Archives for May 2012

This was a conference session titled Master of Your Domain? from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speakers:

• Gary Kibel, Partner, Davis & Gilbert LLP(Moderator)
• Sara Freixa, Brand Protection Manager, Americas, Melbourne IT DBS Inc
• Peter Marinello, Director, Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program

Session description: The basis of business on the internet is your domain name. Buying, selling, defending, procuring and maximizing domain names is key aspect of any affiliate marketer.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Domains

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/4c-master-of-your-domain

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: Master of Your Domain?

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.

I was reading an article by Ane (aka Anne) Howard on the Facebook IPO, and it included a surprising broadside when discussing “But who is really advertising on Facebook?”.

Maybe a clue is Facebook’s large presence at the Affiliate Summit and other events for “affiliate marketers,” often referred to as “spammers” in the online marketing world. These are the people behind the “Punch the Monkey” ads and the flashing banners telling you that you’re the millionth visitor and the winner of a a nebulous prize if you’ll just take a survey and give them your credit card number. The fact that Facebook is courting these advertisers might be the answer to the paradox of growing advertising revenue in the face of brands giving up on it as a viable advertising medium. On the other hand, relying heavily on advertisements revenues from spammers hardly seems to be a viable strategy for a large public company.

I was curious which of the 20 Affiliate Summits Ane Howard had attended to develop this opinion, and I was surprised to see that her name didn’t come up in our database at all.

Has Facebook attended Affiliate Summit in the past? Sure, but a large presence? They’ve never been a main sponsor.

And then there is the part about affiliate marketers often being referred to as spammers?

Well, there are two issues with this assertion:

1. While there are some bad eggs, like any industry, it seems awfully careless to label a large group in such a manner. It would be akin to stating that online news reporters are often referred to as yellow journalists.
2. The examples mentioned by Ane Howard (“Punch the Monkey” ads, questionable contests) sound like either media buys or pop-ups from spyware/malware. Is there any data that people who engage in these shady practices are also Facebook advertisers? I’ve been advertising on Facebook since they started offering the option, but not for affiliate offers.

Anyhow, I’d like to invite Ane Howard to come to Affiliate Summit East 2012, which is taking place August 12-14 in New York City, so she can see the conference, the attendees, and the content for herself.

There are a number of sessions on the FTC and compliance which could be eye-opening for you.

Thousands of folks from all sides of affiliate marketing will be there, including retailers ranging from Mom & Pops to Fortune 500 brands, and entrepreneurs at all levels.

What do you say, Ane? Contact me and we’ll get a pass set up for you.

UPDATE:

Ane Howard has declined.

Weird that she says there are plenty of affiliate marketing conferences in San Francisco, and she has attended them, yet she mentioned Affiliate Summit, which she has not attended, in her article.

That Tweet was later deleted for some reason.

Also, Ane Howard claimed “research was extensively done” on affiliate marketing to form her opinions and claims.

However, when asked to share this research, she just kept Tweeting how affiliates are spammers, and declared that she was being harassed.

I guess the strategy was something like this…

• Write linkbait
• Hope for traffic
• If you get called out, label yourself as a victim

On a funny note, I noticed on Ane Howard’s RushPR site that the previous post was a press release from discountvouchers.co.uk.

And yes, that’s an affiliate site.

This was a conference session titled Link Building Victories and Failures from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speaker:

• Wil Reynolds, Associate, SEER

Session description: Overview of easy and advanced link building opportunities, using everything from the newest tools to complex advanced strategies for building links.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Other
Niche/vertical: SEO

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/link-building-victories-and-failures

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: Link Building Victories and Failures

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.

This was a conference session titled Affiliate Tactics, Opportunities, and Traffic Comparisons from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speaker:

• Kim Kaplan, Vice President, Plentyoffish

Session description: Affiliate tactics, opportunities, and traffic comparisons will be discussed in this session.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Targeting

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/3d-affiliate-tactics-opportunities-and-traffic-comparisons

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: Affiliate Tactics, Opportunities, and Traffic Comparisons

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.

I gave a solo educational presentation at Affiliate Summit Central 2012 last week – my first in the 19 Affiliate Summits that have taken place to date.

The title of my talk was Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery, and I went over how it is scary to go out on your own to start a business.

The focus was my story of turning two bad experiences into a great lifestyle change.

But it wasn’t that simple. I also incorporated a costume change, and had some musical segues.

When I say costume, it was a suit. It’s not something I usually wear. The last time was Valentine’s Day. But I didn’t go all the way. I wore it with flip-flops.

I ended up with a wardrobe malfunction with the suit. As I was grabbing it out of my closet, I also pulled out the first blue shirt I saw. It turned out to be a shirt that was accidentally sent back to me from the dry cleaner, and it was a couple sizes too small.

But I needed to wear it, so I sucked in my gut and squeezed into it.

The presentation was something of a sequel to the editor’s note I wrote for the current issue of FeedFront magazine.

Anyhow, the first part was titled “You Can’t Leave”, and I talked about working in New York City on September 11, 2001, and how when I decided to go home to be with my pregnant wife and two year old child, my boss told me I had to stay.

Long story short… I left, and that was the start of an awakening for me to trust my instincts.

I later learned that eight people who commuted with me every day from my town perished that day, and that only reinforced that when I know I have to leave a situation, I can.

I figured the worst case scenario was that I’d get fired for insubordination or something. But in order to be fired, you have to be alive.

Then, as “Alive” from Pearl Jam blasted over the speakers in the room, I started undressing.

The second part was titled, “Do It Tomorrow,” and I talked about how my dad always regretted not taking the job he wanted when he was getting out of college. Instead, he took a mundane, but better paying, job.

This was the start of a trend where he would defer happiness, in favor of practicality.

It happened with work, cars, vacations, etc. All the good stuff would be tomorrow.

But then he died shortly before he was going to retire. He was just 61. He was waiting for a tomorrow, but he died on a today.

This was just nine months after 9/11, and the two events really opened my eyes. I realized it was important to live for today – not at the detriment of investing in the future, but just not only living for the future.

“Seasons in the Sun” from Too Much Joy then came on over the sound system, as I stripped down to my boxers.

As the song played on, I got dressed in my everyday work clothes… cargo shorts to go with my t-shirt.

The third part of my presentation was called, “Your Move”.

I talked about how I worked out a different sort of math, where 1 + 1 didn’t equal 2 to me, but rather it now equals “new”.

I went on to discuss how I decided to write my next chapter, and anybody else could do the same.

My next chapter happened due to conference friendships, where I met my partner Missy Ward about ten years ago, and we both identified a problem in affiliate marketing – the lack of a serious, quality, industry-wide conference.

Soon after, Affiliate Summit was born.

I finished up by urging everybody to make their move, do it afraid, but do it! And then Eminem came on with “Lose Yourself.”

You can leave. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Seize the day.

Slides: Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery

Issue 18 of FeedFront Magazine has reached mailboxes and the attendees of Affiliate Summit Central 2012, and now we’re on to issue 19.

The next issue of FeedFront will be coming out in August 2012, and the deadline for article proposals for issue 19 of FeedFront is May 25, 2012.

If you are interested in writing an article, go to the FeedFront article proposal form to submit a one sentence summary on what you’d like to cover.

No ghost-written articles. We only want content from people writing from their personal industry experience.

If you have previously been accepted to write an article and either failed to meet the deadline or did not adhere to the editorial guidelines, please submit your article proposal elsewhere. We take our deadlines and guidelines seriously.

Do not submit a complete article now – just a one sentence summary.

We will contact everybody who submitted a proposal on whether the article ideas are accepted or denied.