Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for January 2009

Affiliate Summit West 2009 Day 3 Recap

by

Affiliate Summit West 2009, the twelfth and biggest of all of the Affiliate Summits finished up strong with big crowds, busy sessions, and adult tricycles.

The day started off with a session called Ask the Experts where a series of authorities ran roundtable discussions.

Affiliate Summit Ask the Experts Tables 2

The exhibit hall was busy for the second and final day it was open, while attendees were also getting together in hallways and rooms all over the conference area.

Exhibit Hall at Affiliate Summit West 2009 on Day 3

Affiliate Summit Day 3 Hallway Business

The conference wound up with the Affiliate Triathlon, a fundraiser for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

The dozens of triathletes each made a $100 donation to the charity to enter the event, and the winner received the choice of a booth or four Platinum passes for Affiliate Summit East 2009, taking place August 9-11, 2009 in New York City.

Affiliate Triathlon 9

The three sports in the contest were an adult tricycle race, virtual golf driving range, and a timed challenge to sink basketballs in the hoop.

Brian Littleton Drives Far in the Affiliate Triathlon

The winner of the overall Affiliate Triathlon was Charlie Calabrese of buy.at.

Charlie Calabrese - Affiliate Gladiator

Thank you to all of the affiliate marketers that came out for Affiliate Summit West 2009. It was great to see everybody as we got together to network, do business and thumb our noses at the recession.

Affiliate Summit West 2009 Day 2 Recap

by

The second day of Affiliate Summit West 2009 started off with a keynote address from Gary Vaynerchuk. In addition to the large crowd that turned out at the conference for his talk, a live stream was up at Ustream.TV of the keynote, and it’s available in the archives now.

Gary Vaynerchuk and Jim Kukral at Affiliate Summit West 2009

Gary set a great tone for the show with his funny and motivational keynote.

Affiliate Summit keynote from Gary Vaynerchuk

The crowds packed into the exhibit hall, breakout sessions and hallways throughout the day to do business and learn.

Affiliate Summit Takes Las Vegas

Overflow Crowd for the Facebook Session at Affiliate Summit

The second day of Affiliate Summit West 2009 culminated with the annual Pinnacle Awards, which are given to affiliate marketing leaders in six categories.

Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards

And the winners are…

  • Affiliate of the Year – Mike Allen
  • Affiliate Manager of the Year – Angel Djambazov
  • Exceptional Merchant – CelebrateExpress.com
  • Affiliate Marketing Advocate – Melanie Seery
  • Best Blogger – Scott Jangro
  • Affiliate Marketing Legend – Kellie Stevens

Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners.

Affiliate Summit West 2009 Day 1 Recap

by

Affiliate Summit West 2009 kicked off with big crowds on Sunday, January 11, 2009. Affiliate marketers filled the Affiliate Meet Market all day to make deals and network.

Crowds at Affiliate Summit West 2009

There was a heavier schedule of breakout sessions on the first day, too. Last summer in Boston, there were a handful on the Sunday of Affiliate Summit, but these breakouts were increased to 12 this time around.

Capacity crowd for The Ultimate Pitching Guide session

But not everybody had a chance to learn and network on this long, first day. It was also the setup for the exhibit hall, which is open days 2 and 3 at Affiliate Summit.

Moving in the the Affiliate Summit West 2009 Exhibit Hall

There is a packed schedule for the remaining days of Affiliate Summit – check the agenda for details.

Also, be sure to keep up on conference announcements and contests by texting the message “join affsum” to 468398, as well as following the Affiliate Summit tag on Twitter: #asw09

Day 1 at Affiliate Summit West 2009

by

Affiliate Summit West 2009 starts today, and there are some things you should know to get the most out of day one of the conference.

Registration is open 8:30am – 6:00pm. I’d encourage you to go as early as possible to pick up your badge and other materials. Be sure to have photo ID.

The Rio Rotunda - Where Affiliate Summit West 2009 Starts

The Affiliate Meet Market, located in Pavilion 8-11 at the Rio Hotel, is open 12:00pm – 6:00pm.

There are also a dozen breakout sessions running today starting at noon.

If your computer is running low on juice, we’ve got a charging station (free to all attendees) in the registration area.

It’s being run by the Internet Oldtimers Foundation.

Oldtimers Charging Station at Affiliate Summit

While you go through the Affiliate Meet Market today, be sure to hit the ShareASale table to get an invite for their party this evening.

And if you’re looking for something more mellow tonight, we’ll have the Affiliate Summit Hospitality Room open at the Patio/Miranda 1&2 at the Rio Hotel from 9:00pm to midnight.

Exhibitors are moving in today to the exhibit hall – that opens Monday and Tuesday.

Affiliate Summit Exhibit Hall 2

See the agenda for more details.

Here is the tag to use for Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc. – #asw09

Charter Membership Opens for Performance Marketing Alliance

by

The Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) is now open for charter memberships as they seem to shape the future of affiliate marketing.

According to their announcement, “Charter membership is an opportunity for industry professionals to make an active contribution to the future of performance marketing.”

Charter members receive the following…

  • Elect in the charter board of directors.
  • Be eligible to run for charter board of director seats.
  • Have lifetime use of “Charter Member” logo.
  • Get a 2-year membership for the price of one.

There are 2 levels of charter membership, Individual at a rate of $500 for 2 years and Corporate costing $5,000 for 2 years.

Charter membership will close April 16, 2009.

More details at http://www.performancemarketingalliance.com/.

Post Twitter Status on Your Blog in HTML

by

I’ve been using CaRP (Caching RSS Parser) for years to display my RSS feeds on my sites in HTML. There are various widgets out there to do the same, but I really like the versatility of CaRP.

Yesterday, I got their newsletter where creator Antone Roundy is looking to rebrand CaRP. Good idea, since the current name is probably cryptic to the average blogger.

I exchanged some emails with Antone and asked if there was a way to use CaRP to display my Twitter stream on my blogs. I don’t care for the options from Twitter and other places, and apparently Antone doesn’t either.

It turned out he tweaked CaRP to show is own Twitter status on his blog and shared the code for others to use.

I am playing around with this code, with the help of Antone, to use it to display the results of a search for the Affiliate Summit tag on Twitter (#asw09), so I can feature it on the Affiliate Summit homepage.

Check out CaRP if you’re looking to do this sort of thing, too.

Opt-in to Mobile Notifications at Affiliate Summit West 2009

by

Affiliate Summit is pleased to welcome Text Cast Live as the official mobile notification system for Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Over the three days of Affiliate Summit, attendees will have the option of being notified of key events and have a chance to win prizes from our sponsors via their mobile phones.

Note: You must opt-in to the service in order to participate.

Simply text the message “join affsum” to 468398 to sign up now. Reply to the confirmation message with “y” and you will be ready to go.

Visit Text Cast Live at booth #225 to find out how you can leverage the power of mobile for your business.

Standard text messaging rates apply.

Ways to Promote the eBay Affiliate Program

by

Q: What are some great ways to promote the eBay affiliate program?

A: It really depends on your skill set. There are some excellent tools for all levels of affiliates through the eBay Partner Network.

Optimally, you would leverage the eBay affiliate API (Application Programming Interface), which can be used to access eBay’s data and functionality to present in a customized format on your affiliate site(s).

Some ways you can leverage the eBay API as an affiliate include creating a comparison shopping site, niche content site, and desktop or mobile apps.

Even if you’re not familiar with APIs and don’t have a programming background, you could always hire developers to create a site for you.

Then again, if you’re more of a newbie trying to break into affiliate marketing, there are some easy to use tools like the eBay Editor Kit, where you can create links to pages for particular keywords, categories, and other parameters.

Want Me to Sponsor You for the Affiliate Triathlon?

by

Affiliate Summit West 2009 is going to wind up with a new event this year, the Affiliate Triathlon.

The Affiliate Triathlon is a 3-event contest of skill, determination and dexterity open to all attendees at Affiliate Summit West 2009. Athletes and non-athletes are encouraged to participate.

The winning athlete (highest cumulative score across the three competitions) will be awarded their choice of:

One non-corner, 10′ x 10′ exhibit hall booth (value: $5,195) or four Platinum Passes (value: $4,996) at Affiliate Summit East 2009.*

The entry fee for the Affiliate Triathlon is $100, which you will donate directly to the National Breast Cancer Foundation – details at http://blog.affiliatesummit.com/affiliate-triathalon-enrollment.

Anyhow, I am not eligible to play, since it would be a conflict of interest, but I’ve made a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation to cover 5 people.

So, I will “sponsor” the first five people who comment on this post. Note – you must be registered for Affiliate Summit to participate. Use your real name and email, so I can identify you.

Also, please don’t comment if you are unsure whether you’ll be there for the event – it takes place Tuesday, January 13 from 4:30pm – 5:30pm.

By the way, this isn’t a typical triathlon with swimming, biking and running. We’ve toned it down a little.

Affiliate Triathlon

The three competitions will be a race with adult-sized “Wacky Trikes”, a golf driving challenge, and a race against the clock shooting hoops.

Take a look at the current participants in the Affiliate Triathlon.

*Either prize can be sold or transferred to another person and Affiliate Summit East 2009, which takes place in NYC over August 9-11, 2009.

Gary Vaynerchuk Keynote at Affiliate Summit Streaming Live on Ustream.TV

by

The keynote address at Affiliate Summit West 2009 from Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, will be streamed live on Ustream.TV.

Gary Vaynerchuk is the star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, as well as the author of Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines.

Gary Vaynerchuk at Affiliate Summit West 2008

Affiliate Summit is running January 11-13, 2009 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. In addition to the keynote address, all other sessions will be recorded on video, too.

However, the breakout session videos will only be available to attendees with Gold and Platinum conference passes.

Tune in at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/affiliate-summit on Monday, January 12, 2009 at 12:45 PM EST.