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Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

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Archives for November 2008

Problogger – The Book

November 21, 2008 by Shawn Collins

I just read ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett and I really enjoyed it.

ProBlogger 2nd EditionOne thing I liked a lot was that Rowse and Garrett didn’t sugarcoat things. They are candid about how it is really a tough grind to produce a successful blog.

They go through all of the steps to monetize a blog. The information will be a little elementary to bloggers who are already monetizing their blogs, but I’d definitely recommend it for new bloggers or those who haven’t monetized, yet.

The Problogger book kicks off with an introduction where Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett tell their stories of becoming successful bloggers.

The book also gets into nice blogging, setting up a blog, how often you should post, thoughts on buying and selling blogs, as well as lessons from top bloggers.

I read lots of books about online business, and most are useless. But the Problogger book has lots of useful nuggets, and I would urge anybody looking to make money on a blog to check it out.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News, Affiliate Resources

Site Templates with Affiliate Integration

November 16, 2008 by Shawn Collins

CardOffers.com has launched BuildOffers.com, a solution for affiliates to create a turnkey site that guarantees approval by affiliate programs in the BuildOffers.com service, including American Express, Chase, and Discover.

BuildOffers.com provides pre-designed, customizable affiliate marketing websites for businesses and individuals that want to start making money from a website immediately. Clients simply select one of our customizable affiliate website templates, choose which of our pre-approved affiliate marketing programs they would like to advertise on their new website.

Everything is updated dynamically by BuildOffers.com, so affiliates don’t have to worry about compliance related aspects of the site from card issuers and other creditors.

Also, the BuildOffers.com sites are not limited to offers in their network. Affiliates can also add their own links to their site.

This is a good resource for newbie affiliates looking to get into promoting credit card offers.

More information at http://buildoffers.com/.

Update:

I neglected to include pricing for the BuildOffers.com sites. Here is the information I received from them…

The cost for a BuildOffers.com site begins at $310 (one time). This includes the first monthly maintenance charge of $35. The monthly maintenance fee guarantees that the site is always compliant and content is always updated. I must emphasize, with a BuildOffers.com site, you do not have to wait for approval and you are automatically approved for some credit card programs that are not offered anymore, like Citibank and Bank of America. The 40% off brings the cost for a site to $200. Paying for a website might not be worth it to someone who is a novice at building sites; but it would be valuable to those just getting started (and haven’t experienced the rigidity of some affiliate programs when up for approval) and maybe someone who feels their time and the guaranteed affiliate approval is worth more than the $200. All pricing information is on the BuildOffers.com homepage.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News, Affiliate Resources

Barack Obama’s Favorite Affiliate Program?

November 14, 2008 by Shawn Collins

I got an email last night with the subject: ** A message from President Elect Obama **. Since I am a political junkie, I figured it was some political list I’d joined, and I opened it up.

Angry dog

However, it wasn’t “A message from President Elect Obama”, but rather a pitch to join the Luxor Linens affiliate program.

“Yes We Can” revitalize the economy. In a last minute effort to save The Holiday 2008 Season from this economic crisis we are implementing operation “SECRET” into effect Immediately!

Beginning November 14th, 2008 all affiliate partner commissions will be increased to 15% and “Return Days” will be increased to a long 90 days. In addition have added compelling NEW banners, coupons, and text links with more to come, so check back through out the next 30 days.

While Egyptian cotton sheets may or may not heal the economy, I don’t like being duped.

The solicitation ends with some pithy small print…

Disclaimer: luxorlinens.com is not affiliated with president elect Obama. The name “president elect Obama” was just used for promotion purposes. President elect Obama has not approved this message.

I bet they thought it was a clever method to increase open rates.

But what I thought… it was deceptive and lame. It was the first time I’d heard of their company and they left me annoyed.

Don’t short sheet affiliates when you’re trying to sell your program to them.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Managers

PubCon 2008 Recap

November 13, 2008 by Shawn Collins

I just got back from checking out PubCon in Las Vegas last night. It was my first time going to PubCon after all these years of meaning to get out there.

I was speaking on a panel on the first of four days of PubCon and neglected to check the schedule for other stuff going on. They had lots of interesting panels on the first day, but the exhibit hall wasn’t opening until the second day (when I was flying out).

It was a good day of learning and networking, since the crowd didn’t have an exhibit hall to visit that day.

Between Sessions at PubCon 2008

Before my session, I was interviewed by Dr. Ralph Wilson for a video series he has up on YouTube. We chatted about using social media to promote affiliate links, as well as recruiting affiliates.

It was nice to meet Dr. Wilson, as I’ve been following his stuff for many years, and he put out a couple editions of the definitive report on affiliate program software back in the day.

Before my panel, I checked out an interactive site review panel with Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive and a few other folks.

I prefer that format myself, where the panelists take sites on the fly and critique them, over the more rehearsed kinds of sessions.

Wil Reynolds at PubCon 2008

Later on, I was on a panel, moderated by Lisa Riolo, on relationships between affiliates and merchants. Also on the panel were Bob Rains, President of Lets Make it Awesome; Brook Schaaf, CEO of Schaaf Consulting; and Beth Kirsch, VP, Business Development & Marketing for uAmplify.

I also checked out a panel on working with affiliate networks, moderated by Chuck Hamrick, and panelists Karen White, who used to be Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at Partner Fusion and is now at a new company whose name escapes me; Jamie Birch, Owner of JEBCommerce; and Durk Price, President of eAccountableOPM.

After the panels wound up, I headed down to the exhibitor reception. I think they may have had the longest lines I’ve ever seen for bars.

My camera literally could not fit the entire line in a frame from far away.

Line to the Bar at PubCon Cocktail Reception

But it was a good time meeting people and the line enabled me to learn about an area that I’d never heard about before… medical tourism. It was equal parts intriguing and creepy.

Lots of new faces and information jammed into the one day I was there. So, I felt compelled to celebrate with a song at the end of the evening.

I was sort of dreading a visit to Las Vegas for the third time this year, but I think I’ll do the same in 2009 for Affiliate Summit, Blog World, and PubCon.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Using Flickr as an Affiliate

November 11, 2008 by Shawn Collins

Nintendo Wii Outdoor Challenge

I uploaded a short video of my kids playing the Wii the other day on Flickr, and I noticed that I could use HTML in the description of the video.

So a lightbulb went off – I figured this could be an opportunity to upload pictures and videos that are tagged well, along with a good title and description with an affiliate link included.

I titled the video “Nintendo Wii Outdoor Challenge,” which is the name of the game they were playing. And then I created an Amazon affiliate link to the game in the description.

A couple days later, the video has hundreds of views and dozens of clicks for the affiliate link.

Now, I am not sure how popular this game is with the Wii, but I think this could be an interesting method to market affiliate links if you ride the trends with relevant content leading to Christmas.

Think of the prospect of breaking into Google Universal Search results with your Flickr action. Also, if you do this, you can tie it to Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc.

Note to the link spammers, the Flickr links are nofollow.

Some interesting potential.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Legal 2.0: Hot Topics in Affiliate Marketing

November 11, 2008 by Shawn Collins

This session, Legal 2.0: Hot Topics in Affiliate Marketing, took place Monday, August 11, 2008 at Affiliate Summit East 2008.

Session description:

Legal experts and regulators map out the legal minefields of affiliate marketing providing critical updates on advertising and online marketing law plus FTC and state enforcement actions.

  • Leonard L. Gordon, Regional Director, Federal Trade Commission
  • Jeffrey Greenbaum, Partner, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC
  • Will Haselden, Founder, Chief – Cyberfraud Section, Office of the Attorney General, State of Florida
  • Bennet Kelley, Founder, Internet Law Center
Legal 2.0: Hot Topics in Affiliate Marketing Session at Affiliate Summit East 2008

More Affiliate Summit East 2008 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/ and video is at http://www.affiliatesummit.tv.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Managers, Affiliate News, Affiliate Summit

Gary Vaynerchuk Gives a Street Keynote in NYC

November 7, 2008 by Shawn Collins

Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, as well as keynote speaker at Affiliate Summit West 2009, gave an inspirational talk outdoors in NYC the other night.

The talk was scheduled for a Mashable event in a bar, but the bar wouldn’t allow Gary to use a microphone, so he took it to the streets.

He goes into how to stay upbeat during an economic downturn.

Don’t miss Gary at Affiliate Summit West 2009, taking place January 11-13, 2009 in Las Vegas.

Warning – there is some profanity.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Managers, Affiliate News, Affiliate Resources, Affiliate Summit

Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates

November 6, 2008 by Shawn Collins

This session, Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates, took place Monday, August 11, 2008 at Affiliate Summit East 2008.

Session description:

Landing Page Testing can lead to double digit conversion rate gains. Learn how to test your pages to improve conversion, and attract super affiliates without changing your payout structure.

Presenter: Tim Ash, President, SiteTuners.com

Tim Ash at Affiliate Summit East 2008
Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ase08 affsum)

More Affiliate Summit East 2008 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/ and video is at http://www.affiliatesummit.tv.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Managers, Affiliate News, Affiliate Resources, Affiliate Summit

Tips for Affiliate Success

November 5, 2008 by Shawn Collins

Trisha Lyn Fawver posted a useful collection of affiliate advice from folks in the industry, Top 14 Tips for Affiliate Success, at the New Edge Media Blog.

affiliate-video

Tips included are from Jim Kukral, Michael Buechele, Sam Harrelson, Scott Jangro, and a handful of others.

Here is what I shared:

Few affiliates are using video, so you should jump in and fill the void. Your computer probably has the software you need (Windows Movie Maker on PC and iMovie on Mac), so make videos with a digital camera, edit, upload and dominate your niche.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Commission Junction Turns 10 Years Old

November 4, 2008 by Shawn Collins

Commission Junction celebrated 10 years in business yesterday.

They have put together a video to celebrate the milestone.

Happy birthday, CJ!

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Filed Under: Affiliate Managers, Affiliate News

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