Welcome to the Pepperjamblog. With encouragement from our friends and fans we decided to start our own blog - the idea here is pretty clear - we will provide free analysis, advice, links, and money making tips. My guess is that in the process we may stir up some controversy with our friends at companies such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Commission Junction, and Linkshare - not because we’ll say anything we shouldn’t, but because we’ll say things that expose certain issues that need to be improved, fixed, rehabilitated, addressed, ameliorated, raised…..we think you get the point!
Bookmark our site if you want to learn about earning money, lots of it, using search-engine marketing, affiliate marketing, and various proven media buying techniques. We’ll share with you our successes, as well as provide you with insights on some not-so-optimal outcomes so that you don’t repeat them.
So - let’s get started with a recap of what was probably the best conference I’ve ever attended - SES - San Jose 2006.
Mike Jones, Pepperjam’s COO and GC, and I traveled to this year’s SES - San Jose. I spoke on what many considered the hottest panel at this year’s show - “Search Arbitrage Issues.” In light of Google’s recent slaying of affiliate marketers with their so-called “landing page quality score update” - I spoke out very strongly against Google’s changes as they relate to affiliate marketers and comparison shopping engines (more about this in another post since this issue and my panel need to be analyzed and expanded upon).
Mike and I arrived in San Jose on Sunday afternoon to find out that the junior suite we had reserved wasn’t ready yet - it wasn’t too big of a problem though since the San Jose - Marriot decided to give us a temporary room - we went up to the room and crashed for a few hours in anticipation of the Bodog party - we thank Bodog and fellow SES Speaker, Greg Boser from Webguerrilla for the invite.
BODOG PARTY:
Prior to the party we met a few friends in the Marriot bar for some drinks - We ran into some SES friends and search luminaries including Todd Friesen “Oilman,” Bruce Clay, Ken Jurina from epiar, and others.
We arrived at the party and were greeted by about a dozen attractive women dressed in red “BODOG” minies. We later found out that the girls didn’t actually work at BODOG, but were from a local university - Santa Clara University I think…nonetheless, the greeting from the “models” was definitely a prelude to the party, which was a high-class, all-you-can-drink and eat gala. Mike and I met-up with our good pal, Jeremy Schoemaker (aka Shoemoney) and several of our other close SEM / SEO and Affiliate Marketing (AM) friends. Hanging out with Shoemoney is quite fun, especially if you’ve never hung out with a celebrity before - seriously, this guy is beloved at events like SES bec/ people admire him since he is one of the most approachable, likable, and most down to earth people you can meet. You can read more about Jeremy’s amazing story on his blog at www.shoemoney.com. Throughout the night (and during the next few days of the conference) several people approached me and said they heard me on Shoemoney’s WebmasterRadio.fm Show, Net Income - I did the show twice (listen here) in the weeks leading up to SES - San Jose (once LIVE from the Affiliate Summit and then again a week later.)
I have to admit - I’ve known Mike for about 15-years and we have traveled the world together - he is a blast to party with and is one of the smartest guys I’ve met in my life. On this particular night he demonstrated two things: (1) Mike can drink more than 15 vodka-tonic’s and still stand (barely) and (2) Mike will approach anyone at any time and tell them what he thinks - for instance, Mike approached Danny Sullivan and told him that he is missing the boat by not having more affiliate marketing related topics at SES (FYI: Danny Sullivan is the coordinator of SES and is considered one of the top SEM minds in the world.) I watched Danny try to explain how he has considered inviting more AM folks to speak, but before he could finish his thought Mike was insistent on repeating his feelings - I was quite impressed with Mike even though he was pretty hard on Danny. Let me make something clear - Not only is Mike right about Danny not including enough affiliate marketing panels at SES, but I’ll go one further. It is a shame that more AM’s don’t attend SES and related search-engine marketing events. The folks we see at SES are completely different than those that we see at affiliate marketing conferences - this is silly. With so many search-engine marketing related issues affecting the AM industry how can you continue to sit home during such important events? If that statement makes you think twice about whether or not you should attend SEM events I have one thing to say - we’ll see you at SES - Chicago December 4 - 7th. If you don’t go we’ll start name dropping the so-called SEM experts in the affiliate industry that are no shows at leading SEM conferences - should these folks really be talking about SEM / SEO issues at events such as the Affiliate Summit?
The BODOG party included a who’s-who list of guests, including folks like Matt Cutts (the face of Google), Tim Mayer (the face of Yahoo) and a ton of SES Speakers - Mike and I had an opportunity to talk with just about everyone we wanted to. In addition, the entertainment, food and drinks were top notch - I think the open bar was open for about 4 or 5 hours cutting off around midnight or so. There was a video playing on LCD TV’s throughout the event promoting BODOG - the video was well done and displayed BODOG’s CEO who is apparently a billionaire - not too bad.
MONDAY’S SESSIONS:
The first session worth writing about that Mike and I attended was Social Search: Up Close With Yahoo. This session definitely got me thinking more and more about the implications of social networking and internet marketing. This panel focused on Yahoo’s social search products - my impression was that everyone left the 1 1/2 hour session concluding that Yahoo is the unequivocal leader in social search (I’m sure News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media Division, AKA MySpace would object to this, but Yahoo is definitely the most diversified.) The speakers included the founder of del.icio.us (a Yahoo company) - Josh Schachter - and senior reps from Flickr (a Yahoo company), Yahoo Answers, Yahoo TripPlanner, and Yahoo!. My take from the panel is that Yahoo can’t figure out how to monetize the social networking space - the panel was reluctant to spill the beans with what there plans are, but for right now the products aren’t really making money. One or more of the panel members also suggested that the social networking space is unique in terms of monetization in that the “interactive nature” of it doesn’t really lend itself easily to intrusive advertising. I guess time will tell.
MONDAY NIGHT - “The Pepperjam, Hitwise, and Vintage Tub & Bath Sushi Party”
Yeah - so we competed with Yahoo and ASK for top PARTY billing for Monday night and we won!!! Here’s what we did - before I continue I want to thank Allan Dick of Vintage Tub & Bath for inviting Pepperjam to be a sponsor of the event - Allan is a great guy and one of the most respected “search gurus” at SES. Moreover, we were honored to co-sponsor the event with Hitwise - the world’s leader in competitive research.
SETTING: We chartered four (4) buses from the Marriot in San Jose to our destination - the amazing Hakone Gardens - the Hakone Gardens is a natural wonderland with 18 acres of land nestled in the verdant hills of Saratoga overlooking Silicon Valley…this amazing property includes a magnificent koi pond, Zen and tea gardens, and a bamboo park. If you were one of the lucky invitation-only guests to come to the party you were likely amazed by Hakone - it is truly beautiful. The party included all-you-can-drink Japanese beverages, all-you-can-eat Sushi, and an all-you-can-eat Japanese Buffet. Did I forget to mention that the Hakone Gardens was the backdrop of the film, Memoirs of a Geisha - yeah, watch the movie and you’ll see where the party was held.
GUESTS: Just about every big name in search-engine marketing attended our intimate event, including Danny Sullivan (Editor, Search Engine Watch), Chris Sherman (Search Engine Watch’s Associate Editor - he won one of our prizes), Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Shoemoney, Oilman, Shawn Hogan (founder of DigitalPoint), Rand Fishkin, Dave Naylor, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, Jennifer Slegg (aka - Jensense), Misty Locke (co-founder, Range Online Media), Dana Todd (Founder, Sitelab), David Dellanave (aka - Dillsmack), Brett Gajda (AffiliateTV), Brett Nicholson (Commission Junction), Lou Ragg (MGM Mirage), Kevin Lee (Chairman, SEMPO & founder of Did-It), the entire SEMPO Board, and David Williams (founder of 360i), among about 100 more guests including press from the Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine. We were very honored that our event was so well attended by the most amazing minds in the SEM industry!
Pepperjam COO Mike Jones becomes Blogger at ReveNews
