Missy Ward

This Blog is on Vacation

by Missy Ward

I am headed off to vacation, somewhere in Punta Cana this week. My husband actually arranged for the entire trip and I found out the destination, only yesterday. The resort however, remains a mystery.

In exchange for my hubby planning the entire holiday, he has asked that I limit my “online time” to 30 minutes per day. I think that's somewhat fair and I intend to play along (for the first few days anyway.) 🙂

During the last few vacations that I've been on, there has always been one “Top Story” that dragged me back to my PC numerous times each day:

Cancun, 2007 – Anna Nicole Smith Corpse Fight

Costa Rica, 2007 – Paris Hilton goes to Jail

Aruba, 2007 – Natalee Holloway's case hits the news again, the week I'm in Aruba.

This time, there are so many good “stories” going on that I don't know how I'm going to disconnect! Here are the ones I'm going to be keeping an eye on:

PepperJam vs. CJ

Scott Jangro's Blog

Sam Harrelson on Revenews

Carsten Cumbroski on Revenews

ABestWeb

The Eliot Spitzer Fallout (insert evil laugh here)

The SXSW Music and Media Conference coverage

and of course the Elections!

So while I'm gone, instead of boring you with blog posts about my new favorite island drink, how great my tan is coming along or about the things that have scarred my eyes forever (think speedo), I've decided to just point my readers (or lack thereof) to the content that I'll be following so that we can all be on the same page when I get back 🙂

Voy a la playa – Adios!

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Affiliate Marketing

Are you going to LeadsCon?

by Missy Ward

A buddy of mine, Hagai Yardeny, the Publisher of DMConfidential, a newsletter for the online marketing industry just turned me on to a new conference taking place next month in Las Vegas, called LeadsCon.

According to the site, this conference aims to increase the effectiveness of those operating in the online lead generation industry and is taking place at the Palms on April 2-4, 2008.

The keynote address will be delivered by both Ed Ojdana, the former CEO of Experian Interactive and Founder of ConsumerInfo.com (aka FreeCreditReport.com) and Jordan Rohan, the Managing Director of RBC Capital Markets. Some of the other sessions can be found here.

Exhibitors include Leadpoint, Reply.com, Datran, Oversee.net, Mobile Messenger, CollegeBound.net and others.

If you are interested in attending this conference, I have secured a 45% discount off the registration fee, if you use this link.

I’d like to personally wish Jay Weintraub, the founder of LeadsCon, lots of mazel for his first event.

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Affiliate Marketing

Just Give Me My Proper Respect

by Missy Ward

“I'm not concerned with you liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” – Jackie Robinson

Brian Littleton, CEO of Shareasale.com and the winner of the 2008 Affiliate Summit “Wayne Porter Affiliate Marketing Legend” Award, posted a great blog entry today, which really hit home with me. His overall theme in his post deals with treating others with respect – something that I believe can definitely be improved within our industry.

Now I’m not saying that we are ALL deficient in our abilities to show consideration for others. That is certainly not the case. However, over the many years that I have been in this industry, I have witnessed a fair share of insults, inconsideration, disregard for other people’s opinions and a general lack of sensitivity for other people’s feelings. A couple of cases that come to mind that I have seen recently include:

– While I was at several parties that took place at Affiliate Summit 2008 Las Vegas, I witnessed a lot of networks in attendance at their competition’s parties. Now that’s cool. That’s the kind of spirit that embodies our industry. What wasn’t cool was that several of them actually had the audacity to try to poach affiliates, merchants and OPM’s, while they enjoyed drinking their host’s booze and eating their host’s food. How did they not know what the proper etiquette would be?

– I saw an affiliate raise-up their hand, turn around and walk away from a CPA Network employee while that employee was in mid-sentence. There are a lot nicer ways to say that you don’t want to do business and excuse yourself than that.

– A former Affiliate Manager, turned “network owner” who apparently doesn’t like the Affiliate Summit show (although hasn’t attended the last few) decided to flame Shawn and I on various forums and blogs, citing that he could do it better, although he has never actually ran a conference before. (Dude, have at it. Any additional exposure for Affiliate Marketing is awesome for the industry – just make sure I get an invite to attend.) Since when did it become acceptable to publicly bash other people in an effort to make yourself look good? Don’t most people still see right through that?

Here’s the way I see it. We work in a diverse industry made up of many different business models, business sizes, work ethics and experience. It is this kind of diversity that can make all our business and professional lives much more enjoyable, interesting and worthwhile – but only if we get along with each other. And to do that we have to respect each other.

As I’ve said many times before, people need to treat others as they want to be treated, because what goes around comes around. Besides, no one will really care how wonderful or brilliant you are, if you respect nothing.

‘Nuff said.

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For The Heck of It

Ditch Your Desk Chair – Work That Body!

by Missy Ward

I’ve worked at home for the last 5-1/2 years and while it definitely has its perks, I find that one of the biggest downers about it is that I seldom walk away from my desk. Let’s face it, it’s not like I have a whole lot of options to go somewhere else. There is no “other department” to walk into, no water cooler in which to share juicy gossip, no long list of co-workers to go to lunch with. It’s just me, my PC and my ergonomically-friendly, yet strangely uncomfortable swivel chair.

So a few weeks ago I was expressing my frustration to my trainer and he suggested that I try sitting on a stability ball (aka swiss ball, yoga ball, exercise ball), instead of my chair, so that I can do something good for myself while I’m just sitting around all day.He explained that stability ball works your body, even when you’re not working out. Because the ball itself is not steady, your body needs to make adjustments using its muscles, in order to obtain stabilization and prevent you from falling over. The muscles used during these adjustments known as the “core muscle group” (abdomen and back) need to constantly work and as a by-product get stronger.

He further explained that while I was not likely get that great 6-pack that I’ve been looking for just by sitting on the stability ball for a solid 8 hours a day, strengthening my core will help support my back and stop me from further destroying what’s left of my good posture and possibly alleviate my backaches.

I have to admit, I thought the idea was silly and also dangerous, especially for me given the fact that I’m such a klutz (see post from yesterday). How on earth was I going to sit on this ball and try to type and speak on the phone at the same time? I don’t know about you, but I’m still trying to master the “texting while walking” scenario. But, I figured that a $20.00 investment would at least provide entertainment to my husband who sits in his office 300 yards away, a couple of days per week.

So I gave it a shot and hopped on about 3 weeks ago. Day one was not easy. Not only did I roll off the ball several times, but at the end of the day, my abs hurt. So did my quads and my hamstrings. Day two: I only fell twice, yet those same body parts were sore plus now, my gluts and calves were tender. During the rest of the week, I remained ON the stability ball all day and started feeling good about the minor aching that I had in my lower body. The pain meant it was working.

I debriefed my trainer on Monday on how it was going and he let me in on one additional perk about sitting on the stability ball. Apparently people that sit on a stability ball vs. an office chair burn 8 more calories per hour on average. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, over the course of the week, it adds up to the calories needed to metabolize one cup of Starbucks Mud Pie ice cream.

Extra calorie burn and tighter abs, legs and butt by just sitting at my desk? Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.

Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.PS – I typed this entire blog post while sitting on my stability ball.

If I've inspired you to give the stability ball a whirl, send me your picture. I'd love to post it here.

Scott Jangro on his stability ball.

Todd Crawford's ball on the way to his office

Todd Crawford on his stability ball

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