Affiliate Summit East 2010 Silver Pass WINNER!
About a month ago, I launched one of my best contests ever here, the chance to win a Silver Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010. ASE10 will be taking place in New York City at the New York Hilton. I’ll be speaking on a panel called Podcasting 101 with Daniel M. Clark, Joe Magennis, & Lisa Picarille moderating. I wanted people to think outside the box & get creative with their reasons why they wanted to go to the conference. I read all the comments & put aside any personal relationships and went solely on the most creative comment, as I said I would!
And the winner is…
Daniel Chmielewski!
Daniel will be receiving a Silver Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010 in New York City! Dan, you know you’re pretty much required to fill a seat in our session on Sunday at noon, right? 🙂 Ladies & gentlemen, enjoy Daniel’s winning comment:
Hi Trish!
We haven’t met yet but obviously the contest was made for me. It all began when I was born.. the doctors said I came out with a map of the internet clenched between my tiny hands. Then growing up I was raised in the wild by computers and modems… every once in a while I’d catch a lead gen and rest satiated — those were good nights. When I was a teenager I was attacked by a group of rabid ringtones and barely made it out alive… I still get chills every time an SMS goes off in the distance. After my teen years I was called away to war in the 9-5 trenches where I’ve been counting the days until the time that I may return home… and you see, ASE is my ticket out of here, my one true chance at freedom — to live the life I was born to lead!
… Well that’s how I see it anyway
Thanks Daniel for thinking creatively – check your email for more details on how to register for Affiliate Summit & redeem your prize!
Runner Up
I also said I’d be giving a copy of Internet Marketing From the Real Experts to the second best entry. The runner-up is Latease Rikard! Look out for an email so I can get your address to send you the book. Here’s her winning entry:
Hey Trisha…I want to go to Affiliate Summit 2010 because I will get to meet you. Now I can find out that you are not just some internet entity that I’ve been communicating with over the past couple of years. It will be like bringing my internet friend to life, and we will have control over it!
Congratulations to all the winners & stay tuned for more news about Affiliate Summit 2010 & another contest I’m working on ;).
Read MoreWin A Siver Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010!
I’m giving away a FREE Silver Pass to Affiliate Summit East 2010, the premier affiliate marketing conference. You read correctly! Affiliate Summit East 2010 is going down August 15 – 17th in New York City at the New York Hilton. I will definitely be there, along with my cohorts from For Me To Coupon. I hope to be speaking on a panel, but which panels will be on the agenda is still being determined. I will also have an article appear in issue 11 of FeedFront Magazine, being distributed at the conference.
The Silver Pass is a $250 value and gives you access during the conference to the Affiliate Meet Market and Exhibit Hall, Keynotes; and access to the Affiliate Summit Social Network. This pass will NOT give you access to any of the sessions taking place. Remember from past shows, if you follow me here at TrishaLyn.com, I do post reviews of all the sessions I attend for your educational pleasure.
How To Win:
- Follow me on Twitter – @TrishaLyn
- Tweet out this message: Enter to win a Silver Pass to Affiliate Summit East at TrishaLyn.com http://bit.ly/winase10 #ASE10
- Subscribe to TrishaLyn.com
- Post a comment about why you want to go. Be creative. This is what will decide the contest!
The winner must have completed all four steps and the winner will be chosen by the best, most creative reason why you want the free pass. The goal here is to think outside of the box. In your comment, please link me to your tweet and be sure to comment with an email address I can easily reach you at, should you win. All comments and tweets must be posted by June 11, 2010. A winner will be announced on June 14, 2010.
Runner Up- Bonus To the second best entry, I’ll give you a paperback copy of Internet Marketing From The Real Experts
Here’s the inevitable fine print. Passes are non-transferable, so if you win the pass you have to use it for yourself. Keep in mind that the winner must register for Affiliate Summit BEFORE passes sell out. As well, if you win the contest, register, and are then unable to attend, you have to contact them to cancel. If you don’t contact them to cancel and fail to check in at the conference, you won’t be eligible for any future complimentary passes from Affiliate Summit. These are their rules, not mine, so you must abide. Please enter only if you are not already registered and know you can attend, should you win.
Read MoreFighting the Advertising Tax in Sacramento
I wish I could tell you that we had an incredibly productive day in Sacramento, educating numerous state senators personally about affiliate marketing. They all understood what we do and they all agree that adding language to tax bills that make affiliate partners consistute nexus for out-of-state merchants is not going to make the state any money and is a bad idea.
I wish I could tell you that.
Instead, I report back after going to Sacramento last Wednesday, May 12th, with some less-than-uplifting realities about our state government here in California. Late last week, the Performance Marketing Association learned that there was a meeting on the 13th in CA senate subcommittee 5 to discuss adding affiliate nexus language to one of their pending budget bills. It’s not yet back, officially, in the form of a bill in the CA senate or assembly, but just knowing that they’re discussing it is enough for us to try to go educate some lawmakers on what affiliate marketing is, why affiliates shouldn’t create tax nexus for merchants, and why the state won’t actually make the $1.7 million they think they will.
I was asked to join Lisa Picarille and up we went to the capitol, no appointments made due to the last-minute nature of the trip, with high hopes of talking to the three state senators sitting on the subcommittee and laying some education on them. We knew that other affiliates and fighters in this advertising tax battle had previously met with Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny, the chair of the subcommittee and the state Budget and Finance committee, and had not had good luck in getting through to her, so we targeted her office first. She was booked solid in meetings, but we were given a time to check back to see if one of her staff members had a small window of time to talk.
So we went on to the office of Senator Robert Dutton, who we’d heard was on our side. We spoke with a nice staffer in his office who was very well versed on the affiliate nexus issue and assured us that Sen. Dutton opposed the language and that most the Republicans were probably on our side as well. It was very nice to meet with someone who actually knew what we were talking about and understood the issue. In the two previous times I’ve gone to Sacramento, we had uphill battles trying to explain affiliate marketing to blank-faced staffers, so his knowledge about the issue definitely allowed us to cut right to the chase. He suggested some other people we talk to, some influential to the budget committee and subcommittee, and some already on our side that might be able to help in other ways.
Lisa and I then set out for Senator Alex Padilla’s office as it wasn’t yet time to check back in to see if Sen. Ducheny’s staff could talk to us. We were unable to speak to the people Sen. Dutton’s office had recommended, but we spoke to the legislative director who was very interested in learning more and very interactive. He asked us a lot of questions to better understand the issue, and was very interested in the information about Rhode Island not realizing the projected revenue from their version of the advertising tax and their consideration of repeal. Rhode Island actually has a bill in play now, H 7071, set to repeal the “Amazon Tax” but it looks to be stalled and waiting for a proper hearing. So as not to lose time, we quickly had the information emailed to him as we went about to other offices.
That’s kind of where the magic ended. I have to say, I was feeling okay at that point that people were hearing us out. I didn’t feel that any overly appreciated us being there as private citizens just wanting to spread some education and counter some mis-information being spread by the opposition, but they seemed willing to listen and comprehend. We went to the budget committee office, and they weren’t that helpful. The person we were looking for wasn’t there, and the people who were there told us we were pretty much crazy to attempt to see anyone without an appointment at this time of year. What happened to PUBLIC SERVANTS making themselves available to the PUBLIC, hmm? This served as a harsh reality (to me anyway) that our system is generally broken. We took a break, and after refreshing ourselves with some lunch, we headed back to Sen. Ducheny’s office to check in.
We arrived earlier than the time we were asked to come back, but since we had no one else to see it was worth a shot. We were ushered into the office of a staffer who was, unarguably, the worst attitude and most combative of all the people we talked to that day. She made me very glad I do not live in Sen. Ducheny’s district (40th District). The staffer kept attacking affiliates for working with out-of-state retailers in the first place. I tried to explain to her that, California being just one of 50 states, the “Buy Californian” attitude wasn’t a viable business option, but I got the distinct impression that she didn’t care. She checked her cell phone multiple times while Lisa and I were trying to pleasantly and professional counter her unprofessional combative questions, which is just plain rude no matter what the situation is. She kept asking us what we proposed the state do instead to fix the budget. I wanted to tell her that it’s THEIR job to figure that out, not ours, but instead Lisa suggested some alternatives and tried to focus on the argument that the retailers will just drop CA affiliates, and the state won’t make this money they think they’re going to make.
That being our last meeting of the day, it did leave a bad taste in my mouth about Sacramento and state politics and government in general. I hope I can be of service throughout this fight until we’ve successfully killed the advertising tax, in all forms, here in California. Until then… anyone have a million bucks we can hire a full time lobbyist with? 🙂
Read MoreWin “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith
Hey boys & girls, I have a mint copy of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
So do lots of people. Why am I bothering telling you this, you ask? Because this particular copy can be YOURS!
Point of fact, I have more than one copy… so I’m giving this one way. It’s a fantastic book very relevant to how we do business in this web 2.0 age. This gem can be yours. There are several things you can do to enter!
- Post this to Twitter: “RT @TrishaLyn: Enter now to win a copy of Trust Agents by @ChrisBrogan & @julien. http://bit.ly/99eKM8”.
- Write a blog post about this contest, making sure to link to this post.
- Subscribe to my RSS feed.
- For either of these, make sure you leave a comment on this post with the links or a note that you’ve subscribed. How else will I know you entered?
That’s it! It’s that easy.
The contest will run until May 15th, 2010. I will draw the name of the winner from a hat. You can receive three entries, one for each action. So if you do all three, I’ll put your name into the hat twice. So that will definitely increase your chances to win. The winner will be announced on May 16th here on the blog and via Twitter.
What are you waiting for? ENTER NOW!
Read MoreAdvertiser-Sponsored Online Game Tournaments on PCHGames.com
While this is nothing new (ad-sponsored games), this tournament is an exciting twist on the old idea.
Publishers Clearing House (PCH) today announced at Ad-Tech San Francisco the introduction of advertiser-sponsored tournaments for free online games on PCHGames.com. Sponsorship exposes a brand to more than eight million targeted loyal PCH site visitors and drives an estimated 200,000 potential customers per tournament to an advertiser’s Web site. Tournament games include Mahjongg and Solitaire, which are two of the most popular games online and on PCHGames.com. In February 2010 PCHGames.com had 16 million game plays, 1.6 million unique visitors, 5 million visits and 28.8 million page views. Tournaments are developed in conjunction with casual game developer Arkadium.
The next tournament, Mom-Jongg, a Mother’s Day inspired version of the popular Mah-Jongg classic tile game, is taking place on April 28th and includes cash prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250. In addition, the top 25 scorers will earn 1,000 tokens, which can be used to win prizes including Amazon and Walmart gift cards or entries into PCH sweepstakes.
“PCHGames.com site visitors are highly motivated and engaged, especially when they have a chance to win cash just for logging on and playing their favorite games,” said Josh Glantz, vice president and general manager of PCH Online. “During the last tournament there were more than 540,000 games played in 24 hours. As the popularity of these tournaments increases the number of free online game plays continues to rise and ultimately makes this a very successful program for sponsoring advertisers.”
The advertiser-sponsored tournaments present a number of opportunities for brand messages and offers to be communicated throughout PCH’s stable portfolio of online properties, as well as through the company’s opt-in database of email subscribers. In addition to the customized tournament landing page sponsors also receive takeover ads, featured placement on the homepage of PCHGames.com, banner ads throughout the network, pre-roll and post-roll ads before the game begins and when it ends, custom tournament and partner emails and much more.
“Our online game tournaments provide a great way for advertisers to reach a targeted audience with multiple touch points at a time when they are engaged and hoping to win big,” said Michael Zane, director of online marketing at Publishers Clearing House. “Our team at PCHGames.com works closely with participating advertisers to obtain artwork and messaging, and then manages the tournament in its entirety. It’s a simple process that results in an entertaining and rewarding experience for those who play, as well as a great marketing success story for participating brands.”
Read MoreWin a GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Mini from BenSpark.com
Drew has done a great job on his picture-a-day project at BenSpark.com. Friday marked day one of his 6th year on this project, which is amazing and quite a feat. If you go on over to BenSpark.com, you can enter to win a GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Mini. The PhotoTrackr logs GPS coordinates and allows for extremely easy geo-tagging of your photos. This is a handy gizmo for any person who takes a large number of photos, whether at a conference or otherwise.
Right now you can enter to win one of 4 of these handy tracker’s here. Go congratulate Drew on 6 years of amazing blogging and enter to win!
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