Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for March 2008

Gary Vaynerchuk to Keynote Affiliate Summit 2009 West

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Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, will keynote Affiliate Summit 2009 West.

WLTVBased on the success of his Wine Library TV show, he’s been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Nightline.

Gary’s love affair with wine began at a young age when he started reading Robert Parker and Wine Advocate and blossomed over the years as he traveled around the world to various wine-producing regions (his wife remains blissfully unaware of this affair).

But it troubled Gary to observe the stuffiness of the industry-conceited sommeliers, snobby shopkeepers unwilling (or unable) to educate their consumers, and seemingly mystical conventions all combine to make wine seem intimidating to the uninitiated. Wine Library TV seeks to change all that.

Aimed at anyone interested in truly learning about wine, from beginners to experts, young (above 21 of course) to old, Gary and the WLTV community embrace the notion that wine can be enjoyed by all.

In each episode, Gary tastes wines on the fly-it is unrehearsed, unscripted, and off-the-cuff. As Gary likes to say, he shoots from the hip, but always from the heart.

Affiliate Summit 2009 West is taking place January 11-13, 2009 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Eliot Spitzer’s Legacy – Pimping Out of State Affiliate Sales

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I was optimistic when Eliot Spitzer was ousted from being Governor of New York that his plan to collect taxes for all Internet transactions by residents of New York would fizzle.

But it looks like his scandal plagued successor, David Paterson, wants to move forward with the proposal to require out-of-state companies to charge New York state and local sales taxes, which is not currently required by companies without a physical New York presence.

The New York Post reports that this move would raise an estimated $47 million for the state, according to projections from Spitzer’s plan.

However, it’s certainly not a done deal.

Critics and even some supporters expect legal challenges, citing a 1992 US Supreme Court ruling they say prohibits a state from forcing a company with no physical presence in a state from collecting the state’s sales tax.

Lawmakers and aides to Paterson and the legislative leaders yesterday were still trying to hammer out final details of the new spending plan, which is due by 11:59 p.m. tomorrow but will likely be a day or two late.

Anyhow, how does this impact affiliate marketers?

Well, the initial reasoning or excuse for the change was that having affiliates of an out of state company who live in New York would constitute a physical presence.

So maybe companies decide not to take on NY affiliates if the are a liability in this fashion?

That would be a shame, but it could be a reality to avoid having those taxes added, which would make it less attractive to transact with businesses like Amazon.com for the consumers.

Recruiting Affiliates with Link Capture

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Q: I recently got the Link Capture to help recruit affiliates, but I can’t figure out how to use it. I know how to do a search on the software, but I don’t know how to find affiliates that make sense for me.

Shawn CollinsA: I am sure there a lot of different ways you could use it, but I’ll tell you how I’ve used it.

Basically, what I would do is to make a search query for the top keywords in the niche of the affiliate program I was managing, and then export those query results into Excel or a .csv file.

The exported data includes the postal mailing address for the prospective affiliates and I would take that and send out a direct mail piece.

This would generally be a postcard that includes the value propositions of that affiliate program.

I would then follow up the postcard with a telephone call or email, information which is also included in the export.

Don’t just email the affiliates without any prior contact – do something different to get attention for your affiliate program.

Five Years of Affiliate Summit in Pictures

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Affiliate Summit is five years old, and I have searched around my various external hard drives and computers for the pictures I’ve got from each of the past nine events.

There are all now up on the Affiliate Summit account on Flickr.

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The second Affiliate Summit, June 2004 on a cruise from New York City to Halifax, Nova Scotia

Check out all of the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/affsum.

Embed Video with No Logo

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Q: I want to embed video on my site without it having any logo or bug in the bottom, right area of the screen. I also have a problem when I paste the code for four videos on a page where the videos don’t all show all the time.

Shawn CollinsA: As far as the different companies that enable you to host and embed video on your site at no cost, they want their logo on the player as a small ad for their service. I think that is reasonable when you are not paying for the hosting or player.

I do know of one company that offers free hosting and there is a workaround, so that you can use their player without a logo appearing, but that amounts to theft in my opinion, so I am not going to share the name and way to do it.

Two vendors I would suggest are Fliqz and Magnify.net. There are others out there, but these are the two that I’ve used and I’ve been happy with them.

Each one has a setup fee and then a charge for the monthly hosting, and you get a player that’s not branded.

Magnify.net is also is neat resource for creating a community around various video niches.

And then for your other question about videos not showing up… you mentioned you use Yahoo SiteBuilder. That might be part of the issue, since some of those tools monkey around with the code when you paste HTML.

If possible, I would suggest two things: switch over to a blog to power your site and try only posting one video per page and see if that works out.

If so, then test different variables to see if two, three or four videos will consistently appear.

Starting Up an Affiliate Blog

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Q: Where is the best place to go to start up a new affiliate blog?

Shawn CollinsA: My favorite content management system to power blogs is WordPress.

There are a variety of options out there, including hosted options like Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress.com, as well as software you can install on your server, such as MovableType and WordPress.

I’ve used many of the available solutions over the years, and I’ve settled on WordPress installed on my server as my favorite.

My copies of WordPress are all hosted at WP Engine, where they will install and update it for you at no extra cost.

The cost there is $9 or $10 a month and they provide excellent support.

Anyhow, some things I like about WordPress include the ability to easily set up a template, known as a “theme” in WordPress. There are lots of free themes, and then some paid themes, like Revolution, which are sharp looking.

The themes can be customized, and more recent versions include “widget” functionality, where you can drag and drop elements in your blog layout.

Also, plugins enable WordPress users to add all sorts of functionality to the blogs. There is basically a plugin for anything you want to do with your blog, including podcast streaming, stat reporting, spam filtering, and SEO tools.

Best of all, WordPress is free.

Vote in the Annual ABestWeb “Best of” Awards

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Voting started a couple days ago for the Annual ABestWeb “Best of” Awards, and it will stay open until April 7th. at which time the winners will be officially announced.

You can vote for your favorites in the following categories:

Vote now at http://forum.abestweb.com/forumdisplay.php?f=490.

Affiliate Program Outsourcing Options

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Q: I currently outsource my affiliate program to one of the affiliate networks, and I want to evaluate how well other affiliate networks might do with the program. Is it common to give my numbers and a list of my top affiliates to these other companies to evaluate?

Shawn CollinsIt is helpful to let them know your top ten or twenty affiliates. You’re not telling them a big secret here, because they are likely already working with all of these sites. By knowing which affiliates are in your program, they can determine how much incremental business you might get from other affiliates they work with in other affiliate programs.

There are some cases when affiliates choose to be exclusive with a single network, but for the most part, affiliates work across multiple affiliate networks.

If you have concerns about the network leveraging the list of affiliates, just give them the URL without the contact information

One thing I would like to point out is that you are not locked into just having the affiliate networks to manage your affiliate program.

There are lots of companies out there called OPMs or Outsourced Program Management companies that can manage every aspect of your affiliate program for you.

You can stick with your current affiliate network and turn over the management to one of the OPM firms. This opens up a lot more options for pricing and services.

Getting (More) Things Done

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Q: How do you get so much done during the day, and do you outsource the writing for your blog?

Shawn CollinsA: I am not sure if I should be flattered or offended by the outsourcing question. I take pride in my blogging and have been doing it 7 days a week for years.

So no, I don’t outsource my blog posts.

As far as how I get so much done in a day, first let me give you a little background about me. I publish lots of videos and podcasts, I write on multiple blogs, put out eight newsletters a month, I’m an affiliate and co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

I’ve also got a wife, four kids and a dog. So I’ve got lots of things on my plate.

I’d say the key for you to fit more into your day is to compartmentalize your time and to work harder.

I could easily work an eight hour day and then feel frustrated that I wasn’t getting things done like I’d prefer.

But I work 12, 14, or 16 hours on weekdays, plus a lot of hours on the weekend. And I haven’t taken a full week of vacation off since 2003.

My days are split into two shifts – I will work during the day, stop for dinner and hang time with the family, and then resume work after the family goes to bed.

It comes down to whether you’re willing to sacrifice some other things to extend your work day.

I enjoy what I do, so it’s not a drag to work long hours. I mix it in the trips to the gym, errands, etc. and have movies and shows on in the background throughout the day.

I’m afraid there is no silver bullet here – just that if you want to get more done, become more efficient and/or work longer.

I Love My Dell Vostro

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I keep hearing from people that travel a lot how the MacBook Air or Asus Eee, but nobody seems to be talking about the Dell Vostro.

Well, I just picked up a Dell Vostro 1400 and I totally love it. Some of the specs…

  • 14.1″ Widescreen WXGA+ (1440×900) display
  • Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz,4MB Cache,800MHz FSB)
  • Integrated 2.0 mega pixel Webcam
  • No trialware (anybody that has gotten a Dell knows how annoying that pre-installed junk is)
  • Built in Mobile Broadband (HSDPA 3.6)

The mobile broadband was the most important feature to me. They gave the option of choosing AT&T, Sprint or Verizon as the provider, and I went with AT&T, since I already have them for my cell phone, and I was able to add it to the same bill.

The service for me on AT&T comes to $60/month, which may sound a little steep, but factor in what your time is worth – you become more productive with this access.

Not to mention that you no longer need to pay as you go in airports and hotels.

The other day, I used it for the first time when I took the commuter train to SES NYC, which was about 70 minutes each way. I had consistent, fast access the whole time, except when I was in a tunnel going under the Hudson River.

I wish I had this when I used to commute daily. It’s also a great resource for when I’m stuck someplace, like waiting for kids at soccer practice, getting the car serviced, etc.

When I travel, I tap into my office desktop via GoToMyPC, so this enabled me to access all of my files at any time. It would have been great to have this last month when I spent three hours on the tarmac waiting for a flight to take off.

Anyhow, the MacBook Air and ASUS Eee are pretty and small, but this is the machine for me.

It’s pretty light (a little more than five pounds) and has all of the stuff I want and need, like the mobile broadband, Webcam, slot for SD cards, lots of USB ports, etc.