I found something online saying I could get Google AdWords credit. I signed up. I'm a sucker for a deal. I used to run a deal email list called scrapdogs – we lived off the scraps corporations threw out in the early 90s. I think the coupon mania funded most of my Christmas that year. What it failed to understand is that the credit wasn't in US dollars, it's in Indian Rupees.

I'm not Indian, I'm not planning on running an AdWords campaign for India. If you are I'll be happy to give you my coupon code.

eFax vs. FaxPipe

Have you ever tried Efax? I have. Frustration (maybe it's my Mac?). I call customer service and it's always someone from India. We can't understand or communicate well. The instructions he gave me failed. I wasted a few hours on it!

Plus eFax sends me spam faxes almost every day.

Compare eFax with FaxPipe. I signed up, they called me to see if I needed help. It's easy to use. It's cheaper. The customer service is US-based. I haven't gotten a single spam fax because they don't send it.

FaxPipe is $8.95 a month up to send/recieve 1000 faxes. This is for a local or a toll free number. Archiving, pager alert, and other features included. You can send and recieve faxes through email. You don't need a landline or phone. You just need email. You email your document and it prints on the recipients fax machine. The person getting your fax can't tell the difference.

This is the best deal I've seen for efaxes.

Incidently I met the CEO and some of the staff today for lunch. Great guys. Call them at (888) 530-9100 and tell them Janet sent you.

After you try FaxPipe, let me know what you think. I researched it and this is the best I've found so far. The other company I tried ended up being owned by eFax.

No matter what service you choose, sign up a free trial to check it out before you commit and get the number on your business cards. I hate to admit but I use eFax to get faxes, because it's free. I'll send faxes with my VoIP line. 

Are you organizing an event? RegOnline tracks registrations online for you. It will eliminate a lot of headaches keeping track of everything yourself. You just focus on making a quality conference or event.

You can:

• Accept credit card payments online.
• Set different prices for different people.
• Make the registration page look like it’s part of your web site, with your logo and color scheme.
• Print name badges.
• Register vendors and collect sponsor payments.
• Auto Email reminders before the event. Follow-up emails after the event.
• Advanced reporting features.
• Registrants can cancel or change their registration online at any time.
• FREE TRIAL

It costs $150 initially then $3 per person who registers. No need to handle cash or get a merchant account if you sign up for a business account with Paypal.
With RegOnline you can also collect and keep track of membership dues for an organization, association, or group (different pricing applies).

Learn more about online event registration on the RegOnline web site. They have videos that explain everything clearly.

The founders of Xango, Omniture, and others won the Utah Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. There's also a scrapbooking company on the list. In all there were 15 chosen in different categories. I haven't heard of the winner of the master entreprenuer award: Will West of Control4. I'll have to check out Control4.

Deseret News covered the event. Paul Allen was there and describes it in a recent post. Paul blogged it and his mission to help entrepreneurs with his incubator Provo Labs. 

I have a secret guilt over not having my own domain name for my blog. It's registered www.newspapergrl.com but nothing's there. I want to mirror my Word Press site but do more with the look.

Today I found Susan Mernit's blog. She uses Blogger. She's pretty savvy. If she can get away with it, can't I?

The advantage of Blogger or another free blogging service is low maintence and no Google Sandbox time.

Anyone out there gone from a free template blog site to their own domain and hosted blog? Did it help? Did you keep your old blog?

What is the difference between network marketing (MLM) and affiliate marketing?

I've wanted to write an article about this for some time. I worked for an MLM for two years. If I wrote it then it meant PR would have to review every word. That didn't appeal to me.

MLMs don't usually facilitate doing business online. Instead they offer online business-building tools (which cost an extra fee). In MLM you often pay for information on how to run your business.

In essence distributors can be like affiliates who would help leverage a brand online.
At the MLM I worked for, distributors sold online with some success, but often they already had big downlines. They usually didn't sell product, they sold a dream, a dream of becoming rich. A dream of freedom to own your own business. Affiliate marketing shares the same dream but the way it happens is very different.

I found Jay Weintraub's blog with a great article on the subject.

To me the biggest differences are:

• Loyalty. Affiliates don't have to become customers of companies they represent. They can represent many different companies, even direct competitors. MLMs usually require that you purchase product from them every month.
• MLMs market to their own distributors. As an affiliate the merchants I represent don't try to get me to purchase product or services from them.
• Distributors handle customer service and manage their downlines. Affiliates often don't interface with customers and don't provide customer service. That is left to the merchants.

This is getting long, so I will continue on another page… Read more…

In honor of Father's Day here is a quote from Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of GoDaddy.com. His blog is insightful and he has guts. "Dad" is in his business name. How appropriate. He claims it has nothing to do with his dad, who he obviously admires.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Your family is so affected by you, so be the best dads possible. I got my dad an itunes gift certificate so he could get an audiobook for the iPod nano he got for Christmas.

Check out LifeHacker's collection of funny Father's Day card finds. 

And now for the quote, which applies to people and business:

"If you love something, it tells you all its secrets"

I went to RMAMA (the secret society of affiliate managers) today at 1800Contacts. That means I got to eat at their cafeteria, which I'd only read about. Incidently I like working at places with cafeterias (Novell, Tahitian Noni Cafe).

Gary and Scott from Avant Link spoke about their affiliate marketing network. They take content sites which are established with a lot of traffic and help them monetize them with customizable datafeeds. They have coupon feeds and real time product feeds. So when a product is out of stock it drops off the feed.

Avant Link reviews every affiliate and program for quality. They have great tools and customer service. They are affiliates themselves and help affiliates who are either established or show good potential.

The bad part is a lot of their merchants have low payouts (8-10%). Maybe datafeeds have better conversion rates to make up for it? Of course top affiliates usually negoiate higher payouts.

Here’s a list of Utah Bloggers. If you’re not on it but want to be, email me (grocerybike at gmail.com). I hope to meet many more Utah Bloggers, and bloggers all over. It’s a great community, one that needs more coverage in the press.

Aaron Toponce

Alex Lawrence Franchising King

Andrew Branch, Love Your Song

Belicove – Blog Strategist Mikal Belicove

Blake Snow – entreprenuer

Blue Roof Real Estate Blog

Bob Aagard, His thoughts

Brad McCall – The Daily Brad – Design

Bradley Ross, Hot Blava

Buzzbooster – internet marketing

Dayton Merril Brandon

Brandon Sanderson (science fiction & fantasy author)

Brian Sweeting – IT Guru

Brock Blake, FundingUniverse

Carolynn Duncan – veering towards techie entrepreneurship

Chad Blodgett, Weight LossWars

Charley Foster, The State of the Beehive

Chris Knudsen – business & marketing

Chris Sandberg Entrepreneur

Christer Edwards Development Blog

Clint Carlos, GarageMahal

Clint Savage, Nitwit Circus Tracks

Corey Edwards

Dan Hanks, Brainshed Blog

Dave Bascom Targeted

Dave Fletcher’s Government and Technology Blog

Dave Smith

Dax Kelson

Deanna Taylor, Her Thoughts

Democracy for Utah

Derek Carter Goozbach’s Tech Tips

MidMarketMaven – Thorpe Capital

Doran Barton, FozzilinyMoo.org

Easton Ellsworth

Elijah Newren

Eric Hamilton, Knobtweakers.net

Eric James Stone (science fiction & fantasy author)

Erin Sharmahd, TuxGirl.com

Ethan Millard, SLC Spin

Evan McNabb

Gabriel Gunderson

Gary Thornock’s Weblog

Hans Fugal, The Fugue

HarleyPig’s Stall On The Web

Howard Tayler (web cartoonist)

InsideUtah.com

J. Max Wilson

Jacob Fugal, Jacob’s Blog

Jacob Hanson, HireVue

Jamis Buck, 37Signals

Janet Meiners Internet Marketing

Jared Smith

Jared Van Orden, Weber Entrepreneur

Jason Alba, JibberJobber job networking

Jason Hall

Jeff Barson, NimbleIt

Jeff Jordan, Entrepreneurship

Jen’s Green Journal

Jeremy Votaw

Jesse Stay, Stay N’ Alive

Jim Knowlton, Beehive Donkey

JMD Utah Centralist

John Dougall, Dynamic Range

John Jonas, SEO

Jordan Gunderson, Jordy Blog

Joseph Hall blog

Judd Bagley, BusinessJive

Justin Bergener, VIPBloggers.com

Kalyn’s Kitchen

KCPW’s Midday Metro

Ken, Oblogatory Anecdotes

Kevin Tew, Entrepreneurship: Life Long Learning

Kevin Welleitner, Utah Outdoor Guru

Kyle Brantley Boredom

Kevin Delaney

Lamont Peterson Peregrine

Laugh out Loud

Lars Rasmussen, Musings from Lars

Lee Jensen, Serenity Now!

Liberty For Utahns!

Lonnie Olson Kittypee

Marc Christensen Mecworks

Mark Towner, Political Blogger

Mat Siltala’s seo blog

Matt Asay, Open Source

Matt Sederberg, Entrepreneur

Matthew Whiting, Provo Blogger

Michael Eager

Michael Ebert, Internet Marketing

Mike Smullin, Web Design

AgoraCart, E-commerce

One Utah

Pat Eyler On Ruby

Paul Allen, Provo Labs

Paul Rolly, GenRolly Speaking

Pete Ashdown’s Campaign Journal

Peter Abilla

Peter A. Bowen

Phil Burns, web 2.0 programmer

Phil Windley’s Technometria

Richard K. Miller , More Good Foundation

Latham Rob Latham’s blog

Rob Merrell, Robdor The Burninator

Rob Merrill Recruiting

Rob Miller, The Utah Amicus

Romay Allen, Entrepreneur

Russell Page, Politis Communications

Ryan Byrd – blogging for over 2 years

Ryan Hutchings Marketing

Ryan Money, HireVue

Scott Lemon, IT Guru

Scott Morris, SUSE Linux Rants

Scott Paul Robertson, The Ramblings

Shawn Nelson, LoveSac

Spencer Ellsworth (science fiction & fantasy author)

Stenar

Stephen Shaw, Decriptor’s Blog

Steve Browne, Solo Business Owner

Steve Dibb

Steve Obiter Dicta

Steve Spigarelli

Steve Urquhart

Stuart Jansen

Thad Van Ry Davis County Blogger

The Divided State Filmmakers

The Fight Club

The Real Estate Spot

Tweet Sweet – Chocolate and Candy Blog

Tristan Rhodes, The Open Source Advocate

Utah Conservative

Utah House of Representatives

Utah Senate

Von Fugal Blog

Will Allred, FirePoll

There was pizza on the tables. There were big names, no names, and everyone in between. Utahns who blog, want to blog, or who are curious about blogging. We were all in Salt Lake tonight to shop talk.

There were early adopters like Phil Windley. Political bloggers (the amazing Pete Ashdown), tech bloggers, bloggers who get paid per post, women who blog (link for Nancy Mitchell’s blog anyone??). Over one hundred Utah bloggers came to talk, listen, and learn.

I said hello to Phil Burns (Thanks for the plug for my blog. I nominate you as one of Utah’s coolest dads.), Michael Eager, Paul Allen, John Jonas, and Chris Knudson. I also met Ryan Money, one of the organizers and Easton Ellsworth. Also, Collin Kelly and Jennifer Black from Connect. Last, I met mother/daughter team Shahar and Nashlah Boyayan, passionate podcasters.

Read another take on it in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Quotes (there were a lot more I didn’t get down):

“Communication and understanding is the foundation of peace.”
- Pete Ashdown talking about how blogging gives us glimpses into ordinary lives of people around the world. We begin to relate to them and see them as real. It’s tough to make war with friends.

“You can make money from your blog or because of your blog.”
- Phil Windley on how his blog has led to speaking engagements. “Before I blogged nobody called me up to speak. I was the same guy.” Now 35% of his income is a result of his blog.

Most people focus on making money from their blog. Adsense is UGLY and ads can clutter (see my last blog). I want to make money because of my blog mostly. Even if I didn’t make a cent off my blog, I’d do it for the fun of it. Or, just for the great people I’ve met as a result of my blog.

There will be a full blown Utah Bloggers Conference in the next 6 months. This was a great kickoff. In an effort to post more images on my blog, I’ll put up a photo of me in the t-shirt they gave us. It’s a self portrait using iphoto on my new MacBook Pro.