IT Milk

I can’t believe someone on the PSU domain is spamming me with an affiliate offer. I received this email from the President of “PSU Free Student Offers.” This character named Samantha Volley is obviously fake, and I confirmed it because the name is not in the Penn State Directory or even Facebook.

Dear Penn State Student:

You can get a FREE Xbox 360 Elite. This is the first semester we are
trying this and it will be well worth your time to give it a shot.
Just click the link below to begin!

http://www.360Elite4free.com/index.php?ref=4734351

All Xbox’s are shipped directly via Amazon, and remember the elite
system is a $450-$500 value so don’t miss out. If you are wondering
how this works, just click “How this works” at the top right of the
page above.

STEP 1: Click link above
STEP 2: Register valid email address and shipping information (where
you would like the Xbox to be sent)
STEP 3: Complete 1 free offer
STEP 4: Have 5 of your friends complete 1 free offer

Enjoy,

Samantha Volley
President
PSU Free Student Offers
http://www.360Elite4free.com/index.php?ref=4734351

Email campaigns like this might not be a bad route to take if you’re an affiliate marketer currently enrolled in college, as long as you can cover your tracks. I could potentially have a mailing list filled with tens of thousands of live email addresses on the PSU domain. Other marketers might pay big bucks for a mailing list like this too. I’m sure this has been done already…

Earlier this month, on February 6th, I posed a question about what’s happening with the Lion Launch Pad here at Penn State University. A couple of representatives quickly responded to my blog post saying that everything was still on track. Since then, there has been some drama on the blogosphere and a couple of major changes at Penn State’s business incubator.

To recap, on February 7th, Rob Shedd, the founder of the idea of Lion Launch Pad, responded to my blog post on the PSU Startups blog, mentioning that the Lion Launch Pad office has expanded with an additional entrepreneur cafe:

Daehee Park asked the question that needed to be asked. What’s happening around here?

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog - this is my fault. It’s incredible what an intense life consulting is, especially when you’re on a project with compressed timelines. That’s left me little time to blog, though it does not mean that there have not been changes.

Thanks to Dave Barton, the Lion Launch Pad Entrepreneur “Cafe” space is now open for business. We converted the back space into an area that’s perfect for drop-in student entrepreneurs working between classes. Outfitted with Wi-Fi, here’s what it looks like…

Shortly after Shedd’s courteous response, Dave Barton, the financial supporter of Lion Launch Pad, exploded in a comment to my post:

As the person who is paying for the LLP, I take exception to your blog entry. A quick trip across the street would show as many as a dozen entrepreneurs working on their companies in the LLP. You would see that while most students and faculty were off on their holiday break we ADDED and renovated space that increased the LLP’s capacity. I am not a sugar-coater, I don’t get paid by Penn State to do what I do, so I can say what I think. REAL entrepreneurs don’t wait for an engraved invitation or approval to get started. They kick the door down and get to work. Progress was not seen because you did not make an effort to look for it beyond looking at your browser. I make no apologies for the lack of blog entries, website updates our patting-ourselves-on-the-back announcements. We are all too busy WORKING on our companies.

Did you even try to get contact any of the people you presented to? Sometimes brain barfing on your blog is not such a good idea.

Barton’s harsh response surprised me because I did not intend for my blog post to be an accusing remark, and certainly not for any individual to “take exception to.” Rather, I had asked a simple question about what was going on because I could not find any updated information on the several public domains that Lion Launch Pad had set up for the purpose of communicating information about their incubator program.

While Barton was correct that I could have discovered the answer for myself if I had visited their office, I was also “too busy WORKING” on my company to go out of my way and take a trip down to College Ave. Weebly’s David Rusenko’s recent comment about Barton’s outburst says it better:

You may be the most stuckup sonofabitch I have run into in a long time. What Daehee did was nothing out of the ordinary, and your lack of understanding only goes to show how clearly you don’t get the Internet.

Let’s make one point clear: Updating a blog or keeping a home page with basic information IS NOT a hard thing to do, doesn’t take that much time, and is the only way the outside world knows that you are even alive. Failing to post updates is a sure path to being considered dead, or well on your way. This is how the Internet works, and it’s not out of laziness — I came to very similar conclusions, but I live in San Francisco, and you can’t foist the laziness attack on me.

Second, although I don’t know why, I personally take offense to you insinuating that Daehee is not a REAL entrepreneur. How childish, petty, and demotivating — the very last thing any entrepreneur needs.

While Daehee raised some very good points (What is going on with an organization that can’t maintain any form of external communications, including a basic website, and seems to have changed names without any kind of prior notification?), you have managed to singlehandedly destroy any respect I have for this incubator. A more appropriate response would have been to politely explain the situation — but coming on here, in full combat gear, is purely destructive.

Shortly after Barton’s response on February 7th, the Lion Launch Pad website went down and was redirecting to the Wild Apricot software website for a couple of weeks. Apparently they were switching web hosts.

However, from what I learned today from Rob Shedd and Liz Kisenweather of Lion Launch Pad, there seems to be more to the story:

As of February 8, 2008, Dave Barton requested that the offices at 234 E. College Ave., Suite 2342 no longer be affiliated with the Lion Launch Pad. Dave wanted to realign the focus of the space, which he was providing. It appears that this space will be renamed The Blue Line and Dave will continue his strong support of Penn State and Centre County entrepreneurs

At the same time, I discovered a local blog called “Left of Centre” that discusses the questionable efficacy of Lion Launch Pad/The Blue Line, Lion Launch Pad’s vanishing act, and Barton’s sudden breakaway from Lion Launch Pad. I don’t necessarily agree with all of Thor’s viewpoints but he does write very intriguing blog posts.

In a comment to Thorstein Veblen’s posts above, Barton stated that he separated from Lion Launch Pad to create The Blue Line because his goals for the incubator program were not aligned with Penn State’s which focuses on undergraduate entrepreneurship:

After 9 months, the entrepreneurs who took the initiative to use the LLP were largely recent graduates of Penn State. Only 3 of the first 12 companies were undergraduate run and this spring it will be down to one. This was is conflict with the LLP board’s intent for this to be an undergraduate experience, so the decision to separate was made.

Additionally, Rob Shedd said in his blog update today that the Lion Launch Pad will still continue to operate as a separate entity from The Blue Line on campus until new office space is scoped out:

The Lion Launch Pad has initiated a search for alternative space and we are currently exploring our options. Additionally, Liz Kisenwether and Robert Macy have begun open mentoring sessions on-campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are also in the process of launching a new web site.

If you are interested in the mentoring sessions, please contact Liz or Robert for an appointment during the following time blocks:
Liz - Kunkle Lounge Tuesdays 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Robert - 429 Business Building Thursdays 1:30-3:30

We certainly appreciate the strong interest in entrepreneurial programs related to Penn State and look forward to continuing to support aspiring entrepreneurs.

I am interested to see how Penn State’s Lion Launch Pad and Dave Barton’s The Blue Line will coexist as similar business incubators at State College. Or are these 2 programs unique enough in their respective goals to be able to operate in harmony? From what I’ve gathered from the above links, these are simply my assumptions: Undergraduate entrepreneurs will seek help from Lion Launch Pad, while recent graduates and outside businessmen trying to start a business in State College, PA will go to The Blue Line.

Check out the new Maiselog by Matt Maisel. This is the first blog that I’ve seen so far arise out of the Security & Risk Analysis program at Penn State. I hope that he continues to write posts like the recent one on the i2 Analyst Notebook software.

However, one horrible mistake on the Maiselog is, Matt, why the hell are you using frames? I can’t see the permalink url’s for posts unless I right-click copy a link for a post title.

Matt Maisel is a freshman double-majoring in Security & Risk Analysis and Information Sciences and Technology, and he is also one of my teammates for the Google Online Marketing Challenge.

Update: Lion Launch Pad has been rebranded as The Blue Line, and their website is located at http://www.bluelinenetworks.com. This new site could use some basic SEO because it’s practically invisible to the search engines.

What happened to the open and driven atmosphere that first attracted me to the Lion Launch Pad? The blog is dormant, the site hasn’t been updated, the Facebook group is dead, and I haven’t heard anything at all (rejection or acceptance) from the board.

I did notice that 3 new companies have been added to the LLP companies page: Go2Entrepreneur, MateoBlu, and 8trk. But it’s weird that no announcements have been made.

I recently teamed up with two programmers to leverage the current trend in social media. This means researching social networks like Facebook and Myspace and developing custom applications on those platforms. There is a tremendous amount of potential on social platforms because of the large, well-defined user bases and all the interesting sorts of personal data we can integrate into the applications. We want to dig our hands into this pile of so-called web 2.0 before the bubble bursts.

Today, we launched our first Facebook application called Crush Mail. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this app lets you send secret messages to your crush that include random clues from your Facebook profile. For instance, I would send a message to you and it would have a) my message, b) a picture of a jigsaw puzzle with more pieces being revealed with each reply, and c) a list of clues about my identity.

Although our team happened to launch Crush Mail together, all the props for the application go to our two developers. I stepped into my position just as they were putting the finishing touches to Crush Mail, so I didn’t get much of a chance to get involved at all with this one.

Crush Mail has a nice concept and its launch is perfect timing for the Valentine’s Day season. However, the profit model on this app is weak and the target market is limited. We are just testing the waters with our first Facebook application.

Our developers are talented and, more importantly, driven by commitment so I am confident that, for each subsequent application after this, we will be able to go from application concept to working beta within a very short amount of time.

I also write for our Facebook application blog at Meezik, so I’ll probably be writing future updates about our products over there. So keep the Meezik blog bookmarked because we’re going to be rolling out some serious apps in the near future.

A couple of months ago, I had a great business idea that would leverage the tens of thousands of students here at Penn State University. I was confident about its success so I took the idea to the Lion Launch Pad (Penn State’s student business incubator) to apply for funding and business assistance.

Along the way, I discovered another startup that was taking the same business model to a broader scope at the national level and doing it with the same goals that I had envisioned. I was impressed by what they had done so far and immediately took a liking to it.

Instead of pursuing my own business idea, I thought it would be better to use my potential energy to help out this new startup make their product more successful. Meanwhile, I figured that I could still pursue my goal of targeting Penn State University by offering a localized marketing campaign for this startup. This product is a nationwide movement of students. It would be extremely valuable for any student-focused product to gain even a fraction of Penn State’s 40,000+ students for its user base.

So I applied for a campus representative position for this company and, if everything proceeds smoothly, I will soon be responsible for pushing this product at Penn State.

Originally, I had a lot of hope for my own plans for developing this business idea. But, in this case, I immediately recognized that this other company had already developed a great product, and that they were doing it better than I would be able to. I will be able to accomplish more in the long run by swallowing my pride and offering my help.

I will be writing in more detail about this in the next couple of weeks. I am excited about launching this product at Penn State and I can definitely see it catching on quick with our students here.

Have you ever tried to search for bloggers from your own school? I’ve tried it using Google, Facebook profiles, Facebook groups and Technorati. But the results were limited in each case. Most bloggers don’t even mention what schools they go to, so search engines don’t pick up on keywords. Meanwhile, blogger groups on Facebook are pretty pointless. Joining these groups and having them show up on your profile is essentially the same thing as slapping on an egotistic bumper sticker.

Dan at Rochester Institute of Technology has come up with a solution to organize a network of college blogs. It’s called The College Blog Network. You register your blog under your school’s name, then you can browse and keep up with blogs in your own college network. My blog is the first entry at Penn State University.

Meanwhile, the TCBN BlogWire aggregates all the RSS feeds for the registered blogs on the network. This feature will be really useful once more blogs join and Dan implements filters and a Digg-style voting system.

If you are a college student and you keep a blog, I suggest that you join The College Blog Network now. This site will drive high quality traffic to your blog and you’ll be able to find other hidden gems at your own school.

Network with other Facebook developers at Penn State. Meet a programmer who can create your dream Facebook application. Pitch your product idea and get valuable feedback from people with the business or technical know-how.

The Facebook Developer Garage is coming to our campus in March at the Lion Launch Pad. The actual date will be announced in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for flyers around campus or keep checking the Garage Calendar.

The following is an email I received after writing the post about dropping out of college to pursue my business. I thought that I would share this with you because it helped put me back on track with academics.

Daehee,

I came across your website from a link to another link to finally, your site. Anyway, I was reading your post about the possibility of dropping out of school. Allow me to politely, put into prospective, the real-world consequences of dropping out of college, coming from a college graduate.

As someone who painstakingly gone through college, sweat and tears through all the hard work, I know where you are coming from wanting to leave for greater individual freedom and making money - sense you’re probable not making a whole lot now.

There is a business term called opportunity cost.

You probably have heard of this concept before so I’ll expand further on this and explain it even if you haven’t heard of it.

The opportunity cost you are forgoing by going to college and sacrificing your time and energy is making more money for example, at a private website company, and having more freedom and choices to do what you want to do if you dropped out of college.

However, the opportunity cost that you see from dropping out of college, will have greater consequences in not being able to maximize the monetary costs of your true skill sets.

I too had the opportunity while in college to drop out and join a company, to do what I thought I had the skills necessary, for a job I thought would provide satisfaction. Also, I was struggling with motivating myself with having to deal with all the stress of going to college: no money, no life, the pressure to get good grades, no individual freedom, etc.

Thankfully, I didn’t take the job because a few years later, that small company went bankrupt.

Moreover, after I got my degree, I changed companies three times before I finally found the job and company that I could be satisfied to stay with and grow within the company.

Flat out, I would have never been able to get any of those jobs that I switched had I not had a degree…PERIOD…THE END…NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.

Finally…life happens and I understand your personal anguish of seeing the potential of leaving early but, you will make ten times more money and have more opportunities having a college degree than not have one…100%. Graduating from college will probable be one of your personal highlights in life and it will be one of your finest moments when you walk during graduation ceremony getting that degree.

Don’t squander this rare opportunity.

Stay in school and get that degree, you’ll thank yourself in the future.

I KNOW I DID!

When I joined the Google Online Marketing Challenge, I immediately thought of college students/pay-per-click masters like Paul at UberAffiliate who have the potential to totally ream the competition. But Paul’s case is different and fortunately this guru is already disqualified from the Gomcha (Google Online Marketing CHAllenge). Paul is the same age as I am, 19, but he “retired” early from college to take on a full-time internet marketing career. It seems that he’s making more than enough to justify his decision.

Anyway, I sent an email to Paul asking him what his strategy would be to win the Gomcha. Considering that we only have 3 weeks and $200 to generate some traffic and conversions, this is definitely a challenge. Paul provides an answer to Gomcha on his UberAffiliate blog today.

Paul makes some great points in his post.

• Combining offers from two or more businesses to add extra value to the campaign
• Geo-targeting specifically to a local audience to get laser targeted traffic
• Split-testing different ads like crazy with custom landing pages based on the keywords

Since Paul can’t compete in the Gomcha because he is no longer is a college student, he offers his own Gomcha challenge to his readers.

How would you win? Tell me either in your own blog post, comments, or through email. I’ll pick my favorite entry and post about it.

If you are signed up for the Google Online Marketing Challenge, I would definitely check in on UberAffiliate to see a flood of insights from professional internet marketers on how to win the Google Online Marketing Challenge!