Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for September 2009

Meet the New buy.at Logo, Same as the Old buy.at Logo

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The buy.at red and white logo is back after a brief hiatus. AOL has settled on a streamlined set of key brands, and the Platform-A brand is being retired.

buyatThis move includes the return of the buy.at red and white logo.

buy.at will continue to operate within the AOL Advertising division, which includes leveraging AOL’s performance-based properties and advertiser relationships.

So I would ask that you please forget this image of me ever existed.

Shawn Collins - Tricycle Star

Not because I am intensely riding a tricycle, but because I’m wearing an outdated version of the buy.at logo.

Cute, Ruthless Lead Collection Technique

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There was a flyer stuffed in my mailbox last night. Well actually, two flyers stapled together.

It was a personalized marketing effort from a couple of girls who are 10 years old who have a startup in the neighborhood – a dog walking business.

dog-walking-1

dog-walking-2

The pitch was a little rough – why would they add in by hand that they are “10 years old”? Is that really a big selling point? Maybe there are some 9 year old competitors about to launch an ad campaign?

But also, they’re both classmates of my oldest daughter, and they’re apparently trying to swoop in and take one of her jobs. Harsh.

Affiliate Fatblogging: Introducing FatShawn.com

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This post marks the final affiliate fatblogging post on the Affiliate Tip blog. The fatblogging posts now have a new home at FatShawn.com.

FatShawn.com is a new site chronicling the journey of fat to fit with all of the setbacks and victories.

As you may imagine, FatShawn.com is an affiliate site, and I will be experimenting with various ways to monetize it.

So, if you’re interested in hearing about working towards 5k’s, new sneakers, health trends, gadgets related to getting fit, and those sorts of things, come on over to the new blog.

Video: Introducing Fat Shawn

Electronic Signatures for Affiliate Agreements

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I got an email the other day that RackSpace is re-launching their Partner Network, and that I would have to sign a new contract. That was met with an ugh, as I figured I had to go through the old process of printing, signing, and faxing the agreement back to them.

But then I saw that they were using this company EchoSign, and that it was a quick and easy process online.

RackSpace Partner Network agreement via EchoSign

I’ve had accounts with affiliate networks for so long that I don’t know which, if any, are using this sort of thing. But it would be great to see this with the affiliate networks and affiliate programs.

It’s a green thing, and a convenience thing.

Check out a blog post from EchoSign on “Why We Need Web-Based Electronic Signatures“.

Get Involved in Affiliate Day 2009

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Affiliate Summit is organizing Affiliate Day 2009 on September 14, 2009 as a day to recognize the power of affiliate marketing.

Affiliate DayThere will be several fun-filled promotions over the course of the day, designed to increase awareness of the industry and reward affiliate marketers with all sorts of goodies, including passes to Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas.

For a chance to win prizes, simply post a Tweet using hashtag: #affday09 on Affiliate Day.

Alternately, you can enter by sending your name and email address to Affiliate Summit at 1253 Springfield Ave., Suite 327, New Providence, NJ 07974-1935. Entries via postal mail must be postmarked no later than September 11, 2009.

On September 18, Tweets and other entries will be chosen at random and winners will be notified by DM (if you’re following @affiliatesummit) or an @ reply. Entries via postal mail will be notified by email.

Support the Industry

We’re in the process of collecting prizes to give away on Affiliate Day and we’re asking your assistance in making the event a success.

Additionally, you’ll benefit from exposure of your company’s name to all who participate in Affiliate Day. We will also be posting a list of donors on the Affiliate Summit blog.

How to Donate an Item:

You can donate your item by completing this form by September 11, 2009.

If you provide a prize, you will be responsible for shipping it to the winner.

Contact us with any questions.

Surviving a Gmail Outage

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So Gmail was down for about 100 minutes yesterday, and people freaked out. Facebook, Twitter, and message boards went crazy with the Gmail exiles that couldn’t figure out what to do without access to email.

GmailSome of the email stress would have been alleviated for people if they’d simply enabled Gmail Offline in Google Labs.

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.

Google Labs Offline Gmail

So, you’re able to access all of your archives, and you’ve got a local copy of your emails.

While you won’t be able to receive new emails while Gmail is down, you can otherwise go on with your business. So stop contemplating a move back to Outlook – just go and enable Gmail Offline.

As far as the reason for the Gmail outage, Google explained it as a server overload after performing maintenance on some servers that were taken offline.

Video: Offline Gmail (in Gmail Labs)

GSI Commerce Acquires Pepperjam

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GSI Commerce Inc. (NASDAQ: GSIC) announced yesterday that they have acquired “certain assets” of the Pepperjam affiliate network and the Pepperjam marketing agency.

Pepperjam will operate as a separate business unit of gsi interactive and report to Nick Pahade, President of gsi interactive.

More details at http://www.pepperjamnetwork.com/blog/2009/09/01/gsi-commerce-acquires-pepperjam/.