With what some would say is the pinnacle of American sports upon us, I want to ask you a question.

Do you have an SSP – Super (Bowl) Sunday Party – or do you prefer the quiet of watching the game at home?

While I am always up for a party, I would personally prefer to be holed away in a mountain cabin with that special someone enjoying a relaxing day and then tune in for the game. Particularly if my favorite team is playing in the big game.

Nothing can ruin the experience more than when your team is falling behind and that guy that barely knows the difference between football and futbol starts running his mouth that your team is terrible. That they have no chance to come back and win. Sorry, but I’m the only one that is allowed to criticize my team.

Unfortunately for me, being a fan of the Chicago Bears, I haven’t had too many opportunities to cheer for my team in the Super Bowl. As such, I don’t mind hosting or attending the big parties where the focus is less on the game and more on the experience.

For the game this year, I have to admit that I am more interested in some of the prop bets – such as how many times Archie Manning will be shown on camera – than I am in the game itself.

Not really being a fan of either team, I will say that I am pulling for the Indianapolis Colts to win even though they were the team that knocked off my Beloved Bears just a few years ago. With that being said, I won’t be terribly disappointed if the New Orleans Saints pull off the victory, although I imagine that hearing “Who ‘dat?” will get old really quick.

So what do you have planned for the weekend?

For me, as much as I’d like to be quietly enjoying my own SSP, it looks like that will have to wait for another time.

Wanted to send a quick note to let everyone know that Murray Newlands, who runs an affiliate marketing blog and also happens to be a finalist for the 2010 Best Blogger Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award, recently interviewed me and we talked a little shop.

Jump on over to Murray’s blog and check out my blog interview.

You’ll get to read a few of my newbie blogging tips, as well as things like what I am doing to improve the world, what I do that is green, and what is on my iPod.

Oh, and did you know the one thing about me that most people don’t know? You might if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile.

Read the interview.

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Before we close out the year 2009 and move on to the new adventures that lie ahead in 2010, I wanted to take a moment to send a quick thanks to all of the people that have been a part of my experiences in the last year. Without each of you it would not be nearly as much fun or special.

From a pure blogging perspective, there is no doubt that 2009 was an odd year for me. There were only 33 posts, including this one, over the course of the year and a handful of those were from other bloggers.

As many of you know, I took a step away from blogging in late January as I contemplated at what cost you should pursue your passion. It was certainly difficult to disconnect from something that had been such a big part of my daily life, and it didn’t automatically make everything else better.

More recently I have been trying to get a little more active on the blog to balance some of the behind the scenes work I’ve been doing for clients. The new blog design was created to help showcase my services as a WordPress consultant, or I should say ninja.

In between there was a blog birthday and a handful of new joint venture blogs that I have partnered on with Gail from GrowMap.

Honey?

The “honey” in the title of this post is a play on a phrase that has held a special meaning to me since I was a wee lad in school, and to this day my group of close friends that I’ve been with since those days will still toss the phrase around.

That brings me to an important point that I’d like everyone to focus on as we enter the new year; while the work we do and the goals we achieve are certainly important, it is the people we meet and the relationships we have that we will remember forever.

I’ve been extremely fortunate in that I’ve met people that have changed my life, some in ways that they likely never imagined. It is these people that make me smile on a regular basis and offer me more than I can ever hope to repay, to which I can simply offer a heartfelt thank you.

As everyone rings in the new year, please be safe and have fun! Think of the people that are close to you (and those that cannot be there with you as much as they might wish they could) as that is what is truly important.

Happy New Year!

Photo credit: Optical illusion

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Earlier this year I had the pleasure of visiting Barcelona, Spain for the first time.

Being in my early 30’s I am somewhat embarrassed to say that this was my first voyage outside of the United States – well, other than a trip to Canada when I bought my Harley and a trip to Mexico that I don’t remember. On top of this being my first true excursion on international soil, I was also traveling alone.

The Warning

Of the people I talked to prior to my trip that had visited Barcelona, one theme was common – beware of pick pockets!

One of my colleagues had just recently visited Barcelona with his wife and he shared a story about being at an outdoor market when he felt something. He looked down to see a woman with her hand stuffed into his shorts pocket as she was trying to swipe whatever she could find.

Bah, I’m Not Worried

Even though there were multiple people that shared stories of being the victim, or target, of pick pockets, I really wasn’t all that worried about it happening to me.

For some reason, I am often told that people find me intimidating (even though I honestly don’t understand it as I’m not much different than every other guy). Some find the shaved head intimidating. Some find the earrings and tattoos intimidating. Some find the goatee intimidating.

Whatever the reason, I let the perception that others have of me as a big, burly (isn’t that the nice way of saying overweight?) guy give me a false sense of confidence that nothing would happen.

The Last Night

After the conference had ended – yes, I was there for work – I extended my stay another day and a half to enjoy the history and tourist attractions. Throughout my stay, nothing had happened that would have given me reason to be concerned about being out late at night.

So as my last night was winding down, I decided to walk over to Port Olimpic for a late dinner. It was approximately 11:00pm as I strolled along the marina heading for the restaurant. There were two guys walking toward me; as they approached one of them extended a card to me for a local club.

I declined the offer and continued walking. Hearing my American accent, he figured he had a ripe target and turned to walk with me. As he talked to me, he put his arm on my shoulder and then he began to sing a song about Barcelona as he was kicking my leg, indicating it was some kind of dance or something.

This guy had crossed the line and I pushed him away from me. Instinctively I touched my back pocket just to check my wallet…and it was gone!

The guy lifted my wallet without me even feeling a thing. At this point I turned and yelled at him as I began to chase after him, which brings me to the best travel tip for your next trip to Barcelona.

The Dummy Wallet

With the multiple warnings about pick pockets in Barcelona, I decided to carry all of my cash, identification, and credit card in my front pocket. I didn’t stop there though, I emptied out an old wallet and carried it in my back pocket.

The empty, dummy wallet turned out to be a brilliant move.

The pick pocket that targeted me thought he lifted my wallet and was off with all of my cash, yet all he had was a wallet with a little pocket lint and nothing else – except me chasing after him. The funny thing is that when he realized it was empty, he stopped and threw it back at me thus ending my pursuit.

Why I was chasing after him for taking an empty wallet is beyond me – but the rush of adrenaline had me wanting that empty wallet back and I was ready to fight for it.

So, I can personally attest to the fact that pick pockets will target anyone and I can tell you that they are damn good at their craft – I didn’t feel a thing as this guy lifted my wallet.

But with a little bit of pre-planning, you will be strolling confidently through the streets of Barcelona with your belongings tucked safely in a front pocket or a zippered case hanging around your neck and the dummy wallet in your back pocket.

When a pick pocket tries to rip you off, you can laugh quietly as he darts away with your empty wallet (or you can chase after him for taking something that belongs to you, but I recommend the quiet laughter).

Hopefully this never happens to you, but if it does you will get the last laugh.

Photo credit: matiasjajaja

After years of cable service with Comcast, I recently reached the tipping point where the monthly bill had become far too ridiculous for what we were receiving.

Out With The Old

Sure, Comcast was flexible in that you could call up to complain every six months or so and they would throw you a teaser price tier for a few months. But after so long you begin to wonder why their long-term customers are shown such little love. It is unfortunate that companies spend so much effort on securing new customers and not making an effort to keep their existing customers – not exactly the type of good customer service that we like to see.

To be fair to Comcast, one area that they have truly excelled is their customer service on social media, in particular Twitter. For any existing Comcast customers, the next time you have a problem send a tweet to @ComcastCares, @ComcastDete, or @ComcastBonnie – each of which have helped me out a handful of times.

In With the New

Now, based on the title of this post you might think that I’ve become so fed up with the available choices that I’ve decided to launch my own cable or satellite service.

As cool as that might be, I haven’t come into an endless supply of money so instead I signed up for DirecTV (who also happens to be on Twitter @DirecTV). Many years ago I had DirecTV service and I can tell you that I never thought I would return to their customer database, but they made an offer that was difficult to pass up.

So here I am, enjoying my new DerekTV (credit for the name play goes to my “ich” brother @Derrich) and saving a nice chunk of money every month compared to what I was paying.

$100 For You…And Me

If you’ve found yourself paddling in the same boat of over-priced cable service and you’re looking to make a change, give me a shout and you can save yourself an extra $100.

DerekTV (that does have a nice ring to it, no?) has an offer of a $100 credit applied to your account when referred by an existing customer. In the spirit of full disclosure, the existing customer also receives a $100 credit to their account.

So far I’ve hit one snafu with DerekTV and that is that I missed a Chicago Blackhawks game aired on the Versus channel, as Comcast and DirecTV are in a pissing match over fees much like Comcast had recently with the NFL Network.

In my eyes, that is a small price to pay for the amount of money I am saving by switching over to DerekTV – and the availability of the Speed Channel on my package more than makes up for it.

Don’t forget – if you’re making the switch to DirecTV, get a referral from ME or someone else you know and save yourself an extra $100 on top of the other savings.

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As many of you know, the day after Thanksgiving, known by many as Black Friday, is the craziest shopping day of the year.

How crazy you ask?

Oh let’s see…

It is the type of crazy where people stampede one another trying to grab the last thingamabob on the shelf.

It is the type of crazy where people are skipping their Thanksgiving meals to camp outside of stores waiting for the chance to land the amazing “door buster” deal of the century, never mind the fact that the store usually only has one or two of these door buster products and there are 400 people all waiting to get their hands on it.

Now, do you want to wait in line with a bunch of loonies bargain hunters?

Or would you rather stay sound asleep on Friday morning, sleep off your turkey coma, and wake up satisfied knowing that you’ve still landed some amazing bargains?

Sleep In And Still Get Bargains

There is a reason that I have stayed snuggled under my covers (yes, that’s right – I am not afraid to say I snuggle under my covers) while my wife wakes up at some ungodly hour of the morning to plan her shopping attack (and no, it is not because I cannot physically move due to said turkey coma, well, not entirely anyways).

Sure, I love a great bargain like the next person but I’m not insane.

Rather than fight the crowds for one of those dumb Zhu Zhu Pets, which you’re not going to find anyways, stay in bed and take advantage of how some retailers, such as Amazon.com, are kicking off the craziest shopping “day” of the week early, in some cases as early as Monday.

New Deals All Week

Beginning on Monday, Amazon will have a special Black Friday sales page where they will be announcing amazing new deals every single day of the week.

The thing that I find interesting about what Amazon is doing is that they are supposedly searching for the best Black Friday deals everywhere and anywhere, so they can not only beat the competition’s prices but bring you the deals earlier in the week. New deals will be added throughout the day, each day of the week, so be sure to check often to see what is available.

Maybe you’re a glutton for punishment and want to endure the mob mentality of people shopping on Black Friday (the actual day, not the Black Friweek that I am coining this week-long event).

If so, knock yourself out.

Personally, I have a goal to wrap up my Christmas shopping by Wednesday evening using Amazon’s special Black Friday deals page so I can rest peacefully on Friday morning.

Who’s with me?

It is far too common that we read stories about horrific customer service experiences while the companies that provide outstanding customer service go unrecognized.

For those that have been around the blog for awhile, you will know that I have given recognition in the past and also offered suggestions on what one of my favorite companies, Southwest Airlines, could do to make me even happier (for the record, I’d like to think that they’ve listened as they now offer you a selection of three to four different snacks).

Awhile back we even discussed that the best way to earn repeat business is to go above and beyond the expectations of your customer.

Today I want to tell you about Terra Green Ceramics, a company that I feel has gone above and beyond when it comes to customer service.

The Background

Yes, it might be pure craziness to be taking on a home remodeling project during the holidays but my wife and I have decided the time has come to remodel our kitchen.

We have selected all of our products and everything has been moving along smoothly. Earlier today my wife stopped by the store to order the glass tile for our back splash, so I was shocked when I received a text message from her that indicated the tile we wanted was no longer available.

Poof!

Our well laid out plans were derailed. Now we’d have to pick out a new back splash…which might require the selection of a different counter to match…which then might not match the cabinets.

Ugh! I could see the snowball of changes coming as a result of this one small curveball and was ready to scrap the entire remodeling job. Sure that sounds drastic, but the thought did cross my mind even if only for a second.

Is it really unavailable?

After hearing the news that the tile was not available at this store, I decided to look up the company that makes the tile to see if we might be able to get it somewhere else.

At 11:42am I sent off an email to the Customer Service address listed on the Terra Green Ceramics website to inquire about the availability of this tile. The hope was that maybe the store we visited simply has stopped carrying this particular tile, not that the manufacturer has stopped making it completely.

Not expecting to hear anything for at least a day or two (best case scenario in most instances), I continued on with my business for the day.

Blown Away

Less than 15 minutes after sending my email, I had a response from Jennifer at Terra Green Ceramics. Jennifer indicated that the tile should still be available and she asked for clarification on the size of tile we desired.

Really? 15 minutes!

I was already impressed with the rapid response time to my inquiry, but Jennifer did not stop there.

Without me asking, she called the store that we had visited and spoke to the person that had actually helped my wife and explained things to him. She sent me back an email indicating that we should be able to return to the store and they would be able to help us out with our order.

Wow!

So not only did all of this take place within a span of roughly 30 minutes, but the response to my inquiry involved a call to the store we were shopping at so Jennifer could clarify things with the store. With what might seem like a small act on her part, Jennifer eliminated so much angst over having to completely redesign our kitchen plans (okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration).

About the only thing that could have made this experience even better is if Jennifer had told me that Terra Green wanted to go ahead and provide us with all of the glass tile we needed for our kitchen. Ahem, Jennifer…anything you can do there?

Giving Thanks Where Thanks Is Due

As I said earlier, often times these shining examples of customer service go unnoticed but I wanted to be sure that I took a moment of my time to thank Jennifer and Terra Green Ceramics for going above and beyond my expectations.

And guess what?

When it comes time to remodel our bathrooms, finish the basement, or any other possible job that could involve the use of tile, we will remember Terra Green Ceramics.

When we learn of a friend tackling a project in their home, we will not hesitate to recommend Terra Green Ceramics as a company that is a pleasure to do business with.

So, Jennifer, please accept my sincerest of thanks for taking the time to help us today. You might not have realized it at the time, but your actions provided much peace of mind that our kitchen remodeling job will proceed as planned with each of our preferred product selections.

To the people at Terra Green Ceramics, I certainly hope that you appreciate employees like Jennifer and give them their due recognition for doing their job extremely well.

Hopefully more companies recognize the value of quality customer service like this and take the steps necessary to earn the repeat business of their customers. Often times it is the small things that make people happy and remember your company the next time they need to make a purchase, not to mention getting people in the blogosphere and social media talking about you.

Photo credit: roland @ flickr.com

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When I recently decided to poke my head out from the shadows of writing code for a few clients, I decided it wasn’t enough to simply say hello.

That’s not the way I roll.

After talking about using the Thesis theme for WordPress for a few clients, which you can see in my portfolio at Red Staple Media, I decided it was time to eat my own dog food so to speak.

With so much of my time spent working on client sites, my poor little blog was left rockin’ the old design for far too long. Now it wasn’t that I didn’t like the old design, as a matter of fact you will notice that some of the design elements have been carried forward, but it was time to be Thesisized (I’ve got dibs on that word).

Wax On, Wax Off

Daniel-san had Mr. Miyagi to turn him into a bad ass fightin’ machine. Who do you have to turn your blog or business site into the type of site that will beat the competition down?

You’ve got me…the WordPress Ninja!

When Doug from Doug Draws recently provided me with the sweet avatar that you now can see up in the header, I began to think of how I could redesign this blog and I knew that had to be incorporated. While chatting with Doug the other day, he commented how I was like a ninja quickly helping with his WordPress questions.

So not only do I have Doug to thank for the avatar, but he helped come up with the new slogan as well. As this rebranding moves forward, I am looking forward to having an opportunity to work with Doug on new projects and suggest you check out his work if you need some help defining your brand.

WordPress and Thesis Help Is Here

Having a passion for writing code and helping people solve their technical dilemmas, I will be focusing my efforts on providing help on anything and everything related to WordPress and the Thesis theme.

Have a problem?

Been scratching your head trying to figure something out?

Well, stop banging your head on the wall and channel the power of the WordPress Ninja to allow you to focus on the things that you do best.

With that said, give me shout and let me know what you think of the new design!

Many of you have likely experienced the following scenario – you’ve been reading up on affiliate marketing (including my posts on what not do in affiliate marketing and the real power of the Amazon affiliate program) and you’re anxious to get started.

You’ve signed up with one of the affiliate networks (i.e. LinkShare.com, shareasale.com, etc.) and you’ve got a site ready to publish your affiliate links. You log into the control panel and you’re greeted with page after page of merchants, yet you don’t have a relationship with a single one of them.

After spending time weeding through the list of merchants and finding the ones you want to promote, you must then apply to their program…and sit back and wait!

What If It Were Different?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the process were a little more seamless? Don’t you think it would be much easier if you logged into your affiliate network and immediately had a relationship with each merchant?

I know that you are nodding your head in agreement.

And that is exactly where the Bridaluxe wedding affiliate program has hit the nail on the head when it comes to working with an affiliate network.

When you sign up for an affiliate account with Bridaluxe and receive acceptance into the network, you’re automatically connected with each of the merchants in the network and can immediately begin to promote the affiliate products on your site.

There is no waiting for approval.

There is no confusion about using an affiliate link for a merchant that has not accepted you into their program.

Taking It A Step Further

The seamless nature of the Bridaluxe affiliate network is exciting enough, but when you take a look at the tools that they offer you will see that they’ve taken things a step further for their affiliates.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, one of the questions that you must answer is how to add affiliate products to your site. You can add products manually, or even create custom affiliate scripts to automate the process.

What does Bridaluxe do for their affiliates?

Sure, you can manually grab text links or product links from any of the merchants. But if you really want to leverage the 10,000+ products in the network you can use their Storefront code block to automatically create a full-featured storefront.

For those of you using WordPress (and let me just say that I hope that is most of you), Bridaluxe also offers a WordPress plugin that easily integrates into your existing site and will have you up and running with a complete affiliate store in no time at all – as I recently did when I created this wedding store on one of my JV blogs.

Hitting The Nail On The Head

After working with a handful of affiliate networks, I can easily say that Bridaluxe has hit the affiliate network nail on the head by coupling simplicity with powerful tools to make life as an affiliate easier.

The unfortunate thing here is that Bridaluxe is targeted to the wedding industry and I am well aware that many of you are not in that niche. However, I would hope that more affiliate networks will take a look at features like this and offer them to their own affiliates. While I am well aware that the larger networks like CJ have thousands of merchants and this might not be entirely feasible, I still believe that there are lessons to be learned by affiliate networks of all shapes and sizes.

What do you look for in an affiliate network?

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It is hard to believe that this blog has been quiet for as long as it has – partly because I have been as busy as ever working on projects behind the scenes for other people and time has flown by.

With my involvement in these other projects, I’ve been getting the itch to be back here and sharing information with all of you. There have been some great conversations here about topics related to affiliate marketing, such as how to build an affiliate store using datafeeds, not to mention the exchange that took place about pursuing your passion.

Speaking of passion, over the last few months I’ve been learning more about where my passions lie (from a work / career perspective) and what activities are not inline with those passions.

Lurking In The Shadows

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve still been quite active in the blogosphere but it has been in the shadows – writing code, tweaking plugins, designing new Thesis skins, and setting up new blogs for clients.

That’s right – clients.

These last few months have given me the opportunity to work with a few new clients, which you can see in the portfolio at Red Staple Media. In addition to the new clients, I’ve been busy doing things like adding a full wedding store to one of my joint venture blogs.

So what is it that I am passionate about?

Being technical. Writing code. Solving problems.

Having been a programmer by profession for many years, I’ve sorely been missing that aspect of my day job as I have transitioned into project management.

Stepping Out Of The Shadows

You might be asking yourself why I am stepping out of the shadows to publish a new post here if my passion lies behind the scenes. Well, one reason (and probably the most important reason) is because I do miss the interaction that I had with the community that was building here but also because this is a vehicle that I can use to position myself for even more work that I love.

By being more active here, I can offer my technical assistance to more people. In some cases that might be in the form of a tutorial related to blogging, or it might involve spending 15 minutes on instant messenger to help someone work through a technical problem. There may even be opportunities to secure work for a new client.

Speaking Of Opportunities

Sure, I’d love to land new clients left and right. But to be perfectly honest with you, I love working on technical issues so much that I am happy to help out where I can.

Recently I had decided to join Darren Rowse’s Problogger Community to see what it was all about. The first few days I didn’t do much but poke around, until I really started to dig into the forums and started to share some suggestions and try to help a few people out.

There was one thread where another member was looking for help with the categories on his blog. I shot him a response and shortly thereafter I was writing some code for him to fix the problem he was having. After we resolved the issue, we were chatting and he commented that he was almost ready to call it quits on the forums as he didn’t think there was much value there.

I’m glad he didn’t because he is a super-talented graphic artist and we’ve since discussed the possibility of working together on future projects. You can check out some of his work on the site that I have been helping him with, aptly named Doug Draws.

As a thank you for the technical assistance I have provided to Doug, he offered to create me a new avatar based on a picture that I provided.

What do you think?

For those that have been around the blog for awhile, yes I am still rockin’ the goatee that started about this time last year as part of Movember.

Now, there has been quite a bit taking place over the last few months and I have seen a handful of blogs that I once followed also go silent as people have become busy with other tasks. Where these new opportunities will lead I haven’t a clue, but I can tell you that I am excited about what lies ahead and have a renewed level of energy for pursuing my passion.

Oh yeah, if you need help with anything technical you know where to find me!

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