Let’s start this post of with one of the most important questions you can ask any web site, business or blog… do you have a logo for your business? If you do, then you are on the right track… if not, then you are missing out on a massive branding tool that could be working for you every single day of your life! I’ve written about the importance of having a killer logo many times on this blog and through a partnership with DesignCrowd, we are going to award one of our readers with a killer $400 logo package to get you and your blog on the right track!

Why You and Your Brand Need a Great Logo Design!

Before we jump into the contest promotion, we should first stress the importance of why you need to have a killer logo design. Even before reading this, I’m sure you took a glance at the designs below. I’m also sure that some of the designs stood out more than others. This is an example of the importance of logo design in itself.

In the world of online marketing you only have a second or two to leave a lasting impression. If you have a great logo design that can tell what your business does and leave an impression in the minds of your viewers, you are getting the job done. If not, then it is definitely time you looked into creating a new logo.

Just think about some of the most famous brands in the world and how their logos speak volumes and some of them don’t even have words on them. Take Apple’s logo for example… it’s become a recognized symbol through out the world for quality, excellence and technology… yet it is just an apple with a bite out of it.

What can a logo do for your business and branding? View some of the current design contests running right now for more ideas and inspiration.

Designing Your Next Logo Through Crowd Sourcing

A growing trend in the design and content creation space is to ditch the one shop design agencies that charge a lot of money and only provide you with a few draft designs to choose from. The new way to get results is through the use of crowd sourcing and creating design contests through sites like DesignCrowd.

The concept is simple… you come up with a design idea (logo, site, tshirts, flyers etc.), write up a few details about your design and company or service, then thousands of designers on the site will get to work on creating new and original designs for you to choose from. (see examples) Instead of having just one design team work on your logo, you will have a whole army of designers and hundreds of drafts to choose from.

Contest Time! Win a $400 Logo Design Package!

As mentioned earlier, we have partnered up with DesignCrowd to offer our readers the chance to walk away with a sweet $400 logo design package! It doesn’t matter if you have a logo already, looking to upgrade to a better design or completely clueless about what logo you should have for your site… you need to enter this excellent promotion!

It’s ridiculously easy to enter, all you need to do is fill out this short form on the DesignCrowd site which is an entry form for ZacJohnson.com readers only, which means you have a really great chance at winning the contest!

It’s really tough to create a new web site and break into a niche where there are already big and successful sites. When my friend Joe Daley said he was going to create LogoMyWay.com, a marketplace for graphic designers, I thought the idea was great, but knew he would have a lot of trouble competing with other big sites in this market like 99Designs. That was over a year ago, and now LogoMyWay is killing it, and also one of my favorite sites for having logo design work done.

Joe is currently in second place for a Kodak Home Office Prosper Contest and the first place winner takes home a $25,000 prize. Joe has a great story and a killer site, so he deserves to win the contest, so I’d surely help him in his efforts to win this contest, and would like for you to do the same. Here’s how you can help, and possibly win a free t-shirt in the process!

Step 1 – Vote for Joe Daley
(Visit page, click vote, then confirm email)

Step 2 – Leave a Comment on this Post Stating you Voted.

Ten winners will randomly be selected from comments made on this blog post to receive a free t-shirt from this blog. Winners will be contacted and posted on October 10th. Good luck to both you and Joe!

Earlier this week I received my copy of Internet Marketing from the Real Experts from Amazon. If you were at Affiliate Summit West 2010, you most likely already have a copy, as 4,000 copies were handed out to attendees. In short, the book is made from collection of articles and interviews from FeedFront magazine.

“Internet Marketing from the Real Experts” was written by Shawn Collins and Missy Ward, the founders of Affiliate Summit. For anyone who has never been able to make the event, picking up a copy of this book would give you a better understanding of what affiliate marketing is about, and who attends these conferences.

If you are already familiar with the industry, you will see many recognizable names in the book, including; Gary Vaynerchuck, Ted Murphy, Chris Brogan, Jeremy Schoemaker and myself… with three different articles in the book. Articles cover everything from social marketing, email marketing, and blogging to design. You won’t find a map to making money online, but you will find some inspiring and motivational stories to get your mind going. Each article is 2-3 pages long, so it’s a great read for anyone who doesn’t like long reading.

Affiliate Summit is always doing what they can to raise money for charities. With the release of their new book, another chance to raise money was on their mind. All proceeds from the sale of the book go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

I just ordered another set of copies of the book through Amazon. A few copies for friends and family, and another eight to pass along to my blog readers. If you don’t want to wait, the book is  currently 32% off on Amazon, which brings the cost to $14.93. For those of you who are feeling lucky, enter this weekly contest where two copies will be given away each week. All you need to do is place a comment, or retweet this post… or increase your chances of winning by doing both.

How to Enter:
1.) Retweet this post on Twitter.

RT @moneyreign Win a Copy of Internet Marketing from the Real Experts http://tinyurl.com/yzcuj8d

2.) Leave a comment on this page.

Winner Selection:
February 26th: Chris Park, John Rampton
March 5th: PPC Icon, Bob Buskirk
March 12th: tGraphic, Colby
March 19th:

Rules: Simply leave a comment on the post, retweet this page, or do both. One “twitter” winner and one “comment” winner be selected each week, on the dates shown above. I will ship anywhere. No purchase necessary.

Good luck!

Last month I wrote a post on Good and Bad Branding and how much of a waste it can be for companies. The majority of companies out there will slap their logo on anything, then order 10,000 products that no one will ever use. Affiliate.com put this concept to the test at this year’s Affiliate Summit West and went the extra mile to try and make a shirt people will actually wear after they leave the event.

With overwhelming feedback while at the event, Affiliate.com wants to keep the testimonials alive by holding a contest for $1,000 cash to any blogger that enters and writes about wearing their Affiliate.com shirt after the event. (improve your chances of winning by including a photo) The incentive to win $1,000 cash is great, but Affiliate.com is also going the extra mile to donate an additional $1,000 to the Haiti Red Cross Relief Fund. (full details below).

Official Contest Rules
- Contest runs from today, 2/1 through 2/22.
- Entrants simply need to blog about the shirt (hopefully including a photo, but not required) and send the link to Tom@affiliate.com to enter.
- A winner will be announce on 3/1.

Good luck and don’t forget to join Affiliate.com if you haven’t already.

Let’s be honest… no one loves your company and logo more than yourself! And that’s the way it should be… but how can companies better brand themselves and save money on wasted schwag. With Affiliate Summit coming to a close, and a massive load of money spent on promotional schwag and tshirts, it’s a good time to look back and at the good the bad and the ugly. How many times were you given a tshirt from a network that is just hideous and will only be used as a rag or night shirt? It happens all the time. As bad as some tshirts might be, they are still not as bad as half of the schwag handed out that is immediately tossed.

If you are going to order 10,000 shirts, stickers, mousepads or anything else… make sure you spend a lot of time doing research that it’s something people will actually wear/use and not just toss it into the trash after they pass your booth. To get a good idea of different types of promotional items and signs you can get custom printed, take a look at the selection at Signazon.com. Knowing what’s out there before you spend a ton of money on promotional items is the best first step to take.

Over the past several Affiliate Summits and marketing conferences, I usually end up tossing all of the schwag and promotional items into a box in my office room closet. Below you can see just a portion of what’s been collected over the years.

Mouse pads, high quality pens and USB plugs are always good items for keeps, but the same can’t be said about most of what is handed out. Tshirts can also be a good use of promotion, if they are done nicely. Go for the higher quality shirt, stay away from white and try to make something people would like to wear in public. As much as you want people to know your domain name, slapping your huge logo in the middle might not create a shirt that many people want to wear.

One example of a tshirt that was done effectively was Affiliate.com. The tshirts below were handed out during Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. Not only did they create a tshirt for both men and women, but the front of it doesn’t look like an affiliate / branded shirt at all. The back view is where the branding is at, and it’s not completely in your face, but still gets the message across.

Billionaire Marc Cuban says the following about schwag: “NEVER EVER EVER buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, its ok to buy for your own folks, but if you really think someone is going to wear your Yobaby.com polo you sent them in public, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money.”

While I agree with Marc Cuban for the most part, it’s still a lot of fun to have product with your name and company on them. Don’t stop buying shirts and schwag to hand out, just make sure it’s actually something people will want to take home.

What are some of the BEST and WORST tshirts/schwag you’ve seen from affiliate and internet marketing companies?