Over the years, we’ve sadly seen a number of A
James and Wayne were friends, supporters, inspirations, speakers, and mentors in the early days of Affiliate Summit, which was especially vital as Missy Ward and I tried to figure out how Affiliate Summit could best serve the industry.
Hopefully you got to know either or both of these guys over the years, but for those who didn’t have the privilege, I’ll share a little about them…
James Martell taught tens of thousands of business owners how to effectively market their businesses online through his books, courses, live trainings, webinars, podcasts, and speaking engagements.
He was a true Internet pioneer, thought leader, and influencer with the proven know-how to bring success online.
James had more than twenty years of online business experience, and found success in online marketing, blogging, podcasting, coaching, outsourcing, and video creation. He authored several business books, and developed twelve popular marketing courses.
James authored of one of the first and best-selling eBooks on affiliate marketing, and was a host of the longest running affiliate marketing podcast, starting in 2003, with listeners in more than one hundred countries.
Wayne Porter was one of the formative figures in affiliate marketing. Back in 2002, when the affiliate networks in the U.S were particularly adversarial, Wayne managed to bring them all together in NYC, along with a number of affiliates and merchants, to try and hash out a common policy for dealing with adware.
It was a groundbreaking event that got the decision makers in affiliate marketing talking about working together for the common good for the first time.
Wayne created an early industry resource, AffiliateHelp.com, and he was also a founder of ReveNews. Wayne was on the Board of Directors for a group called Affiliate Union, which sought to create a certification for affiliate programs to protect affiliates.
He also co-authored a book called Affiliate Marketing 101 to help people break in as affiliates in those early days.
In 2006, we presented Wayne with the first ever Affiliate Marketing Legend Award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards.
But there aren’t really enough words to express who James and Wayne were and their impact. Just know that if you didn’t know them you missed out.
They were a hell of a couple guys and I will miss them.