Then, he chatted me over a link to his wife’s blog.

I took some time to check it out and really enjoyed it. As a parent of similar aged kids, her stories hit me nicely.

So what does all this have to do with Forge and Online Marketing?

Blogs are a great way to share your experiences and opinions with like minded people. This applies to business as well. If you have a company with great “user evangelists” and great stories and testimonials, are you putting them to work for you? They allow for a directed conversation about your company and what you do.

And what a promotional week it was! Here’s a few links to some of the coverage we received over the past seven days or so. One thing is for sure, and that’s that we’re right about a lot of regular people who blog out there wanting better ways to try and earn with their blogs. Now if we can just keep the promotion up and get all 50 million of them signed up we’ll do just fine.

Here are a few of the press/blog highlights.

BlogKits On TechCrunch.com – View Story
Techcrunch is the NY Times of online technology. Getting a review there means that you are doing something right.

BlogKits On Problogger.net – View Story
Problogger.net is the trusted source for bloggers who are learning how to become professional bloggers.

BlogKits On John Chow.com – View Story
JohnChow is an internet entrepreneur with a large audience of readers who want to learn how to be successful online.

BlogKits On BloggerTalks.com – View Interview
Bloggertalks.com is a great site that features interviews from the web’s blog related movers and shakers.

OTHER GREAT COVERAGE:

• http://www.centernetworks.com/blogkits-review
• http://www.thinkinghomebusiness.com/blog/_archives/2006/12/8/2558160.html
• http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/12/blogkits-launches-with-adsense-alternative-for-bloggers.html
• http://blog.clickz.com/061213-122855.html
• http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/internet-marketing/3964-1.html?postId=8013

And about 50 more at least. You can do a search on Technorati for BlogKits to browse them all.

Visit ForgeInsight.com for a free pdf download.

I had a problem though, I needed to take it to the next level, with zero budget in my pocket. So when I came on board Forge, I said to Jonathan that we should turn it into a CPA network and he agreed. So, as of yesterday July 13, 2006, we’ve officially launched the new and improved BlogKits…

BlogKits is the world’s first true performance marketing network, for bloggers! You can view the release here at PRweb.com.

Excellent coverage is coming fast. Here’s a quick list of it so far. Also, more information on the launch and signup can be found at the BlogKits blog at http://www.blogkits.com/blog/.

Affiliatetip
Threadwatch
5 Star Affiliate Blog
Marketing Pilgrim
Webpronews
The Blogging Times
Blogging Systems
TechMeme
Marketing Vox
Sabahan.com
Blogger Success
The Blog Herald
Digg

So we’re all back in the swing of things, playing catch up. It was great to meet a lot of new people at the show, and I gotta say that I’m more impressed with this show time after time. The exhibitors were great, and the networking even better.

If you are even remotely involved in the affiliate industry, this show is a must-attend show. I believe the next one is in Vegas in Jan 2007, so we’ll see you there!

We’re looking forward to the show, especially since we have some huge announcements to tell you about. Hint, hint… www.blogkits.com.

64 percent of executives say they spend less than $500,000 to deploy and manage corporate blogs.

News flash, you don’t need to spend anywhere near that type of money (by far) to make a successful business blog. Those 36 percent of executives that are spending over half a million on a blog, please us today! :0

More good stats from the report.

Some 35 percent of large companies plan to initiate corporate blogs this year – and combined with the existing deployed base of 34 percent, nearly 70 percent of such companies will have deployed corporate blogs by the end of 2006.

So what’s holding you back now eh? You can do this, with our help.

Call US +27 12 676 9364.

Please use the form on the left hand side of the page to let us know you’re coming, and we’ll arrange a time to meet that is convenient for you.

One of my jobs at Forge is to help tell the world about the amazing brand we have. How do I do that? It’s easy, I simply help us get new people to work with, then let our team of professionals do my job for me. See, if you have a good team, or product, or service, then building a strong brand is easy to do.

Every time a customer interacts with your company, in any manner, your brand experience is being built. I like to call it “sticky goo” branding. A customer is either going to lick it off of their fingers, or go running to the bathroom to wash it off. Gross, but you get the point?

Do you know what your customers think of your brand? It might be time to ask them.

As for my work here at Forge, stay tuned for some fun and creative “experiences” coming to you soon.