Session Description: Learn to maximize affiliate commissions using blogging, increasing your community, and utilizing SEO. The panel consisted of:

• Kristopher B. Jones, President, Pepperjam Network, A GSI Commerce Company (Moderator)
• Drew Bennett, Professional Blogger, BenSpark.com
• John Carcutt, SEO Manager, MediaWhiz
• Tim Jones, Owner, TheRealTimJones.com
• Murray Ross Newlands, Founder, Affiliate Heat

Overall the individual panelists did great jobs answering the questions lobbed at them, but I think as a moderator, perhaps Kris should have come up with some questions more centralized on monetization and less about getting started as a blogger.  Overall I did pick up a LOT of tips that WILL help me improve this blog, something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now!

Bullet Point Review!

• Wordpress is the leader in blogging platforms – so customizable and is clean for SEO out of the box.  Few tweaks are necessary.
• Murray noted that he built his brand by doing interviews – those people shared with him & then shared his content and blog with their audiences.  That traffic is, by nature, viral & drives more traffic.
• The more you can promote others, the more they’ll promote you.
• The daily interesting content brings people back.
• Engage you visitors!  They know there’s a real person there.  Connect with people.
• There needs to also be a lot of interaction off your blog in social media and networks.
• Plan categories as you get started and have a good foundation.  It will be cleaner than added a ton as you go.
• Most common mistake is messing with little options in WordPress.  Make sure to check the box that allows search engines to find you!
• Keep your categories simple.
• Use the free Google Keyword Tool to optimize your blog titles.
• Target keywords in posts.
• Interlink between your posts (there are related link plugins you can use).
• Round up posts every couple weeks that interlink.
• Set up your permalink to be optimized for SEO.
• Great Plugins to Use!
  • Find the Plugins at BenSpark.com
• Do not have tags & categories that are the same – Google will only index one, so you might as well keep things cleaner & simple.
• Lots of guest posts (title & link back with terms).
• Deep link – don’t just link to your home page.
• If someone is linking to a page, make sure their page is related.  It matters in calculating link popularity.
• Places to help monetize your blog:
  • Traditional affiliate networks
  • Contextual (AdSense)
  • Inline text (Skimlinks)
  • Widgets
  • Paid links that pass link juice like Text-Link-Ads
  • Paid per Post
  • CPA
  • CPM
• Maintain your credibility
• Build your brand.
• Generate your own products to sell
• Integrate product feeds
• Remember offline avenues.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• What’s a good host to recommend?
  • Dreamhost
• How do you use feeds?
  • End of the blog post.
  • Using plugins like GoldenCan, PhPBay, Popshops
  • Good for targeted match
• How do you get stuff from a company to blog about?
  • Just ask.  The worst answer you can get is ‘no’.
  • Have a plan & be able to show traffic & data to help convince them of the merit.
• How do you feel about building a blog around a brand?
  • You’re going to run out of content.
  • The more specific you are, the better.
  • You do have to compete with the actual brand’s official social media or blogging efforts.
  • Attempt to connect with the brand to get their involvement.
  • Show the product in action via video and photos.
• Is it more important to build a double opt-in list?
  • Your ultimate goal is to build a community, however you can do it.
  • You kind of need to do all of it; long term you need to just provide great, consistent value.
• What are good tools to track more relevant mentions?
  • Social Oomph.com
  • Trackur
  • StartPR.com
  • Google alert for your URL (add the Http://)
• Where do you see the future?
  • Podcasting is still valuable
  • Video
  • Integration with social networking

Overall I wish they would have gotten past the intro to blogging stuff and right to the nitty gritty of monetization, but still great speakers.

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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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