Monthly Archives: January 2008

Will Amazon Make A Splash In The Question and Answer Market?

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If you’ve visited the online retailer Amazon (they’ve gone way beyond books and CDs and DVDs for quite some time), you’d notice their foray into a new area with their “Askville” site.

askville amazon

Askville is a site where users can ask questions and get answers.

It’s a little different from similar sites out there with a “ranking” (level?) system for users, and there’s an opportunity to earn “gold”. Additionally there’s shopping engine features built in with product recommendation.

Do contributors earn commissions or “gold” if readers buy the recommended product?

I’ll need to delve deeper into the site to get the answers.

But since late last year, internet users have been asking, “Is Amazon’s Askville just another Yahoo! Answers”?

yahoo answers

Yahoo! Answers is also a community centered around user generated questions and answers, and participants get to vote for the best answer. Being an earlier product, it doesn’t Continue reading →

Affiliate Summit West 2008: Where Is Andrew Wee?

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Thank you for your emails, following the last Friday Podcast with Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins, I’ve been asked where I’ll be during Affiliate Summit (and maybe more importantly where the hot parties are at…).

I’ve created a temporary page listing my schedule (which will change over time) and the summit highlights.

You can take a look at:

–> Andrew Wee’s Affiliate Summit West schedule

Going by the last summit I attended, I met Scott Jangro and Geordie Carswell just once during the entire 3 days.

I hung out mostly with the WickedFire affiliate marketing forum folks.

You will meet so many people at one point that it will seem like a blur and it’s only after going through the business cards that you’ll recall who you met.

So if you would like to meet and talk to someone during the summit, it’d be a good idea to either:

  • Private message them on their Facebook profile
  • Contact them using the contact form on their blog
  • Attend the session they’ll be speaking at.
  • Head to one of the smaller events like Affiliate Classroom Live, Gospel Brunch, the Affiliate Dinner
  • Arrange to meet at one of the parties and try to find each other from the hundreds of people there…

Else, it could be a hit-and-miss affair, especially with more than 2,500 people registered for the event.

Forewarned is forearmed…

Heather Paulson Challenges Affiliate Fit Club To Swimsuit Showdown

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heather paulsonOn the lighter side of things, Heather Paulson (right) has issued a challenge to a group of prominent affiliate marketers and managers that could be one of the highlights of Affiliate Summit West.

Heather is a ReveNews writer/blogger who interviewed me for her “Internet Expansion Into Asia” piece last November, as well as founder and president of internet marketing consultancy and outsourced affiliate program manager, Paulson Management Group.

Heather has thrown down the gauntlet to the members of the Affiliate Fit Club, two teams of affiliates and affiliate members who were aiming to compete and lose weight by Affiliate Summit West a la “The Biggest Loser” format.

The members include veterans like Shawn Collins, Jim Kukral, Wade Tonkin, Karen Garcia, Lisa Riolo and Wade Sisson.

affiliate fit club

The affiliate fit club had been an inspriation to me, especially since working in front of a computer every day and not getting out much has meant the scale has hovered at 192 lbs for quite some time (especially after having great eats in the US each time I’m there for a seminar or event).

I’ve started swimming for about 20 minutes a couple of times a week (you need to get at least 20 minutes of rigorous exercise to get the metabolic rate into its “fat burning” phase.) and have lost about 5 lbs over the last week.

I’m definitely game to take part in it, if it opens up again. I’m highly competitive, so I’ll be in to win!

So it was pretty inspirational to hear that Heather has lost about 35 lbs (possibly more since the last Affiliate Summit – I’m not sure if she meant ASW last Feb or Affiliate Summit East in Miami last July). In any case, 35 lbs is very impressive!

She’s also thrown down this challenge:

And I’m sure she’ll be pretty smoking in a swimsuit.

Shawn’s mentioned that he’ll be Continue reading →

Friday Podcast: How Affiliate Summit West Can Bring Your Business To The Next Level

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This week I had an opportunity to discuss the power of networking at live events with Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins.

shawn collins and jack collins

Shawn Collins (left) with new Affiliate Summit intern Jack Collins

Shawn is one of the most experienced and friendliest contacts I have made since getting involved in affiliate marketing and I appreciate the fact that he’s a friend whom I consult over IM and through the email.

It was great to hear how Shawn got started in affiliate marketing in 1997 as an affiliate for Amazon, and how he’s progressed to founding the Affiliate Summit seminar/tradeshow with Missy Ward, manages the Affiliate Tip blog, Authored “Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants”, his annual AffStat report, the weekly Affiliate Thing weekly podcast co-hosted with Revenue magazine editor Lisa Picarille, an Affiliate Manager forum and probably 100 other projects, including one which will be launched soon.

Here’re some of the topics we discussed:

  • How to get value out of attending seminars and events (as opposed to staying home and reading blogs and forums)
  • Important things you should do BEFORE and AFTER attending an event
  • How to catch all the conferences free
  • How to gain an unfair networking advantage at ASW
  • How to get free consulting from industry veterans and experts at the event

The podcast can be accessed below:

[display_podcast]

46 mins 36 secs : 22 mb

Affiliate Summit West is from Feb 24-26 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. Last year the tickets ran out and scalpers were having a field day on eBay.

And Shawn has given a special Affiliate Summit coupon code for my blog readers “ANDREW10” which will give you a 10% discount off your tickets.

Here’s the registration link: Affiliate Summit West.

Get your tickets early to avoid disappointment, and if you’re headed for ASW, I look forward to seeing you there.

Is Blog Commenting Obsolete? Some Ideas on Social Marketing

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On any given day, my blog comment spam filter throws more than 500 spammy blog comments into the digital trashbin.

I go through the remainder, and too a whole bunch more in as well. These are typically with the sender’s “website” listed as a squidoo lens with the lens title something along the lines of “/instant-money-bonanza” or “/5second-millionaire” and inevitably leads to a spammy/scammy page with a $27 ebook teaching you how to make $1,000,000 in your sleep, while sipping a margarita.

Right…

So if so many blog comments are ending up in the trash, especially if you have a vigilant editorial team checking the comment moderation queue, is it even worth taking the time to submit one?

puzzled

Let’s expand this a little wider and include forums and social networking/conversation sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and even Yahoo! Groups too.

The primary goal in social marketing is to Continue reading →

Is The New Pepperjam Network Right For You?

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You’ve probably seen quite a bit of coverage for the newly launched Pepperjam Network (PJN for short) a new affiliate /CPA network launched by Pepperjam, a full service internet marketing agency.

Will you bring your affiliate income to the next level by promoting PJN affiliate programs?

pepperjam network

More on that shortly, but rather than repeat the information that other bloggers have highlighted, you can read write-ups and view videos at:

Having been an early tester for PJN since its beta stage, I’ve seen the fledgling network (with a great pedigree) go through its early development stages, but the questions for most affiliates is: Does it deliver on it’s promise of an “Affiliate Marketing 2.0” network?

With about 100 merchants under its belt and have recruited a number of star Super Affiliates to promote its programs, Pepperjam will be focusing on building up its merchant and affiliate support and promotion efforts in the coming months. You can likewise expect to see an impressive booth at the Affiliate Summit West next month.

I’ve spoken to Pepperjam Affiliate Marketing Director Robyn Jones a number of times about the affiliate programs they’ve managed and you can see many of these programs, previously listed at Commission Junction and the other major networks now offered on PJN.

I have faced a number of issues with affiliate cookies not lodging correctly on some of the major networks (with sometimes less than enthusiastic support in pursuing these lost sales), and PJN’s affiliated-focused approach means that you have a higher chance of ensuring that your marketing efforts are accurately compensated. (eg. less “lost” sales).

The panel to search for merchant programs and get affiliate links is similar to other tier-1 affiliate networks, as is the ability to tag Sub IDs to your links for better tracking.

I believe the design of the program has a lot to do with Pepperjam head honcho’s experience as a PPC marketer and incorporates a number of PPC-friendly tracking and analytics features.

One of the interesting features of PJN is Continue reading →