Internet Events, Facebook Advertising, Internet Marketing and SEO

Ad Hustler did a great job posting his funny observations about affiliate summit.

I want to post a few observations of my own.

I had two very different experiences with networks and a thousand bucks.

One of them was quite fun. I went to talk business with Revenue Wire, after my friend Jim Banks suggested they might have a solution for something I was working with. They asked for my card, and I told them I don’t even have any. They wrote my name and email on one of their business cards. The next day I got a call that I had won a $1,000 in some drawing, I was unaware of.  At first I thought it was a practical joke, but then I realized it wasn’t. I showed up with Jonathan Volk and Ryan Grey.

Now here is the important part of the story. Revenue Wire said they were going to give me $1,000. I showed up. They gave me $1,000.

Not only was it fantastic, fun to win, and made Revenue Wire look like rock stars, but they did what they told me they were going to do.

Revenue Wire is going to get lots of great press, respect, appreciation, and marketing from me etc. because of this simple action.

Let’s compare it now with another story, of Network X, whose name I will withhold.

I don’t want to slam on Network X, but instead tell the story as an example of the simplicity of good business ethics.

We had a transaction a few months back, for which they were to give me $2,000. They agreed the money was to be paid by a certain date. They paid $1,000 of it. They did not pay the other $1,000. They then said the money would be paid by a certain date. That date came and went and still they had not paid the $1,000.

Then I asked the person in charge of the network for the $1,000, and they said they could probably get it to me that day. The next day, I did not have the money. After the show when I asked for the $1,000 they said, that they needed to pay blank and blank to keep the business alive and I was a lower priority.

I told them this was not acceptable and they could just pay me $100 a month. The answer was, we will just pay you when we can pay you.

Oddly enough I also ran into some money guys during the show, who are offering money to affiliates who need financing.  We had a great talk about the affiliate industry, the level of honesty industry wide, and ways they could help.

Right now big business money is trying to find its way into the affiliate industry. I keep hearing, but no first hand information, that the government is looking at the industry and making decisions about regulations.

The difference between the two stories is simply this.

Revenue Wire said they would pay me $1,000 and 15 minutes later, they paid me $1,000 in cash.
Network X said they would pay me $1,000, and then they didn’t, and don’t seem to be interested in doing so.

I have been in business for over 20 years.

Although the start was very bumpy, I have lived by my word. Yes I have made mistakes, and yes I do make mistakes, and yes I will in the future. But if I promise something, I will move heaven and earth to accomplish it, or if I fail I will work sunrise till after sundown to make up for it. That simple.

If you conduct business that way, people will trust you.

I remember once trust being defined as saying you would do something, and then doing that. If you do that enough times, people trust you. If you do something different than you say you will then trust is lost.

I am becoming more active in the affiliate industry, and there are organizations that have really gained my trust, simply by doing  what they said they would.

The network who said they would pay me $1,000, and then didn’t lost my trust.

It is that simple.

First thanks to the poker sponsors, XY7, Never Blue, Why Park, Tweet Find, Health Converter and Now Blam Ads! I love you guys all for allowing us to pull this off this year.

This is the first year of doing a poker tourney during Affiliate Summit, so forgive us if it is a little bumpy, (no t-shirts, cards, or other crap, but we do have in and out burgers and free drinks!)

The below is an interview I did with Ryan Eagle, Creator of Blam Ads and famous for being CEO of Eagle Web Assets. I have been fascinating following Ryan, and I want you to learn more about him. He is one of the few people I know who work as much as I do.

dk: Ryan, can you tell my readers a bit about your history, where you come from, and your background?
ryan: I started developing websites for a hobby at the age of 13, hitting massive success when I was 16 years old. A mixture between endless persistence and luck got me where I’m at now, and I exploited the wave for every cent possible. I’m located outside of Chicago, I’m sober, and even with the arrogant cocky persona I have – I’m forever grateful for everything that I’ve been blessed with.

dk: I’ve been fascinated reading your tweets.
They are unapologetic, bragging, aggressive,
confident as hell, and talk of domination.
I would assume from them that you were not
someone I would want to talk to. On the other hand
I have been very impressed working with you, talking to you,
and having you as a sponsor of our events. You are intelligent,
polite and a clear communicator. Can you explain the tweets?
ryan: I’m misunderstood, but I don’t need to be explained. My twitter is something that I barely understand, but it’s more me egotrippin’ than anything. This quote explains me and my actions online a lot more than I could myself, “While likeability can often produce power, power and success invariably produce likeability. People choose to be with successful people and organizations, and then make sense of their choices by deciding that they actually like and respect those they are associating with. ” – Jeffrey Pfeffer

dk: In an online world where everyone is looking for the get rich quick method,
and a lot of people write online about making mad cash quickly.
you often talk about working late nights and long hours.
What gives with that discrepancy?
ryan: There is no get rich quick method I’ve ever heard of that works. I’ve been working 18-20 hour days since I was 16 years old to get where I was at, and there is nothing easy about making money. I’ve worked endless hours on projects that have lost money for months, running simply on faith that it will eventually pick up. To start your own business or make money you need to be relentless in your efforts – remember that you’re competing with the likes of me.

dk: I have been an affiliate for Eagle Web Assets for the past year, and it has a
very different feel from most affiliate companies.
I get frequent emails from EWA promoting that you bumped up payouts on some
offer. I also noticed that the emails tend to give advice on what is working right now.
You and Harrison also both have your email, AIM, and cell numbers on the website
where anyone can get a hold of you.
Can you tell me your viewpoint about the flavor of how you run the company, and why?
ryan: To sum it up: we set new standards for affiliate networks. There is nothing average about EWA and we’ve outdone what hasn’t been done with our affiliate network. We provide real training on how to make money, how to use new traffic sources, and how to optimize campaigns. We truly want our affiliates to succeed because their success is tied into our success as a company. EWA Network is a private community with a personal, real feel – we’re not trying to be an ultra-large conglomerate, we’re just trying to work with our close friends and their referrals. We’ve had massive success offering close support and we will continue innovating in the new year with advanced technology and new ways to make money online being released mid-year.

dk: What is your reasoning with Blam Ads. It definately has been getting noticed. I have seen it
advertised on practically everyone I know in the industry, the logo and branding look like
they were designed to appeal to 16 year old skater, (my style), and you have made some
bold statements about it making more money than adsense for a given site, and that you were
looking to ad some huge number of publishers this year. I also noticed a gambling offer on it.
In a time when I see most affiliate companies pushing to appear like big businesses, Blam
seems to be very comfortable just being what it is. Can you tell me the who, what, where, when and why,
and of course how much on it?
ryan: The advertising that you have seen only appeals to the affiliate marketing industry, where I work hand in hand with my peers. I’ve never believed in blending in with the “other” companies, and I always launch my businesses with unique and memorable advertising strategies. BLAM Ads actually has 5 different “types” of campaigns running, all targeting different audiences and are all branded differently. We adapt to our audience like a marketer should, and standing out is the most important thing. We’ve already signed several larger brands with our developer beta section to help them monetize their traffic better, and like EWA – we need no advertising, the best technology / company always reigns supreme.

dk: Shoemoney first pointed out to me how bright you are, and I have since seen that myself. I’d love to hear your
opinion on a few touchy things. I try to operate on a super high ethics level, and try to only sell stuff online
that is honest to the consumer. When I go through most offers on most affiliate networks, the ads
don’t seem to represent themselves to the consumer as to what they really are. I know from my offline
business experiences of the past 20 plus years, and as a consumer, that there is tons of stuff to sell. Why
do the affiliate networks seem to focus on so few things?
ryan: Are all the offers in EWA ethical? No. Do nice guys finish first? No. Do we share different ethical values? Yes. I personally don’t feel bad about anything that’s being promoted on my network and as long as we operate within legal guidelines, it’s our right to promote them and make that money. If we didn’t do it, someone else would – but I totally understand where your coming from. It can be done honestly and in the coming months I plan on releasing technology that will open up a new medium of advertising for EWA that’ll further separate our brand from the competition and provide a medium for thousands of more products and services.

dk: I’ve also watched observed a bit lately about affiliate running offers, advertisers not paying the networks,
and the networks not paying the affiliates. When I have asked guys in the industry about it, the general
attitude seems to be, that this is simply the way the industry works. If this happened to me in business,
I would not be o.k. with it. The advertisers appear to make decisions about what not to pay on, and then
the affiliate has little or nothing they can do about it. Can you comment from your observation,
as to the accuracy of what I am saying, and maybe fill in the back story for us?
ryan: EWA takes margin on our affiliates not only to make profit, but to protect ourself from the nonpayments. If you explained our business model to any professional business man (factoring insecured debt, pretty much soley off of handshakes, at the slim margins we take) they would be shocked. There is nothing easy about running an affiliate network, our first week in business we ate a 120,000 non-payment to a “bankrupt” company. It’s part of the game and our factoring practices have set us ahead of the competition because of our inituiton in regards to extending credit. Other companies in 2010 have lost millions upon millions – which passes directly down into affiliates via slower payment terms and higher margins. EWA operates the “slow and steady” safe business model that allows us to pay every affiliate weekly and offer insanely high payouts. Competition cannot compete with us anymore, their greed has ruined them.

dk: What do you expect in the world of affiliate marketing in the upcoming year?
ryan: Expect less competition and more of my companies popping up, because we have big things in the work and we will not settle for anything less than #1.

Health converter stepped up today to become a sponsor for the Purpose Inc. Poker Tourney during Affiliate Summit.

Thank you so much Health Converter!

They also are having a killer party

Health converter is going to have a pimp ass party during
Affiliate Summit. Here is the Health Converter Party  invite for Purpose Inc fans.

Tonight at 8:00 P.M. the last 20 seats go on sale for the Texas Holdem tournament.

Here is the deal.

The first day of play is Saturday, starting at 8:00 p.m.
The last 10 players alive on Saturday, will be back,
Sunday around 11:00 p.m. for the championship finals.

The second day of play is Sunday, starting at 8:00 p.m.
If you make the final 10 players, you go on to the finals,
Sunday at around 11:00 p.m.

$100 buy in.

Yes you can sign up for both nights, but if you are in the final 10
on Saturday, you don’t get to play on Sunday, and lose your money.

I will send out an email tonight around 8:00 pacific time when
we open registration.

Game will be at Mirage hotel.

We also still have room for another sponsor if you let me know asap.

If you want to see more silliness and details about the tourney, go here.

Much Love,
dk

Just to keep you all in the loop.

Both Saturday and Sunday of Purpose Inc. Poker Tournament during Affiliate Summit is sold out.

We have gotten some nice help from NeverBlue affiliate company. By the way, with my new project I have been looking at NeverBlue’s site and running some offers. One thing I dig that I have not seen on any other sites is a little blue thermometer thing that lets you know how much action an offer is getting. It looks like a combo between total amount of the offer being sold, but also how much per affiliate. It is nice to have a summary visual to help decide which offer to go after.

The Mirage has a big tournament playing before our tournament, that got scheduled before we did. As a result we have been limited on tables. As we get closer to the night, I am going to see if I can get them to open up another table of 10 for each night. No promises yet.

For those of you playing one night, who are interested in playing the second night, here are the rules.

If you play the first night and make it to the final 10 that night, then you move on to the finals on the second night. If you are one of those moving onto the championship from the top 10 of the first day, then you can not play the second day. So there is a bit of a risk if you sign up for both nights and do well the first night, you lose the entry fee for the second day.

Also, if you no show, you also lose your entry fee. It will just remain in the pot.

Also, every cent you paid to enter either will go to:
1. Pay the paypal fees
2. Pay the eventbrite fees
3. Go to cover the Mirage for their small take.
4. Most of it goes into the pot.

All of the other costs (Including In and Out Go Tweet Find!) were picked up by our sponsors, Never Blue, WhyPark and Tweet Find, and me 🙂

We have some amazing people playing.

Some of the biggest shots in the affiliate industry will be playing, super affiliates, owners of the networks, and playahs.

Everyone is invited to come and watch.

For the night you play, you get free drinks all night in the Mirage Poker room, even if you get knocked out.

Tournament is going to rock. It will be an elite intimate tournament at the Mirage.
We have man of my favorite people in the industry playing, some real smart, and real successful mofos. 🙂
Sorry, I have not been blogging much lately. I have been working on a secret project set to change an entire industry.
I will let you guys know about it after it is released into the wild. It literally is taking every bit of skill I have
to pull this off, and I am stoked with the results so far.

Don’t even ask me about what it is, because I have not been discussing it with ANYBODY!

Love you guys tons, and everyone of you in some way has contributed to my being able to work on this.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Dad, I really miss you today 🙂

O.K. here is the deal. 11 hours into selling tickets for the event it sold out.

I know a LOT of people want to play. After all, something like 2000 affiliate marketers are going to vegas and what do people like to do more than get together in a pack, with free drinks, and a chance play some h0ldem.

Note for those registered, before you read the next line:

THOSE ALREADY SIGNED UP, WHO SIGNED UP FOR SUNDAY WILL PLAY ON SUNDAY, AND THEN KEEP PLAYING ON SUNDAY UNTIL THE TOURNAMENT IS OVER FOR THEM (DETAILS BELOW)

I have talked to the Mirage, and most likely we are going to be selling  more seats for Saturday, January 8th, with the game starting at 8:00 p.m.

If we do this, the top 10 people from Saturday will move forward to play the top 10 people of Sundays game.

These two top ten groups, 20 people in all, will play each other on Sunday, until only one player is standing.

The guys who allready signed up to play on Sunday, will get to play longer and have a bigger pot.

The guys sign up for Saturday “if we do it” will play on Saturday, and if they are in the top 10, will move on to play on Sunday.

No guarantees, but watch your e-mail for announcements.

Either way, should be tons of fun!

I am working with a company and at the moment am helping them to monetize some of their visitors from China and India. My initial instinct on this was, waste of traffic, there is no money in this.

Then I was at the Range Rover repair shop getting my wife’s car fixed, and I remembered that Rage Rover was now owned by a company in India. I also know my country is in debt to China to a point where they could call it a day for us at any time.

There are a lot of poor people in China and in India. With the shift of the worlds assets during the past 2 years, there are also a lot of poor Americans. It is a new world order, and to consider all Chinese and Indians and poor is a bad, bad mistake.

In fact two months ago I was contacted by a very nice guy in Katmandu, at the base of the Himalayas, Dali Lama country. My jaw dropped to my knees when I told him my hourly rate for consulting for the type of work he neeeded was $250 per hour, and he paid without hesitating.

Affiliate marketing in this part of the world is just getting started, but last time I was in Vegas it was the Chinese that were paying the big money gambling and eating at Wing Lei at the Wynn. Just look inside any of the high limit rooms in Vegas, and see who’s playing.

With clicks on Facebook in the U.S. costing around a buck each, and traffic from China getting around $0.001 per click, do you think there might be a market imbalance?

If you are in the game monetizing Chinese or Indian traffic, let me know, maybe we can work together. Maybe it is time for me to get to work on my Mandarin.

Wait! This isn't Aaron from Azoogle!

Well, I got invited back to the Playboy Party again this year thrown by Epic Direct Advertising (formerly Azoogle). It is almost embarrassing just how much fun it is.

In an industry made up of cowboys and pirates, each year they show themselves to evolve into an ever more sophisticated company, with solid statistics and credibility in every direction, while never losing their soul. Hence the party at the Playboy Mansion!

If you have been following my training about how to network, you will understand my passion on the subject of being connected with the best and the brightest. This party is like shooting fish in a barrel, or as I refer to it, a Diamond mine. It is a multi day party, with a pool party, cocktail parties, brunch, and the main event at Heffs House.

At most internet get togethers, it takes a few minutes to determine if someone is a real player or not. At this event, they either are a major player online, or they work for Epic, and most of the Epic employees are major players themselves.

The environment is so much fun, that everyone who is part of this “in” group, is automatically your friend. Introductions come easily, and smoothly.

Mike Sprouse pulled off the event in great style.

It got totally wild, and that is just on the sidewalk leaving the hotel on the way to the party!

That is my wife in the middle.

The food was amazing, the entertainment gorgeous, the food was as good as any great restaurant.

It was just straight up fun!

Michael Sprouse was showing off his new fiance Kate, by now his wife! When I first met her, I honestly thought she was a playmate. She was just sweet as pie, kind, warm, and of course drop dead gorgeous.

How cool do I feel, hanging out and talking to a bunny, which I talked to last year, exchanging contact info and getting to be friends. I mean, come on, how fricken cool does that make me feel!

One of the greatest things about this event is that it was the second year. People I met last year, got to be better friends this year, and those that were good friends became great ones.

The next pic is of me and tennis star Michael Sprouse, who also used to be in charge of online marketing for Playboy, and not is in charge of marketing at Epic Direct Advertising, but the name doesn’t really capture all he does at the company.

This is Scott, bunny hunting.

Levi Matkins dazzled everyone with his dance moves. Watch the three photo sequence below.

This next one really shows off his moves!

Whooooo!!!

This was crazy, they brought in a dozen performers, doing dance, gymnastics, and just going wild.

I got to hang out with Art Shaw, the new CEO of Epic Direct. Art immediately struck me as being polished, brilliant, and the perfect guy to lead this powerhouse of a company.

I can’t even tell you how many hot girls there were. Just everywhere.

You know the pole dancer is good, when the painted naked girls stop to watch!

I am not even kidding about these two. Jenny, the blonde and her buddy are visiting from the Czech Republic, and were on a one month road trip through the U.S. This picture just happened to capture them where all of our lives intersected. I just loved how much fun they were having with all the internet geeks. What an amazing time in their lives as well. I remember the blonds name was Jenny. America thanks you for visiting Jenny!

Thanks to every single person who was part of this party, again just amazing!