You don’t need a programmer or a graphic designer to make money. (just learn to create optimized landing pages with text).

How To Be Creative (Long Version) - good advice. And he’s not kidding about it being long. This is a great article that I think he should pitch to a magazine. Or it’s the beginning of a book, or ebook. There I go again with my ideas…

http://www.xanga.com/macdaddydwj/432777305/how-to-be-creative-long-version.html

Daniel (who does the macdaddy blog) points out that he’s reposting the article. Read the original: How to Be Creative.

I seem to be in the middle of these turf wars a lot. This is an excellent article on why companies don’t do natural search marketing: it’s too thorny.

Is there such a thing as a friendly IT department? I want your comments…

http://www.enquiro.com/net-profit/The-Real-Cost-of-SEO.asp

Requirement Two: A Friendly IT Department

Next step, visit the IT department, who has technical ownership of the website, and begin with the question, “How come we don’t rank on the search engines? What’s wrong with our site?” You want to create a sworn IT enemy for life? This is the way to do it. And if this doesn’t work, follow up with the comment, “If you guys can’t do it, we’ll have to find someone who can.” This is generally where my company comes in, right in the middle of a vicious turf war between marketing and IT.

It satisfies the bargain hunter in me. Not only can you use the coupons and deals for your own purchases but they pay you to do it! (most affiliate programs don’t penalize you for using the offers you advertise yourself).

It’s ok (even encouraged) to click on your own links.

http://www.rmama.com/
The Rocky Mountain Affiliate Manager Association meets monthly. The location changes, but it’s in Salt Lake somewhere, from 1-5pm. Companies like Overstock.com and Backcountry.com attend.

If you don’t have an organization like this, start one. It can be very valuable to your affiliate program.

I’m writing about setting up an affiliate program for your small business. I hope to do a follow-up article on how to supplement or replace your day job with affiliate marketing. I also want to do it myself so I understand it from both ends.

I just added an affiliate ad for 3 free audiobooks. When you click this we both win. You get free books (or a good deal on Commcast or web hosting, etc) and I get a small commission for referring you. Win-win.

I want to learn more about co-registration…so when someone signs up for a newsletter they can sign up for yours too. It’s a way to leverage each other’s lists.

Google AdSense Kicked Me Off - How I got Back On

I hear I'm one of few people ever who has ever gotten back on AdSense. The word is it doesn't work any more, that Google doesn't respond. I'm not a fan of the way this is handled but thankful to be back on. First off, I had someone back me who makes Google a lot of money. He wrote first, vouching for me.

Often you get kicked off because of click fraud and its often out of your control.

I was off for at least a month. Then my friend wrote a letter appealing the decision. I followed up with my own a letter. I was back on the next day. My account was the same as before I got kicked off (it's against Google's policy or I'd tell you and it would make you laugh).

Google asked me to email the following information to  adsense-adclicks-appeal@google.com:

1. My name
2. My company's name (if applicable)
3. My publisher ID number (located in the AdSense code on your website with the format, pub-################)
4. My website's URL
5. An explanation of what happened or why you want back on.

I also explained I didn't knowingly break any rules. Plus, I made so little I have no incentive to commit fraud. If I were going to commit fraud I hope it would be worth my while!

All that I can think is I accidentally clicked on my own ad (I clicked my mouse & it was near the ad space).

Google should be more transparent with a clear reason and appeals process. It's not fair that one allegation could permanently shut you out of this great revenue stream.

If you got kicked off, let me know what happened. Was it permanent? How did you get back on? 

 Affiliate Summit Report

I dug (remember to put google alerts on these names) the presentation by Fredrick Marckini of iprospect.com. He collected business cards at the end of his talk so he could send us a white paper (smart) of his presentation. He shook everyone’s hand and greeted most by name. Impressed.

He spoke about the end of search. Next stop: intelligent agents that tell you what to look at based on your preferences.

Another one that blew me away is Jeff Barr from Amazon.com. Mechanical Turk has to have other applications and could spon additional business models in the non-techie world.

I was impressed by what some of Amazon’s affiliates were doing with one-page niche sites. I’ll put a link to some of them once I have more time.

Declan Dunn from Dunn Direct Group was dynamic and insane. I loved it! Think aging hippie. He talked about podcasting. You learn most when you hear it. Most people don’t read text and the retention rate is tiny.

Good to be back to 24/7 internet access. More later…

The Affiliate Summit conference is amazing so far. Will blog more when I get home. Amazon.com web services guy blew me away. He challenged my thinking.

Avon does co-branded emails with MyPoints and others traditional marketers (should’ve written the whole list…Clubmom was on there…bingo sites).

Can’t wait for tomorrow’s class on how adult industry marketers work. They invented it and are cutting edge, along with the Christian Coalition. While I’m in sin city I may as well learn from the pros…

Definately my crowd here. This is my passion. Starting to see the same faces as at the Ad-tech show. Found an affiliate marketer in Draper to interview for Connect. Found Pete and guys from Paul Allen’s class. Idea to start job site modeled after Amazon’s model, push and pull jobs. Want to podcast….mmmmmmmm….eat this stuff up.

Dream jobs: affiliate marketer or buzz marketer. Love to create buzz…

This entry was blogged from the Apple store on the strip…