June BAAMC Meeting
After running to the bank to take out money for bridge toll, heading west towards the big scary city, and rifling through my car & wallet for change for the meter while praying that the meter maids were taking a day off, I finally made it into the June Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition meeting, this time hosted graciously by Real Networks. As an aside, I like their building… older, brick, kinda funky and unique but still professional.
Last time I did a video because it was my first venture over there and I had a lot to say. I was happy to receive some kudos on it from BAAMC organizer Michael Brucker. We had some special guests at this meeting… Lisa Picarille from Revenue Magazine came over and Brook Schaaf from Schaaf Consulting flew up from LA just for this. Aren’t we special? 🙂
I was going to write a good long post about it, but it seems Lisa in her diligence as a journalist has beat me to it! So here’s her take at RevenueToday.com. She mentions a few other special guests that attended the meeting, but I didn’t see them (and yes… I’d recognize them!) so maybe they were on the phone listening in… I did arrive a touch late.
So, some notes not mentioned from my take. It was nice to finally meet Lisa in person, especially after subbing for her that once on Affiliate Thing. Very gracious…although I have to tell you, it’s totally surreal sitting in a room looking at a person speak that you listen to every week without an image in your head. Strange lol. She was surprised that I’d had time to come to the meeting given how busy I usually am, which prompted me to mentally review how busy I must sound on Twitter and this here blog without actually intending it!
Also said hi to Karen Garcia of GTO Management who came to the meeting directly from SFO – what a trooper! And had a nice conversation with a fellow affiliate manager who’s used PsPrint a lot in his former life of being an event promoter and loves us! Always great to hear!
Brook talked about the up-and-coming Performance Marketing Association (PMA), which got a lot of people in the room revved up. We also talked at length about the NY affiliate tax and how we wish the networks would get more involved. What’s definitely clear is that there’s a lot of confusion on how we’re effected as managers and the programs we represent. A vague law will only vaguely be enforced, NY!
Incidentally as a side note, the PMA launched their blog this week and today Rebecca Madigan posted their plan of attack.
We also talked a bit about some miscellaneous things like video widgets and the like. Since most of us in the room have our programs through Commission Junction, we collectively wish they’d buck up on offering some more interesting and innovative creative options, like widgets. One opinion was that video is pretty good for buzz, but general consumers never think to click on the video so it doesn’t convert as a sales tool. I think the jury is still out on video as a traceable seller like a banner ad.
That’s the meat & potatoes of it, really. Our next meeting should be sometime in August. And I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that I managed to escape parking-ticket free!
Read MoreSquished Boobs Save Lives
Periodically we’re reminded that Affiliate Marketing isn’t entirely about making money. There are good things that can be done with the passive income that we make (or wish we made). Regardless, this is something that affects everyone – even men have mothers, girlfriends, wives, sisters, and daughters.
Missy Ward has started the campaign & many affiliate marketers have joined her. They are raising funds for donation & participation in the Seattle 2008 60-Mile Breast Cancer 3-day walk in September. Along with Missy will be Jen Goode, Tiffany & Irene Spaulding, Anne Fognano & Tammy Carney, Heather Paulson & Jen Campbell, Karen Garcia, Laura Przybek, Angel Djambazov, & Lisa Riolo.
As they say there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and with Missy & Co’s forethought there’s more than one way to donate to the cause. Of course there’s the straight donation, which can be made at 60-MileWalk.com, where the team has already raised $2,312.00 of their $20,000.00 goal as of Friday evening. Your donation is deductible as a charitable contribution as allowed by law. According to the website, donations of $250 or more will be acknowledged in writing.
Or, if you’d rather donate AND support all at once, you can do what I did and make a purchase from their CafePress store. Deck yourself out with all kinds of swag under the sun and not only support the cause but spread the message.
So take time out from your day and spread the word and help the cause. Let’s help them reach their goal. I’ll be with you in spirit ladies! Make this baby VIRAL!
Read MoreGood People Day
So Gary Vaynerchuk at WineLibrary is at it again, enthusiastically making up holidays as he fancies. He’s come up with April 3rd as Good People Day, a day to thank those that help you, inspire you, etc. He explains it better than I, so here:
So I’m left to wondering who I should thank. I guess there’s several peeps out there that inspire me. Here we go, in no particular order.
- Anne Casanova, my manager. She’s awesome!
- Sam Harrelson. A great blogger, generally nice and helpful guy.
- All the people I follow on twitter for constant entertainment.
- All the people who read my blog. Y’all rock and give me a good motivation to keep talking.
- The GeekCast crew for making me laugh hysterically once a week, so big ups to Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille, Shawn Collins, and Sam Harrelson once again.
- My best friends ever for always being there for me, Katie Shaw, Lorenza Martinez, Rachel Nuckols, and Jennifer Morrill. None of them are big interwebbers, so no links!
- Karen Garcia is a great for random questions via Twitter. So is Deborah Loxly!
