Session Description: Get off your butt and get to work. Motivational tips, tricks & strategies that can put you on the path to online success. The featured speaker was:

• Jim Kukral, President, JimKukral.com

This was a great session, a real kick in the pants to get off your ass and finish those projects you’ve put on hold.  I picked up a lot of great tips to put into action here on my site, and I think you will too.  Jim is a master motivator, without the cheese (for the most part).

Bullet Point Review!

• Doers get what they want…everyone else gets what they get.
• Be remarkable.
• Have a signature product.
• Are you a loser or a failure?
  • The failures are the ones that are successful.  Because they keep trying.
  • Learn your lessons the hard way.
• Fail hard, fail fast, and try something new.
• Negativity kills.  Remove negativity across the board.
• Everything we do online falls under two categories: solve problems or be entertained.
  • If you can combine both of those things, you can find a faster path to success.
  • It’s about having your pain taken away – find ways to take pain away from people.
• Easy always wins – solving problems is how you make money.
  • Think like Google – simple.
  • Simple, problem solving, customer oriented.
• Branding is the thick, sticky goo that a company puts on your hand – if it’s good, you’ll lick it off.  If it’s bad, you’ll go wash it off.
• You don’t sell what you think you sell.
  • e.g. Nike doesn’t sell apparel & sports equipment.  They contract spokespeople like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods because they sell winning.
• What is it your customers REALLY need from you?
  • Lead with what you sell.
  • If you can lead with “We save you time” or “money”, great.
• Universal Internet truths
  • No one reads anymore, they scan.
    • Average attention span online is 2.7 seconds (about as long as it takes to read a tweet).
    • Resource: DontMakeMeThink.com
    • Figure out why people come to your site and get rid of the other junk.
  • No more interruptions!
    • Short attention spans.
    • There’s a million competitors out there.
    • There’s got to be a way for you to stand out and be more noticed.
      • Go back to problem solving and understanding your customers.
    • You know you need to do these things, you just need a reminder to apply it.  Go out and make it happen.
    • Where do you want to be in a year from now?  6 months from now?
  • People want bargains
    • It doesn’t matter what you sell, people will buy more often if you give them a deal, OR the perception that they’re getting a deal.
    • The truth about humans is that they want to feel like they’re getting one over on you.
    • Always have some kind of discount and put it in their face.
  • Take a chance and get creative
    • What ideas have you had that you let slip away?
    • You never know what will happen, so try it.

Most of the Q&A was just follow up on some of the examples and resources Jim talked about.  I really feel energized with this site to take it to another level. Here’s the presentation:

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Entreproducer: The Affiliate Marketer as Media Mogul

Thin affiliate sites are disappearing from search engines, while social media is powered by content sharing, not sales pitches. It’s time to start thinking like a new media producer first and foremost, with affiliate relationships as just one form of monetization. The keynote was given by:

• Brian Clark, Co-Founder, DIY Themes

Brian notes that this was his first keynote, so good job on one under the belt!  It focused on creativity, which I really did connect with.  Unfortunately it did get kind of dry in the middle and I admit, I lost focus on taking notes.  But he ended on a memorable note using some music clips to illustrate some points.

Bullet Point Review!

• Focus on branded websites – better for link backs.  If you can get a keyword in, great, but that shouldn’t be the focus.
• Positioning – What’s unique about you?  How do you stand out in a competitive landscape?
• Design – Great usability of the content (presentation).
• Contact & Community – you want people to raise their hands and pay attention to you over time.
• It’s easier to make money if you’re using content to attract an audience and sell something related.
• From a mindset standpoint, realize you’re in the media business.
• Branded content started with soap operas, kinda.
• There’s nothing more powerful than being an authority figure yourself.
• Branding is really everything – it’s the story you’re trying to tell the world.
• They hear what they want and hopefully it’s what you want them to hear.
• It’s not about traffic, and it’s not just about audience, it’s about creating fans.
• You don’t have to be a rock star to the whole world, just to a group of fans.
• Your brand is a story.  If someone is saying something bad about you then it’s still branding.
• If the only thing people are saying about you is bad, at least you have feedback telling you want you are doing wrong.
• Most people that study creativity find that these people have lower associative boundaries.
• We’re socialized to put things in boxes and categories.
• Fail fast – keep trying and you’ll get a lot better at it.

Brian summarized with some clips from a group called Girl Talk that makes unlikely musical mash ups. I highly recommend going in search of this group, who has two albums out if I remember correctly.

Here’s the video provided by Affiliate Summit:

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Session Description: This session un-muddies the murky waters of the FTC’s ever-changing focus, the proliferation of IP-related lawsuits, and the legal ambiguity regarding many forms of Internet-based marketing. The panel consisted of:

• Bennet Kelley, Founder, Internet Law Center
• Pete Wellborn, Managing Member, Wellborn, Wallace, & Woodard, LLC

I did like this session more than the FTC related session I attended at the last affiliate summit.  It was put together with the affiliate industry really in mind, though it captured my interest for being not entirely affiliate related.

Bullet Point Review!

• Truth, proof, & fairness – everything we talk about today can be summed up with this.
• Misleading – common violations, disclaimers, & disclosures, demonstrations, refund policies, ads directed at children, environmental claims.
• Unfair ads – causes or is likely to cause injury that is:
  • substantial AND
  • not outweighed by other benefits AND
  • not reasonably avoidable
• Who is liable?
  • Seller (manufacturer or provider)
  • Ad Agencies
  • Site Designers
  • Affiliates
  • Individuals (personally involved)
    • “Negligence Standard” – knew or should have known that the ad included false or deceptive claims.
    • Exert as much control over people as you possibly can because you don’t want to find yourself peripherally liable.
• Other FTC Enforced Laws
  • Franchise & Business Opp Rule
  • MLM Pyramid Scheme Rules Laws
  • Truth in Lending Act
  • Fair Credit Billing Act
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act
  • Equal Credit
  • 900 #s
• Rules of Thumb
  • Truth
  • Consumer point-of-view
  • Proof
  • Careful: disclaimers/disclosures – rules have dramatically changed.
  • Careful: endorsement claims
• Testimonials & Endorsements
  • Celebrities
    • 1st – Accurate
    • 2nd – With Permission (”right of publicity”)
  • General Considerations
    • Honest opinion/belief of endorser
    • Same claim-standard as seller
    • Endorsers must continue in belief
    • Statements must be presented in context
  • Consumer Endorsements
    • You cannot get away with “results not typical” anymore.
    • Claims must be representative
    • Claims must be substantial
    • or Claims can be disclaimed (MAYBE)
    • Same claim-standard as seller
    • “Actual Consumer” must be just that
  • Expert Endorsements
    • Must be true
    • Must be a real expert in the correct field
  • Organization Endorsements
    • True collective judgment opinion
    • Must be true “expert” opinion
  • Material Connections
    • This is where the FTC is trying to go after the “mommy blogger” crowd
    • Connection between endorser and seller that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement must be fully disclosed (very gray area in terms of HOW)
    • Rule often applies where endorser is not celebrity or well-known expert
    • “Connection” may be money or publicity
      • Applies to blogs & flogs (fake blogs)
      • Walmarting Across America was a fake blog made by Walmart to generate publicity.
      • Absolutely forbidden by the rules of the FTC
      • They don’t want to have a chilling effect on guerilla or creative marketing campaigns, but at some point it has to be disclosed that it’s marketing or advertising.
• “Free” Stuff
  • “Free” means free
  • “Regular price” means same price, on the same quality, quantity, and service level at which the seller has sold the product in that geographic market or trade area for a reasonable substantial period of time
  • Ad must be clean

Points brought up during the Q&A

• In the context of an agency, how can you transfer liability of claims to the client?
  • Have a bullet proof contract
  • Make sure your agreement has a provision that you’ll periodically monitor any celebrity or expert endorsements to ensure accuracy

They read through the presentation rather fast so my notes are probably incomplete.  Luckily, the presentation was made available!  I had to leave during the Q&A portion to get back to the booth, so I probably missed some good stuff caught on video, so I’ll add that here in the next few weeks.  Here’s the presentation:

 Powered by Max Banner Ads