LinkShare announced their newest affiliate tool called Automated LinkGenerator, but boy did they make it difficult for their affiliates to understand what the heck this thing is and what it does. It's kind of a datafeed, but then again it's kind of not. Here's the email announcement I got….

LinkShare is pleased to announce a new Web services offering for affiliates, called Automated LinkGenerator. Web services are Web based applications that use open, XML-based standards and transport protocols to exchange data with clients.

Automated LinkGenerator creates LinkShare affiliate links for any product on a merchant's site that offers LinkGenerator. This new feature provides the same functionality as the LinkGenerator tool in the Individual Product Links interface, without having to log into the Affiliate Interface to get your links. This new tool does not replace Merchandiser (LinkShare's datafeed), but will be helpful for getting direct links from merchants that do not offer Merchandiser feeds.

If you are interested in using the Automated LinkGenerator, please email us at linkgen_request@linkshare.com to have this new tool enabled. Once you are enabled, the Automated LinkGenerator will be located under the LinkShare Feed Synergy Services area of the Affiliate Interface. To create an Automated LinkGenerator link, you will use a REST (Representational State Transfer) Web services to request links for a given merchant URL. You will then send a URL from the merchant's site to LinkShare using the specified link format (see the Automated LinkGenerator Help area).  The URL can be sent through a browser, a tool like wget or curl, or an automated script.  For each URL provided, LinkShare returns a click link.  You can request up to 1,000 links within an hour.

Web services applications are accessible using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST. Web Services use HTTP with XML for communication. These are ubiquitous technologies and any device capable of using these technologies is able to both host and consume Web services. Web services concepts are simple to understand and with the addition of various tool-kits provide a low barrier to entry and easy software development.

For information on setting up a Web services, please visit the following sites:
REST - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer
Web Services - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service
Web Services & PHP - http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2004/03/24/phpws.html

 Okay guys, here's my findings for you on this Affilistore software … it's freaking brilliant … as in the English word for quite nice.

You have to have some knowledge of how a datafeed works. You need to be able to hook up a database and some php/html/chmod abilities. The install was pretty simple if you know these things.

Once the data is pulled in there are certain parameters that there's no way to update, and others that easily can be. It's very important to do the install correctly, otherwise you'll end up re-doing it.

The templates are easy to work with for the most part. It comes with one already there for you. You do have to select it after the install process is over. So, don't panic when you notice there doesn't seem to be styles. The pages it creates are very clean and easy to navigate.

It is SEO friendly (could be more so) and it's a bummer is that it doesn't update your feeds automatically. I'm guessing that's what's coming in their paid version … I hope so.

All-in-all I'd give this a BIG thumbs up from Affiliate Blogger, the Affiliate Guild and Best Affiliate Network. Thanks to 5 Star Affiliate Marketing for bringing it to my attention.

One of my fav forum leaders, Jon over at WickedFire, was offered a cool $16 million for his forum … $11 million smokers if he wanted the cash all at once.

 Jon declined the offer.

I have to wonder if part of the deal is that Jon had to stay on and work it for da man … which tain't no way Jon's going to go for that. But, if that wasn't the case, then … Jon … dude, sell it. We affiliates love you man! We'll go with  you to your next adventure.

Build yourself a WickedWater site and let's play it again.

I actually have a sneaking suspision as to who that offer came from … my guess is that the ride ain't over buddy.

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.

Personally, I really like datafeeds. I think they're a way under used technology for working affiliate marketing.

I received an email this morning … and let me preface this by saying I like both guy who sent me the email and the company he was representing … but I was left wondering after reading the email.

It was a simple email. On December 11th there's going to be a live call that's free to those who register for it. That's the word from Affiliate Classroom. But, the email doesn't tell you WHO the free conference call is with … so, naturally you'll click the link to go see.

It's with Partner Centric … again, very cool.

Thing is, the email never tells you WHAT it is that you're signing up to learn about. They call it Free Affiliate Site Software … which could mean just about anything.

Okay, left to speculate … and that's all I'm doing … I'm guessing it's about datafeeds. Partner Centric has a nice datatfeed technology, which I'm guessing is way under used just like everyone else's is. So, good on them for offering to teach affiliates how to use it!

But, why can we just call it what it is? Why the code words Free Affiliate Site Software? When did "datafeed" become a dirty word?

Unless I'm totally wrong, and we know that's entirely possible. Find out Dec 11th … 300 seats in the room … http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/limited/ … find out for yourself.

Media Kits are popping up everywhere these days … they're baaack!

Used to be, back in the day, that everyone had a media kit on their business website. Then, for some odd reason they went away. I guess with the added presure by the search engines to provide unique content, we're seeing a reinvention of media kits.

I just came across another one today, and I'll share it with you:

AffiliatePrograms.com gets a new mediakit facelift created by WhiteCap Studios, who also gave their website a re-do earlier in the year. Under the guidance of Dave Cole at AffiliatePrograms.com, WhiteCap created a new media kit section for the AffiliatePrograms' flagship site. AffiliatePrograms.com is a paid resource for affiliate recruitment, communication, and retention.

Media Kits are certainly something to consider adding to your online business to attract additional attention, and it's always a great resource for any sales team.

Want to be an affiliate for eBay? I did, and when I went to find out how to hook-up it was not easy to find the right information. So, I thought I would help make this process a whole lot easier for other affiliates.

First you will need to sign-up at Commission Junction as an affiliate for eBay.

Then, go to eBay's affiliate tools and click on RSS Feed Generator.

The RSS Feed Generator is an easy way for affiliates to generate RSS feeds that include trackable links to items. The RSS Feed Generator has been embedded into eBay Advanced Search and allows affiliates to create feeds that meet predefined search criteria.

You can generate feeds in three simple steps:
- Go to the Advanced Search page.
- Enter the search criteria that you want the RSS feeds to satisfy
- Enter your affiliate tracking information at the bottom of the page and click Submit.
The Search results page includes an RSS feed. The item links in the RSS feed includes your affiliate tracking information.

Now, click on Create RSS Feeds to get started on creating eBay feeds for your website or blog. I use Magpie RSS reader code to read in my rss feeds.

I also came across a nice post by SuperAff.com called The Poor Man's eBay RSS to WordPress Hack that offers you some other options. So, here's what SuperAff had to say….

Here’s an eBay workaround I’ve found that helps make affiliate life a little easier:

Install and activate the firstRSS WordPress Plugin. This will allow you to display RSS feeds within your WordPress posts.

Tip #1: Open the firstRSS.php file and change the cache_time to something like 30 minutes so that your eBay listings will always be fresh. Also change the items_limit to a reasonable amount–eBay’s lowest search results option is 25. I don’t know about you, but a blog post with 25 auction items displayed isn’t all that appealing.

Tip #2: You can choose to display both pictures & auction titles/information or just the auction titles.
eBay RSS Feed Generator: Generate the rss feed for the items you want to display within your WordPress posts.

Tip: Because the feed isn’t going to refresh every second, set the listings to end in more than 1 hour (found in eBay’s advanced search area) so your visitors will always view live auctions from your blog.
When you’re wanting to display auction results within a post, simply insert [rsspara:URL] or [rsslist:URL] within your blog post where you want the ebay auction results to display. Replace the URL with the ebay rss feed url. To display all the auction info, use rsspara, rsslist displays the titles only.

Benefits: Highly targeted ebay items are displayed within your blog posts since you can get very specific with your search terms. This method also keeps your juicy data private since you’re not using a third party feed display setup.

Drawback: It takes time to go to eBay, make your search & create your rss feed. Not much time, but it still has a lot of room for more automation.

Solution: I created my own WordPress Quicktag for eBay RSS results (read here how to do that). Now all I have to do is click my eBay quicktag when writing a blog post and simply edit the search phrase to what I want.

If you’d like to grab my copy of the quicktag hack, here’s the file: eBay Quicktag. Just save it as quicktags.js and upload to wp-includes/js folder.

Important: Make sure to change the afcj=12345 to your Commission Junction affiliate PID to afcj=yournumber.

The eBay quicktag displays in front of the “more” quicktag. You can move that wherever you want.

When writing a post, simply click the eBay quicktag to insert the rss ebay code. Change “insert+keywords+here” to whatever auction search results you want displayed (remember to use + between each word).

Customization Tip: You can create a special div to wrap around the rss code. For example: Have an ad box that aligns to the right of the page within the post that just lists the auction headings. Have the background a different shade than the rest of the blog post. The sky’s the limit . Simply include the

in the quicktag info so that it’s automatically included and add the div to your CSS file.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Don't cry foul! Be smarter with Google's Adsense Smart Pricing.

You can't blame Google for wanting to do right by their merchants, and try to get them the best qualified traffic possible. Google's attempt to deal with the arbitrage issue has caused some problems for their legit publishers as well.

I'm talking about Adsense Smart Pricing, which was Google's original answer to dealing with arbitrage junk-clicks. It's definitely having an effect in favor of the merchants, but guess what … it's got a wicked backlash to it that is hurting those White Hat Publishers as well. Opps!

The problem is that there are poor quality advertisers/merchants out there as well. And if your site happens to run in the same keyword set that those poor quality advertisers do, then you've got problems my friend.

What happens is the the consumer comes to your site, clicks the Google ad and lands on the crappy advertisers landing page … the consumer then bails on that crappy site immediately.

What's that mean for you? Means Google is going to punish you for sending that advertiser what they percieve as bad traffic, when you were not at fault at all. Oops! 

So, there is something you can do combat the evils of the bad advertiser syndrome.

Log into your AdSense account and then wander on over to the Adsense Setup area … look for the Competitive Ad Filter and click on to it. In the box of URLs to block, paste in a copy of this list of Bad Advertisers to be Blocked.

Do this and you'll made a big dent in the amount consumers fleeing from your Google links. Life will be good again!