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Archives for January 2017

3 Business Benefits for Mediocre Athletes

January 30, 2017 by Shawn Collins

I played all sorts of sports from first grade through the end of high school. There was a single season flameout with t-ball, and a bunch of lost winters with a basketball, but I mostly played soccer.

Spring and fall, year after year, and I spent time at just about every position, except goalie.

A lot of this was with my local boys and girls club, where I did well, and I spent a couple years with a select team, where I managed to stay on.

I was on the team in high school, but I didn’t get a lot of time on the field. The experience was humbling and frustrating, but it also prepared me in some ways for my future as an entrepreneur.

Here are three ways my time as a benchwarmer in soccer helped me in business.

Not Everybody Can Be the Chief

I wanted to be the captain of my team. Everybody did. But there was one captain and he was a starter. I accepted my role — I’d get out there and play when there was an injury or a blowout. It wasn’t a glamour job, but it was something that needed to get done for the team.

In the case of a company, there are some high profile opportunities, but there are many more times when you have to get your hands dirty building things up. Those tasks that are done with no acknowledgement or appreciation will test your mettle, and they will also make for a well-rounded team, even if it’s a team of one.

No Such Thing as a Level Playing Field

We like to talk about competing on a level playing field, but that does not exist. There are all sorts of advantages and disadvantages that come into play in sports. I was never the fastest, and I didn’t have the most stamina on the team. I tried my best, but other guys were more naturally gifted. They are the ones who made the first team.

The same thing goes for business. Your competition has different connections and relationships than you, as well as varying strengths, amounts of funding, or lack of it. You do what you can to compensate for deficiencies and leverage your assets. But don’t fool yourself, it was never even.

Persistence is Available to Anyone

We would kick off our soccer practice with a three mile run. Lots of players would dog it, but I would always run the full thing, while starters would walk half of it. I would go as hard as I could, and sometimes I would run until I puked. I may not have been good enough to be the worst starter, so I wanted to do my damnedest to be the reserve with the most heart, and that elevated me with the coaches.

I’ve never puked from my work, but over exhaustion was my lifestyle in the early years. I’d always strive to do things better than the competition, and sometimes that would mean working more, sleeping less, and sacrificing in a variety of ways. You’ve got to do what they won’t do if you want to beat them.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Submit Your Affiliate Summit East 2017 Speaking Proposal

January 27, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Speaking proposals for Affiliate Summit East 2017, taking place July 30 – August 1, 2017 in New York City, are now being accepted.

The submission deadline is Friday, March 24, 2017.

The speaker submissions are chosen based on the following:

  • Public voting scores and comments.
  • Voting scores and comments by the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board (including Affiliate Summit founders Missy Ward and Shawn Collins).
  • Past session feedback if you previously spoke at an Affiliate Summit.
  • Meeting speaker deadlines if you previously spoke at an Affiliate Summit.

Get more details and submit your speaking proposal for Affiliate Summit East 2017.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Summit

Brian Littleton on a Juice Cleanse Gone Bad, Why He Went to Vanderbilt, and Snowboarding in Costumes

January 26, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Brian Littleton, Owner of ShareASale, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

I wanted to learn more about the real Brian, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Brian Littleton on a Juice Cleanse Gone Bad, Why He Went to Vanderbilt, and Snowboarding in Costumes.” quote=”Brian Littleton on a Juice Cleanse Gone Bad, Why He Went to Vanderbilt, and Snowboarding in Costumes.” theme=”style1″]

We discussed…

  • How he introduced Twitter to affiliate marketing
  • Why a celibate turtle was his first company logo
  • Interesting tips when playing piano
  • The reason he chose Vanderbilt University
  • Trying to do a three day juice diet cleanse
  • Wearing costumes on ski slopes

Links from this episode

  • Brian’s first Tweet
  • Brian on LinkedIn
  • The story of Lonesome George
  • Dressing as Mr. Potato Head
  • The three day juice diet cleanse
  • ShareASale.com

Subscribe to This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins on iTunes.

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Video of Marty Weintraub Keynote at Affiliate Summit West 2017

January 25, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Marty Weintraub, Founder of Aimclear, gave a keynote presentation at Affiliate Summit West 2017.

The keynote from Marty Weintraub took place January 16, 2017 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward, founded Affiliate Summit in 2003 for the purpose of providing educational sessions on the latest industry issues and fostering a productive networking environment for affiliate marketers.

Since then, the Affiliate Summit Inc. brand has grown to include Performance Marketing Summit, FeedFront Magazine, GeekCast.fm, AffStat.com and ReveNews.com.

Attendees at Affiliate Summit events break out into six main categories: affiliate, affiliate management, advertiser, OPM/agency, solution provider, and network.

Affiliates typically account for about a quarter of attendees at Affiliate Summit.

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How to Achieve Inbox Zero

January 23, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Email can be a productivity killer, but that’s only if you let it.

The physical inbox is sort of an archaic notion these days, but if ever worked in an office, you’ve probably seen somebody who had one that was piled high. An inbox filled with all sorts of folders, memos, clippings, and other garbage that they were never going to clean out.

That seems unthinkable to a lot of people, but somehow a bloated mess of an inbox is acceptable. Well, I’m here to give you some tough email love — you are an email hoarder and I am going to give you some easy efficiency tips to get ahead of it.

My methods and tools are all for Gmail, so if you aren’t currently using regular Gmail or G Suite, some of the following will not pertain to you.

Anyhow, my way of going through email is a combination of Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero and Getting Things Done by David Allen, an awesome book on productivity.

So, when email comes into my inbox, I process email in one of four ways: reply, archive, create a task, or delete.

Reply

When email comes in that can be handled quickly, well I handle it quickly, either by writing a short response from scratch or using a canned response, which is a feature in Gmail.

The latter is very useful when you’re answering the same questions frequently.

Archive

I archive emails in four different ways. There is the basic act of clicking archive when an email does not require any action from me, but I want to hold onto it. I do this with each and every FYI email I get, and it makes for a useful archive that can be easily searched.

Then there is “Send and Archive”, which is an option when you’re sending email. If you don’t do this when you are replying to an email in your inbox, that email will remain in your inbox.

Labels are great for categorizing specific groups of emails before archiving. I’ll do this with things like confirmation emails from online retailers when I buy Christmas gifts. That way I am able to easily check on orders I’ve made.

Finally, I automatically archive some emails by setting up filters in Gmail. These are any emails I want to keep, but don’t need to read as they come in.

For instance, when we are accepting speaker proposals for Affiliate Summit conferences, we do not review them until after the deadline, so this large volume of emails are all archived until that point.

Create a Task

When an email comes in that requires more than a quick response, I will turn it into a task by clicking the “More” button in Gmail and then clicking “Add to Tasks”. This enables me to set a date to work on the answer to the email, and adds it to my tasks, which I keep open in Gmail as a daily to-do list.

Delete

I sort my email trash into three bins, sort of like recycling, compost, and trash, except I don’t want to recycle any of them, and they are all trash.

If I know I am never going to respond, because it’s some clown sending a press release for a subject that has absolutely nothing with what I do, I will simply click delete and immediately forget about the email for the rest of my life.

When newsletters come in, I think for a second about the last time I read the newsletter. If it was a while ago, I unsubscribe from the newsletter and then delete it.

Then there is the pure junk — I click “Mark as Spam” and feel satisfied for a second. It may well be that Google doesn’t pay attention to that feature, but I’d like to believe they do, and I celebrate just a little with each spam delete.

I also check my Spam folder in Google a couple times a day, because there is a false positive every once in a while.

Get your email under control

My Gmail Data

You can get a monthly report that details Gmail usage at GmailMeter.com. It’s a useful breakdown of your email analytics and statistics.

Based on my Gmail Meter report from February 2016, I received 3,481 emails from 607 people, and sent 718 emails to 107 people. Chat, spam, calendar invites, etc. are not included in this tally.

One of the data points shows the “Time Before First Response” as emails come in, and with my system, I got back to 17% of people within 5 minutes and another 18% in less than 15 minutes. Overall, I took more than a day for just 15% of emails that came in.

Gmail Meter also shows the word count for emails sent and received. I got back to 5% of people with less than 10 words, 11% with less than 30 words, and 38% with less than 50 words. I wrote more than 200 words for just 3% of my emails. I need to cut that to 1% this month.

While I keep an eye on email every day of the week, Saturday is by far my least active day, followed by Sunday. On Mondays I send 30% of my messages for the week, and progressively less each weekday, but more on Fridays than Thursdays for some reason.

I can also see when during the day my emails are sent and received, and they sharply increase starting at 8am eastern and don’t let up until around 6pm eastern. There is a spike again around 8pm eastern. I suppose that is the people on the west coast clearing their inbox before they head out.

In addition to the tools within Gmail, I also use a few others to best manage my inbox.

Boomerang for Gmail

Boomerang is a really useful tool for clearing email out of your inbox to deal with later. You can indicate when it should return to your inbox and then process it. I use this a lot on the road for non-essential email, as well as evenings and weekends, when I’ll send it away until 8am on the next business day.

You can also schedule an email to drop with Boomerang, which is useful is you want to have it hit the inbox of somebody when they are more likely to be at their desk.

HubSpot Sales

HubSpot Sales will enable you to know who opens your emails, when, where they opened it, and how many times. I find this really useful when deciding whether to follow up with somebody.

It’s good to know if they saw it, or if they didn’t. In the event somebody never opened an email, I can call a couple days later without being a pest and suggesting it might have hit their spam folder. Or maybe their inbox is wildly out of control, and they need to read my tips.

Undo Send

This is a feature you can activate in Gmail > Settings > Labs, and it enables you to set a time when you can cancel an email to either scrap it or make edits. I seem to use this at least once a day to revise the tone of an email or correct a typo I saw as I hit send.

Apply my simple steps and maybe use the supplemental tools, and you, too, can take control of your inbox.

This article originally appeared on the HostGator blog.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Many Booths and Tables for Affiliate Summit East 2017 Sold Already

January 20, 2017 by Shawn Collins

We opened registration for Affiliate Summit East 2017 Meet Market tables and booths a few weeks ago, and about half of the tables and booths are already booked.

The conference is taking place July 30 – August 1, 2017 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York, NY.

Details and pricing are available at the Affiliate Summit East 2017 exhibitors page.

Prices go up after February 17, 2017.

Meet Market tables start at $2,995, and booths start at $5,745.

Exhibit hall booths and Meet Market tables sold out quick for Affiliate Summit East 2016, so secure your spot while you can.

We offer real-time booth and table selections. Simply choose from an available location when registering and it’s all yours.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Trisha Fawver on #PugLife, Selling on Etsy, and the Care Bear Stare

January 19, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Trisha Fawver, CEO of Blinkstar Media, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

I wanted to learn more about the real Trisha, so I asked her a variety of questions I figured she had not been asked in previous interviews.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Trisha Fawver on #PugLife, Selling on Etsy, and the Care Bear Stare.” quote=”Trisha Fawver on #PugLife, Selling on Etsy, and the Care Bear Stare.” theme=”style1″]

We discussed…

  • The Care Bear Stare
  • Her books on trains and cemeteries
  • Teen Wolf
  • Being endorsed for Windows Vista on LinkedIn
  • Her Pug, Pixel
  • Selling on Etsy

Links from this episode

  • Trisha on Amazon
  • Trisha on LinkedIn
  • Trisha on Twitter
  • Trisha on Instagram
  • Trisha on Facebook
  • Trisha on Etsy

Subscribe to This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins on iTunes.

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Recap of Affiliate Summit West 2017

January 18, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Affiliate Summit West 2017, which took place January 15-17, 2017 at Paris Las Vegas Hotel, has come and gone.

It was a fantastic bunch of days of networking, learning, and friends with the awesome backdrop of Las Vegas.

I was chronicling the before, during, and after of Affiliate Summit on Instagram, and here’s how my iPhone said it all went down.

Back in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West 2017 – well, maybe you aren't in Las Vegas, yet, but we're here getting ready for you. See you soon. #ASW17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 12, 2017 at 2:19pm PST

Speaker get together at TopGolf #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 14, 2017 at 12:06pm PST

Get your picture in front of the giant #asw17 – we have a photographer out there

A photo posted by Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) on Jan 15, 2017 at 9:48am PST

Ribbon bar at Affiliate Summit check-in #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 14, 2017 at 4:24pm PST

This is where the magic happens #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 15, 2017 at 12:34pm PST

ShareASale party #asw17

A video posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 15, 2017 at 10:54pm PST

Networking breakfast on day 2 of Affiliate Summit #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 16, 2017 at 10:17am PST

Marty Weintraub keynote at Affiliate Summit #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 16, 2017 at 11:29am PST

Affiliate Window at Demo Day at Affiliate Summit #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 16, 2017 at 4:14pm PST

Steady crowds in the Affiliate Summit exhibit hall all day #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 16, 2017 at 4:25pm PST

Brian Massey keynote at Affiliate Summit #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 16, 2017 at 5:10pm PST

DJ Marshmello photo bombs an Affiliate Summit interview #asw17 @marshmellomusic

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 16, 2017 at 6:51pm PST

Just hanging out with Snoop #asw17

A photo posted by Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) on Jan 16, 2017 at 11:39pm PST

Q&A on Facebook ads with Facebook – great chance to get your questions answered #asw17

A photo posted by Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) on Jan 17, 2017 at 10:18am PST

Pinnacle Awards and Sean Dolan keynote this morning #asw17

A photo posted by Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) on Jan 17, 2017 at 11:05am PST

Sean Dolan delivering the closing keynote at Affiliate Summit #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 17, 2017 at 11:32am PST

RevShare Roundup is going on now #asw17

A photo posted by Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) on Jan 17, 2017 at 10:39am PST

Sessions live streaming on the Affiliate Summit Jumbotron #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 17, 2017 at 3:25pm PST

Ask the Experts Roundtables #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 17, 2017 at 3:26pm PST

Affiliate Summit exhibit hall pub crawl #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 17, 2017 at 3:40pm PST

Thanks to Sendlane.com for a generous donation of $2,000 to Affiliate Marketers Give Back, and to Jeremy Schoemaker for making it happen. #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 18, 2017 at 1:09am PST

Hanging out with Ric Flair #asw17

A photo posted by Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) on Jan 17, 2017 at 12:52pm PST

Breaking down the exhibit hall – that's a wrap for Affiliate Summit West 2017. #asw17

A photo posted by Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) on Jan 17, 2017 at 4:16pm PST

Thank you so much to all of the people who helped make this happen – the attendees, sponsors, speakers, and Affiliate Summit team, the folks behind the parties: ShareASale and Affiliate Ball

So many thousands of good people came together in Las Vegas, and may all sorts of great business and personal relationships blossom out of the days we spent here!

Register now for Affiliate Summit East 2017 in New York City on July 30 – August 1, 2017.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Jeannine Crooks on Denver Sports, Prague, and the USPS

January 12, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Jeannine Crooks, Client Services Manager of Affiliate Window US, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

I wanted to learn more about the real Jeannine, so I asked her a variety of questions I figured she had not been asked in previous interviews.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Jeannine Crooks on Denver Sports, Prague, and the USPS.” quote=”Jeannine Crooks on Denver Sports, Prague, and the USPS.” theme=”style1″]

We discussed…

  • Her first Tweet on the Thirty Day Challenge
  • Why Prague is her favorite travel destination
  • Her Pinterest board on cleaning the house
  • Watching baseball at Coors Field
  • Giving the local post office a poor rating

Links from this episode

  • Jeannine’s first Tweet
  • Jeannine on TravelMassive.com
  • Jeannine on Twitter
  • Jeannine on Pinterest

Subscribe to This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins on iTunes.

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Network Before Affiliate Summit West 2017

January 10, 2017 by Shawn Collins

Hopefully, you’ve already been scheduling meetings for Affiliate Summit West 2017. If not, get moving on that now.

Networking before Affiliate Summit

The Affiliate Summit West 2017 networking site, powered by Pathable, will help you network with other attendees.

This tool will enable you to view the profiles and interests of the other attendees; discover which of your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are also attending; and schedule meetings.

Note: Sending unsolicited, standardized, non-targeted messages in mass through this networking platform is considered spam. Not only is it annoying to the recipient, but it also looks bad for your business.

Affiliate Summit has a zero tolerance for spam activity. Be advised that we reserve the right to cancel the account belonging to any person who violates this policy, without notice.

You should have received an email after registering to access the Affiliate Summit West 2017 community. If you have not received an email, please contact us.

See the Affiliate Summit West 2017 networking resources page for more ways to connect with fellow attendees.

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