How I Got Started in the Online Poker World

Although never a serious (or maybe good) online poker player, I first got involved in the world of online poker back in 2001. At the time it was just the infancy of the “poker boom” that later came in 2003 after Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP and remember tuning in nightly to watch my favorite poker players play for millions of dollars on shows like the World Series of Poker and The World Poker Tour. Some of my favorite players were Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and many others.

At the time there were only a handful of well known poker sites one which was Party Poker. I remember seeing a link at the bottom of their site that asked players if they wanted to earn money by referring friends and others to play on the site and in return they would generously pay you a fee or commission percentage. This was called affiliate marketing and in reality was also the boom for that industry. Over the next two or three years I developed quite a few sites that talked about poker news, bio’s of top players and the best signup bonuses at various online card rooms.

Then in 2004 a group of some of the top poker players in the world announced a new site called Full Tilt Poker. I remember getting the email that they had launched and immediately signed up as an affiliate. I believe I was the 37th or 38th affiliate ever at the site and over the next few years promoted Full Tilt on various sites I ran.

At the time I loved poker and actually still do in some ways. I loved writing about the latest poker news and telling others about recent tournaments and writing about the pros I loved to watch on TV.

Signs of Trouble

Somewhere around 2005/2006 I started getting worried about the industry. Fellow affiliates started talking about affiliate checks bouncing and trouble withdrawing funds from certain sites, but I always dealt with the big sites so never really had that problem up until the Neteller fiasco. With the passing of the 2006 UIGEA I decided the industry was too volatile and that it would be in my best interest to take what I’ve learned about web design, SEO and affiliate marketing and move into a more accepted and mainstream industry. From that point on I pretty much quit the industry and in the years since have seen many friends lose tons of money to sites that went bankrupt, moved out of the US entirely or simply couldn’t easily transfer funds back and forth from the US.

While I still love playing the game occasionally with friends or on trips back to Vegas, I always wondered how safe was our money online? How legal was it really? Although players and affiliates seem to fall within a gray area and weren’t being sought for prosecution.. I still never felt there was any way we could be sure players/affiliates money was safe, that the games were fair and legit (Absolute Poker cheating scandal) or that the government wouldn’t one day decide to take action. For me it was an extremely smart decision and allowed me to use my skills on more mainstream projects. In light of the action the US Dept of Justice has taken over the last 6 months, I’d say I made the right call and got up from a game that might have never been fair or legal for that matter.

Was Full Tilt Poker a Global Ponzi Scheme?

Earlier today U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in the Southern District of New York filed a motion Tuesday to amend an earlier civil complaint to allege that Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Lederer and two other directors for the website FullTiltPoker.com operated what the Justice Department says was a massive Ponzi scheme that allowed the company to pay out $444 million to themselves and other owners, which so far have included famous poker players Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Howard “Poker Professor” Lederer and Rafael Furst. No other players have so far been named, but the government said that, in total, the 23 owners of the site had taken out hundreds of millions of dollars in distributions over the years.

According to the complaint the government alleges Full Tilt executives misrepresented to the website’s players that the money the company was supposed to be holding in player accounts was safely held when it was actually being used for other purposes, including payments to owners.

“In reality, Full Tilt Poker did not maintain funds sufficient to repay all players, and in addition, the company used player funds to pay board members and other owners more than $440 million since April 2007,” the complaint read.

The prosecutor said that, as of March 31, Full Tilt Poker owed about $390 million to players around the world, including $150 million to U.S. players. But the company only had $60 million in bank accounts to pay them back.

Full Tilt paid more than $443 million in player funds to the board of directors and other owners, with $41 million going to Bitar, $42 million going to Lederer, and nearly $12 million going to another board member, Rafael Furst.

The company paid $25 million to Ferguson, and said that it owed him another $62 million, according to the prosecutor’s office, noting that much of the money was transferred to Swiss and overseas accounts.

“In order to maintain its false image of financial security, Full Tilt continued to credit player accounts without disclosing its inability to fund those credits,” the prosecutor said.”When players gambled with these phantom funds and lost to other players, a massive shortfall developed.”

The prosecutor said “this scheme continued even after the original complaint was filed and the criminal indictment unsealed in April.”

As time went on, the poker site had even less money to pay its customers. By June, Full Tilt owed $300 million to players around the world but only had $6 million to pay them, according to the prosecutor’s office.

“Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,” said Bharara, in a press release. “Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company.”

Neither Lederer, Feguson or their attorneys have yet to make a public comment. Howard Lederer’s Twitter page also hasn’t been updated since April 12th, 2011 which was just 3 days before the original complaint was filed against Full Tilt and two other online poker rooms which now in the poker industry is known as Black Friday.

What About Phil Ivey?

Although the complaint states 23 members of the site that illegally received hundreds of millions in funds there’s no word of arguably poker’s greatest player, Phil Ivey.

In June, Phil Ivey who was Full Tilt’s most recognized star and 8 time WSOP Champ announced he would not be playing in the 2011 WSOP in response to players still being owed millions of dollars by Full Tilt and would also be filing a lawsuit for $150 Million on their behalf against Tiltware. The lawsuit was filed a few days after his announcement in Nevada.

“I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm,” Ivey, who has played online on Full Tilt and appeared in the company’s TV commercials, said in a statement posted on his website which was completely revamped a few months ago and has no affiliation or marketing for Full Tilt Poker.

“I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible,” he said.

Nobody knows for sure who was involved from the top down and who simply thought they were being handsomely paid by one of the largest online poker sites in the world to help promote the site, but over time we will find out. As more information is released we’ll be better able to tell if Ivey was also in on this and simply protecting himself by filing the suit and distancing himself from the site or legitimately was upset and embarrassed to be part of something which could lead to criminal prosecution and potentially decades in prison.

Update: Here’s an interview from today that PokerNews.com did with Tom “Durrrr” Dwan about what he knows in relation to the charges.

Closing Thoughts

To me the most troubling part was that Full Tilt was crediting US players with false money into their accounts and still allowing them to play full well knowing that they had been having problems with US player transactions for quite some time. How they thought this was a sound business decision is beyond me. Anyone with half a brain could have seen that would never work.

In the end if the allegations are true this has to be the perfect story for CNBC’s American Greed show. It still shocks me when I see stories like this. Why millionaire’s decide they’ll do anything to have more even if it’s at the expense of other people’s livelihoods and their image along with the fact they could spend the rest of their lives in prison is beyond my comprehension. Although Wall Street star Gordon Gecko one said that “Greed is good”… it’s not worth it when it destroys your values and other people’s lives.

Although I do think online poker should be legal in the US for adults, I also think it needs to be regulated by the government, taxed and made as safe as possible for players and affiliates alike. Hopefully the recent actions by the US Government don’t hinder that and instead put it on a fast track to safe online gambling.

What are your thoughts on todays complaint? Is the US doing the right thing? Are these players responsible for a $400 Million Ponzi scheme? How will it affect the poker industry? Let me know in the comments below.

Some of the quotes above were taken in part from CNNMoney’s report.

So yesterday after almost 36 years since co-founding Apple in his parents garage with Steve Wozniack, Steve Jobs announced his resignation as Apple’s CEO. While he’ll still stay on as Apple’s Chairman… Apple fans, the tech world, investors and Wall Street analysts now wonder what the future holds for Apple. Tim Cook, Apple’s COO will now take over as full time CEO. Tim is regarding by many in the tech world as an operational genius so only time will tell if his leadership and vision align with what Steve did that made Apple what it is today.

Resignation

Here’s Steve’s resignation letter to Apple Employees…

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Going Forward

Here’s Tim Cook’s letter to Apple employees on Steve Jobs resignation…

Team:

I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.

Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.

I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.

I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.

Tim

What I’ll Miss

Most knew it was coming probably sooner than later considering his bout with pancreatic cancer, recent liver transplant and other medical complications, but it still didn’t soften the blow. Anyone who’s followed Steve Jobs over the years knows Apple is his life and that Apple itself has been defined by Steve Jobs.

While I will definitely miss Steve Jobs the showman, pitchman, innovator and genius marketer… The executive team Steve assembled at Apple is second to none and

More than anything I hope Steve’s health improves with his time off. We all know he won’t be too far away and I’m sure he’ll still be giving plenty of input on product development and advertising at least for the near future. Remember he still is the Chairman of Apple.

I think what I’ll miss most about Steve running Apple is his vision and ability to deliver products the public doesn’t even know it wants and thus creating a new market. I think what set him and Apple apart from the other technology companies is Apple didn’t focus on technology and just shoot for making what’s already out there faster or thinner although they do that as well, but that they strive to combine technology with liberal arts

During the iPhone 4 and recent iPad 2 announcement Steve closed his keynotes with this… “We’re not just a tech company, even though we invent some of the highest technology products in the world. It’s the marriage of that plus the humanities and the liberal arts that distinguishes Apple. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s the technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities that yields us with the result that makes our hearts sing.”

People have always asked me why I like Apple products so much. What Steve said above answers that question. His vision, leadership, emotion and salesmanship combined to make devices that are a combination of beautiful hardware, incredibly advanced software that all works seamlessly together and is designed to work around an easy to use and well designed user interface. Some argue his inventions are just a phone or just a computer or just a music player. Those inventions changed the world. They changed the way we work, the way we listen to music and watch movies, the way we create and interact with each other. Those are some pretty important things in my book.

Thanks for a great 35+ years and best of luck in the next chapter of your life. Your time at Apple may be done, but your life and inspiration to others isn’t. Just like you said in your 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech… “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.”

We’ll miss you Steve!

Videos

Below I’ve embedded some of my favorite Steve Jobs and Apple videos from over the last 35+ years. What’s your favorite? If I didn’t include it, link to it in the comments below.

So if you live under a rock and haven’t heard about this yet… earlier today clothing designer Kenneth Cole tweeted about #Cairo, Egypt while promoting his line of clothes. Some thought it was funny, most thought it was insensitive and in poor taste. TechCrunch described it as “Setting a New Bar for Social Media Stupidity“.

While I’m sure Kenneth Cole was just trying to be funny since he does quite often mix politics and promotions… this might have been a little too early for something of this nature. Good thing that there are companies like www.reputation.com, that will help clean up our reputation, in case you have a similar accident like Kenneth Cole. Within minutes thousands were replying to him showing their disgust in mixing the tragedy going on in Egypt with a promotion to sell his clothing/shoes.

Here’s the tweet if you haven’t seen it…

Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo – KC

While some think it’s not a big deal and that people and the media are overreacting the problem I and many others have is he’s using a world tragedy for an attempt at business gain and exploiting the people in Egypt that are going through this. This is evident by his use of the hashtag #Cairo. It probably would have been viewed in bad taste anyways, but that put it over the top.

Kenneth Cole has responded twice now to the outrage first on his Twitter account shortly after his original tweet. It says…

Re Egypt tweet: we weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment -KC

I have removed this morning’s tweet. Please visit this link to see my apology. http://on.fb.me/fCSf5Z -KC

He then responded on Facebook with an apology which reads…

I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.

Kenneth Cole, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer

Probably the biggest news that came out of all of this is the creation of a parody Twitter account called @KennethColePR.

In less than 4 hours it went from 0 – over 4000 followers which should soon pass the real Kenneth Cole Twitter account in followers and was created to poke fun at Mr. Cole for such a ridiculous tweet in the first place. There’s probably about 20 or so updates many of which people are having a good laugh at. Some have definitely crossed the line too, but I’d imagine it’s by a comedian trying to show how stupid Mr. Cole was in his original tweet.

Here’s a sample of recent Tweets from that account.

So what do you think? Are people overreacting or is the backlash justified? I personally think he crossed the line when he added the #Cairo hashtag which many are using along with the #Egypt hastag to follow along with journalists and loved ones in the area. It’s not the end of the world, but you’d expect better judgement from someone running a major company.

Recently there’s been a lot of talk about who Apple, Inc. is planning to acquire since they’ve been sitting on a $50 Billion + pile of cash over the last couple years and based on market cap are now the second largest company in the world. The debate has recently heated up due to Steve Jobs comments during it’s Q4’10 earnings call. Steve said…

“We would like to continue to keep our powder dry, because we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future.”

Some believe those comments just mean they’re looking into buying a startup or cloud media management company, but other rumors are more fixed on Apple making 1 or 2 large acquisitions in the very near future. Let’s take a look at some of the rumors and why they would or wouldn’t make sense. Mind you I’m not coming from a hard numbers or valuation angle… merely from a culture/product one. I’m sure some commenters will have some insight into the possibilities numbers wise.

Adobe
This rumor has been floating around for the last couple months and honestly doesn’t make any sense to me. Apple and CEO Steve Jobs have made it clear they’re not interested in adopting Adobe Flash anymore in their products. This was apparent even way back to 2007 when Apple left Flash off the 1st gen iPhone and of course even more apparent when they left it off the iPad in 2009. Now Apple has started shipping new MacBook Air’s and other Macs without Flash preinstalled.

Outside of Adobe’s creative suite software which I don’t think is valuable enough for Apple to actually want an acuisition I don’t see any reason why Apple would have any interest in Adobe.

Facebook
This rumor has also been floating around for quite some time and ramped up recently when Apple CEO Steve Jobs was seen taking a stroll with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg around Palo Alto who he had invited over for dinner.

Apple and Facebook have had an up and down relationship over the last few years. It first started out on good terms with it’s Apple Student Groups, but has recently been on rocky terms as Apple apparently pulled Facebook Connect from it’s integration with Ping, Apple new social networking venture based around the music aspect of iTunes.

As we all know Facebook has turned down quite a few acquisition offers over the years so there’s no reason to believe this one would finally be the one they accept, but on the surface this one actually makes the most sense to me. It gives Apple instant access to over 500 million users along with loads of personal information about their habits, interests, likes etc… It also gives them the world’s largest social networking site and the ability to integrate sharing on iTunes, iOS devices and Macs.

Even more important to me it gives them two things that are about to change the way many of us search and pay for things. The first one being a fast track into what some are calling the paradigm shift in search… Social Searching. Gary Vaynerchuk has talked about this many times and I fully believe that’s where Facebook is going. The ability to search on Google gives you results based on numerous factors including popularity of a site based on incoming links, authority of those incoming links to that site and SEO. As Gary has said… wouldn’t you rather get results based on friends recommendations first rather than how well a site was SEO’d? I sure would. If I’m looking for Chinese restaurants near me and I could get results from Facebook search based on Chinese restaurants in that specific area that my friends or friends of friends have liked… that would be extremely powerful.

The second one being Facebook credits or currency. Facebook recently announced Walmart and Best Buy would join Target in selling the digital currency for purchases in games or virtual goods without the need for a credit card or Paypal account. Although it’s currently only available for game/app purchases and virtual goods… it won’t be long until you can purchase goods online or at retail stores with Facebook credits. This also would be a huge pump in revenue for Apple with it’s online App Store, iTunes Store and retail stores. They could get a deal done for currency without an acquisition, but the benefits of all the personal data still make Facebook one of the most desired companies in the world to buy.

This acquisition is a long shot based on Facebook and Zuckerberg’s history, but also makes the most sense for Apple imho.

Twitter
While Twitter has also long been rumored to be courted for an acquisition by many of the worlds top tech giants I’m not sure they have enough personal info stored away on it’s users to be worth it as a major acquisition. I love Twitter and not only use it personally, but also as a business tool. I actually think the best part of Twitter is it’s ability to receive customer service quickly. This is because it’s open and public and demands a response from a company unless they want quickly spreading bad press. On the other hand I don’t see Apple finding much value in the company outside of it’s social networking which could be integrated natively into iOS devices, Macs and iTunes without the need for a costly acquisition.

Yahoo
This one is interesting for a few reasons. Yahoo has been struggling for a while now and seem to have no real road map. They’d be a semi cheap acquisition and could leap frog Apple into the search business which would allow them to possibly rebrand Yahoo and further move Google out of their iOS devices which they currently use as the default for search and maps.

Yahoo has been a mess for years so maybe it would take a company like Apple to come in and overhaul the company first by narrowing down it’s focus on a handful of areas and redesigning it’s site and search. Currently they’re all over the place and getting the crap kicked out of them by Google and now even Bing. This would also allow Apple to expand it’s iAd services to not only mobile, but to desktops/laptops as well.

Netflix
This also would would an interesting one, but not sure how much sense it would make either. Netflix has well over 10 million monthly subscribers which can order new movie titles delivered via mail or stream over Netflix capable devices including Apple iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and of course the Mac as well. Not even the best Directv Deals can beat this, not for the price or the convenience.

Apple clearly is already making a push into more cloud based computing and content streaming with the upcoming opening of a huge server farm in North Carolina and their recently released new Apple TV which only streams photos, music and movies. I’m not sure how much benefit scooping up Netflix would be considering Apple already has a huge userbase tied into iTunes. Plus the acquisition would have to be retroactive as lots of companies have contracts with movie and music studios stating that if they are acquired by another company all contracts would have to be renegotiated with the new owner and as we know Apple has already struggled on negotiations with studios with iTunes. Not sure this one is plausible, but I would love to see Apple finally get into an iTunes subscription based model for music, TV and movies.

Disney
This rumor is also one that’s very plausible as Apple CEO Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest shareholder and sits on the board of directors. You’ll remember Steve was given stock and a board position at Disney when Disney bought Pixar Animations. Apple and Disney also have a long relationship of working together and typically is usually one of the few companies that jump on board as a partner whenever Apple introduces new features that require partnerships with movie and TV studios. Disney also owns ABC and ESPN which would be a huge gain for Apple as they could immediately integrate content from these companies into their services.

Spotify
Spotify is a music streaming service that allows you to pay a membership fee to stream any track you want at anytime. It’s not available in the US yet as they are yet to agree on a deal with US record lables, but rumors have been everywhere the last few days about negotiations going on daily between Apple and Spotify.

Apparently Google was in talks last year with Spotify about an acquisition, but fell through because the deals it has with record labels in Europe wouldn’t be grandfathered in. Apple may run into the same problem and with their recent acquisition of streaming service Lala, I’m not sure how much sense this would make. One thing is for sure… people in Europe love the service so either way let’s hope it comes to the US soon.

Update: Spotify denies talks with Apple. I still don’t necessarily believe them when they say they’re not in talks. I understand why they would say that as there’s no deal in place and the public rumors are that Apple basically shut down Lala after acquiring them so it would make sense to make sure the public doesn’t think that’ll happen to them. That kind of news is just bad for business especially if there’s no deal in place.

Now up until this point these are all just weekly rumors we hear on tech blogs backed up by a few anonymous sources and market analysts, but I’d love to hear some opinions on which ones you think might actually happen and why.

At many of my recent online business ventures I would get affiliate program applications daily from all sort of people. Some are seasoned veterans in the world of affiliate marketing, but most are people who just set up their first site and simply want to link to products we offered with an affiliate link in their footer or put up an affiliate banner in their sidebar with the hopes of generating some extra monthly income. This post will focus mostly on the latter and provide a general guide to becoming a more successful affiliate marketer while using tools like WordPress and the StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework.

Setting Up A Professional Web Presence

One of the most important factors in creating a successful online presence is setting up a professional looking website that not only looks great, but functions great as well. Obviously I’m biased, but no matter what platform you use (I suggest WordPress) or what theme you decide to go with (I suggest StudioPress themes) you should make sure it’s something that’s powerful enough to create the site you want, yet simple enough for you to manage. WordPress is just that. It’s powerful enough as a CMS (content management system) yet easy enough to use that if you’re familiar with Microsoft Word you can probably make your way around WordPress with ease.

When setting up a WordPress site for affiliate marketing purposes or even simply for your personal blog there are a few important factors to keep in mind…

Find a solid web host.
Some web hosting companies work better with WordPress than others. I’ve compiled a list of my favorite WordPress web hosting companies. These companies specialize in WordPress hosting and have features like one click installs and solid support.

Stay Up To Date
Keep your sites WordPress install and theme up to date to get the most out of it and of course for security. (WordPress and the Genesis Theme Framework which I use to run this and other sites I own both now come with auto update features.)

Site Layout
Layout your sites content so visitors can easily find things. Sometimes less is more. Genesis comes with 6 default layout options built right in along with dozens of stylish child themes.

Web Analytics
Use web analytics software like Google Analytics to track your sites visitors and gain important information into how well your keywords, marketing and advertising are performing on Google and other search engines.

Content Is King
I’m sure a lot of you have heard this before, but it’s just so true. Writing fresh, daily content that your visitors will appreciate and link to along with writing content that is keyword rich will keep not only visitors coming back, but will also attract search engines like Google to continually crawl your site.

A good rule of thumb is to write a catchy title to your posts that will grab the attention of readers. You should also keep your posts informative, but fairly short and to the point if possible. Sometimes that’s hard like in a post like this where you’re giving advice, but try to stay on point. You probably only have the readers attention for a short time so make the most out of it. Using a nice graphic doesn’t hurt either. It’s a great eye catcher.

Find A Niche. Dominate the hell out of it. Then dominate another one.
One thing I learned a long time ago is to “never put all your eggs into one basket.” It’s much easier to dominate multiple smaller niches than it is to try and be one huge site that caters to everything. If you’re goal is to generate $10k/month in revenue… it’s much easier at the beginning to have 10 sites generating $1k/month than it is to have 1 site making all $10k. If one of the sites eventually takes off and is outperforming the others then it completely makes sense to focus more on developing that site.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

While your most important aspect of content creation should be aimed at generating visitors that will continually return towards your site… you should also focus on a few basics that will help search engines like Google to continually return and crawl your site. StudioPress and the Genesis Theme Framework have powerful SEO options built right in so no need for a 3rd party plugin. To find out more visit the post titled Genesis 1.3 Rocks for SEO. Also, using a helpful plugin like Scribe SEO in combination with the built in SEO tools allows you to optimize each page/post before publishing.

Follow these basic SEO steps and you’ll be well on your way to generating quality traffic through search engines…

• Create rich title tags and informative descriptions on pages/posts.
• SEO friendly urls. Otherwise known in WordPress as “pretty permalinks”.
• Mask affiliate links and use no follow tags.
• Link to other pages within your site using keyword rich words.
• Gain high quality incoming links from trusted sites by writing great content.
• Use an XML and user sitemap. (XML WordPress sitemaps)

Advertising, Marketing and Communication

Many people think they can just throw up links on Google Adwords or banners on any site and they’ll start making tons of money. This just simply isn’t true and more importantly not cost effective. The best way to generate traffic that converts to sales is through inexpensive means like great content, solid SEO work and using free tools like social media.

Whatever your affiliate site is based on… Stay up to date on recent news in that industry by following people and companies through RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook etc… Also make sure to interact with those people. Don’t spam! If what you’re saying is honest and informative, people will see that and visit your site. Engage your social media followers and others talking about the similar topics. This is such a powerful tool that many leave unused and will most definitely lead to new readers and followers.

Once you start generating traffic using the tips above make sure to engage your readers and followers. If someone posts a comment on your site make sure to respond. This makes the reader feel appreciated and creates a relationship between yourself and them and most importantly will probably get them to come back to your site and/or tell others about it.

If you do decide to pay for advertising make sure you really research the sites traffic, top keywords it ranks for and obviously if the price warrants a purchase. Also make sure to stay focused like I mentioned earlier. No reason to advertise StudioPress themes on a golf site unless they have a theme that compliments the readers of that site.

Last, but certainly not least… Create a call to action. After all in the end your main goal is convert a visitor to an affiliate commission. Easiest way to do this is to identify a problem and present a product that solves that problem. I already did a one above for you. Did you catch it? Although subtle I presented that some hosting companies might not play nice with WordPress and then suggested a list of our favorite web hosting companies through a link. Now in this case I’ve actually used them previously and really do suggest these companies, but what I did is get you to think about your current hosting company and to take a look at who I suggest and work with. A call to action can be as simple and subtle as this or could be a contact form, email newsletter sign up. All you’re trying to do is suggest a direction to your users and make it easy for them to follow that direction.

I hope some of these tips help you in your affiliate marketing efforts. I’m sure it’s not a complete list so I would love to hear other suggestions in the comments below.

So now that you have a few basics and you’re ready to turn your WordPress site into some extra monthly income… browse the StudioPress Themes to help create a professional site and join the StudioPress Affiliate Program now.

ModThemes launched in March of 2009 with the goal of developing stylish, powerful, yet easy to modify Premium WordPress Themes. From the start we analyzed what other top development sites were offering, what customers wanted most in WordPress themes and how we could offer niche markets specialized themes with plenty of options while still keeping the themes simple yet stylish.

In the last 15 months or so we’ve seen the incredible work and innovation industry leaders like StudioPress and WooThemes have attained. These companies are made of up highly skilled, dedicated teams that focus on offering their customers nothing but extremely polished, high quality themes and frameworks. Each week these companies are launching new products with exciting new features that not only make using WordPress more powerful, but also more versatile and easier to use. After watching the growth of these companies over the last couple years we realized competing was going to be quite a challenge without a large team of full time employees. Discussions between ModThemes and StudioPress about joining forces go back over a year to 2009 WordCamp Chicago. At the time we just couldn’t come to an agreement on a few specific terms, but recently the timing just seemed right and everything finally fell into place.

I’m extremely proud to announce the acquisition of ModThemes by StudioPress the world’s leading Premium WordPress Theme development company.

What’s even more exciting for me is I’ll be joining my long time friend Brian Gardner and his incredibly talented team at StudioPress which also includes the extremely talented Nathan Rice who helped get ModThemes launched in it’s first few months. I’ll be joining the StudioPress team as the sites new Affiliate Manager. My duties will be to collaborate with the team on various projects, grow the affiliate program though my many contacts and experience in the world of affiliate marketing and work hand in hand with current StudioPress affiliates to help them increase their affiliate marketing efforts through special promotions, contests, tips and tricks and more. Roderick Sauskojus our creative theme designer will also be designing new themes for StudioPress so stay tuned for more stylish themes from him.

So what does this all mean for current ModThemes customers? Pretty exciting stuff if you ask me. Here’s a list of what you’ll now get…

- Legacy Theme Support: All forum members will be moved over to the StudioPress support forums in the coming weeks where you’ll be able to continue receiving theme support for the current versions of ModThemes themes.

- Free Upgrades to Genesis Versions of themes: All current themes on ModThemes will be recoded by StudioPress to function perfectly on the new Genesis Theme Framework which is filled with options and is constantly being updated with new features. All customers can continue to use their current version of their themes or upgrade for free to the Genesis versions. All developer pack customers will now get access to over 30 gorgeous StudioPress themes at no additional cost.

StudioPress Theme Features and Benefits

- Themes built on the Genesis Theme Framework
- Free Theme Updates
- WordPress 3.0 compatible
- Theme Options Page
- Professionally Search Engine Optimized
- Easy to Use Theme Options Pages
- Fully Widgeted Sidebars and Footers
- PSD Files for Image Customization
- Support and Detailed Theme Tutorials
- Auto-sized Thumbnail Management
- Comment Functionality
- Developed for Localization
- Ready for Advertising and Monetization
- Lifetime Support
- Text and Video Tutorials for each theme
- Professional Theme Customization

This is a pretty exciting time for our customers. I think you’ll love the new themes, features and incredibly dedicated support team over at StudioPress. Thank you so much to all our customers, affiliates and anyone who’s helped get ModThemes going over the last 15 months. It’s been a fun ride and were so excited about what the future holds with StudioPress.

Bryan Hauer
StudioPress Affiliate Manager
StudioPress.com
twitter.com/studiopress
facebook.com/studiopress

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Here’s my breakdown of what I think will be covered today…
Mac OS X Snow Leopard – 40%
iPhone Hardware and 3.0 Update – 50%
Steve Jobs – 2%
Stats on growth – 5%
Miscellaneous stuff – 3%
Multi Touch Tablet – 0%

Steve Jobs
I’ll start out my stating I don’t expect to see Steve Jobs unless it’s part of the “One More Thing” piece. Apple has reiterated Steve is recovering well from a protein deficiency illness and that he’ll be back healthy as the acting CEO at the end of June. I also think it’s a positive for Apple to still be doing so well while Steve’s been gone.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard
My gut feeling is that about 40% of the show will be dedicated to the new features in Snow Leopard like going 64 bit, the new OpenCL technology, the new Quicktime X and of course some shiny new graphics user interfaces. With them releasing a final build to developers today I’m guessing they’ll set a launch date for sometime in August.

New iPhone Hardware
It’s all but guaranteed we’re going to see new iPhone hardware today. The question is how much of a visual change can they really make. I mean after all it’s just a shiny case with a glass screen. I suspect the phone will remain generally the same with a few changes. They may change the shiny back to more of a matte finish. Otherwise I think it pretty much remains the same.

The real changes will come from the inside. A new 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus technology along with video (some video editing functions), a front facing iChat video camera, faster processor, more RAM, 802.11 N wireless technology, some enhancements to help with turn by turn directions and a few other bells and whistles.

I expect the new iPhone to be announced today with a launch date of July 10th. This gives Apple a full month to build the hype and test the iPhone 3.0 software. Expect even longer lines for this launch.

On the software side I think we’ll see the features talked about at Mac World 2009 when they introduced the 3.0 update along with a few new ones that were kept secret.

Some of the most popular ones announced were landscape keyboard across most applications, copy and paste, tethering, MMS messaging, ability to edit documents, peer to peer connectivity, push notification for apps and many more.

I also fully expect Apple to launch the 3.0 update today or tonight. This gives them a more steady launch compared to last years iPhone 3G launch that was plagued with iTunes outages, MobileMe problems and more. This would be the smartest thing to do since this would give them a full month before what I think the hardware launch date will be which I previously said would be July 10th.

Multi Touch Tablet “Netbook”
Don’t expect Apple to jump into the Netbook market quite yet. Although I think they’ve clearly been working on a touch screen “Netbook” offering I don’t think it’s probably quite there yet. I’d suspect an announcement early next year after Snow Leopard’s been out for a few months and the Netbook market is a little more mature.

So what do you think will be announced today? What launch days do you think make the most sense? Leave a text or video comment below as I’d love to hear what you think.

Each theme is carefully coded to meet strict xhtml and css compliance and is created with a theme options page for easy modifications. Each theme also works with the most recent versions of WordPress.

Please follow this StudioPress Coupon Code link to use promo code WPTS25 at checkout to receive your 25% discount. Please follow that link to use the promo code!

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ATTENTION: Have a blog or website and want to make some serious cash? Join the StudioPress Affiliate Program now and start earning 30% on every sale.

Please follow this StudioPress Coupon Code link to use promo code WPTS25 at checkout to receive your 25% discount. Please follow that link to use the promo code!