Last week, I spoke as part of a panel at Affiliate Summit West 2010 called Blog Monetization for Affiliate Marketing and SEO.

Just to summarize the panel, we discussed which blogging platforms were best, how to get started, what to focus on, and how we all monetize our own blogs.

The panel included Andrew Bennett of BenSpark.com (Twitter: @BenSpark), Famous Blogger Murray Newlands (Twitter: @MurrayNewlands), John Carcutt of MediaWhiz (Twitter: @JohnCarcutt) and was moderated by Kris Jones (Twitter: @pepperjamceo) from PepperJam - A GSI Company.

The panel was a question/answer format where Kris asked questions for about 45 minutes and we took questions from the audience for the last 15 minutes.

Feedback

We received a lot of good feedback and hope everyone enjoyed the panel.  Here’s just a short list of posts reviewing the panel:

• Daniel M. Clark – Live Blogging Affiliate Summit West 2010
• Kristopher Jones – Kris’ post about the panel
• John Chow – He had good things to say about the panel — good the hear from a blogger of John’s caliber.
• Shannon of Marketing Elf – A good comprehensive post
• Stephanie Lichtenstein – She is a also comprehensive in her review — and she complements my tips, so that always helps.
• MasterBlaster – A quickie recap hitting all the high points — This one also blended in some additional info from the panel that followed us.
• Marketing with Miles - He thought the panel was alright – would like to say that I do use Disqus on my site and love it.
• TrishaLyn - Fantastic recap from Trisha! — honest and thorough!

Plug-Ins

Although we promised to list all the plugins mentioned on the panel, Drew and Kris already did this in their posts, so I’m just going to point out a few that use and recommend:

• All-In-One SEO — I use this plug-in on this blog, but not all my sites, because if you use Thesis as a WordPress template, you don’t need this plugin
• Google XML Sitemap — you can build your own sitemap, but why?
• MaxBlogPress’ Ninja Affiliate — create nice looking affiliate links and automatically convert keywords to affiliate links
• OIOPublisher — the ad server I use on my sites.  I used to use MaxBannerAds which is still a good plugin (especially since it’s free), but OIO does everything MaxBannerAds does, plus a whole lot more.  Buying it made MBA useless to me.
• GoDaddy — was listed for domains and hosting, but I only use them for domains.  I use HostGator for hosting and have never been disappointed.
• Aweber — a must-have from day one of your blog.  Build your list from day one and build it right.  Widely recognized as the leader in email services.

If you attended the panel, I would love to hear your feedback in the comments, below.  If you wrote a post about it, please send me the link, so I can add it to my list of posts and give you some link-love.

Overall, I had a great time working with the whole group and our moderator, Kris Jones (no relation), was fantastic — a true professional.

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What do you do with a top problogger at a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas?  Do tequila shots, of course!

Yes, in addition to talking about the business of making money, slurping down some amazing margaritas (seriously, one of the best I’ve ever had), and eating some Mexican food; John Chow needed some shots of tequila.

With a few probloggers, affiliate marketers, and the like joining us for a dinner sponsored by The Light Group and Market Leverage at Diablo’s at Monte Carlo in Las Vegas, we kicked off Affiliate Summit West 2010 in proper form.

Yes, that’s John Chow licking salt off Drew Bennett’s neck for one of his many tequila shots, resulting in this AM Facebook status update from John:

Fortunately for John, we got video.

The dinner was a great way to kick off the conference with just a small group of people.  The food I ordered was excellent and too much for me to eat — a Baja chicken sandwich.  John wasn’t impressed with his pulled pork sandwich and I said that you don’t go to a Mexican restaurant for a pulled pork sandwich.  He needs to come down South for a real pulled pork sandwich.  Of course, 5 or 6 tequila shots may have had an effect on his taste buds.

Most had after dinner engagements and I had an appointment with my pillow — I managed to catch a cold/flu just before leaving for Vegas, so I needed to get some rest to get ready for the next few days, including my panel the next morning.

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In 2010, be on the look-out for some big changes to TheRealTimJones.com.  The Real Tim Jones really started with my involvement in the RedHatBlueHat podcast with Geekcast.fm.  I really started it without any direction or goal in mind, other than a place to air my feelings and post about the podcast.  After the podcast ended and probably due to the fact that the podcast was made up of affiliate marketers, the blog meandered into the affiliate marketing and problogging arena with some success.

As you’ve probably noticed, though, my posting on the blog has diminished, significantly as of late.  This is mainly due to a diminished interest in the topics and a desire to move towards my passions.  With that in mind, I’m going to be re-launching TheRealTimJones.com with a complete redesign and complete “persona” and branding package to follow my passions.

For right now, I’m not going to say a lot more other than I’m very excited about the re-launch and the work going on in the background.  The current iteration of TheRealTimJones.com will not go away, entirely, either, but I really hope you come along for the new ride, too!  Lots of very good content and adventures to come!

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Better yet, how do you become a successful blogger?

The online world seems to be saturated with “bloggers” — thousands start a “blog” everyday.  Very few of those become “successful” in the monetary sense.  But, isn’t that the goal?

Most people start these blogs to produce an income — quit their “day job” income or a side income.  The stark reality — many never get the first commission check.  The average annual income for bloggers is somewhere around the $2,000 mark.  That works out to about $5 per day or $150 per month.  You need a lot more than that to pay the rent, right?

So, how is it done?  If I want to know how to do something, I go to the source.  I find someone that’s accomplished what I want to accomplish and learn from them.  There’s no reason to re-invent the wheel and I’m not fond of learning from posers.  I want to hear it from the people that have done it and become successful.

That’s pretty much what Nathan Hangen and Mike Cliffe Jones did in their new book, Beyond Blogging — The Secrets To Blogging Success! Nathan and Mike interview 15 of the top bloggers for their strategies and insights into blogging success.

The book is not released until December 28th, but you can get a free PDF report from Nathan and Mike detailing the direction of blogging from 2010 and beyond.  They discuss how the FTC and other rules will change blogging and more importantly, what that successful blog looks like in 2010 and beyond.

Get the free PDF, now!

You can download the PDF without signing up for anything, but I recommend signing up for their email list, if you’re at all interested in the Beyond Blogging book.  If you’re on the list, you’ll be among the first notified of it’s release and have the ability to purchase the book.

They’ve also put together a video, detailing how they got 15 of the top bloggers to work with them on this project, how Mike and Nathan met, what it’s like to author a book, and so on.  It’s about 13 minutes long and I found it really interesting, having worked on my own projects and with others, before.

In addition to the strategies from 15 of the top bloggers around, Nathan and Mike include a blueprint for getting started with your blog and how to turn it into a six-figure income generator.  Nathan has provided me with an advance copy to look at and it has some great strategies and motivational stories — plus, you get the blueprint to blogging success as a fantastic bonus.

In the mean time, check out the report and video and get signed up for their “midnight launch party.”

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Are you a blogger or an affiliate marketer?  What’s the difference?

Traditionally, affiliate marketers were smarmy, salesy pitchmen that built web sites, mailing (spam) lists, and sold products and services for a commission.  Bloggers were refined, sophisticated writers that sold nothing, had no desire to build a list, rather to build their craft and art.

I’ve taken some “artistic” license with the above descriptions, but the point remains the same — traditionally, bloggers and affiliate marketers were distinctly different groups of people, some might even say one group was a business and the other, not.

I believe that distinction has become more and more blurred to the point that there’s really little or no difference between the two.  With super affiliates like Rosalind Gardner talking about creating all of her affiliate marketing sites on a blogging platform, you can see that even the top affiliates are “crossing over” to the blogging side and vice-versa.

So, what can each former “group” learn from each other?  What can affiliate marketers do to lose the smarmy, used-car salesman reputation and build a community?  How can traditional bloggers begin to earn an income by selling products without selling their soul and losing their community?

I’m opening the door to offer a preview to some of the questions we’ll be answering at my panel at Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas and I’d really appreciate your input on these topics.  What can bloggers learn from affiliate marketers?  What can affiliate marketers learn from traditional bloggers?  What questions would you like to have answered by our panel?

Leave me your questions and comments below.  If we get enough input, maybe we’ll give something cool away.

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One of the self-improvement principles of Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Work Week is to eliminate.

Eliminate what?  Well, eliminate unnecessary processes, tasks, and all around clutter.

Are you doing enought to eliminate?  Here are some tips for “cleaning up.”

1. Clean your desk/work area. Do this today.  Now.  You need a clean and more importantly, welcoming area to work.  I hate doing any amount of work at my desk when it’s messy.  Why not clean it up and at least make your work area welcoming if you have to be there, all day.
2. Eliminate “to-dos.”  Like JB Glossinger of Morning Coach talks about, go for a “Sacred 6″ or as Tim says in the book, 2 mission critical to-dos for a single day.  Ultimately, the message is to not get bogged down in minutiae and creating 42 to-do items for one day, thereby ignoring those “mission critical” items.  If you can only get one thing done today, what one thing will make you satisfied with your day?  DO THAT, FIRST!
3. What are you doing that someone else can get done if you just let go of the reigns a bit?  What are some things that someone else could get done in half the time, ten times the results, and better than you for just a small amount of compensation?
4. What payments can you automate?  I cannot tell you the last time I wrote a check for anything or had the power turned off.  Everything that can possibly be paid is done so, online, on a schedule, without me even thinking about it, including investing and savings.
5. How many blogs are you writing for?  How many Twitter accounts?  How many Facebook fan pages are you running?  How many are really important?  Are you doing one thing well or 10 things mediocre?

With all these tips, the key is to really examine what is necessary.  What’s mission critical?

This can carry over to your personal life, too.  Is it really necessary to finish the food on that plate?  Just because you always get popcorn at the movies, are you really even hungry or just doing it out of habit?  Do you really need all those clothes or do they just result in more laundry (more importantly, more time to do laundry)?

Stop and think.  Not just “stuff,” but processes, tasks, and so on.  What can you eliminate?

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I believe Black Friday and Cyber Monday are getting closer and closer to being the same thing.  I mean, my wife almost didn’t go out shopping, today in favor of doing all her Christmas shopping online! Blasphemy!

I can’t stand going out shopping and fighting crowds (mobs) of people.  The few bucks I save on Black Friday is not worth going through the rigmarole of scheduling and executing a Black Friday shopping plan.

As marketers, today is one of your busiest days of the year!  Forget about getting out there in the cold, dark morning to get that $50 off your new TV, you need to be home setting up your Amazon and Buy.com Black Friday affiliate links! (Shameless addition of my own affiliate links)

Actually, you should have been planning for today for quite some time and maybe even have an easy day of commissions coming in.  Either way, not a day to ignore if your in the online marketing business.

Without further ado, I’m off to get to work — as well you should, too!

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I’ve been listening to and a fan of the Morning Coach podcast almost from the very beginning of the site.  JB Glossinger (the founder of Morning Coach) is a good friend and mentor, so recently, when he asked if I would become one of his bloggers on Morning Coach, I enthusiastically said, “Yes!”

I’m honored that JB thought of me and am happy to start as a blogger at Morning Coach, this week.  You can find my blog, here: http://blog.morningcoach.com/blog/internet-marketing-by-the-real-tim-jones There’s not much there, yet, as I literally just started, today.  However, I will be blogging about similar topics to this blog, but adding more and different content — mainly, I will be putting more about personal development and it’s value to an online business — to the Morning Coach blog.

JB recently implemented a subscription model for his Morning Coach podcast.  He gives Monday away free, but you must pay for the rest of the week (that’s 6 more days per week — JB does not take the weekend off).  JB also provides newsletters, a daily workbook, personal coaching, discounts, blogs, and much more, depending on the subscription you sign up for.

I’ve found the Morning Coach podcast to be invaluable.  JB still has archived podcasts from 2 years of daily podcasting available for free.  However, if you do decide to sign-up for JB’s podcast (which I highly recommend), you can get a free 7 day trial, if you use the promotion code TJones.

Head on over to MorningCoach.com to learn more about JB, my new blog, and the Morning Coach podcast.

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DISCLAIMER:  Other than the few pennies I may get from my Amazon affiliate links in the review, I gain nothing from doing this review.

Last week, I borrowed a copy of Gary Vee’s new book, Crush It! from a friend.  I really wasn’t expecting much, as I’d heard it was short, you’ve already heard it all if you’ve ever heard Gary speak or watched his videos, and essentially, nothing earth shattering.  I was happy to borrow it, as this way, I wouldn’t have to buy it.

Boy, was I surprised.  I ended up buying the book for my Kindle.  It wasn’t because it contained any revelations, in fact, if you’ve built any kind of presence online, most of the book’s suggestions will be a review for you.  The reason I love the book and bought it was because it contains the motivational personality that Gary brings to everything he does.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not nearly as passionate or motivated as Gary.  However, I am passionate about continually improving on my motivation and passion, as well as my positive attitude.  This book will help!  I try to read at least 15 minutes of motivational and positive-minded books, every morning.  It just starts the day off right.  I have a whole set of books (a library, as my wife calls it) just for this one purpose and Gary’s new book is near the head of the class, especially since the motivation applies directly to my business!

I’m already re-reading the book and definitely give my recommendation on this one!  If you’re doing business online — and by the way, as Gary says, if you’re not doing business online and building a personal brand online, you’re losing the game and way behind — get this book.

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Just wanted to post a reminder that the “Real Tim Jones” sale on 3-Day Money from David Risley will be ending, soon!  This is a great product that really can teach you how to make money, online from blogging and affiliate marketing.

This program takes you step by step, on video, through the process of starting an online business and making money with it.  It’s broken down into nice, daily segments, making it easy for you to digest.  Additionally, it includes daily “homework” for you to take on and finish before the next day’s lesson begins.

David also includes several bonus videos that help you with any sticking points you may have with getting your online business started or to get you past that one thing that’s holding you back.  On top of that, he includes a thirty day email course to make sure you get more value out of the program than you expect.

It’s a great program and I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it would help people with their efforts to make money online.  Don’t hesitate — get it while it’s reduced in price, because after tomorrow, it’s back to full price.

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