It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day and time to break out one of my favorite March recipes–Pistachio Fluff! It’s perfect for parties because you can eat it as either a salad or a dessert. I tend to eat it for both because I love it so much! The recipe does make 10-12 servings, so be prepared to eat a lot of fluff.

Pistachio Fluff
Serves 10 -12.

Ingredients
2 (3 1/2 ounce) packages instant pistachio pudding mix (we use sugar free)
2 (12 ounce) containers Cool Whip (we use fat free)
1 (20 ounce) can crushed Pineapple
2 cups chopped Nuts (we use pecans)
1/2 cup Maraschino cherries
1 (1 lb) bag mini marshmallows

Preparation
1. Chop the cherries but reserve a few for decoration
2. Mix pudding with cool whip and Pineapple with juice.
3. Add Nuts, chopped cherries and marshmallows.
4. Combine well.
5. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours so marshmallows can soften, but can be served after 2 hours.
6. Garnish with whole cherries on top.

I actually usually leave the nuts out and us them only to layer the fluff (as seen in the picture above), sprinkle them on top, or put them in a bowl on the side for people to use as the like (or don’t like). You can also tint it a little darker with some green food coloring.

What are your favorite St. Patrick’s Day recipes?

As the parent of kids in elementary school, I’ve sat through the presentations and read the paperwork on bullying. As the kind of person who wears her heart on her sleeve, I remember all too well the bullying I endured when I was a kid. It usually follows the same pattern. Someone who is more “powerful” than you in some way picks on you in such a way that they think that they won’t get caught and that you cannot retaliate.

The thing about bullies is that they often do NOT get caught, or at least do not get penalized for what they have done. It’s a catch-22. If you try to stand up to them, you may end up worse off than what you started. I’ve been watching this happen in my daughter’s class for the last several months. One little girl is smart enough to know to taunt only when the teacher isn’t around. If the other kids tell on her, they are treated as snitches, and the bully is further empowered.

I don’t think bullying stops, however, when we get our high school diplomas. In fact, I see it a lot among adults. Of course, we aren’t all threatening to flush each other’s heads in the toilet or shove each other into lockers. It’s more subtle. It’s an affiliate manager threatening us not to go public with information about their program or they will drop us from it. The “power” that they wield is financial rather than physical. It’s a poster in a forum who continuously responds to our posts in such a snarky way that we quit even posting. Their “power” is that they know that no one will call them out on it because they are either too integral to the forum or no one wants to face their wrath.

It’s an unfortunate reality of life that the weaker will always be picked on by the stronger. Bullies will always find a way to intimidate and often will not get called out on it. How the rest of us deal with it is the key. Will we stand up for ourselves? Will we stand up for each other?

I initially got into running because of the Race for the Cure. After walking it for a number of years, I decided to start running it. I didn’t run fast, but I could run a 5K. After a couple of those, I decided to run my first half marathon last May. For some crazy reason, I signed up for it again this year. Just as I was starting to tire of my training, a great new opportunity came along to turn my runs into money for charity.

Affiliate Summit has started a Nike+ Challenge in which they will donate $1 to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade for each mile run in the challenge (up to $5,000). When I saw this, I immediately hit my local running store to buy a Nike+ tracking sensor and wristband. I then visited the Affiliate Summit East 2010 Challenge page on Nike’s website and set up my account.

Now when I run, I have a higher purpose. I logged a little over 13 miles last week interspersed with my Zumba days. During each run I kept telling myself that each mile was more money being donated to help fight breast cancer. Hopefully this challenge will keep me running well past the Indy Mini and into the summer up through Affiliate Summit in New York in August. If you are an affiliate marketer and are up for a little fitness challenge (whether you walk or run, the sensor works the same), you should definitely check it out. If nothing else, help cheer the rest of us on!

The advertising tax/affiliate tax/Amazon tax is threatening to kill small businesses just like mine, and it is time that I join the fight. I’ll be honest and admit that I am new to this. When the legislation first started popping up, I figured if it wasn’t my state, it didn’t impact me. Then I really started paying attention and listening to what was happening. I listened in to the entire Colorado proceedings and followed along with my friends on Twitter. By the end of the night, I knew that regardless of whether the fight was about Indiana, I needed to be better educated and get involved.

States are attempting to use legislation to get around federal laws that prohibit them from collecting sales tax from out of state businesses unless there is a “nexus” within that state. The states are passing legislation that would make an affiliate a “nexus,” despite the fact that we do not take any money or send out any goods. States think that they will increase their revenue. Conversely, the merchants are just disaffiliating with the affiliates and the affiliates are losing their businesses. How is that good for anyone involved?

Following the advice of the Performance Marketing Association, I made a quick video about how you can get involved in fighting the advertising tax. It doesn’t matter which group you join or if you even join a group. The bottom line is that you need to 1) get educated, 2) get connected with others involved, and 3) spread the word. While big businesses may have the money to fight these fights, we have the voices and the personal stories that can stop states from taking our businesses away from us.

I’m one of the most competitive people you will ever meet. I don’t believe that kids should all be given stars on their papers just to make them feel better. I believe that competition is a good thing and spurs creativity and hard work. However, I’ve come to the conclusion today that everyone should win sometimes. Why? The science fair.

I participated in the science fair only one time in my life, despite being in science club and in general a pretty big geek. I tried very hard and didn’t place, win, or show. Not even a certificate. My father was so disappointed in me when he got there that I cried all evening and even tried to get out of going to school the next day. It was such a horrible experience that I still get upset when I talk about it. I was a total failure despite a lot of effort, and I was only 12 years old.

Fast forward to last month. My 9-year-old daughter joined science club and we found out that they would be having a science fair. I immediately felt all of those old feelings coming back. I told my husband that I would not be helping and tried to prepare my daughter for the fact that she probably wouldn’t win. I didn’t want her to feel the same way that I did. But she didn’t care. She prepared her project with my husband and set out yesterday morning for school.

I arrived after the judging and held my breath as I looked for her booth. I found her absolutely beaming in front of it with a blue ribbon hanging from her board. As it turns out, there wasn’t just one blue ribbon. In fact, everyone got either a 1, 2, or 3 ribbon, and most actually got the blue. Instead of comparing the kids against each other, they compared them against the rules for the projects. If you followed all of the rules and did a good job, you got a first place ribbon. Even if you didn’t do a good job, you at least got a 3rd place ribbon for trying.

In that moment, I decided that I was okay with everyone being a winner. Sometimes you just need to encourage people and reward them for the effort. Next year will be the same way. And then after that, my daughter should have the confidence that if she doesn’t get a ribbon every year, it’s okay. You win some, you lose some. But she’ll feel like she doesn’t ALWAYS lose.

Does it apply in the adult world? Absolutely. I ran an incredibly slow Half Marathon in Indianapolis last year and they put a ribbon around my neck when I crossed the finish line. I knew I didn’t actually “win” the mini. But I did accomplish something that most people don’t just by completing it. Adults or kids, we all need to feel like winners sometimes. What do you do in your life that allows you to have that satisfaction of a job well done? Do you encourage others likewise?

I’ve stated before that I am a huge Thesis WordPress Theme fan. In fact, I only use Thesis on all of the new blogs that I start. Everyone talks about the obvious benefits of using Thesis like how customizable it is and the search engine optimization built into it. But I have found another huge benefit to using Thesis–I’m actually learning!

By education, I’m a lawyer. That’s about as far from coding as you can get. In the law, everything is about making an argument, playing devil’s advocate, and seeing both sides to an issue. It’s all gray. Coding is black and white. One comma means the difference between your site showing up or being a big blank error message. It’s right or it’s wrong. With no formal education in coding, I have to learn as I go.

Using Thesis, I am able to actually learn things like “hooks” and “css.” There are so many blog posts out there about customizing your Thesis installs that you can actually start to learn the coding just from reading them. In addition, the Thesis forum is so robust that you can read thread after thread about how different parts of the code works. When I reached the point that the blog posts and forum started making sense to me, I knew that I was learning something about the actual coding.

I won’t proclaim to be an expert, but through using Thesis and all of the accompanying official and unofficial documentation, I am understanding how to edit headers and footers, modify css, and even move columns. It’s taking me from being a simple blogger with a basic theme to being able to make enough changes to my sites (and understand how those changes are being made) that I feel like the sites are really mine.  I have a long way to go, but I’m learning more each week. What has your experience with Thesis been like? Do you stick to the basic layout, modify it a little, or go all out to make it your own?

As an affiliate marketer, I get to know hundreds of online merchants. I see their prices, their coupons, their shipping policies, and what my members say about them on a daily basis. It’s not very often that a merchant makes me so angry as a customer that I am willing to completely out them on one of my websites. But today is that day for Kmart.

I was never a Kmart shopper. I didn’t go to my local Kmart before it closed. I’m mainly a Target girl. However, they were giving us some good promotions at Christmas and so I wanted to send them some of my business. I ordered a sleeping bag for my daughter as one of her main presents. She only likes pink and purple, and it couldn’t be too big. I was picky, but Kmart had what I needed. I was excited and placed the order, only to find out a few days later that it was canceled. I ended up at my local Target a couple of days before Christmas buying a replacement. Strike one for Kmart.

Fast forward a month. My daughter is a huge fan of Wizards of Waverly Place and Kmart has a good deal of WOWP merchandise. I launched a new website and prominently featured their products. Valentine’s Day was coming and I wanted something WOWP for my other daughter. I visited Kmart and placed a number of things in my cart. When I went to check out, one was out of stock. So I added something else to even out the gifts for my two girls. When I went to check out, something else was out of stock. So I had to keep shopping. I finally placed the order and at the same time that I got the order confirmation, I got a notice that one of the items that I ordered was already out of stock! Strike two for Kmart.

Again I went to Target locally to buy a gift to even up my two daughters. As I was wrapping gifts today, I realized that one from Kmart was still missing–the WOWP bracelet that was the main gift. I checked my order online and Kmart was still showing that it was part of the order. No cancellation. I checked my credit card and the full order amount was billed. So I called Kmart to find out if they could give me the tracking number. Turns out they canceled that item but their system is not set up to always kick out a cancellation message. Further, they charge the card first and then check the inventory for Sears products. Now I have to wait for a credit (and the last time that I had to wait for a Sears credit, it took multiple calls and weeks to get my money back). Strike three for Kmart.

The worst part of all of this is that Customer Service told me that they have known since November that they have website and inventory issues. They only update their inventory every 24 hours. As a consumer, I’ve placed orders for 3 items in 2 months that were not in inventory. Think about how many products I have sold through my websites that I ended up not getting paid for due to the same issue, not to mention the frustration of my visitors.

Customer service told me to feel free to email them with my complaints so that they can have them “on file.” The best that they could do was tell me that they were sorry and I would get a credit back within a couple of weeks. I told them I would send them a link to my story once I put it online instead.

I’ve read many posts about whether social media can really help your business. The obvious advantage is networking. However, I’ve seen 5 ways that Twitter has specifically helped my business when it comes to “Right Place, Right Time” beyond just the general socializing most people do on it.

1. Getting instant help. A great example of this was when I was working on a new site recently and couldn’t figure out how to customize my navigation. I Tweeted what I was looking for and Amanda (@phillian) immediately responded that I needed to upgrade my Thesis. Problem solved in 10 minutes.

2. Quick feedback. When you are working on a project, sometimes you just need a fresh pair of eyes to take a look. Or even someone with a different browser than you are using. Two weeks ago I Tweeted about my new Percy Jackson site and within 10 minutes had feedback from 5 friends who happened to be online on a Saturday night. I was able to tweak some things on the site before officially rolling it out.

3. Unexpected mutually beneficial relationships. The other day I Tweeted about a guest post someone had done for me about Mystery Shopping. James from JustFreeStuff.com asked if he could use it in a newsletter. I said “sure” and didn’t expect anything back. The next morning I woke up and found over 1000 hits to my site from his site and newsletter! It worked out great for both of us because he got some content and I got some traffic. We weren’t looking to do business with each, it just worked out that way.

4. News you can market. I follow a number of people for very different reasons, but sometimes I end up with a marketing nugget I wasn’t expecting. For example, I follow @GameHouse because I promote their old “Real Arcade” products on my moms site. They other day they Tweeted about a Twilight New Moon game on sale that day only for $1 on iTunes. It made a perfect post for my Twilight merchandise website using my iTunes affiliate account. I would not have even known about the game (or the sale that day) if I had not been following them on Twitter.

5. Sales opportunities. At least once a week I see a Tweet where someone is looking to buy something that I sell on one of my sites. They usually say something like “If you have an affiliate link for X merchant, let me know so I can make a purchase” or “I’m looking to buy X, anyone know where I can find it?” If you’re the first to respond to them, you’ve got yourself an easy sale.

The one thing to note about everything above is that none of it is “in your face” marketing. It’s not me pushing my links or websites to anyone. Rather, they are just some of the benefits that you can receive to your business by being an active Twitter user and building your Twitter community. What other ways are you using Twitter to help your business?

Okay, so I’m not really a star. But I kind of felt like it when I got home from Affiliate Summit and started reading the book that was in our conference bag: Internet Marketing from the Real Experts. Why did I feel like a star? I found that I have two different articles in the book and I am among such amazing company! There are articles from so many people who are truly amazing in affiliate marketing: Geno Prussakov, Jamie Birch, Scott Jangro, Brian Littleton, Lisa Picarille, the list goes on and on (and apologies to the other 80+ people I didn’t mention!). The book is edited by Shawn Collins and Missy Ward.

If you are looking to learn about affiliate marketing, this book gives you a couple of things that the others do not. First, it is written from the perspective of many different players. By that I mean that you can read articles by affiliates, affiliate managers, networks, and consultants. You’ll get a 360 degree view of the industry. Second, it touches on many different areas of affiliate marketing from SEO to video to blogging. Lastly, it is broken down into 3 minute segments so you can pick it up and put it down whenever you have time. You can also jump around to the area that impacts you.

If you are the least bit interested in affiliate marketing, this book will be money well spent for you. Whether you are just starting out or have been in affiliate marketing for years, you will absolutely learn something new from this book. It’s not a “get rich quick” book; it’s legitimate information on how to help you grow your business and maximize your returns. And if you care to check out my articles, they are on pages 94 (Merchants, Bring on the Videos) and 102 (Rewards Sites: Asset or Liability?).

Have I ever told you my groundhog story? Not many people have their very own groundhog story, but this girl does.

Picture me in 1999, newly married and living in a little apartment, studying each day in the house by myself for the bar exam. It wasn’t my first time away from “home,” but it was my first time being married. I was still a little confused about whether I was supposed to call my mom (who lived 4 hours away) or my husband (who worked 10 minutes away) when something went wrong.

I was making spaghetti for dinner (being the good wife that I already was) and was watching bar review tapes. We had a sliding glass door leading from our tiny kitchen area to the woods behind the apartment, and I had it open to the screen. The spaghetti was smelling great and as I was checking on it, I heard a sound from the screen door like something was rattling it. When I looked over the counter, I saw a groundhog!! (we actually call them woodchucks here) I just know that the smell of my spaghetti attracted him and he was trying to get in.

I screamed and ran up the stairs and called my mom. By the tone in my voice, she thought someone had died or was dying that very minute. After I explained to her what happened, she said “What do you want me to do about it? I live 4 hours away.” Hmmm… good point. She told me to go back downstairs and see if it had actually gotten in the apartment. What?? What if it was running around and started chasing me or something? I had an image in my head of a big fat groundhog chasing me around the furniture with its teeth bared.

So I called my husband. I refused to go down the stairs until he came home from work (early…so the spaghetti didn’t burn). At least I figured that groundhogs probably couldn’t climb a flight of stairs. He came home and checked everything out. No groundhog in the house. I know he thought I was crazy until….

A week later he was leaving for work and saw a groundhog running into the woods!! Sneaky little guy was probably looking for more spaghetti.