Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Affiliate Marketing Session at Blog Indiana

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Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of speaking with my fellow presenters for the upcoming Blog Indiana, Kristen Kinsey and Carolyn Tang. We are working on a presentation about affiliate marketing and blogging.

As I begin work on my part of the presentation, I’m having to take a fresh look at my blog sites and how I am monetizing them. Is there enough content? Do the affiliate links flow naturally from the content or am I forcing the links in the hope of making an extra buck or two? It’s a good chance to look at my own blogs and evaluate them in the same way that I would look at someone else’s blog–with fresh eyes.

Speaking about affiliate marketing is a pleasure but is also going to be a little bit tricky because we are not sure just how much Indiana bloggers already know about affiliate marketing. Judging by the attendance of Hoosiers at Affiliate Summit and the lack of discussion on Smaller Indiana about affiliate marketing, I’m guessing that there isn’t too much of it going on here. Hopefully our session at Blog Indiana will change that!

If you are planning on attending Blog Indiana (taking place August 13th and 14th in Indianapolis), please leave me a comment and let me know if you are already using affiliate marketing, plan on using affiliate marketing in your blogs, or do not even know what affiliate marketing is. Hopefully we can tailor our presentation so that everyone walks away with something useful.

Are You a Social Media Butterfly?

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Let me start out by saying that I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as a Social Media Butterfly until this morning. I was thinking about what I wanted to blog about and it kept coming back to me that I seem to be spending half of my time these days social networking on different sites. In my head I kept equating it to being a “social butterfly” and I decided to title my post “social media butterfly.” I did a quick Google search only to discover that lots of other people thought of this term long before me.

In essence, the Social Media Butterfly is the technical equivalent of the traditional Social Butterfly. You move from group to group networking and socializing. You may do it for fun or to futher your business. You know a lot of different people in different circles and enjoy making friends.

I wouldn’t say I’m exactly a social butterfly in my real life, but a big part of that is working in a home office and spending a lot of time and energy raising two kids. But lately I have absolutely become a Social Media Butterfly. In addition to my time on the Sunshine Rewards forum with those members (and the corresponding Twitter account and videoblog), I spend a good deal of time on Disney sites talking about both friends and business. I keep my Facebook page open constantly (partaking in a little Farkle, Mafia Wars, and even Farmville). I couldn’t get into Twitter much until I installed TweetDeck, and now I am addicted. Add to that my Ning sites (like TwitterMoms and Smaller Indiana). Oh! And my actual job…networking on various affiliate marketing sites and commenting on blogs. I even got a new phone that I could better text on because my other one was too hard.

It remains to be seen whether all of my time as a Social Media Butterfly is going to be profitable. It’s hard to figure out an ROI on the time that you spend Twittering. I guess I’ll give it a go for the rest of the summer and see where it takes me!

The Return from Vacation

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I think no matter what your job is, returning from vacation is difficult. But when you are in affiliate marketing, it can be brutal. Even having two employees continuing to work last week, I came back to such a mess! Merchants are lowering commission rates and cookie times (no more promoting a certain sporting goods store for me!). The affiliate tax issue is escalating. My Helping Moms Connect site hasn’t had a new post in weeks. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I tried to get organized before I left for vacation. But between packing for the family, cleaning up the house, and finishing up some PTO duties, I didn’t get very far with my affiliate work. Sure, my email was caught up and I sent out a ton of Disney Gift Cards. But when I already feel like I am never caught up, I’m feeling even worse right now.

Everyone always jokes that they need a vacation when they return from vacation. I just need a Fairy Godmother who can magically make the work disappear. Or maybe Seven Dwarfs who can do the work for me. A broom (or brooms) that will clean up the house by themselves (to the tune of classical music). I guess you can tell where I spent my vacation!

Leading Moms in Business Competition

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As an active participant at StartupNation.com, I was super excited to see their newest contest, the Leading Moms in Business 2009 Competition. The goal of the contest is to celebrate America’s top 200 mom-owned businesses and the women behind them.

A mom of two and the owner of my own Internet company, I quickly entered the contest. I posted about it in a couple of places where I hoped that our members would see. Much to my delight, our popularity meter has now reached the highest level, “On Fire!”.  At this point, I am hoping that means that I actually have a chance at being in the top 100!

If you could spare a moment, I would love to have your vote. You do not have to register with them in any way. All you do is click a button. You can vote for each contestant once per 24 hours, but I would be happy if you would even vote for me once!

Here’s my page:

http://www.startupnation.com/leading-moms-2009/contestant/3155/index.php

Thanks so much for your support. This would be an awesome honor.

Moving My Affiliate Cheese

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Once upon a time when I was in the corporate world, I loved reading “Who Moved My Cheese?” with my teams. I loved when things changed because I saw opportunities. But I didn’t think that the book applied to me now that I am an affiliate and own my own business. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

As it turns out, the cheese gets moved more in affiliate marketing than when I worked for Lexis. I have to remember that every move means a new challenge that can take me down a different path. Look around. Isn’t the new Shareasale toolbar policy really just someone moving my cheese? It means not only evaluating my own company’s non-use (or use) of toolbars but to what extent we need to educate our visitors better about them. It means looking at where we are in industry and where we want to be.

But toolbars aren’t the only thing. I was reading Scott Jangro’s post about affiliate links in Twitter. Extending it out to other conversations now going on is the use of affiliate links on Facebook. These are new opportunities for us. We can choose to follow the path of monetizing our Twitter and Facebook accounts or continue along the road of viewing them only as pure social networking.

Each twist and turn in affiliate marketing can be scary because it’s my livelihood. On the flip side, it keeps my business fresh because I always have to be on the lookout for the next big thing. So go ahead and move my cheese. I’m up to the challenge and, in fact, looking forward to it!