Vote for “Behind the Curtain of Affiliate Management”! #ASW11
For the second conference in a row, Affiliate Summit has opened up the democracy of picking out which sessions attendees want to see on the agenda. Voting will be open through October 8th on their Slinkset page. Vote here! I don’t see that many changes since the last time, so I sincerely hope that those who attempted to game the system the last time by offering contest entries for votes have learned their lesson. Remember, the venue for Affiliate Summit West 2011 has changed this year to the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, NV. It’ll take place January 9-11, 2010.
I’ll be a shameless shill for a moment and ask that you vote for my & Karen Garcia’s panel idea, Behind the Curtain of Affiliate Management. We will discuss tools, tricks, and processes that make being an affiliate manager more effective and efficient. Please vote as we really want to help all the new, struggling affiliate managers out there to improve even the smallest affiliate program! Karen has nearly 10 years in the business managing various retail affiliate programs, and I have 3 years managing a wide variety of both retail and leads based affiliate programs in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer verticals.
There are 91 options to choose from, and you can vote up as many panels as you’d like to see. To vote, just click the upward arrow. You will have to create a login, or retrieve your login from the last round 0f voting. Do your civic duty as an attendee of Affiliate Summit and help shape what the agenda looks like. As soon as I have a few free moments, I’ll be voting and tell you all what I’m voting for. Just in browsing through, before reading the descriptions, there are more than a few really good sessions that are jumping out at me. It makes me even more excited for January to get here!
Viva Democracy! Remember, you have no business complaining about the content presented at the conference if you don’t go vote!
CJU 2010: Daniel Pink Keynote
Well I returned from CJU on Friday, and I have notes! Unfortunately, my alarm clock failed me and I missed the vast majority of Daniel Pink’s keynote. I saw part, and I took some notes for you, and I’m grossly disappointed that I missed it.
Bullet Point Review!
- DIY performance review works best.
- People do better if they feel like what they do matters.
- Autonomy – Mastery – Purpose
- Sometimes we obsess over how people do stuff when they don’t focus on why.
- When you pair the profit motive & the purpose motive, great things happen.
- Have a purpose bigger than your product.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 38: Interviewing Niel Robertson of Trada
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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more! We like this interview thing, so we’re continuing with it! This time, we’re talking to Niel Robertson, the CEO of Trada. Mike takes most of the lead, considering he’s actually using Trada and is really into PPC marketing lately. In in this episode we discuss:
- How Niel got started in internet marketing.
- What Trada does and how PPC affiliate marketers can make money there.
- All users must use their real name – so we discuss anonymity.
- Trada celebrated their second birthday last week.
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!
Check out this video on how Trada works:
Read MoreWhatever Happened To Class?
I’m going to rant on about something that happened at Affiliate Summit East, and I know I’m not the first and probably not the last. Credit where credit is due… I owe the rants of Karen Garcia (I’m sorry…why are you here?) and Jen Goode (Professional events and sexual harassment, when did that become ok?) to remind me why this kind of thing isn’t right. And make me feel the need to write something about it.
So, if you weren’t there, heres the gist – a network decided to hire two girls in very small bikinis to promote a new network that’s starting soon. It’s actually appropriate consider that the concept of the network, apparently, is that they only hire female affiliate managers who look good in bikinis and will be talking to affiliates while wearing said bikinis. And this genius idea has been dubbed – wait for it = Bikini Babes Network. SIGH. At least, that’s all these “representatives” could tell people since the CEO didn’t make it to the show because of some travel/customs issues.
First of all, it’s insulting. It’s insulting to every woman working in our industry. Whether or not you look good in a bikini, it’s degrading to know that someone gave you business just because of your body and not because you’re good at what you do. It devalues them as a person. I hate to speak ill of fellow women that I don’t even know and pass judgment, but I’d assume that the women agreeing to work for this network are in dire straights in terms of needing the job. I’d personally sooner work at a retail register than be hired based on my appearance alone. Or, they’re not bright enough to realize what a joke this is, which means they probably won’t be taking home Affiliate Manager of the Year trophies any time soon.
As I walked around one day during the conference, the bikini babes in question were loitering near a booth featuring a Ducati motorcycle in their booth area. I say loitering, because these women knew nothing of affiliate marketing or the rest of the conference, and didn’t actually have a booth of their own to post in, so they were wandering around distracting others. I was not surprised to walk by and witness no less than 5 men attempting to talk the girls into sitting on the Ducati so they could get a picture. They scrambled to get a camera, and finally ended up with some dude’s iPhone. Was this picture for their website? Probably not. Did it have anything to do with business? Absolutely not. I was distinctly witnessing a male adolescent fantasy in action. And if felt dirty.
Besides being insulting, it’s inappropriate. While Affiliate Summit does not enforce a dress code, they do suggest business casual as the way to go. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting this on Affiliate Summit in any way considering they had no way of knowing in advance the company’s marketing tactic. However, It’s my opinion that people need to remember that their companies are sending them to this conference to drive business, not to gawk at bikini babes. If everyone else remained professional and ignored these women, companies would stop using them and we could all go back to civilized working conferences. What affiliate would take this kind of network seriously and decide to work with them? I can only imagine anyone working with them might try the network out of sheer morbid curiosity. Otherwise, they’re not an affiliate I necessarily care to work with if the lure of bikini clad affiliate managers honestly drew them in.
There have been issues with “booth babes” at the conferences in the past. The first show I went to, Affiliate Summit East 2007, some legitimate employees from one merchant company dressed as naughty, goth school girls – highly inappropriate considering their product was a reading learning system for children! And almost every conference in Las Vegas features some kind of showgirl on loan or naughty nurses asking people to enter to win a Hummer (the car, not… the other thing). A lot of people defend these kinds of attention-getting antics as “par for the course” or claim these babes can sell anything (as probably proven by beer commercials around the world). But should they?
It seems there’s always a backlash afterward, and many affiliates elect not to partner with such companies that attempt fleshy stunts to gain attention. Reputable affiliates, the ones that are most likely to make a company money, chose ethics over babes and go with the merchants, networks, and other vendors that take their businesses seriously and don’t jump to sell using sex. Case in point – I haven’t seen the company whose employees dressed as goth school girls exhibit at an Affiliate Summit since, yet their company still exists. People remember. Do you remember what the naughty nurses were selling along with entering to win a car? Me neither… I’m fairly sure the company doesn’t exist. And by January and Affiliate Summit West 2011, most people will probably laugh off the Bikini Babes Network as another flash-in-the-pan CPA network that quickly went the way of the dodo (if they ever actually launch).
Here’s the moral of my story, folks. If you’re going to do something attention getting for your business, do it with class. Inject some wit, and style, and people will remember you positively. That’s how you gain attention for your business and leave an indelible, positive impression with someone. Stay classy, businesses.
BTW… Class from Chicago is a great song, and it’s where I stole my headline from.
Read MoreASE10 Tuesday Keynote: Jim Kukral
Tuesday of Affiliate Summit started off with good-natured shenanigans to set Jim Kukral at ease for his first keynote speech. Jim just wrote an awesome book, Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue
So a few minutes before Jim’s keynote, we meet up in the blogger lounge to pick out our capes and get ready to storm the keynote. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Hilton, Jim’s looking out into a crowd of unfamiliar faces & cursing his affiliate super friends for not being in the audience. His nerves are building, despite his experience speaking before, as this is his first keynote.
We finally enter and file into tables front and center that our minions reserved for us. There we were… in full hilarious view for Jim. A smile crept across his face, and he opened his keynote with words that were never truer, “It’s good to have friends.”
Aside from the shenanigans, Jim killed it in his keynote. He had great tips, motivating the laziest of us to get off our asses and be DOERS!
Bullet Point Review!
- Conceive + ask/take a shot = make it happen.
- Do!
- Get in the idea mindset.
- Carry a notebook.
- Forget everything.
- Combine ideas.
- Listen.
- Do the opposite.
- Make a list.
- Free your mind.
- If you want to be remarkable, you need to do something remarkable.
- Never show effort.
- A lot of people don’t value what they’re good at.
- Is your ego holding you back from making money?
- Create a reaction in people with great ideas – you know an idea is good when you get a reaction.
- DeBeers sells “forever”. Nike sells “winning”. You might not sell what you think you sell.
Remember, no office is complete without my motivational poster of Jim (photo courtesy of Brad Crooks)
ASE10 Monday Keynote: Frank Luntz
Monday of Affiliate Summit started off with a keynote by author Frank Luntz, who most notably wrote the book Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear
Considering I focused on creative writing in college (specifically as a playwright, but that’s another story), the idea of using different words to illicit a different response from people fascinates me. So I was very interested to hear some actionable items and learn some psychological wordsmith tactics to use in my writing. Unfortunately, I was distracted during the first few minutes attempting to get the conference wifi to work on my laptop so I could tweet some nice tidbits out to folks (and check my email, I’ll admit). I had to finally give up and accept that the wifi had reached user capacity and I was too late to hop on. So I missed some stuff, and I’m sad to report that the speaker’s contract prohibited filming… bummer. So here’s what I did pick up!
Bullet Point Review!
- Names matter – there’s a right and a wrong way to say things.
- The word “imagine” transcends culture.
- Click on the image above for the 21 Words for the 21st Century.
- Inspire is the closest way to get people to do things.
- Cleaner, safer, healthier = all are better ways to say sustainability.
- Efficient & hassle free are good terms.
- “Security” means there’s something to be afraid of, whereas “peace of mind” means less worrying.
- “Committment” is stronger than “guarantee”. Only 9% of people believe the word “pledge” to be trustworthy.
- The word “value” has increased in importance.
- “Service” is a more human component – you want to humanize your products. “Product” is more emotional.
- The younger the target audience is, the shorter your sentences need to be with less syllables, more examples and metaphors.
- The most powerful form of communication is rhetorical questions.
- The average American loses their job and runs out of savings in just 5 weeks.
- Young target audiences want their products to be customized, personalized, and humanized.
- People complain about security and privacy, but it’s actually their last priority.
- Color is less important than the visual itself on websites.
- If you’re under age 30, you prefer digital interaction over talking to people.
- Men want more money, women want more time.
