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I am not going to make a bunch of ridiculous predictions about what’s going to happen in 2010. Really… why?

No, instead I’ll share a recap of what happened month by month from the lens of my camera.

The year started out with Affiliate Summit West 2009, and I stopped by CES the day I got to Las Vegas, and ran into Jackie the Jokeman.

Then it was on to three days of Affiliate Summit, and what was the biggest Affiliate Summit to date with over 3,200 attendees.

Apparently I wasn’t doing much in February, according to my camera, because I just have pictures of me in a Snuggie.

In March, I headed to Austin for SXSW, where I spent most of the time in the TechSet Blogger Lounge and checked out a live Diggnation.

Later in March, I went to SES in NYC, where I saw Guy Kawasaki give a keynote about how he games Twitter.

The opening of the new Yankee Stadium was a big day in April.

Then I went to San Francisco for ad:tech, where Affiliate Summit hosted a Beer Garden.

During ad:tech, I caught a Giants game against the Padres.

I finished up April with a business trip in Maine.

In May, I was off to Dallas for the Inbound Marketing Summit, and lucked into the Yankees being in town to play the Rangers.

And with June came the LinkShare Symposium in NYC. The hotel for the show was right at the start of the new High Line park.

I jumped on 95 South for a trip to Baltimore in July, where Affiliate Summit and buy.at held a meeting about the advertising tax, and then a crab feast.

I also took up running in the summer to try and get in shape, and I completed my first 5k in July.

August was all about Affiliate Summit East 2009 for me. Before the conference kicked off, it was time for another Yankees game.

Then in September, it was off to Santa Barbara for CJU.

Time for another 5k.

And then back to the west coast for the Google Affiliate Network Summit in Mountain View.

Early October meant another trip – this time down to Orlando for IZEAfest.

And then I turned around and went home to get to SMX East in NYC.

Then a third October trip out to California, where I caught game 5 of the ALCS before going to ShareASale ThinkTank (and watched the Yankees clinch on TV from the airport before my red eye home).

More sports started November with the Dolphins playing the Jets.

Game 6 of the World Series. Best game ever.

More conference action with the Affiliate Summit booth at ad:tech NYC.

ad:tech was followed by the Audience Conference.

Finally, my last conference travel of the year was Pubcon in Las Vegas.

Another 5k, this time at Yankee Stadium, to round out November.

I finished up the year with a December of no travel, and lots of prep for Affiliate Summit West 2010.

Finally, it was Christmas.

Good luck in 2010.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Read and comment on 2009 Recap in Pictures from Shawn Collins

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from Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

In Las Vegas next week, a twenty-five year journey could come to a successful conclusion, when a British company launches what it believes will be a triumphant combination of science and technology. Plastic Logic’s e-reader, the Que, will be unveiled on the opening morning of the Consumer Electronics Show. It could be one of the show’s stand-out products – or it could end up buried under an avalanche of hype about a forthcoming rival device from a better-known firm.

This journey began in the 1980s at Cambridge University’s world-renowned Cavendish laboratory, where the physicist Richard Friend was working on carbon-based materials for semi-conductors. He tried and failed to get electronics companies interested in the plastic light-emitting diodes which emerged from his research – but when he teamed up with another Cambridge lecturer Henning Sirringhaus, they ended up finding ways to print transistors onto plastic. It was this work which led to the development of the light, flexible displays which Plastic Logic believes will revolutionise the way we read.

On a snowy day just before Christmas, I went to meet the two men at Plastic Logic’s offices on the Cambridge Science Park. They are both still teaching at the university, while keeping an eye on the progress of the firm they founded in 2000. And while it has taken a decade for Plastic Logic to bring its first product to market, Sir Richard – he was knighted in 2003 – was confident that the long wait would be worthwhile:

“The most impressive thing is it’s an integration of fundamental science and world-leading engineering – it’s the thing that the British are not supposed to be able to do.”

At that stage, they were not able to show me the final product, but I was allowed to handle prototype displays developed in Cambridge and then manufactured at their plant in Dresden.

They are light and flexible, and Professor Sirringhaus told me the aim was to provide the same experience you get from paper, rather than the one you get from the glass which is needed for conventional screens:

“The whole reading experience is about holding something that is unbreakable.
“It’s light; you can treat it like paper; you can stuff it in your briefcase. If you want to read a business document or paper, then the weight of the glass used in conventional technology is quite significant.”

Plastic Logic has signed deals with a number of major newspaper groups, including the Financial Times and USA Today, to make their titles available each day on the Que e-reader. The product, which will enter a fast-growing market dominated by products like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, will be aimed principally at the business market. While the technology would permit a roll-up screen, it seems they’ve gone for something more conventional, so the Que may not look that different from e-readers with a glass screen.

The other crucial figure in the story of Plastic Logic is Herman Hauser, the scientist and venture capitalist who’s been involved in many of the ground-breaking businesses to emerge from Cambridge over the last two decades – you may have caught him in Micro Men, BBC4′s recent drama about the rivalry between Sinclair and Acorn Computers. He put up the money back in 2000 which allowed Friend and Sirringhaus to form Plastic Logic, and he’s been instrumental in raising more finance as the years have gone by.

What’s really amazing about this business is that that it has gone all the way from research in a laboratory, to manufacturing a product, to building a global sales and marketing team – much of that operation is now based in California – without sacrificing its independence. Which might just be a mistake. A less courageous option would have been to license its technology to Amazon or Sony – or maybe Apple – and let them use their undoubted marketing expertise to sell the idea of plastic displays to the world.

There are now convincing reports that Apple has an event scheduled for late January where it will unveil a mystery new product. The blogs and fan sites are alive with feverish speculation about the iSlate – supposedly the name of a tablet computer which will provide everything from books, TV programmes and music to the solution to global warming.

I’m as fascinated as anyone to see what Apple really has been hiding up Steve Jobs’ sleeve, but I hope that amid all the hullabaloo, the launch of Plastic Logic’s Que next Thursday will not be overlooked. I will be in the United States to cover this and a number of other technology stories next week, when this blog will have a new look and a new name. So thanks for listening in 2009 – and see you next year.

from BBC NEWS | dot.life blog

It’s the last day of 2009, which means tax season is just around the corner. That is a good thing for some and a bad thing for others. Whether it’s good or bad for you, one thing’s for sure, you NEED to be sure you claim all of your yearly business expenses!!

(NOTE: I am not a certified financial adviser of any kind! Always consult with a CPA or some sort of finance professional before putting any advice I provide into action.)

Hopefully you kept track of your incoming and outgoing for the entire year. I know I DIDN’T my first year online and because of that the following tax season was a total nightmare! I learned from that and recorded every single incoming and outgoing transaction from that year on and started paying taxes quarterly and now tax season is a breeze!

Here is a list of the tax deductions that I claim for my online business:

Computer – Duh If you bought a computer in 2009 you better claim it as a business expense! The same goes for extra monitors, computer desk(s,) chair(s,) printers etc.

Internet fees – I work at home, so the Internet usage is shared between business and home. I figure I use it 80% of the time for business, so I add up what I paid the entire year for Internet, take away 20% (personal use) and what’s left I claim as a business expense.

Ebooks, scripts, software – Yep, ebooks are education and scripts, software etc. are necessary and legitimate business expenses.

Hosting & Domain Registration – With most Internet Marketing business models, you can’t even run your business without a domain and hosting. Once again, very legitimate and you should definitely be claiming it as a business expense!

Seminars – I’m not much of a seminar goer, so this isn’t one I’ll be claiming, but if you went to any Internet Marketing seminars, they are absolutely tax deductible!

Video cameras and other devices – If you did any video in 2009 and needed a video camera, webcam, digital camera etc. that’s also a business expense that should be claimed.

Outsourcing – This SHOULD be one of your biggest expenses! Outsourcing is a powerful business accelerator, so you should be outsourcing. No matter what it is you’re outsourcing (writing, coding, general work) if it relates to your business it’s a tax deduction.

Business Use of Home – This is a BIG one and one that I missed initially (thanks Kris.) As Kris mentions below in the comment field, there’s a formula used and your tax professional should do it, as mine does for me, but it’s a big deduction!

Advertising – Another big one I forgot initially (thanks Brenda.) Any and all advertising that you paid for including PPC, 125’s purchased on blogs etc… it’s all deductible!

That’s all I can come up with off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more. Basically, anything that you spent money on, which was used in your business during the year should be deducted!

DON’T be afraid to claim something! If you don’t claim it, that’s money that you’re just throwing away… just giving to the government.

img credit: brianjmatis

from Internet Marketing with Josh Spaulding

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from Michael Gray – Graywolf SEO Blog

The SEO industry is almost certain to grow stronger in 2010. With the full launch of Bing rivalling Google for the users who browse the internet, there is bound to be a lot of focus on optimising for Bing in a similar way to how we treat Google now. One of the main factors towards Bing being successful is that all the new Windows 7-based computers have Bing set as the default search engine on the default browser, Internet Explorer 8. For those of us in the web development industry, this isn’t good news. Personally, I wish everyone would use Mozilla Firefox to browse the internet. For development purposes it has so many more features, is very customisable and doesn’t have as many bugs as IE.

Other than Bing competing strongly as a major search engine, another thing to look out for is the use and implementation of social media optimisation (SMO). Websites and platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Squidoo, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube can all be utilised to raise awareness of your brand, as well as for building good relationships for gaining links and traffic. Google’s new index has been applied to a few data centres so far and will continue to grow and we may see some fluctuations in rankings due to this. All in all, 2010 will be an interesting and challenging year for the SEO industry, but these are exciting prospects that we relish.

Rob Bromilow
Natural SEO Programmer

This SEO news has been brought to you by Just Search; Experts in internet marketing and PPC

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When starting a new business opportunity online you must establish a few things. To find out what you must do, and how to do them correctly, read on!
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