Affiliate Playground

Hello blog,

Tonight I was thinking about possibly posting about a few things:

1. the webinar that Sean Rasmussen ran to promote Year of the Affiliate 2.0 (which is released tomorrow) and my thoughts on it;
2. how I will approach affiliate marketing and aim to keep things fun; and
3. trying to find a product to promote and taking the first steps in trying to advertise it.

To avoid a massive post, I’ll only be covering the first of these tonight (you’ll see why below).

Webinar – Turn Your Passion Into Dollars (with Sean Rasmussen)

I tuned into the webinar having read the leaked version of Year of the Affiliate 2.0 cover to cover, checked out all of the YOTA 2.0 release blog posts (and free content), and set up this free blog to get things started.   I was keen not only for more information on the extra technical content included in the full version of YOTA 2.0 and the private forum, but also some of the big picture regarding internet marketing.  Sean delivered on both counts and I am definitely glad I watched.

For the big picture, Sean talked about the dominating role that social media websites are having, and how this can drive traffic, search engine optimization and business.  On the technical side of things, just seeing the resources available (Sean gave a quick tour of the YOTA private forum during the webinar) had me chomping at the bit and jumping to the purchase page.

YOTA Forum Scholarship

Right at the end of the webinar, Sean announced the winners of the Year Of The Affiliate Internet Marketing Forum  scholarships.  These scholarships were to meet the cost of this forum for one full year and included a free copy of Year Of The Affiliate 2.0.  The first bit of news was that Sean had decided to award 10 scholarships rather than 3, given the number of quality applications he had received.  Then Sean went on to announce the recipients.

When applying, I figured that my application was likely to be just one of hundreds and that my chances were slim, but that I might as well give things a go – to motivate myself if nothing else.

Well, it seems that I was one of the lucky 10!  Boy am I excited about it.  I don’t think it has really sunken in yet, but I have to say a big thank you to Sean for offering these scholarships and to all of those reading the applications.

I Pledge $1000 to Charity

As part of awarding the scholarships, Sean asked that all of the recipients might like to commit to giving $1,000 from the first $10,000 they make to charity.  I will gladly do so now:

I pledge that from the first $10,000 I make from internet marketing, I will donate $1,000 to Oxfam.

I think that this is a great idea for a few reasons:

• If I can find this sort of success via internet marketing, then I will gladly share some of that around;
• Sean is being more than generous with providing these scholarships; and
• Making a pledge public like this will sure keep me accountable.

Well that’s it from me – it has been quite a day.

Regards,

Tom
Internet Marketer-to-be

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Year of the Affiliate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.