Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for July 2009

Step by Step Guide to Combat Trademark Abuse on Paid Search

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The Search Monitor has published a free whitepaper titled “Step by Step Guide to Combat Trademark Abuse on Paid Search” that provides a quick overview of trademark abuse and the steps you can take to protect your brand.

The report goes through the trademark policies at the major search engines, trademark law in the U.S., and the methods to protect your brand.

There are also suggestions to measure the success or failure of your brand protection strategy. Plus, a tip to consider for any affiliates running review sites.

I’d recommend giving it a read – good, concise information. Get the free whitepaper at http://www.thesearchmonitor.com/.

For more information on trademarks and affiliate marketing, check out “Using Trademarks in Affiliate Marketing” by Mark Rosenberg from issue 4 of FeedFront Magazine.

e-Riches 2.0 by Scott Fox

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e-Riches 2.0: Next-Generation Marketing Strategies for Making Millions Online by Scott Fox is an excellent book for anybody that’s getting into Internet marketing for the first time.

e-Riches 2.0The book covers the key areas needed to get a business off the ground online.

Topics covered include e-mail lists and newsletters, RSS feeds, online viral marketing, social networking, Twitter, online video, podcasts, tele-seminars, webinars, search engine keyword advertising, and affiliate marketing.

Some of these areas aren’t going to be needed by everybody. I like to conduct an occasional tele-seminar or webinar, but they’re not really needed by many.

Previously, Scott Fox wrote the book Internet Riches, which was very good, but I’ve got to say I like e-Riches 2.0 better. It’s easy to digest and act on the topics he covers.

The Fate of the Zappos Affiliate Program

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Amazon has purchased Zappos, according to TechCrunch.

That’s big, exciting news, and I’m really curious to see how it all works out. In particular, does this mean the Zappos affiliate program folds into the Amazon affiliate program?

The Zappos affiliate program is at Commission Junction currently and they’ve got impressive EPC figures and Network Earnings.

Zappos affiliate program on Commission Junction

Zappos and Commission Junction go way back to 2000, and I think it could be said that CJ played a significant role in their growth and success. Stay tuned.

Inconsistency of MLB Spanish Sites

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[audio:http://geekcast.fm/podpress_trac/web/2063/0/brandmouthing-17.mp3]

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about the inconsistancy of URLs for Major League Baseball teams and their sites in Spanish.

I noticed this after seeing that the Yankees have YankeesBeisbol.com and the Mets have LosMets.com.

YankeesBeisbol.com

I realize that some MLB teams couldn’t get their team name in a dot com, but since the Spanish sites came later, I think it would have made sense to have some consistency in the naming convention across the sites for the Spanish sites, since they are all overseen by MLB.

Show Notes

Check out http://brandmouthing.com/ for a collection of all future episodes of Brandmouthing, as well as images, videos, etc. that I mention on the podcast. Subscribe to the Brandmouthing RSS feed.

Affiliate Fatblogging in FeedFront Magazine

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Now that I’ve got the running bug, I’m evolving with my jogging fashions. Up until now, I’ve just been wearing a cotton t-shirt and shorts, and each time I finish I am just soaked with sweat and totally uncomfortable.

I usually wear a baseball cap, too. But I was reading that it was better to wear a visor to shield your eyes from the sun and not trap in the heat. So I picked up an Under Armour visor.

I also picked up some Nike Dri-FIT shorts and shirts. This line from Nike wicks sweat away and keeps me dry and comfortable. I tried it once so far and it worked great.

In the past I would just grab any white socks from the drawer, but I purchased some Nike Dri-FIT socks, and they were more comfortable than the regular old things.

On another note, I just got issue 7 of FeedFront Magazine in the mail with a cover story on treadmill desks (p 7), as well as profiles of a bunch of affiliate fatbloggers (p 23).

One of the things I liked about the affiliate fatblogging profiles were the “power song(s)” for each of them.

Got FeedFront issue 7 in the mail today

Here is my current playlist for runs…

You can read, download, and print any issue of FeedFront Magazine from http://www.feedfront.com.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 218
This week: 217

FusionQuest Affiliate Network Closing

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The FusionQuest affiliate network is closing down on August 10, 2009 after a nine year stretch. I received the following email today…

FusionQuest has been offering affiliate tracking solutions to merchants operating an affiliate program continuously since August of 2000. It is thus with some regret that I must inform you of the following.

As of August 10, 2009, FusionQuest will cease operations and will no longer be available to provide affiliate tracking. The server will be shut down and all services will be discontinued, including the Order-It shopping cart.

A number of factors have conspired to force this unfortunate situation. I know this will cause a number of merchants inconvenience and I apologize for that.

As of Aug. 10, 2009, the fusionquest.com domain will be absorbed by ShareASale.com. I have worked with Brian Littleton (CEO of ShareASale) to secure a special deal that will allow all FusionQuest merchants to move over to the ShareASale platform with minimal expense. The regular price to set up a ShareASale account is $500. I have arranged that all current FusionQuest merchants can set up an account for only $125 if they use the specially provided coupon code.

Each FusionQuest merchant has their own assigned coupon code. This code and the special link to redeem the code is available by logging in to your current FusionQuest account. There is also a presentation available there as well giving details of the ShareASale system.

I highly recommend that all FusionQuest merchants take advantage of this offer. ShareASale is a well established, rock solid platform with a large network of very loyal and active affiliates. I have met Brian Littleton a number of times and can vouch for his integrity and commitment to the industry.

Some of you have been using the FusionQuest system for a long time and I want to thank you for your support. I will miss providing this service for you.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and I wish you the best as you move forward with your online endeavors.

Sorry to see them go – so long, FusionQuest.

How many affiliate programs do you actively promote?

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Many affiliate managers subscribe to the Pareto Principle (80-20 rule) when it comes to affiliates, where 80 percent of transactions come from 20 percent of affiliates.

I was thinking about the number of affiliate programs I active promote, as opposed to those where I have an open account.

I’m one of the 4 percenters that actively promote 21-30 affiliate programs.

How many affiliate programs do you actively promote?

To all of the affiliate managers out there that accept that a minority of your affiliates are active, have you actually ever done anything to activate and retain your affiliates?

This data point and more are in the 2009 edition of the Affiliate Summit AffStat Report – get your free copy at http://affstat.com/.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog by Darren Rowse

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31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a new ebook by Darren Rowse, also known as Problogger.

It was created to help bloggers revitalize their blog by going through 31 tasks and instruction on both the why and how of the task of the day.

The series is ideal for bloggers at different stages of their blogging, but not for those who haven’t even set up their blog, yet.

If you fall into the latter category, I would suggest going with the book ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett.

Darren knows what he’s talking about, so definitely check out whichever of his books pertains to you.

Name That Affiliate Summit Attendee

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The list of Affiliate Summit East 2009 attendees continues to grow, and I’ve got one for you to guess here.

Do you know who that is in the picture below (you can blow it up on Flickr)?

The first three correct guesses (must be posted in the comments here) get passes to Affiliate Summit: first gets a Platinum pass, second gets a Gold pass, and third gets a Gold pass.

Who is going to be at Affiliate Summit?

Hints:

  • He’s a blogger
  • He had an article in issue 6 of FeedFront magazine
  • He has over 30,000 followers on Twitter
  • His site is displayed somewhere in the photo

What’s with that skunk wig thing on the right?