Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for July 2013

UnNetworking and How Your Business Can Benefit at Affiliate Summit East 2011

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This was a conference session titled UnNetworking and How Your Business Can Benefit from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

Affiliate Summit East 2011Session speaker:

  • Kim Ann Curtin, CEO, The Wall Street Coach

Session description:

TheWallStreetCoach.com’s Founder Kim Ann Curtin teaches you how to find success in your own business by “unNetworking” without having to spend a dime!

Experience level: Advanced
Target audience: Other
Niche/vertical: Networking

Session video:

UnNetworking and How Your Business Can Benefit 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.

SEO For Large Sites at Affiliate Summit East 2011

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This was a conference session titled SEO For Large Sites from Affiliate Summit East 2011, which took place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

Affiliate Summit East 2011Session speaker:

  • Tom Critchlow, VP Operations, Distilled

Session description:

A discussion dedicated to sites that have more than 1 million pages. These large sites struggle with all kinds of unique issues such as indexation, information architecture, etc.

Experience level: Advanced
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: SEO

Session video:

SEO For Large Sites 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.

Don’t Wig Out at People Who Don’t Want to Work With You

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I get lots of solicitations from people to work with them on the most amazing project ever – a can’t miss thing that is guaranteed to make billions of dollars.

I am clueless and obnoxious - wanna work with me?Since I am already very occupied with Affiliate Summit and some personal affiliate projects, I am not interested in anything new.

No offense to the folks with the exciting, new companies and whatnot, but I am happy and fulfilled with what I’ve got going on.

Anyhow, I got one of these pitches this past Monday and quickly replied, “Thanks, but I have too much going on to consider any new projects.”

Usually the interaction ends there. Not this time.

The guy wrote back, “What an incredibly myopic response! Very disappointing but clear indication that we were misguided in reaching out to you.”

At least he didn’t use ALL CAPS, right?

But yes, he was misguided, because there is just a month until the next Affiliate Summit, which means it’s a very insane time of year for me.

It pains me when I disappoint mad strangers (not really).

PepperJam Exchange Has Been Rebranded as the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network

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eBay EnterpriseeBay Enterprise has announced the rebranding of PepperJam Exchange to eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network, part of eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions.

The parent company of PepperJam Exchange, formerly GSI Commerce, went through a similar branding change in June of 2013 to become eBay Enterprise.

Get more details on the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network.

Apply to join the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network.

FeedFront Magazine Issue 23 Now Available

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The 23rd issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, is at the printer and over 41,000 copies will be going out to subscribers and events in early August 2013.

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 23

Issue 23 of FeedFront will also be distributed at Affiliate Summit Meetups and Affiliate Summit East 2013.

This issue of FeedFront Magazine includes Let Structure Set You Free by Missy Ward, Networking for Introverts at Affiliate Summit by Shawn Collins, Five Benefits of Responsive Web Design by Rehan Zaidi, and the agenda for Affiliate Summit East 2013.

Also, there are articles on lead generation, email marketing, Google Affiliate Network migration, Google Ads, coupon affiliates, Google Schema, API’s, outsourcing to Fiverr, podcasting, and more.

Issue 23 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 feedfront.com/free-subscription.

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

Affiliate Program Optimization

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Affiliate managers are typically well aware of search engine optimization, and probably social media optimization, too, but how about affiliate program optimization?

Affiliate Manager Boot CampAffiliate program optimization is a process of auditing an affiliate program to determine which areas can be improved, and then applying those changes.

I cover this a bit in my book, “Affiliate Manager Boot Camp: Recruiting, Educations, and Retaining Affiliates.”

Anyhow, here are some areas affiliate managers should evaluate to be sure their affiliate program is on par or better than the competition.

  • Cookie length
  • Commission rate
  • Ad units available
  • EPC
  • Payment terms
  • Policies on trademarks, paid search, and coupons

Be sure to regularly review the competition to see how you stack up!

Why You Should Get a VIP Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2013

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There are five types of passes for Affiliate Summit East 2013, and we’ve found that some folks aren’t aware of what they get with the various passes.

If you’re not sure what comes with your pass, we’ve got details posted on the Affiliate Summit East 2013 registration page.

Affiliate Summit East 2011 059

Anyhow, if you’ve got a Networking or Networking Plus Pass, I’d recommend upgrading to VIP, because you’ll get…

If you’d like to upgrade, please call the Affiliate Summit registration team at 417-2SUMMIT (278-6648).

The cost for an upgrade is the current price of the pass you wish to get minus the cost of your pass at the time you registered.

Clear Old Yahoo Addresses Off Your Email Lists

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Yahoo is closing email accounts that haven’t been logged into in 12 months or longer. These email addresses will be released for the public to claim.

Clean out those old Yahoo email addressesThis is important for anybody with an email list, as it could affect some of the addresses on their list(s).

Those subscribers won’t be valid after July 15.

So you’ll either be mailing to dead addresses, which can impact your deliverability, or the new owners will start getting your newsletters, and will be upset that you are emailing them.

They will either unsubscribe or mark you as spam. The latter can negatively affect whether ISPs such as Gmail and Outlook accept your emails.

If you are running your lists through AWeber (that’s who I use and I love them), they have detailed the steps on their blog to clean out dormant Yahoo addresses.

They also encourage customers to call them if you need help at 877-293-2371 or 215-825-2196.

Affiliate Summit East 2013 Heading for a Sell Out

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Affiliate Summit East 2013 is on schedule to sell out in early to mid August, based on sales patterns of past Affiliate Summits.

Hmmm... should I go to Affiliate Summit East 2013?Still trying to decide whether you should benefit from this opportunity to network with thousands of affiliate marketers and learn the latest information, tips, and trends?

As of this morning, there are a little more than 750 registration slots remaining out of more than 4,000. This will be the biggest Affiliate Summit East to date.

There are more than 1,000 companies registered so far. Check out the list on the main Affiliate Summit East 2013 page.

If you haven’t registered, don’t risk putting it off before passes are all gone.

Affiliate Summit East 2013, the premier affiliate marketing conference, is taking place August 18-20, 2013 in Philadelphia.

This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

The keynotes for Affiliate Summit East 2013 will be Dr. Randal Pinkett, Founder, Chairman and CEO , BCT Partners (August 19); Wil Reynolds, Founder, SEER Interactive (August 20); and Rae Hoffman, CEO, PushFire (August 20).

Affiliate Summit will feature an exhibit hall and Meet Market with hundreds of booths and tables. There are a small handful of exhibitor spots remaining.

Also, there are a limited number of other sponsorships still available.

More details at AffiliateSummit.com.

Use Contracts When Doing Business

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A friend of mine recently started working with somebody on a project without a contract.

Don't be a dunce - use contracts.The other person wanted to do it all on a handshake deal. They said they didn’t want to waste money getting lawyers involved.

Bad move.

When in business, hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Ideally, I would suggest having a lawyer work up any sort of business agreement, but if that is too expensive, there are alternatives.

For instance, LegalZoom has a big selection of contracts that you can personalize and use.

They have all sorts of legal documents for starting and running your business.

This is not an area to be loosey goosey, because you never know when that wonderful person you’re working with could turn into a nightmare.

Button it down with NDA’s, letters of intent, termination letters, consulting agreements, and anything else.

You’ll be glad you did if things get messy later.