Not so long ago, I would not hesitate to recommend to my friends and/or clients to consider joining BBB.org and become what is known an “accredited” member. In the past I used the website of Better Business Bureau to check out more than one business. But watching last night ABC’s 20/20 report about BBB’s shady practices, I am completely disappointed by the company. Especially disappointing was BBB’s Steve Cox answers to questions of ABC’s Brian Ross.

I doubt Mr. Cox would ever read my blog, but if he does here is the script he might consider using next time he speaks to a reporter: “BBB screwed up and we are ashamed about all the allegations. We will investigate every case and will make every effort that every business gets a fair treatment by BBB.” Or something to that effect.

I have to say that as an affiliate marketer looked to BBB to see how my potential partner is handling complaints by consumers.

Gary Vaynerchuck’s Wine Library gets C from BBB?

BBB gives C to Wine Library

Why you should not trust BBB?
We do not leave in a perfect world. People screw up. Companies screw up. Just the fact you have screwed up does not mean you are a bad individual or a sleaze company. Mr. Cox, in my opinion, missed a golden opportunity with ABC’s Brian Ross to apologize for the BBB’s screw up. Mr. Cox failed miserably choosing the sweet “denial”. By doing so, Mr. Cox made BBB to fail every consumer in US and Canada. There is no reason anyone should trust BBB or their rating system. BBB just got an “F-”! And one thing is most certain, BBB will never get a penny out of me and if I can help it neither out of my friends and/or business partners.

More coverage about BBB scandal:
Better Business Bureau Leadership To Meet In Aftermath Of Devastating ABC Expose

When Aaron Wall, a well known SEO expert, predicted Drupal to be the wave of the future, I was just about getting very comfortable with WordPress. At the time I felt like taking the position on the subject but restrained myself because I did not much about Drupal even through I already fell in love with WordPress. Aarron raffled some feathers for sure when he wrote:

Drupal is more powerful than what the average blogger needs to run their site, but it has so many features and options that it can allow you to bolt many things onto your blog that you would not be able to do very easily with something like WordPress or MovableType.

Back in those days, and even today to some degree, a Drupal user was/is perceived to be more sophisticated, since better knowledge of PHP and some coding skills are needed to allow Durpal to perform the miracles for you.

Whether or not I have become more sophisticated in terms of coding skills or programing is very questionable. I am however developing taste for Drupal. Today I have no choice but to wholeheartedly agree with Aaron – Drupal is the way of the future. So much so, that I am planing to convert some of my well established websites to Drupal as soon as Drupal 7 is officially released.

Why Drupal And Why Now?
It’ very simple. Durpal allowed me to do things other platforms could not. More about it in my follow up posts.

One of the most detracting factors – user interface appears to be the thing of the past for Drupal with it’s version 7 release. See the slideshow bellow to judge for yourself:

Attending Affiliate Summit East 2010 in New York City was probably one the best things I have done this year so far. It turns out that this recent Affiliate Summit East had the largest number of attendees to date. Affiliate Summit was attended by only 200 people when it was first launched back in 2003. Today it is the most important event in affiliate marketing industry.

How Did I Get There?
For the past two years I have been trying to attend the Affiliate Summit, however I had to cancel my attendance twice even though both times I was a lucky recipient of a Press Pass. Each year Affiliate Summit offers press passes to bloggers and journalists. All you need to do is to show up and cover Affiliate Summit in your publication. Press Pass offers you the same access to the show as Platinum Pass would, with some limitations (I am not quiet sure what are the limitations, but my badge said so – pictured to the right).

How Can You Get There?
The dates for the next Affiliate Summit are January 9-11, 2011 and the show will take place in Las Vegas. The registration for Affiliate Summit West 2011 is now opened and you can find more information by visiting Affiliate Summit official website. Interested in Press Pass? Submit your information here.

Interested To Become My Sponsor?
While I am thankful to Affiliate Summit for offering me the Press Pass, I think there are much better bloggers out there who can benefit from the Press Pass. I am still interested in attending all future Affiliate Summits, but as of today I cannot do it unless I find a sponsor. If you are interested to be my sponsor for the upcoming Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas please contact me to learn how you can benefit from sponsoring me.

About Post Affiliate Summit Notes On My Blog.
Going to Affiliate Summit I had every intention to cover the summit on by blog while attending it myself. I quickly realized however, that I was giving my blogging skills too much credit. So instead I decided to start on my blog something I will call from now on “Post Affiliate Summit Notes“. In these “notes” I will share about my experience, the things I’ve learned and wonderful people I have met. If you think you can benefit from these notes, please subscribe to my weekly newsletter (the form located on the top of the sidebar).

My first ever time at the Affiliate Summit is turning out to a great experience. As a newcomer to Affiliate Summit, my game plan is not extremely ambitious. I plan to finally meet bunch of people whom I’ve had pleasure to know on Internet. Meeting new people. Hopefully discover a new opportunity or two. That’s pretty much my game plan.

Literally minutes after arriving to Affilliate Summit I ran across Jeremy Palmer from Quit Your Day Job. Jeremy and his “High Performance Affiliate Marketing” e-book were quit instrumental to get me started in affiliate marketing back in 2006. To meet him right in the beginning of the summit Was definitely a treat.

I plan to attend few sessions, but I think there is nothing better than chilling at the bloggers room! Special thanks to Heather Smith of Beautiful British Columbia for being a great BlogMistress! Stay tuned for more from Affiliate Summit!

Since the arrival of WordPress 2.9, the “canonical” element is automatically generated in your website’s header. While it is an excellent way to tell some search engines not to index certain pages (lets presume for a second that search engines really listen ), there some instances you my not necessarily want the “canonical” element generated on your website. Instead of helping your SEO efforts, the canonical element may actually hurt your website.

If you use Datafeedr Plugin with current (or 2.9+) version of WordPress, you might need to consider doing some tweaking to your WordPress installation. Why? Because every “product page” on your website has canonical link element in the header pointing to your “store page”. What does it mean? Well, it is like asking search engines not to index your “product pages”.

So how do you tell your WordPress not to generate canonical link element in the header?
One way you can do it is by modifying your theme’s functions.php file – this method however did not work on my WordPress 3.0 installations.

Another way you can disable canonical element is by modifying your “wp-includes/default-filters.php” file. All you need to do is to find the line 197 that says:

add_action( 'wp_head', 'rel_canonical' );

and change it to:

//add_action( 'wp_head', 'rel_canonical' );

You can delete that line entirely if you wish. But you need to do this every time you are upgrading/reinstlling your WordPress.
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