Affiliate Marketing Summit

It's funny I was thinking today, this is what I want to do in the company...be an affiliate marketing manager and manage relationships with affiliates. I don't know if it will work for our business model but I want to see if I can find others doing it.

Then my boss asks me, what would you most like to do here? I had a ready answer. My second choice is to run an email marketing program. I like affiliate marketing better because of the personal relationships you can build with your affiliates. I love talking to people, not just my coworkers or at a computer all day.

I also got a press pass to an affiliate marketing conference in January in Vegas. I'm excited. I wish I could find $500 to go to the Google Adsense boot camp too. But still...great day.

You know these are my type of people when nothing starts until 10am. The last conference I attended started at 8:30. I don't like to converse or be cheery before 9am. Now for a hotel and ride.

Google - free web analytics tool

They did it. Google bought Urchin for web stats and today announced they have refined it. Plus it's free. Another way google is taking over the world and remaking it.

Liz Ryan

I heard Liz Ryan speak this week. Soooo refreshing. A great wit. She speaks about all the books about how women need to change to fit into the business world. How come there are no books telling men what they need to fix about themselves to succeed in business?

She rejects the notion that we need to change to fit in or be successful in our careers.

"What women bring to the table is what the business world desperately needs: passion, intuition, non-linear logic, insight, pluck."

Marketers know women often control how money is spent, esp. in families. My company mainly sells to women but our top salepeople are men. Something is disconnected here. Shouldn't women, allowed to be who they are in the workforce, be the best resource about marketing to other women?

Pret - great company

When I'm in England next I'd like to visit this restaurant - Pret. That's how good their marketing is. Just read their recipes (well-written, well-presented, and weaved with great marketing). The jobs page is full of branding...they measure things, they're open about it. I dare other companies to follow. They have an internet mind (open with information). Love Cats. I want to work for a company that thinks like this.

From their web site:

"We have good jobs for good people making great food. Pret is a private company determined never to forget that our wonderful hardworking people make all the difference. They are our heart and soul. When they care, our business is sound. If they stop caring, our business goes down the drain.

We pay our hardworking, wonderful staff as much as we can afford rather than as little as we can get away with. We invest in, train and develop our people (75% of our managers were promoted from Team Leaders). The average hourly rate during 2004 for our Team Members (with 6 months' service) was £6.60 per hour. Many get over £7 an hour, it depends. The average salary (including bonus) for General Managers during 2004 was £26,000 pa. "

ethics in business

"We have set our expectations so high that it's causing societal problems, such as a breakdown in ethics."

- Utah Business Magazine, "Industry Outlook"

Expectations. Raising the bar. Our barometer of what's important is messed up. Bottom line thinking.

One of my favorite quotes is:

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey...delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed." –Gordon B. Hinckley

The beautiful vistas are what we live for. This reminds me of Nancy Griffith's line, "they never want the rain to come or the weather to get colder". We want clear sunny skies in life and yet we can't fully appreciate them unless we have other weather too.

search engine marketing

I'm into search engine marketing. Example: my writeup.com blog (see last post) got over 80% click through rate yesterday. That is very high. Almost everyone who got to my blog entry clicked on a link. I love search engine marketing! Once you understand the way it works you can really increase your earnings. I still have a long way to go but I have made a lot of headway. I don't actually know how to tell exactly what link or blog entry was so popular. I need to check that out.

Work at Home

I want to work at home, at least part of the time, eventually. I started this blog is to keep writing, to have a record of my life, and to connect with others. If I make any money on it, great. It's not my prime objective.

Work at Home
This isn't going to make enough to quit your job (at least not at first, lol). It's a good way to earn side income.

My friend Jonas is a great internet marketer. He makes loads of cash on his work at home efforts. He writes programs to automate search engine principles. He created a blogging site called Writingup.com. Since he's essentially a programmer, so the site design is nothing fancy.

It could take a long time to get enough traffic on your own blog. The advantage of going with the Jonas model is that you take advantage of his traffic and techniques (I guarantee he knows what he's talking about).

Research your subject on overture.com to see how to describe it as people search. Use the right words in your title, bold it as a headline, and mention it in the text. He also gives a bunch of suggestion of profitable terms to write about (like WORK AT HOME, lol).

Yesterday I made more than I've ever made in a day on adsense. I'm pumped about it. Blogging is great practice writing anyway, now if I make a little money, great.

Try it and tell me what you think.

networking tips

I'm reading the book Never Eat Alone. It's about networking or actively getting to know and taking interest in other people (which sounds less corporate and self-centered). It talks about how the rich have a network of trusted people they can turn to at any time. The rules in life become more fluid for them because of relationships.

I have let my networks fade as I've focused too heavily on a few things in my life. I want to get myself back into networking mode.

How to From Buzzoodle:

Networking Tips (some business, some personal/both):

• Help other people be successful (I think women are esp. gifted at doing this)
  
• Superior Customer Service (a form of marketing/competitive advantage in a business and in relationships: following up, checking in, being aware of needs, etc)
  
• Superior Product with unexpected benefits
• Do the unexpected and make someone's day
• Publicly recognize other people
• Introduce people that you know that should know each other
• Be open, honest and human (or in other words, be yourself)
  
• Ask people what it would take to have them recommend you or introduce you to their friends (great tip...when you ask, you get more than if you never ask)
  
• Constantly perfect your networking and communication efforts (read: Cruical Conversations)