Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

The 2009 PSIA National Academy was my first experience on telemark skiingcarrier to noise ratio and I got hooked pretty quickly. Not only is telemark skiing a lot fo fun in and of itself but the balance required in telemark skiing will help tremendously to improve form and technique in downhill (alpine) skiing.

Out at the PSIA Academy, Earl Saline was the instructor for those of us who had never ventured onto telemark skis in the past. He did a great job of introducing us to the art and science of telemark and successfully got us down from the top of the Snowbird tram at the peak of Snowbird in Utah.

The skis I used out there were the K2 World Piste telemark skis:

which it turns out are some of the best all around telemark skis for just about anything but deep powder. They’ve gotten great review almost everywhere and were a great ski to start out on. After getting back home with the ski seeason over, it seemed like it would be a great time to pick up some used World Piste demos or get a great deal on new ones.

There were a few pairs on Ebay that showed up from time to time but the going rate for used demos with bindings and with shipping was about $400.00 - to much for demos. BackCountryOutlet had some new ones without bindings for around $300 and REI came in at about $350 with free shipping to an REI store.

The folks at BackCountry.com also run Tramdock.com where they throw up deals for 15 minutes at a time. It’s a pain in the ass to try to buy from there if there is something specific you want to buy cause you have to watch the site all the time. It’s great if you are not really looking for anything in particular but are open to snapping up a great deal that might appear there.

After a few days of waiting for the World Piste boards to show up on Tramdock.com, I was about ready to give up and wait till later in the summer for more to show up on Ebay. Then twice in one day when I happened to visit Tramdock.com, the World Piste’s showed up. In a few days, they’ll be here for a total price of about $220 including shipping. That is step one of gearing up for telemark skiing for next year. Next up will be bindings and boots. The boots will probably be the hardest thing to come by at a decent price unless I can find them locally during the summer in a size that fits. In any case, there are only about six more months to go till the snow flies here in PA and it will be time to get back on the hill with telemark gear!

When you run online media programs do you know what you are really getting or paying for? Over the years behavioral targeting or “BT” as it is often referred to in the industry has become an extremely popular method of targeting these programs.

There are many diferent definitions of “BT” and what media vendors call BT. Some are as simple as tracking people who come to a website and do or do not perform a specific action. When the person visits a site within the ad network, that person is shown banners for the site that is running the media campaign. A company might want to follow people around the web who have been to the site and not checked out with the shopping cart, they might choose to (re)target all consumers who have been to a website or even specific pages of a website.

Some more advanced types of behavioral targeting may pick up demographics of an individual including age, sex, marrital status and income among other things who have been to certain sites or categories of sites and have (or not) performed certain actions online and target those consumers with ads for a particular product or service.

If you have a home computer and your wife shops at Lane Bryant, when you log onto the computer and get shown Lane Bryant ads on all the sports sites you visit, it is because one or more ad networks are tracking and recording the activities perfomed by the Internet browser on your computer.

Typical click-through rates on banner ads these days are about as close to zero as you can get in most cases. This is especially true for banners on general content sites. Even banners that are behavioraly targeted often get click-through rates just that are just a fraction of 1%.

In traditional media where nothing (or very little) is tracked and it is primarily demo targeted impresions that are purchased, there is no expectation of any direct response to the ads since they are simply broadcast to consumers.

With all the tracking capabilities available on the Internet it is possible to show the return associated with banner advertising. Whether it is a good investement or no depends on how it is measured. When you run a PPC search campaign on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com or one of the other 3rd tier engines, the success of the campaign is generally measured by the amount of sales revenue generated in relation to the amount spent on advertising. Sales are only tracked when people click-through the ad and subsequently make a purchase, fill out a lead form or perform some other activity that takes them a step or two closer to completing a transaction.

In order to justify the cost of media campaigns when nobody actually clicks on the ad, the “view through” metric was concocted by the ad networks and media companies to attribute credit to the media campaign. If someone merely loads a page with an ad on it (whether they view it or not in many cases), the ad server sets a cookie and if a person subsequently makes a purchase within the duration of the cookie window (typicall 30 to 90 days), then the media campaign is credited with the sale.

This brings up the question - if the consumer has already been to the website and not made a purchase, would they have purchased regardless of whether or not they were subsequently exposed to the banner ad? It is likely that there is some lift, but it it anywhere near enough of a lift to justify all the costs associated with a media campaign?

While there are tons of “studies” that say banner/online media is effective (all put out by the the ad networks and companies that stand to profit when you buy online media), it doesn’t seem than any neutral party has evaluated whether onine media really has a significant effect on consumer behavior.

If anyone really wanted to test out the effectiveness of online media, at least from a retargeting perspective, they could run a test in the following manner.

Pick a site with significant site traffic such that a large retargeting pool would be available.
Setup the campaign as one normally would with all the different actions and behaviors that result in a consumer falling into the retargeting pool
Serve the banner to half of the people in the retargeting pool
Set the cookie that would normall be set when a person views a banner but not show the banner to the other half of the retargeting pool
Look at the difference in behavior between the people who were exposed to the banner and those who were cookied as if they say the banner

If there is a significant lift in sales or other conversion events associated with the portion of the retargeting pool who were served the banner and not just cookied, then we can infer that the media campaign had a positive effect on consumer behavior and quantify the value. If there is no statistically significant difference between the two groups of consumers, then we conclude that the media campaign had no positive effect on consumer behavior.

Other variables including the creative, the number of impressions served per person and the frequency with which they were served and the length of the campaign would obviously affect the results, however the campaign could be let to run long enough to determine at what threshold of campaign frequency and duration is required to see some noticable difference. Is there an ad network out there that would run an experiment like this and agree to publish the results regardless of what they were? Probably not since it could rather conclusive prove that either onine media does not work or that the size and scope of the campaign would need to be so big that all but the largest brands with multimillion dollar budgets would be wise not to invest in an online media campaign.

One the ski season is over at Elk Mountain, PA, the 2009 PSIA National Academy has wrapped up, beach season is right around the corner. This summer, many weekends will be spent down in Avalon, Jew Jersey. It’s been ages since I’ve actually been to a real beach aside from Santa Barabara for CJU and I’ve never been to the Jersey shore (down the shore as they say around here) so this should be a cool summer.

The whole beach/shore house thing is new to me. The owners of these places get sick amounts of money to rent out their places for the beach season. We’re talking upwards of $30,000 for about four months. Granted, it probaby sits empty for most of the rest of the year but that is some crazy cash for a four month rental. Someone takes the plunge and heads up a house. Then they sell “shares” to people. Generally most offer a full share which is all you can eat, go down anytime. That will run you around $2000 - $3,000 depending on location and how many people will pack into the house. A half share will cost a little more than half of the full and you’ll get to use the place about half the weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Some have quarter shares which are still cheaper than most beach house rentals if you were to do it on your own but if you get to many quarter shares, then you could end with with all of them wanting to go down the same weekend and have a big mess on your hands.

For this first year, I went in for a half share. It provides a place to get away on the weekends but I don’t feel like I have to get down thee every weekend just because I paid for a whole season. Throw in the csot of the house, gas and tolls to get back and forth, food, drinks and whatever else might go on down there and you’re looking at $300+ per weekend. That’s enough to take a nice weekend getaway to a bunch of different spots througout the summer! It’s a hell of a lot more than a ski house and a season ski pass for the winter too.

This is the first post about spending the summer weekends down at a shore house in Avalon, NJ. It will probaby be an absolute mad house down there this weekend since it will be Memorial day weekend but we’ll give it a go and see what it’s like. It’s very tempting to skip this weekend and wait till next when the crowds are likely to be far lower but for a variety of reasons, this will be the innagural weekend at the shore house in Avalon, NJ.

The 2009 PSIA National Academy just came to a close less than one month ago. It was a blast and is always one of the best ski events or the year. The 2010 PSIA National Academy dates have just been announced. It will be back at Snowbird April 17-23, 2010. For more information, see the PSIA website at www.snowpros.org!

The 2009 PSIA National Academy ended two days ago already and now the Snowbird trip that included it is coming to a close. Upon waking up this morning, there was so much fog it was impossible to see anything out the window. A little wet snow fell last night and it was debatable as to whether or not it was worth going out to ski in the wet, foggy, sleeting weather.

At about noon, I headed down to the Snowbird Tram center to see if the ski pass from the PSIA Academy was still good. The ski school desk scanned it and said it looked like it was still good until April 25th, today! Another big thanks to PSIA for the extra days on the pass for the PSIA Academy! Since no cash outlay was needed and the slopes were waiting for another body to welcome with open arms, it was time to go venture out into the cold, snow, fog and wind.

The first ride up the tram didn’t look to promising. There was water dripping down from the poles in the tram. Obviously it was wet out there. Upon reaching the top visibility was fair at best and the first run down Mineral Basin was a little tricky, though it was possible to pick out some landmarks and see skiers scattered around on the hill. There was some fresh powder on top of crud but it was fairly well scraped and windblown off of the groomed part of the slopes.

After a run in Mineral Basin, the next area to to explore was the Little Cloud chair area. Visibility was getting a little worse. I hugged the left (uphill) side of the catwalk so as not to fall into the bowl area. It was virtually impossible to see the edge and much safer to hug the uphill side so as not to go tumbling off the side into steeper terrain. With such heavy snow and fog, it is extremely easy to make a wrong turn and get lost particularly in an area such as Snowbird with such diverse terrain. It didn’t take long for me to take a wrong turn and end up on somthing a little steeper than I had anticipated. It was not a huge deal, however the area I ended up in had about 12 inches of fresh powder on top and then about 12 inches of soft crud undernieth it. The snowboarders who ran out of steam and had to walk were struggling to get thorugh that thick stuff and I knew if I fell, I’d have some difficulties as well. Who knows if ski patrol would even find me if something happened? Slowly and carefully, I made my way down to the Little Cloud lift.

That run was nice and if I could only keep my sense of direction, there was an easier and safer way down to the Little Cloud lift. The next run down, I managed to stay on what had been the easier groomed trail back down to the Little Cloud lift. By this time I was in need of a pit stop. There were three options. Freeze my dick off and risk spraying myself by finding a tree to water, ski all the way back down to the Snowbird Tram, or go ski Mineral Basin and stop in the little shack attached to the ski patrol building. Mineral Basin was the choice!

Just as the first run down the Little Cloud area had me hugging the uphill side of the catwalk, I had to hug the right (uphill) side of the catwalk down into Mineral Basin heading in the direction of the bookshelf cliffs. The only difference was this time it was a TOTAL whiteout. Imagine if you stuck your head in a jug of milk and opened your eyes. That is what it was like. I could not see anything at all. There were a few shadows from the formations in the snow but it was snowing so hard that most bumps and ruts from previous skiers were quickly getting pained over by the snow so there was only endless white. I could see my ski tips and that was about it.

Luckily, I’ve skied Snowbird about 15 days in my life and had a rought idea where I was. No matter how well you know an area, however, when you have no reference points (trees, cliffs, lifts or rock formations) ou never know exactly where you are of what lies ahead of you. It must have been 30 minutes or more of slow going. I had to try to maintian my balance, stay upright on the skis and move in the direction of the lift all while seeing nothing but my ski tips and endless white all around me.

I stoped to ask a few people who were suffering the same vertigo and struggling more than I if they were ok. They were handing in there, some spending more time roling around in the snow in an effort to get back down to the lift rather than trying to remain upright and ski down to the lift. I can only assume they all made it down, though if they had significant trouble, ski patrol would have to get within about 25 feet of them to even know they were there.

Eventually I made it back down to the Mineral Basin lift only to find it shut down. At least I was back where I could see people and I knew where I was. Apparently out in Utah, sometimes lightning rolls in right along with a big snow storm and the Mineral Basin lift was shut down as a precaution so as not to have anyone on it if lightning struck. The 30-40 mile an hour wind gusts may have had something to do with it as well.

After riding the Mineral Basin lift back to the top, I was finally within a hundred feet or so of the bathroom by the Ski Patrol building. I made my way over there against a raging wind spraying snow in my face, secured my skis outside so as to prevent them from blowing down the hill and joined some other frozen souls inside the little building.

The bitter cold wind and snow at the peak of the mountain kept me captive inside the ski patrol hut for at least 30 minutes. I was soon soaked as all the snow melted from my baseball cap, jacket collar, pant and gloves. The snow and wind were not letting up but if I could at least warm up and dry out a little bit, I’ve have a better chance of making it back to the base as a human being rather than an ice cube.

There was to much moisture in all my clothes to have any real chance of drying out but I was able to get warm, let the snow melt off my beard, warm up the gloves a little bit and swap my soaked Winter Park baseball cap for the dry zip on hood I was lucky enough to still have in the jacket pocket.

The last run down was going to be a doozy. Ski patrol offered to let us take the Tram back down and a few people went for that. Maybe if it wasn’t the last day, it could have been an option but today it was not an option. I suited up, put on the warm (but wet) gloves, pulled the hood tight, strapped on the soaked goggles and added the helmet cam as the final accessory. If I was going to ski down through blinding snow, wind and fog, it might as well be captured on camera. After checking to make sure the cam was recording, I ventured out into the elements and started to make my way down.

The wind, snow and fog at the top still kept visibility near zero and had it not been for the trail signs and roped off cliffs, I probably would have fallen of one or at least into more difficult terrain that one would want to tackle with the sensation of being blindfolded. As I got off the peak and onto Chips Run, visibility gradually became better and the wind died down.

The bottom 3/4 of the run was the type of run all powder loving skiers hope for. It wasn’t perfect but there was up to 24 inches of powder in wind blown areas, there were very few tracks thorugh it, nobody else around and no rush to get anywhere. I took my time, enjoyed the run and didn’t notice the cold. The warmth of a great last powder run after a great 2009 PSIA National Academy was a great feeling. Upon getting back to the Cliff Lodge and up to the room, Hartley (roomate) ws sleeping peacefully, the Pittsburgh Penguins had just knocked the Philadelphia Flyers out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round and the Wildflower restaurant down at the Iron Blossom lodge at Snowbird had a pizza and wing special with my name all over it. Life is good. Time to go get some pizza and wings!