Archives for April 2009

This installment of my affiliate fatblog takes place on my birthday, so I decided to give myself the gift of a week off from the scale.

Last week, I was out at ad:tech in San Francisco and didn’t really get a chance to exercise from Monday through Thursday.

While I have been hitting the gym each day since then, I figured I’d take the pressure off and enjoy some birthday treats.

That brings me to a whole different conversation… the reasons why people eat.

I have talked to my wife in the past about it, and she mentioned how some people stuff their feelings when they’re upset.

Maybe it’s a difference between men and women, but when I’m stressed or upset, it doesn’t trigger me to pig out.

Instead, I would classify myself as more of a “celebration eater.”

For instance, since it’s my birthday, all rules go out the window and I like to have a feast of stuff that’s not good for me.

Similarly, last week in San Francisco I went to a Giants/Padres game. I love any baseball game and celebrated with some junky ballpark food and beers.

So, I’m not sure what the psychology is behind eating, but based on my weight, I’ve been having too much fun and then celebrating eating.

Since I don’t plan to scale back on the fun, I guess my only alternative is moderation. Damn.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 217
This week: –

Offers.com, an affiliate deals site that launched earlier this year is rolling out a new version that includes features, My Offers Locker and Alerts.

Now users can sign up for a free Locker, then save offers and stores to get real-time updates that can help them save time and money.

To create their own My Offers Locker, Offers.com users can simply sign up with an email address and password, then save items to their Locker. When offers change, or when new promotions or coupon codes become available, Locker users will receive alert emails notifying them that their favorite retailers have new offers, or that an offer is about to expire. Every Locker is pre-populated with seven recommended special offers from featured merchants, including Carbonite, Diamond.com, Restaurant.com, Travelocity and more.

Offers.com works with over 1,000 merchant partners and provides users with over 5,000 current offers across 150 different categories. Offers are updated daily across the site by a team of editors, who evaluate and categorize every deal.

More details at http://www.offers.com/press/lockerlaunch/.

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about Google Profiles and whether they are something we should embrace with our brands or run away from quickly.

I also talk about a similar service from PeoplePond.

Show Notes

• Google Profiles
• Shawn Collins Google Profile
• Google search for Shawn Collins
• Shawn Collins on PeoplePond
• Google Forcing Your Hand, Stealing Your Thumbprint
• Twitter @lisabarone

Check out brandmouthing.com for a collection of all future episodes of Brandmouthing, as well as images, videos, etc. that I mention on the podcast.

I just returned from ad:tech San Francisco, and it was a whirlwind of sessions, baseball, and networking.

The show kicked off with a keynote from Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia. On the way to the keynote, I got a peek at the Affiliate Summit Beer Garden before it opened.

I was covering the conference as Twitter press, so here are some of my Tweets from the Jimmy Wales talk.

@affiliatetip: @mikebuechele just heard about http://marvel.wikia.com at @jimmy_wales keynote at ad:tech – you edit there? #adtechsf

@affiliatetip: @search_iago I thought Alexa references from @jimmy_wales were odd – rankings are legit to people who rank high there, I guess #adtechsf

There were big crowds at registration after the keynote. I guess nobody heeded my advice via Twitter the day before.

@affiliatetip: Get your ad:tech badge now – no lines http://bit.ly/qXdAO

I met up with Lisa Picarille in the late morning to record our weekly Affiliate Thing podcast. We went across the street from Moscone West and recorded the show outside.

Watch the Affiliate Thing video to see how we dealt with an army of loud children, a cab that thought it was okay to drive on sidewalks, and an attack raven.

The beer garden made for a good meeting spot during the days of April 21-22.

The latest issue of FeedFront magazine was in the attendee bags, as well as at the Affiliate Marketing Networking Party on the night of April 21. It was great to see so many folks there paging through the magazine.

While I was at ad:tech, I was wearing a personalized Twitter shirt in a variety of colors.

Towards the end of the first day of ad:tech, the Affiliate Summit Beer Garden was filled up with thirsty networkers.

After the beer garden party, a bunch of us headed down the street to AT&T Park to see the Padres at the Giants. Interestingly, my Blackberry, which is on AT&T, was unable to get a data or phone connection in the ballpark of my provider’s name.

On the second day of ad:tech, one of the highlights was a panel, sponsored by MediaTrust, with Kelly Powers (Zazzle), Jarvis Mak (Havas Digital), Steve Schaffer (Vertive), and Peter Bordes (MediaTrust). The panel was moderated Neil Strother (Forrester Research).

That evening, I attended a nice dinner with the eBay Partner Network team and heard about their latest news.

@affiliatetip: @Justdrive @mediatrustpete @trishalyn @ebay_affiliates great to chat with you all at dinner last night #adtechsf

I was able to catch the keynote interview on April 23 with Kevin Rose, Founder and Chief Architect of Digg, which was conducted by Evan Hansen of Wired.

They were discussing questions that were texted during the session, and I submitted a couple, including, “Have you considered running affiliate ads on Digg?”

Apparently, that one was too hot to handle, because they didn’t use it.

I’ve got to say I got a little misty as I left the keynote and saw the dismantling of the beer garden.

I said my goodbye to ad:tech with one last Tweet as I boarded my plane back to New Jersey.

@affiliatetip: guy with popped collar and mini dog on my flight – don’t think I like him

Check out my pictures from ad:tech San Francisco.

My weekly affiliate fatblogging report is being filed from San Francisco, because I’m out here for ad:tech.

Another week, another conference, and the challenge of eating well on the road.

This time I made some advance preparations, though. I brought along a bunch of low calorie bars for breakfast and snacks.

So, just a 100 calorie breakfast and some fruit (if I come across it), instead of flying by a McDonald’s for Sausage McMuffins and other junk on the way to ad:tech each morning.

Last week, I was up in the weight for the second week in a row, but I’ve gone back down by three with a week of good food and exercise.

I wasn’t sure if my work on most of the days would be torpedoed by last Thursday – I went to Opening Day for the Yankees, and had the required beers and snacks there.

But the Yankees kept me pretty straight, since they have a thing at the new stadium where they post the calorie counts for all of the food and drinks.

630 calories for a pretzel… what?!

I guess it’s good to keep me from snacking at ballgames, though.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 220
This week: 217

I delayed my weekly weigh-in by a couple days this week, since it was Easter and I overdid it a bit.

It was a fun Sunday of relaxing, watching baseball, hanging out with the kids, eating jelly beans and M&M’s, a big dinner, dessert, etc. It was just a mess in terms of a healthy diet.

So, when I finally hit the scale, I was up 2. I was hoping things would level out after a couple days of exercise and eating well, but no dice.

Anyhow, I wore some cool goggles for my latest affiliate fatblogging video, because I incorporated swimming laps into my exercise this week.

Hopefully, that new form of working out will shake things up for me a bit. I have to read up on the optimal water workout, but I did 26 lengths in the pool my first time, and that knocked me out.

One weird thing about the scale is that even though it’s gone up for two weeks, my mirror is telling me I’m getting more toned in various places.

The only thing I can figure is that the swimming has resulted in a muscular look like Michael Phelps. Those big muscles weigh more than fat, so that explains it, right?

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 218
This week: 220