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.