About Andrew Wee
Andrew Wee | Blogging | Affiliate Marketing | Social Traffic Generation | Internet Marketing

BizExcellerated Internet Marketing: Achieve mastery in blogging, affiliate marketing, social traffic generation at Andrew Wee

Posts Tagged ‘missy-ward’

Can Professional and Personal Boundaries Be Easily Defined in Social Media?

Here’s an issue that experienced and aspiring social marketers will face: How to effectively balance publishing content related to your business, and your personal life on the social web. While personal content can help create a connection and rapport with your audience, it can sometimes be a double-edge sword.

In an episode of TheSpew, a business-related podcast on the GeekCast content network, I had the opportunity to discuss this issue with Missy Ward, Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg and Karen White.

While Missy and Shawn Collins are able to effectively inject personal opinions, together with the business content in their twitter streams and blog posts, some of us who’re focused towards corporate clients who are less familiar with the social media environment and operate on a more “rules-based” corporate culture, seeing someone tweet about how great “Lost” was last night or “Free Cone Day” at Ben and Jerry’s might be perplexed, confused and even get riled up because they can’t figure it out.

If you’re a consultant/trainer, there’s a split between presenting a professional image because that’s what’s expected, compared to having the free rein to say what you really think.

It was insightful hearing Lisa, Karen, Connie and Missy who are all engaged with consulting, share their experience in managing these expectations. And any social marketer can get some food for thought in handling this personal vs professional dichotomy on the social networks.

Check out TheSpew Episode #8 on GeekCast.

Geekcast Ups The Content Ante With BrandMouthing and TheSpew

New podcast network Geekcast (owned by the Affiliate Summit) looks set to be a major player in the audio content game with the recent launch of two business-related podcasts.

A minor quibble I have about the Affiliate Summit is not being able to hear presentations by the event’s co-founders Missy Ward and Shawn Collins because they’re busy presenting awards or talking to folks during the 3-day event.

In launching and leading their own new podcasts on Geekcast, this should address the appetite to hear and benefit from their expertise.

shawn collinsBrandMouthing, a new solo podcast by Shawn Collins, gives his take on branding strategies and marketing techniques that affiliates and internet marketers can employ in their own business. Usually featuring a 5-10 minute duration (the longest has been about 22 minutes thus far), the short, punchy format (with a high signal-to-noise ratio) gives immediate tips.

I’ve enjoyed Shawn’s synopsis of the Cast of Geeks/GeekyBunch sessions when his Skype recording software failed to activate (resulting in a loss of about 1+ hour of content) and the BrandMouthing podcasts likewise provide a short burst of actionable information.

missy wardTheSpew, helmed by Missy Ward, is vaguely themed after popular women-themed talkshow “The View”, with an affiliate marketing slant. Featuring prominent affiliate marketing/internet marketing veterans like Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg, Karen White, Lisa Riolo, Kim Rowley and featuring guests like Brian Littleton, Scott Jangro and others, the sessions are chock full of useful content, involving issues like the California affiliate tax, Missy’s fundraising projects, insights into the affiliate industry.

Bundled together with this, you’ll also hear about how several marketers got their start, get some insights into what makes them successful. TheSpew bunch have also thoughfully included snippets into managing a healthy work-life balancing, addressing issues like dating other members of the affiliate fraternity, networking at events and balancing parental duties with running your own internet business.

Although the sessions clock in at more than an hour, the time will probably fly by and I’ll be saving the sessions to listen to again.

I’ve certainly got a healthy fill of content and will be looking forward to more episodes from Shawn and Missy.

You can check them out at:

Listen to the previous Friday Podcast where Missy and Shawn talked about their plans for Geekcast.

Friday Podcast: Affiliate Summit – The Next Step with Missy Ward and Shawn Collins

missy wardAffiliate Summit co-founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward made a joint appearance on the Friday Podcast, giving insights into behind-the-scenes actions at Affiliate Summit, together with updates on two ongoing projects, Geekcast and FeedFront.

During our conversation, we talked about:

  • The history and growth of the Geekcast podcast network and upcoming plans
  • The expansion and growth of content on Geekcast beyond just affiliate marketing
  • Incentives and admission criteria for would-be Geekcast podcasters
  • Details and the launch of Missy’s new podcast, “The Spew”, soon to debut on Geekcast in late March
  • The addition of video content on Geekcast
  • Shawn’s tips on getting started as a podcaster
  • How to organize and structure a winning podcast
  • The growth of FeedFront magazine
  • The upcoming inclusion of AffStat data in FeedFront
  • Missy’s new involvement with the affiliate program for DIYThemes (publisher of the Thesis WordPress theme)
  • Highlights and details of the upcoming Affiliate Summit East (Aug 9-11, New York City)

shawn collinsCheck out the Friday Podcast below:

Links:

Friday Podcast: Building Your Affiliate Karma With Missy Ward

missy wardI’d hesitated about approaching Affiliate Summit co-founder Missy Ward for this series till I felt the time was right.

As an experienced affiliate professional, Missy has built up a reputation in the industry, serving in senior management positions like:

  • Director of Public Relations for Media Breakaway LLC (formerly CPA Empire, now known as affiliate.com)
  • Vice President of Partnership Marketing for eBound Strategies
  • President of Aluria Software
  • Vice-President of Marketing for Global Travel International

Some of these positions were concurrent with taking a leading role in launching and growing the Affiliate Summit conference/trade show as well as a number of fundraising intiaitives.

If you’ve had a chance to talk to Missy during one of the trade shows, you’d find that she’s personable and knowledgable. During the course of our discussion, I got to know Missy better, including:

  • How she got involved in affiliate marketing
  • The formation of the Affiliate Summit and it’s goals and growth over the years
  • How she got involved with fundraising activities, concurrently growing her affiliate business
  • A preview of upcoming Affiliate Summit conferences and related events
  • The guerilla marketing strategies used to promote the summit (merchants and affiliate networks can take a leaf out of Missy and Shawn’s playbook)
  • Missy’s video blogging and promotion strategies
  • A number of inspirational moments from the recent Affiliate Summit
  • Key updates involving projects like Geekcast.fm, a new podcast in the making, Missy’s return to affiliate management and the revamped AffStat affiliate industry survey

Check out the hour long podcast, chock-full of content below:

Resources:

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

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.

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.

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 (more…)

Are You Tough Enough For Affiliate Summit West 2009?

Affiliate Summit co-founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward present innovative events in conjunction with their signature Affiliate Summit events. They organized an affiliate road rally when I was in Las Vegas earlier this year, with about 20 affiliates and networks taking part. It was truly radio control mayhem as our radio signals crossed and cars, trucks and other vehicles careened into the human drivers and into the wall.

This time round, the next Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas will feature an Affiliate Triathlon, billed as “designed for affiliate marketers by affiliate marketers”. As affiliate marketing gives most successful affiliates the option to eat and sleep as much as they can comfortably tolerate, the tendency is to put on a little weight around the waist, thighs, face, etc. (With the exception of a couple of notables like Shawn, Missy, Heather Paulson, Ros Gardner, Amit Mehta, Chad Frederiksen, John Hasson, Nickycakes – who are the healthier minority among the affiliate majority).

All proceeds from the event go to charity, which will include the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It’ll be a fun event for sure, though I’m hoping Shawn will give more details. Maybe this year, we’ll see Heather in her bikini at the Rio pool taking on all challengers?

Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins on his preferred mode of transport

Affiliate Summit West 2009 will be from Jan 11-13 in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Get your tickets early to avoid disappointment.

Tip: Use promo code ASW09WHOISAW to save 10% off any type of pass