In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about the Avengers movie. 

No, that’s it. Just that.

It’s a spoileriffic episode as we talk in great detail about the flick – you have been warned. Don’t come crying to us if you listen to the show before watching the movie. We lay it all out here for the full hour.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

You know how when someone types ‘LOL’ you know they’re not really laughing out loud? When I tell you that these three things make me literally LOL to the point of tears, believe it. I’m not exaggerating. Tears.

Dancing Ackbar

The first of two Robot Chicken clips. I can’t explain why, but Ackbar doing the running man at the end of this “commercial” gets me every single time. The other two lines, “It’s a trap!” and “Your tongues can’t repel flavor of this magnitude!” are hilarious as well.

What the Hell is an Aluminum Falcon?

The whole sketch has me cracking up, but two lines in particular really nail me. First, “what the hell is an aluminum falcon?!” and second, “get your seven-foot-two asthmatic ass back here or I’m gonna tell everyone what a whiney bitch you were about Padamame or Panda Bear or whatever the hell her name is!”

Heh-heh, that’s nice… MOOOOM!!!!

I could do a top 20 list and half of it would probably be clips from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (several from episode 303, Pod People). This is the best of the shorts, “Mr. B Natural”. The whole thing is made of awesome. The entire scene in Buzz’s bedroom is absolute gold.

This just in from the You Can’t Always Trust Google department…

One out of three ain’t bad, Google. If only you had more money to throw at this new-fangled “search engine” idea, who knows what could happen?!

In which Daniel and Greg cover Saturday Night Live movies, The Avengers, the new Dark Knight trailer, scoring sweet concert tickets, and how nobody who uses Google Voice is sane.

We had a great show this week. Here’s the highlights:

1. The twentieth anniversary of Wayne’s World is this year. Also, a segment on SNL movies and how It’s Pat only grossed $60,000. Seriously.
2. The Avengers opens this week. It’s going to break records and set standards, you just watch. I just watched Thor and Captain America again with my wife in preparation.
3. Avengers parodies on YouTube are massive.
4. How It Should Have Ended is must-see TV… so to speak. Go watch. It’s awesome.
5. The Dark Knight Rises has a new trailer out. We’re not enthusiastic about it.
6. I’m trying and failing to sell nearly 4,000 comic books.
7. I scored awesome tickets to see Rush this December. Ninth row!
8. Check out this Circus magazine I got off eBay.
9. Greg says he only ever gets crazy people calling him on his Google Voice number.
10. We have two contests running:
1. An Avengers movie prize pack, including a t-shirt, set of buttons, and awesome character 3D glasses.
2. Help us rename the show! We’re paying $100 to the person who suggests a great new name for the show.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

An extra dollar's worth of love?

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. It was practically a staple on my old blog that I’d highlight some stupid thing that Papa Johns had on their website. I’m glad to see they are keeping up the fine tradition of not putting any thought into what they’re doing.

I love doing the occasional episode of Comic Book Fury with Tim Robinson and Mike Buechele. My third appearance on that show was recorded on Saturday, April 21st, with Tim (Mike was on assignment in the Savage Land). We focused a large portion of the show on what DC Comics is doing these days, now that they’re eight months into the New 52 relaunch. The industry fascinates me, it really does. We also chatted about Marvel and Image and my desire to sell off my collection (which I’ll be talking more about on next week’s episode of Geek Dads Weekly).

Click over to Comic Book Fury to listen. It’s a fun time.

We have a winner!

The contest has ended, and Michelle Duffey from Salem, Oregon is our winner! She will be receiving a t-shirt, set of Avengers buttons and an awesome pair of character 3D glasses. Congratulations, Michelle!

Thanks everyone who participated and made this our most popular contest to date with nearly 200 entries! We’ll be running more contests and giveaways in the near future; sign up for the QAQN Newsletter to get advance notice of them as well as site updates and exclusive offers!

[Below is the original contest blog post.]

While I would normally announce something like this on Geek Dads Weekly, I just got the notification about it this morning and I want to give you guys as much time as possible to participate!

QAQN has one special Avengers Prize Pack to give to a lucky fan! Check it out:

The Not-So-Fine Print

• The Avengers T-Shirt is available in adult sizes S, M, L and XL. Your choice.
• There are six Avengers buttons, one for each member of the team: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Thor and Hulk. You’ll get all six.
• There are four 3-D Avengers glasses to choose from: Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America. You get one of ‘em.
• The contest closes at 12:01pm ET on May 4th – the release day of Marvel’s Avengers movie!

Ready? Let’s go – and don’t forget to read the Terms to learn more about how the contest operates. (Please be patient if the contest widget  below does not load super fast. The hamsters are running as fast as they can. Feel free to refresh the page to kick start ‘em.)

Don’t forget: QAQN is also running a contest to rename Geek Dads Weekly with a $100 prize!

Lastly – I will be checking to ensure that everyone plays fair. The contest requirements are not exactly unreasonable. If you can’t be bothered to leave a short comment or click a Like button to get a valid entry… well. When the contest is over, the randomly chosen entry will be checked for validity. Please play fair. It’s what Captain America would do.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was joined today by a five year veteran of affiliate marketing who has made a name for himself in the coffee niche. He’s also the founder and director of Zynali Marketing Solutions, specializing in social media. You may know him as @CoffeeNate; he is Nate Smith.

Nate and I got into his beginnings in the affiliate marketing industry, where he’s from, and why coffee is such a great niche for him. I was unable to stump him on the QAQN Coffee Quiz – unsurprisingly.

1. This fictional character appears alongside his mule, Conchita, representing Columbian-grown coffee. (Juan Valdez)
2. In what part of the world did coffee originate? (Ethiopia)
3. True or false: instant coffee is worth drinking. (very, very false)

We also talked about Nate’s company, Zynali Marketing Solutions, and how that came about. We wrapped up with a mention of his new podcast, Affiliate Boys of Summer, and the way he takes his coffee: black (though he’d really prefer a proper espresso).

Learn more about Nate at Zynali.com, on Twitter, Facebook and CoffeeNate.com. c[_]

Affiliate Summit is producing a series of interviews with speakers at the upcoming conference in Austin. I spoke with Affiliate Summit Ambassador Mary Poiley for just over twelve minutes, mostly about my session, Step by Step: Podcasting for Business (scheduled for 9:30am on Tuesday, May 15th). We also talked a little about my overall involvement and history in the industry. It was a fun interview, hope you enjoy it – and I hope to see you in Austin for Affiliate Summit Central 2012!

In which Daniel and Greg talk about Record Store Day 2012, how much better vinyl is than other formats (maybe), Game of Thrones, Affiliate Summits East and Central, and oh yeah, DANIEL SAW THE AVENGERS MOVIE!

Drew Bennett is on vacation this week down in Florida. Later in the show notes I’ve got a short video from him that explains what he’s doing down there besides relaxing.

We started off talking about the artist-of-the-hour, Gotye, who performed last weekend on Saturday Night Live. I really like the two songs he did but not much else of his stuff. Greg noted that his performance at Coachella resulted in a lot of people predicting he’ll be a one hit wonder.

Next, I SAW THE AVENGERS MOVIE! Don’t worry, no spoilers. If you dig these kinds of movies even a little bit, you’re really going to like this one. It’s the best of its kind. I explained on the show how I got to see the movie three weeks early.

Record Store Day 2012 is coming up this Saturday, April 21st. We had a great discussion about vinyl vs. digital formats. I noted that HDTracks.com is a great resource for studio-quality digital recordings – if you think CD is the best digital format, think again.

Here’s something you might find interesting. We’re renaming the podcast. How would you like a hundred bucks? Help us name the show. There’s money in it for you.

I have a feeling we’re going to make Game of Thrones a regular weekly segment. The show is too good not to. Greg has blown through all of Season One and the first episode of Season Two, so he’ll be caught up by our next show. We’ll be doing recaps weekly, I think.

In Affiliate Summit news…

Affiliate Summit East 2010 videos are up on YouTube.

The deadline for the call for speakers for Summit East 2012 is Friday, April 20th.

Affiliate Summit East 2012 Has Raised $6,576 So Far to Fight Breast Cancer

And lastly, I made a donation to Affiliate Marketers Give Back, along with Taylor West, who won my Full pass to Affiliate Summit Central 2012 in the auction I held last week. He bid $300 and together we donated $101 to AMGB.

Here’s Drew Bennett in Florida. I need to get a peek at his contact list… just give me five minutes…

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Nearly three and a half years ago, I launched the Geek Dads @ Home podcast with Sam Harrelson and Joe Magennis. In 2010, Joe and I rebranded the show as Geek Dads Weekly. It’s time for another change. The show has evolved past the “geek dads” theme. In fact, most of our shows these days, we don’t talk about the kids at all, or only in passing.

Your days are numbered, guys.

If you’re a current listener, you know the kind of show we do. If you’re new around here, check out the show notes from a few recent episodes to get a feel for it. Get yourselves up to speed because we need you!

Help us rename the show! Here’s how it’s going to work.

1. Leave a comment with your suggestion(s) below.
2. I, along with Greg and Drew, will choose the new name.
3. The newly renamed show will debut shortly after we decide on the name and can finalize the new artwork.
4. The person who suggested the name will be awarded one hundred genuine American dollars.

Slow down, now. Don’t comment just yet, there are a few rules.

1. There will be only ONE winner. If the name we choose is suggested by more than one person, we will have a random drawing to determine who the award will go to.
2. Only people with a PayPal account may participate because that’s how we’re awarding the money.
3. The name should be short, evocative of the show that we do, and must be free of profanity and references to gender (i.e. no “dads” no “men” or things like that). Also, we’d like to not use “geek” in the name anymore.
4. We might not choose any of the names suggested. This is not a “best of the suggestions” kind of thing. If we don’t like any of the suggestions enough to use, we will either extend the entry period or choose a name on our own.
5. This is an open-ended contest. After trying to put a deadline on it, we realized that it was more important to find just the right name than settle for something on an arbitrary date. There will come a point where you guys suggest something that Drew and Greg and I all like. At that point, we will announce a one week deadline for additional submissions. After that, we will declare a winner and award the money.

Sound good? There’s $100 in it for you. Name the show!

The sessions from Affiliate Summit East 2010 have just been posted to YouTube! This session was a first for me; it was my first session that had been planned and submitted ahead of time. We called it Podcasting 101 and described it thusly:

Speakers:

- Lisa Picarille, Consultant, LisaPicarille.com
- Daniel M. Clark, Owner, Host, Geek Dads Weekly
- Trisha Lyn Fawver, Client Support, For Me To Coupon
- Joe Magennis, Principal, Baseballisms

Session description: In this era of self-publishing, anyone — including you — can produce a podcast (and make money doing it!) Come learn the basics of producing, monetizing, hosting and promoting your very own podcast.

Experience level: Beginner
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Podcasting

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/1d-podcasting-101

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Note: in the video, my Twitter ID is listed incorrectly. I changed over to @QAQN last year. At the time, QAQN wasn’t even an idea yet!

Last week I created a silent auction (of a sort) to sell my unneeded Full pass to Affiliate Summit Central 2012. The event is sold out, and since I will be getting a Speaker pass (Step By Step: Podcasting for Business, Tuesday, May 15, at 9:30am is my session), I no longer needed the pass that I bought back in January.

I asked interested people to email me bids, the maximum amount they’d be willing to pay for the pass. The highest bid would win the pass, and the winner would be announced on Friday, April 13th.

Last Friday I announced on Twitter that the winning bid was $300, and that once the payment was finalized and all the details were worked out, I’d blog about it, which brings us to today!

The winner of the Full pass to Affiliate Summit Central 2012 is Taylor West of WP Engine, a WordPress hosting company.

The AMGB team at Colorado's walk in 2010

As I said when I created the auction, every dollar over the pass price of $249 would be donated to Affiliate Marketers Give Back and the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer to support breast cancer research. I also said I’d throw in another $50 on top of whatever the winning bid was. That brings us to a donation of $101, which I made last night. If you watch the scroll on Missy Ward’s donation page, you will see “Daniel M. Clark and Taylor West” listed as a donator. While you’re on that page, how about kicking over a few bucks?

I would like to thank Taylor West and everyone who participated in the auction. Every bit we can raise to help AMGB helps a great cause.

See you in Austin!

[Read the original auction details post right here.]

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about holidays, pointless movie sequels, affiliate marketing & OneLoad.com, and the recent discovery of a little-known site called eBay. You can buy stuff from them apparently.

We started this week with a bit about tattoos. Greg is the only one of us that has one, but Drew and I are okay with that. Seems like these days, if you want to be a rebel, you should be the one without a tattoo.

Drew’s birthday was this week. He’s on vacation next week and he’s being given a Kia Sorento to use while he’s there. Drew occasionally gets vehicles to drive around and blog about. Pretty sweet deal.

Easter was this week. All our kids had a nice time with candy and presents and egg hunts. I tell a story on the show about my daughter’s letter to the Easter Bunny. Crisis averted. Barely.

Further proof that Hollywood is running out of ideas, there’s a list of 105 movie sequels that are currently in the works. Bill and Ted III? Beetlejuice II? Really?

Greg just discovered eBay. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Well – it’s good for his Captain America collection… not so good for his wallet perhaps.

OneLoad.com changed its Terms of Service, no longer associating affiliate marketing with porn. That’s a good thing, but I’m not sure they went far enough.

I have a Full pass to Affiliate Summit Central for sale. If you’re looking for a pass to the sold out conference, I’m your guy. Read all the details and get in touch with me.

Drew has taken and posted a photo a day for seven years. Seven years, not a day missed.

Lastly, Greg has started up a new podcast! It’s about fantasy baseball, and it can be heard at GeekCast.fm. Greg, Mike Buechele, Nate Smith and Eric Souza make up the cast of The Affiliate Boys of Summer.

[update - I found the sensory deprivation goggles that I mentioned on the show. They are these:

I'll take two.

nice, huh?]

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

As if we needed more proof of just how supercool Missy Ward is…

Back in February I published a little blog post called Affiliate Marketing: Just Like Porn, Apparently. It got a little attention, and everyone that I heard back from agreed that OneLoad.com was wrong to lump affiliate marketing in with network marketing, MLM, phishing and pornography in their Terms of Service. Originally, the OneLoad.com signup page included this:

Phishing, I get. But porn? That's crossing a line.

Section 4e of the original Terms of Service said this:

Also defined as “spam” are any videos involving affiliate marketing, network marketing, cash gifting, multi-level marketing, phishing, or any videos that a reasonable person would consider to be a scam or misleading.

Missy Ward

Missy Ward, whom you probably know as a co-founder of Affiliate Summit, reached out to TubeMogul/OneLoad.com but was met with resistance to the suggestion that maybe affiliate marketing shouldn’t be included on such a list. Certainly there is nothing inherently scammy or misleading about affiliate marketing – respectable companies have been successfully recruiting affiliates to help advertise their products for the better part of 15 years.

The breakthrough in this story came in March, when Affiliate Summit had a booth in the same aisle as TubeMogul at SXSW. Missy visited the TubeMogul booth and spoke with CEO Brett Wilson. After a post-show follow-up, the Terms of Service were updated to remove affiliate marketing from the list of prohibited content. Sort of.

The current Terms of Service have been changed, with Section 4e now saying this:

Also defined as “spam” are any videos involving network marketing, cash gifting, multi-level marketing, phishing, affiliate marketing with low quality content or any videos that a reasonable person would consider to be a scam or misleading.

The new account signup page still simply says “affiliate marketing”, but I’m sure that is just an oversight that will be corrected.

I am satisfied with the result, though I wouldn’t mind seeing references to affiliate marketing removed completely. I do feel that this change is enough to protect affiliates who create worthwhile videos that incorporate affiliate links. They’re trying to prevent spam, and I can respect that. If you’re producing low-quality content, I’m not going to be the first in line to defend you, to be honest.

Read the whole story in greater detail at Missy’s blog, and if you’d like to sign up for a OneLoad account, go for it. It’s a good way to easily distribute video to multiple sources.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg consider 67 books for kids, the return of Game of Thrones, the Avengers and the lack of lottery winners among us.

(Technical difficulties means no video this week. Video should return with next week’s episode.)

This week we were all about:

• 67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10 - Classics like Where the Sidewalk Ends, Harry Potter, The Tale of Despereaux, Charlotte’s Web and A Wrinkle in Time fill out this list of must-read books for not just geek kids, but all kids. The Wizard of Oz is conspicuous in its absence, as is Alice in Wonderland, but it’s a great list overall.
• Cracked’s 6 Popular Children’s Books that Teach Kids Horrible Messages (#1 on the list is the Arthur entry that we talked about).
• From kids books to television that shouldn’t be watched by anyone under 18, Game of Thrones is back for Season Two this week.
• The weekly comic strip Foxtrot had a great homage to Game of Thrones and My Little Pony.
• The Avengers movie is coming up fast. I’ve got two tickets to an early screening on April 14th, two weeks before the movie opens. You’re jealous, I know. I’ll have a full report afterward.
• The Mega Millions lottery drawing was big, big news. 640 million. None of us won. I went on a rant about how the lottery is a big waste of money.
• Drew went to Boston, into Chinatown, to a Japanese restaurant to eat hot dogs. Yes, it’s just as weird as that sentence makes it sound. Yet it’s awesome somehow. The video is up on YouTube.
• Drew’s a blogger for Johnsonville’s Grill Greats, which he’ll have more information about soon.
• Greg’s all excited about baseball season and the start of his fantasy baseball league. Batter up!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Affiliate Summit Central 2012 is officially sold out. If you haven’t secured a pass yet, you’re pretty much out of luck… unless you want mine.

During Summit West back in January, I bought a Full pass to Central. As soon as the event was announced, I pounced on the pass because I knew it would be a smaller show and it would sell out quickly. I didn’t know at that time if I would be getting a Speaker pass or if I would have to use the pass I was purchasing. Well, it turns out that I did get a Speaker pass, since my session, Step By Step: Podcasting for Business was picked up (more details on that session soon).

I have a Full pass that I no longer need. I’d like for you to have it, but… I’m going to make this interesting. Interesting and noteworthy, I hope. Here’s how this is going to work.

I will sell this pass for a minimum of $249, which is what you would pay if you bought the pass on-site the day of the event.

My favorite charity is Missy Ward’s Affiliate Marketers Give Back, and I try to encourage donations when I can. Like right now. We’re going to do this sort-of silent auction style. If you’re interested in this pass, email me with a bid of at least $249. On Friday, April 13th, I will announce the name of the person who bid the highest amount and won the pass. Every dollar over $249, every dollar, will be donated to Affiliate Marketers Give Back in our names, yours and mine.

On top of that, I will throw in another $50.

Here’s an opportunity to donate to a very worthy cause, get your pass to the sold out Affiliate Summit Central 2012, and feel good doing it. Ready for the email address?

daniel at qaqn.com

There ya go. Shoot me an email with what you’re willing to pay for the pass (at least $249). I’d love to hear from you.

Note: in the event that multiple people bid the winning amount, I will award the pass to the first person to make the bid.

Yet Another Weight Loss Show has been canceled. The show debuted in November, 2010 as a sort-of diary of my weight loss efforts. I began at 249 pounds and achieved a low point of 222 pounds. I am now back up at 250 pounds, for a variety of reasons. The show was canceled because really, who wants to listen to a  weight loss show in which the host keeps reporting that he’s gaining weight? What I went through over the past 16 months or so may be completely normal – weight fluctuation is extremely common when people attempt to lose a large amount of weight – but just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it makes for a good podcast.

My weight loss efforts, such as they are, will be the subject of a periodic segment on Geek Dads Weekly from this point forward.

It’s hard to believe it’s been this long, but four years ago, I created a website that would forever change the face of internet commerce, internet marketing, and the wearing of money skirts the world over.

The most trustworthy site on the internet.

Okay, it did none of those things – but wouldn’t it have been awesome if it had?

The concept behind Earn a Million a Day was pretty simple. I was attending ShareASale Think Tank in 2008, and I found myself with a little bit of down time between meetings. I was thinking about things I hated about affiliate marketing for some reason. Someone must have said something that got me thinking in that direction. I’ve always hated squeeze pages. Excessively long, filled with faux yellow highlighter and giant red text… horrible. Never one to shy away from taking a clever shot at something I don’t like, I decided to whip up a parody site. I spent maybe 3 hours before bed at Think Tank and another day or two at home afterward finishing it up.

Were I to do it again today, I’d simply use OptimizePress for the layout and fill in the content. Back then, I didn’t know of any options like that, so I coded it by hand. I tried to use every stupid cliche I could think of. Over the top title? Check. Lots of cash money graphics? Check. I created a character, Charles MacGregor, a… trillionaire, I guess. At a rate of a million a day, he’d have to be. The product is never specified because it’s completely worthless – just like 99% of the products you’ll find on any given squeeze page. I used a lot of testimonials collected from a person named Johnny Franklin. Lots of Johnny Franklins, actually. There were many, many bullet points that utilized silly checkmarks.

This is not Photoshopped in any way.

When I unveiled it in the weeks after Think Tank, it was very well received. The feedback on it was overwhelmingly positive. In the years since, it has come up a few times in conversation – usually me asking “did you ever see that squeeze page parody I did a few years ago?” to whoever I’m talking to. Recently, I showed it to Eric Schwarzer, who thought it was fantastic. He asked me about it again today, he had forgotten the exact URL.

http://earnamillionaday.com

There ya go. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg discuss video games for young kids, pro wrestling for grown-ups, the Walking Dead for mature audiences and Twilight for repressed housewives. Oh, and something about some movie called Hunger Games, which is for pretty much anyone.

We started off with a segment about kid video games and how they can be beneficial to a child’s development. No, we’re not saying they should sit in front of a screen all day, but we each have experience with smart kids that have been using technology and video games in educational ways.

Next, pro wrestling! Greg attended a WWE Monday Night Raw event last night! The last time I had any interest in pro wrestling was when the Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Junkyard Dog and Hillbilly Jim were in the ring. Greg spent the better part of six hours at the event though, and had an awesome time. There’s something about attending events like that as an adult that brings back memories of being a kid. Pretty cool. Not sure I’d drop the money on a ticket any time soon, but who knows.

Speaking of Atlanta, my new favorite TV show is The Walking Dead. I just watched both seasons, and I’m hooked. We had a nice discussion about how awesome that show is, and that led – somehow – into a segment comparing and contrasting Harry Potter, Twilight and the Hunger Games. Who are these movies aimed at? What are their demographics? And is the Hunger Games really a cross between My Side of the Mountain and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome? I’d like to point out that I’m not the one that came up with “repressed housewives”, so don’t yell at me if you’re a repressed housewife who loves Twilight.

TMILFs?

Coming up this Friday, I’m recording an Affiliate Summit podcast with Mary Poiley. We’ll be talking about Affiliate Summit Central and my session, Step By Step: Podcasting for Business. Keep an eye on QAQN.com and AffiliateSummit.com to learn when it gets posted!

Greg and Drew are a little low in the mix for a while this time, sorry about that – I just added a new piece of equipment to the podcasting studio here and it needs a little tweaking.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

As DC Comics continues to reinvent its long-time characters, a back-up story in this week’s Justice League #7 reintroduced Billy Batson and Shazam. The character, first appearing in February 1940, is one of the oldest still being published today: Superman and Batman date to 1938 and 1939 respectively. Wonder Woman debuted in 1941. In modernizing their stable of classic characters, DC is adding some pretty cool touches. Billy Batson, alter ego of the mighty Shazam (nee Captain Marvel), is apparently a podcaster!

"What do you like to do, Billy?" ©2012 DC Comics

Who says podcasting isn’t mainstream?

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about the findings of a survey of geek dads, going offline on the National Day of Unplugging, and using a Polar RCX5 training computer (er, exercise monitor. Fancy, right?).

Our major segment this week was about a survey recently published by Cisco/Linksys about geek dads – not us specifically, but about all dads who fit the ‘geek’ label. There are some interesting numbers here, even if a few of them were a little ‘duh’ to me – but we had a really good talk about what it means to be a dad and a geek.

Next, the National Day of Unplugging is coming up this Friday, March 23rd and Saturday the 24th. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, turn off your electronics! Read a book, go outside, do something that doesn’t include television, movies, internet or anything else with a screen (or speakers for that matter). Give it a try. Drew is in, Greg is sort-of in, and I’m on the fence but leaning toward unplugging. Listen in for the reasons why.

We wrapped up with a bit about the Polar RCX5 training computer that I won in a giveaway at Affiliate Summit West 2012 two months ago. This is one slick little device, though I’m not super comfortable with the chest strap. It offers a ton of information about your exercise though, and is a solid product – and I’m not just saying that because I’m an affiliate of the site that sells it.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

I wrote yesterday about affiliate link practices, the core of which I found at the bottom of a note in Evernote. This is the second of the two things I found there. I don’t recall now what prompted me to write it, but I think it’s a good analogy.

Modern pirates all drive Bentleys.

You’re standing in the middle of a highway. Toward you comes a car and should it hit you, you will surely end up in the hospital, if not end up dead. The car absolutely will not move to avoid you under any circumstances. You have three choices.

1. Scream and yell at the driver of the car to get him to leave you alone.

2. Let the car hit you and then use the law to recoup damages.

3. Move out of the way of the car and share the road.

The road is the internet, the car is a kid uploading copyrighted content, and you are the television, movie or music industry. The industries have chosen options 1 and 2.

In a perfect world, everyone would pay a fair price for everything of value. Given that this is not a perfect world, people need to look at this realistically. The pirates will always be one step ahead. It is logically impossible to think it can ever be otherwise because law enforcement, the media industries, even security experts, can’t predict new methods of piracy. All they can ever be is reactive, not proactive.

Media makers need to learn to share the road, and that means putting media into all the available channels. TV and movies need to be available in Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. Books, magazines and comics need to be available in print, in iBooks and on Kindle. Music needs to be available on CD, in iTunes, Pandora and Spotify.

People are willing to pay for media – the billions spent on media every year is proof of that. Piracy isn’t preventing the industries from making more money, the industries’ ridiculous restrictions prevent them from making more money. Consumers don’t care about licensing issues. They don’t care that Starz jacked up the fees on Netflix so high that Netflix can’t afford to pay them, which resulted in Netflix losing all of the Starz content. All the consumers know is that there’s one less place they can legally watch that content. Consumers don’t care that AC/DC doesn’t like iTunes and won’t license their music to Apple to put up for sale. You can’t complain about people “stealing” your content when you don’t put it up for sale in places they’re looking to buy it. Share the road. You can’t stop the car from running you over.

For another great take on this, check out The Oatmeal’s “I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened” comic. (NSFW for language)

Satire is delicious.

I was looking at my To Do list in Evernote just now, and I found a block of text that I had put in there way at the bottom; apparently it’s been pushed down further and further as I added whitespace to the list. I’m not a particularly good list manager apparently.

I’m sure I meant to write something that built upon this thought many months ago, when talk of the FTC disclosure rules was still fresh, but what the heck, here it is anyway.

If the ftc rules are all about transparency and consumer protection, why aren’t there disclaimers in movies? When the Coke logo shows up in a movie, there should be a line of text that comes up at the bottom of the screen that says “Paid placement. Please see our product disclosure policy at http://the-movie’s-website.com”

That would be fair, right? Because otherwise, they’re just picking on websites by making us disclose every single instance of paid (or potentially paid – affiliate) links. They’ve said it’s not enough to have a page on our site that outlines the linking practices, yet that’s exactly what television and movies do when they have one quick-scrolling line during the credits (if they even have one at all). Where’s the on-screen disclosure in movies?

Just a thought.

We’ve got a packed house this week with appearances by Greg Hoffman, Jill Swartwout, Jennifer Myers Ward, Jared Saunders, Shari Friedman and me, Daniel M. Clark.

This episode is all about updates on everyone’s efforts. Our individual challenges are going well and with a larger crew, we have more challenges to issue.

A few takeaways:

• Not all salads are created equal
• Your brain operates differently when you ditch diet sodas
• Your body works its magic when you give it time to recover from a workout
• There’s a fine line between doing enough and doing too much (with regard to workouts)
• Jen is a natural rock climber, even in stylish boots
• Shari has a great article about pre-cooking meals for the week and one about eating in restaurants

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about webcams, Saturday Night Live being funny again, voting, and old school Sesame Street. Also, no mention of Pintere–ah, nuts. 

QAQN productions are now live on video! Check out the show schedule and streaming video player at QAQN Live!

We kicked it off with some discussion about our foray into streaming video. Greg got a new video camera, the Logitech C920. He was aiming for the C910 but missed and ended up with the better camera.

Saturday Night Live is funny again? Really? Greg says it’s about 50/50 right now. I’ve always thought it was kind of cyclical, with some casts being better than others – if SNL isn’t funny, give it a couple of years and it’ll bounce back.

Today was Super Tuesday in a lot of states. Was yours one of them? Did you vote? Greg explains why you should. Fight the apathy!

Greg’s cough drops have little inspirational messages on each wrapper. He was very smitten with these things.

The Sesame Street martians got some love this week. Now that I have kids, I’ve come to the realization… our Sesame Street is better than your Sesame Street. Suck it, Elmo.

From Sesame Street to reality television. From reality television to Downton Abbey. I’m trying to figure out why people are so interested in it, but failing. It seems to be very popular, but I find it soooo boring. Someone will have to explain it to me, because Greg & Drew haven’t seen it.

We wrapped with some minor talk about the Oscars. Greg’s waiting for a train wreck. Kinda like watching the Indy 500 and hoping for a helicopter engine explosion.

Other things of note:

• Billy the Exterminator
• Cinderella picture disc on eBay
• Sprockets! Touch my monkey!
• G-D-Batman (it’s a Twitter account, but slightly NSFW if PG-13 language is an issue)
• Being Human
• The Crazy Cat Lady

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Oh, who am I kidding. Of course you’re invited. It wouldn’t be the same without you!

I searched Flickr (Creative Commons) for "chat" and it gave me pages of cat pictures. So here you go.

Affiliate Summit is sponsoring the first in a series of Twitter chats and I’ve been tapped to be the guinea pig sucker volunteer! The topic is podcasting, the location is Twitter, and the duration is one hour. We’ll start at 9pm Eastern on Thursday, March 8th. Our hashtag will be #affchat. The easiest way to participate in the chat is to use the TweetChat service at http://tweetchat.com/room/affchat and login with your Twitter credentials. You can also create a search column in Tweetdeck or use the Twitter search function directly to keep up.

Anything about podcasting is fair game – anything from how to get started to what kind of equipment to use… monetization… editing, uploading, promotion… whatever you like.

See you on Thursday!

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg discuss the upcoming tragic demise of affiliate marketing in Georgia, streaming live video, and choosing the right HDTV for your home.

Although we were recording the show on video this time… there were issues. The battery in my Zi8 died before I realized that I hadn’t plugged it in properly to AC. This is the first time that we streamed out to Justin.tv though, so you can watch my part of it on my QAQN page there. Next week I’ll double check the main camera so I can bring the whole crew together.

Greg went to the capitol building in Atlanta to protest House Bill 993, sponsored by Rep. Matt Ramsey. This is Georgia’s version of the Affiliate Tax/Amazon Tax/Nexus Tax that has already passed in several other states (though it has been defeated in several others). Greg’s takeaway? Georgia is screwed. We spent a good 30 minutes or so hashing this out.

On a more light-hearted note, it looks like Death Stars aren’t really all that expensive to produce, as we had reported last week.

Speaking of stars and planets, two planets and a moon in our solar system lined up for a couple of nights this week.

Do you pay your kids for good grades? We talked about whether that’s a good idea and some thoughts about teaching kids about money. Drew brought up his experience with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

We wrapped with some thoughts about choosing an HTDV.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

This week on the Challenge is Jared Saunders of JensonUSA and me, Daniel M. Clark. We’re talking about the progress of our current challenge, the stress of everyday life and work, and getting off caffeine.

Last week, three challenges were issued. Jen Myers Ward (on vacation this week), Jared Saunders and I all had clearly defined challenges to keep up with. Today on the show, Jared and I gave our updates and expanded on the successes and failures related to them. Jared’s challenge was to stay away from restaurants and ice cream, and he failed one time each in the past week. He did keep up with his exercises though, which was a part of the challenge as well. Me, on the other hand… well, I’m the cause of the title of the show this week. I won’t spoil it here. My challenge was to stay away from restaurants and drink no soda. I’m off the soda successfully, but the restaurants… that’s a whole ‘nother story.

There’s a lot of great discussion here about diet, caffeine, coffee and exercise – thanks for listening!

My guest this week is accomplished author Jim Kukral. A fifteen-year veteran of internet marketing, Jim is leading the charge into self publishing on the Amazon Kindle platform. 

Jim’s new book is Business Around a Lifestyle, available now at Amazon.

Not content to simply write books, Jim is at the forefront of teaching others about the opportunities that Amazon and self-publishing present for entrepreneurs that have the ability to write. His new service, Author Marketing Club, is open for membership (it’s free to join) and his book cover design service, Digital Book Launch, is accepting new clients all the time. In this episode you’ll hear why Amazon is the only game in town, why the “book” as we’ve known it for centuries is on the way out (permanently) and why you should be building a business around the life you want to lead (even if you think it can’t be done). It’s a rock-solid 40 minutes.

If you think that a book might be in your future, you don’t want to miss this interview!

Learn more about Jim at JimKukral.com and follow @jimkukral on Twitter.

For the second episode in a row, I’ve got a guest on the show! Joining me is Dave Barnas, author of a trio of health and exercise books. He’s on to talk about his career and writing, and to answer a few questions about my own efforts and conditions, including back pain and chiropractic.

You can learn more about Dave at True Health Unlimited. Don’t miss out on a free ebook opportunity as well.

Thanks for listening!

Author Jim Kukral will be my guest on Inside Internet Marketing on Tuesday, February 28th at 1pm Eastern. Marketing your site, products or brand by writing a book can be very effective. Jim has been traditionally published and self-published, and has a ton of great information to share about both. Think you need a publisher to get a book out to the masses? Think again – and Jim is the guy to learn from.

We’ll be talking about his upcoming book release, Business Around a Lifestyle, the state of self-publishing, and his new Author Marketing Club resource.

Inside Internet Marketing can be heard live on QAQN.com using the Mixlr broadcast player on the home page. Interact with us during the show via Twitter by tagging your tweets with the hashtag #qaqnchat

It’s rare that I bring a guest on this show, but my guest this time has been on twice. Vinny O’Hare is a fitness mission of his own, and he’s on the show to compare notes with me. We talked about cycling, dealing with the weather, gym memberships, dietary concerns and lots more.

Thanks for listening!

This week’s show consisted of myself, Jen Myers Ward and making his triumphant return to the metaphorical airwaves, Jared Saunders!

This time was all about laying down challenges. Jared is on a 40-day challenge: no restaurants, no ice cream, 15 push-ups a day, and 5 minutes of ab work a day. He will also try quinoa this week (something we’d been talking about in our private Facebook group). He’s also going to try a Crossfit workout.

I have a slightly less ambitious challenge. Two weeks no restaurants and no soda of any kind. Actually, mine might be tougher. The soda thing is going to be rough.

Jen’s challenge is to find time during her upcoming family trip to get in some workouts. As packed as her schedule is… maybe hers will be the toughest of the three challenges with week.

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg discuss Fausnaught Day (that’s totally a thing), affiliate management, rebooting movie and television franchises, and Kevin Smith. Also, Pinterest. Again.

We lead off with Fat Tuesday and Fausnaught Day, a tradition that I have been informed is not actually Klingon, but German. It involves decorating doughnuts, which I think we can agree automatically makes it one of the most underrated days of the year. Why am I just learning about this?!

Next, Greg has launched a new contest for merchants. He gave us all the details – he’s giving away four months of free affiliate program management as part of a case study. If you are a merchant who is interested in jump starting your stagnant affiliate program, this is right up your alley.

We got into a whole thing about rebooting movie franchises. Do we really need new versions of old movies? We’re not so sure. Reboots, re-releases and 3D. Ugh.

Kevin Smith has a new TV show that we talked about in this next segment. Well, sort of. Not all of us have watched it yet. We talked quite a bit about his career though, and Drew actually met the dude. The Death Star conversation that I referenced can be found here on YouTube, and here’s the article that Greg found that calculated the cost of building a Death Star.

And next, yet another segment about Pinterest! Greg has coined a new term: Dispinterest. It’s what happens when you stop caring about Pinterest. There’s been some news lately about Pinterest and Skimlinks, and there’s some new code available that allows site owners to block their content from being pinned.

Drew got his hands on a new Playstation Vita, but wasn’t too impressed. Listen for his review, and you can read more about it at BenSpark.

Greg’s checking out Red Dwarf. You should, too. It’s smegging brilliant. The new series is being shot right now. We chatted a bit about Doctor Who as well.

Lastly, I recommended some software for tracking collections of books, movies, comics and more. Great stuff. Available on several platforms.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

Earlier today I received an email from TubeMogul.com. The message was to let me know that as an account holder, I should know that they have split their multi-site video submission service into a whole new site, OneLoad.com. I signed up with TubeMogul a long time ago (and never used it) but I’m just now making plans for video content so naturally, I clicked through. Rather than try to find my years-old username and password, I decided to just create a new account. At the end of the sign-up form, there’s this:

At a glance, it looks like OneLoad is just trying to prevent people from monetizing their videos, but that’s not the case; there is nothing here that says a company can’t upload a sales video. MLM, affiliate marketing, network marketing and home-based businesses… other businesses are perfectly welcome to upload videos.

Anyone who doesn’t think affiliate marketing has an image problem has their head in the sand. This is what we’re dealing with, folks.

This episode is all about turning points. I successfully quit smoking years ago after a long period of minor successes and failures, and much like smoking, quitting eating (so to speak) is a real trial. I know that if I can apply the same principles to one, I can have success with the other, and that’s where I am right now. It’s far easier to resist temptation if you’re not tempted to begin with. I’ve reached a turning point, and even in the time between recording the show and writing these show notes, I’ve proven to myself that I’m on the right track. Moving forward. One day at a time.

Thanks for listening!

This week the show is helmed by myself and Jen Myers Ward, breaking the pattern of male dominance on the show (thankfully). We’re talking about cruises and buffets, the effects of weather on exercise routines, the Melting Pot, Girl Scout cookies, and a week-long charity project, among other things.

A few links for you this week:

• Race to Affiliate Summit East 2012
• Use chicken broth for fondue instead of oil
• Books4Boobies – support breast cancer research!
• Learn more here (AffiliateTip.com),
• and here (Books4Boobies.org),
• and here (Inside Internet Marketing with Deb Carney).

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about one of the biggest stories in the intersection of parenting and social media this week: the father who put eight rounds into his daughter’s laptop because she wrote an expletive-filled rant about him on her Facebook page. …or did he?

We began the show with an explanation of the new recording schedule for Geek Dads Weekly and the rest of the QAQN productions. GDW is now recorded on Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern. After a couple of minutes doing that, we dived right into the headline of the week: Father Shoots Daughter’s Laptop, Posts Video on Facebook. We had quite a spirited discussion about this, with Drew coming down on the side of “I hate this video” and Greg coming down on the side of “I love this video”. I’m somewhere in the middle.

• The video that sparked the whole conflagration.
• Tommy Jordan’s Facebook page
• Was it all a hoax?

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

In which Daniel and Drew (and later, Greg) welcome Rob Merlino to the show. Rob – The Hot Dog Man! – is on the show to talk about hamburgers and chicken–wait, what? Oh. Right. Hot dogs. The Hot Dog Man is on the show to talk about hot dogs. That makes more sense than what I was going to say.

It’s not just hot dogs though, as the three of us chat about life in the New England area, the demise of Kodak cameras (we lament the loss of the Zi8), and the ethics of companies buying other companies. Also, Affiliate Summit, Affiliate Improv, Blogworld, and camping out at the Museum of Science.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

I’m joined this week by Deborah Carney, who is on the show to talk about a new charity project to benefit Affiliate Marketers Give Back, in support of breast cancer research.

The affiliate marketing industry is known for its fundraising efforts on behalf of the Avon Walk for the Cure, which benefits breast cancer research and support. What better time of year than Valentine’s Day to show your love? This week affiliate marketers are using their book revenue to help raise money for Affiliate Marketers Give Back. Debbie shared with me the roots of the project, who is involved and what the group hopes to accomplish. I have long been a fan of Missy Ward and AMGB, so I hope that all of my listeners can spare a few minutes to look at the list of participating books and consider making a purchase or three. Prices start at only 99 cents! Check out the full list after the jump.

Purchase any of the books listed below between February 12 and 18 and the authors will donate their profits to AMGB. Although many of the books focus on business, affiliate marketing, and blogging, you will also find children’s books, photography books, and more.

Join us in helping spread the word about Affiliate Marketers Give Back and this Book Hop for the Boobies!

Books About Business:

Internet Marketing From the Real Experts (Shawn Collins, Missy Ward, and The Gang of 88) Collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social network rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.

It’s All About the Cookies (Mary Poiley, Missy Ward, and Jen Goode) A mouth-watering collection of recipes and thought-provoking insights affiliate marketers learned on their road to success – an interesting read and a wonderful addition to your own kitchen.

Internet Marketing for Business Answers (Jim Kukral) The absolute best way to learn how to grow a successful business is to pay attention to how the experts have done it before you. Internet Marketing for Business Answers, the Small Business Expert Interviews edition puts you into a private one-on-one session with over 16 of the most successful business owners and entrepreneurs on the Web.

No Publisher Needed – Crowdfunding Your Book – How I Raised Over $30k in 30-Days To Pre-Fund My New Book (Jim Kukral) You don’t need an agent or a publisher to make your new book a success. You can use the power of the crowd to pre-fund your book and create your own virtual signing bonus. That’s what I did. I raised over $30k in 30-days for my new book series. Want to know how to do it? That’s what this book is all about.

The Basics of Affiliate Success: Running a Business (Top Secrets of Successful Affiliate Marketing) (Billy Kay) Affiliates always joke that they make money in their bathrobes, and that affiliate marketing is “easy money”! But in reality, it IS… a business. If run it like a business, it can succeed. Billy offers these business tricks and tips to help establish, grow and sustain your affiliate marketing career.

Follow Me: Making Money with Blogging, Facebook Marketing & Twitter for Business (Dave Cupples) Former NSW Young Entrepreneur of the Year, SMX Idol Winner and International Speaker Dave Cupples shares leading Social Media case studies from around the world and the most effective tools and actionable cutting edge tips for businesses to skyrocket new leads and supercharge revenue using Facebook, Twitter and Blogging. Includes Tips & Tools to incentivize Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers & Blog Subscribers, How to spy on competitors and copy their most effective tactics, Tips & Tools to get your content shared by influencers and much more!

Affiliate Marketing: The Complete Guide for Beginners (Affiliate Marketing – Mastering Internet Marketing) (Todd Farmer) This guide is designed to teach you the basics of Affiliate Marketing. I want you to understand how it works, who the players are, and how you fit in.

MyContentPro’s Cheap-Ass Guide to Online Content (Online Content for Marketers) (Todd Farmer) Content for your website or online marketing project is a critical component for success.  The goal of this eBook is to help you get the content you need, at the lowest price.  Many of the sources and strategies uncovered in this eBook provide content for your websites, 100% Free.

Best Practices for Coupon Sites (Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare, Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks)

Best Practices for Creating Your Affiliate Agreement (Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare, Eric Nagel)

Choosing the Scope and Structure of Your Blog (Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Liz Fogg)

Facebook + Email = Success (Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare, Dave Cupples and David Iwanow)

SEO for Blogs (Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare, Eric Nagel, Tricia Meyer)

Children’s & Young Adult Books

W is for Woofer (Leslie Nazarian, Sharon Nazarian) A rhyming picture book with words that all begin with the letter W.

Woofer Works Out (Leslie Nazarian, Sharon Nazarian) Get kids excited to move and exercise with this illustrated rhyming book that showcases activities and sports for every season.

Winnie McGoo’s Museum Adventure (Leslie Nazarian, Sharon Nazarian) A museum can be an exciting place. Just ask Winnie McGoo. Whose adventure in a museum one night isn’t something many people do. From eating pizza with Mona Lisa to swimming on the Isle of Grande Jatte, Winnie’s museum adventure creates an interesting plot.

Block Boy (Alec Ababon) Short story about a boy that is different from the others and is bullied in school.

Animal Kingdom: Jaguar is Reborn (Eric Carney, Deborah Carney) Workaholic Jason Peters is an average sales rep with a suburban house and wife, Jennifer. One day Jason spills coffee in his car and finds a gold coin that changes their lives forever.

Inspiratonal and Photographs:
Blue Honeycreepers (Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare)

Flowers With Wings (Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare)

Inspirational Quotes for Writers – Coffee Table Book (Deborah Carney)

Poetry and Peonies: Japanese Tree Peonies (Deborah Carney)

Buddha Beach: Sedona, Arizona (The Southwest Gallery Series) (Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg, Alec Ababon)

What is Inspiration? (Thoughts on Life) (Alan Loren) –  a mini-anthology of poetry drawn from the pages of a writer’s workshop called MWW (My Word Wizard).

An assortment of other books:
Bike – A Short Story (Eric Carney)

Slay the Demons (Daniel Fogg, Deborah Carney) When a random act of violence forces him to hide a  corpse, Brent Fischer finds himself confronted with horrors long forgotten and horrors he longs to forget.  In the end he must either face down his demons once and for all or let them chase him off a cliff.  Sex, Drugs & Murder

Weirder Than Marshmallows (Daniel Fogg, Deborah Carney)

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

photo credit: tompagenet

Regular listeners of Geek Dads Weekly are used to hearing us get interupted by my kids. When I expanded from one podcast into several, I chose Thursdays as my recording day because it was a day that my wife frequently had free from work and she could keep an eye on Ian while I recorded. That helped reduce the interruptions a bit, but that’s changed, and so has my recording schedule. All shows are now on a new day and most are at a new time. The line-up, starting today, is as follows:

• Inside Internet Marketing: Tuesdays at 1pm Eastern (30 minutes to an hour)
• Geek Dads Weekly: Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern. (1 hour)
• Affiliate Marketers Fitness Challenge: Tuesdays at 4pm Eastern. (1 hour)
• Yet Another Weight Loss Show: Tuesdays at 11pm Eastern. (15 minutes, maybe half an hour or so – depends on my mood, really)

Once a month, Inside Internet Marketing will be replaced by Affiliate Improv!, a new webinar series that I will be posting about shortly. We’ve had our quiet launch to iron out the bugs and now we’re ready to blow it up!

Be a Better Podcaster is on indefinite hiatus while I retool the show. It will return in the [hopefully] near future as a video podcast.

These changes take place today, so we hope to see you on Tuesday, February 14th for the next batch of QAQN episodes!

Like last week, this episode of AMFC is myself, Greg Hoffman and Kevin Webster. It’s another show with us guys on our own, and we’re not exactly sure that’s a good thing. We gave it the ol’ college try anyway.

We began with talking about the girls of course, because if there’s one true thing about men, it’s that we’re just as chatty as women are made out to be. The women who join us on the show were missed. That out of the way, we covered Greg and Kevin’s medical issues: both guys have shoulder issues that they are working though. It makes things a little more difficult, but not impossible.

The main topic of conversation this time was food. Whether it’s the Shamrock Shake at McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme donuts or something far healthier (lettuce wraps, tilapia), we had a lot to say about food this time out.

Links:

• Dave Barnas
• Shari Fitness
• Pink Slime (Mechanically Separated Chicken)
• Tony Chacheres

Thanks for listening!

I was asked by my friend Jen Goode to head up the Newcomer Program for Affiliate Summit West (as I’ve mentioned here). After the details were worked out with Shawn & Missy, I set about the task of matching up first-time attendees with veteran volunteers who could show the newcomers the ropes. For my first time out, it went really well! It was shortly before the deadline for article proposals for FeedFront 17, when I thought, maybe I’ll take a break from podcasting articles and write up a little something about the Newcomer Program? It came together really well, almost effortless.

“Since 2008, the Newcomer Program has helped first-time attendees ease into the bustle of Affiliate Summit. Each show breaks an attendance record; it can be nerve-wracking for a first-timer to jump into a crowd of four or five thousand! As the new coordinator of the Summit West Newcomer Program, I’d like to present an overview of the program and an invitation to join us at the next Affiliate Summit.”

Issue 17 is available at issuu.com.

Oh, the sting of missed opportunities! This was issue 16 of FeedFront, and I had last been included in issue 14. I was going through a bit of a self-imposed social media blackout, and I completely missed the call for articles for that issue. I made sure I was on top of things after that, and submitted an idea for an article about live broadcasting to be included in issue 16. As you know (I hope!) all of my QAQN shows are broadcast live as they’re being recorded, and I thought others might like to know a bit about the hows and whys of it.

“I’ve written about podcasting in several past issues of FeedFront because it’s a subject near and dear to me. In this issue, I’m going to take you about ten steps further and give you some things to consider about live internet broadcasting! ”

Issue 16 is available at issuu.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg mull over the next generation, the history of blogging, Gentlemint.com, Drew’s new recording setup, and the travesty that is the grocery store toy aisle.

Todd Farmer recently said, “at what point will kids have no idea what “caught on tape” means?” – probably now. The three of us talked about how kids will not have the same touchstones we have, especially when it comes to language. We agreed though, that phrases can take on a life of their own, beyond their literal meaning. This is one that will probably linger.

Speaking of language, the AP Style Guide has issued a decree: it’s spelled “email”. No hyphen. [Here's the thing - someone on Twitter linked to this story, and I assumed it was current. In writing the show notes, I discovered this change was made 10 months ago. Oops. What does the AP say about doing proper research for a story?]

Next, we transitioned into the history of blogging and general internet evolution. Greg keeps up with rebeccablood.net, one of the earliest blogs – and it shows. It’s an example of an old school blog, from a time some considered blogging “pure”. The layout is minimalist, which reminds me of Sam Harrelson’s new site as well as Devin Tonhaeuser’s - two old school looking sites in 2012. Minimalist. Focused on content.

Are you using Pinterest? Are you a guy? Are you wondering how your super macho, manly interests fit into the predominantly female, DIY aesthetic at Pinterest? Wonder no more, now there’s Gentlemint.com. If you have an interest in sports car shaped caskets, giant pizza tacos, motorcycles, grilling or beer, this might be right up your alley. Speaking of Pinterest, Drew brought up an interesting thing…

Drew’s got a new microphone! He’s rocking the Blue Yeti microphone, an excellent choice. His audio is 1000% better… now we just need a more reliable Skype and all his problems are solved! Several podcasters I know are using the Yeti (or its cousin, the Snowball) with great results. If you’re talking into your laptop’s internal microphone or you’re using a cheap headset (itself a better choice than the internal mic) upgrading to a Yeti is a great move.

Next, I talked briefly about buying toys at the grocery store. Overpriced? Yeah, a smidge. The branded toys – Star Wars, Marvel Superheroes, that kind of stuff, were nearly ten bucks for the little 3″ action figures. Generic action figures, without the big licensing deals, were like, a buck. Moral of the story? When your 3 year old says he wants a toy at the grocery store, just say no. Yikes.

Lastly, our friend Tricia Meyer is running a contest. Ladies, this one’s for you, and Dads (or husbands or boyfriends), this is a big chance to be a Great Guy™. Enter the drawing, then go get on Twitter and spread the word:

RT @sunshinetricia Share your mean mom story and win a gift to pamper yourself www.themeanmom.com/contest

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

I was a little more than 45 minutes late doing this episode live, because I decided not to skip it altogether after all. I was going to skip because I didn’t think I had anything to say this week. Turns out, I did. I had about a half hour’s worth of things to say, apparently!

In addition to the update on my efforts (been back on the bike, been eating better), I also talked about the role that the food industry has in keeping people fat. Specifically, keeping poor people fat. It’s not just poor people and it’s not just the food industry, I know – but there’s a pretty definitive link between how much money a person makes and how much fresh, healthful food they can afford. There’s a reason McDonald’s and no-name cheap grocery stores (where you can’t trust the quality of the meat & produce) thrive in low-income areas, after all. So… yeah. Looks like I had a topic after all. Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about a few things revolving around Affiliate Summit in some way or another. Plus, Game of Thrones, which was saved for the end in case people want to avoid spoilers and talk of taboo subject matter.

We started with a catch-up with the guys since last week. Drew’s getting settled with the new house, the new baby and all that domestic goodness. Greg went on a comic book shop tour in the Atlanta area, visiting six shops. He used a site called Comic Shop Locator to find them, and some of the places he went to were pretty funny.

Next, an update on Affiliate Improv!, the new monthly webinar series that kicks off this Saturday, January 28th, at 2pm Eastern. It’s an extension of the three-time Affiliate Summit session that I’ve helmed, and it’s totally free to attend. We demonstrate effective brainstorming and show the process of going from idea to action list. Plus, attendees get inside info on the sites, services and techniques we use on our own sites to blow them up and attract attention. Come check us out and spread the word, won’t you?

We covered Affiliate Summit Central, coming up in May. I’ll be there, Greg will be there, Drew is on the ‘maybe’ list. The Emcee for #ASC12 was announced today  and she seems like an awesome choice. Her name is Heather Romiti. None of us know her yet, but going by her bio and the trust that Shawn & Missy have placed in her, we’re sure she’s fantastic.

One of the more popular and well received sessions at Affiliate Summit West 2012 was Mastermind Groups Exposed: Success in Affiliate Marketing by Eric Nagel, Todd Farmer and Tricia Meyer. I recently got an invitation to join a mastermind group, and thought I’d bring up mastermind groups as a segment. I didn’t realize Greg would have so much to say on the matter! (Sidebar: you know what I just realized as I was typing these show notes? All three of them are Pinnacle Award winners now that Tricia won her award at West 2012. How cool is that?)

We finished up with a discussion of Game of Thrones, the enormously popular HBO series. Tune in to hear Drew and I ramble about how awesome it is and butcher the pronunciation of a few names. Warning: the segment is full of spoilers. Also, full of talk about what makes the show so controversial – the sex and violence. That’s why we held it til the end of the show, so listeners could drop out if they felt they needed to.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

In which Daniel and Drew welcome a new co-host to the Geek Dads Pantheon of Awesomeness – Greg Hoffman.

The show notes will be completed later this evening. I apologize for the delay, but I wanted to get this thing posted before it got ridiculously late. Not that MONDAY isn’t pretty ridiculous already, I suppose. I’ll explain later.

[Update, January 21st] A quick note about the title, since we had someone asking about it who seemed put off by it. At the beginning of the show we noted that it was just us three guys and that none of the ladies that often appear on the show could make it this week. We joked that it was The All Guy Show, and that (sarcastically) nothing sells better than a fitness show hosted by a bunch of guys. The “no broads” thing was very tongue-in-cheek, as you can see by listening to the first little while of the episode. I chose “broads” because I didn’t want to be offensive since we love the women who do the show with us, yet I was going for that kind of “alpha male, we don’t need no broads around here!” kind of joke. That’s it. Just a little light humor :)

The show this week is myself, Greg Hoffman and Kevin Webster. Kevin has been a member of our private Facebook group for quite a while but is making his AMFC debut this week!

We kicked off with Kevin’s backstory – where he’s coming from, what his fitness and health goals are and what he hopes to get out of the group. Like several of us, he’s aiming for dropping about 25-30 pounds or so.

Greg brought us up to speed on his surgery rehab, I described the cycle of depression that I went through at the end of 2011, and then we moved on to the main topic of the week: Affiliate Summit West 2012 in Las Vegas. The climate, the restaurant food, the illnesses, the walking… there’s a lot to talk about!

Our recommendation? You should probably skip Serendipity 3 outside of Caesar’s Palace.

We have a great discussion about alcohol in the last segment of the show. To wit, here is Greg’s recipe for a new drink called the Shawn Collins (it’s like a John Collins, which itself is like a Tom Collins):

1 1/2 oz bourbon
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz sugar syrup
club soda
maraschino cherry for garnish
orange slice for garnish
1 shot of Bud Light

We finished up talking about JensonUSA and their excellent selection of bikes and bicycle equipment. Go check ‘em out. (Follow-up… I actually did get on the bike after recording this episode. Woot!)

Thanks for listening!

I’m back on the bike! After a really rough holiday season followed by a week in Sin City, I thought I was doomed. But you know… I’m not. I’m really not. I’m feeling better than I have in months, I got back on the bike earlier tonight for the first time since… November maybe? and my outlook hasn’t been this good in a long time.

This episode is all about new beginnings. It’s a new year. First quarter, 2012. Let’s keep it going!

Polar RCX5

While at Affiliate Summit West 2012, I won a fantastic prize from Buy.at – a Polar wrist computer. What? It is a wrist computer! Okay, it’s a heart rate monitor, but it’s a very sophisticated monitor. I ran out of time before my ride to get it set up properly, so I’ll wear it on my next outing, but glancing at the manual it looks easy to use and packed with useful data. Thanks, Buy.at. You guys rock.

Thanks for listening, see you next week!

My guest this week is an internet marketing specialist with over 12 years of sales and marketing experience. Sarah Bundy has been a top performer for more than a dozen multimillion dollar corporations, has won multiple awards for sales and service, and has founded four companies of her own. She’s the CEO of All Inclusive Marketing (AIM) and the brand new Affiliate Management Trainers (AMT). Sarah has written for FeedFront magazine and ReveNews and she speaks at conferences such as Affiliate Management Days and the Online Marketing Summit. She also teaches at the Online Marketing Institute.

Like many of my guests, Sarah was thrown into the industry as part of a different position. She quickly started learning as much as she could “like a sponge” and worked her way into a situation of influence that afforded her the opportunity to focus on an important goal: education. Growing out of her work with AIM, her new team at Affiliate Management Trainers works to educate online retailers.

Big thanks to Sarah Bundy for coming on the show! You can follow her on Twitter and learn more about her at AIM and AMT. Sarah can also be reached by email: sarah(at)allinclusivemarketing.com

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

This week is part three of a three-part series leading up to Affiliate Summit and my session, Affiliate Improv!. My guest is Mike Buechele, one of the panelists from Affiliate Improv!, and he’s here to chat about our session, Summit, and a few other things. Heading to Las Vegas for Summit? Make sure you check out Mike and me on Affiliate Improv! along with Trisha Lyn Fawver and Eric Souza.

“Four industry veterans brainstorm marketing ideas for items/services with audience participation. Ideas to actionable solutions in one fun, lively hour. Come get your creative juices flowing!”

Affiliate Improv! happens on Sunday, January 8th at 3:30pm in the Augustus V room at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. Space is limited, so get there early! This session is open to Gold, Platinum and Diamond passholders and is geared toward beginner and intermediate attendees.

Affiliate Improv! will have Office Hours on Tuesday, January 10th at 2pm in the Exhibit Hall. Exact location in the hall TBA.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

In which Daniel and Drew welcome Sam Harrelson back to the show for our New Year’s Special. Topics include spotty resolutions, video games, social media, Shoemoney, affiliate marketing and more.

My new New Year’s resolution is to not agonize over the show notes. Rather than many paragraphs of overview, I’m going to break it down for you more simply. Let’s go!

New Year’s resolutions? Drew and Sam don’t do ‘em. Me? I’m resolving to have fewer paper cuts, listen to more Tom Waits music, and start smoking. Everyone resolves to quit, but I’m a rebel. I go against the grain.

Video games – we talked about the new Godfather multiplayer game from Kabam!,Unreal Tournament, Skylanders, Skyrim, and the granddaddy of all the modern resource allocation games, Utopia.

We talked about social media, Facebook and the “freemium” business model, which Sam wrote about just the other day.

And Shoemoney! Did you hear? Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker called me “the best podcaster in the affiliate marketing business and a great interviewer”. Now that’s what I call a compliment. The guys and I knocked around some thoughts about Jeremy and his upcoming appearance at Affiliate Summit (less than a week away as I write this!).

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out Jeremy’s 75-minute interview on Inside Internet Marketing #39.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

My guest this time is Jeremy Schoemaker, known throughout the industry as Shoemoney. Never one to shy from any topic, Jeremy is on the show to give a follow-up to the PMA discussion, dish on Fast Company and personalities in the internet marketing space, and offer up his personal philosophy: sharing experiences.

Jeremy also talked about how he got his start online, how the Shoemoney blog came together, and how he became the brand that he is today. As the closing keynote of Affiliate Summit coming up in January, he is sure to entertain and offer something to think about. Going to Summit? Do not miss that keynote. Trust me.

If you don’t know Shoemoney you’ll get to know him over the course of 75 packed minutes. When you’re done, connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and at Shoemoney.com where Jeremy shares more of his experiences.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

My guest this time is Sam Harrelson, longtime blogger and affiliate marketer, and recent nominee of an Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award! Sam’s up for Best Blogger at Affiliate Summit West 2012.

Sam and I talked about a range of industry topics, including:

• The de-evolution of forums and the evolution of social media
• The democratization of industry resources
• Twitter vs. Facebook vs. LinkedIn
• His beginnings in the industry
• CPA vs. CPS – can they be brought together? Are they really that different?
• The Amazon or “Ad Tax” and forthcoming Federal laws
• The PMA and the unionization of the industry
• Labels! Performance? Affiliate? Mobile? CPA, CPS, PPC – how many little kingdoms do we need?

Most importantly perhaps, we debated the effectiveness of business cards vs. apps for contact info transfer.

You can find Sam at his industry blog, PayPerTrends and on Twitter.

Thanks for listening!

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

In which Daniel and Drew talk about a forgotten anniversary, the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program, holiday decoration deals and 2012 being the best year ever for movies.

We started with yes, the anniversary I forgot. Oh, not my wedding anniversary, no. Today is the third anniversary of Geek Dads – the third anniversary of my very first podcast experience. Everything that I am today in my podcasting career stems from that first episode of Geek Dads three years ago today.

And I completely forgot about it until it was too late to plan anything to mark the occasion. I suck.

After that bit of happiness, I mentioned that the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program closes tomorrow, December 23rd. If you’re interested in participating, please sign up by the end of the day tomorrow so I can make the final matches over the weekend.

Drew brought up late Christmas shopping next. Not shopping for presents, shopping for his tree. Yep, he left it a little on the late side on this one! That led into a nice discussion about finding great post-Christmas deals on decorations.

Our main segment this week covers the movies coming up in 2012 that we’re looking forward to (provided we’re not all dead). We had a great talk about movies and television from the 80′s to today and how things have improved significantly over the last 25 years.

Lastly, the winner of our last giveaway was Christopher Sorel, congratulations! We have another copy of the Green Lantern: Secret Origin hardcover to give out, so enter! The winner will be notified next Thursday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

This week on AMFC it’s myself, Jennifer Myers Ward and Wade Tonkin. We’re talking about food addiction, using a personal trainer in local gyms, and cooking at home with various recipes, sauces and soups.

My challenge in the upcoming week is to get off of diet soda. Yep, that means ditching my hate-that-I-love-it Diet Dr. Pepper. The plan is to get my caffeine from coffee and to drink more water – carbonated water, with a splash of lemon or other citrus.

Jennifer’s challenge this week is to change up her daily routine so that she can’t justify skipping her workouts in the wake of holiday planning.

Wade’s challenge will be to properly journal his food intake this week and examine his findings.

We also talked a bit about Affiliate Summit, Las Vegas and working from home vs. going to work in an office.

Thanks for listening!

This week is part two of a three-part series leading up to Affiliate Summit and my session, Affiliate Improv!. My guest is Trisha Lyn Fawver, one of the panelists from Affiliate Improv!, and she’s here to chat about our session, Summit, and a few other things. She’s number 37! (Insert Kevin Smith joke here)

“Four industry veterans brainstorm marketing ideas for items/services with audience participation. Ideas to actionable solutions in one fun, lively hour. Come get your creative juices flowing!”

Affiliate Improv! happens on Sunday, January 8th at 3:30pm in the Augustus V room at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. Space is limited, so get there early! This session is open to Gold, Platinum and Diamond passholders and is geared toward beginner and intermediate attendees.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

On this week’s episode is myself, Jennifer Myers Ward and Wade Tonkin. We’re talking about Affiliate Summit and how to stay on track in Las Vegas, Wade’s boot camp experiences and the possibility of food addiction for a group member.

Thanks for listening!

Title says it all. Nothing good this week. It’s a very short episode and I’m investigating the possibility that I have an actual food addiction. I explain my thoughts about that during the episode, but it boils down to the fact that I can’t always stop myself from eating. Sounds like an addiction to me. I’ll have an update about that next week.

Thanks for listening.

This week is part one of a three-part series leading up to Affiliate Summit and my session, Affiliate Improv!. My guest is Eric Souza, one of the panelists from Affiliate Improv!, and he’s here to chat about our session, Summit, and a few other things in his own… unique… way.

“Four industry veterans brainstorm marketing ideas for items/services with audience participation. Ideas to actionable solutions in one fun, lively hour. Come get your creative juices flowing!”

Affiliate Improv! happens on Sunday, January 8th at 3:30pm in the Augustus V room at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. Space is limited, so get there early! This session is open to Gold, Platinum and Diamond passholders and is geared toward beginner and intermediate attendees.

Affiliate Improv! will have Office Hours on Tuesday, January 10th at 2pm in the Exhibit Hall. Exact location in the hall TBA.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

In which Daniel and Drew tackle such heavy topics as cello-based Star Wars videos, joke thievery, Louis CK and a Green Lantern contest.

Right off the bat, check this out:

Awesome, right? We also mentioned Lindsey Stirling and the Barely Political series during this opening segment.

Did you know that The Gutters is a site of lousy joke thieves? It’s true. Someone clearly heard our Emo Wolverine show and decided to do a web comic featuring Emo Wolverine! Thieves! It’s true, as far as you know.

Speaking of noted joke thieves, we were reminded of where that phrase came from. I haven’t kept up with Sarcastic Voyage (or most other podcasts) much this year, but Aalgar and Matt continue to put out a stellar show, according to Drew. Drew was featured on this year’s ClusterFlonk event, so he might be biased, but I’ll let it slide. Keep up the good work, gents!

Next – Louis CK. This guy is my new comedic hero. The story behind his latest comedy special is inspiring. I won’t rehash it here (I do that on the show) but click on through to his site and read up on it. It’s a great lesson for content creators, affiliate marketers – anyone who wants to sell anything online, really.

Lastly, we have a new contest. I’ve got a bunch of Green Lantern hardcovers to give away, and we’ll start with two. I can’t promise delivery by Christmas, but hey, it’s a free hardcover. Call it your New Years’ present if you want. Now, here’s the catch. Well, it’s not really a catch, it’s a request. I’m trying to secure a sponsor for other really awesome contests and I want to show them that QAQN and Geek Dads Weekly knows how to throw a contest. Get your friends to participate! Tweet it! Facebook it! Throw it up on LinkedIn, if you think anyone there would notice! Put it on Google+ if you know anyone who’s actually using it! Join in the fun! Details below!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In which Daniel and Drew get a late start, don’t do the show live, and have to deal with Ian wandering into the studio. Turned out to be a pretty good show nonetheless. 

It’s the legacy of Geek Dads, whether it’s @ Home or Weekly. We drop the kids in front of the TV for 45 minutes to do a podcast and they invariably get bored and decide to see what we’re up to. That’s probably a good thing, I guess.

This week we’re talking about Drew’s new baby boy and how he’s affecting his family. We also covered Marvel Super Hero Squad Online and classic video games (like Baldur’s Gate, Bard’s Tale and others). I explained how I deal without cable TV – between Hulu, Netflix and various network sites, I’m pretty much okay. Catching live sports is a problem, but I’m not much of a sports guy, so that’s okay.

Drew mentioned that he’s doing even more giveaways, despite Swagsgiving being over and done with!

We wrapped with a segment about DC Comics’ commitment to their New 52 project. I don’t think they’re in it for the long haul.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

In this episode we’re talking about exercise balls, treadmill desks and the great outdoors. Also, the real effects of food on the body and the cost of going green and healthy.

On the show this week:

• Daniel M. Clark
• Jared Saunders
• Jennifer Myers Ward
• Shawn Collins

Thanks for listening!

See? I told you I would be back on track. There’s no change this week as I clocked in at 235, but like I said on the show, I consider that somewhat of a win. If I’m not down, at least I’m not up. In this episode I talk about how holidays and weather have been affecting my exercise and diet and what I can do about that. Also, my pocket queens get busted by ace-six in the most improbable way.

Thanks for listening!

In this episode I break down and explain why this show has been so sporadic for the past couple of months. I promised at the beginning of the series that I would share my ups and my downs with you, and I reneged on that promise recently. I am turning that around now.

Thanks for listening!

I’ve just added a new contest to the show notes of Geek Dads Weekly #102. With each Affiliate Summit there are a number of Gold passes to give to my audience, and this time there are five to go around! There are multiple ways to enter the drawing and it’s all spelled out in the instructions. Click on through to Geek Dads Weekly, or enter right here using this super-cool contest widget from Rafflecopter!

In which Daniel and Drew welcome Eric Nagel to the show to talk about his epic Christmas lights display. Also, Drew and his wife just added another human being to the planet and we mourn the loss of a Geek Dad. Still great, just different.

The show is divided into three segments this week, the first of which features Eric Nagel. Eric has just debuted his annual Christmas display at his home and is here to tell us all about how it came about, what it takes to plan something is this magnitude and how popular it has become. The event (and it really is more like an event) has its own Facebook page and you can see more pictures and video over there. Here’s one to whet your whistle.

Next, Drew and I announced that long-time Geek Dad, the only other remaining founder of the show, has taken his leave. Joe Magennis and I, along with Sam Harrelson, started Geek Dads almost three years ago. We celebrated our 100th show a few weeks ago. He’s been a rock, and he’ll be missed as he begins a new business venture. Joe’s welcome back anytime, and I hope he’ll jump on an episode periodically to catch us up on what’s going on with him and his family.

Out with the old, in with the new? Drew talked about his new baby, a boy by the name of Andrew Bennett IV: The Quest for Peace. Or Andrew Bennett IV: The Dream Master. I’m not sure which cheesy 80′s movie title to go with. Perhaps Andrew Bennett IV: The Revenge. Everyone is doing well, the baby is great, and I’m looking forward to more pictures. Also – Drew’s got more Swagsgiving goodness going on at BenSpark.com.

We wrapped up with a bit of talk about the new-ish direction of the show. We’ll be intersecting the paths of geeks and of dads a lot more in coming shows. We’ll have topics ranging from video games, comic books and TV to kid-oriented stuff like… well, video games, comic books and TV. But lots of other cool stuff, too (like biking, movies, making fun of celebrities and acting like we’re above all that, books, technology, social media…). If it’s geeky and we’re interested in it, we’ll cover it. Stay tuned. It’s going to be awesomesauce. Not lamesauce. That’s what the kids today say, right? Awesomesauce?

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

The Affiliate Summit West 2012 Gold Pass Giveaway!

We’ve got FIVE Gold passes to giveaway, valued at $549 each! If you’re thinking of hitting Summit in January, we’ve got your hookup. Follow the instructions in the widget below!

Daniel, Jared and Jennifer are on the show this week with a Thanksgiving recap, the effects of short bursts of exercise, muscle memory and developing patterns & habits. Two new challenges have been issued, and we’re getting closer to our first milestone, January’s Affiliate Summit West.

We started with our Thanksgiving recap, in which Jared described a fairly large swing in his weight. He got lazy for a week but undid the damage in just a couple of days, which is pretty awesome.

I referenced a Cracked.com article about running. For a comedy site, it’s rather insightful and educational. Brockway is right – it’s not an all or nothing scenario.

Mixing it up, keeping the exercise fresh to use different muscles and not let the body get into a rut, that’s important. Even biking a different route can help, as Jared explains. He also recommends joining a riding group locally to find people to ride with. I get nervous riding on fast roads, and going with a group, Jared says, can help with that.

We got off on a bit of a tangent about Florida but managed to bring it back around. Just watch out for the giant mutant roaches – I mean, Palmetto bugs.

Developing patterns and habits, learning to schedule things… that can be a great aid to getting in shape. Jennifer and Jared schooled me pretty hard (as I’m writing this, I’m working off of a daily schedule I wrote up this morning, and it’s working!).

The challenge this week – get everyone on the show next week! Also, Jennifer wrote up a great ten-minute challenge in our private Facebook group that we will all use. Next week, we will all check in with our starting weight, current weight and goal weight, as we close in on our first milestone. Affiliate Summit West is only five weeks away!

Lastly, check out Shari’s YouTube channel for inspiration on exercises.

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel and Drew welcome the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics to show, talk about divorce, Facebook, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and a video game. None of which have anything to do with the other, sadly. Also, Emo Wolverine.

Our guests today were Mike Buechele and Trisha Lyn Fawver from the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics podcast, a great show you can find over at GeekCast.fm. This episode is the first of a two-part crossover, Law & Order -style. I play Detective Munch in this scenario. When this episode finished, Drew and I headed over to their place to sit on their guest couch and talk affiliate marketing. (Their episode hasn’t been posted yet – I’ll put up a link when it is)

We opened with a story of a divorcing couple who have been ordered by a judge to disclose their Facebook passwords to each other. This could have grave ramifications down the road. The story came to us by way of ZDNet.

To satisfy Tricia Meyer’s insatiable need to know more about my history in stockings, I told the story of my time performing in the Rocky Horror Picture Show about 20ish years ago. It was a Friday/Saturday midnight show performance with the actors performing in front of the movie on-screen. I played all the roles at one time or another except for Magenta. Yes, I wore the costumes. Yes, I was smokin’ hot. No, there are no pictures… that I’m aware of.

And from one extreme to another, we wrapped up with a brief segment about a very family friendly video game, Marvel’s Super Hero Squad Online game. The kids, especially Ian, have really been loving this game. It’s not seriously violent, there is quite a lot of well-written comedy, and I highly recommend it for small kids that have an interest in super heroes. Wolverine doesn’t cut anything up in this game (not in the way he does in the comics at least), which led to an interesting note to end the show on. Emo Wolverine. I’m not going to spoil it. Go listen to Mike’s joke about Emo Wolverine (pick it up starting at about 30:41).

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

This week the D is joined by three J’s as we cover the ins and outs of high fructose corn syrup in our homes, asptertame in our drinks and cream & sugar in our coffee. Plus, raccoons. Scary raccoons.

This week on the show it was myself, Jill Swartout, Jennifer Myers Ward and Jamie Perez.

We had quite a lot to say! We went over the results of last week’s challenge to find high fructose corn syrup in our pantries and refrigerators, with varying degrees of success. Happily, I only found six things! And of those six, I’m only eating two while the other four are for other people in the house, pretty much. Of the two, I can easily get non-HFCS replacements, which is great.

We also talked a lot about cooking for our kids. We’ve all come up with clever ways to get our kids to eat well (better than some of the kids’ parents in some cases). How they eat now will affect how they eat later, and we’re also trying to set good examples for them.

It was said on The Biggest Loser recently that if you eliminate 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cream from your daily coffee, you can drop ten pounds in a year. We had a great conversation about exactly what that means.

And… I told the raccoon story. It wasn’t pretty. <sigh>

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Joe and Drew celebrate the first 100 episodes of Geek Dads Weekly!

You know how sometimes you have a birthday and it’s a giant, no-holds-barred, massive blowout of epic proportions, but sometimes you just stay home and hang out with a few friends, kinda low-key? This anniversary show was the latter.

We talked a little about the history of the show – a few minutes about where we came from and how we got to where we are now. There was a little bit about politics… oh, don’t worry, we don’t get political on this show. We were mostly just lamenting the whole sad state of politics all around.

Drew gave us a big rundown of his Swagsgiving event, and we covered our planetary near-death experience with an asteroid (and noted that there will be an even nearer-death experience in less than 20 years’ time).

Birthday parties, the fall of Joe Paterno and we gave away a Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012! We’ll have more of those to give away in coming weeks.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

It’s the biggest show yet as seven(!) team members join in for a lively discussion of health and fitness. The gauntlet has been thrown. High fructose corn syrup is going down, baby. And we’ve got three new members!

We had a packed house for this episode! Joining in today were:

• Me, Daniel M. Clark
• Shawn Collins
• Jared Saunders
• Jamie Perez
• Jennifer Myers Ward
• Jill Swartout
• and Shari “Shari Fitness” Friedman

(I have to be honest – I thought with so many people scheduled to join in that it would be a mess of people talking over each other, but it was nearly perfect. I couldn’t ask for a smoother group of people for a show). We each gave updates since our last appearances on the show and the newcomers (Jennifer, Jill and Shari) gave us a rundown of why they’re in the group and what they hope to accomplish.

We had a great conversation about high fructose corn syrup which led to this week’s Challenge Master challenge (a new feature on the show). We will all spend the week after this show looking at the labels of everything we eat and noting which items have HFCS in them. We will use these lists after next week’s show to cut down our HFCS intake by half.

We also covered the Race to Affiliate Summit West 2012 DailyMile challenge to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer that Shawn set up. Participate by joining DailyMile!

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Joe and Drew talk about video game systems, Gmail’s new look & feel, managing giveaways & contests and Zac Brown. Hang on, who’s Zac Brown? Oh, and I’m going to start betting on sports.

We started with a mention of next week’s milestone episode #100! Be sure to hit QAQN.com at 1pm Eastern next Thursday to listen live and get your shot at winning an Affiliate Summit West 2012 GOLD Pass (valued at $549!). We’ve got six to hand out to listeners, so you won’t want to miss that. We’ll have some other stuff, too. Also, a special guest will be joining us, one of the original Geek Dads, Sam Harrelson!

Drew told us about a game he’s been into lately, Skylanders. Sounds great, and a true cross-platform experience. That led us into a segment about which video game system to get for a family with young kids. X-Box? PlayStation? Wii? We decided on X-Box with a Kinect. Drew brought up a great kids game, Once Upon a Monster as well as Kinectimals.

Gmail has a new look and feel, and we spent a few minutes checking that out and offering some commentary. Some users will probably be put off by it, but some users always are.

Drew gave us a rundown on his Swagsgiving event, currently in progress. GO WIN STUFF. He’s giving away some really awesome things in the month of November, you should take a few minutes and go see what he’s got. He makes videos for each thing. In one of them, he sings.

Rafflecopter is a new system for managing contests, and Drew’s using it. I’ve just been accepted as a Beta user, too. It looks great and I’m looking forward to running more contests!

For Halloween, Drew was Zac Brown. I, of course, have to ask the big question: who the hell is Zac Brown? Turns out, it’s this rather famous guy…

Zac Brown. Famous guy. Note: no pink microphone.

…who doesn’t look completely unlike this other not-famous guy…

Zac Brown's beard-brother, Drew Bennett. Not-famous guy. Probably because of the pink microphone.

We finished up with a story about a winning sports bet on the Cardinals winning. The bettor spent $500 and won $375,000. I explained how.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

After a little time off I’m back with an episode of YAWLS in which I talk about a slight backslide on the scale, tracking my intake and my excellent new bike courtesy of my super-cool new sponsor, JensonUSA.

October wasn’t a stellar month for me, fitness-wise, but I seem to be back on track. The problem, I think, was that I stopped tracking my food intake. I had been using the Livestrong app for my iPhone to track, but fell out of the habit. I’m back on track because in the past week that I’ve started tracking again, I’ve dropped almost two pounds. Apps like this make it super-easy to see exactly what you’re doing and when, which makes it super-easy to determine what things to avoid and when.

Next, I talked about JensonUSA, my great new sponsor. They gave me a bike to ride, and it’s amazing. Way better than the beat-up old mountain bike that I had been riding. In this segment, I explained why and how I got the bike and what I’m doing with it. It’s amazing the things you learn when you’ve got a great bike under you. It’s also amazing what you learn when you put a bike together by yourself for the first time and make adjustments to the fit of it.

Next week – 228!

Thanks for listening!

AMFC is powered this week by myself, Wade Tonkin and Greg Hoffman.

Wade was vexed by having to choose from the items on the menu from a BBQ restaurant at the behest of his company. He decided to go with the blackened salmon, which prompted a discussion about what exactly “blackened” means. Honestly, I had no idea. Also: seafood restaurants and how to navigate them.

I talked at length about the new bike that I have and how it makes a significant difference in the quality of my exercise. I explained how I got the bike, where it came from and why I have it. It wasn’t a “hey, I think I’ll buy a bike” situation; the bike was given to me by JensonUSA in exchange for blogging my experiences with it. More about that on Yet Another Weight Loss Show #25.

Greg is recovering from his successful shoulder surgery and we gave him props for handling the whole situation really well. While some people would simply give up, feel sorry for themselves and start two-fisting junk food, Greg is restless, eager to get back to work and only using one hand for the junk food – while still balancing that with some normal food choices. The medication has been a little rough, though.

All three of us have seen a weight loss over the past week. None of us had a giant drop, but were all in the range of 1-3 pounds or so. Down is down though, and we’ll count our successes where we find them!

Follow us on Twitter: Daniel M. Clark • Wade Tonkin • Greg Hoffman

Next week – more with the AMFC crew; tune in at QAQN.com at Noon (Eastern) to find out who will be on the show and what we’ve been up to. Interact with us as we do the show live by using the hashtag #qaqn on Twitter.

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about Halloween, Pinterest, Pixar movies and the debacle that was Klout this week. Also: more information about the big 100th episode coming up!

We started with a little history and lead-up to the big milestone episode #100. There will be freebies! Live listeners will have an opportunity to score a free Gold pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012 (six of those will be given away) as well as some graphic novels and other cool stuff. We will also have a special guest joining us - Sam Harrelson, one of the original Geek Dads!

Halloween is coming up in a couple of days, Drew has an amusing story about costumes for his pregnant wife and daughter. His wife got some ideas for Halloween party decorations and DIY things at Pinterest.com, which led us into a big discussion about this new site. We all agree it’s pretty cool and has a lot of potential – though it does seem to be overrun by crafters and DIYers right now (not that that’s a bad thing).

We headed next into somewhat familiar territory with a discussion about social media – specifically the following of people on Google+ and Twitter. I’m beginning to sense a pattern… I think I’m getting burned out on social.

Klout had a big shakeup this week, with some people seeing their scores drop by as much as 20 points. We had quite a large discussion about Klout (for the second week in a row!) – is Klout a fad? Does anyone take it seriously? Should anyone take it seriously? There was a report of a social media consultant who lost clients after his score dropped; should people be reliant on the whims of a company like this?

Drew is finally caught up on Flickr! He was behind in posting his Photo-a-Day to Flickr (it has been going to other services) but he’s all caught up now. Go check out his sets!

Next up, Homestar Runner! We reminisced about Homestar, a site we were all fans of in years past. Where are they now? The site was last updated on December 22, 2010, over ten months ago. Will they ever be back with new ‘toons?

We had a great discussion of Pixar and their commitment to quality. They’re not a company to throw a bunch of things to the wall to see what sticks, they take their time and make sure that each project is a good one. Given that they make movies largely for kids, that’s something that we, as dads, really appreciate.

Lastly, congratulations to Joe’s parents on their 50th Anniversary! That’s a wonderful achievement! We wrapped up with a discussion about old 8mm recordings and transferring them to a digital format.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

My guest this week is Jen Goode, my partner in the management of the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program. Jen had been managing the program for both Summits each year but needed to focus on her art business in January, so I was tapped to handle the program at that event. In this episode, Jen and I team up to explain exactly what the Newcomer Program is, who is invited, and what participants can expect.

To sign up – either as a newcomer or as a veteran volunteer – please visit the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program sign-up page.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

Hosted this time by Daniel M. Clark, Jared Saunders and Wade Tonkin.

This week on AMFC we welcome Wade Tonkin to the team. Wade is our heaviest participant and clocks in at 330 pounds. His short term goal is to drop 20 pounds by Affiliate Summit West in January, and long term, to drop about 100 pounds to end up around 220-240. Jared and I agreed that Wade is going to be the man to beat in this competition. Just watch… he’s going to destroy us all.

It can be tougher for someone who is fit and with only 15 or 20 pounds to lose to drop the weight than for someone who is 100+ pounds overweight to drop that same 15 or 20 pounds. Jared has the answers as to why that is.

Also in this episode, a fit man’s quest to get fat (and then get fit again), my awesome new bike from JensonUSA, and how to eat fried food in a responsible way.

Wade provided us with a fantastic explanation of Weight Watchers, as well. With so many diet organizations out there it can be hard to keep track of them all. Which ones work on point systems? Which ones do you have to buy food from? Wade set the record straight.

All this and more – thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about girls vs. boys, DC vs. Marvel, grown-up humans vs. a corn maze, and husbands vs. wives (with the new iPhone 4s as the weapon of choice). Also, Klout.

Recorded October 20th, 2011.

We started with me sounding like death incarnate and the lament that the kids were probably to blame.

Episode #100 is coming up! We’ve got a confirmed guest (and working on others) and we’ll have giveaways! The big ticket items for the giveaways are SIX Gold passes to Affiliate Summit West 2012, coming up in January. For the comics geeks I’ve got a bunch of Green Lantern hardcovers to give away. ONLY live listeners will be able to get in on the giveaways, so be sure to hit QAQN.com at 1pm Eastern, November 10th to join in.

Eva’s school does a Dad’s Night in order to accommodate fathers that work during the day and can’t make it to events that take place while they’re at work. While there are exceptions of course, it’s a great effort by the school to get both parents included in their kids’ education. They got to do crafts and interact with the kids in the school environment, which is great.

Drew and I talked next about the segregation of boys and girls and why it’s wildly inappropriate in many cases. This ties into how PR companies treat mom bloggers and dad bloggers very, very differently.

Next up – The Avengers! This is shaping up to be the biggest movie of 2012, certainly the biggest movie ever based on a comic book. If you haven’t watched the trailer, you don’t know what you’re missing. Go check it out! We also covered upcoming Marvel movies and the differences between DC and Marvel in both animation and live action movies. (DC crushes Marvel in animation, Marvel pwns DC in live action).

Have you ever gotten lost in a corn maze? These folks did, and we laughed at them. What? It was funny.

I gave the guys an update about the My Little Pony show that we talked about last week. My wife and kids have all watched it, and they give the thumbs-up (especially – no surprise – my 6-year-old daughter).

Klout is next. We’re not convinced it super-useful, and the topics it assigns to users are truly bizarre. Who influences who? And what is influence anyway? Nobody really knows! What are we influential about? For me, it’s affiliate marketing, internet marketing, social media, New Mexico and Gary Johnson. Will someone please tell me who the heck Gary Johnson is? I really have no idea, and Klout gives me no context. I haven’t lived in New Mexico for the past two years, and I don’t interact with anyone in New Mexico any more than people from anywhere else. Drew and Joe have similar oddities. Klout’s weird, man.

Some Klout competitors include Empire Avenue, Kred, PeopleBrowsr and PeerIndex.

I sometimes feel like social media is starting to get stale. Do you feel that way at all? We talk about it. It seems to ebb and flow for all of us. We talk about the use of Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Google+.

Drew’s got some complaints about another Google product: Picassa. The company made some changes that make using it a lot more of a hassle.

We wrapped up with a story about a suspecting husband and his (allegedly) cheating wife being “caught” using the Find My Friends feature on the new iPhone 4s. It raised some privacy concerns. Should it have?

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

This week I’m welcoming two guests to the show, Eric Nagel and Kevin Webster. The topic is analytics, the measuring and analyzing of web traffic, and these two guys are extremely knowledgable. You will learn a lot from this episode, guaranteed.

Eric Nagel is an award-winning blogger and a six-year veteran affiliate marketer. He is an expert in SEO, analytics and tracking, programming and marketing. His blog at EricNagel.com is one of the most well-regarded sites in the space for the teaching of web tactics. Eric is @EricNagel on Twitter.

Kevin Webster is a master of affiliate marketing, web analytics and search engine optimization. In addition to consumers, Kevin is an expert in the B2B aspect of analytics and his blog at KevinWebster.us is a low-frills, get-down-to-business treasure trove of knowledge. Kevin is @levelanalytics on Twitter.

Open your note-taking program of choice or grab an old-fashioned pen and paper because you’ll want to take notes on this episode. Honestly, these guys are talking on a level so far above my own that I can’t do them justice here in the show notes – which isn’t to say I won’t try.

We kicked of the show with introductions and an explanation of why I sounded like Redd Foxx gargling molten asphalt.

Eric dived into the analytics discussion with the idea that more traffic does not equal more revenue, unless you’re running an AdSense site, which can operate a little differently.

Google Analytics is the big package that gets the most attention, but what about hosted solutions like StatCounter and pMetrics? Kevin and Eric got into the differences and the pros and cons between Google and the hosted services. There was a great discussion about Piwik here. Piwik feels a little different than Google but does many of the same things – including eCommerce and conversion tracking – and it has an API.

It’s one thing to get an analytics package set up, but it’s vital to sit down and learn to really use it to its full potential. Kevin warned against “data puking“, which really can’t be stressed enough. If you’re looking at a spreadsheet full of numbers without context, it’s almost worthless.

Eric made a great prediction about the future of analytics as compared to SEO at about the 19 minute mark. He believes that we’ll start seeing services for analytics implementation and interpretation the way we see that kind of service for search engine optimization.

Are you interested in real time Google Analytics? You will definitely want to hear the next segment, where Kevin and Eric walk users through the basics of getting it set up and running it. Kevin is also a Woopra user for real-time tracking.

Google recently made some changes to the type of data that it provides, right on the heels of announcing a paid version of Analytics. No longer will free users get keyword data if it was generated by a logged-in Google searcher. Kevin and Eric went over this is good detail.

Eric brought up a great point, that you should ideally be tracking visitors in three stages. How did they get to your site? What are they doing while they’re on your site? What are they doing when they leave your site (and where are they going)?

Lastly, make sure you are examining your data weekly. Make sure someone internally owns the account and knows how to use it. And thanks to Eric for plugging the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program at the end of the show! It’s a great program for newcomers and veterans alike, so from Eric and I both, go sign up!

Great thanks to Eric and Kevin for coming on the show and blowing my mind with a lot of this stuff!

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

Five folks from the affiliate marketing industry have banded together for this episode of a brand new show! Come join us as we talk about fitness, weight loss and our own successes and failures in the quest for a healthy, fit lifestyle.

I’m super excited to introduce a new QAQN podcast! This one is a big team effort, springing out of a Facebook group dedicated to dropping some weight and getting into better shape. The group is called Affiliate Marketers Fitness Challenge (yes, just like the podcast) and this show serves as the public face of a private group. There are eight of us in the group and each show will feature some combination of members, depending on everyone’s schedule. This time, it’s myself, Shawn Collins (Affiliate Summit), Greg Hoffman (Greg Hoffman Consulting), Jared Saunders (JensonUSA) and Jamie Perez (JensonUSA).

Our inaugural effort details who we are, what our goals are for weight loss and fitness, and what challenges we’re going to face reaching our goals. We’re entering into a social contract and we’ll use that to hold ourselves accountable to each other. None of us wants to be the one to show up and report failure, which can be a good motivator.

In a case of terrible timing, I was sick when this scheduled recording came up, so I don’t quite sound like myself. Sorry about that!

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about… My Little Pony. Seriously. I know, I know. Also, combining Facebook and Spotify, upgrading to iOS 5 and all the headaches it caused, Shoemoney vs. the PMA and a bunch of other fun stuff.

The first thing I had to bring up was My Little Pony. You see, there’s an interesting situation happening right now where grown men are watching the new My Little Pony series, Friendship is Magic. They call themselves bronies. Drew’s take on this trend is interesting, and he provided a few helpful links:

http://bronies.com/

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic

http://equestriadaily.com

Next up, Joe and I talked about Spotify and Facebook music. I love me some Spotify and I went into great detail about the hows and whys of the service as well as the Facebook aspect of it. The published playlists that I mentioned in the show are these:

(Me) Instrumentals While I Work

(Me) Awesome 80′s Metal

(Me) Your New Favorite Playlist

(Missy Ward) TheMusicIListenToEveryday

We’re dealing, with varying degrees of success, with upgrading our devices to iOS 5. It seems like this one has been more plagued with issues than past updates. We also beg the question… what else can you put in a phone?

Lastly, the story behind the Inside Internet Marketing episode, Shoemoney and the PMA. I tell the story of how that came to be, what my role was, and what I learned from the experience. It was very educational.

Drew knows a guy named Scott who is writing a book about Daddy/Daughter dates, which is very cool.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

It’s a fun little episode this time, though perhaps a little less coherent than I usually try to be. I was a little loopy. Weight-wise, not a tremendous change from the week before, but a little change – and a little [positive] change is a better than none at all.

Recorded Thursday, October 13th.

Thanks for listening!

Joining me this week is someone I met for the first time at Affiliate Summit East 2011. I knew right away that I’d like to have him on as a guest. Eric Schwarzer has a pretty extraordinary mind; he is an idea guy, smart as a whip, sharp as a tack, clever as a… um… something that’s clever (unlike me right now, apparently). Listen as Eric deftly turns the interview around, this guy should be doing his own shows.

Eric “From Canada” first got into affiliate marketing about five years ago or so, and found that it really fits well for his family and lifestyle. We talked a lot about working from home, traveling on business and Las Vegas. While we were talking about Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, Eric mentioned Defcon, which also happens there. We really jumped into an in-depth discussion about computer security, passwords protection and the future of everything. How secure are the companies we work with?

One of Eric’s great projects right now is 8-10 minute site reviews. For only $5 via Fiverr.com, Eric will review a page (or several pages) from your sites and offer his critiques. He did it for this site and my newsletter sign-ups doubled. No lie. Doubled, just by taking his advice and moving my sign-up form to a better place on the page. Go check out Eric’s SEO and site design reviews, it’s absolutely worth [more than] a fiver.

Also of note is the Beta version of CBHUD, an upcoming ClickBank insights tool. Go sign up!

Follow Eric on Twitter and at his site, AllSpun.com.

Recorded October 6, 2011.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

After a week without a bicycle – my main form of exercise – and some pretty poor eating choices, I was feeling pretty blah. So much so that I forgot to weigh in because I was so far out of “weight loss mode”. All was not lost, however, as I explain on the show.

I really feel like I’ve turned a corner in my weight loss efforts, especially today – Saturday – as I’m posting this. I said on the show Thursday night that I wasn’t sure what my weight was but that it was probably about the same as last week (about 229 or so). I weighed in this morning, just about 36 hours after that recording, and tipped the scale at 228. Thursday morning was very likely 229, as I thought it might have been. Awesome! That means that my analysis of my new metabolism is pretty spot-on, I think. Next week, after a week of great biking and menu choices, I fully expect to be down to 226 or lower.

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel, Joe and Drew talk about the death of an icon, updates from the kids and the genesis of the Shoemoney/PMA episode of Inside Internet Marketing.

We began this week with a discussion about Steve Jobs‘ impact and the legacy he left. It was not my most shining moment. 56 is just too damn young for anyone.

Next up, Drew’s daughter’s birthday celebration is in full swing, with cupcakes and crowns at school. There’s a local artist’s collaborative that has a kids’ birthday party area. For Eva’s party, princess-themed sock monkeys! And more cupcakes.

There was a big discussion about peanuts in school. Where did all these kids with peanut allergies come from? We don’t remember it being like this when we were kids. Schools all have different rules about how peanut products can be brought in for lunch, and Joe’s daughter’s school says that if you bring in a peanut butter sandwich, you have to sit at a table away from all the other kids in the cafeteria.

Last Tuesday was National Night Out, which we participated in. My wife and kids and I headed to the neighborhood park met a few neighbors (including everyone from the homeowners’ association and the mayor of our town, who lives near us). Unsurprisingly, Joe and Drew had never heard of this event. Neither had I, though my wife swears she’s known about it forever. You’d think after ten years of marriage, she would have dragged me to at least one of them by now…

One of Joe’s neighbors is missing a cat. You will not believe the lengths to which they are going to get it back. Listen to this segment and tell me you’re not thinking of joining the search.

The episode of Inside Internet Marketing that pitted Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker against the Performance Marketing Association is the most downloaded episode of any show I’ve ever produced. It was an insightful show and if you’ve not yet checked it out, you should! Here, I explained how that episode came to be and how it was produced.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

Last week I was contacted about providing a platform for Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker and the Performance Marketing Association to have a discussion in the wake of some recent comments. I couldn’t be happier to have as my guests today: Jeremy Schoemaker, Rebecca Madigan and Peter Bordes. I know you’ll find this educational as Jeremy asks some tough questions and gets some great answers.

The formation of the Performance Marketing Association was not without bumps in the road. Jeremy began at the beginning, asking Rebecca and Peter to explain the involvement of Anik Singal, the nature of the organization and how the membership levels affect the direction of the organization.

Trust is a key factor in the success or failure of an organization like the PMA. How much data does the PMA collect and what does it do with that data? Is that data kept confidential or is it sold or given to third parties?

Much time was spent on the nature of the “Amazon tax” or “Affiliate Tax” and how many people it has affected – and in what ways. Jeremy asked some very pointed questions about what the PMA has been doing about the state and national tax issues and how the PMA has been funded.

Rebecca explained what paid roles exist within the PMA and noted that most of the positions are staffed purely by volunteers. She and Peter also answered Jeremy’s concerns about how the board is elected and whether or not a seat on the board can be bought. There were also concerns about the people making up the board not having enough direct experience as affiliates, which Rebecca spoke about.

The most enlightening part of the episode was, for me, the discussion about the overall value of affiliate marketing to companies like Amazon. The insights that Jeremy shared were eye-opening.

You really don’t want to miss this episode, folks. If you have any stake in the affiliate marketing industry, you need to hear this open, frank discussion.

–

Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker is one of the most successful internet marketers of our time. He has proven his skills online in the PPC community, time and again in affiliate marketing, and is legendary for his $133,000 Google AdSense check. Whether its his blog or any of his companies ShoeMoney has proven that he has the dedication, drive, and at times the audacity to get the job done.

Rebecca Madigan, executive director of the Performance Marketing Association. Since leading the formation of the PMA in 2008, Rebecca has built the PMA to be the only trade association representing performance and affiliate marketing. She has collected 25 years of leadership experience in product management and marketing. She has had the pleasure of working with many very talented people in pioneering industries such as wireless data, voice-over-IP, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and online affiliate marketing.

Peter Bordes is the founder and executive chairman of MediaTrust and is on the board of directors of the PMA, of which he is also a Founding Charter Member. He has been involved in technology and affiliate marketing since the early days of the industry and is a frequent speaker at events such as ad:tech, PubCon, AffCon, and more.

Big thanks to my guests for the fantastic show today!

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

I’m the lightest I’ve been since June, 2011. I’m feeling good. Really good. In this episode, all the reasons I was able to drop 3 pounds between last week’s show and today.

Thanks for listening!

I have the honor of welcoming one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met tot he show this week. If you haven’t met her yet, there’s a piece missing from your life. Hyperbole? Possibly – but you really should get to know Kim Ann Curtin.

My guest this week is well known as The Wall Street Coach and The Miracle Worker. She’s been called a trust agent, engaging & powerful, and a catalyst for possibility. Drew Bennett and I talked about her behind her back on a recent episode of Geek Dads Weekly and I’m thrilled to have her here with me on the show.

Kim gave me the low-down on who she is, where she comes from and her unique and inspiring points of view. She related to me a story that she told at Affiliate Summit East about one of the best ways to get over nerves when meeting new people, and stressed the importance of creativity in the success of a business. I can’t tell you enough what a great guest Kim was, you just have to listen. You’ll be glad you did.

Kim can be found at the aforementioned Wall Street Coach site as well as The Coach Shoppe and on Twitter.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

Media hosts vs. web hosts, what you should look out for when hooking up with a web host and how to painlessly switch hosts when necessary.

Don’t be fooled by web hosts that offer you unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage. While it’s true that you’ll get both of those, you will still be restricted in other ways that can get a popular podcaster’s account shut down. Don’t let that happen to you.

Have a question? Want to learn more about podcasting? Ask me anything! Leave a voicemail at 281-241-QAQN(7276), send an email to feedback@qaqn.com, or catch me on Twitter.

Just to sweeten the pot a little bit… anyone that leaves a voicemail that I use on the show will be entered into a drawing at the end of the month for an absolutely free one-hour podcast consulting session with me.

Free podcast consulting drawing rules

Thanks for listening!

In which Daniel and Drew get fired up about the Kindle, give updates on the state of the comics wall, and talk a lot about toys – some of which were for the kids.

The big tech news this week was the announcement of the Kindle Fire, the new tablet that is… well, it’s a… it’s really good for… oh, it’ll totally kill the… hm. Having a hard time with this. There’s a lot to say about the Fire, but the big question seems to be: is there a place in the market for it or will it fall by the wayside like every other 7″ Android tablet so far?

We moved into the realm of comics next. Without Joe to temper us, we get geeky, but you know, it’s right there in the name of the show: Geek Dads Weekly, so we’re allowed sometimes. I gave an update on the status of the shelves that I built for my collection and also talked in detail about the software that I use to catalog all my comics: Comic Collector by Collectorz.com.

Drew had a really big update after his trip to New York for the 2011 Time to Play Holiday Showcase event, which he attended along with fellow dad bloggers Adam Cohen, Chris Lewis, Josh Becker and Mitch from GayNYCDad.com. His really big update story can be found in more detail and with way better links than I can come up with on my own, at BenSpark.com. Go check it out, I’ll be here when you get back.

We wrapped up with some talk about getting free wi-fi in fast food restaurants, getting free swag at conferences (and how to get the best stuff while making the best personal connections) and Drew has a question about teaching kids how to ride a bike. If you have any tips or tricks when it comes to riding bikes, hit us up by email or on Twitter (me or Drew). We’d love to hear your suggestions.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

Starting with January’s Affiliate Summit West 2012, I will be heading up the ‘West Newcomer Program, a group devoted to helping first-time Affiliate Summit attendees find their footing, get comfortable with attending the conference, and make some valuable connections. My friend Jen Goode has been running both Summit East and Summit West Newcomer Programs, and she recently asked me to take over the duties Summit West, to which I think I replied, “YES! THE POWER IS MINE! HAHAHAHA!.” Something like that.

Jen’s announcement about my involvement can be read at the Affiliate Summit blog.

What does this mean for you? Well, basically, it means that I’m going to be talking about the program more and more on Inside Internet Marketing and Geek Dads Weekly as we get closer to show time. I’m going to be asking for your help if you’re a past attendee, and I’m going to be asking you to join the program as a newcomer if West 2012 will be your first Summit.

The cornerstones of the program are:

• Prior to the conference, newcomer and veteran should have at least one phone call or email exchange to get acquainted and go over any questions or advice about the show.
• During Summit, the newcomer is expected to treat their veteran volunteer to a meal. Could be breakfast, maybe meet up for lunch, perhaps dinner. This can be a tricky one as veterans often have meal plans in place (often revolving around business), but we encourage this as much as possible.
• On the opening night of Summit, Sunday, we will have a Newcomer Program Meetup in one of the conference rooms at Caesar’s. This is a great opportunity for newcomers to meet more people, so we hope that both newcomer and veteran volunteer will attend.
• As a thank you to veterans volunteers, Affiliate Summit hosts a webpage with a link back to their site.
• It’s free to participate in the Newcomer Program, and it is open to Platinum (or better) pass holders.

Signups for both Attendee Volunteers and Newcomers are open right now – head to the Sign Up page and let me know that you’re interested!

Please note that the Newcomer Program is not a business mentoring program and is not designed to pair beginners with business coaches.

I weighed in at the same number as last week, which I’ll call a small victory. It beats one alternative – I could have gained. I didn’t have a good week, though, overall.

It was a downer of a week, actually. I’m feeling very, very stressed for a lot of reasons that I won’t into here or on the show. Suffice to say, I’m not in a very happy place in my head at the moment. Oh, it’ll all work out – I’m very confident of that – but that doesn’t make the process any easier. I made some very bad food choices this week, and I haven’t been sleeping well at all. All these stressors added up make for a bummed-out Daniel. It’s a mercifully short episode this time.

Thanks for listening. Next week? Better. It’ll be better.

Joining me this week is Karen Garcia, a long-time member of the affiliate marketing community. Did you know she’s a physicist???

Karen, a co-founder of GTO Management, is an award winning outsourced program manager. She’s a 12 year veteran of affiliate marketing and is a frequent speaker at industry events like the Performance Marketing Expo and Affiliate Summit. She’s been published in FeedFront magazine, and is a major supporter of Affiliate Marketers Give Back, the wonderful breast cancer awareness organization.

I find it’s best to begin at the beginning, so I asked Karen how she got her start in affiliate marketing. I was floored when she told me that she has a science background and is a physicist. Karen and I talked about why she’s hopeful about the industry, what drives her and the symbolism behind the GTO Management name and logo.

Every year at Affiliate Summit West, GTO Management puts on, with partners Things From Another World and BowlingShirt.com, a midnight bowling event. Proceeds from the event go to Affiliate Marketers Give Back! If you’ll be joining us in Vegas in January, Karen & company will be putting on the bowling night once again, and I’ll be there. We’d love to see you there. Once I have details to share I’ll pass them along!

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm.

In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about child chefs, the Netflix drama, and the idea that not every kid has to be a winner.

After Darren Rowse mentioned it on Twitter, I discovered Junior Masterchef, an Australian cooking competition for children aged 8 to 12 years. It’s brilliant. I described it on the show and opened up the discussion to cooking-related topics. When is a kid old enough to start cooking with a parent? How might that affect kids who are picky eaters – would helping cook make them more likely to try new things?

That led into the idea that not every kid can come in first place. More and more we’re seeing situations where parents are insisting on everyone being a winner and eliminating the concept of losing. None of us are on board with that.

Drew went to a wedding last weekend and his daughter was a flower girl. You’ve got to hear Drew describe how she charmed the crowd, she was adorable.

Everyone is all abuzz about Netflix this week, and we’ve got some theories about it. Netflix isn’t the only company that has its users in an uproar – Facebook is at it again! While you’re listening, check out this cartoon from The Oatmeal that describes the Facebook phenomenon.

Drew wrapped us up with an iPad app called Bobo Explores Light and I followed with a demo of The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Bandwidth provided by GeekCast.fm

It’s a normal-length show this week as I cover the basics of using Skype to bring in a guest or co-host for a show.

I began with an announcement: on Thursday, November 10th at 4pm I will be hosting a live webinar presented by Affiliate Summit. The title is Podcasting for Affiliates: Using Audio to Drive Sales. Sign-up isn’t available yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as it is.

Skype is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to voice communication. It’s used by podcasters far and wide, and while it has its share of issues, it’s generally very reliable and the quality is generally very high. In this episode, I run down the basic options for using Skype in a hardware configuration and a software configuration on both Mac and PC.

Have a question? Want to learn more about podcasting? Ask me anything! Leave a voicemail at 281-241-QAQN(7276), send an email to feedback@qaqn.com, or catch me on Twitter.

Just to sweeten the pot a little bit… anyone that leaves a voicemail that I use on the show will be entered into a drawing at the end of the month for an absolutely free one-hour podcast consulting session with me.

Free podcast consulting drawing rules

Thanks for listening!

It was a good week, full of exercise and weight loss. There’s not much more I could ask for. Or is there?

In this episode, recorded late last night, I describe how I’ve been riding my bike in the early evenings more and more over the past few weeks, culminating in 31 miles last week alone. Let’s see if I can do 40 this week. I also tell a story that might make me look like a jerk, but you know you have thoughts like these too, sometimes. We’re only human, after all.

Next week? Two more pounds! Here we go!

Thanks for listening!

In what turned out to be a much longer episode than I had planned, I covered the proper mounting of microphone booms and two exceptional soundboard programs for getting music into a show.

One of the best things you can do to make your show sound more professional and engaging is to use music and sound to good effect. In this episode I describe two programs that are used to queue up and play audio clips for your show. With the click of the mouse or push of a hotkey, you can trigger your show’s opening music, advertisements or sound effects. If you ever wanted to know how to get music into a podcast, this is what you’re looking for.

I’ve been trying to keep episodes down to about ten minutes with one topic, but this one ran very long and I was six minutes in before I started the segment about the soundboards. Which format do you prefer? Would you rather I plan the shows and stick to one topic in ten minutes? Or would you rather I cover more than one thing and let it run 30-40 minutes? Contact information is just below, please let me know!

Have a question? Want to learn more about podcasting? Ask me anything! Leave a voicemail at 281-241-QAQN(7276), send an email to feedback@qaqn.com, or catch me on Twitter.

Just to sweeten the pot a little bit… anyone that leaves a voicemail that I use on the show will be entered into a drawing at the end of the month for an absolutely free one-hour podcast consulting session with me.

Free podcast consulting drawing rules

Thanks for listening!