To All Those Mac Noobs I Have Mocked Over The Past 15 Years..

..I'm Sorry. :) I don't know what exactly it is about this Macbook, but it is an actual joy to use. I am more productive and it just gives me a good feeling using it. I sorta understand the whole crazy mac cult. Somebody help me!!! :)

Seriously, right now, I really love my mac. (Even though I use it to code in c# and SQL server--cuz I can and do)

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So I Finally Switched...

My Sony 280 stopped thinking a battery was plugged into it. I checked into warranty/repair. It was $99 just to look at the thing and then anywhere from $249 to $749 to repair it. It looks like my middle child just got her first computer :) (It works fine plugged into the wall)

Vista disappointed me quite a bit. Windows XP works great, I like it. Now I could have just bought another laptop and downgraded it to XP (I did consider it); but I've been eying OSX more and more over the past few months. I did a lot of research and studying before I even went to the local Apple Store. I had a personal shopper showing me how to use the mac. He knew all the keyboard shortcuts, but when I asked him how you see how much memory is in use or where the terminal was he was at a loss. With his help (he showed me how to navigate the system, etc) I found the apps I was looking for. (Hint: Look in the Application/Utility folder)

So now I have a MacBook Pro with VMWare Fusion so I can run Visual Studio 2005 and all that for development (I haven't found an IDE I like better then VS2005, if you know of one that is better then PLEASE tell me)

Things I like about it:

• Flash doesn't crash Firefox anymore.
• The feel of the keyboard is the best I have found on a laptop
• It has a remote control for watching movies, etc :)
• I can use VMware's Unity function to make my XP programs work in the OSX desktop
  
  
  
• Spaces (it isn't as snazzy as Compiz but it is close enough)
• There is lots of software out there for macs, a heck of a lot more then I expected.
• Great batter life.
• All the eye candy... there is an amazing amount of things. No wonder noobs love apples.
  

Things I don't like about it:

• Why are they selling me a service plan? Do they expect it to break?
• I could have gotten an Ubuntu or XP laptop for nearly half the price (not as much software either, but still...)
• Only comes in silver/grey, but it gave me an excuse to name it Bender. I wonder how many other Mac's are named Bender for this very reason.
• Keyboard layout is a bit different then the one I was trained on by Microsoft, but it is usable and once I learn the different things like Fn+Delete and so on its not that bad. I still struggle with using End properly :)
• $700+ for 4Gigs of RAM!!!!!!!

So.. not to bad, so far I am happy. I'll be expanding the ram with some cheaper non-apple ram and suffer through it. ;)

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Speaking At Affiliate Summit

Well I am not sure what they are thinking, but I am going to be a speaker at Affiliate Summit West 2008 :). I am pretty excited.

I sent in a simple proposal to talk about PPC marketing since that is what I do. My proposed session title was "Which PPC Engines Work And How." It was going to be a nice presentation probably with power point slides ;)

They contacted me and asked if I would "be interested in leading a roundtable discussion for the “Ask the Experts” General Session? This is an environment where attendees will sit at a table to chat with you, and 8-10 of these discussions will be going on concurrently.

Also, there is no presentation involved – you’d be answering questions and talking about your respective issues informally."

Frankly this was awesome! I just have to relax and answer questions and discuss PPC and so on informally. So... I'll be there :)

On a side note, it looks like most of the speakers have titles like CEOs, Founders, Presidents, Owners and so on. I picked "Affiliate" as my title since I think it fit best :) I'm just a regular guy who has figured some things out well and am still looking to learn and grow more.

My thanks out to the Affiliate Summit people for giving me this opportunity.

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Keyword Research Tools...

In NO particular order at all. This list is for my reference just as much as anybody's

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://www.wordze.com

Also.. those xml feeds from dogpile and metasearch and so on.. look very intersting.

And a good link to some tips for page optimization for search engines it goes along with what I said about SEO optimization.

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New Hampshire 2008 Predictions

Well I got the Democrat predictions right for Iowa. That 15% rule for the Democratic Caucuses really helped Obama. He picked up a lot of Richardson's, Biden's and other's supporers when their group didn't have the require 15%.

On the Iowa Republican predictions... no so right :)

NH 2008 Primary Predictions in Order:

NH Democrats:
Obama
Clinton
Edwards
Richardson

NH Republicans:
McCain
Romney
Paul --Go Paul!!! :)
Thompson
Huckabee
Giuliani

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How To Make Money Online 6 of 11 (PPC Traffic)

I am going to finish this series if it kills me :)

Ok.. PPC Traffic. I like PPC (Pay Per Click) traffic because it is easy to measure and quantify results.

You can find an old list I made of PPC Engines that work.
You can also find a list of bottom feeder PPC sources to avoid.

Here is an excellent primer on AdCenter (MSN's PPC). I didn't write this but it is so well done I totally recommend it.

For a successful PPC campaign you will need:

1. Quality landing pages that relate to the ad text (and convert)
2. Short and Long Tail Keywords
   A Short Tail Keyword is: flowers
   A Long Tail Keyword is: buy red flowers for my girlfriend in vegas
   
   The short keyword is going to be expensive to bid on because everyone is bidding on it (thus driving the price up)
   The long keyword is going to be very cheap because no one will be bidding on it AND it will convert well because someone typing in a phrase like that is ready to buy.
   (buy KEYWORD is better then KEYWORD)
3. Ad Text That matches your landing page.
   Dont use something totally generic.
   
   Not So Good:
   Flowers
   Buy Flowers Here
   
   Better:
   Looking For Red Roses?
   Special Deal On Two Dozen Red
   Roses With Free Delivery $24.99
   
   The better ad tells the user exactly what to expect before they even click on the ad. You are pre-selling them. If they click they are more likely to actually buy the flowers since they already know what to expect. Just make sure the landing page has a picture of some beautiful flowers and a clear cause to action (button to click to buy the flowers) (see #1 in this list)
   
4. Tracking!
   This is the most important and most glossed over aspect of PPC. And this is why PPC can be so powerful. You need to track the combination of landing page, keyword, source, and so on of each user coming in via PPC. Then track what they buy (or if they fill out a lead form). Use this to determining how much profit (or loss) you make from each click for each keyword. If you are losing money on a keyword butt getting conversion lower your price per click for that keyword. If you are making a TON of money and your position is low you can try raising your position by raising your click cost. But be careful and remember what it was. If you have found a sweet spot you want to know what it was so you can go back it raising your position results in more clicks but fewer conversions.

This ought to be enough to make you dangerous in PPC. Reading all about online marketing is great but you do actually need to get out and do something.

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Iowa 2008 Caucus Predictions

1) Romney
2) Huckabee
3) Paul
4) McCain

1) Obama
2) Edwards
3) Hillary
4) Richardson

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Awesome Things I Used To Be Able To Do

This is all about me :) If you don't want to read about me, skip this one.

I am getting older (over 30 now). I noticed that I and the people I hang with sometimes talk about all the awesome stuff we used to be able to do. So here are my "war stories" of when school was an uphill walk both ways and it snowed year round, even in Florida.

Here is my list:

• I used to be able to easily do a 360 Two Handed Dunk with out a running start. (Yes Reverse dunks, one handed dunks and all of those too, but I figured it would look kinda lame to have one listing for each type)
  
• I once bloodied my nose on the rim (basketball rim 10 feet in the air). It really didn't hurt that bad, but it bleed a ton.
• I used to be able to play popular songs from memory on the piano: Because The Night (Made Famous By 10,000 Maniacs), Wind Beneath My Wings, Hungarian Dance #5, and a handful of typical hymns. I can play maybe one measure or so of any of these if I am lucky. I can still play just the right hand by sight of many songs, just not very well :)

Wow... only 3 things? When we are talking it seems like there are always more... If I remember anymore I'll update or add a new post.

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