Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Advanced Retargeting Tactics at Affiliate Summit West 2012

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This was a conference session titled Advanced Retargeting Tactics from Affiliate Summit West 2012, which took place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Affiliate Summit WestSession speaker:

  • Joanna Lord, Director of Customer Acquisition & Engagement, SEOmoz

Session description:

I’ll cover what retargeting is, how to segment and sequence retargeting, as well as how you use this as a cheap testing vehicle, a branding campaign, and a bottom-line gain to your returns.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Paid Marketing

Session video:

Advanced Retargeting Tactics video

Session slides:

Advanced Retargeting Tactics 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.

The Growing Potential of Diversification and Innovation at Affiliate Summit West 2012

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This was a conference session titled The Growing Potential of Diversification and Innovation from Affiliate Summit West 2012, which took place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Affiliate Summit WestSession speakers:

  • Penny Stevens, Account Manager, Google Affiliate Network (Moderator)
  • Allison Garrison, Director, Partnership Marketing, Provide Commerce, Inc.
  • Michael Herrera, VP, Affiliate Marketing, Citibank
  • Howard Schaffer, VP of Business Development, Offers.com Published by Vertive, LLC

Session description:

Take a closer look at how top advertisers and publishers invest in innovation and diversify their performance marketing “portfolio”.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Diversification

Session video:

The Growing Potential of Diversification and Innovation video

Session slides:

The Growing Potential of Diversification and Innovation 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.

Performance Tracking Technologies at Affiliate Summit West 2012

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This was a conference session titled Performance Tracking Technologies from Affiliate Summit West 2012, which took place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Affiliate Summit WestSession speaker:

  • Todd Crawford, Co-Founder, Impact Radius

Session description:

In this session, Todd will detail the various methods for tracking performance-based relationships and outline the pros and cons of each tracking method.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Tracking

Session video:

Performance Tracking Technologies 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 Declare Email Bankruptcy

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I’m an inbox zero guy, meaning that I strive to have an empty inbox as often as possible. I get the impression I’m something of a rarity.

too-much-email

And it’s not like I’m talking about a quiet email account here. Last month, I received 5,189 emails, according to Gmail Meter. It’s just that I’ve become efficient in processing my email.

How about you? Are you overwhelmed with email? If so, you’ve got a couple ways you can clean up the mess.

You could go the route that I’ve gone and handle email as it comes in with a reply, archive, creating a task, or deleting it.

This also includes streamlining what’s hitting your inbox – unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read, kill social media notifications you’re ignoring, etc.

I would urge you to go with this strategy.

And then there is email bankruptcy, which was endorsed by technology writer Nick Bilton in the New York Times.

This is where you simply delete and/or archive everything. Everything.

In my opinion, it’s lazy, reckless, and irresponsible, and I wouldn’t want to do business with somebody who can’t be bothered to communicate with me.

This is not a business hack or a life hack – people who do it are hacks.

One solution for staying on top of disorganized clowns is Boomerang for Gmail, which enables you to set up reminders to re-contact people who don’t get back to you.

Anyhow, it may seem daunting to clean up your mess, but it is your mess. There is a lot of junk in there, but also you have no idea about the ideas and opportunities that are buried in there, too.

If all else fails, make a game out of your email.

Video Highlights from Affiliate Summit West 2014

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Affiliate Summit West 2014, the premier affiliate marketing conference, took place January 12-14, 2014 at Paris Las Vegas with over 5,400 affiliate marketers.

Affiliate Summit West 2014This three day conference included 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 West 2014 were Steve Denton, Vice President of Marketing Solutions, eBay Enterprise and Derek Flanzraich, Founder & CEO, Greatist – watch videos of their keynotes on the Affiliate Summit channel on YouTube.

See highlights from the conference, as well as some of what you missed if you didn’t make it to Affiliate Summit West 2014.

Video: Affiliate Summit West 2014 Highlights

Video of Pinnacle Awards Winners at Affiliate Summit West 2014

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The 8th annual Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards were presented on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at Affiliate Summit West 2014, which took place at Paris Las Vegas.

Fanatics.com receiving their 2014 Pinnacle Award

The Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards are affiliate marketing’s most prestigious, competitive honor for the leaders in the space.

Award winners are recognized because they are innovative leaders with vision and influence.

Congratulations to the winners…

  • Affiliate of the Year: RetailMeNot
  • Affiliate Manager of the Year: Khushbaht Abdulloev
  • Exceptional Merchant: Fanatics.com
  • Affiliate Marketing Advocate: Brian Littleton
  • OPM/Agency of the Year: Greg Hoffman Consulting
  • Tool/Service of the Year: BrandVerity

Thank you to everybody who submitted nominations and congratulations to the finalists, too!

See a list of the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award winners by year.

Video: Affiliate Summit West 2014 Pinnacle Awards

Affiliate Improv! at Affiliate Summit West 2012

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This was a conference session titled Affiliate Improv! from Affiliate Summit West 2012, which took place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Affiliate Summit WestSession speakers:

  • Daniel M. Clark, Founder, QAQN (Moderator)
  • Mike Buechele, Chief Performance Marketer, Adalytical
  • Trisha Lyn Fawver, Client Services Manager, For Me To Coupon
  • Eric Souza, Director, Delta Leads

Session description:

Four industry veterans brainstorm marketing ideas for items/services with audience participation. Ideas to actionable solutions in one fun, lively hour. Come get your creative juices flowing!

Experience level: Beginner
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Education

Session video:

Affiliate Improv! 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.

Search Engine Optimization Clinic at Affiliate Summit West 2012

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This was a conference session titled Search Engine Optimization Clinic from Affiliate Summit West 2012, which took place January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Affiliate Summit WestSession speakers:

  • Rae Hoffman-Dolan, CEO, Sugarrae (Moderator)
  • Kenny Hyder, Founder, Hyder Media
  • Michael Martin, Senior SEO Strategist, Covario Inc.
  • Taylor Pratt, VP of Product Marketing, Raven Tools

Session description:

The SEO Clinic is back! Have your website reviewed by four respected industry veterans to get tips and tricks for improving your organic search engine optimization efforts.

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

Session video:

Search Engine Optimization Clinic 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.

Submit Your Affiliate Summit East 2014 Speaking Proposal

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Speaking proposals for Affiliate Summit East 2014, taking place August 10-12, 2014 in New York City, are now being accepted.

Session at Affiliate Summit

The submission deadline is Friday, February 28, 2014. Any submissions after this date will not be considered.

One complimentary VIP pass is provided to speakers. Travel and hotel are not included.

Accepted speakers will be notified no later than Friday, March 21, 2014. If you have not been contacted by Friday, March 21, 2014, your proposal was not accepted.

Get more details and submit your speaking proposal for Affiliate Summit East 2014.

Official Photos from Affiliate Summit West 2014

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The photos from Affiliate Summit West 2014 are now up at the Affiliate Summit Flickr page.

Making connections at the Affiliate Summit West 2014 orientation

They have been sorted out to the following categories:

Feel free to download and use these pictures on your site, but if you do so, we would appreciate if you’d link back to the Affiliate Summit site.

Please visit and tag the pictures on Flickr. And if you’re uploading any pictures to Flickr from Affiliate Summit West 2014, the tag is ASW14.

The photos were also posted in the Affiliate Summit page on Facebook. Tag away!

The photos were taken by Steve Hall of Adrants – thanks a lot, Steve.

Also, I took some Affiliate Summit West 2014 pictures and posted them to my Flickr account.