When I wrote about orange soda earlier this month, I was seriously talking about drinking soda pop. But if you go to OrangeSoda.com, you will see that they are an internet marketing company. Ironic, eh?

OrangeSoda specializes in local small business internet marketing, specifically search engine marketing (SEM) so that your local business listing appears to the searchers looking for the goods and services that your business offers. They make sure your business is listed on the right search results pages for your selected keywords using pay per click advertising (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO) and maps optimization.

According to Michael Liedtke on USAToday.com, “Annual spending on keyword ads is expected to top $10 billion in 2010.” Wow. I plan on 2010 being a great year for myself as well. I wonder if people are going to say “twenty ten” or “two thousand ten” for the new year?

Anyway, even though OrangeSoda has only been in business since 2006 (which is quite credible in internet years), they’ve served big and small clients and their internet marketing case studies are quite impressive.

They also have “Partner” opportunities. I applied to be an Affiliate (through Kolimbo). But you can also apply to be a Reseller or even a White Label account where they handle everything from billing to customer support while be co-branded with your site. Cool beans. Wait… Orange Soda.

Maybe I better retract my statement that I hate the color orange now?

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I’ve invariably considered Examiner.com an “authority” site  – do you SEO experts agree?  Anyway, I was excited when Jen Goode, the Denver Work-at-Home Mom Examiner, offered to interview me, as my interview would include outbound links to my sites.

Read her interview article published here: Single mom success story, an interview with Kim Rowley

Then at Think Tank this year, I was asking Jen about Examiner.com, and she encouraged me to apply to be an Examiner myself. When I told her I didn’t have any more time to write new articles, she said I could use my existing blog posts as teasers and link them out to my websites.  So – thinking free inbound links, free traffic, plus they pay me to boot – I applied!

And now I am officially the Omaha Shoes Examiner! I’ve only uploaded six articles so far, and I have already made some money (they pay via PayPal).  If I find it to be real lucrative, I may apply for some other niches.

So, I encourage you to see what available topics are available in your area to apply for. If you don’t see any topics that fit your expertise, you can suggest a new topic as well. If you apply, be sure to say you were referred “by a current examiner” to speed up the application process.  I know either myself (Kim Rowley) or Jen (Jennifer Goode) would love the referral credit!  If you list me, I’ll buy you a drink at Affiliate Summit in Vegas next month. Or I can mail you a Starbucks gift card for a cappuccino if you won’t be in attendance.

Whatcha waiting for? Apply to be an Examiner now!

I am honored once again to be finalist for the Pinnacle Award: Affiliate of the Year to be presented at Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas next month. Will I once again be “always a bridesmaid, never a bride”? Those of you that know me personally can decipher that in various ways.

Anyway, last year I was up against two very deserving gentlemen where Mike Allen won the coveted title.  This year I am again up against two notable males – Nicholas Koscianski of NickyCakes.com and Eric Nagel.

Joe Sousa put his bets on the winners, so here’s my handicaps on the situation…

I didn’t even know NickyCakes’ last name until the finalists were announced, but I do read his blog and get a chuckle over his ability to tell it how it is. If the winner was chosen by “whose made the most money”, my bet is that Nicholas would take the cake (yes, pun intended) as he is a self-admitted reformed blackhat.

Now, if they choose the winner by the nicest, most thoughtful and kind-hearted person of the bunch, Eric Nagel would win hands down. Sure, I like to think of myself as having those qualities, but I can’t even compare to Eric.  I have seen Eric donate very generously to the Affiliate Marketers Give Back charities on several occasions.  Plus he’s just an all-around likable guy. The first time I really talked to him, he impressed me by mentioning something trivial that I had twittered about.

So, see you boys in Vegas! The only other woman to ever win the prestigious Affiliate of the Year award is Connie Berg, and those flamingo shoes are hard to fill.

Check out All of this year’s Pinnacle Award Finalists.  Plus see Past Pinnacle Award Finalist Nominees and Winners.