Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

According to Marketwatch, there will be no Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! because Microsoft cannot meet Yahoo’s economic demands.

Who out there besides Microsoft ever though this acquisition made any sense? From the get-go Yahoo! didn’t seem interested in being swallowed or dismantled by Microsoft. The whole thing seemed rediculous and it seems that Microsoft’s desparation to do something, anything to catch up to Google online is starting to show. I’d sum it up like this:

This is like a high school cross-country race. Google wins at each meet, Yahoo! comes in second and once in a while MSFT has someone that manages to finish the race while wearing downhill ski boots.

Google goes on to win every race as usual, the Google ski team also wins since Microsoft and Yahoo! have sustained injuries that put them out for the ski season.

What Microsoft needs is a fresh perspective. They have brilliant people there. They have the best service of any search advertising provider in the industry. They just don’t have what people want - consumers or advertisers. They can’t buy what they need, they need to develop it, hire some smart Internet people (not software people).

From a consumer (or search results and search advertising) perspective, all I can say is thank-god the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal is going nowhere (at least for now). We’ll still have more than 2 search advertising options, we’ll still have more than 2 unique companies that serve up search results and that is a good thing.

If you’ve ever been to the WebmasterWorld PubCon you know it is one of the best conferences for Internet marketing. Search, affiliate, social, design, development and usability are all included in the mix. The conference is usually held at the Las Vegas convention center near the Las Legas Hilton and the Las Vegas Renaissance. When registration opens, you can register for PubCon online and usually get a good deal if you register early.

Last year the conference had a special deal on rooms at the Las Vegas Wynn for under $200/night which is a killer deal for that property. However after going into the Okada Japanese restaurant at the Las Vegas Wynn and getting served what tasted like dirty laundry water and being offered $8 bottled water as an alternative, I won’t be returning to the Wynn again.

If you are going to the Vegas PubCon, there are lots of great hotels and restaurants there. The Las Legas Hilton is ok, and the Las Vegas Renaissance is outstanding for those who like to come back to come peace and quiet in Vegas at the end of a long day (or an all-nighter).

The Las Vegas Planet Hollywood is a nice new place that used to be the Alladin and sometimes you can get it for around $100/night on Priceline and other hotel aggregator websites. It’s a bit far from the convention center but in a great overall location for the Las Vegas strip.

While in Las Vegas there are some great shows to go to. You can save some $$$ on the top shows at Ticket2Night.com including KA, Zumanity, BlueMan Group, Crasy Horse Paris and others.

If you’ve got some great info to share with the Internet marketing industry, be sure to use the PubCon speaker proposal form pretty soon to have a chance at getting selected to present there.

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!

The PSIA National Academy for 2008 ended last night and it seems that almost everyone left. I’ve got my own room at the Cliff lodge for around $100/night for the next few days. If I’m going to be out here till Thursday, it only makes sense to stretch it till Sunday rather than rush back to get to work for one day right?

Turns out is was a GREAT call to stay out in Snowbird! During the whole PSIA Academy it snowed about 2 inches. Last night is snowed all night and then it snowed all day. Everyone from the PSIA Academy was driving back down the mountain in a snow storm. How depressing huh?

Since I didn’t have the comped breakfast available at the Aerie at the Cliff and had no moring clinic to go to I took the liberty of sleeping in a little bit. Snow, snow and more snow! Fresh Utah powder! The best snow in the world, tons of it.

Unfortunately along with the snow came no visibility for most of the day and it was a little chilly as it tend to be when it snows. Snowbird has some steep stuff, cliffs and other trecherous terrain so I had to be kinda careful with so much snow and so little visibility.

I headed over to Mineral Basin and tried to find my way down. It was really slow going and I was never really sure what was ahead of me and could hardly see 10 feet in front of my most of the time. What’s a solo guy to do in ski conditions like that in an mostly unfamiliar ski mountain? Follow the bodies, preferably 2 bodies at a time. Figure one person might be lost like me but if there are two together then they probably know where they are going.

It was a blizzard and near whiteout conditions virtually all day but the snow was excellent.

It seemd like Snowbird was the only resort still open out there and even Snowbird was only partialy open. Lots of the lifts were closed and the lodges were pretty empty. I was able to get a PSIA discount on the lift ticket for the day - Thanks Sowbird & PSIA!

There was a taco happy hour special at the El Chanate Cantina Bar in the Cliff lodge so I went there and got 10 tacos. They were small but good and there were a few other PSIA Academy stragglers there as well. Combined with a Poylgamy Porter it was a great way to finish up the day. It was a mellow night after that, grabbed some Ramen noodles at the shop in the Cliff along with a six pack of Polygamy Porter and watched the tube and went to sleep.

Hard to believe the 2008 PSIA National Academy is coming to a close already. It started out with the usual breakfast buffet at the Aerie restaurant at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird and a rush to get to the Tram plaza where we met with Steve Smart to kick off the morning clinics.

We started of with a few group pictures, something there wasn’t much of during the trip - photos, either posed or action shots. After that it was back to the slopes, Mineral Basin as well as the front side of the mountain. We picked up a little snow to take the edge off the hard pack icy conditions that developed as the temperatures fluctuated above and below the freezing point.

The afternoon clinc was skiing with some international pros and included ________ from the British ski instructor association as well as ____________ from Australia. This clinic provided an opportunity to learn about teaching and sking methods from around the world which was a nice compliment to the presentations from the international ski pros offered at 5:00 pm each day afer the skiing was done.

The last couple runs were on some new terrain that was a bit off-piste and took some catwalks to get to on the front of the mountain. By late afternoon, the snow had softened up and we hit some soft and steep bump runs on the font side of the mountain.

After the sking was done, _____________ gave a presentation on the Argentinian ski professional philosophy, training and certification process and requirements. The presentation covered the technical aspects of ski teaching methods in Argentina. Like the US, in Argentina they have several different levels of certification for ski instructors. Unlike PSIA, the ski teachers in Argentina have to retake entire exams every few years in order to maintain certification.

Following the presentaion on the ski teching industry in Argentina was the final wrap up dinner. This was anohter great event! Tequila shots mysteriously appered at the table and there was a big toast to Steve Smart and to a great week overall. The ski group for the week all sat together at one table. Unlike previous dinners, this was not a buggest and was served by the waitstaff at the Cliff lodge by the banquet staff. Like everything else at the Cliff it was first class all the way.

There were some speaches at the dinner and then a video/slide show from the previous week. Mike Rogan took quite a barrage of humorour jabs with everyone on video saying something to the effect of “Hi I’m Mike Rogan”. This was simple a take-off on his introductions for The Matrix videos available as a subsription from PSIA to help illustrate various teaching concepts.

Everyone in attendance received a certificate for attending. At our table, everyone from the clinic session signed everyones certificate. In addition to the certificate, everyone got a PSIA National Academy pin which was the size of the PSIA level 3 certification pin. Now I can show off how importnt I am to ski instructors everywhere.

After the dinner was over, most people went up to the Aeries bar for some more drinks and socializing. Since it had been a rather long week, I didn’t stay up there for to long. The local Polygamy Porter (Take some home to the wives!) takes a toll after a while. It is a great local Salt Lake City brew.

My roomate, Doug had to take off for Arizona the next day so he retired fairly early as well. The whole week and event passed with mostly Sproing skiing conditions, lots of hard pack that softened up in the afternoon. If at all possible, I’ll be back for the PSIA National Academy next year. It’s one of the best events I’ve ever been to professional or for skiing.

I’ve got 4 more days to ski now that the event is over. Let’s pray for some snow over the next few days!