Linda Buquet's blog

I've had a bad case of "bloggers" block. Just have not been able to find anything exciting to write about lately. So I just decided, someone is bound to start spreading this rumor - might as well be me! Just got an email about WMW from Brett Tabke. One of the updates Brett listed was: - "Google is holding a secretive luncheon on Wednesday. No details given to us. hmmm!?" So I go to register for the Google lunch and the Google page says...

The Jagger update continues to wreak havoc on webmaster's wallets right before the holidays. There are so many pages of "I got dropped" posts on every forum, that it's hard to imagine the damage that's been done. I've been reading a post over at DigitalPoint about The cost of Jagger. In this thread people are reporting 50-100% loss of income. $9,000 lost by one, $600 a day losses by another.

Just discovered some enlightening surveys about blog revenue. The graphs are great and the info is interesting. Not sure how wide spread the survey was or how representative it is of the average blogger. But I find the stats interesting enough to start a discussion about. According to this survey most bloggers only make $20 a month? 20% say they don't want to make more and 20% say they don't care about making more money???

AussieWebmaster over at the SEW just shared a couple great Google editorial cartoons. The forum software over there blocked out the swear word in 1st link, but I know Nick's blog has no censor. TW is about wide open communication, just the way most of us over here like it! GoogleBastards.com - The Fate of Search is at Hand. After you check that one out then take a peak at this...

The FTC is clamping down on more spyware companies. These guys contribute to the growing need for consumers to buy anti-spyware programs to protect themselves. Many of these programs block honest marketer's links or delete affiliate cookies. The ClientMan spyware software, just ONE of many programs distibuted by these guys also hijacked search engine requests making it look like the results came from Google and Yahoo. Walter Rines, the guy behind Odysseus Marketing, the company that just got busted, according to a Wall street Journal story was once a partner with Sanford Wallace, a New Hampshire man known as the "Spam King" who was recently was accused of using spyware programs to infect computers, then selling remedies that didn't work. Here are some snippets from a few news stories I researched about the Odysseus Marketing case, the 1st one is from betanews.com:

Marketingsherpa & KowaBunga! are offering a free seminar titled: 'Search Engine PPC Benchmarks for Affiliate Marketers' on Wednesday, October 12, 2-3 pm EST.
This seminar will be presented by Anne Holland, Publisher, MarketingSherpa and Rachel Honoway, VP of Sales and Marketing for Kowabunga!

The latest issue of the free online Magazine just hit yesterday and has 52 content-crammed pages of tips for increasing your revenue. Although the Affiliate Classroom training program is geared more toward newer marketers the magazine is not and has lots of good SEO and Affiliate articles. Here's just a couple samples of what you can find inside:

The Affiliate API Program is part of the eBay Developers Program and is offered to give affiliates a wide variety of industry-leading tools and services and provides API access to eBay Web Services so affiliates can create exciting new content and user tools. EBay’s Sean Crotty the Affiliate Developers Manager revealed some interesting info.

During my high tech career over the past 20 years, I have been to LOTS of conferences, trade shows and events. For example way back in 86 attended Apple’s official GALA launch of the very 1st Mac. Anyone remember that? Now that was a glitzy affair. Back then I was Sales Manager of Bell Atlantic CompuShop. A year later I won an award from Epson for top sales. The prize??? All expense paid 1 week tour of Japan. 200 winners from all over the world traveled the country. Epson put us up in 5 star hotels in Tokyo, we rode the bullet train and stayed in quaint little Japanese Inns where we were waited on hand and foot by real geisha girls. I remember one night after those Geishas poured me WAAAAYYYYYY too much sake, running down the halls of a 5 star hotel at 2 in the morning screaming BONZAI and karate chopping all the plants. I almost got kicked out! Well so much for the trip down memory lane. I was thinking about some of the good old days on the long drive back from CJU, which leads me back to the reason I bring some of this up.

SoCal is finally going to have a real SEO/SEM event. Search Engine Watch does Disney - LIVE! Join Search Engine Watch's own Founder and Editor, Danny Sullivan, Mod Squad leader Elisabeth and some of your favorite SEW Mods like: JenStar (from JenSense), Nacho, Joseph Morin, Lex, Marcia and "Yours Truly" for a day of riveting LIVE discussion and networking in Orange County CA. OC is a HOTBED of talent and technology but no one ever does events here. It's about time! Here is a brief overview of what you can benefit from by attending:

Is your SEO/SEM strategy geared up for the upcoming Holiday season? iMedia Connection's search Editor Kevin Ryan offers some great suggestions about things you may have overlooked and offers a checklist to get you ready to do search marketing for the upcoming holiday shopping frenzy. "Let’s get ready for ChrismaRamaChanaKwanzivus!"

A report from Forrester Research called "Men are from CNET, Women are from iVillage" identifies the difference between men and women's behavior online and could provide some insights for targeting those affiliate links. I hate sexual stereotypes because I am so NOT typical. Yes I'm a woman but I work online 12 hours a day. Who has time to play games and share photos??? ;-)

The world is still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. How is Katrina affecting the online marketing world and how is our industry helping OR hurting the issue? I believe thousands of sites are featuring Katrina donation PSA banners for victim relief. Even though the news we see on TV has slowed down somewhat, the need for relief funds has not. It will take months of assistance for these families to even begin to get some normalcy in their lives. So please keep those banners up! Following is a compilation of blogs and articles about online marketing and Katrina - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Fridays is FUNday on my blog so thought I'd share. In previous Friday Funnies, I have featured hilarious Google cartoons, marketing jokes, affiliate parodies and more. This is the 1st time I have featured an "Affiliate Rapper".

Do you have any ad space that you can donate to assist the Red Cross in helping the victims of Hurrican Katrina?

"The American Red Cross is turning to online marketers to donate ad space. They have set up a site at http://www.redcross.org/psa/bannerorder/all/ with eight different banner sizes to help the fundraising efforts for Hurricane Katrina relief.

"Getting Your Ego Out Of The Way... One of the most painful things to admit is that your marketing sucks! Yet, 99 out of 100 marketing pieces could be better..." Here's how in 9 easy steps.

A couple weeks ago news leaked that a fairly big player in our space was planning to launch a new affiliate forum that would give the industry yet another place to discuss affiliate marketing issues. I knew who is was a couple days ago, but was sworn to secrecy. The forum officially launched today so now I can talk about it.

If it's a typical Monday and you just can't going - maybe it's time to just give up and take a laugh break!

This "Hilarious South Park-Google-Microsoft mashup" cartoon was just posted at Channel 9. I'm not even going to try to editorialize it. You just need to go see it then come back and tell us what you think. :-)

Most affiliates just slap some Adsense ads on their blogs to try to generate revenue. Granted that's the easy way. But if you really want to monetize your blog, high converting affiliate programs can generate better income.

The Grokdotcom newsletter is one of my favorites and is always filled with great info on converting more of your hard earned traffic into sales.