Affiliates were asked “Do you cloak/redirect links?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

The majority of respondents, at 59%, said no, and the remaining 41% indicated they do cloak their links.

I’ve been cloaking affiliate links for as long as I can remember – first through meta redirects, then via an .htaccess file, before I moved on to using a WordPress plugin called Pretty Link.

I also came across another useful affiliate redirect WordPress Plugin called ThirstyAffiliates last fall.

Additionally, I use bit.ly Pro, which is a free service that enables me to use my own domain to make redirect links. I use aff.bz there.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

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I’ve gotten questions from lots of folks in the past day who have donated or are thinking about donating to support me in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

They were all wondering whether the Avon Foundation for Women is affiliated with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The answer is no, according to a post from the Avon Foundation for Women on Facebook:

The Avon Foundation for Women is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is not affiliated in any way with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer event series is a project of the Avon Foundation and has no connection to any Susan G. Komen event. We invite you to learn more about our events and the breast cancer research and access to care programs we fund at www.avonwalk.org and www.avonfoundation.org

So there y’all go.

If you haven’t already pitched in to help fight breast cancer, I’d love if you’d support me in the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer with a donation of any amount. I’m trying to raise $25,000 towards our team goal of $80,000.

The money I raise will be managed and disbursed by the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade to help provide access to care for those that most need it, fund educational programs, and accelerate research into new treatments and potential cures.

Get more details on where the money goes from funds raised in the Avon Walks.

Also, we need affiliate marketers, as well as their friends and family, to join us out there on the walk or at our cheering station.

More details on joining or supporting the team: 2012 Affiliate Marketers Give Back Walk to #SaveTheBoobies is On!

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Affiliates should be split testing their landing pages, but many I’ve asked have never bothered.

For the uninitiated, split or A/B testing is a process where you serve up different versions of your page to different visitors to determine which is more effective.

I’ve tried various ways in WordPress and found they were largely a hassle, until I can across the Simple Page Tester plugin.

The plugin lives up to the name, as it was simple to set up and start a split test.

You just choose an existing page and then choose to duplicate the page, create a fresh page to test against, or choose another existing page.

Then you determine how many people see each version of the page by adjusting the percentage in either direction.

It’s up to you to track conversions from each version. After you run a test, you can declare one page the winner.

At that point, the winning page becomes the new master page and the old variation is deleted for you.

Simple as that.

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Affiliate Summit has been giving away “Pay It Forward Scholarships” to up to 50 affiliates per conference, who could not otherwise afford to attend, for a couple years now.

And now we’re starting up a “Pay it Forward Merchant Endowment” Program, where we will be sponsoring up to 8 merchants at Affiliate Summit East 2012 with free tradeshow space in the Exhibit Hall or Meet Market.

The goal of this new endowment is to make the tradeshow networking experience of Affiliate Summit available to merchants who might not otherwise be able to exhibit.

Each recipient of the Pay it Forward Merchant Endowment will be awarded their choice of one 8×10 booth package (non corner), valued at $6,825, or a Meet Market with Platinum Pass package, valued at $5,295. For more information on these packages, please visit http://www.affiliatesummit.com/12e-exhibitors/.

Endowments are limited to U.S. based merchants with active affiliate programs. Applicants will be considered based on current participation in; and future contribution to the affiliate marketing industry.

All applicants must answer ONE of these questions in essay form in 300 words or less:

1. What is a problem in affiliate marketing and how do you propose it be fixed?
2. What are the top two unique value propositions for affiliates in your affiliate program?

All applications will be reviewed by the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board and winners of the scholarships will be notified by Monday, March 9, 2012.

To be considered for a Pay It Forward Scholarship, please complete the online application. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, February 29, 2012.

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The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) reports that the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue is delaying enforcement of its Affiliate Nexus Tax law until September 1, 2012.

Hopefully, merchants will continue to work with their affiliates in Pennsylvania, rather than jumping the gun and booting them out.

More details at http://performancemarketingassociation.com/reprieve-in-pennsylvania-affiliate-nexus-tax-law-on-hold-until-september-1st.

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Highlights from Affiliate Summit West 2012, the premier affiliate marketing conference, which took place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace Las Vegas with over 5,000 affiliate marketers.

Video: Highlights from Affiliate Summit West 2012

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The seventeenth issue of FeedFront Magazine is out, so we’re on to issue 18.

The next issue of FeedFront will be coming out in May 2012, and the deadline for article proposals for issue 18 of FeedFront is February 22, 2012.

If you are interested in writing an article, go to the FeedFront article proposal form to submit a one sentence summary on what you’d like to cover.

No ghost-written articles. We only want content from people writing from their personal industry experience.

If you have previously been accepted to write an article and either failed to meet the deadline or did not adhere to the editorial guidelines, please submit your article proposal elsewhere. We take our deadlines and guidelines seriously.

Do not submit a complete article now – just a one sentence summary.

We will contact everybody who submitted a proposal by February 22, 2012 on whether the article ideas are accepted or denied.

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I was digging through some old files, and I came across a few of the postcards I used to recruit affiliates for the ClubMom.com affiliate program between 2000 and 2004.

The first one I mailed was from a company called Web Cards back in 2000.

Their thing was to take a screen capture of a site and make that the front of the postcard. Then I got a few lines to write copy at the bottom.

Web Cards was good at the time, as I didn’t know of other vendors that provided such a service, I don’t known that I was aware of how to take a screen capture myself at the time, and I didn’t have a graphic designer available to me.

That all changed over the years.

I was able to sell the affiliate program with the left side of the back of the postcard from Web Cards.

I don’t recall when this postcard came out, but I’m guessing it was late 2001 or early 2002. I think this one was printed through VistaPrint.

This piece of mail was different from the previous one, as it had value propositions for the affiliate program on the front, and then I just put my contact information and how to apply on the back.

Finally, I sent one around Christmas 2003 with a New Years resolution theme. I’m pretty sure this was also from VistaPrint.

This postcard added more contact information on the back side, including my AIM (at that time) and home phone number.

While there are a variety of ways for an affiliate manager to contact affiliates directly, I found that direct mail was the most effective for me, based on surveying affiliates over the years about the reasons they came to apply to the affiliate program.

But still, I have gotten so few pieces of mail from affiliate programs over the years.

I’d highly recommend to any affiliate managers to test direct mail to recruit affiliates. The fact that nobody else is doing it is one of the best reasons for you to try – you’ll really stick out.

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Speaking proposals for Affiliate Summit Central 2012, taking place May 15-16, 2012 in Austin, TX, are now being accepted.

The submission deadline is February 29, 2012.

Accepted speakers will be notified no later than March 14, 2012. Due to the volume of submissions, we will not notify applicants if they have not been accepted. Therefore, if you have not been contacted by March 14, 2012, your proposal was not accepted.

Submit your speaking proposal at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/12c-speakers/.

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Internet Marketing from the Real Experts, a book on affiliate marketing, social media, search marketing and more, is now available on Kindle.

The print book can be purchased for around $15, but the Kindle edition is available for just $2.99.

You can borrow Internet Marketing From the Real Experts for free, with no due dates, if you are a Kindle owner and Amazon Prime member.

Here is a description of Internet Marketing from the Real Experts:

What do Tim Carter, Brian Clark, Joel Comm, Jim Kukral, Ted Murphy, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Mari Smith have in common? They all walk the walk when it comes to their Internet marketing expertise. And they also have joined a couple dozen innovators and thought shapers to share their ideas, advice, and insight.

“Internet Marketing from the Real Experts” is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social network rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.

These are the people that do this stuff every day. Find out how they do what they do to achieve success with their online businesses.

Their voices, their ideas, their action items, and their lessons learned from mistakes–all for you to grow your business the day you start reading “Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.”

Purchase Internet Marketing from the Real Experts on Kindle or borrow the book for free if you are an Amazon Prime member.

Please review Internet Marketing from the Real Experts on Amazon.

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