There’s a ruckus in the social marketing space with some analysts like Jeremiah Owyang talking about the repercussions (mostly negative) about embedding affiliate links in social media (Twitter for example), while internet marketers like Shawn Collins, Linda Buquet and Lisa Barone basically saying that going the additional step of labelling every affiliate link with a (aff) as being pretty silly/stupid. So what’re we supposed to take away from this? Can affiliate link disclosure go too far?
Brian Clark has also stepped in with the legal perspective on what’s kosher and what’s not, when it comes to “word of mouth marketing” AKA social media.
So taking a look at social media for a moment, the medium is very personality-based – we follow individuals (or maybe Britney Spears’ manager firing out tweets on her behalf), and hence there’s greater (more…)
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.
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BrandMouthing, 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.
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TheSpew, 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.
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I’ve certainly got a healthy fill of content and will be looking forward to more episodes from Shawn and Missy.
Affiliate 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)
Hegemony (from Wikipedia): is a concept that has been used to describe and explain the dominance of one social group over another, such that the ruling group or hegemon acquires some degree of consent from the subordinate, as opposed to dominance purely by force.
Though Rae mentioned the issue last September, SEO specialist Todd Malicoat AKA Stuntdubl tweeted about it yesterday, together with some choice thoughts:
i mean – do you really believe that twitter links are passing NO credibility, NO juice, NO nothing…?? just like wikipedia ….riiiiiiight.
maybe implement a sandbox for new users
certain threshhold until they are trusted enough to get into a non-robots.txt directory
why not utilize robots.txt solution…instead of nofollow?
i guess nofollow in general just gets me riled up and pissed off
What would happen if twitter got rid of the nofollow on all links? How would it affect the web?
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:
One of the perks of heading to Affiliate Summit West at the Rio hotel this coming January is the opportunity to meet the various guests on the Friday Podcast, some for the 1st time and some of the 10th time.
Next on the list would be the terrific networking events and parties, especially the near legendary ones hosted by the ShareASale affiliate network, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get to bring home a polaroid with SAS founder Brian Littleton in his trademark sweatervests.
This isn’t to say that the sessions are to be unrated. (more…)