According to a post on the 5-Star Affiliate Blog, apparently some spammers started abusing the system, resulting in Squidoo lenses getting dropped (or lowered in rank) in the Google search engines. The Google Slap resulted in Squidoo taking measures to control spam. Unfortunately, they have to punish honest affiliates along with the spammers until they find another way to eliminate the fraud.

Two of the major changes mentioned in the 5-Star Blog include:

• If you have a new lens, you need to have more than three modules (not including the introduction) or it will not appear to be publicly published, even if it has been.
• No more iframes

This is very unfortunate, because Squidoo was one of the main social sites that was actually set up with marketers in mind. I hope they can figure this out, get rid of the spammers, and let the rest of us go on providing valuable content in an honest affiliate marketing way.

In the meantime, it would be a good idea to read the new Squidoo guidelines, and make sure your site will not get tagged as a spam site. Changes are taking place TODAY — so hurry!

The Kiss of Death: Not Knowing What Business You Are In
The editorial staff has an interesting new blog post on the Affiliate Classroom blog. The writer says, “Believe it or not, most people fail at online marketing because they don’t know what they want.” The post goes on to explain how to correct the problem.

Use Emotion and Tell A Story For Viral Success
Emotion sells product! Most of us KNOW that, but don’t apply that knowledge to our business. Jim Kukral has got an excellent example on his blog.

Overstock Terminates California Affiliates
States are looking to tax anything that’s not already taxed. It’s a short list. Advertising seems to be at the top of if. Shawn Collins says on his blog, “The media is making the state advertising tax issue out to be all about Amazon, but there are many thousands of other affiliate programs out there that may well fire affiliates in proactive or reactive measures against the legislation. Yesterday, Overstock served walking papers to affiliates in California.”

New BT Principles May Not Go Far Enough To Stop Regulation
“BT” for those who are wondering, stands for “behavioral targeting” standards. Ms. Davis says, “a coalition of the major ad industry trade groups have issued new privacy principles for online behavioral advertising, or tracking people as they surf the Web and serving ads based on sites visited.” The principles were issued in response to the prospect of new regulations being issued by the powers-that-be.

We’re bringing together some of the TOP earners in affiliate marketing and digital product sales for Launch Tree LIVE.

Whether you’re an affiliate or a merchant, if you’re looking to jump start your traffic, to better understand what makes your customers buy, and how to design offers, pages, and marketing material that converts, you’ll learn a LOT in this packed, three-day event.

Our speakers include:

Mike Filsaime & Anik Singal

How to Instantly Give Yourself a 456% Raise – NO Extra Traffic Needed – FAST Techniques!

Armand Morin

Fueling Your Launch Tree with BUYERS!

Stephen Pierce

World’s #1 Internet Wealth Advocate

Chris Guerriero

The OFFLINE Launch Tree KING

Maria Andros

The Social Marketing Queen

Mike Morgan & Erik Stafford

The Conversion Dynamic Duo

Ed Dale

Master of Niche Marketing

Perry Belcher

Social Marketing Genius

Marshall Sylver

Puts Visitors in a Trance!

Brad Fallon

The 8-Figure SEO Expert!

Click here to learn more and to save your seat. (BTW, it’s free — just pay the $97 deposit and we’ll give it back to you if you attend!)

See you July 23–25 in Las Vegas!

They aren’t sure if they want to create their own products, or sell other people’s products … or do both.

They think they want a mailing list, but they don’t want to write an ezine every week. They buy every how-to product, and every automation software that comes out … but nothing they do seems to pay off.

Their problem is simple — they don’t know what business they’re in! It’s not enough to want to make money online. You must know what you do and don’t want to do to earn that money.

Then you have to test that model, decide if it suits you both financially and temperamentally, and stick with it so it has a fighting chance of paying off.

Most new students in Affiliate Classroom are there because they’re confused. They have all the talent to make a great living online. But they need direction. And they need to get some support so they can finally launch their very first site, cash their first commission checks, and then make wise choices about their entire business.

This is why Affiliate Classroom teaches them to follow a tested, proven affiliate business model. Students learn how to organize their product research, site building, and niche choices according to a formula that includes every basic component of successful affiliate marketing.

Once they finish their first site, they don’t just KNOW about affiliate marketing, they can DO every aspect of it. Then they can repeat the process, pare it down, modify it, or expand it. They get coaching and support that helps them set the right goals and decide what sort of business works best for them, both financially and emotionally.

Like those students, everyone needs to get their feet wet. They have to build a site and try selling something, and learn from that experience. Then you have to decide what business you’re in — list building, PPC, search engine marketing, niche products, content development and monetization, portals, mini-sites, or some combination of all of those. And then stick with it.

Today you can make an excellent living online in all sorts of ways. You can do it just with a loyal mailing list.

You can also do it WITHOUT any opt-in list at all. You can do it with mini-sites based on the direct mail model, or with big content sites that pull in contextual ad revenue like mad. You can start one way — by bringing in quick cash with directory sites, for example — and then switch to a more solid model.

But you have to start. And you have to stick with it. You have to know what your business is, and you have to choose a business model that supports your goals.

Introducing ProfitSwami.com…My New VIDEO Blog!
Amit is posting on his Super Affiliate Mindset blog about his new video blog. It’s called the Profit Swami The blog will consist almost entirely of video. Amit plans to “cover strategies and tactics beyond just PPC.”

FTC Going After Bloggers = Epic Fail
There’s a post on the 5 Star Affiliate Blog about the FTC’s plan to go after bloggers who “make fake endorsements or get paid in products for coverage without disclosing it.”

A Matter of Image Building in the Mind of Customer
Ben Johnson, posting on the Cash Tactics blog as a guest, says, “n this day and age, one of the most crucial tasks for any business is to stand-out among the immense market competition. Therefore, businesses have to make extra efforts in order to create a unique brand image in the mind of prospective customer.”

The Future of Online Retail Doesn’t Look…Too Bad
The best way to describe the post on the eMarketer website is “cautious optimism.” eMarketer predictions say, “US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will total nearly $132 billion in 2009, down 0.4% from 2008.” It could be worse…much worse!