BillyMays.TV is a blog featuring Billy Mays, the products he pitches, and his show, Pitchmen, on Discovery.

I started promoting Billy Mays products through the As Seen on TV Network, and after a dinner meeting with then in Vegas last January, moved on from a single product to anything Billy Mays pitched. The stories I heard about Billy were great, and I had hoped to meet him someday. We even talked about a custom, Billy Mays ringtone! “Hi, Billy Mays here for your cell phone…”

Yesterday I opened my email, after being offline for 3 days, and found my entire inbox flooded with Billy Mays e-mails (from YouTube comments, Twitter followers, etc). Clicking on one, I read “RIP Billy Mays” which was a complete shock to me.

The fan base of this infomercial superstar is amazing. There’s no middle ground – you either loved him, or hated him. However, after the past 24 hours, all of the comments I’ve seen on the blog, the YouTube channel, and even the Twitter account have been positive.

Traffic to BillyMays.TV increased over 5,500% yesterday – Billy Mays was a superstar amongst all marketers and will be truly missed.

Building your business on a single company, product, or person is a huge mistake (heed the warning, Apple!). Luckily, this was a small portion of my affiliate business – it was more of a pet project, rather than a big income producer.

Remember Billy Mays this Wednesday starting at 11am on the Discovery Channel with a Pitchmen marathon.

Life’s a pitch, then you buy.

Sometimes, the asker choses the best answer quickly, and if that’s your answer, you get the points. But many times, the asker never choses the best answer, and it’s left to the voting public to chose.

So the other day I received a notice that my answer was voted the “Best Answer”, and got the credit. That prompted me to login to my account, and review my answers to other unresolved, or “In Voting”, questions.

When you vote for the best answer to a question, you don’t see who the author is, but you should be able to identify your answer based on writing style and sources. So go ahead and vote for your answer.

I did this the other day and voted on 9 questions that I took the time to answer, which where in the voting phase. Within 20 minutes or so, I received 9 emails that my answers were chosen as the best!

Now this may be considered cheating, although they don’t specifically mention this method as such. Don’t be surprised if your account is banned, but mine’s going strong, with 65% “Best Answer”.

A couple weeks ago I came across EverNote, a way to capture information and save it in a digital file. I have yet to unleash the true power of Evernote, but I’ve started.

To get my files scanned into my computer, I picked up the Fujitsu Scansnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner. This is one of the most important pieces of hardware I now own. In terms of productivity, I’d rank it right up there with the second monitor. This scanner is truly amazing.

First, I configured the ScanSnap to save the files right to Evernote. You have to create a new profile, and select the Evernote application in the profile preferences. Then left-click on the icon in the toolbar to chose the profile, then either press the scan button on the scanner or right-click on the icon and choose a Simplex (single-sided) or Duplex (doubled-sided) scan. That’s right… this scanner will scan BOTH SIDES of a document AT THE SAME TIME. Oh, and did I mention it does this in FULL COLOR, and it’s FAST?!?!

Here’s a video I took showing how fast the ScanSnap is:

So anything on my desk, I scanned, tagged, and then either shredded or recycled (by the way: you can recycle shredded paper. Save a tree). Right away my desk was cleaner. Then I attacked the pile of business cards from the last couple Affiliate Summits.

The business card software is clunky, but it works (most of the time). I still have to figure out how to export it to GMail, but that can wait. I rarely use these cards, but felt like I had to save them. Now they can go, as I have the data in a database, along with the image of the card (front and back, if applicable).

Looking for more to scan, I thought it’d be a good idea to scan my articles of incorporation, so I’d have a digital backup of them. I created a new journal just for these papers, and in a few minutes had them scanned in. Now I have a digital copy of the papers (convenient to send to my accountant or attorney if I have to), a copy saved with Evernote, and they’re backed up with Mozy (my online backup provider).

What’s nice about the files is that when they’re scanned, they’re PDFs. I haven’t played much with the OCR functions, but that’d make it easier to search & find things (right now, searches are limited to my titles & tags).

Then I figured, since I could use the ScanSnap with Evernote, why not set up a profile for Picasa. So I did. I set the profile to save to Picasa as a JPG, and scan at a higher resolution. Then I took a packet of photos that a Cub Scout parent had given me about a year ago, stacked them about 8 at a time in the ScanSnap, and hit the button. In about 10 minutes, I had all of the photos scanned. Now the quality isn’t the best, but that’s the fault of the disposable camera, not the ScanSnap.

I’ve also used the ScanSnap to quickly make a PDF to then fax with MaxEmail and to make a hard copy of a paper document.

There’s so much more I could probably be doing with my ScanSnap and Evernote, but I have to learn all of the functionality. At least my office is now considerably cleaner.

First, you have to set it up yourself, which is OK if you know what you’re doing in Plesk, but Plesk backups SUCK. You can’t extract a single file from them, or get the SQL commands to rebuild part the database.

Furthermore, Plesk restorations SUCK. Plesk removes the current (live) site, then attempts the restore. Oh, and if the restore fails? Sorry – you have nothing now. Talk about back-asswards.

The final nail in the coffin is the fact that you can ONLY access the GoDaddy backup FTP server from your main server. So if your main server fails, don’t worry: you have a backup – you just can’t get to it.

After all that, I decided to write my own backup script. If you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself.

I started with a basic script that saved the files an FTP server, which was a good first step. But I couldn’t find a cheap FTP server for backups, so I looked at Amazon S3. While the pricing is a bit confusing, I know it’s cheap. It looks like I can backup my entire server, daily, for about $0.02 / day. You’re not going to find a better deal than that!

Enough already! Here’s the script. It’s completely free, and probably has more comments than actual code in it. Just PLEASE don’t ask for support on this one – get a sys. admin if you need help configuring it. Or figure it out with trial & error.

Storing your data in “the cloud” can be dangerous if you don’t have permissions set right. A webinar by @WilsonMattos cleared that up for me (previous webinar available for download).

So, get your server backed up, and once you do, make sure you can successfully restore the data!

Remember last year when I won $500 from Pepperjam? I’ve been on a streak since then. I’ve won:

• A signed Gary Vaynerchuk “100 Wines” book, courtesy of Zack Johnson (Zack – STILL waiting for it!)
• A nice stash of Beef Jerkey & a steak brander from Oberto
• An IDrive portable USB drive (so small, I lost it somewhere in my office!)
• A Silver pass to Affiliate Summit East in NYC this summer (thanks Market Leverage!)
• Can’t forget my Buxton Bag from Affiliate Summit West last year – oh, and my Share a Sale dart board!

There are other things, too, but the point is take 2 minutes and enter the contests! Here’s your chance to get in on a new contest.

I’m entered to win a 40″ Samsung 1080p LCD HDTV from Nickycakes. If you have a Twitter account, you can enter in 2 minutes. If you don’t, it’ll take you 5 minutes. 5 minutes (or less) to be entered to win a 40″ LCD HDTV? What are you waiting for? If I don’t win, I at least want someone I know to win it!

Experience Wine & Food pairings on the Niagara Wine Trail! Each $20 ticket includes a wine tasting with a different paired food sampling at each winery, a commemorative wine glass & keepsake recipe holder and a copy of the recipe for the sampled food at each winery along the way.

Based on that description, I was expecting each stop to have some sort of dish along with recommended wines, so we could sample the wine with and without the food. In my opinion, only Freedom Run and Niagara Landing got this right. Other places simply had a plate of cheese stuck in the corner.

We started our trip at Arrowhead Spring Vineyards. I was happy starting here, as they gave us some nice wine glasses for the rest of the day. Had we started at another winery, we would have gotten other glasses (not as nice). So we were off to a good start. The guys took the dry route, while the women went sweet. Nothing really impressed me at Arrowhead. The Apogee was nice, but not worth $28.50 / bottle.

Next up was Freedom Run Winery. Again, the girls went sweet and the guys went dry. I started with a dry rose which was made especially for one of the employees wedding. A nice story, and a descent wine for a hot summer day. We eventually got to their 2006 Cabernet Franc – unfortunately I did not pick any of this up, although I should have. It was just my type… a wine that you could just open up and have a glass w/out anything else. In the end, the taster shared with us their Pinot Noir, another good wine. A special trip back to Freedom Rum may be in order just to pick up these two wines. Freedom Run also got the idea of pairing right, serving a chicken dish with a Riesling. This was a pairing that worked well, and I was looking forward to other wineries doing something similar, although the rest disappointed me.

Next stop was Eveningside Vineyards. A little barn in the back, they seemed a bit overwhelmed with the traffic coming in. Nothing there excited any of us, so we moved on.

I’ve had Niagara Landing Wine Cellars wine before, and we stopped there next. They almost had the pairing idea down, but hiding the food in the back with the wine in the front, I sampled a few wines and THEN found the food. My fault? Maybe. In any event, their Riesling was worth picking up a bottle, while Laura bought some fruity thing. Niagara Landing was the turning point in the tour for me.

After Niagara Landing, we went to Warm Lake Estate. The lake is warm because of the excessive amounts of manure they use, which can not only be caught in the nose, but also trapped on your tongue. Their Pinot Noirs both smell and taste like manure (I’ve had shitty wines before, but never wines that taste like manure). I’m not alone. Not only did the lady next to me make horrid faces as we tasted, but I mentioned this experience to Steve and he immediately knew of the place I was talking about. We’ll be sure to drive by next time.

Honeymoon Trail Winery was up next, and it was a nice change from Warm Lake. The bartender was hilarious, constantly chatting with us and telling jokes that you either have to be drunk to enjoy, or have a sense of humor like myself. Things were getting a little fruity, and I still had the taste of manure in my mouth, so I didn’t truly enjoy this spot, but we decided that next time, we’ll start here as they have nice glasses, too, and I want to give them another shot.

We then drove for a while to The Winery at Marjim Manor, an old, historic house that’s supposedly haunted and was featured in an episode of Ghost Hunters / TAPS. The location was beautiful, and the selection plentiful. The story about the location, their owners, and Thursday at 3:00 was fascinating. However, most (if not all) were blended with some fruit juice, and very sweet for my taste. I was done at this point, and just walked around for a bit.

We started to head home, with two more stops. The first was at Vizcarra Vineyards which, again, featured lots of fruity wines. All I remember was sweet, then I went outside to enjoy the sun.

Just down the road was Spring Lake Winery, our final stop, which was in another beautiful setting. However, I was wined out at this time and didn’t even finish one sampling. This was another location which disappointed with a lack of food.

Overall, we had a great time and look forward to heading out again. However, I think we’ll choose 2 or 3 locations (they charge like $1 / tasting, or 4 for $3), instead of a pass for all of the wineries, and bring a lunch with us. I’ll definitely be heading back to Freedom Run to pick up a couple bottles, and can’t wait to visit the locations we missed another day.

However, I know there are people (Hi Mom!) who don’t follow Laura or I on Twitter or befriend us on Facebook, and want to know what we’re up to. So I found this nice plugin called Lifestream which combines lots of feeds together into a simple page.

So now just take a look at the Lifestream page and you’ll see what’s going on. And if I have something really important to say, maybe I’ll make a blog post.

This was a press conference warning consumers that these are scams, and announcing that the FTC is working with media companies to stop these ads. The ads show photos of Obama or Biden informing the user to get their grant money to payoff their mortgages, debts, etc. They mention the economic stimulus plan, which consumers think they can get money from (wrong!). The ads direct users to commercial sites, not government sites (official government sites end in .gov).

Sites that were called out include presidentobamagrants.com and jessicasmoneyblog.com. They charge $1.89 or so, but then will charge the card $99 plus $49.95 / month for access to this debt information, and also enroll the user in a debt website, which also starts charging the card. In 1 year, the card will be charged over $1,000.

Consumers need to know the US government does not charge for grant applications, and does not charge to give access to a list of available grants. If you’re looking for a list of government grants, visit grants.gov.

So Facebook had reps there, and the FTC spokesperson specifically mentioned Facebook and Google as advertising networks working with them by pulling ads. Consumers who see these ads are urged to report them to the FTC and / or the ad network.

The second topic was phishing / spam messages, where users fill out a form, or download some software (malware) and end up having their identity stolen. Simply put, don’t open these emails, don’t download anything, and just delete the messages.

For information on the stimulus plan from the source, visit recovery.gov.

Into the Q&A: are there any legal actions being taken? No comment.

If the small print is there, is this illegal? Well, illegal & deceptive are 2 different things. The FTC is reviewing these on a case-by-case basis. Deceptive marketing techniques will be challenged by the FTC and the courts will decide if it’s illegal.

What’s going to happen to deceptive sites? Either: don’t do this, don’t do this & other things, shut down the website, or give money back.

Finally (well, before I hung up), Facebook mentioned users may report these deceptive ads by clicking on the thumbs down icon by an ad, then selecting if the ad is “misleading” or “objectionable”.

It’s been mentioned before, but if the affiliate industry doesn’t self-regulate, the government will step in & regulate things for us.

First ever Barcamp in Buffalo is at Pearl Street Grill on Tuesday March 3rd at 7:30pm. The idea is to create ongoing events for people involved in new technology and web related development to connect and learn from one another.

If you’re in the WNY area, RSVP for the 1st BarCamp Buffalo! If all goes well, maybe I’ll speak about something interesting at BarCamp #2

Once the kids got home from school on Thursday, we started our drive down. I drove until about 3:30 or 4:00 the next morning, then slept for 45 minutes while Laura drove. Then we switched back and I finished the drive down. We stopped in St. Augustine along the way, but didn’t have time to do much. We walked around a bit, then Laura took Becca & Jason up the lighthouse, while Morgan & I stayed below (she wasn’t tall enough). We then continued through the worst part of the trip: getting through Orlando. I think it took 3 hours to get through Orlando. We were all very cranky after that, then we checked in to Orange Lake and settled down.

Saturday morning we were slow to get started, then had to go to an owners meeting. Long story short, we sold one of our units here, and bought another. They threw in some bonuses, which means I now have way too many vacation options! Also, because we own the equivalent to 5 weeks / year (we have a 2-bedroom unit, and now a 3 (floorplan shown)), we’re also invited to 3 days, 2 nights whenever the Orange Lake company buys or builds another location (and rumor has it, they just bought a place in Hawaii!). What’s nice is we can trade much easier now, with more flexible check-in dates and more flexibility with what type of room we get (1- to 4-bedroom).

Sunday morning I went for a run, then we spent the day at Islands of Adventure. The park was pretty crowded, but the kids got to go on all of the Dr. Suess rides. We had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe, which was pretty good. Good enough to bring back 1/2 of our dinner to the condo to enjoy later.

Monday I was up early again, but this time to play some golf. We played Crane’s Bend at Orange Lake. It was a nice course, and getting out at 7am meant nobody was behind us and we were able to take our time. On one hole, I think I found 6 golf balls! I definitely walked away with more golf balls than I came with. When we got back from golf, we went to River Island to spend the day lounging poolside in a cabana. The girls got braids in their hair while Jason and I laid on floats and rode the river throughout the River Island complex.

Tuesday I woke up to go to the gym, but found out it opens at 7am. That was too late for me, so when everyone woke up, we headed to Universal Studios. While Laura & Jason went on the Simpson’s ride, I just hung out with the girls, waiting for the kids zone to open. We all went on the ET ride then hung out with Curious George, Barney and Fivel.

Wednesday was just like Monday, only I played the Legends Walk course and we had a cabana at the new West pool, rather than River Island. It was more of a family-friendly pool, and closer to our unit so we were able to take a break from all that relaxing back in our room.

Thursday I went for another run (5 miles) and saw an armadillo while I was out! You don’t see armadillos when running in Buffalo. Now we’re heading to Downtown Disney for some shopping & dinner. Then pack up, and take 2 days to drive home.

Photos & videos will be added soon, as soon as I comment on them & geotag them all.