Yesterday I wrote about how anyone can start making money from the $50 billion pet industry. The post was inspired for two reasons… the first was that I just started a new pet site of my own a few months ago, and the second reason is because I love pets, especially the five dogs that I have had during the last 13 years of my life.

Unfortunately, yesterday we had to put down my first dog, Timber, who was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks ago. A younger picture of Timber and Wolf is to the right, Timber is the one on the bottom. For anyone who has a pet, or had to put down a pet of your own, you will truly understand the value of this post, while many of your without pets probably won’t understand.

For most people, having a pet (especially dogs) is just like having a child. They are there for you better or worse, and will always stand by your side. As a a pet owner, your pet is no longer a “pet”, but now a family member. As we continue to see the pet industry burst through the $50 billion annual spending, this really gives a great understanding of what pet owners are willing to do for their pets, whether that be pet food, toys or even the hefty medical bills that come along with many pets.

Wouldn’t you do anything to save your dog and keep them happy?

About My Dogs: Timber, Wolf, Sandy, Rocky & Foxy

Over the past 13 years I’ve had many dogs, Timber was my first. I still remember the day when I came home to see her running around in the front yard with my parents. She was an Alaskan Malamute, and while she was purchased at a local dog store, she originally came from a puppy mill, and being a larger dog, she suffered from hip displaysia most of her life, which made it hard for her to walk and run like most dogs, especially being a larger 100+ pound dog.

As mentioned, Timber was my first dog and we got her around the same time I started getting serious with making money online. She was always there for me during the “firsts” of my business… sitting under my desk during a lightning storm, laying by me during the late night hours while pumping out ad campaigns, or just there when I just needed someone by me. (Remember the feeling of getting your first C&Ds, and not knowing what to do? )

Soon after Timber, we got another Alaskan Malamute named Wolf, then several years later we brought in a foster dog named Sandy, who was extremely sweet and ended up joining our family. You can see a picture of Timber, Wolf and Sandy during their best years together below. Everyone would always stop by and be amazed by our dogs, as they looked like a pack of wolves.

Timber (on grass), Wolf (on concrete), Sandy (on steps)

Just like Timber suffered from hip displaysia, so did Wolf. All dogs combined, the cost of hospital bills easily passed $50k over the years, but it didn’t matter, as we would do anything for them to keep them healthy and with us. Wolf and Sandy ended up passing while in the hospital for immediate care they required, and Timber was the first of the three that we actually had to decide a day to put down, which was a horrible and grieving process at that. Yesterday was that day, and after weeks of family never leaving her side, it was best for Timber to leave us before she was in any immediate pain or danger something worse.

After moving out from my parents house years ago, we took in Reena’s dog, Rocky (pictured on right), who lived to be around 15 years old. After a year of taking in Rocky, he was also unfortunately diagnosed with cancer, but we made the most of the time we had with him, and eventually had to put him down. One of the massive benefits to being able to work for yourself and out of your own home, is the ability to take care of and spend time with your pets and family. After losing Rocky, the house was extremely lonely and sad, so we took a trip to California to get away for a bit. It just isn’t the same when you have a family dog around for years, then nothing.

Going from having a dog to not, nothing is the same. A couple months after losing Rocky, we ended up looking through PetFinder and came across a dog named Foxy. Foxy has turned out to be one of the most amazing dogs ever. We can’t imagine life without her, and for myself, running a business from the house and being alone for most of the day is quite a task in itself, so it’s great to have someone like Foxy around. Foxy will always come into the office and lay down on her bed next to my desk, or start hitting me with her paw to take her out on a walk. The picture to the right is of her sitting next to me, wondering why I am looking at this weird screen all day! She keeps me on my toes and busy during the day!

In the end, all of my dogs have been amazing and special, and each of them were unique in their own way. Timber was my first dog and I can relate a lot of my early internet days to her growing up and being around my old desk at my parents house. Timber will greatly be missed.

This Ones for the Dogs…

It’s always nice to bring some personal stories to a blog and share stories with your readers, especially when they can relate. There is almost nothing worse than losing a dog that’s been part of your family for so long, but also nothing as great as to have had them in the first place.

For anyone who has been looking for a new pet and adding a four legged friend to the family, be sure to make PetFinder.com or your local adoption drive your first choice. There are so many amazing dogs out there who are waiting for someone to adopt them. The animals in pet stores are often from puppy mills which breed unhealthy dogs and continues to process of breeding dogs in bad living situations.

I leave you with a great quote from Roger Caras… “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”

Care to share any stories about your beloved pets?…

What does St. Patrick’s Day mean to you? When I was younger it usually meant wearing some form of green clothing, and seeing leprechauns and four leaf clovers all over the place. Well that changed four years ago today, when I decided to launch ZacJohnson.com, a blog detailing my life and how I’ve made a living online since starting in highschool. The very first post that I wrote on the blog, was titled “Happy St. Patrick’s Day, We are Live!“. Four years later and there are now almost 800 published posts on the blog.

Looking back, at that time I had no idea what the next four years would bring. I could go on forever about the importance of blogging and how amazing it’s been for myself and business, but instead I selected a handful of memorable moments and take aways from the years past.

• Meeting Amazing People from Everywhere

Without a doubt, one of the most amazing aspects of having your own blog, is that it really helps you get your name out there and it conjures up so many new contacts and feedback it’s hard to imagine. Once you are at the level where you have thousands of people reading your blog on a daily basis, blogging becomes quite a responsibility. Every day I receive emails from people all over the world asking for advice, sharing their own online stories and many just to say that they enjoy reading the blog. No matter the email or comment left, it’s always great to hear from your readers.

• Getting on ABC News

In 2010 I was fortunate enough to be asked to appear on ABC News, which was an amazing opportunity. Once again, this was mainly due to the success of the blog. Sure, I’ve been very success with online marketing for 15 years, but I was asked to talk about “making money with blogging“, which is another topic I’m very passionate about. Getting exposure on one of the most well known brands in the world… that’s simply priceless.

• A New Business & Revenue Source

Sure, blogging has produced an amazing amount of new readers, contacts and friendships, but it’s also become a whole business of it’s own. Month after month the blog seems to have a never ending supply of advertisers that want to get their name and brand out their. This is great to see and very healthy for the affiliate marketing. Not only does it show there is plenty of money to go around in this industry, but it also proves you can build a quality and long standing business without having to sell product or sacrifice the value of your audience. The readers of this blog have also generated a ton of money for themselves and the advertisers they work with.

• Speaking Around the World

Once again, I’ve been making money online for over a decade now… but finally made the decision to go live with my own blog just four years ago. In that time a lot of people have visit the blog, but also have seen me speak at various conferences. Last year I made the trip to Sydney, Australia and was the keynote speaker at the Affil@ Syndey. I’ve also spoke at many other conferences such as Affiliate Summit, BlogWorld, SES NY and more. Many of these conferences and speaking opportunities were a result of someone reading the blog, recommending me to a conference, then reaching out to schedule my attendance.

With all of that said, a blog is nothing without it’s readers. I will tell you right now, consistently blogging is not an easy task. When I first started the blog it seemed like I could write forever. However continually coming up with great content, while also managing the other day to day operation is quite a job…. but I love it!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and I thank you once again for contributing to the success of ZacJohnson.com and looking forward to writing with you for many more years to come!

I just returned on Monday from the third annual ThinkTank event in Del Mar, California. It was my second time attending the event. I missed last years, but was there for the first event three years ago. In short, the event is for high end and very successful internet marketers to get together, have fun and just network. Everyone has to sign a non disclosure agreement, so you can feel free to talk about anything.

The attendance at the event was really great this year, a lot of close friends and even more people I haven’t met with before, which is totally awesome. It’s always great to meet up and network with people that are monetizing the internet and making money in a completely different direction than where you are focusing. It really opens up our minds on how others are marketing and what can actually be accomplished.

There were plenty of well known names at the event, along with massive mega millions you probably have never heard of . Successful affiliate bloggers like Jonathan Volk, Ian Fernando and John Chow were also at the event. Very fun and cool to hang out with these guys for a few days and just talk.

All three of these guys have already done ThinkTank reviews on their sites, so be sure to check them out as well.

- DK ThinkTank Secrets Exposed
- DK ThinkTank = Networking Fun in the Sun
- Dot Com Surfing At ThinkTank 2010
- Dot Com Pho – ThinkTank 2010 Edition
- ThinkTank 2010 – Day 1 Video

ThinkTank is a very exclusive event which costs $3,000 to attend and maxes out around 50-60 attendees. All I kept hearing from everyone there, was this is how a conference should be, and that they made more meaningful business and personal contact at ThinkTank than anywhere else… and I feel the same way. After all, what other event can you think of where you can network with people only in your league, learn to surf, have a BBQ every night, train with a six time jujitsu world champion and sit on the beach all day!

The last time you were at a conference, how much did you pay to attend and how many people did you end up “really” doing business with? When I say “really”, I don’t mean passing them in the hallway and saying hi or quickly grabbing a business card off a booth. I’m talking about really getting to talk to someone and establish a meaningful conversion, then actually following up with them and doing business after the conference. In most cases, this doesn’t happen too often. Usually you will meet a lot of people, but most of those relationships won’t last longer than that individual conversation or even after the conference.

Not to put a value on different attendees at these events, but it’s true that it’s much harder to get time to speak with well respected keynote speakers and well known marketers. At the same time, these individuals come at a higher value (time or cost), simply because they can change your business with their promotion, or have the contacts to do so. With all of that said, it’s often the after parties at conferences where all of the networking happens. So and so will introduce you to whomever, and it goes from there.

So what’s the best solution? My good friend DK came up with the solution. Bring together some of the biggest names in the industry, while providing a fun and social experience. A very small conference event (only 50 attendees, a fraction the size of a conference!), where top names in the industry come together and simply network and have fun over the course of three days. I was at the first ThinkTank in Del Mar, California two years ago, and will be there in a few weeks for this year’s event. DK sets up these crazy surprises like MMA training, surfing, trips to Facebook, huge BBQs on the beach, and much more… you really never know what DK has in store until you get there.

Other names who will be attending ThinkTank this year include…

No lie… It’s a cool event and no where else will you truly be able to mingle and have a good time with some of the top names in the industry at the same time. It’s a laid back event, and everyone is there to make new friends, increase business and just have a good time.

* WARNING * – There are only a handful of seats available. It costs $3,000 to attend, and this is not just a price issue. You must also pre-qualify with DK before attending. Only quality and pre-screened attendees are allowed. (more info here)

DK talks about the importance of networking and why traditional conferences are a bad investment in his new video series. Check them out and hopefully I’ll see you at ThinkTank later in the month.

- ThinkTank in Del Mar, California

Earlier this month I traveled across the world to Sydney, Australia to keynote at Affili@Syd then  stopped by Christchurch, New Zealand before heading back home. It was my first time visiting these two countries, so I thought I’d let you know how it went.

Sydney, Australia

When you think about Australia, you will most likely think of the outback and kangaroos… so did I, but I was actually on the other side of the country and stayed in Sydney, which is a very large city and nothing like what might pop into your head when you think of Australia. Once arriving, I found out that the airlines left my luggage back in the USA and it would arrive the next day, so this gave me the opportunity to check around the city and pick up some necessities. Being from the US, I’m used to seeing well known department stores like Target, Walmart, fast food chains all over the place and just being familiar with my surroundings. However, you won’t find many (or any) of these in Sydney… and I actually only came across a few McDonald’s and one Starbucks when walking throughout most of the City.

Sydney is of course most well known for the Sydney Opera house. I was staying at the Westin hotel and it was a decent walk to the harbor where you could see the Opera House, visit the market place and other cool attractions in the area. This photo is an awesome view of Sydney from the harbor then into the city. (image source)

During my time in Sydney I realized the people that live within Sydney were extremely nice. After spending a few days in Sydney, Australia, it was time to head over to New Zealand for the first time.

Christchurch, New Zealand

I’ve always wanted to visit New Zealand, especially after the filming and documentaries on Lord of the Rings and all of their NZ filming locations. Flying into the country was simply gorgeous. You could see the mountains, valleys, endless fields of sheep and more. Arriving in Christchurch, it was a different story. I was staying at the Millennium Hotel which is right in the middle of Cathedral Square, which is one of the main focal points of the city. Once you walked a few blocks outside of the square, you were right in the city area with office buildings and stores everywhere… completely different from the atmosphere flying into the country.

As mentioned, Lord of the Rings was one of the best things to happen to New Zealand because of all the attention and new tourism. Since the movie was filmed throughout the whole country, it would be quite the task to visit all of the movie sites, but I did get a chance to visit Edoras where Rohan was filmed in the movie. It took a few hours to get out into the mountains, but it was great to actually get outside of the city.

I also made time to visit the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. It was only about 20 minutes from the hotel and $50 taxi fare each way to and from the zoo. The Willowbank animal reserve was only $25 per person, but well worth the taxi fare and one of my favorite zoos I’ve been to. I was actually one of the only people there and got to spend plenty of time there and all of the animals were running up to me as I walked around the park, hoping for some food. Right now it’s winter (temps around 50 degrees F) in Australia and New Zealand, so not many people visit the reserve, but it was nice weather for me (being from NJ / NY area). The wallabies (pic to right) were the best, as they were so friendly and would eat right from your hands and let you pet them.

With my remaining time in New Zealand, I visited several other destinations and tried to book a helicopter tour at Mt. Cook. It was a four hour ride to get there, then within a mile of the airport, there was a blizzard and it was canceled.

I only had a few days in each country, but there was so much to see and do, both Australia and New Zealand were amazing. On my next visit I’ll make sure to leave more time to visit outside of the main city areas.

I still can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but my best friend and the sweetest dog in the world, Wolf has just passed away. Seems like just yesterday she came slowly walking into my office room at my parents house after my dad bought her as a present for my mom. Now, the unthinkable has happened and what seems to be out of no where. It still doesn’t seem real.

What started out as an ordinary checkup, turned into a nightmare and miracle at the same time. A little over two weeks ago Wolf had a checkup, which included a blood test. The results came back and said she needed immediate attention to check her blood levels. Wolf was rushed to the emergency hospital and ended up staying a few days. Her blood levels were of great concern. Levels that should have been above 150,000, were below 20,000. The hardest part through all of this, was that on the outside Wolf was perfect as ever and seemed like nothing was wrong. Wolf would stay in the hospital for a few days, where we would visit her every night, and even brought up Timber (her best friend and sister) to see her one time. All of Wolf’s levels finally came back (above 50,000) and it was like a christmas miracle, Wolf was coming home! We never would have known about Wolf’s troubles inside her body if we didn’t happen to have that recent checkup and blood test.

The whole time she was at the hospital, she was always top priority and on our minds. It was great to have Wolf back home again, especially in time for the holidays. Yesterday my parents noticed Wolf just wasn’t acting right and brought her back up to the emergency animal hospital. All of the best doctors were in and Wolf got the care she needed. The latest report this morning was that her bone marrow test went well, she was eating and actually howling a bit.

It wasn’t til around noon when my parents called to give me the news that Wolf had passed. Completely unexpected, but always a horrible possibility in my mind. The doctors called my parents and said she was having trouble breathing, not acting normal at all and just wanted to confirm any “non resuscitate”  terms we had. A few minutes later and the doctor called again, this time with the sad news that Wolf had passed. It may have been cancer, the blood levels, all of the medicine, but we did everything would could to give Wolf the best care and treatment possible. In the end, it was all just too much on Wolf, and now she is in peace.

Wolf, you will be missed by everyone!
July 24, 1999 – December 24, 2009

Appreciate EVERYTHING this holiday.

I will leave you with a few pictures of Wolf.

I’m sure you noticed there hasn’t been a new post on the blog in over a week. That’s because Reena and I just got back from a 5 day vacation to the Punta Cana Excellence Resort in the Dominican Republic. The whole vacation was fully paid for by Sponsored Tweets and the resort was all inclusive. I won the vacation as first prize in the Sponsored Tweets Referral contest a few months ago. To say the least… the trip was awesome and a million thanks to Sponsored Tweets!

So what else has happened over the past week.

Oh yea… I’m Engaged!
Yes, our trip to Dominican Republic was a special one and will always be remembered. Reena and I first met in high school and have been together ever since. After a nice romantic private dinner on the beach, I finally popped the question and we are now engaged! I finally made the best girl in the world an honest woman and I’ve never been happier!

I Purchased a New Site, Should You?
In my last article on the blog, I wrote an article asking users “Should You Buy an Established Web Site?“. The comments section has a ton of input and opinions on the topic, ranging from how much to pay for a web site and where to find the best sites for sale. Before leaving for my trip, I actually just completed a big site purchase. The site was established and has been online for over 9 years. I paid roughly 23 times monthly earnings. This may seem like a lot, but I feel I can greatly grow the site and it’s a great investment to add to my portfolio of sites. I’ll do another write up in a few weeks on the web site and how it’s performing.

From my previous NBA Finals post, you already know that I love basketball and the Orlando Magic. What you didn’t know, was that at the beginning of the season, I told Reena that we would head down to Florida for a game if the Orlando Magic made it to the finals. I quickly threw plans together and we headed down for Game 5 and also meet up with MarketLeverage and Clickbooth while we were in Florida. Even though the Magic lost the series, and the Lakers trophy ceremony was at the game we attended, it was still an amazing trip and event to attend!

The first night we arrived in Orlando, we met up with Dina Riccobono, Erick Bright and his wife for dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy restruant. This place was amazing and had excellent food. It was great to meet up with my friends from MarketLeverage again, and without the stress of a conference type of envoirnment, we were able to relax and talk about how all of us got started in the industry. Dina and the ML team were also awesome enough to grab me the two tickets for the Orlando Magic Finals game!

Sunday was the big game day. For any of you that were watching the game, the Orlando Magic showed some strength in the first quarter… then just slacked off and got beat up by the Lakers for the rest of the game. We’ll see what happens next year… Even without the Magic winning the game, the envoirment of the Finals and excitement of the game was amazing. The arena was packed with Lakers fans and throughout the whole game, the cheering and yelling was so loud, you couldn’t even hear the whistle!

After the game, Reena and I headed to downtown Orlando to meet up with Eric Schechter from ClickBooth. The next day Eric drove us both down to Sarasota to ClickBooth headquarters and meet the ClickBooth team. Everyone we met at ClickBooth was awesome. During the course of the day, we went to CB headquarters, had lunch at a nice marina restruant, dinner at an amazing steakhouse, played some basketball and even went over to John Lemp’s house to close out the trip.

Just like MarketLeverage, ClickBooth went out of their way, and covered our airline tickets and the hotel (Hotel Indigo, which is excellent!) we stayed at while in Sarasota. Both companies made us feel really welcomed the whole time, and that’s what really makes the difference in this industry. It’s always great to meet up with individuals and companies you are working with online. This industry is like no other, and is the best there. Not only do we have business parties, conferences and the ability to work from home… but we all love what we do so much!

Here’s to the continuing growth of affiliate marketing!

Normally I wouldn’t post about sports, but my favorite NBA team, the Orlando Magic, are in the playoffs once again! It’s only been 15 years since they last (and first time) made the finals, and that was when they had Shaq. Now they have Superman 2.0 in Dwight Howard vs. the Laker’s “Black Mamba”, Kobe Bryant. The Lakers are heavily favored to win, but the Cavs were also heavily favored to destroy the Magic… and guess what happened!

Though I’m from NJ, I’ve always loved the Magic since I started watching basketball in 92, and went to my first game in Orlando in 95, then met Shaq and the whole team at a pub afterwards. I already got a few tickets to see the Magic play the 76ers in the first round, and I’m looking to make it down to Orlando for at least one of their home games during the finals.

I decided to throw together a quick contest for all of you NBA and sports fans out there to participate in. Simply post in the comments section, who you think will win the NBA Finals, in how many games, and the final score of the deciding game.

Your comment entry should look something like the following: (which is my official entry!)
Magic in 6 Games (110-76)

The entry with the closest correct answer, will win an authentic NBA player jersey of their choice, or a custom NBA jersey with your own Name and Number (any team). These run for $199.99 a piece at NBA.com. You may only enter once and must live within US or CANADA.

The deadline for entries is GAME 2, which takes place on June 7th.

NBA Finals Schedule is Below:

- Game 1: Thursday, June 4 – Orlando at L.A. – 9PM ET on ABC
- Game 2: Sunday, June 7 – Orlando at L.A. – 8PM ET on ABC
- Game 3: Tuesday, June 9 – L.A. at Orlando – 9PM ET on ABC
- Game 4: Thursday, June 11 – L.A. at Orlando – 9PM ET on ABC
- Game 5*: Sunday, June 14 – L.A. at Orlando – 8PM ET on ABC
- Game 6*: Tuesday, June 16 – Orlando at L.A. – 9PM ET on ABC
- Game 7*: Thursday, June 18 – Orlando at L.A. – 9PM ET on ABC

Yes, I know… I’m late to the party, but it’s still better to be late than never, but I finally changed over to AT&T and got an iPhone. I gladly would have left Verizon a long time ago, but I had well nearly 2 years on my contract. If you don’t already have an iPhone… every time Apple has one of their commercials playing, it makes you want one event more. On top of that, I already have and love my 16GB iPod Touch, which is basically the same thing as an iPhone, but not a phone!

I was doing some research online to see if I could find anything on how to get out of my existing contract with Verizon, and if it’s even been seen that ATT&T would credit or pay off your existing contract. Looked all over, and never found any good success stories. So I decided to give it a shot and headed over to my local AT&T store and asked if they could do anything. Luckily, their head business accounts manager was in, and he was able to credit my account for all early termination fees I would then have to deal with from Verizon. I would still get hit with the termination fees from Verizon, but AT&T would credit my monthly plans til it made up the difference. He was only able to do this because I was an established business, and said it couldn’t have been done if it was a personal account.

On that note, the iPhone is just great and makes internet life a million times better than with the Voyager I was using over at Verizon. Earlier I was thinking over upgrading to the Blackberry Storm… but always wanted the iPhone and it worked out in the end.

Now that I have the iPhone and not just the iPod Touch, I can take advantage of all applications available through iTunes. I thought I would share a few of my favorite apps, and also get a few of yours as well.

Twitterrific
I was able to access Twitter on my Voyager, but it was slow as anything and a crappy text based version. Twitteriffic loads fast, shows full images, and it’s just like being on a Mac or PC. (I’m now using Tweetie instead of Twitterrific)

E*Trade Mobile Pro
I’ve been trading stocks for over a decade now and I’ve always been using E*Trade, among a few other sites. I know the iPhone is already loaded with a Stock app, but you can actually trade through this app and look over your real portfolio.

Fieldrunners
This is just an awesome game. When I used to play Warcraft 3, I would play the tower defense games through Battle.net. This game is made up of the same concept, but very addictive and fun.

NBA Game Time
I can’t get enough of the NBA, and now I’ll be getting even more with this new application I just picked up today. NBA GameTime has live streaming scores and playoff bracket updates.  With a few clicks, check scores, schedules and full standings.

AzoogleAds
I beleive AzoogleAds was the first network to come out with their own app for the iPhone. Not only is it great to be able to login to your stats and see how much you’ve made… but it should pave the way for more affiliate networks to do the same. Who’s next?

Those were just a few of the apps on my iPhone… what’s on yours?