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’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Drew Bennett and Tim Jones about their origins in affiliate marketing & their panel “How Bloggers Can Successfully Connect with Audiences”.  Tim & Drew don’t give too much away, so if you want to learn more, you’ll have to go to their panel at the conference!  In in this episode we discuss:

• BenSpark.com & the origin of the name.
• Geek Dads Weekly – Drew’s other podcast.
• DestinationsInFlorida.com – one of Tim’s first affiliate ventures.

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!

Listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 29: Interviewing Drew Bennett & Tim Jones

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Have you ever looked at the schedule for a conference and wondered, “How did these sessions get picked?”  I know I have.  The conference I go to the most, Affiliate Summit, has always had a closed-door process for putting together their agenda from their speaker proposals.  Yesterday I told you about how Affiliate Summit has opened up voting for the panels that will be on the agenda for Affiliate Summit East 2010, and implored you to vote for the Podcasting 101 panel I hope to sit on.  Today, I’m going to share the love and tell you about the other panels I voted for and hope to see on the agenda.

Any long-term readers of my blog know that one of my favorite things to do is to attend conferences, take copious amounts of notes, and share them here with you.  I learn a lot in these sessions, and feel it’s practically my responsibility to pass on that learning to everyone else.  Granted, it’s not the same as attending the sessions at the conferences yourself, but it’s close.  I vote for 15 panels out of 117 up for voting on the Affiliate Summit Slinkset site.

Bear with me, with 15 panels to explain my vote for, this is going to be a long post.  Here’s the ones I voted for, and why.

• Beyond Business Cards: Move beyond passing out stacks of business cards and adding legions of Twitter followers to promote your business.  11 steps to forging relationships to yield results beyond leads and self-promotions.  Speakers: Jen Goode, Au-Co Mai, Lisa Picarille, Lisa Riolo, & Karen Garcia.  Why This Got My Vote: There are a lot of people in the industry that will tell you that the core of affiliate marketing is building relationships, and I agree.  Not enough people will give you advice or actionable items on how to build these all-important relationships though.  I know almost all the speakers on the panel, and they’re fantastic at networking and building lasting relationships, so I have no doubt that their 11 actions are going to be dynamite.
• Bloggers Successfully Connecting with Audiences and Advertisers: Advice and tips for bloggers to increase their success in connect with audiences and at the same time making them more appealing to advertisers and increase revenue.  Speakers: Murray Newlands, Kristopher B. Jones, Drew Bennett, Tim Jones, & Eric Schechter.  Why This Got My Vote: Honestly, this is more a chance for vindication.  At the last summit, these same speakers appeared on the Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO panel (sub John Carcutt for Eric) and I was let down by the ho-hum content.  It took them 30 minutes to even mention the word “monetize”, and it seemed less focused on monetizing and SEO and more focused on general “how to start blogging.  I know that the panelists, being bloggers themselves, were all very interested in getting feedback, so I’m really hoping that they take the feedback from the last time and refocus and deliver a really kick-ass panel this time around.
• Trademark Bidding in Affiliate Marketing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of trademark bidding in affiliate marketing. An in-depth look at the impact trademark bidding has on all players in the affiliate space.  Speakers: Paul Schroader, Justin Bowen, Chuck Hamrick, John W. Dozier, & David Naffziger.  Why This Got My Vote: This is a seriously confusing area in the PPC arena, and any light that can be shed on it is always good for affiliates.  As well, David has a great product with Brand Verity to help, and a lot of insight to be shared.  Not the sexiest topic, but an important one.
• Connecting Your Community: Online/Off Social Good: There are opportunities for affiliates and advertisers to support great causes, both online and off to foster a larger online community. This panel will look at examples in social media that helped.  Speakers: Dina Riccobono, Sloane Barrent, & Bruce Wang.  Why This Got My Vote: So much emphasis in affiliate marketing is about ME, and how can I make a fortune, but people should remember that there’s a world out there that can also benefit from your support.  I’m interested in people learning more from Dina and the panel on how they can successfully integrate their work and marketing efforts into also benefiting great causes and making the world a better place.
• Affiliate Program Case Studies: Strategies and Practices: Discussion of what it takes for a retailer to get their affiliate channel to the next level. Merchant case studies reveal and illustrate strategies and practices that attract and keep affiliates.  Speakers: Melanie Seery, Madeleine McGregor, Adam Riemer, & Kimberly Salvino.  Why This Got My Vote: Case studies are always great, because they show real results.  It’s more than just hypothetical tactics, it’s proof positive.  All of the speakers are very knowledgeable and represent various angles of a merchant program that really works, from the network, affiliate, and affiliate managers.
• Creating a Stronger, Balanced Affiliate-Merchant Agreement: Can we have a stronger, fairer Affiliate-Merchant Terms of Service agreement to better protect affiliates and merchants? Discussion of the current inadequacies and challenges in creating a better TOS.  Speakers: Melanie Seery, Brian Littleon, Adam Riemer, & Kimberly Salvino.  Why This Got My Vote: Well, honestly it almost didn’t.  This panel has the same panelists as the last one I voted for, except for the substitution of Brian for Madeline.  Affiliate Summit has a policy of not allowing people to speak on more than one panel, so theoretically once the advisory board makes the final agenda, one of these panels won’t be on it.   But, this is just as valuable as the case studies panel.  Many merchants don’t have a good TOS, so any help they can get is helpful!
• Search Marketing Campaign Review: Attendees will apply to have their site and campaigns reviewed before the conference. Our panel of experts, one each in SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social, and Affiliate will choose 4-5 companies.  Speakers: Kate Morris, Joanna Lord, Scott Polk, Kristy Bolsinger, Jane Copeland, Carolyn Shelby.  Why This Got My Vote: I’m a big fan of interactive panels, and real-life examples.  This panel will allow for real-time, off the cuff analysis and can be incredibly helpful to everyone in attendance.  My first affiliate summit, I attended a site review similar to this kind of clinic-approach panel and volunteered up the site of the company I worked for at the time.  It was an eye opener!  In the interest of full disclosure, I briefly worked with Kate Morris during our time at New Edge Media, and I know Kate to be really good at explaining how things can be changed for the better in a constructive way, which is what people need for public critiques!
• Seven Deadly Sins of Affiliate Marketing 2010: A fast paced multi-media presentation on affiliate danger zones focusing on the latest FTC enforcement priorities and initiatives and plaintiffs’ targets infused with useful tips and humor.  Speaker: Bennet Kelley.  Why This Got My Vote: With a title like that, how could you NOT vote for it!  Actually, I’ve seen Bennet speak before and he’s incredibly knowledgeable and makes sometimes boring topics like law, enforcement, and the FTC actually interesting and relevant.  I feel very strongly that it’s in every affiliate’s best interest to know what their limitations are legally with their marketing efforts, so this is important.
• Innovate!  New Exciting Applications of Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is increasingly used in new web startups, services and applications. Discover the most exciting new ideas that are helping to grow and highlight affiliate marketing industry.  Speaker: Joe Stepniewski.  Why This Got My Vote: Affiliates are some of the most creative and innovative marketers out there, online or off.  I love to hear what crazy things affiliates are coming up with and what tools and tricks are out there.  Working for a vendor of an affiliate tool myself now, I’m excited to see what kind of innovation is out there that might compliment the For Me To Coupon service.
• Feed Powered Affiliate Marketing: A review of how product feeds are playing an ever-increasing role in online marketing and how they can be successfully deployed in affiliate marketing. Using real case studies and examples.  Speakers: Lee Brignell-Cash & Robert Durkin.  Why This Got My Vote: Again, considering I work with data feeds every day now, I’m interested in the creative things affiliates are doing with various types of data feeds.  A lot of affiliates are concerned with how to best optimize their time and marketing efforts, yet not enough use data feeds to help automate their sites.  Hopefully more sessions like this can bring data feeds to more affiliates.
• The New Frontier for Infomercials: Affiliate Marketing!: Marketers behind the Snuggie know the power of TV to drive online sales. They have big budgets and are more focused than ever on driving online sales. Discover more about this giant opportunity.  Speakers: Rebecca Madigan, Peter Bordes, & Ron C. Pruett, Jr.  Why This Got My Vote: I admit it, I have a fascination with informercials and TV pitchmen.  So I’m fascinated to see how they’re going to tie this in with affiliate marketing.  I’m a bit surprised that someone from Impact Radius isn’t involved in this, given their big focus on integrating traditional media with affiliate offers, but my intrigue has been piqued nonetheless!
• Successful Multiple Network Strategies for Merchants: The arguments for and against launching performance marketing programs in multiple networks–and how to make the strategy you do select successful.  Speakers: Lisa Riolo & Durk Price.  Why This Got My Vote: I’ve yet to see a merchant that really leverages multiple networks right.  Most seem to just throw their program up onto as many networks as possible with no real strategy at all, so I’m exited to see what tips can be shared for these merchants to really leverage multiple networks instead of just casting their nets as wide as possible.
• Demystifying Online Attribution: Real answers on how to track a customer’s searches through all phases of the buying cycle, how to measure cross channel assists, and how to avoid the dangers of only last click attribution.  Speakers: Don Batsford & Jonathan Treiber.  Why This Got My Vote: A lot of affiliates (and even some merchants) know the basics of cookies and how affiliate links are tracked, but when you start talking to them about click attribution, how to separate affiliate traffic from PPC traffic from organic traffic, eyes start to glaze over.  Hopefully this session, aimed mostly at merchants/advertisers, will help new affiliate merchants understand how to better differentiate their traffic sources and become more aware of how tracking really works.
• Conquering The Mega Niches for Mega Profits: Very few affiliate marketers dare to enter the most competitive and profitable niches. They follow the general advice of focusing on the small opportunities.  Speaker: Hamlet Batista.  Why This Got My Vote: It’s always encouraging for a super affiliate to come to the conference and share some of their secret sauce with smaller affiliates hoping to really crack some opportunities.  I’ve met Hamlet and I know he’s been incredibly successful in large niches (hello Viagra!), and he’s a good speaker as well – just the right mix of informative and motivational for those smaller affiliates looking for hope!
• Are You Kidding Me?  Merchant Mistakes: Going over common Merchant Mistakes and why they are bad. Limiting to 100 Affiliates, Not participating in forums, Being on AutoApprove, etc.  Speaker: Adam Riemer.  Why This Got My Vote: I love Adam on a personal level – he’s a riot to chat with and is super passionate about the industry to boot.  So this session promises to at least be entertaining.  As well, as a self-taught (former) affiliate manager, I’m always interested to hear other affiliate managers’ opinions on the dos & don’ts of managing merchant programs.  Unfortunately, as Adam is listed as a panelist on two other potential panels, as I mentioned before he can only speak on one, so I’m torn as to which I’d rather see him on!

I heartily encourage you to click on the links and vote for these sessions as well.  Just click the blue arrow to the left of the session titles to vote.  You will have to register for an account, but it’s a great opportunity to get the most out of your money when attending Affiliate Summit.  If you haven’t already done so, register for Affiliate Summit today.  I will have a pass to give away at the end of this month so stay tuned for contest details!

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Affiliate Summit is making a lot of changes to this years’ eastern version of the conference.  In addition to changing the Mentor Program to the Newcomer Program and offering an Affiliate Scholarship Program, they are now allowing the public to vote for Affiliate Summit East 2010 Sessions.  In the past, panel selection has been a closed process, with the members of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board discussing and voting on which panels they want to see on the agenda.  For this year’s Eastern show, they have decided to open up the process to help narrow down the choices before the advisory board makes their ultimate decisions.  Anyone who registers with Slinkset will have the chance to vote for as many of the panels as they want by clicking on the arrow to the left of the panel descriptions.  Voting is open until May 14, 2010.

There are a lot of great potential panels, and later this week I’ll tell you all about which ones I voted for and why.  In the meantime, you have the opportunity to vote for the panel I hope to be a part of, Podcasting 101!  There have been live podcast related panels in the past, however they seem to have been less structured and more about current events than the business of affiliate podcasting.  We want to give attendees a chance to get a really basic primer on starting a podcast.

What’s Podcasting 101 Going to Cover?

Podcasting 101 will be a panel for beginners talking about how to begin a podcast and monetize.  In this era of self-publishing, anyone – including you – can produce a podcast (and make money doing it!) Come learn the basics of producing, monetizing, hosting and promoting your very own podcast.  It’s much easier and cheaper than some people think, so we’re going to go over the various tools available for recording, mixing, and promoting a podcast.  We’ll also touch on some of the more basic ways to monetize the podcast beyond text affiliate links in your show notes.

Who’s On The Panel?

Should we be selected, the panel will consist of myself, Daniel M. Clark and Tricia Meyer.  Daniel is a co-host for the Geek Dads Weekly podcast, a podcast for parents raising kids in a digital age, along side Joe Magennis and Drew Bennett.  Daniel will be able to talk about the production aspects of a podcast using a Mac, as well as monetizing the podcast.  Tricia is the owner of MeyerTech, which runs the popular rewards site Sunshine Rewards.  Along with Cindy Ballard and Angie Meeks, Tricia co-hosts the She Shops Around podcast, featuring seasonal merchants in the affiliate space.  In case you’ve already forgotten (for shame!) I co-host Affiliate Marketing Fanatics with Mike Buechele.  All of these podcasts, and more, are available at GeekCast.fm.

Sound Like a Winner?

Does this sound like a session you’d want to go to?  Great!  If so, please take a moment to register and vote for the Podcasting 101 panel!  Remember that Affiliate Summit East 2010 is taking place August 15 – 17, 2010 in New York City at the New York Hilton.  The early bird registration has already passed, but you still have time to register before they sell out!

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Who doesn’t love contests?!  I know I do!  I’m getting ready to put on my own contest here, but for now I’m passing on the word for Drew at 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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Session Description: Learn to maximize affiliate commissions using blogging, increasing your community, and utilizing SEO. The panel consisted of:

• Kristopher B. Jones, President, Pepperjam Network, A GSI Commerce Company (Moderator)
• Drew Bennett, Professional Blogger, BenSpark.com
• John Carcutt, SEO Manager, MediaWhiz
• Tim Jones, Owner, TheRealTimJones.com
• Murray Ross Newlands, Founder, Affiliate Heat

Overall the individual panelists did great jobs answering the questions lobbed at them, but I think as a moderator, perhaps Kris should have come up with some questions more centralized on monetization and less about getting started as a blogger.  Overall I did pick up a LOT of tips that WILL help me improve this blog, something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now!

Bullet Point Review!

• Wordpress is the leader in blogging platforms – so customizable and is clean for SEO out of the box.  Few tweaks are necessary.
• Murray noted that he built his brand by doing interviews – those people shared with him & then shared his content and blog with their audiences.  That traffic is, by nature, viral & drives more traffic.
• The more you can promote others, the more they’ll promote you.
• The daily interesting content brings people back.
• Engage you visitors!  They know there’s a real person there.  Connect with people.
• There needs to also be a lot of interaction off your blog in social media and networks.
• Plan categories as you get started and have a good foundation.  It will be cleaner than added a ton as you go.
• Most common mistake is messing with little options in WordPress.  Make sure to check the box that allows search engines to find you!
• Keep your categories simple.
• Use the free Google Keyword Tool to optimize your blog titles.
• Target keywords in posts.
• Interlink between your posts (there are related link plugins you can use).
• Round up posts every couple weeks that interlink.
• Set up your permalink to be optimized for SEO.
• Great Plugins to Use!
  • Find the Plugins at BenSpark.com
• Do not have tags & categories that are the same – Google will only index one, so you might as well keep things cleaner & simple.
• Lots of guest posts (title & link back with terms).
• Deep link – don’t just link to your home page.
• If someone is linking to a page, make sure their page is related.  It matters in calculating link popularity.
• Places to help monetize your blog:
  • Traditional affiliate networks
  • Contextual (AdSense)
  • Inline text (Skimlinks)
  • Widgets
  • Paid links that pass link juice like Text-Link-Ads
  • Paid per Post
  • CPA
  • CPM
• Maintain your credibility
• Build your brand.
• Generate your own products to sell
• Integrate product feeds
• Remember offline avenues.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• What’s a good host to recommend?
  • Dreamhost
• How do you use feeds?
  • End of the blog post.
  • Using plugins like GoldenCan, PhPBay, Popshops
  • Good for targeted match
• How do you get stuff from a company to blog about?
  • Just ask.  The worst answer you can get is ‘no’.
  • Have a plan & be able to show traffic & data to help convince them of the merit.
• How do you feel about building a blog around a brand?
  • You’re going to run out of content.
  • The more specific you are, the better.
  • You do have to compete with the actual brand’s official social media or blogging efforts.
  • Attempt to connect with the brand to get their involvement.
  • Show the product in action via video and photos.
• Is it more important to build a double opt-in list?
  • Your ultimate goal is to build a community, however you can do it.
  • You kind of need to do all of it; long term you need to just provide great, consistent value.
• What are good tools to track more relevant mentions?
  • Social Oomph.com
  • Trackur
  • StartPR.com
  • Google alert for your URL (add the Http://)
• Where do you see the future?
  • Podcasting is still valuable
  • Video
  • Integration with social networking

Overall I wish they would have gotten past the intro to blogging stuff and right to the nitty gritty of monetization, but still great speakers.

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When I heard that Dina Riccobono at MarketLeverage was participating in Operation Shoebox, I wanted to help.  Being in California, I can’t really participate with her and her group, but I can tell you all about it in hopes that some of you are in the Orlando area and can help, or alternatively, would like to make donations for future package parties Dina plans to host.

Operation Shoebox puts together care packages year round for our active troops, and ships them out either on a one-time basis, or directly connects you with a troop (1 solider = a troop) to interact with for the duration of their tour. While Dina wanted to help as many troops as possible, she really didn’t have the budget to shop for 50 troops herself…so she enlisted the help of some friends. They sent letters, emails, tweets – all asking various companies to donate their products for the packages. They solicited non-perishable items from friends, family, dentists, and co-workers, put out ‘Op Boxes’ in their offices to collect supplies, and stocked monetary donations to assist with shipping costs (the most expensive item for Operation Shoebox by far).

So far, Dina and her group have been able to get donations from the following companies:

• Xshot – 53 of them!
• DoYouPoken.com – 108 Pokens!
• Pingo.com (Brian Hawkins) – 200 International Calling Cards
• Quaker Oats – 50 Gatorade Vouchers
• GBL Public Relations for Pentel – Hundreds of Pens, Pencils, Hats, and t-shirts.
• FujiFilm – 60 One-Time Use Cameras (SeeHere.com)
• CharmFactory – 60 American Flag Pins
• TheDistrictDish – Matchboxes
• Burn Cream MD – Medical Supplies
• Orlando Ichiban – Space for the Packaging Party with Discount Sushi and Drinks

It’s not just companies getting involved.  Dina has been able to attract some individual sponsors as well:

• Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com
• Various members of the MarketLeverage team
• Vanessa Swanepoel of PokenGirl.com

The packaging party – where they will organize all 50 shoeboxes and put the sponsors items and donations together for individual shipment to the troops – is TODAY in Orlando!  If you’re near Orlando and want to help, Dina and her group are happy to have you!. Orlando Ichiban has been kind enough to donate space to use to put the boxes together, and also some discounts on food and drinks. They will potentially live stream this packaging party, and then Deb Schroeder and Dina will drive all the boxes to Operation Shoebox HQ the first week of December and hand deliver the packages. She’ll be filming that journey as well.

Please, if you’re in the Orlando area or know anyone who is, go help them out.  It’s a great thing they’re doing.  You can also organize something similar in your area.  You can go to OperationShoebox.com to adopt your own troop.  Dina hopes to do this quarterly if all goes well this time.  If you’d like to sponsor any items or donate funds for shipping, you can reach out to Dina directly at dina-at-marketleverage.com.

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I took it light this time around at Affiliate Summit and only went to two events that weren’t hosted by the conference itself. Dominic and I spent the two days before the conference wandering Manhattan seeing some sights, so by the time the conference started we were not that interested in traipsing all over the city again. But we did make sure to go to the couple of smaller parties we were invited to. I’d have been asleep at the networking wheel had I not gone to any of the parties!  So here’s my take on the parties with some thanks and photos I took!

buy.at Party @ Empire Hotel

Big thanks to Ayako from buy.at for extending the invitation!  This party was on the rooftop bar at the Empire Hotel, which despite being 12 floors up was considerably shorter than most the surrounding buildings.  Only one part of the hotel bar was reserved for the party, so it was a relatively intimate affair.  We started by working the area and saying hello to old friends, and ended sitting with Heather Smith of Beautiful British Columbia and Murray Newlands of MurrayNewlands.com.  It was wonderful conversation and Dominic seemed to really feel comfortable with the jargon conversation and other assorted topics.

MarketLeverage & John Chow’s Dot Com Pizza @ Original Famous Ray’s Pizza

This was just what the doctor ordered!  I had a few culinary goals for my trip to New York: bagels, cheesecake, and pizza.  New York pizza is legendary, so I was excited to be invited to share some pizza with Dina and crew.  We got there a bit late but there was still plenty of great pizza!  I had my first real conversation with John Chow and Ted Murphy, both pleasant.  I felt bad because there wasn’t much room to sit with the main group by the time we got there to schmooze and converse, so Dominic and I ended up sitting back in the corner where the surplus pizzas were and didn’t have much chance to talk unless people came back and talked to us.

I thought it was especially funny that Dominic got an IZEA shirt from Heather earlier in the day in the Blogger’s Lounge, and decided to change out of his Blinkstar Media shirt to the Izea shirt before leaving.  We walked right up the stairs at Ray’s to see Ted Murphy, who of course commented on the IZEA shirt!  Good thing I’d taken some time earlier in the day to tell Dominic what IZEA is!  After hearing Ted and Dina and Heather talk about the last IZEAfest and the upcoming one, he really wanted to go!  Too bad we can’t afford to go to Florida and have fun with them!  Big thanks to Dina at MarketLeverage for the invite!

TechKaraoke @ the Hilton

This was unexpectedly fun, though I wish I had been able to get better photos!  Of course, the embarrassment factor of karaoke almost requires the lights to be dimmed, so the photos didn’t turn out.  I hear that I missed Chris Brogan singing a Jay-Z number, but I got down there just in time to see Ted Murphy, Shawn Collins, and Drew Bennett bust out some Milli Vanilli!  Throughout the evening I got to catch up with Connie Berg while listening to the vocal stylings of Todd Farmer, Jim Kukral, Missy Ward, and Brian Littleton amongst others.

I also never realized that you never truly appreciate how LONG some songs are until you hear them butchered at a karaoke event!  All in all though it was a good time and I hope Shawn & Missy bring back the TechKaraoke folks to do it again.  And this time bring the lights up for more embarrassing evidence!

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