Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

As part of the Captain Jacks Santa Barbara tour company tour I took before CJU 2008 started, Chris (the tour guide) and I went to the Circle Bar B Stable in Goleta, California for a 1.5 hour horse back ride. On the road up to the stable, it is a beautiful ride. There are great sights, lemon and avacado trees all over the place and views of the ocean and the Channel Islands.

I had a nice mellow horse by the name of Leroy. He was a little pokey and I had to give him some encouragement to keep up with the guide, Danny ahead of me. The hour and a half ride was on a windy trail that was fairly rocky and crosed a few streams. Athough he was a little slow, Leroy was a great horse. He didn’t stop to eat along the way, didn’t toss me off at any time during the ride, never got spooked and handles the somewhat rugged terain like a champ.

Circle B Stables offers various lengths of horse back rides ranging from an hour and a half to half day rides that go for four hours. There are group and private rides as well as sunset and sunrise rides as well. The tour I took included the 1.5 hour ride. Since no one else was booked at the time, I had a private guide (normally $65.00) but still paid the group rate of $37.00.

The tour was absolutely beautiful, very relaxing, and the guides and whole staff were wonderful and made sure the equipment and the orse were well suited for me. If you are looking for more than just a horseback ride, you can also check out the Circle B Stables packages. While that was not something I did while there, it would be a great way to get away for a couple days. When you are out in Santa Barbara and want to do something unique, be sure to head over to Circle B Stables and do some horseback riding. You might not be able to walk after being on the horse for even an hour and a half (it took me a while to feel like my legs were back to normal after the ride) but you’ll have a good time, see some beautiful sights and have a chance to take some great pictures and relax away from everything.

The day started bright and early with a 7am flight departure out of Philadelphia that left on time, got to Salt Lake City about 25 minutes early and the connecting flight landed in Santa Barbara right on time. You’d think an affiliate marekting conference in Santa Barbara would be be crawling with early arrivals since the hotel rate is good tonight but so far there don’t seem to be any familiar faces.

The hotel is just about sold out except for some outrageously expensive suites. CJ is still showing registration is available for CJU 2008 which is unusual since it usually sells out as much as two months before the conference kicks off. You’d think the down economy would boost attendance at a performance marketing conference but maybe budget custbacks are keeping people back home at the office.

In any case, it is beautiful Santa Barbara weather, maybe 70 degrees and sun. The beach is right across the street with some kite surfers taking advantage of the sun and wind. As usual there are tons of sailboats out in the harbor, bikes and a number of variations out on the beach and the sidewalks. The hotel is great as always, definitely one of the best places I’ve stayed over the years.

The Stelers are set to take on the Browns tonight starting in a few minutes so I’ll probably go get dinner and maybe a few beers and watch the game. Tomorow should be AWESOME. Since the conference doesn’t start till Tuesday, tomorrow is a free day and I’ll be doing some horse back riding, going to some wineries (which has never been a big thing for me but it sounds like this might be prety cool) and then out on a sailboat. There is supposed to be some Danish villiage that there will be time to go through and misc other sights to see. The tour will be with Captain Jacks Santa Barabara Adventure Tours and the specific tour will be the “Captain Jacks Top Deck Tour” that should provide a pretty good sampling of a nice chunk of the cool stuff to do around here. Since CJU doesn’t really get going till the welcome reception on Tuesday at 6pm, I may line up some other adventure stuff on Tuesday as well, maybe head out the Channel Islands for a little kayaking. Well, it looks like the Steeler game is starting so it’s time to sign off and go watch the game. Tomorrow should be an awesome day.

The economy must be causing a drag on the world of affiliate marketing or maybe just for Commission Junction advertisers and affiliates. Usually the CJU affiliate conference sells out long before this but with exactly one week to go before it kicks off at the Fess Parker in Santa Barbara, CA it looks like there are still open spots. Hotel rooms at the Fess Parker DoubleTree sold out a long time ago so there will definitely be a crowd but it may be smaller than in previous years.

The Fess Parker DoubleTree has been a fantastic venue for the CJU conference over the years and this year is likely to be outstanding as well. It looks like the hotel recently opened an on-site spa which may require a visit while out in Sunny Santa Barbara. They offer massages and facials at what appear to be average spa prices.

Other activities out in sunny Santa Barbara include Segway rides and tours at Segway of Santa Barbara. There are also a variety of tour companies out in Santa Barbara including Captain Jacks of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Adventure Company and shops, boat tours and restaraunts along Stearns Warf in Santa Barbara.

Seven more days till CJU! Let the festivities begin and be sure to sign up if you haven’t already!

Commission Junction University 2008 (CJU) is now open for early bird registration! The event will be held at the stunning Fess Parker DoubleTree resort hotel across the from beach in Santa Barbara. Dates of the show are September 16-18, 2008.

CJU is one of the best events in the online industry for the content, the people there (they know their shit - how to sell stuff online, not just how to throw out buzzwords), the food, the location and the atmosphere.

The cost of registration keeps going up every year and is now up to $995.00 which is getting pretty steep, particularly in a year when the economy is on the downturn. I think it was only $595 of $695 a couple years ago the first time I was interested in going.

If you are looking for a GREAT affiliate marketing conference to go to or just an excuse to take a business trip to Santa Barbara, then go signup for CJU today!