On the sidelines of PPC Classroom Live in Vegas last month, I got a chance to talk to affiliate industry veteran Rachel Honoway.
Rachel has been in the industry since 1997, starting as an intern at KowaBunga! Technologies, maker of the MyAffiliateProgram (myAP) affiliate tracking and management platform, and following it’s acquisition by Think Partnershi, was promoted to VP of marketing and client services.
Most recently, Rachel has taken on the portfolio Vice-President, Marketing at Anik Singal’s Affiliate Classroom.
Besides speaking at numerous tradeshows and seminars, Rachel’s an excellent resource for affiliate management.
I invited Rachel to come on the Friday Podcast and got her thoughts on a number of issues that merchants and affiliate networks would need to factor in their affiliate programs.
Some of the issues we discussed included:
Changes in the affiliate marketing industry
Key trends to look out for this year, especially in the convergence of affiliate marketing techniques
Structuring an affiliate program, especially if deciding to go along the affiliate marketing, pay per lead, revenue share or cost per impression route
Most interesting is Affiliate Classroom’s new ACCertified program which Rachel is spearheading and will see a launch of sorts at the upcoming Affiliate Summit West with the Affiliate Classroom Live workshop on Saturday 23rd February.
The event features affiliate industry veterans like Lisa Riolo, Heather Paulson, Schaaf Consulting’s Stephanie Harris and Bryan Rhodes, Ned Farra from Zappos and Steven Lerch, Todd Farmer and John Vehlewald of Think Partnership’s KowaBunga! and PrimaryAds Networks.
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.
On 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.
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.
This week I had an opportunity to discuss the power of networking at live events with Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn 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
On 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.
