Missy Ward

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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Affiliate Marketing

Commission Junction University 2009 (CJU2009) Wrap-Up

by Missy Ward

The annual Commission Junction University (CJU 2009) took place on September 15-17, 2009 at the Fess Parker Hotel in Santa Barabara.

Given the fact that the event started 2 days after the Affiliate Marketers Give Back walk, I figured that I'd stay in Los Angeles the extra night and experience what I've always heard was the most beautiful drive along Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara.

Shawn Collins agreed to drive with me and we booked a beautiful covertible to enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, after an Enterprise Rent-a-Car debacle (which included a broken convertible top and an extra ride back to Long Beach to swap out cars), we did the drive in what we now affectionately call, the Ford Ugly. (Note: Some nice Californian should have told us that we shouldn't have gotten on PCH way after Los Angeles airport as instead of incredible shoreline views, all we got to see was strip malls, apartments and more strip malls for over an hour into the drive.)

Shawn and I arrived extremely late, but in enough time to check-in, pick up our credentials and head over to the Dell Welcome Reception at Godric Grove, which was a lot of fun.

After that, we boarded the bus for the 3rd Annual Yahoo! Bowling Invitational. I hadn't bowled in years, so I was very happy that they put up the gutter bumpers. Unfortunately, my blisters from the 40-mile breast cancer walk from the past weekend, did not like the bowling shoes. After a couple of popped blisters and a lousy score of 84, I decided that it was in my best interest to call it quits.

Day 2 started out with they keynote session featuring Jakie Huba who is the co-author of “Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message,” which documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture with customers and fans. Kerri Pollard, General Manager of Commission Junction followed with a State of CJ Session which was extremely informative.

After lunch, I attended the Navigating the Internet Advertising Tax session in which Shawn Collins (Affiliate Summit), Brook Schaaf (Schaaf Consulting), David Lewis (Cashbaq) and Jonathan Johnson (Overstock) discussed the threat upon the affiliate community and what affiliate marketers can do to help fight it.

After the sessions, Shawn and I manned our table at CJUConnect which allowed us to meet some great advertisers that are all looking for ways to generate more sales.

The CJYou Awards were presented during dinner and I live-tweeted them as they were announced. Congrats to all the winners and finalists.

The evening wrapped up with a party at Tonic Bar & Lounge, sponsored by Buy.com.

Day 3 came way too early for me, but thankfully there was a Bloody Mary Bar, sponsored by AffiliateReporting.com to get me going 🙂 After the sessions, Shawn and I met up with a few of our long-time affiliate marketing friends and had lunch at Moby Dick's on the pier. (Food was awful, but conversation was great.)

As it was the first time that I've attended CJU I wasn't sure what to expect, but can now say that it was a terrific event, filled with a lot of great information and wonderful networking opportunities. I look forward to next year!

The rest of my pictures can be found on Flickr. And, for much better pictures, visit Shawn's Flickr stream.

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Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketers Give Back Takes on the Avon Walk…

by Missy Ward

For the third year in a row, Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back took to the streets with their feet to do their part to fight breast cancer; this time during the 39-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Los Angeles.

This year’s team consisted of Brook Schaaf of Schaaf Consulting, Chris Pearson of DIYThemes, Melissa Salas of Buy.com, Kevin Strawbridge of DealTaker.com, Lynette LaPlante a 1-year survivor and me.

After months of fun and sometimes whacky fund raising activities, Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back blew past their goal and raised nearly $53,000, earning as them the #5 highest fundraising team spot overall.

After two days of walking (26.2 miles on Day 1 and 13.1 miles on Day 2), we wound up with 12 team-wide blisters, dozens of muscle aches, 1 broken nail, tons of hilarious video footage (coming soon) and a sense of pride and accomplishment knowing that we were doing something great to help fight a disease that has affected so many women and men.

A full recap of the walk will appear in the next issue of FeedFront Magazine.

I am proud of my team and I thank them so much for volunteering their time. I’m also very grateful to all of our sponsors and supporters who helped us reach our fundraising goal.

If you are interested in walking with Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back, please get in touch with me. We are tentatively scheduled to walk in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Chicago on June 5-6, 2010.

Click to view the 2009 Affiliate Marketers Give Back Walk to Fight Breast Cancer

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