Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.
Early bird rates for Commission Junction University (CJU) 2013 will be open from April 29, 2013 to May 10, 2013.
The early bird rate is $100 off the regular registration price of $995.
CJU is returning to Bacara Resort & Spa on September 10-12, 2013.
This is the annual event for CJ, and it features networking and learning, as well as their CJYou Awards Dinner.
More details at CJUniversity.com.
Yesterday, Google announced that they were going to retire the Google Affiliate Network.
The final closure date has not been announced, but they said, “We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months.”
That leaves lots of affiliates in a position where they will need to change out links on their affiliate sites.
This can be an awesome task for any affiliates who have been pasting the affiliate code as is from the Google Affiliate Network advertisers.
But it won’t be so bad for any affiliates who have been using redirects for their affiliate links.
I started redirecting my affiliate links a good ten years or so ago – first through meta redirects, then via an .htaccess file, before I moved on to using a WordPress plugin called Pretty Link.
Additionally, I use the Custom Short Domain option on bitly, which is a free service that enables me to use my own domain to make redirect links. I use both aff.bz and affsum.it there.
Another option for affiliates using Google Affiliate Network is to get on board with Skimlinks.
Skimlinks has announced they are “releasing a full toolset to enable GAN publishers to switch advertiser links simply and easily.”
J.J. Hirschle, Head of Google Affiliate Network, has announced that the Google Affiliate Network will be closing.
Here is the announcement that was posted earlier today…
Our goal with Google Affiliate Network has been to help advertisers and publishers improve their performance across the affiliate ecosystem. Cost-per-action (CPA) marketing has rapidly evolved in the last few years, and we’ve invested significantly in CPA tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer. We’re constantly evaluating our products to ensure that we’re focused on the services that will have the biggest impact for our advertisers and publishers.
To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.
We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months. And there are other products that can help you achieve your goals. Affiliate publishers can continue to earn AdSense revenue through the AdSense network. And marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer to drive valuable online sales and conversions. These areas are growing rapidly and we’re continuing to invest heavily in them.
Thanks for your support of our affiliate product, and we look forward to helping you grow your business in the future.
This is a very interesting and surprising development. I’ll add in any updates here as they are shared.
Update on Wednesday, April 17, 2013
I received this as an affiliate with the Google Affiliate Network with the subject: An update on Google Affiliate Network
Important updates for Google Affiliate Network publishers and advertisers
Our goal with Google Affiliate Network has been to help advertisers and publishers improve their performance across the affiliate ecosystem. Cost-per-action (CPA) marketing has rapidly evolved in the last few years, and we constantly evaluate our products to ensure that we’re focused on the services that will have the biggest impact for our advertisers and publishers. To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire the Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.
Publishers can continue to earn revenue through the AdSense network. And marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer to drive valuable online sales and conversions. These areas are growing rapidly and we continue to invest significantly in them.
We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months. While we will no longer be adding new product functionality, we will maintain the platform during the transition period. We plan to disable publisher relationships from advertiser programs on July 31, 2013. Publisher payments will be disbursed for network activity generated through this date. We will continue to make certain functionality available through October 31, 2013 for retrieving reports, reconciling orders, and processing payments.
A huge thanks to all our advertisers, publishers and the team that has worked tirelessly on Google Affiliate Network over the past few years. We look forward to helping you grow your business in the future.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Sincerely,
The Google Affiliate Network Team
tl;dr Affiliates need to run their reports and have links changed out by July 31, 2013.
If you’d like to establish a bigger presence at Affiliate Summit, but don’t have the funds for a booth, you should consider a Meet Market table.
The Meet Market is a 6 hour networking frenzy on the first day of Affiliate Summit.
If you have a table, you’ll have a chance to meet with way more people than you can handle.
You can staff it with a team of people or just yourself.
Bring lots of business cards, as well as any promotional items you have, so you can stand out with your prospects.
Pricing depends on the type of pass you choose, and it starts at less than $4,000.
Book a spot while you can, because the tables usually sell out.
More details at AffiliateSummit.com.
Video: How to Make a Big Impact on a Small Budget at Affiliate Summit
This was a conference session titled SEO – Ask the Pros from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.
Session speakers:
Session description:
Get a full-spectrum view of cutting-edge thinking and have your own opportunity to ask for SEO advice from some of the most respected and trusted search engine optimizers in the business.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Other
Niche/vertical: Search Engine Optimization
Session video:
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.
This was a conference session titled Making Affiliate Marketing a Career from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.
Session speaker:
Session description:
Create a long-term career in Affiliate Marketing. Emphasis placed on how to scale and diversify campaigns to ensure growth and stability. Also covered: Forming an LLC, hiring and business planning.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Affiliate Marketing
Session video:
Making Affiliate Marketing a Career video
Session slides:
Making Affiliate Marketing a Career 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.
Want to know what we have in store for you at Affiliate Summit East 2013 before you register?
Well, the agenda is filling out nicely.
Things start up at 4:00pm on Saturday, August 17 with early check-in (highly recommended to beat the lines on Sunday morning).
And the agenda runs through 4:30pm on Tuesday, August 20.
In between, we’ll have hundreds of exhibitors in the Meet Market on Sunday and the exhibit hall on Monday and Tuesday.
There will also be dozens of educational sessions, keynotes, and a new Elevator Pitch session, where you can link up with the right attendees.
Take a look at the agenda to see the wide array of topics that will be covered, including affiliate marketing (of course), attribution, blogging, legal, mobile, multi-channel, SEO, social media, video, WordPress, and much more.
Register for Affiliate Summit East 2013 and book your hotel room while you’re thinking about it now – both will sell out as we get closer.
Rae Hoffman will be a keynote speaker at Affiliate Summit East 2013 on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 in Philadelphia.
Ten+ years ago Rae started a small website about her son and his medical condition that became one of the first international support groups and largest website in general on the topic.
It earned national media coverage and helped further medical research in the field.
Investigating ways to support that site, she found affiliate marketing and became one of the most well known voices in the affiliate landscape and organic search engine optimization.
Today, her current area of research is site auditing and advanced organic link development techniques relating to all of the major engines.
Ms. Hoffman is Co-Founder and CEO of PushFire.
Known widely in the online marketing community as Sugarrae, she is also the author of the often controversial Sugarrae blog and Co-Founder and Co-Owner of website publisher MFE Interactive and the Co-Owner and SVP of Marketing for Speedy Incorporation Service.
She lost her son, CJ, in November 2012. He was 15. But he has had a forever impact on who she is as a person and an entrepreneur.
Her keynote will be an extension of a recent post she made, “11 Things My Son Taught Me About Life and Business“.
Hear some of the lessons he taught her about life and business – and how attitude combined with affiliate marketing changed both of their lives.
The buy.at platform will officially close on May 31, 2013.
There are no longer any active advertisers remaining on buy.at, as all clients now operate through Affiliate Window.
buy.at rebranded to Affiliate Window, their parent company name, in 2012.
All historical data will continue to be available upon request, but affiliates are advised to download everything they need before May 31, 2013.
There will be one final payment made for all outstanding balances on June 21, 2013.
This was a conference session titled Improve ROI with Call Performance Marketing from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.
Session speakers:
Session description:
Learn how search marketers are improving ROI with Call Performance Marketing. Hear tips and tricks, case studies and what you can do to improve the ROI of your search spending.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Call Performance Marketing
Session slides:
Improve ROI with Call Performance Marketing 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.