Affiliate Summit 2003 The Affiliate Summit at Baruch College Continuing and Professional Studies New York City – November 3, 2003
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Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Welcome to Affiliate Summit 2003 Thank you and welcome to the 2003 Affiliate Summit. Affiliate Summit arose out of a need that we saw for people to have an open and realistic discussion about the pay-for-performance industry. We wanted an event where the top people in the industry could discuss relevant topics, and have everyone work together, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. We created this event to provide a professional forum for marketing managers and key decision makers to gain a competitive advantage by offering insights from leading industry experts. We also realize that every penny that you spend on advertising and sales acquisition is vital, and through this event, we hope to provide you with the tools you will need to spend more effectively. "The market is changing" – how many times have we heard this? We hope that through the topics discussed today, you will better grasp the evolving trends of performance marketing. The experts you will hear from today will share their personal affiliate, e-mail, and search engine marketing strategies with you, as well as their "take" on the market and emerging trends. We have tried to craft an agenda that is educational, insightful and sometimes very entertaining. It is our hope that we succeed with our inaugural event and that you walk away with some clear plans and thoughts on how to make your company more successful. As we move forward from this event, be sure to save the dates of June 24-28, 2004. That’s when we will be running our Affiliate Summit 2004 event – a cruise conference from NYC to Halifax, Nova Scotia and back to NYC. More details will be coming in the next few months, so make sure to “pencil” in the event of the year. Good luck in making some great deals today and we hope to talk to each of you! Missy & Shawn
Feel free to contact us… Missy Ward – mward@affiliatesummit.com Shawn Collins – shawn@affiliatesummit.com
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Affiliate Summit 2003 Agenda 9:30 Check in Pick up your Affiliate Summit 2003 materials, and meet up with your fellow marketing executives for some impromptu networking. 10:00 Opening Remarks Your hosts (Shawn Collins and Missy Ward) will provide an overview of the Affiliate Summit 2003 events. 10:15 Keynote Address - The New Face of Affiliate Programs: Arbitrage, Master Resellers, and The Direct Marketing Numbers that Matter Declan Dunn, ADNet International, CEO Affiliate programs have evolved from the days of thousands of affiliates to targeted reseller channels. What can you do today to manage, optimize, and grow an affiliate channel? How can you integrate affiliate program marketing with your overall objectives? In this session, you will learn the current state of affiliate programs and what to look for in terms of affiliates, the numbers you need to generate, and the keys to growth now and in the future. 10:45 Q & A Keynote Address Come prepared to ask questions to Declan Dunn about his keynote. 11:15 Speed Networking You’ll spend time with up to 13 people in a string of three-minute one-on-one meetings. When the time is up, your host will blow a whistle to let you know it’s time to move on to the next quickie meeting. Then, you’ll have another whirlwind three-minute meeting with the next person, whistle, another quick meeting, and so on. The Speed Networking session is being hosted by industry veteran, master networker, and Director of Business Development for Spa Finder, Inc., Stephanie Agresta. 12:15 Lunch Break 1:00 Affiliate Marketing & Adware Panel Industry experts, including Will Braunstein of Belcaro Group, Jeff Molander of AffTrack, Chris Park of Blair, Robert Regular of Cydoor Desktop Media, and Patrick Toland of TopMoxie will participate in a panel on the impact of adware on affiliate marketing. 2:00 E-mail Workshop Paul McDonnell, Chief Marketing Officer from IMarketOffers, and Scott Richter, President of Optinrealbig.com LLC, will host an open forum discussion group on the relationship of e-mail and affiliate marketing Other topics: Privacy, bandwidth, ISP's. 3:00 Afternoon Keynote Address Kevin Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Did-it.com, will speak about search engine marketing and it's impact on affiliate marketing.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
3:45 Q & A Keynote Address Come prepared to ask questions to Fredrick Marckini about his keynote and search engine marketing. 4:00 Refreshment Break 4:15 Roundtable Rotation There will be multiple roundtables covering issues in affiliate, e-mail, and search marketing. Each roundtable will be hosted by an industry expert and last fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, you will shift to another topic to meet some new folks and pick up more useful information on P4P marketing.
Affiliate Marketing and Search Kevin Lee, DID-IT.COM, CEO Whether you use organic SEO to drive site traffic or paid search as a method of arbitrage, you have to know your stuff.
Affiliate Quality and Fraud Metrics and Solutions Jason Wolfe, Direct Response Technologies, Inc., President/CEO Explore and discuss the landscape of affiliate quality and fraud. We will discuss solutions, measurement metrics, and services that can be provided and expanded onto, to help manage these important issues in an Affiliate program, and Affiliate Network.
Affiliate Program Makeover Andy Rodriguez, AndyRodriguez.com, CEO How I took an under performing affiliate program that was booking $80,000 a month in transactions to over 1 MM in under 12 months. We'll discuss communicating and using affiliate feedback to guide, grow and solve your affiliates program woes.
Creative Tools to Improve Affiliate Activation, Retention and Conversion Prakash Bharwani, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Affiliate Manager In this roundtable, I will talk about some tools that are inexpensive, yet creative and powerful to help improve affiliate loyalty towards your program ultimately resulting in more sales and better metrics like ECPC, conversion, etc. These will, of course, include only those tools that I have implemented and found successful. I will also present actual performance figures.
Fusing Affiliates and Public Relations Rob Key, Converseon, President & CEO The use of content, and installed base 'e-ffiliates' (evangelist/affiliates) to spread the word, drive acquisitions and help build buzz/manage reputations in the process.
Maximizing Network Inventory Robert Regular, Cydoor Desktop Media, Vice President of Sales and Marketing In this roundtable we will discuss how affiliate marketers can maximize ROI using advertising networks. We'll explore the highest performing creatives and what makes them successful and evaluate testing strategies and how to efficiently evaluate, maximize and maintain positive ROI.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Maximizing The Effectiveness of Affiliate Traffic Brant Pallazza, Digital River Realizing increased traffic as a result of affiliate relationships is a great achievement. However, what most online site managers fail to recognize is that these customers need to be treated differently than natural, organic traffic. Close ratios, increase average order size, and increased line items per order can all be effectively increased if incoming traffic can be optimized. This benefits the host site as well as the affiliate. The following are key components: Landing page design. Make sure that the button, banner or link on which the consumer clicked brings them to a page that reflects the same message as the link. Added incentives. Over delivering on an offer will pleasantly surprise the customer and result in higher close ratios Cross sell & Up sell. A success affiliate offer can be enhanced with additional value adds. Site navigation. Streamline the purchase process. Minimize clicks to buy. Safety and security. Recognize the fact that these new customers may know absolutely nothing about you other than the information from the affiliate link. Re-enforce the fact that yours is a safe and secure environment.
PPC, Adsense, and Search Engines - Changing Affiliate Marketing as We Know It Mike Jacobs, CEO & Founder, WebMogul, Inc. An overview of search engine developments and how they are starting to turn affiliate marketing on its head. We'll cover pay per click vs. directories vs. "pure engines" (and why affiliates & merchants need to understand the difference), as well as how Google's Adsense will change traditional affiliate programs.
Retrieving the Lost Revenues in Your Database Lauren Lembo, Intermark Media, Media Services Supervisor We will discuss email marketing along with different strategies for optimizing the revenues from your inhouse list. This will focus on increasing ROI beyond CRM.
Using Affiliate Marketing to Close the Loop on Your Search Marketing Efforts Kelli Beougher, LinkShare, Director of Account Management Aparna Glynn, LinkShare, Manager, Marketing Services Do you know what the ROI is on your search marketing efforts? In a recent report by WebTrends and iProspect, of all marketers surveyed who were running paid search campaigns, 31% were not tracking the activity at all, and 41% were only tracking click-through and general activity. Only 27% were tracking activity through to conversion. Into which group do you fall? Affiliate marketing is not just about tracking your “affiliate” relationships. Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool that can also be leveraged to track your online business development deals, portal deals, email campaigns, and especially your search marketing efforts. Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate engaged in paid keyword search marketing, we'll show you how you can track keyword performance from conversion down to the specific product purchased from each of your paid search keywords.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
What Can Affiliate Marketing Learn From CPM Advertising? Peter Figueredo, NETexponent, CEO It is easy to see why affiliate marketing, with its low risk and high efficiencies, is more attractive to advertisers than CPM advertising. Many advertisers have fought long and hard battles to eliminate anything that is not performance based from their online marketing initiatives. Unfortunately, these advertisers may have thrown out the baby with the bath water. There are many CPM advertising best practices that have relevancy to affiliate marketing and pay-for-performance marketing in general. Some topics we will cover include; planning, creative, relevancy, make goods, testing, branding, and insertion orders. We will discuss some of these tactics and demonstrate how they can best be applied to affiliate marketing in order to improve overall results.
What You Need to Know about ParasiteWare™ Shawn Schwegman, Overstock.com, Vice President of Sales and Marketing A brief discussion on the changing landscape of ParasiteWare™, and how it affects merchants, affiliates, and affiliate networks. We'll discuss how ParasiteWare™ has changed over the last year, as well as a list of items you need to watch out for.
Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens, MSCO, Chief Marketing Officer/CEO In the world of marketing today, people and companies are relying on the notion that a blend of “proven” or “traditional” marketing combined with slick new creative will yield results. The problem remains the same today as it was decades ago – the creative ends up being the quantifying metric regarding how successful the marketing is rather than the achievement of the intended goal – driving sales. The idea of pursuing creative as the critical element in business growth is that creative is always left to interpretation and thereby can never be the ultimate driver of sales. What drives sales is a strategy. Real marketing doesn't entertain the audience; it demonstrates the compelling reasons to buy.
5:30 Closing Remarks Your hosts (Shawn Collins and Missy Ward) will summarize the Affiliate Summit 2003 events, and let everybody know about social events planned for the evening.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Affiliate Summit 2003 Attendees Below are the companies being represented at Affiliate Summit 2003 EssentialApparel.com 1-800 CONTACTS EThinkEmail 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Expedia.com A&E Television Networks FlamingoWorld.com ABC Target Flying Point Media, Inc Abebooks Foxtons – North America AbestWeb FreeRide.com Access Medical Supply FusionQuest ADBUMb Galt Media, Inc. ad-CLiX Game Link, Inc. ADNet International Gaylord Bros., Inc. Adspyre GoCollect.com Affiliate Goddess Grant Media AffiliateShowcase.com GSI Commerce AffTrack Harmony Sweets, Inc. Almond Networks Harris Digital Publishing Alpine Media Group Hickory Farms Always For Me, Inc. Highlights for Children Amazon.com Homeclick Ampere Media LLC IBM Andy Rodriguez Consulting iCredit Services Inc. Audible.com iLead Media Avon iMarket Offers Bare Necessities iMarketing Be Free Information USA Belcaro Group Innovative Ideas Int'l BirdDog Associates inQ Blair.com InterActive Corp Bluefly, Inc. Intermark Media Buy.com iProspect Capital One Auto Finance Jane Tabachnick Catalogs.com Jason Kalish Cendant Corporation JC Whitney & Co. ClubMom John Wiley & Sons collectiblestoday.com JumpOnDeals.com Commission Junction Kaplan Test Prep Conscious One Inc Kenneth Cole Converseon Kowabunga CoReg360 LeadCreations CouponCraze.com LendingTree CPA Empire Lillian Vernon Online The Credo Group LinkProfits Cydoor LinkShare Deutsch, Inc. Match.com Did-it.com Metareward Digital River Mindset Interactive Direct Response Mondera.com The Eastwood Company MoneyReign, Inc. EBoundStrategies MSCO EComWorks Inc. NETexponent Entertainment Publications
NetFlip Networking Domain NextReflex Optinrealbig.com LLC Orbitz Overstock.com Overture PC Bug Doctor Performics Personal Creations Pets-Warehouse Pocketflier Prime Visibility Private Label InterActive Rail Europe Respond Networks Revenue Hunter Rex Direct Net Rockler Internet Inc. R.O.WISE Scholastic SeaEagle.com SearchMarketing.com Seniors.com Sensational Beginnings Shareasale.com, Inc. Shari's Berries Shoes.com ShoppingBookmarks.com Shutterfly Sierra Trading Post SiteSell.com Solution Marketing Spa Finder Sure Fit, Inc. Top Affiliates TopMoxie Trafficology.com Transcend Media Group University of Missouri UpsideOut VentureDirect Worldwide The Vermont Country Store Vici Marketing Virtual Gaming Conference Webloyalty.com WebMogul WebUndies.com Xuppa, Inc.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Direct Response Technologies, Inc. was formed in 1994. Direct Response Technologies started one of the Internet's first coupon related site in 1995 now called MyCoupons®. From there, we have grown into a full service media and technology company. We provide technology infrastructure: to companies that utilize secure coupon delivery and tracking using MyCoupons®; to firms seeking keyword tracking and keyword bid management solutions via KeywordMax™; to companies seeking affiliate partnership tracking tools using DirectTrack®; for firms utilizing our turn key full service gift certificate and gift card solution for online and offline SVC's via GiftCards.com™; to media companies seeking advertising network reach via our Direct Response Advertising Network.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Affiliate Summit 2003 Sponsors EVENT SPONSORS ADBUMb (http://www.adbumb.com/) The top newsletter about the online advertising industry. Thousands of online advertising executives depend on us to deliver up to date information about the industry in a blunt, unabashed manner. ADBUMb is one of the most quoted, most read sources about the industry. CPAEmpire.com (http://www.cpaempire.com/) CPAEmpire.com, a division of OptinRealBig.com, LLC is an affiliate network where members promote products for CASH! CPAEmpire.com has some of the hottest products with some of the largest payouts in the industry! Visit us today at CPAEmpire.com and start making cash now. Digital River (http://www.digitalriver.com/) Digital River is the world's foremost e-commerce expert, offering companies the technologies and services proven to grow online sales and reduce costs- all in an outsourced solution. Direct Response Technologies (http://www.directresponse.com/) Direct Response Technologies, Inc. was formed in 1994. Direct Response Technologies started one of the Internet's first coupon related site in 1995 now called MyCoupons®. From there, we have grown into a full service media and technology company. We provide technology infrastructure: to companies that utilize secure coupon delivery and tracking using MyCoupons®; to firms seeking keyword tracking and keyword bid management solutions via KeywordMax™; to companies seeking affiliate partnership tracking tools using DirectTrack®; for firms utilizing our turn key full service gift certificate and gift card solution for online and offline SVC's via GiftCards.com™; to media companies seeking advertising network reach via our Direct Response Advertising Network. eBound Strategies (http://www.eboundstrategies.com/) eBound Strategies is a full service Interactive Agency that consists of the top talent from Direct Marketing, Media Agencies, Search Engine Optimization Firms, Affiliate Marketing Networks, Custom Traffic Reporting Tools, Web Designers, and e-Commerce Companies providing our clients a single-source solution to successfully manage their inbound, outbound and web-based campaigns. FusionQuest (http://www.fusionquest.biz/) Ultra Affiliate Software. New technology. SEO enabled! Ultra short, branded affiliate links. %100 web based affiliate software -- no download required. A list of features you must see! Kowabunga Technologies (http://www.kowabunga.com/) KowaBunga! Technologies produces, markets, sells and supports various Extreme Internet Marketing Software Titles including My Affiliate Program, Opt-In Pro and WebRank. We also offer Affiliate Marketing Services through our Team Affiliate Department. We provide powerful, practical, effective solutions to online merchants around the globe. LinkShare (http://www.linkshare.com/) LinkShare pioneered affiliate marketing in 1996 and today runs the largest pay for performance marketing service on the Internet. Its network for collaborating across multiple sales and distribution channels provides clients with tools, services, and tracking and reporting technology for acquiring customers and measuring success across affiliate, search, and email programs.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
NETexponent (http://www.netexponent.com/) NETexponent is the leading performance marketing agency for marketers looking to increase their online ROI. Our team of experts establish, grow, manage, and optimize your online pay for performance marketing initiatives leveraging the ubiquity and strength of the Internet. Each and every service we provide produces measurable results. Custom recruiting efforts, access to top sites, and years of experience lend to NETexponent’s ability to recruit both high trafficked and highly relevant sites. Overture (http://www.overture.com/) Overture, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo!, Inc., is a global leader in commercial search services on the Internet, providing new and more powerful ways for businesses and customers to connect online. Overture pioneered commercial search by aligning the interests of consumers, its more than 100,000 active, paying advertisers and its distribution partners, including Yahoo!, MSN and CNN. Overture offers a full suite of Internet search products and search-related services. Performics (http://www.performics.com/) Performics offers a broad range of online marketing services from affiliate programs to search and e-mail marketing. We develop and implement response-oriented online marketing plans to acquire, reacquire and develop customers for our clients. Best of all, we work on a performance basis so you pay for results, while we help you achieve online sales goals. shareasale.com (http://www.shareasale.com/) Established in 2000, Shareasale.com began on the premise that we could provide any merchant - large or small - with high quality, reliable tracking software - at a lower cost than the industry norm - with the added benefit of being plugged into a large network of quality affiliate sites. LUNCH SPONSORS Information USA (http://www.informationusa.com/) R.O.WISE (http://www.rowise.com/) SearchMarketing.com (http://searchmarketing.com/) REFRESHMENT BREAK SPONSOR Intermark Media (http://www.intermarkmedia.com/) PROGRAM BACK COVER SPONSOR Internet Success Spider (http://www.scamfreezone.com/spider/) BADGE HOLDER SPONSOR Kowabunga Technologies (http://www.kowabunga.com/) NOTEPAD SPONSOR Information USA (http://www.informationusa.com/)
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
PEN SPONSOR LinkProfits (http://www.linkprofits.com/) ATTENDEE BAG SPONSORS AffStat (http://www.affstat.com/) ClubMom (http://www.clubmom.com/) CPAEmpire.com (http://www.cpaempire.com/) cpaoffers.com (http://www.cpaoffers.com/) Direct Response Technologies (http://www.directresponse.com/) eBound Strategies (http://www.eboundstrategies.com/) iProspect (http://www.iprospect.com/) LinkShare (http://www.linkshare.com/) NETexponent (http://www.netexponent.com/) R.O.WISE (http://www.rowise.com/) shareasale.com (http://www.shareasale.com/)
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Affiliate Summit 2003 Speakers Stephanie Agresta Spa Finder, Director of Business Development Stephanie Agresta, director of business development and affiliates at Spa Finder, has been a leader in partnership marketing for over ten years. Spa Finder is the leading media and marketing company in the spa industry. She began her Internet career in NYC in 1997 at iVillage, managing the Shopping Channel and merchants such as Amazon and JCrew.com. In 1999, she joined Barnes & Noble.com as an affiliate and business development manager, where she managed relationships with a range of top publishers, including MSN, the New York Times.com and CNN.com. She then served as director of business development at ThinAirApps, a wireless software company that was purchased by Palm, Inc. in December 2001. While at ThinAir, she began researching another high-growth business – the spa industry. In 2001, she dedicated sixmonths to researching the industry and developing a business plan to open a day spa in Tribeca. That dream was put on hold post-9/11, and Stephanie went to Register.com to manage the affiliate program and business development partnerships. Her spa marketing ideas are now being realized at Spa Finder, the only national integrated marketing company for the spa industry, representing over 1,000 of the world's best spas and reaching millions of consumers annually via Spa Finder Magazine, The Spa Enthusiast, Gift Certificates & Incentives, Travel, and the Internet. Stephanie has a Bachelor's degree from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota. Kelli Beougher LinkShare, Director of Account Management In her role as Director of Account Management, Kelli is responsible for maintaining and extending relationships with LinkShare's clients through strategic, consultative marketing support, with a focus on development of marketing tactics that enable each client to achieve goals and maximize the value of the LinkShare Network. Kelli began her career in the GE Capital Management Development Program, and has held positions as Marketing Manager and Product Manager at GE Capital. Prior to LinkShare, Kelli was Director of Operations at Lexiquest. Kelli graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, majoring in Marketing. Prakash Bharwani 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Affiliate Manager Prakash has been with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM as the Affiliate Manager for over 2.5 years. In that position, he has grown the program about 300%, and significantly expanded the relationship with Linkshare. A strong advocate of Affiliate Marketing, Prakash has spoken on related topics at various panels, including Internetworld, CA and DMD, NY encouraging companies big and small to make Affiliate Marketing a part of their long-term marketing plan. Prakash came to NY from Washington DC where he worked at ChamberBiz.com, the 'small business' portal of the US Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Prakash has an MBA from George Washington University. Shawn Collins Affiliate Summit, Co-founder Shawn is the Director of Affiliate Marketing for ClubMom, where he launched the affiliate program in March 2000. He has been a fixture at P4P (pay-for-performance) marketing events since 1999. His book, "Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants," is the best selling book in affiliate marketing. Shawn is a co-founder of AffiliateSummit.com, the industry conference for affiliate and performance-based marketing. He will soon be publishing the AffStat 2004 Report, a research, analysis, and benchmarking report for the affiliate marketing industry.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Declan Dunn ADNet International, CEO Declan Dunn is CEO of ADNet International, a marketing services provider, driving the next generation of Internet advertising and promotion powered by results. Since 1996 ADNet has developed strategies, promotional campaigns, and full business development for major clients like American Express, Travelocity, and MyPoints, as well as powering startups like eStara.com from idea to fully functioning business models that work on the Internet. Peter Figueredo NETexponent, CEO Peter co-founded NETexponent over two years ago in order to provide clients with best of breed services in online performance marketing. NETexponent’s suite of services are Affiliate Marketing Management, Media Partnerships, Strategic Alliances, Creative Development, Search Marketing, and Email Marketing. Current clients they provide these services to include; The New York Times, Fleet Credit Cards, ESPN, Financial Times, ULTA.com, etc. Prior to co-founding NETexponent Peter’s 6 years of online advertising agency experience came from working at Mass Transit Interactive as the EVP of Performance Marketing, i-traffic (an Agency.com company) as the Director of Affiliate Marketing, and Nielsen Media Research as an Analyst. Aparna Glynn LinkShare, Manager, Marketing Services Aparna is part of the marketing/services team at LinkShare, and works closely with LinkShare's Account Management group. She helps optimize clients' affiliate programs by analyzing data, identifying best practices in the network, and creating strategic marketing initiatives to share this information across the network. Most recently, she helped to develop the LinkShare Search Advantage service and is actively working with clients to maximize ROI on their search campaigns. Prior to LinkShare, Aparna held positions with Management Ventures, a retail analysis firm in Cambridge MA, and Arc eConsultancy, an internet strategy consulting firm in New York City. Aparna has a BA in Economics from Georgetown University and an MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business. Mike Jacobs CEO & Founder, WebMogul, Inc. Mike Jacobs is an affiliate marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) expert, active in traffic generation and affiliate programs since the "grey background" days of the Internet and Amazon's "associate" program. Mike has been heavily involved in online marketing from several perspectives - as a venture capitalist, a marketing executive, a product developer, and as an owner of several Web businesses. Through Webmogul, his consultancy, Mike has developed SEO campaigns for for numerous e-commerce sites, including mp3.com, Vindigo, Provant, Urban Box Office, and The Amsterdam News. Before starting WebMogul, Mike was Director of Product Marketing for Expression Engines/Favemail (www.expressionengines.com), a Flatiron Partners-funded provider of affiliate marketing tools and services to e-commerce sites. He conceptualized and built Favemail, a viral marketing tool for affiliates and merchants, from business plan to launch and over 1 million members. The product was lauded by industry luminaries including Seth Godin. Mike also crafted and integrated strategic, technology, and content alliances with partners including Linkshare, BeFree, Commission Junction, mp3.com, and a number of e-commerce merchants. Previously, Mike was a Vice President with Interactive Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage Internet and Communications companies. He also spent several years in the Strategic Services practice of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) developing business plans for new ventures, including an e-commerce services provider, an Interactive Television provider, and a new media concern. Mike also provided strategic, marketing, and financial advice to communications providers such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and Bell Atlantic, media companies such as ITT and the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP), and several financial services firms. As a hobbyist Webmaster, Mike built a network of sites getting 100,000+ hits per day and over $1 million in yearly affiliate revenues, all on a part-time basis. Mike has spoken on online marketing issues in a number of venues, including the Linkshare Symposium, Internet.com's Affiliate Solutions conference, the BeFree conference and as an expert in the Cashpile network. He has been featured in publications including Silicon Alley Reporter, Silicon Alley Daily, and @New York. Mike graduated magna cum laude from Yale University at Internet pace (3 years) with a BA in Economics.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Rob Key Converseon, President & CEO Rob is President & CEO of Converseon, a new breed of communications agency that capitalizes on the changing ways consumers and businesses gather, synthesize, share and act on information. Converseon focuses on “non-paid” communications channels – those channels that cannot be accessed through traditional advertising means – including affiliate marketing, search engine optimization and public relations. The agency is pioneering new approaches that bridge marketing disciplines for some of the world's largest companies. Prior to his position with Converseon, Rob was Senior Vice President and Managing Director of C&W Interactive, the interactive service line of Cohn & Wolfe, one of the world's largest public relations firms, and a division of Young & Rubicam. In that capacity, he oversaw a variety of innovative campaigns to help generate visibility and brand identity for leading companies in the technology (Internet, software and hardware) and corporate sectors, including Outpost.com, NetValue, Microsoft, Orange, Digital4Sight, (chaired by Don Tapscott), among others. Rob also headed up C&W's “Innovation Group” – where he lead the company's efforts to help reinvent public relations to meet the needs of today's e-businesses. He was a member of Y&R 2.1 and the WPP.com board, chaired by Esther Dyson. Recognizing that in the digital environment, public relations, direct marketing and advertising are merging, he worked closely with C&W's sister agencies, Landor, Impiric, Y&R Advertising and the Digital Edge, to help pioneer an integrated, best of breed, digital marketing solution. Previously, he was worldwide leader for the Deloitte Consulting Group relationship, where, among other activities, he conceived and executed one of the first (and most ambitious) webcasts. He also oversaw strategic programming for a variety of the industry practices and service lines. He has worked for a variety of leading companies and organizations to help positively position them in the marketplace, including Lycos, Symantec, Internet Security Systems, Arthur Andersen's Business Consulting Group and “Best Practices” group, among others. Rob also helped initiate the first-ever branding campaign for Lexmark International following its spin-off from IBM. He assisted them in structuring their marketing/communications group and was instrumental in coordinating communications activities around the company's highly successful IPO. He has won numerous awards for his work, including a bronze anvil award for the nation's best op-ed, which he wrote for The New York Times. In his spare time, Rob trains racehorses (a lifelong passion), drinks wine, and climbs whatever mountain he can find.
Kevin Lee Did-it.com, CEO Kevin Lee, CEO, co-founded Did-it.com a search engine marketing company in 1996. Did-it.com clients benefit from the increase ROI and profit that Did-it.com delivers through application of strategies and technologies that automate paid search campaigns across Overture, Google, FindWhat, Looksmart directory inclusion, XML feeds, direct listings (Yahoo, MSN, etc.), and shopping bots such as Dealtime, Pricegrabber and MySimon. Each clients search marketing campaigns are optimized in real-time based on client conversion data, ROI and profit data and objectives. Kevin shares SEM tips, tricks and strategies weekly as a ClickZ.com columnist, as well as in other articles for magazines including CatalogAge, DMNews and his own newsletter, marketing.briefme.com. He also is a frequent speaker at marketing and investment conferences. Kevin earned an MBA from Yale in 1992. Lauren Lembo Intermark Media, Media Services Supervisor Lauren's role at Intermark Media allows her to focus on maximizing revenues for various lists comprised of Intermark's proprietary database, compiled from their marketing efforts for debt consolidation (www.FreeDebtConsolidation.com among other co-branded properties) and mortgage (www.Avalend.com) lead generation purposes, as well as the lists of their clients. Her creative and detail-oriented position includes the research and development of new creatives for Intermark's internal products as well as the testing of email campaigns, both internal and external, with many different variables, for maximum return on investment. Lauren has optimized campaigns and she is growing the Media Services business for Intermark Media, which is a full-service marketing agency. Lauren holds a BBA in Marketing from Hofstra University as well as an AAS in Fashion Buying and Merchandising. Her education reflects the creative side of her personality. She also thrives on details and the analysis of her marketing efforts.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Fredrick Marckini iProspect, Founder and CEO Fredrick Marckini is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of iProspect, the Original Search Engine Marketing firm that delivers the industry's most comprehensive paid inclusion, natural search engine optimization, and conversion enhancement services to the worlds largest and most recognized brands. Marckini founded the company in 1996 and was the first SEM-only services firm that pioneered the industry, coined the term, "search engine positioning," and continues to work with brands such as American Express, GlaxoSmithKline, John Deere, Mercedes-Benz, Marriott, Sharp Electronics, Verisign, and Xerox. Mr. Marckini is recognized as one of the leading authorities on search engine marketing and is the author of the industry's most highly respected Web programming and development guides, Secrets To Achieving Top-10 Positions (1997), his seminal work, Achieving Top-10 Rankings in Internet Search Engines (1998), which established him as the first true expert on the art and science of search engine positioning, and most recently, Search Engine Positioning (2001), which sold out before its first printing. Marckini is a frequent speaker at industry conferences including Internet World, AD:Tech, Association for Interactive Marketing, Direct Marketing Association, Frost & Sullivan, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Search Engine Strategies, Microsoft, and the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. He has been interviewed, contributed to and profiled in a multitude of media outlets including CBS Radio, National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal, BtoB Magazine, Click Z, DM Review, Financial Times of London, Inc.com, Internet Retailer, Investors and Business Daily, PC Magazine, Search Engine Watch, Target Marketing, and ZD Net. Paul McDonnell iMarketOffers, CMO Paul McDonnell is the Chief Marketing Officer for iMarketOffers, whose properties include: iMarketconcepts.com, ProvenFormula.com and OfferBonanza.com. Paul has spent he last six years in the online advertising arena, and is currently responsible for maximizing the revenues for the lists that iMarketOffers manages and owns. Brant Pallazza Digital River, Vice President of Direct Marketing Brant Pallazza, vice president of direct marketing, joined Digital River in 1999 to lead the organization's online direct marketing programs. In his position, Brant manages the successful design and execution of e-marketing programs to support the company's base of nearly 34,000 clients. The introduction of Brant's direct marketing disciplines and the development of marketing analytics has been key to Digital River's success as an online marketing organization. Through proven analytics and careful measurements, customers using Digital River's online marketing programs have generated increases in average online store sales of up to 48% year-overyear. Brant joined Digital River with over 11 years of direct marketing experience, which includes his work with major catalog marketers such as Damark International. Chris Park Blair.com, Affiliate/Partnership Manager Chris is Blair.com's Affiliate/Partnership Manager. He's managed Blair.com's affiliate program with Performics since it's inception, which began along with the launch of Blair.com in January 2001. Blair.com quickly became a leading Performics merchant. In July 2001, Chris added an additional Blair.com affiliate program with Commission Junction. Blair.com's affiliate program with CJ is regularly ranked #1 in its primary category. Chris has been employed by Blair for nearly 15 years, beginning his career in Blair's advertising dept. He recently spoke on a panel about Effective Affiliate Management Strategies at AffiliateForce2003.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Wayne Porter AffTrack, Vice President As one of the most influential thought-shapers in performance marketing, Wayne Porter can always be found in the center of the action as a writer, consultant or speaker. In his role as Vice President at data and marketing services provider, AffTrack LLC, he serves as project lead on a variety of key accounts and industry relations as well as spearheading new product development. Porter brings more than 10 years of industry-specific experience to AffTrack's clients, splitting his time between "in the trenches" analytical work and forward-thinking business development. He is constantly developing & applying industry best practices to drive sales transactions / desired actions between marketers and their partners. Wayne also works tirelessly to develop new forms of hybrid advertising strategies and innovative ROI metrics - specific to the performance-marketing sector. Occasionally, his work has proven to be remarkably influential such as his early focus on the Earnings Per Click (EPC) ROI metric a revenue-focused yardstick that is now commonly used among Internet marketing/advertising services providers (e.g. affiliates). Additionally, he has achieved notoriety for bringing together the fiercely competitive affiliate networks so as to develop and publish an industry Code of Conduct essentially, a set of ethics and business practice guidelines for the largest of retail-focused affiliates and business partners. Wayne is frequently tapped to present at key industry events and write for industry newsletters / trade magazines. Robert Regular Cydoor Desktop Media, Vice President Robert Regular is Vice President of Cydoor Desktop Media, a leading online advertising network. Robert started in the Radio and Television industry and quickly became apart of the online industry in 1995, serving in various capacities including Marketing, Product Development, Content Management, Finance, Technology and Media buying. Today, Robert leads USA operations for Cydoor and works with many leading advertisers and publishers including Kazaa. Scott Richter Optinrealbig.com, President Scott Richter is the President of Optinrealbig.com LLC, founded in 1998 and a leader in online marketing technology. A high deployment mailer, Optinrealbig.com LLC takes best emailing practices very seriously and is committed to lead the emailing industry with its standards of practice. As a FTC SPAM Forum panelist, Scott is very active in all parts of the industry. His company offers List Hosting, Website Hosting, Email Campaigns, Data and Coregistration campaigns. Mr. Richter is also involved in the restaurant and real estate industries. Andy Rodriguez AndyRodriguez.com, CEO Whether you are an existing online merchant launching a new affiliate program, or you have a current program which needs turn around, Andy and our team can help. We will help you avoid costly mistakes from the jump start. We can also ignite existing, flat, under performing programs. You will save time, money and avoid costly mistakes maximizing your affiliate marketing efforts while creating trust from a well-informed affiliate community. Affiliate program management is not a job you want to "add on" to anyone's existing job duties who is inexperienced. The learning curve is just too long and you risk losing much more than what you will invest. You need the experience of a seasoned, professional affiliate management company with a proven record of success. Your program will benefit from our established reputation in the industry and strong affiliate relationships in the community. We have developed a following within the affiliate community that is based on trust, honesty and integrity. We have earned the respect of thousands of affiliates that feel confident knowing we will only run an honest program based on conversions and focused on sales revenue. They know from past, proven experience, they can trust us to deliver a return on their online marketing efforts with honesty, integrity and open communications.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Shawn Schwegman Overstock.com, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Shawn Schwegman is vice president of sales and marketing for Overstock.com. He is responsible for all Internet, e-mail, affiliate and partner marketing programs, website design, and Overstock.com’s Books, Music & Videos department. Previously, Schwegman was director of Books, Music & Videos department and the affiliate marketing program at Overstock. He is credited with building both into two of the company’s most successful departments. Prior to joining Overstock.com in 2000, Schwegman held various sales management and engineering positions at Sycamore Software Development Corp., Fechheimer Brothers Co., KiZAN, Inca Computer Company and PC Upgrades International Inc. Mark Stevens MSCO, Chief Marketing Officer/CEO Mark Stevens is an experienced Chief Marketing Officer/CEO who has built a prominent marketing firm, MSCO, from the ground up, representing such distinguished clients as Guardian Life, IBM, and American Express. His goal is to help his clients build world-class marketing programs designed to generate increased revenue and a high return on investment – anywhere in the world. He is a past winner of the American Bar Association Liberty Bell Award and the USC Tax Institute Achievement Award. He is also the author of bestselling business books including The Big Eight, The Big Six, King Icahn: Biography of a Renegade Capitalist, Accounting Wars, Sudden Death: The Rise & Fall of E.F. Hutton, Power of Attorney, Extreme Management: What They Teach the Corporate Elite at Harvard's Advanced Management Program, and most recently, Your Marketing Sucks. Patrick Toland TopMoxie, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Patrick Toland is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at TopMoxie, a provider of direct marketing and market research software solutions. Mr. Toland spearheads all sales, marketing and business development related to the five year old company which enables partners to monitor and market to their end-users anywhere online in a contextually relevant and time sensitive manner. Previously, Mr. Toland has held key sales and business development roles at Schoolpop, Digital River, and CNET Networks. While with CNET, Patrick helped launch the company’s consumer Internet portal, SNAP! Online (acquired by NBC), the company’s first e-commerce site, BuyDirect.com, as well as the initial CNET.com Web site in 1995. Patrick began his career as a consumer-marketing consultant to Ford Motor Company, Pepsi, Chevron, Microsoft, CKS Partners and others while employed by Edelman Worldwide.
Missy Ward Affiliate Summit, Co-founder For nearly 10 years, Missy Ward has been at the helm of companies who have successfully grown their businesses through the pay-for-performance model. Currently, Missy is the Managing Partner of eBound Strategies, a full-service online advertising agency. Most recently, Missy was the President of Aluria Software where this model accounts for nearly 45% of software sales. She is one of the leading authorities on P4P marketing attending conferences as a presenter and writing articles for online media magazines. Missy is one of the co-founders of Affiliate Summit, a semi-annual P4P Marketing conference attracting the top online merchants, media buyers, affiliate management programs and online marketing companies. Previously, Missy was Vice President of Marketing for Global Travel International, where she was responsible for all online and offline marketing channels, public relations and membership retention – growing company revenue from $10 Million to $125 Million annually.
Copyright © 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Jason Wolfe Direct Response Technologies, President/CEO Jason Wolfe, is President/CEO of Direct Response Technologies, Inc. The initial vision for Direct Response Technologies, Inc. was developed by Jason during a lengthy recovery from two major spinal surgeries. Over the past nine years Jason has built Direct Response Technologies, Inc. into one of the worlds premier fullservice direct marketing firms and technology providers. From 1994 with one employee, and an initial investment of $100, Jason has (along with his growing staff) been successful in growing Direct Response Technologies, Inc. into a multi-million dollar company. Jason has been able to finance most of the company growth from increasing sales and profitability, however in early 1999 secured funding from internet.com Venture Fund and JupiterMedia (NASDAQ: JUPM), and in 2003 secured expansion funding and equity from the great state of North Dakota. Jason's vision has continued to grow as the company diversifies into new products and services that make up the Direct Response Technologies, Inc. service which consists of: DirectResponse Advertising Network, an online, performance-based advertising network with over 15,000 Affiliate partners delivering over 1/2 billion advertisements and more than 2,000,000 paid advertising clicks per month; MyCoupons+, one of the Internet's most loyal user groups ranked in the top 3,000 sites overall by Alexa in the summer 2003; GiftCards.com+, one of the Internet's premiere online gift card and gift certificate websites with over 175 merchant partners like GNC, Sunglass Hut, Omaha Steaks, Red Lobster, Ponderosa, Steak and Ale, and The Sharper Image; KeywordMax+, an ROI and bid management tracking tool used for pay-per-click search engine marketing; and DirectTrack+, an affiliate software tracking solution used by over 200 merchants and 10 networks to power their affiliate/partnership programs. Jason has a B.S. in Marketing from Bloomsburg University in 1992 and worked in the financial community before founding Direct Response Technologies, Inc. (formerly Advertising Concepts, Inc and DirectStuff.com, Inc.) in 1994.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.
Copyright Š 2003 Affiliate Summit. All rights reserved.