kyte.gif

Video blogging site Kyte.tv has announced a round of funding, added distribution and it looks as if they are adding more celebrities to compliment the popular 50 Cent channel.

Soon-to-announce-a-career-move Robert Scoble is a huge fan of Kyte.tv (and one has to wonder if this will lure him over to the video blog startup or if he’ll go with the rumor and sign FastCompany. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, he’ll be announcing around the 15th of January). He broke the news on his blog:

Kyte just announced a B-round of funding from Telefonica, Nokia, DoCoMo, Swisscom, Holtzbrinck and DFJ of $15 million, adding on to an earlier round of $2.25 million. Whew, the video space is really heating up.

But more significant than the money is the distribution. Telefonica has 230 million users. DoCoMo has 52 million. Nokia has 39% of the cell phone market share. If the Kyte player is embedded on these three it brings a HUGE audience to Kyte.

Also, they showed me a channel that rapper 50 Cent is doing. It has, within a few weeks, passed my Kyte.tv channel to gain the #1 spot on Kyte. More celebrity deals are in the offing, CEO Daniel Graf told me. They also shipped a new iPhone version and demonstrated an even more feature rich version coming in January.

Kyte is interesting in that it functions as a place to live blog, interact with commentors and aggregate content. Perhaps the most compelling feature is the emphasis on mobile blogging via video (which I still think is going to be a breakaway hit in 2008).

So, we’ll see if this news (especially the celebrity additions) add to Kyte.tv’s share in the growing micro-blogging/video/mobile space that is seeing a convergence revolution.

Squidoo Takes on Knol

Squidoo strikes back against Google with an interesting front end for a Squidoo lens creator called SquidKnol:

We built a new front door that makes it easy for you to build a scholarly page, filled with details, facts and more on Squidoo. And of course it will be indexed all over the web…

Pretty smart (and funny at the same time) from Seth Godin and the Squidoo team if you ask me.  Should be fun to watch how much attention this brings back to Squidoo since the topic of Knols is hot conversation in the online tech and marketing world at the moment.

Seth’s Blog: For scholars who just can’t wait

What is an API?

Matt Dickman has an excellent (and concise) post/video on MarketingProfs explaining what an API is and what it does.

Whether you’re a marketing geek or just someone interested in improving your web marketing, you need to at least have a conversational understanding of API’s in this web2.0 mashup world. Matt provides a good place to start.

Matt is doing a series of these posts on important terms or concepts that marketers need to understand or grasp in order to exist and survive in the current and emerging tech landscape, so keep an eye on the RSS feed there.