Web Hostgods

Ian Rosenwach, Product Manager at LinkShare, has announced a new WordPress plugin from LinkShare called Link Lookup.

Link Lookup enables LinkShare affiliates to do two things from their WordPress interface:

• Create deep links - enter a URL on an advertiser site, and get back a tracking link with your id
• Search for product links - search across all your advertisers or a specific advertiser for a product link, and then click and drag that product link directly into the post

More details at http://www.linkshareblog.com/2009/01/13/new-linkshare-wordpress-plug-in-link-lookup/.

I’ve been using CaRP (Caching RSS Parser) for years to display my RSS feeds on my sites in HTML. There are various widgets out there to do the same, but I really like the versatility of CaRP.

Yesterday, I got their newsletter where creator Antone Roundy is looking to rebrand CaRP. Good idea, since the current name is probably cryptic to the average blogger.

I exchanged some emails with Antone and asked if there was a way to use CaRP to display my Twitter stream on my blogs. I don’t care for the options from Twitter and other places, and apparently Antone doesn’t either.

It turned out he tweaked CaRP to show is own Twitter status on his blog and shared the code for others to use.

I am playing around with this code, with the help of Antone, to use it to display the results of a search for the Affiliate Summit tag on Twitter (#asw09), so I can feature it on the Affiliate Summit homepage.

Check out CaRP if you’re looking to do this sort of thing, too.

I just launched a new look for the Affiliate Tip blog, which was custom designed by Unique Blog Designs.

I’d heard a lot about Unique Blog Designs and saw their work on sites like Blog World Expo, JohnChow.com, ShoeMoney.com, Ted Murphy’s blog, and ZacJohnson.com. I liked what I saw.

So I contacted them and they were really easy to work with to build a design that had exactly the look and features I always wanted.

Since last night, I can’t help continually looking at the new design. I love it, where I grudgingly tolerated the free Cutline Theme that I had been using here for a long time.

If you’re looking to give a face lift to your blog, check out the guys at Unique Blog Designs. In addition to their custom services for WordPress and MoveableType blogs, they also sell a cool looking theme that’s available in six colors.

The TechVivo blog has compiled a list of plugins for WordPress blogs.

I am already using about a quarter of them, such as the FeedBurner FeedSmith, Google XML Sitemaps Generator, and WordPress.com Stats plugin, and there are others I used and have since deactivated.

My favorite thing about lists like these is the discovery of plugins I haven’t heard about, yet.

The biggest problem I have day to day is spam, so I am most interested in Simple Trackback Validation and WP-Spam Free look interesting.

I’m currently running Akismet, Bad Behavior, and Disqus but spam comments and trackbacks are out of control.

I think I’ll probably grab WordPress Database Backup, too.

Check out the list at http://www.techvivo.com/essential-wordpress-plugins/.

I came across new features for two Twitter tools that I currently use, and I think these would be pretty useful to many other affiliate marketers, too.

One tool I’ve been using for a while is TwitterFeed.com. This service enables you to link up an RSS feed to your Twitter account, so any posts that hit the RSS feed will post to your Twitter stream.

Back when I signed up for TwitterFeed.com, they automatically converted URLs to blog posts to a tinyurl.com address, but now they also support cli.gs addresses.

This is helpful, because cli.gs provides stats for any clicks for the URLs that post to Twitter.

Also, Tweet Later is a free service I’ve been using for a while. The initial premise of the site was to set up Tweets to post at a later date.

But the new feature I really like is the ability to set up alerts and track keywords in the public Twitter stream.

It’s basically Google Alerts for Twitter where you can get email updates as often as hourly that display all Tweets that include your specified keyword(s).

Tweet Later is really useful to find relevant people to follow, as well as catching any references to your own account that slip by you.

I continue to stand by my assertion that video is the next big thing for affiliates. Video has been leveraged well by a handful of network, merchants and affiliates, but I’m still not seeing it too much these days.

Anyhow, there are some relatively cheap tools of the trade that aspiring video affiliates can use to enhance their productions.

One item I would recommend is a green screen. This enables you to film video in front of the green background and then add different stuff behind you to enhance the look of the video.

You can see examples of green screen usage in videos at MarketLeverage TV.

There are lots of vendors selling green screens, and I made the mistake of buying a really big one with a frame the first time around. This ran hundreds of dollars and it was more than I needed.

Recently, I was looking for software to edit photos in front of a green screen, and found a good one called Green Screen Wizard (they have an affiliate program on ShareASale).

They also sell green screens for a nice price, and I got an email yesterday that they are offering a special Christmas deal. For $59, you can get the following:

• A copy of Green Screen Wizard Lite
• 5′ x 7′ Pop-up Screen
• 20 Magazine Covers
• 120 Backgrounds in six collections

I like this green screen a lot better than my bigger one - it folds up in a carrying bag that comes with it, and it’s big enough for most uses.

The picture above is a quick shot I took of my dog and put it against one of their backgrounds. It was really easy to use - I didn’t bother to read the instructions and completed the process in a couple minutes.

I got together with Joshua Simmons of AffiliateTips.com (not my site - they have an “s” on the end) to chat about my beginnings in affiliate marketing.

We also discussed my first affiliate project, proudest achievement, how Affiliate Summit got started, and tips for affiliates.

Plus, advice for affiliates and a look to the future.

Read the interview at http://www.affiliatetips.com/interview-with-affiliatesummit-shawn-collins.html.