Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 57: Geek Cast Wannabes
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!

It seems longing for a simpler time, back when we all religiously listened to Geek Cast, is a virus that’s going around. Before the band got back together last week on Affiliate Thing, we had a similar idea to emulate that model for fun. Mike is back, and we were also joined by Wade Tonkin of Fanatics and Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com. In in this episode we discuss:
- Our collective love of the original Geek Cast with Shawn Collins, Sam Harrelson, Jim Kukral, and Lisa Picarille.
- The passing of Steve Jobs… would the reaction be similar if Bill Gates had passed?
CityCrashVille Hometown on iPad.- Speculating on what Affiliate Summit Central will be.
- Upcoming Affiliate Summit West in January and how the session voting is going.
- Mike’s recap of the New York Comic Con
Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! Be old fashioned and just leave us a comment!
Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics!
Read MoreWhat #ASE11 Sessions I’m Voting For
Let the games begin! Voting has opened up for Affiliate Summit East 2011. While some people have not been happy with this voting system, I think it evens the playing field nicely. As well, it clears any conspiracy theories about how sessions are chosen.
Before I begin, I will say I have a horse in this game. I’ve submitted a panel, The Future of Coupons in Affiliate Marketing, for consideration. If picked, I’ll be moderating this panel with industry coupon veterans Mike Allen (Shopping-Bargains.com), Connie Berg (FlamingoWorld.com), Carolyn Tang Kmet (Groupon.com), and Kim Rowley (ShoppingBookmarks.com). Please take a moment to register, confirm, then vote for our panel!
Okay, that being said, these are the panels I’m voting for. All of them have very intelligent speakers, well thought out ideas, and will offer merchants and affiliates great insight into the topics.
- It’s Not Your Mother’s Affiliate Program
- Creatives Deliver Success
- Evolution of Local Search
- Do-Not-Track? Not-So-Fast
- Killing the Affiliate Nexus Tax Dead!
- Got an Idea? Make it a Reality.
- 10 Questions for a Prospective Affiliate Manager
- A World Without Cookie Tracking
- How to Convince Online Shoppers You’re Real
- Learn to Create a Likeworthy Facebook Page
- Social Media in Niche Markets
- Merchant ABCs – Launching a New Merchant Program
- How to Avoid FTC Scrutiny in Advertising
- Affiliate Improv!
- Are Your Affiliates Adding Value?
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 39: Interviewing Karen Garcia & Wade Tonkin #BWE10 #ASW11
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, this time talking to folks involved with Blog World Expo, coming up in a couple of weeks in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. Today we talk to Karen Garcia & Wade Tonkin, co-founders at GTO Management and managers of the Blog World Expo affiliate program. We chat casually about what they’re looking forward to about Blog World Expo, and a bit about our proposed panels at Affiliate Summit West 2011 in January. In in this episode we discuss:
- Register for Blog World Expo now! Book your flight & hotel too!
- Vote for Mike & Wade’s Panel Affiliate Improv!
- Vote for Karen & Trisha’s Panel Behind the Curtain of Affiliate Management
- It’s not too late to join & promote the Blog World Expo affiliate program on ShareASale!
- Visit the GTO Management booth at Blog World Expo!
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 MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 16: Wade Tonkin & Blog World Expo Guilt
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
This week we are FINALLY joined by Wade Tonkin of GTO Management and the man behind the Christian Affiliate Marketers Association. We had a fine conversation, accidentally recorded in Mono instead of Stereo since I forgot to switch the defaults on this new computer. I think the sound quality is good though, but welcome any feedback. Since we’re all busy people, I opted for no intro music this week and we come in at a sultry 34:25. In in this episode we discuss:
- Who Wade is, i.e. a partner at GTO Management
- Blog World Expo and their affiliate program (which GTO Management professionally manages)
- The events put on by and the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association
- SponsoredTweets and how that’s going to Mike & Trisha
Back from Affiliate Summit West 09
Well, for those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter or didn’t see me at Affiliate Summit West 2009, you’ve likely been wondering why I didn’t post from the conference.
Let’s just say that the only way to be connected when travelling is to bring your own internet with you. Wired and wi-fi didn’t work for me while in Las Vegas, but I’m back to reality here in California and back to a stable internet connection!
I have wrap ups, summaries, exciting events that happened, and notes from the sessions I attended to share witih you. But, we can leave that for later. In the meantime, I just want to give a big shout out to Stephanie Lichtenstein, Karen & Joel Garcia, Wade Tonkin, Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg, and Michael Buechele for providing excellent company during the conference. Also big thanks to Buy.at and oneNetworkDirect for providing awesome prizes that I won, but I’ll get into that later too 🙂
Read MoreCommission Junction University – Day 1
I’m down here in lovely Santa Barbara for Commission Junction University, and day one is in the can. The weather has been nice…although living in California I’m generally used to this weather, but being in the Southern end of the state there’s a distinctly different feel that I can’t quite put my finger on. But I enjoy it.
I flew from Oakland to Los Angeles on a puddle jumper, and from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara on a pack of gum. Between flights and layovers and cab rides, I arrived at my motel at 12:15am. The room is your average motel fare: 70’s floral bedspread, translucent yellow cords on the lamps, inmate furniture. The room also has a mini fridge, microwave, nicely sized TV, free wifi, and a surprisingly comfortable bed & pillows – not too shabby for $77/night. This makes me glad I’m staying at a real hotel for Blog World Expo this coming weekend.
Because of the high cost of cab fare ($25+), once I got the conference hotel I didn’t want to leave until the end of the day. I ran into Lisa Picarille and Wade Tonkin almost immediately in passing after I registered and headed to the first session, which I’ll cover later. Jeremy Palmer from Quit Your Day Job lead the first “course” as CJU calls them, and Olivier Chaine from Magnify 360 led the second. On a personal note, I read his name in the program and knew the pronunciation would be something like “o-live-e-ay shayne” and was confused when the emcee pronounced it very phonetically (olive-er chain). I was disappointed in CJ when Olivier pronounced his own name at the end of his session much like I’d imagined it was properly pronounced…if you’re going to introduce someone, learn how to pronounce their name.
I digress. Both courses were informative and well done, and I’ll be posting a bullet point review of both later on. After the courses were done I took a quick break and then headed out to the CJU Expo, a small area of tables nicely held outside under umbrellas that more closely resembled the Meet Market at Affiliate Summit than your typical trade show. It was mostly merchants and different CJU programs with tables, with the exception of an OPM (Schaaf Consulting), a couple affiliates (SurfMyAds.com), and a table for the Performance Marketing Alliance.
It’s a good thing I saw that PMA table, because it made it easy to run into some familiar faces in the form of Connie Berg & Brad Waller. Also was able to say hello to Michael Brucker from RingCentral at their table, one of the organizers of the BAAMC whose quarterly meetings I attend. (By the way if you’re an affiliate manager with a company in the SF Bay area interested in getting involved and possibly hosting about 20-25 ppl for lunch some day, let Michael know).
After the expo it was zoo time with the welcoming event being held down the street at the Santa Barbara Zoo. As much as I wanted to go, my phone was practically dead for some reason and my stomach was a bit upset, so I opted to head back to my motel. Tomorrow is a day full of sessions that look pretty good, and a keynote from Guy Kawasaki…who I think may literally be giving me the nifty orange Alltop shirt off his back afterwards. More about that if/when it happens 😉
