CJU Course: I Wish I Had Known… #CJU2011
We’ve all had experience with 20/20 hindsight. Here’s your chance to stop looking back and start looking forward. Learn from veteran advertisers, agencies, and publishers about the most important things they wish they had known when starting out in the affiliate marketing industry. Join us to find out how to avoid marketing pitfalls in this informative session for all levels of attendees. The panel consisted of:
- Isabelle Meyer Stapf, Sr. Director, Advertiser Development West at Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Carolyn Kmet of Groupon, Phil Ayers of Hotels.com, Brook Schaaf of Schaaf-PartnerCentric, Jennifer Nissenberg of Upromise, and Mike Allen of Shopping-Bargains.com
This was a great session to kick off the conference. I always appreciate when industry veterans share what they’ve learned along their affiliate marketing careers for newbies. I think I can say I’m not a newbie anymore having been in affiliate marketing since late 2006 myself, but I still learn something new when I go to sessions like this.
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- Do what you want, not what people expect you to do.
- You can’t always recreate success at one company with another company in the same niche.
- Mike had enough sense to get outside help, but not enough sense to evaluate that help. Don’t trust a salesperson off the bat, but do your homework and due diligence to read the fine print & make sure it’s best for you.
- Affiliate programs take time, it’s not a get rich quick.
- You can’t expect to build a business overnight, affiliate marketing isn’t a one trick pony.
- Have realistic expectations.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, diversify your portfolio & traffic strategies.
- New customer acquisition isn’t the end all be all, affiliates bring more than new customers. Don’t ignore the value of repeat consumers.
- Mike would have had a better plan and been more focused on the plan. It ended up working because of persistence. Don’t ever give up.
- Really get to know who you’re working with and their business models and what’s important to them in what they want out of the relationship.
- Play the newbie card & don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- This industry is so vibrant & fun, and people are so personable and approachable and willing to share knowledge. Never be intimidated by someone just because what their brand is, they’re just a person.
- Spend more time on the things that are actually going to drive the business. Invest the time in things that are really going to grow things, not day to day stuff, delegate.
- Everyone is an expert at or passionate about some thing. Find that thing and put that energy behind the business and focus on that.
- Work on developing your relationships with your partners. It’s not just important from a business perspective but from a personal perspective & having a personal relationship goes a long way, and you’re more top of mind.
- Respect the value of your own time. Distraction is easy, so be focused but do indulge those distractions and see a pattern in your own life and really decide what you put your time into.
- If you have the inclination, you can figure something out. Anyone can find a solution. Don’t bang your head against a wall; try a different path to get there. Try a different road.
- Don’t get attracted to all the shiny marketing objects. They’re usually not a long term sustainable strategy.
- Come up with a different twist to something, don’t just try to go do what someone else is doing successfully.
Affiliate Summit East 2011 Photo Recap
I’ve been back from New York since Thursday and I can easily say I’m still not fully recovered. I’m always surprised at how exhausted I am after one of these shows, but given the fact that I work at home in relative calm and sedation, 3-4 days of getting up early, talking all day, walking all day, and going to bed late can really take it’s toll.
I finally just got all 250+ photos I took from Affiliate Summit and the surrounding events I attended up onto Flickr today. So for now, instead of writing a long recap of words, I’ll share with you a recap in pictures. You can see all the pictures in my Affiliate Summit East 2011 Set on Flickr.
Day 1
How to Pitch Your Company Panel: Tricia Meyer, Kim Rowley, Ad Hustler, & Robert Adler
Dominic Fawver at the For Me To Coupon Meet Market Table
Mike Allen on the mechanical bull at the ShareASale Barn Dance
Brook Schaaf on the mechanical bull at the ShareASale Barn Dance
Day 2
Wil Reynolds’ Keynote
Dominic & I at the For Me To Coupon Booth
The Performance Marketing Association Networking Event
Tricia Meyer & Eric Nagel Singing “Summer Lovin'” at Affiliate Karaoke
Daniel Feinberg Singing an AC/DC Song at Affiliate Karaoke
Day 3
Yankee Stadium
The Luxury Suite Seats at Yankee Stadium
Oakland Athletics’ Brandon Allen at 1st Base helping to achieve the A’s 6-5 win over the Yankees!
And one more just because it’s pretty… the friendly skies, somewhere over Chicago
If you really are in the mood to read, here’s some other good recaps that came through my Google Reader these last few days:
- Affiliate Summit East 2011 Day 1 Recap – Shawn Collins
- Affiliate Summit East 2011 Day 2 Recap – Shawn Collins
- Affiliate Summit East 2011 Day 3 Recap – Shawn Collins
- Affiliate Summit East 2011 – Quick Recap and Pictures – Geno Prussakov
- Affiliate Summit East Raves and Regrets – Tricia Meyer
- Affiliate Summit East 2011 Recap – Joe Sousa
- Affiliate Summit East 2011 Recap – Adam Riemer
What #ASE11 Sessions I’m Voting For
Let the games begin! Voting has opened up for Affiliate Summit East 2011. While some people have not been happy with this voting system, I think it evens the playing field nicely. As well, it clears any conspiracy theories about how sessions are chosen.
Before I begin, I will say I have a horse in this game. I’ve submitted a panel, The Future of Coupons in Affiliate Marketing, for consideration. If picked, I’ll be moderating this panel with industry coupon veterans Mike Allen (Shopping-Bargains.com), Connie Berg (FlamingoWorld.com), Carolyn Tang Kmet (Groupon.com), and Kim Rowley (ShoppingBookmarks.com). Please take a moment to register, confirm, then vote for our panel!
Okay, that being said, these are the panels I’m voting for. All of them have very intelligent speakers, well thought out ideas, and will offer merchants and affiliates great insight into the topics.
- It’s Not Your Mother’s Affiliate Program
- Creatives Deliver Success
- Evolution of Local Search
- Do-Not-Track? Not-So-Fast
- Killing the Affiliate Nexus Tax Dead!
- Got an Idea? Make it a Reality.
- 10 Questions for a Prospective Affiliate Manager
- A World Without Cookie Tracking
- How to Convince Online Shoppers You’re Real
- Learn to Create a Likeworthy Facebook Page
- Social Media in Niche Markets
- Merchant ABCs – Launching a New Merchant Program
- How to Avoid FTC Scrutiny in Advertising
- Affiliate Improv!
- Are Your Affiliates Adding Value?
When a microblog stands in for a real blog…
Anyone who follows me on Twitter (if you don’t yet – what’s your excuse?) could see that I was more than making up for my lack of internet on my laptop by tweeting notes from the sessions I was in. I strained one of my fingers on my dominant right hand Sunday night bowling with the folks from GTO Management, and even taking traditional written notes was a challenge.
So before I kick off all the notes I took at the sessions (it was lighter this conference than I have in the past), here’s all the tidbits of knowledge I tweeted while attending sessions at Affiliate Summit West 09.
From the Buy.at Party at Moon:
- http://twitpic.com/11sw2 – Tear the roof off at Moon buy.at party
- http://twitpic.com/11t7v – From the roof of the palms
From The Ultimate Pitching Guide Session:
- @skydiver just said re pitches on twitter “if u can’t pitch in 140 char u need 2 work on brevity anyway”
- Twitter has replaced focus groups- @skydiver
From the ShareASale Under the Star’s 80’s themed party:
- http://twitpic.com/1243s – Jon levine @ sas party
- http://twitpic.com/124e8 – Gettin’ down at SAS party
From Affiliate Videos: Where do they work best? Session:
- Video session: Youtube is larger than Microsoft in search engines- 77mil uniques
- u don’t have to have a professional prod studio to develop video
- .tv traffic increasing but still nowhere near as high as .com
- very brand & vertical specific video creative is the most requested
- People buy from people – at the end of the day video is the most effective medium for that. Amen!
- I love @andrewwee for bringing up ShamWOW in his question!
- get out there & try it!
From the Pinnacle Awards Gala:
- Nice touch on the tux & beer @shawncollins
- Right on for Train Signals donating $10k for Breast Cancer Research- squish a boob save a life!
- Mike Allen – Affiliate of the Year
- AM of the yr- @djambazov Angel
- pinnacle award exceptional merchant CelebrateExpress.com
- pinnacle award Affiliate Mktg Advocate @mellies! Melanie Seery
- pinnacle award Best Blogger @jangro! Scott Jangro
- affiliate marketing legend – congrats to Kellie Stevens!
- congrats to thew winners!
From Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages Session:
- 2% avg conversion rate: 2009 year of conversion optimization
- test everything assume nothing
- Lisa Crossly Hunter: what are your affiliates doing that your search team can borrow from?
- start now, but don’t start without a plan. And test.
- gen rule of thumb- at least 100 conversions for at least a week (per element you change, I forgot to include that in the tweet)
From the Affiliate Triathalon:
- http://twitpic.com/12mj4 – #asw09 Brian Littleton of SAS @ Affiliate Triathalon
Of course if you’re REALLY bored you can just go to Twitter Search and enter in “#asw09 trishalyn” and see EVERYTHING I tweeted while at the conference 😀
Read MoreOnline Marketing Glossary: Super Affiliates
Super Affiliates:
- The best affiliates in a program based on performance and earnings, usually the top 1%, who generate the majority of revenue for a program.
I’ve also used this term to refer to an affiliate who is well known across multiple programs to run a super successful affiliate site participating in many programs. Such well known super affiliates include John Chow, Zac Johnson, Connie Berg, Mike Allen, and Amit Mehta.
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
BlogWorldExpo 08: Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers
I was looking forward to attending this panel despite knowing that I probably knew all there was to know on this subject, because I knew two of the panelists. Boy was I wrong – it just goes to show you that there’s always something new to be learned when attending trade shows! The panel consisted of:
- Shawn Collins, Co-Founder, Affiliate Summit
- Mike Allen, CEO, Shopping-Bargains.com
- Tim Jones, Blogger, TheRealTimJones.com
I was proud of the boys – despite having a crowd of general noobs to affiliate marketing they did an excellent job and really threw out some solid information.
Bullet Point Review!
- Blended ads look nicer and work better.
- PopShops has a WordPress plugin that’s super easy to use.
- Remember to work the ads in creatively.
- Think and plan for the long term.
- Your blog is your brand.
- Be the expert.
- Share your space.
- Affiliate marketing is a great start but doesn’t stop there.
- Be careful – advertising the wrong way can tarnish your image.
- Think like a business and set goals.
- Craft a business plan and follow it.
- Look for other retail opportunities (your own affiliate program?)
- There’s lots of opportunity for creativity.
- Most people don’t know it’s an affiliate link and most don’t care (when using text links).
- .htaccess redirect helps clean links up – fairly simple process.
- 50%+ of subscribers come by email.
- Utilize social media to build readership and establish yourself as an expert.
- People have to get there before they can click.
- MaxBlogPress, OpenX are good free ad serving plugins.
- Ninja Affiliate 1.5 is a paid plugin that automatically ads contextual links to keywords you enter in.
- Peel away ads (page ears) also work well
- Target your ads to your audience.
- Yahoo! Answers works well to help establish yourself within your niche as an expert.
- Don’t venture too far outside your niche. You want to upsell and compliment your blog.
- The first thing you’d do? Tim says sign up with the affiliate networks. Shawn suggested doing a Google Search to get a feel for your competition. Mike advises to make sure your site works and that content is up before applying for the affiliate programs – the merchant has to want you.
- Spend the $10 on a domain & it’ll get over the first threshold when affiliate managers review your application.
I don’t have any notes from the Q&A portion of the panel because a lot of it was specific to those bloggers asking the questions – they wanted to know specifics. Personally I don’t think a Q&A session is really the time for that but I understand the desire for people to take any opportunity they can get to ask a question of an expert!
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