Category Archives: News & Events

Affiliate Summit West 2009 Pictures (Part 1)

Posted on by

Ok everyone, I misplaced a memory card and I’m waiting for some pictures from others, but I have some pretty good pictures from Tuesday night.  When I find the other memory card and get the other pictures, I’ll post a final gallery.

Affiliate Summit: On Location (Pre-Conference)

Posted on by

So Affiliate Summit hasn’t officially started yet, but check out some of the cool things Michelle and I have been up to – mostly pics.  I’ll be adding captions later, but I need to hurry up and get down to registration.

Affiliate Summit West 2009 – Here I come.

Posted on by

affiliate-summitHey Everyone,

I’m laid over in Manchester, New Hampshire right now killing some time writing up the intro post.  I’m headed to Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I’m going with my lovely wife, Michelle, and we’re going to have a friggin awesome time.  We’ve both got Platinum Passes to the conference, which means that we pretty much have access to everything except the really exclusive VIP parties.

We’re also planning on checking out CES (Consumer Electronics Show for those of you that live under a rock) when we get there.  We should get there around 8:00PM tonight, and we’ll probably jump right into some gambling.  I’ve set up some meetings with people – details to come later.

I’ve been checking out some of the other ASW arrival posts, like Shoemoney and Robb Cheuvront.  I hope to see you guys there!

More information to come.  If you’re going to be at ASW or are already there, please leave comments and I’ll buy you a drink sometime when we’re there.

My Goals for 2009

Posted on by

goalsLose 33 lbs

I currently weight 213 lbs, and I would like to slim that down to a cool 180.  I have a treadmill and a rowing machine, so it should be pretty easy to exercise.  I will post my workout strategy in another post sometime.

Put $10,000 into my IRA

This goal may actually change, depending on what my financial adviser says about contributions to my IRA.  Essentially I would like to put the maximum legal amount into my IRA that I can.

Make $10,000 from affiliate marketing

I’d like to make what I put into my IRA from affiliate marketing. ’nuff said.  I think I can do it if I really put my mind to it.  I’m going to Affiliate Summit right at the beginning of the year, so there is no excuse for not reaching the goal right?

Shake Shoemoney’s hand

I think this would be great.  Shoemoney will have a booth at Affiliate Summit, so this should be easy.  He’s somewhat of a role model for where I’d like to go in the industry.  I’ll see you soon Shoe.

Reach 1,000 unique page views per day on this blog

I’d like to make this blog something people look forward to looking at each day.  I need to drive traffic here to create a more interactive, richer environment.  I think 1,000 uniques a day is very feasible.

Finish the concrete work in my basement

My basement has a whole mess of concrete issues that I need to clear up.  This is a big project, but it needs to get done in order for me to set up an office down there.  I hope to get it done by mid-august.  We’ll see how it goes.

Go to Las Vegas

This is easy.  I’m headed there for Affiliate Summit West next week.  I’ve never been to Vegas or a conference before, so this should be fun.

Make at least 250 blog posts

250 posts is about 2 every 3 days.  That kind of number will keep me honest.  I plan to put a counter somewhere…

Take a vacation that is not work related

The trip to Vegas does not count for this one.  My wife and I are planning a trip to Mexico sometime near the end of the year.  This one may happen early January 2010 if scheduling doesn’t permit during 2009.  We’ll see what happens!

What are your goals or resolutions for 2009?

John Travolta’s Son, Jett, Died Today

Posted on by
Jett Travolta died at 16 years of age.

I’ve received a fair amount of tweets, stating John travolta’s son died today.  It’s been particularly hard to find any information on the internet, but I’ve been able to pull together some information from various sources.

His son died today at Rand Memorial Hospital in the Bahamas after hitting his head on the bathtub after suffering from a seizure. The incident occurred at Old Bahama Bay Resort where the Travolta’s often vacationed.

He was 16 years old and suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome.  An autopsy is being performed at present to determine the exact cause of death.

I’m sure this must be a tough time for the entire Travolta family.  I hope that the press and fans give them the space they need during their time of mourning.

This is not a great start for 2009.  Do you have any additional comments, more information, or questions?  I’d love to know.

Jett Travolta, age 16, and Kelly Preston.

January 2009 Contest: Twitterlicious

Posted on by

Description

Every month, I do a contest of sorts for free shirts from shirt.woot.  This month I want to focus on twitter.  I will be choosing a winner the first Monday in February.  When I choose a winner, I will purchase 4 woot shirts of their choice for them.  Official rules are below.

Rules

I’m keeping in simple this time.

You must follow me on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/jtgraphic.

You need to tweet and include the following information:

You must leave a comment here the first time you tweet.  There’s no need to do it ever time.  Leave your twitter username in the comment too, so I know how to track you down.

Each tweet is one entry in the contest, but you are only allowed one entry per day, so please don’t spam it.

If you’re interested in joining these contests as an ongoing thing, just subscribe to my blog via the email form.

Two New Woot Shirt Submissions

Posted on by

woot-breakout-detail1woot-springv2-detailI submitted some images to this week’s shirt.woot derby for your votes.  Click the images to the left or right (depending on which you’re interested in) to vote!  If you’re looking for more information about what woot.com or shirt.woot is, please check out this video from WootTV.

This week’s submission guidelines on shirt.woot are as follows:

“You’re penned in, cooped up, locked down. It’s cold outside, it’s boring inside. And there’s a long winter stretching out before you. Maybe it’s you and eighteen in-laws, maybe it’s just you and your cats and your Lean Cuisines. Either way, cabin fever is setting in, and you’re longing for release. Use this week’s Derby as an outlet for your claustrophobe tendencies – or your claustrophile tendencies, if you’re into that sort of thing.
No text this week.”

This derby is the first derby I’ve participated in, in a while, and I was working on a bunch of other things so they are a bit rushed.  The spring tree is a resubmission from earlier this year (I think derby #37).  I thought the butterfly was a great concept though.

Contest: I’ll buy you a woot shirt.

Posted on by

contestSo here’s the deal:

I’m going to buy your next woot shirt if I pick your name from the “bucket” for this contest.  You can enter once for each method.  You can enter using any or all of the following methods:

  • Digg, Stumble, or Sphinn this post. Yeah.  The buttons are right under the post.  That’s easy.
  • Mention this blog over at the woot.com forums or put a link to it in your signature.
  • Subscribe to the RSS feed THROUGH feedburner so I can verify your email address.
  • Write a blog post or tweet about me, this blog, or this post.

Make sure you leave a comment and tell me which ones you did.  I’ll tally everything next Monday and pick a winner.  I’ll buy the current woot, reserve the buy until the next shirt you want, or get a reckoning shirt.  If you have questions, leave a comment.

I’m going to Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Posted on by

Thanks Shoe

I just picked up some passes for Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Las Vegas courtesy of Shoemoney.  Thanks Shoe, I appreciate it.  I hope to see you there.  I’ll buy you a drink or two if I see you.

Background and Information

affiliate-summitAffiliate Summit is a great affordable conference for people just coming into affiliate marketing, because there is such a low barrier to entry (cost).  Overall the conference gets pretty good reviews, although I hear that after a while, you get used to – or tired of – listening to the same sessions all the time.  I’m looking at the session schedule and couldn’t imagine being able to visit the entire show floor as well as every session in just one visit.  I’ll try though.  It looks like there will be upwards of 3,000 people attending and a ton of exhibitors.

What am I getting from this?

I think there are three major things I’m going for:

  1. I need something that resembles a vacation, and I think this is it.  This is a good way to expense some R&R to the company.
  2. I’d love the chance to meet some of the major players in the industry and do some networking.
  3. I know I have a lot to learn, and I think this will give me a barometer as to how much.

The Cost vs. Return

This is my first big conference, so I’m pretty excited.  I booked my flight and room and the Rio for just over $1200 with my travel agent.  I’ll be there from the 9th until the 13th.  If I didn’t win them, conference passes would have cost $700 more than that.  I would imagine that I will spend at least $1000 additional to that while I’m there.  On top of all of that, I will be missing 4 work days, with reduced productivity at best, reducing my normal income.

All in all, adjusted for R&R, I think I need to probably get a return of about $3,000 to break even, and we all know business isn’t about breaking even.  I think I can do it pretty easily.

I plan to cover the event and give updates every night (or maybe the morning after).  I’ll see you there!

Getting Back Into It

Posted on by

I’ve been incommunicado for quite some time now.  I’ve been super busy with Acute Technology, and I’ve been doing some pretty exciting things.  I also wanted to step back and establish a focus for this blog.  I’m not entirely done yet, and this will be a process, but I hope it proves to be a better success the second time around.  If not, I’ll just keep trying.

Some Recent Projects that I’ve Completed:

MorrisvilleRotaryClub.org - I’m a member and the webmaster.  It’s a work in progress, but I like it.  I’m also the district webmaster.

Good Ink Tattoos – This is a great tattoo place.  I think the website is pretty sweet too!

Akrimax - is a pharmaceutical company.  I did the design and wrapped it around my content management system.  This is just a first draft.  We’ll see how things develop.

I’m going to try and update this site at least once a month from now on.  Keep me honest in the comments!