TrishaLyn » sessions

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 31: Interviewing Joe Stepniewski

Trish — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:00:04 +0000

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!

We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Joe Stepniewski about his origins in affiliate marketing & his presentation “Innovate! New Exciting Applications of Affiliate Marketing”. Joe is still working on his presentation, so you’ll have to listen to know how to help him address your questions! In this episode we discuss:

Joe’s origin story and work with Skimlinks.
Their shiny new Golden Link Award for Technology Genius!
Help Joe put together his presentation with questions on Twitter – @DigiJoe.

Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!

Listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 31: Interviewing Joe Stepniewski

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 30: Interviewing Adam Riemer

Trish — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:00:49 +0000

We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Adam Riemer about his origins in affiliate marketing & his Ask the Experts panel discussion topic, “Are You Kidding Me? Merchant Mistakes”. We quickly learned that this won’t just be for merchants and advertisers, as Adam’s got experience both as an affiliate and manager, and can help affiliates pick good merchants to work with . In in this episode we discuss:

Find Adam’s blog and information about his affiliate management services at AdamRiemer.me.
Adam shares some great tips even on the podcast.
A plug for affiliate managers to use Google Voice.
We chat a bit about Wicked and a new movie merging The Wizard of Oz & Return to Oz with Broadway stars that’s apparently in development.

Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!

Listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 30: Interviewing Adam Riemer

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 29: Interviewing Drew Bennett & Tim Jones

Trish — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:00:01 +0000

We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Drew Bennett and Tim Jones about their origins in affiliate marketing & their panel “How Bloggers Can Successfully Connect with Audiences”. Tim & Drew don’t give too much away, so if you want to learn more, you’ll have to go to their panel at the conference! In in this episode we discuss:

BenSpark.com & the origin of the name.
Geek Dads Weekly – Drew’s other podcast.
DestinationsInFlorida.com – one of Tim’s first affiliate ventures.

Listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 29: Interviewing Drew Bennett & Tim Jones

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 28: Interviewing Christopher Calvi

Trish — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:47 +0000

We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Christopher Calvi about his origins in affiliate marketing & his Ask the Experts topic “Using APIs to Maximize Affiliate Opportunities”. Chris chats with us about what he does at AdKnowledge and the new acquisition of Hydra . In this episode we discuss:

Chris’ blog Politivi.com.
What an API is.
The APIs available at AdKnowledge.
Lewis Carrol trivia

Listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 28: Interviewing Christopher Calvi

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 27: Interviewing James Martell

Trish — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:00:49 +0000

We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to James Martell about his origins in affiliate marketing & his session topic “Fast Track Your Business with Outsourcing”. James shares some key tips from his experiences over the last 10 years outsourcing work to improve his affiliate business. In in this episode we discuss:

How James got into affiliate marketing.
His first outsourced professional – his wife Arlene!
Outsourcing on Elance or oDesk or RentACoder (now vWorker.com)
Affiliate Marketers Handbook
Affiliate Marketer’s Super Bootcamp
Grab an audio presentation about outsourcing by subscribing to his newsletter at Martell-Newsletter.com.

Listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 27: Interviewing James Martell

Affiliate Summit East 2010 Silver Pass WINNER!

Trish — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:41:38 +0000

About a month ago, I launched one of my best contests ever here, the chance to win a Silver Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010. ASE10 will be taking place in New York City at the New York Hilton. I’ll be speaking on a panel called Podcasting 101 with Daniel M. Clark, Joe Magennis, & Lisa Picarille moderating. I wanted people to think outside the box & get creative with their reasons why they wanted to go to the conference. I read all the comments & put aside any personal relationships and went solely on the most creative comment, as I said I would!

And the winner is…

Daniel Chmielewski!

Daniel will be receiving a Silver Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010 in New York City! Dan, you know you’re pretty much required to fill a seat in our session on Sunday at noon, right? Ladies & gentlemen, enjoy Daniel’s winning comment:

Hi Trish!

We haven’t met yet but obviously the contest was made for me. It all began when I was born.. the doctors said I came out with a map of the internet clenched between my tiny hands. Then growing up I was raised in the wild by computers and modems… every once in a while I’d catch a lead gen and rest satiated — those were good nights. When I was a teenager I was attacked by a group of rabid ringtones and barely made it out alive… I still get chills every time an SMS goes off in the distance. After my teen years I was called away to war in the 9-5 trenches where I’ve been counting the days until the time that I may return home… and you see, ASE is my ticket out of here, my one true chance at freedom — to live the life I was born to lead!

… Well that’s how I see it anyway

Thanks Daniel for thinking creatively – check your email for more details on how to register for Affiliate Summit & redeem your prize!

Runner Up

I also said I’d be giving a copy of Internet Marketing From the Real Experts to the second best entry. The runner-up is Latease Rikard! Look out for an email so I can get your address to send you the book. Here’s her winning entry:

Hey Trisha…I want to go to Affiliate Summit 2010 because I will get to meet you. Now I can find out that you are not just some internet entity that I’ve been communicating with over the past couple of years. It will be like bringing my internet friend to life, and we will have control over it!

Congratulations to all the winners & stay tuned for more news about Affiliate Summit 2010 & another contest I’m working on .

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 22: Affiliate Summit Revolutions

Trish — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:00:19 +0000

It’s been awhile, but we’re back! We have some questions to answer, but we’ll get to that next week. In the meantime, we talk about the new voting process for Affiliate Summit panels, the apparent controversy, and a little bit of discussion about transportation. In in this episode we discuss:

New session selection methods for Affiliate Summit East 2010.
The apparent controversy about the new voting component of session selection.
How we determined which panels we voted for.
Trisha’s panel, Podcasting 101, being accepted & officially on the ASE10 Agenda.
- Other panelists will be Daniel M. Clark of Geek Dads Weekly and Joe Magennis, also of GDW and Baseballisms.com
Comparing taking the subway from the airport to the hotel vs. taking a cab. And then a brief comparison of the NY Subway System and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).
Mike’s venture into Burgers with Bloggers with the likes of Stephanie Lichtenstein, Mike Wayne, Mike Pomposello, Ian Fernando, and Udi Schlessinger.

Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!

Again, the PodPress plugin is still not working right on my poor blog, so please go here to listen to the episode on GeekCast.fm: Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 22: Affiliate Summit Revolutions

Sessions I Want to See at Affiliate Summit East 2010

Trish — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:00:03 +0000

Have you ever looked at the schedule for a conference and wondered, “How did these sessions get picked?” I know I have. The conference I go to the most, Affiliate Summit, has always had a closed-door process for putting together their agenda from their speaker proposals. Yesterday I told you about how Affiliate Summit has opened up voting for the panels that will be on the agenda for Affiliate Summit East 2010, and implored you to vote for the Podcasting 101 panel I hope to sit on. Today, I’m going to share the love and tell you about the other panels I voted for and hope to see on the agenda.

Any long-term readers of my blog know that one of my favorite things to do is to attend conferences, take copious amounts of notes, and share them here with you. I learn a lot in these sessions, and feel it’s practically my responsibility to pass on that learning to everyone else. Granted, it’s not the same as attending the sessions at the conferences yourself, but it’s close. I vote for 15 panels out of 117 up for voting on the Affiliate Summit Slinkset site.

Bear with me, with 15 panels to explain my vote for, this is going to be a long post. Here’s the ones I voted for, and why.

Beyond Business Cards: Move beyond passing out stacks of business cards and adding legions of Twitter followers to promote your business. 11 steps to forging relationships to yield results beyond leads and self-promotions. Speakers: Jen Goode, Au-Co Mai, Lisa Picarille, Lisa Riolo, & Karen Garcia. Why This Got My Vote: There are a lot of people in the industry that will tell you that the core of affiliate marketing is building relationships, and I agree. Not enough people will give you advice or actionable items on how to build these all-important relationships though. I know almost all the speakers on the panel, and they’re fantastic at networking and building lasting relationships, so I have no doubt that their 11 actions are going to be dynamite.
Bloggers Successfully Connecting with Audiences and Advertisers: Advice and tips for bloggers to increase their success in connect with audiences and at the same time making them more appealing to advertisers and increase revenue. Speakers: Murray Newlands, Kristopher B. Jones, Drew Bennett, Tim Jones, & Eric Schechter. Why This Got My Vote: Honestly, this is more a chance for vindication. At the last summit, these same speakers appeared on the Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO panel (sub John Carcutt for Eric) and I was let down by the ho-hum content. It took them 30 minutes to even mention the word “monetize”, and it seemed less focused on monetizing and SEO and more focused on general “how to start blogging. I know that the panelists, being bloggers themselves, were all very interested in getting feedback, so I’m really hoping that they take the feedback from the last time and refocus and deliver a really kick-ass panel this time around.
Trademark Bidding in Affiliate Marketing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of trademark bidding in affiliate marketing. An in-depth look at the impact trademark bidding has on all players in the affiliate space. Speakers: Paul Schroader, Justin Bowen, Chuck Hamrick, John W. Dozier, & David Naffziger. Why This Got My Vote: This is a seriously confusing area in the PPC arena, and any light that can be shed on it is always good for affiliates. As well, David has a great product with Brand Verity to help, and a lot of insight to be shared. Not the sexiest topic, but an important one.
Connecting Your Community: Online/Off Social Good: There are opportunities for affiliates and advertisers to support great causes, both online and off to foster a larger online community. This panel will look at examples in social media that helped. Speakers: Dina Riccobono, Sloane Barrent, & Bruce Wang. Why This Got My Vote: So much emphasis in affiliate marketing is about ME, and how can I make a fortune, but people should remember that there’s a world out there that can also benefit from your support. I’m interested in people learning more from Dina and the panel on how they can successfully integrate their work and marketing efforts into also benefiting great causes and making the world a better place.
Affiliate Program Case Studies: Strategies and Practices: Discussion of what it takes for a retailer to get their affiliate channel to the next level. Merchant case studies reveal and illustrate strategies and practices that attract and keep affiliates. Speakers: Melanie Seery, Madeleine McGregor, Adam Riemer, & Kimberly Salvino. Why This Got My Vote: Case studies are always great, because they show real results. It’s more than just hypothetical tactics, it’s proof positive. All of the speakers are very knowledgeable and represent various angles of a merchant program that really works, from the network, affiliate, and affiliate managers.
Creating a Stronger, Balanced Affiliate-Merchant Agreement: Can we have a stronger, fairer Affiliate-Merchant Terms of Service agreement to better protect affiliates and merchants? Discussion of the current inadequacies and challenges in creating a better TOS. Speakers: Melanie Seery, Brian Littleon, Adam Riemer, & Kimberly Salvino. Why This Got My Vote: Well, honestly it almost didn’t. This panel has the same panelists as the last one I voted for, except for the substitution of Brian for Madeline. Affiliate Summit has a policy of not allowing people to speak on more than one panel, so theoretically once the advisory board makes the final agenda, one of these panels won’t be on it. But, this is just as valuable as the case studies panel. Many merchants don’t have a good TOS, so any help they can get is helpful!
Search Marketing Campaign Review: Attendees will apply to have their site and campaigns reviewed before the conference. Our panel of experts, one each in SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social, and Affiliate will choose 4-5 companies. Speakers: Kate Morris, Joanna Lord, Scott Polk, Kristy Bolsinger, Jane Copeland, Carolyn Shelby. Why This Got My Vote: I’m a big fan of interactive panels, and real-life examples. This panel will allow for real-time, off the cuff analysis and can be incredibly helpful to everyone in attendance. My first affiliate summit, I attended a site review similar to this kind of clinic-approach panel and volunteered up the site of the company I worked for at the time. It was an eye opener! In the interest of full disclosure, I briefly worked with Kate Morris during our time at New Edge Media, and I know Kate to be really good at explaining how things can be changed for the better in a constructive way, which is what people need for public critiques!
Seven Deadly Sins of Affiliate Marketing 2010: A fast paced multi-media presentation on affiliate danger zones focusing on the latest FTC enforcement priorities and initiatives and plaintiffs’ targets infused with useful tips and humor. Speaker: Bennet Kelley. Why This Got My Vote: With a title like that, how could you NOT vote for it! Actually, I’ve seen Bennet speak before and he’s incredibly knowledgeable and makes sometimes boring topics like law, enforcement, and the FTC actually interesting and relevant. I feel very strongly that it’s in every affiliate’s best interest to know what their limitations are legally with their marketing efforts, so this is important.
Innovate! New Exciting Applications of Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is increasingly used in new web startups, services and applications. Discover the most exciting new ideas that are helping to grow and highlight affiliate marketing industry. Speaker: Joe Stepniewski. Why This Got My Vote: Affiliates are some of the most creative and innovative marketers out there, online or off. I love to hear what crazy things affiliates are coming up with and what tools and tricks are out there. Working for a vendor of an affiliate tool myself now, I’m excited to see what kind of innovation is out there that might compliment the For Me To Coupon service.
Feed Powered Affiliate Marketing: A review of how product feeds are playing an ever-increasing role in online marketing and how they can be successfully deployed in affiliate marketing. Using real case studies and examples. Speakers: Lee Brignell-Cash & Robert Durkin. Why This Got My Vote: Again, considering I work with data feeds every day now, I’m interested in the creative things affiliates are doing with various types of data feeds. A lot of affiliates are concerned with how to best optimize their time and marketing efforts, yet not enough use data feeds to help automate their sites. Hopefully more sessions like this can bring data feeds to more affiliates.
The New Frontier for Infomercials: Affiliate Marketing!: Marketers behind the Snuggie know the power of TV to drive online sales. They have big budgets and are more focused than ever on driving online sales. Discover more about this giant opportunity. Speakers: Rebecca Madigan, Peter Bordes, & Ron C. Pruett, Jr. Why This Got My Vote: I admit it, I have a fascination with informercials and TV pitchmen. So I’m fascinated to see how they’re going to tie this in with affiliate marketing. I’m a bit surprised that someone from Impact Radius isn’t involved in this, given their big focus on integrating traditional media with affiliate offers, but my intrigue has been piqued nonetheless!
Successful Multiple Network Strategies for Merchants: The arguments for and against launching performance marketing programs in multiple networks–and how to make the strategy you do select successful. Speakers: Lisa Riolo & Durk Price. Why This Got My Vote: I’ve yet to see a merchant that really leverages multiple networks right. Most seem to just throw their program up onto as many networks as possible with no real strategy at all, so I’m exited to see what tips can be shared for these merchants to really leverage multiple networks instead of just casting their nets as wide as possible.
Demystifying Online Attribution: Real answers on how to track a customer’s searches through all phases of the buying cycle, how to measure cross channel assists, and how to avoid the dangers of only last click attribution. Speakers: Don Batsford & Jonathan Treiber. Why This Got My Vote: A lot of affiliates (and even some merchants) know the basics of cookies and how affiliate links are tracked, but when you start talking to them about click attribution, how to separate affiliate traffic from PPC traffic from organic traffic, eyes start to glaze over. Hopefully this session, aimed mostly at merchants/advertisers, will help new affiliate merchants understand how to better differentiate their traffic sources and become more aware of how tracking really works.
Conquering The Mega Niches for Mega Profits: Very few affiliate marketers dare to enter the most competitive and profitable niches. They follow the general advice of focusing on the small opportunities. Speaker: Hamlet Batista. Why This Got My Vote: It’s always encouraging for a super affiliate to come to the conference and share some of their secret sauce with smaller affiliates hoping to really crack some opportunities. I’ve met Hamlet and I know he’s been incredibly successful in large niches (hello Viagra!), and he’s a good speaker as well – just the right mix of informative and motivational for those smaller affiliates looking for hope!
Are You Kidding Me? Merchant Mistakes: Going over common Merchant Mistakes and why they are bad. Limiting to 100 Affiliates, Not participating in forums, Being on AutoApprove, etc. Speaker: Adam Riemer. Why This Got My Vote: I love Adam on a personal level – he’s a riot to chat with and is super passionate about the industry to boot. So this session promises to at least be entertaining. As well, as a self-taught (former) affiliate manager, I’m always interested to hear other affiliate managers’ opinions on the dos & don’ts of managing merchant programs. Unfortunately, as Adam is listed as a panelist on two other potential panels, as I mentioned before he can only speak on one, so I’m torn as to which I’d rather see him on!

I heartily encourage you to click on the links and vote for these sessions as well. Just click the blue arrow to the left of the session titles to vote. You will have to register for an account, but it’s a great opportunity to get the most out of your money when attending Affiliate Summit. If you haven’t already done so, register for Affiliate Summit today. I will have a pass to give away at the end of this month so stay tuned for contest details!

Vote for the Podcasting 101 Panel for Affiliate Summit East 2010

Trish — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:00:49 +0000

Affiliate Summit is making a lot of changes to this years’ eastern version of the conference. In addition to changing the Mentor Program to the Newcomer Program and offering an Affiliate Scholarship Program, they are now allowing the public to vote for Affiliate Summit East 2010 Sessions. In the past, panel selection has been a closed process, with the members of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board discussing and voting on which panels they want to see on the agenda. For this year’s Eastern show, they have decided to open up the process to help narrow down the choices before the advisory board makes their ultimate decisions. Anyone who registers with Slinkset will have the chance to vote for as many of the panels as they want by clicking on the arrow to the left of the panel descriptions. Voting is open until May 14, 2010.

There are a lot of great potential panels, and later this week I’ll tell you all about which ones I voted for and why. In the meantime, you have the opportunity to vote for the panel I hope to be a part of, Podcasting 101! There have been live podcast related panels in the past, however they seem to have been less structured and more about current events than the business of affiliate podcasting. We want to give attendees a chance to get a really basic primer on starting a podcast.

What’s Podcasting 101 Going to Cover?

Podcasting 101 will be a panel for beginners talking about how to begin a podcast and monetize. In this era of self-publishing, anyone – including you – can produce a podcast (and make money doing it!) Come learn the basics of producing, monetizing, hosting and promoting your very own podcast. It’s much easier and cheaper than some people think, so we’re going to go over the various tools available for recording, mixing, and promoting a podcast. We’ll also touch on some of the more basic ways to monetize the podcast beyond text affiliate links in your show notes.

Who’s On The Panel?

Should we be selected, the panel will consist of myself, Daniel M. Clark and Tricia Meyer. Daniel is a co-host for the Geek Dads Weekly podcast, a podcast for parents raising kids in a digital age, along side Joe Magennis and Drew Bennett. Daniel will be able to talk about the production aspects of a podcast using a Mac, as well as monetizing the podcast. Tricia is the owner of MeyerTech, which runs the popular rewards site Sunshine Rewards. Along with Cindy Ballard and Angie Meeks, Tricia co-hosts the She Shops Around podcast, featuring seasonal merchants in the affiliate space. In case you’ve already forgotten (for shame!) I co-host Affiliate Marketing Fanatics with Mike Buechele. All of these podcasts, and more, are available at GeekCast.fm.

Sound Like a Winner?

Does this sound like a session you’d want to go to? Great! If so, please take a moment to register and vote for the Podcasting 101 panel! Remember that Affiliate Summit East 2010 is taking place August 15 – 17, 2010 in New York City at the New York Hilton. The early bird registration has already passed, but you still have time to register before they sell out!

ASW10 Session: How To Get Motivated For Success!

Trish — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:00:38 +0000

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:

How To Get Motivated For Success!

View more presentations from Affiliate Summit.