knofun

I have never really been into PPC. Never had success with it, never could fathom it.. just seemed too tedious and boring, plus I hate to spend money. I do have a Google account, of course, for AdSense and Analytics and whatnot. When Shoemoney posted something about using Adwords to post radio ads promoting fighters.com, I got interested. 

My Dad is in traditional radio, so over the years I have been witness to the massive reach of radio content and advertising. My favorite pet project right now is carsforagrand.com, where you can find a cheap used car for under $1,000. I thought this would be a great fit what with the economy and all, so I used the super easy Ad Creation Marketplace and had Tony Brueski whip up an ad for us – for only $100!

Here’s our commercial

I have been testing it seriously since the beginning of the year and the results have been phenomenal. So much so we are preparing a little TV spot and going to try Google for television advertising.

I see what’s going on here, the big G is desperate to create some additional revenue to compliment its search business. It’s doing a damn good job. There is no way, no WAY I would have just been all “oh hey I’m gonna walk into a clearchannel office and buy some radio space for my website.” So much hassle, have to deal with people, whatever. And producing a commercial? Forget it! Google makes all those headaches go away with their system… its literally like ordering a pizza online, just pick what you want and click go. So in the process, G has sold more radio advertising, converted a new believer, made some sound guy some extra bread for making my commercial, made me some money, and made themselves some in the process. THIS IS THE AMERICAN WAY, we don’t need no stinking bailouts!

geek stuff, ventures, web marketing advertising, adwords, google, radio

I mentioned a dinner I had at Switch in Encore at ASW with DK and Michael from Market Leverage. Our conversation ran five hours and spanned topics from international travel, mountain climbing, federal bailouts, laissez-faire economics, the constitution, and much more.

One part that stuck out in particular came when we were discussing the horrors of war. I argued that the same atrocities have been committed by both sides of any war for tens of thousands of years, the difference now is people who aren’t on the front lines can witness the horror on ustream or CNN. This age of unprecedented transparency and availability of information has ushered in a new morality, one where a politician can no longer say one thing publicly and authorize another privately. I’m not saying we know everything about everything, but it is definitely harder to hide something from a person today who decides to educate themselves. 

I drew parallels to the Milgram experiment, where students would knowingly “shock” other students at the behest of their superiors. They would deflect blame by saying they were just doing what they were told, and the superiors claimed they didn’t do anything wrong because they didn’t actually do the shocking. We discussed Jefferson thouroughly during the dinner, but now I am reminded of a Benjamin Franklin quote: “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” 

So now, with all this information and heretofore unprecedented transparency, is it not harder to find a reason? If you can no longer do one thing privately and claim another publicly, will people do the right thing? These are important questions as we enter a new era under President-elect Obama. I for one hope personal responsibility, the core of the American spirit, will triumph. Let the Information Age lead us into the Age of Transparency.

rant asw09, morality, transparency

Yo, I had a really great time at affiliate summit this year. Shoemoney was there doing his thing, PepperJam had an awesome presence. I spoke on a panel with Kris Jones, CEO of PepperJam, on where affiliate marketing is headed in 2009. Some really good insights on the industry, plus I got to sit next to Brad from BradsDeals.com. He is a smart dude, wish I had gotten more time to talk to him.

Which brings me to my next point, I didn’t have much time after the panel because it went 12-1 on Sunday, and the Chargers v. Steelers game started at 1:45. I ducked out of there quick sorry folks did not mean to be rude but come on for San Diego sports the Chargers are all we have and I think that says volumes. So yeah the way that game ended sucked. I was supposed to do a webmasterradio show with all the other panelists after and I kinda bailed. Sorry.

Anywho, that night I went to an awesome dinner hosted by the nice folks at Market Leverage curtesy of my boy DK. I somehow got seated next to the CEO Michael, who turned out to be a fascinating guy with tons of knowledge about all kinds of fun topics. The three of us talked and talked through an amazing five hour dinner at the new Encore tower. Wow. Big thank you to DK and Michael.

The next night was kind of a blur, I remember tons of suite parties and seeing E40 rock a sick show at Rain. Ran into him later at the blackjack tables. Good times.

web marketing affiliate, asw09, pepperjam, shoemoney

In a move demonstratory of extreme idiocy, Comcast has this page specifically made to educate people who use Google Chrome or other browsers not on their list. Interestingly enough, Opera works fine even though it’s not on their ‘recommended’ list.

Read more…

geek stuff, rant chrome, comcast, google

How I can always tell when things are going well: I work well into the wee hours of the morning and the only thing that has a chance of stopping me is my laptop running out of batteries and the prospect of walking to the living room to get the power cable.

Many many years ago (almost 9 now??!!?!) I spent a week straight staying up till 5-6am working in a little makeshift office in a run down house on Grand avenue in Pacific Beach. Not because I was trying to be a billionaire but because I was learning new things and challenging myself, and that was the most fun I could imagine. Out of that week came Zeropaid, born of the hard work and frustration of two young men. Years later I find myself staying up late, learning new things, challenging myself. How great is this world when a guy can do exactly what he pleases and somehow make a living at it? God bless you all.

So what am I up to up late? Well watching some roman history DVDs my Dad gave me. Playing around with looks / concepts of Yumm.com, just too good of a domain to not do anything about. Playing with promotional ideas for cars for a grand. Oh that reminds me of a messed up story.

So I am trying to buy this domain I want, and I want it so badly I offered what I considered a ridiculous sum. We haggled back and forth for a while and to my dismay I offered twice my original (and already ridiculous I might add) offer. Guy said great, just wanted me to submit the bid through his domain parking service so they could handle the escrow and all that. I said great because I wanted that security, after all I was talking about a lot of money! Turns out when you submit a bid on this particular domain parking service, the domain holder can then open an auction for said domain as the original bid as the first bid in the auction. Not so great for the unwitting buyer but an amazingly useful tool in the hands of an opportunistic and fortunate seller. *sigh* Oh well hope I get it but I am not raising my offer.

So yeah doing that, trying to find some possible end to the Zeropaid WordPress Conversion (yes it deserves the capitalization). Damn that has taken a long time.

I am liking my new theme and my new home on knofun.com. Hope u are too.

geek stuff domains, hard work, zeropaid

Hey guys all 12 of you reading this probably know by know I finally got off my ass and redirected my personal blog to knofun.com. If not, hopefully you noticed this time

Big thanks to go out to PepperJam Network, EASILY my favorite affiliate network in terms of honesty, transparency, availability. PJN decided to give me a years supply of Fiji Water, I guess for being ‘Top in Lead’ not sure if that means I got the most leads or what, but THANKS!  I’m not sure how they knew, but Fiji is my favorite water. I know they were specifically called out in Seth Godin’s recent book All Marketers are Liars for selling only because of the bottle design, but what the heck. I like the bottle design

This contest was apparently sponsored by ShopFijiWater.com, which is a cool site that – u guessed it – sells fiji water. The subscription models are cool and make great gifts.

Thanks again to Kris, Robyn, Michael, Mandy, and all the PJN guys, see you at ASW ‘09!

Uncategorized affiliate, fiji water, pepperjam