And the Winner Is… Sunshine Rewards!
I’m pleased to announce the winner of our custom sticker run contest. Huge thanks to all who took the time to enter! If any one would like one of my nifty Blinkstar Media stickers, feel free to ask. The contest winner was selected by the team at Sticker Giant, the sponsor of the contest and provider of the free set of custom stickers.
One of my favorite people, the “other Tricia” as I we call each other, Tricia Meyer leads a loyal community of savers at Sunshine Rewards and blogs about her experiences in affiliate marketing at Tricia.me. Tricia’s entry caught the judges eye and she is the winner of the contest! Tricia has an infectiously positive personality, and it’s always my pleasure to chat with her at various affiliate events.
Congratulations Tricia! We’ll be contacting you soon for instructions on how to redeem your custom run of stickers, courtesy of StickerGiant.com! Be sure to pop one in the mail for me when you get them!
Read MoreAffiliate Summit East 2011: How to Pitch Your Company #ASE11
Session Description: Candid advice for exhibitors representing their company at the Affiliate Summit conference. On the panel were:
- Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards (Moderator)
- Robert Adler, President, The Link Builders
- Ad Hustler, Chief Hustler, Ad Hustler, LLC
- Kim Rowley, Owner, Key Internet Marketing, Inc.
I have to admit that this session came off unlike what I thought I was in for. What I expected was tips to hone your pitch when talking to people. What I got was a newcomers’ guide to attending conferences. While there’s definitely a lot of value in that, especially for, well, newcomers, there wasn’t a ton of value in it for me. However, I did pick up some “best practices” that I’ll definitely be sharing with folks that are new to trade shows and nervous about representing their companies well!
Bullet Point Review!
- Don’t look straight at a person’s name tag for their name, just ask for it. Don’t devalue a person based on what their badge says their role is – people wear many hats in this industry.
- Business is supposed to be personal to a point.
- Don’t look over people’s shoulders to see who else there is to talk to (it’s rude!).
- Don’t judge people based on what they’re wearing. Never think the way they dress equates to how much money they can make.
- CPA networks rely on a gender bias going towards men. Ladies can drive leads too.
- Don’t assume people are in a role they’re not.
- Highest price, best offers…most of your CPA networks claiming these things are full of it. Only one network can have THE highest price or THE best offers, so you’re all just lying. Develop a relationship with the affiliate – the rest is nonsense.
- Have a unique pitch. What is it about your company that’s different from your competitors?
- Name one thing that will make you walk past a booth?
- Booth babes. They don’t know anything about your company and it looks pathetic. You’re not going to attract real performers that way. As Ad Hustler said, your hot chick isn’t going to entice them because they can probably afford a hotter one!
- When people working at the booth look disinterested in being there. Potential partners need to see your excitement!
- Aggressive sales mentality. It doesn’t work in affiliate marketing. These panelists said they’d avoid a booth if they saw the staff trapping other attendees.
- Knowledge is the best sales tool. Everyone at Affiliate Summit is a sales person when you think about it. Make us interested.
- Don’t spam. If you add a person to a list after a short conversation with them, it’s a big turn off. A follow up email, however, is good; if you don’t follow up within a week, people will forget about you.
- Be memorable, in a good way.
- Have you had bad booth experiences?
- Don’t snipe people as they walk by your booth with the lead scanner gun.
- Tell someone what you do quickly – be respectful of people’s time and busy schedules during a conference.
- Anecdote: Tricia was trapped in a conversation in a booth for almost 10 minutes and couldn’t get away. The personal eventually admitted that they wanted to practice their pitch on her!
- Good booth experiences?
- If someone is an expert at whatever it is they do, it gives a person confidence that they’re the best person to work with. Be the expert.
- Listen to what the other person is saying about their company. You can brainstorm together.
- Just don’t lie.
- What do you NOT want to hear at Affiliate Summit?
- I can get you higher payouts!
- We have the best offers!
Points brought up during the Q&A
If you’re confident in what you do, you can afford to be a little annoying.- Some of the best opportunities to pitch your company can be the least obvious.
- How do you quickly explain affiliate marketing?
- You’re the guy in the duck outfit outside the pizza place trying to get people to come in and order.
- What you put in is what you get out.
- Is there a tension of working with both affiliates and other vendors?
- Affiliates expect it, as long as you’re not wasting the other vendors time they’ll be open to partnerships.
- What are the best opportunities for networking?
- Meals and cocktail hours. Just start a conversation with someone.
- Let people know that they can refer people to you if they think there’s a good fit.
- Cab lines, heck any line where people are probably from the conference.
- Don’t pitch people you don’t know – wait until they ask what you do. Wait until someone asks for your card.
- Hang around and talk to speakers after sessions.
- Give free stuff to bloggers.
- How do you pitch when you have multiple hats on?
- Start with everything.
- Come up with something memorable (e.g. I’m a hustler).
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 26: Interviewing Tricia Meyer
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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 Tricia Meyer, the other Tricia, about her origins in affiliate marketing & her panel. We also learn some interesting information on marketing to the demographic of women. In in this episode we discuss:
- How Tricia got into affiliate marketing.
- The origins of Helping Moms Connect & Sunshine Rewards.
- Tricia’s panel at Affiliate Summit East 2010: Strategies for Marketing Toward Women.
- How cigars are selling well to women.
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!
Read MoreVote for the Podcasting 101 Panel for Affiliate Summit East 2010
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!
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