Make Money using Google Affiliate Network

original post from Google Affiliate Network (GAN)

There are lots of great ways to make money from your blog. One of those ways is to use an affiliate network. Put simply, an affiliate network is a way to promote products from some of your favorite retailers; you get paid when any of those retailers makes a sale based on a promotion you ran on your blog. Our friends at the Google Affiliate Network have a great program and have agreed to make a special offer to our users—so if you haven't heard of GAN already, have a read, and be sure to sign up!

With Google Affiliate Network, you can access affiliate ads for top retailers. If the ad or text link you post on your blog results in a sale, you earn a commission. This means that you can start working with advertisers who will pay you a performance fee for driving a sale or other conversion.

Google Affiliate Network gives you access to a diverse range of affiliate programs for advertisers including Barnes & Noble.com, Red Envelope, Sears, ProFlowers, Abe Books and Puma. Once you have access, you can apply to create advertiser programs, promote ads, search for links to specific products, sign up to access product feeds, and utilize Link Subscriptions that deliver the latest links and promotions directly to you each day.

Google Affiliate Network is featured in the Monetize tab in your Blogger account or you can apply using the link below (please note that you'll need an AdSense ID to join).

Here's how to get started:

1. Sign up for a Google Affiliate Network account with your valid AdSense Publisher ID.
2. As soon as you're approved for Google Affiliate Network, sign in and apply for advertiser programs.
3. Follow the instructions to start displaying cost-per-action ads.

Check out our Beginner's Guide to help you through the process of becoming a successful publisher and continue reading for the answers to our frequently asked questions.

Apply before December 13th and take advantage of affiliate exclusive holiday offers from select Google Affiliate Network advertisers. The special offers will be available for Monday, December 13th, from over 20 advertisers including Barnes & Noble.com, Sears, Red Envelope, Arden B and 6ave. For more information, please visit this blog post or apply now with your valid AdSense Publisher ID.

see also:
http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/12/monetize-your-site-with-google.html
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-in-labs-smart-mute-and-easier-ways.html

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STOP following mails using MUTE! (New in Labs)

Bruce DiBello, Software Engineer (from Gmail Blog) says

If you subscribe to a lot of mailing lists and like to keep an empty inbox, muting (or preventing a conversation from re-entering your inbox) is an essential feature. We just made a few changes that should make muting even better.

First up is "Smart Mute," a new Gmail Labs feature that helps solve the problem of conversations that just won't die. You know the ones I'm talking about: those emails with 10+ people cc'd where everyone replies all, but you lost interest five emails ago. The current mute behavior doesn't do well in these situations since the messages are addressed to you. You end up with muted messages in your inbox, and the only way to prevent these emails from coming back to your inbox has been to create a custom filter for a specific conversation.


If you enable "Smart Mute" from the Labs tab in Gmail Settings, muted conversations will only appear in your inbox if a new message in the conversation is addressed to you and no one else, or a new email in the conversation adds you to the "To" or "Cc" line. Once you enable Smart Mute, mute behavior will change across all versions of Gmail: web, mobile, Android, etc. Try it out and let us know what you think.

Since you'll likely be muting more than ever, we also added easier ways to unmute muted conversations. Previously, the only way to unmute a conversation was to move it to your inbox -- not super intuitive and useless if the conversation was already in your inbox. Now there are two new ways to unmute a conversation. The first is through an "Unmute" option in the "More actions" menu. You'll see this when you view or select a muted conversation.

If you're viewing a muted conversation, you'll see the second new way to unmute: the "Muted" label next to the subject line now behaves just like all other labels. Clicking on the "X" will remove the Muted label and unmute the conversation. 


Hopefully these changes will make it easier to mute and unmute conversations.

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Google May Acquire Groupon for $6 Billion

Original post by Ben Parr from mashable.com

About the author: Ben Parr is the Co-Editor of Mashable, as well as a tech entrepreneur, sci-fi author, and aspiring world changer. He first started writing for Mashable in August 2008. In addition to his duties at Mashable, Ben works on his own start-up ideas and recently completed his first sci-fi thriller novel, Desel. His previous experience includes project management for Facebook apps and content management in the web health space. [...]


Forget the rumor that Google acquired Groupon for $2.5 billion; the search giant is about to close a deal for the group-buying service for a whopping $5.3 billion to $6 billion, according to multiple reports.

It would be worth every penny.

The deal is worth $5.3 billion with an additional $700 million earnout based on performance, according to All Things D. The New York Times reports that a deal could be completed as soon as this week. With a price tag almost double that of DoubleClick, Google's biggest acquisition to date, there are still plenty of ways for this deal to fall apart.

Earlier this year, Yahoo tried to snag the group-buying company, but failed. Google, with its $30+ billion cash reserve, reportedly then offered Groupon $3 billion to $4 billion. However, it was rebuffed, so the tech giant upped its offer.

Groupon pioneered the group-buying model through its deal-of-the-day business model. Launched in November 2008, the company has grown from an offshoot of ThePoint to a multi-billion dollar empire with thousands of employees worldwide. In April 2010, Groupon raised $135 million from Digital Sky Technologies, setting its value at over $1 billion.

If the Google deal does go through at a $6 billion valuation, that would mean that Groupon's value has grown by more than $625 million per month or more than $20.8 million per day. That skyrocketing value is simply mindboggling.

Acquiring Groupon: Overpriced or a Genius Move?

See also:
Will Groupon's Fate Be Decided Tomorrow? (Mashable)  |  New in Labs: Recently used emoji (gmail blog)

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Use your recent 10 Emotions in gmail (gmail labs)

Darren Lewis, Software Engineer

When we added emoticons in Gmail, you responded with a nice big smile , but then you asked for more. So we added hundreds more emoticons through Gmail Labs. "But alas!" you cried. "How can I ever keep up with so many different choices?  I am overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of emotion , amusement , and cute animals  that Gmail has to offer." Well, don't despair, fine purveyor of emoticons. There is now a solution: "Recently Used Emoji" in Gmail Labs, which keeps track of the ten most recent emoticons you've used, and saves them for easy access. To turn it on, just visit the Labs tab of Gmail Settings.


No more searching through dozens of cat faces for the one that says, "I miss you, but I'm still ambivalent about our weekend plans." You can now triumph over the plethora of emoticons, and easily add a pile of emotion to any email that you choose — let us know how it goes.

source http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-in-labs-recently-used-emoji.html

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