The Official Magazine of Affiliate Summit
Issue 4 | January 2009
The Women of
Affiliate Marketing Interview With Tim Storm Page 4 Introduction to Podcasting Page 11 Target.com Affiliate Program on Twitter Page 21 Affiliate Opportunities in a Recession Page 67 www.affiliatesummit.com
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Table of Contents 03
04
08
Struggling Entrepreneurs, Do Not Give Up Jim Kukral
We're a new breed of affiliate network. Energetic, knowledgeable, innovative, responsive, and cutting-edge. We provide the most personalized service, with industry-leading sales reporting and analytics tools, huge commissions, and the highest-converting shopping cart in the business.
Our affiliates can choose from the hottest selling digital products from world-class merchants. And what's more, each member of our staff trains with an affiliate guru in the high mountains for several months before joining the team. These are just a few of the reasons we're able to levitate your affiliate business to the next level of success.
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How Social Networks Validated the Soft Sell
13
20
Brian Littleton
Celebrating Women in Affiliate Marketing
Shawn Collins and Missy Ward
Affiliate Fraud – A Growing Concern in Affiliate Marketing? Tyler Allen
What to Look For in an Affiliate Network Ian Fernando
24
Call to Activation
62
Ask InternetGeekGirl
25
Affiliate Summit 2009 West Affiliate Marketing Listings
63 Improve Your Blog Earnings
34
Affiliate Summit 2009 West Conference Agenda
42
Will Blog for Food
11 Introduction to Podcasting Shawn Collins
Lisa Caraffi
Amy Rodriguez
61
Geno Prussakov
45
Affiliate Summit 2009 West Speaker Bios
58 London Calling:
Stephanie Agresta
65
My .02 on SMX East
66
Chat Improves Conversions – That’s What We All Want
Bio Affiliate Summit 2009 West Keynote
Harald Anderson
Zac Johnson
Shawn Collins
Andrew Wee
44 Gary Vaynerchuk
How to Effectively Blog for Branding and Monetization Click Fraud: What Every Online Advertiser Needs to Know
Finding a Profitable Niche for Your Website
60
David Fortino
23
Mike Sprouse
Jillian McGary
Thinking Outside the Ad
Affiliate Summit Social Media in NYC
Opportunities for Affiliate Marketers in 2009
Target Targets Affiliates 59 Through Social Media
Missy Ward
22
Taking the Affiliate World by Storm
09 Niche Picking:
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67
68
Wil Reynolds
Durk Price
Affiliate Opportunities in a Recession Nicky Senyard
Using Trademarks in Affiliate Marketing Mark Rosenberg
a4uexpo Recap Matthew Wood
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 1
FeedFront Editor’s Note – 4th issue
Issue 4 | January 2009
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Jump the Economy
Struggling Entrepreneurs,
Do Not Give Up
STAFF Co-Editors in Chief Missy Ward, Shawn Collins
Co-Publishers
By Jim Kukral
Missy Ward, Shawn Collins
Welcome to being a struggling entrepreneur. It’s a rough life.
Contributing Writers
But there’s good news too.
Stephanie Agresta, Tyler Allen, Harald Anderson,
If you’re struggling there is hope. There is a reason to carry on. You can make it work, if you carry on. Remember that every single great success story started with one of the following…
Lisa Caraffi, Shawn Collins, Ian Fernando, David Fortino, Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Brian Littleton, Jillian McGary, Durk Price, Geno Prussakov, Wil Reynolds, Amy Rodriguez, Mark Rosenberg, Nicky Senyard, Mike Sprouse, Missy Ward, Andrew Wee, Matthew Wood
1. I failed 1,000 times before I succeeded… 2. We had no money left in our bank account… 3. I was on the verge of giving up…
Graphic Design Lynn Lee Design
Proofreader Amy Rodriguez Photo by Deb Carney
Affiliate Summit
Jim Kukral Moderates a Session at Affiliate Summit Social Media
221 Sherman Ave Ste #8 PMB 185 Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922-1173 tel (908) 364-2767 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: contact@feedfront.com © 2009 Affiliate Summit, Inc. and Individual Authors.
Photo by Deb Carney
Missy Ward and Shawn Collins at Affiliate Summit Social Media
Many affiliate marketers are scared about the state of the economy right now, and how it might impact their business. While your peers tremor and consider how their business will fare, take control of your fate and be aggressive in your marketing and advertising. So we’re in a recession or a depression or whatever. So what! As Evel Knievel, the “King of All Stuntmen” once noted, “With every adversity, there is an equivalency to benefit. Sometimes you just have to look for it.” It’s all about how you frame it. You don’t want to deliberate whether you’ll survive the downturn, but rather how you’ll survive and thrive. Consider the experiences of D.G. Yuengling & Son, the oldest beer maker in the U.S., in the early part of the last century. By the time the Great Depression hit, Yuengling had already endured seventeen years of Prohibition. The company produced “near beer”
throughout the Prohibition years to stay in business, and then diversified their operations into dairy farming, Broadway shows, and dance halls during the Great Depression. These days, Yuengling is one of the biggest American commercial breweries and they continue to expand. Down the road, there will be companies that are recalled as examples on how to weather adversity, and others will simply be forgotten. Which will you be? Be a business daredevil. Now is not the time to fold up and go home. Go hard, go strong, and jump over anything that gets in your way. Missy Ward & Shawn Collins FeedFront Co-Editors-in-Chief
It’s rough out there right now, I know. You’re losing your cool in this tough economic market. You’re trying to make ends meet, while at the same time, you’re trying to push ahead and be successful as an entrepreneur. You’re working your a#* off and it’s getting you by, but not getting you ahead. I know how you’re feeling. I know what it’s like to be spending more than you make. I know what it’s like to have your wife give you that look when you tell her you need to spend another $1,000 or more to start a new project. I know how it feels to be so frustrated that you haven’t “made it” yet that you want to give up and go get that “real job” you said you would never take. I know how you’re feeling.
Sound familiar? Being an entrepreneur has its ups and downs. Yes, there is going to be struggle through the tough times, and yes, it could possibly drain your bank account and damage your marriage, and yes, it could drive you to want to give up. But that’s when your passion comes through to save you. That’s when you stop pitying yourself and turn towards the sun and give it another go. That’s when you work even harder to get what you wanted. Don’t give up. Keep taking your shots. Keep innovating. Keep pushing new ideas and supporting old ones. Keep on keeping on. It will happen. You can succeed. You can hit that home run. You may look back at these days, years from now and remember about how tough it was, but then be proud of yourself for persevering. The entrepreneur inside you knows you can do it. Now, just do it. You can find out more about Jim Kukral by visiting TheWebCoach.biz.
I know what it’s like to see millionaire friends not worry about money. I know what it’s like to see your associates who have already “hit their home run” not worry about the economy because they’ve got money coming in consistently every month. I know what it’s like to wake up every day and wonder if today is going to be the big day you get an idea to turn it all around.
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 3
Taking the Affiliate World by Storm
We started bringing on employees in 2001 to help keep the site up to date. I learned early on that it was easy for me to gloss over some important details. I also began recognizing my strengths and I wanted to spend more time on those. It was then that I hired people that were better than me at the things that I would rather not do, or wasn’t good at. Missy: When did you realize that FatWallet had “arrived” and what is the secret to its success?
By Missy Ward Tim Storm, the owner, founder and Chief Mucky Muck of FatWallet.com, an online community and shopping resource, is no doubt, a cornerstone of the affiliate marketing industry. Known for his technical savvy, his strong emphasis on his employee’s welfare, his hands-on approach with his site visitors and yes, his relentless quest for the perfect golf swing, Storm epitomizes all that is good in affiliate marketing – ethics, innovation and commitment. Back in 2002, Storm made headlines when he squared off against retail giant Wal-Mart. After one of the FatWallet.com forum members posted product pricing information scheduled to appear in the retailer’s Black Friday advertisements, Wal-Mart sought the identity of the member, invoking sections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Storm refused to provide the personal information of the forum member, and solidified his reputation as an advocate for the rights of consumers to gather and share information. Since FatWallet’s launch in 1999, Storm has been featured in numerous media outlets, such as the New York Times, MSNBC, Fast Company, National Public Radio, and more. His vision and leadership is the driving force behind FatWallet’s outstanding growth. In 2006, Storm’s contribution to the affiliate marketing industry was recognized as he became the second affiliate marketer to receive the Affiliate Marketing Legend award during the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Gala. FeedFront’s Co-Editor-in-Chief, Missy Ward recently talked with the inspirational Storm about his business, and his views on life and affiliate marketing. Missy: So, talk to me about your childhood. What was young Tim’s life like growing up? Tim: When I was finishing 5th grade, my parents told me that they had signed me up for summer school. I had no idea what I did wrong. I thought I was getting decent grades. Then they told me it was for a computer class. My next question was “What is a computer?” Over that summer I became connected to something that will likely be with me for the rest of my life. I taught myself basic algebra as I learned to write computer programs to entertain myself and my friends. Programming was always more fun than the actual games that I wrote.
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A few years later, when I was in my early teens, I wrote a bulletin board program and took over my sister’s phone line when she moved out to college. It was my first online community, before I could drive, on a 300 baud modem and a Commodore 64. Missy: And as I understand it, you still live close to where you grew up. Correct?
Tim: While I do see FatWallet as successful, I still believe that we have yet to “arrive”. There is so much opportunity out there, so much room to grow, so many people that we haven’t been able to serve yet.
Tim: Yes, I live in a small rural community. I literally have cows in my neighborhood. It is close to where I grew up, and close to family. It takes me about 12 minutes to get in to the office in the morning, even though Google Maps says it should take 21. Missy: So tell me about your first Web site and how you got started on the Internet.
We recently had our 1 Millionth visitor join our site. That would have been inconceivable in the early days.
Tim: While my online interactions started back in the 300 baud Compuserve days, I don’t think I did my first official Web site until the mid-90’s, when I was designing loudspeakers as a profession. I was working for a consumer electronics company (Mitek Corp) at the time, and built out their entire Web site in my “spare” time, and ended up taking over all the Internet projects across their brands.
Whenever I go to a sporting event at a large venue, I visualize all the people in the stadium with a laptop sitting in front of them, and then recognize how many stadiums full of these people we serve on any given day. It is quite humbling.
Missy: How did you make the leap into affiliate marketing?
There are no secrets to our success. FatWallet’s purpose is to serve the consumer community. We have shown ourselves time and time again to make decisions that are aligned with our core customer.
Tim: My first connection to affiliate marketing was through the Amazon Associates program, where I had added some links to some reference books to back up the content that I had been creating in a technical support area for the audio brands I was working on.
Our core values of Integrity, Commitment, Change, Respect, Balance and Passion will keep us on course toward our 10 year goal of 10 million engaged citizens.
Missy: How did you come up with the idea for FatWallet. com? What were some of the first affiliate programs that you joined? Tim: One day I was going to place an order at an online retailer that had previously sent me an email coupon. I didn’t have access to my email at the time, so I did an AltaVista search for coupons, and came across sites that weren’t current or didn’t look professional. And that’s when FatWallet.com was born. It seemed like it was a manageable project to do in my spare time, so I simply started in. I joined a bunch of programs on the same day – the early ones were Buy.com, Amazon.com, BN.com.
Tim Storm Wins Affiliate Summit Legend Award
The site was really just a hobby at that point. I was simply hoping to get my $100 back that I spent on the domain name and Web hosting. Amusingly enough, I recouped my $100 investment back in my first month in business.
Missy: When did you realize that you couldn’t run the whole site by yourself? What were some of the challenges that you faced when it came to juggling creativity and business? Tim: Before I started working on FatWallet full time in September of 2000, my wife had been helping out while I was earning a steady paycheck at my “real job”.
Missy: Shifting gears here. How would you characterize the current state of affiliate marketing? Tim: I see affiliate marketing as “maturing”. There is so much opportunity here, but unfortunately, there are also opportunists looking to make a quick buck . Luckily, I can usually sniff them out quite quickly.
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It is important to me, and FatWallet that we focus on long term mutually beneficial relationships. Missy: In your opinion, what are some of the biggest hurdles facing affiliate marketers right now? Tim: Affiliate marketing is challenged by the view of it being a “second class citizen” in many corporations, despite being the most measurable and highest ROI methods of customer acquisition and retention. Because it is still relatively new, it often isn’t understood by some folks in the “C suite” and dictations are made without understanding the implications. Missy: So how does a company go about doing affiliate marketing “right”? Tim: The key to doing affiliate marketing “right” is to understand the value of a customer, finding affiliates that understand what customer you are looking for, communicating that clearly, and compensating the affiliate for accomplishing the goal you have set out to do. Missy: What is the biggest piece of advice you would give an affiliate just starting out? Tim: Don’t get wrapped up in the “turmoil” of the day. Look for your opportunity to serve a customer, find the right business case and start it. If it doesn’t work the way you want, don’t waste a lot of energy complaining about it. Find the fit that works… the answer is out there! Missy: What do you see as the 3 trends affiliate marketers should have on their radar in the next few months? Tim: Mobile, offline integration, technology. Missy: What is your vision of affiliate marketing 5 years from now? Tim: I see increased transparency, and reduced feedback time. Companies will need to have deeper integration of their affiliate marketing program with their core business processes. Missy: Let’s break it down personal here. What are some of your other passions other than affiliate marketing? Tim: I’ve had a long term love/hate relationship with golf. I love the challenge of taking on something you can never truly master. I stopped playing for a couple years due to a thumb injury. A few years ago, I started playing again and became an investor in the golf course right behind the office.
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I see my passion for business in general, not just affiliate marketing. I am certainly a student of the game – something that can never be mastered. One of the most rewarding elements for me is that I know that I’ve helped create great jobs for great people. Missy: OK – now really personal. Tell me something about you unrelated to the internet, that people would be surprised to know. Tim: I don’t consider myself a thrill-seeker, but so far this year I have taken part in a zero gravity flight, a mock air combat mission, and plan to try bobsledding in December as part of a group I belong to called Maverick Business Adventures (www. maverickbusinessadventures.com). Missy: Check you out Mr. Daredevil! Now give me the skinny. What do you really want to do in the future, outside of FatWallet.com? Tim: Wow, I have no idea when that time will come. It isn’t on any timeline that I am aware of! I don’t think I could be satisfied if I wasn’t constantly learning and helping people live better lives. I have found that creating jobs is one of the most satisfying results of starting FatWallet. Missy Ward is the Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit, Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine and blogs at MissyWard.com
Opportunities for Performance Ad Networks and Affiliate Marketers in 2009
Niche Picking: Finding a Profitable Niche for Your Website By Lisa Caraffi
By Michael Sprouse
One of the most frustrating exercises for an Internet marketer can be the task of picking the right niche.
Both statistical data and casual evidence support that performancebased marketing has the potential to survive, if not thrive in tough economic times.
In general, there are two ways to go about deciding on a niche for a Web site or blog, depending on the reason that the site was created.
As advertisers and agencies around the world look for greater accountability and transparency, and for their marketing dollars to “work harder”, it opens the door to responsible networks and affiliate marketers to shine.
For example, a blog that is focused on a particular topic or interest has a self-defined niche and shapes up much differently than a Web site created for the sole purpose of making money. Those looking to blog about a particular subject, meet others with similar interests, and make a little money, should consider the following:
It may sound counterintuitive to say 2009 might be the time our industry grows up even more, but it’s looking good for this space as other sectors, not based on performance, are in decline.
• Passion matters. Antique watch fanatics might choose to create a blog about the mechanics of antique watches, as well as other aspects of watch collecting, but Web sites and blogs require frequent updating. Passing interests do not make for an effective affiliate niche.
Recession Proof Marketing?
Performance marketing and affiliate marketing are not totally recession-proof. There is simply no way to tell what will happen to worldwide consumer demand in 2009, the effect of the credit crisis, and what a new administration in the U.S. will mean for large and small businesses and sole proprietors.
• Expertise matters. It is not enough to enjoy a particular topic and to have a surface knowledge about the subject matter at hand. Readers will see through the façade and comment on any misinformation. Having credibility is important when trying to establish visitor loyalty.
To try and claim that online marketing at large is part of a business ecosystem resistant to larger, global, external factors is naïve at best. I’m simply stating that our sector has as good a chance as any at thriving. The Performance Growth Trend
With every report published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a very clear trend has been happening for years. Performance marketing is increasing to the point where it now makes up the majority of advertising spend online in the U.S. This trend is following suit globally, too. Search is growing. Display, despite its negative press in recent months, is growing. Traffic and internet usage worldwide continues to increase overall which means there will be inventory, eyeballs, clicks and actions to be had. Social networks continue to blossom and represent opportunity for marketers who can monetize them effectively. Opportunity is Knocking
If you’ve been around this business for any length of time, you know there are always new opportunities to make money, build new businesses, and invent new products or brand-build in unsaturated niches.
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There is an appeal to the practice we call direct marketing, and these are the times to educate the larger population, including advertisers, about its virtues; such as greater measurability, speed to market, transparency, accountability; none of which have to be at the expense of a brand. The opportunities exist for new offers, new ad formats and new ways to reach consumers in 2009. On a macro scale, it could be an opportune time for performance marketing as a whole to attract a new breed of advertiser or agency looking to market more effectively. Affiliates should keep their eyes open every day, but also be mindful of the long-term vision and stability available from a reputable network. With an industry still in its adolescence, it’s good for everyone in the ecosystem to build sustainable, responsible businesses that attracts a more diverse group of advertisers; can stand the test of time; weather future downturns; and provide future rewards. Michael Sprouse is the Chief Marketing Officer for Epic Advertising, and is based at the company’s headquarters in New York, NY.
The criteria changes if the purpose of the Web site is strictly to make money. Finding a revenue producing niche requires keen observation, plenty of research and persistence. • The main objective for this type of site is to sell what is hot. Therefore, publishers that belong to a network should contact their affiliate manager, who can usually offer input on the best performing verticals and their best converting offers. • Tools like WordTracker and Google Trends assist in determining search volumes. When using them, it is important to make sure that the search volume of a particular keyword is not the only criteria. Publishers should pay attention to the depth of the results to see how many keywords can effectively be used to target traffic.
Google Trends
• Spy on the competition. Do a search with niche keywords and see what the organic results are doing. This is a great way to get new ideas for content and to spot trends in the niche. Picking the right niche is often a challenging task, but it becomes easier once a publisher understands the objective of the Web site or blog in question. Yet, regardless of the focus, launching a successful Web site or blog relies on quality content, an eye for new trends and a desire to have fun. Lisa Caraffi is Affiliate Network Manager for Kowabunga!, a leading provider of interactive performance-based advertising networks and technology platforms.
• Trends in the media, particularly magazines and television, can assist in determining a niche. Publishers should embrace the newest fads and know how important it is to be on the cutting edge of what is “now”. Promoting a product or service for as long as it is profitable is key, but looking for the next big thing will lead to a constant revenue stream.
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Introduction to Podcasting By Shawn Collins Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 software to edit the audio. It’s an easy interface to edit out dead air, as well as conversations before and after the recording. Sometimes, I will add in some royaltyfree music to play for introductions and transitions. A good site for this sort of music at reasonable prices is Stock20.com. Finally, I use the podPress plugin on WordPress to post podcasts to my blogs. This is a really useful plugin that enables you to provide streaming of the audio, as well as a download link. Plus, you get stats on the number of listens. Photo by Deb Carney
Shawn Collins and Missy Ward record an episode of the Affiliate Thing podcast
I am frequently asked what I use to create podcasts, so I thought I’d put together information on the various equipment, programs, etc. for anybody interested in getting into podcasting.
When I record over the computer, I wear a Plantronics DSP400 Foldable Multimedia Headset, which gives the option to plugin either by USB or two plugs for hearing and speaking.
First off, why podcast? Well, it’s an additional area for you to reach your audience to share information, generate revenue, and create more content for your site(s).
There are a lot of varieties of Plantronics headsets, as well as other brands. I’ve been most pleased with the quality using Plantronics.
One thing to note is that the things I use are for the PC (I use them in both XP and Vista). I’m a PC, what can I say? Anyhow, I most often record over Skype, which offers a cleaner sound than a recorded telephone call. But I don’t record with Skype - I pair it up with a program called Pamela. This enables me to host and record a call with multiple people at multiple locations, though I wouldn’t recommend more than 3-4 people, as the recording gets a little messed up when people speak over each other.
And then when I am recording inperson, I use the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 Professional 2-Channel Mobile Digital Recorder. Thanks to Jay Berkowitz of Ten Golden Rules for turning me on to this one.
Another WordPress plugin you can use, which doesn’t have as many features as podPress is Audio player. After you have your podcast going, be sure to submit it to iTunes to provide listeners with another way to access and listen to it. Listen to me on the Affiliate Thing and GeekCast Show podcasts on GeekCast.fm. Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.
This recorder is very light and small (about the size of a cell phone) and has all sorts of bells and whistles, such as levels, jacks for lines, external mic, etc. The M-Audio machine connects to the computer via USB to transfer files and records to a SanDisk 4GB ULTRA II Compact Flash. After I’ve got a recorded podcast, I use
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How Social Networks Validated the Soft-Sell
Celebrating Women in Affiliate Marketing
By Brian Littleton
Back in the late nineties, it was not unusual to attend an affiliate marketing event (or any online marketing event for that matter) and see very few women in the room.
I am not a fan of the “hard sell”. Infomercials, long-form sales letters and persistent aggressive sales calls cause me to zone out, rather than creating any interest, on my part, in the product.
Social networks are communities, and, as such, have different expectations and tolerance levels for the marketers among them. Carry yourself more as if you are a new guest at a party.
As a sales alternative, I have advocated “soft sell” techniques, focusing on the product, needs of potential clients, and letting demand build organically, instead of by force.
You wouldn’t be to popular if you just walked in saying “Buy my stuff!”
For years, I’ve often been told that I am wrong on this point. However, recent reactions from social networks, with respect to the emergence of marketers, have shown that soft sell techniques are already playing a big role in the new marketing arena. EARLY RETURNS ARE IN
Many marketers agree that social networks are the next big playground. Unfortunately, most have seen disappointing early results. I believe it is because their marketing approach has been off the mark. Strong-armed sales techniques are nearly universally ignored on social sites. These types of campaigns can actually have a negative effect on brand; not to mention an enormous waste of time and resources. Members of social networks prefer to interact amongst each other, peer-to-peer. Hard sell techniques serve as an interruption to that conversation. A means to encourage conversation and interaction, such as a person or application is far better suited for this marketing channel. Marketers shouldn’t be afraid of jumping in to social networks, but they need to be respectful of the people who make up the community, and the unwritten rules of engagement. SOFT SELL
In social networking, a marketer’s best play is to become part of the community, not just to market to it. This approach takes considerably more time, effort, and creativity, but has far greater long-term potential.
By Shawn Collins and Missy Ward
Fast-forward ten years later and you’ll find that the opposite is true. Affiliate marketing is overflowing with women who are leaders in their fields or bright, up-and-coming innovators.
REPEAT BUSINESS
The following are self-submitted brief bios and wisdom from the women who make up this great talent pool of affiliate marketers.
Repeat business is the core of any business’ success. Selling a customer on a product which doesn’t deliver on its expectations or providing poor customer service will result in less overall success – even if the original sale technique is working.
The women of affiliate marketing were asked to share one tip they would give to a new affiliate getting into the industry and where they see the industry one year from today.
On the flip side, marketers drawing in followers or friends in social networking will have difficulty in the long term if their feeds don’t continue to deliver. Even worse, a marketer can experience a drop in followers if their feed is consistently filled with over-marketing that annoys their readership. Using social networks to interact with and help current customers is one of the soft sell techniques gaining a lot of traction as well as media attention. Companies who have a real presence on message boards, blogs, and other social platforms can build brand loyalty and increase the chance for repeat business. Brian Littleton is the President/CEO of ShareASale.com, Inc., a retail-focused affiliate network for businesses of all sizes.
Quality conversation, sincere opinions, and just being an interesting person to follow, builds loyal bases. Followers don’t want to see just your latest and greatest deal; they also want to get to know you. Brian Littleton Speaking at Affiliate Summit East 2008
Let’s hear it for the ladies! Amy Ely
buy.at / Platform-A, US Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 3 Favorite Website: buyat.com “I see more affiliate marketers using new tools and technologies to enhance and earn more money from their sites - including video, widgets, and more.”
Stephanie Agresta
InternetGeekGirl, Founder Years in Affiliate Marketing: 11 Favorite Website: Twitter.com “Build an audience. Core to any publishing business model is the ability to have an interested, active and targeted following. It is your job to connect that audience with offers, content and information that interests them and that serves the needs of your advertisers”
Jill Anderson
Google Affiliate Network, Account Strategist Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2 Favorite Website: Linkedin.com “One year from today I see the affiliate marketing industry taking on a stronger presence for many merchant brands. With the current state of the economy, online shopping seems to be the answer for many households.”
Cindy Ballard
Sunshine Rewards, Marketing Specialist Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2 Favorite Website: SunshineRewards.com “Attending the Affiliate Summits which are held twice a year is one of the best sources I have found to help expand my knowledge and give me a better understanding of affiliate marketing.”
Missy Barnstein
Platform-A, Sr. Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: Jambase.com “Stay true to your word. Never make a promise you can’t keep and never compromise your integrity. But most of all, have fun!”
Kit Bennett
Kaboose Inc., Founder and GM AmazingMoms.com, Affiliate Marketing Director Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: AmazingMoms.com “Be patient, there is no such thing as an easy buck. Use as many tools as you can to make linking easier. I still believe you need to provide quality content to the user. Then again I am an old school affiliate marketer utilizing organic search as opposed to PPC or an SEM budget.”
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Connie Berg
FlamingoWorld.com, Head Bird Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: Twitter.com, Tmz.com and PerezHilton.com – it’s a 3-way tie. “Take something you love and find a way to make money with it. If you do something just to make money and have no passion it won’t work. Affiliate marketing is a lot of work. You can’t just put up a site and expect the money to flow. Don’t try to copy what everyone else is doing, find something unique to add value to your site so people will want to visit.”
Ayako Bingham
buy.at, Affiliate Development Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 3 Favorite Websites: I have too many favorite sites to list “Affiliate marketing is going to grow bigger and bigger. That will lead to healthy competitions between affiliate networks as well as great revenue opportunities for all affiliates.”
Trisha Lyn Fawver
New Edge Media, Director of Affiliate Marketing Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2 Favorite Website: Facebook.com “I see affiliate marketing advancing into video and rich media much more, but otherwise in a similar position to today.”
Kristen Grace
BuyCostumes.com, Affiliate Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: Twitter.com “Every affiliate marketer should know HTML. Affiliates and their affiliate managers! It separates those who just want to earn a buck from those who want to earn a living. It amazes me how many people in the industry don’t know how to read an affiliate link.”
Melissa Feemster
LinkShare Corporation, Director, Client Services Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: ShopItToMe.com “In the current climate of uncertainty, affiliate marketing is well positioned to be a growth channel in 2009. Because the CPA model is as cost efficient and quickly measurable as you can get, we have an advantage as CMOs look to design next year’s marketing budget.”
Deborah Carney
Team Loxly, CEO Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: ABestWeb.com “I see affiliate marketing evolving away from mega mall sites into more review sites and interactive sites. More retail and less lead generation as the economy changes the way people shop plus the regulatory agencies jumping in and restricting tactics that people are finding intrusive or misleading.”
Liane Dietrich
LinkShare, Managing Director, UK Years in Affiliate Marketing: 5 Favorite Website: iStorez.co, “I see the future of affiliate marketing swimming in convergence in all areas. That is, maximizing the benefit to the consumer by combining a balance of the key value propositions of creative promotions, communities, technologies, new media, etc. And still fun!”
Megan Egan
oneNetworkDirect - Digital River, Affiliate Development Coordinator Years in Affiliate Marketing: 1 Favorite Website: MSN.com “Be a sponge. Do your research and get your hands dirty and try something that stretches your abilities.”
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Anne Fognano
CleverMoms, LLC, Mama in Charge Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: Google.com “As social networking and mobile technology continues to grow, I would expect that affiliates will continue to move more in this space to attract a wider margin of customers.”
Rosalind Gardner
Rosalind Gardner Consulting, CEO Years in Affiliate Marketing: 11 Favorite Website: Google.com “I believe that the gloomy economic forecast should actually result in growth for our industry as more people bargain hunt online and more merchants seize the opportunity to start or move their businesses online.”
PopShops.com, CEO Years in Affiliate Marketing: 5 Favorite Website: Instacalc.com “There is no magic bullet. It takes creativity, passion, hard work, originality, smart niches, and great marketing to make money in this industry.”
Beth Kirsch
Stephanie Harris
Schaaf Consulting, Affiliate Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 5 Favorite Website: RevenueToday.com “I think we’ll see a deeper saturation of affiliate marketing programs in social networks, more affiliates whose sites are social networks or who use social networks more heavily to market their own sites, and more customers using social networking platforms as ways to interact with brands.”
Jen Fluker
MarketLeverage.com, Publisher Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2 Favorite Website: OrlandoWeekly.com “Being a successful affiliate requires a passion for the industry, patience, and dedication.”
Jessie Jones
Rachel Honoway
Affiliate Classroom, Inc., VP of Marketing Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: Facebook.com “I think that this industry is due for a major technological advancement. We’ve been doing a great job at adopting and applying all of the new technologies that have been thrown at us for the last few years, but it’s been a while since the affiliate marketing industry demanded, developed and spread new technology.”
Karen Hoxmeier
MyBargainBuddy.com, Owner Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: MyBargainBuddy.com “In the future, I believe merchants will find their metrics are improved by affiliates that promote their specific products and brands.”
Erin Hughes
AzoogleAds, Assistant Manager, Network Distribution Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2.5 Favorite Website: Facebook.com “You’ve got to spend money to make money! Make sure to allocate a proper budget for testing new offers.”
uAmplify, VP, Business Development and Marketing Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: Facebook.com “Learn the perspective of everyone and put together deals that help people make money. Connectors in this field go a long way and in this field karma pays off.”
Jackie Lane Bates
LinkConnector, Director of Marketing Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: WebMD.com “I see the affiliate marketing Industry as legitimizing itself further over the next year. As we work to standardize our practices and tighten up the ethics in this industry, we also gain ground in being perceived as a serious and essential sector in the advertising and marketing world.”
Stephanie Lichtenstein
Andy Rodriguez Consulting, Affiliate Program Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 1 Favorite Website: Facebook.com and Twitter.com are a tie. “Prepare yourself for ongoing changes in the industry.”
Kathleen Lindsay
Allegiance Marketing Resources, Director Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: Spree.com “There’s an interesting trend that is growing now: more and more manufacturers and brands starting their own programs that are now in competition with their retail outlets. This will be one to watch.”
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 15
Jessica Luthi
AffiliateProgramAdvice.com, CEO Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: Wickedfire.com “ I predict that affiliate marketing will have a major surge in new business as the suffering high street shops still struggle to get folks through there bricks and mortar doors. I predict we will see more offline businesses entering our space, possibly the mom and pop type stores.”
Rebecca Madigan
Performance Marketing Alliance, Founding Organizer Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: RelevantlySpeaking.com “Affiliate marketing is the most effective, measurable and profitable marketing channel, but we suffer from misinformation. It is time to change the perception and promote our legitimacy.”
Jillian McGary
Angela Pak
Elena Potoupa
Tricia Meyer
Swetal Patel
Kelly Powers
Target, Marketing Analyst -Affiliate Progam Years in Affiliate Marketing: 1.5 Favorite Website: SnowProfessor.com “Be proud! Starting a business is a great accomplishment. If it were easy, everyone would do it.”
Helping Moms Connect/ Sunshine Rewards, Owner Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: SunshineRewards.com/videoblog “New affiliates should get involved networking on forums, Facebook, industry blogs, and Twitter. The more people you know, the more opportunities you will have to learn and grow.”
Theresa Miller
Digital River, Inc., Corporate Events Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 3 Favorite Website: Cascadegear.com “In one year from today, I see affiliate marketing starving for innovation.”
Rexanne Mancini
Rexanne.com, Owner Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: ABestWeb.com “Prepare to spend countless hours sitting in that chair.”
Judi Moore
Affiliate and Chief Juggler Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4+ Favorite Website: HuffingtonPost.com “Forget the eBooks that promise quick or easy wealth and just steadily build a business that reflects what you want to be. Surround yourself with ethical, positive, and forward
Donna McCarthy
DMC Affiliate Consulting, Consultant Years in Affiliate Marketing: 7 Favorite Website: AffiliateTips.com “Read, read, read. There is so much good information out there. Make sure you are reading to stay up with the latest technologies and trends.“
Tara McCommons
LinkConnector Corporation, Director of Sales Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: Wikipedia.com “As an affiliate, in order to successfully pre-sell a merchant’s products or services you need to be able to relate to that product or service and believe in it.”
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thinking people.”
Renee O’Banion
CelebrateExpress.com, Affiliate Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 3 Favorite Website: Facebook.com “Identify which merchants you want to promote and establish a relationship with the affiliate manager. Ask questions, request feedback, and get involved. By reaching out to your affiliate manager, it shows that you’re interested in making the most of the partnership.”
Amazon, Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 1 Favorite Website: Amazon.com “Subscribe to as many email lists as you can, to be in the know about upcoming promotions to advertise on your site.”
MediaWhiz, Director, Advertiser Services Years in Affiliate Marketing: 8 Favorite Website: SheFinds.com “The smartest affiliates will continue to find ways to spread their wings, diversify and work through many marketing channels at the same time. Advertisers will continue down the path of seeing affiliates as true partners, rather than just affiliates.”
Heather Paulson
Paulson Management Group, Inc., President Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: Ice.com “In a year from now, 3.0 affiliate networks will better enhance the multichannel affiliate marketing efforts to serve the affiliates tracking and segmentation by way of better media and reporting.”
Melanie Pawlak
LinkConnector, Merchant Sales Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2.5 Favorite Website: BagsBuy.com “Include fresh content and information on your website that you are interested in and have a lot of knowledge about.”
Kerri Pollard
Commission Junction, General Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: Yahoo! Finance “In today’s competitive environment, it’s a must to put the consumer first. In order to achieve your goal of making money, you need to first determine how you’re going to add value to the consumer path.”
Wow Things, Inc. (Wow-Coupons), President/Owner Years in Affiliate Marketing: 3.5 Favorite Website: Google.com “Believe. Listen to your gut. Work hard. Speak up. Set goals and resolutions. Be creative, but play by the rules!”
Zazzle.com, Senior Customer Acquisition Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: Zazzle.com “As you become established, take the time to get to know your advertisers. Understand their needs and goals, and communicate your own. Great things are accomplished when we work together as a team.”
Amy Preis
buy.at / Platform-A, Affiliate Development Years in Affiliate Marketing: 1.5 Favorite Website: ICanHasCheezBurger.com “Ask questions. When people in the industry offer their business card or contact information, reach out. You might be surprised at how many people are ready and willing to help you get started.”
Laura Przybek
buy.at, Events Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 3 Favorite Website: Facebook “Attend every networking opportunity and talk to everyone... new or old to the industry.”
Dina Riccobono
MarketLeverage, Marketing Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 1 Favorite Website: MarketLeverageTV.com “Networking opportunities are going to accelerate; business channels such as trade shows, forums, and blogs, will have an even bigger influence. Video is going to have a huge role in affiliate marketing’s future, as well.”
Kim Riedell
Commission Junction, Vice President, Client Development-East Years in Affiliate Marketing: 5 Favorite Website: Fidelity.com “In a year, I see more large brands realizing that they need to expand their scope and include even more affiliates who are successful and can drive sustainable profitable sales.”
Lisa Riolo
lisariolo.com Years in Affiliate Marketing: 9 Favorite Website: Current.com “Don’t give up too soon. The learning curve is deceptively steep. Consistent, predictable success takes time. If you understand this, you’ll have realistic expectations and sufficient patience to get to the fun part.”
Kim Rowley
Key Internet Marketing, Inc., CEO Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: ShoppingBookmarks.com “In a year from now, we will likely have lost some affiliates who were discouraged with the recession, while others will have flourished by capitalizing on the situation.”
Melissa D. Salas
Buy.com, Director of Marketing, Buy.com / BuyTV Host Years in Affiliate Marketing: 6 Favorite Website: Facebook “Affiliates need to evaluate programs holistically, in terms of brand recognition, conversion, reliability, convenience, security, and guaranteed customer satisfaction.”
Kim Salvino
buy.at, Sr. Delivery Manager Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: ABestWeb.com “I see affiliate marketing making great strides with regards to reputation management. Strong affiliates are beginning to take action to clean up the industry.”
Melanie Seery
NYAffiliateVoice, Business Owner Years in Affiliate Marketing: 4 Favorite Website: NYAffiliateVoice.com & ABestWeb.com “Aside from adhering to ethical practices, my advice is to always seek to improve your knowledge and skills in order to diversify and adapt to changes in the industry.”
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Carolyn Tang
ShareASale.com, Inc., Director of Client Services Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: ICanHasCheezBurger.com “There are so many great mobile e-commerce apps in their infancy right now that bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. Increased price transparency, better customer service and actual, true integration are right around the corner.”
Tara Zottola
AKMG, Inc., VP Business Development Years in Affiliate Marketing: 2 Favorite Website: IMediaConnection.com “Be honest and straight forward - that’s the best way to earn respect in our business.”
Missy Ward
Affiliate Summit, Inc., Co-Founder Years in Affiliate Marketing: 10 Favorite Website: Twitter.com and Bloglines.com “Look for merchants, networks, affiliate managers and OPM’s that are embracing social media marketing. It’s likely that their programs will be stronger as their sites become stickier and their customers more loyal.”
Kimberlee White
AKMG, Inc., President Years in Affiliate Marketing: 8 Favorite Website: AKMG.com “In one year from today, I see affiliate marketing skewed even more toward performance based models (CPA). I also see affiliates utilize more creative ways of generating traffic such as via text messaging and social sites such as Facebook.”
Linda Woods
PartnerCentric, Inc, CEO/Founder Years in Affiliate Marketing: 11 Favorite Website: It changes all the time “I see the rise of Social Media playing a very large part in online marketing overall. In many ways it is like the affiliate channel in the “early” days.”
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 19
Target Targets Affiliates Through Social Media By Jillian McGary The Target.com affiliate program began to explore social media to better serve our publishers. We started by observing the community. Through Twitter, we followed the members of the affiliate community and learned from industry experts. Listening to discussions gave us insight into current events and helped generate ideas to improve our affiliate program.
Affiliate Fraud– A Growing Concern in Affiliate Marketing? By Tyler Allen With an ever growing number of publishers and bustling campaigns, affiliate managers are certainly busy people. Amongst the affiliate manager’s long list of concerns is affiliate fraud. Both click and CPA fraud are continual concerns in the affiliate marketing industry. Recent estimates indicate average fraud in the CPA segment to be as high as 8%, with some offers/industries experiencing fraud ranging upward toward 22%. In this competitive marketplace, there’s little room for fraud, which hurts honest publishers, merchants, and networks. Evolution of Fraud Fraud is on the rise today, due to the sophistication of cutting-edge tactics used by fraudulent publishers. Many affiliate managers used to be able to spot almost all fraud with the naked eye by monitoring a publisher’s conversion rates, referring URL’s, and IP addresses. The most sophisticated fraudsters today are using automated systems to complete multiple offers with real information that is
stolen/borrowed to create a “profile”. This profile consists of a working virtual phone number with a matching voicemail, a valid email, and a new IP address for each offer. Sometimes, these fraudulent publishers will even have someone answer the phone and tell the merchant they are no longer interested in the offer because they have already purchased the product/service elsewhere. This tactic is all in an effort to make the conversion look legitimate to the merchant. The main problem is that increasingly complex schemes used by publishers today are becoming much more difficult to identify without access to data that is typically unavailable to the affiliate manager. What Else Does Fraud Affect Besides ROI? Unfortunately, fraud affects many other aspects of the advertisers business. Fraud against advertisers that require the use of a credit card to complete an offer can result in the cancellation of their merchant account due to a high amount of chargeback’s or use of stolen credit cards.
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For advertisers tying to generate quality sales leads, it can really affect the morale and productivity of the sales force, resulting in many wasted phone calls and emails to potential clients who don’t exist, or who did not and will never have an interest in using their product/service. Is Affiliate Fraud Illegal? In short – yes. Affiliate fraud is stealing. It is not just a way to outsmart the system or to get back at the networks, as some publishers choose to believe. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cyber Crimes division is spending more and more time investigating affiliate fraud due to its volume and potential to provide hard to track funds for devious uses. The industry will likely see more attention from the FBI in the future if the growth of fraud in this area goes unchecked.
Once we understood the landscape, we created an account on Twitter for our affiliate program to offer our partners another line of direct communication. The @AffiliateTarget Twitter account was established in September of 2008 and has 70+ followers and follows 40. We wanted to ensure our partners knew real people are working on Target’s affiliate program and how to reach us. Twitter is a great way for affiliates to contact us if they have questions, as we can respond quickly using the Direct Message and @Reply features. Publishers are busy and get a ton of emails, but Twitter can be a convenient alternative that is accessible from a computer or mobile device. We use Twitter to announce program updates and reach out to publishers, but also to solicit feedback from the community. Our affiliates are the experts when it comes to their visitors, so we ask about banner creative, video player vendors and even our plan for the holidays. Twitter is a wonderful way to grow relationships, offer a convenient communication option for our publishers and ensure that affiliates know who to contact if they have questions. Relationships are the best part of the business — without them we’d just be left with spreadsheets, and that’s not nearly as fun. Jillian McGary began working on the Target.com Affiliate Program in July 2007. Before going to Target, she spent three years at an advertising agency and two years teaching behavior therapy to children with autism.
Tyler Allen is Executive Director of the Cyber Crimes Field Agency (CCFA).
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 21
Affiliate Summit Social Media in NYC By Amy Rodriguez Photos by Deb Carney
In October 2008, Affiliate Summit had a niche one day show at Baruch College in New York City focused on the different aspects of social media in affiliate marketing. Lots of exciting buzz around Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and making videos but how can you make money from them? How can you use social media effectively within your business? How do you get started? The keynote and breakout sessions tackled these topics head on and gave the attendees lots of useful tips and ideas. Don Crowther, social media guru and blogging expert, delivered the day’s keynote setting the tone with electrifying energy. He captivated the audience with stats, tips and ideas. This is definitely a session you can watch multiple times and learn something new each time. Kudos to Kukral. Jim kept the show moving along as the Emcee and panel moderator. He did an excellent job engaging the speakers, keeping them on their toes and on task. Shawn Collins and various other tweeters kept everyone connected with live twittering throughout the show up on the big screen. Good stuff! The first panel of the day was Gain Friends and Influence, With Video featuring Steve Rosenbaum, CEO/Founder, Magnify.net and Melissa Salas, Director of Marketing, Buy.com. They concentrated on tailoring
What to Look For in an Affiliate Network
Thanks to Platform-A for sponsoring the cocktail hour. It was a nice way to wrap up a fruitful conference day. To cap the night off, folks headed over to Room Service NY for a party hosted by ShareASale to continue networking. What a terrific venue.
Don Crowther Delivers the Keynote Address
videos to your audience and selecting the right content while using lots of first-rate examples. Next up was Social Media Case Studies, presented by Michael Jenkins, CEO/Founder, MarketLeverage; James Keating, VP of Marketing, ShopWiki; and Jivan Manhas, President, Advaliant. These gentlemen detailed the fundamentals of their own successes with social media - how they got started and what makes them profitable. The third session was Making Social Media Make Money featuring Larry Bailin, CEO, Single Throw Internet Marketing; Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions; and Jay Berkowitz, CEO, Ten Golden Rules. They addressed what blogs and podcasts you should be following, as well as increasing return visitors and how to make them want more. The last session Leveraging Social Networks with Sachin Agarwal, President/ CEO, Dawdle.com; Zac Johnson, President/ CEO, MoneyReign, Inc.; and Adam Alter, Head of Network Management at Epic Advertising. They talked about setting up ad campaigns, custom banners and creating landing pages. The panel also discussed how to find what works for your site and building profitable relationships.
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There are a number of things you should look for when deciding which networks to promote. Here are six areas I consider before putting energy into a new network.
I encourage you to check out the videotaped sessions from the show. Don’s keynote and all of the panels are available on AffiliateSummit.tv.
By Ian Fernando
A special thanks to all of our sponsors, including oneNetworkDirect (Platinum Sponsor) and NextWeb Media (Gold Sponsor). Thanks to everyone that attended, we appreciate you coming out. It was a lot of fun to have a smaller focused show with attendance capped at 300 and only one track of sessions. Next up… Vegas! Amy Rodriguez is the Conference Director at Affiliate Summit.
1. Reputation How often is the network spoken about on the Internet? Are the media and blogs portraying the network negatively or positively? Why? Reputation and brand are very important. Reputation is an indicator of how they operate and perform. All networks say they have the best of whatever they may claim but how truthful is it really?
2. Ask About Tracking and Reporting Which tracking software does the network use? Is it an in-house system or third party software? Do they have a backup system? How do they generate and create subID reports? Also, ensure that the network software is secure and updated on a regular basis.
3. Request a Temporary Account Prior to Joining Before joining a network, ask for a temporary login or account. This gives you a chance to view the interface and explore offers, payouts, and more importantly to test reporting/tracking. You do not want to join a network and find out they do not have the offers you want to promote. Even
worse that their tracking and reporting system are not recording everything accurately.
security and comfort when promoting an offer via the network.
6. What are the Methods of Payment?
4. Diversity of Offers How wide of a range of offers do they have? How concentrated are they? Some networks are solely on particular niches, such as UK offers, credit loans, and insurance. Others may have a wide variety of items to promote, from infant diapers to fashion and clothing. There are also networks who cater to a little of everything but do not have a huge list of offers in each niche. You will need to ask yourself what type of offers you want to run.
5. Talk to the Managers Is the affiliate manager friendly when you speak to them? Are you able to small talk while on the phone? How many people did you talk to after signing up? You want to talk and get the feel from the affiliate manager or team members of the network. Accessibility is also important – are you able to reach representatives from the network via email, phone, IM, Twitter, etc.? Access and responsiveness will give you a sense of
Check to see how you will be paid: PayPal, wire transfer, check, etc. If by check, how is it delivered? How often are you paid? Weekly, bi-weekly, daily? What is the quota for such payments? Can you get direct deposits? Inquire about the fees for the direct deposits, if any. And if you are located outside of the United States, do they securely ship checks or direct deposit internationally? Take these steps to perform due diligence on a network, and you will limit risks and headaches down the road. Ian Fernando is the Founder of IANternet Media LLC and Blogger/Affiliate Marketer at IanFernando.com.
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 23
Call to Activation by Geno Prussakov One of the keys to running a fruitful affiliate program lies in understanding that not only should there be a robust affiliate recruitment strategy in place, but also a continuous activation of the recruited affiliates into becoming producing affiliates.
Affiliate Summit 2009 West Affiliate Marketing Listings
Affiliate activation is one of the most frequently overlooked components of affiliate program management, especially by newly launched programs.
1115Media.com
Sooner or later, every merchant realizes that success is not measured by the numbers of recruited affiliates, but rather by the numbers of those whom are truly active. Over the years of experimenting with different ways of motivating affiliates, I have realized that the best way to activate affiliates is to expose them to activation offers in each step of their interaction with the affiliate program. Just as banners with a clear call to action outperform those that do not, affiliate programs with a compelling call to activation outshine other affiliate programs. There are three phases of affiliate engagement… the recruitment phase, welcoming phase, and routine phase.
Recruitment Phase Here you want to motivate affiliates to not only join your program, but also to put up your links and refer their first orders/ leads. This can be done by remunerating the desired actions with a tangible bonus or a commission increase. This should be practiced throughout the recruitment process - from the outgoing e-mails soliciting affiliates to join the affiliate program, to the very text of the program description on the merchant’s website. Welcoming Phase Stop your reading here and take a new look at the application approval e-mail that you are currently sending. Do you sound
Photos by Deb Carney
Geno Prussakov chats with Lisa Picarille of Revenue Magazine
motivating enough for them to set aside their other projects and put up a few links for you? Does it inspire them to start a few new paid search campaigns to generate a couple of orders for your program within an X number of days after signing up? Convincing calls to activation in the text of the welcome e-mails are like seeds falling on fertile soil. It is evident just from their application that they have intentions of promoting you. They applied, and you approved their application. Don’t just send them a “welcome-aboardyou’ll-love-working-with-us” message. Offer them a reason to jump right on it, or you may well be put at the very end of that endless merchants-to-develop queue. Routine Phase It is the routine that has “an unbelievable power to waste and destroy” (cf Henri de Lubac). Do not waste your affiliates’ time with predictable monthly newsletters. Turn this part of your routine into fun for them. Run especially aggressive monthly activation
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campaigns for the affiliates that are already in your program, but are not yet performing. The market of affiliate programs will only continue to grow more and more competitive. If you want your program to succeed, make it stand out, and weave the calls to activation into the very structure of it. Geno Prussakov is the CEO of AM Navigator, and author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes.”
Nothing for Sale! I have absolutely nothing for sale! Come on by WWW.1115MEDIA.COM for Mike Buechele’s insights into the Affiliate Marketing, Online advertising and New Media industries. Discuss some thought provoking questions about your business and career path, and join the conversation for some fun. Football picks every Friday. Mike’s new book on leadership and motivation is coming soon along with a release party with a live band in New York City. WWW.1115MEDIA.COM
AbeBooks, Inc.
Join the AbeBooks Affiliate program and make revenue by referring your visitors to millions of books worldwide. We offer 90-day cookie tracking, competitive tiered commission rates, free shipping on millions of books with no minimum purchase, API availability, and committed account management. AbeBooks is a leading online marketplace for textbooks, new, used, rare and antiquarian books. Visitors can easily find what they want, so whether you’re adding links to a price comparison site, shopping portal, blog or personal site, you can make extra revenue by referring buyers to AbeBooks. Visit www.abebooks.com/docs/AffiliateProgram for more info.
AdHustler.com
AdHustler.com chronicles a serial internet entrepreneurs experiences with making money online. Topics discussed include affiliate marketing, search engines, social media, traditional media and much more. Follow my case studies on new traffic sources and make money learning from my failures and successes.
Adservice Media
Northern European affiliate network, one of the largest and fastest-growing in Scandinavia, Huge network of high quality and professional online media partners, Main focus on CPA, CPO and CPC campaigns, State of the art efficient and user friendly partner program. Visit us - www.adhustler.com
Advanta
Is your site frequented by small business owners, business professionals or entrepreneurs? If so you should become a part of the Advanta Affiliate program! One of the largest issuers of small business credit cards, Advanta offers a legacy of experience and success in the affiliate marketplace. Join our program and reap benefits such as historically high conversion rates in the business credit industry, a cookie window of 60 return days, a liberal keyword bidding policy and a dedicated and experienced affiliate marketing team. To learn more and meet our team, visit us at the Meet Market on Sunday, January 11th!
AffiliateProgramAdvice.com
Services the UK and USA. Affiliate Marketing is about conversions. We are more than just an affiliate management agency, we take the holistic approach and look at all the aspects of your business. After all, if you don’t make money, neither do we. Offering Consultancy and service in all areas of E-commerce, are we any good? Read our testimonials and then have a bit of a google.
aGoodCause.com
aGoodCause.com is amongst the world’s leading online shopping sites. We’re: Active in 8 countries, Working with 5000 online brand stores, Supporting 700 charities, Official partners with MySpace and many other major strategic partners. More info on how to benefit as an affiliate or merchant on www.agoodcause.com
AlexBet.com
AlexBet.com is a leading Graphic Design and Web Development studio. We follow the latest trends and have years of experience in the Affiliate Marketing industry working with both merchants and affiliates. We make your websites work for you, not the other way around. Our services include logo design, website design, web templates, e-commerce websites, coupon websites, automated affiliate websites, banners, posters, brochures, and practically anything that has to do with graphic design or web development, for both the web and print.
FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2009 | 25
Affiliate Summit 2009 West | Affiliate Marketing Listings
Anjani Square, Inc. (redtagdeals.com)
RedtagDeals.com is the leading destination for free coupons, coupon codes and promotional offers to save money at thousands of stores online. Grab the latest and most recent online coupon codes for free at the mouse of a click and enjoy the savings on all your shopping online.
Atherion Software
Atherion Software makes applications that help users protect and secure their private information and identity, and maintain and optimize the health and efficiency of their PCs. Founded by software security and utility experts, Atherion’s background includes experienced veterans from Microsoft, Aluria, McAfee, and the financial industry. Affiliate Summit attendees can register for free copies of Atherion products at www.atherionsoftware.com/ ASLV2009 through January 31, 2009.
AvantLink.com
AvantLink was founded on the basis of offering innovative technology free of charge, a quality platform, brand protection, and exceptional levels of partner support. We offer standard banner/text/html campaigns in addition to robust reporting, integrated and advanced datafeed solutions, tracking embedded RSS feeds, an Affiliate API and more. This is a professional and comprehensive systems for top tier Affiliate marketers and merchants alike.
B4Playing
We are affiliate marketers for over 9 years. We have developed our techniques for doing SEO, PPC, Media buying and more. We are always happy & looking to work with new programs, networks and know new people in the online industry anyone is welcome to contact me. Feel free to email me to itay@b4playing.com or Skype me: itaypaz77
Backcountry.com
Backcountry.com is dedicated to being the best online retailer of the best built outdoor and backcountry gear on the planet. We scour the planet for the top gear you demand. In our stores, you’ll find the best gear from top brands like The North Face, Black Diamond, Mountain Hardwear, Arc’Teryx and more. With over 600 brands and nearly 17,000 products, Backcountry.com offers a wide array of the absolute best made gear including backpacking, camping, skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, kayaking, mountaineering gear and more, all at competitive prices. If you can’t find a piece of gear on Backcountry.com, its likely not a piece of gear you really need.
Barefoot Media, LLC
Anyone who’s done creative work knows it’s a bit like being at sea. You can’t make the wind blow, but you can put up a sail. Much more than just combined skills and talents, it takes a spirit of interrelationship to harness the creative current. While our backgrounds and experiences are diverse, we’ve collaborated together in many contexts and we know how to maximize each other’s strengths to deliver results. What you can expect from Barefoot Media is uncompromising attention to detail and a relentless commitment to excellence. Contact us for your email and creative needs. www.barefootmedia.com
Blue Man Productions
Blue Man Group is the first top-tier live entertainment show to offer its own direct affiliate program. They are best known for their critically acclaimed theatrical performances that have been described as a visually stunning, wildly inventive and hysterically funny. Blue Man Affiliates benefit by selling a show that is widely recognized and universally acknowledged as being one of the highest quality entertainment experiences on the planet. Blue Man Group Affiliates Enjoy: 5-7% commission on ticket sales, Advanced web-based tracking and reporting, Custom website, landing pages and video widgets, Start Selling Now and Earn $25 after 1st Sale and $50 after 5th Sale To Join Visit www.bluemanaffiliates.com
Brandlet.com
Brandlet.com is an online fashion retailer featuring more than 100 of the best fashion brands with the latest styles for women. Expect to find designer and brand name fashions, commonly found in department and specialty stores, at a set price of $19.95 for all items. From trendy to classic, juniors to misses, there is something for every woman at Brandlet.com. In addition to every day savings at Brandlet. com, we’re practically giving away top brands. Our “Deal of the Day” marks down one item to just $1 every day, where early bird shoppers will have the opportunity to buy one item at $1 until it is sold out. We operate our own state of the art warehouse where everything we sell is stocked. We ship every order by ourselves, not partnering with any drop-shippers like many of our competitors do. If it’s on our site, it will ship within 1 business day.
BrandVerity
Merchants, are your affiliates violating your PPC keyword policies? Have you ever checked your search results from home in the evenings? Have you ever asked a friend to conduct a search from a different city? PoachMark monitors search ads for you. You input your PPC policy and PoachMark alerts you when it discovers advertisers violating your policy. PoachMark captures dayparting, reverse-geotargeting, and the use of source-masking redirects. PoachMark visits every website to find which advertisers are your affiliates. You get a full picture of who is buying ads on your terms. Stop trademark poaching now! Learn more at http://www. brandverity.com
Broderick Street Partners LLC
Broderick Street Partners is a major affiliate marketer focused on financial services. We promote loans and financial products on both ends of the credit spectrum via paid-search campaigns. If you are looking for a high quality and potent affiliate to promote your financial product, please call us at 415-244-6101.
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP offers comprehensive intellectual property and litigation legal services to national and international clients. With offices in Ohio and Florida, our attorneys focus on developing cost-effective solutions to the challenges facing our clientele today. We provide experienced representation in intellectual property, licensing, and IP litigation relating to the areas of cyber law, trademark, copyright, unfair competition, trade secrets, patented technology, and computer software matters. Our clientele ranges from the national and international corporations to the local entrepreneur, throughout the United States and abroad, in virtually every industry and trade.
CDF Networks
CDFnetworks.com is one of the oldest and most respected affiliate marketing and pay per click blogs. Stop by for a no nonsense view of PPC marketing from an experienced super affiliate. No paid reviews or fluff posts, just good content that you’ll want to read. We also feature a section with the latest PPC coupons. www. cdfnetworks.com
CleverMoms, LLC
CleverMoms.com has been offering consumers coupons, deals, and sales, for over 800 online merchants, since 1999. CleverMoms and has been featured in Woman’s Day, Woman’s World, NBC, ABC, CBS and more! Be sure to visit CleverBabies.com and CleverDads.com too!
ClickLeasing.com
ClickLeasing.com is the premier online marketing firm and domain leaser. ClickLeasing guarantees quality traffic and quality domains to our partners and customers. ClickLeasing.com - Guaranteed Results Instantly.
CopierSupplyStore.com
Affiliate Marketers! Looking for a High Converting Offer? Start promoting the world’s largest toner and office supply website. Affiliates can earn additional revenue by monetizing your existing B2B traffic or get a high converting keyword lists for PPC campaigns. The CopierSupplyStore.com has been a Brick-and-Mortar business for over 30 years. I created this affiliate program for a few reasons one, I realized how well it was converting and knew some affiliates would be stoked when they found this offer. And two, we use reliable 3rd party networks for payment. Monthly bonuses are available, so please come take a look.
Copperstar Content
Copperstar Content is building two theme networks and is looking for affiliate partners with exposure in the travel industry. Please contact Robb Vaules (robb@copperstar.com) for more information.
D and D Marketing, Inc (dba: T3leads)
T3Leads.com is an important lead generation company based in Sherman Oaks, California. Centered around Pay-Per-Lead, we manage webmasters with a generation model that produces what advertisers really need to be successful. Our search engine optimizers work to produce high quality leads, insuring the success of the network. Leads generated in many categories payout between 1 and 60 dollars to affiliates. Categories included are: Payday Loans, Auto Loans, Debt Settlement, Mortgage, Insurance, Home Improvement and others. In business since 2003, T3Leads has built momentum, expertise and understanding in the operations of lead generation.
Edmunds.com
Join the Edmunds.com Affiliate Program on Commission Junction! What is Edmunds.com? The premier online resource for automotive consumer information and the #1 source of new car leads in the industry. Who are Edmunds.com publishers? Auto enthusiast, car buying advice and financial advice sites. What is Edmunds. com’s offer? $4.75 for every completed new car lead form, custom commission terms to top publishers, bonus incentive programs, high EPC and conversion rate, 30 day referral period, over 100 available links and a monthly publisher newsletter Who do I contact with questions? David Camacho, Affiliate Marketing Manager, dcamacho@edmunds.com
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Affiliate Summit 2009 West | Affiliate Marketing Listings
Entertainment Magazine
Entertainment Magazine (EMOL.org) has been online since 1995 with entertainment news and features, free movie downloads and casual games. Every day between 20-30,000 unique visitors from more than 150-200 countries visit EMOL.org and EntertainmentMagazine.net, the dynamic RSS section of the website. Entertainment Magazine, a print publication established in the Southwest US in 1977, is entire online with daily updates. EMOL.org partners with advertisers and freelancers around the world.
Finish Line
Finish Line is a leading athletic retailer offering the best selection of brand name footwear, apparel and accessories. The company operates over 700 stores in 47 states and online at www.finishline. com. Finish Line’s affiliate program offers commission on all purchases made online including gift cards. FinishLine.com always offers Free in store pick-up as well as free returns to any of our 700 stores. Join the FinishLine.com affiliate program today or email Rob Gough (rgough@finishline.com) to grow your Finish Line partnership!
Football Fanatics
HDRwalls.com
HDRwalls.com offers a welcome change from hum-drum single color desktop backgrounds or the limited selection of built-in OS wallpapers. They currently have about 350 High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos in resolutions ranging from 800x600 to 1920x1200 for free download. They also provide sizes for iPod Touch, PSP, Blackberry, and iPhone. HDR photography is the result of increasing the dynamic range of a photo through tone mapping and combining multiple exposures.
HLOLA.com
HLOLA, a Conversion Tracking for PPC Affiliates reveals valuable information that can dramatically improve your campaigns. Discover profitable keywords and the actual search terms people used to find you; Check out your campaign’s monthly, weekly, or daily trends; and Learn about your most converting traffic sources and can target your campaigns more efficiently. HLOLA is extremely flexible... It supports ALL Affiliate/CPA networks, works with or without a website, and is compatible with all major search engines. Learn more here: http://hlola.com. Enter ‘ASEAST09’ as the promo code to get a 50% discount.
IANternet Media LLC
Football Fanatics is leading the way in officially licensed merchandise for NCAA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and NASCAR. We have a huge selection of jerseys, shirts, hats, collectibles, memorabilia and more. We have over 70,000 items available and many more on the way! Become part of the winning team and gain immediate access to 1,600+ unique banners, video ads and a 70,000+ item data feed. You can join us on ShareASale, Commission Junction or our in-house program.
We have access to hundreds of reputable advertisers, access to the most exclusive offers, and provide the highest payouts! Does that not sound familiar? Almost as if EVERY other network said the same thing. Before you join a network, be sure to get another affiliate’s opinion on them. Be satisfied with the network you are joining and not just the marketing hype. AFFpinions.com has real opinions from real affiliates on networks and their own experiences. Don’t believe all the affiliate marketing myths; get the REAL stories from REAL affiliates! AFFpinions.com.
Geeks.com
InspireMeToday.com
Since 1996, Geeks.com has been one of the leading online directto-consumer computer products retailer, specializing in excess inventory, manufacturer-closeouts, daily computer specials, highdemand and unusual computer components, peripherals, and accessories. As one of the Top 500 Web Retailers for 2007, Geeks. com ships a huge selection of inventory from its 160,000 square foot Oceanside, California-based fulfillment center to a dedicated following of tech-savvy, “Geeky” consumers. Geeks.com Affiliate Program offers a dedicated Program Manager, data feeds, widgets, custom-branded coupon codes, competitive compensation and more. For more information contact Anita York, Anita@geeks.com.
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Inspire Others and Build Residual Affiliate Income! Receive your unique affiliate code and when your referrals join InspireMeToday. com, you will receive a very generous 50/50 residual payout indefinitely! Visit InspireMeToday.com/Summit for complete details. Each day we feature inspiration from a different Luminary. Business, motivation, health, wealth, relationships, lifestyle, etc... including Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul), Michael Gerber (E-Myth), Dr. Bernie Siegel (Love, Medicine and Miracles), Dr. John Dimartini (The Secret), Janet Attwood (The Passion Test) and hundreds more. From engaging interviews to a short motivational text or just the quote of the day, it’s a win-win for everyone.
iRetired Media Inc.
Through our network of retirement planning, insurance, and finance related Web sites, iRetired Media provides business strategy and performance based marketing solutions.
iSpionage.com
Discover Profitable Niches without Spending a Dime! With iSpionage, you will: Save time researching multiple niches at the same time, Significantly increase your chance of finding profitable niches, Write high click-through-rate ad copy in less time and lower your CPC, Discover profitable keywords that your competitors are bidding on now, Get alerted when others started to encroaching your territory, your data is guaranteed accurate and refreshed daily. This program delivers all the intel you need to dramatically save you time, prevent competitors from stealing your customers while you steal theirs.
Kites In Season
KitesInSeason.com is a new community information website for the single and dual line kite fliers, from beginners to experts. Join the community now and you can get started uploading photos, chatting in the forum, sharing tips, giving and receiving advice from fellow kite fliers, and blogging about recent articles or videos. We’ll be doing reviews on some kite books, and also offering you a place to get your kiting needs filled. Remember ¦ Once you have a breeze you’ll have kites in season
Long Marketing
Discover the truly incredible potential of China’s massive customer base for internet marketing! Now, you are aware that in 2008, the Chinese mainland’s internet population had reached 253 million and this increasingly wealthy country is seeing explosive growth of online shopping. Compared with the USA, the penetration rate in China is still very low (19.1%) and with more than 200 new internet users every minute, imagine how you can begin to easily profit with the Chinese consumer. Now, for free information on how you can reach this budding goldmine of internet riches, go to AFFILIATEMARKETINGCHINA.COM
Mary M Henderson LLC
Cover yourself in style with the best umbrellas at www. affordableumbrellas.com and after a walk on the beach rest luxuriously in your favorite hammock purchased at www. myaffordablehammocks.com. Check it out; it’s just the best.
mgecom, inc.
Has your affiliate program grown stagnant? ROI reached a plateau? Is your affiliate channel no longer effective? At mgecom, inc., our priority is to deliver measureable results through your affiliate program. By managing your program with an individualized focus, implementing effective recruitment strategies, and targeting goals relevant to your core business, we will effectively increase your revenue. Choose a partnership with mgecom, experts in outsourced affiliate program management. Contact us for a free consultation at www.mgecom.com, info@mgecom.com, or (877) 447-1541.
MyCoupons.com LLC
MyCoupons.com offers Advertisers Unique Opportunities. We offer Coupon Codes for Individual Stores and a Shopping Engine to showcase products, Couparison Shopping. We consistently are Top Performers for our network partners. Advertisers have the opportunity to work directly with us to create customized programs, increasing their Traffic and receiving a better ROI. Mycoupons.com offers every advertiser the same opportunities no matter the size of your company. Our team focus is Personal Attention for Advertisers and their business goals. We customize each program to maximize the Revenues you receive from your MyCoupons program. For details contact us at sales@mycoupons.com or call 866-383-7890.
Needzilla.com
Looking for a way to get more eyes on your product or service? Needzilla.com is the next generation of online social classifieds introducing a third party to internet transactions. By utilizing our website you gain free access to an unlimited sales force of Bounty Hunters. Name your bounty today and take advantage of this new and amazing opportunity!
Omaha Steaks
Omaha Steaks® Shipping Great Gourmet ¦ Everywhere ¦ Every Day. Our popular white coolers can be seen circling the globe on missions of culinary delight. Known both nationwide and internationally for providing the finest in premium beef and exceptional gourmet foods, Omaha Steaks grew from a very humble beginning in 1917 as a custom butcher shop. Yet today the company is America’s largest direct response marketer of premium gourmet food gifts. Join our affiliate program today and start earning $$$. Visit www.OmahaSteaks.com/affiliate for more information.
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Affiliate Summit 2009 West | Affiliate Marketing Listings
Phoenix Publishing Group
Hey everyone, just thought I’d use this space to tell you about a great new program that will help you save up to 80% on all of your travel. I used it to get a $500 upgrade at the Seaport Hotel for Affiliate Summit Boston. Check out the Discount Travel examples and then contact me if you’re interested in becoming an affiliate. This really does work and it’s a lot of fun too. You can get the full story on how you can save big bucks every time you travel at www.HomeVacationBusiness.com.
priceline.com
Priceline.com is one of the most recognized names in the online travel space. We have relationships with all the major, name brand suppliers customers know and trust. We offer a wide variety of travel affiliate programs to help you earn money selling airline tickets, hotel room, rental cars, and vacation packages on your web site. Whether you’re looking to make money by selling Priceline branded travel products on your web site, build your own branded travel web site, or get access to our inventory through our travel XML solutions, we have a product for you! Visit www.priceline.com/affiliates
Professional Cash
At ProCash we believe EVERY affiliate is important. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced marketer, we want to offer you as much help and assistance as possible. We have an extensive promotional materials area with banners, articles, tips, and more. We’re available to help you directly with PPC, SEO, Email marketing, and any other training or assistance you may need. You can promote all our public records niche products with a clear conscience knowing you are providing people with a valuable quality product at a fair price. You’ll be rewarded VERY well with up to 75% commission on every sale.
Puritan’s Pride & Vitamin World
Now is the time to join Puritan’s Pride & Vitamin World’s affiliate programs! Q1 is our peak season, which means more commission for you! For more information on our programs visit: Puritan’s Pride: http://affiliate.puritan.com/ and Vitamin World: http://www. vitaminworld.com/pages/affiliate.asp?
R3R
R3R is a web business consulting agency. We work on both sides of the affiliate marketing aisle â “ as affiliates and as merchants. So we use our experience and expertise to help small businesses build, promote, and monetize websites. Our strong background in lead generation for service industries (i.e.: law, insurance, accounting, etc.) comes from operating a number of related publishing sites. In 2005 we helped launch a major new in-house affiliate program for a nationwide insurance brokerage (CLICKinsure.com). We continue to manage all aspects of the program as outsourced program managers (OPM).
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Red Tag Technologies
Red Tag Technologies develops social media applications. Through our portfolio of web-based products, we provide our clients with the tools and resources to establish monetized online social communities. For more info, please visit our website at http://www. redtagtech.com. Build, Promote, Monetize. We can help.
Round Sky, Inc
We generate and sell exclusive Payday leads, Debt Settlement leads, and Auto Loan leads. Visit www.LeadHorizon.com for details!
ScrapbookersInnerCircle.com
Connect with a worldwide circle of interesting people who enjoy scrapbooking, the most versatile hobby of all. www. ScrapbookersInnerCircle.com appeals to dedicated scrapbook aficionados, those who take this pastime to a high level of indepth collecting and inspired creativity. Post questions, create a blog, upload photos. We’re a venue of dedicated people sharing interesting ideas, motivating each other and perfecting our craft. We’re eager to meet you and gain from your contributions, so join now to get started and receive our gift for joining, six-podcasts of helpful scrapbook lessons.
SkinCareRx.com
SkinCareRx is an active retailer of professional skin care products, including: Obagi, iS Clinical, Glytone, M.D. Forte, and many more. Our Partner, SkinBotanica sells only 100% natural beauty products. Both sites share the same shopping cart. Our Affiliate Benefits include: 20% commissions on all sales, average order of $110, 45day action referral period, and free shipping on orders over $49. Visit SkinCareRx.com today to see what we have to offer, and receive 10% off your entire purchase. Enter SUMMIT at checkout (expires February 28, 2009)
Top Toys for Kids
Top Toys for Kids, www.top-toys-kids.com, is excited to be attending Affiliate Summit West. We look forward to meeting with our merchants and fellow publishers.
TrainSignal.com
TrainSignal.com Affiliate Program: Our company creates “real-world scenario based” computer training materials so your website visitors can prepare for IT certification exams. Our training is used worldwide by individuals, small/medium business, some of the largest corporations in the world, educational institutions, governments and a favorite of the US Military. We value our affiliates and encourage them to concentrate on marketing techniques that we can’t allocate the resources to or don’t have the expertise to manage in house. Our affiliate program is exclusive on ShareASale, has high conversions, 20%+ commissions, product data feed and professional management by Andy Rodriguez Consulting.
TribanBiz Inc
How many Bloggers ARE NOT using WordPress? Too few to mention. THE REST ARE YOUR POTENTIAL BUYERS! proudly Introducing WP Affiliate Elite http://www. wpaffiliateelite.com/ Join Our Affiliate Program - Earn 45% Of Each Sale You Make With WP Affiliate Elite EVERY KEYWORD on your Blog can turn into an Affiliate link. No programming knowledge is required. Takes only 3 minutes to install. Hides your affiliate links to avoid losing commissions. Pre made link style included! Track each click making it easy to analyze which are the most profitable.
WattBuzz.com
Introducing an exciting new deal site: WattBuzz.com! This deal site is specifically targeted to professionals in the low voltage electronics industry. Whether you’re an installer, a specifier, or a consultant-or perhaps a power user who needs professional grade security or home automation products--WattBuzz enables you to find great deals in this niche space. At WattBuzz, we feature products ranging from security cameras and video products to home theater/automation and access control. Through our relationships with some of the top merchants in this space, we work tirelessly to bring you the best deals! Visit us today at WattBuzz.com!
Women’s Tennis Apparel
My name is Cheri Britton and I am the owner of womens-tennis-apparel.com. I would like to take this opportunity to thank James and Arlene Martell and the private members of affiliatemarketersbootcamp.com (The James Gang) for all their instruction and ongoing support in building my business. It is great to be here at the summit. My husband Peter and I are also here on our honeymoon. Please say hello if you see us at this great event!
Zynali Incorporated
The world of online gambling is filled with scam artists, phishers, and unscrupulous companies. Yet there are still reputable and safe services available to players from all countries. At http://GamblingReviewsSite. com you will find the valuable information you need to make an informed decision. Get informed...not scammed! Independent gaming site reviews, free sports picks, betting tips, and much more.
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Thank You Affiliate Summit West 2009 Sponsors PLATINUM SPONSOR
GOLD SPONSOR
SILVER SPONSOR
BRONZE SPONSOR
Listen to sessions from Affiliate Summit East 2008 free at GeekCast.fm
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Affiliate Summit West | 2009 Agenda Sunday, January 11 Booth Setup Location: Exhibit Hall Area - Pavilion 1-7 Exhibitor Move In: 9:00am - 6:00pm Registration Location: Registration Office Space #2 Time: 8:30am - 6:00pm Affiliate Meet Market Location: Pavilion 8-11 Time: 12:00pm - 6:00pm Exhibitor Move In: 9:00am - 12:00pm
Advanced Approaches to Affiliate Recruiting, Training & Management
Session 1b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Dual presentation on advanced techniques, strategies and ideas for affiliate training and management. This enlightening, and entertaining session will help you improve and grow your affiliate program. • Heather Paulson, President, Paulson Management Group • Geno Prussakov, CEO, AM Navigator LLC Chat Delivers: More Sales, More Affiliate Revenues
Session 1c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Learn from presented case studies and analysis how online chat technology increases sales conversions 8-15% while delivering more earnings to affiliates. Everybody wins. • Lisa Riolo, Founder, Hammock Ventures (Moderator)
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.
• Jacquie Matzat, Marketing Manager, Your Baby Can Read, LLC • Durk Price, President, eAccountableOPM
Session 1a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Affiliate marketers on popular issues like PPC and SEO optimization, content and website strategies, monetizing long-tail traffic and emailing. Moderated session, includes a Q&A with the audience.
• Tony Pantano, CEO, Imwave, Inc. Future of Affiliate Marketing - Offline
Session 2b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Purpose of presentation is to outline our vision or the future of affiliate marketing and seeing an expansion of affiliate marketing to offline transactions and offline media channels (publishers). • Jonathan Treiber, EVP Biz Dev & Co-founder, RevTrax The Black Ink Session
Session 2c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Behind-the-scenes review of one of Jeremy Palmer’s successful affiliate sites. Learn how to plan, develop and market your own profitable affiliate site with a hands-on case study. • Jeremy Palmer, President, Quit Your Day Job, LLC
• Glenn Russell, Co-Founder and CEO, UpSellit.com • Alan Weissman, Owner, MyNursingUniforms.com Affiliate Marketing in 2009
Affiliate Strategies for Traffic Generation and Monetization
Google’s rules are often misunderstood, causing turf wars between the affiliate channel & search teams. Learn through real world examples how to maximize affiliate search & internal search programs.
Session 1d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) This panel of well-known industry experts will address the current state of affiliate marketing and will discuss future trends and expected growth patterns.
The Ultimate Pitching Guide
Session 2d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Experts share their best (and most outrageous) secrets for getting attention from merchants, media and the masses. You’ll learn the tips, tricks and techniques to get the attention you seek. • Lisa Picarille, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Revenue Magazine (Moderator)
(such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API. • John Hasson, President, JAH Media, LLC Developing The Right Merchant Mindset
Session 3b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Affiliate programs don’t run well on auto pilot. Many merchants start down the road of affiliate marketing because they heard or read somewhere how profitable it could be. • Andy Rodriguez, President, Andy Rodriguez Consulting Inc Beyond Customer Acquisition: Opportunities Affiliates Can Bring
Session 3c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Session highlights examples where merchant/affiliate collaboration sparked tremendous growth including improving overall site conversion; identifying hot product trends; and translating online success into offline retail sales. • Angel Djambazov, OPM, Custom Tailored Marketing Ethical Issues in Affiliate Marketing
Session 3d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) There are two sides to ethical issues in affiliate marketing, and we will entertain audience questions for a panel of industry leaders. • Haiko de Poel, Jr., Managing Partner, dp Internet services, LLC DBA ABestWeb (Moderator) • Connie Berg, CEO, FlamingoWorld.com, LLC
• Kristopher B. Jones, President & CEO, Pepperjam (Moderator)
• Anita Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, SmallBizTrends.com
• Chuck Hamrick, Affiliate Manager, affiliateCREW.com
• Andrew Wee, Founder, WhoIsAndrewWee.com (Moderator)
• Gary Ackerman, President, M3 Mobile Marketing
• Jim Kukral, Owner, TheBizWebCoach.com
• Brian Littleton, President / CEO, ShareASale.com
• Miles Baker, President, MarketingWithMiles.com
• Rae Hoffman, CEO, Sugarrae & MFE Interactive
• Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter (HARO)
• Paul Nichols, Director of Sales, Ebates.com
• Geordie Carswell, Founder, Diversion Marketing
• Linda Woods, President & CEO, PartnerCentric, Inc.
• Nick Koscianski, President, NickyCakes.com Affiliates & Internal Search: Recipe for Disaster?
Session 2a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
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Automating Websites and PPC Management
Session 3a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Learn advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks
Affiliate Summit Mentor Program Meet-up Location: Brasilia 1-3 Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm Affiliate Summit Hospitality Room Open
Location: Patio/Miranda 1&2 Time: 9:00pm - 12:00am
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Affiliate Summit West | 2009 Agenda
Monday, January 12 Continental Breakfast Location: Pavilion 8–11 Time: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Whitehat Linkbuilding Strategies: Beginner to Advanced
Luncheon
The Future of Performance Marketing: The Evolution (part 1)
Session 4a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: Pavilion 8-11 Time: 12:30pm-1:45pm (Lunch is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Session 5b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) It’s no secret, links matter. We’ll present everything from basic directory linkbuilding to advanced tactics like .edu & authority linkbuilding. Discussion will include all above board, clean tactics. • Wil Reynolds, Associate, SEER Interactive
(Breakfast is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Coffee Service Location: Pavilion 8–11 Time: 10:00am–12:30pm and 2:00pm–6:00pm Registration Location: Registration Office Space #2 Time: 8:30am - 6:00pm
Bloghaus/Press Room
Location: Miranda 3 Time: 8:30am - 6:00pm The Bloghaus is an area reserved for credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk space, blog, interview, relax and network. • Julie Vazquez, Blogger, JuliesJournal.com (Blog Mistress)
Affiliate Marketing 2009: What Really Works Now
Session 4b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) In this highly interactive session, affiliate marketing veteran Ola Edvardsson takes a fresh look at what really works in the affiliate marketing space. • Ola Edvardsson, CEO, Performancy Reaching Aggressive Goals without Monetary Incentives
Session 4c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) This session outlines how to best manage affiliate relationships to reach major revenue goals without additional budget. Tactics focus on non-monetary incentives to increase affiliate performance. • Chris Kramer, Co-Founder and Media Director, NETexponent (Moderator) • Darren Eilers, Founder & CEO, DME Media, LLC
Exhibit Hall
• David Lewis, CEO & Founder, Cashbaq
Location: Exhibit Hall Area - Pavilion 1-7 Time: 10:00am - 5:00pm
• Kevin Smith, Affiliate Marketing and Business Development Manager, Brown Shoe Co. -- Shoes.com
Opening Remarks & Keynote Location: General Session Room - Brasillia 1-7 Time: 9:45am - 10:45am • Jim Kukral, Owner, TheBizWebCoach.com (MC) • Gary Vaynerchuk, Director of Operations, Wine Library (Keynote) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Advertising on Facebook
Session 4d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Learn about advertising on Facebook and how affiliates can reach over 100 million members. Join us for a panel discussion including a Facebook representative covering all you need to know. • Dan Murray, Internet Marketing Strategist, Ravenwood Marketing, Inc. (Moderator) • Zac Johnson, President / CEO, MoneyReign Inc. • Alex Schultz, Facebook
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Organic SEO Site Review
Session 5a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) SEO review of audience members sites with real feedback and direction on how to improve their rankings in the SERPs.
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) We will start with a short presentation and then these industry leaders will continue with an open discussion about the evolution of affiliate marketing into performance marketing. Panelists will continue in Session 6b with: “What’s Next”. • Larry Adams, Product Manager, Google • Scott Jangro, President, MechMedia, Inc.
• Scott Polk, Senior SEO Analyst, Bruce Clay, Inc. (Moderator)
• Jim Jessup, Direct Marketing, Yahoo!
• Eric Lander, Organic Search Manager, ADP, Inc.
• Steve Schaffer, Founder/CEO, Vertive, Inc.
• Carolyn Shelby, Director of Natural Search, CShel • David Snyder, Co-Founder, Search & Social, LLC
Affiliate Summit West | 2009 Agenda The 100% Open Rate Solution
Session 5c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Mobile marketing is the most direct “direct marketing”. In this session, I will demonstrate why all merchants and affiliates should, and will soon be, using mobile marketing. • Joel Comm, CEO, TextCastLive, Inc.
• Steve Schaffer, Founder/CEO, Vertive, Inc. Mobile Web Opportunities
Session 6c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) The mobile internet is growing fast. The session will cover business opportunities, technical challenges, traffic sources and monetization methods. It is aimed at both advertisers and affiliates. • Peter Glaeser, Managing Director, Mobile Space Ltd.
Tuesday, January 13
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) How are videos being used by affiliates and merchants? A detailed look into how and where they are performing best with suggested hints and tips to drive better click through and conversions. • Marty M. Fahncke, President, FawnKey & Associates (Moderator)
Using Social Media for Commodity Affiliate Programs
Session 6d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Affiliate programs are a commodity biz: you compete based on SEO or page design. We’ll explore other ways to approach your business, including how to use social networks to gain the upper hand. • Dave Taylor, Principal, Intuitive Systems
• Michael Jenkins, CEO/Founder, MarketLeverage • Melissa Salas, Director of Marketing, Buy.com • Jonathan Stefansky, EVP Sales and Marketing, Qoof Landing Page Testing To Increase Conversions
Session 6a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Landing Page Testing can lead to double digit conversion rate gains. Learn how to test your pages to improve conversion, and attract super affiliates without changing your payout structure. • Tim Ash, CEO, SiteTuners.com The Future of Performance Marketing: What’s Next (part 2)
Session 6b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Industry leaders will continue their discussion about the future of performance marketing. How will the industry change? Who will lead the growth? This is a continuation of Session 5b: “The Evolution”. • Larry Adams, Product Manager, Google
Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Gala
• Oldtimer Mentors: Skip Graham, President, Giant Head Interactive; Senior Partner, InterAdnet Response Marketing; Executive Director, The Internet Oldtimers Foundation
(Breakfast is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
• Teaching Affiliates to Understand Conversion Metrics: Chuck Hamrick, Affiliate Manager, affiliateCREW.com
Coffee Service Location: Pavilion 8–11 Time: 10:00am–12:30pm and 2:00pm–6:00pm Registration Location: Registration Office Space #2 Time: 9:00am - 3:00pm
Location: Brasilia 4-7 Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm The Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Gala is affiliate marketing’s most prestigious, competitive honor for the leaders in the space. Award winners are recognized because they are innovative leaders with vision and influence. The following awards will be presented: • Affiliate of the Year • Affiliate Manager of the Year • Exceptional Merchant • Affiliate Marketing Advocate Award
In addition to honoring the award winners, the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Gala is a networking cocktail reception. Affiliate Summit Hospitality Room Open Location: Brasilia 4-7 Time: 9:00pm - 12:00am
• Social Networks: Dave Taylor, Principal, Intuitive Systems
10 Success Strategies for Internet Marketers
Session 7a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Internet Marketing has become increasingly complex. This presentation will outline the multiple tactics available; and categorize them into one of ten focused strategies for marketing on the internet. • Jay Berkowitz, CEO, Ten Golden Rules How to Monetize Your Site with Widgets
Bloghaus/Press Room
Location: Miranda 3 Time: 8:30am - 6:00pm The Bloghaus is an area reserved for credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk space, blog, interview, relax and network. • • Julie Vazquez, Blogger, JuliesJournal.com (Blog Mistress) Exhibit Hall
Location: Exhibit Hall Area - Pavilion 1-7 Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm
• Best Blogger • Affiliate Marketing Legend
• Mobile Marketing Best Practices: Consumer & Brand Protection: Gary Ackerman, President, M3 Mobile Marketing
Continental Breakfast Location: Pavilion 8–11 Time: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Affiliate Videos: Where Do They Work Best?
Session 5d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
• How to Boost Your Link Building Campaign: Assaf Igell, Co-founder and Vice President, Syntryx Executive Solutions
Ask the Experts
Location: Brasilia 4-7 Time: 10:00 am-11:15am (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Ask the Experts will be an opportunity for merchants, networks and affiliates to ask questions about various specialties and issues. Handpicked experts will handle topics in their specialty, and conduct chats, answer questions and share opinions during this networking and education session.
Session 7b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) This discussion by Amazon Associates will go over how to enhance your site using various widgets, what works and what doesn’t, and how effective different widgets are to your site. We’ll show you easy ways you can implement widgets to monetize your site right away. • Zahid Khan, Product Manager, Amazon Super Affiliate PPC Marketing Strategies
Session 7c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) In this panel, three top PPC super affiliates will reveal their exact strategies. Learn how to effectively use Google, Yahoo and MSN to drive inexpensive qualified traffic to any of your websites. • Anik Singal, CEO, Affiliate Classroom (Moderator) • Rosalind Gardner, CEO, WebVista, Inc.
• Scott Jangro, President, MechMedia, Inc.
• Affiliate Created Video: Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards
• Colin McDougall, CEO, VEO 2.0 Elite Certification Course
• Jim Jessup, Direct Marketing, Yahoo!
• Creating Video Content for Affiliates: Jonathan Stefansky, EVP Sales and Marketing, Qoof
• Amit Mehta, CEO, Performance Marketing Worldwide
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Affiliate Summit West | 2009 Agenda Social Media Risks and Rewards
Session 7d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) This session will explore the potential risks in using social networking and user-generated content for marketing campaigns, and will give practical suggestions to help marketer’s campaigns succeed. • Gary Kibel, Partner, Davis & Gilbert LLP (Moderator)
Get that competitive edge by increasing margins and return on marketing spend. • Olivier Chaine, CEO & Founder, magnify360 (Moderator)
• Lisa Crossley Hunter, Senior Director CJ Search, Commission Junction • Beth Kirsch, VP, Marketing and Business Development, uAmplify Make an Impact in Governmental Affairs
• Will Haselden, Section Chief, Cyberfraud Section, Office of the Attorney General, State of Florida
Session 8d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
• Jivan Manhas, President, Advaliant, a Division of MediaTrust Luncheon
Location: Pavilion 8-11 Time: 12:30pm-1:45pm (Lunch is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Driving Leads Through Smart Domain Development Session 8a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Are domains a part of your affiliate marketing strategy? If not, they should be. Discover the power of direct navigation and learn how domains can impact SEO/SEM. • Monte Cahn, CEO & Founder, Moniker.com / SnapNames.com
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Now that marketers are learning that policy matters, this panel of political insiders will discuss what they need to do to have an impact? • Bennet Kelley, Founder, Internet Law Center (Moderator) • Wright Andrews, Partner, Butera & Andrews Managing Your Brand
Session 9a Location: Classroom A - Brasilia 1-3 Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) It is essential to monitor your online reputation, and this panel of experts will explain how to manage your brand. • Andy Beal, Founder, Trackur.com (Moderator) • Fionn Downhill, CEO, Elixir Interactive
Setting Quality Standards in Affiliate Marketing
Session 8b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Join eBay for a discussion on improving the quality of its program, from detecting and removing back hats to working more closely with white hats to improve their affiliate marketing results. • William Martin-Gill, Senior Manager, eBay Partner Network Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages
Session8c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Learn how to optimize your landing pages and increase conversion rates by 50-500% using simple techniques and technologies.
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• Ian Fernando, Founder, IANternet Media, LLC
• Trevor Claiborne, Product Marketing Manager, Google
• Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions
• Mike Kowal, Managing Director, Advertiser Services, LinkShare
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) PPC campaigns on blasting keywords to find profitable keywords.
• Rob Key, CEO, Converseon, Inc. • Lee Odden, CEO, TopRankMarketing.com Understanding the UK Affiliate Landscape
Session 9b Location: Classroom B - Brasilia 4-7 Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) This session will cover the culture of affiliate marketing in the UK, as well as statistics revealing growth rates, size of market and the latest trends. • James Little, Head of Affiliate Development, AffiliateFuture The Art of Keyword Blasting
Session9c Location: Classroom C - Miranda 5-6 Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm
Combating Fraud in Affiliate Marketing
Session 9d Location: Classroom D - Miranda 7-8 Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Discussion on new ways to keep affiliate programs safe from unethical merchant and affiliate practices. Reducing fraud frees up more money to be spent and earned in affiliate marketing. • Todd Crawford, Owner, ToddTalks.com • Kuba Poraj-Kuczewski, SVP Media Services, EducationDynamics, LLC • Joshua Sloan, Director of Online Marketing, 1&1 Internet, Inc. • Ernie St. Gelais, CTO and Co-founder, LinkConnector
Affiliate Triathlon
Sponsored by GetAds.com Location: Brasilia 4-7 Time: 4:30pm - 5:30pm The Affiliate Triathlon is a three event contest of skill, determination and dexterity open to all attendees at Affiliate Summit West 2009. The winning athlete (highest cumulative score across the three competitions) will be awarded their choice of: One non-corner, 10’ x 10’ exhibit hall booth (value: $5,195) at Affiliate Summit East 2009.* Four Platinum Passes (value: $4,996) for use at Affiliate Summit East 2009.* *Either prize can be sold or transferred to another person and Affiliate Summit 2009 East, takes place in NYC on August 9-11, 2009. The entry fee for the Affiliate Triathlon is $100, which is donated directly to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Amy Preis, Mike Allen, Ayako Bingham, Billy Kay, Matt Burchard, James Tippins, Robyn Tippins, Brad Cooks, Tim Jones (clockwise from bottom)
Dinner Table: Sarah Chow, Steve Hall, Ian Fernando, Shawn Collins, Zac Johnson, Reena Kamath, John Chow (clockwise from bottom) rd
Wa Photo by Missy
Missy Ward
Will Blog for Food by Shawn Collins Affiliate Summit hosted a dinner in Las Vegas on September 19, 2008 during Blog World Expo. The dinner took place at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois, where dozens of bloggers got together for some tasty food and shop talk. Here are some action shots from the dinner, as well as dinner guests styling in their souvenir t-shirts from the get together.
rd
Photo by Missy Wa
Photo by Missy
Ward
Will Blog for Food Shirts (Left to right) Amy Preis and Ayako Bingham, Tim Jones, jim Kukrai, John Chow, Kim Rowley, Jen Goode
Lisa Picarille, Frank Eliason, Karen Garcia, Wade Tonkin, Connie Berg Dan Gray, Gary Rosenweig, Dave Taylor, Micah Baldwin, Jason Soto, Tris Hussey, Jim Kukral
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Speaker Bios Gary Ackerman
Gary Ackerman currently serves as President of M3 Mobile Marketing, where he is responsible for driving the overall strategy and execution of sales, marketing, and operations. He has positioned M3 Mobile as one of the leaders and experts in the mobile marketing channel. Before joining M3 Mobile, Gary held a number of senior level management positions where he was primarily focused on new business development from large national accounts. He also has experience in exploring and structuring strategic partnerships with media, communications and technology companies. During his downtime, Gary balances his wife, 2 kids and his golf game in Collegeville, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia.
Larry Adams
Larry is a product manager for affiliate marketing for the Google Affiliate Network, formerly known as Performics. He has been an advocate for affiliate marketing within DoubleClick and Google as well as the industry at large for the past five years. Prior to Google/ DoubleClick/Performics, he was an engineer and technical architect for software and consulting companies specializing in eCommerce. Larry graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 with a bachelors degree in Industrial Management and a masters in Information Systems.
Wright Andrews
Keynote Bio
Gary Vaynerchuk Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV, is Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ. Gary’s love affair with wine began at a young age when he started reading Robert Parker and Wine Advocate and blossomed over the years as he traveled around the world to various wine-producing regions (his wife remains blissfully unaware of this affair). But it troubled Gary to observe the stuffiness of the industry-conceited sommeliers, snobby shopkeepers unwilling (or unable) to educate their consumers, and seemingly mystical conventions all combine to make wine seem intimidating to the uninitiated. Wine Library TV seeks to change all that. Aimed at anyone interested in truly learning about wine, from beginners to experts, young (above 21 of course) to old, Gary and the WLTV community embrace the notion that wine can be enjoyed by all. In each episode, Gary tastes wines on the fly-it is unrehearsed, unscripted, and off-the-cuff. As Gary likes to say, he shoots from the hip, but always from the heart.
Wright Andrews is founder of Butera & Andrews, a former President of the American League of Lobbyists and was included in Washingtonian Magazine’s Top 50 Lobbyists. His clients have included numerous major corporations, trade associations, Governors of various states. In the last several years, he had managed teams of lobbyists for large, multi-million dollar lobbying coalition efforts at both the federal and state levels. Andrews began his career as Chief Legislative Counsel to Senator Sam Nunn and has been featured on many television and radio programs dealing with lobbying.
Tim Ash
Tim Ash is the President of SiteTuners, a leading landing page optimization firm. During his 14 year involvement with the Internet, Tim has worked with American Express, Sony Music, American Honda, COMP USA, Harcourt Brace, Universal Studios, HomeGain, Eaton, and Coach to develop successful Internet initiatives. He is a highly-regarded speaker at Search Engine Strategies, Affiliate Summit, and Internet World. Tim is a contributing columnist to several publications including SearchEngineWatch. He received his B.S. from UC San Diego “with highest distinction”. He also completed his M.S. during his PhD. studies in computer science at UCSD. He is the author of the Amazon bestselling book Landing Page Optimization.
Miles Baker
Miles Baker blogs about Internet marketing methods at MarketingWithMiles.com. He’s been marketing online full-time for 10 years doing everything from digital software sales, PPC, SEO, and blogging, to consulting and affiliate management.
Andy Beal
Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant specializing in search engine marketing, online reputation management, and business blogging. Considered one of the world’s most respected online marketing experts, Andy has worked with many top companies such as Motorola, GlaxoSmithKline, SAS, Lowes, Quicken Loans, and NBC. Highly respected as a source of internet marketing advice, Andy Beal has had articles published around the world, including BusinessWeek, Search Engine Watch, Mashable, and Web Pro News. He is the co-author of the critically acclaimed online reputation management book Radically Transparent, editor of Marketing Pilgrim, and founder of the online media monitoring service Trackur. com.
Shashi Bellamkonda
Shashi Bellamkonda works for Network Solutions as the firstever Network Solutions “Social Media Swami”. Helped Network Solutions aggressively move into the online space to listen to and interact with its customers and win the 2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management/ Corporate Division. A prolific Twitterer, blogger, and product innovator, Shashi loves technology, testing new things and helping people. A self-described “Internet junkie,” Shashi has presented previously on “How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss” and “Social Media tools for Small Business”. Shashi started his blog to keep his many on and offline friends up to date on the coolest new things to check out and answer their questions on social media and technology from what to use and how, how to prevent popups, how to avoid viruses, how to save computers from hackers, and the ever popular “Why is my computer freezing?”
Connie Berg
Connie Berg is the Founder of FlamingoWorld.com which offers discounts and coupons from online retailers, and ForMeToCoupon. com a consolidated coupon data feed for affiliates covering most major affiliate networks and almost 2000 merchants.. Through the years, Connie has attended many affiliate marketing functions and actively opposes unethical affiliates and practices within the affiliate community. Connie is a member of several affiliate network advisory panels and sometimes contributes to Revenews.com on topics related to affiliate marketing. She is the winner of the 2004 Linkshare Golden Link Most Vocal Advocate Award and the 2008 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award – Affiliate of the Year Award.
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Speaker Bios Jay Berkowitz
Jay Berkowitz is a dynamic marketing professional. He has managed marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Sprint, CocaCola and McDonald’s and successful dot-com eDiets.com. Mr. Berkowitz is the author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing Workbook, the host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast and Founder and CEO of www.TenGoldenRules.com, an internet marketing consulting business based in South Florida. Ten Golden Rules helps companies get more traffic to their websites and convert that traffic to sales with a focus on improving internet profit. Mr. Berkowitz is the immediate Past President of the American Marketing Association South Florida and a founding Board Member of SFIMA, the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association. Mr. Berkowitz is a popular presenter at conferences and events such as Affiliate Summit, The American Marketing Association, The Direct Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies, Ad-Tech, and the CEO Executive Forum.
Monte Cahn
Monte Cahn is Founder and President of Moniker and also President of SnapNames. The two companies form the Aftermarket and Registrar Division for Oversee.net, the leading provider of Domain Asset Management services, a complete set of business services that help clients manage, protect and maximize the value of their domains. At Moniker, Monte has pioneered domain name aftermarket services since 1999, with a focus on delivering topnotch security, customer service, and value added products and services. He has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare, high-technology and Internet fields. Monte helped start the first online domain brokerage business in 1996, and facilitated the first domain name sale over $1 million dollars (Wallstreet.com) and $2 million dollars (Autos.com). He co-developed the first IRSrecognized domain appraisal system, and is the visionary behind Live Domain Auctions. Monte Cahn is host of the weekly radio show, Domain Masters, on WebmasterRadio.fm.
Anita Campbell
Anita Campbell is CEO of Small Business Trends, an online community touching 250,000 small business owners each month. It is an awardwinning site, named to the Forbes Best of the Web (twice in 2005 and 2008), and receiving recognition from the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC television. Integral to the success of the community is the Small Business Trends network of experts – a group of small business owners who share their expertise. Anita also hosts a weekly Internet radio podcast show featuring 200+ interviews with small business owners, entrepreneurs and stakeholders important to the small business market. Anita is regularly quoted in the media, including such publications as Fortune Magazine and the New York Times. Her columns, articles and advice are regularly featured in sites such as Inc Technology, the American Express OPEN Forum, and the PayPal Online Merchant Network.
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Geordie Carswell
Geordie Carswell is a PPC super affiliate and author of the PPC Super Affiliate Blog. He served as founding CEO of top affiliate network and credit card processor RevenueWire. Between marketing projects he continues to blog on affiliate marketing, PPC, and SEO at GeordieCarswell.com.
Olivier Chaine
Olivier Chaine is founder/CEO magnify360, the leading provider of self-learning, software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing optimization technology. Olivier was on the original team at LowerMyBills.com, as VP of Technology/Web Ops before it was acquired by Experian for $400+ million. Developing and launching the industry’s first user behavior analysis system, Olivier helped LMB increase itsconversion rate by over 200% and its site stability to over 99.9%. Now, as CEO of magnify360, Olivier brings that same innovation, bringing true 1-to-1 personalization to the online user experience, enabling Web sites to adapt in real-time to the behaviors of individual visitors. Using next generation multivariate testing, real-time behavioral targeting and predictive modeling, the magnify360 Platform: PROFILEs individual visitors to websites, microsites and landing pages, TARGETs the most relevant on-site experience to each visitor in real-time and CONVERTs more visitors into leads and sales.
Trevor Claiborne
Trevor Claiborne is the Product Marketing Manager for Google Website Optimizer. During his two years at Google, Trevor has worked on projects ranging from helping the long tail of small businesses advertise online using Google AdWords to helping launch Google Ad Planner, Trends for Websites, and Insights for Search. Currently, Trevor focuses his time on marketing Website Optimizer and promoting website testing to online marketers. He is one of the founders of Google for Business Educators, and also writes for the Inside AdWords and Website Optimizer blogs. Trevor lives in San Francisco. In his free time, he enjoys walking around the city, sharing good food and good drink with friends, and long runs along bay.
Joel Comm
Joel Comm is an Internet entrepreneur who has been online for over 20 years. In 1995, Joel launched WorldVillage.com, a familyfriendly portal to the web which enjoys thousands of visitors each day. Joel is the co-creator of ClassicGames.com, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 1997, and now goes by the name Yahoo! Games. Since then, Joel’s company, InfoMedia, Inc., has launched dozens of web sites which offer online shopping, free stuff, website reviews and more. Joel is the author of many popular books, including the NY Times Best-Seller, The AdSense Code. As the Host and Executive Producer of the web’s first competitive reality show, “The Next Internet Millionaire”, Joel set a new standard for original Internet programming. His most recent book, “Click Here to Order”, is an Amazon.com and BN.com best-seller.
Todd Crawford
Todd Crawford was most recently the Vice President of Sales and Business Development for Digital River’s affiliate network, oneNetworkDirect. Mr. Crawford joined Digital River in May 2006 and was responsible for establishing new affiliate relationships, developing new product features and overseeing the operations and marketing for oneNetworkDirect. In 1998, Todd Crawford helped found Commission Junction and acted primarily as the VP of Sales over the next 7 plus years. Although his primary responsibilities were new advertiser acquisition, he also handled many other business initiatives ranging from international expansion in Europe and Asia to industry relations and business development. Todd Crawford is currently working on a new project while continuing to be involved in the performance marketing industry. You can read more about Todd on his blog at toddtalks. com. In 2007, Mr. Crawford won the Affiliate Marketing Legend Award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards in Las Vegas.
Lisa Crossley Hunter
Lisa Crossley Hunter is the Senior Director of Commission Junction Search (CJ Search). She is responsible for the entire organization in providing premier SEM services to all managed CJ Search clients with a special focus on the interrelationship between search and affiliate marketing. Lisa has over six years of hands-on search engine marketing experience in PPC, SEO and conversion analysis ranging from tactical execution to high-level strategic planning to help clients obtain optimal results. Prior to her work at CJ Search Lisa was the VP of Client Services at Idearc Media (formerly known as Inceptor, Inc.). Lisa also managed web site development projects for high profile clients during her tenure at Agency.com. Before moving to the site development and search marketing industry in 2000, Lisa spent seven years as a client-facing software development consultant with Accenture.
Haiko de Poel, Jr.
Haiko is the owner and administrator of ABestWeb, the largest affiliate marketing forum with over 45,000 members accumulated in the the past seven years. He also coined the term parasiteware and been a source of open, free and real information for the stance against various unethical and technological based affiliates. Prior to opening ABestWeb, Mr. de Poel, Jr., has started and sold many small companies ranging from a long distance reseller to a tequila import company. He was also highly successful in Real Estate sales and even did a stint on Wall Street.
Angel Djambazov
Born in Bulgaria, Angel Djambazov has spent his professional career in the fields of journalism and online marketing. In his journalistic career he worked as an editor on several newspapers and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Wyoming Homes and Living Magazine. Later his career path led to online marketing where while working at OnlineShoes he earned the Affiliate Manager of the Year (2006) award at the Affiliate Summit, and In-house Manager of the Year (2006) award by ABestWeb. Currently Angel is the OPM for Jones Soda and Bag Borrow or Steal, leads the marketing efforts of PopShops.com which was awarded Best Affiliate Tool (2007) award by ABestWeb, and is the Managing Editor for Revenews.com. Angel lives north of Seattle, spending his free time reading up on obscure scientific references made by his wife, Jenn, while keeping up with a horde of cats and a library of books.
Fionn Downhill
Fionn Downhill is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Elixir Interactive. Established in February 2003, they are a digital marketing agency that focuses on search and social media. They specialize in helping companies understand how their customers think and interact online and then use that information to develop highly targeted marketing programs. Fionn is a native or Ireland and lives in Scottsdale Arizona, where her business is based. Fionn is very involved in the advancement of search engine marketing and is a strong advocate for best business practices in the industry. She is past board member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). She is a founding member and past chair of the SEMPO Institute which was launched to provide first class training for the search engine marketing industry worldwide. Fionn is a frequent speaker on Search Engine Marketing and is actively involved in the Search Engine Marketing community.
Ola Edvardsson
A veteran of the affiliate marketing industry since its inception, Ola has spent the past 12 years in a highly unusual dual role. He has been advising clients, ranging from Fortune 100 corporations to entrepreneurs launching new businesses, on their marketing strategies, while at the same time always making money in the trenches as an affiliate. His executive-level marketing coaching and development of Internet strategies for large companies, combined with a deep knowledge of the day-to-day craft of Internet marketing, is what makes Ola unique in the industry. He is the CEO of Performancy, an Internet Strategy and Media company. At heart he is an affiliate and is currently involved in two new start-ups where affiliate income is the primary revenue source. Originally from Sweden, he currently lives in the metro Detroit area with his wife and two children.
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Speaker Bios Darren Eilers
Darren is the Founder and CEO of DME Media, a performancemarketing firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. DME has developed proprietary performance marketing systems and tools that have helped them consistently rank as a top-tier Publisher in affiliate networks such as Commission Junction. Prior to launching DME Media, Darren held senior level positions in the advertising and marketing industry for over 14 years, including work for major retail clients such as Wal-Mart, KOHL’S, JCPenney and Dillard’s. His areas of focus throughout much of his career have been in e-commerce, online marketing, and web design. Venturing into the affiliate industry in 2003, Darren quickly built a reputation as an out-of-thebox thinker, capable of quickly adapting to the many challenges affiliates face. Founding DME Media in 2007, the company now employs in areas such as PPC marketing, SEO, and website design & development.
Marty Fahncke
An expert in multi-channel direct response marketing with over 20 years experience, Marty M. Fahncke brings a unique and experienced perspective to his audiences. As President of FawnKey & Associates, a consulting and project management firm, Marty has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for his clients using direct response television, the telephone, and the internet. His most recent venture, BizKidz.com is a website designed to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs…kids age 7-15. On www.BizKidz.com, children learn real business, marketing, and entrepreneurial skills in a safe, fun environment, all while earning real money. Marty speaks to audiences across the country on topics related to internet marketing, social media, affiliate marketing, and more. Marty also shares his knowledge as an Advisory Board member and feature writer for Electronic Retailer magazine. His writing can also be found at the popular blog “My Perspective”, which can be read at http://www.MartyFahncke.com.
Ian Fernando
Ian Fernando is an influential blogger and affiliate marketer. His views and insights have been seen all over the Internet as he provides useful tools and tips on online marketing, affiliate marketing, blogging, and related topics. His blog, IanFernando.com, is geared to providing substantive advice to the up and coming online entrepreneur. Ian is an aggressive Internet marketer. He has utilize the power of the internet to become an influential and respected blogger and affiliate marketer. Ian is an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is an example of a successful entrepreneur that has made and continuous to make money online.
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Rosalind Gardner
Rosalind Gardner has been a leader in the affiliate marketing industry since 1998 and is recognized best through her ‘Affiliate’s Corner’ column in “Revenue Magazine” and her “Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online”. As a speaker, consultant and prolific blogger, Rosalind teaches affiliates how to build sustainable online businesses and teaches merchants how to structure their affiliate programs to attract and retain loyal Super Affiliates like herself.
Peter Glaeser
Peter Glaeser is a pioneer in mobile affiliate marketing. While working for one of the world’s largest mobile content providers he launched a mobile tracking solution and one of the world’s first ringtone affiliate programs for the mobile internet. In 2008 Peter switched sides and became a full-time entrepreneur as an affiliate marketer and consultant. He runs the Sponsormob mobile ad network and supports merchants and media agencies in online and mobile advertising. Peter is based in Berlin/Germany and a regular speaker at online and mobile marketing events in Europe and the United States. He blogs at peterglaeser.com. Peter holds an M.A. in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick (UK). He is a self-taught programmer and has significant experience in project management and developing of sites on the wired and mobile internet.
Skip Graham
James (Skip) Graham is a successful entrepreneur that has raised over $23 million in investment capital. Currently he runs several ventures and is retained as a business plan and investment consultant for several others. He has served 16 years in the media space and over 11 years in software, ASP and interactive: sales, marketing, developing and management. Graham founded Giant Holdings which owns InterAdNet, Giant Head, The Internet Oldtimers Foundation and HereWare. Interadnet focuses on media strategies to successfully market customer products and services both online and through traditional channels, as well as proven marketing channels: email, lead gen, search and affiliate marketing. Giant Head Interactive Marketing, formed in 2000, uses a consistent, controlled process of interaction to insure brands are positioned top of mind as positive, proactive aspects of your customer’s lives. HereWare is an on-demand and All-In-One Sales, CRM, Project and document management system.
Chuck Hamrick
Chuck Hamrick is an outsourced program manager (OPM) at affiliateCREW, a Salt Lake City, UT based internet marketing company, managing Register, Little Giant Ladder, Rug Doctor, Bosleyinfo, Sole Treadmills, Proform, WORX Yard Tools, 1000Bulbs, and more. Active in online marketing since 1999 with SEO, PPC, email marketing and lead gen. Full time Affiliate Manager since 2005 previously managing ToolKing, Backcountry and Ancestry. You will also find Chuck as a moderator on ABestWeb.com. He also had a prior 13 years career in manufacturing as project management. To learn more visit affiliateCREW.
Will Haselden
Mr. Haselden is the Section Chief of the Cyberfraud Section in the Florida Attorney General’s office, located in Tallahassee, Florida. In that position, he recently negotiated a settlement with AT&T that provides for changes to the online affiliate marketing model by which mobile content is sold to consumers across the nation. The Cyberfraud Section continues to seek compliance with applicable marketing law from other businesses in this online space. Mr. Haselden is a trial attorney with both governmental and private practice experience. He is licensed to practice in both federal and Florida state courts.
John Hasson
John has been doing affiliate marketing since mid 2006. He got lucky his first month and posted a decent profit. His third month, he lost money. Every month since then has been profitable and he has been honing his PPC skills and driving traffic to quality websites. He has been programming and designing databases, web applications and 32 bit apps for 15+ years before he fell into affiliate marketing. He has written shareware applications (one was mentioned in Wired), GIS mapping systems, accounting systems and of course websites.
Rae Hoffman
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 serves as the CEO and Managing Director of website publisher MFE Interactive and is the author of the often controversial Sugarrae Internet marketing blog. She also owns numerous successful personal websites on a wide range of topics. Rae is a regular speaker at the PubCon, SES and SMX conferences and is a former WebmasterWorld.com moderator as well as a regular columnist for Search Engine Land.
Assaf Igell
As cofounder and vice president of channel partners and product strategy at Syntryx Executive Solutions and Drill.com, Assaf Igell handles strategic enterprise sales, business development with prospective distribution channel partners, and custom client research and consulting engagements. Assaf brings to Syntryx over 8 years of experience in advising and executing broad online marketing campaigns in several of the Internet’s most lucrative and most competitive industries including iGaming, Health, eLearning and Comparative Shopping. Prior to Syntryx, Assaf spent 3 years working as a senior Traffic Analyst and Director of Advertising Technologies at one of the largest interactive ad agencies in the iGaming vertical. Over the years Assaf’s specialties in online marketing included: web analytics, ad serving and targeting technologies, integration, search engine algorithms and SEO, SEM, affiliate marketing, media buying, and strategic business development.
Scott Jangro
Scott Jangro is the president and co-founder of MechMedia, Inc., a firm specializing in performance and search engine marketing since 2004. Prior to MechMedia, Scott served as a Director of Product Management at Be Free, Inc. and later Commission Junction, both divisions of ValueClick, Inc. from 1999 to 2004 and previously served in technical support management roles at Open Market and Dragon Systems. Through industry events, advisory boards, and his writing activity on Jangro.com and Revenews.com, Scott remains an active and vocal member of the affiliate marketing community. He also recently founded a rapidly growing affiliate marketing community at BUMPzee.com.
Michael Jenkins
Michael Jenkins is the Founder and CEO of PrecisionPlay Media, the parent company of one of the Internet’s fastest growing performance advertising networks: MarketLeverage.com. He is responsible for the creation, vision and overall direction of several Internet advertising related businesses. Under Michael’s direction, PrecisionPlay Media was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America, and was also ranked by Inc. as #86 on the Top 100 Advertising and Marketing Companies category. PrecisionPlay Media employs over 50 people and has grown revenues nearly 500% over the past 3 years. Michael is an interactive advertising veteran with hands-on experience at the affiliate level in search engine, email and web marketing. His recent efforts in social media have lead to significant increases in the size of MarketLeverage’s publisher network and the debut of the affiliate industry’s first Internet TV show: MLTV.
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Speaker Bios Jim Jessup
Jim Jessup leads the affiliate channel strategy at Yahoo! and is responsible for developing programs that can provide affiliates opportunities across the company’s broad network of diverse businesses. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Jim spent 4 years at Commission Junction where he managed CJ’s Key Accounts team and was responsible for the performance of some the largest affiliate programs on the web.
Zac Johnson
At the ripe age of 15, Zac Johnson began making money online designing web site banners for $1 each. A self taught entrepreneur, Zac’s been making money online for over 10 years and been involved in nearly every facet of affiliate marketing. Still a one man company, a recent highlight of Zac’s success is “How I Made $860, 538.38 Profit in 4 Months!” from one web site, and can be read at his Super Affiliate blog. Zac’s latest focus is his personal blog “Inside the Secret Life of a Super Affiliate” (ZacJohnson.com), where he provides readers firsthand accounts of his experiences, successes & failures. In addition to his own success stories, Zac reviews affiliate networks and informs readers how & where they should be making new money. He plans on releasing a case study of his secret tips free through his blog instead of in an eBook. Zac’s blog has grown to over 1500 subscribers and has referred over $100,000 in new business to his advertisers and network partners in less than a year.
Kristopher Jones
Kristopher B. Jones is well-known throughout the search-engine and affiliate marketing community as a true pioneer and leading voice on trends and strategies for effective online marketing. As President and CEO of Pepperjam, an Inc. 500 Company and industry-leading search, affiliate and media management company. Kristopher is looked to by thousands of businesses worldwide as one of a small group of pure internet marketing experts. Kristopher was recognized in 2005 as an Entrepreneur of the Year by Bank of America and as one of the “Top 20” Business Leaders in Northeastern, Pennsylvania under the age of 40. Kristopher previously worked as a senior staff member to Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) and is a frequent speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies (SES), eTail, ERA, and Affiliate Summit, among others.
Bennet Kelley
Bennet Kelley is founder of the Internet Law Center and has been at the center of many of the hottest Internet issues over the past decade. Kelley, who previously was Assistant General Counsel for ValueClick, is Vice Chair of the California Bar’s Cyberspace Committee and a contributor to the Journal of Internet Law. Kelley spoke at the 2007 and 2008 Affiliate Summit West.
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Rob Key
Formerly head of the Innovations Group at a division of Young & Rubicam and member of the WPP.com board, Rob founded Converseon in 2001 to provide new, innovative communication solutions designed to help companies meet their business objectives in a digital environment. Rob’s twenty years of experience spans public relations, reputation management, search marketing, affiliate marketing and online media/advertising, which has convinced him that markets clearly are “conversations” that require new ways of communicating. He has been involved in digital marketing since 1995. Rob is a frequent speaker at a range of leading industry conferences, including Affiliate Summit and Jupiter Media’s Search Engine Strategies Conferences (SES), to help evangelize his message of creative communications innovation.
Zahid Khan
Zahid is a Product Manager with Amazon Associates, Amazon’s world-wide affiliate network. Zahid has been with Amazon for close to 2 years and has been instrumental in conceptualizing, designing and delivering Amazon Widgets – rich, interactive displays that bring Amazon.com functionality to your website. Zahid has been closely involved in launching a dazzling array of widgets including MP3 Clips, Carousel, Your Video Widget and more. With his deep technical and business understanding of widgets, Zahid is intimately familiar with the dos and don’ts of rich media advertising. Before Amazon, Zahid was a technical analyst in the higher education software domain and a senior applications engineer with Oracle Corporation. He has earned a master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University and has a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech.
Gary Kibel
Gary Kibel (gkibel@dglaw.com) is a partner with the law firm of Davis & Gilbert LLP. He practices in the areas of New Media, Advertising/Marketing and IP law. Gary regularly counsels clients with respect to issues such as interactive advertising, search marketing, affiliate marketing, enterprise technology implementations, contextual/behavioral advertising, privacy and security, gaming, content licensing, wireless services and entertainment, joint ventures, copyrights, trademarks, corporate matters and laws affecting the Internet. Davis & Gilbert is widely regarded as the premier law firm in the U.S. representing advertising, marketing and promotions agencies, from specialized shops to the largest advertising holding companies in the world, and also represents prominent marketing, technology and entertainment companies, brands and advertising trade associations. Prior to becoming an attorney, Gary was an Information Systems Analyst with Merrill Lynch.
Beth Kirsch
Beth Kirsch part of a founding team that has boot strapped uAmplfy over the past two years and she is responsible for strategy, sales, and business development. Beth was previously the VP of Marketing and Sales at Like.com, where she brought the product to market and grew revenue from zero to millions. Before that, she was a Director of Marketing at LowerMyBills.com, an Experian Company and top five Internet advertiser. She also directed online media, search, and affiliate channels for Audible during its high growth period. Beth has been an expert speaker at industry conferences on a regular basis including, Ad:Tech, Affiliate Summit, and the Direct Marketing Association. She also blogs on ReveNews, and her entries have been redistributed in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal Online, paidContent.org, iMediaConnection, and MarketingVOX. Beth was part of a team at ReveNews that received MarketingSherpa’s “Best Blog 2006” award.
Nick Koscianski
Chris Kramer
Chris has spent nearly 10 years in the interactive marketing space working on more than 20 blue chip clients including NY Times, American Express, Scholastic, About.com and ESPN. As the CoFounder of NETexponent, Chris has helped to build the agency into one of the premier interactive shops by delivering key strategic execution across multiple channels including Affiliate Marketing, Search Marketing, Media Buying and Planning, Email Marketing, and Merchant Partnerships. Before co-founding NETexponent Chris helped to build the performance-marketing group at Mass-Transit Interactive as their Senior Marketing Manager. Prior to that Chris established himself as a leader in the industry as part of i-traffic’s then newly formed affiliate marketing group. Chris has been a featured speaker at Affiliate Summit and Commission Junction University and was recently named to the Affiliate Summit advisory board.
Jim Kukral
Nick is a successful affiliate marketer, blogs at Nickycakes.com and Wickedfire forum moderater. With the ultimate goal of helping new people succeed in the industry, his no-nonsense approach aims to show newcomers and experienced affiliates the “real” side of online marketing.
Jim Kukral (The Web Coach) is an award-winning blogger, speaker, author and business web coach. For over 10 years, Jim has been working with both small businesses and Fortune 500 customers to help them find success online. Jim is a graduate of The University of Akron. You can read about Jim and his many online successes by visiting www.jimkukral.com.
Mike Kowal
Eric Lander
Mike Kowal is Managing Director, Services for LinkShare where he oversees the Chicago advertiser services team and provides strategic guidance and services for many of LinkShare’s top clients. His team is responsible for service execution and management of client programs, as well as education and synchronization with advertisers’ online marketing channels. He joined LinkShare in 2005 as the Director of Shared Services and was responsible for Advertiser analysis and communications for the network. Prior to joining LinkShare, Mike was at General Electric Company where he was a Sr. Marketing Manager and Product Manager of Consumer Protection Products. Mike has over 17 years of experience in online, direct and database marketing and has an M.B.A and a B.S. in Management Information Systems, both from the University of Dayton.
Eric Lander has been an organic search optimization specialist since 2001. Having co-founded two separate search marketing agencies, Eric actively works as the Organic Search Manager for ADP’s Dealer Services division where he manages SEO for more than 2,000 car dealers in the United States and Canada. Lander also works as an independent search marketing consultant for those not in the automotive industry. Throughout his career Eric has enjoyed writing articles and how-to pieces to share industry information, insight and opinion. First began appearing in 2002 on SEO Today, SitePoint and Search Engine Guide, Eric now serves as the Associate Editor for Loren Baker’s Search Engine Journal.
David Lewis
David Lewis is CEO and founder of 77Blue which operates online shopping websites including Cashbaq. David has worked for and founded Internet and software businesses for over a decade with companies including Overture / GoTo.com, Intuit, Edmunds.com, SeeBeyond, Union Bank of California and Digital Planet. Earlier in his career, David was a Certified Public Account and received his MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School. David was awarded the Horizon Award for Innovation by Commission Junction in 2006. David recently launched his first Facebook app, statustalker.
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Speaker Bios James Little
After leaving college, James Little, 26, went straight into work as a Developer for Onetel where he remained for five years. During this time he moved to the marketing team and learnt about main aspects of online marketing including affiliate marketing, SEO and PPC. He then took the post of Online Marketing Manager at Field & Trek where he was responsible for all online sales. James managed this by building an effective PPC campaign, improving the SEO, increasing the online conversion rate and creating a strong affiliate campaign. James moved on from Field & Trek to St. Minver where he was the company’s first Affiliate Manager responsible for setting up the gaming affiliate system for the likes of Littlewoods Bingo, Lastminute.com Gaming and Yahoo Bingo. At the time of leaving affiliate marketing was generating around 30% of all the online players. James then joined Altogether Digital to setup its affiliate divisione. He left it in safe hands to join the team at AffiliateFuture.
Brian Littleton
As the founder and CEO of ShareASale, Brian has connected thousands of merchants and affiliates alike, ensuring mutual profitability while preserving the sprit and core values of the affiliate marketing industry. Since 2000, his leadership and vision have helped shape the industry into what it is today. ShareASale currently supports over 2,200 small- to medium-sized merchants, and works with its clients, both on the advertising and publishing end, to maximize their individual potential.
Jivan Manhas
Jivan Manhas is a Founder, and President of Advaliant, Inc., MediaTrust’s performance affiliate network. Both a seasoned executive and experienced entrepreneur, Mr. Manhas possesses diverse business experience, a fundamental understanding of how to leverage cutting-edge technologies within online media, and valuable strategic and operational experience in creating new ventures. Prior to co-founding Advaliant, Mr. Manhas was a cofounder of three Internet consulting companies, ViaCentrix, Digital Bytes and Consultica.
Will Martin-Gill
Will Martin-Gill is senior manager of Internet marketing for eBay, leading business development for eBay’s affiliates channel. Prior to this, Will was responsible for leading key advertising and search engine marketing initiatives for eBay, and before that he was senior manager of corporate strategy. His scope of responsibility included strategy development, mergers and acquisitions and various projects across Marketplaces, PayPal and Skype, including Internet marketing strategy. Before joining eBay, Will was an associate, and subsequently, a manager with Boston Consulting Group. His projects included a 12-month engagement on the start-up team that created and launched Orbitz.com. He worked in strategy, customer relationship management and other types of analysis for projects in consumer and industrial goods, as well as financial services. Will holds a B.S. in systems engineering from University of Virginia, as well as an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Jacquie Matzat
Jacquie Matzat is the Internet Marketing Manager for Your Baby Can Read, LLC. Your Baby Can Read is a revolutionary Early Language Development Program for children ages 3 months to 5 years. The company launched an Affiliate Program in 3rd quarter of 2008 within the Google Affiliate Network. Jacquie has over 10 years of experience in consumer product marketing with an emphasis in the interactive sector – including the development and management of pay-per-click campaigns, SEM, SEO, Affiliate programs and web promotions.
Colin McDougall
Colin has tapped into massive traffic generation strategies that earn him has much as $70,000 in a single month. Colin McDougall is an author, speaker and consultant specializing in teaching affiliate marketers and merchants how to achieve the results they deserve via effective and sustainable traffic generation and marketing strategies. Thousands of companies have increased their earnings several fold with the information that Colin teaches in the VEO 2.0 Elite Certification Program.
Amit Mehta
An academic by training, Amit completed his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2005. He got a job at MIT Lincoln Labs & started affiliate marketing around the same time. Having spent a considerable amount of time researching the explosive growth and success of the Internet. Amit knew thats where the future was. He didn’t have an idea for a product or service, but when he heard about affiliate marketing he knew he could do this. Amit quit his job just 9 months after beginning his affiliate efforts. Amit started with Googlecash, which was at the time, one of the easiest ways to make money as an affiliate. Now Amit leads a company that make custom affiliate sites and uses PPC to drive traffic to them. Amit also authors a popular affiliate marketing blog, Super Affiliate Mindset.
Tricia Meyer
Tricia Meyer started her career as an attorney and took a detour into affiliate marketing, never looking back. After some experimentation with a few content sites, she launched the loyalty site SunshineRewards.com. She developed Sunshine Rewards into a full-scale community that includes blogging, member reviews, Facebook applications, and videos. Recently, Tricia has started moving back into niche sites, including two of her favorite subjects—Twilight and chocolate. She is an active participant on both ABW and AffSpot and serves on the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board.
Dan Murray
Dan Murray is Internet Marketing Strategist and Founder of Ravenwood Marketing, Inc., a performance-based Internet marketing firm in Boulder, Colorado. Ravenwood does high-volume PPC keyword bidding and organic SEO as a super affiliate. The firm was selected as a Horizon Award winner by Commission Junction for exceptional year-over-year performance and serves on CJ’s Publisher Advisory Board as well as Yahoo’s Affiliate Advisory Board. Additionally, Ravenwood was named the number one fastest growing large Denver-area private company by the Denver Business Journal. Ravenwood Marketing specializes in helping companies acquire new customers from search engines and only gets paid on performance when a sale is made. Dan has worked in the Internet marketing industry for over thirteen years in a variety of marketing positions ranging from website design to email marketing and online lead generation. He holds a degree in engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s degree in applied statistics from Rutgers.
Paul Nichols
Paul Nichols is the Director of Sales at Ebates.com, a loyalty shopping site. He has been with Ebates since July of 1999 and has served in several different capacities at Ebates including Director of Business Development and Director of Product. He also created, developed and managed Ebates.com’s own affiliate program. Mr. Nichols has been a guest speaker at many Internet related conferences and symposia. Prior to his career in affiliate marketing, Paul was a prosecutor with the San Mateo County (California) District Attorney’s Office. In that capacity he prosecuted virtually every category of crime, and lectured extensively to law enforcement personnel covering a wide range of topics.
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Speaker Bios Lee Odden
Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing and public relations agency that provides search, social media and online PR consulting training to companies including NWA, McKesson and Cision. Odden also publishes Online Marketing Blog which is recognized as one of the top marketing blogs by Advertising Age and ranks in the Technorati top 50 blogs (by fans) out of 133 million. Odden is an active Internet marketing advocate promoting best practices, strategies and tactics through speaking at DMA, PRSA, Blog World and Search Engine Strategies conferences. Odden has been cited for digital marketing and PR expertise by The Economist, Fortune and eWeek, contributes articles to MediaPost, iMedia Connection and Target Marketing and has a chapter featured in the book, “Online Marketing Heroes” published by Wiley. TopRank Marketing is also active with industry associations including DMA, PRSA, SEMPO, Web Analytics Association and MIMA.
Jeremy Palmer
Jeremy Palmer runs QuitYourDayJob.com, an affiliate education Web site. He initially worked part-time in the field of affiliate marketing in 2003. After six months he quit his day job to become a full-time affiliate. Today, he actively runs over 100 affiliate sites across dozens of different industries. In 2005, Jeremy received the Commission Junction Horizon Award for Innovation, and he is also recognized as a CJ Performer, Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador and Google AdWords Professional. Jeremy is a frequently featured speaker and panelist at affiliate conferences and is a regular contributor to high profile internet marketing Web sites.
Tony Pantano
Tony Pantano is currently the CEO of Imwave, Inc., with offices in York, Pennsylvania & Reston, Virginia. The company’s primary focus is building and launching effective pay-per-click (PPC) search engine keyword marketing campaigns for our affiliate marketing partners. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business/Economics from the University of Pittsburgh & a Masters of Business Administration degree from York College of Pennsylvania. Mr. Pantano began his career in the Internet industry 14 years ago as a Principal of Cyberia Communications, Inc., a start-up Internet Service provider in York, PA prior to its acquisition by D&E SuperNet, 1998. Mr. Pantano most recently served as Regional Vice President of Interactive Media & Director of Marketing with the York Newspaper Company leading a team responsible for the creation and implementation of all consumer marketing programs and Internet operations all of Media News Group owned newspapers in PA.
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Heather Paulson
Heather Paulson is President of PaulsonManagementGroup.com a full service eCommerce agency specializing in affiliate program management working with select clients. Heather has years over 11 of experience initiating and managing online lead generation, retail sales and CPM e business model strategies for many Fortune 500 e-retailers with management experience of media budgets over $20 Million annually. Ms Paulson has worked as a consultant and or contractor on hundreds of e business accounts. Ms. Paulson was featured in the July 2005 issue of Revenue Magazine, and is an active blogger on ReveNews.com. In 2006 Heather was appointed to the Affiliate Summit advisory board. In 2007 Ms. Paulson was appointed to the advisory board for Affiliate Classroom. In 2007 Ms. Paulson was elected as PPCClassroom.com’s education manager. In 2008 Ms Paulson was nominated as a FAB member of the Performance Marketing Association and is an honorary recipient of the ACC Certified Affiliate Managers Course.
Lisa Picarille
Lisa Picarille is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Revenue Magazine, The Performance Marketing Standard. She is responsible for developing all editorial content for the print magazine and the website (www.RevenueToday.com). In addition to setting the editorial tone for the publication, Lisa overseas production, sales and distribution of Revenue Magazine. She also co-hosts the popular Affiliate Thing podcast with Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins. Lisa is a veteran journalist who began her career more than 20 years ago as a professional sports writer in Boston and has also headed the news departments of major high tech news organizations including Wired.com, TechWeb.com, TechTV.com and CRN.com. Her work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, CRM Magazine, PCWeek, MacWeek, Computerworld and InfoWorld.
Scott Polk
Scott Polk has built his expertise as a knowledgeable and experienced Search Engine Optimization strategist for more than 11 years. He is currently working as a Senior SEO Analyst/ Lead at Bruce Clay, Inc in Simi Valley, CA. Scott Polk concentrates his resourcefulness and skills on the diversified aspects of Search Engine Optimization for clients, where he’s earned the distinction of consistent top rankings in all major search engines. He is consistently involved in technologies that maximize usability and accessibility when optimizing/developing large web sites as well as identifying problems and solutions that result in major cost saving strategies. Highly successful and respected within the Search Engine Optimization communities, Scott has consulted and been employed by successful internet companies such as: Edmunds.com, AT&T Wireless, ABC News(local),Turner Properties (PGA/PGA Tour, Sports Illustrated, etc ...) and numerous others.
Kuba Poraj-Kuczewski
Kuba Kuczewski is the SVP of Media Services at EducationDynamics, a leader in online distance learning. He directs the paid traffic, analytics & optimization for their network of sites, including overseeing vendor relations and media strategy. Kuba led the media capabilities at WorldClass Strategy, which was acquired by EducationDynamics in 2007. Prior to EducationDynamics he was an affiliate and email manager at GiftCertificates.com. He holds a BA in Marketing and International Business from Seattle University.
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.
Geno Prussakov
Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov is a graduate of the University of Cambridge. He is the author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” (2007), the “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes” (2008), and also the Senior Editor for the affiliate marketing section of the Search Engine Marketing Journal. Geno is the founder and CEO of AM Navigator, an outsourced affiliate program management company, and he was voted the “Best OPM of the Year” for two years in a row (2006 and 2007) by the largest online affiliate marketing community, ABestWeb.com. He is now working on his DBA (doctor of business administration), and continues to pro-actively manage a number of affiliate programs.
Wil Reynolds
Over the past 8 years, Wil Reynolds has dedicated himself to doing two things well: driving traffic to sites from search engines and analyzing the impact that traffic has on the bottom line of companies. Wil’s career began at a web marketing agency in 1999, where he spearheaded the SEO strategies for companies like Barnes & Noble, Disney, Harman Kardon, Debeers, Doubleclick, Hotjobs, and Mercedes Benz USA (to name a few). Today, Wil and his team of search professionals at SEER Interactive, assist clients in maximizing their visibility and sales using search engines.
Lisa Riolo
Lisa Riolo is an active member in the performance marketing community and remains committed to its further growth and achievement. As a consultant, she helps online businesses transform potential and opportunity into profits and results. Lisa’s previous experience includes a senior vice president of business development role at Commission Junction and managerial roles at Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Bank of America. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Claremont McKenna College. In addition to speaking at key industry events, Lisa can be found online at lisariolo.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Andy Rodriguez
Andy Rodriguez is no stranger to the sales and marketing world. From his career in print and online advertising to his relentless and eager sales approach, Andy has always had the right formula for success. Andy has ventured into the consultation field where he can expand and share his knowledge of affiliate marketing with the rest of the industry. His formula for growing an affiliate program is extensive and complex; combining elements of trust, ethics, industry knowledge and open communications with affiliate partners. Andy was credited with the revival of the TigerDirect affiliate program, ChecksUnlimited and dozens of others in the last 8 years. On July 2005 he created the one of a kind, highly popular “Affiliate Manager Certification Seminar” which he runs twice a year. Andy and his team are also responsible for the phenomenal growth of the Ticketmaster program on the new buy.at network in the US. Andy lives in Miami, Fl with his wife, 2 kids, a beagle and his Golden Retriever.
Glenn Russell
As CEO, president and co-founder of UpSellit, Glenn Russell brings 15 years of experience in the technology information sector to the direction and management of the company.
Melissa Salas
Melissa Salas is the Director of Marketing for Buy.com and CoHost of the TV show, BuyTV, that airs weekly on G4. Having joined Buy.com in 2000, she manages Buy.com’s marketing campaigns with Portals and Shopping Comparison sites, as well as Buy.com’s Affiliate Program. Born and raised in Southern California, Melissa attended Long Beach State University where she received a B.A. in Communications, and minored in Interpersonal Communication and Business Organization. Prior to Buy.com, she worked at Wells Fargo Bank as a Financial Consultant for 8 years.
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Speaker Bios Steve Schaffer
Steve Schaffer is an accomplished Internet strategy and product marketing professional with a 20 year track-record of successfully growing start-ups and established Internet and consumer software companies. Steve founded Vertive, Inc. in 2003 to provide search engine marketing services. In 2004 he shifted the company’s focus to performance marketing and moved it to Austin from Palo Alto. Vertive is now a leading performance marketing company that builds websites that connect consumers with the online information, products and resources they want. Steve has been involved in the Internet industry since 1995. Before launching Vertive, he founded a successful, award-winning online entertainment network and community. He previously spent 10 years in various product management/marketing roles at companies including eRegCard, DayMaker, Power Up and Symantec. Steve is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of business administration in finance.
Alex Schultz
Alex Schultz leads the Internet marketing team at Facebook as a principal in the growth department. Alex is responsible for all aspects of Facebook’s outbound ROI based Internet marketing. Alex joined Facebook from eBay, where he managed international best practice sharing and coordination for affiliate and paid search. Alex holds an MA Msc in experimental and theoretical physics from Cambridge University which he paid for through being a paid search arbitrage affiliate.
Peter Shankman
Anik Singal
Anik Singal is the Founder and CEO of The Affiliate Classroom, a virtual training center for affiliate marketers of all experience levels. The Affiliate Classroom provides up-to-date training materials for affiliate marketers and affiliate managers to help them attract more traffic and convert higher. Affiliate Classroom launched the first industry accredited certification program for affiliate managers in March 2008 as it continues to become the central location for all industry education.
Joshua Sloan
Joshua Sloan is the Director of Online Marketing at 1&1 Internet, Inc. 1&1 is a true giant in the web hosting and domain industry. 1&1 has registered over 10 million domains, hosts over 5 million websites, and has a global customer base of over 7.7 million. Since 2004, Joshua has overseen the online media planning at 1&1. Like 1&1, Joshua is truly dedicated to CPA performance based marketing. First online in 1987, he describes himself as a proud “second generation geek.” Engaged in online marketing for several companies since 1994, Joshua has seen and experienced the various changes in online marketing practices and ecommerce landscape. His speaking activities range from private tutoring and public events, to teaching ecommerce and web marketing to college students. Next to online marketing, Joshua’s next favorite activities are mineral collecting and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in those around him. Favorite mantra: ‘Everything is possible’.
Kevin Smith
Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, a marketing and PR firm. He launched HelpAReporter.com to connect journalists with sources via social media. He launched AirTroductions, which was acquired and relaunched as TripLife. He is the author of “Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them.”
With nearly 10 years in the online space, Kevin Smith has seen industries succeed and fail and what works and doesn’t in affiliate marketing. Having spent 7 years in the online gambling space, he saw that sector grown from an early-stage revenue maker to a $12 billion a year industry, and saw the role affiliates played in its growth. Now with Shoes.com he is growing the affiliate network for one of the largest online shoe stores.
Carolyn Shelby
Ernie St. Gelais
Carolyn Shelby has been involved in Internet technology since 1994, when she was the managing partner of an Internet Service Provider start-up near Purdue University. She has been professionally designing and developing Web sites for businesses and not-for-profit groups of all sizes since 1995. She is an advocate of holistic SEO, and specializes in rehabbing underperforming/ out-dated Web sites and helping larger corporations adjust their structure and focus to make the most of new media. Carolyn currently co-hosts “SEO 101” on WebmasterRadio.fm, writes about search industry related news and SEO-focused web design on her blog (cshel.com), and is the Director of Natural Search at Chicagobased BeFoundLocal.com/The Krull Group.
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With nearly 10 years in the online space, Kevin Smith has seen industries succeed and fail and what works and doesn’t in affiliate marketing. Having spent 7 years in the online gambling space, he saw that sector grown from an early-stage revenue maker to a $12 billion a year industry, and saw the role affiliates played in its growth. Now with Shoes.com he is growing the affiliate network for one of the largest online shoe stores.
Jonathan Stefansky
Jonathan is the EVP of Sales and Marketing for Qoof, where he is responsible for all revenue generating activities of the firm. His background which combines years of service in both sales and technology give him a unique perspective that has enabled him
to create strong partnerships with leading companies across numerous verticals. Under Jonathan’s leadership Qoof’s roster of clients includes companies like: Ice.com, TheKnot.com, Buy. com, Gaiam, Favor Affairs and Geeks.com. Before joining Qoof, Jonathan served as EVP of Sales and Marketing for IDT Global Services, a professional services firm and global call center. Prior to IDT, Jonathan worked at Akamai Technologies as VP of Strategic Accounts working with major client accounts. Before this position, Jonathan was VP of Network Infrastructure and Architecture, where he was responsible for the company’s global network deployment. Jonathan is also a former analyst and VP of Global Internet Infrastructure at Goldman Sachs and Co.
Dave Synder
David Snyder is a search and social strategist who has worked on both the agency and enterprise level. He currently co-owns his own consulting group, Search & Social, LLC. He writes for several web publications including MarketingPilgrim.com, SnydeySense.com, and contributes a column on online reputation management at SportsAgentsBlog.com.
Dave Taylor
Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and has launched four startups, published twenty books, and currently runs three popular blogs, notably including Ask Dave Taylor.com. He’s internationally renowned as a top expert in the field and awardwinning public speaker.
Jonathan Treiber
Mr. Treiber has been at the helm since RevTrax’s inception in June 2006, leading the company through its initial product launch, several rounds of capital raising, team expansion and several key business partnerships. Jonathan led the execution of new product development and marketing, and continues to recruit a growing list of marquis advertising clients and promotional distribution channels with significant consumer purchasing power. Jonathan has been actively involved in the affiliate space since June 2006 with a variety of businesses on the affiliate side, particularly in the online loyalty space. Besides an active role in the affiliate marketing business, Jonathan has also had previous speaking roles at industry events, including leading a roundtable discussion at the Affiliate Summit Las Vegas last year on offline affiliate marketing. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts, with distinction, from Cornell University.
Michael Vorel
Michael Vorel is president and founder of Vastplanet Corporation, a dynamic firm specializing in e-Commerce Web Development and Internet Marketing Management for a variety of top brands since 1998. Prior to Vastplanet, Michael worked within the computer industry for ten years in international product marketing,
purchasing, sales management, pricing and strategic analysis. He has expertise in affiliate marketing and management, e-commerce web design, social networking strategy, video, ppc, search, email marketing and competitive analysis. As an affiliate marketer and outsourced affiliate program manager, he is actively involved in creating niche and coupon sites in addition to managing programs for clients. Based in Tampa, Florida, Michael is a member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board and recently helped with the formation of the Performance Marketing Association.
Andrew Wee
Andrew Wee is an Asia-based Internet Marketer. Formerly a tech journalist and web content developer for Singapore Press Holdings, one of Asia’s largest media groups, Andrew has covered the dotcom boom and subsequent crash. As a business consultant and trainer, he has worked with brick-and-mortar businesses establishing an online presence. Andrew’s background in psychology includes a specialization in personality theory and social/organizational psychology. He is also a NLP (neuro linguistic programming) certified practitioner. An active affiliate marketer, Andrew also blogs at WhoIsAndrewWee.com. His blog content is syndicated across several networks, including WebProNews, 9Rules and IM Newswatch. He also serves as a member of the Yahoo! MyBlogLog Advisory Group.
Alan Weissman
Alan Weissman, President of Young Lion, Inc. and owner and operator of MyNursingUniforms.com, the #1 Dickies Scrubs online seller. MyNursingUniforms.com runs affiliate programs on Google Affiliate Network and AvantLink.
Linda Woods
Linda Woods is a sought-after consultant and recognized expert in the areas of e-commerce and affiliate marketing who has helped scores of companies find success in the competitive, ever-changing Internet landscape. Linda has been involved with affiliate marketing since its inception. After gaining experience that included working at then-startup Commission Junction in 1999, Linda started her own Internet marketing consultancy - PartnerCentric - in 2000. Today PartnerCentric manages more than 30 of the top affiliate programs and has expanded to become a full-service Internet marketing agency that offers media buying, e-mail marketing, social media management and all creative services from banners to web design. Linda is a frequent speaker at affiliate-related events and has been featured in many publications, including Revenue magazine. She lives in Santa Barbara, California, along with her son.
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London Calling: a4uexpo Recap By Matthew Wood The second annual a4uexpo Affiliate Marketing Conference & Exhibition took place on October 14-15 in London, England. Attendance was up 25% from last year with well over 1,000 attendees passing through the venue at ExCeL London during the two day conference. Those in attendance were able to network with over forty exhibitors, listen to eighty international speakers, attend over forty conference sessions, and have a great time at three networking parties after conference hours. Highlights from day one of the conference sessions included a master class in WordPress optimization by Joost De Valk. Also, there was an insightful session on utilizing mobile within the space and how to secure buy-in for your affiliate program from the CEO – sometimes a tricky task. The day ended with a very entertaining Extreme SEO discussion involving five of Europe’s top search engine optimization gurus who gave the 300+ audience a revealing insight into the darker side of SEO and how to protect you against it. An information-packed session by Dr. Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson at Conversion Rate Experts demonstrated that you can use psychological methods to increase conversions. This certainly woke up the audience and vast note-taking was witnessed. Networking was far from over on day one, as the evening was spent cruising down the Thames past famous landmarks on the largest entertainment vessel available in London. On board were the crème of the affiliate marketing industry with 500+ affiliates, merchants, agencies and networks enjoying food, drink and discussion. Through the generosity of those onboard, $7,000 was raised for Cancer Research and the Lymphoma Association in a charity auction. Day two session highlights included informative sessions on how to conquer European affiliate marketing, coupon code implementation, and award-winning affiliate managers shared their most important marketing strategies.
Exhibit Hall at a4uexpo London 2008
Other sessions included Meet the Super Affiliates Q&A, as well as coverage of mobile, video, rebate and API’s and how these channels are placed within the sector and what their role will be in 2009. The Ice Party, incorporating the now infamous Vodka luge, was the final networking opportunity for those looking to maximize their time and close deals at a4uexpo. The next event will be a4uexpo Europe, taking place in Amsterdam at the RAI Centre on April 28-29, 2009. a4uexpo London will be returning to ExCeL on October 13-14, 2009. FeedFront readers are invited to claim 10% off both events using the code FF10.
Thinking Outside the Ad By David Fortino Why should it be accepted that the only way to generate revenue for your site is to bombard your audience with ads that your audience eventually ignores? Far too often, publishers have come to the conclusion that making money has to come at the cost of compromising user experience. The crafty publisher has realized this and embraced new forms of monetizing their traffic that their audience actually welcomes. Free offers such as free magazines subscriptions, white papers, software trials, podcasts and webinars have proven to be an extremely lucrative way for publishers to not only generate an incremental revenue stream, but also reward their visitors for their continued support. Tapping into human nature and the impulse of requesting something that is free has turned the traditional revenue generation model on its head for many publishers. Gone are the days where you constantly have to rely on selling your audience something or sending them to a site that’s only going to ask for their credit card shortly after visiting.
affiliate programs. While many publishers realize this to be the case, they struggle to find ways to monetize free content efficiently. The onus shouldn’t be on the publisher to figure this out. They should partner with companies who can help in a seamless manner and start collecting the cash. Something as simple as a subtle link inclusion in a post/article could drive substantial revenues if targeted correctly. Audit the advertising opportunities on your sites and test alternatives, such as free offers, to optimize your site. If you’re running campaigns that your audience isn’t interested in, you’re simply willingly wasting opportunities. David Fortino is the Vice President of Audience Development at NetLine Corporation and RevResponse.com.
Think about it…giving your audience a free subscription to Oracle Magazine or sending them over to Amazon to buy a book on Oracle. What do you think would perform better? The conversion rates on free products are statistically off the charts in comparison to traditional commerce/transactional based
Matt Wood is the Managing Director of Existem Ltd, as well as the founder of the affiliates4u forum and a4uexpo.
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Click Fraud: What Every Online Advertiser Needs to Know
How to Effectively Blog for Branding and Monetization By Andrew Wee There’s a perception that blogging is just a platform for creating affiliate sites and generating profits with them, which may not be totally undeserved.
• Integrity in the blogging context means you’re objective in your posts, it may even mean choosing not to promote affiliate products with high payouts, simply because you don’t agree with the ethics of the industry or the manner in which it is projected.
A well-maintained blog features frequent and new content, compared to traditional article style websites. Search engines happily send visitors seeking niche relevant content by featuring blogs high in their results.
• See things in a different light: You may have your favorite news channels, which sounds strange because all broadcasters have access to the same news source. What makes it different is the way in which it’s presented.
However, blogging can be much more than just another quick way to create a Web site and pump it full of advertising and embedding affiliate links in the post. That’s just scratching a blog’s potential. The big money comes when you establish a brand and THEN bank on your brand. The Power of Branding In a study conducted by a retailer which manufactured their own lines of car batteries, it found that one product line consistently outsold the others many times over. This was despite the fact that the batteries had the same specifications and performed the same. The difference? The brand. One brand carried the retailer’s name, while the other product line was labeled Die Hard batteries. The Die Hards flew off the shelves, outselling the ones carrying the retailer’s name many times over.
By Harald Anderson
The personality and character outclassed even physical appearance and wealth.
How does this relate to Internet marketing? Think about your niche for a moment. Is there a particular influencer or opinion leader that almost everyone listens to? Is there an Oprah or Martha or Larry King who talks and causes everyone else to listen? With the power of blogging, you don’t need to have a million dollar budget to achieve the same effect. Here are some tips to help you break apart from the millions of blogger out there: • Integrity: Honesty and reputation are two of the highest valued attributes when people were surveyed about role models they admire and respect.
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• Being able to understand how everyone else is doing things, and consciously choosing an approach that reflects your personality and gives a fresh perspective to your audience will have them thanking you for your efforts. Studying some of your favorite blogs and analyzing their style and techniques will give you ideas for enhancing your blogging style. While establishing a brand with your blog takes more effort than merely publishing keyword-loaded posts, it can generate huge dividends for your profits and your business. Andrew Wee is the creator of the SecretBlogWeapon.com blogging system and blogs at http://WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Imagine the following scenario… You open up your cellular telephone bill and you have been charged an astonishing $10,000 for last month’s activity. Convinced that there must be an error, you contact customer service to question the charges. When you request a copy of the calls made to achieve those charges, the customer service representative tells you they cannot make that available to you because it would compromise the security of their platform. What?! Sound hard to believe?
Unfortunately, incidents like this occur quite regularly in the pay per click industry. Customers who once wholeheartedly put their faith in online advertising are beginning to question the integrity of a system riddled with fraud, corruption and corporate spin experts. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the pay per click model is prone to illicit monetization opportunities that often are very difficult to detect or stop. Over the past few years, a prosperous underground click-fraud community has arisen where members are compensated to click on the advertisements of other members Web sites. These “paid to read” or “paid to click” rings are comprised of tens of thousands of members who earn income for fraudulently clicking on advertisements.
When you stop and ponder the fact that Google generated $17 billion dollars in profits over the last twelve months, you can certainly understand how a 16 percent fraud rate would be enough to rattle the foundations of e-commerce online. Somebody’s got some serious ‘splainin to do! A few years ago, Google dropped a lawsuit and settled out of court with a leading developer of a ‘clickbot.’ These clickbots are software designed to hide and rotate a computer’s specific numerical identification, or IP address. The unique characteristic of a clickbot is that it can space clicks minutes apart to make them appear much less conspicuous. Observers of the case reasoned that settling it kept the embarrassing news off the front pages and out of sight of online advertisers. The question I ask is: Where is the outrage? I cannot think of another industry where such an illicit wealth transfer can occur so quickly and undetected. How large is the global market for evil? If this issue continues unresolved, I can assure you that the pay per click model will be replaced by something less prone to fraud, corruption and spin. Harald Anderson is a passionate pay per click marketing expert and the Director of Search Engine Marketing at Clickbooth.com.
In many instances, participants from Virginia to Bangladesh speak of earning as little as $10 to several thousand per month. This is income they could never have earned if the pay per click search engines were as successful at stopping click fraud as they claim. The crux of the matter lies in the huge discrepancies between private click fraud companies and the pay per click search engines themselves. For example, Click Forensics, a leading click fraud monitoring platform, routinely reports a pay per click fraud rate in between 1627 percent. Google, on the other hand, claims that the actual level is closer to .2 percent.
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Improve Your Blog Earnings By Zac Johnson We all know that blogging is one of the fastest and most effective ways for you to have your voice heard. However, blogging is also one of the slowest methods for generating money online. Not only do you have to establish yourself or your blog, but you also need traffic, readers that interact, and a blog that people actually want to read. Once you have established your blog, it’s time to focus on increasing the overall value. I recommend you implement the following tips for instantly increasing your blog’s revenue month over month. Stop Making the Middle Man Rich
There is no reason why you should be giving up 30% or more to a middle man ad serving company. Take advantage of direct sales on your blog and you can rapidly increase your income.
You know what type of advertisers your readers have an interest in. Do not wait for advertisers to contact you, contact them and make a deal.
receive a notification every time you write a new post. It’s never too early to start building your newsletter list. Give Your Readers Something Free
Residual Income is Awesome
There is nothing better than residual income. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the harder affiliate programs to come by. If you can generate leads from your blog that will earn you residual income, you will rapidly see a wave of increasing dollars in your pocket every month. You Must Have a Newsletter
I cannot stress how important it is to have your own newsletter. The majority of your blog visitors will probably come to your Web site once, and most likely will never come back again. If you can get them to subscribe to your mailing list, not only can you provide them with exclusive content, but they will also
An excellent way to make your blog stand out from the competition is to offer a free ebook or service to your readers. You are most likely already writing a blog about a niche topic you know very well, so why not offer your readers a free ebook in exchange for joining your newsletter? I’m sure you have seen many of these tips before. The difference is that you may not have implemented them yet. Now that you have finished reading this article, go to your computer right now and make the necessary changes to improve your bottom line. Zac Johnson is the President and CEO of MoneyReign, Inc. You can read his blog at ZacJohnson.com.
“Ask InternetGeekGirl” By Stephanie Agresta Q: Dear IGG. I’m an “up-and-comer” in social media and online marketing. I work for a startup with limited resources. You seem to be everywhere at all times! What would you suggest a social media gal on a budget do? Sincerely, Pimp My Conference Schedule Dear PMCS: These days it’s hard not to be inundated with the sheer volume of specialized conferences and events in our industry. It can feel overwhelming. Given shrinking budgets, here’s my best advice for saving some dough and maximizing your marketing investment: • Focus on One Core Show: If you’re reading this article, there is a good chance you participate in the performance marketing industry and you already know about Affiliate Summit. Affiliate Summit is a great example of a show that is seminal to its market. My advice is to maximize your presence at one critical show per year. Instead of spreading yourself thin at four conferences where you see the same people, consider spending additional dollars to get more attention at one show (including a well-timed, coordinated announcement and influencer relations campaign leading up to the event). Review lower cost sponsorships; and consider doing your
Stephanie Agresta Speaking at Affiliate Summit West 2008
own event during the show, such as a VIP dinner or entertaining outing. You can maximize the number of leads from this one experience and spend the next year closing business. • Find a Conference Buddy: Splitting travel costs is a no-brainer. Bunk with a friend and attend all the freebie food and drink events you can. Every startup loves a cost-conscious employee. • Submit Yourself as a Speaker: A great way to save on attendance costs is to be selected as a speaker. Almost every conference has an online submission process for suggesting content ideas. You can rally some colleagues and put together a panel with you serving as the moderator. Not bad for your personal brand either! • Attend One New Conference a Year: I know I just said to cut back in some areas, but I also make an effort to go to one show each year that I skipped the previous year. This helps expand your horizons and your network. It can also give you a leg up on your competitors.
networking via social networks and email to set up critical meetings. You’ll save time and energy by not wandering the lobby aimlessly. • Go Local: In addition to conferences, there are many local events that you can attend for free and you won’t come home to a full in-box. • Be Informed: Make sure you have a detailed list of all the conferences out there. Add the Somewhat Frank (Frank Gruber) public Google calendar to your iGoogle. Got a question for InternetGeekGirl? Send it to contact@feedfront.com. Stephanie Agresta blogs at InternetGeekGirl.com and Twitters compulsively @stephagresta.
• Prepare: Make sure you do pre-show
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My .02 on SMX East By Wil Reynolds If you can’t keep up with the conference of the month, last month SMX landed in the Big Apple. The Javits Center to be exact. Registration went smoothly, so I was off to the races and on to my first session. It seems Internet marketing conferences sometimes struggle with balancing introductory, medium and advanced content in one event. SMX advanced tends to lean more on the Intermediate level and that seems to fair well with most of the attendees. That said, I still walked out of many of the sessions feeling like the 20 or so tips I gained made the cost well worth it. In fact, there is strong value there for most people. Two speakers who really blew me away with new ideas, tools, and perspectives were Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts and Debra Mastaler of Alliance Link. As someone who has been at this for 10+ years, I often go to these events to network, but their sessions taught me a lot and gave me plenty of food for thought.
New to me were the 30-minute educational sessions in the expo hall, with hosts from Google, SEOmoz, Apogee Search, and others.
The big news of the show was the launch of SEOmoz’s Linkscape tool, which will attempt to level the playing field by providing information to Webmasters on linking. It is long overdue, as running a link search in Google might only show you 1-5% of your links. This tool’s launch was definitely the talk of SMX, but time will tell if it is a strong as it claims.
These presentations were an excellent way for exhibit hall attendees to get a condensed version of the full breakout session, which they wouldn’t typically get to experience. Topics included linking, paid search, and analytics. Since the expo hall was a bit on the small side, this was also a great attraction for those companies with booths.
Photo by Third Door Media, Inc.
Advanced and basic tracks were clearly defined and labeled, which made it easy for attendees to follow. The in-house track was also very useful. It was geared towards helping companies that manage search internally (in-house) and raised issues and solutions for their specific needs. I especially liked the panel on “How To Break Up With Your Agency.” This was a unique topic and one that I think is important for attendees to understand when structuring agreements. One of the sessions unique to SMX is titled “Give It Up”, where the rule is you can’t blog about anything that is presented for 30 days. It provides some exclusivity on the content and makes SMX distinctive.
Photo by Third Door Media, Inc. Search Marketing Expo NYC 2008
All in all, it was a great show. I learned a lot and got to see some of the SEO royalty. Wil founded SEER Interactive, a Philadelphia-based SEO firm in 2002.
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Affiliate Opportunities in a Recession
Chat Improves Conversions– That’s What We All Want!
By Nicky Senyard Between the current financial climate and the holidays having just passed us, consumers are going to be less likely to make purchases. So affiliates should be considering what kinds of promotions to focus on in the coming months.
By Durk Price
For the last year, my company has been implementing artificial intelligence chat to save sales following cart abandonments. As a performance-based marketing company, we are always looking for ways to improve conversions as a way to helping our clients grow. determine how to make the best offer to keep the cart from being abandoned. And most importantly, none of these solutions protected the affiliate commission. Chatting to Save a Sale
UpSellit.com Homepage
We felt that attacking cart abandonments was a really great way to help our clients as we also improved our program performance. We also required a solution that would protect the affiliate traffic being sent to our client sites. Most applications we saw were of the DIY (do-it-yourself ) variety, or connected to a live chat feature, as in “thanks for the cash, good luck installing it” kind of attitude. None of these solutions offered best practices models or insights to help clients
We are now so sold on the tool and the relationship with UpSellIt that it is a virtual requirement for us to take on a new client. To make sure the client understands the opportunity offered by this application, we are running numbers to show them how this will impact their site-wide sales.
The results were an instantaneous improvement in conversions; affiliate conversions and PPC and natural traffic conversions too. UpSellIt’s claims of improving site-wide conversions of between 8-15% were well founded.
And these days, making every visitor session count is important.
Now we have about 20 clients using the product. Our client conversions of cart abandons to sales run between 15% and 35% with the monthly average for all clients using it of between 19% and 20%.
After one year of installations in a broad variety of clients and categories, we have yet to receive one customer complaint.
Convincing the Client
One of our wins was with a larger client of ours, who has an experienced US based in-house customer support team and a state-of-the-art live chat software. Initially not too excited about the idea, they added it on a sister site and the results turned their heads. Then they installed UpSellIt on the main site.
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Well, the numbers prior and leading up to the holidays offer some insight into the savings that consumers look for online during a recession, and coupons seem to represent a great affiliate opportunity. Coupons on the Rise
The Customer is Always Right
Lastly, one of the things we were concerned about was negative customer feedback.
Durk Price is President of eAccountable OPM, which provides outsourced program management for 40+ clients across most major networks.
If coupon offers are a promising recession opportunity, then affiliates need to understand who is downloading them and what they are using them to save on. All indicators suggest that the majority of coupon users are women, and that familyrelated coupons are the most popular.
The obvious answer is to promote online savings, but with so many ways to provide consumers savings, affiliates have to decide what kind of savings to focus on offering.
Targeting very deep cart abandons, where live chat responses were not fast enough to keep prospective purchasers from leaving the site, they now are experiencing cart abandon conversions to sales of 35%.
We got a recommendation to try UpSellIt, a chat technology company, and began talking to them about their save-a-sale application. We liked their responsiveness, their customer service, their referrals and their performance pricing model and began a rollout with a number of clients.
Focusing on Coupons
Nick Senyard
Months before the credit crisis peaked, both comScore and Hitwise noticed that coupons were one of the leading ways that consumers were saving on their purchases. In fact, if they were going to spend, there was a good chance they were going to look for a coupon first. For instance, Hitwise reported that during the week ending May 3, 2008, visits to coupon sites were up 85% year-over-year for that week. Consumers were also spending 39% more time on these sites that they did the previous year. Similarly, searches for the term “coupons” were up 45% year-over-year for that same week. If consumers were seeking out coupons online before the economic slowdown turned into a full-blown recession, then coupons should persist as a very strong opportunity for some time to come.
When it comes to ecommerce activities, women seem overwhelmingly focused on family savings. In October, for instance, the Marketing to Moms Coalition found that some of the most popular online activities for women were shopping for their children and downloading coupons. By focusing on promoting family-related coupons, then, affiliates can help insulate themselves against reduced consumer spending. Family-related coupons not only target the kinds of products that consumers look for in a recession, but especially the demographic that is most actively searching for them. Opportunity Knocking
A change in the economy does not mean a lost opportunity. Rather, it means a changed one. Consumers may have tightened budgets, but that only means they will alter how they buy. Their family budgets will have to go further, but there are some things they will always need, so there is considerable opportunity for affiliates who can help them save on such items. By promoting coupons, affiliates can attract not only consumers looking for coupons, but the full spectrum of consumers looking to save – which will be most of them. Coupon promotions, therefore provide affiliates an opportunity to profit from helping families make ends meet. Nicky Senyard is the founder and CEO of ShareResults.com, a relationship-focused affiliate network.
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Using Trademarks in Affiliate Marketing By Mark Rosenberg Using someone else’s trademarks for marketing purposes can pose legal risks for affiliates. Many trademark owners claim that such use is prohibited. However, it is not that simple. Affiliates can use another’s trademarks under certain conditions. The central issue is whether the trademark use is likely to confuse consumers into believing that the trademark user is related to or authorized by the trademark owner. If the use is likely to cause confusion, the use is prohibited. Put another way, an affiliate can use another’s trademark in a keyword, metatag or Web site content if that use is not likely to cause confusion. Even if there is no likelihood of confusion, there are limits. Under the legal doctrine known as “nominative fair use,” an affiliate can use another’s trademark only if (i) the trademark owner’s product or service cannot be readily identified without the use of the trademark; and (ii) the trademark is used only to the extent necessary to identify the trademarked product or service. An affiliate must also have a good faith reason to be using the trademark. For example, an affiliate can purchase the trademark as a keyword or place it an email if the affiliate is offering the genuine trademarked product. They can also use a trademark to make a legitimate comparison to the trademarked product or to inform consumers that a merchant is offering a generic version of that product. On the other hand, if the affiliate is not offering the trademarked product and either purchases the trademark as a keyword in order to drive traffic to their Web site or uses it in Web site content in order to obtain an organic listing that use will likely be problematic. When affiliates find themselves on the wrong side of a cease and desist letter, it is often because the limits of nominative fair use have been exceeded. This frequently happens when an affiliate calls undue attention to the trademark. For example, nominative fair use only permits the use of a trademark in block letters. Using a trademark in its stylized logo form or in font that is more prominent than the surrounding text is impermissible. Gift card offers are often problematic.
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While it may be permissible for an affiliate to offer a Starbucks gift card, the bounds of fair use are exceeded if the affiliate uses an image of an actual Starbucks gift card (which may also constitute copyright infringement) or displays a mock gift card with the word Starbucks in a large and/or bold font. Similarly, a permitted use of a trademark can become infringing when the trademark is used with text which creates the impression that the trademark owner authorized or is sponsoring the affiliate’s offer. While this may simply be a result of sloppy drafting, for trademark infringement liability, intent is irrelevant. All that matters is whether there is a likelihood of confusion. By using another’s trademarks for the right reason and in a proper manner, you can avoid trademark disputes. Mark J. Rosenberg is an attorney with Sills Cummis & Gross P.C. in New York City and can be reached at 212-643-7000.