Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for May 2011

Making a Full-Time Income with Affiliate Marketing

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Q: Shawn, I’ve been attempting Affiliate Marketing for 3 years now, and have made 1 Clickbank sale and my adwords account just got shut down for direct linking. Is affiliate marketing something that I can make a full-time income doing? If so, would you care to share any advice on how to do so? I’m not used to not succeeding and I become discouraged at times. Thank you in advance.

Shawn CollinsA: An important thing to understand about affiliate marketing from the start is that it takes a lot of hard work and patience.

I guess you’ve had patience to be at it for three years, but the success hasn’t come for you.

Without seeing your site, I cannot judge what may be wrong with it in particular, but I have a free resource that covers the steps I take in setting up an affiliate site.

The site is called Extra Money Answer, and I am writing it in book form with chapters and sections broken down on the various things you need to do to create an affiliate site.

It covers everything from determining a topic to cover, getting a domain and hosting, driving traffic, and testing affiliate ads.

Hopefully this can set you on the right path. Given that the current site hasn’t worked out, you’re probably best off scrapping it and starting from scratch.

Video: Making a Full-Time Income with Affiliate Marketing

How Affiliate Marketing Works

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Rae Hoffman-Dolan, an affiliate, as well as Internet Marketing and SEO consultant, has created a helpful infographic that explains how affiliate marketing works.

Click here to view a larger version.
How Affiliate Marketing Works

[Image provided courtesy of the Sugarrae affiliate marketing blog.]

Finally, a quick and easy way for affiliate marketers to let their family and friends know what they do.

Plus, a really helpful, concise explanation for folks seeking to learn more about the affiliate marketing process.

More information on Rae’s post, “How Affiliate Marketing Works – A Step by Step Visual“.

Rae is going to be giving a Full Day SEO Training Course on the day before Affiliate Summit East 2011 in New York City.

Registration is limited for this course, which takes place Saturday, August 20, 2011. Details at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/full-day-seo-training-course/.

Social Media Marketing for Affiliates

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Social Media Marketing for Affiliates presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2009, which took place August 9-11, 2009 in New York, NY.

Speakers:

  • Neil Patel, Co-Founder, KISSmetrics (Moderator)
  • Brent Csutoras, Social Media Consultant, Brent Csutoras, Inc.
  • Todd Malicoat, Owner, Meta4 Creations, LLC
  • Chris Winfield, President, 10e20

Learn from some of the top Social Media Marketers, how you can use social media to build links, drive traffic, and increase your site’s visibility.

Slides from this session are available at http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/social-media-marketing-for-affiliates

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Note: the company(ies) and position(s) listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Social Media Marketing for Affiliates

If you liked this video, be sure to register for the next Affiliate Summit. The session videos aren’t made public until a year or more after each conference.

Will I See You at ShareASale ThinkTank?

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I was just looking at my calendar and realized that I will be in Chicago two weeks from today for ShareASale ThinkTank.

ShareASale ThinkTankThis will be my third ShareASale ThinkTank, and I can’t wait.

Any affiliates, merchants and agencies/OPMs doing business with ShareASale should be there – I just heard tickets are close to selling out, so get it done if you are thinking about going out there.

It’s only $50 for affiliates!

In the past, ShareASale ThinkTank was in the 4th quarter, but since that’s such a busy time for affiliate marketers, the date was pushed up.

The date change is a big help with the leadup to Christmas for my own affiliate sites, but also the old time got in the way of my seeing Yankees playoff games the last two years, so I am glad that won’t be an issue this time around.

In addition to days of high quality educational sessions and networking, they are ending things by going to a Cubs/Pirates game at 3936 Wrigley Rooftop.

Affiliate Summit will be a sponsor for the baseball networking event, so I look forward to seeing lots of affiliates there to talk about the best ways to promote the Affiliate Summit affiliate program.

See you in Chicago!?

Link Building Secrets from Chad H. Pollitt

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Affiliate Summit ran a free webinar on link building secrets a couple days ago, and it’s now available to watch on demand for free.

affiliate-summit-logoWatch this webinar if want to learn the best ways to build links and leverage social media for search engine visibility.

Chad H. Pollitt, Director of Social Media & Search Marketing at Kuno Creative, explored the components of a successful SEO campaign, identified thirteen actionable link building tactics, and introduced the best way to leverage social media in an SEO campaign.

Slides: Link Building Secrets – Affiliate Summit Webinar

LinkShare Affiliates Need to Update Web Services URLs

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LinkShare recently made system enhancements that impact tools that use LinkShare Web Services.

These changes required them to update the URLs used in various LinkShare tools including:

  • Coupon Web Service
  • Merchandiser Query Tool
  • Targeted Merchandiser API
  • Automated Link Generator
  • Advertiser Search API
  • RSS Feeds
  • WordPress Plugins

If you use these services or have created custom applications that use these services, you’ll need to update your Web Service URLs.

The old URL for the Coupon Web Service will be retired May 15, 2011, and all other old URLs will be retired on June 11, 2011.

Aggregated Affiliate Stats

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Q: I’m write a blog and am looking to open an affiliate store which will display products mentioned in the posts as well as other gift ideas. I have relationships with 6 affiliate networks. I am wondering if there is a tool for publishers that would allow management & tracking for all the relationships (dozens of merchants on several networks) from one central dashboard solution?

Shawn CollinsA: I have seen a handful of solutions to aggregate affiliate network data, but there is only one that I have used, and that’s AffMeter.

AffMeter has dozens of networks available through their software.

Features from the service include the ability to find top revenue generating and losing merchants, exporting reports as XLS files, receiving daily email alerts, and seeing your statistics in USDs, Pounds, AUDs or Euros with the Affmeter Currency Converter.

Many affiliates cobble together a manual solution, such as entering the data into a spreadsheet, but that can be a big task if you’re promoting a lot of affiliate programs.

7 Steps for a Successful Affiliate Program in 2011

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I will be moderating a Shop.org webinar called 7 Steps for a Successful Affiliate Program in 2011 with Melissa Salas, Director of Marketing, Buy.com & Co-Host, BuyTV and Darrin Shamo, Director of Direct Online Marketing, Zappos.com.

Shop.orgShop.org webinars are designed for internet and multi-channel retailers looking to enhance their company’s’ online experience. Non-retailers are able to attend as well.

Here is a description of the webinar:

Online marketers have more on their plates than ever before. A successful online marketer must optimize the “tried and true” marketing channels while keeping pace with numerous emerging technologies. Online affiliate programs have been around since virtually the beginning of eCommerce and it has changed drastically with the times. There are many elements that contribute to the success or failure of an affiliate program in 2011. This panel will discuss 7 methods companies should consider to make the most out of their affiliate program. Tactics discussed will include exploring mobile and video, recruiting and activating affiliates, as well as auditing affiliates and reinforcing relationships. This group will also discuss how affiliate programs can help retailers in regards to customer acquisition, retention, and branding.

Managing Privacy & Maximizing Data in Affiliate Marketing

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Managing Privacy & Maximizing Data in Affiliate Marketing presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2009, which took place August 9-11, 2009 in New York, NY.

Speakers:

Affiliate marketing thrives on valuable data, such as lead gen, email marketing and campaign results/statistics. Privacy, data and security issues are critical today, especially in an industry where valuable data is a competitive advantage.

Slides from this session are available at http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/managing-privacy-maximizing-data-in-affiliate-marketing-alan-chapell and http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/managing-privacy-maximizing-data-in-affiliate-marketing-gary-kibel

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Note: the company(ies) and position(s) listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Managing Privacy & Maximizing Data in Affiliate Marketing

If you liked this video, be sure to register for the next Affiliate Summit. The session videos aren’t made public until a year or more after each conference.