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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Feeds:

• A Web document that is a shortened or updated version of a webpage created for syndication.  Usually served at user request, through subscription; also includes ad feeds to shopping engines and paid-inclusion ad models.  Ad feeds are usually in eXtensible markup language (XML) or rich site summary format.

There are great tools out there for affiliates to utilize data feeds put out by merchants to create their own customized online shops.  Pop Shops and GoldenCAn are the two big ones.

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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Apparently this same session has been given for awhile now, and is usually referred to as Developing the Right Merchant Mindset.  The speaker was:

• Andy Rodriguez, President, Andy Rodriguez Consulting Inc.

Overall there were some good basics here… but I guess I’ve graduated to where the basics are too basic for me.

Bullet Point Review!

• Lots of merchants don’t understand how affiliate marketing works and hence end up abusing the system.
• Affiliates work when they want and for whom they want – once you understand this you’re going in the right direction.
• Affiliates cannot be fired – they’re not your employees.
• Affiliates don’t work for you, they work with you.
• Affiliates have no fixed work hours and no time requirements.
• Affiliates have no fear of loss of compensation or sick days.
• Affiliates have more work than hours in the day.
• Affiliates don’t need you, you need them.
• Affiliates’ most important asset & ROI is TIME.
• Merchant’s most important & ROI is TRUST.
• Build the relationships and the sales will follow.
  • Be sure your commissions are comparable.
  • Most sales happen in the first 24-48 hours, but long cookies are still appealing to affiliates.
  • Affiliates talk – so make sure it’s good.
• Important to notify affiliates of any downtime ahead of time.
• What does it take?
  • Merchant mindset
  • Affiliate’s first impression
  • Program information
  • Registration/Application
  • Approval Letter – make sure all letters are genuinely personalized
  • Rejection Letter
  • Creating links – make it simple for affiliates to get links
  • What’s in it for the affiliate?
  • Commission rates
  • Return days
  • Creative inventory
  • Clear call to action
  • Deep linking
  • Tools of the trade
  • Link options
  • Commission structure is flexible
  • Affiliate relationship
  • Trust

Points brought up during the Q&A

• Goldencan, popshops – some tools that are easy to help affiliates.
• Successful merchant/AM has 1st hand experience as an affiliate & is able to help partners to improve conversions, drive traffic, & motivate them.
• Just search for your top key words + affiliate to do a vertical analysis.
• There are pros & cons to direct linking that are based on the merchant – in general direct linking will have higher conversion rates.
  • Stronger brands = not so good idea to allow TM bidding
  • Smaller, weaker brands = might be good.
• Should have a program on one network
  • There are problems with different networks and compatibility (adware).
  • Transitioning is different – just be open & clear.
• How do you find niche affiliates to recruit?
  • Tools Aurelius, visit forums like ABestWeb.
• .5% – 1% – 25% of affiliates in a program are active usually.  8-12% is about average.
• Don’t remove affiliates unless they’re doing something unethical or against terms – many will apply with an idea in mind but may not get them in gear right away.
• Continue to reach out to inactive affiliates offering assistance.
  • Is everything okay?
  • Can I help?
  • Have you had a problem with this merchant?
  • Is there anything I can do to help you?
• Remember to include links, promotions, CAB (Cash Activation Bonus) and incentives
• Merchants that have their program across multiple networks with different offers are probably looking to switch networks & are offer better terms on the network they’re moving to as an incentive to get affiliates switched faster.
• If you need contact information that your network doesn’t share, there are tools that will help you go around the network to get information – the network is more of a software application.
• Have contests – it’s a great motivator to get a non-performing affiliate active.
• A low percentage of active affiliates are usually due to bad activation emails or poor merchant support.
• Banners are becomming passe, articles are great, and data feeds are here to stay.

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