A little over a year ago I posted about how I was taking my life back – making a lot of changes and figuring out what was next. Changes sure as hell have been made. :) And now it’s time to let you know about them and what they mean for me as an individual AND for the Sugarrae site.
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If you’ve been in the affiliate game for any length of time as an affiliate that relies on organic SEO for traffic, then you’ve probably had a conversation with your affiliate friends about Google’s Authorship Markup. Recently, SEOMoz did a post labeling the effect of Authorship Markup in the Google algorithm as AuthorRank.
Much of the post is well-educated speculation, but the organic affiliate community often relies on educated and experienced speculation. I always try to think as a search engine and how I would prevent me from circumventing the algorithm and in this case, I think Tom Anthony has the general direction Google is heading correct.
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Call it an SID, CID, MID, TID, … but no matter what you call sub campaign affiliate link tracking, you damn sure better be using it.
Sub campaign tracking is critical in helping you determine which affiliate links on your site are working and which aren’t, rather than using a generic link site-wide that only shows you what your website makes as a whole with each program.
Unfortunately, almost every network calls sub campaign tracking something different, has a different way to implement it, has different ways and options of viewing sub campaign reporting and usually doesn’t promote the feature (well anyway) to new affiliates. I often have to dig to find the proper method for each network if it’s been a while since the last time I’d used it.
Below you’ll find the method of creating sub campaign ID links for each of the 6 “bigger” affiliate networks as well as how to view those sub campaign reports with each. This is as much an aggregate “reminder note” for me to be able to reference personally as it is a “how to” post for you. ;-)
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People like something to complain about. Yesterday’s darling (Pinterest) has been coming under fire for (gasp) monetizing their website. While myself (and many other affiliates) had noticed Pinterest’s monetization model not long after the site started to become popular, I first saw the “buzz” going on about it outside of the affiliate marketing community when SEJ published “Pinterest: Covert Affiliate Link Scheme Exposed” earlier this month.
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This post has nothing to do with SEO, but if you have any children, you may find it interesting (and potentially useful one day).
Recently our school board decided that it needed to move some attendance zones around to new schools in order to balance the numbers for each better (so that some are not over-crowded while others are under-capacity).
Now, no one ever likes to change schools for the most part. But in our particular case, the recommendation of the school board for us to be moved was seriously flawed.
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It’s no secret… organization has never been my strong point. For a long time, I’ve been able to try and convince myself I just need to “accept” that I’m not “the organized type”.
But, during 2011, as my businesses kept continually increasing in size, I no longer could look the other way when it came to my organizational dysfunction.
It was time to take some action. Luckily, I figured out that a lot of my disorganization was curable – with the right apps and services.
Below are the business productivity and organizational tools that I find to be not simply good – but incredible – in helping me keep myself (and my businesses) organized, in no particular order.
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After having spent more than a decade in this industry as both an affiliate marketer and a provider of various SEO services, I’ve seen a lot of new folks enter the ranks, with their aim being to become a successful SEO consultant.
And as a result, I’ve seen a lot of things done right – and a lot of things done wrong – as they aim to achieve that goal.
Hoping that people can learn from the mistakes myself and my colleagues often see new SEO consultants make when entering the industry, I recently asked a group of successful search engine marketing folks:
“What is the number one mistake you see new consultants in the search engine marketing space make when attempting to build their consulting business?”
Their answers are below:
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This is not an SEO or affiliate marketing related post per se, but it does touch on a topic that I’m often asked about at conferences, in emails and via my contact forms.
Most of you know that in addition to owning several successful companies that focus on affiliate marketing and SEO, I’m also a mom of four awesome kids ages 14 to (almost) 5 months.
Since I primarily work from my home office (by choice), that also makes me a work at home mom (WAHM).
A question I’m asked very often? How the hell I find time to get everything done. From conference calls, to football practice, to site audits, to hosting sleepovers, to building affiliate websites, to middle of the night feedings, to managing our household, to spending time with my (awesome) husband – it can be a lot to handle.
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I just wanted to take a quick moment and thank everyone who donated to support me in the 2011 Heart and Stroke Walk here in Houston. This past Saturday, my daughter and I (along with my four month old in his stroller) walked five miles to promote increased awareness of heart disease and stroke.
Because of all the awesome people who donated, I was able to reach my 10,000 dollar goal ($10,026 to be exact).
With your help, I was the sixth highest individual fundraiser in all of Houston. :)
Every donation – be it 5 dollars or 500 dollars was greatly appreciated.
A special thanks to Affiliate Summit, DIYThemes, MicroBrand Media, ADIO Chiropractic, Speedy Incorporation, StudioPress and Raven Tools. You guys made donations that went above and beyond and I truly, TRULY appreciate it. :)
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A lot of people question whether or not you can make money with affiliate marketing. A lot more question whether THEY can make money with affiliate marketing. Despite telling my story of coming from nothing to being a very successful affiliate marketer many times, I think a lot of people find it hard to believe that with enough effort, they can really make not only a full time income, but a six figure income, with affiliate marketing.
Many folks think there must be some advantage, some trick, to being able to reach that level of success.
And to be fair, all the bullshit info products from folks who promise you can make 1,000 dollars a week by doing nothing certainly don’t help.
The truth is that affiliate marketing takes work. BUT, if you’re willing to put in that work, you CAN see success. And eventually, you can see a healthy AND passive income.
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