2007 was a great year for most of us. I started off with a bang, but eventually ended up in the dirt during the summer… but that’s perfectly OK! I learned a lot of lessons this year, met a lot of new people (a few were worth meeting!), and ended the year as a full-time Affiliate Marketer.

This year I ran into a lot of ups and downs, with products, too. I’d like to share the best products and companies I’ve dealt with, and, of course, the absolute worst products and Companies I’ve dealt with.

So let’s get going, shall we?

The Best Products for Affiliate Marketers

1. Wealthy Affiliate University - I found Wealthy Affiliate towards the end of September and figured I’d be getting involved with yet, another lousy ‘guru’ product… I won’t lie. I did NOT expect this product to be that great. But, in the end, this product was definitely the absolute best purchase I made in 2007. It’s helped change my life quite a bit. I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate University for anyone interested in learning Affiliate Marketing the right way.
2. Able Space - When I started seeing the shift at phpFoX, I made the change and finally stepped away. Able Space was definitely the best Social Networking Script in 2007. Although, phpFoX seems to be shifting back to the old days with a more reliable script, customer service and, hopefully, the forums change soon for the better. I can’t believe how many people STILL complain about the forums after I started calling out the kids who they hired to “help” them with it. Social Networking platforms are a GREAT way for Affiliate Marketing. If you’ve never owned a Social Networking site, you’re probably missing out. There’s a lot of money to be made with these sites. You do not have to be myspace.com or facebook.com to make money.
3. Nichebot - I had to spend a lot of money for keyword research in 2007… I thought I had found the best each and every time. I won’t lie… I felt pretty dumb about listing some of the products but I think each has their own strength, but many have too many weaknesses. Nichebot is a great product and I love the fact that I only have to spend money on what I need… not $100+ on separate keyword research tools at the same time. Nichebot provides access to WordTracker, Keyword Discovery and the Google Adwords Keyword Tool within the same API. I absolutely love it for the price. You also get access to a lot of Training products as well.
4. Camtasia - If you’re not using Camtasia, you’re probably not trying hard enough. Camtasia allows you to capture your screen and it uses frames, just like if you were to film your screen with a Video Camera. I’ve used this product for years for Training others on certain aspects of the web and I absolutely love this product.
5. Google AdWords - Yeah, it’s a service and it’s probably one of the most important tools I’ve ever used, but it’s not for everybody… if you’re scared to use AdWords or if you’ve lost money - I HIGHLY suggest that you check out “Adwords For Dummies” by my buddy Howie Jacobson. A great guy, but an EXCELLENT teacher… on that note:
6. AdWords For Dummies by Howie Jacobson - this book is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read dealing with making money. Not that it gives you any secrets to making money… but it shows you the RIGHT WAY to make money online: using Google Adwords the RIGHT way. You can find the book on Amazon.com and I HIGHLY recommend it for ANYONE that is interested in using Google Adwords. New or Old.
7. Google Trends and the Google AdWords Keyword Tool - Yeah, Google gets a lot of love from me for providing so many great tools… and they’re FREE! Google Trends is simply AWESOME. If you’re thinking about jumping into a Niche - checkout the Google Trends tool before getting started with Keyword Research, it might be your best move ever. The Google Keyword Tool is the best keyword tool to use for those of you who do not want to spend much money. I think it’s the best, period… but I use Nichebot to get MORE info for keywords so I can compare data.
8. Bum Marketing Method by Travis Sago - Bum Marketing is great. It’s an excellent way for anyone to make some cash online, if you follow the right directions… you’ll find a TON of ebooks on the subject now - but the King himself, Travis Sago, gives you his information for simply signing up to his email list… and he DOES NOT spam with the latest BS IM products! You can check out Bum Marketing Method here.
9. Warriors Special Offers - I honestly can’t stand the Warrior forums, for the most part… but there’s some great people there offering some great information for a small percentage of the price you’ll pay for some of the junk ebooks out there.
10. MSN adLab -Another awesome tool, similar to Google Trends, but maybe a little more useful for creating Products. If you’re serious about making money online, this is another EXCELLENT tool to do research with.
11. Quintura - If you’re familiar with Latent Semantic Indexing, you should check out Quintura. This is ANOTHER great tool to use while researching keywords and SEO work.
12. Aweber - If you’re not collecting Opt-in emails on your website, you’re losing a lot of money… this is a cold hard fact. Some people think of Email Marketing as Spam. This is not the case, especially if you do it respectfully, thoughtfully and, well, “the right way”. The saying goes: “The money is IN THE LIST”. This is true, as long as you’re keeping everything relevant. Definitely check out Aweber before you let anymore commissions go out the door!
13. Squidoo, HubPages and UsFreeAds - if you’re into Bum Marketing, these sites are GREAT resources for traffic. These can be goldmines for some Niche Marketers!
14. Google Analytics - I almost left this one out… by accident, of course. If you’re like me and you enjoy looking over statistics - you cannot go wrong with this free software. Some say it’s not as good as [insert latest company here], but I think it’s an excellent tool… and it’s F-R-E-E!
15. Google Optimizer - As an Affiliate Marketer, you need to fine tune your Landing Pages and do as much testing as possible. Google Opt

Worst Products and Companies of 2007

1. 1and1.com sucks - this company is definitely the absolute worst company I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Thank god for companies like GoDaddy who don’t try their hardest to rob their clients blind. I’ve written about 1and1 before but I had to hide a few posts as I didn’t want their sharky lawyers trying to take down the little guy, again. But they’re the worst company I’ve ever dealt with, that’s for sure. And there’s HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of others who will agree. The worst customer support I’ve ever had to deal with, the worst billing department and definitely the lousiest policies I’ve ever seen. STAY AWAY FROM 1AND1 - THEY WILL take your money quicker than you can say “ahh”.
2. Jet Spinner and Jet Submitter - these companies are obviously connected. I signed up with this company as a trial and I THOUGHT I had canceled it, but apparently not. There is no support with this system, which does not work as they claim. You can spend hours trying to find answers or a link to get support… you will not find it. You’ll have to login to paypal and find the billing email they used to take your money. But support? I tried… there is none. Refund? NOPE! They keep your money and IGNORE your support emails or refund requests. I will continue to advise against this company anywhere I get the chance. Same goes with 1and1.com
3. phpFoX - This company was definitely the best company I had dealt with in 2006… as a customer, partner and affiliate. But now? Well, they were a complete joke in 2007 and lost a ton of their highest quality clients who moved on to bigger and better things. Their Affiliate program is a joke and I still say STAY AWAY from it. They don’t pay you for every sale you get… they’ll pay you for SOME of the sales - then if you ask them if that was all - they’ll request you to send them the emails of the people who purchased from you. YES, I HAVE PROOF OF THIS. I even sent a few emails of a few clients who DID purchase the product, then I was paid for those… but they only paid me for (at the most) half of my sales going up to June 2007… then the sales just stopped coming in. Funny how that works, right? I leave their forums and the Affiliate Sales just disappear? The script became horrible after they released 1.5 but it seems to be getting better with 1.6 … but, as an Affiliate, STAY AWAY from phpFoX right now. They do not show you each sale you make, unlike 99.9% of all of the other worthy affiliate programs out there. They do this because they’d rather pocket the money for themselves, which is going to continue to ruin their sales.
4. Internet Marketing Gurus - I’m sorry, but 99% of the Internet Marketers out there are plain and simple JUNK peddlers. Smut Peddlers… whatever you’d like to call them. They’re out to make a quick buck off of the little guy so they can show their Sales reports to the NEXT shmuck who actually believes in their product… stay away from those guys. Their products are JUNK and OLD NEWS… This is why I stay away from The Warriors Forum — there’s too many of those clowns floating around. Most of them don’t have a clue about anything they yap about… I’ve expressed, many times, my thoughts about guys like Mike Filsaime, Kelly (whatever his name is) aka The Rich Jerk and others… it’s a big ring of circus clowns just waiting to show you the next big show. Be careful of what they “recommend” as I’m 99% sure it’s always for one of their buddies, or “JV Partners”.
5. 1and1 Hosting - yep, 1and1 gets on the list TWICE. Their hosting sucks. We purchased a Dedicated server a while back and it was.just.a.horrible.experience. Wow, even the Technical Support guy agreed with how bad we were treated and gave us a loop hole to get a refund. 1and1 is the worst company I’ve ever had to deal with.
6. Google Assassin - This was one of the most hyped products launched this year and I’ve heard NOTHING but bad things about it… I won’t lie, I even got involved with the Affiliate program and got a few sales… and a few refunds. A lot of hard work for nothing! People were either content with refunds, OK with their purchase (too new to realize) or FURIOUS with their purchase. It’s a shame… I figured this would actually be a good product.
7. More coming soon…

This list took a while to think about… there’s so many products I know I’m forgetting, but it’s hard to list them all. There’s good products that definitely need to be listed. If you have any ideas - please leave a comment!