I followed a blog post by Linda Buquet about a smackdown on spyware and affiliates, and the comapanies that promote it. It’s a good wake-up call to those affiliates making a buck this way.

Looks like Zango got the smackdown, to the tune of a $3 million fine:

Under the $3 million FTC settlement, Zango was required to cease communications with Internet users who downloaded the Zango/180solutions software before Jan. 1, 2006. Not only does this provide relief for many unwitting Zango “users,” it also sends a message that companies will not be permitted to retain customer bases built on patterns of unfair practices.

Nice. Zango will also have to obtain constent from now on from the end-user before installing their software … and, it has to be really obvious to the user and not hidden away on some deep web page.

Now, expect Zango to pass the smackdown on to those affys who helped caused this issue in the first place:

Second, the settlement makes clear that Zango is responsible for the actions of affiliates on its behalf. Too many downloadable software companies, Zango included, have attempted to disavow bad practices undertaken by their affiliates on their behalf. This settlement establishes that these companies can no longer sit back and claim ignorance as their affiliates violate the trust of Internet users.

“This settlement has the potential to be a landmark, both for the downloadable-software community and for the Internet as a whole. By clearly identifying the sorts of behaviors that are unacceptable for software distributors, the FTC has made it harder for bad actors to hide behind murky affiliate relationships and deliberately confusing disclosures,” said CDT Policy Analyst Alissa Cooper who co-wrote the comments. “The only thing that could undermine the value of this settlement would be if Zango is permitted to openly flout its terms. The FTC must make clear that it expects Zango to follow the legally binding settlement to the letter, or face serious consequences. If the FTC cannot enforce its settlement in this case, the Commission’s authority to prevent fraud on the Internet will come under heavy scrutiny.”

The times, they are a-changing!

Okay my blogging friend, right up front, I’m going to tell you that I’m sharing this opportunity with you so you and I can earn some extra cash for the holiday season.

I’d appreciate it if you’d enter my email address into the Who Referred You box on the sign-up form:

1wildwolf AT gmail.com

Of course the AT=@ … we don’t want me to get any more spam to my email than I already do.

As one blogger to another, I really appreciate your blogger loyalties. And, I’m going to reward you for it!

There’s a business that pays you for blogging … writing 50-200 word blogs about different businesses typically.

It’s easy enough to do too. Just go sign up for an account HERE. The first page asks you some basic questions, and the second page is where you get to help me out by entering my email address into the Who Referred You box on the sign-up form: 1wildwolf AT gmail.com

Once you submit your account info, they send you an email. Verify your email address and you’re on your way to earning income.

Second step is to login and sign-up your blog.

If you’re like me and you have several blogs, then pick the one that is the most generic and most geared towards business topics.

At first, I entered one of my entertainment blogs and then discovered they had no entertainment writing opportunities. So, I had to delete it and go back and use one of my more general topic blogs. Learn from my mistake and go general to start with.

Also, if you have one blog that’s got a higher PR than your others, might want to go with that one. Several of the advertisers will only pay on higher PR blogs.

Step two and a half … wait for your blog to be approved.

They only allow one blog for now because the business is fairly new and still in beta. Eventually more blogs can be entered to give you more earning opportunities. So, go with your strongest blog first.

After you get your blog approved, you can choose from their huge list of writing opportunities. It’s that easy!

And, merchants … hello! It’s an awesome way to advertise your business and get backlinks!!!

Merchants, you too need to create an account and remember to help me out by entering my email address into the Who Referred You box on the sign-up form: 1wildwolf AT gmail.com

Now, go sign up for an account at Pay Per Post and tell ‘em 1wildwolf AT gmail.com sent you!

By: Beka Ruse

Part Two … A New Breed Of Autoresponder, Auto Message Setup

Enter Auto Message Setup
Using an Auto Message Setup system, Matt’s downline reps can order their own follow up autoresponse accounts that are already packaged with Matt’s pre-written messages. They can reap the fruits of Matt’s experience with ease.

Each rep will customize Matt’s messages for himself by logging in to his new follow up autoresponder account, and entering his own contact information.

Here is Matt’s original autoresponse message:

Hi LEAD NAME,

Thanks for stopping by the All Natural Pharmaceuticals web site today! We hope you come back soon!

Best Regards, Matt M.
matt@all-natural-pharma.com 918 Awl St.
Natural, PA 22314

Notice that the message greeting uses a variable, (LEAD NAME). The variable ensures that each of Matt’s leads will receive a message personalized with his or her own name. Notice, also, that Matt’s name and address are at the end of the message.

Case Study: Downline Dan and the New Breed
Dan is one of Matt’s downline representatives. He’s ordered his own follow up autoresponder through Matt. Since Matt is using Auto Message Setup, Dan’s account came pre-packaged with Matt’s marketing messages. Dan personalized those messages to himself by answering a few questions in his Online Control Panel. Now Dan is sending his own personalized version of Matt’s messages to his customers! All of the basic content is Matt’s, but Dan’s contact information is on the letters. Here is the autoresponse that Dan sends to his potential customers:

Hi, LEAD NAME

Thanks for stopping by the All Natural Pharmaceuticals web site today! We hope you come back soon!

Best Regards, Dan D.
dan@pharma-ceuticals.com 5 Farm Way
Sootuh, TN 88457

Notice that the contact name and address at the end of the e-mail are Dan’s, but that the greeting at the beginning of the message still includes the name of Dan’s lead.

Mission Accomplished
With Matt’s experience in hand, Dan is now marketing more successfully than ever before. And he isn’t the only one - Matt’s entire downline is now using his marketing messages! Matt’s commissions are growing exponentially.

Matt and Dan’s situation is not unique. Any network marketer with an established downline can take advantage of the opportunities available in an auto message setup system. There’s no better way to put more auto in your autoresponder.

About the Author:
Beka Ruse fights spam as the Business Development Manager at AWeber Communications. Ad tracking, live stats, and a strict anti-spam policy.

By: Beka Ruse

The concept of the follow up autoresponder revolutionized Internet Marketing. Now, “Auto Message Setup” promises to bring the field an even greater degree of efficiency.

This recent innovation lets experienced marketers painlessly transfer marketing know-how to their entire downlines. A marketer can now provide each of his downline representatives with a follow up autoresponse system that is already packaged with the marketer’s pre-written messages.

The result? Just a few minutes of work on the part of an experienced marketer, and each of his reps is set up with the same tried and true marketing messages.

Case Study: Marketer Matt and the New Breed
For example, take a look at the case of a fictional network marketer named Matt M:

For years, Matt has been successfully marketing All Natural Pharmaceuticals using a follow up autoresponder. In fact, much of his success can be attributed to the set of seven messages e-mailed to all of his potential customers. Matt has carefully crafted those messages over the years, and they’re really great.

Recently, Matt has been trying to pass what he’s learned along to his downline representatives. He explains his marketing principles over the phone, and he knows that several of his reps pass his follow up messages around amongst themselves.

However, Matt finds that his pearls of wisdom rarely survive this ‘telling and retelling’ intact. He knows his reps aren’t getting anywhere near what they could out of his knowledge. He wishes there were a way to harness today’s technology, and put it to use for the greater good of his downline…

Part Two … coming soon!

About the Author:
Beka Ruse fights spam as the Business Development Manager at AWeber Communications. Ad tracking, live stats, and a strict anti-spam policy.

First it was the Death of AdSene and now it’s The Death of Internet Marketing
Is it true, Or just more hype?
Mike Filsaime’s new FREE report may shock you.
Find Out Here…
The Death of Internet Marketing

It’s FREE … you can’t go wrong with that price!

They called it How to Grow an Affiliate Channel … but it should have been called What is the Affiliate Marketing Future.

From Ad Tech comes this podcast of the speakers panel featuring the affiliate marketing wisdoms of Declan Dunn, CEO, Dunn Direct Group (moderator); Ola Edvardsson, CEO, Performancy, Inc.; Jeff Molander, CEO, Molander & Associates; Amanda Watlington, Ph.D., Owner, Searching for Profit.

This is one of the best podcasts I’ve listened to on affiliate marketing for a long time. It covered affiliate marketing from affiliate programs to the issues of the search engines and pay-per-click. Really, really worth listening to!

GET THE PODCAST

[RSS] Add the iMedia Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3)

[MP3] Download the show (MP3)

OVERVIEW OF PANEL

From the ad:tech Chicago session: “How to Grow a Profitable Affiliate Channel: Recruit the Best Partners for Your Business“ with panelists from Performancy, Molander & Associates and Searching for Profit.

Affiliate marketing is the wunderkind of the digital marketing space. It can be extremely effective or a complete frustration– the channel requires its own unique kind of nurturing to realize its ultimate value. Learn, from a group of panelists comprised of the thought-leaders in affiliate marketing, the essential techniques for you to launch, relaunch and grow your affiliate marketing program. The discussion covers leading edge and traditional strategies, including blogging, face-to-face meetings, RSS, phone techniques, podcasting, snail mail, generating buzz, landing pages, press releases, email, recruitment advertising, conferences and parties and events. There’s etiquette and technique to be mastered. Learn it all here!

Webmaster blog posted a comment about the recent Google changes to it’s search engine page rank algorythms, noting that Google has put a stomp on the blogs hosted by Typepad and WordPress … and probably many others as well.

Don’t give up heart affiliate bloggers! Google is still spidering your blogs for content. Just keep writing in your blog journal and eventually you will reappear someday … hoperfully!

This is a short post, but I just wanted to point out that Google’s Page Rank has been down for the last few days. That’s usually indicative of an algorythm change. Either that or the update Google did to my toolbar is malfunctioning … lol.

Affiliate Blogger launches a new performance marketing blog focused on performance based marketing and marketing that converts.

[ClickPress, Thu Aug 31 2006] Affiliate Blogger launches a new performance marketing blog focused on performance based marketing and marketing that converts.

Bobbie Grennier, widely known as the Affiliate Blogger (http://affiliate-blogger.com), is following on the heals of Jim Kukral (revenews.com/Forge) who recently announced the acquisition of BlogKits (blogkits.com).

“The shift into performance based marketing for bloggers looking to earn income through blogging has taken a big step forward,” said Grennier. “I wanted to be an active voice in helping to shape this transformation within the blogsphere.”

Bloggers spend hours each day researching and writing about their topics just as any copywriter or journalist does. The desire for bloggers to earn income from their efforts is growing, though there are divisions between those bloggers wanting to be paid to blog and others who prefer to earn income through affiliate programs or selling ad space on their popular blogs.

In a 2005 survey by BlogKits, 73% of bloggers acknowledged that using affiliate links on their blog was acceptable.

Bobbie Grennier brings a discerning eye to the affiliate space and now to the performance based marketing space. In addition to having years of experience as a media buyer and lead generation solutions provider, she has also racked up many years within the SEO/SEM search engine strategies side of marketing (http://www.seo-writing.com). Bobbie’s SEO writing websites, blogs and articles consistently appear in the top ten natural search rankings in Google’s search engine for “SEO writing” and “SEO writer” keywords.

The new performance based marketing blog will discuss such topics as media buys, multi-channel marketing, affiliate partners and publishers, search engine strategies, datafeed marketing, lead generation and marketing solutions that convert to sales.

About Bobbie Grennier:
As the Affiliate Blogger, Bobbie Grennier is the driving force behind the Affiliate Guild (http://affiliate-guild.com), an online free guild for affiliates to find a common bond, tools of their trade and an educational environment to learn and fine-tune their skills. Grennier is an Internet Strategist who often consults with merchants, helping them to develop SEO and affiliate marketing strategies, in addition to a focus on affiliate partner relationships through recruitment and management of affiliate programs. Bobbie’s articles are widely published throughout the Internet and she offers free reprint articles at the Article Repository Directory (http://article-repository.com).

http://www.clickpress.com/releases/Detailed/17552005cp.shtml

According to Erik Sass, published in Online Media Daily, the video-sharing site YouTube has announced plans to launch a new monetization service for ads.

The company is rolling out a new ad platform that offers two main features–brand channels, where companies can create their own programming, and what YouTube is calling “participatory video ads,” some of which direct users to the new brand channels.

Now, advertisers can link video ads appearing on the YouTube home page to other clips on YouTube or their brand channels, and users can forward video links to friends, Hurley said, “recreating the viral nature of the site in a branded context.” Users also can share clips with friends and post links on their Web sites or blogs.

Affiliate Marketing gurus might want to wander over to YouTube and take a gandor to see how they might tap into this new advertising trend in video technology.