San Jose Trip Recap
Submitted by Jeremy Palmer on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 05:52.
For those of you following me on Twitter you probably already know I was in San Jose last week. I was in town for the Yahoo Affiliate Advisory Board meeting, but I also made stops at HP, WebEx, and Google.
I've been to Silicon Valley a few times before, but I've never covered so much ground in one week. I was busy during every waking hour, and spent non-waking hours (normally reserved for sleep) working on the Black Ink Project.
I got in to town Monday afternoon. I normally don't like traveling on Monday's - the airport is always a lot more crowded, but with meetings starting that night and early Tuesday morning I didn't have much of a choice.
HP Meetup
My first stop was dinner with the Affiliate Program managers from HP and CJ. We went to this awesome Greek restaurant on Santana Row, where I had the best lamb I've ever tasted. We chatted business for about 10% of the night, but spent most of the time talking about more interesting things like family, friends, and travel.
The HP Affiliate team is one of the best in the business. If you're in the consumer electronics category you need to promote HP.
https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid...
Yahoo Affiliate Advisory Board Meeting
I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Yahoo attending the Affiliate Advisory Board meeting. We met with the Yahoo Affiliate team and the individual Business Unit managers.
This was a great opportunity to learn more about the Yahoo properties I'm promoting and find out what's on their product roadmap. I'm under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), so I can't say much, but I will say that Yahoo has some cool stuff in the pipeline that's going to make Yahoo a serious contender in search.
On Tuesday night Yahoo treated us to a Giant's game in one of the club suites. AT&T park is absolutely amazing!
I don't have my first commission report in front of me right now, but I'm about 99% sure the first commission I ever earned was from Yahoo. Since 2003 Yahoo has been one of my most successful merchants.
One of the most compelling features of Yahoo's affiliate program is that you can earn commissions from several of their web properties. They also have a rock star affiliate team that is 100% dedicated to their affiliate's success.
For more information on Yahoo's affiliate program check out this link:
http://advertising.yahoo.com/affiliate_programs/index.html
WebEx
On Thursday I met up with the WebEx marketing and product teams. In case you didn't already know, WebEx is sponsoring the Black Ink Project - providing an enterprise-level webinar platform and a toll free line for over 3,000 Black Ink participants.
I probably met 20 people in the short time I was there. We had a lot of great discussions about their products and marketing strategy. You can tell these guys are professionals - they were all extremely bright and very passionate about WebEx. I came back with a lot of great takeaways that are going to make the Black Ink Project even more successful.
Thursday night I met up with a couple of good friends from Yahoo and Google. This was my first trip out to the Google campus and all I can say is "WOW"! It's easy to see why Googlers are so happy. They have every possible amenity you can imagine right at their finger tips.
I was there between 6-8 PM and there were still a ton of people "working". It's amazing that a company with 10,000+ employees can be so non-corporate. I felt like I was on a college campus. I saw people taking a tango class, riding bikes, skateboarding, playing volleyball and even managed to catch a few people writing code.
I had a lot of good meals while I was in San Jose, but I have to admit the food in the Google cafeteria was just about as good as any of the restaurants I went to. They had every cuisine you can imagine, and it was all top quality. Best of all - it's free; one of the reasons we ate there instead of going into town ;)
Trip Summary
It's amazing how much positive energy you feel when you're around so many smart people. If the cost of living wasn't so high I would seriously consider moving out there. I don't know how people working "normal" day jobs can afford to live there. I would conservatively estimate that it costs 25-50% more to live in Silicon Valley than Salt Lake City or some other low-priced city. You pay a premium for cool atmosphere, good weather, and proximity to top companies and universities... Maybe I'll move out there when Google buys my next start-up ;)
Jeremy, Congratulations.
Jeremy,
Congratulations. Sounds like an awesome roadtrip. Says a lot about your measure of success. It must be great to have a voice in things.
HP Requires Action in 30 days
HP requires you to start actively promoting within 30 days of acceptance.
Don't apply to HP until you are ready to fulfill their requirements.
clarification of HP Home & Home Office activation policy
HP Home & Home Office does not have a policy regarding activation within a certain timeframe. The only reason HP would remove an affiliate from the program would be for compliance issues. However, CJ has a policy that they will automatically deactivate an account that doesn't earn a commission within 6 months. Please feel free to direct any questions to hp@cj.com.
Hey you've mentioned we a
Hey you've mentioned we a few times. I take it you didn't travel alone. The QYDJ empire is more than 1 person I guess?
got twitter?
www.twitter.com/kensavage
"We" refers to me and the
"We" refers to me and the clients. I'm the only employee on the payroll ;)
Bay Area
Yeah, we do pay a premium to live out here, but it's worth it--especially if you work in the technology field. The tech industry is a huge part of the Bay Area's ethos and has been for a long time. I think the main thing is access. If you spend any amount of itme here, you can't help but meet a ton of people that work at all of the various tech companies that call the Bay Area home. This can be really cool. For instance, the firm I work for has clients that spend such a huge amount on PPC every month that not only do we have dedicated teams with Big G & Y, but we also have lunch with them once a month. Then there are the conferences--I've been to two so far this year--Ad:Tech and O'Reilly Web 2.0--with LinuxWorld coming up in August. All without leaving home. Those are just two examples. I could give you many more.
It's not only our tech. As I know you love music, have you ever seen the variety of music we get on a regular basis? I don't think there's anywhere in the world that gets the kind of music San Francisco does. Everyone loves to play here.
Of course, all of this does come at a hefty price tag which, especially if you have children, can be prohibitive. But there are many people who work low paying jobs that do just fine too. I guess it's all what you want and what you're willing to trade off on (i.e. home ownership, traffic jams, earthquakes, etc.). While it's far from easy to live here, many residents wouldn't trade it for anything.
Sounds like a great time Jeremy
I hope nobody at Google tried to "slap" you while you were there ;-)
where's the rimshot sound
where's the rimshot sound effect (buh-dum pshhh!) when you need it? ;-)
-Carl
do you twitter? i do!
http://twitter.com/htxb
You're living the Super Affiliate Lifestyle!
Hi Jeremy,
Sounds like you had a great time! :)
You always talk about how I'm living a great lifestyle! Damn, I'm jealous, you're getting wine and dined by big companies. ;)
Sincerely,
Amit
Awesome to see you!
Hey! Amit!
Welcome to the community bro!
Haven't chatted since the Westin.
But, that's my bad I guess. LOL!
My "SuperAffiliateMindset.com" t-shirt is part of my motivational routine though ;-)
Chat later!
(promise :)
Brad.
Sounds like a fun time
Hard to imagine so many big players in one place, or even a corporation so large as to compare to a campus.....very cool.
Going to need to head back out that way for a little holiday with the family when this course is all complete:)
Cheers,
Jeromy
Google
From your description, and from a feature I saw on CNBC a while ago, it's easy to see why Google is so successful. When you have a work environment that actually makes people want to be there, you can't lose. If the rest of corporate America took a leaf out of the Google book employee morale would be so much higher.