The Making of a Sausage King with David Samuels of Esposito’s Finest Quality Sausage
In This Podcast Episode
We’ve added a new guest host to our lineup, 50 Interviews: Entrepreneurs
About David Samuels and Esposito’s
At age 34, in the aftermath of 9-11, David Samuels decided to leave his career of 13 years as a management consultant to run his own business. At the same time, Esposito’s Finest Quality Sausage was in transition due to the death of its founder a few years earlier. Originally operating under the name Giovanni Esposito and Sons, Al Esposito had opened a wholesale sausage division in the back of the store which became Esposito’s Finest Quality Sausage Products. When Al passed away, his only daughter took possession the business.
Al’s daughter and her husband knew that a family member, David Samuels, was looking for a company to own and run. With David’s history in management, he knew the company had a great potential for growth, but he also knew that the family-developed recipes and core processing practices made Esposito’s what it was, so it was his intention to remain intact and true to their origins.
As owner, David has expanded Esposito’s product lines, as well as greatly increasing their production capacity. Now you can even buy Esposito’s sausages
David Samuels and Brian Schwartz
About Brian Schwartz
Brian Schwartz is the award winning author of 50 Interviews: Entrepreneurs thriving in uncertain times. Beginning in early 2008, he set out to interview 50 successful entrepreneurs and in doing so discovered new truths as to why many are unable to make the leap from employee to employer, and why many who do lack success. His passion is rooted in the company he started to mentor others through the same framework he used and become authors themselves and adopt the vital mindset to succeed at their chosen endeavor. He has been featured on NBC, CBS, and the Denver Business Journal.
Shortened URLs and Twitter Ads with Joe Moreno of Adjix
In This Podcast Episode
Rob McNealy interviews Joe Moreno, President of Adjix, a unique URL shortening service which features click through stats and a unique Twitter advertising program.
Joe Moreno’s Bio
Joe Moreno worked for Apple Inc. from 1998 – 2007 in engineering and marketing.
Joe’s past ventures have included Acasero, Inc., designed to give offline consumers the ability to transfer funds via SMS, and IG Photos, where runners could purchase their photos after races such as 5Ks and marathons. IG Photos was unique in that it was the only service to synchronize each photo with the race clock allowing runners to find their photos before their bib numbers were linked to each photo.
Joe is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He served in the Marines, in both the enlisted and officer ranks, and he made three deployments to the Middle East and Africa in 1995, 1997, and 2005.
He currently sits on the board of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and he is Chairman of SMS Pal, Inc. – the parent company of Adjix.
Joe lives in Carlsbad, CA with his wife, Laura, and beagle, Cocoa while working full time for Adjix.
Affiliate Marketing Basics for Small Business
What is Affiliate Marketing?
If you are into social networking on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or MySpace, you probably have been inundated by low level affiliate marketers trying to hock ways to make a bazillion dollars or get a zillion Twitter followers. If so, you been exposed (albeit badly) to affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is simply a way to sell your products or services through intermediaries, or sell other people’s products through your website, blog or mailing list.
Start Networking with other Affiliate Marketers
When are you new to affiliate marketing, the landscape can be overwhelming to navigate. As with most endeavors, networking and finding good mentors is a great place to start. Affiliate marketing trades hows and conferences are great to learn and network. I try to go to at least 3-5 per year. In the affiliate marketing space, I would highly recommend that you attend the Affiliate Summit. There you can learn all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing from the pros and veterans in the business.
Seek Out Great Affiliate Marketing Mentors
Getting great mentors is also highly advised. Two of my good mentors have been Joel Comm, of InfosysMedia, and Marty Dickinson of Here Next Year.
Affiliate Networks and Independent Affiliate Merchants
Affiliate Networks are large companies that handle the complex data and commission tracking. These companies has sales reps that get you setup as either a merchant or as a publisher. There are currently over a 100 such Affiliate networks as Share A Sale, LinkShare, PepperjamNetwork, ClickBank, and Amazon. You can contact these networks through their websites or meetup these affiliate networks are trade shows like the Affiliate Summit.
If you are looking to make money from small or very niche sites, you can set up accounts directly with merchants themselves. Many companies are embracing affiliate marketing and setting up their own networks. Just look at the bottom of most websites you go to and look for a link that says something like “affiliates” or “affiliate program.” There, you can register and take part in their program.
For instance, there’s a great Twitter management service called Tweetlater.com. They have an affiliate progream where you can resell their services. Even our favorite website hosting company, Hostrail.com has an affiliate program that you can plug right into. My friend Rich Bryda has done very will with his BruteForceTwitter affiliate Program as well. The possibilities are pretty much endless!
