Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for October 2011

11 Ways I Drive Traffic to My Sites

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Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. Actually, they probably won’t come.

In addition to creating a quality site, you also have to dedicate time to driving traffic from a variety of sources.

Traffic sources

In chapter seven of Extra Money Answer, my free online book for getting started as an affiliate, I go through my eleven key sources for driving traffic to affiliate sites.

These are in no particular order, and I didn’t include organic traffic from Google, Yahoo, etc., as I would encourage you to focus on creating quality content, and the search engines will find you.

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, learn how to make money online step-by-step with Extra Money Answer.

Most Affiliates are Marketing with Email

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Affiliates were asked “Do you maintain an opt-in e-mail list for your site(s)?” for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

The majority of affiliates responded yes for this survey question.

AffStat 2011 email statistics

I am sort of surprised the percentage of affiliates with an email list is not higher. Email has been part of my affiliate strategy for as long as I can remember.

In chapter five of Extra Money Answer, my free online book for getting started as an affiliate, I detail how I use email for my affiliate sites.

Over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.

Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO

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Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO panel from Affiliate Summit West 2010, which took place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

Speakers:

  • Kristopher B. Jones, President, Pepperjam Network, A GSI Commerce Company (Moderator)
  • Drew Bennett, Professional Blogger, BenSpark.com
  • John Carcutt, SEO Manager, MediaWhiz
  • Tim Jones, Owner, TheRealTimJones.com
  • Murray Ross Newlands, Founder, Affiliate Heat

Learn to maximize affiliate commissions using blogging, increasing your community, and utilizing SEO.

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: Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO

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.

Dell World 2011 in Austin

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The first-ever, sold-out Dell World conference took place this week in Austin, TX with a theme of “Unlocking Innovation in the Virtual Era.”

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Dell World featured an impressive roster of keynotes, including Dell Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell; Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer; Intel President and CEO, Paul Otellini; and former Chief Information Officer of the United States, Vivek Kundra.

Highlights of the Michael Dell keynote included mentions of the Social Media Listening Command Center, two of which were at Dell World, and how the line between IT and the business is going away.

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Michael Dell also spoke about how Dell is not just a PC company, but an end-to-end solutions company, and how their acquisitions, such as Equallogic, KACE, Boomi, Scalent, Compellent, and Force10 are companies that solve customer pain.

It was impressive with this economy to hear that Dell’s earnings per share have grown over 83% over the past year, they have over 100,000 partners, and they are investing $1 Billion in secure cloud.

Dell World also had opportunities to discuss a wide array of topics in their Idea Exchange breakout sessions, such as Convergence of End-Point Devices, Innovation In Virtual Storage Infrastructure, and Enabling Innovation Through The Cloud.

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Plus, there was an exhibition area with interactive discussions and a chance to learn more about solutions.

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My inner 7-year-old got excited to see the Formula One car they had on display.

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Great event and I look forward to next year.

Affiliate Summit West 2012 Early Bird Ends October 21

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Early bird pricing for Affiliate Summit West 2012, taking place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas, ends October 21, 2011.

The keynote speakers will be Jon Spoelstra, Eric “ET the Hip Hop Preacher” Thomas, and Jeremy “ShoeMoney” Schoemaker (January 10).

Affiliate Summit West 2011 Exhibit Hall

The Early Bird registration rates for the Silver Pass ($99), Gold Pass ($279), Platinum Pass ($879), and Diamond Pass ($1,879) are going up after October 21, 2011.

The Early Bird Deadline is firm.

Starting October 22, the rates to register for Affiliate Summit will be… Silver Pass ($249), Gold Pass ($549), Platinum Pass ($1,249), and Diamond Pass ($2,249).

For a description of the available pass types see http://www.affiliatesummit.com/register/.

A handful of Affiliate Summit sponsorships are still available (most booths and all Meet Market tables are sold out). See http://www.affiliatesummit.com/12w-exhibitors/ for details.

Rooms at Caesars Palace Las Vegas are available at an Affiliate Summit group rate of $199 a night until December 7 (or the block has reached capacity). After that, the hotel will charge the prevailing rate.

More details at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/12w-travel/.

Register now at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/.

Merchant Challenges in the Affiliate Space

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Merchant Challenges in the Affiliate Space panel from Affiliate Summit West 2010, which took place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

Speakers:

  • Charles Calabrese, Product Manager, buy.at Affiliate Network (Moderator)
  • Dave Gaetano, Online Marketing Consultant, The New York Times
  • Erik Hom, Sr. Director, Business Development, Ticketmaster
  • Madeleine McGregor, Affiliate Manager, CSN Stores
  • Jared Saunders, Affiliate Program Manager, Jenson USA

Identify several key merchants and have them speak on new and future challenges seen by the merchants in the affiliate space. Open the floor to participants to ask questions as well.

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: Merchant Challenges in the Affiliate Space

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.

Shareist is a Great Platform for Affiliate Marketers

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I recently tried out Shareist, a custom curation site that makes it quick and easy to setup an affiliate site, and I would recommend it to any affiliate marketers.

shareist

If you are not familiar with the concept of curation, it’s essentially where you act as a gatekeeper and share content that matters to you and your audience, as well as providing your commentary on the content.

There is a good book called Curation Nation by Steve Rosenbaum if you’d like to get a better understanding.

Anyhow, Shareist was created by a team that includes Scott Jangro, who has been an affiliate marketer for many years, and the platform has a variety of tools and features that make it easy to create an affiliate site.

I recently started a WordPress blog to pull together information for the affiliate marketing community in Austin, TX at atxaffiliates.com.

I was finding that I didn’t have much to write about on a regular basis. So the domain was pretty static. I was posting about monthly affiliate marketing meetups in Austin, but not much else.

Enter Shareist!

I started playing around with Shareist a week ago, and I really liked the ease of use. In a matter of about a half hour, I’d created my profile and populated the site with lots of quality, relevant content.

In addition to pulling in content, I’ve created a list of my favorite business books with the Shareist list tool.

This is one type of affiliate application for Shareist, as you can enter an Amazon affiliate ID in the admin area, and then any Amazon link you curate will turn into your affiliate link.

There is also an ad management area where you can run affiliate ads, affiliate link management section, a nice amount of reporting, and the ability to import a WordPress blog.

Shareist is in closed beta for now. If you’d like to try it out, you can submit your name and email to get alerted when they open up more spots.

Check out Shareist at shareist.com.

Vote for Affiliate Summit West 2012 Sessions

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Affiliate Summit needs your help to pick sessions for Affiliate Summit West 2012. Voting will be open through Monday, October 17th, 2011.

The speaker proposals have been pared down to the titles, speakers, descriptions, and classifications (experience level, target audience, and main subject).

Vote for submissions you’d like to see at Affiliate Summit West 2012 by clicking the “Vote” button next to the proposed session. You may vote for as many sessions as you’d like.

Affiliate Summit West 2012 session voting

You can find sessions that interest you by sorting the Experience Level, Niche/Vertical, or Target Audience from the header, as well as using the search box.

Also, see a tally of the most popular sessions.

Sort sessions by type

Create an account now and start voting if you are attending Affiliate Summit West 2012.

Just click the Register link and then submit a user name and email. A password will be emailed to you.

If you don’t see it right away, check your spam folder for an email with the subject, “[Vote for Affiliate Summit Sessions] Your username and password” from wordpress@affiliatesummit.info

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Speakers for Affiliate Summit will be chosen based on the combined votes from the public, votes from the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board, votes from Affiliate Summit founders Missy Ward and Shawn Collins, and feedback received on past speakers.

Please note: all speaker prospects were given strict session title and description character/word limit guidelines and signed off that all spelling and grammar was accurate. If the submissions went over their alloted limitations, they were cut short and replaced with “…”

Vote now at http://www.affiliatesummit.info/vote!

Increase Search Revenue While Protecting Your Brand

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Increase Search Revenue While Protecting Your Brand panel from Affiliate Summit West 2010, which took place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

Speakers:

  • Debbie Bookstaber, VP, Strategy & Business Development, The JAR Group (Moderator)
  • Brendan Lawrence, Publisher Extraordinaire, The Smartest Search
  • Lori Weiman, CEO, The Search Monitor

Learn how to increase search revenue by letting your affiliates bid on trademark terms. Affiliate managers present case studies while TheSmartestSearch provides an affiliate’s perspective.

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: Increase Search Revenue While Protecting Your Brand

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.

Effective Social Media Techniques

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Effective Social Media Techniques panel from Affiliate Summit West 2010, which took place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

Speaker:

  • Andrew Wee, Owner, WhoIsAndrewWee.com (Moderator)
  • Rebecca Kelley, Director of Social Media, 10e20
  • Keith Plocek, Social Media Manager, Mail.com Media Corporation
  • Brett Tabke, CEO, WebmasterWorld

Get insights into the techniques behind effectively using social media to build your brand and achieve business growth. Includes a question and answer session with the panelists.

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: Effective Social Media Techniques

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.