Robert Soloway, a 1997 graduate of Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, was sentended in a Seattle federal courtroom this afternoon for charges related to his business of spamming e-mail inboxes with unsolicited messages - including those advertising his own business.

I’ll have a full report on the case and sentencing in tomorrow’s Daily Breeze. However, I’d like to note that, in the hour or so that I’ve been writing this story, I’ve received messages with these subject lines in my e-mail inbox:

• Stop Collection Calls
• PayPal Security Department
• Summer discount on w4tches delivery
• Angelina Jolie nude movie
• Do you want to enlarge your penis?
• Winning notification

Not that I’m against these cases or think that spammers shouldn’t be targeted, but I can’t help but think that prosecuting spammers is like filling a swimming pool with water - with an eye dropper.

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I’ve yet to come across any of these guys/girls, or at least any that are willing to reveal their “black hat” methods.

Does anyone out there know any of these “Super Affiliates”?

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• Google Adwords - Working with a small budget of $25 per day. The number one keyword for this group has been “coupon”
• Press Release - This is something that has been effective in the past. If you searched for acesdeals.com last week, you would have gotten about a page of results. We’re up to six pages now and growing.
• Social Networking - Some of the obvious things like sending an annoucement to friends, updated my LinkedIn Profile. I’ve also created pages on Facebook, Squidoo, and Blogger. I’m trying out Facebooks social actions marketing, which is kind of like Adwords, but it’s not driving much traffic right now.

I’ll be busy most of the weekend with my son’s seventh birthday party…

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Ace’s is my largest affiliate marketing project to date. Built on a Joomla 1.5 back end, it’s designed to be a one stop shop for higher end brand merchandise. I’ve added some great brands to my roster, including Dell, Baby Phat, and Oscar de la Renta.

Now that the site is built, the real work begins. Although I’ll be making minor tweaks to the site and then the process of driving traffic.

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I guess I was expecting something a little old fashioned based on the name-a throwback to The Andy Griffith Program and Mayberry, RFD.

I was completely wrong. Floyd’s is the Starbucks of barber shops. The walls are decorated with Rock and Roll posters and photos from Rolling Stone. The “barbers” are tattoo covered twenty somethings. And there are a few terminals lined up with Internet Access.

Whoever is running Floyd’s hit the nail on the head. With it’s rock and roll atmosphere and $20 cuts with a shoulder massage, they are catering to anyone under 60 who wants a good haircut at a fair price. They have taken the Mastercuts model and brought it into the 21st century.

It got me to thinking - Are they any other aging brands or business models that can be Floyd-ized?

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That’s a question that I ask more and more these days. As a professional photographer and marketer, it’s essential to get the attention of prospects and then sell them on the differences between yourself and the competition.

Sometimes the answer comes in the most unexpected of places.

Friday night after dinner, my wife, her friends and I headed to the Karaoke Lounge on our cruise ship to relax and be entertained. After a rousing rendition of “My Way” by an intoxcated wheelchair bound veteran, I noticed wash of color in my right eye.

I turned to find seven people headed toward me, all with bright yellow shirts that read “BUY TOM A SHOT!!!”, followed by an eighth person with a slightly different shirt reading, you guessed it, “I’M TOM!!!”

On the back of each shirt was a tequila graphic and another message, “TOM’S 30th Birthday Cruise”

Here are the three things I learned from this little group who made themselves known on a cruise ship filled with 2000 guests.

1. You don’t have to spend a fortune. The shirts probably cost less than $10 a pop, but definitely got attention.
2. You don’t have to be original. I’m sure this has been done before. I’ve probably even seen it, but in the small eco-system of a cruise ship, this group made themselves know.
3. You don’t have to be creative. There was no brand consultant, expensive logo, or focus group. Someone just thought of something and did it.

Tom - Thanks for the eye-opening moment. I hope you enjoyed the shot as much as I did.

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Everyone have a great weekend!

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I’m just a lil ole calf when compared the the big cow, but sure enough he must have liked what I had to say because my inbox had a slew of comments from the post.

But I did make a big rookie mistake and forgot to throw in a little blurb about myself and link over here. Oh well-There’s always next time.

Thanks, Mr. (or is it Mrs.) Cow for the opportunity.

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When I return, I’ll be logging about the new Tyler Perry Stage Musical, The Marriage Counselor.

We saw the performance last night at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and were blown away.

Go Becky!!!

More to follow.

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They are having a great sale to celebrate their anniversary. They are the most friendly host I have had so far, so if you need hosting, domain names, or other services to run your online business, be sure and check them out.

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