Archives for April 2014

Affiliate Summit started at a time when my wife, Vicky, was pregnant with our third baby, Kerrigan.

Thinking back, the near decade of babies in the house marked a different stage in our relationship from the first few years we were married. Suddenly, I assumed the role as second fiddle at home and started working more.

I understood it on a rational level that Caity needed non-stop TLC when she was born in 1999, but still it was somewhat lonely and isolating, compared to the way things used to be. It left me looking to fill the void.

This repeated itself in 2001 with Lexie, then 2003 when Kerri was born (a month after the first Affiliate Summit), and on to Jack in 2006.

In a way, it was perfect timing for losing myself in the entrepreneur lifestyle. This period coincided with some of my most productive years as an entrepreneur.

I prided myself in being called a workaholic. To me, it was a badge of honor that I was working like crazy, and people would marvel at my productivity.

It felt right then – there was the need to support the family, so the long hours, skipped vacations, and little sleep equaled kicking ass in my mind.

For the first year or so of Affiliate Summit, I was also working full-time at ClubMom.com as affiliate manager, as well as juggling a handful of affiliate management clients.

I was so excited and consumed with what was happening in my professional life that I became blind to what should have been my true priorities.

My wonderful, patient wife was essentially an entrepreneur widow who was raising our kids largely on her own. That was no good and not fair.

It took some tough conversations for me to wake up to my lack of balance that had evolved into my new normal.

I am proud of many things I have done, but I am not proud of what I didn’t do for too long… be the best husband and dad I could be.

So, I’ve got a new startup (BITTW.com: Blood Is Thicker Than Water) with a focus on family life. This is the new stage where I rededicate, rediscover, reboot, renew, and rebalance.

How about you… are you picking work at the expense of people you care about? Don’t wait until it’s too late to start keeping your eyes on the right prize.

I wrote this for the Editor’s Note in issue 26 of FeedFront magazine.

The 26th issue of FeedFront is headed to the printer and copies will be going out to nearly 42,000 subscribers in May.

Issue 26 of FeedFront will also be distributed at Performance Marketing Summit Denver 2014.

This issue of FeedFront Magazine includes Don’t Make Your Spouse an Entrepreneur Widow by Shawn Collins, Can Search & Affiliate Play Nicely Together? by Lori Weiman, and Four Pillars of Building a Membership Site by Zac Johnson.

Also Five Keys for Successful Pay-Per-Call Campaign, Four Strategies to Start Promoting Digital Goods, Four Steps to Optimal Performance for Affiliates, Your Affiliate Program Needs a Check-up!, Three Groups Affiliate Managers Must Keep Happy, and more.

Issue 26 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.

The Performance Marketing Summit took place yesterday in Austin, TX, and it started out in a very Austin way with a couple of troubadours.

Just was I was about to kick off the event, I was surprised by two guys playing guitars and singing Morrissey’s “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get”, followed by “Happy Bithday”. Thanks to Brook Schaaf and David Vogelpohl for that unexpected entertainment.

It was an unconventional beginning to an unconventional event – it took place at the South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery, which is a series of food trucks, picnic tables, and a room that was half inside/half outside.

The vibe was more backyard BBQ than conference.

There were coolers filled with water and soda, a Keurig with coffee fixings, and snacks scattered around.

The Performance Marketing Summit was limited to 50 people and 1 sponsor (thanks HostGator!), and we fit in an agenda with lots of networking and sessions into just 4 hours.

We had a series of 18 minute solo sessions, starting with Maruxa Murphy, speaking on how to Find Your Voice and Change The World (slides).

The second session was the Super Affiliate Toolkit for WordPress (slides) with David Vogelpohl.

Brook Schaaf ran the third session, where he chatted about Aristotelian Friendship and Affiliate Marketing (no slides). I mispronounced Aristotelian when I was introducing the session, and I’m still not sure how to say it.

After a networking break, Emily Leach took the stage to discuss Experiential Marketing, Old Rules No Longer Apply (slides).

Next up was Chris Mercer to talk about 7 Conversions Killers (and How You Can Avoid Them) (slides).

Then it was time for a delicious lunch from Torchy’s Tacos – a selection of their tacos, rice, beans, and chips and salsa. A nice combination of tasty food and networking.

After lunch, Vickie Flaugher mixed things up with Say WHAT? Roll the Dice Content Game (no slides). I noticed some guys had dice on their table during lunch, and I thought they decided to shoot dice, but Vickie had distributed dice to everybody for her session.

The final session was on Sexy Search Results (slides) from Jeremy Palmer.

We finished things up with Heather Diamani presiding over a series of Elevator Pitches from attendees.

Thank you to everybody who came out, the speakers, HostGator for sponsoring, and Torchy’s Tacos for wonderful food and a fun environment.

I woke up to a birthday wish from a Facebook friend* yesterday.

Well, it was more of a clumsy spam post wrapped in a birthday message:

Hi. Happy birthday. hope you don’t mind me messaging you, but I am keen to ensure that my Facebook Friends know about my Facebook Page( https://www.facebook.com/[redacted]) and, through it, my [redacted] page, on which you’ll find an ever-increasing number of my interviews, with and about interesting people. It would be great if you take the time to check it out and, of course, it would help me enormously, if you would “LIKE” it and, hopefully, “SHARE IT” with your own Facebook Friends.

Again, my Facebook Page address is: https://www.facebook.com/[redacted].

Please check it out.

Thanks, your Facebook Friend, [redacted] and, once again, Happy Birthday!

I really don’t understand the mindset here. Do people think this Trojan Horse tactic is effective?

It’s just insincere and annoying to me.

That sort of thing would rub me the wrong way on my actual birthday, but it seems even lazier and lamer when it’s nearly a week early.

This guy isn’t getting any of my birthday cake.

* I accepted his friend request, because we had lots of mutual friends. He’s a complete stranger to me.

This was a conference session titled 5 Ways to Reactivate Latent Affiliates from Affiliate Summit East 2012, which took place August 12-14, 2012 in New York City at the Hilton New York.

Session speaker:

• Michael Ni, CMO, Avangate

Session description:

Walk through 5 tested ideas that merchants employ to get the most of their affiliate channel, motivate idle affiliates to start selling again, and accelerate sales.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Affiliate management

Session video:

5 Ways to Reactivate Latent Affiliates video

Session slides:

5 Ways to Reactivate Latent Affiliates 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.

Missy Ward has authored a new book, Make Money With Your WordPress Blog, that helps people learn how to monetize their blog with affiliate marketing.

This quick and informative read is targeted towards the established blogger.

Make Money With Your WordPress Blog teaches how to monetize your blog with affiliate marketing embedded product or service reviews and tutorials.

I had a chance to read an advance copy and it was really useful information, and it was written in an easy to understand style.

The book includes guidance on how to:

• Find the best products and services to review
• Find and implement related affiliate marketing links and creatives
• Create the perfect monetized review post and make people want to share it
• Stay legal during the process

The book is available in both paperback and Kindle editions.