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As we lead up to our departure for Affiliate Summit East, we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our team members who are counting sleeps until New York City.

Yesterday we introduced Jamie Fortunaso, our Digital Marketing Manager, and today, I sat down with Maranda Moses to chat about what makes the Share Results world go round.

Janice Scrim: Like Jamie, you have been a Share Results staple for a number of years. What do you like best about working at Share Results?
Maranda Moses: Working in the online retail space in general is so much fun and very flexible in terms of the various digital marketing opportunities that are available. That includes the benefit of seeing an affiliate or merchant venture grow from an unknown entity to a successful profitable business with our help. I’ve also developed some really great relationships with people along the way that goes beyond just being about business, which is also important. Oh yeah, and our team isn’t half bad either.

JS: You are an Affiliate Summit attendee veteran. What do you think this conference offers affiliates that other affiliate marketing events miss?
MM: There are some amazing opportunities at ASE. I just blogged about some of them the other day—check out my guide to standing out at a conference.

JS: A big part of your role at Share Results is providing affiliates with strategies to build their online businesses. What’s your number one tip for making it big in the industry?
MM: As a writer, we’re often told by literary experts to “write what you know.” I would say the same rule applies to affiliates in digital marketing: promote what you know! I would also say it’s imperative to diversify and cultivate organic traffic. Too often we’ve seen affiliates in the past put all their eggs in one basket, then if a merchant shuts down for whatever reason, the affiliate hasn’t expanded or looked to other merchant offers or methods to promote to their audience.

JS: Share Results has really started branching out, and is reaching new verticals. Tell me a bit about this expansion and where Share Results is headed in terms of merchant partnerships.
MM: These are really exciting times for Share Results because we’re at a convergence where we’re combining our areas of expertise with new areas we’re on the cusp of developing all under our brand. We’re expecting to see expansion in our travel, education and electronics verticals. We’re also perfectly positioned to expand within the Canadian market, in which we already have a foothold. These verticals and markets have always been top of mind, but we’re finally seeing ourselves beginning to cultivate these areas further.

JS: You are an established Canadian author and have an incredible talent for writing. I know you work with a lot of affiliate Bloggers—how do you use your skills to help them develop?
MM: I used to run my own blog and as a result, I gained a lot of valuable insight from that and my other writing experience. I know what affiliate bloggers go through in terms of trying to find relevant content to publish and coming up with creative ways to attract readers. In the past I have stressed to affiliates that quality is better than quantity. I’ve helped bloggers learn how to craft tailored quality content be it blog posts, advertorials, etc.

This is an exceptionally important skill to have these days, because not all merchants have the resources to establish their own content team. Ask Melanie Seery, she’s an experienced affiliate out in the industry that is extremely qualified and is highly sought after to produce quality outsourced content.

Being known as a top-quality blogger also means you do not have to be at the mercy of a merchant if the turn-around time on receiving content is too long. Rather than waiting on a merchant to deliver a write up about a product or particular trends, I’ve been a strong advocate of writing and publishing quality content yourself (with the merchant’s final approval of course). By doing this, you save time and have a lot of room for creativity to promote your preferred product or service.

Maranda will be at the Share Results booth at Affiliate Summit East. If you’ve got questions about our network or just some tips on how to build your affiliate business, she’s a great resource—and pretty darn friendly too. Pop by booth RG 2017 to chat, or schedule some one-on-one time with her. You can email her at Maranda [at] shareresults [dot] com.

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Meet Maranda Moses at ASE 2010

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The entire Share Results team is getting very excited about attending the upcoming Affiliate Summit East conference in New York City.  We’re packing the booth, making appointments to meet up with affiliates and especially looking forward to meeting some new faces.  It’s what conferences are all about!

As we lead up to the conference starting on August 15^th, we’ll be taking the opportunity to introduce you to some of the team members who will be at the event—that way it will be that much easier to come over and introduce yourself to us—because hopefully you’ll feel like you’ve already gotten to know us.

Over the next days, I will be taking some blogging space to introduce you to our team here.  In today’s posting, you’ll meet Jamie Fortunaso, our Online Digital Manager.  Next up is Senior Account Manager Maranda Moses, followed by Network Manager Le Michelle Nguyen and last (but certainly not least), Account Manager Melissa Del Gaudio.

Building meaningful relationships is the philosophy behind everything that we do here at Share Results—and one of the main reasons we attend industry events like this one.  So don’t be shy—come by and have a chat with us, we’ll be at booth # RG 2017.

Without further ado, Meet Jamie Fortunaso—he’s our everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-SEM-and-then-some guy. 

Janice Scrim: Tell me a little bit about your role at Share Results.
Jamie Fortunaso: I’m the manager of the Online Digital Marketing department. My main responsibilities are divided between supporting the growth of Share Result and providing merchants and affiliates with SEM services.  We focus on PPC Management, SEO and Marketing Support—basically we provide expertise in the areas that will help our partners grow their online businesses and ensure that they are maximizing their ROI.

JS: This isn’t your first time at Affiliate Summit.  What has been your experience in past years? What are you most looking forward to this year in New York?
JF: No, it’s not my first time at Affiliate Summit; I think this will be my fifth trip.  Affiliate Summit has been a great place to network with others in the industry and finally put a face to a name.  Since I have not attended the last few conferences I am looking forward to seeing familiar faces again and having the opportunity to reconnect.

JS: How do you work to support affiliates? Merchants?
JF: An important part of our mandate is providing both merchants and affiliates with the tools, support and experience they need to move their business forward.  It can be a daunting landscape when you are just starting out in the affiliate marketing industry, especially if you don’t have much technological knowledge in the online space.  Similarly, the experienced affiliate may be ready to take their SEM knowledge to the next level, and may just need that extra bit of guidance.  The SEM requests that we receive are as varied and unique as each of our partners, and touch on everything from strategies for keywords, landing pages and linking strategies to optimizing your website, running a PPC campaign and enhancing your online branding and visibility.

JS: What are some of the greatest challenges that affiliates face in terms of search engine marketing?
JF: Keeping on top of the changes in the online space can be challenging.  Affiliates often say they feel they have a good grasp of things, and then something major changes and their strategies need to evolve.  It definitely keeps an affiliate on his toes.  The cost of remaining static can be costly, and this is an eventuality that we recommend all affiliates be prepared for: your SEM efforts are never really finished; they just evolve to the next level.

JS: What elements should every good landing page incorporate?
JF: Use the KISS principle!  No I am not talking about the Gene Simmons principle and exploiting everything you own.  The KISS principle I am referring to is, “Keep It Simple Stupid.” That’s not to indicate that anyone is, but merely a great way of remembering that, with landing pages, the simpler they are, the better they are.

Start off with a goal in mind and develop a landing page according to your specific goal.  Be prepared to continually test different versions of the landing pages you have developed and see which one converts best for your traffic.  Analysis of statistics and conversions will be your measuring stick to understand what is most successful.

JS: In affiliate marketing, higher ranking results in search engines are paramount to success. How can affiliates/merchants compete in such a fierce market?
JF: To compete in such a fierce market you need to enjoy what you do.  If you enjoy what you do you can compete and develop creative new ideas to stand out above the rest.  It is not enjoyable jumping on the bandwagon and copying/replicating an idea because you heard money could be made; in the long run you will not stick with it, and will probably only find minor success.

JS: What role do you think video plays in SEO? Has more importance been put on video in recent years?
JF: Video is becoming an important player in SEO as it is another method of generating traffic.  Google recently recommended that sites develop site maps for videos.  Videos can play important part on your site as they can help increase conversions because you can showcase more ideas and personality into a video than you can with written text.  If you are lucky enough to get a video to go viral, then this can generate a lot of traffic for you and your site.

JS: When it comes to building a successful online business, what one thing must affiliates do, if they don’t do anything else?
JF: Be active!  If you are consistently active then you can learn and achieve the results you are after.  Trust your gut instinct as there is no cookie cutter method to being successful in affiliate marketing.  As my rugby coach says “there is no one right way, what works for you is the right way”.  So find what works for you, and keep after it.

If you’re going to be at Affiliate Summit East, be sure to stop by the booth and pick Jamie’s SEM brains.    We do all the time!  Or set up a meeting with him for some quality one-on-one time.  You can reach him at Jamie [at] shareresults [dot] com.

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Meet Our Everything-You-Ever-Wanted-to-Know-About-SEM-and-Then-Some Guy at ASE 2010

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These days, recommendation engines are so common on larger online retail sites that you might not give them a second thought. Amazon and eBay have long been using personalization technology to create a shopping experience that’s highly customized.

The whole area of collaborative filtering, the behind-the-scenes technology used to drive customized recommendations, has advanced to the point that now, it has become easier than ever to implement without the huge investment in development. It doesn’t even have to degrade site performance like it did in the old days.

Susan Aldrich of the research firm Patricia Seybold Group believes recommendation engines will become commonplace next year. A survey Seybold and the Institute Telecom Paris conducted with 100 European and U.S. companies indicated that every one of the responding companies was planning to add a recommendation engine if it didn’t already have one.

Aldrich thinks one main reason for the new popularity of recommendation systems is advances in collaborative filtering. She says it uses modern web analytics instead of longs lists of business rules. The new systems are easier to update and more efficient.

Companies like Webtrends and MyBuys are on the forefront of collaborative filtering. Webtrends just announced full availability of its “Optimize Profile Enhanced Targeting” solution. It provides marketers with the ability to deliver a personalized web experience based on past behavior of visitors on their websites. Casey Carey, vice president at Webtrends, says profile-based onsite targeting “presents a great opportunity to maximize relevance, increase conversion rates, and ultimately see a significant return on [users’] marketing investments.”

MyBuys, which provides personalization for multi-channel retailers, has introduced “Kinetic Advertising.” According to CEO Bob Cell, this “is a format that enables our display ads to incorporate movement, that let users interact with them and see a dynamic set of products that fit their profile.” With a Kinetic ad unit, says Cell, you can “populate a custom set of products and offers based off a shopper’s interactions with a brand that are specifically tailored to that individual.”

Aldrich draws an intriguing analogy for the recommendation engine – she likens it to a global positioning system. “If a site visitor doesn’t take the recommended path,” she says, “it will come back and recommend another path.” A key strategy of the recommendation engine is to use a site visitor’s known shopping history to put “them on a shopping path that other shoppers with similar interests have taken before completing a purchase.”

Not surprisingly, says Aldrich, companies making use of or planning to implement recommendation engines see value in cross-selling and upselling. Obviously , if an online retailer can get a customer to make an additional purchase at the same time as he or she is buying a product, the incremental cost for the sale is negligible. Recommendations, says Aldrich, have “high impact on conversions and order size.”

Expect to see more recommendation engines popping up on even smaller online retailers’ sites as plug-and-play collaborative filtering technology becomes more widely available.

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The New Must Have Accessory for Online Retailers? Recommendation Engines

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In Part 1, we talked about women’s abilities to relate to one another, and how that could help them to get ahead in affiliate marketing. In Part 2, we outlined a couple of steps and helpful hints about how to pick out an affiliate niche. If you’ve been looking to get started, then hopefully you’ve already had a great brainstorm session and came up with your own niche’s. If you haven’t quite gotten around to that, don’t worry –there’s a ton of selection in great programs in Share Results. Here are just a few creative ideas we have for how you can bring an affiliate program into your online world:

You are: A recently hot-to-trot single that can’t wait to smooch a few new frogs before finding your prince (or princess) charming.

Your online world revolves around: Blogging about your extravagant and exciting dating escapades.

Your Perfect SR Program: Mate1 Affiliate program. Why not earn $2.50 for every new sign-up you refer? With a generous cookie duration of 120 days, there’s lots of opportunities to help you earn commissions from referred signups (which may come in handy in case your date “conveniently” forgets their wallet. AGAIN).

You are: The wife of an up-and-coming hip-hop artist

Your online world revolves around: Sending email newsletters documenting your husband’s tour to friends, family and fans.

Your Perfect SR Program: UnderGroundHipHop affiliate program. Earn 10% commission on all referred sales –seeing as you’re already plugging albums, you may as well make a profit off of your efforts!

You are: A new parent that is absolutely ecstatic over their new bundle of joy.

Your online World revolves Around: Posting pics of Beautiful Baby (when you have time, that is) for the whole extended family to enjoy.

Your Perfect SR Program: The Cute Kid affiliate program. While no parent ever gets over how adorable their little pumpkin is, smart parents earn $12.00 for every referred contest entry and $1.25 for every registration to The Cute Kid site.

You are: Determined to never grow up and live vicariously through your inner Peter Pan (or at least create a fun environment for your kids).

Your Online World revolves around: A dedicated space for your creative outlets, projects and stories.

Your Perfect SR Program: Imaginary Greetings affiliate program. Helping your child to believe in Santa? Awesome! Earning 25% commission from referred sales while allowing parents to do the same for their kids? Even better!

Haven’t quite found what you’re looking for? We’ve got a ton of other great options in numerous categories. Just check out our increasing list of Affiliate Programs. Or, get in touch with us to see what might be right for you!

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A team of Canadian scientists, at the University of Montreal (just down the road from us) is developing software that will measure the emotional responses of people viewing Web pages. They’ll be measuring facial expressions, eye movement and body heat, all to analyze how those users are relating to their online experience. Why is this important?

According to Professor Defresne, “With e-commerce and the multiplication of retail Web sites, it has become crucial for companies to consider the emotions of Web users.”

We know that users react at both a conscious and subconscious level to Web pages and there is a lot that goes into making the online experience a pleasurable one for users. And the most important task an advertiser (read: affiliate) has is to make an emotional connection with their audience. So, how does an affiliate make that connection? Here are five simple tools to help affiliates make emotional connections with their customers.

1. The eyes have it

How many times have you left a webpage because a bunch of ‘smileys’ kept blinking on your screen and shouting, “Oh my god!!”? Use colors that create a sense of well-being, security and trustworthiness. The goal on your website is to make users feel welcome and comfortable, not to annoy them into leaving.

While that seems like an obvious goal, I see a LOT of websites that don’t seem to have this concept down. Look at your favorite sites and ask yourself what you love about them. Take note of what you look at first, and what your eyes end up focusing on.  Remember that coffee shops aren’t able to sell coffee at three or four bucks a pop because it’s such amazing coffee. They have managed to create an experience.

2. Establish trust

This seems like a whole other topic, but it is at the heart of making the emotional connection with your customers. Without trust, there can be no sale, as, at the very heart of a sale, is the trust factor. How does one go about establishing trust?

For blogging affiliates, this one can be a simple task, so long as it is carried out properly. Using your own personal experiences, or being honest about your experience with a particular item can be a very powerful tool for establishing trust. Don’t be afraid to say that you don’t like something, or would prefer an item to have more functions, etc. Relating your experience in a personal way goes a long way towards making that connection.

If you have credentials, use them. Letting people know that you are an expert in a particular field is a great way to build trust.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid to admit when you are wrong. People relate to honesty, and as we’re all capable of making mistakes, your customers will relate to you.

3.  Give the people what the people want

Approximately 3 billion searches are carried out per day on Google alone. If you’re lucky enough to have someone click on a search engine result that directs them to your website, make sure that you are giving that person what they are after. Getting relevant information to the user is such an important part of creating an emotional connection.

4. Be courteous

Keep pages focused on the matter at hand, and don’t allow for too many distractions on your page that keep people from concentrating on what you brought them there to do. Someone looking for an online education program wants to be able to see what they are looking for immediately. If they do not, they tend to grow frustrated and find their way  to your competitor’s site as this will be deemed as discourteous by the user.

Think of your website as valuable real estate. And we all know those three most important rules of real estate: Location, location, location! Test your sites to find the best way to make this happen, and don’t stop testing. Keep trying to improve that winning formula!

5. The technology exists – Use it!

We are now blessed with so much great technology that can create positive interactions with customers. From Flash to HTML5 and everything in between, if you are clever enough to create something that your users can interact with and relate to; if you can make them laugh; if you can create the emotional response that you are after through the use of technology, by all means, use it!

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Five Tips for Making Emotional Connections with your Customers

Search Engine Keywords:

• emotional connection
• eotional cennection to customers
• make emotional connections with women?

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Now that warmer months are upon us, it’s no wonder that we’d rather be playing outside and soaking up the sun rather than stuck at our desks on the computer all day. Especially when there are so many memorable events coming up: graduations, weddings and Father’s Day all beg for a stroll outside. So when we read this great article from Internet Retailer about how an increasing amount of shoppers will be turning to the web in order to buy graduation presents this summer, we thought affiliates would need to hear about it in order to get that extra little motivation to work on their campaigns this summer (I promise, you’ll be at the pool only a few minutes late).

With summer vacations, national holidays and warm weathers in abundance this time of year, it’s little wonder that the malls become slightly deserted. And while online shopping in the summer isn’t always the most convenient method (c’mon, how many ice-cream trucks do you know that carry wi-fi?), it’s becoming the more popular method for gift purchases.

From the same article, there are quite a few encouraging statistics regarding online shoppers and their gift giving habits:

• 59% of gift givers plan to buy at least half their graduation gifts on the web
• 34% will do over half of their graduation gift shopping online

Among the online consumers who plan to buy graduation gifts:

• 79% will do some online research and compare prices to get the best deal.
• 35% will use online coupons to save a few extra bucks.
• 32% scoured the internet for deals, and will only buy articles that are on sale.

With the increasing demand and usage of coupons and promotions, we think it’s never been a better time to become an affiliate than now.

Ask yourself, which of your programs do you anticipate to peak this season? If you’re a little unsure of your answer, it may be worthwhile to add a new program to your rotation that can help you boost those sales during those lazy dog days of summer. We’ve already mentioned that Graduation, Weddings and Father’s Day are excellent gift giving opportunities to bank on, so how about some programs that can help to capitalize on those gift-giving and party-throwing opportunities?

• Become an affiliate for CanvasPeople and tell your readers about this unique photo transfer service that turns your special memory into a work of art. With a commission rate of $7/ sale (for you) and a free canvas (for your readers), it’s never been a better time to sign up.
• T-Shirts may not be the first gift you’d come up with for a graduation present, but how much fun would your readers have if they gave matching t-shirts from T-Shirt Monster for their up-coming bachelor or bachelorette parties? Or how about helping them find a Father’s Day present by suggesting a “World’s Greatest Dad” tee (and giving them a 10% off coupon to boot)? Affiliates earn 15% commissions. You can get more info at Share Results.
• Whether your audience is playing the host or guest role this summer, it’s always nice to offer something a little indulgent in order to make them feel special. How about a beautiful tea sample from Language of the Leaf? Affiliates for the program will benefit from the 10% commissions from all referred sales. Sign up, and tell your traffic about the current free shipping with all orders over $50!

Read the rest here:
Trend Alert: Consumers To Buy More Graduation Gifts Online in Summer 2010

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The eLearners affiliate program now has teaching degree creative available for affiliates. Those catering to students, working parents or offering resources related to pursuing online education are welcome to promote online teaching degrees via the affiliate program in Share Results. Whether you have a blog about a particular education vertical, write EDU content about specific schools, or use paid search and SEO to generate leads, you’re sure to find success with these teaching creative and the other areas of study that are available.

As more and more people are realizing, the field of education offers a world of opportunity! Not only do teachers have options like areas of study they prefer to teach as well as the age group of students, they also have the option of where! Each year thousands pack their bags and head overseas to put their teaching degrees to use. Other benefits of being a teacher include summer vacations (probably the best) and the fact that its one profession that is sure to not be affected by recession. In fact, if anything the teaching profession is actually in higher demand during times of recession. One thing is certain; there is always a demand for teachers and with the option to obtain a degree online it’s easier then ever to enter the field of education, or any other field for that matter. There are heaps benefits too! You can earn a degree without quitting your day job, do the work on your time, set your own deadlines and enjoy the freedom and flexibility.

There are a wide variety of teaching degrees available through eLearners including early childhood education, K-12 education, adult and higher education, English as a second language and more.

If your not an eLearners affiliate as of yet, feel free to learn more about them via their merchant page. You can also email us with any questions you may have about the program or its wide variety of EDU offers.

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Earn a Teaching Degree Online

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With Mother’s Day coming up, we wanted to profile a working mother who is a member of the Share Results network. I knew that this would be an enjoyable task, but I hadn’t counted on having the opportunity to have an afternoon chat with such a, well, motivated mommy.
A few days ago I had a long conversation with Tina Vega, the visionary behind Motivated Mommies.com. Her website is currently in the final stages of creation, and will be launched, aptly enough on Mother’s Day (May 9) of this year.

MotivatedMommies.com will be a resource for mothers who are looking for opportunities for employment; specifically those who wish to work from home. In addition, it will feature links to online educational opportunities, such as what one would find at eLearners.com, which is how Tina came to be an affiliate of the Share Results program, as well as a desire to work with Project Working Moms.

Many mom websites consist of boutique shopping or blogs. Motivated Mommies is unique in that it is really providing stay-at-home moms with the resources to earn a living at home. She’s also providing them with the resources to get out of the house and go to work, should they choose to do that as well. For Tina, her site is about empowering moms to make informed choices that will better their lives and those of their families.

Tina has a background in Administration, and is no stranger to the business world. When her first daughter was born, she made the decision to leave her job and stay at home with her. Soon after that, her search for stay-at-home employment began.

Overcoming Fear
Tina thought of the name of her website about four or five years ago, but it took her a while to go through with actually setting it up. “There was a lot of fear in the beginning, because there weren’t a lot of mom’s websites. When I would talk to people about building a mom-based website,” Tina said, “they would say, ‘What do you mean a mom’s website? What is that?’”

However, as the years passed, more and more moms got out there and started websites directly as resources for other moms and to keep in touch, to share the simple joys, hilarious calamities, never-ending frustrations and eventual triumphs with other mothers.
It makes sense, as a recent study shows that women are far more social on the Internet than men. Venues where mothers can provide other mothers with support have become enormously popular, and with good reason.

Now when Tina mentions that she is building a mom-centric website, the questions are about what genre of mom-based website she’s building, as opposed to what it is going to be about as a whole.

Finding the Motivation
“My sister and I were trying to find ways to stay at home with our kids, and it was very frustrating. We took a lot of chances and tried to find businesses that would advertise that you could work at home, and we would spend 50 dollars hoping we would get something in return. Sometimes we would get a booklet or a list of companies, but those companies would be out of business, or they wanted more money. And it was very frustrating, so we kind of gave up on that particular situation.”

Not the type to be easily dissuaded, Tina started looking for part-time jobs that she and her sister could do, where they could watch each other’s kids while the other was working.

“For me, it was all about the motivation,” Tina says. “And that’s when the name of my website dawned on me: Motivated Mommies. If I was in this situation, if my sister was in this situation, then more than likely there were tons of other moms in the same situation.” Tina started noticing more and more websites in which people were talking about this very thing.

Finding Balance
Tina has two girls, who are six and nine years old. For Tina, the biggest challenge is balancing her home life with the challenges of getting her website set up. “I feel like there are days when I’m working and trying to build the website, my house is a mess. If my house is clean, I didn’t get to work on the business,” Tina said.

Between the time that she spends on the phone and emailing, doing research and collecting information, spending as much time as she would like to with her kids is not as easily accomplished as she might like it to be. It’s a temporary conundrum, she predicts, with the goal of putting the finishing touches on her website, and then getting back to a more regular schedule.

“Once it’s done, I’ll be working on the business when the kids are at school, then a full-time mom when they’re at home. I just don’t want to miss out on any of this time, because it just moves so quickly.”

Inspiration
More than anyone in her life, Tina’s biggest inspiration is her mom, whom she lost to cancer when she was 15 years old. “Watching her be a cheerleading coach and coordinator, working full time and still being an awesome mom and wife, all while fighting cancer, helps me find the strength to be a full-time mom and wife, while building a business.”

And clearly, Tina learned a lot from her mom. Tina still finds time to volunteer at her kids’ school twice a week and is involved in their extracurricular activities, even while in the process of building this website.

And this is one of the things that impressed me most about Tina; her drive to balance her home and family life with work. Earning money is a necessary thing for all of us to survive, and earning a lot of money is a wonderful thing. It’s moms like Tina and her own mother that teach us the most valuable lesson of all: That time with family is more precious than all the gold in Fort Knox.

Offering Hope
“The reason I’m building this site is not just to offer resources to moms, but, more importantly, to offer reputable resources. I’m not going to have any resources on the website that require money up front to enquire about the business,” Tina said.

Tina will be working with direct-sales consultants who are not hidden behind a P.O. Box. All direct-sales offers will have links to an actual website, phone number and person to talk to about the opportunities presented. This way, those interested can get all the background information required before deciding whether or not to work with that company. This will be true of all of the resources presented on her site, including links to online education and other job opportunities.

“There are so many websites out there, and they say that they’re run by moms, and they’re actually scams,” Tina said. “I just couldn’t believe that a mom would do that to another mom. To me, that’s where my frustration comes from and that’s where my motivation comes from.”
The message that Tina wants to get across by presenting these resources is that it is possible for moms to stay at home with their kids, and there are ways to have the life that you dream of having. With the research that Tina has done, her site is sure to be a great resource for moms.

Tina’s words of advice for moms who want to work at home? Tina says, quite simply, “Go for it. There are plenty of resources, and plenty of help out there, it’s just a matter of reaching out to other people. It is possible.”

A Bright Future for Affiliate Marketing
With motivated moms like Tina, there is a very bright future for affiliate marketing. With the credibility that someone like Tina brings to the table, businesses that she lists as trusted partners are sure to reap the benefits of being recommended by someone with the experience that Tina has.

More and more women are seeing the Internet as a source of revenue. You’ll not find a more dedicated, committed and hard-working group than mothers. They’re not afraid of rolling up their sleeves and doing the work required to get a task done. More importantly, you’ll not find a more tight-knit community willing to help and support each other.

That’s why websites like Tina’s are so important, and why MotivatedMommies.com is certain to be as successful as many of the other mom-centric websites that are already out there. They demonstrate positive steps forward, not just for moms, but for the online marketing industry as a whole.

Happy Mother’s Day!
From all of us here at Share Results, we want to wish all of the mothers out there a very, very Happy Mother’s Day.
Don’t forget to visit MotivatedMommies.com on Mother’s Day and check out all of the resources that Tina has to offer. Having had a sneak peek, I can tell you that you that, if you are looking for the kinds of resources that Tina has to offer, you’ll be very glad you did.

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Working-from-Home Survival Tips for Affiliates
2. Project Working Mom (and Dads too!) Awards Full-tuition Scholarship to 58 Parents!
3. EDU offers for Bloggers, and SEO, and Email Affiliates

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Motivated Mommies Get Things Done

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Project Working Mom is a scholarship campaign, which offers working moms (and dads too!) the opportunity to receive an online education tuition-free. The aim of the program is to provide aid to working parents and help them to overcome the obstacle they are faced with when returning to school.

Recently eLearners.com awarded 58 lucky parents full-tuition Project Working Mom scholarships to accredited online universities. And that’s just the beginning! This was only the first of three rounds of the scholarship giveaway. By the end of round three, up to 280 scholarships will have been awarded.

Is this something you think you visitors might be interested in? Are the vast majority of your viewers working parents? Does your website deal with online education? If so, help your visitors participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity by joining the eLearners affiliate program in Share Results. It’s easy for them to apply and with 280 scholarships available their chances may be high! The final submission deadline is on September 30^th, 2010. All your visitors need to do is fill out the online application and submit a short essay describing why online education is right for them. In today’s economy having a college education increases the chance of having a higher paying position, decreases the chance of being unemployed and provides more options and more opportunities.

To sign-up to the eLearners.com affiliate program and start promoting the Project Working Mom campaign click here. Feel free to learn more about the eLearners affiliate program in Share Results via their merchant page. You can also email us with any questions you may have about the program or its wide variety of EDU offers.

Related posts:

1. Project Working Mom 2010
2. Update: Affiliates can help moms and dads, too!
3. eLearners partners with The Tyra Banks Show to make dreams come true, again!

Read more here:
Project Working Mom (and Dads too!) Awards Full-tuition Scholarship to 58 Parents!

Search Engine Keywords:

• tuition help for dads
• working mom scholarship

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Have you started taking advantage of the cash bonuses the 1-plus.com affiliate program has made available for March at Addition Elle?

If not, you should log in now to Share Results and become an affiliate for the 1-Plus affiliate program - because for this week Addition Elle has some exciting promotions ready for their online clientele only!

From March 3rd to March 9th, 2010 Addition Elle is offering all their online clientele the chance to Buy 2 Bras and get the 3rd one FREE! This is an excellent opportunity for retail affiliates to write some value-added content, highlighting all the features of The Convertible Bra – a versatile, comfortable, flexible bra with seamless design.

For more information on how to promote this brand, send us an email at 1plusaffiliates@shareresults.com

See the rest here:
This week at AdditionElle

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Based on the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum

Share everything
One of the great things about the affiliate marketing community is that it really is a community. If you discover a new technique for online marketing that you’re finding successful, don’t be afraid to share it with your friends. In turn, they’ll share their tips to success with you, which makes everyone richer; figuratively AND literally.

Play fair
This can be a tough business, and the temptation exists to employ questionable techniques, like Black Hat SEO, for example. When employing these techniques, rest assured that they are very likely to come back at you with unfavorable results, eventually. Play fair, work hard, and reap the rewards.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours
As above, affiliate marketers who attempt to get their traffic by duping people into coming to their site most often end up bouncing a far greater amount of traffic than they convert. The rewards just aren’t there, especially when one considers the harm that this does to legitimate affiliate marketers. Trust is what motivates a sale, above all other conditions.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some
Incorporate that balance into the work aspect of your day as well. Endeavour, on a daily basis, to learn something new about affiliate marketing. Find out about new SEO practices. Discover how other affiliates are converting traffic. Read about website analytics; read someone’s affiliate marketing blog. Get to know your affiliate manager. Constantly test your methods of marketing and employ new ones to see what works best. Find the techniques that work best for you by constantly trying different things. It’s all about trying to achieve that balance.

Take a nap every afternoon
Seriously. Life as an affiliate marketer can be trying, so take a rest when you have a chance. When I was working as a full-time affiliate marketer I took a 45-minute nap every single day on my couch and it helped me get re-energized for the rest of my workday, no matter how much longer it was. We last a lot longer when we take the time to recharge our batteries.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together
Many of the people I know who are successful affiliate marketers have made a point of becoming active members in affiliate marketing communities. There are a lot of benefits to getting to know people that are also involved in this business, and I guarantee that you’ll be surprised at the amount of people who are willing to help you out. Of course, there are some who do not play well with others, but there always have been, and there always will be. Just seek out positive people who are headed towards success and you’ll be following in their footsteps in no time.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK
I can never stress enough the importance of testing and then analyzing your campaigns. Use affiliate marketing software that lets you see track impressions, clicks and conversions. Having affiliate marketing software that provides you with in-depth analytics can make the difference between a lukewarm program and a red-hot one. Keep testing and analyzing, and never, ever take your eye off the prize. It’s there for you; all you have to do is reach out and grab it.

If anyone can think of a way to incorporate the “warm cookies and cold milk” part of this into an affiliate marketing strategy, let me know in the comments section below!

All I Need to Know about Affiliate Marketing I Learned in Kindergarten

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If brand bidding will be part of your upcoming PPC campaigns, there are some definite pros and cons worth highlighting, and important considerations to keep in mind for merchants and affiliates alike.

Brand bidding is when an affiliate targets specific keywords associated with a brand, as opposed to a generic word, such as a noun or adjective that describes the product.  Usually when brand bidding, an affiliate is bidding on a trademarked name, and is often therefore “competing” directly with the merchant.

Today’s blog will look at brand bidding from the merchant’s perspective, and tomorrow we will examine this somewhat controversial subject from the affiliate’s standpoint.

Considerations for Merchants
Our first recommendation, and perhaps one of the most important things to say, is that no matter how you feel about brand bidding, it’s definitely something that needs to be clearly indicated in your Terms & Conditions.  Affiliates will be looking for this information, and you need to make your policy very clear.   To ensure there is no confusion, it’s a good idea to create a list of specific keywords that are off limits to affiliates, as well as a list of words that are allowed.

Pros
If you’re new to the online platform or don’t have your own PPC marketing strategy in place, then allowing affiliates to market your brand name online can be an effective way for you to build your brand awareness.

Say, on the other hand, that you have an established online business, and you invest in your own PPC campaigns—are there still benefits to allowing brand bidding?  Many people feel that allowing brand bidding contributes to increased visibility on a more consistent basis, and that this strategy can only help your business’ bottom line.  You may also choose to allow affiliates to use your brand name, limiting their usage to markets or search engines where you are not active.

Cons
Once you allow brand bidding, quality assurance does become a bit of a concern.  Affiliates could bid on your brand name to promote a competing brand, or use this keyword to send visitors to a rinky-dink site or to a site that also promotes other brands—that you may or may not want to be associated with.

For merchants who sell items that might also be sold by non-trademark owners (like the knock-offs you find on the streets of New York), allowing brand bidding may actually contribute to promoting your competitor’s fraudulent brand.  Major apparel, luxury, jewelry, fragrance, and other well-known and sought after brands are the hardest-hit by trademark infringement.

Misconceptions
Some people mistakenly believe that allowing brand bidding will drive up your bid price because more people are bidding on your keyword.  While this is true to a degree, the truth is that having relevant, high-quality content landing page and a high quality score will give you access to cheaper keywords, and is a more important consideration for search engines like Google.  Relevancy and high-quality content will, therefore, more strongly contribute to the price you will pay for a keyword, than having a competitor bidding on the same keyword.

Allow High-performing Affiliates to Brand Bid
On a final note, you might consider using the Share Results affiliate marketing software to segment your affiliates and assign different rights to different groups.  This is a great way of allowing your high-performing affiliates to take part in brand bidding, ensuring your brand name is always associated with high-quality affiliates. 

Check back tomorrow for more on brand bidding for affiliates!

Here is the original post:
Brand Bidding for Merchants: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly

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Now that the holiday bustle is over, it’s about that time of year where you start looking for warm alternatives.

According to TripAdvisor, Sixty-one percent of travelers will visit a beach destination in 2009. 2010 is projected to grow even more, and this means that the associated retail business is also trending upwards.

People are heading south to escape the wintery weather and while on vacation not only do they want to feel fabulous, they want to look fabulous.

Addition Elle, Penningtons and MXM have decided to get us on the track to warmth and sun. More power to them I say!

With swimwear promotions at Penningtons starting this week, it’s time to get your customers’ minds off of the current temperature and in preparation for what is to come.

With savings of 25% off selected swimwear, your customers can benefit from some great savings for their all-inclusive resort vacations, upcoming spring break, or even just in preparation for June!

Affiliates, this is a perfect time to promote these three great brands. Awesome promotions, new stylish fashions and big savings – a timely trio!

Read the original post:
Vacation Bathing Suits On Sale!

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In our first post in this series, we looked at the first steps of how to become an affiliate. We talked about the amazing income opportunities available to those willing to put in a little bit of effort, as well as a few of the different kinds of affiliates. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at a few of the different ways of marketing products as an affiliate.

So, what is the best way to start marketing products online? That’s going to depend on the individual. Everyone will have a different level of knowledge and ability, and there are various ways that people are marketing products as affiliates.

Specialized Website Affiliates

Perhaps you already have a website, or you’re planning one that has a specific focus. For example, you may have a site with articles on sports.  From there you might market different sporting goods, services, tickets, and even training. Regardless of the focus of your website, what’s important is that your content matches the products you’re promoting.

Blog Affiliates

Those who already have a blog will like that they can use it to start earning income.  For anyone interested in starting a blog, this is perhaps the easiest way to go about posting your own content on the Internet. There are several sites where anyone can sign up to start a blog, and post their content for free, like Blogger.com and WordPress.com.

There will be some trial and error in ascertaining what the most profitable affiliate programs are going to be when establishing a blog for this purpose, but it is a great way to get your feet wet. Try to express opinions about goods and services and then link to those products. There are lots of banners and text links available from merchants to help you get started. Once again, relevant content is best.

Community Affiliates

If you’ve ever been in a chat room and someone has posted a link to a site where they were selling a product, then you have already had an encounter with a community affiliate. This marketing tactic is often used in forums as well. This is not a method for those with thin skin, as it can result in abuse from other members of the forum or chat room, but if you’re willing to invest some time into becoming a trusted member of the community you’re targeting, the chances for success do exist.

In the next post we’ll be looking two more types of affiliates. Check back for more, and to find out more about how to become an affiliate, contact one of our affiliate marketing managers here. They have all the answers to help you become a successful affiliate marketer.

Source:
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The New Year is a time to reflect upon the year behind us, and to look forward to the prospect and the opportunity of the future.

As 2010 begins, we see a bright future for the online marketing industry.  With a strengthened economy and new possibilities, we see the potential to bring growth to the affiliate marketing community, and the online businesses it has partnered with.

Our goal this year, as it is every year, is to continue to develop new partnerships, as we build upon the ones that we have begun.  We’re excited about 2010, and we are eager about moving forward and gaining momentum, together.

Very best wishes to you and yours for 2010.

The Team at Share Results

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Happy New Year!

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