September 2009 - Affiliate Marketing with Missy Ward, Affiliate Summit Co-Founder & Co-CEO

BigMouthStrikesAgain, Episode 8 – Jim Kukral: The Leonardo da…

by Missy Ward

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My guest today is Jim Kukral, or as I like to refer to him as, “the Leonardo da Vinci of Online Marketing. He is a true polymath in every sense of the word.

It is a combination of his of his intuitiveness, intellect, desire to take on interesting challenges, understanding of the information age and ability to view things from different perspectives that has enabled Jim to become a top entrepreneur in the internet marketing arena.

He’s been a blogger since 2001, has promoted of thousands of websites, is a sought-after speaker, consultant, author, Affiliate Summit Emcee, all around good guy and someone I’m proud to call my friend.

In this podcast, Jim talks about:

When he realized that online marketing was his calling and how he got started in the business.

Some of the ventures that he's been involved with over the last couple of years.

Some of his new projects on the horizon including Prfessor.com

The different marketing methods he's used when it comes to promoting his new ideas.

The hurdles he's had to overcome when he set forth in his entrepreneurial career; his biggest failure and what he learned from it.

How Tim Carter (AskTheBuilder.com) has impacted his career.

Tips for online entrepreneurs getting into the business today.

What he would be doing if he could no longer be involved in the internet in any capacity.

Where he sees himself in the next 5 years.

Chasing butterflies. (Together, Missy and Jim come up with the newest Lepidoptera to pursue which is a service that for a fee, the company will break up with a friend, partner or business associate for the customer… since breaking up is so hard to do.)

Juicy tidbits about him including his “go-to” tech device, first thing he'd buy if he hit the lottery, favorite website, last book he read, whether he returns food at a restaurant that he doesn't like and so much more…

Jim also broke the news about his awesome new book deal with Wiley and when we can expect to see it on the shelves of our favorite book stores!

Listen above, on GeekCast.fm or download to iTunes.

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Affiliate Marketing

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 8 is On Deck

by Missy Ward

The 8th issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, is at the printer and it will be dropping anchor in subscriber's mailboxes in early October 2009.

Issue eight of FeedFront will also be distributed at Blog World Expo, PubCon, ShareASale ThinkTank and Ad:tech New York.

This issue of FeedFront Magazine includes a recap of Affiliate Summit East 2009 and the Affiliate Marketers Give Back walk for breast cancer as well as articles on auditing affiliate programs, productivity, pro digital video camera formats, PPC, email, advertising tax, and the death of an affiliate network.

Plus, interviews with Loren Feldman of 1938 Media and Joel Bauer from the “Your Business Card is CRAP” video.

Issue 8 of FeedFront can now be viewed online, downloaded, and printed from Scribd.

Get the FeedFront RSS if you'd like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven't subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

Also, become a fan of FeedFront on Facebook to see past issues, covers, etc.

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 8

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For The Heck of It

While Pink Has Been My Color, Today I’m Wearing…

by Missy Ward

tealribbon Those that know me, know that I've been a long-time breast cancer awareness advocate and have worked very hard to raise money to help fight this serious disease.

October is right around the corner, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I will be supporting the efforts of individuals and companies that are helping to combat the ugly that is breast cancer.

But, I bet a good portion of you didn't know that September is the official Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. It's OK if you didn't know. I didn't know either. That is until Jean Roth clued me in about it via Twitter while I was headed out for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Los Angeles.

I read Jean's post “Feel the Teal: Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month”, and was particularly moved by the powerful story of Susan R. Frank that Jean included in the post.

Susan is a scientist and was diagnosed with Stage 3C metastatic ovarian cancer at the age of 46. She has been battling the disease for the last seven years. Her story is one of courage and strength and I applaud her for willingness to talk about what she's been through in order to heighten the familiarity of ovarian cancer.

After reading the article I started to research Ovarian Cancer and found out some alarming statistics:

Ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly of women's cancers.

Each year, approximately 21,500 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

In 2008, approximately 15,500 women will die in the United States from ovarian cancer.

Many women don't seek help until the disease has begun to spread, but if detected at its earliest stage, the five-year survival rate is more than 93%.

Recent research suggests that together the four symptoms of: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and urinary urgency or frequency may be associated with ovarian cancer.

– Information provided by OvarianCancerAwareness.org

I also found out that breast cancer and ovarian cancer are often linked, but unlike breast cancer, there is no routine screening process for ovarian cancer and as such, it is not typically caught in it's early stages.

The symptoms mentioned above are very subtle and can often be confused with those considered as part of the natural processes of being a woman.

This post is meant to remind women to be their own advocates when it comes to their bodies. If something doesn't feel right for longer than two weeks, it's worth talking to your doctor.

Stay healthy.

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Affiliate Marketing

5 Good Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing is a Lot…

by Missy Ward

Today is my son Alex's 9th birthday.

Many thoughts went through my mind this morning, including how awesome he's turned out, how much older we both are and how fortunate he is that I haven't accidentally lost him somewhere, mistakingly injured him (seriously) or inadvertently made him overweight by feeding him too much junk food.

It also brought up the memory of leaving the hospital with him after he was born. I remember the nurse handing him to me along with two sheets of paper on how to take care of him. I freaked out, as the first thing that popped into my mind was that the instruction booklet to my new cappuccino maker had over 50 pages. How on earth was I supposed to take care of a kid with only 2 pages of reference material?

So while I'm being all sappy, just go with me for a moment while I give you 5 good reasons why affiliate marketing is like raising a child.

1) In as much as you can't learn everything about raising a child from a book, there is no way you can learn affiliate marketing from any book. Yes, there are a number of guides to help you along the way, but mastering either requires common sense, hands-on experience, lots of testing and stick-to-itiveness.

2) Children and your affiliate marketing business are both tiny dictators. Both require a lot of attention all of the time, even when other important “life things” come up. Just as you wouldn't leave your baby with a stranger, you can't leave your business unguarded. They are both full-time commitments.

3) Both children and your affiliate marketing business will make you stop and examine life on a small and large scope. The smell of a child's freshly washed hair can make the grouchiest parent's heart melt, just as checking stats on on a new campaign that's kicking-butt can make a grouchy affiliate marketer begin to smile. Both kids and your affiliate marketing business can teach you so much; especially when to stop to smell the roses.

4) Just when you think you have affiliate marketing mastered, something new comes along that you have to learn in order stay on top of your game. Your kids will force you to stay on your game as well. Yesterday you helped them with their ABC's, today you have to pull “long division” from the ol' hard drive so that you can help them with their math homework. (Or worse, they'll wind up in a gifted class that is teaching them the stock market and now you have to learn about it so that you don't feel like an idiot when your 9-year old is talking options to you.)

5) Kids and affiliate marketing can both leave you frustrated, befuddled and panic-stricken. (I don't believe this point requires any further elaboration.).

Affiliate marketing and raising kids are some of the most mysterious, challenging and fulfilling experiences that a person can undertake on their own free will. I admire anyone who has done both.

Today however, I’d argue raising kids is more rewarding for the long-haul!

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Love,
Mom

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