Archives for January 2013

Ideal Number of Networks for an Affiliate Program

January 30, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Q: I’m researching possibilities to grow and expand our affiliate program and would really appreciate your expert advice on the following. Currently our company is present as a merchant on CJ, ShareaSale and we have in-house program (powered by HasOffers) as well. Do you feel there is much to be gained in joining another affiliate network (i.e. LinkShare or Pepperjam) or is there too much affiliate overlap between platforms. If adding a 3rd network is worthwhile, which one(s) would you recommend?

Shawn Collins A: First of all, I think you probably already have one platform too many.

It’s totally sufficient for most companies to work with one affiliate network.

In the event you have a number of partners that you’d prefer to manage outside of the network affiliate program, it can make sense to have an in-house affiliate program, too.

I managed affiliate programs for small companies up to huge brands over ten years, and I never really found a need to be in multiple networks. I did it in some cases, and it multiplied my work without a significant lift in sales.

The majority of big affiliates, in my experience, have accounts on all of the major affiliate networks.

There may be some out there that are loyal to a certain platform, but I never ran into that issue.

First the Treadmill Desk, and Now the Treadmill Wii

January 28, 2013 by Shawn Collins

I created a treadmill desk a couple years ago, so I could work and workout at the same time.

Treadmill desk keyboard and monitor

It’s a regular treadmill outfitted with a SurfShelf and other customizations to make it a workspace I can use at 3.5 MPH.

I use it frequently, when I want to work up a sweat, but have too much work to get outside.

My details are up on DailyMile, where lots of other affiliate marketers also post their exercise updates.

Anyhow, there are times when I want to get away from work and do some mindless stuff like video games.

But I hate to just site there and be lazy.

Then, one day recently on Facebook, I saw that Sean Dolan, COO of PushFire, plays games while on his treadmill.

I loved that idea, so I went out and got a Wii to rig up to my treadmill.

Treadmill Wii

I’ve played a few games of Madden 2013 so far, and I’m really enjoying it.

A typical game has been good for about 2 miles at an average of 3.5 MPH (same rate I use to work on the treadmill). I’m going to see if I can speed it up as I get more used to it, but it gets tricky using the controller at too fast of a speed.

So far, I haven’t fallen off, but I’ve come close. Even if I do tumble while making a sack or something, I’m definitely not telling anybody.

Affiliate Summit is 10 Years Old

January 23, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Affiliate Summit turns 10 this year, and we thought it would be fun to return to our roots with the Performance Marketing Summit on March 12, 2013 in New York City.

Not only is the Performance Marketing Summit taking place at the Baruch College Vertical Campus, which was the site of Affiliate Summit 2003, but we’re also going back to an intimate maximum of 200, as it was for that show.

We started Affiliate Summit back in 2003, because there was a lack of quality networking and education for the industry, outside of the network specific events.

With the first Affiliate Summit, we literally started with nothing – just a domain and some free space at the college, combined with volunteers to help us check people in, and a lot of getting our hands dirty.

We didn’t even have a logo back then.

It seems like yesterday that we were in a hotel room with a sea of attendee bags to stuff with things like our crude looking conference program, ShareASale t-shirts, CPA Empire calendars, and a DVD from Declan Dunn.

This was after a few short months of making it up as we went along to organize things.

The registration confirmation emails were manually sent out of Outlook, and PayPal was the only payment option. It was a bare bones event all around.

But it worked, and we’ve been so excited to help grow the industry all these years.

We look forward to seeing a couple hundred of you in NYC this March for a mix of conference birthday party, networking, and learning.

Check out the Affiliate Summit 2003 photos.

Conference Follow-up with Hand Written Notes

January 21, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Affiliate Summit West 2013 just wrapped up last Tuesday, and now it’s time to follow up with all of those people I met during the conference.

Like most conference attendees, I collected many business cards.

And like many people, I’ve sometimes strapped them up in rubber bands and stuck them on far corners of my desk.

But this time around I simplified my follow-up process by using the LinkedIn CardMunch app for my iPhone.

I used to neglect some cards in the past, because I didn’t feel like keying them all into a spreadsheet.

But with CardMunch, you just take a picture with the app and the business card is converted to a contact automatically.

The app will also show you LinkedIn profile information and connections you have in common.

So that’s all cool to be more efficient than I used to be, but how about the actual follow-ups.

Well, I’d suggest you do what practically nobody else is going to do and get some thank you cards from Office Depot or whatever office supplies store or drugstore near you.

Then scratch out a one or two sentence thank you to each of the people who you met and got a business card from during your trip.

Seems like a hassle, you say? Well yes, it’s more work than a mail merge, but it has a way bigger impact, too.

If you think you have too many business cards… re-think.

You can write out a short card in 60-90 seconds to each person you met. If they were worth getting to the point where you took their card, you must have an interest in doing business with them.

If you took their card just to be nice, go and throw it out now. It’s getting in the way of your more important contacts.

And if we exchanged business cards, look out for a note in the mail from me.

Trying to Learn an Affiliate Marketing System

January 20, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Q: I have been exploring & investigating the industry of Affiliate Marketing. I have read quite a bit (including your blog), and have tried learning a system. Consequently, I spent some money and they used Clickbank to process the sale. Clickbank doesn’t seem upfront as I found unknown charges on my card. Do you know/find clickbank reliable?

Shawn Collins A: I’ve worked with ClickBank in various capacities dating back to the 90’s, and have never had any kind of issue with them at all.

That said, ClickBank provides a platform, and there is always the chance that somebody using that platform is trying to cheat somehow.

I would encourage you to investigate those charges and determine if they came from that transaction or the source of the charges otherwise.

If these charges were not authorized, charge them back.

As far as trying to learn a system, there are a lot of people trying to hawk various systems and programs on how to get rich quick or whatever.

None of those are real. Don’t waste your money on them. I actually created a site to combat the get rich quick garbage out there at extramoneyanswer.com

On this site, I go through all of the steps from choosing a topic for your site to setting up WordPress, hosting, and a domain, as well as coming up with content, driving traffic, and monetizing the site.

So, the whole site goes through how I create my affiliate sites, and it’s all free.

Don’t spend $100 or $1,000 on a program on some affiliate marketing system, because it will be money down the drain.

Ask Shawn Collins your affiliate marketing question and it will be added on the affiliate blog.

Scott Allan to Emcee Performance Marketing Summit 2013

January 19, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Scott Allan, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing at Rakuten LinkShare, will be the Emcee at Performance Marketing Summit 2013, which is taking place March 12, 2013 in New York City.

Scott Allan Scott joined Rakuten LinkShare in 2007 and is responsible for all areas of marketing including public relations, corporate communications, events and marketing operations.

He began his career in technology marketing at IBM and Lotus Development and has also held senior marketing roles at Quark, Inc. and EMC Corporation.

He earned his undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an M.B.A from Boston University.

The inaugural Performance Marketing Summit will be a one day conference taking place at the Baruch College Vertical Campus (site of Affiliate Summit Social Media in 2008 and the first Affiliate Summit in 2003).

Space will be limited to 200 people. The focus will be on learning and networking.

There won’t be any panels – only short, 20 minute talks from a variety of folks in the industry on tactics, resources, ideas, and success.

No exhibit hall or Meet Market, either. Everybody will be together in one room for a powerful, productive day.

Videos from Affiliate Summit West 2013

January 18, 2013 by Shawn Collins

The sessions at Affiliate Summit West 2013 were recorded on video and will be made available in the near future to attendees who had a Networking Plus, VIP, or All Access pass.

These videos should be ready in approximately four weeks, and they will be available online until the next Affiliate Summit.

We will send an email out with information to access them.

The keynote addresses from Rudy, Julie Clark, and Tim Ash, as well as the keynote panel on affiliate marketers who launched successful companies will be posted publicly in the near future to the Affiliate Summit channel on YouTube.

The breakout session videos from Affiliate Summit West 2013 will be shared publicly in a year or so.

In the meantime, videos from Affiliate Summit West 2011 are now available for anyone to watch.

Affiliate Summit West 2013 Day 3 Recap

January 16, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Tuesday, January 15, 2013 was the third and final day of Affiliate Summit West 2013 at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

The day started with a tasty attendee breakfast, and I got nice and fueled up on bacon and juice.

This was followed by the 7th annual Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards, which recognize exemplery affiliate marketers.

Congratulations to the winners…

Affiliate of the Year: Rhinofish Media (Pat Grady)
Affiliate Manager of the Year: Jon Nunez
Exceptional Merchant: Under Armour
Affiliate Marketing Advocate: Senator Dick Durbin
OPM/Agency of the Year: Schaaf-PartnerCentric
Tool/Service of the Year: BrandVerity

And then we had a special Affiliate Marketing Legend Award given to Mike Mackin.

After the awards, we got to hear an inspirational keynote from Julie Clark on her entrepreneurial journey with Baby Einstein and other ventures.

The final day of Affiliate Summit West 2013 also featured a series of breakout sessions and lots of networking in the exhibit hall.

The conference closed out with an energetic keynote from Tim Ash (I am still a little rattled by his tribal scream or whatever that was).

After Affiliate Summit West 2013 wrapped up, we brought speakers and some attendees (there was a chance to get a spot during my First Timers Orientation) from the conference to enjoy dinner, drinks, networking, dancing, and general goofy times at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill.

Thank you to everybody who came out to network, learn and have fun with us – Affiliate Summit West 2013 was the biggest Affiliate Summit ever with 5,275 attendees!

Affiliate Summit West 2013 Day 2 Recap

January 15, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Tuesday, January 14, 2013 was the second day of Affiliate Summit West 2013 at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

The day started with a tasty breakfast for VIP and All Access pass holders, followed by some brief announcements from Affiliate Summit West 2013 Emcee, Todd Farmer.

Then there was an inspirational keynote address from Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger.

I am pretty sure I saw a bunch of guys with tears in their eyes as Rudy finished up his talk with the closing scene from the movie, “Rudy.”

After the keynote, Rudy stuck around to sign books and photos for a long line of conference attendees.

The exhibit hall opened on day 2 and thousands of affiliate marketers came together for a full day of networking.

Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker was signing copies of his autobiography, “Nothing’s Changed But My Change: The ShoeMoney Story“ at the MaxBounty booth in the exhibit hall.

In addition to all of the business talk in the exhibit hall, there were also educational sessions throughout the day at Affiliate Summit West 2013.

Towards the end of day 2 of Affiliate Summit West 2013, my iPhone battery was on life support, so I was grateful to get a recharge at the Power Station, which was sponsored and run by Ifrah Law.

After the education sessions, there were a series of Ask the Experts roundtables, where a number of interactive discussions were led by industry veterans.

Day two of Affiliate Summit West 2013 wound up with the Affiliate Ball, which featured Big Boi of Outkast and the Sugarhill Gang.

Just one more day to go – Affiliate Summit always flies by too fast.

Affiliate Summit West 2013 Day 1 Recap

January 14, 2013 by Shawn Collins

Sunday, January 13, 2013 was the first day of Affiliate Summit West 2013 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Registration check-in and set-up for the Meet Market kicked off the day at 8:00 AM.

I gave my First Timers Orientation for Affiliate Summit West 2013 session at 10:00 AM, and I was glad to see a packed crowd of folks eager to learn how to optimize their time at the conference.

This was followed by sixteen breakout sessions throughout the day that covered coupons, video marketing, social media, WordPress, productivity, local advertising, and more topics.

The Meet Market opened at noon and ran through 6:00 PM with a steady stream of attendees meeting with the table exhibitors.

During the day, exhibitors built out their booths in the exhibit hall for Monday and Tuesday.

The day wrapped up with a keynote panel on affiliate marketers who went on to form thriving, successful businesses.

This was followed by the Newcomer Program meetup, and then everybody heading out for their Affiliate Summit evening plans.

I checked out the ShareASale Under The Stars Masquerade Party at the Chateau Rooftop at Paris Hotel.

There were lots of entertaining costumes, but nothing came close to the grandeur of Adam Riemer’s get-up.

In the picture, Adam’s promoting the affiliate programs he manages with a URL on his sash: IvannaVodka.com.

On to day two of Affiliate Summit West 2013.