Internet Events, Facebook Advertising, Internet Marketing and SEO

The internet conference world is changing right now. Changing so fast in fact that if the big conferences don’t change along with it, they may see some decreasing numbers coming up.

The future leader of Internet Conferences

All of the below fall under the category of R.I.S. R.I.S. is the industry you are in. I am promoting its use now. It stands for Random Internet Stuff, or the S. can stand for something else instead

matt reider in blue, the originator of the term RIS

Pubcon is my original home, so I will be back in Vegas next year. Gotta have the poker tournament right?

Personally I can not stand sitting still in a conference hall listening to someone yack at me for hour after hour. As we all know, the real gains take place sitting on a lounge chair, or standing until your feet bleed, nose to nose with some guy you never met before who is the first person you ever came across who solved that problem you have been working on for 6 months now.

I had that experience at Pubcon at least 5 times this trip, and it never took place during a session. In fact the session I did got rave reviews, and I was told by many people it was the best session they attended at Pubcon. The reason it worked so well, was that I didn’t talk! I got everyone out of their seats and interacting with each other to the point that the moderator lost control of the room, har dee har har!

Well, here is a list of events that have captured my imagination coming up in the upcoming year. The core thread between all of them is the informality, and the freedom they give the attendees. If your event is that cool, and it is not on the list, send me an e-mail and I will consider it!

In no particular order!

Elite Retreat! I think there are something like 6 seats left, and I expect it to sell out within the next few weeks, maybe even a few hours after I write this! The reason the Elite Retreat rocks is that the speakers and attendees are chosen based on their knowledge and success. I helped in the running of the event last year, and get to help again this year. (I get 0 pay by the way as I do it just to help Jeremy). Last year just for the coversation I got to hear between Dave Dellanave, Jeremy’s (Shoemoney) right hand and a fricken amazing programmer!, Neil Patel, and Andy Liu, it would have been worth spending $10,000. Also the fact that Neil Patel has now become a very close friend and business adviser as a result of the Elite Retreat make the events long term worth more like $100k for me (Thanks bros!)

Now for those of you who live in countries where online gaming is allowed, there is CAP. Arjun Jolly is deserving of his name and is an intelligent, warm, and generous guy who along with the rest of his crew runs Casino Affiliate Programs. The reason I am writing about this event is not because I think you should participate in online gaming, but because they really know how to run a show! Their show is coming up in London, and is legendary. It sounds to me that even though they have world class speakers, some of which you won’t hear at any of the U.S. shows, they also really know how to hold networking events. One good friend of mine told me a story of girls covered in nothing but gold paint, and then he was spotted later with lots of gold paint on his hands! The event is January 29th to Feb. 1, 2009. I know a little bit of the behind the scenes on this one, and I expect it to be a party not to be missed!

Scary SEO! I hope David holds this again in October around Halloween again in Florida. I missed it, but those who went said it was an incredibly casual, fun, and friendly event. I predict next year will be much bigger. It also gave people like Pamela Lund, a still mostly undiscovered genius at SEO, a chance to speak. Amazingly it was Pam’s first speaking gig in our industry.

Octoberfest with Marcus Tandler. I am actually sad I did not go to this one. Marcus is the warmest, most brilliant, nicest, and most positive guy. I think he may tie me and Rand Fiskin as the most positive guy in our industry. Again he had some brilliant people there, and got them to wear lederhosen! This was a very small event with around 8 speakers including Brent Csutoras and Greg Boser and 8 attendees and those who went told me it was the most fun they ever had.

Men in shorts.

There are a lot of superlatives in the events described above, but each one deserves them.

The funny thing is that even though I am friends with both Marcus and Arjun we ended up stupidly holding the CAP event, the ThinkTank in San Diego and Octoberfest in Germany all on the same weekend! Maybe if we are a bit smarter this year, we can have them different weekends!

What is funny as any of you who know me know, I don’t usually drink, (the past 20 years of drinking would not even fill a small cup) and I don’t usually gamble. That’s not to say I didn’t get to enjoy sharing a sip of Louis the XIII at Pubcon with Boser, Tony Adams, and Oilman. I have just snuck myself into this industry full of raucous drinking and gambling so I can set an example. So when you see me, join me for a drink, or better yet, buy me a virgin mojido!

Oh yeh before I sign off I should plug my own stuff. We will definatelly be having the ThinkTank in San Diego at the end of summer, Marcus? Arjun? can we coordinate dates? There will be the poker tournament at Pubcon pluse more of our fun events. I will also be discussing in the next week, with a very big player in the industry the possibility of us branching out with an even bigger event/conference/party, focusing on a sub industry of the RIS world. We’ll see what happens. You can definitely catch me at the Elite Retreat, and maybe will be going to Affiliate Summit, possibly with one or two of my posse.

The posse, ignore the guys in the pic. Left to right Cobra, Whiteshorts and Hotwheelz.

If all the text below makes you dizzy, follow the upcoming link to see pictures of your internet friends drinking with hot girls.

Summary of below:  Buy a Mac.

I am by no means a hard core programmer, but I have been using computers since you needed punch cards to enter the data. (pre-keyboards).

I bought my first PC around 1990, an IBM XT clone, then an AT, and then it seemed I got a new computer every year or more often.

It got to the most bizare crazy strange point when I decided I was sick of my computer crashing constantly, so I bought a brand new Dell, and then with the usual business needs whizzing toward me at a gazillion miles per hour, my new computer would not work, and I ended up on hold for over and hour, then to talk to a guy in who I couldn’t understand, only to have to send in my brand new computer.

Even after that I suffered through a few more PC’s. I got sick of my computer crashing constantly, and always needing to reboot which took three or four minutes.

I posted a thread at webmasterworld asking what people thought of alternating two machines, moving my data back and forth, and re-formating the hard drive each time and re-installing windows.

After the thread made the front page of Webmaster World, and the banter had gone on a bit, the Mac guys started speaking up. Their comments often went like this.

“Or just use a Mac”

At first I just dismissed their comments because real programmers don’t use Macs or Macs are more for artists or people learning computers. I am a real computer geek so need a real computer that can do complicated things! Like crash.

Then someone mentioned that a Mac has at its core a Linux type operating system. I knew that Matt Cutts used a Linux box, so I started investigating. Shoemoney told me that he uses a Mac. Then I started noticing that most of the guys I know, who are really in the know, use Macs.

So I went to the Mac store and got an Airbook.

I ran into a real snag trying to get it to run Windows, so left it sitting on the dinning room table for a few months.

Recently Outlook crashed and crashed hard. Apparantly the file size had gotten too big, but Windows would not let me open it to delete anything inside. After about 8 hours or work, I was able to figure out a way to handle the file. That was it, 8 hours wasted, “See ya Bill!”

Instead of trying to use Windows inside of my Mac, I just went to the Apple store a half mile from my house. When was the last time you went to a Windows store? I just bought the Mac version of all of the software I use. F the costs, let’s just get a machine that works.

The learning curve was a little painful. It has now been almost two months since I made the switch. The only programs that didn’t work easily were parallels, which was simply complicated to install windows inside of, and the Apple version of Excel called numbers. That program is beutiful with the graphics, but even with simple spreadsheets it can hang up and take 30 seconds to copy a set of cells from one place to another. So I ended up sucking it up and buying Office for home and students which works just great.

On average I bet I am getting well over 30% more done now on my computer, simply because I am not constantly fixing things. It may even be double what I used to.

You know how you will get a question about Windows and then spend the next 2 hours searching, and still never get it fixed, so you come up with some complicated work around using a freeware program you get on two cows? With Mac if I don’t know how to do something, I get on my bike with my Airbook in my backpack, and roll over to the Apple store. Some 22 year old kid with a mohawk and a pierced lip will smile at me and say, “Hi! Welcome to the Apple store”. I then bust out my Airbook, show him the problem, (It may be a girl with a pierced lip and eyebrow also), and then they say, here, just click on the Apple icon and then hold down the command key and press the smiley face! Then it works. In the words of Marcus Tandler that I have stolen lately, “Wow!”.

They have a genius bar that you can schedule an appointment for at no cost, and bring your problems to also. They got sick of me bringing so many problems there, so I was asked to sign up for one on one training. It costs $100 and you can get an apple geek an hour a week for a year to teach you private lessons on anything with an apple logo on it. I did manage to stump the guy on a few more advanced questions, but on my first lesson yesterday I covered so much material so fast in the same amount of time I would have been on hold waiting for someone at Dell to pick up.

One other amazing example is that I have decommissioned a few of my Windows computers the last few weeks. Removing a program in Windows requires opening a program to do so, waiting for it to populate removable programs, selecting one and waiting while the uninstall program for that program opens, then you click through removal options, only to wait while it tries to uninstall the program. Then you are greeted with an option of some of the files being shared and you can delete them if you want, but it warns you may crash another program in the future. Then when you are all done, it lists the files it was unable to delete because they were locked. And god only knows what still lurks in the windows registry when you are done that will crash your system in the future.

Want to uninstall a program in Mac? Click on the program. Hold down the Command key, and press delete.

I don’t know where Apple stock is at the moment, but I predict that in the coming decade they will dominate the market and it is too late for Microsoft to do anything about it.

Those were the words that Coach Tompkins said to me after the fight.

During the fight, the crowd kept breaking into spontaneous, RANDY!, RANDY!, RANDY! RANDY! chants. When Randy went down the last time, I started a lead of that chant, but my words ended up getting stuck in a lump in my throat.

Yeh, I got a knot in my stomach when Brock was pounding on Randy’s head, and a tear in my eye when the ref called the fight.

Three minutes later after taking a beating that would have sent me to the hospital or killed me, Randy was up, a smile on his face, a twinkle in his eye, thanking the crowd for their huge support, and making jokes about the fact that Brock is just, well, big! and that he could see those big ham hocks coming toward him!

Randy is a year older than me. How can I ever dare complain about anything or make an excuse about anything with him around?

He is a true champ, and I am so proud to be associated with him, his family, his coach, and his team!

I’ve never seen an individual who so deserves the name of champ. No matter what, Randy will always be the heavyweight champion of the world.

Congratulations to Brock for accomplishing the impossible. You have to give the guy credit, and a bow of respect for fighting and beating the unbeatable Randy.

My wife bought me tickets for my Christmas present, and even with the loss, it was one of the great nights of my life.

Here are pics from Thursday, two days before the fight, and from the fight itself.

Dave Dellanave meeting Randy the day before the fight.

Dave Dellanave met Ryan Couture, Randy's son.

Shoemoney remembers an old story with Frank Trigg that can not be told here

Dave Dellanave, Vinny and Junie from the Ultimate Fighter

Dellanave Shoemoney and dk watching the pros train.

Shoemoney Junie and Vinny

crowd couture fight

stadium crowd couture lesner

dk and wife jo at couture lesner fight

The fight was my Christmas present from my wife. Wow, what a fun Christmas present!

I ran into Joey Varner out in the lobby and bought him and his cute girlfriend drinks!

You can see Junie in the background with his hot girlfriend also!

I found Marcus Tandler (Mediadonnis) and Warren Jolly and their friend!

Randy entered the ring with my buddy Coach Tompkins right by his side.

After the fight me, Rae Hoffman (Sugarrae), and Marcus Tandler connected in the crowd.

For those of you who don’t know her, Sugarrae is a famous internet marketer, blogger and SEO.

jorunn and rob schneider

Me trying to get Rob to laugh!

I ran into Josh Haynes getting mobbed for photos, and invited him to have dinner with us.

We had laughs and tears with Josh that night. Great guy.

Mediadonnis, Josh Haynes and dk. What makes it even more strange and fun is that Josh used to be a computer engineer.

gina carano with dk purposeinc

Coach Tompkins (Shawn) texted me that they were all meeting at Studio 54 so I shot over, and ran into Gina, Sam Stone, Junie, and a bunch of the other pros waiting at the bar next to it.

We went into studio 54, (Thanks Kim for getting us in!), which was a total madhouse! The crowd loves Randy, and just can’t get enough of him. Sam Stout was there, and you can see all the fighters just love to see each other and hang out. A lot of them live out of Vegas, yet they are still Couture boys all the way. Shawn is like a father to many of them.

Then on the way out, we ran into Mike Whitehead who you can never miss in a crowd! He introduced me to the cowboy who almost was in our poker tourney.

Heath Herring with dk

We then walked for a few million miles until we found the valet. We ran into Martin Kampmann. I never knew he was from Denmark. He sounds like he comes from Chicago, and has only been in this country for two years. Like everyone in the Couture camp, he is an incredibly warm and nice guy! He busted out his Danish in response to my wife’s Norwegian.

Jorunn and Martin Kampmann

Then, back in San Diego, I was asked a couple of times by people today if Randy was going to retire now after that loss and his age. Each time I looked at them in disbelief and said, are you F-ing kidding me? He’s just getting started!

The poker tournament, just like last year was fantastic and fun. Even though it was a little bit of hard work behind the scenes the players and guests had way too much fun.

Thank you Venetian for stressing and strugling with me to pull off such an amazingly fun event!

We had a non stop party that rolled until 3:00 a.m. starting Thursday night and ending Friday morning!

There will be more about it later, but tonight (Saturday), bleary eyed coming home from the Couture party after the fight, I am going to post a few pics then go to sleep.

The oddest moment tonight, was that after the after fight party, sitting with Martin Kampmann the pro fighter, and my wife in the valet, we figured out that Martin was Danish and had only been in the country for 2 years. I told him he sounds like he is from Chicago, and then him and my wife spoke in Danish and Norwegian to each other!

Look here to see more of Thursday nights poker pics!

At studio 54 in vegas with coutures
Wow

Kenny florian just won.
Ran into shawn tompkins wife.
Saw and got a killer photo with marcus tandler and warren jolly. This way way fun!

Ran into junie and coach tompkins number two trainer.
Getting shot with multiple news crews while chit chatting.
Both have way hot girlfriends.
Hazelet and mccory about to start.

At mgm wahing first fight.
Marcus tanler hear somewhere.
Full house.Here with pretty wife Amazing energy.

My wife bought me tickets for X-mas present.

Just bought two pairs binoculars.

Know Mediadonis will be there.

Bringing chocolate!

How many times in your life do you get to go see the fight for the best fighter in the world, with your pretty wife, going to see great friends, and get invited to the “After Randy Wins!” party by his coach.

Thanks Shawn!

So excited I am going to pee in my pants.

This excitement brought to you by Shoemoney Tools! (Thanks Jeremy!)

It is 5:40 in the morning and I am about to go to sleep at the end of quite a week of Pubcon.

The saddest part of Pubcon is that it is over so quickly.

I feel like I wait all year for it, then it is a whorl wind of confeti, with great glimpses of beauty, and then with a breath it is gone.

I got to make an appearance with an x-treme Couture fighting outfit on, including gloves. We had pro fighter Mike Whitehead come out to play to represent the X-treme Couture GI foundation. Mike is an amazingly fun and loving guy, who is always ready with a joke, and a smile for the camera.

Every big name you could imagine came out, including Alex one of the two founders of Azoogle, and Ken CEO of Epiar. Alex creator of Easy Tweets played, and so did the BOTW team. Michael of Planet Chiropractic was on hand to keep an eye on things, and Master Shoemoney and his programmer Dill (See I am blogging every day now!), were deep into the game.

In a big upset Shoe got knocked out before the big table.

Brian Ree took home the first place cash prize as well as almost $1,000 worth of Chipotle certificates!

Ken Huffer took second place with his cash prize as well as almost $500 worth of Chipotle certificates.

Gary came in second place followed by my good friend Brian Chappell.

We had lots of of superstars stop by including Sugarrae.

I am happy to say that there were a lot more females playing and visiting since last year.

Thanks to the sponsors and the Venetian, we got an open bar for all the players that lasted into the morning. Especially with the economy a little out of breath, this was way above and beyond!

It must also be mentioned that Ken Jurino threatened to wear a bright orange Zoot Suit to the event. I thought he was joking, until I saw him in line wearing just that! He brought a matching hat for one of the models. There will be more pictures to follow.

Stay tuned for lots of pictures and talk from our trip to Pubcon.

My staff were a huge hit, with literally dozens and dozens of people taking the time to tell me how great my staff were and what a great job they did. Obviously people loved the models, including Kate!

I am allready looking forward to next year.

I am super grateful to our sponsors for giving us the chance to do this.

Much Love,

now off to sleep!

Roseanna, Mandy and Jenny! Thank you so much for giving one for the team. The three of you worked so long, and so hard, and did such a perfect job, that the three of you will probably be the most memorable part of Pubcon for many. You have been such a shinning example of how people should be, and are a shinning light to lead people out of any bad economic times that might hit us. You inspired, and brought smiles to many this week!