I’m beginning to use youtube much more recently for social media marketing, search marketing — and of course, to host videos.  My clients have found a lot of success with this, and my own company’s projects have, as well.

Before using YouTube as a strategic marketing tactic, I used it like most users do:  Watching videos, research, etc.

So, this morning, at 7 am, per usual, I get to my laptop to check statistics, email and the morning routine, which now includes checking in on my youtube videos.

How shocked I was to see that Youtube.com was down!

I had to check other websites to confirm that the problem wasn’t my internet connection, or my computer being banned or something crazy like that.  But, alas – everything checked out fine.  It was true:  YouTube.com was down.

That’s right – even huge companies like Google can have server issues.

The youtube.com outage was up and down for roughly an hour, and all seems well now.  But, it just goes to show you that downtime is sometimes unavoidable.

Error Message when trying to load youtube.com this morning.

My good friend and colleague, Jim Kukral just launched his well-earned new biz:  http://www.thebizwebcoach.com/

Jim Kukral has been building his brand for years in the internet marketing space.  He’s been a pioneer in Affiliate Marketing and Social Marketing and is an impressive speaker.

Jim is genuine and wants to help businesses — people.  He’s a great person, and I’m supporting him.  You should too.  (And, if you are a business that could use access to an impressive Business Web-Coach, then, Jim Kukral is your man.  For $47 / month, how can you go wrong?)

About the launch.

I am impressed with Jim’s launch strategy.  He used Social Media to PRE-ANNOUNCE his launch, and then on the very day of launch, he (and everyone who knew from the pre-launch) announced on Twitter (etc.) to watch Jim LIVE on his webcam and have a discussion.  Over 150 people (that I saw) were watching Jim Kukral live, and discussing his new biz.

This is a screen capture of Jim on a LIVE broadcast and live chatroom of his followers and friends where he’s announcing his new business of offering business web coaching, his new branding of Jim Kukral, new book that invites us all to participate — and everyone here was discussing it.

It was great — every person in the chat room who had a question or a comment, Jim acknowledged them LIVE and in public, on the air.  Very cool.

Congratulations Jim.

I will definately join.

Probably the most unusual — and creative — names for a business I’ve ever encountered is the brainchild of my good friend (and BEYOND extremely talented internet marketer), Angie Seaman.

The name: Duckies For Hire

I have worked with “everyone” in Affiliate Marketing. There are seriously talented professionals in this industry, and I’m happy to know them and consider them friends (well, some… hehe…)

When I say Angie Seaman, at http://duckiesforhire.com is an amazing Affiliate Manager, it is a significant understatement. Her creativity, work ethic and expertise make her the most impressive Affiliate Manager imaginable. Scoop her up before I do.

Oh yeah – she even has a media division: http://duckiesmedia.com

Here are a compilation of pictures that my friends have shared with me, or that I’ve taken.

These pics were taken by my new friend, Jen Goode
http://flickr.com/photos/jgoode/2763434505/in/set-72157606734453155/

Here are some that I took:
http://flickr.com/photos/toddfarmer123/sets/72157606670309339/

Just launched http://performstreet.com

It’s a media company (we develop properties) and a technology company (we develop and enhance open source technology).

Perform Street Media