Amazon Associates Program Changes

A few important changes were made to the popular Amazon Associates moneymaking program. These new changes involve the way in which some moneymakers have gained traffic to Amazon to earn referral fees, as well as the use of Amazon RSS feeds. The changes will only affect Amazon Associates from North American. Here's the official email The Monetizer received earlier today:

Dear Amazon Associate:

We’re writing to let you know about a change to the Amazon Associates Program. After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you're not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.

As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.

Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Program

Google Gmail Autopilot by CADIE Released!

(Google Autopilot by CADIE)

E-mail just got a whole lot easier with the new Google Gmail Autopilot! While it's not as big a story as the recent April 1st Conflicker worm virus, Google's cool new application known as Google Autopilot is set to simplify the way you handle your daily emails. The new application designed by the web wonders will automatically create custom responses to your emails for you, because we get busy enough trying to keep up with all the emails we get.

According to the Autopilot information page, Google Autopilot will mirror your communication style when it creates responses:

The more Gmail messages Autopilot can sample, the better. With fewer than 100 messages, there may not be enough data to calibrate Autopilot effectively. You can adjust tone, typo propensity, and preferred punctuation from the Autopilot tab under Settings.

The good news is Google Autopilot also works with Gmail chat and both the sender and receiver can be using Autopilot at the same time.

In case you're wondering the designer of Google Autopilot is CADIE, or Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. You can view their official webpage here. CADIE is the cute panda graphic you see on this blogpost, and offers the capability to create web code for users in addition to this nifty new email technology.

I suggest you give Google Autopilot a try today if you're looking to make life easier and keep all your email under control! Enjoy!

Conflicker Worm Virus Removal Tools

Conficker Worm Removal Tools, do we really need them? The new virus threat known as the Conficker C computer worm is still being highly discussed. The big news story that 60 Minutes ran on this past Sunday about the computer virus seems to be causing a lot of panic amongst computer users everywhere. The news is of course that this could become some sort of April 1st Computer virus because the Symantec corporation is tracking it and warns it's "awaiting further instructions". Since it's still a few hours ahead of the big day, April 1st, 2009, people have been feverishly trying to protect themselves, either searching for conficker removal tools, running windows security updates and trying to get free McAfee Antivirus downloads on their personal computers. It's amazing how one little bit of exaggerated reporting can cause mass hysteria amongst households everywhere. The Monetizer is here to help and these simple things should put your mind at ease about this virus which may not even do anything on April 1st.

First off, if you're running Vista or using a Macintosh computer, then you're safe. If you don't use Internet Explorer for your web browsing then you're also safe, as the worm only attaches to that internet browser. You don't need to worry about rushing out to get Norton or Symantec Antivirus or contacting the conficker working group to make sure you're safe. The Conficker worm won't be on your system.

If you're running an older operating system on your computer (before Vista) and use Internet Explorer for browsing the web, I highly recommend you check for Microsoft Windows updates. According to the reports, if you haven't done an update of Windows for October of 2008, you won't have the proper security patch in place to prevent Conficker C virus.

If you want to be super safe, you're going to want to make sure your antivirus software is up to date. If you don't have any, I recommend you get antivirus software to protect your computer. My preferred software names are Kaspersky Internet Security or Trend Micro Antivirus, as both have served me well on multiple computers preventing viruses and firewall breaches with minimal intrusion into daily computing activities.

April 1st is closing in (or here), but there's no need for freaking out. Don't panic if you're using a computer with the Microsoft Vista operating system, if you're using Mozilla Firefox (and never touch I.E.), or if you use a Macintosh/Apple computer. You're safe and there's no need to panic over the "impending doom" that 60 Minutes has seemed to imply from its recent story on the Conficker computer worm.

60 Minutes Conficker Virus - Threat or Not?

While The Monetizer is mostly about making money online, I'm also interested in presenting info on technology, tips, tricks and ways to increase productivity, or in this case protect your important data/identity on your personal computer. On the Sunday March 29th, 2009 episode of the news documentary show "60 Minutes" they had an in depth report and look at the Conficker virus. Conficker is described as a fast-moving computer worm, which is apparently latching onto over 3 million computer systems worldwide but is not really inflicting any damage, yet. The only thing the virus is doing is "awaiting further instructions" which in and of itself is terrifying. According to the computer security experts, this worm is set to change course on April Fools Day, which is a day or so away. This could result in all sorts of havoc including sending spam, spreading other harmful computer viruses or bringing down websites.

The story went on to show interviews with higher-ups from Symantec (makers of Norton Antivirus) and Google. At Symantec they demonstrated the importance of having updated antivirus and antispyware software, which most people know of these days. They had an interesting simulation showing 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl using a computer, going to Facebook, and clicking on a link that she thought a friend had emailed her of a cool video clip. The link which was fake immediately gave her computer a virus. They had another computer monitor set up right next to hers which then displayed every bit of data she entered into her computer being captured on the other computer. This is the danger that is computer viruses in our modern age. The rep from Google discussed the notion that Google takes every precaution to warn internet "searchers" of potentially harmful sites that show up in search listings. Google has the warning "this site may be harmful to your computer" which shows up under some listings and then a second warning once you click to the site. After that, the Google rep said, the internet surfer is on their own.

Back to Conficker, let's make sure we have the facts straight so a mass panic doesn't start. Security experts say the people behind the virus most likely aren't looking to crash websites and damage computers because doing so would prevent them from "making money". The latest computer hackers tend to be cyber gangs looking to score by grabbing people's data such as Credit card numbers and bank account information. It's basically like their very own (highly illegal) shortcuts to internet millions. So in that regard don't worry about your computer being destroyed by Conficker, but do take your personal data and identity protection seriously.

Many of our PC's are already protected from the Conficker virus because we have the latest, greatest Antivirus Software. To be sure, it's very easy to make sure you're protected from the potentially harmful consequences. There's really 2 choices you have in fighting off the potentially harmful effects of downloading the Conficker virus:

1) Make sure you have run the most recent Windows updates for your computer. There's a security patch that Microsoft released in October 2008 which prevents Conficker. Many people don't have that important update or perhaps are running illegal copies of Windows which don't have the update. Also, it's not a bad idea to update and security software such as Antivirus Software and antispyware while you're at it to prevent other viruses.

2) Buy yourself a Macintosh. They don't get hit by viruses nearly as often as the PC's.

You can read all about the Conficker virus story at CBSNews.com.