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Press and Speaking Engagements

I’ve updated the “Publications” page up in the menu bar to reflect some of the places I’ve spoken recently and how to get in touch with me if you’d like for me to speak at your meeting or show.

Sure it’s a little vain, but I’ve gotten more and more requests for this type of thing recently so I wanted to make it easier to find and see examples of my previous speaking engagements or publications:

I’m available to speak to groups interested in social media, affiliate marketing, performance marketing or web metrics. Contact me if you’d like to have me speak to your group.

Here are a few places where I’ve spoken and published:

Press and Speaking

re: Shawn Collins on Ticketmaster’s Affiliate Program on buy.at

Hadn’t seen this on ABW yet, but Shawn has news that Ticketmaster (under the IAC umbrella along with Ask.com, etc) is launching their affiliate program with buy.at:

Wow – I just stumbled across some BIG news on the buy at, Inc forum at ABestWeb: Ticketmaster chooses buy at, Inc – Beta affiliate program launch!

Shawn includes:

I’d imagine there is some hand wringing in the board rooms of the other U.S. affiliate networks right about now.

Have to agree, Shawn.  This has the potential to be a huge program and really put buy.at on the map here in the States.  I love music blogs and subscribe to a good number of them.  Having the option to support my favorite sites while getting tickets (which I do frequently) to shows they describe is a win-win.  The implications for affiliate sales on those is huge… not to mention long tail local sites. 

Hats off to the buy.at team for landing this big fish and potential cash cow (I limit myself to two animal analogies in each post).

Ticketmaster Launches Beta Affiliate Program with buy at, Inc | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Affiliate Classroom’s Board of Advisors

I’m excited to be a part of the new Board of Advisors at Affiliate Classroom.  We’ll be working with two of my favorite people, Anik Singal and Rachel Honoway, to bring value to the general community of affiliates and affiliate managers as our industry continues to develop.

Affiliate Classroom, a publisher of educational tools for the interactive advertising industry, has appointed a board of advisors.

Recently appointed Board of Advisors are…

  • Peter Figueredo, CEO and co-founder of NETexponent
  • Sam Harrelson, CEO of ReveNews
  • Jeremy Palmer – Owner and creator of “Quit Your Day Job”, co-creator of PPC Classroom
  • Heather Paulson – President and founder of Paulson Management Group, Inc.
  • Brook Schaaf – CEO of Schaaf Consulting

Board of Advisors Appointed for Affiliate Classroom | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Internet Advertising Continues To Grow… For How Long?

I’m still rather bear-ish on the prospects of continued growth for the internet advertising universe.  That sounds heretical given my job and lifeblood, but we can’t expect the continuing economic downturn here in the US to support continued online growth.

New figures released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers show that internet advertising continues to grow to record levels, with the 3rd quarter internet ad spend in the United States hitting $5.2 billion, a $1.1 billion/ 25.3% increase over the same quarter in 2006.

In fact, I think we’re headed for more than a bubble pop of web2.0 as ad budgets will certainly be one of the first things to get slashed when the economy takes its eventual nosedive.  In the midst of all that doom and gloom, I do see the smart and adaptable small companies weathering the kill-off, just as our mammal ancestors did a few million years ago.

IAB: Internet Advertising Continues To Head North

Affiliate Program Seeks to Spread Wifi Love

fon

Interesting new affiliate program from the wifi network FON in CJ (15-18% commission):

Besides earning a commission rate of 15% of all your referred sales, we also provide 120 return day cookies (to track your referrals even after someone has clicked-through on your link) and unlimited referral occurrences.

Refer just $600 or more in sales in any month and you’ll earn a 10% bonus. Refer $1,600 or more in a month and you’ll earn a 20% bonus, bringing your effective commission rate to 18%!

FON has gotten a good deal of press on tech and gadget blogs for its alternative goal to spread free wifi by subsidizing routers for individuals (costs around $50).  I’m not sure how successful the program will be, but it’s interesting to see a company trying to gain traction here in the States turn to an affiliate solution.

blognation USA has more coverage.

FON

Tomb of Ezekiel?

This one shows the building from the outside. Cool, eh? And this one shows part of a Hebrew inscription on the inside. The first part of the inscription is outside the frame, but the rest reads הנביא בן בוזי הכהן זכותו ינן עלינו ועל כל ישראל אמן, “… the prophet, son of Buzi, the priest. May his merit increase upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.” The prophet in question is, of course, Ezekiel, who was a priest and whose father’s name was indeed Buzi (Ezekiel 1:3).

PaleoJudaica.com

New Star Trek Movie Plot Spoilers

JJ Abrams (Lost, etc) is heading up the eleventh Star Trek movie.  Supposedly, it’s going to be based on the academy time of Kirk, Spock, etc and how they all meet.

Here’s a (potentially) major spoiler post (that you have to read if you’re a fellow fan):

I can’t stress how big of a potential spoiler the following information is. If you want to remain spoiler free DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

IESB.net – Movie News, Reviews, Interviews and More! – JJ Abram’s Star Trek Story Details!

How To Play the Piano?

Learning to play the piano at a respectable level is not difficult (or so I’ve been told).

So I’m going to learn to play the piano.

Anyone have a link to a site to help me out?  Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email (mail@samharrelson.com) if so!

I’ll keep you posted on my progress here.

Here’s a great piano tutorial from Mahalo:
http://www.mahalo.com/How_To_Play_Piano_For_Beginners_(And_Save_$500_In_Lessons)

Linkshare’s Flex Links and Mobile Links

Linkshare has announced new mobile and video/embed object initiatives within their affiliate interface.

It’s great to see the major affiliate networks moving into these areas!

I mentioned yesterday that Linkshare is releasing a series of interesting new platforms within the affiliate network’s interface.  Here’s the update on those: Flex Links (a video link embed platform), Mobile Links for pay-for-performance tracking in the mobile space and Link Locator 2.0 for enhanced web services.  All in all, this is a great step ahead for the affiliate network space as the performance market continues to mature and encompass other areas than traditional (or "1.0" if you will) affiliate sites.

Linkshare’s Flex Links for Video, Mobile Links and Link Locator 2.0 Roll Out

Oprah Gives Flip Ultra Cams to Audience

Based on the recommendation of video guru Jim Kukral, I bought a Flip camera a couple of months back. If you watch my YouTube channel, you’ll notice the frequent shaky and unprofessional videos that I shoot with the neat little device.

Gizmodo says that this indicates that YouTube has arrived… I think this is an indication that The Flip has arrived.

For amateurs, it’s perfect. Evidently Oprah feels the same…

Oprah, that generous talk show host who no longer needs a last name, stooped down to YouTube to join up with the great unwashed yesterday, and to commemorate the occasion she gave away a $150 Flip Ultra camcorder to everybody in her talk show audience. Check out her condescending peptalk to YouTubers in the video above, promoting her show on which YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, whom Oprah says “don’t go out much,” appeared.

YouTube Arrives: Oprah Gives Flip Ultra Cams to Everybody in Audience, Joins Those Hepcats on YouTube

Off To BlogWorldExpo

I’m heading out to catch my flight for BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas in just a few moments, but wanted to let you know that if you’re going to be there, send me an email (sam@costpernews) or give me a call (803.413.6834) if you’d like to meet.

I’m glad CostPerNews is back (best traffic day ever yesterday, btw and FTW).

More soon…

Using Disqus for Comments Here

disqus-logo

So, I’m trying out something new for the comments called Disqus. It’s a rather neat (and easy to install) platform that allows for comments to turn into a forum and allows for you the user to keep your comments organized with other blogs using Disqus (Dave Winer, Fred Wilson and a few others are using it).

Give it a whirl and let me know what you think. If you think the old comment system is better we’ll switch back, but the forum integration is nifty.

The webwide discussion community where you carry your conversations with you.

Disqus | Welcome!