Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

  • Home
  • About Shawn
  • Contact
  • Learn Affiliate Marketing
  • Disclosure
  • Archives

Affiliate Marketing on 9/11 – Eight Years Later

September 11, 2009 by Shawn Collins

I can still see, hear, and smell NYC from that day. I was the affiliate manager at ClubMom, and I was excited that day, because we were relaunching the affiliate program (I guess I get excited easily).

September 11There weren’t many people in the office, yet, and I heard about the first tower being hit when one of my co-workers sent an email to the whole company with an image of the WTC burning. I think he was on a list to get email alerts from CNN or something.

Anyhow, the first thing I thought was “what is wrong with this idiot that he created this fake picture and sent it to the company?”. Because it had to be fake. I’d just seen the World Trade Center about a half hour before as I walked across town from Penn Station.

Then I tried to go to CNN.com. It was down. Every news site I tried to visit was down. And I got an IM from a friend in Maryland asking if I was OK. I was confused and getting increasingly freaked out.

Somebody put on a TV and as people came into work, we were all locked on the footage. It was just this scene of shock in the office. After about an hour, when nobody had moved from in front of the TV, I decided I needed to get out of the city. I was the first one to leave the office that day.

New york Post on September 12, 2001

When I got home, I posted a message to a discussion list of affiliate managers I’d started the year before. The list was a sort of support group for the bunch of us, as we tried to figure out what happened on 9/11 and the days after.

Here is my report to the list after making it home that day:

From: “Shawn Collins”
Date: Tue Sep 11, 2001 5:15 pm
Subject: Re: Are you OK?

The ClubMom crew is ok – our office is in midtown Manhattan. But since we’re close to the Empire State Building, I was a little freaked out that it might also be a target, and I left for home at 10:30 AM.

Just seconds after I left the office, I was walking down Fifth Avenue and people started screaming and crying – I looked up and the 2nd World Trade Center tower was collapsing before my eyes.

It was a real nightmare – people were hysterical and transportation was shut down. I was afraid I would not be able to leave the city – as I made it to the West Side, I saw people running uptown on the West Side Highway – many were covered in soot, some were bloody – a really horrible scene.

Fortunately, the ferries were running, and I was able to get across the Hudson River to NJ, where I took a bus to Giants Stadium, and then hitchhiked home.

My prayers go out to all who are affected by this (who isn’t?).

Be safe,
Shawn Collins
ClubMom

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Related

Filed Under: Affiliate Managers, Affiliate News

Shawn includes advertising links in some posts - these do not influence the content, and they promote products and services he uses.

Social

  • View shawncollins’s profile on Facebook
  • View shawncollins’s profile on Twitter
  • View shawncollinsatx’s profile on Instagram
  • View affiliatetip’s profile on Pinterest
  • View shawncollins’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View affiliatetip’s profile on YouTube

Blogroll

  • Affiliate Manager
  • Austin FC
  • Austin, TX Airbnb
  • Bose Hearing Aids
  • Extra Money Answer
  • Movies That Affected My Life
  • This is Affiliate Marketing

Return to top of page

Copyright © · Shawn Collins Consulting ·

 

Loading Comments...