2012 - Page 15 of 20 - Affiliate Marketing with Missy Ward, Affiliate Summit Co-Founder & Co-CEO

3 Ways To Find Products to Promote Via Affiliate…

by Missy Ward

One of the most common questions that I receive from new affiliates pertains to their indecision over the products and services they plan on promoting using affiliate marketing.

While there are numerous methods of selecting affiliate offers to promote, I've stuck to a three-pronged approach, which has done me proud over the years.

Promote Products & Services That You Are Passionate About

Let's face it, affiliate marketing isn't easy. Promoting products and services that you already use and believe in will help you pump out great content on a consistent basis. If you're marketing a product that you don't care for, nor have an interest in, it can easily lead you down the path of affiliate site abandonment. {Raise your hand if you have one or more abandoned affiliate sites. I know I do!}

Don't Market What Everyone Else Is Marketing

If you plan relies on simply copying the products that other successful affiliate marketers are promoting, you should just give up now. These successful affiliate marketers got successful for a reason and they are light years ahead of you. You'd be hard-pressed to generate the same amount of traffic to your affiliate sites that they can for the same product. It's just not worth it.

Find the Next Big Thing in YOUR Niche

If you're a smart cookie in a particular niche, use that to your advantage and create content around it. Look to tools such as eBay Pulse and Google Insight which deliver a good snapshot into popular products that people are already searching for. Find the next big thing in your niche and get a jump start on marketing it.

Monitoring Google Alerts, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and TV advertising are other good avenues for finding products that people are talking about.

Trying to figure out what to promote through affiliate marketing does not have to be frustrating. With a little “sleuthery” and diligence, you can be well on the road to finding a winning affiliate campaign.

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Affiliate Marketing

20 WordPress Plugins that Marketers Can’t Live Without

by Missy Ward

Recently, in a forum thread some of the affiliate marketer members discussed their favorite WordPress plugins that had been the most effective for them.

Based in part on the conversations that took place on this forum, we were able to put together a list of the top 20 plugins that marketers cannot live without. Whether you use one or all twenty of these, they will, in most cases, give your WordPress sites the extra boost that they deserve.

1. Exec-PHP
By using shortcodes, this plugin executes all of the reusable PHP code that is on your page. It allows you to organize, test, and and reuse all of your PHP code including that code in posts and widgets.

2. Google Analyticator
With this plugin, your site gets the JavaScript that it needs to enable Google Analytics logging. It also contains widgets that allow you to display Analytics data in the admin and on your blog.

3. Pretty Link
Pretty Link lets you display links how you want them to look. You create the look of each link and can even use your own domain name while Pretty Link tracks the stats behind the hits on each link.

4. WP-Polls
This is the ideal plugin for anyone who wants to have a poll on their site.

5. phpBay Lite
If you rely on Ebay for any of your business, this plugin will help you to maximize every aspect of targeting Ebay traffic.

6. Facebook Like Thumbnail
When Facebook changed their like button so that it acted more like a share button, they also changed how they displayed the thumbnails. Now, you can control the thumbnails that people see just the way that you want to.

7. Subscribe to Comments
With this plugin, you give your readers control over which comments, which posts and which notifications they want to receive emails about.

8. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache improves the performance of your server so that your readers get a better experience. The plugin relies on tools like caching and content delivery network integration and support.

9. WordPress SEO by Yoast
If you are ready to optimize your site’s SEO, this is the most complete plugin for the job. It optimizes everything from the page’s content to its images to its meta descriptions and more. (My favorite plugin!)

10. ManageWP
If you have more than one site, this is the tool that will keep them easily organized and accessible.

11. Gravity Forms
This allows you to create, build, and make live your WordPress forms easily in minutes. Its built-in tools allow you to configure your choices and embed your forms easily.

12. Dynamic Widgets
You make a few selections about when and where you want your widgets to appear, and this plugin makes sure that your widgets are only where you want them to be.

13. GD Star Rating
Now, you can let your readers rate and review your articles with this plugin that includes optional sidebar widgets that allow you to display stats created by this plugin.

14. Duplicate Post
With Duplicate Post, you can clone any page and make it into a completely new draft.

15. Intense Debate
Make the most of the comments and conversation on your site with this plugin that includes easy moderating tools, tools to integrate the conversation with sites like Twitter, and much more.

16. Microdata for SEO
This installs a button that allows you to create a Microdata Code within your post or page.

17. Simple Social Plugin
The icons that come with this plugin allow your readers to share your content on Twitter or Facebook with the touch of a single button.

18. WordPress Database Backup
As the name suggests, you can back up all of your data with this plugin.

19. WPTouch Pro
You can create unique sites for mobile browsing with this plugin.

20. Use Google Libraries
You can take some pressure off your server and increase your chance that someone has cached your files with this plugin that is linked to Google’s AJAX Libraries API.

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Affiliate Summit News

Join the Affiliate Summit Team for the Runyon 5K

by Shawn_Collins

Affiliate Summit is sponsoring a team of runners for the Runyon 5k, which is taking place Sunday, August 12 at Yankee Stadium. This is the first day of Affiliate Summit East 2012.

2009 Runyon 5k

I ran the Runyon 5k a few years ago, and it was a fantastic experience.

The Runyon 5k is a unique cancer research fundraising run/walk that uses Yankee Stadium as its course. You can run or walk the concourses and ramps, climb stairs between levels, and take your own victory laps around the warning track that circles the field.

Affiliate Summit will cover the $40 registration fee for anybody who joins the Affiliate Summit team. Runners are responsible for their minimum of $60 in fundraising.

We’ll also get shirts for anybody running on the Affiliate Summit team (I wish I could, but there’s too much with Affiliate Summit that morning for me).

After the Runyon 5k in 2009

100% of all donations raised in support of your run/walk will go to innovative cancer research by today’s best young scientists, funded by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

If you’d like to participate, please join our team for the Runyon 5k and then email your confirmation to us, and we will reimburse you.

Let us know how to make out the check, where to send it, your phone numbers, and your shirt size.

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Affiliate Marketing

Illinois Affiliate Marketers Get a Reprieve from Affiliate Nexus…

by Missy Ward

Back in February 2011, I wrote about an Illinois “anti-affiliate” Bill that if enacted would force out-of-state retailers to collect Illinois state sales tax for Internet sales, based on the premise that affiliate marketers create nexus in Illinois.

In the following month, Illinois Govern Quinn misguidedly signed into law HB 3659, which essentially abolished Affiliate Marketing in Illinois.

Affiliate Marketing Finally Gets a Break

After many months of diligent work from folks involved within the affiliate marketing industry, Judge Robert Lopez Cepero of the Illinois Circuit Court issued a ruling that finds the Illinois Affiliate Nexus Tax unconstitutional. He went on to declare that nexus wasn’t established by the activity outlined in the statute.

At this point, it is not clear whether Governor Quinn will challenge the decision, but it is a giant leap in the right direction for the affiliate marketing industry.

Here is some coverage from Illinois ABC station discussing the situation:

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