Affiliate Marketing Fanatics #59: A Gateway Conference
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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!
Mike and I jump back into the saddle with this whole podcasting thing. We talk briefly about how great Affiliate Summit West 2012 was, get off track in some places, and try to get the innocent kids in the Midwest hooked on some affiliate marketing conference goodness. In in this episode we discuss:
- Affiliate Summit Central – a gateway conference to bigger conferences.
- Speculation about the night life of Austin, TX.
- Anybody using Pinterest? Thread on the Affiliate Summit Forum
- The Story of Skimlinks and Pinterest by Shawn Collins
- Pinterest “Pin It” Button WordPress Plugin
- 0% of Affiliate Marketers are Female. Say whaa? The rebutted 10 Great Women of Affiliate Marketing
- Some chatter about the Affiliate Summit Meetups in NY and SF
Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! Be old fashioned and just leave us a comment!
Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics!
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 58: Suicide by Cough
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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!
Like the great prime time dramas of yore, we’ve done a crossover arc episode with the guys at Geek Dads Weekly, Daniel M. Clark and Drew Bennett. Our fun started during Emo Wolverine Feels Nothing – Geek Dads Weekly 101 and continues here. In in this episode we discuss:
- Ad:tech NY & Mike’s experience there last week. It seems more folks are more directed at building mobile networks instead of mobile content, necessarily.
- Using the broader point of reference of Internet Marketing instead of Affiliate or Performance Marketing.
- Some Affiliate Summit West 2012 info, talking about our Affiliate Improv! panel with Mike, Daniel, Eric Souza, and myself. The panel will be at 3:30 Sunday January 8th in the Augustus V room.
- We’ll be manning a speaker booth Tuesday January 10th at 2:00 pm for any follow up!
- The discovery of Pinterest, the inundation of crafty folks there, and how it is divided a bit among gender lines between who “gets it” and who doesn’t.
- The Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program – Our code name for Caesar’s will be Castle Greyskull.
- Show our guests some love: Daniel M. Clark is a podcast production consultant at QAQN.com and Drew Bennett is a dad, photographer, and blogger at BenSpark.com.
Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! Be old fashioned and just leave us a comment!
Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics!
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 57: Geek Cast Wannabes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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!
It seems longing for a simpler time, back when we all religiously listened to Geek Cast, is a virus that’s going around. Before the band got back together last week on Affiliate Thing, we had a similar idea to emulate that model for fun. Mike is back, and we were also joined by Wade Tonkin of Fanatics and Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com. In in this episode we discuss:
- Our collective love of the original Geek Cast with Shawn Collins, Sam Harrelson, Jim Kukral, and Lisa Picarille.
- The passing of Steve Jobs… would the reaction be similar if Bill Gates had passed?
CityCrashVille Hometown on iPad.- Speculating on what Affiliate Summit Central will be.
- Upcoming Affiliate Summit West in January and how the session voting is going.
- Mike’s recap of the New York Comic Con
Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! Be old fashioned and just leave us a comment!
Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics!
Read MoreNo One Wants A Free #ASW12 Gold Pass?
Not a single person entered my contest. No one wants to win?
I still have a Gold Pass for Affiliate Summit West 2012 to give away. You tell me – how should I give it away?
Read MoreAffiliate Summit East 2011: How to Pitch Your Company #ASE11
Session Description: Candid advice for exhibitors representing their company at the Affiliate Summit conference. On the panel were:
- Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards (Moderator)
- Robert Adler, President, The Link Builders
- Ad Hustler, Chief Hustler, Ad Hustler, LLC
- Kim Rowley, Owner, Key Internet Marketing, Inc.
I have to admit that this session came off unlike what I thought I was in for. What I expected was tips to hone your pitch when talking to people. What I got was a newcomers’ guide to attending conferences. While there’s definitely a lot of value in that, especially for, well, newcomers, there wasn’t a ton of value in it for me. However, I did pick up some “best practices” that I’ll definitely be sharing with folks that are new to trade shows and nervous about representing their companies well!
Bullet Point Review!
- Don’t look straight at a person’s name tag for their name, just ask for it. Don’t devalue a person based on what their badge says their role is – people wear many hats in this industry.
- Business is supposed to be personal to a point.
- Don’t look over people’s shoulders to see who else there is to talk to (it’s rude!).
- Don’t judge people based on what they’re wearing. Never think the way they dress equates to how much money they can make.
- CPA networks rely on a gender bias going towards men. Ladies can drive leads too.
- Don’t assume people are in a role they’re not.
- Highest price, best offers…most of your CPA networks claiming these things are full of it. Only one network can have THE highest price or THE best offers, so you’re all just lying. Develop a relationship with the affiliate – the rest is nonsense.
- Have a unique pitch. What is it about your company that’s different from your competitors?
- Name one thing that will make you walk past a booth?
- Booth babes. They don’t know anything about your company and it looks pathetic. You’re not going to attract real performers that way. As Ad Hustler said, your hot chick isn’t going to entice them because they can probably afford a hotter one!
- When people working at the booth look disinterested in being there. Potential partners need to see your excitement!
- Aggressive sales mentality. It doesn’t work in affiliate marketing. These panelists said they’d avoid a booth if they saw the staff trapping other attendees.
- Knowledge is the best sales tool. Everyone at Affiliate Summit is a sales person when you think about it. Make us interested.
- Don’t spam. If you add a person to a list after a short conversation with them, it’s a big turn off. A follow up email, however, is good; if you don’t follow up within a week, people will forget about you.
- Be memorable, in a good way.
- Have you had bad booth experiences?
- Don’t snipe people as they walk by your booth with the lead scanner gun.
- Tell someone what you do quickly – be respectful of people’s time and busy schedules during a conference.
- Anecdote: Tricia was trapped in a conversation in a booth for almost 10 minutes and couldn’t get away. The personal eventually admitted that they wanted to practice their pitch on her!
- Good booth experiences?
- If someone is an expert at whatever it is they do, it gives a person confidence that they’re the best person to work with. Be the expert.
- Listen to what the other person is saying about their company. You can brainstorm together.
- Just don’t lie.
- What do you NOT want to hear at Affiliate Summit?
- I can get you higher payouts!
- We have the best offers!
Points brought up during the Q&A
If you’re confident in what you do, you can afford to be a little annoying.- Some of the best opportunities to pitch your company can be the least obvious.
- How do you quickly explain affiliate marketing?
- You’re the guy in the duck outfit outside the pizza place trying to get people to come in and order.
- What you put in is what you get out.
- Is there a tension of working with both affiliates and other vendors?
- Affiliates expect it, as long as you’re not wasting the other vendors time they’ll be open to partnerships.
- What are the best opportunities for networking?
- Meals and cocktail hours. Just start a conversation with someone.
- Let people know that they can refer people to you if they think there’s a good fit.
- Cab lines, heck any line where people are probably from the conference.
- Don’t pitch people you don’t know – wait until they ask what you do. Wait until someone asks for your card.
- Hang around and talk to speakers after sessions.
- Give free stuff to bloggers.
- How do you pitch when you have multiple hats on?
- Start with everything.
- Come up with something memorable (e.g. I’m a hustler).
Affiliate Summit East 2011: Wil Reynolds Keynote #ASE11
Wil Reynolds knocked it out of the park once again speaking at Affiliate Summit East 2011. Not just the most requested session, but as a keynote speaker! It was the only keynote I attended this time around, and well worth it!
Bullet Point Review!
- We fall in love with the things that are easy.
- This is the 12th affiliate summit Wil’s speaking at.
- Sick of shortcut tactics that win.
- Find .edu clubs on topics that you could sponsor.
- Intitle search.
- Google is matching synonyms so sometimes you don’t have to do as much work as you think
- Believe in the power of 1. What are you doing to turn 10 to 10,000?
- What value do you add?
- Google will eventually figure it out.
- Rel=author (once you get to a certain level, Google starts putting your picture by articles).
- 30-40% of searches are related to brands.
- If you’re being un-followed en masse, you screwed up. Invest your time & find out why.
- Underutilized assets: badges, giveaways, social.
- Invest in assets.
- Find .edus or k.12 that list scholarships – make one!
- Strong connections are always valuable.
- Little tidbit: Press 4 in Google Voice to record. Pay Speech Pad $1 per minute to transcribe and use that as your content!
Wil was goodly enough to utilize the power of the SEER Interactive Blog and his twitter following and posted all the links he mentioned in his keynote here: Affiliate Summit Keynote Links.
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