John Hasson

This is my first blog contest ever.  I’ll be speaking at Affiliate Summit on “advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks (such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API.”

What that really means is I’ll be showing you how to automate some repetivie tasks.  I was thinking of showing you a way to log in, download stats into a spreadsheet or database, etc.  But I figured I’d let you all have some input.  Post in the comments below a particular task you would like to see how automate and whichever one I pick wins a free Gold Pass to ASW09 (means you get to come to my presentation).

Here is an example: Show us how to log into site XXXX and download the daily stats per ad to a mysql database.  (or spreadsheet, etc) or show us how to automatically upload a spreadsheet of ads to facebook, etc.

I’ll be going over a few basic techniques such as automating a webform, dealing with AJAX and so on.  All of this will be done with FREE software.  There will be NOTHING TO BUY to use the methods I’ll be showing in my presentation.

So to win, enter what you would like to see for the example used in my presentation and you win a free Gold pass.

Tags: Affiliate Summit 2009, Contest // 7 Comments »

A week or so ago I had a quick chat with one of my readers.  Well the good news is he wasn’t mad and still wanted me to look at his site.  Now, I was going to post screenshots, etc.  But really in this case I don’t think it is appropiate.  I will let you see the advice I gave though:

Couple of things

1) This website is pretty ugly
2) There is no real focus with so many different products

To fix

1) Make it less ugly
2) (and this one is key) when you send someone to a url (I like [http://HIDDENURL] better cuz it doesnt look like a nested frame) don’t distract them.  the primary F (standard webuser eye movement heatmap) on the page has nothing about the offer.  It is all extra navigation stuff that will confuse the user, distract them or make them just close the page.  Get rid of the menu, etc and the header @ the top, move the offer up there so that is all the user sees.

Other things:

Is your content actually unique and helpful to the user? If not you will have a harder time.

He said cool and he would try to make the changes.  So I guess we are cool.  *crosses fingers*

Tags: Advice // 2 Comments »

I’ll be going to Elite Retreat again this year.  Yes it is expensive.  Last year was my first year.  At first I wasn’t sure if the connections and the things I learned at Elite Retreat would pay off.  But recently it has paid off big time.  The attendees are very open and the presentations are of real data, not a bunch of marketing fluff.  Imagine somebody saying, “Here is how I make 150,000 dollars net a month” and giving explicit details, and you get a good idea of what goes on.  The attendees are just as good (sometimes better) then the scheduled speakers themselves.  And yeah this is an affiliate link.

See you in San Francisco.

Tags: Advice // Add Comment »

What I am looking for.  A smart, honest and loyal person who can help run things over here.  Knowing the internet, how to manage files on a computer and a couple of things like that are pluses.  Most anything else I can teach you.  You would be learning PPC management, basic programing and database skills.  I suppose it would feel like an admin assistant position for the first few days/week while you learned how we are doing things.  But then as you started to manage some of the campaigns, etc. and were doing a good job (ie, helping us make more then we are spending on a campaign) you would start to make more money. As things grow you can expect to be moving into a managerial/mentor position as we bring in new people.  The office is in my house on the first floor.  Warning you about that now.  I have toyed with getting an outside office and I might do that in the future, but for now it is here.  Sometimes it will be boring and repetitive, othertimes it will be super exciting.   As far as pay, expect lousy pay ($8+ an hour lousy) at first.  This will be almost an apprentice like role.  As you learn and show how awesome you are, we will be able to pay you more.  Hours?  We don’t do weekend here.  (Well I do, but I don’t expect you too)  I’d guess 8ish hours a day, sometimes more and sometimes less.  Location, Lehi, UT.

So in a nutshell that is what I am looking for.  Questions?  Do you fit this bill?  You want to risk it?  Contact me.

Tags: Uncategorized // 4 Comments »

The joys of parenthood include sharing in their illnesses.  My kids were fine in a day, I was not.  Got to see the Dr again for the first time in about 2-3 years.  They gave me a choice of a penicillin shot or pills for my strep.  I opted for the shot for 2 reasons.  1) Didn’t want to have to do another co-pay @ the pharmacy.  2) Shot was easier then swallowing a bunch of pills for a week or two.– my throat is still hurting like crazy.

So now I am just weak, hurts to talk, *really* hurts to swallow, amazingly sore all over, etc.  (I don’t usually get sick so it is an interesting experience for me)

Luckily I early voted, so no worries there.  I was going to volunteer as a poll worker today but that got canceled since there is no way I can do that w/ strep.  Just a few minor campaign tweaks and stats monitoring then back to bed for me.

Tags: Uncategorized // 2 Comments »

Ok, I tried. Really I did.  I’ve been on OSX for about over a year. Things that bothered me…

1. Firefox sucks on a Mac.
2. When the HFS+ file system decides to go screwy you can waste a day or two fixing it
3. I was spending lots of my time inside VMWare on my bootcamp partition.
4. I already have photoshop 6 for windows and don’t feel like spending a ton on CS3 for the Mac
5. Excel for the Mac blows compared to Excel on Windows.  (Try having really complex charts, and it slows to a crawl on the mac where the exact same spreadsheet does geat in Excel 2003)
6. Games.  Seriously.  Games.  (Not that I play that much, I don’t, but every now and then when you want to test something, rebooting into bootcamp just to try a game (or run photoshop w/o terrible slowness) is just a big pain)
7. I’ve tried Parallels and VMware Fusion. Neither one is awesome.  But they both get the job done, and you can use Visual Studio inside either just fine.
8. That STUPID suspend to crash bug that will NOT go away.

I am sure there is more.  So at this point I had 2 choices.  Sell the macbook pro and buy another laptop or just convert it to mostly XP.  I chose the latter.  So now I have a macbook pro running windows XP as my primary system.  The hardware is still awesome.  And now if I ever have a very rare instance where I need OSX I can just reboot into it… that is probably what I should have done in the first place.

Tags: Advice, Personal // 4 Comments »

Early this morning I went to poll worker training.  It wasn’t too long (8am-10:30am).  I took an oath, promised to uphold the constitution and so on.  I took a couple of cool photos of the voter cards.  I totally forgot to take pictures of the diebold machines.  Apparently you can’t wear an Obama or McCain Tshirt, or any other candidates sign or voting slogan on public property within 150 feet of the door of the polling place.  That should be interesting to manage

Seems simple enough.

Made In China

Voter Access Card + Encoder

How these work is pretty basic.  The voter card has nothing on it but the district (so it knows which ballot to show them, and it also includes instructions on font size, or if the machine should talk to them, etc  — we program that in if they are blind, etc)

As a poll worker we keep a manual count of all the votes and check the counts at the end of the day (and mid day) to make sure the counts match.  If they don’t we have to stay there till we figure out WTF went wrong.  I learned all about cool provisional ballots and the laws and weird exceptions, like “curb-side” voting where they can’t get out of their car, due to age, etc.  Needless to say I think I’ll be busy election day.  6am -> done.  I always wanted to see how this part works, so this should be a good/fun experience.  I’ll be rotating through various positions, with no lunch break and no dinner break (they warned us about that) as well as helping to take down the voting machines (and probably help set them up).  So if your poll workers seem busy, it is cuz they are and they haven’t eaten much. 

Edit: They called me late afternoon yesterday.  Guess they were hard up for help…

Tags: Personal // 1 Comment »

Granted, I’ll be 32 in 2 months…   The theater was packed, I made sure to get assigned seating.  (I have two very close movie theaters, one with assigned seating and one without.  Guess which one I go to on opening nights… )

Why you may be asking did I go to see this movie?  Quite simply: I have 3 daughters.

There were *maybe* 8 guys in there– and all but 3 of them were wearing homemade wildcats jerseys.  Yes.  Freaking *homemade* (and the wrong color) wildcats jerseys to coincide with the team’s jersey’s in the movie.  Every time the main guy character was on screen the girls went nuts, screams, ohhs, ahhs, etc.

As far as the plot and so on goes, it was predictable but turned out to be a fun movie.  I found myself laughing out loud a few times.  Strangely whenever I laughed the girls around me hushed really fast.  I guess nothing shuts up 300+ girls quicker then a loud male voice laughing in a move theater at *their* movie :).

It was fun, I don’t feel less of a man for enjoying myself.

Whole movie in less then 2 min.

Tags: Personal // 2 Comments »

Somebody contacted me using that little chat widget on the right with this opening line:

Greetings I have been trying to get into the PPC arena for about a year without much succes constantly getting google slapped and tried a few other PPC source with no real measure of performance can you help

I was kinda busy at the time, so I simply said

Do you have a specific question?

You know what. here is the whole thing, I am in a rush to take all my girls to see High School Musical 3 tonight.

Guest: Greetings I have been trying to get into the PPC arena for about a year without much succes constantly getting google slapped and tried a few other PPC source with no real measure of performance can you help
Me: Do you have a specific question?
Guest: what am i doing wrong or not doing (I know you have no info about me or my site at this time) but would you be willing to look at my site and give you opinion\
My Thoughts: No specific question really.
Me: usually i na case like yours it is not just one thing
Me: *in a
Me: google slaps = stop making crappy sites
Me: biggest thing you need
Me: is tracking
Guest: I’m sure but i have doing this for a year with little return I have bought books and endless searches on the net right now  i workwith click bank and already have a site and ads but not sure what else to try
Guest: what “googles” defination of a crappy site
My Thoughts: How can I tell him to “google it” nicely….
Me: that is something you should be able to find out foryourself
Me: by just looking through Adwords Help and FAQ
Me: if you can’t do that then PPC is not something you should be doing
Me: There is no “shortcut” or trick
Me: it is just a matter of hard work
Me: trying and failing a lot
Me: if you are going to ASW I’ll gladly spend a few min glancing @ your stuff to tell you if anything comes to mind
Guest: unfortunitly i’m not but i would be happy to forward my site and maybe an ad for your opinion
My Thoughts: Hmm.. do I really want to mess with this? Ah ha. I can use it as a sorta blog post/site review, that would be worth my time.
Me: can I useit in a blog post
Me: make it public, etc?
Guest: can i send it in an email
Me: I’ll post my reply as a new blog post
Me: that cool?
Guest: yeah that would be great
My Thoughts: Gotta make sure they know what they are getting into.
Me: and your ok with others seing the site and the ad
Me: *seing
My Thoughts: CURSES! I can’t spell crap.
Me: *sEeing
Guest: depends you how bad you rip my site /ad apart
Me: lol
Me: I’ll tell you what I tell everyone
Me: Don’t fall in love with your site or your keywords or youe campaigns
Guest: no really i don’t want to look like an ass even if i am one
Guest: ok i should be chating anyway i will email later today
Me: k
Me: tlak l8r

Guest what… no email from them.

I am glad to answer questions, etc. but something like “why am I not making any money” is way to general for a simple answer.  And don’t ask me stuff that you can find out if you just read AdWords FAQs.  However, in person at a conference when I am in a good mood, I’ll happily answer stuff like that. 

Tags: Advice, Affiliate Marketing, PPC, Pay Per Click, Personal // 2 Comments »

I’ve got a campaign that has been running for a decent while with a couple thousand keywords and a few hundred adgroups that have been slowly built over time.

Yesterday I wanted to try out google’s “opportunities for improvement” feature on this campaign.  But google wouldn’t run on it because the campaign had more then 64 adgoups and more then 2000 keywords.  grrrr

So I took a quick look and found that only about 10 of the adgroups had any conversions in the past 3 months.  I put on my wizard hat and took the s…..   Actually I was just ruthless and deleted all the adgroups that had no conversions in the past 90 days.  Would google let me run their “opportunities for improvement” feature now that I shrunk it down?  No!  But now it just says “sorry, can’t do it” w/o a reason.

Fine I think..  I’ll leave it alone and let the campaign do its thing.

Here is where the awesomesauce comes in:  After wiping out the “dead weight” my CTR shot up by 67.6% my avg position went up by only 2% (nothing significant) cost per click down by 1.2% (nothing significant).  My clicks went up by 56.7%.  This of course resulted in lots more conversions.

So… if you have a really big campaign that has profit in it.  Trim the adgroups and keywords that are not converting, google and you will both be happier.

Tags: Advice, Online Moola, PPC, Pay Per Click // 2 Comments »