WordPress doesn't like iframes but there is a way to get these two to play nicely together. Sometimes you need to use iframes because an ad you are placing on your site uses it or maybe a chatroom plugin or the ShopStyle widget (if you are a fashion blogger or write about any kind of fashion).

If you just put the iframe code in the post (always in the HTML view) and then try to view it WordPress strips the code out and it won't work.

To get the iframe code to work with WordPress you need to install a plug-in called Insere Iframe

From your WordPress Dashboard, click Plugins from the Sidebar to find and install this plugin.

Or you can go to the WordPress Plugin page here and download it. Then go to the Plugin area on your WordPress Dashboard and upload it.

After you activate this plugin here is how to use it.

1. Open or create a new post.

2. Click the HTML tab and then paste your iframe code wherever you want it to show

3. Locate >iframe and replace it with [iframe:

4. Locate ></frame> and replace all of that with a ]

That's it. Now your iframe code will remain intact within the WordPress post or sidebar widget.

How would you like to get your own blog reviewed and also get a link back at the same time? As bloggers we are always looking for good ways to get people to read our blog, comment on it and also give a link back to it.

I stumbled across a blog entitled, The Kindle Blog Report, and Marguerite will review your blog, give her honest opinion of it's content and whether it has value to the public, and link back to you. Her blog is mainly about sites and books that are good to view on the Kindle, the popular wireless reading device from Amazon but she also touts her site as the Original Blog Review Blog.

No matter what kind of blog you run Marguerite has a category to put you in.

And, not only does her review share with the public what your blog is about, she also gives her honest opinion about the content of your site (her review is not about what your blog looks like), and gives her readers excerpts from some of your posts.

I suggest you check out her blog and contact her to get a review of your blog today.

Every blog owner should know just how visitors find your site and where they are coming from. You should also know what search terms are used to find your site.

It is VERY important to make sure the right visitors are finding your site. You do not want to waste your marketing efforts on trying to get just anyone to visit your site when you have a specific niche you serve almost exclusively. But how do you find out who is visiting and if they are finding what your site is all about?

The answer is simple, but simultaneously complex: search analytics.

A lot of people do not understand just what search analytics are. Simply put, search analytics comprise the study of:

• what any given visitor does while they are on your website
• what search terms they use to get to your site
• and how they actually find your site (through searching, social media, or another site)

Every time someone finds your blog they may stay for a few seconds or they may stay on for an hour, depending on a variety of factors. Does your site offer great content? Or is it more like a classic “squeeze page,” with a little bit of ad copy and an entreaty to sign up for an e-mailing list? No two sites are precisely the same, and this leads to a great deal of different potential tweaks.

This is where search analytics companies come into play. There are several different companies, which offer a highly varied range of content. Most every type of software available (including that which is native to some web hosting providers) tells you the basic information. Three things that are very important to know are unique visitors, duration of visit, and user impressions.

Obviously, a unique visitor is just any person who clicks onto your site. A user impression is whether they clicked onto a particular page, where a particular ad might be displayed. And visit duration tells whether they stuck around long enough to really check out your offerings… or just gave it a once over, a shaken head, and a disappearing act.

Two of the best companies for identifying the more nitty gritty information on your site are Google Analytics and Omniture. However, they function in different ways.

Google’s software is just that – it can track “the numbers,” but it has no brain. If you have a marketing background, this might be enough for your purposes. However, Omniture stands out a bit because their professionals actually review the number their software puts up, and make specific recommendations based on their knowledge and your intended niche.

Knowing exactly how a visitor finds you is one of the best ways to start targeting what you write on your blog to help those visitors find you everytime they search for a keyword or keyword phrase.

Are you looking for a way to get the word out about your mom blog and also make some money on the side? The New Mom Blog Magazine site just launched and they are looking for writers. Here is the scoop on this sweet job.

The Mom Blog magazine publishes articles, essays, book and product reviews, interviews, and short, sweet sidebar features.

We are more prone to accept your work if you bring a fresh angle to articles about social media, blogging and moms. We understand that a lot of the information in our community is often repeated therefore becoming stale and trite. We appreciate work with outside-of-the-box thinking.

Our editorial departments are: blogging, social media, breaking news, gadgets/tech, books, and interviews. We do not publish promotional pieces. However, if your work is accepted we will pay you for your great content and will also run a brief bio and a link to your blog or Web site and Twitter or Facebook page.

We pay $50 for articles, interviews, and thorough book and product reviews. We pay $25 for sidebar features. We are also open to paying more for in-depth articles. Pitch us with your idea first, though, with the angle, proposed length, and the names of those you will interview for your article. Also, if you can work on assignment when news breaks or important issues come up in our community please send us a letter of interest and clips.

To receive our full writer's guidelines, email us at editors@momblogmag.com.

The very definition of a Diva is to be arrogant and egotistical. Diva came from the phrase "prima donna" and Wikipedia describes that kind of person as "often regarded as egotistical, unreasonable and irritable, with a rather high opinion of themselves not shared by others."

Yes, there definitely are Diva mom bloggers just like there are Diva celebrities. They make money and have huge Fan-like followings and I could give you a few names but I won't. They think that because they make money and because they have huge followings that they can act and should be treated differently than any other blogger. It's all a bunch of crap!

Who says that because you make money and because you have a huge following that you are any more special than me or than any other blogger in the Blogosphere? The Diva blogger obviously. And why do we give them the right to act this way? We have put some mom bloggers on a pedestal and for what? So they can act badly at conferences?

Yes, they may be working with big brands to promote products, and yes, they may help people with their blogs but honey, what you write about on your mom blog that makes you a Diva is not brain surgery. Heck, most are writing about saving money at the grocery store. So what is so great and different about that? Does your blog give the cure for cancer? If not, then get over yourself!

Those Diva mom bloggers should thank their lucky stars that they have big readerships, make a lot of money, or get to work with big brands. They should be thankful everyday. They were at some point and still could be a struggling mom blogger who is just starting out and doesn't have a following.

There are struggling mom bloggers probably writing about the same topic but maybe no one knows about her. What she writes is just as valuable to someone. The Diva mom blogger just got out of the gate before she did. That Diva mom blogger started her blog years before and just happened to get in at the beginning of the mom blogger craze.

Kind of like someone who invents something first like the Snuggie. Everything after is a copy-cat and the first person to think up the idea gets the prize. But just why that prize puts someone in a different class I will never know.

But a warning to all of those so called Diva mom bloggers. Your day could be coming. What you do today could come back and bite you in the ass tomorrow. And, the Web and social media are changing everyday and you could find your inflated ego sitting on the side of the road if you are not careful. Even Mariah Carey and all of her Divaness - is that a word - can't go on forever.

I have heard horror stories about bloggers who went to a conference just to meet one of these Diva mom bloggers and have her snub her nose at them because they weren't part of the IN crowd. I even heard of a Diva mom blogger who looked at another blogger's business card and gave it back when she found out she wasn't anything special. I would like to see them try that with me. I will be the one wearing the I'M NOT PART OF THE DIVA BLOGGING CLUB t-shirt when I go to BlogHer in August. Feel free to come up and shake my hand. I dare you :-)

Many times mom bloggers get products sent to them to review. In the first place let's go over why companies are willing to do this. Companies have found a cheap way of getting their products advertised - it's called mom blogging.

Companies are willing to send you a product to review in hopes that the people who read your blog will try it and buy it. Heck, even if they get new people to even see their product they are building and growing their brand so for them it is a win-win situation. Many times they don't care if you have 100 readers or 10,000. To them they are getting 100 new people to find out about their product. They are getting free advertising for a steal.

In the "real" world they would have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for this kind of advertising but we, for some odd reason, will do it for free. I am guilty myself. I love free stuff just as much as the next person. So, I take a product and review it to get it for free.

Mom bloggers jump at the chance to review a product because it gives them "free swag" as I like to call it. I know all about getting free stuff. I write about entering sweepstakes to "win what you can't afford" on my Sweeps blog and the thrill of getting something free is too much to pass up. Many people don't want to wait to win it, although you wouldn't know it from the crowds at the casino, and they see the vast amount of free stuff coming through the blogging community everyday so they jump at the chance to get a free product to review.

Are you reviewing the product or just promoting it?

Too many mom bloggers are just pawns in the hands of companies because they are writing an obvious glowing, positive review about the product they received instead of giving the honest truth. If you bought the product yourself you wouldn't do that unless you totally liked what you got and there were negatives about it but you would have a definite opinion about the product. When you buy the product you are reviewing yourself you don't feel obligated in anyway to right something you wouldn't normally write.

When you receive a free product from a company you are afraid of writing what you really think because maybe you will tick off the company and then maybe they won't come back and offer you anything else in the future.

An Honest Review

I received some Pampers just last week to review and while I couldn't review them myself I ask my daughter-in-law to review them because she has a baby. The only thing I could have done in the review is tell you yes, I have a diaper in my hands and it smell good when it's not used :-)

Well the review was so-so and the company probably wouldn't want to hear what she had to say. She came up with a basic PROS and CONS list of things about the diaper. She said that it passed the "pee pee" test and worked well overnight but failed the "poo poo" test because it came out of the back of the diaper. And she said that if they weren't so expensive she would use them on a regular basis because they were overall a good diaper.

Now THAT is a real review.

Next time you get a product to review think about what you are doing. If you are not being honest then you are just "pimping" out your blogging services to the company willing to send you some free stuff in return. The company is getting the better end of the bargain. You, on the other hand, should feel like you aren't doing the right thing.

Just what is affiliate marketing? Basically it is "Selling Other People's Stuff" and it is a great way for your to make money on your mom blog.

Affiliate marketing starts off with a merchant. That merchant has a product they want to sell. It might be a physical product like a pair of pants or a clock, a digital product like a music download or an eBook, it could be a magazine subscription, or maybe they are trying to sell membership to their membership site.

The next part of affiliate marketing is you, the blogger. A store like Old Navy might have an affiliate program and once you sign up you have the potential to make money promoting their sales and coupons. You share with your readers about the sale on the Old Navy site this week. Embedded in the link to the Old Navy site is your affiliate link. If that reader goes to the Old Navy site and makes a purchase you earn a commission.

As mentioned above, those products don't have to be physical but they can be digital like an eBook. A great place to find eBooks to promote on your mom blog is ClickBank.com. Sign up for their affiliate program and then start promoting them right now. There are so many titles that you will find something that appeals to the vast amount of people on the Internet. Every ClickBank product has a commission rate that is set by the vendor, ranging from 1% to 75%.

Leads vs Sales

As I showed you above, you can make money by selling other people's stuff like in the Old Navy scenario and that is called a Sales affiliate offer. But, you can also make money promoting "other people's stuff" through Lead Generation offers. A lead basically works the same way but you don't have to worry if the reader makes a purchase. You would still write about the offer that Old Navy has but if they have a lead offer you would earn flat price based on what they are willing for that person to click through from your site to the Old Navy site. I have found that leads pay from 20 cent in the low range to $3.50 in the higher range. I tend to see a lot of $1.10 lead offers. But, if you have a lot of readers then promoting one offer can still earn you a fair amount of cash in your pocket.

This was just a brief overview of Affiliate Marketing Basics but stick around for more details in the future about how to sign up, what is required of your the blogger to promote affiliate programs, what affiliate programs are good for mom bloggers, and more.

Are you looking for things to review on your blog. Well, here's something you can get for free to review. BookSneeze is offering books for bloggers in exchange for a 200 word review. The book review can be positive or negative. You can post the review on your own blog or on one of the book sites mentioned below.

What a great way to get started reviewing books on your blog.

Here's how it works:

1. Apply at BookSneeze.com using the registration form. Once your application is approved, they will send you a confirmation email to confirm your registration as a BookSneeze Blogger.

2. Select a book to review. View the available books and sign up for a BookSneeze product that you are interested in reviewing. After you have requested a review copy, you will receive an email confirming your request that has links to additional reviewer resources. (Note that they will be shipping all physical books via USPS Media Mail which typically takes about 7-10 for domestic shipments.)

3. Read the book, write your review, and post it. Read the book and craft a 200+ word review. The review can be positive or negative, it just needs to be based on the entire book. Post your review on your blog and any consumer retail website (Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, booksamillion.com, borders.com, buy.com, christianbook.com, costco.com, lifeway.com, overstock.com, and walmart.com all have a section on each book's product page dedicated to customer reviews). To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, please mention as part of every Web or retail site review that Thomas Nelson has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy.

Not all book titles are available for review and some book titles will only be available in limited quantities.

Find more free stuff at Freebies Are Fun.

ATTENTION Bloghers, Businesses, Coupon Clippers, Mom Bloggers and Mommas

Free Baby Magazine is pleased to announce the Top Blogger 2010 Contest.

Winners will be chosen from three categories and featured in the March 2010 issue of Free Baby Magazine!

The three categories are:

1. Discount/Freebie Blogs
2. Personal/Mommy Blogs
3. Product/Company Blogs

There will also be a random drawing for all entries. (Every blog that refers someone to the site with be entered to win, whether you refer 1 or 1,000,000)

Prizes Include:

• The Top Ten Blogs in each category will be featured in the magazine.
• The #1 Blog in each category (along with the random drawing winner) will receive a Full Page Ad in the magazine ($135 Value)
• The Grand Prize winner will receive a Premiere Sponsor Advertising Package ($300 Value) ***(Includes a full page ad in between the cover and contents page in the magazine, plus a 150px x 150px web ad on our website for a month (estimated 10,500 web views), plus a 150 px x 150 px ad in our monthly email newsletter (4,100 email subscribers). There is a limit of three premium sponsors per issue.)

This contest begins on Friday, February 19, 2010 and ends on Friday February 26, 2010 at 11:59 PM

How Do you Enter?

Post an entry on your blog inviting your readers to read the magazine and subscribe. The more referrals you send to free Baby Magazine, the higher your chances are of winning. They will be tracking the referral with Google Analytics.

Increase Your Chances of Winning:

• Place your post in a prominent area on your website
• Repost every day
• Tell your readers about the contest so that they will want you to win
• Encourage your readers to follow Free Baby Magazine on Twitter @freebabymag
• Encourage your readers to follow Free Baby Magazine on Facebook
• Encourage your readers to follow the Free Baby Magazine blog

More and more women are leaving the workplace to stay home and be full time mommies. Since most households still require the income that Mommy was bringing in prior to the birth of her child, these enterprising women are coming up with ways to work at home. This allows them a chance to spend those precious first few years with their children and still help pay the bills.

Companies employ some of these moms in “telecommuting” type jobs. Others, however, are striking out on their own to earn their keep. These enterprising “Mommy Entrepreneurs” are starting cottage industries and most of them are using the world-wide-web as their storefront.

If you are a mommy with an online business, your blog can be more than just an ongoing article or story. It can become a valuable means of drawing potential customers to your website. For instance, take the case of a neighbor of mine makes custom diaper-bags. She does beautiful work, and can add a compartment for this, or embroider the child’s initials on the outside of each bag. She worked at a textile plant before “retiring” to work at home and raise her son. Her bags are beautiful and each one is made to order. Still, even with a quality product, she had trouble finding an outlet for them in our small hometown. So, she turned to the web. Her website is simple, providing shoppers with photos of her work and a price list and contact information. She has email and, for marketing purposes, she writes an ongoing blog. Marketing? Blog? Yes. Marketing and blog can be a beautiful pairing. It’s really pretty simple, and quite profitable.

If you are a mommy with a product to sell on-line and are writing a blog, make sure you include words that are in the address of your site, or in the byline it carries. In her blog, my neighbor frequently uses phrases like “diaper bag”, “customized bags” and “baby’s initials”. When someone does an online search for a “customized baby’s diaper bag with initials”, these phrases will cause the engine to pull up her site, and it will show up in the list of potentials provided for that shopper to choose from. The rest is up to her site and her skill. She is doing pretty well as of this writing, and enjoying the time she is spending teaching her son the alphabet in the process.

Using phrases that will refer customers shopping via search engines to your site has a name. It is called Search Engine Optimization. This means that you will optimize the amount of potential hits from search engines by inserting as many key phrases in the text of the blog as it will contain without being saturated to the point of becoming boring. Almost every blog on the Web has been written with SEO in mind. This makes the blog a valuable source of marketing for on-line businesses, including those businesses that are run by a mommy.

This is a guest post by Gavin

Do you have a story to share or something that is newsworthy? Maybe you write about a specific niche topic on your blog that isn't widely covered on other blogs. Maybe, just maybe, what you write about it hot, current, trendy, and newsworthy. But how to get the word out about your blog, your story, and your ideas.

In the past all we had to turn to was doing a traditional press release but now you can find out what the press is looking to write and respond to their requests. Here are three free publicity outlets that you may want to sign up for that could help you grow your blog and your celebrity as a blogger.

I have used all of these lists many times and have had great success, especially with HARO. Because of HARO my sweeps site was featured in an article on MSN and CNN online that made it to the front page many times. Because of HARO I was able to go to the Affiliate Summit as a guest panelist. Both of those things helped to make me the successful blogger I am today.

As a blogger you have a way of finding sources for articles you are writing as all of these lists will also allow you to put in your requests as long as you follow their guidelines.

All three of these free publicity opportunities are actual email lists that you sign up for. When you sign up you will receive daily emails that will list all of the requests made by reporters, TV shows, freelance writers, industry experts, and other bloggers like you. who are looking for a targeted audience that will respond to them.

On each of these email lists you will find:

• TV shows that are looking for people to appear on their show
• freelance writers who are in the pitch stage of an article and need ideas
• other bloggers who are writing articles and need ideas
• guest writer articles that someone wants posted
• guest writer requests to write for a site
• big magazines writing articles and looking for quotes or ideas for an article
• bloggers who are doing gift guides and need companies to send them ideas for products to add
• radio shows looking for guests
• gift bag item requests
  

Set up a Separate Email Account

You may want to consider setting up a free email just to receive these media requests everyday because you can get a lot of them, especially from HARO. In the long run it is worth it though so you shouldn't see them as spam and you can always unsubscribe at anytime.

Stay on Topic

Whatever you read in these email lists is geared towards a specifically topic. The reporters, freelance writers, bloggers, and other industry experts do not want you to respond to the media requests if you do not fit the criteria or topic. They are busy people and are putting out a request to get information about a specific article or pitch they are writing.

You can actually get kicked off of the lists if you respond to requests that you do not fit into. Make sure you read the request carefully and only respond to those where you fit the need.

Requests Expire

Most of the media requests expire after a certain date. Sometime they are only available for a day but sometimes you have a week or more to respond. Make sure to get your response in before the deadlines.

How to Respond to a Media Request

Once you find a media pitch that you have knowledge of, you have good information to include to their article, you have a compelling story to share, or you even feel like you have an idea that would make their story better, you will want to write an email to the person listed for that pitch.

Make sure you include a descriptive title to the email. The reporters and other media contacts will get a lot of responses to their requests, especially if they are from a national magazine or TV show and you want your email to be seen.

Do NOT capitalize your entire email title. That is still considered shouting. You could capitalize one word for emphasis and you might want to put the name of the list in brackets or parentheses like this [HARO] and include that in your title. You could also put the name of the person's request in the brackets instead like this: Your title [Top Dating Tips HARO] - that helps the person to know you are responding to their request from the HARO list.

This is not a requirement, of course, just my suggestion to help your media response to get seen.

Getting Responses Back

Many times you will not get a response back from the reporter, blogger, or TV show. They may get lots and lots of responses, especially if they say they are a national magazine or TV show. Don't take it personally. Just keep looking for opportunities to respond to. If you fit the criteria needed and the reporter is interested in what you have to say they will reply to your email.

The Media Outlets

HARO

Founded in 2008, HARO or Help A Reporter Out, is the largest free publicity list out there. It was the first list of it's kind to be established. Created and own by Peter Shankman, HARO brings nearly 30,000 reporters and bloggers, over 100,000 news sources and thousands of small businesses together to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services.

HARO is entirely free to sources and reporters, and unlike a majority of social media services, is independently owned and funded and has been profitable since day one. In addition, HARO serves as

Since you will be responding to most of the pitches and not sending out requests you will want to sign up at helpareporter.com/sources. However, that doesn't mean you can't create your own pitch at some point. That option will be available as well in your control panel.

Once you sign up you can choose the types of lists you would like to receive each day. You will want to know how to use it properly because you will get up to 3 emails per day from this list. You can get the master list, which will have every media pitch and blogger request in it or you can pick from these industry categories:

• Business and Finance
• Lifestyle and Fitness
• High Tech
• Giftbag
• General
• Travel

Reporter Connection

Reporter Connection, established in December of 2009, is a free service that connects busy journalists with experts to interview or quote on a particular issue.

This list is much smaller and you will only get one email from them per day. Right now you cannot specify what you industry category you want to receive but the list is so small it doesn't matter because you will only receive one email from them a day.

Not already a member? Join now to get our free media leads www.ReporterConnection.com/JoinNowFree and please put my email (mommybloggersguide@gmail.com) or my name (Wendy Limauge) in the "Who told you about us?" box

Blogger Link Up

BloggerLinkUp is a service provided by Cathy Stucker and Special Interests Publishing. The purpose of the service is to help bloggers get exposure for their content and find content for their blogs.

This is also a smaller list and was formed in late 2009. It is setup differently than the other two in that it has a section for Guest Post requests and pitches. Right now they only send out one email per day and there is no way to pick your industry category. This list is especially good for bloggers.

Once you sign up for a free account you can use these links to submit your own request or pitch a story or article.

• Request Guest Posts: bloggerlinkup.com/guest-post-ask
• Offer Guest Posts: bloggerlinkup.com/guest-post-offer
• Request Sources for Interviews: bloggerlinkup.com/sources
• Offer Products for Review: bloggerlinkup.com/reeview

Now bloggers have a great way of getting the word out about their niche topic, getting themselves promoted by the traditional media, or getting seen on a national scale.

If you are a blogger or even a business owner looking for a way to get some free advertising on Facebook here is your chance because SeoFlexMedia.com is offering a $78 coupon right now. The coupon doesn't expire until June 30, 2010 so you have plenty of time to take advantage of this offer.

Create an ad at www.facebook.com/ads and use the promo code: 8HPY-3RYX-1T70-80YW

On Facebook you can:

Connect with Real People

• Reach over 350,000,000 active Facebook users.
• Attach social actions to your ads to increase relevance.
• Create demand for your product with relevant ad

Create Your Facebook Ad

• Quickly create image and text-based ads.
• Advertise your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page or an Event.
• Choose to pay per click (CPC) or impression (CPM) in your local currency.

Optimize Your Ads

• Track your progress with real-time reporting.
• Gain insight about who’s clicking on your ad.
• Make modifications to maximize your results.

When you use a standard template in Blogger you get a Navigation bar or more commonly called, NavBar, that shows up at the top of the screen.

The Navbar has things on it like search, Login/Logout, Dashboard, etc.

It looks a little unprofessional so to make your blog look more like a professional designed it you can hide the navbar. You can remove it but hiding it works fine.

Note: Always backup your template before you makeany changes to the HTML to ensure you can restore it if you make unwanted mistakes. For instructions on how to backup your template go to this post entitled, "How to Backup your Blogger Template."

Step-by-Step Instructions for Hiding the NavBar in Blogger:

1. Click the Layout tab.

2. Click the Edit HTML link.

3. Search (Ctrl + F brings up Find) for body {

4. Click just above that line of code and paste this code and press Enter once.

#navbar-iframe {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none
}

5. Click Save Template at the bottom of the screen.

6. Click the Preview button and you will see that the Navbar is gone.



From now on you will need to go to www.blogger.com to log into your blog. You might want to bookmark the Blogger homepage to to make it faster to go to in the future.

#asw10 Two weeks ago Affiliate Summit West took place in Las Vegas and a small group of mom bloggers quietly crept onto the scene. We came to share our interest in affiliate marketing, to learn, and to be introduced to this untapped world.

A group of us, which included Heather from Inexpensively, Carrie from Pocket Your Dollars, Kim from KIMarketing, and myself were invited by Deborah @Loxly from AffiliatesABCs. Deborah has been in the affiliate marketing game for 10 years and is very knowledgeable. She has even been published in the new book we received at the Summit entitled, Internet Marketing From The Real Experts. My husband is reading this now so he can be my affiliate manager :-) Kim goes even further back than Deborah, starting her affiliate journey back in 1999. Heather, Carrie, and I are the newbies in the group but we have all been using affiliate programs on our blogs and knew enough to get our feet wet.

Mom bloggers are really not a new addition to the Summit, just a quiet voice that will hopefully grow as more women attend. I think that the Summit was made up by probably 70% men. I think many mom bloggers haven't been exposed to these types of opportunities but once they learn how much money is waiting to be made they will be all over it. Right now only about 25% of my current income comes from affiliate marketing but since this conference I have plans to change all of that.

While our little panel was not the buzz of the conference we did get a chance to air our concerns and explain who we are and how we use affiliate marketing to make money to the audience.

This small mommy blogger group made a tiny crack into the world of affiliate marketing will hopefully widen the door as more mom bloggers start attending future conferences. I already have plans to go back to Affiliate Summit East this coming August in New York City and hope to attend as a blogger instead of a speaker this time.

Missy Ward and Shawn Collins

This is a expert pair who started and run the Affiliate Summit. Everytime I would see them in the hallways or at parties they would be calm, cool and collected and it must be because they are good at what they do. They are good at surrounding themselves with good people who take care of a lot of the details for them. You have to be a good leader to get people to work for you as well as they do.

I never did get to really talk to them. I only stood next to Missy (@missyward) at the bowling fundraiser but did get to meet Shawn (@affiliatetip) in the hallway after lunch once. They seem to be super nice people and I would love to learn more about how they started the Summit.


Shawn at his goofy best

The Mentor Program

If it wasn't for the Mentor program I wouldn't have gotten as much out of this conference as I did. I signed up on the site about 3 weeks before the conference and was paired with Stephanie Lichenstein @MicroSteph. Stephanie is well-known at the conference. She blogs about the event weeks before, during, and then afterwards. She was a wonderful mentor and I can't say enough about her and Jen Goode who setup and ran the program.

The mentor program helps newbies get acclimated to the conference and if you get a good mentor they will help you get on party lists before the event, show you whos who, help you get into parties at the event, and keep you on top of things. Stephanie was an exceptional example of a good mentor. I owe her big time :-)

If you decide to attend the Affiliate Summit East in New York City I highly suggest you sign up for the mentor program.


My mentor, Stephanie Lichtenstein (on the left)

The People's Conference and Lunch

One thing that struck me was the fact that I would meet multi-millionaires who had just sold their last company who would talk to me and ask me about myself. They seemed generally interested in what I had to say. There was no divide at this conference between the have and the have nots and that impressed me a lot. You are able to learn from everyone and anyone.

The conference ran as smoothly as you would ever want. There were never any glitches or long lines. Everything was in order during the sessions and as a newbie and attendee I didn't even have a care in the world. I just followed the summarized schedule they put in my bag and I was good to go. That schedule sure did help because it was all on one page.


@SteveHall of Adrants, Eric Schechter of Clickbooth, Murray Newlands - sorry, I didn't get the middle guy's name. Anyone know?

The lunch was magnificent! I wish I had taken pictures of it because it was just great. It was buffet style and there were trays of fresh fruit and then hot dishes from potatoes to pasta, rice, chicken, salmon and even Mexican food the last day. Then there was a long dessert table with all kinds of delectable treats. I met some great people each day that I had never bumped into anywhere during the conference. Lunchtime is a great place to network because everyone is so relaxed. Actually, everyone is relaxed all through the conference because Missy and Shawn set that kind of tone.


Janet @onlineprbook, me, and the ClickBooth dude

Some Highlights from the Conference

One of the highlights for me was meeting and personally thanking Peter Shankman from HARO. HARO is an email list that you can sign up for to submit your request for pitches made by reporters, freelance writers, bloggers, TV shows, and more. My success from HARO was based on a story a freelance writer wrote that included my site. I went from a lowly 1,000 readers to 10,000 readers and it made me an overnight success. I will be sharing more later. Since HARO is free I wanted to make sure I at least thanked Peter in person. I even got my picture taken with him.


Me and Peter Shankman - thank you!

As noted above, I sat in on the Site Review clinic - in the front row no doubt - and handed in my business card first so they would pick me to have my site reviewed. A fellow attendee, Bryan, suggested I do this and told me to sit in the front row and try to be first because they only pick a handful of sites to review. Besides, sitting in the front row makes you less nervous because you can't see the looks on people's faces because they are staring at the back of your head! The panel, along with moderator Sugar Rae, poured over my site and gave me a list of things that were wrong and gave me the fixes for them as well. I heard that a consultation like this could cost me $10,000 if I were to pay them for this advice so I found it invaluable. Anytime you are at a conference and can take advantage of an open door like this do it and don't worry about what people think of you.


Don't I look scary? I took my glasses off and am squinting to see the screen. This pic was taken by Dave Dugdale. Check out his Rental Houses Blog

The ShareASale party was the bomb! I went to a lot of parties and many were just people standing in a room or a bar drinking and networking. The ShareASale party was interactive. They had dancing, a great DJ, video games on huge screens in one corner, Karaoke going on in between dancing, tons of great finger foods, and then there was that bouncy room you see 5 year-olds get in at someone's summer birthday party. Well, 20+ adults don't really fit too well in there and I think some of the chandeliers got broken - whoops! It wasn't me!

During the party they also gave our boas and fun glasses and rings that lit up. In another corner there was a photo booth that you could get in with your favorite peeps and taken some fun pictures. It was the best party ever!

There were lots of things going on all of the time and I know I missed out one some awesome sessions but you really can't do it all. I found that the most valuable time during the Affiliate Summit was when I met people one-on-one. Whether it was ducking into a room to talk with an affiliate program manager face-to-face or meet up with him in the hallway for an impromptu meeting, or sitting next to someone in a bar, at a party or at dinner, I learned SO much valuable information that I would just go again for those networking opportunities. One night I went to Cafe Martorano to eat dinner (and no, that creepy looking DJ wasn't there), and I met Warren Whitlock (@warrenwhitlock) who told me I was a celebrity but didn't know it and that I should be using my celebrity to make money. On the other side of me I met someone who told me about 30, 60, and 90 day sessions and how I could make money if someone goes back to a site I suggest over a longer period of time. At yet another event I learned how to use Tubemogul.com to blast a video I want to promote to 10 sites instead of using YouTube to show it just on one site. So, you see, the networking alone is worth it's weight in gold.

And, I hope I was able to share some of the things I know that might help someone. What I find is that EVERYBODY has something to give, both newbie and old timer and everyone is in a friendly mode that there is a lot of learning going on.

Catch you at Affiliate Summit East in New York City - a week after BlogHer in August!