Mom Central Blogger University

Fighting the advertising/affiliate program tax in your state

I’ve had a couple of busy weeks emailing my state representatives about Colorado HB-1193, the advertising tax that affects bloggers and website owners who work with affiliate programs like Overstock.com or Amazon.

Even if you’re not a Colorado blogger, you should pay attention because other states are planning to enact similar bills: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota and Tennessee.

Colorado HB-1193 mandates that out-of-state retailers will be required to collect sales tax if they have a single affiliate in the state. (If you use Amazon.com affiliate links and earn even a penny, you’re an affiliate.) Since affiliate sales are a small part of their business, it’s easier for big companies like Amazon to stop working with affiliates than to deal with collecting sales tax.

If those companies stop working with bloggers and website owners, not only will no sales tax be collected but many people will lose their income. No (or reduced) income means that the state will collect less income tax, too. Bills like these are nothing but a lose-lose proposition.

According to Jeanine Crooks, a Colorado blogger and podcaster, “Two companies have already terminated all their Colorado affiliates, seven more have announced their intentions, and many more are expected today.” This repeats what happened when similar bills passed in New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina.

For more details on what’s going on in Colorado, see Colorado House Passes Bill that Threatens to Devastate Affiliates. Make sure you read the comments, too.

What can I do to help?

If you’re a blogger who works with affiliate programs in Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota and Tennessee, sign the Help Fight the Advertising Tax petition on the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) site. Make sure to sign up to receive advocacy updates from so you can be notified on what’s happening in your state.

More on affiliate taxes:

• Amazon tax has not generated revenue from the Providence (RI) Business News
• Affiliate taxes don't work, states continue to pursue them from Econsultancy.com
• Amazon buyers, beware: State has it in for you by Vincent Carroll, columnist for the Denver Post (Make sure to read the comments.)
• PMA blog on state legislation
• @PMAssociation
• Melanie Seery of Affiliate Advocacy (This blog covers affiliate program legislation all over the US.) and @AffAdvocacy on Twitter
• Colorado Internet Tax blog
• Keep Speaking Out in Opposition to Advertising Tax
• Twitter search on #advertising tax

Spring cleaning your Twitter account with UnTweeps

Have you noticed that you’re following people you haven’t heard from in awhile – like all those people who are tweeting as Mad Men characters? Well, UnTweeps is a Twitter application that lets you unfollow those dead accounts.

This free service has you log in via Twitter, which will then bring you back to the UnTweeps site. After you enter the number of days in the past you want to check (the minimum is 15), click on the “Check stale tweets” button. For example, if you enter 30, then anyone who hasn't updated their tweeted in the last 30 days will show up on your list.

All of the stale Twitter users are automatically check marked as ones you want to unfollow. If you don’t want to unfollow them, just un-check mark them.

When you’re ready to clean up your account, click the "Unfollow Selected Tweeps" button. UnTweeps sends the list to the Twitter API, which does the actual unfollowing. There is a lag time, so have patience if the users you just unfollowed still show up in your Twitter follow list.

Creating a whitelist

If you’re like me and have friends who don’t tweet very often, you may want to continue to follow them even if their account is inactive. To do this, add them to your whitelist.

Enter a number of days. Then check mark the ones you want to keep off the UnTweeps list. If you are doing this operation after you have already made a whitelist, anyone already on the list will have a check mark. Just check the additional ones you want. Anyone on the whitelist will not appear when you run your UnTweeps list.

UnTweeps Pro

If you want to use UnTweeps more than three times per month, or check for slightly stale Twitters, periods under 15 days, you can purchase an UnTweeps Pro account. The cost is $1.37 for 3 days or $5 per month subscription.

For more ways to clean up your Twitter account, see Keeping it clean at Twitter.

How to copyright your blog

We’re 20 days into the new year. Have you changed the copyright date on your blog yet? (I just did it yesterday on both my personal blogs and the blogs here at Mom Central. Oops.)

According to Brad Templeton in his post, 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained, “almost all things [including blogs] are copyrighted the moment they are written, and no copyright notice is required.” Still, it looks more professional if have a copyright notice somewhere on your blog – either in the sidebar and/or on your about page.

You should also license you blog with Creative Commons and display the badge in your sidebar. While licensing your blog with Creative Commons does not give you the same protection as registering your copyright, it acts in addition of your existing copyright. (See the Creative Commons FAQ page for more information.)  Also, if you use Feedburner, make sure to display the Creative Commons badge in your RSS feed. (Go to How to set up your Feedburner account to learn how.)

Filing a copyright

If you are concerned about someone stealing your work (for example, if you’re trying to get a book or movie deal based on your blog) you should consider registering the copyright for all your blog’s content. 

According to Denise Wakeman at Biz Tips Blog, “Blogs are considered literary texts and can be registered as such. But, what about the fact you're adding new content all the time?  You can register new content every three months to protect it.”

The U.S. Copyright Office is your best resource to learn how to do this. They offer information on What Does Copyright Protect? (website, domain name and recipe), Copyright Registration for Online Works (PDF) and Copyrighting Recipes (PDF).

Online filings with the U.S. Copyright Office are only $35 per filing and you can pay by credit or debit card or electronic check. Most online filers receive a certificate within nine months, and many receive their certificates earlier.

Before using the service, the Copyright Office recommends you first read eCO Acceptable File Types, eCO Tips, eCO FAQs, or eCO Tutorial (PowerPoint) eCO Tutorial (PDF). For recently added features, see eCO Updates.

More resources

• License your work at Creative Commons
• Bloggers' FAQ on Intellectual Property – Questions about Copyright from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• What to do when someone steals your content? from Lorelle on Wordpress
• Live blogging of the Blogher07: Business of You: Professional Blogging: Art and Commerce session from the Write Spot, LLC
• 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained and Introduction to Copyrights from Brad Templeton
• Copyright Crash Course
• More on Recipe Copyrights from Food Blog S’cool
• Copyright and Blogs - 14 Guidelines and Keeping it Legal from Problogger

$30 can make you a better blogger and help you build traffic

If you’re going to make an investment in your blogging this year, you should check out two ebooks being offered by a couple of top bloggers – Darren Rowse of CopyBlogger and Chris Garret of ChrisG.com

Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Starting today and for 1 week only, Darren is releasing three bonuses for all previous and all new owners of his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook.

The downloadable workbook gives a series of 31 tasks to help bloggers get their blogs going or revitalized. Usually this is offered as an online course over a month, but this way you have it all in one ebook.

Each day you get:

1. A Task – something to DO.
2. A Lesson – each day you’ll be given instructions on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

This week only, Darren is bundling it with these bonuses:

1. 9 Things to Do to Get Your Blog On Track in The New Year – This short piece gives you an extra nine exercises to help get you focused on blogging for the New Year.
2. A podcast interview with Leo Babauta of Zenhabits.
3. A podcast interview with Neil Patel, the traffic generating and personal branding genius from Quicksprout.

The workbook is available for you to purchase and download now for just $19.95. It has a 30 day money back guarantee to ensure that this is the right purchase for you.

You can purchase it directly here or get more information on the workbook and bonuses here. It’s such a great deal that I’m going to buy a copy myself!

muvee Reveal version 8 half off until December 30, 2009

muvee Reveal is an easy to use video editing program that comes with editing tools like automatic brightness, color correction, rotate image, and red eye reduction. You can also create captions, voiceovers, and add end credits.

I originally reviewed it in my post,  Make your home movies look professional with muvee Reveal. Since then muvee Reveal version 8 has been released. It has special features that bloggers will love including the ability to directly upload your finished muvees to YouTube and Facebook. (Before you had to use shwup.com) You can also branding your muvees with your blog’s logo. Plus, they’ve added music trimming and style control options, making syncing video and still pictures with music even easier.

I have used it several times and found it to be fun and easy to use. Plus, it’s easy to share your finished work not only on YouTube and Facebook, but you can burn DVDs to send to grandparents or even export your movies to your iPod, iPhone, mobile phone and PSP.

muvee Reveal a terrific tool for bloggers, but it is also a great way to make muvees for class projects, workplace presentations or video presents for friends and relatives. You can try muvee Reveal for a free 15-day trial or purchase it for $38.95 (50% off!) until December 30, 2009. After that it goes back to it's original price of $79.95. (And yes, muvee Reveal is windows 7 compatible for all you folks who got new computers this holiday season.)

You can learn more at the muvee Reveal website, the muvee Facebook Fan page or on Twitter @muvee

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Disclosure: I received a copy of muvee Reveal to try out the program for this review.

Amazon Associates affiliate program now integrated with Blogger blogs

Last week, Amazon announced their new program Amazon Associates for Blogger, a direct integration between Amazon Associates, their affiliate program, and Blogger. This new collaboration makes it easier for bloggers to monetize their content by adding relevant Amazon product links to blog posts without interrupting the blog editing process. Amazon Associates for Blogger is now available on the Associates Central webpage.

Sign up is easy

If you already have an Amazon Associates affiliate account, you can use your current Associates ID. If you’re new to Amazon Associates, you can sign up and get your ID right away.

The sign up process for current Associates takes less than a minute and is instantly added to your Blogger blog under the Monetize tab. You also have the ability to turn the Amazon Product Finder off if you don’t like it for some reason. If you’re new to the Amazon Associates program (and yes, it’s worth signing up even if you only make a few dollars a month) you’ll need to give them contact and banking information.

How to use Amazon Associates for Blogger in your posts

The new tool allows you to easily to add Amazon affiliate links and images to you blog posts in just two easy steps:

1. Just type and highlight the relevant text into your blog post. The Amazon Product Finder, which shows up in your posting screen, searches Amazon’s millions of products and recommends the ones that are most closely associated with the text you highlighted.
2. You can then insert a link or image (or both in a badge type ad) to that product, which will include you Associates ID. (When you add an image to your post, there will be a blue lined box around it. However, this will not show up when you post.)

If you use a blog editor such as LiveWriter, you may want to write your post first in that program, then post it draft in your Blogger blog, and use the Amazon Product Finder to add Amazon affiliate links and pictures.

Amazon Associates for Blogger sidebar widgets

Signing up Amazon Associates for Blogger also enables you to show dynamic content in your blog sidebar using a new set of integrated sidebar gadgets, such as gadgets for MP3 clips from the Amazon DRM-free music store, an Amazon Deals gadget, and an Amazon Search box. Just go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget and type in Amazon to find all their gadgets.

Warning: some bloggers find that adding Amazon sidebar gadgets to their blogs slows down page/site load time. I’ve had the problem where their gadgets goofed up the code of other sidebar widgets. Also, I noticed that my readers seldom click on Amazon side bar gadgets, so I don’t use them. No point in letting them take up precious real estate on my blog.

I love how the Amazon Associates for Blogger feature helps you save a lot of time when trying to monetize your content. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Amazon is considering adding similar functionality to TypePad and WordPress blogs.

Monetizing your blog with ad networks

Joining an ad network is an easy way to monetize your blog. There are dozens of blog ad networks with new, niche ones starting every day. Here are a few of the better ones:

• For women and parenting centered blogs: BlogHer Ad Network, MomLogic, Real Girls Media, GlamMedia, JuiceBoxJungle’s Jungle Ad Network
• For foodies: FoodBuzz Featured Publishers, BlogHer Ad Network
• For all types of blogs: BuzzLogic, Six Apart Media Advertising Program for Bloggers, BlogAds, Fatvine Vertical Advertising Network (CustomerForce)

Before signing up with a blog ad network, you should find out:

• Are they signing up new bloggers or is it by invite only?
• What are the network’s requirements – traffic, frequency of posting, profanity, etc.?
• Do they require exclusivity, meaning can you run other ads or ad networks?
• Are you allowed to do sponsored (paid) posting?
• Ad banner placement – must their ad banner be at the top of your blog to count impressions?
• What do they pay? Usually it is $X per CPM (cost per thousand views)
• Who are their clients? Fortune 500 companies or little “mom and pops”?
• Do they run a lot of filler and public service ads?
• Does the ad “disappear” if there isn’t a campaign running?
• Control – can you opt out of a campaign if you do not care for the advertiser?
• What media outlets is the ad network is partnering with?

In my experience, BlogHer Ad Network has been the best paying ad network for my blog, This Mama Cooks! This could be because I’m in a good niche (health and wellness) and a good fit for many of their clients. However, others have told me they didn’t make all that much with BlogHer. Also, BlogHer’s rules on giveaways and reviews are restrictive and have been a turn off for many bloggers, so even if they do pay a better, it may not be worth changing your blog to fit their requirements.

How to get your blog on Amazon's Kindle

You can now publish your blog’s RSS feed for sale on the Amazon Kindle Store and Amazon will share revenue with you for every Kindle user who subscribes to your feed.

Getting started is easy

To start using Amazon Kindle Publishing for Blogs, first create a new account by following a quick three-step process to create your login information, set up your security questions and fill out the Vendor Set Up form.

In the Vendor Set Up form you will need to do the following:

• Provide your contact information
• Provide your payment information
• Accept the terms and conditions

Once you are finished with the setup, you can upload your blog on the Add a Blog page.

Add a blog

To upload your blog for purchase in the Kindle Store you need to follow a short three step process:

1. Fill out the simple one page form
2. Preview your blog to be sure you are happy with how it will be displayed
3. Publish your blog

Add your feed

First you need to validate your blog’s feed URL by using the URL of your blog or its RSS feed by adding it the appropriate field. If your feed is not validated, then please check the following requirements:

• The blog feed should be a full text, well formed XML feed.
• The feed should be a valid ATOM or RSS feed.

Note that if your feed has videos or user-generated links like Reddit, DIGG and Technorati, they will be removed for the Kindle version. Also, if your feed has advertisements and promotional links, they will be removed for the Kindle version. Use the preview functionality to make sure you are satisfied with how your feed looks.

Pursuing la vita freelance with WOW! Women On Writing

WOW! Women on Writing is an online magazine devoted to supporting women's creativity, energy, blood, sweat and tears, throughout all stages of the writing process. They promote communication between women writers, authors, editors, agents, publishers and readers and hope to fill the missing gap between writing websites and women's magazines.

WOW! Women on Writing is a great resource for any woman wanting to pursue a freelance writing career, whether that’s online through blogging or in more traditional media like print and radio. They offer online classes, flash fiction contests, freelance job leads, and a job board. Plus lots of great advice for writers on both their main site and their blog, The Muffin.

I’ve been subscribing to their enewsletter for a few years now and have participated in some of their book author tours, too. And now I’ve had the opportunity to submit a few articles for their Writing the Web issue:

• Blog Analytics 101
• Making Your Life Easier Online: Gadgets for Bloggers

I’m bringing this up not only to share some information that will make you a better blogger - you should also check out Blogger for Hire: Get Paid To Blog by Thursday Bram and How To Monetize Your Website by Marcia Peterson – but to show you that there are ways to make money outside of your blog through freelancing on the Internet as well as traditional media. (And yes, I got paid by WOW! to write those articles.)

Diversify your writing

Find a copy of the Writer's Digest November/December 2009 issue and read the article Diversify Your Writing Portfolio by Matt Villano. (You can download a PDF of the article on Matt’s website.) He writes that in bad economic times (and in good), your best shot at a fulfilling writing career is to branch out. It’s the same with blogging. If you feel Mom Bloggers Deserve to Get Paid like Kelby Carr of Type-A Mom does (hear, hear!) you shouldn’t be limited by your blog.

It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and pursue other avenues where you will get paid to write and share your knowledge. I hope WOW! Women on Writing is one of the many websites that inspires and gives you the tools you need to pursue la vita freelance.

(For more inspiration on branching out, check out Jennifer James’s latest post at Mom Bloggers Club, Eight Proven Ways to Monetize Your Mom Blog.)

Blogger beware! Facebook's new guidelines for running promotions on your fan page and blog

I was reading the latest enewsletter from Jennifer James at Mom Bloggers Club and saw this: Do you know about Facebook's new guidelines for running promotions?

Huh? There are new guidelines? I had no idea since Facebook didn’t send out a communication to notify me.

Luckily, Ghada Vanderpool at Real Social Girl posted about it on Mom Bloggers Club and went more in depth on her blog at How the new Facebook Promotion Guidelines affect you.

Please read Ghada’s analysis of Official Facebook Guidelines on how administrators of groups and fan pages are allowed to do competitions, sweepstakes and giveaways. Some important things she pointed out were:

• Don’t make joining your fan page or having someone post a video, picture or comment on your wall as a way to enter your giveaway or contest.
• Don’t use Facebook’s name, trademarks, trade names, copyrights, or any other of their intellectual property in the rules or any other materials relating to the promotion, without express written consent.
• You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook.