The Geek dinner has been rained out so it will be rescheduled for October. I lost a bit of this post so hopefully I can reconstruct it below.

ePIFany Conference is now a free lunch seminar on October 6 at the DATC Entrepreneur Center. 11:00am to 2:00pm. It will be the official launch of the ePIFany Network. I predict strong attendance. Free and food and entrepreneurs, a good combination.

I stlll want a line of t-shirts that say things like, “Don’t mind the clunker, I sold the Beamer to fund my new business”.

If you have any bad news or cancellations, just be sure to tell me. I’ll put it on the list for you.

I can’t resist some commentary here, so forgive me while I muse.

Maybe I should start a new blog called Business Failures Blog. It’s sort of an entrepreneur monitor. Everyone knows you learn as much or more from the failures as from the successes. This is where you come when things suck (like your investor pulls out, your business partner makes off with millions and leaves the country, or when you get metaphorically “rained out”). You will feel better about how much money you lost when you compare it to others. There will most likely be people worse off than you.

You can vote on who you think will make it. We could include a rumors and contraversy section to keep it interesting and boost readership.

We’ll label the effort by tries. When you hit a homerun you’ll graduate to the Business Success Blog.

We’ll hold parties. Everyone can wear black to the failures party and it will be very low key and meditiative. We’ll get a motivational speaker (someone who did at last succeed, so keep trying) and we’ll serve comfort food (or beans and rice depending on funding). But the success party will feature loud music, dancing, high brow food, and spiffs galore from the main investors.

Sounds good to me.

Phil’s blog seems to have disappeared entirely but as far as I know the dinner is still on for tomorrow night (Wed. Sept. 20th). This is the launch party for TagJungle and my chance to meet some of the people who I only know by blog.

It’s a FREE BBQ so we’ll get to see if besides coding, these guys can cook. I guess we can guage how things are going by what is served. Hot dogs: not a good sign. Steak: there’s something they’re not telling us. I predict something in the middle, like hamburgers. If I remember I will take pictures.

Rob Merrill of SOS Technical is throwing in free t-shirts for the first 100 people who arrive. Does that mean we get 3 each??

It’s at Dimple Dell Park in Sandy which is at 10400 S 1300 E. I didn’t see a time though (Phil says 6:30).

Free t-shirts, a band, interesting conversation and the like. RSVP here.

In today’s search terms to find my blog: “I want to work at provo labs”. Whoever it was should come today and let’s hope it’s not rained out.

Maine Today newspaper has an internet marketing column for small businesses. It’s pretty well done. I’m going to recommend it on Kelly’s site. In fact, it should go on AffiliateFlash too because it’s great for beginners. It’s very clearly written and useful information. If you want to learn more about online marketing for your business, put it on your RSS feed (such as Bloglines).

Notice I said straight and not straight edge…

Today I got a call from Jon at Wickedfire. He’s just the kind of person I am both drawn to and repulsed by (in some ways). You can’t believe what he owns up to.

He’s 25 and has been in the spam or affiliate or online marketing industry since he was 14. Make that starting off with porn, which is really the beginnings of ecommerce. Again, I’m completely opposed to porn and I won’t touch it. However you can learn from the  technology, online marketing, and affiliate marketing. By his own admission he got sick of porn but it was his training ground in SEO and online marketing.

He’s smart (in a ‘community college’ not an ‘ivy league’ sort of way), swears a lot, and and talks fast. By his own admission there is no BS None. You know EXACTLY what he thinks.

This may make Jonas hate me worse but I think they’d get along and be great friends. I will type up our comments and make an article on AffiliateFlash (which is how he found me).

I started Affiliateflash because I needed an outlet for my writing. The affiliate marketing industry is endlessly fascinating to me. For the personalities, characters, and stories. It’s still so new and is so dynamic.

Talking to people like Jon and ShopSite Designer Kyle Rodeck today was a fun trip. Great name dropping and a real kick talk to. Thanks for making my day guys.

My friend Kelly asked me to do a conference call about internet marketing to a group of women entrepreneurs this weekend. It was our first call so we were ironing out the kinks. We had a great discussion which Kelly sums up well.

Kelly has been a friend for about 5 years. We met when she came to look at my house that was for sale. They didn’t buy it but we were almost instant friends. Neither of us knew we would become entrepreneurs (me on the side). She impresses me with her energy and accomplishments.

She recently placed in local and national business plan competitions. Here she was a theater major and a mom of three. No one (mostly men) took her that seriously — until she placed 3rd. She then went to nationals and placed 12th. Now she’s looking at funding options for her business (see her post about Sweet and Charming on startup princess). I believe that any business that has an element of networking and giving back has a better chance of succeeding.

I’m so proud of what Kelly has accomplished. Her new blog just got 5,000 page views. She has a way of summing up her thoughts succinctly. Anyone who knows her knows of her boundless energy and great attitude. Because of her I’ve been encouraged to reach out to other women business owners.

Look for my guest blogs entries on her site. It looks like she got Erika Wilde of stopdirt to go first. I’m going to read it now.

I meant to blog about Commission Junction University (CJU) sooner. I was really hoping to go. It started today, September 17 until the 19th. This is the premiere affiliate marketing event. Jeremy is speaking today about Revenue and Relationships in affiliate marketing. Watch the Revenews blogs! There’s a good summary of Jeremy’s speech on Vinny Lingham’s blog. Looks like Jeremy made a plug for RMAMA – Utah’s affiliate marketing association.

If you’ve been thinking of buying Jeremy Palmer’s ebook do it before the end of the month so you can get unlimited updates. After that you just get a year. I refer to mine often when I’m designing landing pages (along with MarketingSherpa’s comprehensive guide).

Jeremy is a keyword research expert. He goes over the different types of keywords: Browse, Compare and Buy. When running pay-per-click ads, spend more on the buy keywords (often specific product names and models) than you do on the browse terms (very general terms). Always use negative keywords.

I remembered again to try local search on your ads to keep costs down. I don’t know if this applies as much in my industry but the next time I run ads on consumer products I will try it.

I wonder if there will be video of any of the talks. I hope so.

I was looking for a different book at Barnes and Noble this weekend and “The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People” caught my eye. I bought it. I like the short lessons and how at the end it summarizes research on the topic.

Here is one I completely believe (feel good quote of the day):

“So many outcomes seem out of our control. Decisions are made that change our companies, our jobs, our lives–decisions we feel helpless to affect.

But if you can accept some uncertainty and believe in yourself, there will always be alternatives available to you. You will always have a choice no matter what the situation.”

Tip: Accept that while everything around you may change you have static unchanging worth. You will always find hope. If one door closes there is always another opened to you. Watch for it.

It is unfortunate that I am writing this. I very much believed in UTech. I put many many hours in and so did others. Thank you for being supportive and for everyone who did so much. Always the pragmatist, I had to face the reality. I determined if I didn’t meet my numbers this week the show would not carry.

I apologize to everyone this has affected. I’m refunding everyone’s money. If you signed up through ePIFany conference they will refund your money soon.

I was impressed with the quality of people who expressed interest and in those who signed up. I’m disappointed because I wanted to hear the speakers myself. Many people  directly involved (me, Chris Knudsen, and 2 of our speakers) changed jobs.

It’s difficult to get people to pay over about $50 for a conference in Utah. If there was a “next time” I would make the first one free or very low cost and use sponsorships to cover costs. Build from there.

Overall I love to see success. I celebrate when things go well. I point out when things don’t. I don’t do it to criticize or point fingers and never to personally attack. I do it because I believe in learning from the defeats as well as the successes.

There are times I think I want to stop blogging because I’d rather make my mistakes in private! Hopefully you can read my blog, see my mistakes, and learn from them. Do that, and I’ll feel like a success

And speaking of success and failure, this Utah SEO blog points out that when you type in “miserable failure” in Google, it shows the biography of George W. Bush. Now that’s getting personal.

“Someone once told me that the probability of an entrepreneur getting venture capital is the same as getting struck by lightning while standing at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. This may be too optimistic.”

This is a classic post by Guy Kawasaki about bootstrapping.

“Take the “red pill.”This refers to the choice that Neo made in The Matrix. The red pill led to learning the whole truth. The blue pill meant waking up wondering if you had a bad dream. Bootstrappers don’t have the luxury to take the blue pill. They take the red pill–everyday–to find out how deep the rabbit hole really is. And the deepest rabbit hole for a bootstrapper is a simple calculation: Amount of cash divided by cash burn per month because this will tell you how much longer you can live. And as my friend Craig Johnson likes to say, “The leading cause of failure ofstartups is death, and death happens when you run out of money.” As long as you have money, you’re still in the game.”

And when you don’t have money, the game is over. Everyone go home.

If you’re bootstrapping right now, read and digest his words of wisdom. He lists 11 tips. If you’re inclined, add your advice here (comments below).

If you happen to be in San Fransisco on September 28, join the join Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition (BAAMC) for dinner.

Who? Online marketing professionals, affiliate marketers, affiliate/CPA
networks and advertising agencies
What? Drinks, dinner and lively conversation.

When? September 28, 2006 at 6:30pm

Where? Undisclosed exclusive San Fransisco restaurant.

How Much? $30/person for dinner and drinks.

To RSVP, please email Michael Brucker or Phillip Kidwell at
info@baamc.org <mailto:info@baamc.org>  and ask to be sent an Evite.
Please include your name, email address and company.

For further details and to register, please visit www.baamc.org/dinner
<http://affiliatemarketersalliance.blogspot.com/>.

Nice list of sponsors: Revenue Magazine, Affiliate Summit and
PartnerCentric

RMAMA should do something like this at a ski resort or at Log Haven Restaurant.