Win a Creative Vado! or Trackur subscription!
In a possible fail of the Disqus comment system (say it ain’t so, @DanielHa!) I’ve been informed that the comments on my original blog post about my contest appear to be closed.
So in an effort to wrap this bad boy up, entries are welcome via comment on ANY post. Deadline is still Sunday.
I’m going to stick with my original way of entering – write a post in your blog about why you read my blog. Link baiting? I won’t deny it. I got a good suggestion from Andrew Wee of WhoIsAndrewWee.com to forget the link bait entry model and go with random or a survey. Good idea, but it’ll have to wait for the next contest. I’ve never been one to change the rules mid-game (unless it meant winning at Monopoly).
First prize is still a 6 month subscription to Trackur reputation management service courtesy of Andy Beal. Second prize is a Creative Vado pocket video camera courtesy of James Seligman. Third prize is 6 months of ad space at FreshySEO.com courtesy of Eric J. Odom.
Read MoreTo Continue This Blog Or Not?
I’m considering whether or not I want to continue with this blog. I’m not sure that many people really read it consistently, and I’m beginning to doubt if there’s room in this space for another marketing blog from someone who didn’t even go to school for marketing. Is my perspective that unique? Not sure… so, I’m at a precipice I guess.
The blog isn’t even a year old yet, but I find myself questioning whether or not the blog is adding any value to the space or am I yet another jackass sharing their opinion with people who didn’t ask for it? According to Google Analytics, which longtime readers will see that I couldn’t even keep THAT working, I get about 61 visitors per day. 10,072 since January 1. But how accurate is this since my reporting has had fails a couple times? And does this even matter?
Unless I receive a boom of entries for the contest by Sunday, the contest has been a complete failure with not one single entry as of this moment. I thought the prizes were pretty sweet… hell I’d love to win them myself. What did I do wrong? Not put WIN A VADO! in the title? Rely too heavily on promoting it through Twitter?
Of course, this first year is a total learning curve. Find what works, what doesn’t. I can’t expect to just jump in and be the bomb. Am I being too rash? Not patient enough?
Confusing whether I’m representing my employer or myself is also weighing heavy. Am I forsaking my employer by endorsing my personal brand within my web presence?
These things weigh heavily on my mind as more and more work seems to pile on me – both at my place of employment and at home. Sure it’s building my “personal brand”, and I’ve gotten some cool opportunities from it like co-hosting the Affiliate Thing podcast and an upcoming opportunity that I’m not quite ready to announce yet, but…is it ultimately worth it?
Read MoreJune BAAMC Meeting
After running to the bank to take out money for bridge toll, heading west towards the big scary city, and rifling through my car & wallet for change for the meter while praying that the meter maids were taking a day off, I finally made it into the June Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition meeting, this time hosted graciously by Real Networks. As an aside, I like their building… older, brick, kinda funky and unique but still professional.
Last time I did a video because it was my first venture over there and I had a lot to say. I was happy to receive some kudos on it from BAAMC organizer Michael Brucker. We had some special guests at this meeting… Lisa Picarille from Revenue Magazine came over and Brook Schaaf from Schaaf Consulting flew up from LA just for this. Aren’t we special? 🙂
I was going to write a good long post about it, but it seems Lisa in her diligence as a journalist has beat me to it! So here’s her take at RevenueToday.com. She mentions a few other special guests that attended the meeting, but I didn’t see them (and yes… I’d recognize them!) so maybe they were on the phone listening in… I did arrive a touch late.
So, some notes not mentioned from my take. It was nice to finally meet Lisa in person, especially after subbing for her that once on Affiliate Thing. Very gracious…although I have to tell you, it’s totally surreal sitting in a room looking at a person speak that you listen to every week without an image in your head. Strange lol. She was surprised that I’d had time to come to the meeting given how busy I usually am, which prompted me to mentally review how busy I must sound on Twitter and this here blog without actually intending it!
Also said hi to Karen Garcia of GTO Management who came to the meeting directly from SFO – what a trooper! And had a nice conversation with a fellow affiliate manager who’s used PsPrint a lot in his former life of being an event promoter and loves us! Always great to hear!
Brook talked about the up-and-coming Performance Marketing Association (PMA), which got a lot of people in the room revved up. We also talked at length about the NY affiliate tax and how we wish the networks would get more involved. What’s definitely clear is that there’s a lot of confusion on how we’re effected as managers and the programs we represent. A vague law will only vaguely be enforced, NY!
Incidentally as a side note, the PMA launched their blog this week and today Rebecca Madigan posted their plan of attack.
We also talked a bit about some miscellaneous things like video widgets and the like. Since most of us in the room have our programs through Commission Junction, we collectively wish they’d buck up on offering some more interesting and innovative creative options, like widgets. One opinion was that video is pretty good for buzz, but general consumers never think to click on the video so it doesn’t convert as a sales tool. I think the jury is still out on video as a traceable seller like a banner ad.
That’s the meat & potatoes of it, really. Our next meeting should be sometime in August. And I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that I managed to escape parking-ticket free!
Read MorePHP Affiliate Link Masking
If you’re like me and have jumped into affiliate marketing head on, you may not know some of the nuances of using affiliate links. Recently, James Seligman of JMCA Media schooled me on how to really easily set up PHP redirects for your affiliate links to make them a bit more user friendly. Let me share this knowledge with you!
- Open up Notepad or a similar text editing program.
- Add the following code:
<?
header(“location:affiliate-link-goes-here“);
?> - Replace the portion in italics above with the tracked link from the program of your choice.
- Save the file as a .php file with whatever name is easiest for you.
- Upload it to a designated diretory or folder on your website. Some possible names for the folder are recommends, deals, however you can call it whatever is easiest for you.
- When you want to add an affiliate link, just add the code <a href=”/recommends/affiliate.php”>Affiliate </a>
It’s that simple! I had head of PHP redirects before but, not knowing PHP very well myself, I never looked into how to do it. Luckily James was there to show me just how easy it is! And now you have a weekend project to go mask all your affiliate links!
Read MoreEarly Bird Pricing for CJU Ends June 15
One of the leading affiliate networks (which the PsPrint program is also on), Commission Junction, is hosting their annual CJU (Commission Junction University) event September 16th – 18th in Santa Barbara, CA. This event is a chance for publishers and advertisers to meet face to face and talk about the issues facing the industry and ways of improving affiliate relations.
This year’s event has built in more networking time than any CJU before it. The organizers listened intently to the feedback the received last year wanting more chances to socialize with fellow industry professionals. This year’s keynote is Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple and current managing director of Garage Technology Ventures. It should be a good talk from someone with plenty of experience in the tech industry.
Personally, I’ve heard mixed reviews from industry insiders on this event, but hopefully so have the organizers and they’ve taken those reviews into consideration as well. The early bird pricing ends on June 15th, so now until then you can save $100 by registering now. More details can be found at http://cju.cj.com/events/. I’ve been told that the hotel books up quickly, so don’t wait. I’m still poking & prodding to see if we’re going!
Read More
