TrishaLyn » networking

Do You Poken?

Trish — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:03 +0000

Poken seems to have taken over the techie space as the next big thing in conferences and networking. Don’t know what a Poken is? Well, it’s basically a USB drive with a cartoon character for a cover. The drive has software installed on it that automatically connects to the Poken website when you plug it in. It also has a sensor on the hand that flashes when you “high 4″ with another poken, effectively exchanging virtual contact information.

I first learned of this product at Affiliate Summit East 2009, thanks to Peter Shankman mentioning them in his keynote. It seemed like everyone wanted a Poken after that – and many people bought some from Peter before the conference was over. Peter has obviously identified these cute little virtual business cards as a significant advance in sharing contact information, a “game-changer”, even.

But are Poken really the wave of the future?

It depends who you are. If you travel and network a lot, they could be incredibly useful as they pick up popularity and more people are available for you to “high 4″ with. Shelly Good-Cook says of the device, “I bought one a couple months and other than my twin sister, for whom I also bought one, I haven’t found anyone to “high five” mine with. I took it to a networking event I attended in Arlington, VA recently where most of the attendees were young, hip and computer savvy, but none of them had heard of it yet. I even met a reporter who covered that beat and it was new to her, so I gave her the scoop on it, hoping she covers it. They may have won a Tech Crunch Award in Europe, but they still have work to do in the U.S. before they get wide spread adoption. For me, this is like the early days of the fax machine. I have one but there isn’t much value in it until a lot more people get one. Most of the people I talked to about it at the networking event thought it was a great idea, although some of the men were less than thrilled with the limited design options. Most thought $20 was reasonable for the functionality although a few balked at the price point, stating it was much too high.”

Poken has responded to the cartoon complaints and come out with a more professional looking Poken, the Poken Pulse, that looks much closer to a traditional USB drive and boasts 2GB of space and traditional USB drive functionality in addition to the Poken networking features. At a higher price point, I actually expect more professionals will go with it over the cartoonish regular Poken as it does have that added functionality. Most of the feedback I get about Poken are from my contacts in the affiliate marketing community, and I wonder now that there have been a couple more conferences if they’ve gotten more use. Elizabeth Hannan said of her Poken, “I have had a experience with Poken at SXSW 09 where I was first introduced to Poken. It was incredibly helpful and made awkward introductions into easy conversations.”. I can definitely see how that is beneficial for those of us that are friendly but not incredibly extroverted.

Whether or not these are the wave of the future, time will tell. The buzz has seemed to died down in the last few months, but they’re not being tossed aside with that m100 Palm Pilot just yet. Do you Poken? Share your story!

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Trish — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:57:43 +0000

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at two different affiliate marketing conferences this summer. One I applied to speak at with some dear colleagues of mine back in March after getting the idea in February, which has lead to a build up of excitement. The other came rather unexpectedly recently and I’m very happy to be speaking at both! So come hear me talk about cool stuff!

Affiliate Convention – June 18th & 19th – Denver, CO
Friday, June 19th. 10:15 – 11:15 am.
Super Affiliate Room I: Social Media Marketing

Do you Tweet? Have you found Facebook useful for fun and profit? Wade Sisson, David Snyder, and Trisha Lyn Fawver take this session through the various social media applications and teaches several ways to successfully harness the power of speaking to a massive audience of friends, followers and fellow social media users.

I’ll be speaking along side: Wade Sisson, Director of Marketing for PartnerCentric and David Snyder, Co-Founder of Search & Social

Affiliate Summit East 2009 – August 9th – 11th – New York, NY
Sunday, August 9th. 12:00 – 1:00 pm.
Classroom D: Getting Noticed FAST

Regardless what your role in the industry is, it’s important to be noticed within the industry. Learn the networking and social media techniques that make it possible.

Our panel will be moderated by Lisa Picarille, Online Marketing Consultant at LisaPicarille.com. I’ll be joined by Mike Buechele, Founder of Comic Book Fury, Jen Goode, Doodler-in-Charge of JGoode Designs, and Stephanie Lichtenstein, Affiliate Program Manager for Andy Rodriguez Consulting.

Some come on out! I’ll have plenty of good things to say and you’ll be able to meet me live and in person!

Bay Area Affiliate Managers – Save the Date February 19th

Trish — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:00:11 +0000

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you’re looking for some networking and a discussion of what’s going on in the industry, come join the Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition. The BAAMC is basically just a group of affiliate managers in the area that get together to discuss current industry events with the Bay Area perspective.

I’ve attended a couple meetings and really gotten a lot out of it. It’s nice to sit around with some colleagues over lunch and discuss issues. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the last meeting in the fall, but the next meeting will be in Menlo Park February 19th. The group tries to meet every quarter, but since it relies on a company being able to volunteer to host the group and provide lunch, it can’t always be swung.

If I didn’t work from home, I’d try to make a case to my boss to host, but I don’t have enough chairs :p

If you’re interested in joining the group, check out the website BAAMC.org and join the Yahoo! Group.

Last Call for Affiliate Classroom Live! Pass

Trish — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:13:09 +0000

This is all she wrote, folks! I’m giving you until 7pm PST to enter to win my available pass to Affiliate Classroom Live! August 9th at the Boston Seaport Hotel in Boston, MA. This is conveniently the day before Affiliate Summit East kicks off, so if you’re attending ASE, you can work this easily into your schedule.

The Affiliate Classroom Live! pass is a $300 value. Learn from and interact with the industry’s top professionals… somehow including myself! This half-day workshop for affiliate managers will focus on:

Networking – We’ll place you in peer groups where you can meet one another and begin building relationships.
Roundtable Discussions – Join with your peers and a topical expert to discuss affiliate marketing best practices and advanced affiliate management strategies.

The speakers will be:

Peter Figueredo
Trisha Fawver (yes, that’s me)
Lee Gientke
Sam Harrelson
Rebecca Madigan
Heather Paulson
Lisa Riolo
Brad Waller

The winner will be drawn at random – all you have to do is email your interest to Contests@Trishalyn.com to enter! I will announce the winner tomorrow.

Need a pass to Affiliate Classroom Live? Enter to win one!

Trish — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:00:33 +0000

I posted a couple weeks ago that the kind folks at Affiliate Classroom Live have given me a free pass for the person of my choosing since I’ll be leading a round table discussion during the event. I’ve decided to have a contest, and as a reminder the deadline is July 7th, next Monday!

More details can be found at my original post. All you to have to do to enter is email your name and address to Contests@TrishaLyn.com. The winner will be picked at random from all entries on July 7th!

Win a free pass to Affiliate Classroom Live!

Trish — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:13:29 +0000

The kind folks at Affiliate Classroom Live have given me a free ticket for the event August 9th at which I’ll be hosting a round table discussion on digital networking for affiliate managers. I can give it to whomever I choose, so I’m making it arbitrary and holding a contest.

The ticket is a whopping $300 value and gets you access to the entire morning’s worth of discussions and presentations geared towards affiliate managers. It’s a great event to attend! I went last February to their full day session and it was so worth it! I’m certain this event will be even better with the amount of interaction each participant will be able to get with the speakers.

All you to have to do to enter is email your name and address to Contests@TrishaLyn.com. The winner will be picked at random from all entries on July 7th! That’s two weeks from today so shoot those emails off now for your chance to win!

Affiliate Classroom Live! August 9th

Trish — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:28:58 +0000

Part of advancing your career is continuing your education, so its important to learn what you can, when you can. Continuing doing their part for the affiliate community and affiliate managers, Affiliate Classroom is offering another Affiliate Classroom Live training session for Affiliate Managers the day before Affiliate Summit East in Boston this August.

I attended their full day session last February and I have to tell you – it was a completely invaluable experience. I learned so much… it was worth devoting an entire day to. I also recapped my impressions of the various sessions via this very blog. The only bummer to the whole day was the length of time in grossly uncomfortable chairs with no tables to write on. Incidentally, I spent most the time sitting on the floor using the chair as a platform – I’m just not a lap writer.

They’re at it again, this time taking in the feedback they received and cutting it down to a half day of mostly round table discussions lead by experts – and me.

That’s right, yours truly will be leading a round table discussion at this summit’s event titled: Virtual Social Butterflies: Online Networking & Its Importance for Affiliate Managers

Successfully managing an affiliate program relies heavily on being an approachable manager, developing good relationships with your affiliates. It’s equally important to develop good working relationships with your peers in the industry. We’ll talk about the blog community, social networks, social bookmarks, Twitter, and how they can benefit the affiliate manager.

Besides me, since I’m hardly an “expert” in this field, discussions will be lead by Sam Harrelson on web 2.0, Lisa Riolo on pitching your affiliate program internally, Brad Waller on the NY Affiliate Tax implications, a presentation by Heather Paulson on effective strategies, and some other well known industry leaders. So come on out and let’s talk! Register for the event now at AffiliateClassroomLive.com!

Thanks to Affiliate Classroom’s Rachel Honoway for extending the invite to me!

Early Bird Pricing for CJU Ends June 15

Trish — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:00:25 +0000

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!

Early Bird Price for Affiliate Summit ENDS TODAY

Trish — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:00:53 +0000

Want to meet me?! Of course you do! Remember that today is the last day to sign up for Affiliate Summit East 2008 and still get the cheaper Early Bird Pricing. The full conference pass – today only – is just $949 while an Expo Hall Only pass is a very affordable $99. If you’ve been waffling about going, pull the trigger and do it now while it’s still cheap!

After tomorrow, the prices go up to $199 for the expo hall only pass and a whopping $1449 for the full pass. And of course, if you sit on your lazy duff until the last minute, you have to shell out $299 for an expo hall only pass or $1949 for the full conference pass.

There are a lot of great sessions already scheduled and on the agenda for the summit. A full agenda is online already. I’ve already added several to my TripIt account so I can plan out my time, including Sam Harrelson’s Leveraging Social Media, Andy Rodriguez’s Affiliate Marketing Basics for Merchants, and Lisa Picarille’s Content that Kills sessions.

There’s no reason not to save money and really, this is a great event for affiliate marketing professionals – both publishers and advertisers – to network and learn from. So go today and register for Affiliate Summit East 2008 in Boston while you can still get in with the best price!

Day 2 of Affiliate Summit – Suck All!

Trish — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Almost a month ago I was granted a press pass for the Affiliate Summit. I was excited to get into the bloghaus and blog about the day as it happened. I was thrilled to walk around and network with people. I really wanted to get some great coverage of the Keynote (coverage hell, I wanted to just listen too), but… none of that happened.

Why? Because Las Vegas hates me. And there are far too many germs here. And somehow during the day on Sunday…I developed a cold. A bad one. Damn this dry air & germs!

So I didn’t get up in time to make it downstairs to have breakfast AND make it to Jason Calacanis’ keynote like I wanted to. I managed to grab some breakfast and share some stats about our affiliate program with my colleague here with me from PsPrint to help out and then to man the booth. I sent her out to get the table top sign made that wasn’t made in time for the show. I station the booth for awhile and talk to some good people before it’s time for me to head off to the morning session I planned on going to.

Oh, incidentally, for anyone who wants some GREAT coverage of the keynote, check out J. Botter’s Blog.

I digress.

I attended this morning’s “Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing” panel. Good stuff, although I was a bit disappointed in moderator Melissa Salas reading off a prepared script pretty much verbatim. But I really enjoyed the insight from video professionals, and it’s comforting to know that content really is king, and that production value isn’t as important. Woo Hoo! I was wondering how you’d go about monetizing a video, but Revver.com seems to answer that. I’ll definitely be checking that out when I get back to the joy that is desktop computer (this older laptop isn’t that great). I really enjoyed Gary Vaynerchuk’s sense of humor & ballsy honesty. I’m excited with my new Aiptek A-HD 720P 5MP CMOS High Definition Camcorder

Some great points from the panel session:

Most people come on the internet for two P’s – pleasure or problems. If you solve someone’s problem, it’s a good video.
KNOW what you’re talking about. As long as you know your subject, you can produce great content.
In the next 12 months, you should test video on your site. By 18 months from now, if you don’t have video on your website you may be in trouble.
Video really works to sell as it gives your brand more credibility & builds brand equity.
Depth of information is quality will translate to a successful video.
Work on integrating video into your current web experience for the most effective video experience.
The average video watched online is about 2 minutes long.
An enormous amount of video watching is done at work, so keep that in mind. Melissa added that a Click to Listen button is much appreciated by these people.
In terms of size & format, go for the best quality you can when shooting, even if it has to be compressed when uploading online. If you can afford it, shoot in HD. It’s where everything is headed. (Side note – this makes me really glad that I bought my new HD mini cam! It’s the one in the picture.)

Day 3 should be good – hoping for some informative sessions and to feel better.