“The future of the web lies in user-created and recommended content,” said Squidoo founder Seth Godin in a statement. He adds, “CaféPress has figured out this secret already. By creating an easy way for their users to build and sell their products based on their own designs, they’re bringing unique human content online. Squidoo is excited to introduce its community to CaféPress products and help take online recommendation to the next level.”

In addition to driving traffic to CaféPress, the partnership gives Squidoo members more opportunities to make money off the subjects they’re passionate about. CaféPress items will be searchable through Squidoo, and Squidoo “lensemasters” will be able to hook up their lense participants with relevant CaféPress gear.

That’s really the beauty and the beast of the Internet, and when it comes to connecting for business, it’s no different. In fact, many of you are probably already booked for any number of industry tradeshows, cutting barters for ads and sponsorships and setting up meetings with that company executive you’ve been trying to pitch for months. When you think about these tradeshows, which I consider a form of business speed-dating (15 minutes to chat, pass the digits and move on to the next one), you still more than likely maintain relationships with some of the contacts you’ve made while attending such events.

But with the increasing popularity of virtual tradeshows – which give you the incomparable incentive of conducting meetings in your pajamas — there is still a lingering debate: Do they really pull through with their intended purpose or do they just keep us further away from each other and human contact? Perhaps the real topic of discussion is what makes them so popular and what makes them work.

What makes them popular is the easier question to answer. Attendees can move through the exhibit halls and speeches while checking emails and making calls from the office or even lounging around at home. No money or time wasted on travel expenses either. And despite what criticisms these events incur from breaching that person-to-person contact, they actually do work.

One such virtual tradeshow, the eComXpo, which will be making its third run this coming April, must be doing something right. The tradeshow, a sister company of InXpo, the leader in the production and management of online events, already boasts more than 7,000 advertisers, publishers, search marketers, merchants, affiliates, networks, agencies and vendors on board, making this the world’s largest tradeshow for ecommerce marketers.

That attendance numbers, which are up from 92 exhibitors and 1612 attendees from its first run this past February, comes as no surprise to its event director John Grosshandler, who explains to ADOTAS why there’s an increasing popularity in these virtual tradeshows. “The interesting thing about virtual trade shows is they’ve actually been around for more than 5 years and if you were to do a Google search on virtual trade shows you’d get at least 10,000 results,” he says.

“So there were a lot of companies that came and went during the Internet bubble because of all the obvious perceived advantages of virtual events, given all the issues there are involved with personal events. Grosshandler adds, “And what these companies that came and went 5 years ago found is that for a variety of reasons, the timing wasn’t right. The technology, the platforms if you will, weren’t robust. The people weren’t used to IM, which is a critical component of making a tradeshow work…People didn’t live on the Net the way they do today.”

And like anything else in the ever-evolving Internet world, virtual tradeshows are a work in progress. They may be a bit rough around the edges for now, but if there’s anything our beloved industry has taught us, those issues will be smoothed out in due time. As Danny Schonfeld, Ad Network Manager of PrimeQ Interactive Advertising, Inc. tells it, one of the issues holding virtual tradeshows back is that lack of person-to-person contact that many criticize. “The ease of anyone to attend is a major aspect that allows for some of the larger companies to meet smaller companies and individuals whom normally are overwhelmed by big trade show presence,” he says, “…almost leveling the playing field in regards to fancy suits and silly toys that normally attract those walking the shows. The online community is all created equal and can be seen for what they can provide and does away with all the showmanship our industry has come to rely on.”

When he’s not busy building companies Godin spend his time changing the marketing game by way of the written word. He is the author of Permission Marketing (which sat atop Amazon.com’s Top 100 bestseller list for a year and was also named a Fortune Best Business Book), Unleashing the Ideavirus, The Big Red Fez, Survival is Not Enough, Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, and the recent All Marketers Are Liars. Each of these have been unqualified successes, gaining bestseller status from publications such as the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Godin also constantly updates his self titled blog, as well as a blog inspired by his newest book.

Recently chosen as one of “21 Speakers for the Next Century” by Successful Meetings and consistently ranked among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses, Godin will be gracing our convention stages once again next week during WOMMA’s “Word-of-Mouth vs. Advertising”. To give you the inside scoop on what to expect from his upcoming performance, we had a chat via phone with Godin during a visit to Cleveland, sandwiched, no doubt, between further plans to take over the world.

ADOTAS: Tell us a little bit about what you will be discussing in your speech.