It’s that time of the year when we’re analyzing, summarizing, drawing conclusions, and hopefully learning from the successes and failures of the year that’s coming to an end. In a similar tune, today I’d like to highlight the most popular (based on the engagement earned) of 232 blog posts of mine that have appeared in my blog in the course of this year.

Here are the top twenty (ranked by popularity), which you may find worth re-attending:

1. Medvedev, Russia’s Investment Climate & Affiliate Marketing
2. Aftermath of California Affiliate Nexus Tax Law
3. Affiliate Marketing News You Should Be Aware Of
4. 10 Affiliate Marketing Twitter Accounts to Follow
5. The War Against Affiliate Marketing?
6. Affiliate Management Conference Launched
7. “Kickass Newsletter” Encourages Affiliates to Cheat
8. Top 20 Affiliate Marketing Bloggers to Watch in 2011
9. Why eBay is Suspending Loyalty Affiliates
10. 10+ Affiliate Marketing Podcasts to Follow in 2011
11. Bypassing the Affiliate: Coincidence or Strategy?
12. How to Offer Coupons Through Affiliates Without Losing Your Shirt
13. Puma Affiliate Program Manager Doesn’t Get It
14. Cyber Monday 2011: 33% Spend Increase & Other Noteworthy Statistics
15. Affiliate Marketing Program Yield: Stats and Conclusions
16. 5 Claims That Turn Affiliates Off
17. 20 Twitter Lists for Online Marketers to Follow
18. Jeff Bezos Clarifies Amazon’s Stance on Affiliate Nexus Tax
19. How To Make Money Online in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Free Resources
20. Affiliate Marketing Explained in 88 Words

I hope you’ve had a great Christmas with family yesterday. The New Year is coming in just 5 days. Let it be even more bright, vibrant and exciting (all in good ways, please) than 2011!

A year ago when blogging about communication with affiliates at Econsultancy.com I summarized that while electronic messaging is by far the most preferred method (by affiliates), “the second avenue you want to be actively utilizing is your own company’s website” because almost 22% of affiliates [AffStat 2010 data] chose it by voting for either company site (13.8%), or affiliate program’s blog (8.1%) as their “preferred method for finding out information from an affiliate manager”.

I do not see much difference between the two options highlighted above, and allow for a possibility that some of the respondents assumed affiliate program support blog to be a part of merchant’s website (as is often the case) when voting for “company website”. So, that’s your first good reason why an affiliate program manager must blog.

Speaking of the second reason, let me illustrate it with a real-life example. Every time we take a new affiliate program management client on board, we recommend starting an affiliate program support website (if they don’t already have one), with blog being an integral part of it. Some merchants agree, others don’t. A health insurance company, that we’ve worked with some time ago, agreed. Pulling some SERP analysis reports earlier this morning, I’ve also checked on their affiliate program support blog, and guess what? While there definitely is room for improvement, they are doing pretty well (on a very competitive search term) for a website that has under 20 pages, and last blog post made a year ago:

So there you have it… Two good reasons to maintain an affiliate program support blog:

1. Affiliates prefer that you do
2. There is huge SEO benefit in it

If you have anything to add, I would, of course, be grateful for your input (which you may submit through the “Comments” area below).

As announced in the last week’s press release AM Navigator was shortlisted in the Best Affiliate Marketing Blog category of The Affiliate Marketing Awards 2011.

On a number of reasons I couldn’t attend the awards ceremony, which was held yesterday evening (April 12, 2011) at the W Hotel in San Francisco, California. Neither have I seen anyone blog about the award winners yet, but I do see the list of them posted on the Awards’ official website, and it looks like my name is among the winners:

Thank you, everyone who nominated me (it was a pleasant surprise), and everyone who voted for me. It’s both an honor, and great encouragement to keep going.

By the way, I’m also pleased to see that Volusion, whose affiliate program I launched and managed for over a year (and just recently transferred the management of it to their in-house team), has won the Best Affiliate Banners award. Congratulations also to Tricia Meyers, Angel Djambazov and ShareASale on winning Best Affiliate, Best Agency, and Best CPS Network respectively.

After more than two years of non-stop blogging (yes, that’s more than 750 articles published), achieving some wins and recognitions, and turning AM Navigator’s blog into a popular educational resource on affiliate marketing, today, on February 1, 2011, I am opening it up for advertising.

At the moment there are 4 advertising options available (see them below).

Important: there is no banner rotation at this time, which means that your banner will appear on every page of this blog.

• 400×60 (header, 1 spot) – $2,500/mo
• 468×15 (top of every post, 1 spot) – $2,000/mo
• 120×600 (sidebar, 2 spots) – $1,000/mo
• 125×125 (sidebar, 6 spots) – $250/mo

Promo: Prepay your ad spot by February 15, 2011, and receive the following discounts: 1 month – 20% off, 2 months – 30% off, 3 months – 40% off.

Bonus: Everyone who purchases their ad spot by February 15 will also get three free announcements: two on Twitter (from @eprussakov and @amnavigator accounts), and one on AM Navigator’s Facebook fan page.

With all questions, please email me at advertising@amnavigator.com.

Yesterday evening SearchEngineJournal.com has announced the 2010 Search & Social Awards winners, and I am excited to see AM Navigator top the list of affiliate marketing blogs! Thank you all for your support. It is an honor.

Here’s the full list of winners:

1. Best SEO Blog – SEOmoz
2. Search News Blog – Search Engine Land
3. Favorite SEO Tools Suite – SEOmoz Tools
4. Best PPC Blog – PPC Hero
5. Best Analytics Blog – Occam’s Razor (congratulations, Avinash!)
6. Best Link Building Blog – Link Spiel
7. Best Hair in SEO or Social Media – Chris Brogan
8. Best Social Media Optimization Blog – Chris Brogan
9. Best Local Search Blog – David Mihm
10. Sexiest Man in Social Media – Pete Cashmore
11. Best Affiliate Marketing Blog – AM Navigator
12. Best Conversion Rate Optimization Blog – Get Elastic
13. Best Blogger Resource & Guide Blog – ProBlogger
14. Best Copywriting Blog – CopyBlogger
15. Best Webmaster Resource Interface by a Search Engine – Google Webmaster Tools
16. Best Social Media & Networking News Blog – Mashable
17. Best Facebook Resource Blog – AllFacebook
18. Best Twitter Marketing Blog – TwiTip
19. Best Online Reputation Management Blog – Outspoken Media
20. Best Industry Infographic of 2009-2010 – Value of SEO vs PPC
21. Best Search Engine Marketing Community/Forum – SEOmoz

One again, the full list of winners as well as 2nd and 3rd places may be found here.

Today is the 300th day of 2009. My New Year’s resolution for this year was to produce quality blog content on a daily basis. Therefore, today marks the 300th day of my non-stop blogging (at least one post a day). To celebrate it I have decided to put together a contest.

The idea for the contest was born yesterday morning when I was enjoying breakfast in beautiful California with fellow affiliate marketers, Shawn Collins, Mike Allen and Sabrina O’Malone. We chuckled over how our kids are describing what their parents do. Some tell people that their parents just play the computer all day long, while others believe that money is not really earned, but received from cash machines when needed.

What do your children say about your work? Post these precious explanations (or views of our industry through kids’ eyes) of your children, grandchildren, nephews, etc below, and on October 30, 2009 I will pick three winners. The prizes to be awarded exceed $700.00 in value, and they are:

Prize #1

Thanksgiving Dinner for two from GourmetStation.com

and

Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit West 2009 (thank you, Shawn!)

Prize #2

$50 gift certificate from HalloweenMart.com.

$50 gift certificate from UpscaleLighting.com [added to the prizes on 10/29].

Prize #3

Any one of my two books — autographed.

Looking forward to reading your entries.

Yes, thanks to Amazon’s new feature, you can now read my blog posts right on your Kindle. I have just added it to the Amazon’s Kindle Store:

The monthly service fee is $1.99 which “includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet.”

The first 15 people to subscribe to the Kindle version of my blog via this link (it includes a 14-day free trial too) will be sent one of my books. You get to choose which one: A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing or Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes. To claim your prize upon subscribing, just e-mail me your full address and the choice of title, and I’ll take care of the rest for you.