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Thirsty For Comments Blog Hop!! {Join the Fun!}

Thirsty For Comments Thursdays!!

I’ve joined in on a super fun new blog hop called Thirsty for Comments Thursdays. This is a really great way to meet some new bloggin’ buddies! And… I was featured this week, how cool is that, right? Problem is – I’m a jerk. I’ve been so overwhelmed-crazy-can’t-keep-up-busy the past couple of weeks, I totally forget to post and share this great hop with you guys too!

Better late than never, right?

So, even though this started on Thursday, I wanted to share it with you now! You can learn more and grab the button over on Acting Balanced – and then link up, visit some amazing sites, and leave some meaningful comments. We all love getting “real” comments, so take the time to really read some posts, and connect with some of the bloggers on the list.

This is a blog hop dedicated to giving good comment – please, when you are visiting, actually READ the post that is linked and make a thoughtful comment!
This is NOT a hop for “I’m here from the hop, follow me back” comments!

Link up your own SPECIFIC POST that you’d like comments on – remember – no giveaways!

The rules are simple –

  1. Link up a SPECIFIC POST (NOT just your blog URL) that you’d like to have more comments on – can be anything EXCEPT GIVEAWAYS and OTHER BLOG HOPS – they will be deleted
  2. Visit AT LEAST THREE other blogs and READ the posts and then comment thoughtfully on the post.

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Weekly Blogging Opportunities – 12/7

Road sign of opportunity

Weekly Blogging Opportunities

Here are this weeks blogging opp’s – plus a few great networks to check out if you’re not already a member. If you have any favorite networks, resources, or have found a great opportunity this week that you can share – please feel free to leave a comment! I’m sure everyone else would love to know about your favorites too. And if you’re a company that is interested in connecting with bloggers, please contact me at sunshineandsippycups@gmail.com, and I can share your info in next weeks post. Have a great week!

Product Opportunities – Review &/or Giveaways:

  • Mom Blog Society: Apply for a Seneca Farms Oatmeal Review and Giveaway. Follow her site – she posts tons of great info, opportunities, and events.
  • Booksneeze: Make a quick account, pick a book you like, then – if you come back and link to your review, you can choose another! Mostly Christian titles, but a wide selection, with options for almost everyone. Free Books for Review.
  • Saline Ambassadors: They are now recruiting for product ambassadors, this includes Saline Soothers and Boogie Wipes – both totally amazing products. I’m an Ambassador and love it – applications accepted until December 31 – Apply for Saline Ambassador.
  • Free Santa Letter: They’re looking for bloggers to partner for a “Santa Magical Package Giveaway” – sounds cool, right? Email if interested:  LettersfromSanta@easyfreesantaletter.com.
  • MomSelect: For bloggers and non-blogging moms! Sign up for an account, share your interests and info, and watch for fun opp’s to come your way. I’ve had some really amazing things come out of this. Fun opp’s for bloggers and moms.
  • Sits Girls: Fill out their application to be partnered with brands in your area for fun opportunities!

Giveaways to Join:

Cash Giveaway: Join one of my great blogging buddies for her 5K Facebook Fan Giveaway! The joining fee starts at only $2 bucks, and she’s awesome to work with. Check it out – Money Saving Parent Giveaway Sign-Up.

Twitter Leads: 

Bags by eBags PLEASE RT: We’re seeking #bloggers to review travel products. @ reply @bags_by_ebags if you want to partake in this! #travel #review #blog

Money to Make:

  • Kids Crafts: Holiday craft ideas wanted! Find more info, pays between $8 and $15 per idea – Paid Posts for Kids Crafts.
  • zuuzs.com: Read more about how it works – How To: Earn Money with zuuzs – or sign up here. I’m earning cash with them daily – it’s starting small, but it’s consistent, and I think there is a ton of potential!
  • Social Spark: Earn with sponsored posts and cool products. Sign up here – You Blog, You Profit.

Affiliates to Join:

  • Logical Media: This has some offers that I can’t find on other sites, like certain survey sites I use. Payouts take longer, but it’s worth it if they have some offers you love.
  • Escalate Media: My favorite by far, quick payouts and responsive reps.
  • Integrate Media: This is a little trickier to get started, but it’s amazing. Great offers, huge variety, and super cool tools. Read this if you need help – Getting Started with Integrate – or sign up here.
  • MySavings Media: Promote coupons, freebies, and deal offers and earn cash.

Share the Love!

Feel free to share this post, or any of the links here, in your favorite networks, groups, or forums – all of these opp’s are open to anyone. If you have a great opp to share – feel free to leave it in a comment. And if you’re a business or brand who would like your blogger programs or opportunities shared, please email me at sunshineandsippycups@gmail.com to be included next week! Happy Holidays!

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Weekly Blogging Opportunities

New Weekly Blogging Opportunities!

Sorry I’m late on this tonight… I’ve got a sick toddler. You know how fun that is, right? Anyway – you can usually expect this post to be up by 5PM PST every Wednesday – and I’m going to set up a tab on the site to make it easy to find. I’ll do that before next weeks post. And, if you have any cool opp’s that you want to share, feel free to leave a comment, so everyone can benefit. And feel free to share this post in your networks or groups too – I hope that some of these leads can help you out each week!

Review & Giveaway Leads:

  • EcoStore USA: They’re looking for bloggers to do review/giveaways. Fill out their form, agreeing to their policy’s, and choose your favorite items to review.
  • Rylees: Sign up to be notified of new blogger opportunities for reviews and giveaways – beauty and hair care products.
  • Eden Fantasies: This is an adult themed shop, but you can write about anything that you’d like to – Like lotions or bubble bath – to make it family-friendly. If you’re interested in writing a post about their products and their site in exchange for a $50 gift certificate, email Jenn at jenn@edenfantasys.com and let her know!
  • Skoy Cleaning Products: Learn more about this opportunity and how to apply on Mom Blog Society. Follow her site too – she posts new opp’s often.
  • Mamma Media: This will launch soon, and is described as a “media group with the vision of blending brands with the mom-bloggers (and, ultimately, mom-readers) who will love them!” They’ll choose members soon – Apply Here – if you’re interested.

Twitter Lead:

We are looking for bloggers to review our Anti Chafe Stick, plz email info@everstride.com for info. thx!

Giveaway Events to Join:

  • Great Gadget Giveaway Event from Jan 23 12:01 PM EST to Feb 06 at 12:01 PM EST and is accepting signups now. There is a $10 sign up fee, and you must find your own prize, $25+. Sign up using – Sign Up Form – and tell them Sunshine and Sippy Cups sent you!! Learn more here.
  • Great Gamer Giveaway: This is BIG package of super fun stuff, and should be a great event. I’d join – but due to my PayPal problems, I can’t do payments at the moment. But – this should be great! Learn more on her post.

If you’re not a member of Escalate Affiliate Network – Join Today!

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I’m a Speaker at Reviewers Retreat 2012!!! {And How to get Discount Tickets}

Join me at Reviewers Retreat 2012!!

I am SO excited to be a part of this event, and can’t wait to share some fun tips and helpful information during my session at Reviewers Retreat. This will be my first blog conference, and I hope to see some of you there!! Read more about the when’s, what’s and where’s of this amazing conference – and find out how you can get a super sweet discount on tickets too:

The 2nd annual Reviewer’s Retreat will be held June 3-5, 2012 at Great Wolf Lodge, Concord-Charlotte, NC. Reviewer’s Retreat is first conference geared specifically toward the issues and challenges faced by bloggers in the product review genre, a topic that is lacking from most conference agendas. Review bloggers, those who conduct product and resource reviews on their site, will converge to take part in sessions on a variety of topics including brand-blogger relations, website design, perfecting the pitch, statistics, photography and more.  This brand-friendly conference welcomes company and agency representatives as building and strengthening relationships between bloggers and brands is one of the conference’s primary goals.

Get your Reviewers Retreat Tickets Today!!

How to score BIG discounts on your tickets!

You can secure your spot at the Reviewers Retreat by purchasing tickets at early bird pricing – only $199 dollars if you buy them now, that’s a savings of $79 dollars!! AND – they’re having a huge Black Friday sale too! Check it out:

On November 25th the first 25 Reviewer’s Retreat conference passes sold using code BLACKFRIDAY25 will receive $25 off the early bird pricing!  (Making passes only $149.99!!) If all 25 tickets are sold, we will randomly select one to receive a FULL REFUND. Yep, that’s a FREE ticket!

Who’s coming with me??!!

If you’ve already bought your ticket, or are planning to get one soon – let me know that you’ll be attending! I’d absolutely love to connect with some of my amazing bloggy fans at this event!

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New Feature: Weekly Blogger Opportunities

Weekly Blogger Opportunities

I’m going to start a weekly feature, each Wednesday, with new opportunities for bloggers. If you find a great one that you don’t mind sharing, please leave a comment on the post each week, so that we can all benefit. Some of these will be limited-time sign-ups for campaigns, but some will be ongoing brand programs – Starting next week there will be a new tab in the “Blogging Resources” section in the navigation bar, so you’ll be able to look back at past weeks opp’s. I’ll have the new opportunity list up each Wednesday by 5PM, PST. If you’re a business that would like to have your family-friendly blogger outreach program listed, please email me – Meagan, at sunshineandsippycups@gmail.com – and I’ll add it to the weekly list.

This week’s Opp’s:

  • OXO Blogger Outreach – Enter your info to get onto their Blogger Outreach Database, so they can contact you with new opportunities.
  • Rubbermaid Buzz – Join this ambassador program from Rubbermaid and tell them what YOU would do to spread buzz about their awesome products.
  • zuuzs.com: Sign up an account, then scroll to the bottom to find the Blogger sign up tab. Earn cash for referrals. Very cool.
  • Tiny Prints: If you’re not already working with Tiny Prints, sign up for their Holiday Card Campaign.
  • Label Daddy: Sign up to do a review and giveaway of your favorite Label Daddy product.

Share these Blogger Opportunities

Feel free to share this list in any of your own networks or groups – All opportunities that will be listed each week are either brand programs that are currently open to new sign-ups, or contacts who have requested to have their information shared. If you have a great opp to leave in the comments, please be sure that the contact is comfortable having their information shared with others. If so, add it here, so we can all find some great new resources and opportunities each week!

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Free Microsoft Office Tips and Tricks Book!

Microsoft Office BookMaximize Your Microsoft Office Tools

As a busy mom, a blogger, and an Educational Consultant with Discovery Toys – I’m a busy girl! I’ve been struggling to find a good way to get more organized, so that I can keep up with all of the projects that I’m juggling. My solution? Make my own planning binders using free printables online, and some really great documents, calendars, logs, and worksheets from my own Microsoft Office! Seriously, I didn’t even know that I had so much stuff available! And the printable organizing stuff is just the beginning – you’d be amazed at all of the great tools you’ve had hiding right there in your computer, and probably never even looked at. I’m working on some posts to share my new blogging, household, and crafty binders – I’ll have them ready soon! Until then – get this totally free book and start learning about all of these great tools and tricks!

Free Guide: Microsoft Office 2010: Tips and Tricks – Limited Time Offer Click Here to get it!

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Blogging Tips: Getting Started with Integrate.com

Affiliate Marketing: Integrate.com

When you want to start earning an income with your blog, the first step for most people is to get started with Affiliate Marketing. {To learn more about the basics of Affiliate Marketing, read Earning an Income with Your Blog} And many of us get started with the same affiliates, like Escalate Media, MySavings Media, and Logical Media. All three of these companies are really similar – once you learn how to use one site, you can easily use the others. But logging into Integrate for the first time can be a bit intimidating! It’s VERY different than most of the other affiliate companies that I’ve worked with in the past – but once you learn the basics, you’ll see that those differences are what make it awesome.

Getting Started: Your Integrate Dashboard

If you’re not signed up with Integrate.com yet, you can get started here – Integrate Sign Up. Go on and get started – I’ll wait.

Ok, now that we’re all members – Let’s log in! You’ll find the log-in button on the top right side; there are options to log-in as a Buyer or a Seller – Buyers are companies that are paying for campaigns, Sellers are you – people who are sharing those campaigns for earnings. Now you’re in your Dashboard, which is the most important part of the site for you, and the main thing that you need to learn about. There is a lot of info on Integrate, but I’m only going to cover the basics of what you need to start earning, deal? If you want to learn more, contact your affiliate manager {find their contact info on the bottom portion of your Dashboard}, or read the FAQ page.

Messaging:

This is pretty obvious – these are your messages. Click Notifications to see a list of campaigns. Click a campaign, and you’ll see some options pop up – “View Campaign” shows you more info about that offer. “View Profile” shows you info about that company. Then you have “Agree” and “Counter” – this is where you can agree to accept that campaign, or counter by asking for a higher payout. Or, just remove it altogether if it’s not something you’ll run. Sometimes you’ll also see unread messages in this tab – these are from companies running campaigns, sharing info or asking you a question.

Campaigns:

This is the most important tab. Click it to see your Active, Pending, and Inactive campaigns. When you sign up at Integrate, you’ll give some info about your blog. Integrate then uses this info to automatically match you with campaigns that they think you’ll do well with – these will show up in your Active Campaigns. Click on a campaign name to see the Payout {how much you’ll earn per click or conversion}, your allocation {the max you’re allowed to paid for}, and the description. On the left you’ll see a link for campaign creatives – this is where you can find banner codes to place on your site. Pending campaigns are offers that are awaiting approval – Click “Start Negotiations” to make a deal on price and allocation with the Buyer, so you can start running those campaigns.

Helpful Tip: Once you are matched with a campaign, you have 48 hours to either accept it or begin negotiation with the Buyer. If you do not take some sort of action within 48 hours, the match will expire.

You can also Browse Campaigns – this is where you find new campaigns to run in addition to the ones that have been automatically matched to you. If you find something that you like, click the Request box, and enter the info you want to send to the Buyer – how much you want to earn, and the allocation – which means, how many leads do you think you’ll send their way? Leave a personal message if you want, and send it. If they accept it, you’ll see it soon in your active campaigns!

Accounting: 

You can click this tab to see your monthly statements, to view your earnings. You can also view your earnings by going back to your main Dashboard, and checking out the Quick Stats chart – The first box lets you view by clicks, conversions, or earnings, and the second box lets you view by month, week, or day.

Campaign Fulfillment:

This is another fun tool – the little pie chart on your dashboard. It gives you a visual of what percent of your earnings are coming from each offer that you’re running. I love it.

Great Campaigns to Run:

I’ve had a few people ask me which campaigns I’ve had success with so far, so here are a few you can search for if you’re having trouble finding campaigns that you like:

  • CID: 6965, Baby to Bee – $1.32 per conversion
  • CID: 6531, Bake Pops – $7.82 per conversion
  • CID: 5782, HomeSav – $2.04 per conversion
  • CID: 4498 Disney Movie Club – $16.02 per conversion
  • CID: 6632, Food on the Table – .75 per conversion
  • CID: 5995, Fooz Kids – $18 per conversion

Negotiations:

This is one of the really cool features that sets Integrate apart from other affiliate companies – you can negotiate for higher payouts! If you’re doing well with a campaign, you can ask the Buyer for a higher payout, since you’re driving them so much traffic. Or, if they’ve only given you a small allocation, and you’re bringing way more traffic than that – ask them to give you a higher allocation! You have to be reasonable, and have respect for the Buyers budgets – but it’s very cool to have that ability to contact them. Integrate is more of the “middle man” – they aren’t paying us, they’re connecting us with Buyers who want to pay us, collecting those payments, and then lumping it together into one check for us.

More questions?

If you have any questions that I didn’t cover, feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer you! If you’ve signed up with Integrate, and it’s been more than a week or two, and you haven’t heard anything yet, email me and I can forward your info to someone to help you out. And if you’re already using Integrate, I highly recommend that you schedule a quick call with your account manager, and they’ll walk you through it all. I think once you get the hang of it, you’ll LOVE it as much as I do!

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