Hi. This is Nicole with another quick update for you.

~~~ NEW GRAPHICS ADDED. ~~~

Christine just informed me that she's added a few new graphics to the affiliate center (to match the new design that you'll see soon).

~~~ NEW SITE. NEW PRICE. THIS WEEK. ~~~

Don't forget... The price of DineWithoutWhine.com increases this week. Please let your readers know this so they can try it for a penny and lock in at the low rate when they learn how much simpler menu planning makes life.

What can you do? Send any of the following articles to your mailing list right away. http://www.partnerupdates.com/affiliate-articles-for-dww.html (Of course replace the link for DineWithoutWhine at the end with your affiliate link.)

~~~ GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE. ~~~

The holidays are a perfect time to remind your readers to give DineWithoutWhine memberships as a gift.

--> Perfect for teachers, busy moms, or brides-to-be.

The new site will have the gift certificates showcased more, but for now, you can just send people to the main page and let them know to look for the "gift certificate" link. (Prices for gift certificates will also raise in a few days.)

There IS a special link in the affiliate center for gift certificates if you'd like to use it, but either link will work throughout the entire site to give you credit.

Also, two reminders from last week:

~~~ GET MORE TRAFFIC ~~~

You can get incoming links to your website by simply commenting on blogs.

Here's more information...
http://www.partnerupdates.com/bloglist

~~~ GET MORE CONTENT FOR YOUR SITE or BLOG. ~~~

This isn't a requirement, of course, but it can surely be a huge shortcut. Get Recipes and Articles for your Website or Blog (and you can even edit them).

This site supplies you with all the food content you could need each month:
http://www.easyPLR.com/plrfood.htm

This one has recipe & article "packs" that you can purchase individually for a low price. (look 1/2 way down the page for the article packs and even further for the recipe packs)
http://www.easyPLR.com/allplr.htm

Don't have a website or blog yet? Check out http://www.blogger.com. It's free and easy. (If you need help, you'll find resources at http://www.JustAddSweat.com )

Please email me if you have questions - nicole@dinewithoutwhine.com

Warmly,
Nicole Dean
Marketing
www.DineWithoutWhine.com

----- MARKETING TIPS -----

Many of you have expressed interest in learning more about me and my courses. (I'm flattered, by the way.)

Here is my blog: http://www.nicoleonthenet.com

Once you're there, look at the right side and you'll see a list of several of my sites and free courses. I hope you'll find something interesting. Remember, your success is our success, too. So, we WANT to see you succeed.

----- NEED ARTICLES FOR YOUR WEBSITE OR BLOG? -----

Also, we wanted to mention that there are a few PLR packs at
http://www.easyplr.com that you might be interested in.

Several of these article packs would be great for promoting your affiliate link for MenuPlanningCentral on your website or blog (or in your ezine). Grab the packs that work for your niche, and you'll save yourself time and effort in writing it all yourself.

Don't know what PLR articles are? Here's a free course --
http://www.easyprivatelabelarticles.com

I hope you enjoy it!
Nicole
Director of Marketing
Menu Planning Central

Thank you so much to ALL the participants of the "Everyone wins" affiliate contest.

We had a huge increase in our affiliate clicks and a large increase in the amount of affiliate cash going out this month, too. :)

----- THE BIG WINNERS -----

Our contest winners are...

In first place, we have Mary Ann Kelley from www.thehomeschoolmom.com --
who won by a landslide. Way to Go, Mary Ann!

Then, coming up with second place (and I'm pretty impressed because she did all this with a little family blog.) -- Andrea Moffatt!

And, third is our friend, Alice Seba, of www.babyandtoddlerville.com

They are our top three winners, and will walk away with HUGE prize packs.

----- THE AWESOME AFFILATES -----

We also had an "Awesome Affiliate" race. Everyone who completed at least 9 of the 18 tasks listed earned a prize pack.

You can view the winners here on this blog (see below).

Congrats again to ALL of the winners. You'll receive an email from us shortly.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean
Director of Marketing
www.MenuPlanningCentral.com

Check out our Awesome Affiliates!!!

We just launched our affiliate contest today and here are our rockin' affiliates who have already completed 9 items...

1. Busy Moms Online
Adriana has already checked in -- our FIRST awesome affiliate!

2. Homeschool Mom
MaryAnn just checked in. Thank you so much!

3. Laura of
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com

4. Aimee of www.organizedmomma.com/

5. Michelle of www.sudsywudsysoap.com/

6. Christy of www.babysigningstars.com

7. Susie of http://www.whimsicalwebdesign.com/

8. Wendy of
http://www.mommiesmagazine.com

9. Carrie of
http://www.naturalmomstalkradio.com

10. Barbara of
http://www.mom2momlounge.com

11. Kendra of
http://www.shoppingfortwo.com

12. Jenni of
http://www.shoutlife.com/InfertilityMom

13. Susanne of
http://food-recipesonline.info

I can't wait to list more!
Nicole, MenuPlanningCentral.

New Brandable Back to School Report.

The Report can be branded on this page (click here).
You can blog about the free report, send it to friends, send it to your mailing list, share it with an organization you're affiliated with, or mention it on a forum.

Hi again. Today, I'd like to share an interview with one of our top affiliates, Mary Ann Kelley, of http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com

Hi. Mary Ann! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us today. :)

> 1. Tell us about you.

I am now a work-at-home mom who started a basic homeschool website, www.TheHomeSchoolMom.com , 7 years ago when I started homeschooling my children.

Over time I learned more about good website code and design and was blessed to move up in the search engine rankings. I joined an active online community of homeschool webmasters and thanks to their shared knowledge I have been able to continually improve my site and earn a good income. My sites now include the homeschool website, a menu planning website, and a local parenting website that is still in the development stage. I love what I do and often find myself reflecting on what a blessing it is in this world where so many are dissatisfied with their jobs that I am able earn a good living doing something that I love to do (and still stay home with my children).

> 2. Why do you do affiliate marketing?

Although contextual pay-per-click ads (Nicole says: Like Adsense) do very well on my sites and represent the bulk of my income, I have found that targeted affiliate products are very successful and help me balance my income sources so that I am not too dependent on any one company for my livelihood.

Because all of my websites target women, and moms in particular, I have found that menu planning affiliate programs are highly successful. Even though one of my websites - www.Menus4Moms.com - actually is a source of free menu plans, I like to offer my visitors other options. By highlighting affiliate links to other menu plans that are more specialized than mine (Kid-Approved Meals and Healthy Menu Mailer are good examples), I am able to provide my visitors with what they need while creating an additional source of income for myself.

> 3. What's the #1 mistake you've made and overcome with your online business?

Because I started with no training in online businesses and basically through trial and error, I made more than my fair share of mistakes. I think the biggest thing that I learned is that there is no free ride. I took it for granted that because I considered my site valuable that others would be excited to hear about it too, and would love to hear all about it. I made myself a pest telling people about it online and didn't realize that what I was doing was poor netiquette at best and extremely annoying at worst.

I learned quickly that *if you want traffic for your website, you have to earn it with time and effort.* I backed off the self-promotion and really tried to create something that promoted itself. It took at least 3 years before I had enough traffic to make any significant income, but the site has grown steadily since its inception.

The one thing that helped more than anything was to create something valuable to give away on the website and publicize it (in a more kind and gentle way). That is when my traffic really started to build. For my homeschool site, that was a free downloadable homeschool planner.

Asking for people to link to your site when it only benefits you is not nearly as easy as getting people to link to a free resource that will benefit their visitors. And once a few sites start linking to yours, the search engines start to take notice.

> 4. What's the #1 tip you'd give for your success?

*Know your audience and appeal to their specific needs with high quality affiliate ads.*

Just throwing affiliate links out there willy-nilly is likely to be unproductive and may even lower your site's credibility. When you frame each promotion around the needs of your site's visitors, they begin to look at your ads as a valuable part of your whole site. What bride doesn't consider the ads in Bride magazine just as valuable as the articles? But if the ads are unrelated, poor quality, or badly worded, the whole magazine suffers. The same is true for websites. Site owners that know their audiences and combine high quality relevant ads with excellent site design increase both their income and the perceived value of their site.

Thank you, so much, Mary Ann, for taking the time to speak with our affiliates. You've definitely shared a lot of great information here. :) We're very lucky to have you!

Nicole

** ANOTHER BRANDABLE REPORT **

Also, we have a new brandable report. This one is entitled "A Family 4th of July Celebration" and is brandable with your MenuPlanningCentral affiliate link.

Complete instructions are here:
http://www.partnerupdates.com/4thofJuly/

We are excited to announce that we are sending close to $2000 in affiliate payments in our first month in business.

All of us at MenuPlanningCentral.com want to thank you for an amazing first month.

We look forward to sending even more money to each of you this month. "But you gotta play to win!" So, make sure you're promoting MenuPlanningCenteral on your site, in your autoresponder, and on your blog.

I also want to let you know that, starting next month, we will be changing the affiliate payout date from the 5th of each month to around the 15th of the following month for all affiliate sales.

So for July sales, you will receive payment around August 15th.
(You will receive your June payment tonight.)

IMPORTANT!!!

Please log into the affiliate center right now to make sure your paypal information has been entered.

Our system can not pay you until you tell us where to send the money! ;)
Here's how...
1. Log into http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/order/member.php
2. Click on "Affiliates area"
3. Click on "Update your commissions payout info"
4. Enter your paypal address.
5. Click "save".
6. Grab some of our new buttons and banners while you're in there!

As always, we welcome any questions you may have. You can contact me with your affiliate questions at nicole@menuplanningcentral.com

Nicole Dean, Affiliate Manager
Menu Planning Central