Archives for July 2011

Dell invited a dozen or so customers, including me, this week for the Dell Customer Advisory Panel (Dell CAP Days) at their headquarters in Round Rock, TX.

This was a reunion of the inaugural Dell CAP Days, which took place in June 2010.

The folks invited were customers active in social media from across the United States, and the day was focused on conversations and interactive panels between the customers and Dell executives and employees.

During the Dell CAP Days Reunion, we got an update on Dell’s transformation and their response to comments from a year ago.

We also heard about product development improvements and what’s coming, as well as a tour of the Social Media Listening Command Center.

The highlight for me was when we had a chance to chat with Dell Founder and CEO, Michael Dell. It was really impressive to see how invested and supportive he is of the initiative to listen and act on things.

There were visual notes taken throughout the day by artist Stacy Weitzner – I love that concept of capturing the conversation.

See my photos from the Dell Customer Advisory Panel.

Curation Nation by Steve Rosenbaum is a really good book on the opportunities out there for people who curate.

If you’re not familiar with curation, it’s basically the act of filtering through a large amount of content and then sharing some of it with an audience.

An example would be whenever you ReTweet content on Twitter, you’re curating the overall information you consume there, and then delivering a portion of that information to your followers.

In the book, Curation Nation, Steve Rosenbaum goes way deeper into it with some history, how companies are using it, as well as tools and techniques.

He also goes over how magazines curate, and how it pertains to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

My primary takeaway was that curation is a useful concept for affiliate marketers, as they can apply it to their chosen niche to supplement a content site.

Video: Curation Nation

I’m excited to visit Dell tomorrow in Round Rock, TX for a Dell Customer Advisory Panel (CAP) reunion. Last summer, Dell invited two groups of 15 people each for the first Dell CAP Days.

Day one of Dell CAP Days was focused on people who were unhappy with the brand, and day two (that’s when I went) consisted of Dell evangelists.

We’re getting together to get an update on Dell’s transformation and the launch of “The power to do more” campaign.

We’ll also be hearing about product development improvements and what’s coming, as well as a tour of the Social Media Listening Command Center.

Just in time for the visit, I got my new Dell XPS 15z Laptop (not a gift – I bought it), touted as the thinnest 15″ PC on the planet.

Nice combination of price, size and power.

Stay tuned for pictures and news from Dell CAP Days. Follow Dell CAP Days on Twitter with this hashtag: #DellCAP

I got a funny surprise yesterday when I went to the Internet Marketing Party meetup in Austin, TX.

David Vogelpohl, Owner of Austin-based online marketing agency Marketing Clique, was dressed as me for a contest.

He had my daily work uniform down perfectly with the Yankees cap, Affiliate Summit t-shirt, cargo shorts, sneakers, and Affiliate Summit tattoo on his leg. Plus a conference nametag.

David even had the Yankee cap nice and crooked like I wear it – it’s not a look or a statement. I just have a crooked head.

Congratulations to David, as he won a pass to Affiliate Summit East 2011, taking place August 21-23 in NYC, with his costume.

Well played, sir.

I got my first job at 15 as a dishwasher at a Friendly’s restaurant. It was an unpleasant job that paid the minimum wage at the time: $3.35.

But I needed the money and it was the best I could get. I even lied about my age to score that sweet gig, because I had time and energy, but no skills.

Has the statute of limitations passed for falsifying documents in the state of Maryland?

Anyhow, I was reading in the July/August issue of Inc. Magazine that 48.9% of Americans aged 16 to 24 had summer jobs in 2010. That’s the lowest since record keeping began in 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Assuming this is due to a lack of jobs, and not a bunch of lazy deadbeats, it seems like we’ve got a generation of future affiliate marketers in the wings.

My oldest daughter is only 12, but I’m teaching her how to start and monetize a site with my step by step instruction on the site, Extra Money Answer.

She just finished chapter 3 and bought her first domain. She is on her way to developing skills and making her own job.

No way she’s going to be in the more than 50% of kids without a summer job in 4 years.