Happy Fourth of July. If you’re anything like me, you’re looking forward to the four-day weekend and some much needed R&R. Then it’s just three days in the office before heading to Orlando for the nearly sold-out Affiliate Summit.

Revenue will be an exhibitor at the show. Hopefully, our new issue, which just went to the printer, will be drop shipped down to Florida on time so it can be displayed in the booth. Fingers crossed.

Regardless, our entire sales team will be on hand manning the booth and trying to spread some Revenue love. I try and avoid all that. Instead I’ll be in the sessions, educating myself on the latest issues impacting the affiliate space and listening to some great speakers.

But the show is not all work. There are some great networking opportunities and a little fun as well. It sounds like everyone is geared up for the big Pure Imagination Party on Monday night sponsored by oneNetwork, Direct Track, PartnerCentric and our very own Revenue Magazine. It should be a blast. Too bad I’ll have to use my imagination about the party - unless I crash - since I never even got an invite. Maybe I’ll host my own party in my hotel room – look for your tres exclusive invite via email.

Once again, my friends at ABestWeb.com have called into question the integrity of Revenue magazine and especially me. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I would never try and stop that. Just know there is a lot more to the story than what you’ll hear from the message boards. What Haiko neglected to reveal was that I called him for the story and he never responded. So, he had a chance to get his opinion on the record, but chose not to. And no matter what is said about Revenue on those boards, I will call Haiko again if it’s appropriate for a story. He might hang up on me or not respond, but, again, that’s his right.

And while, I disagree with much of what these folks are saying, they were absolutely right to call out the point about Richard Lewis. He is not someone that Revenue wants to hold up as an example of best practices. But what none of the ABW posters know is that the whole incident with Lewis blew up right as Revenue went to the printer and I could not pull the story or rewrite it. The best I could do was to change a few words to insure the story was factually incorrect. That included deleting a mention that Lewis was part of a mentoring program along with Shawn Collins and Beth Kirsch. I couldn’t pull the quotes from Lewis or add a something noting his recent transgressions.

Such are the problems with publishing a magazine that only comes out every other month. It’s often a very frustrating experience.

Anyone who thinks there is an agenda or general lack of ethics on the part of Revenue is misguided. My bet is that not one poster at ABW has a clue that I was willing to quit my job over an ad that was supposed to run in the issue that is due out in two weeks. I felt the ad was misleading, compromised the integrity of the magazine and could easily by misread by our readers.

I try not to get involved in the sales side at all, but this time I had to step in. I spent nearly two weeks battling over this issue, including being on a conference call from home and getting so heated that I’m sure I came off like a crazy person screaming out of the conference room squawk box.

I spent a huge amount of time trying (and lung power) to convince a bunch of sales people and other higher ups why our integrity is more valuable than whatever amount someone was willing to pay for ad space. To their credit, all involved finally got sick of listening to me and their better judgment prevailed. We did not accept the ad and refunded the money. It’s a small victory, but I’m proud of it. And, as much as those two weeks sucked for me (and believe me, they really did) I would do it all over again today if I had to and again tomorrow if necessary.

So, for the next few days I’d like my fireworks to be in the sky rather than related to work. Enjoy.lisap@revenuetoday.com