Posts Tagged ‘affiliate-summit’
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.
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:
I’d post a video, but the group we were (more…)
The recent Affiliate Summit West marked the launch of the Offeratti affiliate network founded by affiliate veteran Jim Lillig.
I spoke to Jim at the sidelines of the affiliate summit, where Jim talked about:
- How he got started in affiliate marketing
- Getting involved in projects like affiliate track
- Managing the affiliate program for an MP3 site which had 1 million paid subscribers and a budget of $500,000 each month for pay per click (PPC) traffic
- How merchants can easily create marketing tools for affiliates
- PPC optimization tips for affiliates
- How you can identify quality affiliate networks and affiliate offers
- How to get approved and accepted for affiliate programs if you are an international affiliate
- Why affiliate managers should not auto-approve affiliate applications
- The launch of the Offeratti affiliate network
Check out the podcast below:
Links:
Offeratti
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 (more…)
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 (more…)
In about a week’s time, Affiliate Summit West will be in full swing in Las Vegas.
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.
I’ve known Ian Fernando for some time, talking to him over instant messenger and over the forums, so it was great to kick off the new year with inviting Ian on the Friday Podcast to talk about some of the innovative strategies he’s using for his affiliate marketing campaigns.
During the session, we talked about:
- How he got started in internet marketing, especially working 3 jobs at the time
- Some of the discoveries and lessons learned as he got started in affiliate marketing
- Ian is one of the few marketers who blogs publicly about media buying and Pay-Per-View strategies
- Which PPV networks you should take a look at
- Tips to optimize your PPV campaigns
- How to select appropriate affiliate offers for PPV campaigns
- His newest project Affpinions
- A preview of his upcoming session next week at the Affiliate Summit on “Keyword Blasting”
Check out the podcast below:
Resources:
