Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for July 2014

The Best Business Related Speeches in Movies

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There have been lots of iconic scenes in movies that are related to business, so I was interested to see a WatchMojo video of the Top 10 Business Movie Speeches.

back-to-schoolThe list includes a bunch of clips you would expect, such as scenes from Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross, and the Boiler Room scene where Ben Affleck tries to be Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross.

I liked a lot of the picks in their list, but one glaring omission, in my opinion, was Back to School.

Yes, the Rodney Dangerfield movie from the 80’s where he joins his son in college.

The scene, I think, that should be on the list is where Dangerfield is in a class with a professor who is explaining how business works, a textbook idea of business.

The professor gives his overview and then says, “Any questions, class?”

At that point, Dangerfield interjects with his real world examples of running a successful business – his character is a successful business owner.

The comedy legend schools the professor.

Video: Top 10 Business Movie Speeches

Facebook Page vs. My Own Blog

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Q: Any downside to starting with a Facebook page vs. blog? We have a following of animal lovers and want to create a place consumers can go to purchase products that give back to animals and their environment. Been advised to create an MVP (minimum viable product) and if that does well, we can expand to a more sophisticated website. Bought your Extra Money book and looking forward to reading it. Helpful to hear if you would recommend or dissuade us from STARTING with a Facebook page to post affiliate links and easy ways to help animals. Thanks!

Shawn CollinsA: You should definitely create a Facebook page, but it doesn’t have to be Facebook page vs. blog.

Make your blog the main home for information, a place where you collect leads by building an email list. Then also have a Facebook page, as well as a Twitter account, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, etc.

Think of all of those as traffic sources for your blog. You can syndicate your content to a lot of these third party sites, so people can consume it in the places they prefer.

Not everybody will come back to your site for updates. Some would rather see them on Facebook or Twitter, so you can reach them there and lead them back to your blog.

I am not familiar with the term MVP (minimum viable product), so I can’t comment on that.

Focus on creating quality content and sharing offers that are relevant to your audience. And build an email list from your blog and funnel those people from your newsletters and social media back to your blog.

The New Rules of Book Publishing from Affiliate Summit East 2012

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This was a conference session titled The New Rules of Book Publishing from Affiliate Summit East 2012, which took place August 12-14, 2012 in New York City at the Hilton New York.

Affiliate Summit East in NYCSession speaker:

  • Jim Kukral, CEO, Digital Book Launch

Session description:

Learn how to take the knowledge inside your head and turn it into a book that you can upload to a digital format to be read by people all over the world.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers, Networks
Niche/vertical: Self publishing

Session video:

The New Rules of Book Publishing video

Session slides:

The New Rules of Book Publishing 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.

25 List Building Tricks from Affiliate Summit East 2012

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This was a conference session titled 25 List Building Tricks from Affiliate Summit East 2012, which took place August 12-14, 2012 in New York City at the Hilton New York.

Affiliate Summit East in NYCSession speaker:

  • Hunter Boyle, Sr Business Development Manager, AWeber

Session description:

Want to learn 25 proven ways to increase your sales, with real examples? Get actionable ideas to boost your blog, email and social sales. Attendees are also eligible for a complimentary site review.

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

Session video:

25 List Building Tricks video

Session slides:

25 List Building Tricks 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.

Affiliate Summit is More Than a Tradeshow and Conference

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We recently worked with TheDrawShop.com to create a whiteboard video to tell the story of Affiliate Summit.

thedrawshop

They are also scheduled to draw caricatures during Affiliate Summit East 2014 and do a live draw of the keynote by Julie Gurner on Tuesday, August 12, 2014.

Here is the text if you would rather take it in that way, but I think you’ll enjoy the video way more:

Missy Ward and Shawn Collins started Affiliate Summit in 2003 to provide educational sessions on the latest industry issues and foster a productive networking environment for affiliate marketers.

The conference was born out of frustration, because there wasn’t a professional event for the industry.

Despite their lack of experience in organizing a conference, Missy and Shawn had been affiliate marketers since the 90’s and they had a passion for the industry, as well as a lot of ideas on how they could make conferences more fun and useful for attendees.

What started as a one day event for 200 people is now the largest performance marketing event in the world with two shows per year, each with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees.

But Affiliate Summit is more than the tradeshow and conference.

Affiliate Summit also puts on a series of smaller Performance Marketing Summits around the U.S.

Affiliate Summit publishes the annual AffStat – Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report and FeedFront Magazine, a quarterly trade publication mailing to over 40,000 subscribers in the U.S.

GeekCast.fm is a marketing podcast network, and ReveNews is an industry news blog that are both part of Affiliate Summit.

Missy Ward and Shawn Collins have written a number of marketing and business books, too.

Each year, Affiliate Summit publishes the AffStat report, which features industry benchmark data on affiliate marketers.

Affiliate Summit is also dedicated to giving back. In addition to supporting a variety of charities, Affiliate Summit not only talks the talk, but walks the walk when it comes to fighting breast cancer.

Each year, they donate tens of thousands of dollars to the Avon Foundation for Women and participate in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, a 40 mile fundraising walk.

Affiliate Summit — more than a tradeshow and conference.

Building an Email List

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Q: How can i drive traffic to my website by growing my list! How to grow my list with Aweber ? I tried solo ads and from a 100 clicks i got only 20 subscriber! What is the best way to build and manage my list.

Shawn CollinsA: I will share some things that I have done that have worked well for me.

One focus of mine has been to provide quality content. That’s easier said than done, but provide value that is relevant to your target audience.

Another strategy is to have some sort of lead gen offer. Make an ebook or white paper available, and people have to submit their email address to access whatever it is that you are offering.

You could do the same thing by requesting their email address in exchange for a free tool or some other sort of resource. In any of these cases, the “price” is their email, and then they get something they want in return.

I would also recommend running an online contest where email addresses are the method of entry. There are legal issues with a contest, so be sure to run this by a lawyer.

Also, Google AdWords offered an Email Capture Ad (I don’t see it as an option in my own account), but that is a great way to get targeted subscribers.

And you mentioned you are on AWeber — be sure to take advantage of their split testing feature.

Not Just Another Session on Social Media from Affiliate Summit East 2012

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This was a conference session titled Not Just Another Session on Social Media from Affiliate Summit East 2012, which took place August 12-14, 2012 in New York City at the Hilton New York.

Affiliate Summit East in NYCSession speakers:

  • Jeannine Crooks, Account Manager, Affiliate Window
  • Mike Allen, President, Shopping-Bargains.com, LLC
  • Jennifer Myers Ward, CEO, ebove & beyond, inc.
  • Shannon Vogel, Owner, The Be-Scene

Session description:

Learn 7 things to always do, 5 things to never do, and 6 ways to customize social media to generate sales using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest from experts who do it everyday.

Experience level: Beginner
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Social media

Session video:

Not Just Another Session on Social Media video

Session slides:

Not Just Another Session on Social Media 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.

Does Your Program Have the Juice? from Affiliate Summit East 2012

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This was a conference session titled Does Your Program Have the Juice? from Affiliate Summit East 2012, which took place August 12-14, 2012 in New York City at the Hilton New York.

Affiliate Summit East in NYCSession speakers:

  • Greg Hoffman, President, Greg Hoffman Consulting (Moderator)
  • Leyla Arsan, Digital Strategist, Zeno Group
  • Mike Buechele, Chief Performance Marketer, Adalytical

Session description:

We will review programs randomly or by suggestions to identify strengths and weaknesses. Merchants will learn what affiliates are looking for and affiliates will learn how to find the right merchants.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Merchant reviews

Session video:

Does Your Program Have the Juice? video

Session slides:

Does Your Program Have the Juice? 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.

Affiliate Marketing as a Full-Time Job

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Q: Hello shawn, im a 18 year old high school student and internet affiliate marketing has really interested me in terms of making money and i would like to make it my full time job. I have not started any marketing yet because i am lost on where to start because i am reading all these different things online about how to be succesfull, and i dont trust some of the people who are giving me this information. I know your are succesfull at what you do and i would like to know what would be the best way to get started for a young newbie like me. Thank you.

Shawn CollinsA: One thing I’d like to tell you right away is that with you just getting started and not really knowing what you are doing, you should not expect to make this a full-time job any time soon.

I urge you to go out and get whatever job you can find to bring in some money as you learn more about affiliate marketing. Even if you have to work for minimum wage in a retail store, you should really get a job now.

Affiliate marketing is not going to bring in instant money for you. And in many cases, people do not earn full-time money as affiliates.

So, it’s essential to have some cash coming in from other sources as you work on the learning curve of affiliate marketing. I’d suggest looking at a site I created at ExtraMoneyAnswer.com.

It’s a free resource where I go through the whole process of becoming a content affiliate, including how to come up with an idea for a site, the content, how to drive traffic, and how to make money with the site.

This is neither a fast nor lucrative way to earn money, but it is a way to make some extra money while you gain a better understanding of the way things work in affiliate marketing.

Unless you have some money to invest in paid search, it’s not realistic to become a full-time affiliate from the start. Be patient, learn, and you may well achieve that sort of success down the road.

Video: Affiliate Marketing as a Full-Time Job video

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

Schaaf-PartnerCentric Acquires Paulson Management Group

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Affiliate program management agency Schaaf-PartnerCentric has announced they have acquired rival agency Paulson Management Group.

schaafpc-pmgThe combined company will operate as Schaaf-PartnerCentric, and they will be headquartered in Austin, TX.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The two companies manage more than 75 affiliate programs, including Moosejaw Mountaineering, In The Swim, LightInTheBox, Stamps.com, BuildASign, and Cardstore.

Brook Schaaf, CEO of Schaaf-PartnerCentric, will be speaking at Affiliate Summit East 2014 on August 11, 2014 about “Advertisers: Why Commission Segmentation Matters to You.”