Affiliate Marketing Blog

Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Archives for April 2012

Search Marketing Campaign Review

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This was a conference session titled the Search Marketing Campaign Review from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speakers:

  • Kate Morris, SEO Consultant, Distilled Consulting (Moderator)
  • Carolyn Shelby, Web Experience Manager, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago
  • Christa Watson, CEO of Awesome, TheChrista.com

Session description: Attendees will apply to have their site and campaigns reviewed before the conference. Our panel of experts in SEO, link building, PPC, social, and affiliate will choose 4-5 companies for review.

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.

Video: Search Marketing Campaign Review

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.

Last Call for Affiliate Summit East 2012 Speaker Proposals

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The speaker proposal period for Affiliate Summit East 2012, taking place August 12-14, 2012 in New York, NY, is about to end.

The submission deadline is April 20, 2012.

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Accepted speakers will be notified no later than May 11, 2012.

If you have not been contacted by May 11, 2012, your proposal was not accepted.

Submit your speaking proposal at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/12e-speakers/.

Cory Booker is a Hero

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Green ArrowCory Booker, Mayor of Twitter and Newark, NJ, is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a woman from a house fire Thursday night.

This wasn’t the first time Mayor Booker has sought to protect his city. Back in 2006, shortly after he was elected Mayor, he chased a robber.

And rumor has it that the title character of Green Arrow Vol 3 #60 is based on Cory Booker.

All of this comes as no surprise to the folks who saw Mayor Booker deliver the keynote address at Affiliate Summit East 2008 in Boston.

Watch video of the Cory Booker keynote on YouTube or listen to the audio on GeekCast.fm.

Cory Booker at Affiliate Summit East 2008

There is a funny hashtag on Twitter going on today: #CoryBookerStories

Well done, Cory!

Ball Four for Affiliate Marketing

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One of my first affiliate sites was BallFourBook.com, which was all about the book Ball Four by Jim Bouton.

Ball Four

I purchased the domain back in June 2000 and created lots of original content around what is still one of my favorite books.

Back when the hardcover edition of the book came out in October 2000, I was excited to see that I got a mention for my work on the site toward the back of the book (page 517).

I ran it for many years before getting lazy and flipping the domain over as a direct link to the book on Amazon.com.

shawn-jimAnyhow, there is another affiliate marketing tie in with Ball Four and Jim Bouton. He was the keynote speaker at Affiliate Summit East 2006 in Orlando.

But the real reason that Ball Four is on my mind, aside from the fact that I often read all or part of it at the start of baseball season, is that it’s now available for the Kindle, as well as on Audible with Jim Bouton doing the read.

I just got them both to enjoy as the Yankees claw up to first place.

Buy Ball Four on Audible, Kindle, or the old-fashioned way, if you’re a baseball fan.

Video: Jim Bouton on the Secret of Success

Rakuten LinkShare Symposium New York 2012 Registration Opens

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Rakuten LinkShare Symposium New York 2012 is taking place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City on June 25-26, 2012.

LinkShare Symposium East 2012

The keynote speaker will be Andy Hoar, senior analyst at Forrester Research. Inc., and he will cover The Value of Affiliate Marketing in 2012.

Rakuten LinkShare Symposium East 2012 will also include the Rakuten LinkShare University for Advertisers.

The event will also feature their “DealMaker” networking sessions, and the annual Rakuten LinkShare Golden Link Awards.

More details at linkshare.com/events/symposium_new_york_2012/.

Crowdfunding for Affiliate Sites

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Affiliate marketers with big ideas and small bank accounts might want to consider crowdfunding to help their concept come to life.

Crowdfunding

If you’re not familiar with crowdfunding, it is when people pool their money and other resources together to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.

You can see an example where Affiliate Summit is crowdfunding charity fundraising for the fight against breast cancer.

In that case, we’re using a platform called Indiegogo. Former Affiliate Summit keynote Ze Frank recently used crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise money to re-start his Internet show.

But when it comes to pulling together investments in a company, you should check out MicroVentures, which merges peer-to-peer lending with the venture capital industry.

They are looking for startups and existing businesses that need between $100,000 to $500,000 in capital.

More details at microventures.com/business-funding.

Limited Number of Sessions Only Passes Available for Affiliate Summit Central 2012

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Affiliate Summit Central 2012 sold out last week at our planned number of 350 spots, but we’ve been swamped with people who want to get it, so we changed things up to make more space.

She Likes that there are more passes for Affiliate Summit Central 2012!We’ve reconfigured the seating in the session rooms, so now we have a limited number of Sessions Only Passes available.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t increase the Full Passes, because they include meals, and there is nowhere to expand the eating area.

Check http://www.regonline.com/asc12 for availability. If you’re able to enter your registration — you’re good to go at the rate of $129 for a Sessions Only Pass.

More information on Affiliate Summit Central 2012 at http://www.AffiliateSummit.com.

You Don’t Have the Best Affiliate Site in Your Niche (So What!)

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I’ve got a bunch of affiliate sites in various niches, and none of them are ranked #1 in Google for the most important keywords.

I used to obsess about that, and compare all aspects of my sites to those ranking better, and try to reverse engineer things.

But I’ve realized that’s a wrong headed approach.

Cease comparisons to the other sites in your niche. Comparisons are a self-inflicted bully.

Instead, just focus on testing, optimizing, and improving your site to make it a more useful resource to your audience.

This reminds me of the keynote from Jim Bouton at Affiliate Summit in July 2006.

Bouton recalled a story about legendary golfer, Arnold Palmer. Palmer was once asked why it was that whenever he played golf with Jack Nicklaus that Jack would beat him.

Arnold Palmer explained that he “was always trying to beat Jack. And Jack was always trying to play good golf.”

Focus on creating good sites and you’ll do well.

FeedFront Magazine Issue 18 Now Available

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The 18th issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, is at the printer and it will be hitting mailboxes later in April 2012.

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 18

Issue 18 of FeedFront will also be distributed at Affiliate Summit Meetups and Affiliate Summit Central 2012.

This issue of FeedFront Magazine includes Dress for the Job You Want by Shawn Collins, Ten Tips for HEO: Healthy Eating Optimization by Heather Romiti, Law Enforcement Perils and Pitfalls for Affiliates by Thomas A. Cohn, and What SOPA Means for Affiliate Marketing’s Future by Brook Schaaf.

Also automation, better affiliate newsletters, FTC bizopp rule, optimizing queries, smooth business travel, USA vs. Europe in affiliate marketing, behind the scenes of the Affiliate Ball, and more.

Issue 18 of FeedFront Magazine can now be viewed online, downloaded, and printed from issuu.com.

Get the FeedFront RSS if you’d like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

Also, become a fan of FeedFront on Facebook to see past issues, covers, etc.