Affiliate Classroom Rebrands to Lurn, Inc.
Is it too soon to say “Rebranding Fail”?
I just got the news that Affiliate Classroom, Inc is re-branding themselves to Lurn, Inc. I must admit that my first impression of the new name is not a positive one. I immediately wanted to ask – what was wrong with Affiliate Classroom? Didn’t it say everything it needed to say? The press release they sent along with the announcement email answered that question:
“We originally set out to provide training and best practices for affiliates. The name Affiliate Classroom made perfect sense,” said founder and CEO Anik Singal. “But in late 2008 as our executive team developed our strategic vision for the next two years, we felt limited by the name. What we’re able to offer now is beyond simple how-to information for affiliates. Changing our name is strategically liberating.”
Okay, I can understand that. When your name is very specific and your goals expand to something greater, a new name is in order. So I can support them in the decision to re-brand to a new name that’s more all-encompassing to what they want to achieve. But Lurn? I’m not sure I can be on board with the new name; for some reason it reminds me of names like Knol and Cuil and other recent social media-crazed names that seem to be trying harder to be “cool” or “cutting edge” than functional and appropriate. Which made me sad to read further down in the press release to this:
Singal added, “We’ve been getting a lot of compliments on the new name. We think that it highlights our fun personality, while staying true to our vision of empowering our students to reach their goals through technology and education.”
Maybe I’m being overly critical about the name. Afterall, that’s just my two cents. I do have to hand it to Anik & his team that they’re awesome people who are doing a good thing for the industry so I really do wish them the best of luck with the rebranding effort. For their sake I also hope more people like the new name more than I do 😛
Read MoreAffsum Session: Copywriting Clinic
Yes, that’s right. It’s been MONTHS since Affiliate Summit East 2008, and we’re less than a month away from Affiliate Summit West 2009. And I’m just now getting around to giving you the skinny and my notes on this incredibly helpful session. Why now? Now there’s video:
The panel consisted of:
- Lisa Riolo, Founder, Hammock Ventures (Moderator)
- Adam Gilad, CEO, Gilad Creative Media, Inc.
- Scott Polk, CEO, Purplestream Marketing
- Anik Singal, CEO, Affiliate Classroom Inc.
As I mentioned, this was a fantastic panel. In fact, I might consider this hands down the best panel I’ve attended at any trade show. It was FULL of useful information. Watch the video for yourself (ignore my head in the front row :D) or check out my notes!
Bullet Point Review!
- Copy writing is salesmanship in writing (Anik).
- Headlines are huige – your copy can suck if your headline kicks butt, but the other way around doesn’t work (Anik).
- Simple video dresses up your content (Anik).
- Making an ugly order button actually helps because it stands out – believe it or not, conversions go through the roof (Anik).
- Think of headlines as plot points (Adam).
- Act I is the Familiar World. Turn pain into calling. If you can articulate their pain better than they can – it will bring trust & bring them to the calling (Adam).
- Act 2 is the Road of Trials. Meet new allies and villains – in copy writing allies can be testimonials, villains are negative – brings you to the death of the protagonist (Adam).
- Act 3 is the Resolution. Give them to sword to slay the dragon – the order information and a promise of how great it will be when they get there (Adam).
- Write for your reader (Scott).
- Optimize against the competition (Scott).
- 350-450 words is a good start (Scott).
- Use main keywords you’re optimizing for in the 1st sentence, twice in the first 200 words (Scott).
- Editorial content is what powers the web (Scott).
- People have difficulty getting started, but the key is tight copy.
- Use of active verbs – creates motion & engages users.
- Try to evoke senses when selling -> smell/scent works well. They’re related to positive emotions.
- Listen & read things around you – it will inspire you to get started.
- Process of writing and process of editing are two very different processes.
- Take 12 hours in between the creative of writing and the technical of editing as a buffer period.
- Build momentum – make them want to turn the page (Adam).
- Take note of evocative words.
- There are good books that are just lists of words.
Points brought up during the Q&A
- Adjectives are your enemy.
- Reading out loud helps develop the rhythm of language.
- How does attention span factor in?
- -> The story should be compelling enough and people are drawn in.
- -> The sub-headlines should tell the story.
- Never assume people have read the page before or after on a website – have good site navigation too.
- Tone – more professional robot or real person writing?
- -> That personal aspect is what draws people in.
- -> Talk to them in your voice.
- -> Consistency of voice is important.
- Humorous content is vital.
- What can brands with stuffier businesses do to liven up without adding personality?
- -> If you can’t do it within the funnel, ask affiliates to try stuff or do stuff elsewhere on the site.
- Any tools to check what you’ve written to improve it’s SEO?
- -> SEO Toolkit – keyword density analyzer
- -> Make title tag for search engines
- Have depth – don’t be too dumbed down.
- Supporting information is good, but don’t clutter the conversion funnel.
- It’s difficult to speak in absolutes and don’t disrupt the process.
- Multi-variant testing with copy gives you a realistic picture of what’s going on.
- Pop your sentences into Google to see how many others use those same phrases.
- Copyscape can analyze your content to see how unique it is.
I easily took the most notes of the conference at this session. Great tips all around, and I espeically loved hearing Adam relate copy writing to screen writing – my major in college was Theatre Arts, emphasizing on dramatic writing, so that was a nice way to bring together my visions of what I was going to do for a career and the reality of what I am doing for a career. Very awesome and I hope to see similar clinics like this offered at future shows!
Read MoreAffsum Session: Performance Marketing Association Q&A
Well, I think many people attending this session were expecting the topic to be heated, but l’m not sure they were expecting some of the venom that seemed to be in the room. Speaking for myself, I certainly didn’t. Originally there was only supposed to be one panelist fielding questions, but since 4 out of 5 working group leaders were in attendance, they were also recruited to speak. So ultimately the panel consisted of:
- Rebecca Madigan, Performance Marketing Association
- Sam Harrelson, Publisher, Cost Per News
- Brook Schaaf, Schaaf Consulting
- Brad Waller, VP Business Development, AdJungle.com
- Peter Bordes, CEO, MediaTrust
Guns were slinging! Unfortunately there’s not many bullet points to be had, but here you go.
Bullet Point Review!
- PMA is in germination phase – not a real entity yet.
- Why start now?
- Misinformation & lack of representation.
- Legislation.
- Lack of transparency.
- Maturity of industry.
- Formation process still underway.
- Interviewed over 60 industry leaders, Formation Advisory Board voted in by 100 peers.
- Working groups of 45 volunteers.
- Working groups make recommendations on formation.
- FAB 11 ratifies formation proposals (click here to see members).
- The working group committees are Scope/Objectives (headed by Sam Harrelson), Governance (Brook Schaaf), Fundraising (Peter Bordes), Membership (Durk Price), and Operations (Brad Waller).
Points (or other observations in this case) brought up during the Q&A
- Right off the bat the questions were hostile. There’s animosity about the PMA using the NY Tax situation as a launching point for formation despite the fact that they can’t do anything to help.
- Essentially there’s nothing the PMA can do since they’re NOT a fully formed organization, no matter how much they want to help.
- Rebecca acted as moderator and moved the conversation on after almost 20 minutes of hostile banter.
- The PMA blog as been quiet because the people in working groups have had their heads down working on things without much to report at this point.
- The term “Performance” has been used over “affiliate” because it is more inclusive of the larger base of members within the industry. Inclusive of a lot more relationships than just the affiliate – merchant relation.
- The PMA has a very similar model as a chamber of commerce but the scope is still being set up. They are looking at the chamber model in forming things. Mostly they want to improve visibility & credibility.
- Rebecca was questioned as to why she didn’t attend the meetings in Albany that the NY affiliates had since she’s actually the only paid member. It was decided that there was no reason because it would have been redundant and she can’t represent an organization that isn’t formed and doesn’t officially exist.
- They were asked why they divorced themselves from ABestWeb after the controversy, to which they responded that they didn’t divorce from it BUT once a particular few threads got ugly and became increasingly unprofessional they just stopped participating in those threads.
- There’s no conspiracy regarding Rebecca’s involvement – Anik Singal of Affiliate Classroom generously donated her salary for a year and she’s just being paid to “corral cats” and help form the organization. Her comment was that if she weren’t paid for this she’d have bailed long ago based on the assumptions about her involvement and what she’s had to deal with.
- An affiliate asked how they can be assured that the PMA won’t be overtaken by large company sponsorhips and forget the little affiliate? The affiliate industry is it’s own little ecosystem and the heart of it is the average affiliate. They’ve been very hypersensitive to the issue to ensure that affiliates are included.
It seems that there’s lots of confusion about the organization – or lack thereof – and hopefully the Q&A has taken things in the right direction. Perhaps Q&A wasn’t the right moniker. Maybe Suggestion Session or Feedback Forum might have worked better. It was disappointing to see one of the most vocal critics of the PMA – ABestWeb founder Haiko de Poel Jr – leave the session half way through in apparently disgust. I hope that future discussions going forward will be a bit more productive than the session in Boston.
Read MoreDebriefing from Affiliate Classroom LIVE Training
The training has been over for about 2 hours now and I’ve been sitting in my hotel room on the 16th floor with a brilliant view of west Las Vegas thinking about whether or not I should share my views with you on the training tonight or wait until I’ve had some time to absorb it and wind down more from the experience to write about it.
However I’ve decided in the interest of reporting to you, I should talk about my initial impressions at least while they’re still fresh in my memory. I will be dropping names!
First, the event was hosted by Anik Singal from Affiliate Classroom. Super gracious guy and a pleasure to talk with. Good job Anik for a great event!
The first speaker of the day was the keynote by Ned Farra. Ned talked a bit about Zappos.com and their history. Being previously unfamiliar with Zappos, it was interesting for me from a case study type point of view.
Next we heard from Bryan Rhodes & Stephanie Harris from Shaaf Consulting on a typical affiliate manager day. A lot of GREAT tips & tricks on how to allocate your resources (i.e. time & money) where they’re best served, making your job more efficient, and coping with being an affiliate manager. I think this was one of my favorite sessions of the day because they were engaging and even as fairly new to this game as I am, I could totally relate! I think this is the most actionable session for me.
Afterward we heard from Clarke D. Walton, a lawyer specializing in internet law. Some people seemed bored by this, but I was fascinated by the legal side of things. He shared some great case studies that really helped me to understand the legal perspective of affiliate marketing.
Amit Mehta, a 7 figure super affiliate, then talked about how to recruit and keep super affiliates. Good stuff, a lot of which I’d heard before, but definitely worth while. I learned some new tricks that I’m DEFINITELY going to keep in my back pocket 😉
I admit… the next couple of sessions were after lunch, which I was rushed through and had to take with me back into the meeting room, and I was less than enthused about the content. Todd Farmer & John Vehlewald from kowabunga gave a good talk about the difference between CPA and Traditional affiliate programs. It was interesting from a publisher point of view, but not very useful to me as a manager considering our printing products and the types of campaigns we run.
Lisa Riolo talked about metrics… I wish she could have gone a bit more in depth but the overview was good. Actually, more in depth in this setting so late in the day might not have been the best idea, so I’ll accept it! She did help me really understand how to make metrics more actionable.
Next up was Michael C. Jones from Pepperjam talking about affiliate marketing technology. Okay, I’ll admit it – I was bored. Partly because he was using a slide presentation that wasn’t included in the packet of materials we were given, contained a ton of information, and talked too fast. I’m really hoping that I can approach him via email later this week so I can get the PPT and really read it and soak it in. It was some stuff I already knew regarding coding and whatnot so nothing too ground breaking for me, personally.
Worst/Best Session of the day came from Heather Paulson. I was really interested in the topic of engaging affiliates and she started out great…then she seem to lose the audience. Keep in mind that this was an affiliate manager training day, so when you ask how many people have ever heard of xx tool and no one raises their hand, saying “uh, you should” may not go over well. The rest of her talk kind of went sour in my mind from there. Her information was overwhelming and almost pointed to “you can’t do this, hire me to do it!” without actually saying that. Maybe I took it the wrong way, I’m open to that, but it just rubbed me the wrong. I admit though, I did pick up some useful tips that will really improve my actions as an affiliate program manager, so it wasn’t all bad.
Lastly Rachel Honoway talked more about the new AC Certification courses to become a bona fide “certified affiliate manager”. I really want to take the courses! They’re fairly reasonably priced ($1500 for a 10 module course).
Oy tomorrow is a lighter day with just booth set up, registration, and the meet market, but work is work!
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