After last night's dinner at Olive's,  i've had a ton of thoughts about Affiliate Marketing,  the evolution of web economics,  and the future of web stars.  Thank you Internet Geek Girl for once again throwing a great bash! And of course,  thank you Shawn and Missy for being such amazing hosts.  So much data in just two days - yikes!

Let's start with the Stars.  Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV.com (http://tv.winelibrary.com) is the guy you want to check out if you want to see what the future of web talent looks like.  Gary is a hard core wine nut.  He lives, breaths, and loves wine.
But he loves wine not just because of how it tastes,  but because of how it has helped him bring together all his skills.  Here's the story -  Gary is a first generation immigrant.  He and his Russian family come to the US,  and he is a kid that collects baseball cards and works in his families liquor store.  Then,  since he hates working behind the counter - he figures out that wine is like baseball cards.  Collectable,  rare,  full of data,  and something that he can learn and trade on.  A few years later, his family's little liquor store is a 50 million dollar business.  Wow - neat trick.  But it gets better. Because Gary is a real guy - not a wine snob - so he takes his straight up NY attitude and brings it the world of wine.  And folks from all over that never had a guide into the world of wine are hooked.  Ta Da!  Gary sells more wine.  He creates a huge web following (80,000 video views a day) he's on 5 days a week.  He does the show off the cuff - no editing - and it rocks.  So, sitting at dinner with Gary ordering wine - well, it's like having a front row ticket to the Stones.  I'm hooked.  I'm a fan.  And as Gary say - how can it be there isn't a guy like him for cheese,  for cigars,  for movies??? Passionate presenters who get fired up - and turn their passion into profits.  Well of course,  he's right.  And there are some guys doing it in their niches.  Tim Carter is doing it at AskTheBuilder.com.  And there are more.

But the idea that Gary can turn his passion into profit,  and become both a performer and a marketer is super cool.  If you haven't checked out Gary's videoblog - nows the time to tune in.  I say - 'Cheers'  to Gary.  I'll raise a glass,  particularly if he helps me pick the bottle.

Speaking of rock stars, the namesake of the Wayne Porter Legend award was roaming the halls of Affiliate Summit,  putting together the pieces of the new digital world.  Wayne's new focus are virtual worlds,  and he's deep in - exploring, testing,  and learning about the behaviors and economic activities that are going to drive places like Second Life.  Wayne has built and is now the driver behind Second Life Videos on Magnify.net.

Wayne is convinced that community is the critical variable in making revenue work on the web.  And I'm more and more sure he's right.  Ever since Jason Calacanis' talk yesterday- i've been stewing a bit about why Mahalo seems like such a reasonable idea (Curation!) and yet I'm not convinced that it is going to be a hit.  Mahalo has no community - none at all.  I fact,  Jason hasn't been a fan of community curation (remember paid reviewers when he took on Digg at AOL?)  and the more I think about this may be a fatal blind-spot.  No doubt Jason is driven and smart.  But he isn't really able to get folk to play nice and roll there sleeves up and help him find, sort, and make content at Mahalo.  I'm sure he'll say that's not his business model.  But for a guy that prides himself in leading web 2.0,  it seems to me that ignoring community could be a fatal flaw.  Just my musings... but it's been in my head.






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