I’m surprised that the Yahoo earnings announcement has not gotten a lot of play on other performance marketing blogs. On Tuesday the company announced earnings for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2006. Many people at the Affiliate Summit – especially PPC guys and search folks – claim these numbers would be a pivotal indicator of the potential success of Panama – regardless of how Yahoo attempted to spin the news.

I’m just too darn worn out to write more about the Affiliate Summit today. But here are a bunch of fun links that will give you a good idea of what went on at the show.

If you didn’t attend the event you might find a compelling reason to next time around. If you were there, look for yourself and cross your fingers that you were on your best behavior.

The affiliate dinner was fun. Our Summit co-host Shawn Collins was roasted by Corey Newhouse, Brian Littleton, Brook Schaaf, Missy Ward, Todd Crawford and some hired actress/comedienne playing old girlfriend, a music executive and John Kerry supporter.

The dinner was great way to kick off the event as about 100 affiliates and merchants gathered to network in Bally’s. Then it was off for gambling and a private party at Pure for U.K network Buy.at and Andy Rodriguez and then on the luxioursous (insert wink) Barbary Coast with a colorful cast of ReveNews notables including Jim Kukral, Wayne porter, Sam Harrelson and others. The gonzo journalism experiment was in the full swing, so was the twitter experiment ShareASale CEO Brian little has conducting.

I spent all day yesterday at the LinkShare Partnership Summit here in chilly San Francisco.

As usual, the folks at LinkShare put on a top-notch event. It was the fourth LinkShare Partnership Summit (the second held in SF). The sold-out event featured six very informative sessions, a cadre of high-caliber merchants and affiliates (LinkShare claims there was a 1-to-1 ratio of merchants to affiliates) and even more networking opportunities this time around.

The previous day was comprised of workshops for merchants and affiliates that focused on learning specific LinkShare technologies and more about its service offerings. Attendees told me those sessions were hugely valuable. However, many on the merchant side joked that they were envious of the constant stream of laughter emanating from the affiliate training rooms. The event concludes today with a special charter bus trip to the Napa Valley wine country for selected VIPs.

For me the event really was about the networking. It was great to catch up with many people I hadn’t seen in some time. In many cases some faces were familiar, but the people had changed jobs. I also got to meet some new folks doing new and interesting things.

Plus, it’s always good to get some sense as to where one of the largest players in the performance networking space is heading (LinkShare’s RSS syndication is now up and running in Japan and coming to the U.S. this year, and new international LinkShare offices will open in 2007). LinkShare President Steve Denton did a good job of putting that all in context.

The theme of the conference was Innovation and that was the focus of the keynote from Michael Schrage. His talk was thought-provoking and everyone I spoke with afterward seemed to embrace something they could do nearly immediately to spur innovation within their own business.

The biggest takeaway from the keynote seemed to be that innovation is not what companies do, but rather what customers adopt, and that innovation is the conversion of novelty into value. However, that value doesn’t necessarily need to be monetary.

I’m not going to get into detail about the other three sessions that I attended since super-affiliate Vinny Lingham blogged about most of the same sessions.

My only beef with the event was that there was no coffee at any of the many networking breaks between sessions. That meant I did much of my networking in the coffee line at Starbucks downstairs in the hotel. I only go to Starbucks in an emergency (I’m a Peet’s gal) but like many other attendees I was desperate for some java.

However, LinkShare was redeemed at the end of the day at the evening cocktail reception by providing a great spread of beverages and food that included delightful fare from San Francisco’s most famous dim sum place – Yank Sing. And in my book, fabulous Dau Miu Gow and delicious Siu Mye trump a cup of hotel coffee anyday.

Next stop: Affiliate Summit. See you all in Vegas, baby. lisap@revenuetoday.com

The holidays are finally over and you’re feeling tired, a little bloated and in need of some well-deserved pampering. Well, its not just you that may need some re-invigoration – your website might need some refreshing too.

Perhaps you’ve analyzed some of your holiday stats and realized that your site was not converting to its full potential. Maybe it needs a little tweaking. So, after all that gift giving you helped facilitate it’s time to let Revenue give you the gift of a free visual homepage over.

Fill out this form and Pedro Sostre, our By Design columnist, may select your homepage for a makeover that will appear in the pages of an upcoming issue of Revenue.

In addition to working on the first phase of Revenue’s website revamp, here’s some of the makeover magic Pedro has already performed. Also check out this account from an affiliate that was very satisfied with his site’s makeover.

What are you waiting for? lisap@revenuetoday.

This week many of my journalist pals either have the peddle to the metal or they are going gaga for the latest gizmos and gadgets or they are trying to avoid being sucked into the reality distortion field.

Not me – been there done that. Instead, I’m giddy with anticipation about reaching the summits. That’s right I summits – plural. Next week I’ll be attending LinkShare’s Partnership Summit here in San Francisco and two days later I’ll be off to Las Vegas for the Affiliate Summit.

Both events promise to be educational and filled with high-caliber attendees. I plan on soaking in every bit of information and doing some power schmoozing.

At the sold-out Affiliate Summit, which will have a record number of attendees (about 1,600), I’m also hoping to have some fun that doesn’t involve a tent or giving my entire paycheck to anyone’s whose career choice involves green felt.

Sadly, I cannot make it to the Affiliate Dinner in Vegas, so I’ll expect a full recap about the food, festivities and frolicking. However, I’ll be front and center at Sunday night’s Affiliate Jam Session. ShareASale’s CEO Brian Littleton is a talented musician who knows a thing or two about having fun, so I expect that to be THE event of the show. Also look for super-affiliate Scott Hazard to rock the house.

I will not be showcasing my talents (stop begging) and thankfully, neither will Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins. Big thanks to Brook Schaaf who ponied up more than $200 to stop Shawn from assaulting our ears.

And don’t forget to check out the Affiliate Thing podcast this week, host by Shawn and me. This week we’ll give you all the latest updates about Affiliate Summit; hot news happenings from the affiliate space as well as an in-depth interview with Gene Kavner, a former affiliate manager for Amazon.com.

Let me know if you’ll be at either of the Summits. lisap@revenuetoday.com

Last night I was dining at my favorite local restaurant and two separate conversations got me thinking about how and why a small, close-knit group of workers or residents of the same area can eventually separate and a large percentage of the group’s individuals will go on to do amazing and notable things.

While waiting for my dining companions, I ran into a former boss of mine. We hadn’t seen each other in more than a decade – at least. I worked for him while I was a young reporter covering technology at PC Week in Boston, long before we both moved to the Bay Area.

Our catching up was brief, but he mentioned how coincidentally he had run into two of our former co-workers earlier this week. It got me thinking about just how many of our co-workers went on to very interesting and high-profile things in their journalism careers; one was ABC’s technology reporter and just co-authored a best-selling book on Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; another started the online arm of Forbes magazine; another is a very high-profile writer at Forbes; yet another ran a critically lauded (but now defunct) marketing magazine; another helms the must-attend Demo product technology conference; many others went on to start well-known dot-coms (some of which did not crash and burn); and a handful of others became noted authors.

Those working on at PC Week were a small but close group who worked and often played together. There was a unique camaraderie among colleagues, and perhaps, that coupled with youthful ambition had something to do with future successes.

Anyway, during my dinner, my boss’s husband – a highly regarded doctor who’s also authored several books related to his field of study that turned into international best sellers – touched on a similar theme. As I asked the standard get-to-know-you questions, he mentioned he was from Russell, Kansas. That small community (about 4,500 people) also happens to be the hometown of a long list of nationally known figures – senator Bob Dole, senator Arlen Specter (both ran for president in the same year), as well as many, many others who went on to be world-renown doctors, captains of industry, exceedingly wealthy businessmen, and movers and shakers within national political circles.

The doctor explained to me that some years ago there was a story in The New York Times trying to explain this Russell, Kansas, phenomena. He said the article traced back and attributed much of the success of Russell residents to one schoolteacher (Alice Mills), whom he also had the privilege of being taught by.

So, is it teaching or mentoring that helps produce a greater number of people that will eventually succeed and influence their respective professions? Or maybe it’s just the planets and the stars being aligned – right time, right place kind of thing. Or maybe there’s something in the water. Who knows?

But it got me wondering if there was anything like either of those communities in the online marketing space. Is there a region (Florida?) or a company (CJ?) or person (James Martell’s disciples?) that cultivates, educates and nurtures folks who will go on to lead the online marketing industry?

We are going to touch on this topic a bit in the March/April issue of Revenue. Senior Writer Alex Wharton is working on two companion stories – one about the lack of qualified personnel to fill the many jobs in the online marketing space; the other regarding where the next generation of online marketers is likely to come from and how they will be educated to understand the issues so they continue to move the space forward.

This is an important issue that we should all be concerned about if we want the affiliate marketing and performance marketing segments to grow and mature. Let me know your thoughts. lisap@revenuetoday.com

Welcome to 2007 and let me be the zillionth person to wish you a happy new year.

I don’t have any specific personal resolutions for 2007 other than the obvious ones – try to work less, spend more time with family and friends, exercise more often, eat healthier and do more to make environmentally good choices.

On the work front I have some goals that I’m working toward in 2007. I’m looking to expand the Revenue brand in a variety of ways. I also plan to use our website as a way to involve our audience more – create a more community feel. I’ll be revealing much of this very soon.

We also want to really start making much better use of Web 2.0 technologies. I’m already doing a podcast with Shawn Collins (called Affiliate Thing). Look for more audio and video from Revenue in the future. Overall, I guess you might say, a little less preaching and little more practicing for 2007.

Meanwhile, Revenue will continue to bring you the highest-quality content and evolve based on your needs. That is one resolution I know I can stick to.

By the way, here’s what I resolved to do in 2006. I’m delighted to say that I managed to make good on nearly all aspects of each of these promises. Fingers crossed for 2007.

Let me know your business resolutions for 2007. lisap@revenuetoday.com