Today started like most other days, sorting through emails, deleting junk, etc. And then it came in. “Steve Jobs Alive!” it said in my Inbox in the subject field of a spam. Honestly – as if spammers weren’t the scum of the Earth enough already, now they are trying to capitalize on tabloid-esque drama of a person that doesn’t deserve it. It doesn’t get much worse than that. Obviously I didn’t click their link to see what it was they were trying to sell, but I just had to vent a bit and let out that little bit of frustration and disgust.

Now, I’ll go have a drink, relax a bit, and get back to the laid back guy everyone knows. Thanks for letting me vent.

Will, you’ve got yourself a pretty good product there, good luck with your business getting it distributed!  You’ll be famous someday like the Red Bull guys… don’t forget the little people!

Check out the product for yourself at their site: Mojo Boost

And here’s the kicker.  He’s affordable, too.  Check out his website if you’re in the Fort Myers/Cape Coral/Naples metro areas to see what your rates would be – as they vary depending on your location and if you have kids, etc.  But I think you’ll be surprised.  I was able to lower my health insurance premium to an “emergency only” high deductible plan and the savings is greater than what I pay for his fee each quarter.  It may not be “right” for you, but it was for us and probably is for many of you as well.  I highly recommend you at least talk to him if you have any questions about his services.

Is this a sales pitch?  You bet it is.  I wouldn’t recommend a doctor unless I was 100% satisfied.  Do I get anything if you sign up as a patient?  Nope, I sure don’t.  But Andy will make a donation to a charity in my name if I refer someone.  Hey, I think that’s pretty cool too.  Any questions about my experience with him, please let me know!

Social Media is as big, if not bigger, than ever in terms of a great place to use for marketing your business.  You’ve got to make sure that you use them correctly, though or you’ll run the risk of being labeled a spammer on every social network that you’re on and you’ll quickly lose friends/followers/etc. quicker than you can snap your fingers.  You can market yourself indirectly, rather than just including links to your site and saying “HEY – Go here and buy my products/services!”.  Including social media in your email marketing campaigns is a great example of this.

A recent study by Marketing Sherpa concluded that simply including sharing buttons to an e-mail marketing campaign led to a “25% boost in reader interaction, and a surge in inbound traffic from social networking sites.” Moreover, huge gains were reported in traffic via social sites: 2,070% from LinkedIn, 1,680% from Twitter, and 1,351% from Facebook.

Above all, don’t forget to “cross-pollinate” your marketing efforts.  If you are including sharing buttons in your email marketing campaign, don’t forget to remind your friends/followers on your social media sites that you have an email newsletter that they can sign up for.  This gets the promotion to them indirectly, as they feel that they are in control of having your advertisements show up in their Inbox, rather than showing up on their social media pages just because they’re you’re friend.  They can unsubscribe (theoretically – make sure this works!) from your e-mail marketing campaign if they feel that it’s not a good fit for what they are looking for, without de-friending you or unfollowing you.  It’s a much more user-friendly way of advertising to your audience.

Global time spent on social networking sites saw an 82% increase year over year in the month of December ’09, amounting to five hours and thirty minutes per user per month, according to a just-released study by the Nielsen company. Facebook  led the way in time spent, and in traffic.  With this in mind, you simply cannot ignore the importance of utilizing social media for marketing your business.  Customers are more frequently turning to social media rather than simply using traditional search to find what they are looking for.  If you don’t capture the lead from social media, you can certainly bet that one of your competitors will.

Affiliate Summit East, the premier affiliate marketing conference, is taking place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

This three day conference includs an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

Looking forward to PubCon South in Dallas this year. It will be a nice change from PubCon in Vegas. Don’t get me wrong, I love Vegas – but there comes a time where you just need a change of scenery. The last 3 shows I’ve been to were in Vegas. I’ve never been to PubCon South but I’m looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to the Milsap’s for putting on their annual tree burning party again. Once again, great food, lots of drinks, and a good time had by all. You could probably see the glow from the fire for miles, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a few planes on final approach to RSW got a good show too.

I highly recommend playing Doral if you ever get the chance. Being local, it’s not terribly difficult for me to get there during the off-season (off season = TERRIBLY HOT) and it’s reasonably priced during this time of year. Unfortunately, during the best golfing times of the year in South Florida, it’s fairly pricey to the tune of $300+ for the White course and even more to play the infamous Blue Monster. I do, however, recommend that anyone who likes playing golf to try to make this one of the places that you play at least once in your lifetime when you’re having fun doing everything else that Miami has to offer. It’s a challenging group of courses that you won’t regret trying.

T-Rex

T-Rex, located at Downtown Disney, is my favorite Disney restaurant so far. We’ve been quite a few times and have never been disappointed. The kids absolutely LOVE it. It’s a prehistoric themed restaurant where the dinosaurs actually move and there’s a simulation of a meteor hitting Earth where the entire restaurant turns red and rumbles. The atmosphere is A++ and the food and service have never been bad for us. We’ve been here 6 times now and our daughter asks us to go on every trip to Disney. Highly recommended!