Make Money Online

So we’re back from ad:tech New York alive and well. Tackling ad:tech this year was like running a marathon we didn’t train for. Okay maybe mentally but definitely not physically. The conference was sprawled over four massive floors of the Hilton hotel with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees jammed in to every nook and cranny.

And when there wasn’t enough room to have a conversation with someone without getting plowed like this years harvest, Daniel, Louis and I found refuge in the hotel lobby and/or bar. (Which was always sweltering by the way) I think I may be jumping around a bit, so let us start from the beginning.

We flew to New York landing at Newark early Monday morning. We hit some traffic on the way into Manhattan and saw the Jersey ladies get creative with their make up application whilst driving their cars. Safety on the road girls! We arrived at the Hilton and our rooms weren’t ready so we stashed our baggage and head to the conference, our lukewarm coffees barely in hand. When we got our passes, I noticed that they not only had our names but a little bar code that the vendors used to scan instead of taking our business cards. It was very green friendly but I couldn’t help feel a wee bit weird. I mean, we’re not groceries right?

The first day we were on the run meeting with our partners George & Michelle from Quote Wizard and Priti from Ipsos at the hotel bar (it worked in a pinch) but we also were able to hook up with The Media Crew , One Big Planet and for some quiet dinner time we went to a resto for some Korean BBQ. It was delish! Education Dynamics.

I’ll blog about Day 2: Covering all 4 floors and spending time at the GoMobile! zone and Election center in my next post.

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So much to see, so little time – Day 1 at ad:tech NYC

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It’s been nearly 2 months since I promised more insight on the future of the mobile web that I gained from my week with Nokia. Well, most things are better late than never, so here goes…

This is an interview with Jeremy Belostock, the director of sales and marketing for Nokia’s Near Fields Communication (NFC) department. NFC is something like a hybrid of Bluetooth, RFID, and WiFi, and it looks poised to play a huge part in how the mobile web develops. Not only does it seem to be key to mobile communities, but also to the next level of mobile transactions — one that is apparently more secure than the RFID technologies currently offered on mobile phones. I’ll let Jeremy do the rest of the talking, though.

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Mobile: The Future of Ecommerce

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It appears that bargain hunters are on the move for the 2008 holiday season. What’s out of style? Gas and driving around for offline shopping deals. What’s in style? Online coupons. Online marketing source eMarketer offers the latest findings from a survey conducted by the industry’s top online retail sites:

Consumers revealed a few ways in which they time their shopping to save money online and offline in a survey conducted for online coupon site RetailMeNot.com by Harris Interactive. Some 29% of respondents said they will shop early to avoid impulse buys, 19% will shop during Black Friday sales and 12% will wait until the last minute to get more discounts.

These days everyone is trying to save money. Therefore, it’s no surprise that consumers are going to be looking for the best deals, especially on the web. If you’re an affiliate, this means that accommodating this market is most important. So, here are 5 ways you can tweak your campaigns to attract more online consumers:

1. If you’re an SEO or PPC affiliate, then keywords like “coupon”, “savings” and “deal” may already be part of your campaign. To enhance it, be more specific about what you’re promoting. For example, if you’re promoting American Medical ID, you may want to use “jewelry deal” or “jewelry gift card”.
2. Review our latest newsletters or use Share Results’ new coupon feed to find out what the latest deals are from merchants in the network. The cool thing about the coupon feed is you can download them in a number of formats including XML and see what dates they expire.
3. Organize a special Black Friday newsletter for your newsletter recipients. There’s no denying that customers want to know how they can save on Black Friday.
4. If you’re not a fan of Black Friday or emailing, then maybe Cyber Monday is your thing. Try and incorporate a special Cyber Monday section on your site.
5. Finally, ask your affiliate/account manager about a merchant or special offer you would like to promote. If you need specific banner sizes or unique text links, it doesn’t hurt to make a request. The earlier the request is made, the better!

See the rest here:
Shoppers say no to gas and yes to Online Coupons

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Thinking about heading to ad:tech next week? The conference is being held in NYC from November 3^rd- 6^th at the Hilton on the Avenue of the Americas, and the Share Results team will be there. Only 3 sleeps left!

The NYC show is just the latest installment of the 11 shows ad:tech holds in seven countries around the world each year. With more than ten years under its belt, ad:tech has continually provided us media, marketing, and technology professionals with the tools and techniques we need to succeed in our ever-changing digital world.

A few examples of the innovative sessions covered in NYC include topics on brand management and emerging platforms such as video and mobile marketing. Some of the all-star speakers lined up include Nike, Kraft Foods, CNN, NYTimes.com, MTV and more.

While the sessions are highly informative, it’s the networking opportunities that are often the biggest incentive for attending ad:tech. If you are based in NYC, you should seriously consider coming down to the event. Individual exhibit hall passes are only $125.

If you’re heading to the conference and would like to meet up with Louis, Daniel and myself, just send an email to info@shareresults.com with a time when you’ll be available. We’ll be onsite Monday – Wednesday.

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If you’ve been following our various blog posts at all in the past several weeks, you’ll know that one of Share Results’ newest merchants is GoNannies. The beauty about this merchant is that they fit directly into our popular family category and are great for affiliates who already have content sites or blogs, or run a PPC campaign in this vertical.

We decided to ask the folks over at GoNannies (Carol Francis and Monta Fleming) some questions that affiliates have been dying to know about their affiliate program, and all the benefits that come with promoting. Here are six quick questions with Carol and Monta of GoNannies.

1. Tell us a little about GoNannies and how you differ from your competitors. How did you start your business and why did you decide to launch an affiliate program?
GoNannies is an online service that helps families find household help efficiently and affordably. We offer the largest number of domestic personnel types including nannies, sitters, housekeepers, senior care, personal assistants, personal chefs, doulas and more. In the pursuit of finding a nanny for her own use, President & Founder, Monta Fleming was frustrated with overly priced and unsuccessful nanny agencies, as well as not-so-reliable online services. Monta combined her own 17 years of IT and Management expertise with the need she had to find reliable childcare into a company founded on family values, integrity, reliability, and trust. GoNannies offers comprehensive background check services, never compromising our families’ safety with unreliable database only background checks offered by other competitors.

GoNannies launched our affiliate program because we saw a great opportunity to expose our popular services to an even larger audience.

2. It may appear to members of affiliate marketing that with the state of the economy, perhaps nanny services are not as high in demand. Do you find that there is less demand for nannies because of the economy? What are the various services that you offer?
Fortunately, nannies are still very much in demand because families will always need childcare. Additionally, GoNannies is a low cost alternative to traditional, high-cost placement agencies, so in a depressed economy, ours is the type of service that will often see increases when money is more scarce. Also, GoNannies is unique in that we offer a free nanny share program, which is a creative affordable solution in this challenging economy that allows families to locate other families in their area interested in sharing a nanny, cutting nanny costs into a fraction of what they would pay otherwise. And lastly, our services are far more extensive then nannies, also offering senior care, housekeepers, sitters, personal assistants, personal chefs, and more.

3.Background checks are key elements to hiring nannies and elder care professionals. What are some ways affiliates can promote this type of service in their campaigns?
Background checks are certainly very instrumental in finding the right care. That’s why GoNannies not only provides access to free background checks, but also offers supplemental background check services so that families can be as thorough as they need to be in their hiring process. To better help affiliates promote our background check services, we are in the process of designing new creative which will nicely promote our free background check offerings, as well exclusive affiliate discounts.

4. We wrote a blog post a while back about parents’ needs for nannies in the US and the methods used to find them. It’s interesting to see that various geographical regions seem to have more of a demand than others. What geographical trends are you seeing occur with GoNannies?
We definitely see a trend of high demand in major metropolitan areas.

5. Affiliates are always interested in the benefits of joining an affiliate program. What are the perks of joining GoNannies? Who is your ideal affiliate you would love to see promote your services?
GoNannies offers a very competitive affiliate program. We offer the largest payout amount in our industry for our Membership services and even offer additional payout opportunities through the background check services we offer. Additionally, we offer services in a larger geographical region, including both the U.S. and Canada. While Affiliates who offer some level of either family or female directed site content can be naturally outfitted to succeed in our Affiliate program, Affiliates who are effectively able to target to our niche audience within a larger general population can also be quite successful.

6. What can affiliates expect to see from GoNannies for the holiday season and eventually the new year? Are there any special tools and resources affiliates can look forward to in your program?
GoNannies will continue to be very supportive of our affiliates. We have a dedicated affiliate manager whose priority is to facilitate our affiliate’s success. We will continue to offer exclusive discounts and incentives for our affiliates. New resources to look forward to include widgets that we believe will be very successful for promoting our services.

For additional information about GoNannies, have a look at their co-branded merchant page via http://www.shareresults.com/local_affiliate_desc.php?mid=13964. Feel free to also send us any questions you may have to info [at] shareresults [dot] com.

Credit:
Everything Affiliates need to know about GoNannies

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With the current economic situation and the all the gloomy talk about an impending recession, I was delighted to read some very positive news this week about the projections for online sales this holiday season.

In a recent study by eMarketer.com, their experts forecast roughly 10% growth in online sales over the 2008 holiday season, for a total of over $32 billion. If this prediction comes true, it will be the first year that online sales outpace and outperform traditional offline sales which is very exciting news for affiliate marketers and other types of online entrepreneurs. To the right is a breakdown of how they predict the numbers will fall.

This projected growth is directly related to the economy’s recent troubles, as shoppers turn to online stores to find better deals, deeper discounts, and save money on the gas that would be otherwise used going to and from shopping malls.

Now this does not mean that affiliates should sit back and let the traffic just roll in. Maranda wrote an excellent piece, Making a Profit During an Online Recession which offers some great tips on strategies that can help you capitalize on the current market. Coupon sites, free shipping offers and other savings angles are the way to go!

Go here to see the original:
Positive Outlook for Online Holiday Sales

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A recession can also be a chance to meet a wholly new set of market opportunities. After all, while consumers are going to want savings, merchants will want more control over their marketing dollars, and anyone who can deliver those may not only survive, but possibly grow. For example, there are recession proof niches, such as coupons affiliates.

Of course, not everyone’s business model is primarily about offering savings. Fortunately, there are a number of marketing strategies you can pursue to help recession-proof your ecommerce business, and they’re all about focusing on the opportunity that a recession represents. These opportunities, moreover, are about (1) offering value to consumers, and (2) generating tangible results from your efforts. After all, results are what ROI in a recession is all about. As the CMA blog points out:

Past recessions have shown that marketers who have taken the approach of “going through this together” with their customers have been more successful at maintaining share and revenue during a recession than their competition. Not surprisingly, value driven brands tend to do better than brands positioned as premium.

[…] The pressure for proven returns on marketing expenditures will increase. Marketers are likely to take a shorter term approach to advertising investments.

This, of course, begs the question of how can you focus on immediate results. Well, the CMA outlines seven different tactics.

1. Deeper, more frequent customer research: understand how consumers are redefining value.
2. Maintain marketing spending: there may be an opportunity where your competitors are cutting back.
3. Adjust product portfolios: consumers will be looking for more value, so focus more on reliability, durability, safety and performance and less on gimmicks.
4. Stress market share: if you do have room to cut pricing, doing so may help you capture the market share of competitors.
5. Support your distributors: by securing a reliable supply, you’ll be able to more proactively determine your pricing and manage your market share.
6. Retain core values: demonstrate how the company is working to cut expenses and not quality
7. Strategic pricing tactics: determine whether you have room for more price promotions or other customer incentives, such as quantity discounts previously reserved for your best customers.

Now, the original post goes into much more detail on each of these points. So if any one of them have caught your eye (and most of them should have), you should probably go check it out.

More importantly, though, consider how compatible affiliate marketing is with these strategies. It allows you to maintain marketing spend, but keep a focus on generating actual results. This means that merchants who maintain their affiliate marketing strategy are going to be able to capture market share that their competitors cede, and the affiliates who help them do so are going to be able to earn commissions throughout an economic rut.

Merchants, then, should be considering affiliate marketing. And affiliates should be looking into merchants who are demonstrating a proactive approach to marketing.

Read the rest here:
7 Recession Marketing Tips

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Here’s a clip of Le at the last Affiliate Summit. Le is one of our Senior Affiliate Managers, and in this clip she discusses our network, our software, and touches on what we’re all about.

This is but our first of many videos to come. For the meantime, however, we’d like to thank Shawn Collins for sending it to us. In the meantime, join us on the ShareResults YouTube Channel.

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Video Interview with Affiliate Manager Le

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You’ll recall that last week I gave some pointers on how to make a profit during hard times (like when you have no disposable income to buy those fabulous pair of Stacy Adams Pimpim Pumps . MSNBC recommended niche industries to pursue offline, but I thought these could easily translate to online business opportunities for anyone interested in pursuing affiliate marketing. One of the most important and popular platforms that new affiliates use to venture into profiting from the web is blogging.

You can create a blog in literally minutes. Free blog providers such as Bravenet, Blogger.com and WordPress (my personal favourite ) make it a cinch for anyone to set up a blog and write just about anything they want, any time they want, and any place they want. The cool thing about these providers is that over the years they’ve grown savvier and have helped bloggers to become so as well. Today, providers offer cool features like customizable tools, widgets and spam filters to help blogs look more sophisticated.

Everyone knows that blogs have been all the rage especially since 2004 when they became more mainstream. But what’s more interesting is that where bloggers once hesitated and even apologized to their readers for adding advertising to their blogs, advertising has become the norm. Bloggers are working diligently to get a financial return on the time they spend investing in their blog. They’re up all hours of the morning or night keeping you entertained with their witty thoughts of the day. And more advanced bloggers are adding cool layouts, tools and designs to keep their blogs attractive. If you’re looking for proof on just how popular blogs are, all you have to do is consult the ultimate blog source Technorati. Their 2008 report they conducted on blogging proves how bloggers are becoming more business savvy.

Technorati’s report gives us some interesting information about bloggers. See if you fit into any of these categories:

Two-thirds are male
50% are 18-34
More affluent and educated than the general population
70% have college degrees
Four in ten have an annual household income of $75K+
One in four have an annual household income of $100K+
44% are parents

Now while this information represents the US population, let’s not forget about non-US traffic coming from places like Canada and the UK.

More importantly, State of the Blogosphere tells us that one-third of “bloggers have affiliate advertising on their blog.” This means they are relying on networks like Share Results and merchants to facilitate the performance marketing process. Ads don’t necessarily have to be cluttered all over a site. They can be strategically placed at the top, bottom and sidebars of a web page are ideal locations to promote a particular brand. And while some newcomers to the blogosphere think it’s as simple as slapping on a banner on their site, obviously there are reasons why some bloggers are selective about the advertising they incorporate into their blogs. They look at what products and services can service their target audience. Not sure who your audience is? Well take a look at what you’re publishing. Use tools like Alexa and Quancast to determine what sort of demographic visiting your site on a daily basis.

Furthermore, it’s about quality. Readers enjoy posts that are entertaining and casual, but still well-written. Even some of our merchants like eLearners and Tundra Gear have their own company blogs and engage their audiences with great content.

The reason why some of the more successful blogs draw a high number of readers is due to the fact that they update their sites with posts daily or weekly. The content plays an important element, because of three words: Search Engine Marketing (SEO). Optimized content allows search engines like Google to rank your site based on keywords and links you incorporate into your content. Share Results’ own in-house SEO expert CT Moore has written about this in-depth and is probably your best source for how to monetize your blog.

Not only has he written extensively on blogging, but he also offers some additional opportunities you might want to pursue during these tough times.

This topic is quite intense and obviously you’ll need to consult some more online sources for guidance on monetizing your blog. Remember that you can always email the Share Results team if you have any questions about how to make the jump from just plain old blogging to blogging with profit!

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Getting a Financial Return from your Blog

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Lately we’ve been blogging about recession blogging and making a profit in a recession. The underlying point has been that as more and more consumer pinch their pennies, there’s an opportunity for those that can help them do that.

The point is that bean-counting is taking over decision making, and as far as marketers are concerned, that means that ROI is going to eclipse branding. This is why things look okay for affiliate marketers: they’re performance -based marketers. Well, wine vlogger Gary Vaynerchuk gets it, and in this clip, he explains how this is going to effect the marketing industry as a whole (hat tip Pat Phelan).

View original post here:
ROI in a Recession

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This past week some of the Share Results team members and I were reflecting on the recession of the early 90s. Those were definitely tough times, because as with any economic downturn items from gas to designer clothes to gourmet food become less important. Recent articles online have been advising that it is possible to recession-proof your income and even start a business during difficult times. Media broadcasting stalwart MSNBC has made the strongest case of all, pointing to creating an online business as a way to maintain an income through a recession.

Obviously our opinion is biased here, but we have to agree with MSNBC. While affiliate marketing is not immune to economic downturns, we do have to say that it is a great,unique channel for even a novice to affiliate marketing to earn income. Here are some statistics that relay just how profitable this is:

Coupon website RetailMeNot.com reports that 22 percent of shoppers recently polled say they do as much shopping as possible online.

A total of 85% of consumers will use online tools or sites to search for online shopping deals.

Clearly, online shopping is a major part of the retail market. You’re probably wondering where one begins should they plan on starting an online venture. Well you can get ideas from a variety of places. Take The Wall Street Journal for instance. They recently published an article called “Five Businesses to Start in a Bad Economy”. Among some of the creative industries they suggest entrepreneurs pursue are eco-friendly and automotive repair. While WSJ is referring to offline opportunities, there is no reason why you can’t take these offline business ideas and bring them online. Our merchants such as 4OffSets and GoBio have been popular with the eco-friendly crowd online. Even Paper.com’s recyclable paper products have been an option for online eco-friendly retailers.

The other thing to remember is that you have to fill a void. In downtimes like ours, categories like health are always of importance to people. Recently brands like American Medical ID (available in the US, Canada and UK) and Insulite Labs (a company that specializes in insulin resistance) have attracted the interest of affiliates who want to cater to online shoppers who are making health a priority.

Here are a few more suggestions for online business niches you can pursue:

1. Online Fitness Communities
Gym memberships can be quite expensive, so unless they are offering discounts to potential customers, it may be a good idea to promote working out at home with gym equipment. Our client beYOU.tv is an excellent source for anyone who wants to work out in the privacy of their own home.

2. Insurance Deals
Anyone with a home or a car will be looking online for the most affordable insurance they can find. QuoteWizard is one example of a merchant that can help online users fill that void. They offer a one-stop destination for the best top auto, home, renter’s insurance offers and more.

3. Savings for Mommies
There are many hardworking married and single moms out there who are trying to make ends meet. Therefore, savings and freebie sites geared to moms are an excellent opportunities to help them out. A brand like Planning Family offers free sample products to new and expectant parents. Maternity Advantage is equally popular with this audience because they have helped parents with newborns save upwards of 65% on their pregnancy-related expenses.

There are plenty more business opportunities available online for anyone who doesn’t want their future to be dictated by interest rates and the stock market. You really just have to go out there on the web and search for those new prospects carefully.

ShareResults’ blog has plenty of useful information to help you get started if you’re looking into becoming an affiliate for the first time. Use our “Search” box to the top right of this page, type in some keywords, and voila, you can find topics that may be of interest. In the meantime, keep a look out on our blog for more advice concerning making a profit online. Also, feel free to send us an email with any inquiries you may have about getting your online business off the ground.

Excerpt from:
Making a Profit Online during a Recession

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So we’re all aware that the economy is in a bit of a rut. Just because consumers are tightening up their budgets, however, that doesn’t mean that there are less opportunities for affiliate marketers. In actuality, the opportunities just look a bit different than they usually do. Just yesterday I blogged that:

With this recession looming, you not only have the chance generate some extra traffic, but potentially get a piece of that shrinking economic pie. The best part is that you can do it by helping other people make the most out of their shrinking budgets.

The trick is to reach out to consumers who are trying to make their budgets go a lot further, and you can do that by promoting coupon sites. As eMarketer reported back in May:

As consumer spending budgets tighten, […] coupon Web sites are seeing increased traffic, according to Hitwise Intelligence.

[…] the market share of visits for a Hitwise custom category of 11 printable coupon Web sites was up 85% year-over-year for that week. […]

Meanwhile, searches for the term “coupons” were up 45% year-over-year for the week ending May 3, 2008.

If coupon sites were getting that kind of traffic before financial markets went completely haywire, just imagine what kind of appeal they’ll have now!

Of course, not all affiliates have sites dedicated to finding deals and discounts, but that doesn’t mean you can’t promote such savings. Thinks about it: almost everyone has family. And when times get tough, people start thinking about how they can help their families out. That’s why family coupon sites are perfect to promote as an affiliate. As the same eMarketer article pointed out:

[…] the most popular coupon searches were “grocery,” “printable” and “free.”

So even if affiliate ads for coupon sites don’t quite fit with your overall theme, they’re still going to appeal to your visitors. So you’ll be helping someone out and get rewarded for it at the same time. Who says that Karma doesn’t work?

In fact, a ShareResults program that you might want to check out is the PlanningFamily affiliate program. PlanningFamily.com offers free baby samples, baby coupons and baby offers to new and expectant families.

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Affiliate Strategies for a Recession

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It was reported in early September that NFL’s reigning MVP, Tom Brady will be out of the rest of the 2008 season side-lined with a massive knee injury. Surgery will likely be needed as Tom torn both his ACL and MCL.

Until doctors feel Tom’s MCL has healed enough to perform a surgery, Tom will be sitting pretty at home with his super model Gisele. Not too shabby for a down and out footballer.

Tom being out doesn’t mean that the Patriots can’t make it to this year’s Superbowl, no sir-ee Bob.

Matt Cassel has filled in as quarterback and could be the man to lead the team to another Championship ring. If you are rabid fan, it’s time to pony up your support and great way to do it is with Tundra Gear’s bevy of NFL Winter hats. Tundra Gear was founded by Aras Baskauskas, a former collegiate athlete and the winner of CBS’s Survivor: Exile Island.

Tundra Gear offers winter hats that are cozy, warm and truly New England worthy. The sample on the right is worn by an obviously loyal fan and though he may not be a Victoria Secret model but he’s definitely strutting his stuff. See how his belly paint matches the Patriot colors? Tundra Gear also offers an affiliate program, and really is no time like the present to join up and promote your favorite team. Whether it is New England or New York. Yes, I love Eli Manning too. Did you know that when Giant receivers catch his passes, they usually break their fingers? Yes, he’s throws them that hard. Cool hun?

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What injury did Tom Brady have in 2008?

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Covering politics, social media, search, ecommerce sites and venture capitalists, Business Week have released a list of whom they consider to be the movers and shakers of the web 2.0 era.  These men and women have been chosen because they embrace the culture of the web (or their own versions of it) and have contributed to the borderless society that many of us like to indulge in on a daily basis.   

What I have found most interesting about this list is that they are not all about instant success stories or originality.  They include people who have challenges to face in the coming year, individuals who have recreated themselves or who have embraced social media to extend their reach to consumers.

Some of the distinct personalities that stuck out include:

• Steve Baller from Microsoft – he has got some interesting challenges ahead of him to the say the least, the failed Yahoo takeover, consumer annoyance with Vista, and hemorrhaging ad platform – (MSN)
• Paul Graham the start up guy from Y Combinator
• Maria Thomas the creator of an arts community Etsy where users can buy and sell homemade arts and crafts
• Sheryl Sandberg former employee of Google is now the COO of Facebook and faces the immense challenge of monetizing Facebook.
• Rupert Murdoch always re-inventing and influencing media. Is this man ever going to retire?

Given the recent changes in the economic climate it will be interesting to follow these people and their companies to see where they end up and how they continue to influence the web.

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The top 25 influencers on the web

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The first ESPN/WSOP Academy golf & poker clinic is going down in few weeks, are your clubs packed and ready to go?

The event is taking place at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino and Primm Valley Golf Club from October 30 through November 2, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. – The whole package is beautifully priced at $2999. Space is limited and the event is booking up fast.

Greg Raymer (2004 WSOP Main Event Champion), Alex “The Insider” Outhred and Joe Navarro FBI ret. (leader in non verbal communication/reads/tells) are confirmed for this event with a few surprise guests in tow.

Help someone win the WSOP seat of their poker dreams and join the WSOP Academy program today. Every package you book as an affiliate earns you a cool $600.

For more info watch the video below or visit: http://www.wsopacademy.com/golf.html

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WSOP Academy & ESPN team up for first golf and poker academy in Vegas

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