Tiger Woods’ Return = PGA’s Stimulus package @pgatour #Tiger

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Marketing is extra targeted when @MoSuki follows AND you get a postcard at home from Geoffrey the Giraffe on the same day

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A few weeks ago I wrote about converting SoccerClub.com to a social network from its original Web 1.0 format and the subsequent revenue drop. The story at the time was that the Google Adsense links took a serious click-thru hit in the new format, even though page views were way up. This confirms the issues that face big-league social networks like Facebook and Myspace, but now it was affecting my “Tortured-NY-Sports-Fan” ticket account. I mean I have a late season collapse by the Rangers coming up in April to attend.

A man has to eat, so I decided to jump into the world of affiliate marketing. The steps were easy to outline:
1) Sign up for affiliate networks — The key was to find networks that offer soccer-related ads. I signed up for a couple of the leading services, Linkshare and Commission Junction, because they represent many of the big box sports stores and some specialty shops, like Soccer.com and SoccerGarage.com. I also signed up for a smaller service called Shareasale.com who represents SoccerPost.com.
2) Upgrade Ad Server — Sounds like a scary high-tech nightmare. It was. I installed the Open Ads software 3 years ago to serve banners on the original site, but I had NO IDEA how it was working. It just did. I had a message in my inbox that suggested I upgrade to the new Open X version, so I figured — why not give it a try and ruin everything. I couldn’t even remember how to do a back-up, so I was working without a net. Well I did it, and it works!! Cue the engineer dance music.
3) Find the banners — This was like crawling through a dark room to find a flashlight, only to learn that you then had to find new batteries. After pulling the HTML code for the banners, I had to figure out how to set up a test page so I could see how to set the display banners. Once again, it worked*. Amazing. So I loaded up the new banners and they are appearing now.

* The asterisk — Technically the banners are displaying, so it “works.” Unfortunately, no one is buying, so it’s not working too well. So there have been extra late-night meetings over pizza between the engineering director and the business manager. However, it’s only been two weeks, so I have continued to expand the banner coverage and monitor the reports to see what works. I have stayed true to the sports / soccer relevancy for the most part. I’ll admit that I slipped in a Match.com link to see how it performs. Ya gotta do, what ya gotta do to pay for those pizzas.

More updates after I let this run for a full month.

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Saw my first Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics ad on NBC for next February’s Olympics – time to get my skates sharpened

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Does “Favre retires” count as re-tweet?

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I am all for the idea of making some money where it can be made, but there’s one area that irks me a little, and that is the licensing of a person’s name or likeness after their death.

Today’s Wall Street Journal, has a article about Bob Marley’s family working with Hilco Consumer Capital to use Bob Marley’s name and likeness. One of the first products on the list is a “Marley Lager, a Jamaican beer featuring the singer’s likeness.” This means sell your Red Stripe stock.

Now, the Marley family and a private equity firm that invests in retail brands are preparing a major push to license Mr. Marley’s likeness, trademarks and themes to apparel, food and even video games. Hilco Consumer Capital, which has compiled a stable of retail brands including Halston and Ellen Tracy, this month invested some $20 million for half of House of Marley LLC, a joint venture with the Marley family, according to people familiar with the matter.

I am not sure how Bob would treat this idea, but in case my family gets any ideas about licensing my image, I have set some ground rules for the products that I will allow. Here we go:

• Bowling Shoes — For the shoe fashionista who is comfortable to let others know their foot size.
• No-Tuck Shirts — The first cool guy that made wearing untucked shirts fashionable is a man that we should all envy, and I would like to think I can take that guy’s credit by attaching my name to this fashion trend.
• Instant Coffee Brandy — Who has time to mix a Down East Maine “Brandy”? I mean Coffee Brandy, milk and ice (optional) takes way too long to get right, so let’s just create a freeze dried version, with my name on the label, that packs the fun of alcohol and caffeine without filling us up.

What would you allow? Add it in the comments below.

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Watching the game yesterday, it hit me that it has been X years (10 to you non-Romans) since my big break came when I worked on the SuperBowl.com site for the 1999 game between Denver and Atlanta.

The biggest change in that time is how SuperBowl.com handles news. The site was being produced and managed at Lycos under the strict guidance of the NFL which means at that time the site was just NFL propaganda. That was the year that Eugene Robinson of Atlanta found himself arrested for solicitation the night before the game. Big news, obviously, but we were not allowed by the NFL to mention it. The rules were so strict on blocking bad news that we were not allowed to even link to articles where coaches were being fired, and that’s all of the news during the weeks of the playoff run.

My involvement started as a photo editor for a six-week contract which became an offer to be the Lycos Search Producer. By Super Bowl night, I had worked myself up to where they trusted me with the keys to the whole site so I was publishing content from a dark, cold office park in Waltham until late into the night with my developer Mats. That was the year that Denver beat my Jets in the AFC Championship. I always wondered if I would have been able to come up with the pitch to go to Miami if the Jets were in the Super Bowl … if the Jets were Super Bowl (I seem to say that alot). My confetti celebration that night was a leftover pizza and a couple of beers around 3am while I watched game highlights on ESPN. There is nothing like game day.

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