My First Ironman Part 2

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in The Fit Life

I truly don’t remember how we decided on Ironman California, although it was closer to me (since I’d moved to Arizona), than it was to Paul in Illinois. I believe the race was the first week of May, 2001 – which is crazy because I was getting married in Omaha 4 weeks later.

I will say that training without a partner is not easy. Long bike rides by yourself, and laps in the pool by yourself are no joy. While you can’t really chat in the pool anyway, it’s nice to have someone motivating you to go each day. Running, on the other hand, I can do alone each and every time. I think that’s because I can never find someone to run with who’s as fast as I am. (I mean that both ways. Some guys aren’t as fast as I am – they’re faster).

I would say the training consisted mainly of weekend bike rides, running, and using the stairmaster at the gym. While I did swim, I didn’t get tons of swimming in – but I remember swimming for an hour without issue thinking I would certainly be able to finish that leg of it.

To some degree Phoenix is a good place to train. In Phoenix proper there are big hills, greenways and long, empty roads. But in another context – the long empty roads were likely very, very flat. And to get to the trailhead anywhere you wanted to go – you had to ride Phoenix’s mean streets.

By the time we got to race day, I felt pretty well prepared. I’d gotten shin splints and had hurt me knee in the two months prior, so my running was down to 3 and 5 miles – but I really wasn’t worried about the marathon. That, I thought, would be the easy part.

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The Susan Boyle Phenomenon Is Kinda Sad

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Growing up Military

She walked out on stage to jeers and hisses and went on to wow the world. I suppose she should have known that this riled up crowd loved to throw sticks and stones – and maybe she did. Despite the jeers Susan Boyle sang like Whitney Houston wishes she still could. Someone mentioned a ’shaky’ mic, but that nervousness did not translate to her voice.

In a world of American Idol, America’s Got Talent and Dancing with the Stars – talent is nothing new. In fact there are so many talented people, sometimes the most talented often don’t take home the prize. So how could someone hoping to win millions on a TV Talent show possibly Wow! us? I think the answer is sad.

Susan Boyle is not a super model. Her lack of ‘commercial appeal’ presents to us a stereotype that she can’t be very good. The jeers before she sang are evident of that. There is a serious cultural deficit between what we see and what we value.

Even after her performance, the judges continued to berate her all while singing her praise. Sadly, they were surprised, too.

This reaction, this kind of surprise is what keeps many talented people from even applying. “Even though I’m good, why subject myself to that?” In this story, the judges were remiss. They engraved what everyone was thinking. They validated the misconception everyone had. And even though they loved her voice, they poked fun at her for not being “typical”.

The Susan Boyle Phenomenon is Kinda Sad. While a woman with such a tremendous voice should receive our praise – perhaps she should receive it as a validation of her talent, not because her talent out-shined her look.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged . . .” Apparently, we are still working on that Dream.

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My First Ironman Experience – Part 1

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in The Fit Life

I’ve got the entire race in my head ready to be ‘downloaded’ to paper, but I’m thinking Part 1 of this story should probably be the run-up to the race, not the race itself.
I guess it was 1999 when doing an Ironman became a goal.  My training buddy, Paul,  and I had already completed several sprint triathlons, and were about to do our third International Distance tri.

On the way up to the race in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Paul was mentioning that a buddy of his might be at the race.  His buddy, or rather a freind of a friend, had done an Ironman the year before.  I intended to ask the guy some questions – though I don’t remember which questions.

We arrived at the race, got our acts together, racked the bikes and were just hanging out when we came upon his, now nameless, buddy. The first thing I noticed was that he didn’t look like an uber-athlete, and he had the mdot tattoo on his ankle.

I don’t remember what else we talked about, but after he left we knew we were doing an Ironman. I’m not even sure we spoke about it much – but the fact that he didn’t look in much better shape than me sealed the deal.  I also wanted the reward of that tattoo, and the allure of the Ironman T-shirt was crazily electric.

The racing season was about over so the plan became train for Internationals next year, and conclude the year with a half-ironman and then in 2001 – the real deal.

The desire and planning wouldn’t come till later though, it was time to an International Distance Tri. We’d prepared quite well for this and were pretty excited about it.  In every race prior I finished 3 minutes behind Paul, both sprints and  internationals. Today was the day.

That thought came to an end 50 yards into the water. I’m not sure if I started too fast, or was too nervous or what – but 50 yards in I was pretty read to quit. Exhausted wasn’t the word, I didn’t think I could even finish the water portion.  For some reason I was so tired after 50 yards I even grabbed a kayak for a quick breather.

And it reminded me of Paul’s first tri.  His first was the Tri-Shark in Bloomington, IL. I’d cheated a done a race by myself just to see what is what like. I already knew what the bike to run transition was like. Paul hadn’t experienced this yet.  He later recalled to me, “Getting off the bike and starting to run was so painful and awkward I could barely walk. I said to myself ‘I’m a grown adult. I don’t have to do this. I could just quit’”. But he didn’t.

That made me laugh so much sitting there hanging on to the kayak -that I got back in the water and took off without any problems. But for 10 seconds, my Ironman goal was thwarted by a 50 yard swim – on a perfect day.

Who would know that between then and my first Ironman, I’d quit my job, move from Illinois to Arizona, get a new job, get engaged, and plan the wedding and the arrival of our first child just a month after the 2001 California Ironman?

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Benefits of Resveratrol – One Month

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Internet Marketing: My Newest Ph.D.

We made it to the One Month point and are now moving quite quickly.

I’ll start with the good stuff this time, since some of you thought I got too deeply into the article before presenting it last time.  We haven’t moved on Google yet – we still sit comfortably on page 2 for our main keyword Benefits of Resveratrol. But I’m OK with that.

We are on Page 1 for two other keywords, which I wasn’t anticipating right away. “Alcohol Early Pregnancy” and “Antioxidant Facts” both present listings in the top 5 on page 1. But where we’re at is only half the story.

Our traffic has increased from 35 / day in week one to 135/day today and it has grown every day. In the beginning I was driving most of the traffic with Twitter and Facebook, but now I’ve cut that to 10%.

The tail end of keywords is what is bringing in the traffic now. We were found in April by over 50 keywords on Google alone. I’m not sure where we came up in the listing, but 50+ keywords brought traffic in. Also we’ve loaded up 27 articles to ezinearticles.com and have seen around 1,600 views of those articles so far. Finally, we’ve added 12 – 15 pages of content to the site and today introduced the e-zine subscription form with free e-book giveaway.

In addition, we’ve got forum, blog and directory posts as well. Month one is in the can – month two should bring monetization of the site, collection of e-mail addresses and start of the e-zine, more articles – more traffic and the elusive #1 position.

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The Primacy of a Web Product

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in The Buying Process

The SAMBA Blog’s April 8th post was on the importance of a quality product in terms of the product/marketing mix. I think that analogy can be used to describe the importance of a website’s content and function in terms of the marketing that went into planning it.

One of the points the post made was that good product developers aren’t often good marketers – but when the two get together you have something special. I totally agree with that and have written about it many times. Developing your website with marketing ideas in mind while you develop it is crucial.

But as the article says, if you have great marketing and your website is trash – no one will ever go back and your bounce rate will break your marketing budget. But the opposite is true as well, if your marketing isn’t good then your great website will be un-founded and your profits will be nill.

The foresight of marketing and quality content is what not only gets you in front of people, but attracts links, comments, subscribers, followers, bookmarks and potentially profit. Plan your website with both marketing and developers in the room. Don’t let the marketing guys go – until you’ve explored every way people will find your product.

Then release the developers to create outstanding content and find yourself basking in the glory of good planning, not out standing in the rain.

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What Web Marketers Can Learn From Radio

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Niche Affiliate Marketing, the technical internet stuff

I’ve spent a lot of time learning about advertising on the radio. I understand ROI as well as MER (Media Efficiency Ratio). I understand the point of 30 minute long form ads verus :30 second spots and prime placement versus remnant space. These are all radio terms that help businesses get good at advertising on the radio.

But here’s something I don’t get. When I was a kid growing up in Anchorage, Alaska I first heard “That Song” by Genesis on KGOT, in Omaha during college I listed to Rush Limbaugh on KKAR and here in Nashville I listen to Phil Valentine on WTN or I’ll listen to Top 10 on JackFM.

There doesn’t appear to be anything strange about that, does there?  EXCEPT while driving today I couldn’t remember where JackFM was on the dial.

That’s what’s strange. At least JackFM has branded itself, but what about KGOT and KKAR and WTN? Who cares what the call letters are? I certainly don’t and I’ve never had a radio that was organized by call letters, it’s only numbers.

Now I’ve certainly listened to my share of stations that use their numbers with their name every 2 minutes like 101.3KFAR. It gets ingrained in your head after a while – that part makes sense. But what marketing value do the call letters KFAR bring? Nothing. Absolutely Nothing.

But there’s always an exception, isn’t there? There’s a station in Omaha that goes by Lite96. That’s their moniker, that’s their name, that’s their brand. Genius!

They’re a light rock/pop station at position 96 on the dial – thus Lite96. That’s pure radio genius. They say their call letters every once in a while because some government body forces them to, but Lite96 is their name – no matter the call letters.

So if you’re in radio or on the web. Before you go out into the world and market yourself – determine how people are going to find you when they can’t remember all the details. And think about the name Lite96.

If you’re selling roofing supplies and you call yourself TedsTopGuys.com – could you be missing something?

When your customers just can’t remember your name, are they going to go to Google and type in Nashville Roofers  hoping to find you? If you’re nodding yes - then maybe for your long term growth, you should stop thinking about naming the business after yourself.

Besides when everyone who looks up Nashville Roofers finds you because Nashville Roofers is your name -  you’ll get to hear “thanks, Ted” a whole lot more.

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Adventures of Mark and Dan Part 9

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Adventures of Dan & Mark

by Dan

It was just after college, maybe February 1997 when I moved out for good. I got a job in Bloomington, Illinois working for a truck stop company. It was a great gig and was hopefully the stepping stone I needed to get back to Romania (that’s  a different story). You see, since 1994 my goal has been to build, own and operate my own resort in Romania.

But I stop digressing and get back to the story. I’d lived there for some time living in a small apartment pretty near work. My life consisted of work during the day in the office learning the trade of an executive assistant and then after 5:00 I’d switch and work in one of the profit centers of the truck stop.

For a while I’d work in the restaurant and then behind the fuel desk and sometimes in the travel store. After a while I’d learned a lot about the operations of the truck stop – but to some degree – at the expense of my early 20’s.  Working at the truck stop was what I did.

And as in all stories of this nature, along comes Mark. He decided to come visit for a while and hang in Illinois. I didn’t work in the truckstop after 5 while he was, just went home eager to hang out and do something. Anything.

Shortly after arriving we went out and bought a new futon for the living room. This was a major purchase for me, at the time, and I actually bought a very nice oak framed futon. Sitting next to the couch I’d received as a gift from friends in high school, it looked stately.

It wasn’t two days later that we somehow broke it. We were playing some sort of tackling game in the living room and instead of using the old beat up couch – we used the new expensive one. Crack! The wood split. I ended up mending it with lots of “L” brackets and screws. It never looked quite ’stately’ again.

Then one day while we were out and about I got misty-eyed. I turned toward my driverside window to avoid Mark’s seeing my glassy eyes, but it was no use. He said, “Dude, what’s wrong man?”. And then I couldn’t help it. The tears and blubbery started. For a few minutes in the car in a parking lot, I couldn’t stop.

I think I was so happy to have someone around, a friend. I was so happy to be doing something with Mark – not sitting alone at the apartment. I’m not sure I was afraid of life after Mark went home; I think I had been lonely so long that it all came out.

After that point, I was fine. I ended up with great friends there. And met my wife there. But I remember that day quite vividly. I remember knowing how important it is to have friends around. I remember learning how important it was to have friends.

Thanks, Mark.

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Socialism Isn’t Our Future, It’s Been Here For A While

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Growing up Military, I Should Keep My Opinions to Myself

I’ve been trying to figure out why it bothers me so much that our President has Marxist/Socialist ideas.  I mean he’s had these ideas since at least his days at Harvard when he wrote his thesis on the redistribution of wealth. It didn’t bother me then, so why should it bother me now?

Well the answer is it doesn’t bother me. What makes me crazy is 53% of the country wants the same things he wants. That’s what drives me crazy. Somewhere there’s a guy in America that thinks we should throw the Constitution out and go with a Dictatorship. But I don’t care what he thinks. Like Obama, he’s entitled to his opinion. But if 53% of the nation believed that too . . . well that’d be a different story.

Unfortunately, it didn’t begin last November. A few years ago the City of Chicago banned the sale of foie gras in restaurants. The City of New York banned trans fats in restaurant food. The State of Tennesse is currently voting on a bill to outlaw the practice of wearing low slung jeans.  Most states have laws banning people from riding their motorcycles without helmets.

To me the crazy thing is at least 53% of us are OK with this. These are all small things, I realize. But they all have one thing in common. All the laws are telling us that we’re not allowed to decide for ourselves, we’re not allowed to take responsibility, we’re not allowed to make decisions – that’s what the government is for.

I thought the government’s job was to protect your right to own property by creating a courts and justice system. I thought the role of government was to regulate commerce and enact laws. I thought the government’s role was to protect our nation from the threat of other nations. I thought the role of government was to collect taxes from which to do the above.  I also thought the government was supposed to stay out of the way so that YOU could pursue happiness.

I choose not to order foie gros, I choose not to wear my pants low, but I choose to eat trans fats. All because I have the right to choose, still. Someday – those options and many more will be gone.

Now, 53% of the people have decided that government should decide happiness, health, fashion, and food for us. When will 53% of us be for personal responsibility again? Until then, I sit and wait in the loyal minority.

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Benefits of Resveratrol – the SEO update

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in the technical internet stuff

Well it’s been 3 weeks since launching the new site (http://www.benefits-of-resveratrol.com). I’m proud to say that we’re on Page 2 of the most powerful search engine for 3 different keywords. Now we haven’t made a showing on Yahoo! yet, but I’ll get to that, and we’re not on Page 1, and I’ll get to that.

I think I forgot about Yahoo! to be honest. Specifically I forgot to load my site map up to SiteExplorer and get it verified – thus I haven’t made headway there yet. Well, I am on Page 5 but I might as well be invisible. So I don’t have much to report there – other than give me another week.

To keep the momentum going, I’m still using Google Alerts and am commenting on every new blog post that gets reported to me. I haven’t ventured into forums yet, but they loom on the horizon. I’ve also started a link exchange with a couple other similar sites. We’re going to do a triangle, I link to one, two to three and three back to me. Not only will the search engines like it, but our customers will appreciate it.

I found animoto.com and uploaded a quick video but learned right away my mistakes. I’ll be re-loading a new one soon. I also got a hold of a cool magic trick video which I’m going to tag with our site name and send it via e-mail to as many folks as I can. I’ve not tried viral stuff yet, so we’ll see.

Other than that, I’ve got a wikipedia article in the works, blog talk radio in the works, about 15 articles loaded up at Ezine and a book review in the works.

We’ll see what next week brings. Stay tuned!

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