I can’t imagine we are only 2 days away from the Elite Retreat conference. I was packing over the weekend and was thinking back to our 2008 event in San Francisco. I was so sick. It really was a miserable time for me.

At the Elite Retreat I get the best leaders I know in the industry to help the attendees but its my show and I want to solve peoples goals. I size everyone up as fast as possible and the whole time I am focused on solving their problems and helping them get to where they want to.

Just a month back I was at the affiliate summit and was sick also. Being sick sucks in general but at a conference when you are “working” it really sucks.

Both of these times I got sick on the first day I arrived at the conference. I usually get there a day or two early so the cold/flu hits me hardest when I need my strength the most.

Here are my tips for not getting sick while traveling:

Pre-emptive measures

• Flu shot/mist – Every year you should get a flu shot. I used to not get these until I had kids. The flu shot helps you build an immunity to the flu. The flu mist is a new deal that gives you longer coverage and covers more types of flu. You can read more about them here.
• Vitamin C – I take 2000mg of Vitamin C a day. This super bumps up your immune system.
• Airborne Myth – There is a product called Airborne that used to make claims that it would help you to not contract illness while flying on planes. 30+ million dollars later in FTC fines and consumer settlements its now marketed as a simple dietary supplement. Don’t fall for this one! WASTE OF MONEY!

Things you should avoid but are kind of unavoidable

• Don’t shake hands Many people have written about hand shaking and what a barbaric method of greeting it is. There are tons of great alternatives I wish we would embrace. Shaking hands is one best way to pass germs person to person. I would rather shake hands then create the awkwardness of leaving someone hanging. But that is where the hand sanitizer comes in.
• Sit in a isle seat on the airplane – lots of times people will rest against the window area and breathe/sneeze all over it.
• Don’t use the bathroom in the airplane – This is by far the easiest place to contract a cold or flu. Most airplanes only have cold water that do not really kill bacteria and suck for hand washing. Badness all over in airplane bathrooms.
• Don’t Smoke – Smoking irritates your throat and weakens your immune system. I am a conference smoker and usually smoke 2 a day or so when I drink. IM WORKING ON IT!
• wash wash wash wash wash your hands.

Must have items to prevent getting sick

• Keep a mask in your carry on. I am not talking about one of those surgical masks. Surgical masks are made to keep the wearer from preventing spreading their germs if they cough. You need to get a Pandemic Mask like this. If you have to sit bitch on your plane or anywhere near a child bust that sucker out.
• Use Alcohol-based hand sanitizers or gels or antibacterial wipes – I always keep hand sanitizer gel in my carry on and use it frequently throughout my trip.

Hopefully these tips will help you not to get sick while traveling.

If you have any to contribute fire away!

Today I read on allfacebook that Facebook application advertising platform SocialHour was relaunching under the name Dizzynet.

For those who are not familiar with Social Hour, it was one of the biggest advertising platforms in all of Facebook and some would argue they were monetizing much better then Facebook themselves. After pushing the limits with privacy issues Facebook asked Social Hour to shut down or face legal consequences.

We have done business with the operators of Social Hour so hearing news that they were relaunching was pretty puzzling. I was able to contacted the Founder of Dizzynet, Jeremy Olsson, previously from Rock You, and he said they were licensing the ad serving technology.

So not sure where allfacebook got their information but Social Hour is not relaunching as Dizzy Networks.

I’ve been using the beta version Line2 app from Toktumi in conjunction with their phone system for a few months now and I have to say it rocks.

I was really excited about Google Voice, which is still a nice consumer app, but the Toktumi/Line2 combo is a real business solution. The base Toktumi virtual PBXgives me the power of a traditional PBX system (which we had an internal Asterisk system but Dillsmack threatened to quit if he had to keep maintaining it) with auto attendant, extensions, etc. plus new calling features like simulring, which rings any or all of my phones at once – office, cell, home, whatever – call handling – this person goes straight to voice mail, this person goes to office and cell, this person goes to straight to cell and home, etc. On top of that I get unlimited free calls throughout the US/Canada and some dirt cheap international rates, like $.02/min plus instant conference calls for up to 20 people all for only $14.95/month. Oh and did I mention they let me pick an 800 number, local number or transfer an existing number, pretty sweet.

If that was it I’d still love the service but what really rocks is the Line2 app and the desktop sharing. For a few extra bucks I added the unlimited desktop sharing, which means no more annoying conference calls where I’m trying to explain to my designers what I want changed on the web site design. I just share my desktop with them and use the annotation tools to show exactly what I want changed. The best part is it’s all online so no clients to download and setup, if there’s something I want to show I just point them to the Toktumi site and give them a login #, that simple. I can even record the whole thing on video. We were using another service for this, but Toktumi is better and more integrated.

The capper though is the Line2 app,which was just approved by Apple for the iPhone. There’s also a Blackberry version. Line2 adds my Toktumi number, voicemail, contact list, all onto my iPhone. So if I want to call from my “office phone” I just open up the Line2 app and dial. My Toktumi number is shown in the caller ID. Voicemails are separate from my AT&T personal voicemail but it has the same visual voicemail interface so I can listen to what I want and ignore the rest.

Probably my only complaint about the whole thing is that I really like Voxie voicemail transcription, and they don’t do that but I think they are adding it.

The whole app is really slick. In fact I liked it so much I contacted them to see if I could offer Shoemoney readers a deal on it to try it out. How’s three months free sound? Just be one of the first 50 to click here and enter this code 268057206 when you sign up. And no they won’t give you my phone number even if you say we’re friends

When I first started we used to have to build out our entire sites hand coded. Man was it a mess. Now things are much different.

From the ShoeMoneyX users one of the most common things I hear is:

Hi, I have zero technical ability but ready to work hard and learn. Where do I start?

Well I have a suggestion. About a month ago I signed up for DevHub and started playing around with it.

Its a great place to start for newbies cause they give you up to TEN (10) websites under your account for free.

I went with shoemoney.devhub.com and built out a site in literally under 1 hour. Check it out. I did not build it so much for looks but more to implement some of their features I thought were interesting.

The interface is super slick. Everything is drag and drop. Want a chatroom? Drop it in. Want to grab RSS feeds? Drop it in? There is tons of very slick options.

How about monetization? Devhub has deals in place with about every company that could pay out… Covering all CPM, CPA, and CPC monetization methods. Pretty slick for a newbie to learn how it all works.

They have neat reports that not only show you stats but specific earning stats and methods:

I thought this was pretty cool. Even though I had never showed anyone my page I had already made .10 off of only 4 unique visitors:

If you are just getting started and looking for a great place to make some websites and start implementing what you have learned all for free then sign up to devhub and start and get going!

I get a lot of legal questions from affiliates about a ton of different issues.

A lot of them are really good questions that should be addressed. – But not by me

So I talked to the legal council of the biggest affiliate companies in the world and asked if they would take your questions. They agreed.

So fire away!

At Techcrunch50 one of my favorite new startups demoing was Moonit. Moonit grabs your friends from twitter and Facebook information and lets you know your compatibility rating. It shows compatibility for friendship, business, and romantic compatibility.

Moonit calls itself “A Relationship resource for Gen Y users”. I guess you could say that.

I asked Moonit’s CEO, Dana Kanze at the TechCrunch50 show to give us a demo of the product. In the video she does a live demo and shows her and my compatibility in all areas. She also answers some of my jackass questions like “If an affiliate wanted to know if they could score with their affiliate manager would this tell them?”.

Check out the video here:

In the video Dana reveals some of the interesting ways that Moonit can be used-

I also talked to Dana about how they figure out the compatibility. She said they have a pretty complex algorithm but essentially it uses astrological data, twitter data, and TONS of Facebook profile data to come up with its scoring. She said they also very actively monitor the success rate and feedback of users to tweak the algorithm for maximum accuracy.

I was curious who out of all of my facebook friends I should start a new business with. Interestingly enough it said Andy (ACE) Liu:

From the site:

You can stop searching for the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or “ShamWow” guy to team up with because you’ve already found your ideal business partner! (you just don’t know it yet). Trust your gut on this one: he’s desperate for you to impart some of your infinite wisdom and experience and, at the same time, you’re ready to leverage his entrepreneurial spirit and ability to network up a storm. he’s known that you were a solid person from the start; not only do you have a great amount of respect for each other, but you even have some common values and philosophies (there’s also a good chance that you share a passion for a thought-provoking pastime. Super Yahtzee, anyone?). You’re particularly skilled at gathering and sharing information, so hopefully that’s something you two are tasked with doing. Since the two of you focus on problem-solving and work on serious issues when you’re together, you don’t waste too much time on pleasantries, so there’s no gratuitous “how about this weather we’re having?” type of nonsense to deal with. You’re both pretty shrewd and generally ease your way into a partnership, taking the time to get to know each other before signing on the dotted line. Once the formalities are over, remember us when you make your first billion.

Classic!!

And my most compatible friend turned out to be none other then Lazy Jay Yukes!

When you two first met, you gravitated to each other like a moth to a flame, a fish to bait, or Britney to a photo op. And while those pairings were nothing but bad news, great things happened when you two joined forces. You guys have an uncanny way of injecting some much-needed fun into an otherwise boring afternoon, and you have that special knack for bringing out the best in each other. Since you love hanging out together so much and you both approach the world in the same way, let’s just go ahead and call this friend your sibling from another mother. If you two share some mutual interests, it might be a good idea to spark up a short-term project or venture because all signs point towards success with this much simpatico kicking around. And don’t take a little competitive teasing too seriously—it’s just his way of giving you a friendly nudge and helping you work harder.

Funny stuff.

So is it accurate? Well honestly out of my 2000+ Facebook friends to have it pick Andy Liu as my most compatible business person and Jay Yukes as my most compatible friend is pretty damn accurate.

Check out Moonit and tell me what you think!