FeedFront Magazine, Issue 18 by Affiliate Summit

· Issue 18 · May 2012

The Ofﬁcial Magazine of Afﬁliate Summit · Issue 18 · May 2012

Table of Contents 2

Editors Note: Dress for the Job You Want

Better Living Through Automation

by Daniel M. Clark

Ten Tips for HEO: Healthy Eating Optimization

by Heather Romiti

7 Suggestions for Better Affiliate Newsletters

Step Away from the Affiliate De-Activate Button!

by Shawn Collins

by Kim Salvino by Travis Jacobson

Bizopp Rule Hits Marketers Where it Hurts

by Slade Cutter

Avoiding Federal Government Legislation in Affiliate Marketing

by Olga Eskina

Educating Affiliates the Right Way

by Greg Hoffman

Amazon and the Self-Publishing Revolution

Learning from Affiliate Marketing Newbies

Affiliate Summit West 2012 Recap

by Shawn Collins

Five WordPress Plugins to Keep Sites Sticky

by Benjy Portnoy

by Jim Kukral by Lisa Picarille

Affiliate Summit Central 2012 - Show Agenda

Live Web Events = Lucrative Launches

Make Sure Your Queries Aren’t Running Slowly

Success Maintenance for Affiliate Marketers

by Rohail Rizvi

Is Affiliate Marketing A Good Career Choice?

by Erik Hom

Share the Love: Spread Affiliate Marketing

Law Enforcement Perils and Pitfalls for Affiliates

The Road to Smooth Business Travel

Options for Better Tracking Affiliate Links

by David Iwanow

Social Media Partnerships: Getting Shared by Influencers

by Dave Cupples

What SOPA Means for Affiliate Marketing’s Future

by Brook Schaaf

Becoming a Human Changed My Business

Affiliates Must Deliver Real Value

Behind the Scenes of Affiliate Ball

Maribel Sierra - Keynote Bio

Affiliate Summit Central 2012 - Speaker Bios

People to Follow on Twitter

Hilton Austin Map

Co-Publishers Missy Ward, Shawn Collins

by Michael Colfin

by Tricia Meyer by Thomas A. Cohn by Trisha Lyn Fawver

by Bryan Knowlton by Wade Tonkin

USA vs. Europe in Affiliate Marketing by Marcello Pasqualucci

Staff Co-Editors in Chief Missy Ward, Shawn Collins

by Jonathan Cronstedt

Contributing Writers Daniel M. Clark, Thomas A. Cohn, Michael Colfin, Shawn Collins, Jonathan Cronstedt, Dave Cupples, Slade Cutter, Olga Eskina, Trisha Lynn Fawver, Greg Hoffman, Erik Hom, David Iwanow, Travis Jacobson, Bryan Knowlton, Jim Kukral, Tricia Meyer, Marcello Pasqualucci, Lisa Picarille, Rohail Rizvi, Heather Romiti, Kim Salvino, Brook Schaaf, Wade Tonkin and Missy Ward

Graphic Design Logan Gattis Designs www.logangattis.com Magazine Coordinator Amy Rodriguez Cover photos are from Affiliate Summit West 2012.

by Shawn Collins

Affiliate Summit 522 Hunt Club Blvd. #411 Apopka, FL 32703 tel (417)-2SUMMIT (278-6648) fax (908) 364-4627

Articles in FeedFront Magazine are the opinions of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine, or its owners. FeedFront Magazine always welcomes opinions of an opposite nature. For more information, visit: www.FeedFront.com Interested in advertising? Please visit http://feedfront.com/advertising/ or email us at: feedfront@affiliatesummit.com

· Issue 18 · May 2012

y first job out of college required me to wear dress pants, a button-down shirt, and a tie to work each day. I was working at the front desk

of a Comfort Suites for $5.50 an hour. The next job had a more standardized uniform of khaki pants and a blue button-down shirt. I was on the way up the corporate ladder as I landed an Assistant Manager gig at Blockbuster Video at $7.00 an hour. Subsequent positions had similar dress codes and increasing compensation, but these weren’t jobs I wanted. The work uniforms became sort of symbolic to me. I

Editor’s Note

Dress for the Job You Want by Shawn Collins

could work hard and share lots of ideas, but at the end of the day I was constrained by a certain paradigm of what I could and should do. In the mid-90’s, I worked with a variety of computer magazines at Miller Freeman and ZiffDavis on the business side. These were sort of oldschool environments, and I was expected to wear a suit. I still cringe at the memories of walking across town in New York City on humid August days in my 2 for $79 suits, and how I’d be as sweaty as a college basketball coach by the time I reached my office. In 1997, I left the magazine world for my first dot com startup job at a place called Medsite.com. This was also my first affiliate manager position. It was one of those open lofts where employees were encouraged to be creative in their mar-

Shawn Collins

keting efforts. That was good, because I had never had a marketing job, or even a class, before then. The dress code was more relaxed than I was used to at previous jobs. We could wear jeans every day. Every day! That might not seem exciting to many affiliate marketers, but it was a fashion revolution for me. Gone were the cheap suits in favor of a closet of jeans and collared shirts. This sort of dress code continued with my next affiliate marketing jobs at Refer-it.com and ClubMom.com

and a Yankees jersey. It felt forbidden and magical to walk among the corporate cubicles and show a little leg. I finally went out on my own in 2004, and dressed comfortably, I never looked back. My wife Vicky asked me recently why I wear shorts and a t-shirt to work every day.

But even that started feeling restrictive.

The answer was simple... because I can.

I used to get a weird thrill on work days when I would

You know the old saying about dressing for the job

be heading to a Yankees game at the end of the day. After

work, I’d switch from my jeans and collared shirt to shorts

you want? I guess I want to always have this job.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Better Living Through

Automation

Daniel M. Clark

· Issue 18 · May 2012

by Daniel M. Clark

hree years ago, posting an episode of a podcast took me nearly two hours. There was editing, converting,

That’s what... a dozen or so steps cut down to five min-

uploading, show notes, WordPress posting and pro-

utes? The most time consuming part of the process is the writ-

motion on Twitter and other social media. I cut it down to about an hour by giving up on removing all

ing of the show notes, which is the only thing that can’t be automated.

the minor imperfections from the audio, but I wasn’t happy to stop there. I wanted it to take five minutes... and now it does.

What Can You Automate? Do you upload product images to a remote server? Do you

Automation to the Rescue

post product reviews in the same format each time? Do you

Any kind of repetitive task can be automated to some

create audio or video files? If you’re a blogger, do you post on

degree. You need not be a programmer, nor do you need ex-

a schedule? Create a lot of PDFs? Even little things like shut-

pensive tools. Using free tools on my Mac I was able to create

ting down your computer and waking it up can be automated!

a workflow.

Backing up your website and computer should absolutely be

When I connect my audio recorder to my computer and

automated.

drag my recording onto the desktop, Adobe Audition automati-

I asked Eric Nagel (ericnagel.com), which tools he uses

cally opens a template containing all of my shows’ opening

for automation. He reminded me that many programs have

music.

automation built-in. Adobe programs, such as Photoshop and

I drop the show file into the template and Export to MP3. The whole process takes under a minute. The export action

Illustrator can batch process files and run step-by-step macros or actions. These can save content creators a lot of time.

automatically launches a script that I wrote. The script asks

Automating on your Mac or PC not only aids productivity,

for the show’s title and tags. It automatically adds the closing

it’s also rather fun. The only requisite for automation is imagi-

music and credits, adds the meta data and art, and uploads

nation. If you lack skills, resources exist to learn from.

the final MP3 to an FTP server.

I said at the outset that you don’t need to be a program-

It then creates a WordPress post at both QAQN.com and

mer. What if I told you that becoming a programmer–at least as

GeekCast.fm with the title, category, tags, and podcast file in-

far as task automation is concerned–would only take you an

formation. Then it opens my web browser to the WordPress

afternoon? Interested?

editing pages at both sites, where I can paste in my show

My recommended resources for getting started are Life-

notes, which I’ve been writing during the four minutes that this

hacker.com, MacScripter.net (Mac) and VBTutor.net (Windows).

process took.

Give it a shot. I think you’ll be happy you did. [FF]

Daniel M. Clark is a podcasting consultant and coordinates the Newcomer Program for Affiliate Summit West.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Ten Tips for

HEO:

Healthy Eating Optimization by Heather Romiti

Heather Romiti

nternet Marketers are busy people, so when it comes to health and eating, it’s all about convenience. I’ve put together a list of tips to easily help you live healthier.

6. Go Bananas! Bananas contain vitamin B6, good carbohydrates, and tryptophan, therefore serotonin is released after consumption. This means bananas can

1. Drink Water. Staying hydrated increases energy, burns calories, and flushes out toxins. Everyone’s water

help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. Bananas are also great for energy.

intake varies, so here’s a simple equation to follow.

7. Fruits for Eyesight. Growing up you may have been

Your weight divided by 2 and that’s how many ounces

told carrots help your eyesight, but as adults fruit has

a day (at minimum) you should be drinking.

become more essential. Archives of Ophthalmology

2. Cut Out Caffeine. You may not want to hear it, but I’m

indicated, “Eating 3 or more servings of fruit per day

giving it to you anyway. Caffeine becomes an addic-

may lower your risk of age-related macular degen-

tion and it’s acidic to the body and causes your PH

eration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in

balance to be off. This creates a toxic environment

adults”. But still continue to eat those vegetables too!

and the body can’t function properly in an acidic or

8. Take a Break. Take a 20-30 minute break for a brisk

toxic environment. Switch to herbal teas. 3. More Fruits & Vegetables. According to choosemyplate. gov, males between the ages of 19-50 should consume

walk. 30 minutes a day can help drop the weight away! You will also benefit by receiving more vitamin D from the sun if you work indoors all day.

2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables a day. Women

9. Posture. Take notice in your posture, the more you slouch

between the ages of 19-50 should consume 1∞ cups of

or aren’t in an ergonomically correct position, the more

fruit and 2∞ cups of vegetables a day.

stress builds and your energy will decrease. Over time

4. Blend It! Since we should be consuming large amounts

incorrect positions can cause wrist, neck, and back issues.

of fruits and veggies daily for optimum health, or if

10. Stretch. Take the time to stretch your extremities ev-

you don’t like the taste of fruits and veggies, start

ery morning, afternoon, and evening. Stretching in-

blending up some creative mixes. Blending smoothies

creases oxygen flow and improves mobility.

also cuts time on preparing meals and still benefits Computers are Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) that

you nutritionally. 5. Dried Fruit, Nuts, & Seeds. If you like to munch on

drain our energy and can damage our eyesight. I encour-

snacks while you work, choose nuts, seeds, and dried

age you to follow these simple tips because as we work

fruit. This variety will naturally increase energy and is

to be the best in search engines, it’s important to manage

great for heart health.

your self-engine!

Heather Romiti is a nutritionist, book author, blogger, and affiliate marketer at Blendhappy.com.

Suggestions

for Better

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Affiliate Newsletters by Kim Salvino

s an Affiliate Manager, affiliate communication is your responsibility. It is arguably the most important aspect of your job.

without including the code.

After all, you wouldn’t expect your Sales Team to sell

You have the affiliate’s atten-

without knowing the ins and outs of your products. Your

tion now, which you could lose

affiliates count on you to be their advocate and communi-

if they can’t log in at that mo-

cation distributor. I recommend setting a reminder to cre-

ment to grab your latest deep

ate your newsletter each month.

link. Ask your affiliate network

Here are a few simple ways to step it up on the news-

to assist you in order to popu-

letter front:

late newsletters with affiliate

1. Use a subject line that makes sense. Affiliates are

IDs.

consumers as well, and may delete emails that ap-

5. Don’t bother telling affiliates

pear to be selling. Instead of New products, pool clos-

about an awesome sale that

ings and save up to 15%, try Pool Program Affiliate

started yesterday and ends to-

Newsletter. If you can jazz it up with Pool Program

morrow. Affiliates need timely,

Affiliate Newsletter – Best Sellers, New Items & 15%

advanced notice and they know

Off, even better.

you didn’t just find out about it. If you did, there

2. Address it by name and make it personal. “Hello, Mary! We’re grateful that you promote our pool

Kim Salvino

is something fundamentally wrong with your internal communications.

products on killingpoolalgae.com.” This shows that

6. It’s not just about you. Provide updates about the in-

you have taken the time to acknowledge something

dustry, point affiliates to forum threads and ask af-

unique about them, and shows that you’re thankful

filiates what they need from you. Share ways to make

they chose you. Trust me; you aren’t the only one out

them better affiliates and you will win their loyalty.

there selling chlorine tablets. A little personalization can go a long way.

7. Don’t close your newsletter with Thanks, Affiliate Team. If an affiliate has a question spurred by your

3. List your main topics at the top of the newsletter.

email, give them a name, email and phone number to

“This month, we’re reaching out about our top 5 sell-

contact you. You never know when your communica-

ing products, what customers need for a typical pool

tion could activate an affiliate, and you’ll want them

closing and have placed thermometers and pool vacu-

to be able to reach out to a live person, quickly.

ums on sale.” If the topics appeal to them, they are able to determine that within seconds, and an affiliate’s most valuable asset is time. 4. DO NOT talk about the great creative you’ve loaded Kim Salvino is Head of Publishers for the US arm of buy.at.

Newsletters can be very powerful communication and activation tools. Take the time to ensure yours contain timely, quality content, and continue to refine it over time.

Travis Jacobson

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Step Away Affiliate

from the

De-Activate Button!

by Travis Jacobson

t may seem tempting for Affiliate Managers to de-ac-

click), which will deter super affiliates from promoting

tivate all affiliates who are not active within their pro-

their program. If an affiliate is sending traffic over and it is

gram to increase EPC and make their sales look better.

not converting, is it really the affiliates fault?

However, there are better alternatives that will establish strong relationships with affiliates and provide long-term

Follow these steps to work with affiliates that may be lowering EPC:

growth for affiliate programs. In a recent conversation with an affiliate, I was shocked when he told me a merchant had lowered his commission because he had not been as active as he was

»» Ensure tracking is working correctly. »» Check the affiliate’s links to make sure they are up to date.

in the past. The affiliate manager was trying to motivate

»» Compare the conversion rate for affili-

the affiliate to get active again. However, the only motiva-

ate traffic to other marketing verticals.

tion it provided was for the affiliate to promote a competing brand very prominently on his website.

»» Contact the affiliate and discuss what they are experiencing.

Before you send out that threatening email to all of your inactive affiliates, please stop and consider what you

There are several risks to consider before de-activat-

have done to help those affiliates succeed. Rather than up-

ing affiliates. Choosing to de-activate affiliates will nega-

set the affiliate, it would be better to try and reach out to

tively affect your program and it is important to weigh the

the affiliate and see if there is anyway you can help them

pros and cons before you click the de-activate button. The most obvious risk is that you will never be able

increase your brands placement. A tiered commission structure for all affiliates will

to recruit de-activated affiliates into your program again.

make it so that you are only paying the higher commis-

Just because affiliates are not currently promoting your

sions when affiliates reach pre-defined sales goals. This

program does not mean that they will not be one of your

will also prevent you from having to make the tough choice

top affiliates in the future.

of lowering affiliate commissions at a later time.

It is easy to place fault on affiliates because they are

Consider setting up an activation campaign for your

not promoting your program. Instead of blaming affiliates

inactive affiliates. It can take a long time for an affiliate

for their inactivity, take a look at what you can do as an

to build out their campaign, so be patient with them and

affiliate manager to improve the program.

always be available to provide them with what they need

grams and it is the affiliate manager’s responsibility to

to be successful. One common concern among affiliate managers is that inactive affiliates will lower their EPC (earnings per

There is a reason affiliates join particular affiliate proremind them why they wanted to promote the program when they applied.

Travis is an Affiliate Manager for affiliateCREW, an outsourced affiliate program management company.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Bizopp Rule

Hits Marketers Where it Hurts

by Slade Cutter

usiness opportunity or “bizopp” offers have been a mainstay of affiliate marketing for years. The good ones offer consumers the ability to make extra

money while working from home; the bad ones prey on the financial desperation of unemployed consumers. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has been playSlade Cutter

ing Whac-A-Mole with bad bizopp advertisers for almost as long as the category has existed. As of March 1, 2012, the FTC implemented a revised rule (the “Bizopp Rule”) substantially altering the bizopp landscape and imposing tough new requirements for marketers. The revised Bizopp Rule is dense and technical but,

I know, I know . . . not the most riveting call to action.

from an advertising perspective, the upshot of the rule

But here’s the really fun part. Although the FTC

is pretty simple. And it goes right to the heart of what

doesn’t come out and say it, the first item on its agenda

makes bizopp offers convert. If a bizopp marketer makes

after promulgating a shiny new rule is to make an example

any claim (express or implied) about how much consumers

out of someone who violates the rule. So, if marketers

can earn from an opportunity, the marketer must provide

think there’s a “grace period” or that they can plead igno-

two key disclosures.

rance, they should think again.

First, the marketer must disclose the beginning and

The black helicopters are circling now, and once the

ending date of the period when the claimed earnings were

FTC finds a target – it’s game over. Just ask the com-

achieved. Second, the marketer must disclose the number

pany that recently “settled” with the FTC for a mere

and percentage of individuals who achieved the claimed

$359,000,000. Granted, they were selling bizopp products

earnings within the stated time period.

using a negative-option subscription model with a high

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, these

monthly price point, but their story is a cautionary tale.

disclosures must be made “in immediate conjunction with

Affiliates running bizopp offers need to carefully review all

the claim.” This is not an esoteric concept. No links, no as-

ad copy to ensure they’re in compliance with the revised

terisks, no fine print below the fold. The disclosures need

Bizopp Rule.

to be right there with the claim.

Please note that the revised Bizopp Rule has several

For example, if a marketer claims, “You can make

other important requirements for marketers. The focus

$1,541 every day!” the next line of copy should be some-

here is on the requirements that apply to advertising copy.

thing like, “Earnings calculated from January 2012 to March

For a good bizopp compliance reference, the FTC has

2012 for 100 participants, representing 10% of all partici-

provided a simplified summary of the rule at feedfront.com/

pants.”

bizopp.

Slade Cutter owns and operates Cutter Law, P.C. – for more information visit www.sladecutterlaw.com.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Avoiding

Federal Government Legislation in

Affiliate Marketing

by Olga Eskina

ffiliate marketing is a very lucrative industry with super-low barriers to entry. This has produced a

Its goal would be to

highly competitive environment where some affili-

have affiliates (as well as

ates engage in unfair, if not outright illegal, practices.

merchants) follow rules of conduct with the purpose

ates that are very successful tackling affiliate marketing

of cleaning up the indus-

the right way by doing the relevant research and devoting

try and protecting its in-

themselves to fairly promoting and marketing worthwhile

tegrity. Having a team of

programs. However, there are also spammers, intellectual

industry veterans manag-

property infringers, scrapers, article-spinner farms, fake

ing the establishment of an obligation to follow the rules

reviewers, false advertisers, adware installers and others.

would tremendously reduce the propensity for inappropri-

After a long time of hands off policies, the federal

Olga Eskina

There are, of course, numerous conscientious affili-

ate and illegal practices.

government has taken note of the unseemly affiliate prac-

At the outset, anyone desiring to take part in affiliate

tices. In an effort to protect consumers, the FTC revised

marketing through the participating mediums would have

guidelines for testimonials and endorsements three years

to apply for membership in the organization, and, in the

ago that affected more than 50 million bloggers, according

process, the organization would confirm the real identity

to Technorati.

of the applicant. As a condition of approval for member-

But more importantly it signaled the increasing foray

ship, the applicant would also have to agree to a code of

of government agencies into affiliate rulemaking. Even

conduct, and possibly be required to undergo some educa-

where elected officials took a stab at regulating industry

tion and training.

practices, they didn’t really fix any of the problems and

Subsequently, if a member were to be found engag-

were detrimental to many ethical marketers. In this regard,

ing in practices prohibited by the code or in other illegal

CAN-SPAM, didn’t really stop spam, but it did make it more

activities, he or she could easily be put on probation or

expensive to send newsletters.

suspended by the organization, and barred from every

So, how do we keep the government off our backs

participating affiliate network and medium.

down the road, and simultaneously foster a fair and legal

If this could be accomplished, it would provide a pow-

competitive environment where decent affiliate marketers

erful disincentive for any participants to engage in fraud or

can really thrive?

other inappropriate behavior. It would also be fairly easy to

The answer is in cleaning up our house by ridding the industry of disreputable practices and actors. This can

get various affiliate networks and platforms to participate, as membership would enhance their appeal across the board.

only be achieved with a self-policing organization (similar

Moreover, given that the government is breathing

to a state Bar association) that can be implemented across

down our necks, cleaning up the industry is in the long-

all networks and mediums.

term interest of every honest participant. [FF]

Olga Eskina is the Affiliate Manager of GovernmentAuctions.org.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Right Way

by Greg Hoffman

Greg Hoffman

the

Educating Affiliates

ffiliates want to make money. Merchants want to sell products. The most effective way to make both happen is to have a proactive manager that

Pick up the phone each month and talk to as many af-

educates affiliates on how to promote specific products

filiates as possible. Understand their needs and give them

or brands.

information that is relevant to their style of promotion. They

I was once told to ignore any affiliate that asks petty questions such as how to build a link or what to do with

typically know what they are doing; they just need the tools and the information from the manager to succeed.

HTML. I’ve never followed that line of thinking and I’m

The datafeed affiliates need updated product catalogs

always open to talking with newbie affiliates, but I cannot

and tips on best sellers and categories. The deal bloggers

let them dominate my time.

need advanced notice on flash sales or holiday specials.

I help them with merchant specific questions and

The niche affiliates need to know what banners convert the

then point them to forums, blogs, podcasts, meetups or

best, along with any product details not readily found on

Affiliate Summit for continuing education. A manager’s

the site. The coupon sites need exclusive or vanity deals.

duty is to recruit, communicate, educate and motivate ev-

They all need to know that customer service issues

ery single affiliate joined in the program. There are always

are handled promptly and managers balance their needs

hidden gems in the pile, especially with older programs.

as well as the merchant’s needs.

Let’s look at an average program and evaluate the ed-

The most important thing to remember is to treat

ucation needs. Hypothetically, you have about 55 affiliates

affiliates as partners and not customers. Affiliates ignore

with sales in one month: The top two are datafeed driven

“fluff” in newsletters. They don’t want to hear why your

affiliates. The next three are deal bloggers, the sixth is a

products are better; they want to know best practices on

paid search affiliate, seven and eight are niche affiliates

closing the sale and increasing conversion.

and nine and ten are couponers. These ten affiliates might account for 60% of the sales for the month.

An effective manager will take the time to write consistent newsletters that include best sellers lists, keyword

The following 45 affiliates are a mix of bloggers, all-

lists, new product information, upcoming deals, demo-

purpose shopping affiliates, and more coupon sites. All

graphics of the best customers and unique ideas not yet

these affiliates need special attention and individualized

employed by other affiliates. Newsletters are still read

education to keep them on the active sales list. The goal is

but education needs to be spread out by personal email,

to diversify your affiliate list so that next year you have 110

phone calls, Twitter, Facebook Fan pages and blogs.

active affiliates with sales during the same time period. Greg Hoffman is an outsourced program manager (GregHoffmanConsulting.com).

Education never ends and always evolves. [FF]

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Amazon and the Self-Publishing Revolution by Jim Kukral

am having the same feeling that I had way back then, as my checks started to roll in from Amazon. But this time, it’s not from affiliate commissions, but rather commissions from my self-published books. This time, the check is a bit bigger; $497 from one month of commissions from my self-published books. Not life-changing money for me today, but neither was the $51 way back when, and look what that led to years later as it grew and grew Jim Kukral

every month. Make no mistake; the publishing world has experienced an earthquake of epic proportions, directly caused by Amazon themselves. To call it a game-changer is an understatement. With Amazon’s Kindle Direct Platform, now anyone can upload

remember getting my first check in the mail from

a book to Amazon and become a published author in 24-hours

Amazon over ten years ago. I still remember the check.

or less for free.

It was for about $51, and at first I couldn’t figure out

No longer do you need an agent or a publisher to get

why Amazon sent it to me. I quickly realized that the check

published. The retail bookstores are on the way out, and digital

was because I had, on a whim, added some of their books

books are on the rise. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, has said they

with my affiliate code to my one of my more popular web-

sell 180 digital books for every 100 print books they sell.

sites at the time. This was the beginning my career as an

Imagine what that stat is going to be in one, two or three years from now. Imagine what that stat will be when there are

affiliate marketer. The first check was an amazing feeling that every affiliate

as many eReaders as there are MP3 players. Wow.

marketer remembers. The concept of being able to earn money

Authors can now earn up to 70% from their digital book

from recommending things was astonishing, and the ability to

sales, rather than the 17.5% that most authors get from a tradi-

create Web content and use the power of the search engines to

tional publisher deal. This has helped authors, who were never

drive traffic made it even better.

able to get a publishing deal, to earn a living with their writing.

Over the past ten years, I have earned a majority of my

Some writers are making millions.

income from affiliate commissions or from the affiliate industry

Sound familiar? Amazon has done it again. First leading

in some way or another. It’s been life-changing for me and my

the way with affiliate marketing; now changing the world for

family, to say the least, and I’m grateful.

authors. This author couldn’t be happier. Let’s check back in

So here we are in mid-2012, over ten years later, and I

ten years and see where that $497 led, shall we?

Jim F. Kukral is the CEO of a book marketing agency called Digital Book Launch.

Learning from Affiliate Marketing

Newbies

by Lisa Picarille

Lisa Picarille

· Issue 18 · May 2012

for newbies to shell out thousands of dollars on how to get started in affiliate marketing. If you are successful,

ven if you’re an affiliate marketing veteran there is

share your expertise on forums, podcasts, ebooks, and

always something valuable to be learned by helping

resource sites.

newbies or hearing their struggles.

Jargon: Online marketing has a language of its own,

Each new affiliate approaches affiliate marketing with

using nomenclature and buzzwords confusing to newbies.

different skills and knowledge levels. They also come to

Would-be-affiliates are often puzzled by this jargon since

the space for various reasons. Some are programmers

some of our industry wording has other meanings in dif-

who know how to build sites; some are bloggers looking

ferent business sectors.

to monetize their websites; while others have heard of affiliate marketing and want to earn supplemental income.

Bottom Line: Be clear and concise and try to steer clear of jargon when explaining affiliate marketing. You will

Regardless, each newbie faces a variety of hurdles. By

not be talking down to people, but rather offering simple

listening to their challenges, seasoned pros can learn from

explanations that will help them better grasp the concepts.

them and use that knowledge to make it easier to bring

Too Much Social Media: If you’ve been in the affili-

new affiliate marketers into the fold.

ate game for a while, and have established your presence

The Basics: Don’t take for granted people understand

through social media using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,

even the most basic concepts. Many newbies have no clue

etc., adding Pinterest or Google + or yet another new plat-

where to start buying a domain, what blog platform to use,

form is easy. But for newbies starting from scratch, social

or how to do online keyword research.

media can be overwhelming. But it is a crucial and neces-

Bottom Line: This lack of knowledge about getting

sary part of their marketing efforts.

started underscores the need for education from the

Bottom Line: Realize that newbies probably need to

ground up. Help by pointing newbies to free resources or

take baby steps. They don’t need to start with every social

explain things in the most basic, rudimentary ways.

media platform. You can point them to the two or three

Education: Despite the great content that many online

that are most effective for you to get them started.

marketers are producing about how they’ve succeeded -

A Holistic Look: Social media, search rankings, landing

it’s not always filtering out to newbies. However, the mar-

pages, integrating with other marketing efforts - it can all

keting and sales effort of supposed gurus, and experts

be complex and most newbies have no idea how every-

are. People are paying for systems and programs with the

thing fits together.

“get rich quick” message. Bottom Line: We need more educational materials from real experts and not sham artists. There is no need

Bottom Line: Try to give newbies the big picture view. It will help them to focus on putting together more comprehensive plans as they begin.

Lisa Picarille is a content strategist focusing on online marketing, branding, and social media. www.lisapicarille.com.

路 Issue 18 路 May 2012

West 2012

Affiliate Summit

Recap by Shawn Collins

the Chateau Nightclub in the Paris Hotel, which was a great mix of networking and views. The second day started at 8:00 AM with the Early Bird Whiteboarding session, where Eric Nagel reviewed sites submitted by the audience and gave advice on usability, SEO, conversions and revenue streams. Later in the morning, Jon Spoelstra, Author of Marketing Outrageously Redux, delivered the keynote address. The exhibit hall opened on day two and thousands of affiliate marketers came together for a full day of networking. In addition to all of the business talk in the exhibit hall, many attendees stopped to get a quick massage. There were also educational sessions throughout the

unday, January 8, 2012 was the first day of Affiliate Summit West 2012 at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. Registration check-in and set-up for the Meet

Market kicked off the day at 8:00 AM, and then I gave my

day. Towards the end of the day, CouponCabin hosted a Happy Hour and Meet & Greet with Kate Gosselin, who is blogging for them now.

First Timers Guide to Affiliate Summit West 2012 session a

Day two wound up with some Affiliate Karaoke.

couple hours later.

The third and final day of Affiliate Summit West 2012

This was followed by breakout sessions throughout the day that covered tracking, SEO, recruiting affiliates, so-

kicked off nice and early with another Early Bird Whiteboarding session from Eric Nagel.

cial media, daily deals, and more topics. The Meet Market opened at noon and ran six hours with a steady stream of attendees meeting with the table exhibitors. The day wrapped up with a Bingo Networking session, where affiliates and merchants had a chance to quickly meet a bunch of people in a short time. This was followed by the Newcomer Program meetup, and then everybody heading out for their Affiliate Summit evening plans. I checked out the ShareASale Under the Stars Party at

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

This was followed by the annual Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. Congratulations to the winners…

»» Affiliate of the Year: CouponCabin »» Affiliate Manager of the Year: Kim Salvino »» Exceptional Merchant: Tiny Prints »» Affiliate Marketing Advocate: Tim Storm »» Blogger of the Year: Tricia Meyer »» Affiliate Marketing Legend: Kim Rowley

The Pinnacle Awards were followed by an inspirational keynote from Eric “ET the Hip Hop Preacher” Thomas. A lot of people asked about the song that played when Eric walked up on stage. That was Dreams of Reality by Fame Or Juliet The final day of Affiliate Summit West 2012 also featured a series of breakout sessions and lots of networking in the exhibit hall. The conference closed out with a fun keynote from Jeremy “ShoeMoney” Schoemaker.

Thank you so much to all of the sponsors, speakers, and attendees who make Affiliate Summit the great community that it is – we look forward to seeing you August 12-14, 2012 in New York City.

Benjy Portnoy

· Issue 18 · May 2012

ontent will always be king, especially on WordPress sites. But staying on top of

your game means finding creative ways to keep your visitors interested and engaged. Fortunately, the list of WordPress plugins grows larger and more diverse every day.

WordPress

Plugins to

Keep Sites Sticky

Plugins extend the look, functionality, and interactivity

by Benjy Portnoy

of your WordPress site. Here are five plugins that are great for making your site stickier and keep ‘em coming back.

datafeeds and products from a virtually unlimited stream 1. INTERACTIVE: Simple Survey

of affiliate networks. They have support for most of the

feedfront.com/simple-survey

heavy hitters, such as Commission Junction, Amazon,

This survey and quiz plugin is easy to set up and use.

ShareASale, PepperJam, and ClickBank, and you can even

It allows you to collect user data, i.e. name, email, and

upload your own stuff. You can build virtually unlimited

more fields in the paid version. You can also assign a cer-

stores and slot in thousands of products from your ap-

tain score to each item, which results in a grade that you

proved merchants.

can send out to the user, as well as store in a database.

Cost: Starts at $27/month.

I used this for a client who wanted to give their customers an online evaluation of their allergy symptoms, and then determine their allergy severity based on the results. We set it up as a graded system (if the user scored 1-5, they had light allergies, 6-10, moderate, 11-14, severe, etc.). Once the user was done, they were then taken to one of three corresponding results page that contained rec-

4. REVIEW SITES: MyReviewPlugin feedfront.com/myreviewplugin

Amp up your review sites with extended graphics, tables, ratings, and tons of user comments to make the site more informative and engaging. Cost: Starts at $90, one time.

ommendations on how to treat the allergies, which was 5. FUN & GAMES: Asteroids Widget

always using my client’s services.

feedfront.com/asteroids

Cost: Free.

Remember Asteroids? That little video game triangle 2. SOCIAL: BuddyPress

that blew up all the rocks? Now, instead of blowing up

feedfront.com/buddypress

rocks… users can blow up all your content. Try the demo

“Social networking, in a box.” Start your own social community where users can use discussion forums, create user groups, see and share each others’ activity streams,

and see for yourself. Great for mindless, giggly entertainment. Cost: Free

and more. Lots of related add-on plugins are available for Some bonus affiliate-minded plugins:

extended functionality, too. Cost: Free to download and use, but you need a Bud-

1. OptimizePress (unlimited optimized squeeze, membership, and sales pages): feedfront.com/optimizepress

dyPress-compatible theme.

2. WishList Member (top membership/content protec3. STORE FUNCTIONALITY: Datafeedr

tion plugin): feedfront.com/wishlist

feedfront.com/datafeedr

3. Ninja Affiliate (converts specified body text key-

You can build all kinds of stores in WordPress. But Datafeedr allows you to import and customize the

words to your personal affiliate links): feedfront.com/ninjaaffiliate [FF]

Benjy Portnoy is the founder of Mouthpiece Media. He specializes in WordPress wizardry.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Affiliate Summit Central 2012

Show Agenda

Day

Monday, May 14 Official Affiliate Summit Welcome Party

Location: Maggie Mae’s (323 E Sixth Street) in the Rooftop Bar and Gibson Room Time: 8:00pm – 12:00am Hosts: OPTIZMO & Mailer Summit Sponsors: AdKnowledge, OPTIZMO, RoboMail Networking and live music from The Cody Jasper Band, Sam Sliva and the Good, and FallenAsh to kick off Affiliate Summit Central 2012.

Day

Tuesday, May 15 Registration

Location: Registration Area Time: 7:00am – 5:00pm

Meet Market Exhibitor Move In

Location: Salon C Time: 7:00am – 9:00am

Buffet Breakfast

Location: Salon C Time: 8:00am – 9:00am (Breakfast is Open to Full Pass Holders with Meal Tickets Only)

Meet Market

Location: Salon C Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm

Affiliate Summit kicks off with an extended session of structured, face to face networking. Merchants will have tables set to meet with affiliates to discuss their affiliate programs and cut deals. Vendors that cater to affiliates and merchants will also have tables to share information about their products and services. Each table is a meeting spot for teaching, learning, closing deals, creating partnerships and finding new opportunities.

Opening Remarks & Keynote

Location: Salon AB Time: 9:00am – 10:00am »» Emcee: Heather Romiti, Creator and Owner, BlendHappy (Twitter: @blendhappy) »» Keynote: Maribel Sierra, Social Media and Communities Director, Listening and Engagement, Dell (Twitter: @MaribelSatDell)

Open Networking and Coffee Break

Location: Salon C Time: 10:00am-10:45pm

Optimizing WordPress for Speed and Conversions

Session 1a Location: Salon A Time: 11:00am-11:45am Optimizing WordPress for speed and conversions can have an immediate impact on your bottom line. Learn how to tune WordPress into a revenue driving machine. Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: WordPress »» David Vogelpohl, CEO, Marketing Clique (Twitter @davidvmc) (Moderator) »» Jason Cohen, Founder, WP Engine (Twitter @asmartbear) »» Chris Pearson, Owner, DIYthemes.com (Twitter @pearsonified)

· Issue 18 · May 2012

The 7 Mistakes Killing Your Affiliate Program

Session 1b Location: Salon B Time: 11:00am-11:45am Mike will identify the top 7 mistakes most affiliate manager’s make on their affiliate programs and how to fix them. Experience level: Advanced Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers Niche/vertical: Retailers »» Mike Nunez, Co-Founder and CEO, AffiliateManager.com (Twitter @MikeNunez)

How to Turn Your Customers Into Affiliates

Session 2a Location: Salon A Time: 12:00pm-12:45pm Discover practical strategies on how to build a loyal online tribe and how to transition them into affiliates. Everything from product creation and email to social media will be covered in detail. Experience level: Beginner Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers Niche/vertical: Information marketing »» Ryan Lee, Founder, RyanLee.com (Twitter @_ryanlee)

»» Robert Gilbreath, Director – Ecommerce Marketing and Analytics, Calendars.com(Twitter: Adomatica) »» Durk Price, CEO, eAccountableOPM (Twitter: @eAccountableOPM) »» Carly Volk, Marketing Development Associate, Easy Canvas Prints (Twitter: @easycanvas)

Luncheon

Location: Salon C Time: 12:45pm-2:00pm (Lunch is Open to Full Pass Holders with Meal Tickets Only)

Search Engine Optimization Q&A

Session 3a Location: Salon A Time: 2:15pm-3:00pm Ask any questions about SEO. Each panelist not only runs their own affiliate sites, but also consults with companies large and small. Experience level: Intermediate, Advanced Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers Niche/vertical: Search engine optimization »» Rae Hoffman-Dolan, CEO, Sugarrae (Twitter @Sugarrae) (Moderator) »» Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service (Twitter @Graywolf) »» Kenny Hyder, Founder, Hyder Media (Twitter @kennyhyder)

Deals and Coupons and Vouchers – Oh My!

Session 2b Location: Salon B Time: 12:00pm-12:45pm It can easily become overwhelming when looking at all the various types of offers. This panel of leading industry experts will discuss the differences between them and how to evaluate each one. Experience level: Intermediate Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers Niche/vertical: Coupons »» Steve Schaffer, Founder and CEO, Vertive, LLC (Twitter @SteveSchaffer) (Moderator)

The Nitty Gritty of Affiliate Marketing Compliance

Session 3b Location: Salon B Time: 2:15pm-3:00pm We’ll review the ground-up approach for implementing compliance methods for your affiliate program, from setting policies to how-to’s of monitoring and detection. Experience level: Beginner Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers Niche/vertical: Compliance »» Kellie Stevens, President, AffiliateFairPlay.com (Twitter @KellieAFP)

路 Issue 18 路 May 2012

Coffee Break

Session 2a Location: Salon C Time: 2:30pm-3:30pm

Have a Drink on Affiliate Summit

Location: Salon C Time: 2:30pm-5:30pm Mix and mingle in the Meet Market and have a Cocktail on Affiliate Summit. Full Pass Holders can use their Drink Ticket included in their badge holder.

Brainfluence Conversion: Turning Browsers Into Buyers

Session 4a Location: Salon A Time: 3:15pm-4:00pm Use of brain and behavioral research to maximize sales and conversion. Emphasis on practical applications for businesses of any size, with particular focus on Web marketing. Experience level: Beginner Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Neuromarketing 禄禄 Roger Dooley, Founder, Dooley Direct LLC (Twitter @rogerdooley)

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Affiliate Playbook – 2012 Edition

Session 4b Location: Salon B Time: 3:15pm-4:00pm Learn 12 plays your affiliate business needs to grow and thrive in 2012. These 12 plays will give you an unfair traffic advantage, skyrocket your conversions, and leave your competition in the dust. Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Traffic generation

»» What to Look for in CPL: Eric Ewe, Senior eMarketing Manager, The SCOOTER Store (Twitter: @ericewe) »» Why My Goldfish Died from Cancer: Blake Brossman, Founder and CIO,PetCareRx (Twitter: @blakebrossman)

ShareASale Under the Stars Party

Location: The Hangar Lounge (318 Colorado Street) Time: 8:00pm – 12:00am Hosts: ShareASale Open Bar! Live Music! Photobooth!

»» Jeremy Palmer, President, Optimize My Site (Twitter @jeremypalmer)

Ask the Experts and Brainstorming Roundtables

Location: Salon C Time: 4:00pm-5:30pm Ask the Experts will be an opportunity for merchants, networks and affiliates to ask questions about various specialties and issues. Hand picked experts will handle topics in their specialty, and conduct chats, answer questions and share opinions during this networking and education session. »» Emcee: Heather Romiti, Creator and Owner, BlendHappy (Twitter: @blendhappy) »» Drive Incremental Sales Through Coupons & Loyalty: Todd Crawford, Co-Founder,Impact Radius (Twitter: @toddcrawford) »» How to Run a Business 101: Steve Siegwalt, Founder, Unconditional Marketing(Twitter: @stevesiegwalt) »» Media Buying: Max Teitelbaum, COO, WhatRunsWhere (Twitter:@WhatRunsWhere) »» Post-Panda SEO for Affiliates: Kevin Bombino, Founder, Link Emperor (Twitter:@kevinbombino) »» Repurpose Your Content to Gain New Audiences: Deborah Carney, Consultant,ABCsPlus (Twitter: @loxly) »» Stay at Home Entrepreneurs Need Community: Paul O’Brien, Managing Partner, Cospace (Twitter: @seobrien) »» How to Create A Video Sales Funnel!: John McLean, Owner, NoCarb-Revolution.com »» The Forgotten Affordable Connector to Online Consumers: Michele Price, CEO,Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio (Twitter: @Prosperitygal)

Wednesday, May 16 Buffet Breakfast

Location: Salon C Time: 8:00am-9:00am (Breakfast is Open to Full Pass Holders with Meal Tickets Only)

Registration

Location: Registration Area Time: 7:00am-11:00am

Meet Market

Location: Salon C Time: 9:00am-12:00pm

Day

· Issue 18 · May 2012

10 Ways to Drive Site Traffic

Session 5a Location: Salon A Time: 9:00am-9:20am Presentation will include strategies in SEO, social networking, paid advertising, and more to drive targeted traffic to your affiliate website. Experience level: Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Organic Traffic »» Evan Weber, CEO, Experience Advertising (Twitter @experienceads)

Google Proof SEO Driving Clickless Direct Traffic

Session 5b Location: Salon B Time: 9:00am-9:20am No more Google Slaps, index drops, and algo change headaches by replacing Google with affiliates driving clickless direct traffic. Experience level: Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Traffic »» David Favor, Owner, David Favor & Associates (Twitter @davidfavor)

Famous: How to Build Your Digital Reputation

Step-by-Step: Podcasting for Business

Session 6a Location: Salon A Time: 9:30am-9:50am

Session 6b Location: Salon B Time: 9:30am-9:50am

Your digital reputation builds credibility, trust, and easier conversions. Learn how to combine SEO, social media, and content marketing to become the definitive go-to expert in your niche.

Join Daniel M. Clark for an in-depth look at the steps needed to make podcasts and new media part of your business strategy. Covering: hardware, software, production, audience growth and monetization.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Entrepreneur »» Vicki Flaugher, CEO, Smartwoman Enterprises (Twitter @Smartwoman)

Experience level: Beginner Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: New Media »» Daniel M. Clark, Podcaster, QAQN (Twitter @qaqn)

· Issue 18 · May 2012

6 ‘Creep Factors’ of Online Behavioral Advertising

Maximizing Click Revenue: 2 Billion Clicks Analyzed

Session 7a Location: Salon A Time: 10:00am-10:20am

Session 8b Location: Salon B Time: 10:30am-10:50am

Networks and others can get a basic framework for assessing the ‘creepiness’ of different Online Behavioral Advertising practices to avoid legal and PR train wrecks stemming from OBA.

David, VP of Customer Success at VigLink, saw 2 billion clicks within the network in 2011. He examines which were most valuable, which didn’t earn a dime, and “click best practices” to earn more.

Experience level: Intermediate Target audience: Networks Niche/vertical: Privacy

Experience level: Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Data analysis

»» Slade Cutter, Principal, Cutter Law, P.C. (Twitter @SladeCutterLaw)

»» David Gorcey, Vice President, Customer Success, VigLink (Twitter @gorcey)

Tracking the Value of SEO & Social Marketing

Coffee Break

Session 7b Location: Salon B Time: 10:00am-10:20am Learn how to find the ROI of SEO and social media activities, the indirect benefits to measure, and what tools to use to stay on top of it all. Experience level: Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: Analytics »» Taylor Pratt, SEO GT Product Lead, HomeAway (Twitter @TaylorPratt)

Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery

Session 8a Location: Salon A Time: 10:30am-10:50am It is scary to go out on your own to start a business. Hear my story of turning two bad experiences into a great lifestyle change. Experience level: Beginner Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers, Networks Niche/vertical: Entrepreneur »» Shawn Collins, Co-founder, Affiliate Summit (Twitter @affiliatetip)

Location: Salon C Time: 10:45am-12:00pm

Open Networking

Location: Salon C Time: 11:00am-12:00pm »» Emcee: Heather Romiti, Creator and Owner, BlendHappy (Twitter: @blendhappy)

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Jonathan Cronstedt

Live Web

Events

Lucrative Launches by Jonathan Cronstedt

n any industry, there is a constant borrowing, reintro-

If you incorporate a live chat solution that is manned

duction and recycling of technology to drive buying

during the event, you can actually prerecord the event to

decisions. In years past, static, one dimensional sales

stream live, and reap all of the benefits of a live event, with the evergreen potential of a recording.

pages were enough. In recent history, sales pages leveraging engagement

An added benefit for vendors is the live web event

tactics such as chat, or perhaps a lightbox pop-over, drove

shortens the feedback loop for any product release or of-

results. In today’s hyper-competitive battle for online

fer testing. You have the opportunity to get a thousand or

buyer attention, live webcasts are quickly becoming the

more would be buyers watching, interacting, providing live

expected form of engagement.

feedback, and giving you invaluable feedback to custom

With YouTube spending $100 million to compete with

tailor the offer before rolling the program out.

broadcast television, according to a report from PCWorld in

Simply put, the live web event, when viewed as the

April 2011, and with social media driving more and more

start of program development will save you countless dol-

viral activity, your buyers want more in every category.

lars, countless hours, and give you the fastest speed to

More excitement, more engagement, more entertainment,

market possible, with a proven performer of course.

and a purchase experience that they can share with their

Yet another added benefit of investing the time in creating live web content is it is near impossible to simply clone

friends. The purchase of a product online is quickly transitioning to mimic the experience of a retail shopping endeavor

the page and watch an unethical affiliate or vendor siphon your traffic, hard work, and profits right from under you.

with the motivation being to share it with friends. With live

So if you’re planning as an affiliate to leverage higher

web events, you can give your prospective purchasers all

priced programs, or a vendor offering higher priced pro-

of that, and more.

grams to your affiliates, live web cast events are a must

You can engage their desire to share, Tweet, and Face-

for maximizing market penetration, gathering the largest

book the event they’re currently attending, and you can

audience of both promoters and prospects, and taking

leverage the very legitimate scarcity as a live web event

your conversions through the roof.

has an actual end. No false scarcity required.

The live web event category for affiliate promotions is

Don’t let the technology scare you. There are count-

in its infancy, and is full of opportunity for those willing to

less free solutions if resources are tight, or many simple to

stake their claim in building programs with staying power,

use paid solutions that make the process easier than many

which as either an affiliate or a vendor, should be your

of the webinar platforms.

ultimate goal.

Jonathan “JCron” Cronstedt, a dangerously dedicated, affiliate management dynamo and purveyor of fine vodka spirits.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Your Queries Aren’t Running Slowly by Michael Colfin

oogle sees slow loading time as one of the reasons to penalize your placement in their results. You

3. Sort by time and day or date and see if something in the background, say a cron, is slowing things down.

may not think that is fair. Your site may have a lot

to offer if given a chance to complete its task.

Michael Colfin

Make Sure

Each parameter should be sorted thus giving you new insights into speeding your queries.

But Google does what Google does and you can’t argue with it. If your site, like mine, is run off of queries from a da-

<?php function mysqlquery($NewQuery) {

$start = microtime(TRUE);

tabase, then how do you know if your site is running fast?

// Start time (in microseconds)

I thought my site was running fast.

$theresult = mysql_query($NewQuery);

// Run Query

In every test query I gave it, it took off like a rocket. Whatever I tried I would get what seemed like instant re-

$ended = microtime(TRUE);

// End time

sults. This made me happy.

$thetime = $ended - $start;

// Time Query Took

But I tested it before fully launching the site. Once it was up and running, all sorts of things could happen, and

if ($thetime > 3.0) {

// If time is over 3 seconds

how was I to know that it was slowing down? So I wrote

$path = $_SERVER[‘PHP_SELF’];

the following program to find out what was happening and

// Path where the query came

$arg1 = $_SERVER[‘QUERY_STRING’];

// Parameters of that page (everything

// after the ? on a url)

into a file called query.txt, which contains all queries that

$day = date(‘m d Y’);

take over 3 seconds. You can change this value, if you like,

// Today’s date

$time = date(‘G:i:s’);

// Today’s time

$gfp1 = fopen(“/home/ojmoo/public_html/query.txt”,”a”);

// Open query.txt file

fwrite($gfp1,

see if I could fix it. This program times every query and puts the results

in the program above. This program is designed for php files and mysql queries. How it works is you add include (‘query.inc’); onto every web page that has a query statement. Then you use a search and replace to change mysql_query to mysqlquery.

“$thetime\t$day\t$time\t$path\t$arg1\t$NewQuery\r\n”

);

Let the program run for a while and then download the

// Put information into query file delimited by tabs.

query.txt file and put the results into a spreadsheet. There

fclose($gfp1);

}

return($theresult);

// Return query result to the program

// who called this query.

are many reasons why your queries are taking too long. 1. Sort the data by time of longest query and see what the obvious problems are. 2. Sort by the queries themselves and see which queries seem to take longer than others.

// Close file

} ?>

Michael Colfin is a professional affiliate marketer who started his first site in 1998.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Success Maintenance

Affiliate Marketers

for

Rohail Rizvi

by Rohail Rizvi e all know how lucrative affiliate marketing can be. We hear stories all the time of big time affiliates splurging on sports cars and diamond Don’t Build Your Business on

encrusted watches. While these stories are sometimes true, the fact is

Someone Else’s Platform

that affiliate marketing can be volatile when you’re start-

Another way to almost lose it all is to invest in build-

ing off, and the affiliates that made it were smart enough

ing something on a platform that you don’t own. I found a

to hedge their risks and reinvest what they’ve earned.

way to grow Facebook fan pages to a 100,000 fans in just a

Here are some of the lessons I learned on how to not

few days, all while paying 4-5 cents per click. I got so caught up in seeing thousands of fans liking

lose it all in this business:

my page and instantly getting hundreds of likes and comDon’t Start Living Extravagantly

ments every time I made a status update, that I lost sight

After Your First Big Paycheck

of the fact that I ultimately didn’t own the page. I had put

I can personally relate to the potential instability of this business, because in late 2010 I hit my biggest campaign ever. I was driving thousands of dollars in leads per day and felt like I was on top of the world.

in $10,000 building it up and only reaped back $2,500 before Facebook decided to wipe out the page. It was a tough loss to digest, mainly because it was clear that I had invested into something that I didn’t control.

I made some moves, that in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have, but in that instance almost anyone making such a sudden surge in income would do the same.

Reinvest Everything into Your Business So, what should you be doing instead? You should

I decided to move to Miami and pay a ridiculous

be taking almost everything you earn and reinvesting it

amount in rent, and it seemed fine back then. When the

into your business. This could mean anything from hiring

campaign finally died, reality suddenly hit that I wasn’t

virtual assistants, to buying a more powerful computer set

going to be making maintaining that income consistently.

up, to investing in a better quality office chair.

By the middle of 2011, I was almost down to nothing

The more you put into your business, the more it’s

after paying taxes and taking a decent hit on a Facebook

going to give back to you in long term returns. Do not

fan page experiment. So the lesson here is to keep an eye

splurge when you’re starting off, but put every penny you

on the bigger picture when you start making a significant

can back into your company to make a long-term, stable

amount of money.

business.

Rohail Rizvi is a full-time CPA affiliate marketer and blogs about the industry at www.RohailRizvi.com.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Affiliate

Erik Hom

Marketing

A Good Career Choice?

by Erik Hom

t Affiliate Summit West 2012, I was asked by a new-

David Kaval was in Business Development for Sparks.

comer if they thought a career could be made in

com. He left to pursue a passion of sports management

affiliate marketing. When you look at the size of

and an MBA at Stanford. Today he is the President of the

the industry and how it has survived many transforma-

San Jose Earthquakes Soccer Team.

tions, you see that the career paths within the industry are still the same and the opportunities for those who have left the industry are enormous.

The Networks: Blair Heavey was the GM at BeFree (eventually merged

Are these skills transferrable and desired? Recently, a

with CJ). Blair is currently the CEO of Moontoast, a social

friend who was leaving their network affiliate account man-

commerce platform, powering experiences for the likes of

ager job asked what new opportunities I thought he should

Maxim, Universal Music and Time/Fortune.

pursue. By the time we went through his resume and re-

“Working in Affiliate Marketing showed me how to

viewed his choices, we found six great positions online that

combine strategic insight with the hard work of execution

we felt he was qualified to apply for. He got four offers.

while creating value in the market” – B. Heavey, CEO of

Has this always been true? I have over a decade of examples of colleagues who stayed in or left the industry and are successful. Below are examples of people I knew in the affiliate world back in 1999 when I ran an affiliate

Moontoast Joe Doretti, my Sales Manager at BeFree is now a Sales Director with CJ. Sam Gerace, the Founder of BeFree (I was their 2nd cli-

program for Reel.com:

ent), sold BeFree to Valuclick and is now the CEO of Veritix.

The Merchants:

Affiliates:

Vilma D. was a young Analyst that I put in charge

Geoff K., a top affiliate of Amazon and Reel.com, sold

of Reel.com’s affiliate program. Vilma went on to get her

his entertainment content company to Internet Brands and

MBA at Stanford and is now a Marketing Brand Manager

is now a journalist/blogger.

at Nestle. Stephanie Agresta was my Business Development peer at Barnes & Noble, running their affiliate program.

Norman Fong, a serial entrepreneur, sold his electronics content company, TechBargains, and is now a food blogger. Yes he uses affiliate links.

Stephanie left the business in 2006 to consult on her own.

So the answer is yes. Affiliate marketing will provide

Today she is an EVP of Social Media for Weber Shandwick.

you skills, experiences, and relationships that will benefit

Owen V. was also my peer in Business Development

your career in the long-term.

at Amazon, running Amazon Associates. Owen eventu-

In today’s high unemployment climate, the jobs in

ally went on to become COO of Facebook in 2005, CEO of

this industry and related markets are plentiful and the

MySpace, and is now with Zynga.

skill sets attained are valued.

Erik is the Sr. Director of Business Development for Nextag. Follow him @Route53 on Twitter.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Share the Love: Spread

Affiliate Marketing

Tricia Meyer

by Tricia Meyer

ver the last year I have made it one of my goals to

business expos, at which you can either exhibit or speak if

help spread the word about affiliate marketing in

you prove that you are an expert in your field.

my community. Initially, it was incredibly difficult

and I almost gave up. Although we have a lot of bloggers and social media types where I live, affiliate marketing is hardly ever talked

Even attending these events with some business cards and using the opportunity to network with others to feel them out for affiliate marketing possibilities can be helpful.

about. I decided to give it one last push and have found support in places I didn’t expect.

Local Networking Groups Every community has some kind of networking group,

Affiliate Summit Meetup Groups First and foremost, be sure to either connect with your closest Affiliate Summit Meetup Group or start your own.

from SEO to WordPress to people who meet in the same coffee shop every Friday to talk about their businesses. Attend a couple of meetings and see what you have in

You can start with just a few people and, with the

common with those groups and whether it would be mu-

resources of Affiliate Summit and Meetup.com, grow ex-

tually beneficial for you to share affiliate marketing with

ponentially. You have the brand of Affiliate Summit behind

them. You might be surprised how people respond when

you and the technology of Meetup.com.

you explain it to them one on one.

Add your own content and sparkling personality and watch the membership grow.

Why bother to spread affiliate marketing? We all need networks and allies in this business. You can establish yourself as an expert while at the same time learning from

Small Business Expos You would be surprised how easy it is to find small

Tricia Meyer is an affiliate marketer and can be found @sunshinetricia.

others. Open yourself up to opportunities by sharing what you know with others.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Law Enforcement

n January 2012, six affilThomas A. Cohn

iate marketers settled actions by the Federal

Trade Commission (FTC) and were ordered to stop using fake news sites to

market dietary supplements and other products. In 2011, the FTC obtained preliminary orders shutting down their webpages and restricting their assets.

Perils Pitfalls

Affiliates

for

by Thomas A. Cohn

The FTC alleged these websites mimicked actual news reports, but were in fact commercial advertisements intended to drive consumers to purchase acai berry and

to ensure they comply with the order, and must terminate

other dietary supplements and products.

business with any offenders.

The websites often claimed that the story by the “report-

The FTC again imposed harsh monitoring require-

er” had run in major media outlets like ABC, Fox News, CBS,

ments in a February 2012 settlement with Jesse Willms and

CNN, and USA Today. The settlements order the affiliates to:

other defendants. They were ordered to turn over assets

clarify that their webpages are advertisements and not objec-

and agree to monthly monitoring and policing of affiliate

tive journalism; disclose any material connections they have

marketers and networks they do business with. They like-

with advertisers; and together pay the FTC about $500,000.

wise must serve the order on affiliates and networks and

The settlements also ban them from making deceptive or unsubstantiated claims about health-related or any

obtain a signed statement acknowledging receipt of, and agreeing to comply with, the order. What do these increasingly aggressive FTC actions

other products. But the FTC hasn’t limited these efforts to just affili-

mean for affiliates? Regulatory scrutiny is higher than ever,

ate marketers. FTC actions against online advertisers have

and they must clean up or risk enforcement. Such attacks

cited their use of deceptive affiliate marketing. And the

might come from FTC and/or state Attorneys General, who

orders against them have imposed severe monitoring re-

are also more active than ever in policing online market-

quirements which make it difficult to nearly impossible to

ing. This means:

work with affiliate marketers. Two such actions illustrate this aggressive FTC approach: In January 2012, the FTC settled charges against Central Coast Nutraceuticals (CCN) and its principals for deceptively marketing dietary supplements through trial offers that led to unauthorized billing. Defendants were ordered to pay $1.5 million

»» Affiliates must disclose all “material connections” with advertisers, such as money paid. »» Affiliates held to same standards as advertisers: claims must be truthful and substantiated.

and banned from negative option marketing, deceptive and

»» Any fake or deceptive formats will greatly increase risk of enforcement.

unsubstantiated product claims, and unauthorized billing.

»» Health claims re: dietary supplements? Very risky!

Significantly, defendants were required to distribute

»» Income claims re: work-at-home, biz opps? Very risky!

the order to affiliates and networks helping to sell their

»» Limit advertising to foreign markets? May lower, but doesn’t eliminate risk!

products, and obtain from them a signed statement acknowledging receipt and expressly agreeing to comply with the terms of the order. Defendants also must review

»» If conduct has any nexus here, then FTC has enforcement jurisdiction!

those affiliates’ marketing materials before they are used,

Tom Cohn is a Partner at LeClairRyan, www.leclairryan.com, and a former FTC Regional Director.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Smooth Business Travel by Trisha Lyn Fawver

ravel is an adventure, even when the purpose is

Trisha Lyn Fawver

The Road to

Keep Comfortable

business and not pleasure. According to the Re-

Sometimes the cheapest option is not always the best

search and Innovation Technology Administration’s

option. Invest in travel methods, hotels, and accessories

2011-2012 National Household Travel Survey, Americans

that won’t leave you ragged at the end of a long day. Multi-

total more than 405 million long-distance business trips

ple connections on a flight might cost less, but will extend

per year.

your travel time and leave you exhausted upon arrival. A

Some hate traveling for business while others merely

simple motel might save a few dollars, but a hard bed and

tolerate this necessary evil. Others, like me, actually enjoy

bad night’s sleep can cause you to be unfocused on the

it. How, you ask? I make the most of my business induced

tasks at hand the next day. Limit connections and book

opportunities to travel by following some basic edicts that

comfortable hotels to reduce your travel-induced stress.

make being away from home smooth sailing for me, and

Invest in a comfortable pair of dress shoes, a fluffy travel

conducive to taking care of business.

pillow, and whatever else you need to keep calm and carry on. The more at home you make yourself while travelling,

Plan Ahead Booking your travel necessities like flights and hotel

the more you can focus on the work you’re there to do and not the problems with your accommodations or amenities.

accommodations at the last minute will only cause stress and increase your expenses with high rates. Try to book

Be Prepared

your flights and hotel at least one month in advance to get

There are some basic items that any traveler should

the prime rate. You can use tools like Bing’s Price Predic-

not be without. One should be prepared for unexpected

tor to monitor trends in flight prices and gain advice on

scenarios, especially when traveling somewhere you’re un-

when to book for the best rate. If you’re attending a spe-

familiar with. Remember to pack things like lip balm, throat

cial event, like a conference, and wish to take advantage

lozenges, preferred remedies for headaches or body aches,

of a group rate in the hotel, book as soon as possible.

a small sewing kit, a small first aid kit, gum for the plane,

Remember that, should your plans change, you can always

and maybe even some snacks if you’re going somewhere

cancel the hotel at a later date. Having clear and precise

more remote. If you have a preferred water bottle you like

travel plans will reduce any stress associated with travel-

carrying around, you should also bring that, though dispos-

ling and will allow you to focus on the business you have

able bottled water might be more practical when traveling.

to do, whether that’s attending a conference, setting up

Remember these tips, and traveling for business will be less

meetings, or preparing an important presentation.

stressful than a meeting with the boss!

Trisha Lyn Fawver is the Client Services Manager at For Me To Coupon.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Options for

Better Tracking Affiliate Links M y key insight for 2012 is marketers still

by David Iwanow

appear to be failing to grasp the real secret for growing affiliate channels is

making sure you are able to track, measure and

revenue, impressions, clicks and visitor stats.

optimize every step, so that you can to squeeze

David Iwanow

out every possible dollar.

Link cloaking options

The hurdle often appears to be that there are so

Link Cloaking is one method affiliates use as a way

many elements you can change or tweak to get more

of increasing clicks, but it is key to tracking everything to

clicks, sales or conversions that affiliates just give

reveal any uptick. Link cloaking solutions need to be con-

up. The secret sauce in optimizing your affiliate rev-

figured correctly for content heavy websites, as without

enue is based around your ability to correctly mea-

caching you strain your webserver and cause performance

sure the change in any adjustments you make which

issues and drop conversion rates.

requires you work to track everything you can. Web analytics tracking platforms

Why avoid tracking?

0an use measure affiliate clicks. One popular method

Some of the many excuses that affiliates often cite as

is custom short URLs. There are WordPress plugins that

why they might not be tracking their affiliate traffic include:

auto-tag outbound links with Google Analytics event code

»» Paranoia about who has their data

to track clicks, and also offer easy segmentation your af-

»» They don’t know they can track

filiate audience.

»» They think it’s too hard to track »» Google will know you’re an affiliate »» It’s too time consuming

Work out what you need to track You need to consider what part of the process you are trying to track and optimize. The requirement for tracking

Why you should be tracking affiliate links

your affiliate links will depend on your model of driving

»» Reporting simplicity in a dashboard

traffic and what digital channels you are using. Some of

»» Increase transparency of clicks

the paths you can track include:

»» Scalability of affiliate channels »» Optimize affiliate revenue

»» Traffic to your website »» Inbound traffic direct to affiliate link

Automated tagging options More affiliates are implementing automated link tagging

»» Link from your website via affiliate link »» Track within advertiser website

solutions, allowing them to better utilize their limited time and resources onto other tasks. Auto tagging allows you to

Some affiliates may limit this to their revenue stream, as

quickly scale up your affiliate programs, but also future proof

they can’t continue to increase the amount of traffic without

your links, as the links can be automatically updated.

reducing costs or improving their ROI, because they rely on

To help with your analysis, a number of these platforms also offer you reporting dashboards that include:

arbitrage models. The key is to be looking at better tracking and optimizing your affiliate channels with existing traffic. David Iwanow can be found focusing on SEO at Next Digital.

Social Getting Shared Media by Influencers

Partnerships: W

Dave Cupples

· Issue 18 · May 2012

by Dave Cupples

ith Social Media, your audience now has an au-

content to authoritative sites in your market and get links,

dience, so if you give value first and partner

traffic and exposure to their audience.

with influencers, there is potential for exponen-

tial leverage and reach.

You need to find other businesses or bloggers with a similar target audience. You can work up to things like reciprocal mail outs, but the key to kick starting partner-

Free resources to find guest blogging opportunities: »» MyBlogGuest.com – connects guest bloggers and websites seeking guest posts

ships is to start small, such as mashing up top articles

»» Technorati.com - lists the top

into a newspaper using paper.li and Tweeting it out, and

100 blogs in each category

giving value first by leaving people reviews, testimonials or simply blog comments.

»» Invesp.com – lists top blogs in every category with their ranking metrics

Making interviews or collaborative content is great too as you can share it with both your followers.

Also, a simple Google search for your keyword like “photography” + “write for us” works wonders. You can even in-

Tools to find influencers in your market:

stall the free SEOQuake or SEOMoz browser extensions for

»» Followerwonk.com – allows you to quickly

Firefox or Chrome which show you the ranking metrics and

find people with certain words in their Twitter

backlinks for each of the search results, allowing you to pick

bio like “journalist” or “affiliate marketer”

out high PR and authority websites at a glance.

and see how many followers they have »» Klout.com – measures influence and

So, a great starting point is just make a list of ten influential blogs, Facebook Pages, and Twitter accounts in

reach, so not just how many followers

your niche market. Go and comment, share, ReTweet, give

they have, but whether they can start

people kudos when they deserve it, and, above all the key

trends and influence the right people

with social media is to can the self-promotion, shut up

»» WeFollow.com – lists the top influencers tagged in each category like “photography”, “wine” and more

about your business, and just help people. Answer people’s questions on sites like Quora.com, which is like a social media version of Yahoo Answers for the influencers, where people log in with their Facebook

So the real magic of Twitter is not that you can spam people in 140 characters or less, it’s that the barrier to entry is

or Twitter accounts and vote up good answers, so quality content can very easily be shared and go viral.

so small that you can reach people you otherwise can’t reach.

If you are giving insightful, helpful answers, people

The real potential of social media, and especially Twit-

will want to visit your website, and you will build up cred-

ter, is the ability to spark partnerships with influencers. Guest blogging is another great way to provide quality

ibility with the page or website owner, too. They’ll be the ones begging you for an interview or guest post.

Dave is an award winning Entrepreneur, Author, International Speaker and Chairman of FatCowBusiness.com and DonateSponsor.org.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

What

SOPA

for Affiliate Marketing’s Future

Means

by Brook Schaaf

n dramatic and unprecedented fashion, Google, Wikipedia, WordPress and other major internet properties went dark or otherwise protested the bipartisan Stop Online Brook Schaaf

Piracy Act (SOPA) on January 18. This opposition coalition, which included affiliate marketers, succeeded in making SOPA politically toxic in the near future. However, as we learned (painfully) from the tax nexus battle, proponents can make adjustments and make another push at any time.

"The issue that most people have with SOPA is that it

The primary purpose of SOPA was to fight online pi-

was very broad and imposed an obligation ... to be depu-

racy. Introduced last fall by U.S. Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-

ties," Kibel said. This obligation would "increase costs be-

TX), the bill was meant to expand U.S. law enforcement’s

cause affiliates would have to add a process... with no

ability to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual

return," that process being a content and complaint review

property and counterfeit goods.

within five days.

But the content community's proposed remedies im-

Some SOPA commentators have suggested that com-

mediately alarmed the tech community. The bill would

petitors might go so far as to create SOPA violations for

have enabled the government to block not only sites that

your site, but Kibel said he did not anticipate sabotage as

published pirated material, but also sites that linked to

a realistic threat because he has not seen the Digital Mil-

such content.

lennium Copyright Act's notices used for anti-competitive

Had SOPA been passed, any site found to be linking to

purposes.

such content would face dire consequences. ISPs would be

Because many affiliate sites are boot-strapped, any

forced to block access to your site. Search engines would

kind of cost burden would make it that much harder to

be forced to remove your site from results pages. Payment

launch and succeed in the space.

networks such as PayPal would be forced to stop working

Moreover, it would surely have a chilling effect on our

with your site. One clear consequence would have been

space, making advertisers wary of working with thousands

the censorship of legitimate content somehow associated

of publishers. Gary called SOPA a "key critical issue" for its

with pirated content.

proponents, so, we can be sure it will return.

For a better understanding of the impact of SOPA, I

Understanding and communicating these problems to

spoke with Gary Kibel, our counsel and an expert in this

other voters and legislators has a meaningful impact on

space.

preventing them.

Brook Schaaf is CEO of Schaaf-PartnerCentric, an outsourced affiliate program management agency.

路 Issue 18 路 May 2012

Becoming a Human

Changed My Business Bryan Knowlton

by Bryan Knowlton

Those little comments about how I felt about the

industry led to other appraisers leaving comments and

sales over lasting impressions.

discuss these issues and I was constantly being thanked

t the beginning of my internet marketing career,

sending me emails. I decided to become an advocate for

you probably couldn't tell much difference be-

change and started blogging about topics that were most

tween me and a machine. I was not very person-

important to appraisers.

able, pushed offers to readers, and focused on making

This really got the ball rolling. People started calling to

I wish I could say it didn't take me too long to figure

for being so involved in the industry. My posts started get-

out the error of my ways, but it actually took years. Since I

ting numerous comments, and my email box was explod-

am a full-time real estate appraiser and affiliate marketer,

ing after each blog post.

I wasn't inspired to fix the problem. Most of the sales I made in the past were from push-

At one point, I started receiving calls from local news outlets and wrote some articles for industry magazines.

ing affiliate offers or my own products and services to

I decided to create new information products on how

potential customers. I guess I worked on volume and was

to get more business, created a directory of companies

mildly successful in the 90's.

that hire appraisers, and later went on to build simple ap-

Prior to the real estate meltdown, I built a website

praiser websites.

called Appraiser Income and created an information prod-

The more I shared my information and experiences

uct teaching people how to become a real estate appraiser.

with them, the more sales came in. It is now to a point

It did OK and made enough to pay for a dedicated server

where the website gets almost 30,000 visits a month, I

and some of the utilities in my office.

have over 3,000 appraisers on my list, and many partner-

I was getting slammed with traffic, but the conver-

ships with industry magazines and websites. I also have

sion rate was horrible. Before I spent any time figuring

revenue sharing partnerships with the top players in my

out the problem, the real estate market tanked and there

industry; many with over 25,000 subscribers on their lists.

were a ton of new requirements to become a real estate

It is amazing how sharing my thoughts and feelings

appraiser.

helped me become recognized as an industry expert and

It was no longer a great field to get in to. So I gave

have incredible success within a small niche. This can eas-

the product away for free and added some commentary

ily be replicated for almost any industry, and I urge you to

on the industry.

give it a try!

Bryan Knowlton teaches how to make money online at YourBossBlows.com.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Must Real Value Deliver by Wade Tonkin

Wade Tonkin

Affiliates

ffiliates relying on Google as a traffic source are

links, and trust with your audience that you can leverage

being challenged more and more each day as Matt

into affiliate sales.

Cutts and his team attempt to deliver more valu-

able search results. Every month, I hear from long-time affiliates who had relied on “content farm” strategies. These strategies offered up thousands of pages of content and affiliate links to Google. They lacked content

Here’s a short list of practices that DON’T add real value: »» Don’t engage in shady practices, such as spam, forced clicks or cookie stuffing. »» Don’t lie to the search engines and your visitors

that was helpful to real people, and because of this, the

by saying you have deals from merchants

Google algorithm dramatically cut their traffic (and the af-

that you don’t have and hide behind “click

filiate’s commission revenue) significantly.

to reveal.” It’s bad user experience.

These affiliates ask me for a solution to get their traf-

»» Don’t steal other sites’ content or coupon

fic back and my answer is simple - deliver REAL VALUE to

codes, or use codes that aren’t provided by the

the consumer, and to your merchants.

merchant directly to you or through a deal feed. »» Don’t use parasitic tools that steal sales

How can you deliver real value? Can you help a reader solve a problem? Help them

and commissions from other affiliates or cannibalize existing merchant traffic.

find a product they are looking for in a crowded market-

»» Don’t attempt to cause confusion by copying

place? Do you have personal experience that you can share

the look and feel from other sites and using

to help someone else? Do you have a passion for some-

deceptive or trademarked domain names.

thing that you can share that will engage, inform, inspire,

This can cost you HUGE down the line.

or amuse? As Google shifts more importance in their algorithms

»» Don’t violate terms and conditions with your merchants to make a quick buck. It will quickly

to metrics, like time spent on site; depth of navigation;

earn you a bad reputation. Affiliate Managers

bounce rate and backlinks; sites that are “thin” in depth

talk to each other and word gets around.

and depend on a slick domain name and data feed content are not going to work. Existing sites like this will get dropped out of the top results and revenue will vanish.

No one ever said making a living online would be quick or easy. But if you take it on yourself to deliver real

If you generate or curate valuable content, provide

value to your visitors and your merchant partners, you can

easy to use social sharing, and participate in the online

build more than just a site that makes you some money.

discussion through topical comments and guests posts on

You can build a business, and develop some good Karma

other related sites you’ll build a brand, reputation, back-

along the way.

Wade Tonkin is the Affiliate Manager at Fanatics.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Marcello Pasqualucci

USA vs. Europe W

in Affiliate Marketing

by Marcello Pasqualucci

hen I started working in affiliate marketing, I

ropean networks and advertisers should look for greener

immediately noticed two things:

pastures in USA, I firmly believe we should consider wid-

First – American affiliates were more re-

ening our view. Italy, France, Spain etc. could work quite well as plan B… But how do you tackle two entirely differ-

sponsive and easier to work with Second – the European market that I had to work with, namely Italy, was difficult and it was hard to find good

ent markets successfully and without wasting your entire budget hiring native speakers? I’d say you have 3 options:

quality traffic The same can be said about the networks; a few years

1. Connect with large European networks that actually

ago you could easily get a sales offer running anywhere in

understand your needs (European networks that also

North America, but in Italy it was nearly impossible - I had

run USA traffic or US networks that runs tons of Eu-

people accepting the sales offer but still asking for a monthly

ropean traffic); run on an exclusivity basis for a few

flat fee. I remember asking one of my affiliates “Sorry, mate,

weeks to better understand how the traffic works

would you mind if we could also make some money? “.

before splashing out on large budgets or trying your

Now, after quite a few years, things are starting to

hand with direct affiliates;

look up. Affiliate networks and performance marketing

2. Pick one country, pick a good budget (£15 000 will be

agencies are popping up all over the old continent, af-

sufficient in most cases) and buy traffic - as much as

filiates are more prone to choosing running sales or lead

you can. Once optimized, look at what’s working and

deals; and we can now say the time has come to change

find affiliates running similar types of traffic. Once

the affiliate marketing focus from the States to a more

you know what to look for, things get easier; 3. Collaborate with an agency or a consultant, have it re-

global approach. Naturally there are still huge differences. While the Amer-

viewed and adjusted based on the needs of your ‘tar-

ican networks can usually reach every area of the States, in

get’ country. Finally test it on their affiliates or part-

Europe there are tons of smaller networks that only focus

ners. This approach might work better in the long run.

on a single localized market. Adding to that in Europe is the language barrier, as not everybody speaks English. But the quality is there if you work with the right partners. While I don’t think that all the US advertisers and networks should look on Europe for more revenue, or that Eu-

In conclusion, USA vs. Europe should be USA & Europe, they are different from each other but both of the markets are filled with opportunities and there is plenty of money waiting to be made! Thanks for your time, ciao belli.

Marcello is an experienced affiliate marketer and marketing director at a performance agency in London.

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Behind the Scenes of

Affiliate Ball Nelly

by Shawn Collins

Shawn: How did Affiliate Ball get started? Darren: I started throwing internet marketing parties at business to business trade shows dating back to 1998. I was working for a technology based company called WebSideStory

Shawn: Who has been your favorite performer at an Affiliate Ball so far? Darren: My favorite performer at an Affiliate Ball so far was Nelly. He was named by Billboard as a “Top 3 Artist of

When I left WebSideStory, I decided to throw my own

The Decade”. I like to mix things up and have old school

parties with a completely different format with legendary

legends and every once in a while get a huge current artist.

artists performing. Over a year ago I decided it was time

Since I've been throwing parties at internet marketing shows,

to expand into as many digital marketing trade shows as

my favorite artists so far were Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube.

possible with my formula. I created the Affiliate Ball for

Shawn: If you could get any act, who would it be?

the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas and had Three 6

Darren: I'm working my way up to Jay-Z. Will it ever

Mafia as the headlining act. Over the past year I've thrown

happen is another question. I always shoot my goals very

the biggest parties at the Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech and

high and the reality is based upon sponsor support. The

Leadscon.

Affiliate Ball isn't only about doing hip hop by the way. I

Shawn: What is your background?

also try for big name rock acts and huge DJ's. I'd love to

Darren: I was a student at Ohio State working for a

have the Foo Fighters, LMFAO or Deadmau5 as well. Ev-

big concert club on campus. I worked with Nirvana, Sound

erything is situational depending on whether the artist is

Garden, Digital Underground back when Tupac was in the

available on that date and at what price. Let's cross our

group and more. After college I went a different direction

fingers we get great sponsor support so we can get to that

and was in sales and marketing with a passion for learn-

level soon.

ing how to “close the deal”. I built my career by being a “Marketing Firm” for internet companies. Shawn: Are you an affiliate marketer?

Shawn: What is your goal with Affiliate Ball / Marketers Ball? Darren: The goal is always to provide the best social

Darren: I am an affiliate marketer. Been doing it since

environment for our industry to network while providing an

the very beginning and have had the honor to work with

alternative marketing angle for our sponsors. We all know

many of the very first successful affiliate programs. These

that sponsors get great branding from big parties but I try

days I've shifted my efforts into sending the affiliates to

to help them see a return on their money. Our massive

the affiliate programs either for the referral fee or as a

RSVP list of over 7,000 guests also receives our newsletter.

sponsor of my events. I'm sure I pre-date 99% of our in-

This year we have plans to throw parties the Affiliate Sum-

dustry doing affiliate marketing in 1998.

mit, Leadscon, Ad Tech and also the BlogWorldExpo.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

路 Issue 18 路 May 2012

Thank You Affiliate Summit Central 2012 Top Sponsors

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

· Issue 18 · May 2012

Maribel Sierra Maribel Sierra is Director in the Global Social Media &

publications like Forbes, Mashable, and ZDNet and

Communities team at Dell, tasked with leading Dell’s

won the Open Leadership award from Altimeter, Bee

Social Media Listening and Engagement Strategy,

Awards, CeBit innovation award in Australia and

of which the new Listening Command Center is

others.

part of. She has served for 10 years at Dell across

She is passionate about her vision of empowering team

multiple roles, from operations, to supply chain to

members across Dell to listen real time to customers‘

call centers. Her experience leading through Global

needs, opinions, recommendations, etc and to

organizations, influencing strategy and direction

participate in their conversations, for long lasting

through a matrix organization, and strong process

relationships.

oriented training, had been instrumental to help

Maribel has an undergrad of Industrial Engineering from

embed social media listening across the fabric of

Northeastern University, a Masters in Engineering

Dell. Work that has been recognized in multiple

from MIT and an MBA from Sloan-MIT.

Kevin Bombino

Kevin Bombino is the Co-Founder and CTO of Link Emperor, the link building “marketplace” where publishers can purchase SEO link building services from dozens of diverse link building vendors. In the Affiliate space, he co-manages a personal network of over 100 affiliate websites that are promoted almost exclusively through SEO. Kevin also co-hosts Gangster Profit, a web radio show about business and SEO. Kevin holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from Harvard University.

Blake Brossman

Blake founded PetcareRx in 1998 with the passion to find ways to provide medications at reasonable prices for pets who might otherwise go untreated because of the high prices charged by veterinarians for these items. Blake has significant business development and direct marketing experience, starting his career by building Student Advantage Corp., an enterprise offering discount travel, educational, and entertainment products to students. Student Advantage was acquired by AT&T. At Young & Rubicam and Quintel Inc., Blake worked in direct

· Issue 18 · May 2012

marketing and sales where he helped build the foundation to Internet telephony and call center integration. Blake is a noted speaker in the areas of direct marketing and pet retailing, most recently he spoke at the 2011 Internet Retailer conference. He is also a strong supporter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and a member of their national board. He’s the proud parent of his daughter Jayce and his American bulldog Samantha.

Deborah Carney

Deborah Carney (also known online by the username Loxly) is the well known host of the popular ABC series of podcasts which includes AffiliateABCs.com, BloggingABCs. com, MerchantABCs.com, and CreativeMarketingABCs.com, which can all be found on Geekcast.fm. With all the great content from those podcasts, Deborah has become a bestselling author of Kindle ebooks. As a successful affiliate and a successful Outsourced Program Manager, past in-house affiliate manager and consultant for many networks and companies, Deborah’s experiences have brought her to a point to start sharing new information with affiliates to help them repurpose their content into books that teach and generate new traffic for their sites. Deborah is also the Administrator of the Affiliate Summit Networking forum, which is a great place to network between Affiliate Summit events.

Daniel M. Clark

Daniel M. Clark is a podcast production consultant and the founder of QAQN, a collection of informative and entertaining podcasts. A resident of the internet since 1992, he either is or has been: a t-shirt designer, an art reviewer, a system administrator, a video game designer and programmer, a blogger, an affiliate marketer, a podcaster, a space cowboy, and a gangster of love. He has, in fact, gotten his lovin’ on the run. Daniel has written articles for FeedFront magazine and Blogworld.com. He publishes a variety of podcasts at QAQN. com, including Inside Internet Marketing, his most frequently downloaded show. Daniel’s first Affiliate Summit was East 2006 and he has been a speaker at five Summits since 2008. He has been involved in the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program since 2009, taking on the role of Coordinator for Summit West in 2012. Daniel is a work-at-home dad living outside of Houston, raising two young kids with his wife, Angela.

Jason Cohen

Jason is the founder of http://WPEngine.com, the premiere managed WordPress hosting company headquartered in Austin. He previously founded Smart Bear and ITWatchDogs. He blogs regularly about startups at http://blog.smartbear.com.

Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins has been an affiliate marketer since 1997

with a number of active affiliate projects, and a decade of affiliate management under his belt. He is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit, the leading global conference and tradeshow for the affiliate marketing industry and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine. He authored the book Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants, and was an editor and contributor to Internet Marketing from the Real Experts. Also, he publishes the annual AffStat affiliate marketing benchmark reports. Shawn blogs daily on affiliate marketing at Affiliate Tip and co-hosts the weeklyAffiliate Thing podcast on GeekCast.fm. Additionally, Shawn has been quoted in numerous publications, including Entrepreneur Magazine, Internet Retailer, Inc. Magazine, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Todd Crawford

A recognizable veteran, Todd Crawford brings to Impact Radius a passion for performance advertising and a commitment to its growth. As a co-founder, he evangelizes the opportunities presented by a multi-channel approach to the performance model. Prior to Impact Radius, he served as vice president of sales and business development for Digital River’s affiliate network, oneNetworkDirect. Todd also contributed to the founding team at Commission Junction in 1998 and led its business and sales development efforts as vice president for more than seven years. In 2007, Todd won the Affiliate Marketing Legend Award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards in Las Vegas. He holds a bachelor of arts at the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities.

Slade Cutter

Slade Cutter is an experienced attorney and Certified Information Privacy Professional who has dedicated his practice to helping interactive media and eCommerce companies thrive. Through Cutter Law, P.C., Slade provides general counsel and privacy/marketing compliance consulting services. As General Counsel at Smiley Media, Inc. (2007 – 2011), Slade managed and led the company’s legal operations, helping take the internet marketing firm to over $44 million (2009, 2010 Inc.500 list of fastest growing companies). Slade also served for two years as a U.S. District Court briefing attorney (2002 – 2004) before joining a law firm practicing general civil litigation in state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels (2005 – 2007). In law school, Slade distinguished himself as a member of the American University Law Review and as a Dean’s Fellow. He graduated cum laude in 2002. Slade lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Lanette, and their two children, Franny and Theo.

Roger Dooley

Roger Dooley is a marketing speaker, author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing, and publishes of the popular blog Neuromar-

· Issue 18 · May 2012

keting. He is the founder of Dooley Direct, a marketing consultancy, and co-founded College Confidential, the leading collegebound website. That business was acquired by Hobsons, a unit of UK-based DMGT, where Dooley served as VP Digital Marketing and continues in a consulting role. Dooley spent years in direct marketing as the co-founder of a successful catalog firm and also was director of corporate planning for a Fortune 1000 company. He has an engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee.

Eric Ewe

Eric Ewe has been in the affiliate marketing realm since 2000 and managed numerous affiliate programs from Golfballs.com (CPA) to The SCOOTER Store (CPL). He was nominated for LinkShare’s Golden Links Awards in 2007.

David Favor

David Favor worked as a hardware and software developer consultant from 1978 to 2005. He started Super Food import company in 2003, and bolted on an affiliate program in 2007ish, which now manages 300+ affiliates in 10 countries.

Vicki Flaugher

Vicki @Smartwoman Flaugher, CEO of Smartwoman Enterprises, can be found featured at commPRO’s Social Media Zone. She is a 10 year veteran of online marketing who blogs, speaks, trains, and consults about digital reputation development. Vicki is a charter member of the national editorial team at SocialMediaClub.org and is author of Famous in Your Niche: Building Your Digital Reputation For Fun and Profit. Vicki was named one of the 50 Social Media Power Influencers on Forbes (2011) as well as one of the 10 Women Social Media Influencers on Forbes (2011). You can connect with Vicki on Twitter as @Smartwoman or at just about any social media platform near you.

Robert Gilbreath

Robert Gilbreath manages the Ecommerce Marketing and Analytics Department for Calendars.com. Robert is responsible for the online/traditional marketing channels, site merchandising, social media, and reporting/analytics. He has over 10 years of e-commerce and online marketing experience. Before joining Calendars.com, he was GM/Brand Manager at AcademicSuperstore.com/JourneyEd.com. He holds a BBA in Marketing from Texas State University and an MBA in eCommerce from St. Edward’s University. When not working, Robert enjoys spending time with his wife, two daughters and son.

David Gorcey

David is the VP of Customer Success at VigLink, a content monetization company. He joined the organization after

spending 5 years leading the Publisher Services and Business Development efforts at Kontera. Prior to that he served on the marketing team for a company in the aftermarket automotive space and as an account executive with a boutique ad agency in the bay area. David received a Bachelor’s of Science in International Business from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and through the course of his education spent time studying in London and working as a marketing intern in Finland. In his free time, David enjoys activities such as kickboxing, traveling, and taking advantage of the good food and entertainment San Francisco offers with friends.

Michael Gray

Michael Gray has worked in the internet world since 1998, when he became Webmaster for a major retailer in New York. He developed their website strategy and grew their online sales from $100,000 to over $25 million in annual website sales. Michael then moved into affiliate marketing and started his own consulting firm. Michael has worked with many businesses to develop and implement their Social Media Strategy. He also specializes in blog development and Search Engine Optimizations for businesses of all sizes. Michael has been a speaker at Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, SEOClass and SMX. He is also moderator at Sphinn and Webmaster World. Michael is President of Atlas Web Service, located in Long Island, New York.

Rae Hoffman-Dolan

Ten+ years ago Rae started a small website about her son and his medical condition that became one of the first international support groups and largest website in general on the topic. It earned national media coverage and helped further medical research in the field. Investigating ways to support that site, she found affiliate marketing and became one of the most well known voices in the affiliate landscape and organic search engine optimization. Today, her current area of research is site auditing and advanced organic link development techniques relating to all of the major engines. Ms. Hoffman-Dolan is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sugarrae, Inc. Known widely in the online marketing community as Sugarrae, she is also the author of the often controversial Sugarrae blog and Co-Founder and Co-Owner of website publisher MFE Interactive and the Co-Owner and SVP of Marketing for Speedy Incorporation Service.

Kenny Hyder

Kenny Hyder has been helping businesses with their online and SEO strategies since 2004. Originally starting as an in-house SEO, Kenny eventually branched out to start his own internet marketing business. His first business was eventually bought out by a much larger internet marketing firm. Today he runs Hyder Media, servicing clients in the areas of: SEO,

· Issue 18 · May 2012

social media & ORM. His experience has led him to work with some of the largest brands online, including several Fortune 500 companies – helping them with their search marketing strategies. Kenny is also a speaker at some of the largest internet marketing conferences including: Pubcon, SMX, Blogworld, Affiliate Summit, & DMA.

munities, search, and the respective business administration. Formerly head of interactive marketing for HP Shopping, O’Brien is intimate with the affiliate marketing industry while tied now to entrepreneurship and startups.

Ryan Lee

Ryan Lee started his first site back in 1999. His is a prolific entrepreneur starting over 50 companies and primarily in the the marketing and fitness markets – and his businesses now generate 7 figures per month. Ryan was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, has written 2 books and was a contributor to the NY Times Best-Selling Series, The Worst Case Scenario Business Survival Guide.

Jeremy Palmer is an experienced internet marketer, who has launched dozens of successful websites. Jeremy is a vocal supporter and strong advocate of the performance marketing industry. He’s been a featured speaker and trainer at dozens of internet marketing conferences. Jeremy’s e-books, webinars, and videos have been consumed by thousands of affiliates. In addition to training new affiliates, Jeremy has consulted with dozens of merchants and e-commerce companies about their affiliate programs.

John McLean

Chris Pearson

John McLean has an extensive background in film/video production, having written, directed and edited two independent feature films, as well as numerous comic shorts. He’s the creator of the online Inner Game training program, Lazarrus (www.Lazarrus.com) and is the author of the groundbreaking book, the “No-Carb Revolution” (www.NoCarb-Revolution. com). John shoots and edits his own wildly creative videos to promote his work, using 100% video sales funnels for his online products.

Mike Nunez

Mike Nunez began his affiliate marketing career while taking Computer Science classes at UCF. He leveraged his newfound knowledge to launch the Wyndham Vacation Ownership affiliate program, which quickly became the highest converting lead source in the company. Mike was then recruited to launch the LastMinuteTravel.com affiliate program, where sales grew to $500k in 3 months. Upon realizing that affiliate management was in high demand with a low supply of quality managers, Mike co-founded www.AffiliateManager.com. After our first year, the firm won “Best New OPM” on the most popular affiliate forum. To better serve affiliates, Mike spearheaded the creation of BounceLinks.com, a tool to monetize user-generated content as well as streamline product level link creation. Most recently, Mike launched www.AffiliateRecruitment.com, a selfservice tool that allows managers to recruit relevant affiliates. Lastly, Mike has served as a member of the Linkshare and Affiliate Summit Advisory Board.

Paul O’Brien

Cofounder of Austin based GroupCharger, Moodfish, and Cospace, Paul O’Brien is a distinguished marketing, search, and eCommerce executive with 15 years online and demonstrated success in online retail, Local, Saas, blogs and com-

Jeremy Palmer

Chris Pearson is a relentless learner with an energetic speaking style and an obvious passion for knowledge. He’s also a software developer—his Thesis Theme Framework for WordPress has over 40,000 users and is the backbone for hundreds of thousands of websites.

Taylor Pratt

Taylor Pratt is the SEO GT Product Lead at HomeAway and a principal at Built to Search, an online marketing consulting group focusing on ROI. Previously, Taylor served as the VP of product marketing for Raven Internet Marketing Tools, Web-based, multi-user software for managing SEO and social media campaigns. Pratt is a frequent speaker at small business and search marketing conferences, including PubCon, SMX Advanced, SMX: East and West and the Online Marketing Summit. He also regularly contributes to both SEOBook and Search Engine People.

Durk Price

Durk Price has 10 years in the affiliate industry as both a Merchant and as Program Manager. His company, eAccountableOPM was formed 9 years ago and has specialized in Outsourced Affiliate Program Management during that period. eAccountableOPM currently manages affiliate programs for 40 merchants including: eFaucets, CanvasOnDemand, Junonia, Jim Cramer and TheStreet.com, Sizzix, LightingCatalog.com and more. The company currently manages programs in the following networks: Commission Junction, Google Affiliate Network (Performics), Linkshare, ShareASale, AvantLink and others

Michele Price

Michele is an authority on building sustainable online communities, combining creating a difference in the world while gen-

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erating a profit. She is a straight talking, bold and courageous female entrepreneur of 25+ years. Michele focuses on solutions and how to find the opportunities inside the challenges. By combining mindset brain-technologies with Communication-Relationship Marketing strategies, she has found a winning combination to align you with your purpose, passion and profits.

Heather Romiti

Heather Romiti is a two-time Iraq war veteran turned affiliate marketer, nutritionist, and published author. After the Army she went to trade school for cosmetology and nutrition. She then attended Austin Community College for interpersonal communication and business. During college she became intrigued with Internet Marketing and pursued her new passion. Heather created Blendhappy.com; a website that promotes health and a positive mindset while offering nutritional guidance. She has a zest for life and enjoys learning new things. Her recent interest is in Computer Programming. Heather is currently writing more books and creating more websites for her self, for others, and for small businesses.

Steve Schaffer

Steve Schaffer, Founder and CEO of Vertive, is an Internet strategy, performance marketing and product marketing professional with a more than 20 year record of growing start-ups and established Internet and software companies. Vertive is a leader in performance marketing, publishing more than 10 vertically focused websites that connect consumers with the information, products and services they need and want. In February 2009, Vertive launched Offers.com which is now a leader in the coupon and deals space; and in 2011, Vertive launched CouponCodes.com and DailyDeals.com. Vertive has been recognized with some of the leading industry awards including the 2010 Commission Junction’s Publisher of the Year Award. Vertive is a Charter Corporate Member of the Performance Marketing Association (PMA), and Steve Schaffer served as the first president of the PMA board of directors.

Steve Siegwalt

I have been an entrepreneur my entire life. From the days of “trading up”, getting the best toys in the neighborhood, to the creation of a multi-million dollar manufacturing business with 65 employees and an over 47,000sqft air-conditioned manufacturing facility. My journey has taught me plenty. I have started at least 5 businesses and have successfully raised four wonderful kids. I also am a proud contributor to a 30 year marriage (as of April 3rd!) to my wonderful wife Barbara. And that’s all I have to say about that!

Kellie Stevens

Ms. Stevens graduated from LSU Medical Center in 1988

and worked in the healthcare industry for nearly two decades. During that time, she worked extensively with Quality Assurance aspects of that Industry including fraud detection/ prevention, policy, standards and protocol development, data collection/interpretation and testing. In the 1990’s, Ms. Stevens opened an ecommerce store and became involved in Affiliate Marketing. Over the last several years, she applied her experiences in Quality Assurance to the Affiliate Marketing Industry performing testing, data collection and reporting on various revenue generating practices, through web sites and software technology, which affect both Merchants and Affiliates. Through her company AffiliateFairPlay.com, she utilizes her research findings to advocate for fair trade policies within the Industry and provide education to Merchants and Affiliates regarding current revenue generating practices.

Max Teitelbaum

Max has been working in the online advertising industry since he was 15 years old. He made millions before he was 20 as an affiliate promoting offers via media buys. He is now the Co-Founder and COO of WhatRunsWhere.com a company that helps people buy media more effectively by providing data on competitors and verticals within the online advertising space.

David Vogelpohl

David Vogelpohl is the founder and CEO of Marketing Clique, an agency which helps clients build websites, develop mobile apps and market their service online. David has nearly 15 years of online marketing experience, including managing and promoting complex affiliate programs across a variety of platforms.

Carly Volk

Carly is a Marketing Development Associate at Easy Canvas Prints, a BuildASign.com acquisition company. She manages the daily deal initiative and the online coupon activity. In addition to those channels, she conducts research and analysis on new marketing strategies for Easy Canvas Prints. Carly is a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, with a B.A. in Finance. While she attended school, she interned at Comvest Investment Partners, where she carried out the majority of the company’s marketing and communication activities.

Evan Weber

I have been in the online marketing world since the late 1990s. I spent 5.5 years as the Marketing Director for a successful health portal, before launching my affiliate management agency in 2007. My skill set includes: social networking, seo, paid search, conversion rate optimization, affiliate marketing, article marketing, and more.

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People to follow on

Kevin Bombino http://twitter.com/kevinbombino

Michael Gray http://twitter.com/Graywolf

Steve Siegwalt http://twitter.com/stevesiegwalt

Blake Brossman http://twitter.com/blakebrossman

Rae Hoffman-Dolan http://twitter.com/Sugarrae

Maribel Sierra http://twitter.com/MaribelSatDell

Deborah Carney http://twitter.com/loxly

Kenny Hyder http://twitter.com/kennyhyder

Kellie Stevens http://twitter.com/KellieAFP

Daniel M. Clark http://twitter.com/QAQN

Ryan Lee http://twitter.com/ryanlee

Max Teitelbaum http://twitter.com/WhatRunsWhere

Jason Cohen http://twitter.com/asmartbear

Mike Nunez http://twitter.com/MikeNunez

David Vogelpohl http://twitter.com/davidvmc

Todd Crawford http://twitter.com/toddcrawford

Paul O’Brien http://twitter.com/seobrien

Carly Volk http://twitter.com/easycanvas

Slade Cutter http://twitter.com/SladeCutterLaw

Jeremy Palmer http://twitter.com/jeremypalmer

Evan Weber http://twitter.com/experienceads

Roger Dooley http://twitter.com/rogerdooley

Chris Pearson http://twitter.com/pearsonified

Eric Ewe http://twitter.com/ericewe

Taylor Pratt http://twitter.com/TaylorPratt

Afﬁliate Summit http://twitter.com/afﬁliatesummit

David Favor http://twitter.com/davidfavor

Durk Price http://twitter.com/eAccountableOPM

FeedFront Magazine http://twitter.com/feedfront

Vicki Flaugher http://twitter.com/Smartwoman

Michele Price http://twitter.com/Prosperitygal

GeekCast.fm http://twitter.com/geekcast

Robert Gilbreath http://twitter.com/Adomatica

Heather Romiti http://twitter.com/blendhappy

Shawn Collins http://twitter.com/afﬁliatetip

David Gorcey http://twitter.com/gorcey

Steve Schaffer http://twitter.com/SteveSchaffer

Missy Ward http://twitter.com/missyward

Affiliate Summit related Twitter Accounts

Hilton Austin

Map for the Conference Center