Today I got an email from Lynn who bought “25 Ways To Improve Your Website” asking about putting a plugin on their site that puts in an affiliate disclosure. I am a big believer in running only the amount of plugins that you need. I think I run about 5-7 plugins that are essential. The more plugins you have

The plugins that you see that generate these affiliate disclosure pages are usually nothing but cookie setters or backlink builders for the affiliate that made the plugin (Those sneaky affiliates) I suggest making an affiliate disclosure page instead.

This is another great opportunity to build more trust with your website readers. You can fill the page with more things about you to get your readers more comfortable with taking out their credit card. Think of it as a second “About Us” page.

I suggest making it as personal as you can and keep any fancy lawyers words to a minimum. While I could go on all day I don’t have to since Copyblogger already has a great page on affiliate disclosures. For more on this read Copybloggers thoughts.

A few years back I did a story on two guys that were not doing the right thing by people. Ben and Dave came on my radar as I was doing affiliate approval applications and saw the same lousy site every day about 20 times. I would decline the affiliate and then send an email telling them what the scam was.

Here is a link to the original story about Ben and Dave and falling for affiliate scams.

I am thinking the FTC was already acting on complaints when I originally published the article. If you lost money to these guys you should Read the update on the FTC website. Maybe you can add your name to the list and get some money back.

From the release:

“According to an FTC complaint filed in November 2012, the defendants sold the “Six Figure Program” to consumers as a purportedly no-risk, money-back guaranteed opportunity to make money via their own website, falsely claiming that, for a $27 fee, they would enable consumers to affiliate with well-known companies’ websites and earn commissions. After purchasing the program, consumers learned that they had to pay $100 or more in additional costs just to set up their websites. The court subsequently halted the allegedly deceptive practices, froze the defendants’ assets, and put the companies into receivership pending a court hearing.

The settlement order announced today permanently prohibits The Online Entrepreneur Inc., Ben and Dave’s Consulting Associates, Inc., and David Clabeaux from selling business and work-at-home opportunities, misrepresenting that consumers are likely to earn money and misrepresenting any material fact about a product or service. They also are barred from failing to clearly disclose the terms of any offer before consumers provide billing information, and making a representation unless it is true and the defendants have competent and reliable evidence to substantiate the claim. In addition, the order prohibits these defendants from selling or otherwise benefitting from consumers’ personal information, and failing to properly dispose of customer information.

The order imposes a judgment of more than $2.9 million, which will be suspended when Clabeaux has surrendered real estate, personal property, and bank and investment accounts. The full judgment will become due immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition. Litigation continues against the remaining defendant, Benjamin Moskel.”

You can read the whole release here 

I know I said I would never do public speaking again. I made it well aware that I was retiring from public speaking after my Affiliate Summit West 2012 session. Well a topic has been bothering me for a few months and I have to flush it out. While I could do an hour (or three) on the topic I decided to do a roundtable instead. I felt it was the best way to be able to field more questions by more people.

My topic is about publishing blog posts. Every day I get someone who tells me they have no time to blog. Every time I hear it I want to scream! In case you didn’t know 2013 was one hell of a year for us.

In October 2012 Hurricane Sandy decided she was going to put 6 to 8 feet of water in our single story home. Trying to get back on our feet from Hurricane Sandy was no easy feat and it still isn’t over actually. What most people don’t know is while there were nights I didn’t have walls or a floor or even heat I was still publishing blog posts. In a way I think it was what kept me sane at times.

One site that I started a few weeks before the storm hit decided it was going to take off and become a major site for me. Just what I needed since we had no electric, clothes, food or good shelter for that matter. In the days that followed I had Debbie’s daughter Liz publish the blog post from Arizona until I could find a computer that worked.

The first few days after the storm for me was like the movie “Groundhog Day” I don’t remember much which is a good thing. It was the same thing over and over. Wake up under a cold blanket as soon as the sun rises, throw away whatever we owned, find food, and go back to sleep under the same cold blanket.

Anyway while Debbie and our cats went out to Arizona near Liz I stayed back and destroyed the house some more before building it back. My schedule consisted of building the house by day, publish blog post at night. It was exhausting! The picture was taken after I returned from Affiliate Summit West 2013. The milk was in the window because there was no fridge yet. It was the best I could do to keep it cold.

In 2013 there were over 15,000 blog post made either at the house or when I went to Arizona to take breaks from breathing in mold. The point is if I found time to publish 15,000 blog post and build a house you can find time to put blog post on your site. I will be showing the methods that I used and a few new ones that I have discovered.

Looking forward to sharing some of the things that I did last year and continue to do today.