Missy Ward

In Other Affiliate Marketing News feat. @rollerblader, @shareasale, @affiliatetip,…

by Missy Ward

In Other Affiliate Marketing News Here's this week's roundup of affiliate marketing news that I believe is worth sharing.

Did I Miss Something?

Did you or someone in your company post something relevant to affiliate marketers this week? Leave a quick summary and a link to it in the comments. {The post should have been published during April 18 – April 25, 2014.}

In Other Affiliate Marketing News (Week Ending 4/25/14)

10 Reasons Your Site Got Hit or Will Get Hit By Google

Adam Riemer provides a look into what he believes could have cause a site to get penalized by Google or could eventually get your site hit. […]

Hot off the presses – The ShareASale 2014 Summer Catalog

Each quarter ShareASale releases a new Merchant Catalog & Magazine featuring Merchants with relevant products for the upcoming season, as well as, noteworthy articles. Here is the 2014 ShareASale Summer Catalog. […]

Performance Marketing Summit Austin 2014 Recap –

The Performance Marketing Summit took place yesterday in Austin, TX, and it started out in a very Austin way with a couple of troubadours. It was an unconventional beginning to an unconventional event […]

Overcoming Affiliate Management Challenges

Affiliate program managers often face many challenges, including working with merchants that impose extremely stringent parameters about their programs that force affiliate managers get very creative in order to achieve success for the program. […]

Affiliate Marketing Turns 20: Myths, Milestones & Momentum

It was the year Forrest Gump sorted through a box of chocolates, the only strike happening in Major League Baseball was between the players and management, and Sheryl Crow declared, “All I wanna do is have some fun.” 1994 was also the year affiliate marketing officially burst on the scene. […]

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Affiliate Marketing

Shawn Collins Sets Record For Perfect Affiliate Summit Attendance

by Missy Ward

Shawn Collins Scores Perfect Attendance Shawn Collins, Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit is currently at the South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery for Performance Marketing Summit Austin 2014.

About Affiliate Summit, Inc.

In 2003, Shawn and I founded Affiliate Summit for the purpose of providing educational sessions on the latest industry issues and fostering a productive networking environment for affiliate marketers.

Since then, the Affiliate Summit Inc. brand has grown to include Performance Marketing Summit, FeedFront Magazine, GeekCast.fm, AffStat.com and ReveNews.com.

The Big “25”

I'm not sure if Shawn realizes this yet or not, but today is special for two reasons.

First, today marks Affiliate Summit Inc's 25th event. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Additionally, although it pains me to say this, today I relinquish my “Affiliate Summit Inc. Event Perfect Attendance” crown to Shawn Collins. (Yep, I'm in Orlando right now while Shawn is managing the Performance Marketing Summit event.)

Affiliate Summit 20+'ers

Affiliate Summit 20+ Veterans Back at Affiliate Summit West 2013, we instituted the distribution of these buttons to the attendees that display the number of shows that they've attended.

We didn't realize at the time that if you accidentally give Affiliate Summit veterans the incorrect button, they would not be happy… and they will tell you so.

I could not have been more happy to talk to anyone at that show who cared enough to complain about it.

Many explained that these buttons were sort of a “badge of honor”. And today, I totally get that because I feel bummed that I blew up my perfect attendance record.

Luckily, I'm not alone in today's de-throning.

Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale has been to every Affiliate Summit Inc. event since 2003. Today he lost his reign as well.

Hats off to you, Shawn. Looks like we may need to get a “Perfect Attendance” button, specially made for you.

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Affiliate Marketing

5 Tools for Clearing Business Clutter

by Missy Ward

Executives spend an average of 6 weeks per year looking for lost documents, notes the National Association of Professional Organizers. 5 Tools for Clearing Business Clutter. Reducing office clutter can drastically reduce the need to spend time looking for lost paperwork. Try these five tools to reduce office clutter and take back control of your professional life.

1. Scan business cards to reduce small paper clutter

It’s easy to hang on to business cards you receive at networking events “just in case” you need them again. However, unless you regularly review and recycle cards, you can find that you have hundreds you don’t need. And, of course, the one contact card that you do need will be hard to find. Reduce paper clutter without losing these contacts by scanning the cards and saving them to a program like Evernote, which is free. Alternately, manually enter information into your smartphone or a contact management system.

2. Use cloud storage to save important documents instead of printing

The more printed materials you have, the greater the likelihood of clutter taking over your desk. Instead, eliminate or cut back on your business printing by saving important documents to the cloud. Cloud storage utilities like Box and Dropbox have free and paid plans to accommodate user needs. Keep your cloud storage files organized by client, by topic (i.e. Marketing, Finance, Trends) or by another scheme that makes sense to you, so you won’t have to spend a long time searching for documents.

3. Scan and organize receipts right in Quickbooks

Those business receipts you’re holding on to can create a lot of paper clutter. Enter Quickbooks accounting software, which allows you to scan receipts right into the system and access scanned receipts later on from any device. Scan those paper receipts then throw them away before they can create inter-office clutter. Give the software a free trial for 30 days, then try a paid plan that meets your business needs.

4. Use a to-do list to ensure you hit daily checkpoints

If you tend to miss deadlines or have work-related emergencies due to clutter, a simple to-do list can help you stay focused. Draw up a daily to-do list then base your workflow from this. About one hour before the end of your workday, check your list one last time and tackle any items that need immediate attention. Use any items that remain as the foundation for the following day’s to-do list. Ending the work day on a high note can propel you to continue using your list to tackle goals and reduce your clutter.

5. Keep “must have” papers organized through a color coded file system

While these steps will help you to reduce the physical amount of paper you need to have on hand, you probably won’t be able to eliminate clutter-causing paper. For the paper you do need to have on hand, use a color-coded filing system to maintain document order. Store all accounts receivable statements or invoices in green file folders, keep all meeting agendas in yellow folders or keep all in-process work in red file folders. This way, you can more easily find a needed document by looking in the color folder you’d expect to find it.

The post, 5 Tools for Clearing Business Clutter by Missy Ward, was originally published on itsaWAHMthing.com.

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Affiliate Marketing

Make Money With Your WordPress Blog

by Missy Ward

“Affiliate Marketing Was Made For Bloggers” – Missy Ward

I've been saying that since 2005. And today, with more and more bloggers capitalizing on their passion by accepting paid posts, it couldn't be more true today than it was then.

Unfortunately, whether PR agencies “hire” bloggers for product promotion and ambassadorships, in-bound links, or as a way to build Facebook and Twitter followings, they are getting absolute bottom dollar pricing on brilliant native advertising and content they don’t even need to create themselves. In addition, bloggers are constantly telling me that the “requirements” on reviews and sponsored posts are growing as marketers become even more aggressive in their outreach efforts.

The idea of bloggers offering up their creative efforts, content development, creative control and access to their readers to these agencies for mere pennies is nutty to me.

This Is Why Affiliate Marketing Is Great For Bloggers

Now, I’m not implying that bloggers should stop taking paid posts altogether. That would be silly.

I am simply pointing out another source for income — affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing links in blog posts provide bloggers with a continual revenue stream opportunity with little, if any restrictions on content or copy at all. Bloggers control the content, the context, and the choices to support the products they love – and earn money steadily in the process.

Does the World Need Another Affiliate Marketing Book?

Over the last few years, I’ve spoken extensively at conferences about affiliate marketing. Inevitably I find myself being approached by bloggers with additional questions after my presentations and while I love having the opportunity to help, I can’t always be there for every blogger that has questions.

And for the most part, although everyone's blog is different, the questions are mostly the same.

So, it’s for that reason, coupled with the not-so-subtle prodding from my business partner, Shawn Collins, that I wrote “Making Money Using Your WordPress Blog”.

I designed this book specifically for the established blogger that wants to take back the reins of product placement on their blogs and earn the money their work merits in the process.

While I realize that a book can never replace face-to-face discussions, Skype calls, emails or Facebook messages; it is my sincere hope that by collecting my knowledge into this format I can offer bloggers an essential foundation for launching their own affiliate marketing businesses – and reach many folks that haven’t had the time, money, or opportunity to attend a conference to learn this stuff first hand.

Warning Label: This Book Will Not Make Your Rich Overnight

One word of caution: this is NOT a get rich quick scheme. Make Money From Your WordPress Blog will not teach you how to quickly set up a blog and start earning a boatload of cash, instantly. (In fact, it won't even teach you how to set up a blog. There are other books out there that already do this).

Affiliate marketing is just like any other business – it takes time and effort for success. There is no secret sauce.

The truth is, integrating affiliate marketing links into your existing posts is a very achievable way of making extra passive income. For many people, it has become their full-time income.

However, it does take time AND you have to do it right. Any blogger can do this, but only a portion of them will. Those Slactivists' lack of game provides an enormous opportunity for you.

Make Money and Do Good

So, if you're going to spend money on my book, my advice is to finish reading it, follow the plan that I've laid out and just keep on trying. Because it does work!

And on top of that, if you buy this book, it's good Karma. You see, I will be donating the April's net proceeds of my book to my Affiliate Marketers Give Back, Avon Walk for Breast Cancer fundraising account.

You Renewed Your Amazon Prime Subscription? Good.

Yeah, I bitched about the increase, but I'm keeping my Amazon Prime subscription anyway. If you did, you're in luck because Prime Members can borrow my book for free on their Kindle.

If you're in the market for this type of knowledge, I hope you pick up the book. If you did — and you read it, let me know what you think!.

For more information on the contents of the book please visit http://MakeMoneyWithYourWPBlog.com.

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