Praise the Lord and Pass the Biscuits!

I had a chat with my new friend, Wade Tonkin of the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association the other day, and he filled me in on some interesting happenings at this year’s Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, February 24-26. I kept bumping in to Wade in various places on the Internet and was glad to finally get to know him a little better. Wade is a fellow Christian believer, affiliate marketer and blogger.

I’ve haven’t had the opportunity to go to an Affiliate Summit yet, but it is at the very top of my list for conferences to attend. From what I have heard from those who have attended, Affiliate Summit is a very rewarding experience. It kind of goes against what I would have thought, that affiliate marketers would be competitors and therefore suspicious about socializing and giving away secrets at conferences like Affiliate Summit. I guess I’ll find out first hand one of these days when I have a chance to attend one.

Wade has a passion for bringing Christian affiliate marketers together in fellowship. Wade told me that CAMA is organizing the second annual CAMA Gospel Brunch Sunday, February 24th from 9:15-11:30 AM at The House of Blues at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Anyone can attend (I just heard it is sold out) to share food, fun and fellowship. Wade says CAMA is “expecting 50 attendees that represent a cross section of the online marketing business: affiliates, merchants, agencies, search professionals, media will be in attendance.  We have attendees coming from as far away as Singapore and South Africa to attend.” He says the goal of the event is to “present a spiritual kick off to the Affiliate Summit event and provide a Fellowship opportunity for Christians  in the industry who are away from their home church.”

I got permission from Wade to mention that one of the high points of the event will be the unveiling of the “CAMA Certified” badge, a program that will certify merchants with legitimate Christian values, sites and offers.

The badge will serve to provide Christian marketers with a source for offers that they can be proud to promote on their sites or blogs. merchants that would like to be “CAMA Certified” will submit an application that will be reviewed by a panel of industry professionals of faith. They insure that the merchant is truely one that aims to advance the gospel with their products and services and looks to the Christian consumer as more than just “another niche to monetize” and that the structure of their offer and business practices are in keeping with Christian values (fairness, integrity). They also look to offer an  Affiliate Membership which will certify the affiliates site or sites and hopefully earn Member affiliates additional commissions and benefits from member merchants.

Sounds pretty cool, huh? Wade also said:

I am expecting great good, inspiring fellowship and networking and really incredible music that will send  all attendees - believer or non believer into the rest of the Affiliate Summit on a spiritual high note. It’s really an awesome event.

Wade said last year’s CAMA brunch was a blast. He expects to get some footage as he’s bringing his flip cam. Also, he expects Jim Kukral and Sam Harrelson to have their cams with them as well–if you listen to these guys on WebmasterRadio.FM or elsewhere, you know they are great marketers and lots of fun.

I am looking forward to hearing more about the CAMA event as well as the usual Affiliate Summit goodness. Hopefully there will be a third annual CAMA Gospel Brunch and I’ll be able to attend and meet some of these interesting folks. In the mean time, I am praying that this year’s brunch is a success.

Better late… I’m not sure how to interpret this Adtech picture that Scott of NextModo just sent from his conference coverage weeks ago, but wouldn’t you say there is a message here somewhere?

SEO, Bruce Clay, Mobile Search, Video, and Social Media

Pictured above: Scott Thompson and Bruce Clay

The last day of ad:tech New York 2007 is half way over.  I won’t post again because I’ll be high-tailing it outa here to the airport after the conference.  The highlight of today for me was meeting Bruce Clay.  As an old SEO guru I’m a fan of his work and his site.  He was a really gracious man with an intelligent sense of humor that is common in geniuses.  I attended the SEO session moderated by Mr. Clay not because I needed to learn more about SEO but because I wanted to hear him speak. 

The conference over all was a success.  It is clear that this industry is growing and it’s also clear that even the brightest in the field are a little confused about the exact direction it’s going.  Most do believe that mobile search is going to be huge, but no one can agree when this will be.  I spoke to a mobile search company in the exhibition hall and they were adamant that mobile search is already huge, others are not so sure.  Either way it’s something to watch for. 

The other big talk is about video and how best to take advantage of it for your business.  Many are interested but almost all are still trying to figure out the best way to implement video.  If video is big, so is social media. But again there are many questions still floating around about where to put your attention and what social tools are best.  Just make sure you include the social media graphics at the bottom of your pages or posts (Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.). 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this adtech 2007 review and I hope that you will come by and visit NextModo.com.  I’m here to help you create better sites that will increase conversions, make you look good, and earn more money.

I’ll leave you with a tip I picked up at the SEO session:
Use short URLs that are easy to email and to link to.  This will ensure that your URLs don’t break in emails and will be easier for users to copy when linking to you.

Thanks
Scott Thompson
NextModo.com

Day three of ad:tech New York was the first full day of sessions.  I could detail each session I attended but will instead point you toward the adtech podcasts.  Look for them soon on the ad:tech Web site.  Below are some of the highlights of the day. 

Wednesday started with a panel discussing the state of the Internet marketing industry.  The panel was moderated by the President and CEO of IAB, Randall Rothenberg.  It included several leaders in our industry and the political blogger, socialite, and former political candidate Arianna Huffington.  Ms. Huffington was a lot of fun and a very likeable person.  It’s easy to understand how she succeeded in life with her quick wit and charm.  Huffington noted that even though her readers are obsessed with politics they also have other interests and much of the success of her website comes from offering “other things outside of politics.”

Huffington spoke about sharing her content with other sites.  She stated that by giving their content away it brought more readers back to her site.  In the old world everyone was protective of their content but now you can share it and still get traffic.

I highly suggest listening to the podcasts from today while paying special attention to the video and mobile advertising sessions. 

ad:tech kicked off with a motivating speech by Adtech programming chair Drew Lanni.  More than just tell us what ad:tech was he asked a few questions like “How is digital transforming all media?” One thing is for and that is that it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur.  

The keynote speaker, Nick Brien of Universal McCann, talked about branding and how it’s becoming more complicated in this new world where one out of every three purchases online are now influenced by social media.  In this new world corporations must be transparent because their brands are now owned by the customer.  If you want to create a positive brand you must provide an exceptional experience. 

I attended two other meetings where we discussed the new Internet economy.  I think I heard the word “Facebook” about 500 times today.  With Facebook’s new technology to target users everyone is excited about the possibilities.  How close are we to perfecting behavioral and contextual ads?  That’s the big question of the week.

I spent more time in the exhibit halls today gathering chotskies and talking to a lot of bright people.  It seems like there are dozens of analytic software companies now and dozens of other companies that probably have good products but don’t know how to explain what they do.  If you have a product or service and are spending thousands of dollars to show up at a conference like ad:tech New York make sure your employees know how to articulate your company’s product.  Here’s another tip.  If you want to get attention do something outstanding.  But if you do something outstanding have plenty of people ready to talk to the crowds that gather around your booth. 

The exhibit halls are now closed and the next two days are going to be full of workshops and sessions.  I’ve enjoyed the sessions thus far and can’t wait to meet more talented folks and fill my brain with more interactive marketing knowledge. 

Scott Thompson
NextModo.com

At the Atlas booth enjoying the oxygen bar.  It was the cleanest air I breathed since I arrived in NYC.

I hope I have enough room in my suitcase for all the chotskies.

The flight from Atlanta to New York was pleasant with a great ending as we passed by The Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.  I’m kicking myself now for not having the camera ready.  The shuttle trip from LaGuardia took almost an hour, but I did enjoy the trip as I got to see a large portion of the city first-hand. 

I arrived at my very “dated” hotel and checked into my very small room.  There were no more rooms at the Hilton for the conference rate and I decided to save a few bucks by staying in a close, but not as nice hotel. 

The exhibition halls were open so I decided to cruise on over to the Hilton and check out the booths.  I was blown away at the large number of exhibitors.  I’ve been to a few Internet conventions but none as large as ad:tech.  It looked like everyone was giving away an iPod so I made sure to drop my business card in every bowl hoping to win.  As for swag I filled a free bag with pens, notebooks, and other odd freebies.  The booths that did the most creative thinking were the busiest.  One exhibitor set up an oxygen bar and another had a team of very tall women dressed as dominatrix cops.  I thought about trying the oxygen bar and kept my distance from the leather garbed women.  I couldn’t think of anything positive they might do with those sticks. 

I spoke to a lot of people including Ross Geier with Didit and Grant Kravitz from Boss Dev.  Out of all the exhibitors I spoke with I liked them the most and found their services interesting and useful. 

After I filled my bag with goodies I took to the streets and walked to Times Square and then back up to Rockefeller Center and watched people ice skate.  This is a walking city and I can’t imagine how someone could live here and be fat.  I walked several miles today touring the area and I never strayed more than a mile from the hotel. 

I’ll post pictures and a summary of the first big day of adtech Tuesday night.  You can find me at the conference if you want.  I’m the guy with the laptop.

Scott Thompson
NextModo.com 

Things have been quiet around here for several weeks but that is about to change!  My good friend and fellow webmaster/SEO, Scott Thompson will be attending the Adtech New York conference this week and has agreed to post his experiences here for us. I am excited about this conference because Adtech is more of a marketing webmaster’s venue than others. I was looking over the list of speakers and companies attending and it seems just about every digital marketing genre imaginable is being represented: everyone from political bloggers to gamers. Scott’s perspective as a professional webmaster and founder of a new online marketing blog will be interesting to follow. Okay, Scott, take it away and pleeeeease get me some cool Tee’s :) –Emory Rowland

My bags are packed and I’m ready for a week of learning and fun at ad:tech New York.  From what I’ve read this year is going to be the best yet with over 10,000 attendees.  With announcements from the likes of Facebook and top rated speakers like Bruce Clay this is going to be a valuable four days. 

Wish me luck as I bring you news and photos from Adtech.  I’ll arrive in New York on Monday and plan to tour the exhibit hall and fill my pockets with swag before hitting the streets to see a few sites.  From Tuesday to Thursday I’ll be sitting through seminars filling my brain with all sorts of goodies to share with you. If you are going to be at ad:tech and want to network with a world class Internet guru go find Bruce Clay.  But if you want to say hello to a really nice guy look me up.  Check in here at Clickfire for daily updates.

Scott Thompson
NextModo.com

Thanks to Douglas Hanna for the HostingCon 2007 coverage…

HostingCon is all over, but I still have two pictures from the Future of Web Host Marketing session:

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Clickfire HostingCon 2007 coverage by Douglas Hanna

A bit old, but still relevant:

11:15 AM - 12:00 PM - Session 102 - Room 327

Speaker: Derek Vaughan, Chief Marketing Officer, TechPad Agency
11:16 AM - session is full.
11:18 AM - introduction. TechPad Agency is an ad agency for web hosting companies.
11:22 - web hosting is a “what was” industry. Early adopters were technically savvy and the sites didn’t require much.
11:23 – Four “Megatrends”

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Thanks to Douglas Hanna for the HostingCon 2007 coverage.

Here are some pictures from HostinCon day 2. If any of them are blurry, my apologies. It’s really tough to take good pictures when it’s dark in a big room.

Some of the Web Hosting Talk water bottles.

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HostingCon 2007 coverage for Clickfire by Douglas Hanna

Session Title: SEO Techniques to Boost your Google Ranking
Session #105 | 8:30 - 9:15 AM | Room 327

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Thanks to Douglas Hanna for the HostingCon 2007 coverage

Room 327 | Session #103 | 2:00 - 2:45 PM

Moderator: Isabel Wang, Principal, IsabelWang.com
Panelist: Sam Fleitman, Chief Operations Officer, SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.
Panelist: Doug Johnson, Director Marketing - Hosting, SWsoft
Panelist: Dallas Kashuba, Head Honcho, DreamHost

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Douglas Hanna covers HostingCon 2007 for Clickfire.

Some pictures from this morning and the Mini Workshop: Metrics That Mean Money And How To Track Them session.

This is one of the screens around HostingCon providing updates. Read more of this post »

Greetings fellow web hosting freaks of all shapes, sizes, bandwidths and disk capacities. I have never been to a web hosting conference and could not attend HostingCon this year held on July 23-25 at the Navy Pier in Chicago. My understanding of what takes place at these conferences is simply that a bunch of  people who love web hosting get together and talk about web hosting. Simple enough description?

What’s the next best thing to being at HostingCon? I am excited that Douglas Hanna will be live blogging HostingCon 2007 for Clickfire this year! Douglas is armed with a Nikon D80 camera, a Palm Treo 700wx smart phone and a whole lot of knowledge and enthusiasm for the web hosting industry. Not only is Douglas going to physically be there, but he is speaking at one of the conference sessions. Douglas’ session will be on Wednesday July 25th at 4:30 and entitled: Customer Service as Your Competitive Advantage. Other hosting industry professionals will be speaking at sessions that I that I hope to hear about are:

• Ben Fisher and Neil Patel, Modern SEO/SEM Site Clinic
• Isabel Wang, Green Web Hosting…
• Jim Boykin, SEO Techniques…
• Derek Vaughan’s Future of Web Hosting
• Richard Jimmerson’s ARIN
• Troy Augustine, Future of Hosted Services
• Adam Eisner, Rethinking Domain Name Search
• Nicholas Mailer, Guinesss World Book Record…

Douglas has written several web hosting reviews and articles for Clickfire. He’s also written for quite a few well known web hosting sites. His blog is Service Untitled and he has a lot to say about the all important subject of customer service. He also interviews some well known execs from Dell, Best Buy, HP, Rackspace and elsewhere. I like to describe Douglas’ treatment of web hosts in his reviews here as “tough love.” I’d like to say thanks to Douglas and I hope you all enjoy the coverage.

Hello from Chicago!

As promised, over the next three days, I’ll be covering HostingCon 2007. Expect some live blogging from the sessions, pictures, and who knows what else.

This is Navy Pier, where the HostingCon 2007 conference will be held.

–Douglas Hanna