Like many web publishers and online marketers I have literally hundreds of domain names in development.  To be perfectly honest I have far too many just lying dormant on my registrar or collecting small profits from domain parking services.  As such a little early spring cleaning of my domain portfolio is in order!

Growing tiresome of domain auction websites I decided to launch Top Affiliate Domain Auctions.  Lets keep it in-house and keep the prices down!

Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be auctioning off my portfolio of domains.  Some of these will be sold in groups (i.e. same name .com, .net, .org, .info) while others are solo top level domains.  Prices will vary on each domain name or domain package sold and bid increases are as low as $.01.

Domain Auction Procedures:

• Domain auction durations may vary but will last for approximately 30 days
• All domain auction transactions will be conducted through Top Affiliates verified PayPal account: sales[at]top-affiliate.com
• All domains or domain auction packages will have ‘Buy it Now’ pricing
  • If ‘Buy it Now’ pricing is not met upon auction expiration, I reserve the option to cancel the auction
• All domains are registered with www.GoDaddy.com
  • Upon purchase the buyer must sign up for a GoDaddy.com account in order to transfer the domain.  Once the domain has been transferred to the buyer on Godaddy the buyer can transfer the domain to their registrar of choice.

Please coordinate all questions regarding Top Affiliate Domain Auctions sales to: sales[at]top-affiliate.com.  Please check Top Affiliate Domain Auctions often for new domains listed.

Thank you!

Always on the lookout for new marketing tools and services I found a pretty slick tool that allows me to publish my blog posts and static web pages to all the major social networking sites.  It’s called OnlyWire (maybe you’ve heard of it) and I’ve been successfully using it for about a month now.

OnlyWire syndicates your content and articles to the web’s top social networking sites with a single button click.  OnlyWire makes it EXTREMELY easy to get your message out to the broadest possible audience in the shortest amount of time while improving readership, backlinks, search engine index speed and web-traffic.

Currently, the OnlyWire API is compatible with the following social networking sites:

ask bebo bibsonomy blinklist bookmarksync connotea delicious digg diigo facebook bluedot googlebookmarks jumptags linkatopia misterwong

mixx multiply myspace newsvine plaxo propeller reddit simpy slashdot spurl stumbleupon technorati tumblr twitter yahoobookmarks

Here's an example of the one click publishing provided by OnlyWire. Please click on the image for better resolution.

So how does this benefit you?

Obviously you’ll want to use this on your own websites but it also helps your listings on Top Affiliate.  When OnlyWire users visit your affiliate program page on the directory they’ll have the option to instantly publish your page across their selected social networking sites.  More exposure always means more traffic.

Click on image for better resolution.

The OnlyWire button is found at the bottom right of all Top Affiliate directory pages.  One click publishing!

Is OnlyWire just another social bookmarking application?

Well….yes but the problem with many conventional social bookmarking applications is the time it takes to manually publish web pages to each social network.  They can only do one at a time.  Who wants to sit there and manually bookmark web content across 20 different social networks?  Not me! This means a good portion of web pages out there are never bookmarked, it’s just too much trouble.

So how much of a hassle is it to set up?

Registering for OnlyWire and setting up an account takes a little over an hour if you’re not a member of all the social networking sites.  Registering can be a hassle with some social networking sites but it’s worth your time.

So how much does it cost?

OnlyWire offers FREE and paid services.  If you select the free service you’ll have to:

“agree to add the OnlyWire “Bookmark & Share Button” on your website or blog within 24 hours or your bookmarking ability will be temporarily disabled.  The Button will immediately drive traffic to your website by providing your users the ability to simultaneously bookmark your content across multiple bookmarking sites. The Button also allows your users to share your pages via email with their friends and collegues.” – Onlywire

I purchased a year up front to use their automated content distribution for $24.99 but you can also pay a monthly fee of $2.99.  My time is worth a little more than $24.99 or $0.07/day if you want to do the math!

Tax season is here, are you ready?  I hope so because there is a hungry market out there searching for e-File authorized online tax preparation services.  Just how many?  Well here’s some interesting facts and figures the IRS released on November 2, 2009 in regards to e-filing in the 2009 tax season.  (See IR-2009-99 (Nov. 2, 2009) for the entire release.

1) in 2000, 27.57% or 35,412,000 returns were e-Filed, whereas in 2009, more than two-thirds–67.18% or 94,980,000 our of 141,376,000, were e-Filed;

2) The total number of returns shrank, however, from 153,650,000 in 2008 (a drop of 8%);

3) More taxpayers were doing their own e-Filing–almost 20% more prepared and e-Filed their own returns rather than using tax preparers to do so;

4) The government gave $303.069 billion back to taxpayers in refunds this year, an increase of more than 20% over last year’s refunds; and

5) The 73 million taxpayers who got electronically deposited refunds got them at least a week sooner than those waiting for a paper check, and cost the government less at the same time..

Since the IRS e-File system meets the needs of nearly all taxpayers, no matter how complicated or simple their returns are, more and more people will turn to online tax preparation services.  Using e-File helps taxpayers take advantage of the tax credits available to them to maximize their refunds during these tough economic times and provides key benefits such as:

* Faster Refunds
* Greater Accuracy
* Secure and confidential submission
* No paper return to mail
* File now, pay later
* Quick confirmation

This is great news for affiliate marketers because there is a a variety of tax software products available commercially that offer e-File.  Here’s a selection of the top e-File authorized tax affiliate programs across some of the major networks:

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the buyat Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: $25 per completed filing Cookie: 30 days
	Commission Value: $3.30 per registration Cookie: Same Session Only

————————————————————————————————————

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the Commission Junction Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: 20% per completed filing Cookie: 120 days
	Commission Value: 20% per completed filing Cookie: 45 days
	Commission Value: 15% per completed filing Cookie: 30 days
	Commission Value: 15% per completed filing Cookie: 45 days

————————————————————————————————————

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the LinkShare Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: 50-65% per completed filing Cookie: ? days

————————————————————————————————————

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the ShareASale Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: 30% per completed filing Cookie: 120 days
	Commission Value: 60% per completed filing Cookie: 30 days
	Commission Value: 20% per completed filing Cookie: 120 days
	Commission Value: $2.00 per completed filing Cookie: 30 days

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and is one of the highest grossing holidays for online sales.  Back in 2009 consumers planned to spend an average of $102.50 on Valentine’s Day gifts and merchandise, versus $122.08 per person in 2008 according to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey.  Although times were tight the total Valentine’s Day spending in 2009 exceeded $14.7 billion.  That is a huge pot of money!

Regardless of the economic climate people will always spend their hard earned dollars on traditional Valentine’s Day gifts which include:

• jewelry
• flowers
• greeting cards
• and candy

Furthermore, the above survey indicated the majority of people (90.8 percent) spent the most on their spouse ($67.22), with other family members such as children getting about one fifth of their budget ($20.95).  Consumers also spent on friends ($4.74), children’s classmates/teachers ($3.59), coworkers ($1.94), and yes…even pets ($2.17).

So how do the numbers look this year for us affiliate marketers?  Well this past holiday season, online sales jumped 18 percent from Nov. 27 to Dec. 24, according to SpendingPulse.

“People were more comfortable doing last-minute shopping online, especially with the bad weather,” Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research for SpendingPulse, said in a telephone interview yesterday. A snowstorm on the East Coast the weekend before Christmas closed some malls early on Dec. 19 and kept shoppers at home….Jewelry sales rose 5.6 percent for November and December, while luxury retail excluding jewelry gained 0.8 percent.”

This is comforting news to online retailers and affiliates.  So here’s a list of some Valentines Day affiliate programs you may want to promote via pay per click campaigns and niche website marketing.  I broke them down by affiliate networks and the Pepperjam Network programs were compiled by my network manager Gina Nardone.

A good network manager will/should work directly with you in order to custom tailor selected affiliate programs to suit your marketing needs and preferences.  They’ll also often dig up affiliate programs that you’ve overlooked or find programs that are not heavily saturated with other affiliate marketers.  This close relationship with your network manger offers you the best opportunity to carve out a nice market share in that specific niche.  These in my opinion are just a few areas both Pepperjam Network and ShareASale have always excelled at.

So here’s some programs you may want to consider promoting:

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on Pepperjam Network:

Flowers 48LongStems.com FlowerStore.com Teleflora.com Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts DanforthDiamond.com -*Open-Search EternalSparkles.com Ziamond.com IDoNowIDont.com -*Open-Search SuperJeweler.com Swarovski.com Tuccini.com MyFragranceRoom.com -*Open-Search Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More GJCookies.com -*Open-Search igourmet.com GiftBaskets.com Patchi.us MonthClubStore.com TheWineMessenger.com

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on ShareASale:

Flowers PickupFlowers 2Flowers.com Flowers Fast Flora 2000 Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts Design it Yourself Gifts and Baskets Gifts Baskets for Delivery FragranceShop.com Gifting Inc. Timeless Message HipsandCurves.com Wicked Temptations Panties.com Intimate Wholesalers SassyBax Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More Savannah Candy Cookies in Bloom Harry London Clever Cookie Brownie Points

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on Linkshare:

Flowers 1-800-Flowers.com (personal favorite) Martha Stewart for 1-800-Flowers.com 1-800-Baskets.com GourmetGiftBaskets.com Honest Florist Fleurop.com Just Because Baskets Flowers.com Blooms Today GiftBaskets.com, Inc. Internet Florist Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts Memorable Gifts DiViene.com Pear Tree Greetings James Allen Her Room The Body Shop Zales Vermont Teddy Bear Frederick’s of Hollywood, Inc. Perfume Worldwide, Inc. Diamonds International Mondera (personal favorite) Bare Necessities JewelryWeb.com, Inc. Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More Chocolate.com My Wines Direct Wine.com

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on Commission Junction:

Flowers GiftTree Organic Bouqet JustFlowers.com USAFlorist.com 1-800-Florals FlowerDelivery.com FloraQueen Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts Ross Simons James Avery Diamond.com Ashford.com Buyz.com Body Candy StrawberryNET.com FragranceX.com My Jewelry Box WaySpa.com USA and CA Couture Candy Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More Wine Access Gevalia Ghirardelli Chocolates Vosges Chocolates RICHART Chocolates Wine Basket zCHOCOLAT.com

This is obviously not an all inclusive list.  While each affiliate network has a wide range of products suited for a solid Valentine’s Day marketing campaign, I really like the premier clientele on LinkShare to include: 1-800-Flowers/Baskets, Vermont Teddy Bear, Mondera, Bare Necessities Chocolate.com and Wine.com.

However, these are just some Valentine’s Day affiliate programs you may want to take a look at promoting via ppc marketing campaigns or whatever marketing campaign you’re developing.  Be sure to contact your affiliate or network managers and inquire what’s hot and new this season.

Incidentally, don’t stress out if you haven’t set up your Valentine’s Day campaigns already.  Valentine’s Day is predominantly what I call a perishable holiday.   Perishable in that the majority of products bought and sold during the holiday are flowers, candies and other consumable items.  This means the majority of sales occur approximately one week before the holiday.

Best of luck to you as you create/develop your Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns.  I hope this brief Valentine’s Day affiliate program list helps speed up your time to market.  Aloha!

Pepperjam Network is one of the most progressive affiliate networks online today and a personal favorite of mine.   Back in Sep 2008 I wrote a short Pepperjam Network review covering some of the unique backend control panel  features of their affiliate network as well as a quick glimpse of their selection of niche clientele.  Today I just wanted to jot a quick note concerning their little known Blogger Incentive Program.

So what is the Pepperjam Network Blogger Incentive Program?

Most Pepperjam Network Publishers already know Pepperjam offers a generous Publisher Referral Program, which pays publishers from $5-7 for every new publisher referral:

However, you can also earn an extra $50/month from Pepperjam Network via their Blogger Incentive Program.

Pepperjam realizes the power of bloggers and has gone the extra mile to make being a publisher with them a little more beneficial.  The Pepperjam Network Blogger Incentive Program is an incentive program whereby any PJN publisher/blogger will receive $10 for each post you make that promotes Pepperjam Network or any Pepperjam Network tool.

So how much can you earn with the Pepperjam Network Blogger Incentive Program?

Publishers/bloggers are allowed to post 5 such posts a month for an easy $50.  No, you’re obviously not going to get rich off of the Pepperjam Network Blogger Incentive Program but it’s still a solid $5o bucks in your pocket every month.

So how does Pepperjam Network know you made a post?

Easy.  The only thing Pepperjam requires for you to do in order to receive credit for a post is e-mail bloggers[at]pepperjamnetwork.com prior to making your post to gain approval of the topic.  This obviously enables the Pepperjam team to eliminate spam.

So what else can I blog about with the Pepperjam Network Blogger Incentive Program?

Aside from reviewing the Pepperjam Network itself you have a slew of topics to choose from.  Check out the Pepperjam Network Blog for the latest news from Pepperjam or you may want to consider blogging about any of their clients to earn some easy side revenue with the Pepperjam Network Blogger Incentive Program:

Pepperjam Network Featured Clients

So what are you waiting for?  Pepperjam Network Loves New Publishers. Sign Up Today and earn an additional $50/month.

Paulson Management Group, founded by industry expert Heather Paulson, has recently launched PMG-AffiliateTV.  PMG-AffiliateTV takes an inside look at what’s going on in the affiliate marketing industry as a whole as well as the latest developments within PMG.

I think it’s exceedingly obvious Heather and her staff are trying to put us all out of a job by cornering all aspects of the online marketing sector, which is probably why she was recently honored as an Affiliate Marketing Legend Award nominee for Affiliate Summit’s Pinnacle Awards.  Congratulations to you Heather!

So, without further adieu here’s PMG-AffiliateTV Episode I with your host McKenna.  Enjoy!

About Paulson Management Group:

Paulson Management Group, Inc is a leading full service eMarketing management and internet consulting company providing affiliate management, search engine management or social media management. PMG supports these channels by developing affiliate media, micro-sites and web sites, landing pages, as well as affiliate videos. For a customized free proposal, contact PMG today at 1-800-384-7760.

As an affiliate, spreading the word about your products is your number one priority. If you aren’t constantly looking for new customers and for new ways to promote your products, you risk losing out on a lot of potential sales to the competition.  While the Internet has made advertising easier in many ways, it can also be tremendously confusing – believe it or not there are those who aren’t very familiar with it!

There are many different techniques for marketing online, but viral marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective ones.  With viral affiliate marketing, you can put the Internet at large to work for you, letting your message pass from person to person in an exciting – and potentially lucrative – ripple effect.

So What Is Viral Affiliate Marketing?

Viral marketing refers to any marketing phenomenon that revolves around the “word of mouth” concept.  As the name implies, viral marketing involves letting an infectiously popular advertising product or message loose on the Internet; as it gains momentum, it is passed along from person to person.  All the while, the product is promoting your product, service or business.  Just think about how many hilarious videos you were told to check out or were e-mailed this past year.

Viral affiliate marketing, then, refers to using those marketing techniques to promote your affiliate marketing program.

These days, affiliates and affiliate managers have numerous options at their disposal when it comes to viral affiliate marketing.  Whether you’ve used viral marketing before or not, the following tidbits, strategies and resources will help you become a savvier and more effective viral affiliate marketer.  Choose one or several of them to begin your foray into viral marketing; over time, you will become more comfortable with these techniques and will arrive at a solution that is perfect for you.

Viral Affiliate Marketing Techniques

Some of the most successful viral affiliate marketing campaigns are those that are completely custom-designed by business owners.  Many times, they combine several different strategies or techniques; other times, they use entirely brand new and completely innovative strategies.  Down the road, you may become experienced enough to devise your own viral marketing ideas; until then, use these techniques as a jumping-off point.

Videos

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years you’re probably very familiar with one of the most popular websites on the Internet, YouTube.  However, YouTube is about more than just funny cat videos and other random attractions – it is a great place to create, post and market a viral video.  By creating a YouTube account, you can set up your own page; on it, you can list your affiliate marketing site’s URL and other information.

The real fun begins, though, with creating your video.  While professional quality viral videos are viewed millions of times amateur viral videos have done just as well…if not better.  Just take a look at the “Baby Dancing to Beyonce” video which currently has over 6.6 million views in 2009!

I’m pretty sure the father who shot this video never dreamed his son would be a YouTube megastar or that his son’s little happy-feet would launch the website http://www.SingleBabies.com

Viral videos get that way by being something that people want to pass along to others.  Whether it’s especially catchy (like the video above), extremely informative or exceptionally useful, your video should be something that people will want to share with others.  As your video is embedded on social media sites and linked to in emails, people will be directed to your YouTube channel.  There, they will be able to learn more about your affiliate marketing program and will be able to visit your regular website.

Ebooks

These days, ebooks are very easy to create and simple to pass along.  This was NOT the case when I started back in early 2000.  Now however, there are several free programs for creating your very own ebooks, so you shouldn’t have any problem with the execution of one.   The issue, as with videos, is that you’ll need a catchy idea or a valuable premise that will prompt people to not only READ your ebook, but actually pass it along to others as well. Assuming your ebook is compelling enough, those who read it will want to share it with others.

Word of mouth concerning your ebook can easily start picking up steam; whether you offer it on your website or on an ebook directory, you should begin to notice a spike in the number of downloads that are made.  Within the content of your ebook, you should make sure to refer readers to your website, where they can find the products and services that you have to offer.  The more people that download and read your ebook, the greater amount of exposure your affiliate marketing program will receive – and the higher your profits will ultimately be.

Feeling A Little Creative?

Although videos and ebooks are the “big kahunas” of the viral marketing world, there are an endless number of permutations that you can play around with when doing this for yourself.  Consider a few of these great ideas for yourself; these are also great places to start brainstorming for your very own viral marketing concepts.

• Use a program to create your very own electronic post cards or gift cards and offer them on your website, social networking profile or elsewhere.  On them, include a link to your affiliate marketing URL so that readers can check it out for themselves.
• Hire a freelancer to create a simple digital game for you.  Have them incorporate advertising and marketing elements from your affiliate marketing program within the game.  If the game is playable and catchy enough, it should spark a decent amount of interest.  As it’s played, people will be taking in your advertising message and your business should enjoy a great deal of free, word-of-mouth exposure.
• Similarly, you could have someone create a simple but useful utility with the name of your affiliate marketing program marked on it.  Offering a free download for it on your website, blog or social networking profile will help it get spread around.  I see these all the time as mortgage calculators.

And What About Those Darn Widgets?

Ahh Widgetmania!  Affiliate marketers are turning more and more to widgets in their viral marketing endeavors.  Widgets are mini-applications; they are self-contained and can easily be dragged and dropped onto websites, blogs and other online places.  They are taking the affiliate marketing world by storm; it’s easy to see why.

With a few clicks of a mouse button, you can create widgets that highlight the products that you sell and then place those widgets on your social networking profiles and elsewhere. People who see your widget and like it can easily pass it along to others. In that way, widgets can be tremendously powerful viral affiliate marketing tools.

By their very nature, widgets are simple to use.  You don’t need a great deal of technical know-how or other training to use widgets effectively.  For the most part, you can jump right in and use widgets to promote your affiliate marketing program in no time flat.  However, if you want to strangle the market in a particular niche find a good widget/API developer and keep him/her happy.

Some Useful Resources And Tools

There is a plethora of information available online about setting up viral affiliate marketing campaigns.  You could kick your own campaign off and get it up and running in no time; use the following resources to help you get started:

• Viral Marketing Method – (New) A site that compiles a large number of valuable marketing tools for affiliates and affiliate managers. Many of these tools are completely free of charge.
• Easy Ebook Creator – Available for a very low price, this software program helps you generate slick-looking ebooks in record time. It’s so easy to use that you can come up with multiple ebooks without wasting a lot of time.
• Viral Manager – This site is a great place to get your feet wet in the world of viral affiliate marketing.  Browse it to gain valuable insights on techniques and strategies that you can use.
• Widgetbox – Find widgets.  Create widgets.  Very cool.
• Have some of your own viral marketing products/resources?  Let me know and I’ll grow this list out.

Thanks to affiliate marketing, the concept of working from home has never been more doable or accessible.  Promoting and selling vendors’ items online – and sharing a percentage of the revenue that is generated through such efforts – is surprisingly easy and can be incredibly lucrative.  The primary thing to keep in mind when trying to break into the affiliate marketing game, though, is “marketing.”  The vast majority of the work that you’ll be doing will revolve around gaining exposure for your website and the products that are promoted within it.  Luckily, there are several great tips and strategies related to affiliate marketing; familiarize yourself with a few of the best ones below.

Sell What You Know

Passionate salespeople tend to outperform less enthusiastic ones.  When you genuinely understand and enjoy the products or services that you sell, customers can sense it and those products and services become that much more appealing.  We’ve all met the bored salesperson with the monotone drawl – unenthusiastic online affiliate marketers can come across in much the same way, repelling customers and running into dead end after dead end.

Although it may be tempting to engage in an affiliate marketing program that offers the absolute best revenue sharing percentage or other key perks, if you’re uneducated, inexperienced and unenthusiastic about the things you’ll be marketing the extra compensation isn’t going to go very far.  Instead, look for an affiliate marketing program based on something you know and love.  In turn, you will be able to write more compelling and engaging content, which will attract more customers to you. In the long run, you’ll carve out a great niche for yourself and your sales will start flooding in.

Choose A Great Domain

One of the biggest mistakes affiliate marketers make is skimping on their website.  Rather than investing in a proper domain name – something that typically costs about $10.00 per year – they try to avoid that extra cost by using a free web hosting service like Blogger.  While the platform and tools that go along with sites like WordPress and Blogger are great, having a domain that ends in “.blogspot.com” is not.  Search engines tend to overlook sites with long, convoluted extensions and yours will probably get lost in the shuffle.  Think up a clever, catchy and unique domain name and invest in it – one ending in .com is generally best.

* Note:  I personally use www.Godaddy.com for all of my domains, they’re one of the best registrars in the business.

Create Killer Content – Or Pay Someone Else To Do It For You

These days, it seems like every site on the Internet is trying to sell something.  People are fickle, and simply slapping up affiliate links along with images of the products that you sell just isn’t enough. What draws people to your site and its products and services is content.  Regurgitating something that someone else has said is pointless; you need to create compelling, well-written and informative content, and you need to update it frequently.  If you have a knack for writing, enjoy it and have the time, do it yourself.  If writing isn’t necessarily your forte, hire a professional – it is well worth the money.

* Note: For over a year I have been using www.TextBroker.com for unique conetent generation on all of my new niche affiliate web sites.  In a word this service is AWESOME!

Submit To Article Directories

Assuming that you’re heeding the first bit of advice in this article and are selling something that you know and love, writing informative articles about it should come pretty naturally.  Those articles can be submitted to various article directories around the Internet, along with links to your website or to specific landing pages. In order to attract attention and traffic, those articles will have to be professional and should include a decent percentage of strategically selected keywords.  Educate yourself about the top article directory sites, then start generating articles for them.  Over time, your affiliate marketing business will truly start booming.

* Note: Online Marketing Research has put together a good list of quality article directories ranked by their Alexa rank.  I’m not going to recreate the wheel so here’s the link: http://www.seoresearcher.com/articles-directories-list-alexa-rating-ordered.htm

Create Topnotch Landing Pages

Landing pages are the bread and butter of many top affiliate marketers.  Basically, a landing page is a place where a person is directed after clicking on a link or an ad. In a succinct and direct way, landing pages convey what the visitor can expect and don’t require a lot of reading or involvement.  They can be used in a number of different ways, too, including:

• To Direct Traffic To Your Site – The most popular and basic goal of many landing pages is to funnel visitors to your affiliate marketing site.  Such a landing site will include compelling language within a link – usually called “anchor text” – to direct people to your website.
• To Extend An Offer – Landing pages are sometimes used to direct people to special offers, deals or sales on your affiliate marketing goods.  Sometimes, clicking the link on a landing site might send a visitor directly to the sales page for a specific product; other times, clicking that link might send them to a group of related products. The choice is up to you.
• To Allow People To Participate – You can use a landing page to link people up to follow you on Twitter, sign up for an email group or to become a fan of yours on Facebook.  The possibilities are endless, and they all add up to excellent marketing tools.

* Note: One of the best free resources to learn everything about landing pages can be found here: http://www.copyblogger.com/landing-pages/

So there you go.  If you’re just starting out in affiliate marketing I hope these quick tips and resources will help you out.  Aloha!

Well the day has finally arrived for affiliates and bloggers.  Last October the FTC announced that bloggers (affiliates) who offer endorsements must disclose any payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews or face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation….or just a stern warning letter.

This didn’t bode well with many bloggers but judging from the enormous amount of feedback the FTC has been pumping onto the Internet the past few months, it seems fairly clear they’re not on a proverbial witch hunt for bloggers.  After all, with millions upon millions of blogs online they couldn’t possibly enforce the rule across the web.

The new FTC rule is solely meant to help consumers make a more educated decision on what products or services they purchase from corporate sponsored bloggers, celebrities and social media venues.  I agree.

This is not a big deal.  If you’re a responsible blogger or affiliate this mandatory disclosure statement should be completely transparent to you.  In my opinion adding a disclosure statement to each paid post or even a page on your blog explaining sponsored posts or paid endorsements, only solidifies your credibility to your subscribers or site visitors.

However, before you even count the money on the table to write a review or endorsement, it’s your responsibility as an affiliate or blogger to get your facts straight first.  Start pumping out misinformed or incorrect information and you’ll tarnish your credibility faster than “The Mike O’malley Show” got canceled on NBC!

*For a full explanation of the new disclosure ruling please visit:

http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

With Christmas right around the corner Linkshare has seen an increase of online fashion retailers joining their affiliate network.  A few are well established retailers you know by name with a few new up and coming retailers.  Here’s a few new fashion retailers to get you started on the Linkshare UK affiliate network:

Faith – A leading UK fashion high street retailer specializing in affordable women’s and men’s luxury footwear and accessories.

• Up to 8% commission on net sales
• 30 day Cookie period
• Newsletters sent on a regular basis to inform you of our best sellers, new items, offers and trends
• Access to product imagery and content to ensure your visitors are the first to know about the latest must-have fashion items and accessories
• Instant access to sales reports and tracking
• Affiliate page – http://www.faith.co.uk/faith-affiliate-programme-artlaffiliate_programme/

Jigsaw – Jigsaw is a British company that has been involved in the design, manufacturing and retailing of clothes and accessories for over thirty-five years. The first store opened in Hampstead in 1972 and the company has steadily expanded to currently operate over 40 stores in the UK. In 1996 Jigsaw Junior was established to extend the product range from purely women’s fashion. The brand has also seen international expansion in the USA, where it currently trades from 7 stores on the West Coast.

• Affiliate page – http://www.jigsaw-online.com/affiliates  (Affiliate program structure not listed on website.)
  

Fenn Wright Manson -Since the launch in 1974 Fenn Wright Manson has established itself as a leading British ladieswear fashion brand and has acquired a reputation for innovative and timeless collections. An emphasis on chic and feminine styles and cuts, in exhaustible and versatile range of prints and textures, have given the seasonal collections it’s distinct profile.

The Fenn Wright Manson London based design team produces inspirational and quintessential styles season after season, appealing to an ageless fashion aware woman who wants to invest in effortlessly sophisticated and everyday flattering pieces. Every style has attention to detail and are suitable for all aspects of life – from work and day and right through to evening and occasions wear.  

• 5% Commission on all goods
• Ggenerous 60-day Cookie Window
• (Affiliate program offering not listed on website.  Had to dig up the details.)

Matches – Since the first Matches store opened near Tom and Ruth Chapman’s home in Wimbledon in 1990, it has become a brand in its own right – an iconic retail experience, trusted by London’s most fashion literate clientele, offering the best of the best in established and new international labels.  (Good website and generous affiliate structure.  Definitely worth taking a closer look at.)

• £5 bounty on full-price orders placed by new customers’
• 45 day cookie length
• Up to 10% commission
• Instant access to sales reports and bestsellers
• Daily automated product feed
• Regular newsletters to ensure you’re up to date with the latest trends and must-have buys for the season
• Access to the product catwalk imagery (Nice touch there!)
• Affiliate page – http://www.matchesfashion.com/fcp/content/JoinUs/content

Fossil – Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 25 years you’ve probably heard of Fossil.  Fossil is a design, development, marketing and distribution company that specializes in consumer products predicated on fashion and value.  The company’s principal offerings include an extensive line of fashion watches sold under the company’s proprietary and licensed brands.  The company also offers complementary lines of small leather goods, belts, handbags, sunglasses, jewelry and apparel.  The company’s products are sold in department stores and specialty retail stores in over 90 countries around the world, in addition to the company’s e-commerce website at www.fossil.com.

• 17% commission on all of our products, on every referred sale (One of the largest percentages I’ve seen for this particular market.)
• Highly recognizable retailer
• Free shipping on every order over $75
• Checks cut monthly
• Also listed on Performics and Commission Junction
• Affiliate page – http://www.fossil.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Static____affiliateNetwork_custCareNav

Radley – Radley was founded in 1998 by Lowell Harder, our Creative Director. Radley is a great, creative British brand, which makes beautiful handbags and accessories  for women to own.

• Baseline commission: 6%
• Cookie window: 30 days
• A full Merchandiser product feed is available on the program
• JPG, Flash banners and text links for all promotions
• LinkBuilder also allows you to link to any page on the Radley site.
• (Affiliate program offering not listed on website.  Had to dig up the details.)

As you’re tweaking your Christmas affiliate marketing campaigns be sure to keep an eye out on new affiliate programs your preferred affiliate networks may have recently launched.  Stay ahead of the pack and always look for new unique niches you can easily dominate.

Back in 2006 Twitter was a flourishing new social networking / micro blogging site. Today, twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis. Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009.

So are YOU using Twitter?  Back in 2007 I posted an entry titled, ‘What’s All the Twitter About“, before what seemed like everyone on the planet decided to get a Twitter account.  I wasn’t sure how long Twitter would last but as it turns out it’s usefulness would mature over time.

Today, Twitter is used for numerous personal and business applications such as:

• Personal and Corporate Branding
• Event and Special Promotion Announcements
• Customer Service
• Feedback Requests
• Petitions
• Traffic Generation
• and much more

So let’s capitalize on the success of Twitter and help your affiliate program listings on Top Affiliate.  If you currently have a Twitter account simply cut and paste your Twitter RSS feed link into your dierctory listing.

Sure, it would be more beneficial to use your website RSS feed but if you don’t have a blog a Twitter feed will work just fine.  Please checkout the below screenshot to see where you can add an RSS feed to your listing on Top Affiliate.

Add your Twitter or Blog Feed Here

Here’s a great example of how the affiliate network Flex Offers uses Twitter to promote special promotions, incorporated into their listing on the Top Affiliate Directory:

So there you have it.  This should keep your affiliate listing page fresh in the search engines.  Happy micro blogging!

Stealth marketing – also known as undercover marketing – has received a great deal of attention in recent years, but it is hardly a new phenomenon. Basically, stealth marketing refers to advertising a product or service to someone without disclosing that you are a representative of its company. A classic example of online stealth company is when the representatives of a product or service post glowing reviews and comments for that product on public boards. This can boost the product’s rating, while not actually reflecting what actual, unbiased users of the product think.

The Ethics Of Stealth Marketing

Many people believe that stealth marketing is a shady, unethical way of advertising a product or service because it basically relies on deception. The advertiser willfully deceives his audience by not disclosing his relationship to the product or service being praised. Considering the negative reactions of people who realize they’ve been marketed to in this way, it is pretty apparent that a lot of risk is involved in using this marketing technique.

Stealth marketing is most popularly used in instances when a new product or service is receiving negative word of mouth from the general public. A new cell phone, for instance, might receive a huge number of poor reviews on a popular website. Naturally, the people thinking about buying this phone will think twice about doing so if it seems to have a uniformly negative rating. In this case, a company might begin engaging in stealth marketing by posting its own, positive reviews of the phone in order to counteract the negative ones that are piling up.

In this case, stealth marketing is almost certainly unethical. After all, the phone is obviously a poorly made product if so many people feel compelled to write drastically negative reviews about it. Others who are considering purchasing it in order to make an informed decision put their trust in the premise that the reviews are made by average, every day people – not marketing personnel. Without full disclosure, a company that posts positive reviews and ratings about its own products is actively deceiving the buying public.

Social Networking And Stealth Marketing

Stealth marketing may be performed in a number of different ways. The Internet has made it far easier to engage in, but there are ways of doing it through print media and even in person as well. Each different type of product generally requires a subtly different approach in order to use stealth marketing for maximum effect. The fact that it can be done in so many different ways is certainly a big contributor to the public’s growing lack of trust in advertisers.

In addition to posting positive reviews and ratings on various websites, the Internet can be used to perform stealth marketing in countless other ways. Social networking websites can be used to great effect in such efforts. Companies can create multiple fictional characters and give them profiles on a handful of such sites. Over time, they can build up large friends’ lists or a lot of followers; gradually, they can begin sending out links to products they really enjoy using – but that are actually well camouflaged advertisements.

As with all types of stealth marketing, creating fake profiles on social networking sites creates a false sense of trust between the consumer and the fictional character. When done correctly, the people this fictional character befriends never realizes that they are entirely fabricated; they may even begin respecting their opinion, which is the jackpot in terms of stealth marketing. With that kind of trust, the character can then be used to casually mention websites, services, products – anything the company wishes to market – in order to drum up interest in them.

Other Examples Of Stealth Marketing

On many occasions, companies have hired actors to engage in stealth marketing techniques. Sony Ericsson used 60 actors in 2002 in ten different cities to market a new camera phone. These actors would approach random strangers, asking them to take their picture. In doing this, the actors could engage the strangers in the benefits of their “cool new Sony Ericsson phone”, for example. This would plant the seeds in peoples’ minds about the benefits of the phone, and in some cases may have encouraged them to buy one of their own.

Longtime bloggers who have achieved respectable followings are occasionally recruited by companies for stealth marketing campaigns. These bloggers are paid by the companies to write positive posts about their experiences with a company’s products, services or events. When done correctly, the readership of the blog never realizes that they are being advertised to; the key to this type of stealth marketing is maintaining the same tone regular readers are used to, and making a believable post about the benefits of the product in question.

Whether or not one believes stealth marketing is ethical, what’s undeniable is that it can backfire. Anyone who chooses to use this marketing technique needs to be supremely careful not to reveal the company’s identity. Consumers who discover they have been surreptitiously advertised to usually form very negative opinions about the company that pulled the wool over their eyes.

In a word….don’t do it. You’ll only ruin what you’ve worked so hard at developing…trust.

Have you recently received an e-mail titled ‘Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows’ purportedly from microsoft.com?  I just did and here’s what it looks like:

Dear Microsoft Customer,

Please notice that Microsoft company has recently issued a Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows. The update applies to the following OS versions: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Millenium, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista.

Please notice, that present update applies to high-priority updates category. In order to help protect your computer against security threats and performance problems, we strongly recommend you to install this update.

Since public distribution of this Update through the official website http://www.microsoft.com would have result in efficient creation of a malicious software, we made a decision to issue an experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft Windows OS users.

As your computer is set to receive notifications when new updates are available, you have received this notice. In order to start the update, please follow the step-by-step instruction:

1. Run the file, that you have received along with this message.
2. Carefully follow all the instructions you see on the screen.

If nothing changes after you have run the file, probably in the settings of your OS you have an indication to run all the updates at a background routine. In that case, at this point the upgrade of your OS will be finished.

We apologize for any inconvenience this back order may be causing you.

Thank you,

Steve Lipner
Director of Security Assurance
Microsoft Corp.

This is not from Microsoft obviously as they noted and should be deleted asap.

These fake e-mails claim they are part of a new “experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft Windows OS users.” The e-mail instructs the end user to download an attachment, which is actually a malicious Trojan Horse program known as Win32/Haxdoor.  This software records sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers and sends this data back to the attackers who are running the scam.

In a recent blog posting on the scam Microsoft spokesman Christopher Budd, commented, “As a matter of company policy, Microsoft will never send you an executable attachment.”  The only e-mails Microsoft does send out are to users who have opted-in to receive security notification by e-mails from TechNet Security Center and these emails are in plain text and never contain any sort of attachment.

When Pepperjam launched Pepperjam Network earlier this year I was still in Iraq and only had a chance to sign up for the new affiliate network.  After returning back from my deployment and getting around to catching up on an obscene amount of backlog I finally got around to poking around the Pepperjam Network.

Logging into the affiliate control panel I was immediately impressed with the technology and detail.  Everything you need to run a successful affiliate marketing campaign is immediately at your disposal in an aesthetically pleasing layout.

Pepperjam has secured some HUGE merchant/retailer names.  Looking through their list of advertisers you’ll see many of the same wildly popular advertisers you love to promote and some interesting new advertisers in very specialized niche markets you may not be familiar with like Andy’s Airplanes.

In my opinion one of the best features of this affiliate network is pepperjamADS.

“pepperjamADS is an affiliate marketing widget that you can use to serve customized contextual ads from one or multiple Pepperjam Network advertisers at the same time. The ad units come in various shapes and sizes. You can mix and mash ads from any of your merchant partners. For instance, you can create a fashion widget by selecting various ads from multiple fashion merchants. Likewise, you can create a specific widget with ads from any one merchant.”

If you haven’t already signed up for the Pepperjam Network…what are you waiting for?  Pepperjam’s 2008 Inc. 500 ranking is #70 with three-year revenue growth of 2,447.5%.  Pepperjam ranks as one of the top 100 fastest growing privately-held companies in the United States of America!

So Google Chrome has burst onto the scene directly threatening Microsoft and not to mention my beloved FireFox. Sure, webmasters have already found exploits and java security holes in Chrome but that is to be expected.

So when the dust settles and the bugs are worked out what will Microsoft do?  They’ve sat on their laurels long enough without major progressive improvements to Internet Explorer, so this move by Google shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

Check out the below video courtesy of Chris Pirillo.

Operating systems are soon going the way of the DoDo.  But is Google really that close to moving your operating system online?

There are thousands of bloggers all over the internet keeping blogs on subjects ranging from poetry to car maintenance, raising chickens to Civil War history.  It’s easy and free to set up a blog but if you want your blog to make money for you, there are two easy ways to do that.

Make Money with Craigslist and Google Adsense

Craigslist is an online local advertising board, much like the little ads and notes found tacked on the community board at your local supermarket.  There is a Craiglist in most major communities in the United States and Canada.  On Craigslist, you can post items or services for sale.  You can also post wanted notices and advertise upcoming events.

There are two ways to make money with Craigslist: the direct way and the indirect way.  If you sell products or services through your blog or website, you can post items for sale in their appropriate categories and post a link back to your blog if people need more information.

Another method of making money using Craigslist is the indirect method. This is how you can make money with Craigslist and Google Adsense.

There is a forum section on Craigslist where participants can discuss just about anything.  If you become an active participant in the Craigslist forums, you can post your blog link in your signature line so that people are aware that it exists without the hard sell.  Along with the link to the blog, include a short phrase that explains what you are selling so that potential customers know why they need to click on the link.  Note that just like in any other forum, spamming Craigslist forums with links without participating in discussions is considered bad form and can get you banned from Craigslist.  Done correctly, however, promoting your products and services on Craigslist is a worthwhile marketing activity.

Posting an ad on Craigslist is easy.  Go to www.craigslist.com and select your state and the nearest city to you. Find the category that best describes your product or service.  Some categories are very specific and some are broad “catch-alls” where you can post a wider variety of items for sale.  If you are promoting an event on your blog such as a rock concert, there is a “Communities” space where you can list upcoming events, seminars, and other activities.

Make Money with Craigslist and Google Adsense with very little effort once the program is set up.  By combining both Craigslist and Google Adsense you can make even more money on your blog or website with targeted traffic.  Obviously you will make more money with Adsense the more people you have on the site.  You can drive traffic to your blog site with a Craigslist postings thereby increasing the chances that readers will see ads on your site that interest them.  This is no big secret but amazingly marketers still do not use this free marketing tool.

Making money with Craigslist and Google Adsense is easy and profitable. Once set up, these programs can be effective tools in your ethical marketing plan.

A side project of mine, Free Advertising Blog, has recently moved into the 4th natural search position on Yahoo! out of over 2.4 billion competing web sites for ‘free advertising’.  I thought that was pretty cool; so I took a closer to see how I was ranking on some other terms and noticed I was ranking on the first page for a slew of other search terms related to free advertising.  View screenshot HERE.

Over the last few months I noticed a decent increase in site traffic (along with some revenue) from this free advertising service:

Yep, nothing to quit your day job over but nevertheless a nice increase in web site traffic for virtually no work accept approving classified ads.  I figured this increase was coming from Yahoo! so I checked into the stats (like we all do) just a little bit more:

I have to admit I really wasn’t surprised to see that Google was still dominating Yahoo! in natural search referrals.  Even being positioned on the second page of Google is better than being listed on the first page of Yahoo!.

No sir, I’m not looking the gift horse in the mouth, it just never ceases to amaze me how powerful Google has become over the last 10 years it”s been online.  No competition.

Viral marketing can make magic for any type of web site, business, or product. It has the potential to be a huge source for sales leads, targeted traffic, and on-way links. Surprisingly, tons of marketers are not taking the full benefits of this viral factor within their marketing efforts.

Most marketers deem viral marketing a myth, or an Internet folly that works once in a blue moon when an amazing product or web site turns up.

Realistically, viral marketing techniques can be applied to any type of web site, either big or small. These techniques can be used by anybody who is willing to put in the time put in use a few simple steps. Viral marketing that is done right can have amazing benefits, such as:

-build your brand or name recognition
-enhance your one way link popularity
-boost targeted traffic to your site
-automate your marketing attempts

Here are a few straightforward viral marketing techniques that you can try out on your web site, business, or product:

1. Spread the Word
Everyone has seen what word of mouth can do for all types of products. It is amazing what happens when people talk about a great gadget or movie and out of no where everybody knows all about it. It is in our human nature to tell everybody we know about any kind of amazing product we have found or bought. So, why not go ahead and take advantage of it?

Placing a straightforward “Tell a Friend” form on your web site is an easy way for your visitors to spread the word about your web site. Many internet marketers do not take advantage of this type of form. You can do the same thing to all of your newsletters, services, product, or any other aspect of your web site… at the end of all copies just add a few sentences asking nicely for your visitors to refer their friends if they found your service, site, or product helpful or useful.

2. Brand Your Site
It is very important to have some sort of logo on your product or web site. Branding all of your stuff is dire for people to take notice and become interested. Having a captivating brand name can be thought as a very “viral technique” within itself; so try to think of something that catches attention and has an original ring to it.

Branding gives people a clear picture of your product or site. People distinguish brands, so include your logo or brand on everything that is being produced from your business.

3. Ebooks
Knowledgeable marketers have sprung onto this new creation very quickly; they recognize the “viral” power that eBooks have to a business.

Ebooks are simply electronic documents that anyone can download from any type of web site and can be circulated around the web. Webmasters or marketers can also re-brand eBooks with their very own links. Ebooks that have high quality information get passed around the web extremely quickly and are amazing viral tools.

Anybody can go ahead and write their own eBook on the topic of their web site. For someone that is not writer savvy they can get permission to exploit a collection of articles that have already been written from the multiple article directories around the web. Two very popular article directories are: www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com. Software for eBook compiling is pretty cheap and you can usually find it for free on the internet.

4. Viral Marketing Software
Many effortless software applications and products can be extremely viral and are often handed around or downloaded via the internet by thousands every day. These products are always something that most user’s desire: organizers, ecalenders, link checking software, personal planners, and so on. Most are simple desktop goods that stay on the user’s computer desktop, which happens to b e the most important location in the marketing stadium.

The preeminent examples of viral marketing software always have the business’s logo, contact email, and sales message…. All include live links to each of the above…. Which happens to be conveniently displayed somewhere within the product. Software programs such as these can be extremely useful viral promotional devices that can expand quickly throughout the web.

5. RSS
RSS is the newest addition to viral marketing techniques. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it is an awesome viral marketing tool. RSS was originally used by many news crews to syndicate all of their news stories. It is also connected to Blogs since the use an RSS feed to hand out their content. RSS feeds that have a high quality are selected and put on display by a variety of different sites all over the internet.

If you have yet to gear up for RSS you should get started. You can simply use a site such as blogger.com (possessed by Google) which will provide you with a basic blog and RSS feed, so you can extend your product and/or message to targeted parties.

6. Video Seeding
Create videos utilizing popular video generation software such as Camtasia Studio.  Camtasa enables you to produce killer screen recording videos how to videos, product reviews, etc.  With an informative video posted (called seeding) to a popular video web site such as YouTube, MetCafe etc you can watch your traffic explode.

These are just a few viral marketing techniques out there that can help you increase your presence on the web, boost your traffic, and amplify your links. When used properly, these techniques will jump start your web site and spread it all over the internet and around the world.

While catching up with launching a slew of new unique content niche web sites, after my long deployment to Iraq, I came across www.TextBroker.com.  All I can say is WOW! After working with numerous other web publishing agencies, freelance web sites and ghost writer services nothing even comes close to the speed, efficiency and professionalism of of TextBroker.com custom articles.

With 100+ domains sitting in my Keyword Discovery account, with anywhere from 500-1000 long tail keywords mined in each, it can be EXTREMELY expensive and time consuming to generate and launch so many quality unique content web sites…without a full time staff of authors.

In the past I would use rentacoder.com and a few others but the the time it took to set up a project, accept a bid and receive the end product often took more time than I was willing to spend. The beauty of TextBroker.com is simply this:

1. You generate individual article marketing projects for each of your domains.
2. You set the article parameters for each individual project which includes: completion time frame, article length; the long tail keywords you want used for each individual article; submit a quick blurb indicating the overall feel of the articles; and choose the professionalism level from 1-5 of the particular project (5 being most professional but a little more expensive).
3. Then you just sit back and let TextBroker.com tell you when an article has been completed by one of their 100′s of authors thus allowing you to focus on more keyword research, marketing, etc.

No more waiting for individual authors to complete your project.  With TextBroker.com you have an army of authors at your disposal to knock out even your most daunting article marketing campaigns.  And, when you find extremely good authors (I’ve found quite a few so far) you can add them as favorites and directly submit them a new project.

If you haven’t tried this ghost writer service yet I highly recommend you give them a try.  Their flat rate fees are:

What Makes Them Even Cooler?

• 100% US Based Authors
• Direct Author/Client Messaging
• Exclusive rights to your content
• Articles reviewed by TextBroker .com staff for quality, grammatical errors, etc.
• Internet copyright-check of articles verified by CopyScape

Go test their service out right now on a small campaign you already know is a profitable niche or just have them write up some fresh articles for your preexisting site(s) to see if you like the results.  After that I’m pretty sure you’ll be hooked. 

Seriously, what would you rather be spending your time on?  Auction sites are great for software, eBooks, applications etc. but for articles I can’t think of a better solution (besides a personal staff on payroll) than www.TextBroker.com.  Cheers!

OH HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE! Only in my wildest internet marketing dreams did I ever imagine making $4800, $9,600 heck even $19,200 per month from simply placing some silly little links on my website!  LOL.

WOW, look at the e-mail I just received!  (Your spam checker probably saved you.)

Hi,

We’ve seen your website at http://www.top-affiliate.com/blog/ and we love it!
We see that your traffic rank is 191851
and your link popularity is 226.
Also, you have been online since 8/29/2004.

With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website.

If you’re interested, read our terms from this page: http://www.contactthem. com/affiliateLink

Sincerely,

“SPAM TEAM”
The ContactThem Network

So after having a good solid laugh at this e-mail curiosity got the best of me and off I wandered over to ContactThem to see what this nonsense was all about.

Once you get to the pitch page you find out that ContactThem (according to them) is the fastest growing program since Google Adwords.  Get out, surely you jest! But it gets better.  They also claim they are as viral as Hotmail.  Wow, that’s a pretty modest claim.  =)

Blah, blah, blah…blah, blah, blah…Oh wait a minute, what’s this asterisk?  Ahh, those were potential earnings!  You almost tricked me ContactThem!

Basically this spam and scam product is a lead generating software for, yep you guessed it, MULTI LEVEL MARKETING (MLM), which we all know preys on the new opportunity seeker or affiliate marketer.  This software extracts details out of numerous databases and allows you to do a mass mailing with the gleaned personalized information.  Talk about your laser targeted leads, LOL!

Since I really despise MLM I wanted to see who was responsible for this debacle.  Ahh it makes sense now….it’s Stephan Ducharme the notorious FreeAdGuru who’s claim to fame was repackaging free traffic generating methods as “secrets” almost 10 years ago.

Evidently these spam and scam e-mails have been flying around since late February ’08 when I was over in Iraq so this is probably old news to most.  However, hopefully someone will read this and be saved from the hype and nonsense still flying around this particular “offer” and be more inquisitive on future too-good-to-be-true offers.

Steer clear people and update your spam filters.