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:

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.