1. Sharing a room at the Swissôtel with enjoyable Tricia Meyer from Sunshine Rewards.
2. Having dinner at Soldier Field. I almost had enough Rum Punches to dance to the 80′s cover band, Sixteen Candles.
3. Meeting GAN merchants with private programs that wouldn’t even consider working with me before.
4. Visiting with the pleasurable Dan Greene before I learned that he was such a big-wig at Google (and Navy fighter pilot). 
5. Listening to Avinash Kaushik compare web analytics to orgasms.
6. Hearing “The Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf speak about the past, present and future of technology.
7. Wishing I would have gotten Mitch Joel to autograph my copy of his book Six Pixels of Separation.
8. Hanging with old friends (even if they skipped some of the event to take a private jet golfing) and making new friends.
9. Seeing the filming of the Transformers 3 Movie in downtown Chicago.
10. Eating dinner with the ShareASale gang (gotta love Brian, Sarah, Jessica and Grandpa David) before catching my flight back to the middle of nowhere.

Looking back, there are only a few things I would have changed about the trip:

1. I would have accepted Connie’s invitation to Rock-Fest beforehand and drove to Chicago with the Schaaf brothers.
2. I would have checked my bag on the way home instead of carrying it on – TSA confiscated my goodie bag from Footsmart.
3. I would have looted more Kit Kats into my handbag from Google’s snack shelf.

Today’s cool lime green shirt denoting me a “Boogie Mama” and “‘Snot Your Average Mom” (both clever denotations) is courtesy of BoogieWipes.com.  We’re not talking about the boogie-woogie dance here, but real live booger busters…

Boogie Wipes are made with saline to dissolve boogies (mucus) caused by the common cold, allergies or otherwise booger-filled kid moments.  Extra soft, alcohol, phthalate and paraben free, Boogie Wipes are available in Great Grape, Fresh Scent, Magic Menthol and Simply Unscented.  Recommended by pediatricians as a gentle, effective alternative to a dry tissue.

Boogie Wipes are a proud sponsor of Kaitlyn’s Virtual Baby Shower and sent the above gift basket for Kaitlyn as well as samples and coupons for our baby shower event!  Thanks gals!

Today’s free shirt is courtesy of Hybryd Ads, another CPA network. It’ll make for a great bowling shirt during the next Affiliate Summit!

Hybryd Ads is the new breed of performance based online marketing companies. They specialize in direct and exclusive advertisers based on the most current and successful industry trends.

Hybryd Ads President Shane Graper sent me a nice email welcoming me to the network when I applied (I didn’t see a two-tier referral option) offering to find particular campaigns for me and even telling me how he hangs his hat in Nebraska once a year. Cool beans.  Thanks for the shirt!

So, when I built my house in 2006, I not only wanted a gold plaquard on my office door (shown above), but I wanted to decorate my office with “key” decor. I  have over a dozen iron keys on my office walls that house my conference lanyards and badges (shown below).  Even my wallpaper border has keys in it.

I’ve went through hundreds, if not thousands of business cards donning the key theme, from key templates, custom key graphics designed by my brother, even ones with photos of me holding a big key. So now, I’ve got my mind set on getting custom die-cut business cards made in the shape of a key. I’m currently gathering quotes on such for the best price from various vendors including PsPrint, a printing company that prints business cards, stickers, postcards, and more.  Who do you recommend?

Today’s free shirt is courtesy of Revenue Wire, a platform of choice to sell popular downloadable software products with industry-leading sales analytics and the marketing support to take your affiliate business to new levels of success. Or so the welcome email said. I just applied and was instantly approved (which was nice).  I haven’t had time to test any campaigns, but the 75% commission is enticing.  I didn’t see a 2-tier referral program though.

Yes, I’ve been slacking on modeling my free shirts, and it’s not that I’m lacking any – my tote overfloweth with tshirt love. It’s just that I usually remember to post about them on, say Saturday.  So my goal is to pre-publish (I’m writing this on Thursday) to try to catch up.

Many ask me what I do with all my free shirts as I can’t possibly wear them all.  I usually pawn them off and family and friends, but I plan to send a box off to 1MillionShirts.org, a charitable campaign to send t-shirts to the people of Africa, created by Jason Sadler of IWearYourShirt.com. Great idea, Jason.  And thanks for the reminder, Jen Goode!

And yes, that’s a rooster on the wall behind me.  Don’t ask. Just carry on.

Besides the free stuff I that receive with using coupons and rebates (and I share how I do that over on my shopping blog), I get sent a lot of  free products to review from companies hoping that I’ll in turn promote them via my blogs or affiliate marketing links. I admit it’s fun to receive packages every day, especially shoes for my shoe blog. But I can’t guarantee that I’ll promote everything I receive because, first of all, it may not be a fit for any of my niches.  And second of all, there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything – I need my beauty sleep!

Anyhoo, my favorite sister (a poor college student) is pregnant – a baby girl due in July – and I am hosting a Virtual Baby Shower for her. I thought if companies want to send me free stuff, let them send me something that will definitely be put to good use.  So in exchange for sending baby gifts, I guarantee that will I promote those items.  I am offering free advertising on my various websites for anyone sending a baby gift or party favors. Sponsorship details.

Feel free to contact me for questions or more details.

Ecommerce is a popular way to conduct a successful business in the comfort of your pajamas. If you are not meeting with clients, then how you look, what you are wearing and how good you smell for the day is somewhat irrelevant, if a little revolting! You can choosing a shopping cart, negotiate with suppliers, and execute your marketing plan, and you don’t even need to brush your teeth!

Here are some great reasons why running an ecommerce business is great if you want to laze for the day in your trusty (crusty?) PJs:

1. You don’t have to see anyone!

Ecommerce means conducting business via the internet so face to face interaction is largely limited to the occasional Skype conversation. Email responses and telephone calls are all done anonymously; so who cares if you are still sporting bed-hair at 17:00 after a full day at the office?

As long as the dog is not put off by the sight of you in your pajamas (or you can ignore the dogs pining), your state of undress will not hinder your business.

2. SEO can be done from home

Good application of SEO is important to every website.  Successes and failures are often down to how well a website is optimized. This can be done from home and what you look like while you do it bears no impact on your keyword placement or link baiting strategies!

3. Updating your website is easy from home

Updates, layout changes and exploring updating your designs and ecommerce templates, as well as constant revisions must be done all of the time. And what better way than with a pair of slippers, cup of coffee and your comfortable nightwear?!

4. Improving conversion rates can be done in any clothes!

Make your website more user friendly by ensuring that you have good internal links, your contact details appear on all pages, broken links are destroyed and pricing information is easy to find.   Be sure all customer inquiries are responded to, as well as run tests and send emails… work is never done. Fortunately you can save time by skipping your shower. Maybe you can skip it tomorrow as well… who will know?

The point with ecommerce is that it is conducted where no one can see you, making it ideal for bed-lovers around the world to enjoy a successful line of business that eliminates the need to get out of your pajamas…

This guest post is by Mark Baartse, founder of Shopping Cart Reviews.

Another expense you can write off is your cell phone bill.  In fact, I use my cell phone to make all of my long distance calls to avoid paying per minute fees on my land line.   But being the cheapskate that I am, I still recommend doing a cell phone plans comparison to get the best deal as the more money saved, is more money for your own paycheck! Unfortunately I live in hickville, so Billshrink cell phone plans couldn’t find me a cheaper rate as the big carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T don’t offer service here.

I was honored to be chosen to host a Child Hunger Ends Here House Party sponsored by ConAgra Foods, and my party pack contained this “Child Hunger Ends Here” t-shirt that I chose for today’s “Free Shirt Friday”.

ConAgra Foods is donating one meal* to Feeding America with every purchase of the following brands up until May 31st, 2010:

• Hunt’s Manwich
• Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn
• Peter Pan Peanut Butter
• Banquet Frozen Dinners
• Healthy Choice Frozen Meal
• Marie Callender’s Frozen Meal
• Chef Boyardee Pasta

*Monetary equivalent up to 2.5 million meals provided to Feeding America through their network of food banks. Every dollar donated enables seven meals to be provided to Americans in need.

For more information, visit ChildHungerEndsHere.com.

If you are needing income right now to pay bills, support your family, or for whatever reason – but you want to work from home – the most honest advice you could ever get would be to continue working in a job outside the home that will guarantee you an income, until you have had the time to build your online marketing knowledge and start seeing money coming in.

The truth is that no matter what some people are selling you, it is just not likely to happen overnight.

This isn’t meant to discourage you – far from that! In fact, I believe that it is possible to do amazing things when you decide you really want to work from home, and that you want to put everything you have into building an online business. But, it is like any business, and it is going to take dedication and work.

So, where should you even start?

Find some people online that you feel you can trust – follow their blogs if they have one, or read any material you can find from them. Most of what you need to learn is available freely online – there is no need to throw money into programs or guides that promise to teach you all the secrets.

There are no secrets – just techniques and strategies that you can learn if you find even a handful of people who are already doing what you want to do.

The reason I am posting this is to try saving a lot of frustration when things don’t start happening right away, and to save you a lot of money that many people end up throwing away on information that just isn’t going to help them unless they have some knowledge of the fundamentals of internet marketing.

Focus on learning one thing at a time. This can be hard to do when you see all of the information that is out there – you will be tempted to start trying more than one thing. But everything will happen much faster for you if you do focus on just one area – if you decide, for example, that you would like to make money with affiliate marketing, then find the experts who can share their knowledge with you.

Keep learning everything you can about affiliate marketing until you start seeing results, and then keep learning some more.

Once you have that first area mastered, it will be a lot easier for you to start branching out – which is what you likely will want to do when you get involved in internet marketing. You don’t ever want to put all your eggs in one basket – if you can have multiple income streams, then your income will be much more secure.

Don’t give up when you don’t see immediate results. Remember – this is a business that you are building, and you need to put the time in to see profits. Keep learning, keep building and eventually, the day will come that you can quit your day job – and be making enough money that you can work at home full time.

Marie Pugh is a work at home mom, www.MomsDotComDream.com , who has successfully started her own online business. She has been fortunate to have been able to work from home while her children are still young, and been able to enjoy the freedom of being her own boss.