Category Archives: affiliate marketing

Affiliate Video Marketing Strategies From Affiliate Summit West 2009

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One of the standout sessions from Affiliate Summit West 2008 was the video marketing panel comprising AskTheBuilder’s Tim Carter, Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuk, Metacafe’s Brian McCarthy and Buy.com’s Melissa Salas moderating.

melissa salas

Buy.com’s director of affiliate marketing Melissa Salas

This year’s session similarly featured Continue reading →

Affiliate Summit West 2009 In Pics and Words (Part 1)

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Shawn Collins and Missy Ward have consistently put on a great Affiliate Summit since I first started going to them in 2006. This year was no different and if you’re an affiliate, consultant or network, the show serves as a great opportunity to network and get a pulse on the trends in the industry.

It was worth the 20 hour plane ride each way, and despite the somewhat hefty tax expense, the benefits far outweighed the time and resources to get there.

This is a first in a series of posts, more to come.

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Pre-Affiliate Summit

Getting to the summit is a good idea, especially with some flights being delayed and having a chance to do some chillaxing before the event. I did some shopping at the premium outlets outlet mall and met up that night with Kim Rowley and Jon Levine.

kim rowley

At most conferences and seminars, I usually learn more from talking to other affiliates about their sites and projects, compared to the formal sessions (unless it’s a brand new area/topic for me).

So we went for drinks and it was interesting to hear about how the program that Jon is managing was put together.

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Day 1: Sun 11 Jan

I was pleasantly suprised outside the conference rooms by Shawn Collins who danced a welcome jig:

shawn collins

I’d post a video, but the group we were Continue reading →

Affiliate Summit West 2009 Coming To An End…

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I’m in the PPC Super Affiliate session comprising Amit Mehta, Colin McDougall, Ros Gardner on the panel and Anik Singal moderating.

From the sessions I’ve attended and attendees I’ve spoken to, there seems to be a sizable contingent of new affiliate marketers (with less than a year’s experience) attending the show.

If you’re in this group, here’re my tips for getting the value after the show.

  • Connect with experienced affiliates: Find out if they have twitter accounts or blogs (here’s my twitter account). Build a relationship, read the content they’ve already published. This creates a better impression than sending a direct message or email with the request “please teach me affiliate marketing”.
  • Take advantage of resources: I had a chance to sit down with Wil Reynolds and he mentioned that all his resources are listed at Delicious. Check them out.
  • Take action: No magic beans were being given away at the show, on the tradeshow floor, or at the parties. Sorry. You need to take action, and you will get results.

Most importantly, have fun while you’re at it.

Making The Merchant-Affiliate Relationship Work

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I spoke to Amazon Product Manager Zahid Khan at their booth in the halls at the sidelines of Affiliate Summit West.

Internet marketer Steve Schaffer who was also at the booth mentioned that Amazon’s lack of analytics was hampering the efforts of affiliates.

Amazon affiliates will realized that tracking is limited to a maximum of 200 tracking IDs (which need to be created through the affiliate panel), preventing the insertion of tracking IDs.

PPC affiliates or other affiliates which dynanimically insert tracking data within the Sub ID field will find their marketing efforts seriously hampered by this.

The feedback from Zahid was that “affiliates have not requested this”.

What?

I’m not sure if Amazon is seriously listening to this, but I don’t think they are actively soliciting affiliate feedback to enhance their systems. The end result is that a growth in affiliate revenue will benefit the company.

Routinely conducting affiliate polls or focused interviews would seem to Continue reading →

The Affiliate Summit 2009 Survival Guide, Session Picks And Party Party

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I’m triple-barreling this post, which will also serve as a reminder of the sessions I’m planning to attend.

First the survival element:

  • Bring business cards, especially if you’d like to drop your name in the running to win a Wii, Xbox, gift card or other incentive the networks are offering. (also known as “offline lead generation”). If you’re selective, I’d think 30-50 business cards are enough. If you’re aggressively giving them out, leaving them on tables, etc, you’d probably need about 10 boxes (1,000 cards).
  • Be warm: The weather is pretty cool at this time of the year, bring a jacket if you’re going out in the evenings
  • Prep yourself: Prepare a 30 second pitch of what you do and your type of traffic generation, you’ll likely be repeating yourself walking the show floor, attending sessions, at parties, etc. Save the life story if someone is really interested, else a 15-30 second “elevator pitch/synopsis” will suffice.
  • Comfortable shoes are a must: Walking shoes: wear them. Your feet will thank you at the end of the day.
  • Hydrate yourself: “Las Vegas Throat” is a condition that strikes some, especially with the dry desert air and occasional shouting you’ll have to do. Drink lots of water (or honey and lemon if you can get ahold of it). Else you risk losing your voice at the end of day 1 or 2.
  • Max out your carrying capacity: If you’re planning to collect schwag from every exhibitor, you might want to bring a backpack as you’re walking the halls, else you could be weighed down. I think Market Leverage might be rolling out their Cashinator machine, where you grab dollar bills in a vortex of flying money. Good for a few bucks, better for more laughs.

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If you’d like to check out the comprehensive list of sessions, check out the Affiliate Summit agenda.

For parties, Jangro’s “Party A Day” Guide.

For some recommends sessions Angel’s Top 5 ASW09 session picks.

Here’s my session and party guide:

Day 1 (Sun Jan 11 2009):

Meet Market (noon till 6pm, location: Pavilion 8-11): A 1-day meet-and-greet session. You’ll think you can breeze through this area in about an hour, but the reality is that it’ll probably be about 3 hours and you’d have barely made it through half the tables. It’s a good opportunity to Continue reading →

Do You Have A Question For The Affiliate Panel?

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In about a week’s time, Affiliate Summit West will be in full swing in Las Vegas.

affiliate marketing panel

Affiliate Bloggers Speak Out Panelists: (Left to Right) Nickycakes, Geordie Carswell, Miles Baker

I’ve the honor of moderating an affiliate marketers panel with panelists: Geordie Carswell, NickyCakes and Miles Baker in attendance.

The session is geared towards newer and experienced marketers who’d like to tap on the expertise of the panel which spans search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, social media and blogging.

The panelists and I are compiling questions for the session.

If you’ve a question or issue, go ahead and list it in the comments below.