Affiliate marketing veteran Jason Rubacky has moved to the ShareASale affiliate network and came on the Friday Podcast to talk about some of the business developments that are in the works at the network.
In his new role as Affiliate Development Manager, Jason will be recruiting established affiliates into the network and helping them integrate affiliate programs from SAS merchants.
Jason also talked about:
His intiatives to ramp up the affiliate education elements and a tutorial system he’s working on
Enhancements to the SAS merchant’s product datafeeds
Availability of new business models, such as Pay-Per-Call
B. Knoblach, better known as “BillyKay” is a prominent personality on the affiliate marketing forums like ABestWeb and AffSpot.
As an affiliate marketing veteran, he’s been in the business since 1989 and has learned a lot along the way, mostly through trial and error, to the point of owning his flagship site: The Mail Order Shoppe and several successful niche affiliate sites.
Coupled with a quick wit and ready smile, BillyKay’s one of the friendliest personalities in the industry and a quick business mind to boot (plus some skill at video poker).
So even though we’d bumped into each other at the Affiliate Summit, I’d been looking forward to having a chance with him to discover:
How he first got involved in affiliate marketing
How he researches and develops unique angles to market his products
Incorporating the concept of scarcity and urgency in his affiliate promotions
His experience as a merchant and examples of successful affiliates promoting his programs
Tips for successful networking and build your affiliate expertise
Have you looked at the lucractive world of affiliate marketing for sport franchises and sport-related marketing? Football Fanatics affiliate manager Jason Rubacky came on the Friday Podcast to talk about the wide range of products available under his company’s banner and tips and techniques to successfully promote these items.
During the Friday Podcast, we touched on:
Jason’s experience as an affiliate and affiliate manager
How Football Fanatics got started and it’s position as a leader in the sport affiliate marketing field
Information on the Football Fanatics affiliate program and it’s listing on Commission Junction, ShareASale and it’s in-house program
Upcoming enhancements to it’s partner manager (affiliate) interface
In addition to football, you can also promote hockey, surfing, NASCAR and MMA (mixed martial arts) products
How to effectively generate traffic for your sports affiliate site
Pro teams vs College teams: which drive more traffic, and importantly, have greater profit potential
We covered quite a bit of ground during the interview, check out the podcast below:
ShareASale’s Director of Client Services Carolyn Tang AKA Catango is one of the most pleasant and knowledgeable individuals in the industry and it was a pleasure to talk to her at the SaS booth, even though there were lots of people there.
As a tradeshow visitor, I’ve got more than my fair share of t-shirts, notepads, pens, paper weights and stationery to last 2.5 lifetimes. I liked how SaS did a little out of the box thinking to provide a photobooth where affiliates took some crazy pics (I’ll post mine later), and thoughtfully gave out baby T-shirts and bears. For affiliates with families or significant others, they’ll likely be seeing the SaS logo on a teddy bear or baby T for some time to come. (a good thing).
It was cool hanging out with top affiliates Colin “Google” McDougall and Ros Gardner over dinner at the Nobu Japanese restaurant at the Hard Rock for the private launch of Jim Lillig’s Offeratti network.
Considering that Colin doesn’t take raw food, it’s a testament to the great food at Nobu that Colin was enjoying the sashimi with the rest of us during the meal. It was also interesting to hear Colin tell his stories about his towed trailer that he rolls out for holidays. And if you’re looking for inspiration as you’re working towards your ideal affiliate lifestyle, Ros has bought a lot of nice toys/trinkets to enjoy the fruits of her labor.
It was great to meet affiliate network Market Leverage‘s marketing manager Dina Riccobono after talking to her over IM and being interviewed for MLTV late last year.
Market Leverage has a proactive outreach and affiliate recruitment program and it’s refreshing to see a network take the intiative in getting to know affiliates. They hosted a dinner at Switch at the Encore hotel, with Market Leverage CEO Mike Jenkins in attendance. It was a great opportunity to talk to affiliate managers Mike Kelly and Jen Fluker to get insight into how affiliate managers operate.
At the dinner, Mike announced the launch of Market Leverage’s greenlinks program, which provides links to video-based affiliate training from the ML website interface.
Jen Goode, better known as JGoode, headed the Affiliate Summit mentors program and did a great job (I believe there were more than 100 mentees in the program). I also had a picture taken with the penguin and nearly kidnapped him. Ah well, maybe next time.
With Jon Fisher AKA AOJon , founder of the WickedFire affiliate marketing forum. I started making these “gang signs” because a number of the “affiliate gangstas” started making them.
Before the panel discussion on Affiliate Strategies for Traffic Generation and Sales Conversion on the first day of the summit with Miles Baker, Geordie Carswell, Nickycakes.
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:
Affiliate marketing veteran Jason Rubacky has moved to the ShareASale affiliate network and came on the Friday Podcast to talk about some of the business developments that are in the works at the network.
B. Knoblach, better known as “BillyKay” is a prominent personality on the affiliate marketing forums like ABestWeb and AffSpot.
Have you looked at the lucractive world of affiliate marketing for sport franchises and sport-related marketing? Football Fanatics affiliate manager Jason Rubacky came on the Friday Podcast to talk about the wide range of products available under his company’s banner and tips and techniques to successfully promote these items.
I invited affiliate network ShareASale Director of Client Services, Carolyn Tang, on the Friday Podcast this week to get her thoughts on: