A few things I really need (not necessarily out of the same person):

• SEO experts or people who want to learn SEO - more SEO work than we can handle for our own accounts, entry level and more sr positions.
• Strong Analytical Ability for our paid search programs
• Past management experience (not at Dairy Queen)

I probably have about 6 positions we will fill for a training class starting in January.

We provide all the great stuff you would expect from an employer; health, 401k, paid time off, great location and office space, fun work environment, company paid trips (ok maybe that one is not typical) - basically we are probably the best company to work for in Dallas that no one has ever heard of.

So if you are in Dallas and have gotten some bad news, or are just looking for a new challenge then send me your resume and I will get it to our HR team.

I have literally tons of ideas that may or may not have huge potential, but I dont have the programming skills to make them work. I have money to invest in projects, but often times I want to run a trial balloon before I start spending money hiring people.

In the past I have worked with various programmers, but for a variety of reasons that has just not worked very well.

I was hoping for some feedback from you guys - what languages, books, websites should I hit to learn to program. I have particular interest in running scripts - scraping websites, manipulating data and then doing something new with that data.

Eventually I would want to do APIs and dynamic web pages, but I just want to start with some baby steps.

My goal is not to be a programming expert - but to understand a little bit more about what my IT guys are doing at the office and maybe to be able to spec out more complex projects for some outsourced projects and then be able to understand what I am paying to have built so I can tweak it without totally breaking it.

Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions on where to get started?

Wow - this movie was bad, really bad. From the moment it starts to the end the plot was all over the place and all of the fun cheesy things in a James Bond movie were totally missing - if this was not a James Bond movie it might have been a direct to video release - it is really that bad.

The movie starts with the obligatory action scene then moves from one aub par action scene to another with almost no reason why things are happening or who the characters are or why they are important.

Bond seems to just bumble through the movie with unexplained reasons for things happening, we dont understand why he is doing what he is doing almost the entire movie.  The dialog is crap - heck the evil reason the movie happens is basically - huge international syndicate plotting to horde the water supply of a poor country and charge the country double the price of water!!! You got to be kidding me. Sure there is money in a water scam, but it hardly explains the existence of an international conspiracy.

There is not a single funny line in the entire movie - a bond staple.

There in a not a single Q branch gadget in the movie - another staple.

The bond theme does not play at all until the credits roll - another disappointment.

The bond girls I guess are attractive, but nothing that turns heads in the movie - and where is Holly Goodhead or Pussy Galore or Zenia Onatop or Doctor Christmas.

The only reason 10 million Americans will go see this drivel this weekend is the Bond name. As someone who has seen every single one of them multiple times - I would rate this below Octopussy or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - easily the two worst Bond movies in my mind. Worse than Octopussy - I did not think that was possible…

Here is a billion plus dollar action franchise that built itself on certain things and managed to not even pay lip service to any of the things that made the franchise and did not even do any action scenes which were even average - I quickly count 10 action type scenes - pretty much all of which were bad. I am fairly certain I will not be rushing back to watch the next one until friends tell me it is awesome.

I was doing some searches on the Google Keyword Tool the other day and one of my search terms was a trademark term and I found it interesting that there were no related keywords, just the brand name itself.

Here is a search for Intel - which yielded just a result for Intel itself.

Whereas a search for Capital One shows lots of related search terms that a trademark bidder would want to use to piggyback on the natural brand traffic.

Interestingly, if you dive deeper and type in related keywords they will show you the volume of that particular search term, but they still protect the brand.

Why do some brands get protection and others dont? Does it have to do with spend? or lawyers? is this available to smaller trademarks? I saw no pattern or rhyme or reason to why some brands or companies had protection and others did not, but obviously some are getting preferential treatment and others arent.

Any ideas?

Here is what the stock looks like since then courtesy of Google Finance.

I ended up shorting 100 shares at 704, but covered way to soon at 520, but that is not chump change.

I used to run a hedge fund and from time to time I make some bets, but I am almost always out of the market except for some retirement mutual funds. This year has been a great time to be out of the market.

The only other trade I made this year was long corn back in February and March and that was a nice win too.

Anyway, with Google now at $311 per share and trading at a PE below 20, I am starting to think about getting long again with no downside hedge. I will probably buy a few hundred shares with an exit price in the high 500’s.

Sure the growth has slowed way down, but there is still plenty left, mostly overseas, but also from Yahoo imploding and basically giving market share to Google.

A few other things I like - they are now starting to take ads on things they used to not in principle, like gambling outside the US or beer and liquor - this could be a few final last straws but I suspect there is some really good money there. They also have lots of talented people who are working for below market wages who now are totally underwater on options packages and thus they will need to work the stock to be able to keep them.

I suspect there are quite a few other levers that have not been turned by the financial guys at Google and now that growth has slowed, that these levers will be strategically pulled in time.

One other trade I am thinking of making is long Oil under $60 with an exit target around $90 in early summer - will probably cover that with some sort of options position in case oil goes to $40.

I feel like I have been writing about this almost since the start, but it seems people just seem to miss it or I am getting senile.

The best niche is one that no one else is in and there are literally thousands of them left.

If you start by looking on CJ or ShareaSale then that is better than looking on a CPA network where apparently there are only like 5 verticals - credit, diet, dating, auto, and zip submits… (or so it seems). Even better would be to go the local flea market or hobbyist convention and see what people there are talking about or selling - maybe even check out the obscure listings in Ebay - look around for the booths or listings with people at them (or bids) - is it gumballs or bowling shoes or designer picture frames who cares as long as it does not scream affiliate marketing…

If you can do a search and find 2 or 3 paid ads, none of which are affiliate links now you may have found your niche. It means there is enough online interest in the product for people to be doing business, but not so much that CPC is bid up to unprofitable levels. Find a local company that can provide the product cheaply - or maybe you are aggressive and go straight to a national distributor and arrange a drop ship arrangement or even start as an affiliate of an existing business (after you explain what that is to the 45 year old guy running the company).

Retail markups are typically fairly large and in a less competitive space you dont have to give away all that much to be a good price, plus the inefficiencies of your competitors when it comes to internet marketing mean that even though you might not have the best prices you will still outmarket them if you have half a clue, because most of them arent even aware there are clues to be had.

Once a decent product with decent search volume is located, immediately begin seeking out the best domain name possible don’t buy TheBest-Niche_website.biz when you can be Niche.com for a few thousand dollars. The domain name lends instant credibility and allows you to be more professional than the guys you compete with.

It is my opinion that you can almost certainly learn 85% as much about the niche as those who have been doing it for decades in a matter of months while at the same time out marketing these Niche specialists by a huge margin. You will understand technology and the importance of tracking analytics and testing (if not please unsubscribe from my blog), understand Google and Yahoo and MSN plus have heard of Facebook and MySpace. You will understand Ebay and possible Amazons marketplace. You will have a clue on how to best collect and use email, plus maybe have some insight into the idea of coupon codes and Free Shipping or design of web pages or any of a dozen other things that increase sales. In no time at all you should own that niche and be the major player, with no competition.

Face it, almost no one reading this blog has a shot at starting a mortgage lead company or building a competitor to proflowers or cars.com making tens of millions a year. Just because you cannot own a $100 million dollar niche does not mean you cannot own a $5 million one… or even own several of them.

Bottom line, if you are looking for your path to fame and fortune through internet marketing and are starting on a CPA network you have probably already lost the game.

I am sure some great new products were actually on display, things I could not live without if I only knew they existed, but this adtech in particular was filled with booth after booth of things that made me want to avoid the booths rather than stop by and learn more.

A few hints for future exhibitors:

• If you have boothbabes it tells me several things - all of them bad. It says you dont have a product that would otherwise attract me and that you really just want my contact name and phone number in exchange for some crappy swag.
• If you have booth skanks it tells me you both have no product and no judgment - a really dangerous combination. Your mom and second cousin might be really nice people, but please dont dress them in fat enhancing spandex. Seriously I saw booth “babes” that were as old as 50 and as heavy as 250 pounds. I dont have a problem with either class of person, but if the first thing I say or think about your product is “thats painful to look at” then the rest of the conversation is probably going to be looking at the next booth.
• The next thing I hate is the guy at the totally empty booth trying to thrust his brochure into my hand. I might actually be interested in your product, but your desperation is a huge turn off. If I want your brochure I will ask for one, or even better yet grab one off a stand at the booth.
• If you have 18 guys all dressed in the exact same sweatsuit, button down, polo etc. Then you need a strategy for rotation at the booth. Not everyone needs to be in the booth at the same time, especially in the slow times. I might be interested in what you have, but I am not going to walk up just to be mobbed by your overeager sales guys who probably dont know the product - 2 or 3 unattended people in a booth is all you should ever have - Send the rest of the sausage fest to walk the floor when it is not busy. Even better make your sales reps earn there trip to adtech - top 5 get to go, everyone else stays home.
• If you ask me for a business card or to zap my badge as soon as I show any interest in the product, I am probably walking away. You did the hardest part - getting a qualified buyer to engage you - if I am interested I will either give you my card or contact you - calling me 10 times in the next 30 days on follow-up calls is not going to help one bit. I gave out a grand total of 3 cards this time, I walked away from probably 7-10 booths when they would not first tell me about the product before trying to get my contact info. Rude, maybe - a time saver for sure!
• If your booths display is just an interesting design with a few buzzwords on it - it is not going to tell me enough to stop and learn more. ROI driven optimization, cutting edge ad network, or some other false hope drivel is not enough to get me to ask questions. The less you tell me the lower my chance of talking to you are.
• Conversely, putting your business plan in fine print on your booth is stupid as well. I am not going to read 12 paragraphs about your company ever - come up with 4 bullet points that say what you do and how you are different than everyone else and I will stop and talk if it hits my hot button.
• If your booth design is so crowded that your reps are standing in the aisle creating a traffic jam, I am probably going to squeeze by as quickly as possible and keep going. Your booth is your booth, the aisle is for those going from booth to booth - dont use it.
• If your rep speaks to me without me showing any interest or because I am the only human within 10 feet I am probably going to keep walking. Interest is defined as making eye contact or even better stopping and reading what your backdrop or display has. It is never defined as walking by. Cold pitching is a waste of time since you will get non buyers who dont know enough to keep walking and those who might actually be interested in your product will ignore you altogether.
• If you are going to insult women or someone else on a shirt you are giving away - just dont. If you are going to do it and not be funny - stay at home. 2 or 3 booths were both not funny and offensive - a lot of your corporate or agency buyers are women, dont piss them off.
• Lastly, If you are going to spend the money to fly people out, set up a booth etc. Spend the time and effort to make sure your people know what your product is and how it is alike or different from the competition. If your people cannot speak intellgiently about the product dont put them on the floor just for coverage. If I speak to another musclehead 24 year old guy or sharply dressed but vapid young woman who has no clue about why I should buy your product, the industry you are in, or even really your company -”Today is actually my first day, I am so excited, this company must be really going somewhere to spend the money to fly me to New York. This is my first job so I am still learning about the industry but I know this is a great product, if it was not they would not have the money to send me to New York - on my first day…..” ARGH shoot me.

Honestly, this described maybe 2/3 or more of the floor.

It was about how he made $95k in 2 months marketing a product all of us are aware of but few probably
knew it had an affiliate program - Adsense.

His post spells out just what he did and it seems perfectly reasonable to me. I can think of a dozen or more ways to market the product beyond what he did.

The ’secret’ to his success is that he did not assume “oh that must be saturated” or “that will not work”. he went out and made it work.

He even states he tested 35 different landing pages - which is probably a huge driver in his success. Not being lazy is a critical component to affiliate marketing success.

Too many in affiliate marketing assume that they have to follow the crowd or that their AM knows whats best - the entire time I was focused on affiliate marketing I never had an AM I spoke with regularly. There are some awesome deals on CJ noone has ever heard of and most of the CPA networks are in business for themselves first.

I know a guy who markets $.05 clicks to small niches that then turn into Ebay sales. I know another guy killing it in the Wal-mart affiliate program marketing just a few select products via PPC. There are a million things that are not dating or ringtones or <flavor of the month> that are both sustainable and scalable and that do not require super technical skills.

The best advice I can give anyone wanting to get into this space is to get outside the zone of the affiliate blogging ‘experts’ and start thinking for yourself. If you never read another blog post about affiliate marketing, you will probably be better off than if you read the top 50 affiliate bloggers religiously. The honest truth is that most affiliate blogs are full of junk and one hit wonders.