#asw10 If you are a mom blogger and are using affiliate programs, I want to hear from you. I will be a guest panelist at the upcoming 2010 Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas on January 17th and before I go I want to do some research on my session's topic, Mommy Bloggers Changing the Face of Affiliate Marketing.

I want to know what kind of affiliate programs you are already using, what kind of offers you would like to see, what works, what doesn't work, and how affiliate programs can be better for mom bloggers.

With this information I will be able to share what I know from my own experience and the collectible experience of other mom bloggers who make money blogging.

Please take 3 to 5 minutes to fill out this survey. By giving me this information and giving me permission to use your blog's name and URL you could get some much needed advertisement for your blog both on this site through the article I will write and at the conference when I give out quotes I receive.

#asw10 I recently did a podcast series with @loxly Deborah Carney from AffiliateABCs and I will be a guest panelist at the upcoming 2010 Affiliate Summit West conference in Las Vegas.

Below you will find two of those podcasts. If you get a chance, listen to them so you will get to know me a little bit better. Then feel free to email me and we can discuss how to work together or meet up at the Affiliate Summit. If you check out my Facebook page you will see the schedule I have picked out while at the Summit.

Podcast #1: My Introduction

Podcast #2: Using Social Media to Drive Traffic

I will be discussing, along with 3 other "mom bloggers" how the mom movement is changing affiliate marketing. I believe we have a lot to teach the online community about alternate ways of making money online and how you don't have to work in traditional ways anymore.

Blogging as a whole has changed a lot for moms, who in the past, didn't have the opportunities to stay at home and make money for their family. When my kids were growing up I stayed at home and didn't go out and work until my youngest was in school. I know that it not the norm anymore and I am glad that the Internet is giving moms all kinds of opportunities to expand their horizons.

Not only can you make money online but now you have a community of other moms to turn to for support and help. I offer free advice on this sites that comes from my experience as a mom who has "been there" and someone who found blogging and is now making a living doing it. The freedom of staying home and working for yourself cannot be compared.

A read asks, if I change a Blogger template will it delete all of the contents?

Yes and No.

If you mean will Blogger delete the posts you have written then the answer is No. Your posts are safe.

However, it is always a good idea to backup both your existing template and your posts in case something goes wrong. Read How to Install a Template to find out step-by-step instructions for backing up your existing template.

Step-by-step instructions for backing up your posts:

1. From your Blogger Dashboard click Settings.
2. Click Basic.
3. Click Export Blog.
4. Click Download Blog.
   
   
   
5. A window will pop up. Click Save File.
6. Click OK.
7. Locate where you want to save this file on your computer.
8. Click Save.

Your posts are downloaded into an .XML file format. The file is given today's date. You can backup your posts whenever you want in this manner. If you move your blog to another host you will want to do this so you can upload that file to start your blog where you left off.

Backup your Existing Template and Gadget Contents:

You will also want to back up your existing template in case something goes wrong. That way you can revert back to the original template to get things back the way they were if needed.

However, whatever you have inside of the gadgets/widgets may be deleted if you change your template dramatically.

You will want to back up the information you have stored in those gadgets before you change templates.

Blogger (owned by Google) is partnering with Amazon Associates to help you monetize your Blogger blog. If you already promote Amazon products this will make it much easier. You won't have to go to Amazon.com and find the code for the products you want to promote. You can use the new Amazon Associates Blogger widget from the comfort of your new post page.

With just two clicks, Google Blogger users can now add revenue-generating Amazon product links to their blogs.

To get started log into your Blogger.com account, click Monetize, and then the Amazon Associates tab on the blog you want to setup.




Either choose to setup a new Amazon Associate account or use an existing one. You can setup a new Amazon Associates account right from that Monetize section. If you use an existing account you will need to know your ID. If you don't know what that is you can go to Amazon.com, log into your account and you will find it on the top left-hand side of your Associates homepage.

You will also need to check to Product Finder Blogger Editor to be enabled and then Save what you have setup. The Amazon Associates widget will now be enabled and it will appear when you go to create a new post or edit an existing post. It will show up on the right-hand side of the screen.




To use it just bring up an existing post in Edit mode or create a New Post and then type in a keyword in the Product Finder to find products that relate to what you are writing about today. Then you can insert a text link, image, or text and image to that product with a click of a button which will include your Amazon Associates ID, enabling you to earn up to 15% in referral fees from Amazon.

You will also be able to show dynamic content in their blog's 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.

Product reviews used to be something you did when you bought something at Amazon.com and you were either super happy with it or super pissed off that you paid good money for a piece of junk. Today the mom blogging community has turned product reviewing into a full-time job.

For me, reviewing products is annoying and a lot of work. I am sitting here procrastinating about a product I am supposed to be reviewing but since I really don't particularly like the product and there isn't anything wrong with it I can't think of a thing to say. Do I write about the product's features and give the reader facts? I sure don't have an emotional attachment to this product.

Back in August I bought a Hoover cordless stick vacuum with my own money and decided to review it for my blog. I was extremely happy with this purchase and I wanted to tell somebody. I don't have friends or neighbors I talk with in my area and most of the people I know are online so putting my opinions on my blog was a natural form of expression for me.

But, to just review product after product is not my idea of fun or my idea of what I want to do as a blogger. Don't get me wrong, it might be for many other mom bloggers and that is fine. Heck, I know mom bloggers who have turned it into an art and a full-time career. If you want to review products on your blog and you don't get annoyed that you will get pitched by every company out there then go for it. Just remember, that your time is valuable and you could go from a mom blogger who writes a couple times a week to someone who is glued to her company writing hours everyday because you have to keep up with the workload.

For some mom bloggers this might be the only thing she can think of to write about on her blog. Maybe you want to make money like you see other successful mom bloggers doing and since you don't have any other ideas you start out by reviewing products. It is definitely a valid way to run a blog. Of course, there are other topics to blog about too and many don't require as much time and effort. It might take you some time to pick a subject for your blog and if you don't want to be a product reviewer maybe you should consider other niches.

I think that many mom bloggers don't realize how much work goes into writing product reviews and keeping up with the email pitches from companies. It is definitely fun and rewarding to get free swag sent to your house but remember, you are working for that free swag.

At some point you might even want to charge for your review and at least make sure you get a sample of the product. If a company doesn't want to offer you anything and just wants to send you a description and a picture then back out. It's not worth it. And, that company is doing you a dis-service because they are getting free "word of mouth marketing" from you that they would otherwise have to pay for.

For me I have decided that I would rather make lots of money blogging and buy what I want. Then I can pick and choose what I really like and I don't feel obligated to tell anyone about it. If I really feel strongly about something I might put a review on my blog but for the most part I will go back to shopping and enjoying my purchases with no strings attached.

Well, I guess I'd better get back to that review I'm talking about - uggg. You see, once you get that product in your hot little hands you have to at least do your part and put together a product review for that company. It's the least I can do and I am sure I will find someone who will want these nice pearl earrings :-)

If you are looking for products to review for your blog you will want to read my Products to Review Resource list. I will be updating this list as I receive more companies who want their products reviewed.

I am delighted to be a guest panelist at the 2010 Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, January 17-19, 2010. If you are attending the conference and are considering attending the session I am featured in entitled, MommyBloggers: Changing the Face of Affiliate Marketing?, you may have come to my site to learn more about me. Here is a brief description of me, and what I have to do with the mom blogging world.

Modified from the Affiliate Summit Website

Wendy Limauge has been online since 1993, spending a good portion of that time as a professional web designer. But she only became a blogger in 2008. She now earns a full-time living as a blogger and writes for LifetimeTV. Her sites have been featured on MSN, CNN Living, AOL, and CareerBuilder.com. She was also a guest on the Tyra Banks show in 2009. She has over 12,000 readers across the five blogs she updates daily, and consistently comes up high on search engines for her niches.

She has over 8,000 Twitter followers and approximately 900 Facebook fans. As a former computer trainer, she is now putting her computer, blogging and Internet skills to good use teaching moms to blog on the Mommy Bloggers Guide.

She is also a successful business owner, in business for four years. Along with her husband, they produce and sell their own line of wholesale lavender products to both small and larger businesses. Because of her wide range of skills, she is able to understand the business, mom, and blogger side of affiliate marketing and online business strategies and will be bringing her expertise to this panel.

If you have questions you would like to ask me feel free to email me at mommybloggersguide@gmail.com or shoot me a tweet on Twitter at www.twitter.com/themombloggers

Here is a collection of free social media buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and more that you are free to save and use on your own blog or website. Nowadays you need to promote every social media account you are using and putting one of these free buttons on your site is a great way to do it. I even have some generic buttons you could use on your blog for email and RSS feeds.

How to save a button to use on your blog:

1. Hover over the button with your mouse and right-click on it.
2. A menu will appear and then you can left-click Save As.
3. Save the image to your hard drive (somewhere you will find it again).

How to add a button to your blog:

Picture Gadget/Widget:

1. An easy way to upload it to your blog is to use the Picture gadget and just link the picture to your Facebook, Twitter or other social networking account.

HTML Widget:

1. If you would like to create a special layout on your blog you will need to host the picture somewhere. You can create a free account at Flickr.com or Photobucket.com and upload the button image there.
   
2. To add the button to your blog add an HTML/JavaScript gadget and then copy this HTML layout and change the http://www.url.com to the exact URL where your buttom image is stored.
   

<center><a href="http://www.YOURSOCIALMEDIAACCOUNTTURLHERE.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.THEURLOFTHEIMAGEHERE.com" border="0" /></a></center>

To find the exact URL where your button image is stored do this:

1. Go to your account at Flickr.com or Photobucket.com and find the image
2. Right-click on the image and then left-click Copy Image Location.

Do you have other social media buttons you would like me to add to this post? Do you have other free image hosting services you know about that I could add to this post?