Yesterday, (October 5th, 2009) the FTC released a new pdf that discusses some of the changes it is making in regards to enforcing endorsements (whether online or off).

The “FTC Rules” pdf can be found at the link below (the relevant stuff begins on page 56) –
http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf

Basically, they are cracking down on anyone making deceptive claims in order to earn a commission and on bloggers who write “sponsored posts” without disclosing the fact that they have been paid to write the review.

It also talks about the use of testimonials and under what circumstances a testimonial (or a variety of other elements) may be construed to be an “endorsement.”

I’m no attorney so I’m not going to get into what this may mean for your specific business but I do encourage you to give the FTC Rules pdf a read to see if you need to make any adjustments to protect yourself.

To your success,
Kevin

PS - On occasion, I endorse products here on this blog and some of the time, I earn a commission for doing so. ;- )

If you’re not familiar with what a “favicon” is, let me quickly explain… The term favicon is short for “Favorites Icon.” It’s the little image (logo, if you will) that is shown next to your website’s url in the browser, on any open browser tab and also next to your listing whenever someone “Favorites” your site by bookmarking it.

It helps to increase branding and to set your site apart from all the rest. In addition to this, your favicon can also be used to build backlinks to your site (which improves your SEO) and has the ability to bring you direct traffic.

How is this possible, you ask?

Well, there are a number of Favicon Gallery sites that will list your favicon image on their site for free. Most of these sites link your image straight to your site (hence, the backlink) and some of them get pretty solid traffic (which could lead to direct traffic).

So, there are a number of benefits to having a favicon and the only real downside is that you have to either learn how to make a favicon yourself or you have to hire this work out.

That’s where our new Favicon How To site comes in, we provide a step-by-step video on how to make a favicon from scratch and a Free Favicon Generator that will convert your image into the .ico file format necessary for your favicon to start appearing on your site.

The tool is completely free and I think you will find it fun, fast and easy to use.
http://www.faviconhowto.com

If you have feedback or if you’d just like to tell me easy it was to create your first favicon, just leave a comment, we’d love to hear from you!

Pinging simply refers to sending an electronic notification from one site to another. In the case of blogs, you can “ping” a blog directory (like Technorati.com) and immediately notify them that you have just posted new content.

The result of this, is that the “ping sites” will send their spiders back to your blog for the sole purpose of indexing your new content. Some, will even give you a one-way link back to your new post (which is an added plus!).

However, before you go adding hundreds of ping sites to your list (inside of your WordPress Admin area) there are a couple of things you’ll want to know:

You can get blacklisted by the ping directories if you ping to often, especially if you ping the same content twice. This can also occur by mistake as WordPress will also ping whenever you edit or update a post. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been known to edit a post three or four times before being happy with it.

This can ping the directories multiple times (in a short time span and for the same post) and this doesn’t make them happy.

Another reason I don’t suggest you load your ping list with hundreds of ping directories is that it significantly slows down your posting process. Put another way, the more ping directories in your ping list, the longer you’ll wait before the post is published.

So, what’s the answer to these two issues?

[1] Consider using MaxBlogpress’ Ping Optimizer Plugin, found here: http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/mpo/mpo-install/

The plugin is available for free (they refer to is as “Review Ware” which just means they’d like you to blog about it or tell others but that’s optional).

It will stop the directories from being pinged whenever you edit or update a post and it is also good for autoblogging as it will only ping on the date that the post has been “timestamped” for.

[2] Load up WordPress with just a handful of your favorite ping directories and then use a Free Ping Service, like the one found at: http://ping4free.com/ if you want to ping a bunch of them at once.

The thing I like about Ping4Free.com is, the owner, Lee Seats, does a great job keeping up with which ping sites are still active and which ones have dropped off the map. Ping sites come and go and I’d rather not have to research this myself everytime I wanted to ping a new post of mine.

Sure, it’s not automated like having is set up straight inside of WordPress but you can let someone else’s server do the heavy lifting and not have to wait 10 minutes before your post is published.

Lee’s service is free but you will need to register an account. In addition to the Free Ping Service he provides, he’ll also give you a quality short report on how to improve your Search Engine Rankings and even offers a creative way for members to buld one-way links (for free).

Membership is free, you just have to register.

Thoughts? Let me know by leaving a comment. ;- )

The following post was written by Ron, the owner of AffiliateXFiles.com

——————————–

Affiliate X Files is a blog that is totally dedicated to providing affiliates, from around the world, information they need to effectively promote their affiliate products in an honest way while building a business site that will last and has credibility.

Too many so called “Affiliate Gurus” are quick to offer advice in exchange for your money. Affiliate X Files is offering advice so you can make money online.

We cover many different aspects of affiliate marketing and extensively cover things such as article writing and how to generate a massive amount of one-way back links to your site.

We discuss how to build credibility through creating a website that actually looks like an expert in its field rather than a one page product review site which may have a limited lifespan.

We would like to encourage all our site visitors to post comments or ask questions about their affiliate marketing efforts and ventures. Our users can post their unique article content to our site so long as it is high in quality and relates to affiliate marketing.

From time to time, Affiliate X Files will also offer recommendations to products and services that we feel will benefit our users or products and services that we currently use to promote our site online.

I would also like to thank Kevin Koop from Loopholers.com for all the help and the assistance his Loophole Membership has given me personally and our site, AffiliateXFiles.com

I just got back from attending Ray Edwards’ and Kirt Christensen’s Internet Marketing Mastermind in Las Vegas and thought you might enjoy seeing some of the pics I took while I was there.

TOP/LEFT - Me with copywriter and info product marketer extraordinaire, Ray Edwards

TOP/RIGHT - Me with Adwords and niche marketing expert, Kirt Christensen

SECOND ROW/LEFT- Me with my lovely wife, Christi and our awesome six year old daughter, Sydnee
(inside the Paris Hotel on the strip)

SECOND ROW/RIGHT - A shot of the Suncoast Casino where we stayed (the location for the Internet Marketing Mastermind). I had never been here before but we really enjoyed it.

It’s about 5-6 miles north of the Strip and a really nice facility. Inside, it had a large movie theater, a theater for live shows, a huge bowling alley, a video arcade for kids and many restaurants and buffets (among other things).

THIRD ROW - A pic of the IMM conference sign outside of the Madrid Room where all of the “exchange of information” took place.

The event was pretty intimate (about 60-70 participants I would guess) and not a rapid-fire pitch fest like so many other Internet Marketing seminars/conferences.

If you’re serious about your interenet marketing business, you might consider giving the Internet Marketing Mastermind a look.

You can learn more about it here:
http://www.internetmarketingmastermind.com/

My grandma, Doris, was born in 1921 and passed peacefully on May 2, 2009 –
she was 87 years old.

I have always referred to my grandma as my Superhero and in a minute, you’ll
know why.

I was one of four grandchildren and the only grandson. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was “spoiled” but I did have a special relationship with my grandma… one I thank God for!

As I lived only four houses “up the street” from my grandparents, I spent a lot of time with them. In fact, I spent just about as much time with them as I did my own mom and dad.

For this reason, my grandma was more like a “mom” to me. She did spoil me from time-to-time, but she didn’t hesitate to discipline me when I was out of line.

When I was five years old, I used to ask my grandpa if I could “climb the mountain.” My grandparents’ backyard had a steep slope supported by a retaining wall and I loved to climb to the top of it and think of myself as a mountain climber.

Towards the top of the slope, there was a flower bed made of old railroad ties and some of them protruded vertically out of the ground. As my grandpa was quite a cowboy, he would lasso one of the railroad ties with a long rope so I could use it to “climb the mountain.”

He would put me on top of the five-foot-high retaining wall and then watch me ascend to the top. When I got there, he would cheer me on and then wait for me to descend so he could help me down from the wall.

One day, we went through this process and I started my ascension to the top. However, when I reached it, my grandpa was nowhere to be found.

I called out for him but he didn’t come. I peered into the house but I didn’t see anyone (not even my grandma).

***Side note: My grandpa was the Senior Pastor of a local church and had been called away to a church-related emergency.

He told my grandma that I was “climbing the mountain” and that he had to leave. As I had done this a number of times before, my grandma wasn’t overly concerned that I was on the slope by myself.***

After a few minutes of standing on top of the wall I got impatient. I wanted to get down and since no one was coming when I called, I decided I’d have to get down myself (you probably see where this is headed).

I didn’t want to jump off as a five-foot-drop is pretty big for a five-year-old… especially when the landing pad is the concrete patio slab.

So, I got creative and decided to use the rope to “soften” my fall. I tied a loop, put it around my neck… and jumped!

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t allow enough slack and before my feet touched the ground, the loop cinched tight around my neck.

The force jerked my body backwards and I was slammed into the block wall. I’m still not sure if I passed out or not, but I’m guessing I did.

So, there I was…

Hanging from a rope in my grandparents’ backyard and no one had a clue.

(well, no one on this earth at least)

My grandma was upstairs in their home office… the space my grandparents’ used to conduct church business when they weren’t on the church premises.

My grandma told me that the office phone rang and she went to pick it up. Before she did, she felt God urging her not to.

She didn’t hear God audibly but in her spirit she heard Him say… “Answer the phone in the kitchen.”

She didn’t understand but she was obedient.

She rushed downstairs, went to the kitchen and answered the phone (it was mounted vertically on the wall and faced the block wall where I was hanging).

She screamed, dropped the phone and came to my rescue. She hoisted me up, removed the rope from my neck and revived me.

Without her actions that day, I would have died at age five.

I will miss my grandma — but I know right where she is! ;- )

My grandma was my Superhero… she not only saved my life here on earth, she showed me how to have life everlasting.

John 3:16

While there are a number of different tools that can help you populate your blog with content, the Caffeinated Content plugin is at the top of this list because of its versatility. However, this versatility does come with a premium price tag… the “everyday” selling price is $77.

Until May 7th, 2009 you can get Caffeinated Content at a 30% Discount when you use Discount Code: MAYFLOWERS

http://www.uneedtosee.com/this/cc-plugin

Please note:  This code is only good for the first 250 who purchase so if you’re interested in grabbing the Caffeinated Content plugin at a discount, I’d recommend you grab it sooner than later!

Enjoy the discount! ;- )
Kevin

*If you’re just getting started, this Twitter Video Series is just the ticket. It includes a number of videos on the following topics:

1. Series Introduction
2. What is Twitter
3. Setting Up Our Twitter Account
4. Creating The Twitter Background Image
5. Adding The Custom Background Image
6. How To Get Tweeps (Followers)
7. Take Twitter For A Spin

8. Twitter Tools (6 Videos)
8a - Twellow
8b - TwitPwr
8c - TwitterFox
8d - TweetLater
8e - Twitter Karma
8f - Twitter Toolbar
9. How To Combine Emailing & Twitter

10.How to Combine Blogging & Twitter (3 Videos)
10a - Twitter Tools
10b - TweetMy Blog
10c - Tweet This
11.Telecommute With Twitter

12.Twitter Traffic Tips & Techniques (3 Videos)
12a - Auto-Ping
12b - Blog Comments
12c - Followers
13.Twitter Fun Time
14.How To Make Money With Twitter

Click Here To Check Out The New Twitter Video Series

*If you already have some experience with Twitter but would like to add a really nice Twitter Background without paying $100 (or more) to a designer, check out this really slick product from my buddy Ben:

Click Here To See How To Customize Twitter

*One FireFox extension (aka “addon”) that I know you’ll love is called TwitterFox. It’s free and only takes a minute to install and configure.  Once configured, it will alert you to new “Tweets” left by those you are following (based on your settings) and allows you to add tweets right there in your browser!

You can get the TwitterFox extension by either selecting… Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons or you can go to:
http://www.twitterfox.net

*If you’re more advanced and looking for Twitter Marketing Strategies that will help you build your online business, then I suggest you checkout the Zen of Social Marketing. This ebook, written by social marketing maven, Shama Hyder, reveals an effective Twitter Marketing System that is both fun and effective.

Click Here To Check Out The Zen Of Social Marketing

If you find other Twitter Tools indispensible, please leave a comment! ;- )

Marketer Matt Callen (Brad Callen’s brother) has just launched a new site/service called “My Article Network” and while this isn’t the only network of its type, it is the largest I’ve seen.

As the author of the Article Domination Method (and an expert on article marketing), I scrutinize Article Marketing related products very closely and will do my best to give you the Pro’s and Con’s of this new service.

Before I tell you about their services though, you need to know there are two different types of membership. The first, is free and allows members to post content (from paying members) onto their blogs (the process is automated through the use of an API). The second, allows paying members to submit an unlimited amount of “articles” that will be shown across the blogs in the network.

Here’s an overview of what is offered to paying members of “My Article Network” -

*Unlimited article submission
*Submitted articles are said to be shown across a network of more than 10,000 blogs (and growing)
*Articles can contain up to three anchor text links
*Links can be pointed to any domain you’d like (your own domain, a web 2.0 page like your squidoo lens, or even through your affiliate link)

PRO’s –

*This is a huge network (largest I’ve seen) and those that submit articles have the ability to build a huge amount of backlinks fast!
*The service allows the use of affiliate links (unlike most article directories) so if you want to do some direct-linking, you can (without worrying about having your account suspended)
*The submission process is easy and fast
*The minimum word count is much lower than most article directories so you can write (and submit) more articles, more often!
*The blogs in the network are hosted by folks from all over the globe. This is excellent as the blogs are across a variety of niches and on unique IP addresses

CON’s –

*The service does cost $47 per month (I think this represents a very good value but you will need to submit enough articles to ensure that you turn a positive return on your investment)
*The articles are not submitted to any traditional article directories (if you want to submit to places like EzineArticles.com, you will need to submit to them directly)

Overall, I think the “My Article Network” represents a really great opportunity. Of course, it’s like anything else — those who put in some effort will likely see the rewards and those who don’t… won’t.

Now, I’m not going to “bash” Traffic Geyser as I know that it is a quality product/service (and Mike Koenigs and Frank Sousa are really nice guys). However, now that Video Submit Wizard is available it only makes sense to know how they compare as you certainly don’t need to buy both.

Note: Both Video Submit Wizard and Traffic Geyser are really designed for the same purpose… to help marketers submit their promotional videos (quickly and easily) to a lot of online video directories for the purpose of maximum exposure and an increase in website traffic (and ultimately, for the purpose of making money ;- )

Main Features of Traffic Geyser:

*Will submit to more than 30 video sharing sites
*Will also submit to social bookmarking sites
*Provides a lot of quality information on making effective videos

Cost:  Traffic Geyser offers a 30-Day Trial for $1.00 and then it is $99/month thereafter

Click here for more about Traffic Geyser

Main Features of Video Submit Wizard:

*Will submit to more than 30 video sharing sites
*DOES NOT submit to social bookmarking sites
*Provides both videos and pdf guides on how to create effective viral videos for maximum exposure

Cost: Video Submit Wizard is currently offering a 14-Day Trial for $4.95 and then $37/PER QUARTER
(that works out to about $12.33 per month)

Click here for more about Video Submit Wizard

With that said, Traffic Geyser is the more “robust” option but it also costs $1,000.00+ more per
year than Video Submit Wizard.

If you are a hard-core video marketer then Traffic Geyser may be the way to go but for most marketers,
Video Submit Wizard is a much better value!

I can think of a lot of things to do with that “extra” $1,000.00+ per year! ;- )

To more traffic,
Kevin

PS - Quick Update… Keith Gilbert, the creator of the Video Submit Wizard, has just put a short demo video online which covers the basics of using the Video Submit Wizard software.
Click Here to See the Video Submit Wizard Demo