Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for June 2011

Race to Affiliate Summit East 2011 Tally for June 29, 2011

by

The Race to Affiliate Summit East 2011, a dailymile challenge where Affiliate Summit will donate $1 to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade for each mile run or walked (up to $5,000) through the challenge, is running through 07/31/2011.

There are currently 42 folks involved in the challenge, and the top ten runners have already tallied 991 miles.

Overall, there have been 1.459 miles run by all of the participants, so it’s $a,459 raised so far.

I am at #4 right now (see my dailymile profile) with 95 miles – catch me if you can.

Here are the top ten runners, as of June 29, 2011.

dailymile syncs with Garmin (205, 305, 310xt, 405, 405cx), Nike+ device and iPhone app, as well as a number of iPhone and Android clients.

You can also manually enter your running and walking efforts.

In order to participate in dailymile activities, you will need to friend me on dailymile and I will invite you to the challenge. The challenge is going through 07/31/2011.

Get more details at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/2011/05/23/race-to-affiliate-summit-east-2011/.

Affiliate Summit East 2011 is taking place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

The participant with the most total miles at the end of the challenge will receive a Platinum pass to the conference.

Please note that all information you provide as part of the contest is public and may be used by Affiliate Summit in our marketing efforts for this event.

Affiliates Don’t Get Reciprocal Links, They Get Money

by

We got an email for the Affiliate Summit affiliate program that I initially thought was a joke.

Can I haz reciprocal linkz?One of our affiliates sent along the following…

Hello Missy,

My name is [redacted], I am one of your Sharasale.com affiliates ([redacted]). We have recently launched our new website and would like to request that you place a reciprocal link to our website on your website. Our site relies heavily on search engine traffic to support all of our affiliates. We have sent this same request to all of our affiliates in efforts to strengthen all of our search engine ranks by inter-linking.

Below you will find the links we would like you to add somewhere on your website. These are links to where your company and website appear on our website.

[redacted]

Also, if you would like to help us improve your listings, we would greatly appreciate you replying to this email with a full 1-2 paragraph description of your website/business so we can update it on our site.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly at [redacted].

He was joking, right?

When affiliates refer sales to us, I love paying them. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

But our agreement doesn’t say anything about trying to help affiliate “search engine ranks by inter-linking”.

Governor Jerry Brown Passes Law to Destroy Small Business in California

by

Governor Jerry Brown of California has signed his budget into law, which includes the affiliate nexus tax.

California is anti-small businessWith the stroke of his pen, Governor Brown just put legions of entrepreneurs and their employees out of business.

The affiliate nexus portion of the budget forces out-of-state retailers to collect California state sales tax for Internet sales, based on the view that affiliate marketers constitute a tax nexus for the retailers.

The immediate reaction by countless online retailers, in what promises to be a huge list, is that they will remove the affiliates of California from their affiliate programs, so they still do not assume a tax nexus.

Simple summary for California politicians: no additional tax revenue will be collected.

Amazon already informed their affiliates that they’re out on the street.

And with scores of affiliate marketers fired by these retailers, California is going to lose a big chunk of income and income tax.

Congratulations to the CA lawmakers and Governor Brown: you’ve managed to deepen your huge deficits through some misguided bureaucracy.

Back in the spring, the state of Illinois passed a similar law, which forced super affiliate FatWallet.com to move from Illinois to Wisconsin, so they could remain in business.

How many companies in California will now be leaving the state like FatWallet for places that are not hostile to economic growth and job creation?

More details on the California affiliate nexus tax from the Performance Marketing Association.

Cost to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing

by

Q: As someone who is just starting to learn about affiliate marketing & not yet actually doing it. How much capital should I expect to need in order to have a viable business?

Shawn CollinsA: You can really do it on the cheap. When I started out, my only investments were my domain name and hosting.

You can get a domain for around $10/year and hosting for less than $10/month.

It’s a relatively small investment to enable you to test the waters and see how it goes.

I’ve got a site called Extra Money Answer where I detail the steps that I take to create a new affiliate site.

The time it takes to make it a “viable business” depends on how you define that and how much time, effort, and creativity you’re willing to invest.

Most people will make extra money with affiliate marketing, but those who do it as a career are less common.

Video: Cost to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing

Barnes & Noble.com Affiliate Program Goes Exclusive with LinkShare

by

LinkShare has announced that Barnes & Noble.com has gone exclusive with the LinkShare network for their affiliate program.

Barnes & Noble.com

The news was shared at LinkShare Symposium East, which kicked off today at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Some details on the Barnes & Noble.com affiliate program:

  • 6% commission on millions of products.
  • Access to site-wide seasonal sales, coupon offers, and special deals.
  • Ability to promote NOOK reading devices.
  • Free shipping on orders of $25 or more.

Apply to be an affiliate of Barnes & Noble.com.

Affiliate Marketers Raise Over $73,000 to Fight Breast Cancer

by

Affiliate Marketers Give Back, led by Missy Ward, just completed a grueling 39.3 mile walk in the Rocky Mountains at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

The team raised $73,317, and a total of $1.9 million was raised over the weekend to fight breast cancer.

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Rocky Mountains 2011 Finish Line

The Affiliate Marketers Give Back team were the largest fundraising team.

Over 1,100 walkers participated in the event, and many walked all 39.3 miles through the mountains of Keystone, Frisco and Breckenridge, where they hit altitudes of almost 10,000 feet.

Other members of Affiliate Marketers Give Back were Andrea Boone, Brian Chase, Angel Djambazov, Jennifer Goode, Paul Hardebeck, Jenny Johnson, Aaron Kendall, Scott Richter, Adam Riemer, Melissa Salas, Kevin Strawbridge, Karen Vidick, and Jason Von Feldt.

I am proud to call Missy Ward my friend and business partner.

If you would like to help raise funds to fight breast cancer, check out the Race to Affiliate Summit East 2011, where Affiliate Summit will donate $1 to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade for each mile run or walked (up to $5,000) from 05/23/11 through 07/31/2011.

Dating & Matchmaking Site Benchmark Report

by

The Dating & Matchmaking Site Benchmark Report, from Anne Holland, Publisher of Subscription Site Insider and keynote at Affiliate Summit West 2006, is now available.

Dating Benchmark ReportThe report is packed with useful information for any dating affiliates.

One stat that jumped out at me was that 74% of dating site affiliates said the #1 thing they wished dating and matchmaking sites would do is improve their landing pages for conversions.

The survey gave affiliates a wide array of things to choose, including “more advanced warning of special promos” and “better affiliate ads and promo materials”, so such a large majority sends a clear message to dating sites.

The entire dating report, including 115 charts and tables based on data from 187 industry executives, is available for instant download.

Free Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East 2011

by

Affiliate Summit East 2011, taking place August 21-23, 2011, is just two months away. As we’ve done in the past, we’ll be giving away free gold passes to Affiliate Summit.

Entries for the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps can be made by Facebook or Twitter.

There will be fifty Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East 2011 given away, each valued at $549 per pass. Winners will be notified by email or Twitter DM.

Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit East 2011

Some details on the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps:

  • Prize Eligibility: Only persons residing in United States who are at least 21 years of age can enter.
  • Sweepstakes Starts: June 23, 2011 @ 02:01 am (EDT)
  • Sweepstakes Ends: July 23, 2011 @ 02:59 am (EDT)

The passes cannot be transferred, and the pass codes can no longer be redeemed in the event the conference sells out.

Also, anybody registering for a complimentary pass who neither checks in at the conference nor cancels will be ineligible for future complimentary passes.

Read the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps Official Rules for more details.

Enter the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps by Facebook or Twitter.

Domain Parking for Extra Cash

by

I’ve currently got 166 domains, and I actively work on a dozen or so of them.

I typically redirect them to my more active domains, but that can provide a confusing user experience and questionable return.

TheParkingPlace.com

So, I was looking for some alternatives to monetize the many quality, underused domain names in my portfolio.

I’ve tried hosted domains in Google AdSense and some other solutions with modest results, but I think I’ve found a winner with TheParkingPlace.com.

According to TheParkingPlace.com, you can generate up to seven times more revenue than traditional PPC methods with them.

They said they excel on domains with high traffic and low RPM (rate per thousand uniques) earnings.

You can see an example of a custom landing page from TheParkingPlace.com at GasPrices.com.

Anyhow, I am going to give them a try and see how it goes.

The Conversation Prism v2.0

by

The Conversation Prism v2.0 presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2009, which took place August 9-11, 2009 in New York, NY.

Speaker:

  • Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, PR 2.0

We will observe, analyze, dissect, and present the dynamics of conversations, how and where they transpire — becoming digital anthropologists in the process.

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: The Conversation Prism v2.0

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.