I was surfing around reading the blogs of other affiliate marketers, and I came across a post by Linda Buquet of 5 Star Affiliates that really bugged me. Not with Linda, no way, but with merchants who think they can rip off the affiliates and totally get away with it.

Seems that DadaMobile slammed shut the doors of their affiliate program right befor Christmas.

That means that any affiliates who were promoting their products and services are basically out of luck for their commissions. Man, I'd hate to be the guy running PPC ads for this affy program … that's gotta hurt!

I think merchants like DadaMobile need to be exposed … to the winter's elements … for the doing bad business.

If you're an affiliate with them, I'd highly recommend you get out of there NOW!!! If you've owed commissions from sales you made prior to the closing of their affiliate program, you need to demand payment. If they refuse, you affiliates need to files a class action suit. Stick together and shady merchants like this will not have as much of an impact in the Affiliate Marketing Industry.

I also received an Associate email from Amazon today outlining more changes to their affiliate payout structure. Man, they're down to 4% for affiliates now … that's just wrong!

The email continued:

Announcing Monthly Payments!

Beginning January 1, 2007, your Amazon Associates payments will be monthly instead of quarterly, paid approximately 60 days after the end of each month. For example, referral fees you earn in January will be paid at the end of March, and payment of referral fees earned in February will be paid at the end of April. As part of this change, referral fee tiers will be adjusted to reflect monthly instead of quarterly item quantities:

Amazon's also sending out another email to some of their associates. I haven't gotten this one yet myself:

Debra Rabin has written a new article for AffiliateClassroom that outlines the features of the Perfect Affiliate.

Some of the qualities discussed in the article include profitability, an eye for success, research, relationships and communications … amoung other attributes.

It's a good read and represents the point-of-view of the Merchant. Affiliates might get a better understanding of what the Merchants wants in their relationship with you. I think any time, the two sides can get a better understanding of each other, the better this business is. Feel free to add your thoughts on it too!

I'm SO tagged!

I didn't even see it coming … suddenly there she was! Linda Buquet with that smile of hers, politely pinging me to let me know that I should consider myself tagged. Wicked wench! LOL

So, here's the deal. There's a tag game going around where bloggers have to share five things about themselves that most readers wouldn't know, and then tag five other bloggers mercilessly. 

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Bobbie Grennier

1) Like Linda Buquet, my dad wanted to name me Linda Loo after his favorite gravel truck too! Thankfully the buoy industry was doing better than gravel that year, and so "Bob"-bie was the agreed upon name.

2) I'm very allergic to all alcohol. I love the taste of beer, so besides being a big bummer, it also makes attending affiliate events not so much fun as the others guys seem to be having.

3) I used to be a school teacher and I love helping people learn new things, but you probably know that last bit since I created the Affiliate Guild to help affiliates learn the ropes.

4) If you phone me you're very likely to hear birdies chriping and doggies barking from time to time. I've got a full on zoo in my office and feeding the animals is required … Starbucks for their trainer.

5) I live near the coastal redwoods of California, so my favorite past time is hiking in the woods. I never weary of just how special and beautiful these giant trees are.

Here are my blog tag predecessors. I was tagged by Linda Buquet who was tagged by Anik Singal who was tagged by Rosalind Gardner, who was tagged by Jeremy Palmer, who was tagged by Scott Jangro.

Now I'm passing the torch to Ros Phillips of LinkConnector, Arlene & James Martell of Affiliate Bootcamp, Tom Avery of RevenueSource Affiliate Forums, Stephen Ralph of Top-Affiliate.com and Marifer Vergara from the queenofcheap.com.

I was reading a few relevant tips from Darren at ProBlogger about some Do's and Dont's for professional business blogs. I wanted to pass on his wisdoms because I think that they're right on the money, no pun intended.

These are the same strategies I use on my blogs Affiliate Blogger, Affiliate Marketers and Affiliate Blog.

The topic was about what to do if you have viewers coming to your blog, but they never buy anything through you. The advice is sage:

Product relevancy and quality - unless the products you're promoting relate to the content/topic of your blogging you're wasting your time. Not only should they be relevant - they should be quality affiliate products. Don't get sucked into promoting something just because it relates to your site. Test it for yourself and if it's rubbish - stay clear. You can hurt your own reputation by recommending second rate products.

Traffic - the more people that see the promotions you run the better. While traffic isn't the only factor, it is certainly a big one. Work at drawing people to your blog and particularly to the pages that you are featuring affiliate promotions on.

Placement - affiliate links IN content tend to out perform promotions that you run in sidebars or banner ads. One genuine review of the product (see next point) seen by a handful of readers can be much more powerful than a banner at the top of your blog seen by many readers.

Your reputation and 'Sales Pitch' - I find that affiliate products work best for me on sites where I have a loyal readership of people who respect what I say and when I give genuine recommendation that show not only the positives of a product but the weaknesses in it. The way you promote the product is as influencial as almost anything else. Don't hype, don't lie and don't spin it.

Keith Baxter's brand new free report called "Give Pay Per Click the Finger"…affiliate link: http://www.giveppcthefinger.com

If you're interested in learning about a new way to generate traffic, this report is an interesting read. and a quick read too. The times are changing and I it would be a shame for anyone to not read this report and fail like many will. I read it, and I wanted to share it with you ASAP.The times are changing and I it would be a shame for anyone to not read this report and fail like many will. I read it, and I wanted to share it with you ASAP.I recommend you take a break from whatever it is you are doing if you can and get access to this report now. It only takes a few minutes to do.