LinkedIn – the popular business networking site – has launched a new feature whereby users may save profiles of potential contacts in an easily managed Profile Organizer. Previously, adding a contact involved several steps and was not especially user-friendly. Thus, the idea is to make LinkedIn more appealing to those who are on-the-go.

Several users have found this to be quite useful as the “notes” tool provides a quick and easy way to jot down comments regarding potential business contacts. These notes can then be reviewed before meetings or conferences to keep track of past discussions and behavioural characteristics! The downside? You need to have a paid version of LinkedIn to benefit from this useful tool.

The blogs featured on this week’s BAMroll offer opinions on LinkedIn’s newest feature.

Duct Tape Marketing Blog offers great insight into the development. They delve into the differences between researching and contacting when using LinkedIn’s tools and explain the benefits of this improvement.

WebProNews Blog explains the Profile Organizer and even offers a video introduction to the feature. Moreover, they offer explanations from LinkedIn’s Elizabeth Reaves about the feature and its usability.

See you next week!

There is an ongoing debate pertaining to affiliate links and whether or not it is advisable to cloak (hide) them or show them.

On one hand, people are less inclined to click on affiliate links, as they tend to trust long links with many characters and unknown codes. For the affiliate, it helps prevent others from stealing affiliate earnings from them, while also improving SEO results rankings.

On the other hand, many affiliates have achieved consistently strong commissions from shoppers who trust them. This is because they show their affiliate links and thus demonstrate a “nothing to hide” attitude. Although this may be true for several affiliates, the overall consensus is to hide affiliate links to improve the click-through rate, while maintaining strong SEO rankings and clean links. The featured blogs in the BAMroll this week focus on the aforementioned debate.

Webmasters Central Blog looks at both sides of the debate and presents some clear explanations for how to cloak affiliate links should an affiliate decide upon this course of action.

Tech-Link blog discusses why it is important to cloak affiliate links and the potential dangers of showing them.

See you next week!

Looking for that cool new digital camera? Searching high and low for the latest and trendiest handbag? Bing has launched a new visual search engine that displays all results…visually! By using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, Bing has been able to create a sleek, time-saving way of comparison shopping and searching. Technology in general has emphasized the visual appeal (see iphone), so this development certainly makes sense from a consumer’s point of view. The integration of the visual aspect to search results creates a powerful combo that is sure to attract many users to the search engine.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then Bing is on the way towards something significant in search engine history. This week’s BAMroll focuses on two blogs that have expressed their opinions on the matter. Read on to find out more!

Battellemedia’s blog post ‘Bing Gets Visual’ highlights the aspects of Bing’s new search engine addition. Written by John Battelle, the blog focuses on search engine news and thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more.

SearchEngineLand’s blog is a news and information site covering search engine marketing, searching issues and the search engine industry. Led by journalist Danny Sullivan, who has been covering search for the past 11 years, it is published by Third Door Media, which also produces the Search Marketing Expo conference series and the Search Marketing Now webcast events.

Affiliate marketers should be aware of this development, as visual results could provide new methods of recruiting high-potential affiliates.

For this week’s BAMroll, I decided to focus on a very useful tool for retail affiliates: coupon codes! The use of coupon codes is a very effective method of tracking the performance of campaigns as well as attracting consumers to affiliate sites. The consumer saves money, the affiliate draws more traffic and the merchant gains more sales and exposure; Win-Win-Win.

There isn’t any trick behind it, coupon codes drives sales. As such, there are multiple ways in which to leverage coupon codes to ensure customers click through your site, instead of searching for coupon codes elsewhere.

The following blogs focus on several aspects of such practices:

ProImpact7’s blog discusses the various methods in which to utilize coupon codes in the checkout process. Their blog focuses on conversion rates and website improvements for higher ROI. Based in the UK, their e-commerce consulting services are helping companies worldwide grow their business and sell more online.

One Little Duck’s blog looks at whether or not the addition of search results with coupon codes in Ask Jeeves is good news for affiliates. One Little Duck is the affiliate blog of Jason Dale, an affiliate who works hard day in day out trying to run a site and utilize affiliate marketing to earn a living. Affiliate marketing has played an important role in the development of the website as a business and this blog is designed to reflect the ups and downs that this site owner faces whilst working in the industry.

It is said that customers are the lifeblood of any business. Therefore it is only logical that companies focus their efforts on creating loyalty in their customer base. The BAMroll this week discusses ways in which to create customer loyalty and retain customers for the long haul.

Customer loyalty, in essence, helps keep businesses running.  In fact one of the biggest tasks companies face is managing their relationships with clients. There are multiple ways in which to succeed in such practices. Although not all activities pertain to every situation, the general ideas and philosophies are transferable across all industries.

Check out the following blogs which are related to customer loyalty in a business environment and that are well-worth the read:

Buildify is a blog that preaches corporate involvement in blogging.  It identifies the importance of using a corporate blog to help build loyalty. The blog distinguishes features of blogging that influence important aspects such as corporate image and brand awareness.

Customer Loyalty Program is a blog written by Customer Insight Group, Inc., a strategic marketing company helping companies drive high-performing acquisition, loyalty, upgrade and retention programs by leveraging customer behavioral insights. Their blog refers to a list of ways in which to build customer loyalty and retention. They highlight important factors such as tiered programs in order to give customers reasons to spend more and migrate up the loyalty reward ladder.

If you are interested in keeping up-to-date with informative blogs that are featured here, you can download the OPML file on our BAMroll page.  We also have badges for your blog, if you’re already a BAMroller.

What do you do when you have big news that’s worth sharing? What are your best ways of gaining visibility and publicizing your business?

The answer is a press release!

The BAMroll this week relates to optimizing your press release to ensure you get the visibility you want to help grow your business and avoid the clutter that swamps inboxes across the industry. Press releases have a significant impact on exposure if properly leveraged. That said, it is vital that your press release incorporate a well-blended mix of keywords and creative writing, while remaining professional and informative.

Top Rank Marketing Blog provides insights, resources and commentary on a range of digital marketing and public relations topics. Their Online Marketing Agency specializes in online marketing strategy, consulting, implementation and training services. Their blog titled The Lowdown on Press Release Optimization is a great resource for anyone interested in successfully optimizing their PR.

Affiliate Dogma publishes a blog that draws on almost 10 years of experience in webdesign, internet marketing and ecommerce. Their principle— “Affiliates make Sales makes Profits” — is a guiding light that enables them to think outside the box and use novel solutions to common problems.

It’s no secret that affiliate marketing is a rapidly growing industry. What makes it so unique and successful is the very foundation that it’s built upon – the affiliates. As such, it is vital for merchants and affiliate programs to appropriately search out and recruit affiliates that pertain to their vertical. But how are the affiliates supposed to choose between programs? What makes a good affiliate program? What affiliates are looking for—and remember that they are what drives the industry—are incentives. So, what kinds of incentives are crucial to successful recruitment during a launch?

To help you answer these questions, we have found two blogs that identify several key factors and give a comprehensive look at effective incentives.

Conversion Counts explains 10 Affiliate Incentives that Work for affiliate programs. Conversion Counts offer a wide array of online marketing solutions and publish a blog that is designed to help readers earn higher revenues and boost conversion rates.

Avangate Blog evaluates why programs with high commission rates don’t necessarily mean a successful program unless coupled with strong affiliate incentives. Founded by Bob Walsh, Avangate Blog is a great resource for software vendors on the Internet that focuses on how to sell software, ecommerce solutions for software vendors, internet marketing for the software industry, and reviews of important events.

If you want to keep up-to-date, you can download the OPML file on our BAMroll page.  We also have badges for your blog, if you’re already a BAMroller.

Exciting times! Google is in the process of introducing a new version of their popular search engine named Caffeine. Unlike Microsoft’s new search engine Bing, which is distinguished by its focus on user interface modifications, Google’s new venture promises to keep the changes ‘under the hood’. Google Caffeine’s focal point is to improve the indexing speed of searches. Users shouldn’t see much of a difference unless they are web developers or power searchers, so if you’re one, keep reading!

Why the change?

According to Matt Cutts of Google, “Caffeine will be more powerful, flexible and robust – allowing Google to index faster.” Not only will the new Google offer speedier searches, the results are supposedly more accurate. The accuracy is essentially based on relevancy, with ‘caffeinated’ results displaying more prominently to lesser relevant sites.

This week’s featured affiliate marketing bloggers cover the Google Caffeine developments with their own testing methods by covering aspects like speed, relevancy, and site ranking while coming up with enlightening results…

1. Mashable Blog is a great resource focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. Mashable is a prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web and offering social media resources and guides.

2. Anhblog is a blog dedicated to helping people of all walks of life better their learning of the online marketplace. Moderated by Mr. Tran Viet Anh, the blog concentrates on a variety of pertinent issues facing online business. From social media to SEO, Anhblog is a fantastic tool for furthering your knowledge.

If your blog has been added to our BAMroll, don’t forget to pick up a badge! See you next week!

We are in the era when ‘a little birdie told me’ is a well-respected source of information, and not just a sarcastic phrase. That’s right, it’s Twitter Time! Our vocabulary has come to adopt the new wave of online jargon that includes such comical terms like tweet, thumb, sphinn, and digg.

As social media becomes a major player in the online world of business and networking, these ‘little birdies’ are tweeting their ways into the lives of you and me. However, it is not as easy as one might think. Although the bare essentials can be mastered by children, creating a following and retaining them is quite a difficult task.

Thankfully, these two blogs help shed light on the methods and strategies necessary in order to maximize your Twitter practice.

• This blog ‘Here’ was created and is written by Kieron Donoghue who also owns and operates UK Offer Media Ltd. His blog How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Online Business is an informative tool with some great tips for those who are interested in Tweeting. His experience is focused primarily around affiliate marketing but he specializes on online marketing in general.
• Chris Frost aka Frostie on the A4U affiliate forums is an experienced online marketer and affiliate. He has been very active in the UK affiliate marketing and PPC arena over the years and is well-versed in the social aspect of networking. His blog, Increasing your Twitter Following, gives insight into what has worked well in the past and things to consider for your own Twitter page. Moreover, he has several blogs pertaining to Twitter and maximizing its potential.

If you are interested in keeping up-to-date with informative blogs that are featured here, you can download the OPML file on our BAMroll page.  We also have badges for your blog, if you’re already a BAMroller.

Blogs, ning, myspace, wikis, facebook, twitter, youtube. web-based CRM, google docs…What the heck is a website nowadays? Just about anyone can have a web presence. The options are endless: personalize a twitter account, edit wikipedia, create an event on facebook, and on and on. At Affiliate Summit East, a panel of marketing experts will explore the traditional website model, with a focus on their evolving role in a business plan. For details on the session, check out the agenda (where this session is listed about a quarter down the page).

Two participants on the panel have blogs that delve into these issues. (We’re adding the to the BAMroll because if they’re at Affiliate Summit, they must be into affiliate marketing.)  Take a sneak peak at their positions to get a sense of how the discussion might go.

• The moderator of the panel is Shashi Bellamkonda whose personal blog is happenings, advice, and other technology thoughts ! He works for an online marketing company, and uses real-life examples in his posts to prove his point: social media is invaluable to business growth!
• Ramon Ray is a technology evangelist, and together with colleague Laura Leites, posts on Small Biz Technology with the same purpose that drives their eponymous business. They serve small and medium-sized businesses who want to reach their potential with the help of technology. This includes keeping a finger on the pulse of affiliate marketing, as well as suggesting smart business practices, reviewing products, and well, offering insight on what websites are for!

Let us know if you’re going to the Affiliate Summit, which begins August 9 in New York. If you’d like to speak with Nicky Senyard (CEO), or Maranda Moses (Affiliate Manager) about how Share Results could serve your website-related needs, they would be happy to set up an appointment. Like the panelists above, we have lots to say about what websites are! Of course, what we say will depend on your needs. Even if you’re not going to Affiliate Summit, email us anyway to have our own ’session’ to discuss what websites are for. Get the conversation started by emailing us at info@shareresults.com.

See you next Thursday, with our final Affiliate Summit focused BAMroll update!