How pathetic am I? My iPhone went down for 1.5 hours today and you would have thought the world was ending. When it finally unfroze (is that even a word?!) itself, I had a bunch of emails, text messages and voicemails…I felt so far behind. You would have thought I was out of touch with life in general for weeks by the way I felt. Yes, I’m dramatic and I have to admit that I’m addicted to technology. But I’m fine with that addiction, could be worse (use your imagination).

Anyway, technology is our friend this week at AKMG. We’re moving over to a new online system which will hopefully be much better than our current system for everyone involved. Poor Trey is having to manually transfer each advertiser, affiliate and campaign one-by-one into the new system…he’ll be happy when the weekend comes I’m sure. We apologize for any delay in your campaigns but know that Trey is doing everything possible to make the transition as smooth as possible. More to come once we’re finally up and running in the new system.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Who would have thought that my life post-MBA and struggling to get out of grad school in one piece, would be defined on a daily basis by fighting over $1?? I certainly wouldn’t have imagined that and to tell you the truth, I couldn’t be happier. I’m fully prepared to fight for that last $1 on the CPA…who am I kidding, I spent half of this week fighting for $.10…and I’m not ashamed to admit that! When in grad school, you try to imagine how you’re going to use what you learn in your next job and I don’t think they had a lesson in fighting for dimes - or maybe I just missed that day! In all seriousness, I’m happy to do it if it keeps our affiliates happy which in turn makes our advertisers happy. I’d rather forge long term relationships with a smaller number of key people and keep everyone happy than give low CPAs to a huge group.

On another note, Trey, our production person, and I had a conversation this week about the kinds of offers are run in our space and what we think about on a daily basis. If you take a step back and look at some of the campaigns, they are SO bizarre and hysterical - colon cleanse systems, get rich quick biz opp offers, psychic readings…and the list goes on! It still amazes me what people will buy online and freely give away their data to receive something, anything for free (which as Michelle pointed is really nothing - “click here for a FREE sample”… oh and please read the fine print carefully because you’ll be auto charged $39.99 every other week for this FREE sample!!). Don’t get me wrong, thank God people do this or else where would we all be? I don’t even want to imagine…

OK, back to the grind…the more I work, the closer it is to the weekend here in sunny South Beach!

Yes, ‘dedramatization’ is a word… or at least it will be as soon as I submit it to Urban Dictionary after I finish writing this post.

Well fellow humans, I am happy to report that Friday has finally arrived. This has been a rough week–and no, not just because Heath Ledger passed away (R.I.P. Heath)– but because sometimes it is all too easy to get caught up in the drama of this industry.

Now obviously every job is stressful, no matter if you are a Kindergarten teacher or a Brain Surgeon in the E.R. But sometimes, I have to take a few steps back to realize how silly it sounds when I am freaking out about things such as pixel placing, or suppression files. Being dramatic over things that are out of your control is not only a huge waste of time, but it is also a pretty obnoxious quality.

Coming from someone who used to stress out about being five minutes late…meeting her mom…for lunch…on a Sunday (no, not me..this friend I uh knew once….I swear!), I’ve learned that you should never take life too seriously.

Exhibit A - I found myself getting sucked into a whirlpool of pressure these past few days and came out of it realizing that letting myself stress about the little things only left me exhausted…and with not much to show for it. Lesson learned? No need to overly dramatize the small stuff…but rather use that energy to focus on staying productive. Easier said than done, I know, but it is definitely something that is worth constantly reminding yourself of throughout the day, or week, or whatever.

It is such a valuable skill to be able to stay composed in a seemingly stressful situation, which seems to go hand-in-hand with that other important skill–being able to live a balanced life. I’m convinced that the only way to successfully demonstrate either of these skills is to be able to put things in perspective. It is way too easy to get dramatic about those pain-in-the-ass hurdles we all deal with hundreds of times a day. Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath…and maybe a few chill pills, as my Dad would say. (Sweet pic btw, huh? Gotta love Google Images…).

Anyway, that is enough “Deep Thoughts by Michelle” for one blog. I’ll let those insightful words of wisdom sink in this week as we begin to wind down the first month of 2008. Hope everyone has a great (and drama-free) week, and I’ll catch your act next Friday! (When you tune in to read my deep and inspiring weekly blog, that is).

PS. I can’t believe you just fell for that ‘Free Sample’ thing. Ha! You should know better being in this industry…

It amazes me how we work in what is considered one of the most social industries out there, and yet 95% of our day is spent sitting in front of our computers and chatting it up on instant messenger all day. The term “face-to-face” is seldom heard, yet the phrase “they’re online–ping them” is said hundreds of times a day.

Just to drive my point home, I’ll let you in on my usual morning routine: (1) log-on to AIM, (2) log-on to YahooMessenger, (3) log-on to Skype, (4) check email, (5) check the offer reporting, and lastly, but definitely most importantly, I brush my teeth…normal, right?

It is as if we over-compensate for the impersonality of the internet world by being 100% available at all time. This of course allows for multi-tasking, which in turn promotes maximal productivity, which leads to higher profitability, which–don’t get me wrong–I am a huge fan of. We all are or we wouldn’t be here.

I am definitely not here to dis the online obsessive behavior–that would just be hypocritical. Especially because for anyone who knows me, you can all vouch for me when I say that my computer is my most valuable possession…we have a special bond, ok? And yes, it’s a Mac (obviously).

All I am saying it that I have yet to be amazed at how effective a face-to-face interaction is. Putting a face to a name, instead of a buddy icon, is not only refreshing, but it really brings us to respect each other on a whole new level…don’t ya think?

This past week, Kim and I went to work with Tara in our Miami Beach office and the levels of communication and efficiency skyrocketed. This doesn’t surprise me, but it does help me to value the importance of face-to-face interaction, in a world where you can have virtual relationships with your clients for months (or even years) without ever meeting them in person.

In this fairly new year, let’s all vow to make more of an effort to meet and greet (don’t worry, we can still be on AIM-mobile status) and to personalize those impersonal relationships. After all, this is considered one of the most social industries out there–so let’s live it up!

On that note… who’s going to Vegas for Affiliate Summit this year??

The LA girls - Kim and Michelle - arrived in Miami last Sunday night and the festivities began immediately with a client at dinner at the fabulous Touch Restaurant on Lincoln Rd. It’s now Friday and we’ve barely stopped since that dinner for more than 5 minutes at a time. We’ve all been like automated machines working late until around 8 pm ET, having dinner at 10 pm, followed by drinks until the wee hours of the morning (I won’t reveal the actual time we’ve been getting home but use your imagination…it’s South Beach after all!) and doing it all again the next morning. We were lucky enough to see a show at the Speigel World tent called Absinthe which I highly recommend if you get the chance to visit either Miami or NYC in the next few weeks.

All in all it’s been very productive and great having Kim and Michelle with me since we’re able to toss around ideas much easier and get things handle so much faster than when we’re split between coasts. It’s the unfortunate position we’re put in - splitting our time between South Beach and Santa Monica…poor us! We had reason to celebrate this week because we hit a milestone with our highest daily revenue amount to date and our growth percentage is going through the roof! So thank you to the advertisers and affiliates that believed in us as a new network last fall and were willing to take a chance with us!

I must say, for being in an industry of people who hold virtual trade shows, have personal avatars in their email signatures, and who haven’t logged off instant messenger since 2001 (wow, we really aren’t the coolest bunch, are we…), I still believe the art of the good ol’ telephone call to be the most effective means of communication. As old fashioned as that seems, it is much harder to get lost in the lingo via telephone. Plus it is always nice to match a voice to an AIM buddy icon… heh heh.

It is far too easy to get caught up in the technical terminology of Affiliate Marketing and the online industry. Everyone has their own way of saying things in a much more complicated manner, and I all too often find myself constantly asking for further clarification, rereading emails once or twice (ok maybe three times) to try and make sense of it, and getting lost in lengthy AIM conversations.

eCPMs, eCPCs, CPAs, CPLs, CPCs, CTRs…we all know the list of terminology could go on for hours. While this lingo holds definite value in the the communication efficiency department, there is also something to be said about the less-is-more philosophy.

One of my wise affiliates once said to me, after I had “pinged” him asking for numbers on an offer that had been tested, “Michelle, I can’t give you any numbers, but I can tell you that there are only three classifications in my book to describe an offer: winner, try again, or strike out.. and this one was a winner.”

I remember thinking, wow… that was the best high-tech lingo I’ve heard yet. You don’t need any fancy lingo to convey that message. It’s simple really– find the winners.. and keep them at bat.

So it has been a busy week playing the game of “volume/payout” ping pong. I’ve won some matches and lost some but the underlying theme is always the same - “we are willing to give you the preferred payout once you’ve shown some volume”. My response is that I’d love to show volume but I can’t do that at a low payout. Why would an affiliate run a campaign through AKMG at a low payout when they can get a better payout elsewhere? That scenario doesn’t set me up with the ability to show any volume.

I understand that this game of ping pong is just part of the business but I’m hoping that as the degrees of separation between everyone shrink, that I will have to play the game less and less. Performance marketing is based on trust and I’m counting on networking sites like LinkedIn and ad:bree to help shrink this gap and show how we are all inter-related.

Well off to enjoy my weekend and get some rest before my next “volume/payout” ping pong match!

First off, I’d like to say Happy New Year to everyone! 2007 was an exciting year for AKMG which was when everything began. What started off as a great idea over a dinner conversation to start an Affiliate Network turned quickly into the team researching domain names, tossing around possible company names and contacting our lawyer to draft papers for a new company. Then Advertising Kings Media Group (AKMG) was born…and thankfully the domain name AKMG was available!

The launch of AKMG seemed to be good timing for the state of the industry as a whole. According to feedback we’ve received, there seemed to be room for another affiliate network and people (both advertisers and publishers) were looking for someone new to work with. We kept hearing this repeatedly during ad:tech NY and felt fortunate to be that something “new” in the industry. This fall feels like years ago and AKGM is in full swing with plenty of great offers and quality affiliates.

As things evolve and change in our industry, it is interesting to hear what works for some clients but not for others. As most of us know, email pubs drive huge volume and high quality traffic but so many advertisers are still afraid of email. One of my wishes for 2008 is that advertisers will continue to educate themselves on the value of email marketing and be willing to test different ideas that are “out of the box” from what their company normally does. It’s exciting to see that many more advertisers are embracing affiliate marketing as a part of their online marketing plan. I’ve spoken to a lot of people that used to do affiliate marketing but have stopped over the past few years and are finally getting back into it again. It’s encouraging to see that our industry may have overcome a lot of the stigmatism with spammers, etc that has been associated with affiliate marketing. So my other wish is that many more advertisers will embrace our ideas for successful campaigns and just start including affiliate marketing as a piece of the online puzzle for each campaign.

Here’s wishing you a great 2008!