Note: Check this out ASAP, since free access doesn't last forever! This Marketing Sherpa interview shows how one top merchant's managers have developed an affiliate sales force that's responsible for 50% of sales of the company's key software line. Real insights on how affiliate communication, internal teams, and the right kinds of creatives can build a high participation - as well as high revenue - program. http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3171... Read More →

A beta of the new Google Toolbar is now available and worth checking out. It includes time saving features such as online bookmark storage, click-to-send web pages via email, advanced search features, and many other goodies. Check it out here: http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/T4/... Read More →

If you somehow missed your email copy - or prefer to read it online - here's the latest issue of our weekly News For Affiliate Classroom Affiliates. If you're not an affiliate yet, and want to promote one of the highest conversion programs in the industry, sign up here. Affiliate Classroom - News For Our Affiliates Read by our 2,884 valued affiliates each week. Published by Affiliate Classroom, Inc. Anik Singal, CEO and Founder Promote the Magazine - Get Results! As you know we released the January 2006 edition of the Affiliate Classroom magazine around a week ago and it's a HUGE hit. Passing this magazine around is a great way for you to grab a cookie on Affiliate Classroom. If the person you refer comes back and signs-up, you will get your affiliate credit. All you need to do is log-in to your affiliate account and promote "Product #6" under "Links/Ads" Read More →

If you somehow missed your email issue - or prefer to read it online - here is the latest Affiliate Classroom Weekly. Sign up here. Affiliate Classroom Weekly Read by 35,000 hard working affiliates each week. Published by Affiliate Classroom, Inc. Anik Singal, CEO and Founder Quick Tip: Some Unfamiliar Terms Defined An Affiliate Classroom student recently asked for definitions of some terms in the latest issue of our Magazine. Since many beginner affiliates may not be familiar with terms like "backlinks," "organic results," "ping," or "upsell," I posted the definitions here: http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com/2006/01/24/some-questions-from-the-magazine/ Affiliate Marketing Product of the Year Seems like every day a new marketing product hits the streets, doesn't it? Most are so-so, some are useful. But a rare few are absolutely indispensible tools - especi... Read More →

Google launches a new search engine in China to gain access to their over 100 million searchers. However, the catch is that they will have to censor the results according to rules set by the Chinese government. Google will censor searches related to, but not limited to: - Human rights - Tibet - The word "democracy" - and pretty much any other topic sensitive to Beijing MSN reported that within minutes of launching, Google was already finding themselves blocking tons of websites related to the exact topics that were censored. Google has been known to have the motto "Don't be evil." Given that, they're coming under quite a bit of heat for having agreed to this deal. But, let's face it - 100 million searchers! For the entire article, click here...... Read More →

Here's some good news for affiliates everywhere. With funding from Google, Lenovo Group, and Sun Microsystems, Harvard and Oxford Universities have teamed up to fight "badware" - spyware, adware, and parasiteware. The purpose of StopBadware.org is to expose companies that create or use spyware, adware, and parasiteware to the cold, critical light of day. So far the "brain trust" at the Stop badware Coalition has been praised by affiliate management consultant Shawn Collins, as well as Wayne Porter, Senior Director of Greynet Research at FaceTime Security Labs and long-time affiliate advocate and crusader against evil spyware. Click here to check out the StopBadware.org website. And if you've had your computer - or commissions - trashed, stolen, hosed, or hijacked by evil software, make sure you tell your story at the Stop Badware site. You can also Read More →

Search Engine Journal's Loren Baker has written up a case study on "linkbaiting." According to Baker's interesting post:

"Link baiting (or linkbaiting) is the emerging art of building a useful tool, writing an interesting article, or running a newsworthy �event� on a web site which naturally attracts links."

The case study cites examples of linkbaiting:

"...running a contest which includes multiple sites (such as blog contests or niche site award contests), testing a new advertising format... and throwing a wrench into a breaking or popular news story via attacks, a new spin, or a dash of humor. If anything, the social web and blogosphere have made linkbaiting a reality which only existed for a select few who already enjoyed broad reach and incredible viral marketing skills years ago."

In other words, linkbaiting is simply viral marketing that attracts backlinks quickly - something that's an integral part of the business model we use for our step-by-step virtual training in Affiliate Classroom. The

Today I fielded some great questions a student had about the magazine - mostly some terms they wanted defined. I realized later on that the beginner affiliates may not be familiar with some of these terms. So here they are! ========================= Backlinks = Websites linking to your website. This can be checked by going to Google and typing in, link:www.yourdomain.com or going to yahoo and typing in linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com Ping = An Internet utility used to check the connection with another site. Permalinks = Permalink is short for "permanent link". It is a link that readers can use to bookmark the current blog post. Data feeds = A file that a merchant provides you that has all their product, pricing, reviews, etc... all in one file. You can then integrate that file into a program/template and it builds you an entire website with all their products in it. Upsells and Cross sells = When you sell someone something, an upsell is to sell them something more expensive later. A cross sell is similar, it usually has you selling them something else in conjunction with what they are buying. Podcasts = Basically a web radio show. You record a file, mp3 and the... Read More →

Then you may be interested in a new Adwords desktop editing tool that allows you to do much of your ad writing - including bulk changes - offline. According to Search Engine Watch:

"...Google is testing (via a private beta, you'll need a login and password) a desktop AdWords editor that allows you to work offline, make bulk changes, export snapshots, and more."

Read the full story here.... Read More →

According to a fascinating article by Patricia Hursh of Search Engine Watch, half of all search queries are completely unique. In fact, Google estimates that almost 50 percent of its searches - 100 million unique queries per day - "are one-of-a-kind." If you're wondering whether targeting these unusual keyphrases is worth all the trouble, this was the topic of a session at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago, Illinois. Hursh reports on what the experts said here.... Read More →