Category: Technology

My pal Jim Kukral has just launched ScratchBack after a long period of development and testing. I’ve blogged about all of the specifics on ReveNews.

If you have a blog and are looking for a way to make a few extra bucks via a tipjar system (the links are “nofollow” which means Google won’t punish you for selling them), this is a easy way to do so. Plus, Jim has built in a little social flavor since you can encourage people to outbid each other for the top spot via snarky political messages or your momma jokes (ok, not really… but it could be done).

You can see an example (or tip me if you’d like!) over in the sidebar –>

Looking forward to travelling to Bean Town for the Affiliate Summit next summer…

It’s official – Affiliate Summit is going to Boston next summer from August 10-12, 2008.

Affiliate Summit Goes to Boston | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Merlin Mann lays down the smack on SEO.  Good stuff that I can’t agree with more (and a darn fine analogy to Cargo Cults):

Most SEOs are making headphones out of coconuts, hoping it brings traffic, and then wondering why the gods are so angry at them. They never get that the headphones probably aren’t hooked up to anything but their make-believe radio.

Kung Fu Grippe: Cargo Cult

Last Friday during my ConvergeSouth workshop on affiliate marketing for citizen media, I made the comment that it is very hard to make a ton of money with Amazon’s affiliate program. Looks like John Gruber’s Daring Fireball blog found the sweet spot for making money with Amazon affiliate links…

Who ever said blogging doesn’t pay? Last Tuesday, Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber — one of Apple’s biggest cheerleaders — asked his readers to pre-order the newest version of Max OS X, “Leopard,” through his Amazon affiliate links. “If you pre-order through these links, Amazon will send me a 7.5 percent kickback,” he wrote. “I.e., you get a good price and free shipping, and I get about $10.”

Like any other type of affiliate program, the trick to Amazon is creating, sustaining and supporting a healthy community of readers and participants via blogging, etc then explaining to your readers what you’re doing with your affiliate links (especially if that community of readers is as passionate about something as the Mac fanboys/girls/squirrels are about Apple.

Silicon Alley Insider: John Gruber’s Leopard Windfall $5800 in 8 Days

Asheville, NC really is the most beautiful place in the world in October. Mountains, trees and lots of leaves…

“It’s a series of TUBESSSSS!”

But seriously, we Americans are a pretty frightening lot indeed:

To summarize: an alarming percentage of respondents are open to brain implants that allow them to access the internet with their minds and that allow their children’s locations to be tracked, they think government censorship of online video content is acceptable, the internet makes them feel closer to God and less close their significant others – but their own identities on the internet are not very important to them. This is frightening stuff…

More than half of respondents believe that internet content, like video, should be controlled in some way by the government. Only 36% said the blocking of internet video would be unconstitutional.

Wow.  I’m as apple pie American as anyone, but with thinking like that, it’s no wonder we elect clowns like Ted Stevens to represent us in Washington.

Somewhere Karl Rove is stroking a bald cat and thinking “exceeelent.”

Poll: US Attitudes About The Internet Are Insane

Um…

Wow, this is definitely not cool:

“I was checking out the natural search results for Affiliate Summit on Google, as I do regularly, and I was surprised at one of the paid ads that was triggered.

There was an ad for the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago.”

There’s a general rule in the highly competitive affiliate space… don’t piss in the town well.  Looks like SES is definitely doing that by bidding on Affiliate Summit’s name.

That’s sleezy in my book and won’t win SES any fans (or attendees if they realize what’s going on).

Search Engine Strategies of SES

I’m incredibly excited that GMail now has IMAP.

Why? I’ve been a devoted GMail user since ’04 just after the launch and have gigs and gigs of emails and content locked up in GMail (bought extra storage to make due).  While GMail has always allowed for POP downloads, IMAP is different.

Here’s why… with IMAP, you can have a more seamless email experience because IMAP allows you to sync your email where ever you access it from.  So, for example you can interact with your email (read, label, etc) in Thunderbird or Outlook and see the changes in your GMail interface on the web.  POP access doesn’t allow for this. 

So, for those of us who prefer to keep webmail and offline mail nice and synced, this is a huge step forward for GMail.

There are even larger ramifications for people who have iPhones since the mail client there is heavily dependent on IMAP for sanity reasons. 

Thank you, Google.  You made my day.

Official Gmail Blog