Stealth Rider on SPEED

by derek on August 31, 2010 · 0 comments

There is little that can compare to flying down the open road on your Harley with the speedometer pushing triple digits, bugs whizzing by your head, twisting the throttle a touch more and hearing the pipes scream.

That is unless you are Jason Britton – and then you’d be doing the same while standing on your head to boot.

For anyone that is unfamiliar with Jason Britton, I highly recommend that you tune into the SPEED channel on your local cable or satellite service (btw, offer still stands to earn a $100 credit when switching to DirecTV) and take a look at his new show titled Stealth Rider (preview clip).

With Stealth Rider, you’ll see the crew traveling around the country and filming some of the most insane stunt riding that you will ever see. With each stop along the way, they will feature some local riders and also highlight some of Americas great roads that call bikers from all over.

Personally, I’m much more the laid-back cruiser style rider. Sure, I love the appeal of racing bikes but I don’t have a sport bike and I’m certainly not one to willingly hop off my bike while traveling at any speed or try to stand on my head while riding. Hell, I would be lucky to stand on my head while on solid ground.

That doesn’t mean that I am unable to appreciate the sick stunts that Jason and his team are able to pull off.

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to ride with these guys, although the closest I will likely ever come would be to attend something like Skip Barber’s Superbike School – which I do think would be a killer experience if it weren’t so dang expensive.

For the time being, I will be content with tuning in to Stealth Rider and watching re-runs of Biker Boyz (even if Laurence Fishburne is completely unrealistic as Smoke) and Torque.

Check out the show and let me know what you think.

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There is no shortage of people that have taken the head-first dive into blogging with the dreams of hitting the jackpot and walking away from their 9-5 job.

Many of these bloggers, including yours truly as that was my mindset when I first started, write outstanding content and slowly but surely build up the volume of traffic that reaches their blog on a daily basis.

Yet the windfall of cash eludes them.

Why?

Well, all you need to do is take one look across the Interweb at some of the well-known blogs that are making money and you notice one significant difference…

The List.

That’s right – the money is in the list. You’ve likely heard or read that phrase numerous times as you cut your teeth on blogging. There are few bloggers making significant money that don’t have a list while there is a near endless number of bloggers making little money that don’t have a list (yes, I am guilty of not building a list here on this blog).

Whether you have taken the steps to begin building your list or not, the next question that often comes to mind is what you do with your list – or better yet, how you connect with your list.

Think about the “lists” that you belong to yourself.

More often than not, you become – and remain – a member of these lists because you feel that you have a personal connection to the author. You value their feedback. You trust their opinion. You have a shared interest.

In order to build a successful list, you really need to approach your list from the mindset of what you can do to make a connection with the people that value you (or your killer free giveaway) enough to sign up for your list.

The light may already being going off for you, but what is one of the best ways to form this connection with people?

Social media.

Writing on a blog and having a dialog via comments is a great way to begin building the foundation of a relationship with your readers. When you take that a step further and connect with people with a variety of social media tools, you will find that the relationship takes on a new degree of trust and familiarity.

Many people do not recognize this connection and don’t maximize their efforts to integrate their social media efforts with their email marketing – or list building – efforts, and frankly this is a huge missed opportunity.

How do you learn to maximize this integration?

There is no shortage of information available on strategies that you can implement, or at least read about, but often times people learn the best from seeing (and hearing) how other people are already making this connection successfully.

Where can you see and hear from the experts?

Conferences, of course.

Not only that, but conferences really offer an outstanding opportunity to form relationships with other people in the industry that can become close friends and possibly even business partners. Some of you might remember my trip to BlogWorld but for those that don’t, I can tell you that this conference was worth the cost many times over just based on the people that I was able to meet.

When it comes to social media and email marketing integration, one conference that you should take a look at is the Social Email Marketing conference being held in San Fransisco, California.

This is a one-day event this coming September where you will be exposed to presentations, case studies, and interactive discussions focused on the process of integrating your email marketing and social media into one cohesive tool. The event includes an exhibition area featuring tools and services, handout with notes, and refreshments during the day with a networking event that evening – this is often where the real value of these events can be found!

If you’re interested in learning more about the conference, be sure to check out their official site for the full details, including information on the following speakers: Brian Solis, Kristin Hersant, Dan Martell, Chase McMichael, Jennifer Neeley Lindsay, Murray Newlands, Luke Brynley-Jones, and Marissa Louie.

Save 10% when registering by using this discount code: iem5

In honor of full disclosure, not only do you save 10% by using the discount code above but I will earn 10% commission as well.

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Family Fun With The White Sox

by derek on July 9, 2010 · 16 comments

When it comes to baseball in Chicago there is only one choice – well, for those with any semblance of intelligence – and that choice is the Chicago White Sox.

Being a lifelong fan, you can imagine how thrilled I was when a friend pulled a few strings for me and was able to set me up with amazing tickets for the White Sox game against the Los Angeles, err Anaheim…oh forget it, the Angels.

With tickets right behind home plate, not to mention the row immediately behind Ramon Castro’s family, we were like kids in a candy shop.

There is little that could have dampened our experience, not even the 2.5 hour rain delay or sweltering heat and humidity. We didn’t once think about leaving – that is the kind of thing that Cubs fans do. The game was more than worth the wait too, as the Sox won the game with some timely hitting to complement great pitching.

Family Fun – Autographs

As a kid at the ballpark, there isn’t much that can beat the thrill of tracking down one of the players from your favorite team and securing an autograph. I’ll never forget my days at old Comiskey Park trying to land the elusive scrawl on a baseball, or when I was at Fenway Park and Jon Garland came over to give me an autograph when I commented about his last outing in the prior series.

On this night at the ballpark, my youngest son (G-Slick), had all of the thrills as he secured autographs from Ramon Castro and Brent Lillibridge; the latter as the rain was pouring down and everyone was running for cover.

Oddly enough, when he obtained the autograph from Ramon Castro we had no idea that we were sitting directly behind his family.

For anyone that is a sports fan and can remember the thrill of getting a player’s autograph, you can imagine the smile that was on my son’s face the entire night. It is a memory that I will never forget.

Family Fun – Pictures

Speaking of memories, one way to preserve the memory of your experiences is with photographs. Knowing that we would have pretty good seats for the game, I decided to bring along my Nikon D40 so we could capture some of the action from the game.

Now, I have to emphasize that I thought we would capture some of the action.

My oldest son, the mastermind behind Click the Brick, decided that he wanted to try his hand at photography and asked if he could use my camera to take pictures during the game. Little did I know that I would not see my camera again.

Over the course of the game, JB took 491 pictures!

Unfortunately, there were not a ton of keepers but I can guarantee you that he had an absolute blast capturing various aspects of the game. I’ve decided to share a few of the pictures here that were taken at the game, but you can see more over at flickr.

Note: Being right behind home plate, JB had a bit of a disadvantage due to the safety net and pole that you will see in quite a few of the pictures. But I think he still captured some great shots.

Cannot Say Thank You Enough

Before I get to the pictures, I want to again express my gratitude to my friend that coordinated this night full of fun for my family. The heat, humidity, and 2.5 hour rain delay could not detract from our experience and we will all be remembering this game for quite some time. Thanks! :)

If baseball is not your cup of tea, I strongly encourage you to find something that you can do with your family this summer to create your own lasting memories. In the event you’re scratching your head trying to think of an idea, check out this list I wrote awhile back covering 10 things to do with your kids.

Now…on to the pictures.

whitesox-statue
ozzie-guillen-1
freddy-garcia-delivery-1
delivery
torii-hunter-smash
sears-tower

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How To Add PHP Pagination To LinkShare Products

June 16, 2010

Imagine that you have taken the time to hack your way through adding a long list of products to your online store, or that you heeded my earlier advice and leveraged my tips on how to add affiliate products from LinkShare to your blog or affiliate website. You step back to soak in your [...]

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Chicago Blackhawks – 2010 Stanley Cup Champions!

June 10, 2010

Chicago Blackhawks – 2010 Stanley Cup Champions!
Last night the Chicago Blackhawks culminated their tremendous regular season and run through the playoffs by winning the 2010 Stanley Cup and bringing the Cup back to Chicago for the first time since 1961.
Being a Blackhawks fan for my entire life, I was not around in those early years [...]

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