- Google’s wants to plant some maize in Zynga’s Farmville real estate too. [TechCrunch]

- Does your e-mail marketing campaign abide by the two As–anticipation and appreciation–of a successful campaign? [MediaPost]

- Why some will not be going to Affiliate Summit East next month. [Logan Thompson]

- Some of us may use the “PrtScrn” button on our keyboards and MS Paint to create the ideal screenshot; others have a more nuanced approach. [Zac Johnson]

- How to optimize your website for search engine marketing. [Mashable]

- If we all keep up with our Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and Vimeo habits, in about five years, broadcast television may well be obsolete. [Mashable]

- Clearly the news story here is “10 Things the Android Does Better Than the iPhone,” but that visual (pictured above) deserves a headline of its own. [Maximum PC]

- Despite having grand ambitions, Google surprises by being a totally middle-of-the-road couturier. [Google Store]

- Although Finch Sells‘ post on effective keyword-based Facebook advertising is helpful, the best part of the entry might be the line: If I hear one more promise that “yeah it’s easy, you just like add some keywords, and then you get a crazy high CTR”, I’m going to stab my eyeballs out with the half-eaten chicken dippers on my desk. [Finch Sells]

- DNA-based logic gates that can carry out calculations within the human body have been constructed for the first time. In the future, this could mean the rise of “smart drugs”–which, once injected into the patient, would only fight diseases when needed and otherwise remain dormant. [Gizmodo]

- The number of consumers shopping online doubled this year. The number of consumers actually buying anything, however, is only up 10% from last year. [eMarketer]

- Twitter edges closer towards behaving like Facebook with a new feature they’re testing: A “You Both Follow” function that tells users which mutual Twitterers they follow. [Mashable]

- A couple of iPod Touch with camera prototypes have surfaced on eBay. [Bit Rebels]

- Yesterday, we explored how Twitter managed to batter BP’s public image. Now, BP starts damage control. With print ads! [AdAge]

- Meanwhile, a woman finds her kids–15 years after they were kidnapped–by looking them up on Facebook. [Gizmodo]

- Many advertisers are realizing that the way to win consumers isn’t through broad interest-based marketing initiatives, but social gaming. Think Foursquare, but bigger.[Adotas]

- How to cut through the middlemen like newspapers and blogs and get straight to the source of what your target audience is thinking. [Edelman Digital]

- LIFE ON MARS VS. LIFE ON EARTH How the SETI@Home project became an unlikely social media application, uniting like-minded computer users from all corners of the globe in a single mission to discover extraterrestrial life. [AdAge]

- And finally: Effective leadership strategies. [Scott Berkun]

- Yesterday, we learned about Google’s companywide Microsoft ban. Today, Google steps up their fight to overtake Microsoft by announcing a fall launch of the Google Chrome OS. [Mashable]

- Meanwhile, Microsoft steps up its defense strategy. [Gizmodo]

- An Australian airline carrier is going to start allowing passengers to rent iPads to view movies, play games, and read e-books on longer flights. [The Australian]

- This Firefox plug-in creates the BP oil spill for internet users by literally “blacking out” all mentions of BP across the web. [Mashable]

- Seven useful and one not-useful ad copy tips for creating high-converting landing pages. [ClickBooth]

- SEO- and SEM-based landing pages can never be mutually exclusive. [akmg]

- And finally, Panasonic double-dog dares affiliates to outrank them on Lumex. Well, sort of. [Affiliate Tip]

If done right, Affiliate Marketing is a great way to earn a living. You can work from home, wear a bathrobe to work, and make a great deal of money.  It’s essentially the pinnacle of the American Dream™. Unfortunately, countless people with dollar signs in their eyes jump in without any sort of game plan. And while some people do get lucky, you’re not likely to succeed in the long term without some sort of strategy. Although there are many tricks of the trade–perhaps too many to keep track of–I feel like a lot of people overlook the fundamentals. Some of those basic rules:

1. Make a list and check it twice. If you’re an email marketer, you’re going to need a big list. It’s also important to have some idea of who’s on that list, rather than spending a ton of money on a list of random emails. An excellent way to generate a list is to offer a free newsletter, in exchange for an email address. This allows you to dictate who signs up for your newsletter/blasts so that you can send offers that will speak to your audience.  Also important: To make sure that your audience is legitimately interested by implementing a double opt-in process. By sending out a confirmation email to your list and asking them to confirm their signup by clicking on a link, you’re not only filtering out bad addresses and dummy accounts, but you’re also complying with CAN-SPAM laws. This can save you a lot of headaches down the road.

2. Engage your audience. If you’re creating a website, invest in a domain name. It’s easy to use prefab platforms with site-building tools like Blogspot. but it’s also easy for search engines to gloss over long and complicated extensions associated with such sites. Figure out what you’re selling and who you’re selling to. Create the catchiest, shortest domain name that you can, and whenever possible, make sure it ends in “.com”. Another tip here is not to make your site a giant commercial. It’s important to have content on your site that will draw an audience and keep them coming back. A good way to think of this is Infomercial vs. TV Show. You’ll watch a TV show and put up with a commercial or two every so often. On the other hand, I don’t know anyone who has voluntarily sat through an entire infomercial. With repeat visitors, you can rotate offers and help to build a constant revenue stream.

3. Strategize with your Affiliate Manager. No matter how you’re driving traffic, take advantage of your Affiliate Manager. If you’re not sure which offers to run, ask which is converting better. Two offers that may look very similar on paper may be performing on completely different levels. Let your Affiliate Manager know what you’re doing, who your audience is, and what offers are performing the best for you. They can use this information to help determine which offers will make you the most money. That’s why you’re doing all this in the first place.

This is troubling for a couple of reasons. First, one has to wonder what criteria Google will use to determine the legitimacy of advertisement. Would Colgate and Crest fall under the tooth-whitening umbrella? Will Google be testing the products to determine the validity of an advertiser’s claims? Will they be relying on consumer complaints? If so, how many cases of buyer’s remorse will it take to earn a permanent ban?

The problem is that there is almost a guarantee of false positives. It may just be a statistic, or the cost of doing business as far as Google is concerned, but honest affiliates will be put out of business. How did Google become judge and jury? Furthermore, it is hard to believe that they will forever turn down advertising dollars from powerhouses such as Blockbuster, Netflix and Nutrisystem. Not all continuity systems are evil and one has to wonder where Google will draw the line between what is acceptable and what isn’t. The shame is that a few affiliates may learn where the line is the hard way: with a lifetime ban.

Google’s attempt to clean house may end up backfiring on them, as this shift could just send a slew of advertisers to competing search engines. It will be exciting to see how this shakes out.

Placing relevant link ads on your website and pages that are similar to your sites content and context are more valuable and relevant to search engines than regular links. Sites with a high Google Page Rank are passed on from one site to the next via links. Your Text Link Ads on a high Google page rank site will increase your website’s page rank by association. The higher your Google page rank the better your site will rank on Google in comparison to other sites. Almost every link on your site counts for something and placing relevant text link ads can only help your visitors to find you and move you up in the search rankings.