The Smithsonian Institute has just joined Cafepress and this is a great opportunity for affiliates as there is a ready-built market and huge brand recognition. I am Irish so I don’t really know much about the Smithsonian but I believe they are historical curators or such like. Anyway, I thought I’d let you know so you can add this brand to your affiliate sites. It should at least pull some traffic your way.

Zazzle have come up with a nice new tool for building referral links. All you have to do is install it in your bookmarks (doesn’t even take a second) and click it while you are on the Zazzle page that you wish to link to. You do need to be logged in to your Zazzle account when you click and I assume you have to be logged in to an account with which you have set up an Associate account.

It’s a nice tool and may be of use sometimes but it could really be improved. I imagine that most bloggers are like me in that they want to include an image in our posts rather than just a link. To get this image you will still have to click on the “link” link.

I would love to see something like what Jennifer Goode has created for Cafepress and what can be found on Zazzle when you click “link”. Zazzle’s link is a little slow, the position of the link is not convenient and you have to be logged in to add your referral code. In those three areas Jen’s Cafepress version is superior.

This Referral Link Builder will be good for a quick link to portal pages or when you want to create your own images to link to rather than links to the product pages.

Link: Jgoode’s Cafepress Tools

I think Zazzle should add a nice little favicon so that it would be easy to spot in your bookmarks too.

I previously mentioned that Wordans were going to start up and affiliate program and today they have. So get your affiliate hat on and get to work. We are still waiting for the new version of their site though. Well, I have signed up but have yet to really study it. The link building system seems a bit tedious but there may be more efficient ways of doing it. Also at first glance I don’t see how to deep link to particular items. Anyway, if you want to make me some money, click on the banner below and buy lots of stuff from Wordans.

They are using a Canadian service called ConnexPlace for their affiliates which is a pity as really, who wants to sign up for yet another affiliate company. On the other hand, sign up was totally hassle free.