Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for February 2013

LinkTrust Launches Mobile-Optimized Partner Center

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LinkTrust users can now access details of their campaigns and affiliates in the mobile-optimized Partner Center.

LinkTrust mobileThere is no need to download an app.

When you login to LinkTrust on your phone, the mobile version of LinkTrust is automatically served up.

On the mobile-optimized site you can…

  • Monitor your top 10 campaigns and top 10 affiliates.
  • View all campaigns, details and stats, as well as making a campaign live or expiring it.
  • Suspend or block affiliates.
  • Update affiliate confirmation pixels.
  • Send creatives and tracking links in one click.

While the mobile site only contains the most frequently used and time critical features, you can also jump directly to the full site page that correlates with the screen you are currently viewing in the mobile site.

Last Call for Affiliate Summit East 2013 Speaker Proposals

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The speaker proposal period for Affiliate Summit East 2013, taking place August 18-20, 2013 in Philadelphia, is about to end.

The submission deadline is March 1, 2013.

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Accepted speakers will be notified no later than March 22, 2013.

If you have not been contacted by March 22, 2013, your proposal was not accepted.

Submit your speaking proposal now – no extensions.

Get Extra Money Answer on Kindle for Free

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I will be giving away Extra Money Answer on Amazon for free on Tuesday, February 26 and Wednesday, February 27.

Extra Money AnswerThe book provides a real and honest picture of the opportunities in affiliate marketing – how most people don’t make much at all, and that it requires lots of time, testing, and patience.

Learn how to come up with ideas for affiliate sites, create content, drive traffic, and make money with the site.

Extra Money Answer is a Kindle book, but you do not have to have a Kindle to read it.

Amazon offers a variety of free Kindle reading apps on their site.

In addition to reading Kindle books on a Kindle itself, you can also read them on the Kindle Cloud Reader on a browser, smartphones (iPhone, Android, Windows, and Blackberry), computers (Mac, Windows 7, 8, XP, and Vista), and tablets (iPad, Android, and Windows 8).

Extra Money Answer usually sells for $2.99 on Amazon.

Video: Get Extra Money Answer on Kindle

Got an Idea? Make it a Reality at Affiliate Summit East 2011

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This was a conference session titled Got an Idea? Make it a Reality from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

Affiliate Summit East 2011Session speaker:

  • Rachel Honoway, Founder, Honoway Interactive, LLC

Session description:

Have a great idea for starting an affiliate site, but not sure how to turn it into an actual business? Learn the steps you need to take to outline an executable plan — turning your ideas into reality.

Experience level: Beginner
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Startup

Session video:

Got an Idea? Make it a Reality video

Session slides:

Got an Idea? Make it a Reality slides

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.

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.

5 Software Niche Affiliate Success Stories at Affiliate Summit East 2011

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This was a conference session titled 5 Software Niche Affiliate Success Stories from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

Affiliate Summit East 2011Session speaker:

  • Michael Ni, SVP, Marketing and Products, Avangate

Session description:

Why do affiliates promoting digital goods are earning the most? The presentation will outline the traits and tactics best affiliates in the software industry use with specific case studies.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Software

Session video:

5 Software Niche Affiliate Success Stories video

Session slides:

5 Software Niche Affiliate Success Stories slides

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.

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.

MemberPress WordPress Membership Site Plugin

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I recently published a Kindle book on becoming an affiliate, and the content was all taken from a site where I’d originally written it incrementally as a blog.

MemberPress

Since I wanted to make the book exclusive to Kindle, it was required that I no longer have the content publicly available for free like that.

I needed a quick solution, and then I remembered seeing a mention of MemberPress in my WordPress dashboard.

MemberPress is a WordPress membership site plugin created by Blair Williams, who also made the Pretty Link plugin, which I use on all of my sites.

Just like Pretty Link, MemberPress is a great tool that is really easy to use.

It’s powerful and has every feature I was hoping to have, including AWeber integration, PayPal integration, coupons, and more.

It’s been just the right thing for my Extra Money Answer site, and we’re also using it for the videos from Affiliate Summit West 2013.

If you’re planning to start up a membership site, I’d highly recommend MemberPress.

Apply for a Scholarship to Affiliate Summit East 2013

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Need help getting yourself to Affiliate Summit East 2013? We will be sponsoring up to fifty Affiliate Summit Pay it Forward Scholarships for affiliates to attend the conference for the first time.

Affiliate Summit Pay It Forward Scholarship

The goal of the scholarships is to make the education and networking experience of Affiliate Summit available to affiliates who might not otherwise be able to attend.

Each recipient of the Affiliate Summit Pay It Forward Scholarships will be awarded one VIP Pass (a $1,249 value) to Affiliate Summit East 2013, taking place in Philadelphia on August 18-20, 2013.

VIP Passes include breakfast and lunch on Monday and Tuesday; admission to the Meet Market, Exhibit Hall, Keynotes, all educational sessions on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; participation in the Newcomer program; access to all recorded session videos; and PowerPoint presentations.

Applicants will be considered based on current participation in and future contribution to the affiliate marketing industry. All applicants must also have valid US addresses to qualify.

Interested candidates will answer one of these three questions in essay form in 300 words or less:

  • What is something broken in affiliate marketing and how can we fix it?
  • What do you hope to accomplish in affiliate marketing?
  • My idea for an affiliate site is to…

All applications will be reviewed by the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board, and winners of the scholarships will be notified by Monday, May 20, 2013.

In order to be considered for an Affiliate Summit Pay It Forward Scholarship, please complete the online application. The deadline for submission is Friday, May 3, 2013.

The Making of My First Kindle Book

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I’ve had physical books published in the past, and decided for a number of reasons that I’d like to go exclusive to Kindle with Extra Money Answer, my new book about affiliate marketing.

Extra Money AnswerBy publishing myself, I own the content, which is important to me.

Also, I get more share of the profits and I can update as needed. And there is practically zero time from the content being ready until it goes live on Amazon.com.

Plus, when I worked with a publisher in the past, I did all of my own marketing anyway.

So, I wrote the content to share how I go about creating new affiliate sites, driving traffic, and monetizing the sites.

But I still needed a cover, wanted to have another set of eyes go through it, and had to format it.

I was thinking about going to 99designs for the cover, but figured I’d try a few people on Fiverr to see how they looked.

The design I used was from one of the Fiverr people.

Then came the editing, and I posted a job up on oDesk. Within 24 hours, I had lots of interested folks, and settled with somebody who did a good job editing a sample for me.

That part came to $85 at $10/hour.

I went with the Kindle Direct Program on Amazon, and when I took a look at the formatting guide, I decided I would much rather have somebody else do the formatting.

I went back to Fiverr for this, too, and there were lots of people who offered Kindle formatting gigs.

Some were a flat $5, but I chose one that was based on the word length, because they had better ratings. This ran me $20 for over 18,000 words.

After all this, I submitted the final file and it was live on Amazon.com a day later.

Industry Clash: Balancing CPS & CPA Marketing at Affiliate Summit East 2011

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This was a conference session titled Industry Clash: Balancing CPS & CPA Marketing from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

Affiliate Summit East 2011Session speakers:

  • Greg Hoffman, President, Greg Hoffman Consulting (Moderator)
  • Ian Fernando, One of the Best, IANternet Media LLC
  • Jason Rubacky, Affiliate Development Manager, ShareASale
  • Logan Thompson, President, LoganThompson.me

Session description:

CPS and CPA affiliates discuss strategies to find balance on both sides of the industry. We will knock down stereotypes, debate differences and present best practices. Everything is on the table.

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

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.

Session video: Industry Clash: Balancing CPS & CPA Marketing video

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.

Early Bird Ending for Booths and Tables at Affiliate Summit East 2013

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The early bird rates for booths and Meet Market tables at Affiliate Summit East 2013, taking place August 18-20, 2013 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, are ending on February 22, 2013.

That deadline is NOT flexible.

Affiliate Summit West 2012 Meet Market

There are still lots of good spots left – don’t miss the best locations and low price.

Affiliate Summit West 2012 Exhibit Hall

Book a booth or table now to reach thousands of affiliate marketers in Philadelphia this summer.