Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Learn advanced approaches to running a clean affiliate program. A review of the systems, processes, tools and techniques used by leading affiliate programs to keep their programs clean. The panel consisted of:

• David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity (Moderator)
• Jamie Birch, Owner, JEBCommerce (Twitter @JamieEBirch)
• Graham MacRobie, President & CEO, Alias Encore (Twitter @grahammacrobie)
• Joshua Sloan, CEO, Sloan Tech (Twitter @sloanzone)

This session contained a lot of useful information targeted mostly to companies with an affiliate program and also outsource program managers.  Some of the information was useful for affiliates, especially the need for a good relationship between affiliates and affiliate managers.  The session consisted of short presentations by David Naffziger and by Graham MacRobie and then the floor was opened up for questions.

The presentations gave a brief overview of some of the common forms of abuse affiliate programs need to avoid.  These include PPC violations, Cookie Stuffing, Legitimate link replacement, transaction lead fraud, and Brand Squatting.  Some of the ways given to combat abuse were to know how your partners work – know how traffic is normally sent, who else they work with, is their plan consistent with their performance, and is their traffic pattern different from the normal.  Examples of various software was give, a couple from Brand Verity and also free alternatives.

The question and answer portion gave several very good tips.  One of the first was that no program should auto-approve, that affiliates each be inspected to make sure that they are who they say they are.  Another was to go over the terms and conditions listed for the program at least once a year;  it is better to have over strict rules and regs. that are lightly enforced rather than not enough.  This will help in the long run because if abuse is found it can then be removed.  Less than desirable affiliates are likely to group in the smaller networks as they are less likely to be discovered.  More abuse is likely in a new affiliate program.  Having the highest payout can make you a target on account of greed.   Many of these comments can be used both by affiliate managers and also act as warnings to affiliates as to the relationship they should have with their manager.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

During Affiliate Summit I visited both the Meet Market and the exposition hall to see the booths.  I was impressed at how good some of the booths and tables were, and also at how bad some were.  If I could recognize they were bad as a first time attendee, they must have stood out to veterans.  Here are some general comments based upon my experiences.

• Have a banner behind the table, giving your name and hopefully an idea of what you are (network, merchant, etc.)
• Have a give away: this is something that will make people remember you later.  It is even better if it ties in with your company name, slogan, or something of that nature.  It never hurts to be unique.
• Have people at the booth (I would have assumed that was obvious).
• Be friendly (again, obvious).
• Don’t have several people working the crowd and handing out stuff (I got asked if I wanted Perfect English at least 10 times) and no one at the table.
• If you have a giveaway or are doing a contest make sure to enter people that come up in it.  If there is a scanner make sure that all of the people working the booth know how to use it.
• Make sure that you are not crowding into the booth next to you.
• If your giveaway is beer make sure there is plenty of room for people (very good attention getter in my opinion, but a zoo if not handled right).

I would have thought most of these would be completely obvious, but I saw multiple examples of each.  Companies are paying for these tables, so the focus should be optimizing the experience to bring in business, not turn it away.  I was really impressed with adCanadian and how every little detail of their table tied into company branding – their banner, the sticker, the giveaway, their jersey – and they were really nice guys to boot (eh!).  They created a positive, lasting impression, which is what you should be doing when representing the company at any conference or industry event.  Keep these tips in mind when planning your own Meet Market table or booth for future conferences!

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

I see that Trisha has already given a really good outline of the topics covered by Peter, so I will just briefly mention a few things that I got out of it.

This was one of the most entertaining, insightful, and inspirational speeches given at the Summit.  I really enjoyed how Peter was able to engage the entire audience by using current examples mixed in with examples from his own experience.  One of his key points was that you can not make something go viral; you can make something good, and if people like it, it will go viral.  This keynote (along with all that I learned at Affiliate Summit) has given me the inspiration to continue on with a couple of projects I had been thinking of for a while.

That’s the mark of a good keynote.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

The keynote address was pretty good.  In effect it gave an overview of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s new book, Trust Agents.  It was based on research that shows that there are more than one type of currency.  One of the most important one of these is social capitol, which is based on trust.  Once you gain the trust of people they will look for your opinions, and trust them, thereby making it much easier to sell things to them.  People will trust your recommendations of products and services.  Knowing the “insider vocabulary” can be a major advantage, and most important: “be known as a person” Julien Smith.

The keynote was mostly a conversation between Julien and Chris.  I am looking forward to completing the rest of the book and will be posting a review when I do so.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Businesses may be changing the way they look at web presence. Can you just have a blog? Is a Facebook presence alone a good idea? Does Web 2.0 mean the demise of websites?   The panel consisted of:

• Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions (Twitter @shashib) (Moderator)
• Kelly Harman, President, Zephyr Strategy
• Melanie Mitchell, SVP, Search Strategy, Digitas (Twitter @melaniemitchell)
• Ramon Ray, Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com

This session gave an interesting and entertaining look into how the role of a website has been changed recently with the advent of Social Media.  One of the chief points that I took from the session was that your website should be the anchor for all the other forms of social media which you use.  Ramon Ray brought out some points that are easy to remember and contain a lot of useful tips, these are:

• Focus on the customer.
• Have a plan of action.
• Have an easy to remember name.
• Be informative.
• Security -  have as much as is needed for your site.
• Easy customer contact = good customer service.
• Have fresh content.
• Be found.
• Be simple.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description:  This presentation discussed how to enhance your site using various widgets, what works and what doesn’t, and how effective different widgets are to your site.  The panel consisted of:

• Woody Wood, Product Manager, Amazon (Twitter @AmazonAssociate)

This session gave an overview of what a widget is, and what it can bring to your site.  Many examples were given from the Amazon Associate program and a couple of examples from other sources.  One of the chief reasons for using a widget is to add interactivity and functionality to your website.   A key point that was mentioned was that a widget should be used to augment your site, along with all of the links and banners, instead of replacing them.  Several suggestions were made as to what works and what does not.  Included in the what works category were things like:

• Use the right widget for the job:  focus on targeting the widget at relevant material to your site.
• Place the widget in the most effective spot:  for example, in the center of the page for a one off topic specific item, or on the sidebar for something that is more long term.
• Use the widget as a self expression tool:  add comments and recommendations to the items to make the relevant to your audience.
• Change content regularly:  make sure that people want to return to your site.

The only negative thing I took away from this very well put together presentation was the mention of the very short duration of the cookie given by the Amazon Associate program.  This will most likely not stop me from using Amazon widgets on my site, but is a little disappointing.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Discussion on the Advertising Tax by industry leaders that have played a key role in organizing industry advocates and educating legislators on the impact of state tax nexus legislation.  The panel included:

• Brian Littleton, President / CEO, ShareASale.com (Twitter @Brianlittleton) (Moderator)
• Karen Garcia, Partner, GTO Management (Twitter @karengarcia)
• Beth Kirsch, Volunteer, Performance Marketing Alliance (Twitter @bethkirsch)
• Melanie Seery, President, Affiliate Voice (Twitter @mellies)

This session was very informative and gave a lot of information concerning the current problems affiliate marketers are having with some of the new tax laws, or rather the new interpretations, of the tax laws.  One of the most important facts given was that the definition of “Nexus” has been recently changed, or rather updated.  For a business to have Nexus, they must by physically present in the state.  The change in definition holds that affiliates living in a state count as Nexus in that state.  This is important because it requires all of the merchants to charge their customers the state sales tax.  The issue is not that the companies should charge this sales tax, but that it is often cheaper for them to drop their affiliates in whichever states are affected, instead of adding the ability to charge the sales tax on their site.

The chief purpose of this session was to bring people up to speed on the legislation that has been put into affect or has been defeated in several states such as New York, Hawaii, and California.  This is important because it will soon affect any state that charges sales tax, which is most of them.

From the standpoint of someone new to the industry this was a very important session to attend, as it helped to bring me up to speed, so to speak, with some of the major issues which are currently impacting Affiliate Marketing.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Regardless what your role in the industry is, it’s important to be noticed within the industry. Learn the networking and social media techniques that make it possible.  The panel consisted of:

• Lisa Picarille, Online Marketing Consultant, LisaPicarille.com (Twitter @lisap) (Moderator)
• Michael Buechele, Owner, MikeBuechele.com (Twitter @mikebuechele)
• Trisha Lyn Fawver, Affiliate Manager, Paulson Management Group (Twitter @trishalyn)
• Jen Goode, Doodler in Charge, JGoode Designs (Twitter @JGoode)
• Stephanie Lichtenstein, Affiliate Program Manager, Andy Rodriguez Consulting (Twitter @StephARC)

This session, Getting Noticed FAST, contained a lot of valuable information from people who have gone from being a nobody in Affiliate Marketing to being well known by many of the top people in just a couple of years.  Some of the suggestions were:

“Get involved in the response…go to other sites and comment”   Jen Goode

“Start blogging”  Stephanie Lichtenstein

“Don’t flame people”  Trisha Fawver

“Do something different the first time you meet in person”  Mike Buechele

Many tips were given on the importance of using social media to get your name out there.  Also mentioned was the importance of personal branding and being consistent between all of the different forms of social media that you are on.

From the standpoint of someone who is new to Affiliate Marketing, this was a very good session with plenty of examples from the panelist’s personal experience.  It gave me ideas on where to start on getting noticed so that I can further a career in Affiliate Marketing (if I so chose) by meeting people who are already successful in the field and learn from their experiences and mistakes, while at the same time possibly being able to help them out with my own expertise.  In many cases it is not what you know, but who you know.

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As I am sure Trisha has mentioned before I will be blogging while attending Affiliate Summit East 2009.  Currently I am attending DeVry University, and am in my final term towards a BSB in Project Management.  I am, as of yet, still undecided upon what field I will apply my degree, and have decided to attend Affiliate Summit East in order to further my knowledge.  I hope to present my views as a student and as a project manager on what I learn from each of the sessions and events which I attend.

Look me up while I am there.  I will be rather hard to miss, wearing a very bright Blinkstar Media shirt, as you can see in the picture we took here at home.  See you there.

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