It’s Sunday, and you know what that means…
… it’s time for some SUNDAY LINK LOVE!

We had a shortened week this time around because of the Christmas festivities, but that doesn’t mean that nothing happened! Well to be perfectly honest, it WAS a slower week as things go. With volume dropping ever lower on the stock market and the blogosphere taking a well-deserved winter festivus, we have ourselves a slower week of news to report. But before we get into the news and events, let’s hit up some weekly linkage ending December 27th, 2008:

So there we have it, this week’s top tier writers! Max from MoneyBites.com brings all the affiliates out there an important message: stop destroying your niches! A nice change of pace. :) Uber Affiliate talks about his experience with smaller traffic sources, which is always interesting stuff. Jay from Dat Money brings us an informative piece about selling your blog, and how your buyer determines the biggest aspect of your sale price. The blogoholic talks about getting more out of your comments. Finally, the Moneyac talks about how you can start link building by using free blogs.

Stock Market Update
Not a big week, but also not a good week. In this shortened trading week, the market dropped 1.7%. What does this mean? Back over a 40%+ loss on the year… it’ll be interesting to see where it all ends up, eh? Typically, a lot of new money pours into the system on January 1st and that whole first week of the year because of new gamers getting into it tax-free… heck, it’s how I did it. :razz: I feel that we are reaching an attractive buying point for the long term, and would suggest keeping a close eye on the markets. I want to see if I can bring you all a quick 2008 recap into what happened so we can all dissect this more easily.

This was really a front-loaded week in terms of news. In a nut shell, we saw another drop in oil prices, more poor economic news and some more aggressive claims from the Federal Reserve about liquidity in the system. In November, existing home sales declined 8.6%… the worst in 17 years on an annualized basis. Additionally, jobless claims hit a 26-year high, durable goods fell 1% and personal income & spending fell marginally. What is much worse, in my opinion, is that Japan’s industrial output posted its biggest drop on record in November, falling 8.1% from October. This really reveals our global economic slowdown as Japan is an export-dependent economy and simply isn’t getting the orders it needs.

A bright spot this holiday season will be Amazon.com, who said that 2008 was their best year in terms of orders to date. This is great news, but could reveal disturbing news for other retailers, as online orders seem to be taking away from the impulse-buying habits of Americans. My prediction? A lousy report from everyone buy Walmart and Amazon.com.

Blogosphere Update
So what went down in the blogging world this week? Jason from The University Kid has given up on selling his blog in the short term, and is going to load it again with articles and re-try the sell later. Our friend Richard Bonner is hitting new personal bests in affiliate marketing, way to go! Normal Joe lost a close competition to Shannon Lilly from Infected by Bugs, and had to make a post about it! Finally, Derek Salyers recorded a new podcast from the official Click Consultants Radio Show, so check that out if you are into affiliate marketing or if you want to get started on the right foot.

A lot of smaller bits of news surrounded the blogging world, as most wrote a few articles and called it off for Christmas day itself. It was a productive week, perhaps, simply because it was so relaxed. Everyone needs a week to re-charge, and I think that we got it! :)

Contest Updates and Results
First off, I ran a little promotion for a free 125×125 banner on theNetFool.com on Christmas for whoever could drop the best Christmas-related comment on me. I have taken a look at all of them, and have determined the winning comment to be: JR from GetInternetMarketingStrategies.com… congratulations and thanks so much for your awesome story! :)

Additionally, we are running a BIGGER promo here that ends at the end of the year! If you haven’t heard already, you can score an Apple iPod or a Flip Mino HD if you drop me a comment on the official post… so check out The Net Fool’s Christmas Giveaway sponsored by Market Leverage today!

- The Net Fool

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