Personally I think twitter has helped my “company” (aka websites) tremendously. The only way it has maybe “hurt” it is that sometimes I get distracted reading other tweets and their links that follow, thus making me unproductive!

Read how Twitter can help drive traffic to your websites, too!

Today’s free tee spotlights MoneyReign.com – which I received by following @moneyreign on Twitter! Zac Johnson (aka Super Affiliate by Day, Super Hero at Night) not only gives away free tshirts, but he gives away free secret tips over at his blog, ZacJohnson.com.  I’ve known Zac for the past ten years and have seen him at every Affiliate Summit - trust me he was “just a kid” when he started making money on the internet. He is a true affiliate marketing success story in my book!

But watch out Google, there’s a new search engine in town, Bing.com. And my guess is that Microsoft is hoping “bing” will be the next new verb among our lingo. How long do you predict before Bing.com is the default homepage on PC’s powered with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? BTW, I just upgraded my IE to 8.0, and I’m not sure I’m liking it.

Back to Bing… I read Todd Crawford’s tweet…

@toddcrawford have you tried this yet? http://bing-vs-google.com/

So, of course I had to try it.  Searched my name, my business, my top keywords, yadda yadda. The results were still way better on the Google side, but Bing is still an infant, so I’ll give it some time to mature. Another similiar site is BingandGoogle.com.

The jury’s still out among the big dogs discussing whether or not Bing can dethrone Google…

CNN - Bing vs. Google: Consumers Can’t Tell a Difference (7/11/09)
Mashable – Google vs. Bing: The Blind Taste Test (6/07/09)
NY Times – Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better (7/08/09)
PCWorld – Google, Microsoft Invade Enemy Territory: Who Wins? (7/10/09)
TechCrunch – Search Smackdown: Bing Vs. Google (6/02/09)

What you say? “Bing” it on!

When I toured Zappos‘ headquarters while in Vegas for ASW09, they handed out cool bookbags and let us pick out a complimentary book.  Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos personally read and recommends every book choice. Since I finished reading my book, I tweeted this to Tony yesterday asking if he had a list online of all the recommended books so I could add some more to my library… 

Tony direct messaged me today with this link:
zappos.com/zappos-library 

I was not only impressed to receive a response from the CEO within 24 hours, but also impressed by what I saw when I clicked on the link!  Not only were the recommended books listed, but with links to them for sale directly from Zappos.com!

Then being the bargain shopper that I am, I did some price comparison shopping on the “Most Popular” book titles…

Flipping The Switch by John G. Miller, $13.57 with Free Shipping (remember Zappos offers Free Shipping Both Ways on ALL orders). Amazon Price $13.57 Plus Shipping if you’re not an Amazon Prime Member.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin, $14.25 Free Shipping. Amazon Price $14.25

The Big Moo by Seth Godin, $13.57 Free Shipping. Amazon Price $13.57

See a trend here (besides Seth Godin’s association with cattle)? Yep, all the same prices.  Coincidence? I think not. Being an Amazon Prime Member, I’m probably more apt to order from there, as I get Free 2-Day Shipping.  But for those of you not as “prime” as myself, then ordering from Zappos.com would be the better option.

Now which book should I order first?  Which books have you read yet?

P.S. You are following me on Twitter @KIMarketing, right?  I was playing around at TwitBacks.com, so check out my new (free and made in under a minute) background.

Teresa Caldwell from 4urWorld originally headed up the Affiliate Summit Mentor Program that debuted at ASE08 in Boston. Teresa did a great job, and I made a new friend with my mentee, Cindy of Sweepstake Supplies - how cool that we both have sweepstakes sites!

Unfortunately, Teresa had to step down from coordinating the Mentor Program for ASW09 in Vegas to care for her mother. We missed you Teresa! Jen Goode (aka Penguin Lady and Buffet liner-upper) took over the program, and did a super fantastic job as well!

The mentee that I was originally paired with was only in Vegas for about 24 hours (wish we could have hung out longer, Mary), but after befriending @BajaLori on Twitter, I asked Jen if I could take on two mentees. Lori is a native of Las Vegas and heads up Las Vegas Net Daily. We had a lot of fun together!  She not only arranged a tour of Zappos for a dozen of us affiliate marketers, but chauffered some of us in her cool Hummer, and presented me with some awesome Chanel inspired earrings that I had been eyeing on her ears!  Thanks so much Lori!

Maybe next time, I’ll get paired with a young, good looking guy like Southbeach Annie did!

Pinnacle Awards Finalists at Affiliate Summit West 2009 …
Scott Aiken; Mike Allen; Kim Rowley. Affiliate Manager of the Year. Angel Djambazov; Stephanie Harris; Kim Salvino. Exceptional Merchant. 4Checks.com; Amazon; CelebrateExpress.com. Affiliate Marketing Advocate …
Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn… – http://blog.affiliatetip.com/

You can read the Shawn’s full article above, or read about it on Missy’s blog (as hers is better looking).  I was nominated as a Pinnacle Awards Finalist for Affiliate of the Year, along with Scott Aikin and Mike Allen.  The only thing I have on those guys is that I have more hair, ha.  They are both exceptional affiliates, and I am privileged to be considered among them.  In fact, every finalist is a respected authority in the affiliate community, and I’m glad to call them all my friends.  Congratulations! And see you all in Vegas!

Another Google Web Alert I received…

Who has the most Followers on Twitter? (Top 100) (Nebraska, USA …
Kim Rowley (kimarketing), Nebraska, http://kimarketing.com, 399, 302, 531, 232 days ago. 9. Anne Good (AGOutLoud), Nebraska, http://www.agoutloud.com …

I didn’t know that a hundred people in Nebraska actually used Twitter!  I even made the Top Ten. Are you following me yet?  And if you aren’t using Google Alerts yet, I highly suggest it to see who’s talking about you!

So, it’s time to move on to bigger and better things (and fill up the empty space in my sidebar) -  I’m giving Jim Kukral’s ScratchBack TopSpot widgets a try. Please hold as it says it only takes thirty seconds to sign up…

Okay, that was quick and painless.  I had to rearrange my sidebar to get it the TopSpots widget to fit, but I think it will work.  There were 16 style choices.  Although Style C would have been my first choice for this particular site, I went with Style F to fit the sidebar better.  I could have picked the “Tip me, & I’ll Get NAKED!” style, but you already have to put up with me in my pajamas, and I didn’t want to scare off any more visitors.

I decided to only add 5 spots to start with because if nobody “tips” me, I think I’ll look like less of a loser only having five empty spots available as compared to 10 or 20.  If, I mean when, (think positive, think positive) I sell 5 spots, I’ll open it up to 10 and so on.  Look right. Look right —>

So there you have it.  It’s only $5 to get a “Top Spot” (you get to specify URL, anchor text and mouseover message) which is cheaper than buying me a drink in most places (although locally I can get my Rootbeer Schnapps with Diet Coke for only $2.25). They say money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can rent it for awhile.

Okay, gotta watch Sarah Silverman on Jay Leno. I love her The Great Schlep Video and her Matt Damon video. She’s another one of my girl crushes (right behind Justine Ezarik and Melissa Salas).  G’Nite!

Today’s Free Shirt is courtesy of C28.com.

C28 is the leader in Christian-themed apparel and accessories for youth and young adults. C28 combines a Christian mall store chain and website, offering an alternative to the mainstream mall stores. The Christian clothing, music, jewelry and accessories reflect a bold and positive Christian lifestyle and are intended to serve as conversation starters to enable sharing of Faith.

I’ll proudly wear this shirt as 1) I’m a Christian (Lutheran to be exact), and 2) this now classifies me as a “young adult”. This particular shirt is their NOTW Pray For Our Troops Shirt. So, that brings me to 3) I also support our troops.

“Pray for our troops” reads across a ribbon that’s tied around the NOTW logo. Hidden in the stripes of the flag is the scripture: “For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Deut 20:4. “Jesus” is found at the end of the ribbon showing it’s only through Him we can even pray. It is by Jesus dying for us that we have victory “By His stripes we are healed”. Isaiah 53:5

Cool, eh? The C28 Christian Apparel affiliate program is housed at Avantlink and is managed by GTO Management – Wade Tonkin and Karen Garcia are great affiliate managers!  They are also big sponsors of the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association (CAMA).  I attended the CAMA Cruise in Boston and besides good fellowship, I gained a new Twitter avatar (right) from it (better than my manga).  And if you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, well, you better have a good excuse.

Now I have that “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love” song stuck in my head.  Believe it not, that is the only song I know how to play on my acoustic guitar. Reminds me attending church camp at Kamp Kaleo as a kid.

Thanks for the shirt guys!

I finally gave in to the Twitter trend and started “twitting”.  You can follow me here.
I’ve been auto-updating it via TwitterFeed and FB2Twit (uses my Facebook status).
Wonder who owns Twatter.com?  I would jump on monetizing that if I did.  ‘Nuf said.

Anyway, back to biz, I’ve been compiling a list of related blogs written by my colleagues for added resources.  It’ll remain a work in progress as I add more links, and you can check it out here.

I also finally decided to play with Movie Maker (free download from Microsoft) after I made a video for my Mailbox Monday feature.  Obviously youtube won’t let you upload more than 10 minutes worth of clips, and I rambled on for more than 12 minutes, so I figured out how to cut out a few frames (ie useless jokes).  Movie Maker also lets you add screens and words, too cool. And just today, I see youtube now lets you “add video annotations”.  Now I need to play with that to see if I can add words to previously uploaded videos. 

But for now, tune into my youtube channel this week as I actually let the world see me with no makeup on (can’t wear it for a week after my lasik enhancement surgery, argh!).