Category Archives: Product Reviews

Like an eSilverBullet to the Heart of Online Affiliate CRM

Leave a reply

Anyone who has done affiliate marketing can agree that keeping track of online publishers, affiliate networks, and numerous advertisers–across multiple platforms can be a nightmare. Although it’s not especially common to hear online affiliates talk about how they keep track of the different customers and clients that they interface with in their daily crusades throughout cyber-space, one can only ask why we haven’t heard about it sooner?

I recently came across eSilverBullet, which I think has a great solution for online affiliate crm. You can track prospective advertisers and prospective publishers… It’s packed with different online affiliate crm features. The list below breaks down their different packages, although as you can see, it is extremely packed with features, each of which has more information about it on their website.
• Import/Export Simplicity: Quickly import contact information.
• Live Contact Data: Let your contacts update their information for you.
• Task Master: Let’s you stay focused on your to-do list.
• Powerful Prospecting: provides professional grade prospecting tools.
• Sales Management: Provides integrated tools to map the sales process and close the deal.
• Account Differentiation: Manage publishers, advertisers and networks as separate customer types.
• Fast Searches: allows you find what you’re looking for in seconds.
• Communication Logs: Keep a record of calls, meetings, emails, notes and tasks in one location.
• Network Affiliations: Know who is running on what networks.
• Market Verticals: Segregate your advertisers or publishers by market.
• Mobile Access: Access contact information on your phone.
Standard Package Includes:
• Institutional Knowledge Retention: Prevents your customer list and conversation history from walking away.
• Intra-office Coordination: Allows you to divide tasks among coworkers.
• Program Management: Keep a record of your advertiser’s campaigns.
• Digital Filing: Attach agreements, insertion orders, W-9s, etc. to contacts.
• Easy Email: Enjoy one-click emailing at the contact level
• Email Templates: Stop wasting time rewriting email messages.
Premium Package Includes:
• Email Blasts: Send effective email campaigns to multiple recipients.
• Effortless Follow-ups: Automate follow-up communications with your contacts and prospects.
• Custom Configuration: Create your own data fields and tabs.

Of course eSilverBullet is coming out with another great tool for online affiliate marketers: Tracking Statistics Aggregation. This tool will allow customers to pull tracking data from multiple networks and tracking systems into a single report… Cool cool.

They’ve got a free download on their website http://esilverbullet.com for a trial package. It takes less than a minute to get in and start test-driving things and see what you think.

Their may be no panacea to affiliate marketing… but is there a silver-bullet?

MY911 LIFE SAVING APP

1 Reply

In today’s fast-paced world of GPS enabled devices, the possibilities for life-saving technologies available for the everyday consumer have never been more accessible. Much like On-star provides real-time information regarding your vehicle’s status, MY911 will constantly ping your location and status information to the MY-911 platform. While my911 can certainly be used as an AVL like onstar, (although additional (very affordable) hardware is needed), it provides the convenience and flexibility of going wherever your smart phone can get reception!

At first when you look at all of the different options, it can seem overwhelming, but when you remember that you can use them all for the same price, just enjoy the ones you want to use!

Assistance
Accident and Impact Management (patent pending) $10K Abduction Reward
International and National SOS Search and Rescue $30K Coverage
Personal Location Notification Medivac $30k Coverage
24/7 Certified Nurse Line Extensive Online Tracking Management Portal
Roadside Assistance
Geo-Fencing
Weather Alert
Trip Reporting
High Crime Area and Predator Alerts
Speeding Alert
Cyber Alert Notification Management
Incident Tracking and Reporting
Homeland and Travel Status Notification

One of the cool things about this application, is you can go get a 14-day trial to see what it does for yourself.

In order to take full advantage of the software, your smart phone needs to have an accelerometer and a GPS chip.

In a recent conversation I had with the Owner and Founder of My-911, Larry Hurwitz, he confirmed that in addition to the MY911 Android App, the MY911 Blackberry App is up and working, and of course… the “I-911″ version of the MY911 IPhone Application is still on track to be released soon…

Building Utah, 1 Utah Homes at a Time

2 Replies

It’s always refreshing to hear when new businesses are starting in tumultuous markets. There are few industries that have been hammered worse that real estate. While the Utah real estate market hasn’t been hit near as hard as Arizona or California, there’s no question that it’s seen better days.

New Homes in Utah are being produced by a few very successful builders. A number of elements are contributing to the ability for new home buyers to afford great quality homes at a reasonable cost. Among these factors, reduced access to traditional credit has lowered the cost of sub contractors, building materials and land.

It goes without saying that current market conditions have created the perfect storm for buying a new Utah home. I’ve had the opportunity to see the 1 Utah Homes model from the inside, and the attention to detail, cost and customer service is among the very best of Utah Home Builders.

Healing Health Care, One Person At a Time

4 Replies

When I was kid I went to the doctor because of tremendous pain in my feet after playing for too long. It was pretty frustrating to have to stop playing while my friends went on running around and jumping and tackling each other. –My neighborhood was possibly rougher than most :) I remember begging my parents to help me fix my feet. My mom and dad found a Utah podiatrist in the yellow pages and set up an appointment. After my first visit, the doctor was convinced that my short tendons and flat feet required near immediate surgery. I remember him describing to my parents how he would just need to elongate both of my Achilles tendons with three small incisions. Next he would perform a surgery on my left arch to clear away some worn down bones and possibly try to build an arch.

My parents politely asked for the X-rays and the next week I was in a different office getting a second opinion. This new doctor looked at my feet for about 30 seconds and said, “What you need is a sturdy pair of orthotic inserts.” –That was it. No incisions. No clearing away bones. No weeks or even months of recovery. No life time of dealing with a new arch built by a creative doctor. Just a molded piece of plastic in each shoe. To make a long story short, we tried it out and now more than 15 years later, I’m running and jumping as much as my schedule will allow.

I occasionally think about how life would have been different if my parents didn’t know to get another opinion. What if I would have had surgery? What if there had been complications. Who was that first doctor anyways? Who did he go around giving surgery to and were they happy?

When my wife and I were picking out pediatricians, there were a lot of options. Finding a pediatrician in Utah is easy, but to find one that you know will give you the best possible care can be very difficult. There are a number of different doctor rating sites out there, but I learned about one that was developed right here in Utah and my wife and I looked at it right away to make an educated decision about potentially changing doctors. This site is a social entrepreneurial venture of sorts, that is dedicated to informing the public about doctor’s histories and providing a platform for information to be exchanged in near-real-time with hospitals and doctors and their patients. The site is CheckMD.com and with over 700,000 doctors in their database chances are good you’ll find something that interests you.

There’s a video on the site that raises a question I’ve thought a lot about lately. Most people spend days shopping around to buy a car. How much time did you spend finding someone to diagnose your health?

I would personally recommend this site to everyone that has a doctor or knows someone who does… Yeah that’s right. Just about everyone :)

Utah-Ceo Article

Leave a reply

Here’s a brief link to an article about John Keller and social entrepreneurship in Utah written up by Utah CEO Magazine.

Despite the extremely light -hearted conversations that I had with Tammy regarding the article. I think it turned out quite fine.

Although Utah CEO Magazine in a relatively new magazine, it’s got a simple format that makes it easy to read and skip the stuff that may not interest you.

Enjoy!

“Click” Book Review

Leave a reply

I recently read “Click” by Bill Tancer.

Although I thought were some interesting statistics in the book I don’t know if I would suggest taking the time to read the whole book. Really, I think you’ll get pretty thorough understanding of the entire book by simply reading a few of the Bill Tancer Blog posts.

If I had to distill a single take-away message from the book, it would probably be that we are what we search and a refined understanding of that relationship can provide some pretty helpful data for marketers and even social scientists–(Yeah I know–nothing new, but really an intriguing concept).

I would suggest “click”ing on his blog link and learning more about the concept if you’re not very familiar with it already. The implications are quite significant for internet marketers and social scientists… That makes it perfect for internet social marketers and/or social internet marketers, depending on how you look at it.

Utah Nonprofits Get a New Perspective of Entrepreneurship

Leave a reply

This past week I had the great opportunity to attend part of the Utah Nonprofits Association Conference. The West Valley Cultural Arts Center was busy with hundreds of passionate and dedicated individuals exchanging ideas and working to advance their represented causes.

It is my privilege to attend a lecture led by Alan Hall regarding Social Entrepreneurship and Venture Philanthropy. Although Alan didn’t break very deeply into the mechanics of social entrepreneurship, he very candidly addressed the relationship that sound business practices and experienced business leaders play in successful social innovation. For many in attendance, the thought of applying measurable business practices and working closely with entrepreneurs–or even supporting their ventures was almost unheard of.

“I have to make money if I’m going to give it away” was a simple but clear demonstration of the principle of sustainability.

In describing the mission of Grow Utah Ventures and Island Park Venture, Alan stated that he was actively seeking to nurture and develop other entrepreneurs with the same mission to improve their communities and be stewards of their profits for a higher cause.

The Alan and Jeanne Hall Foundation is part of Alan’s balanced portfolio to direct his dollars and attention to sustainable and measurable impacts throughout Utah.

Successful for-profit and non-profit start-ups (and mature companies for that matter) need to run on the same sound principles of putting the customer (donor) first, having sound financial model, develop a robust vision.

L.A. Walk-About

Leave a reply

I spent the weekend in L.A. working to develop relationships with USC, UCLA and a number of non-academic book related publishers and programs. Although I’ve been to L.A. a number of times, this is the first time that I had the chance to spend time with the L.A. local scene.

I have a close friend who took me to see a number of the best movie-star hot spots. It was my first time acting as a paparazzi, and although we didn’t really see many stars, it was still a fun experience.

While eating a burger at a popular L.A. pub, I had a chance to talk with some of the local residents. The gentleman I spoke with told me about his experience living in a city that was so big with so many options and cultures that he felt he lost himself for the first 5 years of living there. “Ironically,” he said, “after going through all of the motions and learning and developing, I found myself right back where I was before. The same person, only more developed, stronger–wiser.”

Although I’ve never spent enough time in the City of Angels to have my own L.A. Walk-About, there’s something to what he said that seems to apply to a lot of different parts of life. In business, in relationships–especially in entrepreneurship. We work hard to grow and ultimately sell the business. We end up in a similar position to where we started, but our experiences and understanding is so much more developed than when we first started.

Business Ignitor for Grow Utah Ventures– A great event.

2 Replies

I had a great opportunity today to attend a “business ignitor” event hosted by Grow Utah Ventures. I have been so busy working in the trenches lately that I began to feel out of touch with the rich entrepreneur community here in Utah. The topic was “How to Approach an Angel Investor.” The perfect topic for the situation in which I currently find myself. It was so refreshing to hear from experienced panelists regarding what they looked for in applicants and to hear questions from other attendees reflect my current questions.

The panelists, Alan Hall, Brad Walters and Brad Angus were all successful entrepreneurs and investors in the Weber Davis Morgan region of Utah. I have had the paradigm that Northern Utah Entreprenuership was fertile grounds, but I was grateful and impressed by what I saw today. Although my current business exploit is a social venture and not directly applicable to much of the material covered in the conference, I did gain a lot of useful knowledge and also made some good contacts.

To anyone in Utah County, Salt Lake or Northern Utah who might be considering attending a Grow Utah Ventures event, I would highly recommend it. Thanks guys!

Utah Book Donation and Worldwide Book Drive

1 Reply

I just want to take a minute to congratulate Worldwide Book Drive and it’s faithful team of book sorters and back-brakers for donating over 100,000 books this year alone! Their contributions will certainly have an impact on generations of children in Utah, Nicaragua, Idaho and Africa for generations to come. And that’s just up to September of this year–who knows what beneficial labors wait around the corner.

In a recent conversation I had with Jaron Brown, the Regional Manager for Worldwide Book Drive, he said something that struck me as a key factor to Worldwide Book Drive’s growing success. He related a recent experience in which a retiring professor donated his entire collection of used books and curriculum before heading back to Norway. He said the retiring professor identified Worldwide Book Drive as the best place to donate books used books, because it was by far the most believable organization. It was very reassuring to hear that from an outside source. The hours of labor it takes to sort through the books and truly try to maximize the value can be a thankless task… (although the last time I helped to sort and put together a load of 5,000 books for Books for Utah Kids, my back was certain to thank me :)

Donations have been recieved from Nevada, Idaho and Utah. Their biggest source of donations come from school districts and libraries. So if your looking for a reliable place to donate used books or find used books to benefit a great cause be sure to check out the Worldwide Book Drive website, www.worldwidebooks.org