Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.
Inuvo has partnered with Extrabux to create BargainMatch, a comparison shopping API with integrated cash back and coupon discounts for affiliates.
BargainMatch enables affiliates to create their own loyalty sites and allows them to offer cash back based on product price comparison functionality.
The application will be available to affiliates and mobile application developers.
More details at http://inuvo.com/bargainmatch.
We finished moving out of our home in Berkeley Heights, NJ yesterday, after spending more than five years there. It was a bittersweet experience to leave, but we’re off to a new, exciting, scary experience in Austin, TX.
There were so many moments in the house; the birth of my son Jack, Christmas mornings, times with family and friends, birthday parties, etc.
Also, it was here that I did much of my work on Affiliate Summit, as well as learning how to make videos and podcasts, work on a book, write thousands of blog posts, and all sorts of other stuff.
Lots of happy memories locked into those walls. But it’s time for a change.
Since it will take a bunch of days for the moving company to make it out to Austin, TX, we couldn’t just fly directly out there. Well, we could, but we wouldn’t have any furniture or anything.
So, my wife and kids are making a pitstop at her sister’s house, and I’m on a solo roadtrip with my dogs and computers.
It comes to around 1,800 miles by car, and I have to be there by Tuesday morning for the movers.
Last night, I drove the first leg, which ended up being a little more than 400 miles. I went from Berkeley Heights, NJ to Salem, VA.
Everything went well on the drive, but I made a rookie roadtrip mistake in my choice of a place to stay for the night.
I mapped out the route with a site called petswelcome.com, so I could see all of the “pet friendly” motels/hotels along the way.
Super 8. Not so super.
I was tired and wanted to get out of the car and asked myself, “how bad could it be?”. Please remind me not to ever ask myself that again!
The dogs were sniffing the room like it was a crime scene. I just hope I didn’t pick up any cooties.
Time to caffeine up and get back on the road.
States visited on day 1: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia
PPC Search: Disclosure vs. Free-for-All presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2008, which took place August 10-12, 2008 in Boston, MA.
Judicious use of additional affiliate sites to buy PPC links can increase overall sales. Uncontrolled use of affiliates to buy PPC results in bid escalation. What’s the right mix?
Slides: PPC Search: Disclosure vs. Free-for-All
Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.
I went out for a three-mile run the other day, and almost immediately I was looking for reasons to cut it short and take a hot shower.
It was windy and cold. Rain was coming down. My foot was hurting. Side stitches.
Then I got to thinking about Edison Peña.
He was the Chilean miner who was who was trapped for 69 days. Peña would take three to six mile underground jogs in the dark to kill time and stay sane.
He finished the New York Marathon this past Sunday on a busted knee.
Think of Edison Peña when you’re struggling with your project or company. He could have stopped at five miles, and everybody would have praised him. But he refused to quit.
This reminds me of the latest post from Rob Rammuny, “19 Entrepreneurs Reveal Why People Fail to Build a Profitable Business”.
I participated by answering…
My favorite insight about the line between success and failure came from a keynote address at Affiliate Summit East 2006 by Jim Bouton (former New York Yankee, best-selling author, and the inventor of Big League Chew):
‘I stumbled on to the secret of success, and that is persistence.
I just kept going out for the team anyway, even though I wasn’t successful.
Every summer out there playing ball. Persistence… persistence was the key.
You don’t have to be educated, you don’t have to be talented, you don’t have to be rich, you don’t have to be lucky – it’s available to anyone.
I’m convinced most people don’t fail, they simply stop trying.’
I love that ending. If you want to make your breaks and be your own boss, you need to keep trying.
ShareASale started a contest back in September to pick a new mascot for the company. The new ShareASale mascot will be featured in promotional campaigns.
I had an entry in the contest with my mutt puppy, Mattingly, and she was just announced as the next top puppy model.
Mattingly is very excited and she is going to celebrate tonight with a cheap, freezer-burned steak and some tap water.
But we’re not going to tolerate any diva behavior around here. It’s not like she’s the first dog in the house to be a media darling.
Back in August 2008, my other dog, Mickey, was a model in the second issue of FeedFront magazine.
If you were wondering, Mickey and Mattingly were named after Mickey Mantle and Don Mattingly.
More details on the ShareASale mascot announcement at http://blog.shareasale.com/2010/11/08/and-the-winner-is/.
Q: I’m thinking about using PPC to attract more affiliates to my program. Do you think this will be effective? How would you go about tackling this campaign? Our product is an all natural menopause relief product.
A: As far as a PPC campaign to recruit affiliates, that is something I did for many years when managing affiliate programs.
The way I did it was to target generic keywords with the word affiliate program or some other affiliate-related phrase.
In your case with the all natural menopause relief product, I would suggest focusing on phrases like menopause affiliate, menopause affiliate program, etc., as well as any other relevant keyword for your business paired with affiliate and/or affiliate program.
I don’t know how many people are searching for affiliate programs in your niche, but those who do search for it will be quality prospects.
In addition to running a campaign on Google AdWords, I would suggest testing it with Facebook ads. I haven’t tried recruiting affiliates on Facebook, since their ad platform came after I stopped managing affiliate programs, but it’s been highly effective for me when promoting other things.
Legal 2.0: Hot Topics in Affiliate Marketing panel from Affiliate Summit East 2008, which took place August 10-12, 2008 in Boston, MA.
Speakers:
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.
More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/
Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.
Inuvo has launched an app called DealEx that allows merchants, whether local or national, to create and distribute deals.
It’s a similar concept to Groupon or Living Social, but with an affiliate twist for distribution.
DealEx is an application and not a destination site, and merchants are able to create a deal, which gets added to a feed, and then that feed can be used by affiliates to promote the deals.
Affiliates earn 10-15% of the sale of any deal when they refer a customer, and starting early next year, Inuvo will offer the option to brand the checkout process for the affiliates.
More details at http://inuvo.com/dealex.
ad:tech took place November 3-4, 2010 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.
It was a great opportunity to touch base with folks in affiliate marketing, as well as meet a bunch of fresh faces in the business.
I stumbled on an interesting development at the Convert2Media booth at ad:tech. The company brought affiliate Rob Adler on board.
Rob wrote an article in issue 12 of FeedFront Magazine about properly pitching your network at a conference (from an affiliate perspective), so it was fun to see him on the other side.
I’ve got to say I paid close attention to how he was speaking with people at the booth and he was following his own advice. Nicely done, Mr. Adler.
Also on November 3, there was an Affiliate Summit Meetup at the Oldcastle Pub on West 54th Street in NYC.
It was to have some quality conversation, food and drink with old and new industry friends. Thanks to all who stopped by.
Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned From Google by Aaron Goldman is a pretty useful read. You can almost get the premise of each bit of advice in the book from the table of contents, but the book is certainly worth your while to read.
Items in the book include Relevancy Rules, Keep It Simple Stupid, Act Like Content, Test Everything, Sex Sells, Altruism Sells, etc.
Goldman goes into detail in each of these areas and how you can mimic the success of Google.
Back when Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned From Google was published, I interviewed author Aaron Goldberg about the book.
Read the interview to learn more about learning from failures from Google, whether Google’s tactics can be applied to brick & mortars, and how often the author Googles himself.