I won big while in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit, but not at the tables or slots.  For someone who rarely wins anything, I’ve had great luck lately winning some goodies in the last three weeks, from three different affiliate networks!  I managed to win some cool prizes that will most definitely help me out in my blogging and social endeavors!

So with that, thank you SO MUCH and here’s what I won so far this year and from who.  2009 has turned out pretty awesome so far!  I apologize in advance, dear readers, as this will be a long post!

Flip Mino Video Camera from MarketLeverage

Last month, several bloggers I read hosted a contest by MarketLeverage, the “Share Your Secret” contest.  The rules were simple – share your marketing secret via blog comment and you can only use MarketLeverage as the example network.  I entered on a couple of blogs, and was chosen to be the winner from 11|15 Media’s blog!  So thanks Mike!  Here’s what I shared:

As I said there, my secret isn’t really a secret – work smarter, not harder. I picked up the saying from one of my college roommates and I’m sure some genius generations before me coined the phrase, but I apply that mantra to everything. I try to make things more efficient and do things better so that my time is more effectively used and I can work smart without necessarily making things harder on myself.

To apply that to the affiliate example, I use MaxBannerAds on my blog. When I label the ads, not only do I add the merchant name but I also add the network name, i.e. MarketLeverage, to help me to group them together when I go to look at reporting so I can easily group things for myself. That’s just one small example of how I work smarter, not harder.

There were a lot of great contenders, so I was surprised to have won!  I was given the choice between a 4th generation iPod Nano or a Flip Mino, and since I had just bought an iPod for my husband for Christmas and have my own classic iPod, I chose the Flip.  I have to give MarketLeverage extra thanks for such a good prize because I just realized that my Aiptek HD camera is on it’s way to death.  So yay!  I hope as soon as I receive it and check out the cool content they’re going to preload onto it that I’ll have the guts to video blog more

A new service from marketing master Joel Comm was launched at Affiliate Summit.  The service, called TextCastLive, is a SMS messaging service that texted updates to opt-ins about the conference, like when sessions were starting and other events.  They also peppered in some contests in.  During the tail end of a session, a text went out announcing that the 7th person to show their phone the good folks at the oneNetworkDirect booth would receive $500 in network credit.  So I wandered over and with the good fortune of being with some other people who showed their phones (or, their phones were immediately more visible I might say) I was number 7!  I was actually surprised to see that they have a lot of tech offers on their network, including Lavasoft which makes the awesome anti-spyware program Ad-Aware that I love and swear by!  So thank you to TextCastLive and oneNetworkDirect!

Merchant Bag from buy.at

When you see those bowls on booth tables that say “drop your business card here to win”, DO IT!  This is how I was the lucky recipient of the merchant bag from buy.at.  The bag was a veritable treasure trove of swag, all provided by the merchants on their network.  At face value, it was an awesome Patagonia backpack, designed to comfortably pad a laptop.  It’s nice a slim, which is a benefit since the current backpack case I have is huge and bulky.  They also handed me a $100 Ticketmaster gift card, and said there was a Bonobos gift card designated for me as well.  I shook hands and hugged those I knew, took a picture with the guys decked out for the Affiliate Triathalon (Kim & Ayako – I WANT THAT PIC!)  and wandered off.

I was stoked to get that, and later when I went to open the bag to consolidate some of the other swag I’d received at the show I found that there was even MORE inside!  A cool track jacket, which I unfortunately had to give away since it was much smaller than what I wear, a $5 Starbucks gift card, a nifty gel stress ball, a cool pleather (plastic+leather) & metal USB thumb drive, some nifty ear warmer headphones, and… oh I know I’m forgetting something!  So HUGE thanks to the people I know from buy.at, Kim Salvino, Ayako Bingham, Amy Ely and everyone else there!

So once again, thank you to MarketLeverage, oneNetworkDirect, and buy.at for their awesome generosity and great prizes!

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Okay, there was a glitch in the matrix last week and I somehow forgot to post what I’d been working on.  Fail for me.  Anyway, this week’s cribbed content will include some self-aggrandizing points from last week and some really nifty stuff going on this week.

• StickerGiant was kind enough to feature me on their blog last week.  I placed my first order with them while I was in Boston and was really happy with the quality of stickers I received   So I slapped their logo on my laptop!
• I never win anything, yet while at Affiliate Summit I won $1000 in a contest.  So with that I will be going to BlogWorldExpo!  I’m excited as this will be my first BWE and a lot of the good people I met at Affiliate Summit East will be there.
• ShareASale, always the innovator, launched their Make-A-Video widget, allowing affiliates to make – and monetize – videos for advertisers’ products and services.  I’m excited – I don’t do much on ShareASale yet, but soon I hope to have a bit more time to play around with this.
• Fellow AffSpot.com forum poster Daniel M. Clark just published his first widely available book, The Big Book of Spam: Subject Lines.  This is volume one, and volume two is already in the works.  I’m waiting for my copy and will dutifully review it for you!
• Motive Interactive affiliate manager Luke Jeffery Smith has a good audio eBook out there, Luke Jeffrey’s Affiliate Marketing Fast Track. It’s just $0.99 – I plan on buying it and giving it a listen this weekend, again, complete with review!

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Issue 2 of FeedFront Magazine is hitting mailboxes as we speak, and will be distributed at Affiliate Summit East next week.  I’m happy to say that an article I wrote has been published!  Now you can read all about a great strategy to keep in contact with your affiliates as a manager.  Check out my article on page 12 of the magazine.

If you can’t wait for your hard copy (as I couldn’t) you can download just my article here.  Or, if you actually want to read the whole issue, you can get it here.  There are a lot of other great articles this time around, including a look at ABestWeb.com founder Haiko de Poel Jr, coupon code woes, and avoiding NY state tax nexus.

I hope to write another article for FeedFront soon, I just need to rack my brain for some ideas .  If you’ll be going to Affiliate Summit East, we’re sure to have a blast.  Remember to take lots of pictures – the gang at FeedFront is holding a contest and YOUR picture (or mine!) can win the coveted cover position for the 3rd issue of FeedFront.  Not only does the winner get the bragging rights of having their photo on the cover of the magazine, but you also win a full conference pass to Affiliate Summit West 2009 happening in Las Vegas January 11th – 13th.

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