Site Changes:

1. 123LinkIt Referral Program - We’ve received a lot of requests for this and we anticipate it’ll be ready in September. For commission details, check out our site.
2. Homepage and Profile Changes – Our homepage has changed! We’re working on making it cleaner, adding more whitespace and clarifying our message. Look out for more dramatic changes soon. Your profile page will also constantly be improving. We’ve already added notifications so you can stay up-to-date on our newest releases. To access this feature, click on “view all notifications” on the lower right hand size of your page when you first log on. Next, we’re incorporating easy to view graphs in your Quick Stats page (look for it this Friday).
3. New Sign-up Process – We’re changing the sign-up process and both current users and new users will realize the benefits. Current users will have an opportunity to add more details to their profile and new users will be able to create an account using their Twitter or Facebook account.

Plugin Changes:

1. The “Lazy Person’s 123LinkIt” – As dubbed by a user on our GetSatisfaction page, this greatly anticipated feature will launch in our next upgrade or our 1.0 version. This will synchronize all your posts (old and current) and automatically insert relevant, timely in-text affiliate ads without requiring you to approve/disapprove each suggestion.
2. Improved Plugin Settings – Some of which include being able to blacklist advertisers, remove links easily, etc.
3. More Keywords and Links – The new version will have more keywords and products to link to which will help increase the monetization potential of your blog.

We’re keeping a couple of other projects under our belt until they launch so we can surprise you. However, one I will mention is the launch of our own API that will allow other sites and services to utilize our service for their own needs.

Which one are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments!

Is that a common screen when using our WordPress affiliate plugin?

If so, there are now two ways you can change that! First by adding your own keyword suggestions to our database and next by recommending which advertisers or category of products you’d like us to focus on.

1. Adding your own keyword suggestions

If you can’t find relevant keywords or phrases that match your content and would like to add your own, this is the perfect feature for you. Navigate to your profile (this will soon be available within the plugin as well), click on Suggest Keywords (screenshot to the left), and select “Suggest More” next to the corresponding advertiser. Type your keywords in the field box provided and we’ll add them within 24 hours.

Let’s do an example together. Let’s say I want to add “fitness program” to the P90X program. I would look under Advertisers for P90X, click on Suggest Keywords and type that keyword into the field box provided (see below). It’s that easy!

Note: The keywords and phrases MUST be relevant to the advertiser. One of the keys to success of affiliate marketing is matching appropriate keywords and ads to advertisers. Irrelevant links don’t perform and we want to ensure we’re always providing you with as many opportunities as possible to make money from your blog.

2. Recommending advertisers

If there are specific advertisers like GoDaddy.com or BestBuy.com you’d like us to add, let us know here and we’ll do our best to add them or a similar advertiser. We’re adding as many as we can and will make your suggestions a priority if you share them with us.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions, ideas or comments!

Profile Updates:

• First, you’ll notice your sub-menu changed (see the picture on the left)! It now includes an Advertisers Database. What is this exactly? You can now view the advertisers in our system as well as the keywords connected to them. This is useful if you want to search what advertisers/keywords you can promote while drafting your blog entry.
• Going back to the top of the sub-menu, there are more changes. Your Quick Stats now has more information on your commissions. Click on it to discover the advertisers, the sale price, and more.
• We’ve also updated our Payments page. You can now specify if you’d like to be paid by PayPal or Check and add in the necessary information so we can send your payments.

Plugin Updates:

We now have a version of our WordPress plugin just for MU users! We’ve had a lot of requests for this version and even though the big WordPress 3.0 release is coming out soon that will include MU features, this allows you to get it if you’re not planning to upgrade.

And our final update for now – our algorithm can now detect special characters. You may have noticed that we couldn’t pick up on numbers, dashes, and periods but now we can! For example, we can now recommend affiliate links for P90X and BestBuy.com as well as 1-800-Florals .

The best part about this new tweak is you’ll have even more recommendations to choose from after writing your blog entry.

Questions? Feedback? As always, you can find us at support@123linkit.com or at our online community.

Is this helpful? How can we improve? Please let us know in the comments.

As an aside, almost all of these links are affiliate links. Instead of the hours it would have probably taken to add these one-by-one, our affiliate plugin managed to do it less than 2 minutes! How nice is that?

To get started, check out our 1-minute video below (Note: There is no sound) that walks you through installing the 123LinkIt affiliate plugin for WordPress, creating a 123LinkIt account, and inputting your API keys.

How to setup your 123LinkIt account from 123LinkIt.com on Vimeo.

How has the plugin changed since it was first released back on March?

• Shorter cloaked links (e.g. yourblog.com/advertisername)
• One-click integration of your affiliate links (select the affiliate offer and click “Add”)
• Compatibility with WordPress pages
• No-follow tags option
• Option to set affiliate links to open in a new window
• Add affiliate links to one or multiple keywords

Need further assistance? We’re here to help! Contact us at support@123LinkIt.com.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Q) Why do I need to add the API keys?
• A) These keys help us track your clicks and commissions. Please ensure they are inputted correctly or the plugin will not work.

• Q) How do I get my payments?
• A) Once you reach your first $25 dollars, we’ll contact you about your preferred method of payment (this is temporary until we add more functionality to our site). We’ll then cut you a check or send your payment via PayPal.

• Q) Is 123LinkIt completely free?
• A) Our plugin is free to use and we only make money when you make money. We take a small cut out of the commissions our tool helps you generate. After we reach scale and can negotiate better commission rates, it’ll be like you’re using the plugin for free.

Remember, this is our alpha stage and we’re looking for your input to make this tool something you love. Your feedback and ideas are truly appreciated! Thanks to everyone who’s contributed so far.

1. (This is the one I’m most excited about)You can now use the 123LinkIt affiliate plugin for your WordPress pages! This was the most commonly requested feature we had since we launched our first version 7 weeks ago. Your wish is our command. Upgrade to the latest version and give it a whirl right now!

2. Forgot Your Password option- Not a major update but we had to manually reset our users passwords before. Users can now request their own password change.

3. Plugin is now set to appear right below the text editor. Some of our new users had problems viewing the plugin correctly and it’s now set to appear beneath the editor as default.

As always, your feedback and ideas are always welcome. Questions? Visit our Zendesk page and let us know how we can help!

How did we get this far?

We entered our business plan into the competition a few weeks ago and it received glowing scores from the preliminary judges. We learned we were finalists last week. It was a GREAT feeling as we entered the previous year but did not make it. Back then, we only had an idea. We’ve come a looooooong way since then. We rounded out our team, started developing the software, and as you know by now – launched 7 weeks ago.

Yasmine Mustafa, the founder and presenter, had a really good feeling 123LinkIt was going to win. “As soon as the judges started nodding, I knew they got it. Our unique selling proposition is clear – affiliate marketing is complicated and time-consuming. Our tools make it dead simple and saves bloggers a lot of time. Who won’t want to make money from what they were already doing?”

We won’t have gotten this far without help from A LOT of people who were involved in refining our pitch and getting us ready.  The support we’ve been getting has also been astounding – thank you all!

1. Refresh your affiliate link recommendations

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve revised my post based on the recommendations I’ve received. There’s a simpler and faster solution than refreshing your browser. Instead, “Add Affiliate Links” acts as a refresh button. Click on it again and the plugin will scan your post again and provide you with updated recommendations.

2. Sort your columns.

Just click on the column heading and it’ll sort that column from A to Z or highest to lowest number. An up and down arrow will appear on the right side of the column heading to signify how the column is sorted. Why is this useful? There are two main reasons. The first is for finding a keyword or advertiser relatively quickly when you have a long list to sort through. The second reason is so useful, we gave it its own number…

3. 7-day EPC/3-Month EPC

Here you have an option of 8 different advertisers for the same keyword. You want to use the 7-Day/3-Month EPC numbers to determine which affiliate link you want to add. EPC stands for earnings per 1000 clicks. The best way to start is to sort EPC column from highest to lowest. You can either go with the highest 3-Month EPC or the 7-Day EPC. The 3-Month EPC shows how well that advertisers has been doing over the last 3 months. The 7-day EPC represents a much shorter timeframe BUT it can show a new trend. That advertiser could be running a hot new promotion or they might have released a new landing page which increased conversions.

Let’s analyze this table as an example. Network Solutions has the highest 3-Month EPC but it’s 7-Day EPC is zero, yuck! The next highest is PowWeb Hosting (Please note note EPCs are always changing). Looking closer though, I can see this is not the best pick. iPage and Startlogic have MUCH HIGHER 7-Day EPCs. Doing the math, iPage wins with a 175% increase vs. StartLogic with 119%. In the future, our algorithm will be able to determine this for you automatically AND it will replace your old links with the best performing links at that moment, so you’re always taking advantage of the hottest new promotions.

4. Select All/None

When the plugin table first appears, the affiliate links already come preselected. Did you know you can deselect all of them with one button? This button comes in very handy when you want to check off more links than you want to add.

5. Remove all Links

With one button, you can remove ALL the affiliate links you’ve added with our plugin. Why is this useful? If you change your mind on the number of affiliate links you have in your post, you can get rid of them with one full swoop instead of removing them yourself.

Honorable Mention: Blog Post Recommendation

A few users have asked us how they can get more recommendations for their blog posts. The answer’s easy! Tell us what advertisers you want or topics you write about and we’ll make an extra effort to get them for you. We set up a section in our GetSatisfaction page to make it easier for you.

Questions? Please let us know in the comments.

Here are the advertisers we’ve added last week with their corresponding category and a short description:

Electronics and Games:

Best Buy – Added a range of products in consumer electronics, furniture, accessories, video games, software, computers, laptops and Geek Squad services.

Geeks.com – Added computer-related products such as as printers, modems, laptops, etc. If Geeks.com is recommended, include the following two specials running on their site to entice them to make a purchase:

1. Save 10% off anything not marked “special” by using the coupon code GEEKBERT.
2. Get free shipping on purchases over $99.00 by using the coupon code FREESHIP.

GamersGate – Offers many PC and Mac games.

EA Store – Added many popular video games for PC, Xbox, Wii, Playstation, PSP and Nintendo DS.

Weight Loss & Gym Equipment:

Bodybuilding.com – Their site offers more than 10,000 health and fitness products to help their customers achieve their fitness goals. Three specials worth mentioning include:

1. Save $5.00 off orders of $100 or more by using coupon code 5off100
2. Save $10.00 off orders by $200 or more by using coupon code 10of200
3. Save $20.00 off orders of $300 or more by using coupon code “20off300″

BeachBody – offers many popular in-home fitness and weight loss solutions you see in late-night informacials such as P90X, Slim in 6, Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Abs, 10 Minute Trainer and the INSANITY workout.

SmoothFitness.com – Fitness Equipment such as treadmills, ellipticals and fitness videos. They’re currently offering free shipping on all their orders (no code required).

Shoes & Fashion

The Walking Company – Offers brand-new footwear such as UGG, Dansko, Ecco, MBT and more. They’re currently offer free shipping on orders of $100 or more (no code required).

Up and Riding – Offers snowboarding and surfing gear for kids infants, kids, and teens.

The Knot Wedding Shop – Added keywords for wedding essentials as well as wedding gifts.

Winter Sports:

Killer Dana and Evogear – Added a slew of surfing and snowboard products and gear. For specials you can promote, Evogear is offering free FedEx shipping on any order over $100 as well as 35% off all snow gear when you use the code “snow35.”

Finance:

EZtrader.com – an options trading platform.

TheStreet – Jim Cramer’s Mad Money site where you can stock quotes and the latest Wall Street news. They’re currently promoting a 14-day free trial where subscribers can get inside info on Jim Cramer’s portfolio.

Wall Street Survivor – a free fantasy stock trade game where players manage their own portfolio and compete against friends or other players for real cash prizes. This is a great site to check out and write an evaluation on.

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Any particular keywords or advertisers you would like us to focus on? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll do our best to add them!