Hello from the Seminar Room of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business in the Singapore Management University (SMU) at the Real AdWords Training Program!

The Real AdWords Training Program is the first of many workshops that I will be partnering up with my good friend and native Singaporean, Ewen Chia.

About four years ago, I first interacted with Ewen Chia as a customer of his many affiliate marketing products, and he was one of the first Internet Marketers I came across while learning the ropes of Internet and affiliate marketing.

It wasn’t until December of 2006 when I visited Singapore for the first time did I finally meet Ewen Chia in person in the restroom of the Shangri-La Hotel (yes, this was another JV restroom encounter haha).

We had briefly discussed working together then, but things finally got rolling again last November when we shared the stage at Fabian Lim’s Asia Internet Congress in Singapore.

As we continued our discussions over email, the birth of the Real AdWords Training Program was born, which is why I have the pleasure of working with Ewen Chia this weekend and the primary reason for this Asia trip.

The Real AdWords Training Program was a lot of fun to do in a sold out classroom format at the Singapore Management University.

I very much felt like a University professor in front of the room, and it definitely had an impact in helping make the workshop more hands on and interactive.

Because most of the room at the Real AdWords Training Program comprised of newbie Internet Marketers, in addition to the content delivery, we were doing a lot of hand holding, live demonstrations and Q&As.

And as with all of my workshops, I always encourage people to work on their campaigns as they learn the information throughout the weekend, and those who did actually got some pretty cool results.

There were students who built their first websites, designed their first landing pages, drove traffic to a website for the first time, and even made their first sale before the weekend was over!

All in all, I would say that this was a very successful event, and all the attendees of the Real AdWords Training Program had nothing but good things to say about the workshop.

Even though the Real AdWords Training Program was my primary reason for going to Singapore, I do have several more highlights from my trip.

For example, Alex Mandossian gave me a shoutout on stage at T. Harv Eker’s Guerilla Business Intensive (Funny quote from Alex Mandossian on stage: "By the way, if you really want to learn how to use Google AdWords… That guy over there who looks like he doesn’t know anything - he’s the guy who created their optimization training…")

In addition, Ewen Chia and Stuart Tan both took turns taking me out for exquisite local cuisines, meeting and training Ewen Chia’s team and Stuart Tan’s students, and tons of fun times at hanging out, drinking and watching movies with my friends Cassey Lim, Yanli Zhang and Benjamin Gay.

Although we weren’t able to capture every moment on camera (cuz it broke!), these are some of the good times we actually did so I can share them with you here…

Sentosa Beach With Cassey Lim And Yanli Zhang

Cleo Bikini Contest With 420 Contestants

Google Singapore With Ewen Chia, Stuart Tan, Cassey Lim And Yanli Zhang

Karaoke With Alex Mandossian, Ewen Chia, Cassey Lim And Yanli Zhang

Karaoke Again With Stuart Tan, Donna Daritan, Cassey Lim And Yanli Zhang

Attica Nightclub At Clark Quay With Cassey Lim, Yanli Zhang And Benjamin Gay

CommunicAsia 2008 At The Singapore Expo With Jacyln Chan And The ProCurve Robot

Hello from the Moscone Center at the Ad Tech Digital Marketing Event in downtown San Francisco!

Today was day one of Ad Tech’s three day event in San Francisco, where over 300 of the world’s most innovative technology, marketing and advertising companies made their products and services available to the public, many for the first time by promoting themselves in exhibits as well as scheduled presentations.

I attended Ad Tech San Francisco not only because I wanted to check out the latest technology on the market, but it was also close to my home in Santa Clara, so this was a convenient trip for me compared to events I’m used to.

And of course, I couldn’t attend an Ad Tech without stopping byt he Google booth

It was a lot of fun visiting the Google booth, especially because I used to be one of the staff members representing the Google booths at Ad Techs, as well as other trade shows, across the United States and Canada.

I actually had a good time seeing some of my old co-workers, as well as meeting and talking with several Googlers who started after I had left the company and never had the pleasure of meeting until today.

It’s pretty exciting to know how far the Optimization Team and Agency Team (both of which I helped build from the ground up a few years ago) have come in the past 20 months or so since I left Google.

And as always, the Google booth has some of the best free giveaways you will find around, so if you haven’t had the chance to stop by the Google booth yet, be sure to do so at Ad Tech or any other tradeshow you might be attending next…

… And be sure to tell the Googler you talk to that “Simon Says Hi!”

Hello and Happy New Year from Hunter’s Lakefront, a cabin rental from Tahoe Luxury Properties in North Lake Tahoe!

For the past few days, I have been spending the last remaining days of 2007 here in Tahoe with a couple of my best Google buddies and our friends, hanging out at the cabin, doing some snowboarding, playing in the snow, driving around town and dining at some of the finest restuarants in the area.

And tonight (in just a few hours, in fact), we will be ringing in the New Year 2008 together at the Hard Rock Cafe in South Lake Tahoe.

Here’s a snapshot of my buddy, David DiNucci, and I on New Year’s Eve:

Here’s another one of us during one of our group dinners:

Here’s yet another one of us in front of our cabin right before heading out to the slopes.

Here is one more of us on New Year’s night:

As we say goodbye to 2007, I’ve had some time to reflect on some of my goals that I had set for my first full year in business (see my 2007 resolutions here), as well as what I have achieved over the past 12 months.

My actual accomplishments of 2007 includes launching my premier successful home study course, holding teleseminars and webinars with other marketing experts, speaking engagements across the country and across the world, building a team of over a dozen high performing superstars, organizing my own workshops, and completing my book manuscript and getting it accepted for publication by a New York Publishing Company.

Yes, 2007 has definitely exceeded my expectations on so many different levels - Never had I imagined an opportunity where I can work at home if I wanted to, or travel to places I have never been before as part of my business.

So it is a little bitter sweet as I make my final blog post of the year, but it only means that I have many more exciting new posts to look forward to in the year to come.

And my resolution for 2008?

Well, I plan to make this year my best year yet (I know, not much to compare it to… I’ve only been in business for one year haha)!

But to make 2008 even better, I plan to start up a couple new businesses in China and Singapore, become a best selling author, build an even bigger team, create more information products, get involved more in Web 2.0 technology, focus more on niche marketing, organize more workshops, create more joint ventures, expand my branding Internationally and partner up with the right people to do new things that I never dreamed of doing before.

Exciting indeed, and if you want to embark on this venture with me, and perhaps set out to accomplish some of your own business goals, I welcome you to join me by commenting on this post or contacting me privately here.

And of course, I am always looking for more sharp and like-minded individuals to join my team and get involved in real Internet Marketing projects with me.

In the meantime, I’ve put together a quick video from the slopes of Squaw Valley here in Tahoe that you can view below.

Enjoy the video, and I wish you a successful, joyous and prosperous 2008 … HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello from Room 308 at the Holiday Inn Peachtree Corners in Norcross, Georgia!

I’m blogging right now because well, frankly, I’m bored…

Still trying to recover from an intense weekend of networking at Big Seminar, I am taking a short break from working in my hotel room to blog for a few minutes.

I am actually spending the week in this area because I will be speaking at Ken McArthur’s “Get Your Product Done” workshop this coming weekend in Atlanta, and it didn’t make sense for me to fly out twice from California within a matter of days.

Hence, I will be here all week to hopefully get some work done.

Today in particular is also a pretty special day because 5 years ago today, I stepped foot into the GooglePlex for the first time for my first day on the job.

Little did I know, it would take me down a wonderful journey of culture, knowledge and experience that I won’t soon forget.

More importantly, it has led me to where I am now … and will no doubt continue to be instrumental to where I am heading towards.

I’ll let you know how things go…