The Power of Blogging for Online Marketers

Zac Johnson was upset over a sudden change to Azoogle’s referral terms and blogged about it yesterday. Azoogle didn’t take long to respond. There’s a great deal for both publishers and networks to learn from all of this…

AzoogleAds Makes Good on New Referral Terms | Super Affiliate Secrets from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson: “Once again, this fiasco has shown the power of blogging and communication. While some readers were angry that I removed AzoogleAds from the blog, simply because you thought it would be a loss of revenue for me, you are wrong. My referrals and revenue sources from AzoogleAds are minimal and I made the decision to remove their links because at the time, new terms were put in place with no explanations or reasoning. With so many networks and revenue sources available, I will not tolerate drastic changes without reasoning, and neither should you.”

(Via Zac Johnson .)

Google PageRank Condoms

Techmeme‘s Gave Rivera chimes in on Andy Beard’s post about Google’s apparent -3 PageRank penalty applied to Techmeme.

Great stuff… go read Andy’s post and Gabe’s full response:

Techmeme PageRank Penalty? | Andy Beard – Niche Marketing: “Hey Tim Berners-Lee, you once said ‘hyperlink by enclosing anchor text in an A HREF tag’. Hope you don’t mind, but Google’s amending that with ‘oh, and make sure to use a nofollow condom on links to entities with which you have commercial relationships, and if your links are redirects, robots.txt disallow the redirect urls…wait, better yet, nofollow those too’. Thanks for the simplicity Tim, but this is what progress looks like.”

(Via Andy Beard Niche Marketing .)

Affiliate Blogging: Getting Started | ContentRobot

ContentRobot is a great company that is helping us move ReveNews from MovableType4 to WordPress. If you need help with WordPress installs or service, I highly recommend them.

Karen, Dana and the team recently asked Stephanie Agresta, Carsten Cumbrowski and myself how to get started in affiliate marketing.

Here’s our short responses:

Affiliate Blogging: Getting Started | ContentRobot

First Political Attack Tweet?

I’m an avid Twitter user and fan (you can follow me here). I love when politicians use the service for updates and quick thoughts such as what Democrats John Edwards and Barak Obama have been doing in the presidential campaign as well as what Republican Rep John Boehner has been doing with Congressional business.

My favorite person to argue with, Shawn Collins, let me know that Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain has brought the straight talk express to Twitter with his own account. I noticed what I think might be the first political attack tweet from a candidate:

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Other candidates that have been using Twitter have been posting info about events for local followers or either links to YouTube video of rally’s, etc. It would be a shame if the candidates follow McCain lead and bring the negativity so associated with TV political messages into the Twitter medium.

I Spammed My MySpace Friends

Evidently, I’m a spammer…

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This was sent to me by my pal and super uber affiliate marketer Scott Jangro today. Clearly, that’s my name, my MySpace profile pic and my “identity.”

Seriously, WTF? Clearly this did not come from “me” yet it did come from “me” according to MySpace. If you thought Facebook’s Beacon was bad, then this is terrible.

I’ve logged into my MySpace account (which I rarely do) and everything seems in order. Just to be on the safe side I changed my password.

How in the hell did this happen? Did all of my MySpace “friends” get this? Worse yet, it’s for a ringtone offer. Shoemoney would be proud. I digress.

Ah, the joys of social networks.

[Update] Evidently, I’m not alone. Although the “change your password and everything will be cool” advice really doesn’t make me feel better.

Want More RSS Subscribers? Use Link Splicer

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For the past three years, I’ve bookmarked a great deal of things using del.icio.us. Last Spring, I decided to start using Ma.gnolia.com to bookmark marketing and tech related items that might be interesting for readers here and using Feedburner’s “Link Splicer” option to import those bookmarks into the RSS feed and daily email subscription newsletters.

I wasn’t sure if people would enjoy the bookmarks or find benefit but soon realized they did. With the craziness of having a newborn, I feel behind on linking through Ma.gnolia and decided to start again recently. After turning on the Link Splicer again this week, I’ve notice RSS numbers and actives jump up 12% and the most popular feed items are consistently the bookmarks.

I’m not sure if that’s saying more about people’s opinion of my blogging or the benefit that they are finding in the things I bookmark, but I’ll take the increase either way 🙂

So, if you are using del.icio.us or Ma.gnolia (or Furl or Digg) for bookmarks and Feedburner for feed management, make sure to turn on Link Splicer. People do want to see what you think is interesting from your daily web browsing.

GeekCast Episde 2: Auto Approval

Lisa Picarille, Shawn Collins, Jim Kukral and Sam Harrelson discuss the week's news in affiliate marketing and online tech news.

http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pa1fdef232c02f041ef8ffbaa9d13d84aYl9wRVREYmdw&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap28

MP3 File

Show Notes
– Affiliate Summit Tips
Scoble Sells Out
– Ethical Standards and Blogging
45n5 and Affiliate Spam
WickedFire N00bery
John Chow
Izea, PayPerPost and Ethics
5 Seconds of Suck
– Shawn is Yoko Ono
– Why is Jason Calacanis Affiliate Summit Keynote?!?
– Auto Approval Sucks… or Does It?
– Affiliate Certification?

Visit GeekCast.fm for More Great Geek Marketing Podcasts!

Gospel Brunch at the Affiliate Summit

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One of my favorite events (or at least the one with the best food) at the Affiliate Summit is the Christian Affiliate Marketing Assoc’s Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues.

This is the second year the CAMA is putting on the event, and it should be even better this year since transportation is being provided from the Rio (where the Affiliate Summit is being held) down to the House of Blues. Last year, I walked from where Wayne Porter and I were camping all the way to the H.O.B. and I have to say that I got my exercise on that chilly morning. Good times.

The 2nd Annual Gospel Brunch, presented by the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association, is taking place at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on Sunday, February 24, 2008 from 8:45 AM to 11:30 AM. Yes, it’s early and most of you will have been partying late into the night on Saturday night, but you could probably use some good food and fellowship to cure that hangover and wash away some of the Sin City taint. In all seriousness, it’s a great event and I highly recommend. As the CAMA points out, you don’t have to be a Christian or from any denomination to attend (and no one is going to beat you over the head with the book of Deuteronomy to make you change your sinnin’ ways…).

So, if you need a moment of respite, rest and fellowship during a hectic Affiliate Summit week, make sure to attend the Gospel Brunch.