Posts made in 2010

Sessions I Want to See at Affiliate Summit East 2010

Posted on May 7, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

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 start-ups, 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!

Performance Marketing Leadership Summit

Posted on May 7, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking | 1 comment

On April 19th, the day before ad:tech SF 2010, OfferVault presented their Performance Marketing Leadership Summit, a half-day event featuring discussions on compliance, fraud, and transparency. This was one in a series of events presented by OfferVault focusing on improving the performance marketing industry. Big thanks to Jim Lilig and the folks at OfferValut for putting this event on for free, allowing anyone interested in joining the discussion to attend.  This event was also co-sponsored by AffCon, OfferMobi, and DirectTrack.

I headed over to the city to go, and I’m glad I did. The afternoon was divided between two singular speakers and two panel discussions, end capped by lunch to start, drinks to end, and a break in the middle. Here are some highlights of information I took from the day’s thought leaders:

E.J Hilbert
President of Online Intelligence, Epic Advertising

• Compliance is a dirty word, some people think it always equals loss.  Truth is, there is no true definition.
• Compliant traffic is actually a 15% increase in profit in the long run.
• Margins decrease initially because of the bad traffic.
• Whether or not we see what we do as spam, the rest of the world does – it’s due to a lack of understanding.
• Remember, to the general public, we’re guilty by association.
• Compliance seems to be a catch-all, referring to legal, network, advertiser, corporate, affiliates, etc.  Perhaps it should just be legal and corporate and we can call everything else fraud.
• More traffic = more money.
• The most profitable cybercrime is spam.
• We can’t because they don’t – there’s not enough enforcement in the industry.  We need to crack down.
• Many top media outlets are developing their own advertising platforms they can trust instead of utilizing the existing platforms we use.
• Partner with the advertisers, that’s where the money is, not with super affiliate A or B.
• There are 4 ways to deal with fraud: accept it, insure against it, mitigate against it, not accept it at all.  We should not accept it at all.
• Top advertisers are the ones calling the shots, because they have the money.
• Watchdog groups are paying attention.  If we don’t do something soon, others will.  We don’t want that.
• Online advertising is mainstream.
• Sometimes the way we have to go isn’t the popular way, but it’s the right way.

Panel 1: What We Need To Do to Combat Fraud
Jason Spievak (RingRevenue), Brandon McDonald (Product2Web), Chris Graham (Atrinsic), Tom Cohn (Venable), & Carrie Birkner (Lashback)

• How often does a company do something when one of these outside agencies tells them about a problem?  Fairly often, actually.  They gets lots of flack from publishers if they don’t take action.
• A lot of the responsibility in combating fraud comes from the technologies, the networks.
• Many networks and managers are now taking the stance that if an affiliate isn’t going to be forthright about their methods, they’re out.
• In the industry, we don’t trust each other.
• Product2Web stops fraud at the cart level.  Networks should force their advertisers to utilize this kind of tool.
• Longevity planning should be the new term for compliance.
• Most affiliates live in this world of cloak & dagger, so where’s the incentive to be transparent?  They incentive should be in taking the high road.
• Part of a network or merchants positioning & branding should be that they watch things & enforce their guidelines.
• Affiliates are black hat or gray hat because it works.  They’re looking at the short term money makers, not long term business planning.

Peter Borders
Founder & CEO, MediaTrust

• We have the chance to seize a tremendous long-term opportunity.
• Affiliate marketing harnesses the best of the best, and we continue to harness new channels.
• Direct response television (infomercial) industry is trying to get into affiliate marketing.
• Evolution from Mass Media to Me Media.  The consumer used to be at the bottom of the funnel, and now they’re at the top.
• Consumer is king, and we need to empower them.  The market should be driven by quality and lifetime value.
• Right now there is little innovation, minimal brand presence, and an “all for me, more for me” mentality.  We need to evolve.
• What do we need to do?  Share information and data, innovate, move up-market, and collaborate.
• We have to think holistically for the sake of the industry.
• We should help each other to set standards.
• We have to be an industry of problem solvers.
• If the whole industry goes up-market, we ALL win.
• It’s time to build collaboration and trust, and support agents of change.

Panel 2: The Road to Tier 1 Advertisers
Rebecca Madigan (Performance Marketing Association), Todd Crawford (Impact Radius), Theresa Farmer (UnsubCentral), Peter Klein (MediaWhiz), & Liz Wasserman (Mate 1)

• Big advertising agencies still don’t understand affiliate marketing.
• What do we need to do for tier 1?  Educate – be transparent.
• Big brands, this should be sales.  Agencies can’t guarantee the spend of budget in terms of performance marketing.
• It’s a much longer sales cycle with large agencies.
• People want stability and consistency, which is tricky with performance marketing.
• Is it possible, technologically’?  There’s efficiencies when you automate that always allow you to make more money.
• Big brands don’t understand that with “performance” you’re getting branding for free.
• Brand reputation is a concern for big brands, so performance seems scary.  But it goes both ways, you can also build a brand using performance marketing like Mate 1 did.
• We need to do a better job explaining the metrics to agencies.  They need to understand that there’s two types of advertising – performance and branding.  And often there is some overlap.
• There’s a kind of lethal nihilism.  Outside impressions of the industry is that we’re “a little shady & quasi criminal” and people don’t want to get involved (great quote by Liz there!)
• This gets perpetuated by smaller, CPA type folks that are looking for short term gains and give the rest of us a bad rap.
• Self-regulating isn’t going to work because there’s always a few folks willing to break the rules for a quick buck.
• Advertisers worry about negative brand impact and are worried about consumer respect.
• We don’t bring the consumer into the equation enough.
• Merchants need to focus on moving up-stream.
• It should be a goal to really be able to understand the lifetime value of a customer.

Vote for the Podcasting 101 Panel for Affiliate Summit East 2010

Posted on May 5, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

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!

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 21: The Reboot Show

Posted on May 3, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Fanatics |

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’s been awhile.  We’ve been plotting ways to reboot our podcast to make it bigger, better, and even more fanatical than before.  While we’re still hammering out some concrete ideas (a little help from you, our listeners, might be nice!) we’ve decided to answer some questions.  This week, you’re getting a luxurious 39 minutes of free consulting as we discuss the difference between the various blogging platforms. In in this episode we discuss:

• WordPress.org self-hosted blogs
• WordPress.com hosted blogs
• Thesis theme for WordPress
• WP Unlimited theme for WordPress
• Blogger.com blogs
• Tumblr.com blogs
• Posterous.com blogs (which we’ve been corrected about – they apparently do not allow affiliate links)
• Quick call backs to the other systems out there, like Typepad, Movable Type, & even LiveJournal.

Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Or leave us a comment!

Win “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith

Posted on Apr 29, 2010 in Contests |

Hey boys & girls, I have a mint copy of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

So do lots of people.  Why am I bothering telling you this, you ask?  Because this particular copy can be YOURS!

Point of fact, I have more than one copy… so I’m giving this one way.  It’s a fantastic book very relevant to how we do business in this web 2.0 age.  This gem can be yours.  There are several things you can do to enter!

1. Post this to Twitter: “RT @TrishaLyn: Enter now to win a copy of Trust Agents by @ChrisBrogan & @julien.  http://bit.ly/99eKM8”.
2. Write a blog post about this contest, making sure to link to this post.
3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.
4. For either of these, make sure you leave a comment on this post with the links or a note that you’ve subscribed.  How else will I know you entered?

That’s it!  It’s that easy.

The contest will run until May 15th, 2010.  I will draw the name of the winner from a hat.  You can receive three entries, one for each action. So if you do all three, I’ll put your name into the hat twice.  So that will definitely increase your chances to win.  The winner will be announced on May 16th here on the blog and via Twitter.

What are you waiting for?  ENTER NOW!

Advertiser-Sponsored Online Game Tournaments on PCHGames.com

Posted on Apr 19, 2010 in Conferences & Networking, Contests, Marketing |

While this is nothing new (ad-sponsored games), this tournament is an exciting twist on the old idea.

Publishers Clearing House (PCH) today announced at Ad-Tech San Francisco the introduction of advertiser-sponsored tournaments for free online games on PCHGames.com. Sponsorship exposes a brand to more than eight million targeted loyal PCH site visitors and drives an estimated 200,000 potential customers per tournament to an advertiser’s Web site. Tournament games include Mahjongg and Solitaire, which are two of the most popular games online and on PCHGames.com. In February 2010 PCHGames.com had 16 million game plays, 1.6 million unique visitors, 5 million visits and 28.8 million page views. Tournaments are developed in conjunction with casual game developer Arkadium.

The next tournament, Mom-Jongg, a Mother’s Day inspired version of the popular Mah-Jongg classic tile game, is taking place on April 28th and includes cash prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250. In addition, the top 25 scorers will earn 1,000 tokens, which can be used to win prizes including Amazon and Walmart gift cards or entries into PCH sweepstakes.

“PCHGames.com site visitors are highly motivated and engaged, especially when they have a chance to win cash just for logging on and playing their favorite games,” said Josh Glantz, vice president and general manager of PCH Online. “During the last tournament there were more than 540,000 games played in 24 hours. As the popularity of these tournaments increases the number of free online game plays continues to rise and ultimately makes this a very successful program for sponsoring advertisers.”

The advertiser-sponsored tournaments present a number of opportunities for brand messages and offers to be communicated throughout PCH’s stable portfolio of online properties, as well as through the company’s opt-in database of email subscribers. In addition to the customized tournament landing page sponsors also receive takeover ads, featured placement on the homepage of PCHGames.com, banner ads throughout the network, pre-roll and post-roll ads before the game begins and when it ends, custom tournament and partner emails and much more.

“Our online game tournaments provide a great way for advertisers to reach a targeted audience with multiple touch points at a time when they are engaged and hoping to win big,” said Michael Zane, director of online marketing at Publishers Clearing House. “Our team at PCHGames.com works closely with participating advertisers to obtain artwork and messaging, and then manages the tournament in its entirety. It’s a simple process that results in an entertaining and rewarding experience for those who play, as well as a great marketing success story for participating brands.”