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

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Archives for August 2009

ShareASale ThinkTank 2009 Applications Being Accepted

August 24, 2009 by Shawn Collins

ShareASale ThinkTank 2009 has been announced and it will be taking place at The Resort at Pelican Hill, in Newport Beach, CA on October 23-25, 2009.

This annual event is designed to bring together top clients as well as new, up-and-coming affiliates and merchants at ShareASale. I’ve always heard great things about it, but couldn’t make it in the past for various reasons. But that all ends this year – I’m headed to Newport Beach in two months.

ShareASale ThinkTank 2009

An important thing to note – attendance is invitation-only, however ShareASale invites all affiliates to interested in participating to apply to attend the ShareASale ThinkTank.

And they do a really cool thing – all affiliates invited/accepted are treated to the weekend’s accomodations, food, and entertainment by ShareASale.

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

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

ClickZ: Is It Time to Affiliate?

August 23, 2009 by Shawn Collins

Heidi Cohen, President of Riverside Marketing Strategies, just wrote an overview of affiliate marketing at ClickZ.

It’s a good primer on the industry that points out reasons to add affiliate marketing to a marketing plan, hurdles for the industry, and affiliate marketing metrics to track.

Sixty-seven percent of U.S. Internet users seek the lowest priced items and 40 percent find coupons, according to Pew Internet and American Life Project’s July 2009 “The Internet and the Recession” study. With lower sales, longer purchase consideration periods, and smaller marketing budgets, what can a retailer do to beyond price cutting to drive sales? One cost-effective method is to add affiliate marketing to your marketing mix or enhance your current program.

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to extend your marketing efforts cost-effectively. (To better understand affiliates, check out this report.) Evidence of this is the recent Affiliate Summit East, where affiliates and retailers made real-world connections to solidify their online relationships. This year, the summit had an impressive 25 percent increase in attendance over last year.

Read the complete article at http://www.clickz.com/3634757.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Get Your Affiliate Videos on Home Televisions

August 23, 2009 by Shawn Collins

Magnify.net announced last week that they’ve released an application that will allow users of Boxee to view videos from Magnify.net video channels on their home TVs.

Boxee has more than 600,000 installs and 90% of their subscribers are connected to flat screen televisions, so it’s a compelling opportunity to get more penetration if you’re producing online video.

You can see the Affiliate Summit channel on Magnify.net at http://video.affiliatesummit.com/.

More details at http://www.streamingmedia.com/press/view.asp?id=14494.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Jim Kukral and His Crazy Landing Page

August 23, 2009 by Shawn Collins

I just noticed a new landing page for Jim Kukral’s coaching site at thebizwebcoach.com is now hand written.

Hand Written Homepage

According to his new page, no new members are being accepted at this time, and he’s taking a step back from his old “boring marketing site.”

I’ve got to say it’s oddly refreshing to see handwriting. If you want to be alerted when Jim is taking on new members, you can submit your email at the bottom of that page.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Epicenter Network Pays Nearly $1 Million in First Half of 2009

August 22, 2009 by Shawn Collins

Epicenter Network has announced that they paid out over $970,000 during the first six months of 2009.

These commission payments went to affiliates using the company’s DM2 site development and hosting platform.

Q1 payouts came to $376,209, and then commissions grew in the second quarter to $595,320.

It’s nice to see the commission figures shared, and I’d love to see more networks put their numbers out there.

More on the Epicenter Network at http://epicenter.net/.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Affiliate Fatblogging: I Wish Nike Would Tell Me When to Buy New Shoes

August 20, 2009 by Shawn Collins

Last week was Affiliate Summit East 2009, and despite my intentions to be a good food citizen, I feel victim to the evenings of bacchanalia.

Five days in New York City with lots of food and drink, combined with little amounts of sleep never turn up a good result.

So no scale check-in for the week. But since I returned home I’ve been running regularly.

I am on vacation with the family this week, so it limits my ability to go for runs, but I’ll make treadmill time if nothing else.

The thing that stinks there is that I like to track what I’m doing, average speed for miles, length run, etc. through my Nike+ device in my sneakers and my iPod Touch.

While it tracks well outside, there are only certain treadmills that work with the Nike+ device, so I’m out of luck.

So I’ll have some unmetered exercise this week. You can see my progress to date on my Nike+ account.

Since all of my runs are tracked, and I’ve been buying my shoes direct from Nike, I think it would be a great and logical move by them to tell me when it’s time for a new pair, based on the expected mileage a given pair have in them.

I am guessing the average person doesn’t get a fresh pair of shoes as often as they should, though I could be entirely wrong.

Anyhow, I’d love to know the right time to do it and whip out my credit card each time to Nike. Come on, guys – help me help you!

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 219
This week: not checking in Affiliate Summit aftermath

Video: I Wish Nike Would Tell Me When to Buy New Shoes

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Quality Click Pricing at the eBay Partner Network

August 19, 2009 by Shawn Collins

The eBay Partner Network has introduced Quality Click Pricing, a new quality-based Cost Per Click (CPC) payout model designed to better reward top affiliates, simplify the commission structure, and increase the quality of traffic driven to eBay sites through the affiliate program.

In contrast to the current Cost Per Action (CPA) payout structure for eBay affiliates, Quality Click Pricing rewards affiliates based on the value of the traffic they send to eBay… the incremental transactions and incremental high lifetime value users that result from their traffic.

Payouts to affiliates will also factor in revenue streams beyond item purchases, including eBay advertising revenue and PayPal revenue resulting from increased traffic and transactions.

Just as affiliates driving quality traffic to eBay will reap higher rewards, those affiliates driving lower-quality traffic will see a decline in pay.

I like this sort of Animal Farm (but in a good way) approach to compensation where all affiliates are equal, but some are more equal.

Any affiliates joining the eBay Partner Network as of September 1, 2009 will automatically be paid out under the new Quality Click Pricing structure, while existing affiliates will not be transitioned to the new structure until October 1, 2009.

More details at http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/en/news/announcing-quality-click-pricing/.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Do Affiliates Still Care About Adware?

August 19, 2009 by Shawn Collins

It’s been 7 years since the Performance Marketing Summit on adware, and the debate raged for quite some time afterwards.

But do newer affiliates know about the issue? And if so, do they care?

When I asked more than four-hundred and fifty affiliates their opinion on the subject for the 2009 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, only 19% said they choose the affiliate offers they promote based on whether or not they allow affiliates that use adware and/or toolbars.

Another 22% indicated this sometimes factors into their decision, 13% rarely consider it, and 46% don’t care at all.

Opinions on adware and toolbars by affiliates

Have affiliates become too complacent, or has this issue become irrelevant?

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

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Filed Under: Affiliate News, Affiliate Stats

Trust Agents

August 17, 2009 by Shawn Collins

I just finished the book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan. It is not being released until August 24, but I was able to get my paws on an advance copy last week at Affiliate Summit East 2009.

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

I’ve got to tell you… I loved Trust Agents.

While Julien and Chris were at Affiliate Summit, they had a book signing. And while I did go to the book signing, I ended up leaving my copy of Trust Agents in my hotel room. That was an exercise in fail.

But I got some pictures of the action, and lots of other people have signed copies of the future best seller. Foiled again!

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith sign copies of Trust Agents at Affiliate Summit East 2009

Signed copy of Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Anyhow, it’s a quick read with lots of gems in there about leveraging social networks and social media overall, increasing your sphere of influence, and that sort of thing.

It’s a step by step guide on how to do it all. And I know – you’re as cynical as me. There are a lot of books that promise to teach you how to do it.

But they’re typically by pretenders. People that pretend to do and know the stuff that Brogan and Smith have experienced themselves.

Long story short – read Trust Agents. If you were lucky enough to snag a copy at Affiliate Summit, just reach into your still unpacked bag from the show. Otherwise, it’s available online and soon in your local store.

When Chris and Julien spoke at Affiliate Summit, they shared a topline view of the book with the crowd.

Affiliate Summit East 2009 Keynote from Julien Smith and Chris Brogan

Check out their presentation: attention wars and the rise of the TRUST AGENT.

The presentation was a good primer, maybe even a study guide for the book. But it’s heavy on images, so you’re not going to get all of the concepts by the slides alone. In the very near future, I’ll be posting video of the who keynote (soon as I get it from our production company).

Julien Smith and Chris Brogan Keynote Affiliate Summit East 2009

If you happen to be in the position where you have a need for a bulk order of Trust Agents, I just saw a post on Chris Brogan’s blog with a unique opportunity where you can get him to come to your office.

I’ll limit this to five total offers and you’ll have to show a screen cap of the confirmed order to prove it: If you purchase 200 copies of Trust Agents, I’ll fly out and spend a half day with your organization for free. I’ll let you know right now that my consulting rate is far more than the price of 200 books, so it’s a pretty darned good deal, so this might be the chance for a two-fer. You can give your group some books, and you can get specific consultation about how your organization can use online tools to be human at a distance and deliver business value.

Either way, I’d highly recommend the book, and I’m pretty picky about business books.

Video: Trust Agents

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

Affiliate Summit Affiliate Program Live on ShareASale

August 17, 2009 by Shawn Collins

The Affiliate Summit Affiliate Program just went live on ShareASale. Please be sure to take down affiliate links from the former affiliate program via Fusion Quest if you haven’t done so already.

The affiliate program pays a 15% commission on attendee passes to Affiliate Summit with a 30-day cookie.

No limits on trademark bidding, but you cannot earn commission if you register through your own link.

Since registrations just opened for Affiliate Summit West 2010, there are few registrations in the system so far, and we expect over 3,500 attendees. Get your affiliate managers to go through you!

Apply now to the Affiliate Summit Affiliate Program.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News, Affiliate Summit

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