Like I don’t allready have enough E-mails – Free Hotel for Extra Days
Hey ThinkTankers.
I have about 140 e-mails sitting in my e-mail box waiting to be responded to, so thanks for being patient.
So I am about to create even more of a problem, but here goes.
I cut a deal with a very decent clean 3 star hotel in Pacific Beach called the Surfers Beach Hotel.
Pacific Beach is about 20 miles south of where the ThinkTank will be, so don’t try to use this as your hotel during the ThinkTank, but before or after is o.k.
Del Mar is upscale and a bit fancy pants, in a casual horse racy, guy with a scotch sort of way.
Pacific Beach is the expected California beach experience. Lots of college kids, restaurants and bars. It is a very happening place. At this time of year it gets much more mellow. It is definately a surf town. It is also right near Sea World, and less than 10 miles from the airport and zoo, so a good central place to see San Diego from.
Well, I gulp before I announce it as I can imagine the e-mails arriving. I can get in around 10 people for this. It is first come, first serve. When I get your e-mail, I will send you the e-mail of the person you need to speak with.
The hotel is the Surfers Beach Hotel.
The deal is this. If you are one of the first people who gets in (of the Purposeinc ThinkTankers), you will get some nights in their hotel. All you have to do is write an honest blog about the hotel and your stay. Be nice to April though, the manager, as she is a good friend of mine! If you link to their site, feel free to use a nofollow to keep Matt happy!
She can not get you in the Friday or Saturday night of the Purposeinc ThinkTank, but can probably get you in for a night or nights before or after that. In fact, you may end up being able to stay an extra 5 nights if you get lucky!
No contest. Just first come first serve.
Another little perk brought to those who believed in me enough to sign up for my event!!
So just e-mail me, and I will send you April’s e-mail
Much Love,
dk
Purposeinc ThinkTank 2008 Sold Out
Whewww…..
That was quite a rocket ride the past few months.
I finally have a moment to catch my breath.
Food is arranged.
Team in Place.
Itinerary set (well kinda, I am sure we will change it as we go)
This will be off the hook.
I have a feeling that this event will change Internet business events forever.
I have been working my tail off, when not seeing patients, 7 days a week to pull this off.
We have a scoop out of the small bowl of the biggest and most powerful names in the internet business world, marketers, domainers, PPC’ers, SEO’s, Blackhats, Whitehats, and even the first Scientific Research journal analyzing what we are doing showing up.
We will have no booths, no sessions, no salespeople (except that we are all salespeople 
).
We will have great food, great people, no jerks, and if I find one I will give them their money back and send them on a plane home.
We will have games, contests, and fun prizes. In fact, we just got a whole slew of prizes donated for various contests. One of them is a pair of $800 hand made mens shoes, custom made for the winner of the prize.
One of my attorneys, who rocks by the way, is Dana Robinson. I have worked with and known Dana now for a very long time. Dana got his start in Vegas doing a ton of Trademark work for the big name hotels and casinos out there. Dana has helped me with numerous businesses. Dana is also a site owner and domainer himself. Dana really wanted to be at the Purposeinc ThinkTank, but had already committed to a client overseas that weekend so will not be with us. He did however want to participate, so when he heard about the prizes being donated he also decided to kick in $1,000 of legal work on trademark or copyright. He is the real shizzlenizzle.
This week we had Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout, a UFC lightweight fighter with an amazing record of wins, agree to join us at ThinkTank to help train the attendees at mixed martial arts as well as do some demonstrations with Coach Shawn Tompkins, the trainer of Randy Couture, the UFC heavyweight champion of the world. These guys will be training us at martial arts this coming Saturday.
I heard a few people give a huff and puff about the entry fee to the ThinkTank. We have had a mess of sponsors kick in some generous dough. In the end I will be lucky if I make a decent, and possibly won’t make any profit at all. It doesn’t matter, because as a group we are about to create something never done before in this industry.
This is a very, very, very powerful group of people coming together. As individuals we are able to make lots of money, and be big shots. As a group, can you even imagine what we are capable of?
I am massively grateful for my good friends who believed in me when this started out. When I sold Neil Patel, Andy Liu and Pamela Lund on it initially I told them that if no one else comes, at least the four of us will have a tremendous weekend.
Due to promises made, we have now sold 51 seats to the event. We only have room currently for 50, so as of today, we officially sold out.
There were people who said yes, but did not get their payment in before the others did. So I am going to make every attempt to open up more spots if possible.
As of now, if you have not already paid you are not signed up.
If a spot opens up I will get in contact with those I think would make a good addition.
If you want to be on the waiting list, fire me an e-mail at dk =at= purposeinc.com
Now, I am going to make absolutely sure this is a huge success for everyone who comes. So if at any time during the event, you are not having the time of your life I want you to let me know personally. If I can figure out a way to pull it off, I will make what you want to happen.
The location is amazing. The weather has been in the mid 70′s in the day and the mid 60′s at night. The food is going to be fantastic. If you don’t like what you are being served, just let me know and we will go get you something else. For most of the cool locations we will be, there will be lousy Internet and phone data connections, but the hotel so far has been awesome with their Internet connection. There will be surfing lessons. I just bought 40 beach towels today! I found out what it is like to have amazon.com fill your office with boxes of reclining beach chairs.
Oh! and there will also be a bad ass baby stroller for two being given away by stroller depot. This allows an infant to sleep infant style, and a toddler to ride on some kind of a saddle thing. Watch out for Shoe on the game for this one, his kids fall right into the target demographic, and I am sure he is willing to spill blood to get his kids and wife something cool!
Study up on the rules to Werewolf or you will feel like a dumbass during the game. Werewolf was the highlight of last years Pubcon for me, so head nod to Rand for turning me on to this amazing game.
By the way, I hope the mob doesn’t kill me on this, but we are going to be doing a fair number of sporty athletic kinds of things. I also know that although a bunch of our guys are super fit, most of us are fairly out of shape, so you will never be asked to embarrass yourself,..well probably not 
But since I don’t want anyone drowning, or trying to attack a professional mixed martial artist because now you think you are tough enough! I am going to hold off on pouring the alcohol until around 2:00 or 3:00 each day. That way you can participate in the physical events soberly. There will be a handful of us non drinkers there whose job it will be to make fun of, and take photos of those drinking once you start!
By signing up, you guys made today truly and honestly one of the greatest days of my life. Even before this thing begins it has been a huge success for me. That 50+ brilliant people are flying in from all over the world to come to this event literally brings tears to my eyes.
Whatever I can do to make this event amazing for you just ask. Me and my staff will work our tails off to give you the time of your life, and for you to leave smarter, with a new perspective, hopefully healthier, and ready to take on the world!
If you want to be on the waiting list just fire me an e-mail.
If you are coming, stay in touch, keep checking back on this blog, and get ready for the time of your life!
The newest ThinkTank attendee
What makes a more perfect combo than the most celebrated mixed martial arts trainer in the world and internet business geeks? The above plus one of the top professional mixed martial arts fighters in the world.
I would like to introduce you to the newest ThinkTank addition, Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout!
Sam is currently training hard with Coach Tompkins for a fight on October 18th in England at UFC 89 against Terry Etim a Brit, in the lightweight division. We are very fortunate to have him come out one month before such a big fight.
As you probably allready know, Coach Tompkins is also training the beloved Randy Couture who is going to be fighting for the heavyweight title of the world in two months, the weekend immediately after Pubcon.
Sam will be demonstrating some of their advanced moves for the ThinkTankers at the Sure Hits Fight Club on Saturday.
Don’t worry, Sam will be there to help you learn and make sure you have a successfull and safe lesson!
I don’t believe I have met Sam yet in person, but so far all the crew in the Couture Camp that I have met have been extremely nice to talk to and hang out with, except when you are in the ring with them. Then when the bell sounds, they are all business.
Again, I just have to repeat that it has been such a pleasure to get to become friends with so many of the crew associated with Randy Couture’s gym. Randy has hand selected an incredibly nice, and hard working crew of both fighters and staff. I truly enjoy my visits to their gym, and since day one have felt very welcome.
If you have never been there to visit, next time you are in Vegas give them a call and let them know you are one of my readers and you would like to take a mixed martial arts class or a private lesson, or even just a tour of the place.
The second you step in one of their professional rings and bounce on the floors you will feel tough as nails
until you face a worthy opponent.
Stay posted on this blog in the coming weeks and I predict you will hear about some fun taking place involving MMA fighters while we are all at Pubcon.
Here is a video about the pro class at the Xtreme Couture gym. I have watched this class take place, and it would blow your mind. These are the top fighters in the world training together. The instructor?, well that would be Coach Tompkins!
Then to get you in the mood for the SureHits FightClub at ThinkTank, just watch the video below. The first half is Mark Hominick. The second half of it is Sam Stout.
Make sure the wife isn’t in the room, and crank up the speakers.
When you are sitting on the beach tilt your drink toward the sponsors
A huge thank you to the sponsors of the ThinkTank.
None of them have asked for anything other than to be part of something new and amazing.
The donations have been very generous. There are amazingly more coming.
If you heard about what just got added to the ThinkTank today, and the prizes I just got for the winners of some of the contests, you just wouldn’t believe me.
So when you are sitting on your beach chair, staring off across the sea, and you look around and realize that there are no sponsor booths, no visible sponsors, and you forgot where you even were. Then some pretty girl hands you the best shrimp cocktail you ever ate that tastes like it just swam out of the ocean. Reach over and pick up your drink, look out into the clouds, raise your drink and give a wink and a nod to the sponsors! Then after this exausting exercise, slide back into your chair and relax.
Super Huge Thanks To Epic Advertising
Epic Advertising was speaking to Shoemoney and Shoe suggested that Epic speak to me about the ThinkTank. Epic is the parent company of Azoogle Ads, one of the powerhouses of affiliate advertising.
Michael Sprouse, the Chief marketing officer at Epic called me up and we spoke about the ThinkTank and about the Poker Tournament. They are super excited about the rather unique direction I have been taking with Internet Business events and they want to be a supporter.
All I can say is Wow! They really came through for us, and the event will be even better than it would have been otherwise. They didn’t ask for anything, other than just to be part of the event and to support it. No strings attached, no cheesey sales pitches, just some extra cash for the boys (and gals) to have fun with. Better meals, more fun events, super cool!
So, Thanks Michael and everyone else at Epic! We really, really, really appreciate it!
Shoemoney Win a Trip to the Purposeinc Think Tank Contest Entrants
These are all the entrants I have been able to find to the Shoemoney Win a trip and an entry to the Purposeinc ThinkTank contest. If you know of any other entries, just leave it in the comments.
To advise Shoemoney on the entrants I asked SEO, internet geek, and huge Shoemoney fan Corey Hammond to read the entrants and comment. Corey’s comments below each in italics!
My comments start with DK.
Corey- Sock Money has experience with web since early days and has a good story of how he has done things over years. These experiences are what he can offer ThinkTank. I think he would have an interesting perspective especially for managing things online.
DK – Long term experience. Has had some decent success. Fantastic name of his site. Ridiculous humor always gains points in my book.
Corey- Badi has a strong background in programming and has been learning SEO over the last few years. He brings these skills to the table along with a desire to help and learn. I liked how he tied in his experience plus what he had to offer.
DK – Experienced guy, upbeat, positive, I would love to see him at the ThinkTank. Plus he wears a hat in his pictures.
Bryn Youngblut
Corey- Bryn started online gamer who ended up being a moderator for a gaming forum. From there, he made connections that led to building his own site about Diablo 2. I think he has potential since he has an early start but I think he could work on making himself stand out above the others for what he has to offer.
DK – Tons of potential. I am sure he will end up a big success.
Corey- Nicholas seems like a nice guy. He offers his time at the event and offers to help others once he learns. He did a “top ten” list of the things he would do that was not done by anyone else.
DK – I am guessing by his post that his experience is still a bit light. If I were in his position and wanted to win, I would have written the exact same post. Those are all the things I want to see with someone who is going to help others.
Corey- Steven seems eager to learn. He has ideas to bring to the table like one for an affiliate plugin for WordPress. I think Steven has a good idea that could be big and he just needs to develop the idea out more and show what he personally has to offer.
DK – Steven is off to a great start. Obviously a motivated individual. Putting in his time writing creative articles. Honestly assesses himself as not being able to contribute much to the other attendees.
Corey- CPA Pimp has an idea of creating a local networking group of SEMs. It already exists to some point but that is what he offers up. I think he has a really good start to his idea and could explain more about what sets himself apart more.
DK – Good creative writing. Great domain!
Deserving Winner -Corey really liked this one.
Corey- Debbie bought a domain just for this contest. She takes a great angle on being new but having stuff to offer like a drive, ambition, etc. I really liked the energy from this post and the eagerness to contribute.
DK – Upbeat, nice, loved the theme, and sounds like a lovely person.
Corey- Tom seems like he has a good sense of humor, especially since he wears a furry hat everywhere. If he won, he would bring his experience of affiliate marketing to share with the group. It sounds like he would want to help others and everything but I would have liked to see how exactly he would help others with what he knows.
DK – Total nut. Love IT! He is one of the few people who applied who I remember having heard of before. Why? Totally catchy title and name. How can you forget “Furry Hat Guy” once you hear it? From his blog, I still don’t know if has been successful online. He has created a brand, and name recognition on the Internet, and that is very impressive. If he comes, the hat might get a little soggy in the ocean and in the pool.
Corey- Ashley has a good knowledge base it seems. He gives a lot of information on his background and experience as what he can offer ThinkTank. One unique thing about Ashley would be the screenwriter background.
DK – Ashley has produced and written a few movies. Nice. She has some real solid experience, and has built a fair number of sites. She is not afraid of digging into new areas on the web. Has some solid experience working with brick and mortar businesses.
Corey- Loganet has a blog about his big ideas. These ideas are what can be brought to the group and shared. I think some of these ideas could be good but he just needs to show what he would bring to the table a little better.
DK – Nice guy getting into internet marketing for the first time. Offers up some creative ideas.
Marketing Safari – DK gives a high recommendation for this one.
Corey- Hjörtur seems to have a good sense of humor. A unique thing that stood out about him is that he is an anthropologist so he offered up his perspective on the future of the internet, business, and society combined. I think it would be interesting but needs more detail on how it would be a benefit to everyone.
DK – This one may be my favorite. Hjortor is from Iceland, and in fact still lives there. I was so interested in his entry and site that I read on. I even was interested enough that I emailed back and forth a bit. He has a very broad and global perspective. He is very interested in Social issues as well as just making money. I think his cultural perspective will be a bit different than the rest of us, and will have ideas that will spark conversation. I also think he may be able to let us look at our own enterprises in unique ways. The place is fricken dark and cold all winter, so they have plenty of time to think. But then again, so is Nebraska. Hmmm…
Adbotic – Corey really liked this one.
Corey- I think his name is Justin and he wrote a good post. He talks about not having much but has a great attitude, optimism, and drive. I really liked how he described what he has to offer and the emotion it seemed to have behind it.
DK – His opening title, Shoemoney and Adbotic = BFF? Hopefully, had me in stitches. Sounds like a fairly experienced (definitely on his way) just a really good guy. I am sure everyone would enjoy hanging out with him.
Hedges House -Corey really liked this one. DK gives a big recommendation on this one!
Corey- Chris has a sense of humor. He also has some good experience online and some with big companies. He has even challenged Shoe to a drinking content and I just liked the experience he conveyed and how he carried himself in the post.
DK – Chris’s main page has this quote, “”All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke. Good start. His experience he states is very deep. It sounds like he has experiences that very well could help many of the thinktankers. Would love to see this guy at the event. He is another one of my favorites.
Curious Pursuit -Corey really liked this one
Corey- Curious Pursuit has some experience already with what looks to be a successful online stroller site. He also says he is a strong DD because he doesn’t drink. He carried himself well with the post and I felt like he would contribute well.
DK – Sounds like he has quite a bit of experience. Has a fantastic site, Stroller Depot. Where have I seen that site before? A good hard working guy. Has four kids, and three of them are triplets age 6. Sounds like someone who would be able to offer some insight, and who the other ThinkTankers could help a ton.
A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
Corey- Mary seems like she has a good understanding of business with 30 years of experience behind her. She has some projects that she is working on and wants to learn more about SEO. I would have liked to see more description about her what sets her apart.
DK – I am almost recommending her because she is so positive and trying too hard. At first I missed her site because I thought it was just a guy posing as a nice girl and then serving up spam when you went to the site. She e-mailed me and pleaded that her site was missed. I commented that when I went there all I saw were adds and could not find any content. I was just there, and suddenly the content is way back up at the top of the page. She obviously can learn and implement quickly. If she is not at the ThinkTank, I am sure she will figure out a path to success. She is definitely on the move!
Code Squeeze -Corey really liked this one.
Corey- Max took a completely different spin on his submission and did video. He offers up 5 tips right off the bat to everyone and has good sense of humor. I thought it was really creative of him to spend his post mostly giving to others and the video was something no one else did.
DK – He has some good video tips. In fact that Amazon one is worth watching the video for all of you. Sounds like a clever guy with some good insight.
Corey- She seems like has good knowledge of SEO and the people in the industry. She has had successes with businesses both online and offline and would bring some other interesting things to ThinkTank. I think she would be a great contributor and has a very interesting list of things she would bring to ThinkTank.
DK – A very sad, and extremely hilarious entry. She has had some fantastic online success by hooking up with some brilliant people and following their advice. I am sure she would add to our event.
Corey- This person says that they have some experiece in business but do not really give too much detail. They also said they can provide their concierge service but it also doesn’t say what that includes. I think they need to clarify better what they are offering because it could be really good.
DK – Some good bait to what the future could hold. Definately some creativity there.
Corey- Kevin is a younger internet entrepreneur. He has some auto sites and is currently developing startasite.org. His goal is to help others start internet businesses of their own and seems to have a strong desire to help others.
DK – Sounds like he is already doing well. Writes about his idea to help others in the future. I get a sense he would be a great asset to the conference. Almost got my big thumbs up as a suggested winner. I would love to hear more about him.
Bunnies and Pamela_Lund – DK gives a high recommendation for this one.
DK – Jason gets two thumbs up from me for a few reasons. One he has some deep experience. He also gave us evidence of his experience instead of just telling us he was great and knew a lot. He also put together a more detailed page that showed he cared and was not just throwing something up really quickly. He also states one of his reasons he wants to come is to meet Pamela Lund instead of just seeing her on twitter. I like the fact that he is exposing his emotion, and weak spot.
Zac Johnson – DK gives a high recommendation for this one. (but dk is cheating because he allready knows Zac)
Corey- Zac previously attended Shoe’s Elite Retreat and gives a good description of ThinkTank to his readers. He would continue to network with everyone at ThinkTank and bring his willingness to help others make money online. I’m mixed with this post but feel he has some experience that would benefit the others attending.
DK – I am a little biased on this one. I had dinner with Zac at the Elite Retreat. He is a brilliant marketer, webmaster, and business guy. If you knew his revenue and how he did it, it would blog your mind. Obviously a good addition to the ThinkTank. He also put my picture up next to Neil, Andy, Aaron, and Shoe. Are you kidding me? That alone just changed my reputation forever! Thanks Zac!
DK – Gives some creative ideas of the world without Search Engines, and what the web could become.
Corey- Kevin is a fitness coach and personal trainer. Along with that, he has his own apparel line. He could offer the group training to stay fit at the computer and a unique opinion on things.
DK – Moses actually shows something of real value he can offer the ThinkTankers, Fitness Training. I applaud this approach. Moses sounds like a good, real guy who is working hard to make the world a better place. Moses, I highly recommend that you get your address of where you train somewhere that is easily seen on every page. I have a chiropractic office in La Jolla and immediately looked to see where you were at, and even with looking could not find it.
Corey- This entry was short and to the point. This entrant can bring his guts, creativity and willingness to the conference. I think this was a good start and some of the benefits were a little vague and just need to be explain a little more.
DK – Good Confidence. His site looks like a winner. His site appears to be for German workers. An international perspective can bring entirely new viewpoints. I would love to hear more about him.
Corey- CANNOT ATTEND, but posts anyways
DK – Thanks for entering!
DK- Nice Shot Ryan, just as the buzzer was going off!
More about what to expect at the ThinkTank
I got an e-mail from one of our attendees about the throw away idea event we are probably having. In it attendees will have a chance to throw away their million dollar ideas, that they know they will never have time to develop. Anyone in the room (or tent) is welcome to grab them.
The thing is, he asked about putting his ideas on power point slides. This got me to thinking. Other than Jeremy (Shoemoney) leaking some of the specific events I mentioned to him, I haven’t really let on much about what is going to take place.
So I better let a little bit of the cat out of the bag.
I love surprising people and making them happy. Either everyone will be happy as can be, or I may get roasted on a stake at the Sunday BBQ for making people fly half way around the world to come and have a lousy time!
There will be more details coming to the attendees. But don’t bring a tie. I actually have to get a suit next month for a wedding. Feel free to look super cool for the evening hangings out, but the majority of what we are going to do will be hanging out at very casual places.
At no time during the event, unless you wander off by yourself, will anyone be entering a conference room.
I hope this doesn’t freak anyone out, but this is so far different from a Pubcon or an SES that it isn’t even funny. I literally started with a totally clean slate. I asked people what they wanted, and they said they wanted to connect with each other. That is what this event is based on. It is not based on speakers, it is not based on exibit areas, it is not based on name tags. If someone really freaks out, and needs it I can set up a room with folding metal chairs, where they can watch Matt Cutt’s youtube video on Alt tags for images.
Most of the areas we will be in don’t have power outlets or internet access. A lot of it even gets lousy cell phone service. You will be roughing it! Other than the fact that there will be tons of great food and an open bar for much of it!
Speaking of Alt tags I just had an interesting conversation.
SEO Intelligence is one of the ThinkTank Sponsors. Jeremy Hermanns is a great friend and owner of the company.
and No, this is not a paid write up.
I have been using Jeremy’s cool tool SEOIntelligence, which is actually a collection of many tools. The more I play with it, the more I realize how deep it drills down into the data. I needed advice about how to use some of the advanced features of his tool on another site. So he was going through step by step with me on the phone about this site, Purposeinc.com
We got to the point about alt tags for the images. I knew I had nailed that, since I always enter them on wordpress. But his program said that many of them were not there. I was sure I always entered them. Sure enough, when I checked the site, many of them show missing or in error. So something must be wrong in either wordpress, my database, or something in that area. I need to go check it out! If anyone has any ideas let me know!
It would have taken me a long time to go through and check all those alt tags, but his site did it for me instantly. He also pointed out things like my title tags and metadescription missing. ooops!
The site also keeps track of your page rank, your rankings in all the major engines, and where you are compared to your competitors for various keywords. The cool thing is that it doesn’t just give you data, but suggests what you need to do to fix it. When you are done it gives you an IQ score, much like a standardized IQ test. One thing I dug was the fact that it told me the grade level of the English on this site. It told me my site is like written on an 11th grade level man!
This is a very simple online service with a lot of punch.
I found write ups by Tyler and Zac about this tool.
I bet someone could do nothing more complicated than buy this tool, find businesses with websites that are not doing too well, print the report off the SEO Intelligence screen and show them what needs to be done. Then by simply improving the items on the report, things like alt tage, links, meta descriptions, the site will do better in the Serps.
This is especially important to me because since Shoemoney started writing about the ThinkTank, I have had tons of people writing me wanting to know if they can come. The problem is, that the majority of these people just don’t qualify. They are hard working, motivated and often very bright, but have very little experience.
So for all of you who I have been hearing from who want to MAKE MONEY ONLINE (bold added for humor), this is a perfect way to get started. You may not make a million dollars your first year online, but I would think someone would be able to make enough to survive following the above. No promises, but just an idea. You would need very basic understanding of html, and the ability to ftp files, and maybe the skill to do a wordpress install. You can also do what Neil Patel did when he started and get a dead end job to make enough money to hire a web designer until you can learn how to do it yourself.
I just had a nice real estate woman from Washington write me today who has all the right intentions, but just not the experience. I told her, if I was in her shoes, I would go and sign up at two sites, both very, very, very inexpensive. One of them is Aaron’s SEOBook site which has an amazingly simple step by step system for teaching the basics of internet SEO and marketing. Fundamentals always win by the way. I also told her to sign up for Jeremy Hermanns SEOIntelligence to watch and evaluate her sites. If you are running into trouble learning, then shoot me and e-mail and I will show you what to do about that.
I also told her that I thought instead of her spending $2500 to come to the ThinkTank, and then another $2500 for travel and hotel, that $5000 could be spent on their tools. She would still have enough money left over to buy a decent domain name, and hire a killer site designer to put a wordpress site up.
Note – I threw on no-follow tags to the SEO Intelligence link just since they are a paid sponsor of the event, and didn’t want there to be any confusion.
The Social Part of Social Media
Listening to Punkrocker by German Band PunkRokerz (would someone get them a website?) while I am writing this. (Scroll down to the last song in their list)
This has been a very fortunate and exciting week.
First off Shoe announced his banging contest for someone to win to go to the ThinkTank.
I then watched as the post shot to the top of Sphinn in what someone said was record time.
Then I watched as the post was removed from Sphinn by a guy named, seriously, Evil Green Monkey. Is that made for an Angelina Jolie and Keaneu Reeves movie or what?
Also, I discovered that when we are hanging by the actual beach in Del Mar they have crappy EDGE signals, and I am sure not 3G. You will be able to get phone calls and text, but not much else. The whole city of Del Mar is like this. The hotel does have excellent Wi-Fi per my tests so far, so when you are in your room, or when hanging out in the hotel lobby, Wi-fi is ready to roll!
While all of this was going on I got numerous requests for invites to the ThinkTank. Some of them from mind blowingly competent, successful and amazing people, and some from those working on becoming that way
I also got some cool requests from people and companies who want to be sponsors.
Some of these we will not be working with. Also, the ThinkTank is bulging at the seems. We will be cutting off entries very soon. My apologies to those I already said no to.
One sponsor and attendee that I could not possibly say no to is friend Cameron Olthuis, who e-mailed me and asked if I would accept a sponsorship that would also cover surfing lessons for all of the attendees. Are you kidding me? Practically every Friday, Saturday and Sunday you will find me at La Jolla shores surfing somewhere between brilliantly and what is known as a toad. I have wanted to have surfing lessons at the ThinkTank, but will be pretty busy myself those days, and wouldn’t trust that job to most people Cameron is going to get together some of his bros in the area that have taught surfing to disabled veterans in the past, and see if we can get some Internet Geeks to shoot some curl!
One of Cameron’s companies, which profiles surfing, skating (Think Dog Town and Z Boys not Blades of Glory), and snowboarding is the official sponsor. Anyone who is close to me knows my history with what are now called Extreme Sports. When I was a kid my life ran parallel and bumped into the Dog Town and Z Boys story. Basically I was a rat who skated peoples pools in their back yards, skated the empty banks and drainage ditches of L.A. and sometimes got in trouble as a result. I also was a professional skimboarder, an ocean Lifeguard in Laguna beach and to this day love the ocean so much it hurts. I have won a lot at extreme sports and lost a lot, not in financial terms but in status, ability, and self esteem. So I am STOKED to have this as part of the ThinkTank. If you are not an athlete, don’t want to be seen in a bathing suit, or are terrified of sharks, don’t worry, you can sit in a comfy chair on the beach with a drink in your hand and watch the action.
In the midst of the action, I was also super excited to see an e-mail from Sean at SEMJ.org
The first news was that in addition to being a sponsor of the Purposeinc ThinkTank they are putting up $500 spending money to the winner of Shoeomoney’s contest. Also, for the uber geeky like myself Sean and Shannon, want you to sign up and get the first scientific journal about internet marketing, business, SEO and the like. They answer questions like, Will you really make money online in 30 days or not Seriously the journal is taking on the huge dragon of what actually is truth vs. fantasy online. What works, what doesn’t? Let’s get some numbers and proof behind it. Then Google will change the algo, and get rid of browsers. SEMJ.org is positioning itself, not to be the cutting news source, but to be the publishers of truth as opposed to speculation. If you want to sign up, go to SEMJ.org registration page and use code SEMJ08 to get 40 bucks off the usual $129 price. Trust me I am all about bling, but numbers and truth are always behind it.
Also SEMJ.org wants anyone who can put sentences together in a coherent fashion to suggest or submit articles for the journal. My personal feel is that initially the scientific bar will be a little lower to get in at the beginning, and then later it will be harder and harder to be accepted. So here may be your one chance to look like a scientist!
The post is really over at this point, and I honestly wish you wouldn’t read the next part. It is totally self serving, bragging, not really totally true, and me simply indulging myself after a few years of hard work.
So honestly, please don’t read the last part.
I know Alexa data is not accurate. Techi people who know more about such things than I do tell me that only some users effect Alexa, so it is far off from being accurate. But….
I still indulge myself and compare my site against other sites I think are important. The two sites I check the most are Matt Cutts and Shoemoney’s. They are both my heros for totally different reason. If there was a Shoelett fan club I would join it. I already have Matt Cutts face tattooed on my arm. I love these guys to pieces because both of them have helped me wayyyyy beyond what was necessary. Literally brings me to tears, no joke.
So here is my little indulgence. After Shoemoney wrote his post about the ThinkTank it has sent over a ton of traffic. Then all of the Shoe Minion (of which I am one) wrote posts about the ThinkTank. This just caused a ton of traffic. Notice by the way, it came totally separate from any search engines. I forgot I told you not to read this, so I am probably just yacking to myself!
Well, anyway, here are the images from Alexa when I compared purposeinc.com to Shoemoney.com and MattCutts.com
I’ll enjoy the view from here just for a brief moment.
The red arrow points to where purposeinc.com traffic is according to Alexa.
This is the detail. Maybe 4X as much traffic as the other two sites? according to Alexa which I don’t trust.
So sponsors, I hope you feel you are getting good exposure.
Advertisers, this gives you a good idea of what Shoemoney can do. That’s a hell of a lot of power!
Thanks Matt, Thanks Shoe for everything you two have done for me!
Now why the title? Well, it is just that the real power of doing well online comes from those you know. It comes from the relationships you form online, at conferences, and at work. The only reason I am having any success at this is because of the people I know. Other than chasing Evil Green Monkey over at Sphinn today, I am usually a very nice person to almost everyone (except the bad guys).
I really do love the internet, and love the people associated with it. Stefan, Danny, Matt, Pam, Neil, Shoe, and the rest, Thanks!
I’ll just bask in my little success sunshine for a minute, but then i have to get back to work. I have guests arriving!
Shoes Sphinn was desphunn, now Sphinn it back!
Yesterday Shoemoney wrote a post about a $4000 giveaway for someone to win a free trip to the PurposeInc ThinkTank in San Diego. Airfare, hotel, food, blah, blah, blah.
Bitchen huh? Brilliant marketing? Gonna get ton’s of links, even though he states that he doesn’t give a crap about the links. I even wanted to enter, and I’m throwing the damn event!
It is a great example of SEO, SEM, Link Bait, viral, social, everything all mixed together! Perfect marketing if you ask me.
In full disclosure I must say that I logged into my wife’s Sphinn account and asked if I could Sphinn Shoe’s blog, which she had read, and she said yes.
I can’t remember the exact statistics, but I believe it set some kind of record in going hot perhaps faster than any other article in Sphinn ever has. Brilliant.
Did this benefit me at Purpose Inc? Absolutely!! Getting lots of requests from people to sign up and to sponsor, so huge thanks to Shoemoney for his post.
So why did it get removed from Sphinn?
I asked around behind the scenes with some of the Sphinn crew.
I believe the guy who took it down is EvilGreenMonky. Shoemoney suggested this, and I thought Shoe was just making fun of the guy who took it down, but according to an e-mail from Danny Sullivan, creator of Sphinn, he really goes by Evil Green Monkey.
It appears that Danny, according to Danny, was not at the helm at the time, and had no idea about what happened.
Nick Wilsdon, one of the nicest people you will ever meet (see I even linked to him), was involved on the comments of the Sphinn, stating that he didn’t think this article should be Sphunn.
Now was this right?
So I started my analysis of the Sphinn News Story Submission Guidelines.
“must be related to search, social media, search marketing and internet marketing per our categories or subcategories”
It totally was related to all of those points.
It had SEO value, involved social media (Sphinn) and the social media value of a blog itself. It will get his site to show up for “contests” and “ThinkTank” so it has SEO value, and it is internet marketing par excellance!
I believed someone claimed on the comments that it was too self promotional.
Well the Sphinn Guidelines say, “In fact, we’d rather you directly submit your own stories you think are of interest to the community than have someone do it for you.”
“Give your topic submission a good title and description”
Oh he did that all right. Good enough that people got it and sphunn it like crazy. I believe the title was simply the name of the post, Come To The SEO ThinkTank 2008 On Me. By the way, it is not an SEO Think Tank, but an Internet Business Think Tank, but come on, am I going to complain about that? Hell no!
“Please submit only content in English” Surprisingly enough, Shoemoney hit this target dead on. The English looked superb
Then Danny wrote a post about the common sense law,
“I like that approach. Rather than craft a billion rules on exactly how many things you can submit and so on, just use common sense.”
So let me think… a post by one of the most famous internet marketers and business people in the world, (whether you love him or hate him you have to admit that’s true!), announcing a contest that is full of SEO’s, SEM’s PPCers, Affiliates, Domainers, etc. etc. etc., including people like Neil Patel, the Mad Hat, and Aaaron Wahl as well as dozens more brilliant people in the internet business world, which is a brilliant piece of internet marketing, well executed and proven by how fast it went hot on Sphinn, should be removed?
Come on! There must be something more to it than that.
I wrote a story about how a guy gave me brownies and he got some promo value out of it, that went hot. Is it really any different, or is it simply that I am such a White Hat nice guy, and Shoe is…well…Shoe.
“We’ll also pull things that have gone Hot if we think there’s some issue (way off topic for the site; potential voting spam or other reasons where common sense would tell you something’s not right). If we pull, we’ll try to keep you or the community informed by posting in what’s removed if possible”
Honestly, I still don’t know exactly why the post was pulled.
Also this quote,
“Those spammers (I joke before we could call them sphinncters) know why they were pulled.”
just has to be repeated because it is funny. J
Finally, this is a social media site. I understand that the rules are all being defined as this is a new area. But isn’t social media, by its very essence, something where the mob rules? If this mob wants to see Matt Cutts and Danny Sullivan caught taking Square Dance lessons, then that is when someone gets that on video, the social mob brings it to everyone elses attention.
So when an article get’s written by a world famous internet marketer, about a contest to go to a fancy shmancy internet marketing event, and a bunch (was it 70?) of internet marketer types vote that it is the thang within an hour or two, is that not the very core of what the site is about? Or is it simply one persons opinion of what they like or don’t like.
Mr. EvilGreenMonkey has not alerted me yet as to why it was taken down over 24 hours since it took place. I would loooooove to hear the rationale.
Danny e-mailed me back, and said he thought this discussion would be good to bring out into the open. Nick is so fricken nice, after saying he thought the post should be taken down, he blogged about the ThinkTank. Nick Stop being nice! I am trying to generate a little controversy over here!
So I love everyone involved, except I still don’t know who EvilGreenMonkey is?
Please Sphinn the bajeebus out of this post, twitter it if you can, and most importantly leave a comment on sphinn about it.
I personally want to see Shoemoney’s sphinn put back up, unless someone can show me somewhere that he violated the rules, especially the common sense rule.
By the way, people can de-sphinn something at Sphinn. If it was not liked by the community, it could have been taken down.
So please comment here on Sphinn! and demand Shoemoney’s sphinn be reinstated!
Money on Top of the $hoemoney for the contest winner
Shoemoney’s contest just took on a life of it’s own.
I got this letter from the Professor. (Sean of SEMJ.org, the first scientific journal about internet business.)
SEMJ.org is allready a major sponsor of the event. They are much cooler than any other scientific journal I ever studied before (check out their marketing director). Here is the letter from Sean.
Dear DK
Great Job! You guys are very creative. We are glad to be sponsors of this event.
Here is why we are going….
1. You will be a great host. That’s for sure!
2. We will meet some great people.
3. It will be a nice break from all these big conferences.
4. We like to learn as well as teach.
5. My back hurts from too much stess 
We would never try to “outdo” the honorable ShoeMoney but to kick in for this contest SEMJ.org will give out an extra $500.00 for spending money at the conference.
Shoemoney forgot that the person might be broke and needs to have some fun while he/she is in San Diego:) We will bring the check down and insert the winners name!
Maybe we will inspire some more donations!
Good Luck!
Sean
Looks like the contest just got bigger.
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