This week on the Affiliate Thing podcast my fabulous co-host Shawn Collins and I talked about the new MacBook Air at announced MacWorld, a hosted version of OpenAds, why relying solely on Google AdSense is not a good idea, Shawn’s continued fatblogging efforts, the Great Affiliate Road Rally charity event at Affiliate Summit West, and Pepperjam’s launch of new affiliate network. Listen to the show.

I recently received yet another hand-written letter from a grateful reader. This one was filled with praise for the magazine as well as a few too many details about the author’s personal life. I think outlining his string of tragedies was meant to provide me with some insight about how he is working very hard to make lemonade out of the lemons he was dealt.

The letter was touching because it was heartfelt and infused with the excitement of how online marketing might help provide a better life. My guess is that many people stumble into online marketing with the same unbridled hope. He specifically cited the Affiliate Advantage interview with Kim Rowley as an inspiring and uplifting article.

According to a new study by The Nielsen Company, tweens (kids ages 8 to 12) may be leading the U.S. mobile marketing revolution.

The findings state 5 percent of tweens access the Internet over their phone each month.
Forty-one percent of tween mobile Internet users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example), mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience. 26 percent of tween mobile Internet users say they access the web while at a friend’s house and 17 percent say they do so at social events, according to the research.

Revenue’s November/December cover story was about search alternatives. Senior Writer Alex Wharton opened the article with an anecdote about someone cruising around on Digg.com and stumbling upon popular story about “the Slanket” and then purchasing the item.

Alex did a great job of illustrating how people can serendipitously “find” things they want when they weren’t even looking for them. I highly recommend you read the story.

Early Thursday morning The Federal Trade Commission, by a 4-1 vote, said it will not seek to block DoubleClick’s 3.1 billion acquisition of search giant Google.

Several competitors including Microsoft have made claims that the deal raised too many concerns about privacy since the proposed deal was announced more than eight months ago.

We are sending the January/February issue of Revenue off to the printer in just days. But that doesn’t mean we’re on holiday - even though it is the holiday season. Here’s a list of the stories that we have already started working on for the March/April 2008 edition.

This is for all the people out there that provide me with endless hours of insight, status updates and humorous comments. You know who you are – Twitterers, bloggers, vloggers, and Facebook status updaters.

While I enjoy feeling a deeper connection to you and in some ways wish that I had the time and the fortitude to participate even more in sharing via all the emerging social media platforms, I definitely feel the need too hold back.

I’m very disappointed not to be attending PubCon in Las Vegas this week. Due to a family thing that came up at the last minute, I had to cancel the trip. This was going to be my first PubCon, which everyone had warned me is a blast as well as a great place to network and gather new information.

There’s no shortage of stories and stats on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. One researcher says that purchases online jumped 29 percent on Thanksgiving, and climbed 22 percent on Black Friday. Cyber Monday’s results were expected to surpass both days.

I’m trying to get into the holiday spirit. Here’s one little widget that made my day. Shawn Collins passed it on to me.

Meanwhile, I’m not alone in getting ready for Cyber Monday. Reports say that 30 percent of U.S. shoppers will do more of their holiday shopping online this year, as compared to the 2006 holiday season. According to the survey, conducted by Vizu, a market research company, and sponsored by buySAFE, 46 percent of respondents would rather shop online for the holiday season than face the hassle of malls or pay the high cost of gas.