I’ve gotten questions from lots of folks in the past day who have donated or are thinking about donating to support me in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

They were all wondering whether the Avon Foundation for Women is affiliated with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The answer is no, according to a post from the Avon Foundation for Women on Facebook:

The Avon Foundation for Women is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is not affiliated in any way with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer event series is a project of the Avon Foundation and has no connection to any Susan G. Komen event. We invite you to learn more about our events and the breast cancer research and access to care programs we fund at www.avonwalk.org and www.avonfoundation.org

So there y’all go.

If you haven’t already pitched in to help fight breast cancer, I’d love if you’d support me in the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer with a donation of any amount. I’m trying to raise $25,000 towards our team goal of $80,000.

The money I raise will be managed and disbursed by the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade to help provide access to care for those that most need it, fund educational programs, and accelerate research into new treatments and potential cures.

Get more details on where the money goes from funds raised in the Avon Walks.

Also, we need affiliate marketers, as well as their friends and family, to join us out there on the walk or at our cheering station.

More details on joining or supporting the team: 2012 Affiliate Marketers Give Back Walk to #SaveTheBoobies is On!

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts, a book on affiliate marketing, social media, search marketing and more, is now available on Kindle.

The print book can be purchased for around $15, but the Kindle edition is available for just $2.99.

You can borrow Internet Marketing From the Real Experts for free, with no due dates, if you are a Kindle owner and Amazon Prime member.

Here is a description of Internet Marketing from the Real Experts:

What do Tim Carter, Brian Clark, Joel Comm, Jim Kukral, Ted Murphy, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Mari Smith have in common? They all walk the walk when it comes to their Internet marketing expertise. And they also have joined a couple dozen innovators and thought shapers to share their ideas, advice, and insight.

“Internet Marketing from the Real Experts” is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social network rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.

These are the people that do this stuff every day. Find out how they do what they do to achieve success with their online businesses.

Their voices, their ideas, their action items, and their lessons learned from mistakes–all for you to grow your business the day you start reading “Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.”

Purchase Internet Marketing from the Real Experts on Kindle or borrow the book for free if you are an Amazon Prime member.

Please review Internet Marketing from the Real Experts on Amazon.

Skimlinks‘ 18,000+ merchants generated roughly $30 million dollars of e-commerce sales in December 2011, and the company has stated they are seeing tremendous growth in text monetization.

Skimlinks has shared some e-commerce trends from data in their network that they expect to see continue in 2012.

• Discovery Sites driving e-Commerce
• Rewarding Intent Generation will become paramount
• Brand budgets will further shift into scalable CPA models
• “Smart Content Monetization” will go mainstream

They will be covering these items in more detail on the coming weeks on the Skimlinks blog.

ShareASale ThinkTank 2012 will be held in Austin, TX from May 16 to May 18, immediately following Affiliate Summit Central 2012, which is also taking place in Austin.

ShareASale ThinkTank is an annual event from ShareASale that brings together their top clients, as well as new, up-and-coming affiliate and merchants.

I’ve been to the last three and it’s a fantastic combination of business and friendship in top notch locations. This time around, ShareASale ThinkTank is taking place at the Lakeway Resort and Spa on Lake Travis in Austin.

The conference kicks off with a ThinkTank Golf Outing where attendees can join ShareASale CEO Brian Littleton for “Golf with the CEO”. This is followed by a ShareASale Staff Meet & Greet and ThinkTank Welcome Reception.

The following days are all about education and networking.

So prepare to spend the week in Austin for Affiliate Summit and ThinkTank

Read my ShareASale ThinkTank 2011 Recap.

More details, agenda, description of the venue, and pre-registration at http://www.shareasale.com/thinktank/.

I am hoping for just one Christmas gift this year, and it involves you.

You see, I am going to be walking with Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back for 39.3 miles around New York City next October for the 10th Anniversary of the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer.

The Avon Walk For Breast Cancer in New York City is taking place October 21-22, 2012. The path goes from Hudson River Park’s Pier 84 to Randall’s Island and back again.

But how you can help? Well, there are a few ways to fight breast cancer with us.

I’d love if you’d support me in the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer with a donation of any amount. I’m trying to raise $25,000 towards our team goal of $80,000.

The money I raise will be managed and disbursed by the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade to help provide access to care for those that most need it, fund educational programs, and accelerate research into new treatments and potential cures.

Also, we need affiliate marketers, as well as their friends and family, to join us out there on the walk or at our cheering station.

More details on joining or supporting the team: 2012 Affiliate Marketers Give Back Walk to #SaveTheBoobies is On!

And if you can’t make it to NYC or spare a donation, there is another opportunity to help just by exercising.

Affiliate Summit has created a dailymile Challenge where we will donate $1 in support of the Affiliate Marketers Give Back team for each mile cycled, run, swam, or walked (up to $5,000).

Online marketing pioneer Bryan Eisenberg has run into a renters nightmare with a new landlord, who also happens to be a New York Police Department Officer.

Bryan has turned to the Internet by detailing his plight with landlord and NYPD Officer Mehtab Malhi at 2842brigham.com.

This sort of story (too many details to list here – read 2842 Brigham Street -Terrorized by a Police Officer Landlord) of a bullying landlord is bad to hear, but all the more appalling when the behavior is administered by one of “New York’s Finest”.

It reminds me of an experience I had about 15 years ago when I was a big brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City.

One day my little brother mentioned to me how police were bad. I explained to him how they were the good guys, but I don’t think he was buying it.

I don’t know if it was something he saw, or maybe his family taught him that the police were bad, but at just 9 years old he held those negative stereotypes some people have about police.

I’d like to think I changed his mind, but I have to wonder what the Eisenberg kids will carry with them when they see this sort of behavior from Officer Malhi.

More information on this situation:

• WPIX: Man Creates Website To Expose Bad Landlord
• Sheepshead Bites: Sheepshead Tenant Turns To Web To Battle Landlord
• Technorati: Social Media Used to Take on Alleged Corrupt NYPD Police Officer
• Coney Media: NYC landlord v. Social Media maven

Social media for social justice… hopefully.

The vBulletin affiliate program sent out a “you’re fired” email to lots of affiliates yesterday.

Hello,

After very carefully evaluating all of our Commission Junction
publishers who generate affiliate revenue for the vBulletin Affiliate
Program, we have come to a decision to deactivate some of our accounts
as they are generating traffic, referrals etc. that we may already
receive. I regret to inform you that your account has been expired and
will take effect within the next 7 days. We here at vBulletin would
like to thank you for your past support and wish you the best of luck
in the future.

Best regards,

Valerie Janda

Marketing Intern, vBulletin

Internet Brands

Affiliate programs kicking out affiliates isn’t anything novel, but I think the way this was done was pretty poor.

Not only is the reason for termination ambiguous, but vBulletin was careless about the process by not using bcc with the emails. Oh, and we’re weeks from Christmas – sort of a hectic time for affiliates.

I think one of the problems with the vBulletin affiliate program is their lack of quality control on the front end. I applied to the program and was auto-approved.

And no offense to the interns out there, but do they have an intern in charge of their affiliate program?

Anyhow, if any affiliates who were booted are still interested in promoting vBulletin, they could try going through SkimLinks.

ClickBank announced they have paid out $2 billion to affiliate marketers and product vendors since 1998.

Payouts doubled from $1 billion to $2 billion over the three-year period from 2008-2011, despite the global recession over this time.

Back in January 2008, I wrote about affiliate marketing as a recession proof channel, and this just lends more credence to the assertion.

ClickBank averages more than 30,000 transactions daily via the ClickBank Marketplace, which reaches more than 190 countries worldwide.

Press release: ClickBank Reaches $2 Billion in Total Revenue Paid Out to Online Entrepreneur Clients

The IAB Affiliate Advertiser survey indicates there will be growth over the next 12 months.

The survey was answered by 140 advertisers in the UK.

According to the survey, 77% of respondents said marketing spend for affiliates had grown, and 71% expect it to grow further in 2012.

Some other interesting items from the survey:

• 19% of respondents are paying out over £100k month in affiliate commissions
• 59% of respondents worked with just one affiliate network
• Over 25% of respondents spend more than 20% of online marketing budgets on the affiliate channel
• Half of all respondents said that knowledge of affiliate marketing at CEO level was little or none at all

More details: IAB research predicts affiliate sector growth

The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) has announced that they are in support of proposed Federal legislation that promises to eliminate the Affiliate Nexus Tax.

Passage of the legislation would potentially getting 60,000 affiliate marketers back to work.

There are two Federal bills working with bi-partisan sponsors:

• Senate: Marketplace Fairness Act [Durbin (D-IL), Enzi (R-WY), and Alexander (R-TN)]
• House: Marketplace Equity Act [Womack (R-AR) and Speier (D-CA)]

The PMA is asking everyone in the industry to help by joining in their letter writing and calling campaigns. Visit GetBackInBusiness.org for more information.

Press release: PERFORMANCE MARKETING ASSOCIATION STRONGLY SUPPORTS FEDERAL SALES TAX SOLUTION LEGISLATION