Cree Lawson Steers the Travel Ad Network Ship

Got back home late last night, after a coffee-fueled drive up I-95, and am still giddy from the events in the city. Our annual visit to the VEMEX show brought us in touch with dozens of tourism boards and we got to say hello to those officials who sent us out on trips last year. It was especially heartening to hear from the French, Spanish and Cypriot people how much they liked the stories we published, and how happy their colleagues in those countries were to have hosted our writers. Picking the right people to send out makes all of the difference. We've stuck with high quality folks like Wendy Hammerle, Paul Shoul, Sony Stark, Kent St. John and that has brought us kudos.

Before the show, I met Cree Lawson under the clock at Grand Central and we discussed stategy for our site's display advertising. A low key guy with a bangs in his face and a soft southern accent, Cree really knows this business. He was just back from visiting a website owner in Rome who runs worldatlas.com, and is one of the stellar performers on the network. "It's all about pageviews," said Cree, "if you can get the pageviews, we'll find the great advertisers to fill your pages."

I love to see the new customers Cree brings in that end up on GoNOMAD, such as Homeland Security Dept, Normandy tourism, Utah Tourism, Alitalia and Australia Tourism. These ads are perfect on our site, and we have an important role--we're a site where travel planning and travel dreams are hatched.