I have made a few simple changes to my blog over the last couple of days and one pretty serious one. The simple changes include adding some more RSS features to my site, including being able to have updates sent via RSS to your email.  The major change occurred last night when I changed the URL structure of my entire site.  Using a plugin and the Wordpress function to change my URL’s to be keyword rich and search engine friendly.  It is much better than the page numbers, which is what it used to be.  It should also make my site easier to navigate.

I have just added a new way to subscribe to my RSS feed which you can now see on the top of my sidebar.  You can now subscribe to my RSS feed and have updates emailed to you whenever I make a new post.  Feel free to signup for my RSS feed, just enter your email address and you will receive my updates.

Google is defending themselves in court saying that the deal between Google and DoubleClick (for $3.1 Billion) will increase competition in the online advertising industry.  They also refer to the deal which was completed earlier in the summer, in which MicroSoft bought aQuantive for $6 billion and no one made this big of a fuss over that deal.

One of the big problems that MicroSoft is claiming with the Google, DoubleClick Deal is that there is a major consumer privacy issue.  Between Google and DoubleClick, they have the world’s largest database of personal information.  This personal information will fuel ad delivery and ad placement models offered through the new Google/DoubleClick service.  MicroSoft claims that this deal will do a dis-service to consumers, advertisers and publishers.

Affiliates who make more than enough money to support themselves from Affiliate Marketing have it made.  Well, that’s what I always thought.  I hear stories every now and again about Affiliate Marketers who get bored making money online and miss the day to day routine of work.

I do understand.  I personally would miss the day to day interaction with people, more than the routine that a job gave me.  I think I would start my own business, or invest in someone elses,  and take an active role in the company.  At the same time corporate America isn’t so bad.  Health care, job stability, retirement planning.  Things could be worse.   What would you if you got bored?

Amazon has just rolled out there new music download service to battle I-Tunes dominant music download service.  I happen to be an Affiliate for both companies, and guess what?  I am going to market them side by side.  Why wouldn’t I?

Either way, people buying songs are putting money into my pocket.  My recommendation for Affiliate Marketers is to push both companies and set up a creative way to market each side by side.  I am not sure who has the higher payout, but that doesn’t matter to much to me.  The one drawback to Amazon’s music download service is that Warner Music Group Corp. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment have not agreed to sell music on Amazon MP3. I like both companies and I will support each of them, and hopefully they will support my wallet filling up.

E-consultancy is an online publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research and how-to guides. E-consultancy, named Publisher of the Year at the 2006 AOP Awards, also publishes buyer’s guides and has a directory of 100,000+ third party internet marketing white papers. More than 700 E-consultancy users responded to the research email.

The merchants that responded to the email came from a wide variety of industries, including financial, retail, and travel. The findings of this survey address Affiliate Marketing conditions in the UK, and while there may be some differences between Affiliate Marketing in the U.S. and the UK, but this report does give a picture of the Affiliate Marketing industry in the US and the UK. But do keep in mind these numbers portrayed are in respect to the UK.

• 67% of responding merchants have increased sales from 2 years ago.
• 78% of responding merchants are spending more money on their Affiliate Marketing campaigns then they were 2 years ago.
• 78% of responding merchants also said they will spend more money on Affiliate Marketing in the future.
• 50% of responding merchants will add to their Affiliate management team
• 95% of Merchants say that Affiliate Marketing is the most cost-effective way to attract new customers … Email marketing and Paid Search Marketing trailed in this respect. (more…)