Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Archives for April 2007

Revenue Magazine Session: Leveraging Lifetime Customer Value into eCommerce Gains

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Here is the panel I was on at ad:tech 2007 in San Franicsco, “Revenue Magazine Session: Leveraging Lifetime Customer Value into eCommerce Gains.”

revenue-magazine-session

Today’s modern marketer already knows that embracing customers will bring business rewards. Join Lisa Picarille, Editor-in-Chief of Revenue magazine, as she leads a discussion with major brands about how companies can transfer CRM information into more marketing opportunities and increase their eCommerce efforts.

This panel looks at how you can share the information within your business, what specific statistics you can use to increase sales, and how you can use simple technologies can help capture CRM data to boost your online bottom-line.

Left to right:

  • Brian Platter, GM of Home Delivery, Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc.
  • Jay Webster, General Manager, BlueLithium Performance Network
  • Rene Bonvanie, Senior VP and GM, App Exchange and Developer Relations, Salesforce.com
  • Lisa Picarille, Editor-in-Chief, Revenue magazine (Moderator)
  • Shawn Collins, Co-founder, Affiliate Summit

Monetize YouTube with Google AdSense

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There’s lots of buzz about video being so hot and affiliates are trying to figure out how they can cash in on it. There is a site where you can create your own video community and generate revenue through Google Adsense and Revver called Magnify.net.

affiliate-video

Magnify sites include several types of advertising messages:

  • Text Links and Banner Ads Magnify shows contextual advertising messages in the margins of some pages.
  • Integrated Advertising Some videos syndicated from third-party hosting services contain integrated advertising. (For example, videos hosted by Revver include an advertisement after the end of the video.)
  • Video Pre-Roll A few Magnify sites are currently testing a pre-roll offering that plays a 10-30 second video advertisement before some video views.

Magnify.net provides upload, storage, and bandwidth free, and the revenue share on advertising is 50/50.

I recently met Steve Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify Networks, and he gave a quick summary of Magnify.net. So I’ll let him explain…

It’s really simple – if you’re thinking about putting video on your Web site, and you’re thinking I need an uploader, I need a page, I need someplace to store video, I need a way to organize it and a way to deliver it, basically what Magnify has done is bundled together all of those products into one package. So anyone who has an existing Web site can build a channel using Magnify really quickly. Or if you don’t have your own Web site, you can use Magnify to build your own video channel. The idea is that it’s simple, it’s free, it’s fun, and we have a great community off developers, so there are always new templates and ways to explore the service. it’s been growing really nicely, so you should play with it.

I’ve been using Magnify for a while for the Affiliate Summit Video Channel, and just the other day I created Affiliate Tip TV on there. I literally created it in minutes.

Lots of features with this system, including the ability to include blog posts and a video upload for a video blog, widgets to promote your video channel, easily customized templates, integration of the popular video hosts like YouTube and MySpace, site statistics, and RSS feeds.

Check it out at magnify.net.

Ask Shawn Collins: Cost to Get Started as an Affiliate

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Q: How can an affiliate be expected to start creating sites (each domain/hosting is around $100 for 2 years) when a profit has not even been generated from the first site? I was thinking I would launch ten domains each selling different products.

Shawn CollinsA: One thing I’d like to correct with your cost estimate is that it doesn’t have to be that expensive.

You can get a shared hosting account from a variety of hosting companies and you can put all of your domains on the same plan.

One of the hosts I use is 1&1 Internet, and they’ve got a package called the 1&1 Developer plan for less than $20/month.

With this plan, you get five domain registrations, as well as 600 sub-domains and 200 external domains. the plan also gives 300 GB of space, 4,000 e-mail accounts, and a whole laundry list of other features.

Anyhow, you’re looking at less than $250 for a year of hosting and five domain registrations. If you wanted to have ten sites, you can register domains for less than $10 each.

So you’re looking at less than $300 for hosting and registration for up to ten domains for a year.

It's Not All About the Benjamins

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The culture of Internet marketing is sometimes warped. When reading some message boards and blogs, I get the impression that too much is never enough for many.

I was reminded of this ethos recently when I declined an opportunity to speak at a conference, because I have plans for a family vacation at the same time.

The response I got from the organizer…

Vacation, or great money making opportunities, hmmm… which would I switch? The show is 120 days away… can’t change your vacation plans?

I reiterated my “no thanks.”

I’ve got to admit that I have been guilty in the past of focusing too much on work. I still do sometimes. But in the grand scheme, I’m working on a paradigm shift to work smarter, not harder.

Affiliate marketing allows for a flexible lifestyle. Certainly, there are lots of “great money making opportunities,” but I’d prefer to focus on the great life opportunities it affords.

Google Checkout Ruckus in the UK

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I was just catching up on the big affiliate marketing stories at BUMPzee! and saw quite a few on the topic of Google Checkout in the UK.

The Affiliate Marketing Blog from Clarke Duncan asks the question, “Google Checkout UK – is commission being tracked?”

Clarke goes on to say…

Affiliate sales are not tracking, Affiliates are losing money, the Merchant is not! If the Merchant was losing money do you think they stick to the Google Checkout Terms if that is in fact part of the terms.

Fraser Edwards posts “Bad News – Google Checkout UK” in Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog, where he observes…

The approval process doesn’t seem to be a fast process so the affiliate networks will now be trying to catch up and get the approval needed. My advice to merchants? If you care about your affiliates at all then simply make sure you never introduce any new payment method that breaks your network tracking.

There is also a lively discussion on the Affiliates4u forum on the subject titled, “Google Checkout – Sales not being tracked.”

On a curious note, Jess Luthi wonders on the Affiliate Program Advice blog, “A4uforum have you lost the plot?”

In her post, Jess discusses a recent e-mail sent out to members of the Affiliates4u forum promoting Google Checkout…

a4u forum what are you thinking of? Have you guys lost the plot?

We are all sitting here putting pressure on our clients to ensure affiliates don’t lose out on sales, picking up the phone contacting networks, not just me but a lot of other people who see Google’s check out as a threat to some affiliates, people like your friends Clarke and Paul. What on earth would possess an influential UK affiliate forum to send out such an advert before we can reach our clients, before the networks are ready?

It beggars belief. The irony is Matt Wood, you are an affiliate, you stand to lose money too!!!

Am I stunned and shocked? I should be… but I’m not, just disappointed really. Makes all our efforts this week seem pointless, I mean what’s the point in trying to make things better for affiliates when the very people that can help bring about the changes in this industry do this?

A4u… foolish foolish move!

So much drama and controversy for a sleepy Saturday.

The Business Case for Affiliate Marketing

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E-consultancy.com has published an Affiliate Marketing Business Case to assist folks who need to convince their boss that affiliate marketing is right for their company, as well as those who want to be sure they are spending their budget in the best possible way.

The Business Case for Affiliate Marketing is an 18-page examination of how affiliate marketing can work for your company that details the trends, business benefits, costs and resources needed for a successful affiliate marketing program. Includes case studies on the Finance, Retail and Travel sectors.

Download a sample of “A Business Case for Affiliate Marketing“.

E-consultancy is an award-winning UK-based publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research and how-to guides, to help educate business people and marketers about the internet and e-commerce.

Affiliate Marketing Cribs: Shawn Collins

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I see pictures posted from time to time on forums and blogs of the workspaces of affiliate marketers. So I figured I’d give a little tour myself.

Instead of pictures, I put together a short video of my affiliate marketing crib.

Have a look into my inner sanctum where “all the magic happens.” Or rather the place where I consume copious amounts of Diet Dr. Pepper and have fun with marketing.

Affiliate Programs 101: A Beginner’s Course

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I gave my first affiliate marketing presentation back in the 90’s. December 2, 1999 to be exact. The show was Affiliate Solutions ’99 in New York City and I co-presented “Affiliate Programs 101: A Beginner’s Course” with Cynthia Aylward (now Arko).

Cynthia and I worked together at Refer-it (I just noticed the site had it’s first face-life since the 90’s!) at the time. I left a couple months later to launch the ClubMom affiliate program.

Anyhow, here is the description that ran in the conference program for our session:

Associate, Affiliate, Revenue Sharing, Bounty? What’s the difference? Affiliate Programs 101 will cover everything from starting up and marketing a program to affiliate recruiting and program maintenance. Affiliate Programs 101 is a primer to break down the industry of affiliate programs and provide an overview of what is involved in launching a program for your company. Where do you start? What Industry terms should you be familiar with? Find out what an affiliate is and why they can really help out your bottom line. How does this model work and will it work for your product or service? What is an appropriate commission for your affiliates?

Unfortunately, I no longer have the PowerPoint from the presentation, but I do have the audio.

Nothing novel or amazing there, but an entertaining peek back at that moment in time.

Read my recap of that show at ClickZ.