I’m getting the new site desgin this week and I should start the video entries soon after that. For now, I just want to say what a great time we had with Gary Vaynerchuk last night at the Borders on Park Place for his book signing. He’s great in person and was nice enough to pose for a few shots. Thanks Gary!

This coming Tuesday, May 13th, I will be at the Borders on Park Ave to see Gary Vaynerchuk (http://tv.winelibrary.com/) sign his new book. Well and also to buy his new book and to get it signed. Preferably by him. Mayhap this is an opportunity to meet and get some coffee or other beverage? Pass it on.

http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=200

* 7:00 PM–Book Signing at Borders, 461 Park Ave.

There’s not going to be too many more updates here (you may have noticed that already) until the new site format is up. 1115 is becoming a magazine style website for online entrepreneurs focused on motivation, publishing, advertising, social media, strategy, and Tech.

The blog will still be here, but we are adding daily videos with interviews, tips and reviews. We want to build a community and inspire you to start your business, follow your heart, or just plan lose your guru and seek your own path.

We’re also launching other websites this year and we’ll tell you all about those as well.

I’m really excited about this. Let me know if you’d like to contribute.

And so I was right about all the heat Shawn and Sam were giving Twitterme This. The puppet shows and videos were just way over the top. It had to be a joke. What they wanted to do was parody the Loren Feldman puppet war with Shel Isreal, which is amazingly brilliant. The whole thing is a big game and that’s what marketing is about.

Go listen to Geekcast where they fess up. Always good stuff.

First Twitter is a great opt-in platform. If you want to receive information from someone you must choose to follow. If you no longer want to receive information, you must un-follow. Opt-in and opt-out made simple.

Twitter Me This is a trivia game created by Jim Kukral, which uses the Twitter platform to get the questions out. If you are the first person with the correct answer you win five bucks. I think it’s a great idea, but some think it’s horrible and is killing Twitter. Seriously, is Twitter that small? The main complaint is that Jim is paying 5 bucks for an email to build a list for unknown purposes and is offering no value. Let’s look at this.

Capturing emails for leads. Let’s break this down. So the winner gets 5 bucks sent via paypal, which means you must give Jim the email address you use for paypal. As of today, two questions are getting asked a day and I think the weekends don’t count. What’s the quality of a lead that answered a random question? It’s garbage. So Jim is paying 5 dollars per lead and collecting 2 unqualified leads per day. In a month he’ll have about 25 unqualified garbage leads that he spent $125 to get. If this is what he’s doing, he’s an idiot. It’s like ordering a Mickey Dees’ cheese burger from the dollar menu, paying 50 bucks for it and you’ll get the burger in a week after you order. Paying that kind of money and collecting emails at a snail’s pace are not the signs of an experienced marketer, which Jim is.

In comparison, let’s look at SantaGaryVee. Gary Vaynerchuk created the Santa Gary Twitter account to give away free merchandise. You don’t follow Santa Gary because you want to know what he’s doing. He uses his Gary Vee account for that. You follow Santa Gary because you want free stuff. So Santa Gary is only active when free stuff is coming. He sends a link to a page where you learn you can get wristbands (only offer as of now), by giving him your shipping address and email. He had 1000 wristbands. So this means he generated 1000 leads, emails AND addresses, immediately. And the quality? Leveraging his wine following fanatics (I’m one!) it’s a very safe bet to say that these are 1000 wine enthusiast leads. The cost to generate these leads? FREE.

Please understand I love Gary’s Thunder Show and he is a tremendous personality to have in the social media world. But you do see how he got you to opt-in to his list don’t you? I don’t have a problem with it, I think it’s a great lesson in marketing and I hope he keeps doing it. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

So why are people down on Twitter Me This? If Jim’s building a list, he’s over paying for junk leads. People playing to win have chosen to follow the profile so they opted-in. It’s a fun little game that pops up on your laptop (if you use something like Twirl), and you don’t have to play if you chose not to. I don’t. I just think it’s fun to have random trivia questions. Comparing this to Santa Gary, Gary looks like an evil genius.

That’s why I think Shawn Collins and Sam Harrelson are in cahoots with Jim to promote Twitter Me This. I have a lot of respect for both Shawn and Sam. I listen to both of their podcasts, Affiliate Thing and Affiliate Fortune Cookies, and these guys know their stuff. Shawn made a video on his Affiliate Tip blog where I commented and he pretty much did some side stepping, which started me thinking something fishy is going on. And Sam created a funny puppet show staring an egocentric, and unclothed, Jim Kukral puppet. It’s pretty funny and Jim linked it out via Twitter, so that got me thinking too. Sam also keeps mentioning Twitter Me This in his podcast, which just builds interest.

Twitter Me This is getting more followers every day. For those that think “well this is not what Twitter was made for,” I say that means Jim was innovative, saw an opportunity that no one else did and took action. Sounds a bit like an entrepreneur.

Ultimately, Twitter Me This is an experiment. Jim had an idea and wants to see what happens. I say if people, the Market, users, friends, followers, or whatever the term is now, do not want something like Twitter Me This, then let the Market decide. All you have to do is un-follow. Hard to get a question answered when no one is reading it.

I think I’ll just keep responding “The Answer is 42” until I get the right question.

Check these links out.
Twitter Me This http://www.twittermethis.com/
Twatter Me That http://twattermethat.com/
Trisha Lyn podcast http://www.trishalyn.com/2008/04/twittermethis-v-twattermethat/
Shawn Collins http://blog.affiliatetip.com/
Jim Kukral (Groove to that theme song) http://www.jimkukral.com/

I want to give a big shout out to Mark at Affiliate Radar, more specifically the now Free Offer Vault tool. Offer Vault is a searchable database of CPA offers across many networks like Clickbank, Rocketprofit, Hydra, and others.

I was having a lot of difficulties with something on the site, and Mark came through for me. Thanks for the great work. I’ll check out the offer products and services they offer.

Also, we’re looking for video bloggers that know about the online advertising and adserving industry. We have a lot of things going on right now and we’re expanding on this site and others. Ping me if you’re interested.