FeedFront Magazine, Issue 9 by Affiliate Summit

SAVE THE DATE: Affiliate Summit East 2010 - August 15-17 in NYC The Official Magazine of Affiliate Summit

Issue 9 | January 2010

AND THE WINNER ISâ&#x20AC;Ś Find out the Winners of the 4th Annual Pinnacle Awards at Affiliate Summit West 2010 Page 36 The Importance of Branding in Affiliate Marketing By Rae Hoffman Page 3

How to Recycle Your Affiliate Blog Content By Justin Premick Page 13

FTC Endorsement Guidelines By Gary Kibel Page 61

www.affiliatesummit.com

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Table of Contents

Rae Hoffman

Mark Rosenberg

The Quest for Social Marketing’s Holy Grail Larry Bailin

The Song Remains the Same Matt McWilliams

Affiliate Abuse David Naffziger

09 If It’s Wet, Sticky & Not Yours… Ask

Video Marketing and the Law

08 Using Analytics to Identify

The Importance of Branding in Affiliate Marketing

Lisa Barone

Money Talks Rob Duva

How Trust Leads to Success

How To Recycle Your Affiliate Blog Content

Matt Enders

Justin Premick

14 Lateral Thinking in

Vertical Markets

Running Email Campaigns Across Third Parties

Productivity: How to Start Your Day

The Merchant as Affiliate Conundrum

Aaron Dragushan

Deborah Carney

Being Different Can Be Very Profitable

Andrew Wee

How Networks Can Motivate Affiliates Bobbi Leach

Dealing with Latent Affiliate Links Lori Weiman

25 Unleashing the Potential of

PPV Advertising

Bryn Youngblut

Building a Fortress Around Your Business

Ryan Osborne

3 Federal Regulations Online Marketers Must Follow

Amy Rodriguez & Shawn Collins

Anne Mitchell

Geno Prussakov

Social Media: Rebranding Customer Service

Nathan Smith

35 Increase Landing Page

Performance by 162% Kristen Groom

Affiliate Summit West 2010 Agenda

Keynote Bios

Speaker Bios

61 Implications of FTC

Endorsement Guidelines Gary Kibel

Twitter Beginner’s Guide Ten Tips Jay Berkowitz

Affiliate Program New Year’s Resolutions

AffStat Charts

Todd Boullion

Affiliate Marketing?

Erin Cigich

26 Fourth Quarter is Over. Now What Vinny O’Hare

CPA Hustle

17 Is Local The Future Of

Affiliate Strategist

32 Choosing an Affiliate Network

18 Living the Life of an

Shannon Simmons

Acquisition Strategies for Mailing in the UK

Cari Birkner

Become a YouTube SEO Rock Star Greg Rollett

People to Follow On Twitter

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Map

Ad Hustler

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 1

Editors’ Note – 9th Issue

Issue 9 | JANUARY 2010

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Affiliate Marketing in 2010 — Bring It! on creating their own content to add to their sites including words, images, audio and video in an effort to personalize their customer’s shopping experience and garner incremental sales.

STAFF Co-Editors in Chief Missy Ward, Shawn Collins

Co-Publishers Missy Ward, Shawn Collins

Contributing Writers Larry Bailin, Lisa Barone, Jay Berkowitz, Cari Birkner, Todd Boullion, Deborah Carney, Erin Cigich, Shawn Collins, CPA Hustle, Aaron Dragushan, Rob Duva, Matt Enders, Kristen Groom, Rae Hoffman, Ad Hustler, Gary Kibel, Bobbi Leach, Matt McWilliams, Anne Mitchell, David Naffziger, Vinny O’Hare, Ryan Osborne, Justin Premick, Geno Prussakov, Greg Rollett, Mark Rosenberg, Shannon Simmons, Nathan Smith, Missy Ward, Andrew Wee, Lori Weiman, Bryn Youngblut

Graphic Design Lynn Lee Design

Magazine Coordinator Amy Rodriguez Affiliate Summit 1253 Springfield Avenue, Suite 327 New Providence, NJ 07974-1935 tel (417) 2SUMMIT (278-6648) fax (908) 364-4627 Articles in FeedFront Magazine are the opinions of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine, or its owners. FeedFront Magazine always welcomes opinions of an opposite nature.. For more information, visit: www.FeedFront.com Interested in advertising? Please visit http://feedfront.com/advertising/ or email us at: contact@feedfront.com © 2010 Affiliate Summit, Inc. and Individual Authors

Missy Ward

It’s that time of year when everyone is trying to predict how consumers will react in 2010 and beyond as we emerge from the recession. But, there is no crystal ball needed to see that online marketing tactics are going to need to change in order to keep up with the new consumer buying habits and brand awareness that have developed since the downturn of our economy. However, with these changes, comes tremendous opportunities and those that innovate will continue to thrive in the year to come. Through technology, consumers are becoming more connected and the world is becoming much smaller. In 2009, I observed affiliate marketers invest in social media marketing and other relationship-building techniques on a much larger scale, in order to communicate efficiently and in a more transparent manner to subsequently build trust and consequently, increase sales. I also spoke to numerous affiliates who were now focusing

For 2010, I see new technologies such as pay-per-call and other offline tracking initiatives becoming more mainstream, and as such, new marketing opportunities will emerge. Additionally, with the popularity of smartphones increasing (along with download speeds), I believe 2010 may finally be the year where mobile marketing takes off and affiliate marketers really leverage this virtually untapped market. I believe this will also be the year where smart online merchants, both big and niche that have weathered the 2009 storm will concentrate on solidifying the relationships they have with their affiliates. See, they know that us affiliate marketers have the advantage over so many other companies and industries. We know how to leverage trends. We’re used to bootstrapmarketing. We know how to fail and rebound swiftly. And yes, we know how to hustle. These strengths coupled with retailers’ belts continuing to tighten on non-proven ad spends offer up a huge opportunity for the affiliate marketing industry to continue to flourish. Here’s to a prosperous 2010! Missy Ward is Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront

Rae Hoffman

The Importance of Branding in Affiliate Marketing By Rae Hoffman When I discuss advanced affiliate marketing, I often suggest creating affiliate brands instead of affiliate sites and provide these two recommendations: 1. Start buying “brandable” and not keyword-laden domains. If you can include a keyword in your domain name, great, but branding is important and necessary. 2. Differentiate yourself and add value. Let’s get one thing straight - Google doesn’t hate affiliate sites. Google hates thin affiliate sites. Treat your affiliate site like any “real business” and develop a point of difference. Defining a point of difference is something that I’m asked about often. And the bottom line is that creating a point of difference essentially means creating a brand. In the old days, creating affiliate sites based on 50 three hundred-word articles all focused on keyword variations was the norm. However, when it comes to successfully marketing affiliate sites via search engine optimization in today’s economy, those tactics are long dead. If you want to not only survive organically in Google, but thrive, you need to step up your site-building game. So what exactly is an affiliate brand?

Shopping.com is a prime example of a huge affiliate brand. The site, at its core, is nothing more than an affiliate datafeed aggregator. But because they bought a memorable domain and were ahead of the pack giving consumers the ability to do product reviews, they were able to create a strong point of difference. That point of difference has since translated into 4 million unique visitors a month according to Quantcast.com (and those numbers are probably low) and millions of dollars in revenue each quarter. Of course, Shopping.com is an extreme success story (and proof that yes, Virginia, you can not only make an income, but you can support an entire company on affiliate marketing), but there is no reason you can’t create the next extreme success story. And even if you can only create the next “medium” or “small” success story, it can still be a very lucrative story to tell. How do you create an affiliate brand?

• Identify and capitalize on your “point of difference”. Figure out what sites in your niche are lacking and fill those holes to separate yourself from the pack Not only does creating an affiliate brand make it easier to compete in the search engines, but it also opens you up to additional revenue streams, as well. Many branded affiliate sites are able to make additional profits off of CPM based and contextual ads, in addition to their affiliate earnings. The important thing to realize is that affiliate marketing has evolved. You’re going to need to learn how to evolve with it and how to create an affiliate brand if you want to stay viable in the online world.

Rae Hoffman is the CEO of internet marketing firm Outspoken Media and website publisher MFE Interactive. She is also the author of the often controversial Sugarrae.com blog.

• Buy memorable, “brandable” domain names • Make sure that at least 20% of your site content is unique, compelling and “flagship” in nature • Allow for and encourage usergenerated content… the Web is no longer a monologue

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Video Marketing and the Law By Mark J. Rosenberg Videos can be a very effective Internet marketing tool. Yet, this tool comes with several hidden legal issues. These pitfalls can be avoided if the video marketer is aware of them and takes proactive measures. The most overlooked issue in video marketing is the right of publicity. This right relates to a person’s ability to control whether and how his or her name, likeness and voice are used. In order to avoid right of publicity disputes, affiliate marketers should have all persons appearing in their videos sign a release granting the marketer the right to use that person’s name, likeness, image, etc. in connection with the recording, display and distribution of the video. These consents must be in writing. That is because some states do not recognize oral consents even if the consent is recorded on video. Everyone appearing in the video should sign a release, regardless of whether the person is an employee, family or a friend. That way, if an actor has a change of heart after the video is taped or after it begins to be displayed, the marketer is protected. Otherwise, the actor could potentially bring a lawsuit for a monetary award and an injunction prohibiting the use of the video. Copyright law also plays a major role in video marketing. Preliminarily, in almost all cases, using video images copied

from YouTube or from a television network’s or a show’s Web site without consent is a copyright violation. While the basics of copyright infringement are usually obvious, the concept of copyright ownership is not. As a result, affiliate marketers are often not aware that just because they pay someone to create a video, they do not necessarily own the copyright in that work. In many cases, the person who actually creates the video is considered the work’s author and the owner of its copyright. In fact, everyone involved in the creation of the video, including the script writer, the director and the production crew may own a portion of the copyright in the finished video and possess the legal right to determine whether and how the video can be used. This issue can be avoided by having all persons involved in the creation of the video sign a work-for-hire agreement before production commences. These agreements are written contracts which specify that entity which commissions the video owns the entire copyright in it. Background music is an additional copyright issue in video marketing. This issue is often overlooked. Unless the video uses only original music created by the affiliate marketer, the marketer must obtain consent to use the music. Otherwise, there is a potential infringement issue. By employing these basic measures, affiliate marketers can avoid many of the legal issues raised by video marketing.

Mark J. Rosenberg is Of Counsel to Sills Cummis & Gross P.C. where a significant part of his practice focuses on legal issues relating to ecommerce, and he can be reached at mrosenberg@sillscummis.com.

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The Quest for Social Marketing’s Holy Grail By Larry Bailin Larry Bailin

Social networking giant Facebook recently surpassed Wikipedia as the fourth largest Web site in the world while micro-blogging powerhouse, Twitter, reportedly handled 5,000 tweets per minute when the king-ofpop passed. These announcements have businesses scrambling to social Web sites like they were, well, the Holy Grail of marketing success. Here’s the thing about finding the Holy Grail: what do you do once you’ve found it? Companies large and small, although excited over the promise of social marketing, often have no idea what to do in this new and unfamiliar space. Certainly, there is no shortage of social marketing gurus, experts and even ninjas (yes ninjas), but you can’t rely solely on these social Sherpa’s to achieve true success in your social quest. A good or even average social media consultant can help you traverse an unforgiving social terrain by creating a sound social media strategy and implementing best practices.

offerings. You understand your customer’s wants and needs as they relate to your services.

Twitter, but the greatest book ever written on achieving success in the social space was written 70+ years ago.

Most importantly, you know how to speak to a customer, and that is what will ultimately deliver success in the social space.

In my opinion, Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is the Holy Grail, the secret to social nirvana. This book teaches you to speak, think and write with the intent to persuade. Carnegie’s book teaches you to think like a customer and provide value in order to evoke a desired outcome.

Let the gurus obsess over the perfect formula of Re-Tweets to Tweets and which shortened URL gets clicked the most. You need to spend more time strategizing the creation of valuable dialogue. Study your customer’s wants and needs, misconceptions and objections, then create shareable contributions that educate and subtly entice. Contributing, educating and subtly enticing - sounds a lot like selling. Despite popular opinion selling is not a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with using social media to attract and convert customers, just learn to sell in a friendly non-disruptive way. Learn to join the conversation as opposed to interrupting it. You have to sell without selling.

However, you can only be catapulted to success if you have something worth flinging into the air.

You may be asking, how do you sell without selling? Let me share a little secret with you: it’s not so much a secret as an often overlooked resource.

Success is imminent when you realize that the knowledge necessary to succeed, no matter the marketing vehicle, comes from within. You have intimate knowledge of your

I’m frequently asked to recommend books on social marketing. There’s no shortage of books about the intricacies of Facebook and

Social websites and ninjas come and go. When you master the skills to think like a customer and subtly entice, your next quest for marketing’s Holy Grail will be a short crusade. You’ll only need to look inside yourself.

Larry Bailin is the author of the bestselling Internet marketing book, Mommy, Where Do Customers come From? and CEO of Single Throw Internet Marketing.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 5

Matt McWilliams

By Matt McWillilams

The Song Remains the Same Remember 2001? Tweeting was reserved for birds and a Web site was an afterthought for most businesses. Affiliate marketing was hardly a viable career option and most of us still dialed up to the internet. It seems like so long ago. Recently I was reading one of my wife’s old business books from college titled “Understanding Business”. In the section about entrepreneurship, it offers tips for attracting customers to an ecommerce site. Saying that Web-based businesses were “still in their infancy,” the book offered tips for these baby ecommerce sites, ranging from Web design to customer care. The amazing thing is that all of the tips are still relevant today. In spite of, or perhaps because of, all of our innovations online, the simplicity of what was true eight years ago is still true today when it comes to selling and customer retention online.

I’ve paraphrased some of the book’s tips that are still true today for both affiliates and merchants. 1. Keep it simple. Don’t require plug-ins that some people might not have. Avoid unnecessary graphics and special effects. 2. Provide value. The more information you have, the more likely people are to buy.

8. Respond quickly. Immediate response gives the customers a sense of support and service (and importance). 9. Keep track of what’s selling. As a merchant, you have to analyze buying trends and habits to help plan inventory. Don’t run out of something that is selling. This upsets customers and affiliates alike. You have to know conversion rates too.

3. Make buying easy. 4. Display certification. Be secure and show it.

10. Build a support network. The book says “build relationships with other Web-based entrepreneurs.”

5. Post a privacy policy. 6. Be accessible. Give prospects a phone number, email, fax, and physical (NOT P.O. Box) address. 7. Get it right the first time. Merchants, note this: Customers who receive the right order on time are more likely to buy from you again… and your affiliates will love this.

While forums were not as popular then as they are now, the advice still rings true. Participate in forums like ABestWeb.com, AffiliateTrust.org or others. Read, learn, and share. Attend conferences like Affiliate Summit. Meet with other affiliate marketers in your area. Becoming a part of a community will not only help you with your business, but will also help alleviate some of the

loneliness that sometimes comes with being an affiliate marketer. Thinking back to my own beginnings in online business in 2003, not much has really changed. Email is still my primary means of communication, but as always, I prefer actually talking to someone. The data still doesn’t lie. If one header outperforms another, it wins, no matter how un-Web 2.0 it might be. And I still believe, perhaps more so than ever, that customer service is of the utmost importance. It’s true in the online world for sure. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Matt McWilliams is the Affiliate Manager for Legacy Learning Systems’ Learn and Master Courses at www.learnandmaster.com/ affiliates.

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By David Naffziger

Using Analytics to Identity Affiliate Abuse Detecting affiliate abuse is one of the more challenging aspects of affiliate program management. Since the majority of affiliates add value to a program, identifying the abusive affiliates can feel a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.

informative. Two things to look out for: • A temporary traffic surge: A quick, short burst of traffic could have come from an unauthorized email campaign or a successful social media campaign. Regardless, it is probably a good indication to look further.

The performance data provided by the affiliate networks is one of the most valuable aspects of the affiliate program, and can be used to identify affiliates engaged in abusive behavior. Study the Inbound Referrers Most visitors to your Web site come with information in their request that tells the Web site where the visitor came from. This information, known as the “referrer”, is used by programs such as Google Analytics to identify traffic sources. There are three important patterns to look for: • Referrer from the Search Engines: If the referrer shows one of the search engines as the source, the affiliate is probably purchasing PPC ads and using an uncloaked affiliate link in their ad. • Referrer from Webmail Clients: Affiliates using email as a marketing tool will often show referrers from web email clients. • No referrer: A number of trademark bidders (or affiliates trying to mask the source of their traffic for other reasons) are using cloaked affiliate links with a referring technique that strips the referrer from the user’s session. Not all networks provide full referrers, however they often provide a report that at

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• Off-hours transactions: Transactions that only occur at night or on weekends might be indicative of a day-parted PPC campaign.

least shows the domain the traffic came from.

There are plenty of good reasons why a nonabusive affiliate might be using a technique identified in this article. Simply discovering an affiliate that matches one of the patterns above does not confirm the affiliate was doing something wrong.

Understand Abnormal Conversion Rates Affiliates using different promotional methods will have different conversion rates in your program. Significant differences in conversion rate from your program average might indicate something is amiss.

The best approach is to develop a relationship with the affiliate so that the merchant understands their promotional methods. These techniques should be used to identify affiliates that warrant closer investigation.

For example, unusually high conversion rates can be indicative of trademark bidding, while unusually low conversion rates (coupled with high traffic) can be indicative of adware.

David Naffziger is CEO of BrandVerity, a firm that detects affiliate violations of merchant paid search policies.

David Naffziger

Many merchants group their affiliates into categories (email, SEM, coupons, website, etc.), and then study the performance of the affiliates in each group. This approach allows for a clearer identification of suspicious activity. Study Transaction Timing Just looking at when an affiliate’s transactions occurred can also be very

Lisa Barone

If It’s Wet, Sticky & Not Yours… Ask By Lisa Barone I don’t know how it works for boys, but if you’re an overlyambitious female, you’re taught from an early age that it’s a lot easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. It’s a small morsel shared with a knowing twinkle that gives young girls a license to be horrible. And I won’t lie – when it was shared with me, I ran with it. It made sense. If I actually ASKED to be allowed to do something, then I gave the other party a chance to say no. If I just did it and they got mad, well, that’s why God gave

me dimples. That line of thought, though, does not work if you’re a business saying “sorry” to a customer. Businesses are generally not as cute (or forgivable) as young girls. Larry Chase wrote a post on this in October 2009 that really stuck with me. He talked all about how being cavalier in business isn’t worth the potential consequences. Because you can’t just ask for forgiveness and expect the slate to be wiped clean. It’s a lesson that I wish more businesses and brands understood. (continued on page 10).

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(continued from page 9).

• Signing me up to your newsletter, because I handed you a business card at a conference – cavalier. • Releasing features with a “we know better” attitude and then ignoring the outcry you knew would come – cavalier. • Cold-calling me without at all targeting your sales pitch or knowing who I am – cavalier. • Expecting trust instead of earning trust – cavalier. And customers won’t put up with it. It doesn’t matter if you say “you’re sorry”. Their impression is that you’re a jerk. That you tried to take what wasn’t yours. And that you’re more concerned with yourself than the privacy or wants and needs of your users. That’s not a brand people are going to do business with. [You really should change that ReTweet feature, Twitter.] If you’re still living by the “do now, apologize later” approach to business, then you’ve let this whole social media thing go right over your head. Your customers probably want to engage and talk to share with you… but you still have to ask their permission before making that assumption. They’d probably like your newsletter, but sign them up without their consent and you’ll see that hell hath no fury like a scorned socially-savvy consumer. Your customers are far more connected than they used to be. They’re more vocal. They know that you have people out there listening. So when you violate them by being cavalier about their needs, they get loud and tell their entire network.

Spamming with a newsletter I never asked for, so you can get out your marketing agenda, will burn more bridges than it will build. You should just go sit in your timeout chair now. Because no one wants to deal with you. Why is it no longer easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask permission? Because social media is permission marketing. It’s the price of admission. Always having to say “you’re sorry” does nothing but destroy your brand and label you a bully in the eyes of your consumer. Before you throw a rock through someone’s window, ask them if they wouldn’t mind opening up the door.

Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer of the SEO consulting firm Outspoken Media and obsessively tweets at @lisabarone.

WHERE

EARN MORE!

You haven’t just stolen the privacy of one person; you’ve stolen it from their 1,500 followers, as well. You don’t just have to apologize to one person; you have to apologize to the whole lot. Being seen apologizing 1,500 times hurts your brand. It makes it undeniably weaker. Make it a habit and you won’t recover.

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Stop acting like an unruly kindergartener. If it’s sticky, wet and not yours, don’t touch it. And if you want to touch it, ask for permission first.

Decades of CPA Experience

Today’s world is like direct marketing on steroids. Yeah, we’re all social and informal and friendly, but you still need to ask for permission before entering a room. You still need to build that relationship and prove to your customers that you’re worth their time.

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Money Talks

By Robert Duva

“In most cases, when a prospect calls the merchant’s phone number, the affiliate will not get credit if there is a sale. So when a merchant puts their phone number on the landing page, especially in a prominent location, that can serve to ‘siphon’ legitimate commissions away from the affiliate.”

Robert Duva

Dan Murray, Ravenwood Marketing, June 2008 issue of FeedFront I got involved in affiliate marketing over a decade ago. I’ve been a publisher and an advertiser and have leveraged affiliate marketing and other performance marketing channels to generate over $100 million in revenue. I’ve experienced the benefits this industry has to offer when you put the time and effort into building strong long-term winwin relationships, and I believe that affiliate marking is just getting started. A couple of years ago, I pulled together a team of the most talented people I knew in the software development and telecommunications space to start RingRevenue. Our goal was to build a platform for affiliate marketing that would allow advertisers, publishers, and affiliate networks to track calls like clicks. Let’s start by talking about the problem. For years, affiliate marketing has faced a simple challenge: what happens when people shop online but then buy offline? Many of us live online and are comfortable purchasing online. But often, when it comes to those more expensive or complex purchases, we want

to speak with someone to get our questions answered. “Will it ship it by Tuesday? What colors do you have it in? What’s the return policy?” Advertisers want these calls because they convert into sales at an average rate 30-50% and at an average sale price of 1.5 to 2 times that of online sales, but publishers don’t want calls going to advertisers because they aren’t able to get credit for them.

For advertisers, call tracking isn’t new. But the way that pay-per-call is now being implemented for affiliate marketing is. Affiliate networks have now made it easy for advertisers to integrate and scale their call-based campaigns alongside their online campaigns. The intuitive campaign creation, call pricing, and management tools provided ensure that advertisers are able to offer generous per-call commissions and achieve their target ROI objectives. For publishers, pay-per-call represents an opportunity to expand promotions online and venture into offline media: mobile, TV, radio, print, etc.

As a result, publishers won’t aggressively promote offers that include phone numbers.

With pay-per-call, when consumers want to talk, advertisers, publishers, and affiliate networks are now all making money.

This issue has limited the success affiliate marketing can have when promoting higherend more consultative products and services. This is also one of the main reasons you don’t see many successful business-to-business or local business sales transacting through affiliate networks today.

Robert Duva is the co-founder and CMO of RingRevenue, and you can learn more about their pay-per-call services at www. RingRevenue.com.

Did you know that U.S. consumers make millions of purchases over the phone every day and advertisers spend over $200 billion dollars a year in offline marketing? Now, with pay-per-call, we as an industry are starting to get access to those offline advertising dollars.

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HOW TRUST LEADS TO SUCCESS By Matt Enders

As an affiliate manager, your job is to drive sales for your company or client via the various affiliate partnerships you develop. Too often, affiliate managers (or more aptly, merchants) take the “if you build it, they will come” approach to affiliate management. This is a recipe for disaster. Proper management of any affiliate program requires time, attention, effort, and most importantly, relationships built on trust. The affiliates who participate in the affiliate program you manage must be viewed as partners, not as a faceless entity looking to make a dollar through your program. Each affiliate is important and has the potential to significantly contribute to your bottom line. Of course, it would be impossible to personally know each and every affiliate who has been approved to your program. You must work to develop relationships and work as closely as possible with as many affiliates as possible. In developing relationships with affiliates, you are developing trust, which can lead to amazing results. Once you have developed trust and learned how a particular affiliate does what it is that they do, you have an opportunity to expand the working relationship. But remember, trust is a two way street. If an affiliate trusts you with their business model, you have to trust them with items like your brand name, VIP commission rates, and special privileges. Let’s look at an example. My company manages affiliate programs for our clients. One of our clients had historically used Yahoo! Paid Inclusion (RIP) with moderate, but consistent success. One particular affiliate, which mgecom had worked with significantly over the years, approached us about also using Yahoo! Paid Inclusion (“PI”) as one of their promotional methods. Since we knew and trusted this affiliate, we were able to vouch for the idea and strongly recommend the opportunity to our client. The client agreed to a limited test with the affiliate. The test went so well that the client turned off their in-house PI campaign and allowed this affiliate to fully represent their brand via Yahoo! PI. The result? The affiliate was able to increase sales via this channel by a staggering weekly average of 349%. The lowest weekly increase was 82% and the highest to date is 1,176%. This is an increase above and beyond what the client had been able to achieve via their own in-house efforts. Why was this level of success achievable in this particular partnership? • We knew the affiliate well • We had worked with the affiliate closely in the past

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Matt Enders

• We trusted the affiliate • We were able to communicate all of this to the client and demonstrate the value To summarize, if you are an affiliate manager, get to know your affiliates as more than just a name in a report. Learn what they do, earn their trust, and in turn trust them. Greater results are possible when relationships are nurtured and expanded.

Matt Enders is the CEO of mgecom, inc., a leading Outsourced Affiliate Program Management firm.

By Justin Premick

How To Recycle Your Affiliate Much of your blog’s content isn’t only relevant at one particular time. And to borrow from an old NBC slogan, if subscribers haven’t seen an old post, it’s new to them.

3. Put Your Emails in an Autoresponder Series

Get that old content out to them and make it fresh again!

Once you have your emails together, plug them into your autoresponder.

Create an Autoresponder Campaign For Your Blog in 3 Easy Steps

As you create each email, think about how much time you want to pass between those messages and schedule accordingly.

provide a list of links to your posts on that topic.

1. Identify Your Best Content Justin Premick

If you’re one of the many smart affiliate marketers who blog regularly, I bet you put a lot of effort into creating highquality content. Often, that valuable content is timeless, but only appears on the most-viewed part of your blog – the homepage – for a short time. Other posts push it off your homepage and into oblivion. This is frustrating, after all, new visitors could benefit from this content, right? Even if they sign up days, weeks, months or years after you publish it. Fortunately, with a simple email marketing tactic, you can resurrect your content from the depths of your blog and keep it in front of your ever-growing, ever-changing audience. Turn Your Blog’s Best Content Into an Automated Email Newsletter There’s no reason to put all that hard work into creating great content, then get just one round of visits, comments and sales from it. Why be satisfied with that?

Remember, new subscribers will also be getting your new posts (right?), so don’t space the emails too close together.

Go through your old blog posts and decide which are the truly high-quality ones that new subscribers need to see. 2. Turn Each Post or Group of Posts into an Email A few ways to go about this: • The fastest, simplest way is to just copy and paste your full post content into an email, style as you see fit, and save. No introduction, no conclusion, just the post as a standalone email. A little boring/dry but it can work.

As you create more quality posts, you can continue adding autoresponders or edit your existing ones to work those posts into the emails you’ve already created, and get even more clicks and traffic to your affiliate blog.

Justin Premick is the Director of Education Marketing for AWeber Communications, and you can follow him on Twitter @ justinpremick.

• Paste a compelling excerpt from your article, link to the full post, and add a brief introduction and conclusion to the email. I like this method because it encourages click-throughs, but you may find that including the full post is better. • If you have two or more good posts on a topic, write an email that combines the ideas in those posts and links to them in context (you might be doing this with blog posts already). Or, just write a simple introduction and then

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By CPA Hustle

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you know how hard it’s becoming to find a niche market where you can promote affiliate offers without a lot of competition. With more and more people trying affiliate marketing each day, markets are becoming ruthless and saturated where it has become almost impossible to compete. In order to survive in today’s aggressive markets, you need to find a unique approach to marketing to move yourself ahead of your competition. Thinking and researching laterally can give your business the leverage it needs to stay ahead of your competitors. The first step in lateral thinking is figuring out who your target audience really is. Who are your customers? What will your customers be searching for in order to find your offer? What is their personal situation? Are they wealthy or poor? What are your customers probably doing right at this very moment?

Vertical Markets If you shift your focus on market research and keyword strategy, and start thinking about who your everyday customer really is, you’ll find many different markets you can target with little or no competition that will produce exceptional results. By expanding your level of thinking, you can reach whole new markets of targeted customers ready to complete the offer you are presenting them. What will be your end result? You will find new markets with new traffic that will result in campaigns creating profits for both you and your advertisers.

CPA is a successful underground affiliate marketer, copywriter, and PPC expert, and you can contact him by going to CPA-Hustle.com

These are some of the questions I ask myself when I’m trying to learn about my target customer. A well respected affiliate marketer, Amish Shah, originally introduced this concept of thinking to me. He told me he was marketing a dating offer and noticed the most common search terms like “dating” or “personals” were over-saturated, so he started targeting words like “php error” and “computer repair”. He figured out he was marketing to mostly guys who couldn’t find a girlfriend either because they were sitting in front of their TVs or computers most of the day. By thinking “outside-the-box”, Amish was able to create a highly-targeted campaign that proved to be very lucrative and made him a lot of money. I have done the same thing in my business to take otherwise dead campaigns and give them new life by marketing laterally.

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Running Email Campaign Across Third Parties By Todd Boullion

Todd Boullion

According to the US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 by Forrester Research, “Marketers tell us that they enjoy an ROI (return on investment) that is two to three times higher with email than it is with any other form of direct marketing.” Therefore, it comes as no surprise that marketers are increasingly utilizing email and broadening their reach by running email campaigns via third parties. These third-party channels can be highly effective in generating meaningful revenue and broadening an advertiser’s reach, as long as they are adhering to the latest CAN-SPAM rules and regulations. The challenge advertisers often face when trying to remain compliant lies in securely managing and distributing the list of unsubscribers, often known as an opt-out list or suppression file, with their third-party vendors. As an advertiser you have a list of consumers who have opted-out from receiving your email communications. You must now share that list, in a secure manner, with your third-party partners. Furthermore, they are sending offers to their lists on your behalf and are also capturing unsubscribe requests to add to your opt-out list. Your list is growing and multiple third parties are sending you updates at different times that all

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need to be consolidated, updated and shared again for the next campaign. Timing is a critical factor as the CANSPAM act requires you to remove unsubscribes requests within 10 business days. You also want control and visibility over your opt-out lists. There are two options to securely protect consumer data when managing and distributing email opt-out lists: 1. List Scrubbing - instead of downloading a suppression list of email addresses to not mail to, email partners upload their mailing list(s) to a neutral third party to be “scrubbed” against the advertiser’s suppression list(s). The suppression list never leaves the third party’s secure environment. After the data has been scrubbed, the email partner can either download a “scrubbed,” mailable list, or a list of matching records that are not to be mailed to. Either way, consumer data has not been exposed to the third party. 2. MD5 Distribution – MD5 is a oneway hashing algorithm that renders email address useless for mailing by converting plain-text email addresses into 32 character hashes. Advertisers can use MD5 to encrypt their suppression lists before sending to third parties. Third parties then encrypt their mailing list and compare the MD5 hashes in

their list against the MD5 hashes in the suppression list. If a match is found, the mailer removes the corresponding email address in their list.

Here’s what’s at stake: 1) Legal compliance. Hefty fines if you do not comply with the CAN-SPAN and remove unsubscribes. 2) Brand reputation at risk if your messages are sent to consumers who have optedout. 3) Industry reputation. If you bend the rules even a little, few will be willing to work with you in the future.

If you are leveraging third parties to deliver your email messages, you must take compliance seriously. You can’t afford not to.

Todd Boullion is the president of UnsubCentral, a leader in email compliance and suppression list management.

Is Local The Future Of Affiliate Marketing? Ad Hustler

By Ad Hustler

Affiliates are starting to hear more and more about local affiliate marketing. Some affiliates are so excited about the prospect of picking some low hanging fruit that they claim local affiliate marketing is going to be the next hottest niche.

be surprised when they ask you to redesign their logo for free. Since local businesses are doing business with you in one capacity they get a strange notion that they own you in every capacity. Set them straight early or suffer the consequences.

that you should run away from the market like a dog with your tail between your legs. In long term business plans, diversification is key. Having a few local clients can potentially help your bottom line when affiliate sales are down.

Various bloggers, including myself, have written about their local online marketing experiences. You often hear about the successes, but very little about the challenges involved in managing local clients.

Lead Quality: Local clients typically cannot close the sale with an online lead. Many businesses do not have call centers. This leads to a receptionist handling an Internet lead. When the receptionist’s terrible sales skills fail them, they claim the lead quality is bad. Even businesses that assign their salespeople to Internet leads usually think their salespeople are a lot better then they truly are. I consider the lack of sales skills in these local businesses one of the most major hurdles faced.

To read the entire Ad Hustler local online advertising series please visit http://www.adhustler.com/local

Local Clients Know It All: No matter how good the results are in your campaign, local clients think they know more than you. They get hung up on the most bizarre selling points about their businesses and sabotage their own campaigns. Local Geotargeting Is Weak: Even the big players have not yet perfected geotargeting. I can’t begin to tell you how many out of market leads I’ve generated through Google AdWords. Don’t be surprised when your campaign targeting only the NYC area produces unusable leads from Florida and Texas. Freebies: Local clients love to try to get you to throw in way more then their paying for free. Doing a local lead generation campaign? Don’t

Ad Hustler has been advertising online for more than 7 years, and you can read his case studies at www.adhustler.com.

Payment: Affiliates get upset when an affiliate network misses their weekly payment. How about having to wait 90+ days to get paid by slow paying clients? Payment upfront can alleviate this issue, but many local businesses will not make this concession. These are just several of the challenges facing anyone wanting to pursue local business relationships. Just because there are challenges, does not mean

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JANUARY 2010 | 17

Erin Cigich

Living the Life of an

Affiliate Strategist By Erin Cigich

One of the inevitable questions that always arise when we sit down with one of our affiliates for a dinner meeting at a show or on a deep sea fishing trip in Sarasota is “What’s a normal day like for you?” While no day is typical, they are all exciting. If you are heading in to the office, chances are you’re throwing on your flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt and arriving around 9 AM. You’ve already checked your stats from home and said good morning to a few affiliates at that point, too. Once there, after grabbing your first free energy drink of the day, you meet with the marketing research team in order to take a deeper look at statistics. Are there any new offers that are winners? Any with potential but need a stronger test? Are there any new creative elements or promotional codes? The research team makes sure you are always ahead of market demands. Between statistics, emails, AIMs and calls, the morning typically flies by. Your stomach starts grumbling and that is when you realize it is already 2:30 and time to grab lunch. You either eat with some of the other affiliate managers, an ad rep whose

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campaigns you want to learn more about, or at the weekly marketing team meeting (hopefully lunch is catered in from Pei Weis today!). You grab your second energy drink of the day and then, it is time to make some calls. Good affiliate managers are not offer pushers, they are data analysts. Most afternoons are filled with strategic calls with top affiliates. After catching up on how their family and favorite sports teams are doing, you’ll hop into discussing their marketing methods, business model, cash flow and goals. This will allow you to develop a plan of action for the next days, weeks, months and years. The rest of your calls will be touching base with prospective affiliates in order to determine if they are a good fit for the network. Before you leave the office for the day (somewhere around 7 or 8pm), you’ll review any new campaign information. After dinner at home, odds are you are logging back on to connect with affiliates and do a little market research to make sure you are staying on top of industry trends.

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Once you finally head to bed, you double check your cell phone to make sure your ringer is on in case there are any developments that require your immediate attention. If that sounds hectic, it doesn’t even compare to what your schedule is like while attending a conference in New York, Las Vegas, Denver, San Francisco or even London; or entertaining an affiliate who has come to tour the office and go out on the town. Like most roles in this industry, being an affiliate strategist is fast paced and stressful at times, but knowing you are helping people grow their businesses is extremely rewarding.

Erin is the Director of Affiliate Publishing and leads Clickbooth.com’s team of affiliate strategists.

By Aaron Dragushan

PRODUCTIVITY: How to Start Your Day

The Problem: For most of us, the first thing we do in the morning is check our email. As we start reading and replying, it’s easy to forget that we are now in “responding to other people” mode. Of course responding to others is an important part of work, but when you start your day that way, you often end it by thinking, “Argh! I never worked on _______!” The Solution: Before you start work, take three minutes and decide on your top priorities for the day. You’re never going to get everything done, so what’s most important for today?

The Secret: You’ll find that simply having priorities will give you a sense of empowerment and control over your work, even if there are days when you can’t stick to them. Have a great day! Aaron Dragushan is the founder of UpgradeMe.org, a site dedicated to helping entrepreneurs move faster.

Write it down and put it somewhere prominent. With your priorities in place it’s easier to choose what to work on first and avoid “stumbling into your day”.

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JANUARY 2010 | 19

The Merchant as Affiliate Conundrum By Deborah Carney

want to look professional and trustworthy to the shoppers that find your site. If you have links that send your shoppers away, even if they were going to purchase your products and they were just curious and they clicked a link that took them away, they might never find their way back to you. Oops. Plus, it devalues your site and your product(s). Shoppers could get the uneasy feeling that you don’t believe in your product line if you are also selling other people’s products through outbound links. While you may not have enough merchandise to sell, or you think people are looking for something you don’t have when they land on your site, the better way to handle that is to be sure that your site marketing efforts attract the right shoppers. Then once you have them, you make them feel that you are the only place they should be buying from. If you are selling blue widgets and people are landing on your site from searches for pink widgets, then you need to look at your site structure and content so that you are getting consumers who want to buy blue widgets. It is the same for information products and sites selling services. If you can’t supply the service directly, have your visitors contact you about what they need, and then you can refer them privately after you have discussed their needs and determined you aren’t the right fit. Sites selling information products tend to cross promote, but again, you are sending your potential buyers off on a “maybe”. It’s much better for you to focus and sell them your own product instead. Deborah Carney

I am puzzled by a question that has been raised frequently as of late: “In my store can I affiliate link to other products that I don’t carry?” The short answer is no. The longer answer is to actually ask a question back - “Why do you want to send the shoppers looking for your products away to someone else?” If you are an ecommerce site (meaning you sell products using a shopping cart) and you have an affiliate program (meaning you pay affiliates to make sales of your products) you want to keep your traffic on your site purchasing from you. Many affiliates will not promote merchants that are featuring products not for sale on their own site. They don’t want to send you their traffic when you might receive compensation, but they definitely will not. Aside from the affiliate aspect, there is the fact that you as a merchant

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You built an ecommerce site to make money by selling your own products. If you want to sell other people’s products, make a separate Web site. Deborah Carney is an Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager and eCommerce Consultant (TeamLoxly.com) with a site dedicated to teaching affiliates and merchants (ABCsPlus.com) how to maximize their online earnings.

By Andrew Wee

Being Different Can Be Very Profitable Andrew Wee

In the online marketing world, it can be a struggle to get your voice heard, especially since many marketers will be adopting similar tactics when it comes to promoting products to their prospects. The proliferation of competitive intelligence and spy tools means that a new affiliate can create a clone copy of another affiliates campaign, often within a few hours. The net result? A potentially profitable campaign, although with an uncertain lifespan. Instead, affiliates who are planning to be in the industry for the long haul can better channel their energy to create a sustainable presence on the Internet. The following factors can help you shape the direction of your business Improve on How Everyone Else is Running Their Business Think of companies like Apple, FedEx and Twitter and see how they positioned themselves above the competition. Although personal computers, overnight delivery and social networks had been around before these companies were established, these new entrants looked at where the bar was set in their industry and

Creativity and innovation in your marketing campaigns can be well worth your time

moved it up a couple of notches.

You won’t know what will or will not work when it comes to a traffic or conversion tactic in a campaign. I’ve heard more than my fair share of stories about marketers trying something wild and unexpected on a whim as they’re setting up a campaign, only to have it go gangbusters on them.

Within the affiliate marketing context, most affiliates are promoting their campaigns primarily through text and graphics, thin affiliate sites, which may not provide much value beyond specifications lifted from the merchant’s site and product pricing. Going the extra mile to create additional content, especially catering to buyers earlier in the sales cycle, can help boost your conversions. Although there have been numerous presentations at trade events and seminars about the power of video in branding yourself and getting more sales conversions, there are just a handful of affiliates who use these services, and more importantly, use them well. Always Be Testing Department store pioneer John Wanamaker has been quoted as saying “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Although Wanamaker, considered the father of advertising, came up with the words in 19th century, the saying still hold true when it comes to online marketing today.

Unfortunately, you won’t often read blog posts or forum postings about these techniques because they’re some of the key tools of the trade. If you do hear about them, it’s usually after some time has passed and the affiliate has made a killing and moved on to something new. The lesson here is to think about what you’re doing in your business and find ways to innovate. Creativity can pay off very handsomely in these circumstances.

Andrew Wee blogs about affiliate marketing at WhoIsAndrewWee.com and is co-founder of the InternetMarketingCookbook.com resource site.

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By Bobbi Leach

Bobbi Leach

Like all sales professionals, affiliates are primarily motivated by financial incentives. Contests and commission hikes are good examples of strategies that work. Affiliates can also be inspired by anything that can help them make more money faster and more easily. With this in mind, here are seven strategies that will energize your affiliates to sell. 1. Contests: Creating a Buzz Contests are one of the most effective ways to get affiliates to sell merchant’s products. The most effective contests use a strong hook and have clear, concise rules. Big-bang cash prizes work well as incentives. You can also try running contests that offer more meaningful prizes than cash alone. Anything that provides an added emotional dimension— like trips to exotic locations, exciting events, and cool gadgets and toys— is great for building affiliate ties. You can also try using competitive games and interactive, task-based challenges to enrich the contest experience. 2. Higher Commissions: Making Your Product Competitive If another competitor is offering 60% commission on a given product, and you only pay out at 50%, you’ve got a problem. The best way to make sure your rates will get the attention of affiliates is to match or better your competition’s commission rates. If increasing commission is not an option, you

How Networks Can Motivate Affiliates can ensure that your site converts higher than your competitor and tout that fact to your affiliates. 3. Commission Scales: Pump It Up Commission scales are the financial incentives that a network has in place to spur its affiliates towards achieving greater sales numbers. Examples include bonuses and commission percentage increases, awarded to an affiliate when they reach specific preset milestones. For example, when an affiliate reaches X number of unit sales per month, they receive an X percent commission increase on that product.

when pitching them to sell a product that is new to them. 6. Creative Services: Making Affiliates More Effective Offering creative services like product landing page design, micro-sites and other complementary marketing collateral makes your affiliates more efficient and effective. It also makes affiliates feel good. This is a simple customer-service strategy that works by eliminating tasks usually handled directly by the affiliates, in turn giving them more time to sell. 7. Account Support: When you offer strong account support, your affiliates feel confident that they can meet any challenge. The best programs provide their affiliates with educational and problemsolving resources tailored to the demands of a product’s niche. Account support includes tutorials, training materials, articles, videos, Webinars, and more.

4. Payment Frequency: Flexibility Means Profitability Flexible payment options are popular with affiliates. For example, offering weekly payments to your top-performing affiliates puts a more readily available cash-flow in their hands, which they can then sink back into their marketing efforts on a more consistent basis. 5. Compelling Data: Show Them The Money! Show your affiliates hard data upfront that quantifies why your product is worth their time and effort; data that proves a selected product will be lucrative for them to promote. High-conversion rates are the most compelling numbers to share, as well as traffic volumes and low refund rates. Providing your affiliates with this data is especially effective

Bobbi Leach is Director of Business Development at RevenueWire (www.revenuewire.com).

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Dealing with Latent Affiliate Links By Lori Weiman Dina Riccobono

b. Old Offers / Out of Stock: Redirect traffic to a best alternative landing page to ensure a good user experience. Don’t let consumers land on an ‘out of stock’ or ‘invalid offer’ page.

Latent links refer to affiliate URLs that are for expired offers or are no longer valid, but are still active e.g. listed in a search listing, blog, or other Web page. Because the link is not valid, the landing page for a latent link is likely an error page.

2. Monitoring & Pro-Active Management: Monitor your offers and landing pages to track and divert traffic that is hitting error or inappropriate pages.

These links are damaging to the merchant due to a poor user experience and damaging to the affiliate’s ROI due to poor conversions. There are several events that can cause a link to become a latent link: • Affiliate Removal. The affiliate is removed from the merchant’s affiliate program. In this case, the link usually will redirect to an error page hosted by the affiliate network. • Old Offers. The merchant removes the offer. In this scenario, the link may resolve to an error page on the merchant’s web site or hopefully to an appropriate alternative page. • Out of Stock. The merchant sells out of an item. Usually these kinds of links point to the actual product / offer page with an ‘out of stock’ message on the page.

1. Redirect: a. Ex-Affiliates: Ask your affiliate network provider to redirect links with the affiliate’s ID to a landing page on your Web site – not the affiliate network’s Web site.

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3. Out of Stock: Just like with old offers, you might not be notified. Ask merchants who you work with what their policy is regarding out of stock items including notice to you and traffic re-direction.

3. Affiliate Notification: Notify your affiliates of changes in offers or if links are hitting error pages.

4. Monitor: If you have it in your budget to get some software, it doesn’t hurt to monitor the landing pages where your traffic points and look for out of stock, error pages, or invalid offer pages so that you can refresh links without having to spend your hard earned commissions on traffic that links to nowhere.

4. Media Provider Notification: If you aren’t able to redirect traffic or to encourage the affiliate or ex-affiliate to take down a latent link, then notify the media providers where latent links are displayed – most media providers and search engines will de-activate ads that resolve to error pages.

Lori Weiman is the CEO of The Search Monitor which provides market research on online advertising covering competitors, brand/ trademark abuse, and affiliate compliance on paid & organic search, local, shopping, and social media.

Advice for Affiliates

Advice for Merchants

Lori Weiman

1. Affiliate Removal: If you are removed from an affiliate program, be sure to review ALL of your destination URLs and replace the latent links with fresh affiliate links that actually work. 2. Old Offers: You may not always get a notice from the merchant that an offer has expired. Ask merchants who you work with what their policy is regarding notice to you and traffic redirection.

Unleashing the Potential of By Bryn Youngblut Bryn Youngblut

So what exactly is PPV advertising? PPV (pay per view), also known as CPV (cost per view) is usually referred to as contextual advertising. PPV is technically adware; not to be confused with spyware. Adware comes from an ad-supported program that a user installed onto their PC, which they agreed to when installing it. PPV allows you to not only bid on keywords but also domains (URLs). So what’s so good about PPV? From my experience, it is incredible if done right. I have some campaigns, for instance, where I spend approximately $50 on a day and they each generate thousands in revenue. Not bad, eh? Why am I sharing this information? Probably because I am a mad man or maybe because I do well enough that I feel like giving people some inspiration. It has always helped me in the past. Now that you know the basics, I will walk you through the steps to get started. You’re going to need to be signed up for a network. For beginners, I recommend signing up for MediaTraffic, and when you are more advanced, try out TrafficVance.

The first step is to choose which product or service you want to promote. The most recommended are simple and short-form submits; but don’t limit yourself to these.

you’re not sure, why don’t you split test it and find out? Some offers work well direct linking to them, and some do much better with a jump page. If you take PPV serious enough, you will likely experience a financial rollercoaster. You WILL lose money testing things. You WILL have unsuccessful campaigns. You WILL fail, and that’s life. But if you make it past all the failures and don’t give up, success could be right around the corner...

After you have chosen an offer, it’s time to start researching keywords; and most importantly URLs. There are a number of ways to do this. If you are not familiar with the process, just search around the Web for keyword researching tools. As far as finding URLs goes, it’s pretty simple, but does require some creativity. What I typically do is a simple search for my offer or things related and copy down the URLs that come up. Then I take those URLs over to Quantcast.com and get a ton more related Web sites using the “Audience Also Likes/Visits” feature on the right hand side.

Bryn Youngblut is a full time entrepreneur and affiliate marketer, and he blogs at www.Bryn.me

Once you have your list of keywords/ URLs, it’s time to setup your campaign. It is VERY important that you track everything, so you can eliminate the keywords/URLs that are not converting. The most common question I get is “Should I direct link the offer or use a landing page?” and I always reply that if

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Fourth Quarter is Over. Now What? By Vinny O’Hare Vinny O’Hare

The rush of Christmas is over, so now would be a good time to see what sold during the holiday season and dedicate a site to that topic. I normally use January as a time to focus on one brand-new site. You can go into your analytics programs and see what people were looking for and make a new niche Web site. I like to make sites that are not just sites that sell products in the fourth quarter. Too many marketers focus on making a site just for Christmas. You should focus on a site that sells year around. It is also a good time to make that hobby site that you’ve wanted to make for a long time... you know that labor of love that you’ve always wanted to make. Try to think of things that would sell throughout the year, such as team sports products. Every time you turn on a game all you see is people in the stands with jerseys on from their favorite team. Somebody has to sell them the jerseys it might as well be you. You can also think of all the sports that run the most during the year, my last site was based on NASCAR, since the season practically runs 10 months out of the year. Kids are playing soccer all seasons, especially in the warm weather states. These kids need new cleats, shorts, balls, etc. You can also look towards your favorite hobby and develop a site around it. Hobbies are all year round also, you don’t take a break from your favorite hobby. Like I’ve said there are many ideas you can get just by looking at your analytics programs. In addition to your analytics program, you should also look at Google trends, and take a look at the fourth-quarter searches. Odds are using these two tools will enable you to come up with a new site idea.

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Some categories that are strong across the calendar year are home renovation, cooking, tools, automotive, and you can break each one of them down into a niche. For home renovation you might just want to focus on bathrooms. Cooking can be anything from recipes to cooking utensils. Mechanics use tools all year round, and the automotive industry could be broken down in hundreds of ways, from tires to auto insurance. Speaking of automotive, many people research new cars online before they go into a dealer. They could be doing this research on your site. Automotive manuals are always a big seller for people trying to repair that car. Affiliate programs exist for almost every niche, and if you can’t find a good one, you can always turn to Google AdSense or some other contextual advertising program.

Vinny O’Hare is the founder of Vincent O’Hare Consulting, (VinnyOHare. com) an Internet marketing service that provides information on how to make money online with affiliate programs and contextual advertising.

By Ryan Osborne

Building a Fortress Around Your Business

Registration at Affiliate Summit East 2009

Ryan Osborne

If data truly is “the new oil”, then how are you supposed to protect yourself from the liability and risk that pervade the affiliate marketing landscape? No doubt you have taken the requisite technical measures to protect your sizable investment in your business, and frequently consider what more can be done.

events or when an aggrieved party seeks further payment for their injuries.

But, what do you do when something breaches the defenses? What happens when clients, customers, or the public begin making demands “to be made whole”?

With this protection, you have the insurance policy to defend the lawsuit and pay damages as necessary.

• Estimated total cost to company $33.8M

Your company should obtain insurance that protects against data privacy breaches, intellectual property violations, breach of contract, and media/advertising risks.

Scenario 3: • Retailer loses customer specific information over the span of two years through firewall security breach

Here are a few examples: There are two defenses that each company needs, regardless of size, in order to withstand the attack: (1) strong licensing agreements, and (2) insurance. A strong, well-written, licensing agreement is the first step to limiting the liability each company faces after a catastrophic event. The licensing agreement serves to limit liability and clearly define relationships. In most cases, it will effectively enable the parties to resolve the dispute and continue the mutually beneficial relationship they entered in the first place. However, the license agreement will not stop some parties from seeking an additional “pound of flesh” from you after an unfortunate event. In fact, you may have acted within the licensing agreement and still face a lawsuit. This is where insurance comes in. Insurance is the security blanket in case catastrophic

Scenario 1: • Major Oil Company with 10,000 stations • Outsources credit card processing/Point of Sale network to third party • System fails for 6 hours • Claim of 20 lost sales per station at an average of $30 per sale (Total claimed loss of $6M) • Arbitration panel awarded claim of $4M to Oil Company on Breach of Contract claim Scenario 2: • Company deceived into selling customer information to con artist • Data included financial data and other important personal information

• 20 class action lawsuits are filed • Retailer had to reimburse expenses for some customers, undertake data security measures and system evaluation, address identity theft for all lost records • Estimated Total Cost $156M

These scenarios highlight loss of data events and a loss of network/service event. All three scenarios could present hurdles too significant to overcome. By structuring the proper licensing agreement and then complimenting it with the proper insurance policy you will have the best chance to operate a successful affiliate or online marketing business in today’s volatile business climate.

Ryan is a partner with Citadel Program Managers which offers insurance services and can be reached at rosborne@citadelus.com.

• Class action lawsuits and 43 states Attorneys General became involved

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Affiliate M The AffStat 2009 Report, a compilation of survey data from more than 450 affiliates, was published in the middle of 2009. This was the seventh annual edition of the report. The survey covered a wide array of issues from the affiliate perspective. Areas covered in the survey included favorite affiliate networks, preferences of network vs. independent affiliate programs, where affiliates find affiliate programs and more. The report is currently available from to download at http://www.affstat.com The following are excerpts from the report.

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By Amy Rodriguez & Shawn Collins

Marketing Stats

(continued on page 30.)

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Affiliates - please take the AffStat 2010 Report now at http://www.affstat.com. The results will be published in a free report, as well as excerpts in future issues of FeedFront.

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3 By Anne Mitchell

3 Federal Regulations

Anne Mitchell

2009 was an interesting year for changes in Federal regulations which affect Internet marketers. There were changes to CAN-SPAM, and a revision of rules by the Federal Trade Commission; both of which directly impact Internet marketers.

Online Marketers Must Follow

Below are three Federal regulations which Internet marketers must follow:

to advertise the vendor’s product or to otherwise generate sales for the vendor. This means that if your affiliate sends email featuring your product or service, and that email is deemed to be spam, then you may be legally as guilty of spamming as your affiliate, especially if you knew or should have known that the affiliate was using spam to advertise your product.

1. Email Sent Out Featuring Someone Else’s Product or Service

3. Testimonials, Reviews, and Endorsements in Marketing on the Internet

Email sent out featuring a third-party’s product or service must also include information about the entity that is actually sending out the email, otherwise the thirdparty can be deemed solely responsible under CAN-SPAM for handling all opt-outs. Put another way, if your product or service is advertised in email being sent out by someone else, be sure that they include information about themselves in the email, or you may find yourself legally liable for helping users opt out of the mailings. This is known as the “designated sender rule”.

The use of testimonials on the Internet is now being more strictly regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, and testimonials that suggest outstanding results that are not actual typical results must disclose that the results being featured in the testimonial are not typical, and must indicate what typical results can be expected.

2. Email Sent by Affiliates Vendors are legally liable under the Federal CAN-SPAM law if their affiliates use spam

For example, if Acme provided you for free with that nifty widget that you just reviewed, you must disclose in your review your relationship with Acme, and that Acme provided the widget at no charge.

While these three rules may seem onerous or burdensome, they are not really that difficult to follow once you understand them, and following them not only keeps you within the law, but distinguishes and identifies your business as being above-board and ethical.

Anne P. Mitchell is an Internet attorney and law professor, and runs the Institute for Social Internet Public Policy (ISIPP), best known for their SuretyMail Email Accreditation service.

Additionally, if you favorably review or endorse a product or service, and you have been in any way compensated or provided with a benefit in exchange for the review or endorsement (or even if you just have a relationship with the provider of that product or service) you must disclose that information.

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Choosing an Affiliate Network By Geno Prussakov

With the multitude of options out there, the question of how to choose an affiliate network frequently becomes the first one for a merchant to answer. First of all, let’s clarify what we are really selecting. When looking for an affiliate network, you are looking for a vendor who will handle all of your affiliate program’s tracking, reporting, and affiliate payments. At the very outset, every merchant must understand that while selecting an affiliate network they are not selecting an agency that will run the affiliate program by recruiting affiliates, and driving in sales/ leads. While some affiliate networks do offer management as add-on service, none do this by default. It appears that some merchants are merely extending the definition of advertising networks to include affiliate networks. While just as ad networks, affiliate networks do connect advertisers with publishers; they do not ensure that the advertiser actually gets advertised. In most scenarios, it is the advertiser’s own responsibility to manage the affiliate program and recruit affiliates. Unlike ad networks, affiliate networks do not get paid on a CPM basis. Affiliate networks make their money on transaction fees, which are normally calculated as a percentage of each affiliate payment subtracted from your account. You can think of it as of a credit card processing fee. Just as credit card processing companies charge 2-4% of the transaction amount to process it, so do affiliate networks charge you a fee on every transaction, with the only difference being that the fee is not tied to the order, but to the transaction amount that happens between you and the referring affiliate. So, whichever affiliate network you decide to go with, make sure you are clear on the expectations, and do have someone to manage the program. Speaking of the decisive factors for choosing an affiliate network, let’s look at five: 1. Ethics – There is nothing more important that partnering with an ethical affiliate network which takes a clear stand against adware, spyware, and rogue affiliate techniques. 2. Financial – There will be setup/integration fees, minimum monthly fees, and other charges. Get this data from different networks, analyze, and you will see the difference. 3. Technical – It is extremely important to find out what additional capabilities, tools and technologies are made available. To name but

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Geno Prussakov

a few, it’s worth mentioning phone order tracking, video creatives, data feed import tools, dynamic product and/or coupon feeds, etc. 4. Popularity – You want to partner with a network that is loved and respected by affiliates. 5. Support – It is no secret that many affiliate networks provide poor merchant and affiliate support. Do your due diligence to pick a network that cares. Lastly, a word of warning about free-to-join affiliate networks: do your homework in researching the network prior to joining it. There could be good ones among them, but as the famous Italian couturier Aldo Gucci used to say, “The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.”

Geno Prussakov is the Founder of AM Navigator, and author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes.”

Thank You Affiliate Summit West 2010 Sponsors DIAMOND SPONSOR

TITANIUM SPONSOR

PLATINUM SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSOR

BRONZE SPONSOR

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2009 | 33

By Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith

Social Media:

Rebranding Customer Service Your business can live or die based on the quality of your customer service. But what exactly is customer service? The definition has evolved through the years, but one aspect remains constant: caring about your clients in a meaningful way on a personal level. Once upon a time, milk was delivered to your door, doctors made house calls, and your grocer knew you and your family by name. Over the years, customer service moved away from the old-fashioned “take time to care” customer service model. It was replaced with catch phrases, upselling techniques, and pushy sales people looking to maximize their commissions. Old-fashioned customer service seemed to be a thing of the past… until now. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have enabled even coerced, businesses to once again engage their customers personally. I say coerced because with email and phone interaction, an organization could hide from the masses. Today, online communities give consumers a venue in which to relay their thoughts about a particular organization or product to their

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friends, family, and others who consider that person worth listening to. Recently, I was less than thrilled with a coffee product I purchased at a local McDonald’s. After tweeting my feelings, I noticed that I was being followed by @McCafeYourDay, a Twitter profile managed by Jessica Thompson, US communications manager for McDonald’s Corporation. I told her about my experience via a direct message, and she ensured that the proper department addressed my concerns. I was truly impressed by her attention, and it prompted me to further explore her Twitter usage. What I found was that McDonald’s is getting it right with @McCafeYourDay: connecting with customers, listening to their concerns, engaging in the conversation, and offering exclusive value via Twitter contests. Although they have branded their account under McDonald’s and McCafe, there is a picture of Ms. Thompson and her name is clearly displayed, making it easier for followers to identify with a personality rather than just a generically branded profile.

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These social platforms are the new word of mouth and are powerful because you can share your experience with everyone in your sphere of influence instantly and simultaneously, whether they live in New York or New Delhi. Your thoughts are also archived and displayed in search engine results, widening the potential audience all the more. One attribute of social media is whether your business is a Fortune 500 corporation, or a sole proprietorship, you can compete on a level playing field. Businesses who choose to engage those talking about their product or company can reap huge rewards. Conversely, brands that neglect or misuse social media and do not listen and respond to customer reactions will be left behind. Be proactive, show that you care, and your business will win!

Nathan is the founder of Zynali Inc, and manages several Web sites including a coffee video blog, CoffeeNate.com.

Increase Landing Page Performance By 162% By Kristen Groom I can hear the sighs now – another article promising to increase landing page performance. While it’s feasible to achieve our success on your own landing page, the extent will likely vary depending on your niche and level of existing optimization. There are some killer takeaways from our experience so read on to find out what you can do to maximize your landing page performance. W3i worked with WiderFunnel, a conversion optimization services company that provides everything required to design and execute a conversion rate optimization strategy. WiderFunnel increased the click-thru rate on one of our highest-volume landing pages by 162% – on the first experiment. Their team analyzed six major factors: value proposition, relevance, clarity, urgency, anxiety, and distraction. After determining what was lacking in the landing page, Google Website Optimizer (a free testing platform offered by Google) was used to setup and flight the test.

• Headline – updated headline, highlighting the value proposition of the product and listing the product features.

Ah, the miracle of multivariate testing – in a matter of one week, WiderFunnel tested 45 different combinations of landing pages, isolating 11 different elements. Now that is efficient optimization. Additionally, Google Website Optimizer automatically determines the smallest sample size necessary to be confident in the results, so traffic is not wasted.

• Call to action – added the missing value proposition and significantly increased the size of the download button. • Copy – the original copy performed the best. • Demo – to improve the clarity of the flash demo (which previews some of the product’s features), a mouse image was added over the buttons to emphasize their function.

The experiment broke down like this: five style variations dramatically altering the overall look and feel, three copy variations aiming to increase clarity and value proposition, and three demo variations intended to increase clarity of the product offering. The winning combination • Style – the original color palette was not relevant enough for the target audience, which is young and female. Although aware of the demographic, I suspect everyone was a little nervous to go full on feminine. But that’s exactly where the test led us – to some very female-driven designs.

Validation Internal testing on our experimentation platform confirmed the click-thru gains seen with the free testing platform. Combination 2 actually was the highest performer, once revenue was factored in with a 51% lift in earning per click. Takeaways Plan. Spend some serious time understanding your audience and then catering to their preferences. Don’t be afraid of big pink buttons. Speak to your audience. Put the value proposition directly in the headline – don’t make it hard to find. And, keep the copy simple. There are many tools out there, some of them free like the Google Website Optimizer. We highly recommend using a testing platform to run multivariate tests. Also, the analysis and changes can certainly be done without an agency, but we suggest working with a company who specializes in those areas.

•

Kristen leads the charge in marketing management, optimizing all touch points with consumers, for W3i.

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Saturday, January 16 Early Registration Location: Registration Area Time: 4:00pm – 8:00pm Come by Saturday evening to pick up your badge and attendee bag so you can enter immediately at noon on Sunday when the show opens.

Purpose Inc’s Affiliate Summit Charity Poker Tournament Proceeds to benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Location: Rio Hotel Time: 9:00pm Buy-in: $150 Payable at the Event Only ($110 goes directly to NBCF / $40 goes to Rio for Expenses to host the tournament. $100 Rebuys during the first hour also goes directly to NBCF).Winners: Prizes, Trophies and Bragging Rights!

Sunday, January 17 Booth Setup Location:: Amazon G-T Exhibitor Move In: 8:00am – 6:00pm Registration Location: Registration Area Time: 8:00am – 6:00pm Blogger Room Location: Coco Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm The Blogger’s Lounge is an area reserved for credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk space, blog, interview, relax and network. Heather Smith will be the BlogMistress of the Affiliate Summit Blogger’s Lounge, where she’ll be acting as liaison between Affiliate Summit and the press and bloggers attending the show.the Affiliate Meet Market. • Heather Smith, Blogger, Beautiful British Columbia (Twitter @heatherinbc)

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Affiliate Meet Market Areas I and II Location: Amazon A-E and Brazilia 4/5 Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm Exhibitor Move In: 9:00am – 12:00pm Affiliate Summit kicks off with an extended session of structured, face to face networking. Merchants will have tables set to meet with affiliates to discuss their affiliate programs and cut deals. Vendors that cater to affiliates and merchants will also have tables to share information about their products and services. Each table is a meeting spot for teaching, learning, closing deals, creating partnerships and finding new opportunities.

Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda A Primer On Search Engine Optimization

Session 1a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm Search Engine Optimization (SEO) doesn’t have to be a black art. It’s deceptively simple. Learn the basic and intermediate ways to increase your ranks in Google that the pros use, and you can too. • Josh Ziering, Owner, Full Speed SEO (Twitter @JoshuaZiering) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Effective Social Media Techniques

Session 1b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm Get insights into the techniques behind effectively using social media to build your brand and achieve business growth. Includes a question and answer session with the panelists. • Andrew Wee, Owner, WhoIsAndrewWee.com (Twitter @ andrewwee) (Moderator)

• Rebecca Kelley, Director of Social Media, 10e20 (Twitter @ rebeccakelley) • Keith Plocek, Social Media Manager, Mail.com Media Corporation (Twitter @keithplocek) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Increase Search Revenue While Protecting Your Brand

Session 1c Location: Palma Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm Learn how to increase search revenue by letting your affiliates bid on trademark terms. Affiliate managers present case studies while TheSmartestSearch provides an affiliate’s perspective. • Debbie Bookstaber, VP, Strategy & Business Development, The JAR Group (Twitter @buzzmommy) (Moderator) • Brendan Lawrence, Publisher Extraordinaire, The Smartest Search • Lori Weiman, CEO, The Search Monitor (Twitter @searchmonitor) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Merchant Challenges in the Affiliate Space

• Deborah Carney, CEO, Team Loxly (Twitter @loxly) (Moderator)

Session 1d Location: Tropical Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm

• Wendy Limauge, Blogger, Sweeties Swag (Twitter @ sweetiesswag)

Identify several key merchants and have them speak on new and future challenges seen by the merchants in the affiliate space. Open the floor to participants to ask questions as well. • Charles Calabrese, Product Manager, buy.at Affiliate Network (Moderator)

• Carrie Rocha, President, Pocket Your Dollars (Twitter @ dollarspocket) • Kim Rowley, President, Key Internet Marketing, Inc. (Twitter @ kimarketing) • Heather Sokol, Proprietor, Inexpensively (Twitter @justheather)

• Dave Gaetano, Online Marketing Consultant, The New York Times

(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

• Erik Hom, Sr. Director, Business Development, Ticketmaster (Twitter @Route53)

Using Pay-Per-Call to Grow Affiliate Programs

• Madeleine McGregor, Affiliate Manager, CSN Stores • Jared Saunders, Affiliate Program Manager, Jenson USA (Twitter @Pakiha) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO

Session 2c Location: Palma Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm Online consumers want more human interaction. Learn how new pay-per-call technology is enabling advertisers to scale their affiliate programs and improve ROI for both advertisers and publishers. • Jason Spievak, CEO, RingRevenue, Inc. (Twitter @RingRevenue)

Session 2a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm

(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Learn to maximize affiliate commissions using blogging, increasing your community, and utilizing SEO.

Session 2d Location: Tropical Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm

• Kristopher B. Jones, President, Pepperjam Network, A GSI Commerce Company (Twitter @pepperjamceo) (Moderator) • Drew Bennett, Professional Blogger, BenSpark.com (Twitter @ BenSpark) • John Carcutt, SEO Manager, MediaWhiz (Twitter @JohnCarcutt) • Tim Jones, Owner, TheRealTimJones.com (Twitter @ TheRealTimJones) • Murray Ross Newlands, Founder, Affiliate Heat (Twitter @ murraynewlands) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) MommyBloggers: Changing the Face of Affiliate Marketing?

Session 2b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm MommyBloggers are involved in many types of monetization strategies for their blogs, affiliate marketing being one, however they aren’t necessarily doing it in the “traditional” ways.

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Affiliate Program Case Studies: Strategies and Practices

Discussion of what it takes for a retailer to get their affiliate channel to the next level. Multiple merchant case studies reveal and illustrate strategies and practices that attract affiliates. • Melanie Seery, President, Affiliate Advocacy (Twitter @Mellies) (Moderator) • Karen Garcia, Partner & Co-Founder, GTO Management (Twitter @karengarcia) • Kristen Grace, Affiliate Marketing Manager, BuyCostumes.com (Twitter @kristengrace) • Jon Nunez, Affiliate Manager, Football Fanatics (Twitter @ Jon_Nunez) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda Start Monetizing Your Blog Today

De-Duping: the Great Unknown in Affiliate Marketing

Session 3a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm

Session 3d Location: Tropical Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm

Have a great blog but new to affiliate marketing? Learn from a network representative, an affiliate manager, and an affiliate the terminology and tricks behind turning your blog into earnings.

De-duping affiliate sales against other channels is common practice, but what are the rules and how far is too far? Find out common practice and why we need an industry-wide best practice standard.

• Marty Fahncke, President, FawnKey & Associates (Twitter @ FawnKey) (Moderator)

• Mary Young, Head of Account Management, AffiliateFuture (Twitter @MaryAffFuture)

• Kristin Kinsey, President/CEO, MadHatter Consulting, Inc. (Twitter @KC)

(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

• Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards (Twitter @sunshinetricia)

Affiliate Summit Mentor Program Meetup

• Carolyn Tang, Director of Client Services, ShareASale.com (Twitter @catango)

Location: Tropical Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm

(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

(Open to all attendees enrolled in the Affiliate Summit Mentor Program)

Video: Biggest Affiliate Marketing Opportunity Since Google

ShareASale Under the Stars Party featuring Affiliate Karaoke

Session 3b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm

Location: Rio Hotel, Miranda Time: 8:00pm-12:00am Additional details coming soon.

Discover the secrets of affiliate video promotion. Learn how you can increase your traffic and conversions by leveraging some of the most popular video sites. • Rosalind Gardner, Super Affiliate, Rosalind Gardner Consulting (Twitter @rosalindgardner) • Jeremy Palmer, President, Quit Your Day Job, LLC (Twitter @ quityourdayjob) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) 20 Affiliate Program Management Mistakes To Avoid

Session 3c Location: Palma Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm We will cover 20 mistakes that affiliate managers routinely commit. Real life examples will be provided. You will take away practical knowledge, and a checklist to compare against your own style. • Geno Prussakov, Founder, AM Navigator (Twitter @eprussakov) (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

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Monday, January 18 Continental Breakfast Location: Amazon A-E Time: 9:00am - 10:00am (Breakfast is Open to Platinum Pass Holders with Breakfast Tickets Only)

Coffee Service Location: Amazon A-E Time: 10:00am-12:30pm and 2:00pm-6:00pm Registration Location: Registration Area Time: 7:30am - 5:00pm Blogger Room Location: Coco Time: 8:30am - 6:00pm The Blogger’s Lounge is an area reserved for credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk space, blog, interview, relax and network. Heather Smith will be the BlogMistress of the Affiliate Summit Blogger’s Lounge, where she’ll be acting as liaison between Affiliate Summit and the press and bloggers attending the show. • Heather Smith, Blogger, Beautiful British Columbia (Twitter @heatherinbc) Exhibit Hall Location: Amazon G-T Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm (Exhibitors may set up beginning at 9:00am)

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Opening Remarks & Keynote Location: Penn & Teller Theater Time: 9:45am – 10:45am • Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @ jimkukral) • Dr. Robert Cialdini, President, INFLUENCE AT WORK (Twitter @RobertCialdini) Influence During Times of Uncertainty In today’s uncertain environment, the need for simultaneously effective and ethical influence is necessary, pertinent, and now more vital than ever to our success. During this profound presentation, Dr. Robert Cialdini briefly reviews six researchbased universal principles of influence, but focuses on those principles that are most effective during conditions of uncertainty and that leaders can employ to bring about positive and lasting change among individuals located both inside and outside their organizations. Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the ground-breaking book, Influence, and co-author of the New York Times best-seller, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive, is your guide in translating highly relevant but poorly-understood scientific research into practical business applications. His books have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. Dr. Cialdini is the world’s leading authority on influence and his widely acclaimed studies are highly instructive to those who want to be more influential. (This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)

Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda How to Fix Failing SEO Efforts

Session 4a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm There are many misconceptions about search engine optimization. This session will detail five reasons SEO efforts fail. • Wil Reynolds, Associate, SEER Interactive (Twitter @wilreynolds) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Product Datafeeds: The Next Level

Session 4b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm Product datafeeds are among the most powerful tools available to affiliate marketers. We’ll discuss the current state of datafeeds and industry progress, best practices, and moving toward standards. • Scott Jangro, President, MechMedia, Inc. (Twitter @jangro) (Moderator) • Larry Adams, Product Manager, Google • Shergul Arshad, VP, Business & Corporate Development, StyleFeeder, Inc. (Twitter @shergul) • Brian Smith, CEO & Founder, SingleFeed (Twitter @singlefeed) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Law Enforcement Risks for Advertisers, Affiliates, Networks

Session 4c Location: Palma Time: 11:30am-12:30pm We will explore recent state/federal actions, assess legal exposure risks to advertisers, affiliates and networks, and discuss best practices for avoiding and dealing with unwanted regulatory scrutiny. • Thomas A. Cohn, Of Counsel, Venable LLP (Moderator) • Dean Graybill, Assistant Regional Director, Western Region, Federal Trade Commission • David Katz, VP Corporate Development and General Counsel, Cyberplex Inc. (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Affiliate Marketing by the Numbers

Session 4d Location: Tropical Time: 11:30am-12:30pm Data from comScore, Commission Junction and Affiliate Benchmarks will illustrate the current state of affiliate marketing from these three

perspectives: the industry, the network and the publisher. • Nicole Williams, Advertiser Account Director, Commission Junction (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Affiliate Showcase

Location: Brasilia 4, 5 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm Affiliate Showcase will be an opportunity for affiliates to preside over tables where merchants and networks can visit with them to discuss working together. (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Luncheon

Location: Amazon A-E Time: 12:30pm-1:45pm (Lunch is Open to Platinum Pass Holders With Lunch Tickets Only)

Self-Promotion Will Save The World

Session 5a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm “It’s the economy, stupid!” has given way to “It’s the social economy, stupid!” We’ll examine a handful of successful companies, what they did to turn customers into Raving Fans, and how you can, too. • Peter Shankman, Founder, HARO (Twitter @skydiver) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Where do the compliance responsibilities of an affiliate network end and a merchant begin? A discussion of the expectations from both parties and approaches to building an effective relationship. • David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity (Twitter @brandverity) (Moderator) • Rachel Corcoran, Director of Compliance, Hydra • Graham MacRobie, President and CEO, Alias Encore, Inc. (Twitter @grahammacrobie) • Jamie Birch, President, JEBCommerce (Twitter @JamieEBirch) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Killer Facebook Advertising Tactics

Session 5b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm

Vertical Exchange

Tired of ad disapprovals, low CTRs, terrible conversion rates, and inconsistent traffic volume? CPM or CPC? Pages or direct link? Hear how several super affiliates do it, plus tips from Facebook.

Vertical Exchange will be an opportunity for affiliates, merchants and networks to find one another by vertical to network and work our deals.

• Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @jimkukral) (Moderator) • Mark Colacioppo, President, Globalizer, LLC (Twitter @ globalizermark) • Markus Frind, CEO, Plentyoffish • Dr. David Klein (dk), CEO, Purpose inc (Twitter @purposeinc) • Alex Schultz, Manager, Internet Marketing, Facebook (Twitter @ alexschultz) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Running a Network: Business, Legal & Practical

Session 5c Location: Palma Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm Networks are on the front lines of positive, negative, profitable, and dangerous issues in the affiliate world. Are they the digital hall monitors of affiliate marketing? • Gary Kibel, Partner, Davis & Gilbert LLP (Twitter @GaryKibel_law) • Mary Beth Padian, Global Affiliate Manager, Loylogic, Inc. • Adam Weiss, Vice President, Network Development, LinkShare (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Affiliate Program Compliance: Working with the Networks

Session 5d Location: Tropical Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm

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Location: Brasilia 4, 5 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm

(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) SEO Site Review/Clinic

Session 6a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm Live Q&A, site audits and suggestions on how to help the internal site structure, as well as ideas how to build a better site for organic rankings. • Rae Hoffman, CEO, Outspoken Media (Twitter @sugarrae) (Moderator) • Greg Boser, President, 3 Dog Media, LLC (Twitter @GregBoser) • Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web (Twitter @graywolf ) • Michael Streko, Co-Founder, KnowEm.com (Twitter @Streko) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Making Social Media Make Money: Ten Strategies

Session 6b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm Social Media Websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have exploded in popularity. This presentation will share 10 proven strategies to generate massive profit from top social media websites. • Jay Berkowitz, CEO, Ten Golden Rules (Twitter @JayBerkowitz) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda Oprah, Flogs and FTC: Hot Topics 2010

Session 6c Location: Palma Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm This session un-muddies the murky waters of the FTC’s ever-changing focus, the proliferation of IP-related lawsuits, and the legal ambiguity regarding many forms of Internet-based marketing. • Pete Wellborn, Managing Member, Wellborn, Wallace & Woodard, LLC (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) CPA Affiliate Marketing Opportunities in Europe

Session 6d Location: Tropical Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm European affiliate marketing is a few years behind America in some areas, but ahead of it in others. This session will provide insight into the growth areas in Europe. • Dush Ramachandran, Vice President, Sales Marketing & Business Development, ClickBank (Twitter @DushR) (Moderator)

• Jim Banks, CEO, Unanimis (Twitter @jimbanks) • James Little, Head of Affiliates, AffiliateFuture (Twitter @3wdl) • Matthew Wood, Managing Director & Founder, existem / a4uexpo (Twitter @matthewwood) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Ask the Experts

Location: Brasilia 4, 5 Time: 5:00 pm-6:00pm (This Session is Open to All Pass Holders) Ask the Experts will be an opportunity for merchants, networks and affiliates to ask questions about various specialties and issues. Hand picked experts will handle topics in their specialty, and conduct chats, answer questions and share opinions during this networking and education session. • KISS SEO: Michael Martin, SEO Director of Project Management, Internet Marketing Inc (Twitter @googleandblog) • Landing Pages That Take the Money – Everytime!: Gillian Muessig, President, SEOmoz, Inc (Twitter @SEOmom) • Merchants Who Relinquish Control and Trust Affiliates: Matt Enders, CEO, mgecom, inc. (Twitter @mattenders) • Niche Site Builder and Content Production: Evan Weber, CEO, Experience Advertising (Twitter @experienceads) • Strategies for Long-Term Revenue Growth: Michael Jenkins, CEO/Founder, MarketLeverage (Twitter @MarketLeverage) • Video Content Monetization for Affiliates and Advertisers: Liat Fuchs, Affiliate Director, AffiliatePLY (Twitter @affiliateply) Affiliate Summit Trivia Tweetup

Location: Miranda 1&3 and Miranda Patio Time: 9:30pm – midnight Sure, you can impress your friends with your knowledge of all of the dog’s names that have lived in the White House, but will they buy you drinks? Give you prizes? We doubt it. Here’s your opportunity to get what you deserve. Join the Affiliate Summit team and your Trivia Host, Lisa Picarille for the Affiliate Summit Trivia Tweetup where you can show off your random-fact prowess, get unexpected high-fives and make some new friends. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll even win drink tickets or passes to Affiliate Summit East 2010 in New York City. (Internet and Phone usage by players is not permitted during the game.)

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Tuesday, January 19 Continental Breakfast Location: Amazon A-E Time: 9:00am - 10:00am

for the leaders in the space. Award winners are recognized because they are innovative leaders with vision and influence.

(Breakfast is Open to Platinum Pass Holders with

The following awards will be presented: • Affiliate of the Year • Affiliate Manager of the Year • Exceptional Merchant • Affiliate Marketing Advocate Award • Best Blogger • Affiliate Marketing Legend

Breakfast Tickets Only)

Coffee Service Location: Amazon A-E Time: 10:00am–12:30pm and 2:00pm–6:00pm Registration Location: Registration Area Time: 8:00am - 3:00pm Blogger Room Location: Coco Time: 8:30am - 4:00pm The Blogger’s Lounge is an area reserved for credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk space, blog, interview, relax and network. Heather Smith will be the BlogMistress of the Affiliate Summit Blogger’s Lounge, where she’ll be acting as liaison between Affiliate Summit and the press and bloggers attending the show. • Heather Smith, Blogger, Beautiful British Columbia (Twitter @heatherinbc) Exhibit Hall Location: Amazon G-T Time: 10:00am – 4:00pm (Exhibitors may set up beginning at 9:00am) Opening Remarks, Pinnacle Awards & Keynote Location: Penn & Teller Theater Time: 10:00am – 11:15am The Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards are affiliate marketing’s most prestigious, competitive honor

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Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @jimkukral) Brian Clark, Co-Founder, DIY Themes (Twitter @copyblogger) (This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)

Site Clinic by the Women of SEO

Session 7a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm Come have your site reviewed under a microscope by the women of SEO. They will critique websites for content, landing pages, design, HTML and conversions. • Kate Morris, Founding Demon, Marketing Demons (Twitter @ katemorris) (Moderator) • Kristy Bolsinger, Social Media Marketing Strategist, RealNetworks (Twitter @Kristy) • Carolyn Shelby, Web Experience Manager, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago (Twitter @cshel) • Lyndsay Walker, Director of Online Marketing, Canada’s Web Shop (Twitter @lyndseo) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Scaling Article Marketing For Affiliate Marketers

Session 7b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 11:30am-12:30pm Drive millions of high-value free traffic/visitors with articles. Avoid the 7 common pitfalls that could hurt your pocketbook & reputation.

Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda • Chris Knight, CEO, EzineArticles.com (Twitter @ChrisKnight) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Coupon Problem Solving Clinic

Session 7c Location: Palma Time: 11:30am-12:30pm Merchants, bring your questions about coupons and coupon affiliates and let this panel of industry experts show you the best practices to resolve your concerns and meet your goals using this channel. • Todd Crawford, Co-Founder, Impact Radius (Twitter @ toddcrawford) (Moderator) • Connie Berg, CEO, FlamingoWorld.com (Twitter @ flamingoworld) • Michael Coley, Founder, Amazing-Bargains.com (Twitter @ MichaelColey) • Chuck Hamrick, Affiliate Manager, AffiliateCrew.com (Twitter @ Chuck_Hamrick) • Melissa Canepa Murphy, Owner, Crazy for Bargains LLC (Twitter @Pajamalady)

Igniting Viral Campaigns by Creating Relevant Conversations

Session 8b Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm Creating persuasive momentum in the social media space is the key to viral success. Blogs, viral video, podcasting, Twitter, Facebook, SEO… which tools are right for your campaign? • Larry Bailin, Author / CEO, Single Throw Internet Marketing (Twitter @larrybailin) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Creating Lasting Publisher and Advertiser Relationships

Session 8c Location: Palma Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm Results are what matter in performance marketing. These industry leaders will discuss how they work together to create long-term partnerships, and explore communication, commission, policies and more. • Steve Schaffer, Founder & CEO, Offers.com (Twitter @ SteveSchaffer) (Moderator)

(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

• Stephen Siphron, Señor Marketer, Cashbaq (Moderator)

E-Commerce Site Deconstruction: Strategies for Affiliates

• Eva Klein, Director of Business Development, FatWallet (Twitter @evaklein)

Session 7d Location: Tropical Time: 11:30am-12:30pm As an e-commerce web developer and affiliate marketer for 11 years, Michael Vorel will deconstruct leading e-commerce web sites to uncover strategies and trends that can be utilized by affiliates. • Michael Vorel, CEO, Vastplanet Corporation (Twitter @ michaelvorel) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Luncheon

(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Using Thought Leadership to Generate Leads

Session 8d Location: Tropical Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm Creating content is one of the best ways to establish community around a brand. This session will show how to use business blogging, video, webinars, etc. to reach prospects and generate leads. • Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO, HubSpot, Inc. (Twitter @ dharmesh)

Location: Amazon A-E Time: 12:30pm-1:45pm

(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

(Lunch is Open to Platinum Pass Holders with Lunch Tickets Only)

GeekCast.fm Live!s

How To Get Motivated For Success!

Location: Palma Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm

Session 8a Location: Brasilia 1-2 Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm

A mixed bunch of podcasters from GeekCast.fm will have an open, candid discussion about the hot topics in affiliate marketing.

Get off your butt and get to work. Motivational tips, tricks & strategies that can put you on the path to online success.

(This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)

• Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @jimkukral) (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE |

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Keynote Bio

Dr. Robert Cialdini Extensive scholarly training in the psychology of influence, together with over 30 years of research into the subject, has earned Dr. Cialdini an international reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation. His books including, Influence: Science and Practice , are the results of more than 30 years of study into the reasons why people comply with requests in business settings. Worldwide, Influence has sold over 1.5 million copies. Influence has been published in twenty-five languages. His most recent co-authored book, Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive , has been on the New York Times, USA Today & Wall Street Journal Best Seller Lists. Additionally, CEO Read lists Influence in their 100 Best Business Books of All Time. In the field of influence and persuasion, Dr. Cialdini is the most cited living social psychologist in the world today. Dr. Cialdini received his Ph.D from the University of North Carolina and post doctoral training from Columbia University. He has held Visiting Scholar Appointments at Ohio State University, the University of California, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. Currently, Dr Cialdini holds dual appointments at Arizona State University. He is a W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Regents’ Professor of Psychology, where he has also been named Distinguished Graduate Research Professor. Media coverage of Dr. Cialdini and his research include Dateline NBC, CNBC, CNN, ABC, Washington Post, New York Times, On Wall Street, Forbes Magazine, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, London Times, Scientific American, Los Angeles Times, Psychology Today, Selling Power, Sales and Marketing Magazine, Leader to Leader Magazine, The Atlantic Journal, The Denver Post, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Fortune Magazine. Dr. Cialdini is President of INFLUENCE AT WORK, an international consulting, strategic planning and training organization based on the Six Principles of Influence. Dr. Cialdini’s clients include such organizations as Google, Advanta, IBM, Washington Mutual Group of Funds, Coca Cola, KPMG, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Kodak, Merrill Lynch, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, Northern Trust, Prudential, The Mayo Clinic, Glaxo Wellcome, Harvard University – Kennedy School, The Weather Channel, the United States Department of Justice, NATO, Microsoft and Charles Schwab.

Keynote Bio

Brian Clark Brian Clark is a ten-year-veteran of Internet publishing and marketing. Brianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s companies produce millions of dollars in annual revenue thanks to a mix of online educational content and direct response copywriting, and his influential blog Copyblogger is read by over 67,000 people. Brian is also the co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress; the Teaching Sells interactive training program; and the creativity blog Lateral Action.

Affiliate Summit West 2010 Speakers Larry Adams

Drew Bennett

Shergul Arshad

Connie Berg

Larry is a product manager for affiliate marketing for the Google Affiliate Network, formerly known as Performics. He has been an advocate for affiliate marketing within DoubleClick and Google as well as the industry at large for the past five years. Prior to Google/ DoubleClick/Performics, he was an engineer and technical architect for software and consulting companies specializing in eCommerce. Larry graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 with a bachelors degree in Industrial Management and a masters in Information Systems.

Shergul Arshad is the VP of Business & Corporate Development at StyleFeeder, Inc. In his role, Shergul is responsible for all revenue generation from advertising and affiliate relationships as well as strategic partnerships for the fast growing personal shopping engine. Shergul joined StyleFeeder prior to its A Round as the second fulltime employee in 2006, where he was able to leverage his online shopping experience from eBay, FairMarket and Amazon to set up early partnerships that led to immediate growth for StyleFeeder. Shergul has spoken at Digital Hollywood, PMA, CJU and at several investment banking conferences. Shergul holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Originally from Florence, Italy, Shergul resides in the Boston area with his wife and kids. In his spare time, Shergul enjoys coaching his boys soccer teams, skiing, golfing, traveling and following all Boston sports teams (plus Italian soccer team, AC Fiorentina!).

Larry Bailin

Larry Bailin, author of the bestselling marketing book, Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? and CEO of the award winning Internet marketing company, Single Throw. A renowned expert in the field of Internet marketing as well as in the new customer culture, Bailin has been a keynote and conference speaker for: Microsoft, UPS, Bath Fitter, HealthSouth, The DMA, The Conference Board, BMA and many others. Bailin has been called “one of the top minds in the business” by Yahoo’s marketing team and was named one of New Jersey’s top forty under forty in business in 2007. As a go-to expert for the media, he has written for and been featured in articles for Yahoo!, The Street, CNN Money, Entrepreneur Magazine, DM News, Tech News, Fortune Small Business, NJBIZ, Realtor Magazine, and AOL. Bailin has proven to be a powerhouse in marketing as well as in the business world as a worldclass speaker, a business leader, and bestselling author.

Jim Banks

Jim Banks is the CEO of Global Direct Media a UK based CPA network. He speaks at events around the world, on a wide range of industry topics, and having been in the online space since 1999 has seen a lot happen. Jim was a committee member on the inaugural UK-Search Marketing Association (UK-SMA) as supplier liaison.

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Drew Bennett is a Husband, Father, Photographer, Traveler, Wired Kayaker and Transformers Fan. He has taken a Photo-A-Day for nearly 5 straight years and he blogs about them on BenSpark.com. BenSpark.com is a personal blog where Drew builds community with his readers through conversation, contests and compelling content. Drew also builds community through his newsletter Behind The Lens where he offers his photography tips. Drew is constantly looking for opportunities to expand his brand. You’ll often find him at industry conferences and tradeshows.

Connie Berg is the Founder of FlamingoWorld.com which offers discounts and coupons from online retailers, and ForMeToCoupon. com a consolidated coupon data feed for affiliates covering most major affiliate networks and almost 2000 merchants. Through the years, Connie has attended many affiliate marketing functions and actively opposes unethical affiliates and practices within the affiliate community. Connie is a member of several affiliate network advisory panels and sometimes contributes to Revenews.com on topics related to affiliate marketing. She is the winner of the 2004 Linkshare Golden Link Most Vocal Advocate Award and the 2008 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award – Affiliate of the Year Award.

Jay Berkowitz

Jay Berkowitz is a dynamic marketing professional. He has managed marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Sprint, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s and successful dot-com eDiets.com. Mr. Berkowitz is the Author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing Workbook, Host of the Award-Winning Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast and Founder and CEO of tengoldenrules.com, an internet marketing consulting agency. Ten Golden Rules helps companies get more traffic to their websites and convert that traffic to sales with a focus on improving profit. Mr. Berkowitz is the Past President of the American Marketing Association South Florida and a founding Board Member of SFIMA, the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association. Mr. Berkowitz is a popular presenter at conferences and events such as Affiliate Summit, The American Marketing Association, The Direct Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies, Ad-Tech, and the CEO Executive Forum.

Speaker Bios Jamie Birch

Currently I am the owner of JEBCommerce. We manage affiliate programs for our clients as well as paid search, SEO, web development and more. Since 2005, I have also been a contributor at Revenews. com. Prior to JEBCommerce, I was the Director of Affiliate Relations at Converseon, where I managed all aspects of affiliate programs including recruiting, retention, strategy, while managing a team of experienced affiliate managers. At Converseon, I managed programs such as Hilton Hotels, Palm, Mikasa, Edmund Scientifics and more. Prior to Converseon, I managed a multi-million dollar affiliate program and search campaigns for Coldwater Creek, a top 5 national women’s apparel retailer. I have also held positions with a number of e-commerce and online marketing companies where my focused was on performance marketing and customer retention and activation initiatives. I also have many years of experience in Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing and other tech marketing areas.

Debbie Bookstaber

Debbie Bookstaber is the VP of Strategy and Business Development at The JAR Group. Debbie’s experience as both an affiliate manager and a top affiliate makes her uniquely suited for this role. Debbie has over nine years of experience in online marketing, business development, product management and affiliate marketing for brands such as Expedia and Travelocity. She won both the Travelocity Enterprise Award and the Expedia Horizon Award for her job performance. Debbie brings an understanding of media buying, search, social media and negotiation to affiliate engagements. Passionate about social media, Debbie started a successful product review site (www. mamanista.com), which was picked as one of six influential mom blogs by Playthings Magazine in February 2009. Mamanista.com generates revenue through affiliate marketing as well as traditional CPM advertising, and Debbie donates her earnings to charity. Debbie graduated from Yale University with a Bachelors and Masters in History.

Kristy Bolsinger

Kristy Bolsinger is currently employed as a Social Media Marketing Strategist with RealNetworks in Seattle, WA. Prior to her time at RealNetworks Kristy was working as a Social Media Marketing Consultant and completing her MBA at Willamette University. She maintains a social media blog and can also be found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Greg Boser

Greg Boser (aka WebGuerrilla) is an internet marketing consultant who has specialized in search engine optimization since 1996. Having served as President of WebGuerrilla, LLC for over 10 years, Greg has now launched 3 Dog Media, a new full service internet marketing company that supports more client needs than traditional SEO. 3 Dog Media provides a fresh look at how to maximize Web 2.0 in any vertical, while grasping every SEO opportunity. Greg Boser has been quoted in Newsweek, WSJ, as well as having been a former moderator for WMW. You may also recognize Greg from his weekly radio show “SEO Rockstars” on WebmasterRadio.FM. Greg has been speaking in the conference circuit since 1999. 3 Dog Media specializes in SEO, SMM, Reputation Management and Wordpress Development.

Charles Calabrese

In his current role as Product Management for the buy.at Affiliate Network, Charles Calabrese is responsible for setting the strategic direction of buy.at, developing and managing the US product roadmap, and translating the high–level product strategy into specific functional requirements and marketing plans. Charlie joined Platform-A (then Advertising.com) in January 2005 as a Business Analyst and was responsible for managing data analytics across the breadth of Advertising.com’s products. After helping grow the analysis team he ventured into the New Product Development group where he did research into emerging technology which could benefit Platform-A as a whole. Before joining Platform-A, Charlie was a Development Consultant for a medical software design firm. His specialty was on the use of information technology and data for business process improvement. Charlie is a member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board.

John Carcutt

John Carcutt is a 12 Year SEO veteran who started working as an In-House SEO and moved to agency management. He worked as the previous Director of Natural Search for MoreVisibility and is currently the SEO Manager for MediaWhiz Holdings, the parent company of Text-Link-Ads and others. He is a guest author on numerous industry sites including the Search Engine Journal, and the Co-host of SEO101 on WebmasterRadio.fm. He also speaks at various industry trade shows.

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Deborah Carney

Deborah has been a professional photographer for 30 years, including photographing weddings, other social events and conferences, on location cat shows, as well as a fine art photographer. She has been creating websites for 15+ years, that all included photographs optimized for the web, because back then they had to be since we were all on dialup! A selection of her photos hang in hotels, homes and offices, and are published in several cat breed books, as well as being scattered all over the web and some newspaper publishing along the way. Currently an affiliate and Outsourced Program Manager that teaches affiliates how to optimize their sites and that uses images heavily in her own sites. You can hear her tips on Affiliate ABCs and Make Your Mark (art marketing) podcasts.

Thomas A. Cohn

Tom Cohn, of counsel to the law firm of Venable LLP, is a former FTC attorney [17+ years, NY regional director] representing a variety of online and offline advertisers and marketers, including affiliates, merchants and ad networks. He has spoken at ad:tech SF, Meetup202NYC and numerous advertising law workshops and conferences sponsored by Promotion Marketing Association, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Direct Marketing Association and many others. Tom counsels advertisers, online marketers, media companies, ad agencies and production companies on advertising, marketing and promotion matters, and represents them in connection with state and federal litigation and investigations, as well as before the National Advertising Division and other self-regulatory organizations. He is a member of the Committee on Consumer Affairs of the New York City Bar and the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Section of the New York State Bar Association, and he is admitted to the bar in New York and Massachusetts.

Michael Coley

Michael Coley is a veteran of the affiliate industry. He founded one of the first coupon sites, Amazing-Bargains.com, in 1999. Michael is a moderator and active participant on ABestWeb.com. He has been a long-time advocate for affiliate marketing and is a member of several industry advisory boards.

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Rachel Corcoran

Rachel Corcoran is the Director of Compliance for Hydra, the largest pure performance-based advertising network. As an attorney with extensive corporate regulatory and Internet marketing experience, Rachel is focused on continually improving Hydra’s compliance program by adding new technologies and processes that help advertisers maximize the advantages of the CPA advertising model while still retaining control over their campaigns. Hydra’s commitment to compliance brings higher quality and greater control than has traditionally been available to advertisers employing performancebased advertising.

Todd Crawford

A recognizable veteran, Todd Crawford brings to Impact Radius a passion for performance advertising and a commitment to its growth. As a co-founder, he evangelizes the opportunities presented by a multi-channel approach to the performance model. Prior to Impact Radius, he served as vice president of sales and business development for Digital River’s affiliate network, oneNetworkDirect. Todd also contributed to the founding team at Commission Junction in 1998 and led its business and sales development efforts as vice president for more than seven years. In 2007, Todd won the Affiliate Marketing Legend Award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards in Las Vegas. He holds a bachelor of arts at the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities.

Matt Enders

Matt Enders is the founder and CEO of mgecom, inc., a leading Outsourced Affiliate Program Management Firm. Based in Cary, NC, mgecom represents some of the greatest brands to be found online. Our client roster spans international borders and international waters, where we work with companies in both the B2B and B2C markets. In 2009 mgecom was nominated as a finalist for the Commission Junction University Agency of the Year award. Matt personally has been in the online marketing industry since early 2002, when he launched and fully managed his first affiliate program. Over the years, his career has touched on all verticals of online marketing, with a heavy focus always being paid to the development, management, and growth of affiliate marketing programs. Matt has been operating mgecom, inc. since March 2006, where the sole focus is the outsourced management of our client’s affiliate programs.

Speaker Bios Marty Fahncke

Karen Garcia

Markus Frind

Dave Gaetano

An expert in multi-channel direct response marketing with over 20 years experience, Marty M. Fahncke brings a unique and experienced perspective to his audiences. As President of FawnKey & Associates, a consulting and project management firm, Marty has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for his clients using direct response television, the telephone, and the internet. His most recent venture, BizKidz.com is a website designed to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs…kids age 7-15. On www.BizKidz.com, children learn real business, marketing, and entrepreneurial skills in a safe, fun environment, all while earning real money. Marty speaks to audiences across the country on topics related to internet marketing, social media, affiliate marketing, and more. Marty also shares his knowledge as an Advisory Board member and feature writer for Electronic Retailer magazine. His writing can also be found at the popular blog “My Perspective”, which can be read at http://www.MartyFahncke.com.

Markus Frind is the CEO of PlentyofFish.com, which he founded in 2003 from the comfort of his apartment. In just over six years, POF has become the world’s largest online dating site with over 100 million visits per month and more than 2.5 billion page views. Markus started his career as an affiliate and employed his tactics on POF to grow his revenue to over $10 million a year. Listen and learn from a super affiliate.

Liat Fuchs

Liat Fuchs is the Affiliate Director at AffiliatePLY.com, a video based affiliate network, and has been working in the online affiliate industry for four years. Previously, Liat was at 888.com, the biggest online casino in the world, and then affiliate Director at Duplicate Poker, a skill based online poker room. Liat was also providing affiliate and online marketing consulting services for online companies that wanted to establish their affiliate program, or to those who already have one, and want to leverage it and take it forward. Liat has experience with all aspects of online marketing and advertising (media buying, SEO, PPC, forums, viral marketing), and has been around all the industry’s major conventions (Affiliate Summit, ad:tech, SES, WebmasterWorld, CAP etc). She has a deep understanding of the affiliate’s work, needs and expectations. Liat holds a BA degree in Political Science and East Asia Studies from Tel Aviv University, and an MBA with a marketing orientation.

Karen Garcia is a co-founder and partner at GTO Management, an outsourced affiliate program management company. Karen has ten years of experience in e-commerce and marketing. Beginning in 1999, Karen successfully developed and managed the affiliate program for Shari’s Berries. While at Shari’s, she increased brand awareness, affiliate performance and customer retention through the effective use of digital methods, e-mail marketing and promotions, print advertisements, SEO and SEM campaign development. Karen has consulted on and profitably managed dozens of affiliate programs on many different network platforms ranging from large national brands such as National Geographic and MediFast to niche merchants like BowlingShirt.com and MakeBeer.net. Karen is also a co-founder of CAMA, the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association, a faith-based organization formed in 2007 to promote fellowship, wholesome Christian affiliate programs, and integrity and fairness in affiliate marketing.

Dave Gaetano is the Online Marketing Director for The New York Times Store. He created and launched the store’s affiliate program in June 2009 and has been striving to create a program that is publisher friendly. In addition, he has been responsible for launching paid search campaigns on all the major search engines and has focused on gaining more exposure for the store in the social marketing world. His diverse background includes management and ownership of a residential real estate brokerage, where he first realized the value of internet marketing in the mid 90’s. Dave graduated with a finance degree from Syracuse University and has a JD in Law from the University of Connecticut.

Rosalind Gardner

Rosalind Gardner has been a leader in the affiliate marketing industry since 1998 and is recognized best through her best-selling affiliate training manual, the “Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online” and her contributions as the ‘Affiliate’s Corner’ columnist for Revenue magazine. As a speaker, consultant and prolific blogger, Rosalind teaches affiliates how to build sustainable online businesses and teaches merchants how to structure their affiliate programs to attract and retain loyal Super Affiliates like herself.

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Kristen Grace

Kristen Grace is the Affiliate Marketing Manager for BuySeasons, Inc., the parent company to two of the largest online costume and party retailers; BuyCostumes.com and Celebrate Express. In her role she is responsible for overseeing and personally managing the strategy between highly seasonal and year round brands. She has been in the affiliate marketing space for over 5 years and ‘has survived’ 6 Halloween seasons! She’s mastered the art of managing a very seasonal affiliate program which won BuyCostumes.com the CJYou “People’s Choice” Award in 2008. She prides her management style on creating transparency, providing program and affiliate side training and enjoys the opportunity to work with affiliates, big or small. Kristen holds an MBA and in her spare time she enjoys teaching Yoga.

Michael Gray

Michael Gray has worked in the internet world since 1998, when he became Webmaster for a major retailer in New York. He developed their website strategy and grew their online sales from $100,000 to over $25 million in annual website sales. Michael then moved into affiliate marketing and started his own consulting firm. Michael has worked with many businesses to develop and implement their Social Media Strategy. He also specializes in blog development and Search Engine Optimizations for businesses of all sizes. Michael has been a speaker at Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, SEOClass and SMX. He is also moderator at Sphinn and Webmaster World. Michael is President of Atlas Web Service, located in Long Island, New York.

Chuck Hamrick

Chuck Hamrick is an outsourced program manager (OPM) at affiliateCREW, a Salt Lake City, UT based internet marketing company, managing Register, Little Giant Ladder, Rug Doctor, Bosleyinfo, Sole Treadmills, Proform, WORX Yard Tools, 1000Bulbs, and more. Active in online marketing since 1999 with SEO, PPC, email marketing and lead gen. Full time Affiliate Manager since 2005 previously managing ToolKing, Backcountry and Ancestry. You will also find Chuck as a moderator on ABestWeb.com. He also had a prior 13 years career in manufacturing as project management. To learn more visit affiliateCREW.

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Rae Hoffman

Eight years ago Rae started a small website about her son and his medical condition that became one of the first international support groups and largest website in general on the topic. It earned national media coverage and helped further medical research in the field. Investigating ways to support that site, she found affiliate marketing and became one of the most well known voices in the affiliate landscape and organic search engine optimization. Today, her current area of research is site auditing and advanced organic link development techniques relating to all of the major engines. Ms. Hoffman is the Principal of Sugarrae SEO Consulting. She also owns numerous successful personal websites on a wide range of topics.

Erik Hom

As Sr. Director in Business Development for Ticketmaster, Erik is responsible for the daily direction of Ticketmaster’s Affiliate Program as well as managing its larger strategic marketing partners. Erik also acts as the head of Ticketmaster’s social media marketing community promotion efforts. An early pioneer in online marketing since 1997, Erik has been a corporate advocate for affiliate marketing since the early days of affiliate conferences run by Refer-it.com (later Internet. com), creating Reel.com’s affiliate program and serving on the board of Shopper Connection, a consortium of retailers. Erik built one of the largest affiliate programs while at Reel.com, an experience that helped to shape his philosophy that merchant mass marketing online is about building social networks of informed merchandisers. Erik has also acted as an advisor to such companies as The Gap, Williams-Sonoma, Visa, Netflix, Idealab, Travelocity, and Amazon.

Scott Jangro

Scott Jangro is the president and co-founder of MechMedia, Inc., a performance marketing company started in 2004. MechMedia specializes in niche retail community websites, such as Shoehunting. com and Costumzee.com, giving consumers a place to share their passions and favorite products with like-minded individuals. Prior to MechMedia, Scott served as a Director of Product Management at Be Free, Inc. and later Commission Junction, both divisions of ValueClick, Inc. Through industry events, affiliate network advisory boards, the Performance Marketing Alliance, and his writing activity on Jangro. com, Scott remains an active and vocal member of the affiliate marketing community.

Speaker Bios Michael Jenkins

Michael Jenkins is the Founder and CEO of MarketLeverage Interactive Advertising, Inc. the parent company of one of the Internet’s fastest growing performance advertising networks: MarketLeverage.com. He is responsible for the creation, vision, and overall direction of several Internet advertising related businesses. Under Michael’s direction, MarketLeverage was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America, and in the top 10 on the list of Florida Trend’s Best Companies to Work for; Mid-Size division. MarketLeverage employs over 50 people and has grown revenues nearly 500% over the past 3 years. Michael is an interactive advertising veteran with hands-on experience at the affiliate level in search engine, email and web marketing. His recent efforts in social media have led to significant increases in the size of MarketLeverage’s publisher network, and the debut of the affiliate industry’s first affiliate video network: MLTV.

Kristopher B. Jones

Kristopher B. Jones is well-known throughout the search-engine and affiliate marketing community as a true pioneer and leading voice on trends and strategies for effective online marketing. An accomplished best-selling author (www.amazon.com/pepperjam), Kristopher is the President of Pepperjam Network, a next generation affiliate network recently acquired by GSI Commerce (NASDAQ – GSIC). Under Kris’ leadership Pepperjam, the company he founded in 1999, was a three-time Inc. Magazine fastest growing company. Kristopher was recognized in 2005 as an Entrepreneur of the Year by Bank of America and as one of the “Top 20″ Business Leaders in Northeastern, Pennsylvania under the age of 40. Kristopher previously worked as a senior staff member to Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) and is a frequent speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies (SES), eTail, ERA, and Affiliate Summit, among others.

Tim Jones

Tim Jones has been working with internet projects and affiliate marketing for the last 8 years. Tim is the co-founder and CEO of DestinationsInFlorida.com; a travel site that focuses on the number one travel destination in the world, Disney World. This company revolutionized the way Disney travel is sold. He authors several blogs and maintains several affiliate marketing sites, including TheRealTimJones.com. Tim participates on the RedHatBlueHat political podcast weekly, presented by the geekcast.fm network of podcasts. Tim attends and speaks at many conferences including Affiliate Summit, BlogWorldExpo, RocketPlace, and the Disney Earmarked Conference.

David Katz

As VP Corporate Development and General Counsel, Mr. Katz is responsible for sourcing and initiating new corporate development opportunities, assisting with the overall growth and strategy of the organization, as well as managing the company’s legal affairs. Mr. Katz started his career as a corporate lawyer at Lafleur Brown in Toronto from 1995 to 2000. Mr. Katz then joined InsLogic Corporation, a private label e-Brokerage for personal lines insurance, as Executive Vice President – Corporate and Legal Affairs, Secretary/Treasurer. While at InsLogic, his responsibilities included corporate development and strategy, legal, corporate HR, PR, financing activities and investor relations. Mr. Katz was instrumental in developing partnerships with Ford Credit, Charles Schwab, Citibank and other leading U.S. financial services companies, and ultimately in the sale of InsLogic to Capital One Bank in 2005. Following InsLogic, Mr. Katz operated a strategic consulting practice, and also served as CEO of Portfolios.com, a leading online community serving the marketing, publishing and creative services industries. Mr. Katz received his L.L.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1995 and was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1997.

Rebecca Kelley

Rebecca Kelley is the Director of Social Media for 10e20 (http://10e20. com), a social media marketing company based in New York. She began her Internet marketing career in 2006 as an SEO consultant and quickly developed an expertise in organic SEO, social media marketing, content creation, blogging, viral marketing and linkbait. In addition to consulting clients on their social media marketing campaigns, Rebecca manages the 10e20 blog and their social media presence. She also guest blogs for various Internet marketing publications and has spoken about Internet and viral marketing at dozens of industry conferences. Follow Rebecca on Twitter.

Gary Kibel

Gary Kibel (gkibel@dglaw.com) is a partner with the law firm of Davis & Gilbert LLP. He practices in the areas of New Media, Advertising/ Marketing and IP law. Gary regularly counsels clients with respect to issues such as interactive advertising, search marketing, affiliate marketing, enterprise technology implementations, contextual/ behavioral advertising, privacy and data security, gaming, content licensing, wireless services and entertainment, joint ventures, copyrights, trademarks, corporate matters and laws affecting the Internet. Davis & Gilbert is widely regarded as the premier law firm in the U.S. representing advertising, marketing and promotions agencies, from specialized shops to the largest advertising holding companies in the world, and also represents prominent technology and entertainment companies, marketers, and advertising trade associations. Prior to becoming an attorney, Gary was an Information Systems Analyst with Merrill Lynch.

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Kristin Kinsey

Kristin Kinsey is the founder of MadHatter Consulting, Inc., through which she manages affiliate programs for clients such as SleepyHeads. com, SigningTime.com, LiLash.com, and BadBoy.com. Kristin’s philosophy of combining smart marketing savvy with strong ethics has won her the respect of merchants and affiliates alike. She holds a degree in New Media Arts and Sciences from Indiana University, and Applied Computer Science from Purdue University. Kristin also holds a key position on her local Rainmaker Advisory Board.

Dr. David Klein (dk)

dk is an entrepreneur, the social director to the internet business world, as well as hired gun, and confidant to many of the biggest and baddest in the internet world. dk helps companies with facebook advertising, reputation management, and unique “out of the box” marketing. His little black book of contacts includes many of the most powerful people in this industry. With a few phone calls, he has solved some of the biggest companies, biggest problems. dk is known as Dr. David Klein outside of the internet world, and first became well known amongst the internet geeks when Matt Cutts of Google put him out as a poster child for local marketing, and how to get links the white hat way, with his marketing of bodyabcs.com. He has helped some of the largest companies on the internet such as Facebook and Azoogle with their online marketing. dk has also assisted internet marketing legend Jeremy Schoemaker with his Elite Retreat, and other projects. dk puts on some of the most sought after events in the internet entrepreneurial world including the Purpose Inc. thinktank.

Eva Klein

Eva Klein manages the Merchant Development Team at FatWallet and is an active member on each of the major network advisory boards. In May 2004 Ms. Klein joined FatWallet, a site specializing in many of the business models used by publishers today – Deals and Coupons, Loyalty/Cashback, Price Comparison and Forums. Prior to her position at FatWallet, Ms. Klein was the affiliate program manager at Date. com. She also held a number of positions at Be Free, Inc., including the successful management of outsourced programs for BestBuy. com, ShopNBC, Brookstone and Netflix. Eva’s nine years of industry experience spans all aspects of the affiliate marketing relationship including provider, publisher and advertiser.

Chris Knight

Chris Knight is the CEO & Publisher of the wildly popular EzineArticles. com community of over 225,000+ expert authors who write & submit fresh quality original articles in exchange for traffic back to their website. EzineArticles.com serves more than a million unique visitors daily and covers 700+ niche markets.

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Jim Kukral

For over 12-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how to build successful new online businesses or energize and refresh existing ones. A graduate of The University of Akron with a BA in Public Relations and a minor in Sales & Marketing, Jim has spent time working for publicly traded firms and small businesses alike. Jim’s work and experience in the Internet marketing industry has branded him as a leading thinker and thought-leader in the community. Jim started work in the Internet business in 1995, mostly in the trenches writing code, designing websites and managing large projects for one of the USA’s first Web firms based in Cleveland, OH. Jim is credited with building some of the first major Fortune 500 websites and blogs in America. His work has been viewed by millions around the world.

Brendan Lawrence

Brendan Lawrence is the founder of www.thesmartestsearch.com. His understanding of affiliate marketing and advertiser concerns led him to found an affiliate site that specializes in running long-tail search campaigns and working with merchants to protect their trademarked terms. Brendan’s consistent involvement in the field of search has enabled his experience in online strategic marketing to sky-rocket. His publishing efforts not only meet his clients’ needs, but his creativity and well-rounded knowledge of search marketing techniques ensures sustainable results. While mastering an innovative approach to the development of new programs and the management of client relationships, Brendan cares about delivering the hard work that optimizes his clients profitability.

Wendy Limauge

Wendy Limauge has been online since 1993, but only became a blogger in 2008. She now earns a full-time living as a blogger and writes for LifetimeTV. Her sites have been featured on MSN, CNN Living, AOL, and CareerBuilder.com. She was also a guest on the Tyra Banks show in 2009. She has over 10,000 readers across the five blogs she updates daily, and consistently comes up high on the search engines for her niches. She has over 5,000 Twitter followers and almost 900 Facebook fans. As a former computer trainer, she is now putting her computer, blogging and Internet skills to good use teaching moms to blog on the Mommy Bloggers Guide. She is also a successful business owner in business for four years. Along with her husband, they produce and sell their own line of wholesale lavender products to both small and larger businesses. Because of her wide range of skills, she is able to understand the business, mom, and blogger side of affiliate marketing and online business strategies.

Speaker Bios James Little

Madeleine McGregor

Graham MacRobie

Tricia Meyer

After leaving college, James Little, 26, went straight into work as a Developer for Onetel where he remained for five years. During this time he moved to the marketing team and learnt about main aspects of online marketing including affiliate marketing, SEO and PPC. He then took the post of Online Marketing Manager at Field & Trek where he was responsible for all online sales. James managed this by building an effective PPC campaign, improving the SEO, increasing the online conversion rate and creating a strong affiliate campaign. James moved on from Field & Trek to St. Minver where he was the company’s first Affiliate Manager responsible for setting up the gaming affiliate system for the likes of Littlewoods Bingo, Lastminute.com Gaming and Yahoo Bingo. At the time of leaving affiliate marketing was generating around 30% of all the online players. James then joined Altogether Digital to setup its affiliate divisione. He left it in safe hands to join the team at AffiliateFuture.

Graham MacRobie is President and CEO at Alias Encore, a publisher focused on helping companies increase highly qualified traffic to their websites through strategic acquisition of misspelled domain names. Prior to Alias Encore, Graham was founder, President and CEO at CitizenHawk. Graham believes that it is no longer sufficient for a company to just own the domain name that exactly matches their trademark because significant revenues are surreptitiously diverted to competitors through literally millions of “typosquatting” sites that seek to improperly capitalize on the accidental keystrokes of unsuspecting Internet users. Passionate about helping the good guys win, Graham is an expert on many forms of Internet-based fraud. At Alias Encore and previously, Graham has designed automated systems to detect fraud and practical business processes for large-scale fraud management. Affiliate programs, and the particular challenges that they present, have been an area of special interest for him.

Michael Martin

Madeleine McGregor is the Affiliate Manager for CSN Stores, the third largest online retailer of home goods in the U.S. Throughout more than three years with the company, she has taken an active interest in learning many facets of the business. After beginning in customer service, Madeleine progressed to the role of Trainer. In this position, she developed a unique Week One program, compulsory for all new employees. During this time, Maddy trained +400 employees and ran more than 50 training classes, and created material that is still in use. Her dedication to this role and program spurred the creation of the formalized Training and Development Department at CSN. She then moved into the Advertising Department in the Summer of 2008 and began working on the Affiliate Marketing team, which she now manages. Her background includes time spent in the AmeriCorps program, City Year, living abroad, and a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts in Psychology and Spanish.

Tricia Meyer is the owner of loyalty site Sunshine Rewards, in addition to various other niche sites including HelpingMomsconnect.com, BuyTwilightStuff.com, and WOWPStuff.com. Originally starting her career as a lawyer working for LexisNexis, she has been a full-time affiliate marketer since 2006 when she attended her first Affiliate Summit. She holds a B.A. from Ball State University and a J.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Kate Morris

Kate began in search marketing in 2003 doing paid search management. She joined with an agency later that year working in SEO and paid search. She has worked in-house in a variety of industries allowing her to understand that the needs of every organization differ, and is dedicated to finding the right solution for your company. She speaks regularly at PubCon and SMX events. Check out her personal blog at http://www.katemorris.com.

Michael Martin is the SEO Director of Project Management at Internet Marketing Inc. based out of San Diego, California. Michael graduated from UMass Dartmouth with a Computer Engineering degree and a minor in German before quickly entering the IT Project Management field in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In his 10+ years of Internet Marketing experience he has project managed & overseen the online marketing improvements to such sites for: SC Johnson, Avaya, IGN, Road Runner Sports, Deepak Chopra, Trump Properties, The Active Network and his own Google Android Mobile platform site GoogleAndBlog.com. Michael Martin is part of the SEMPO Education Committee & has previously spoken at SMX Advanced, SES Chicago, WordCamp LA, SMX East & The San Diego Google Technology User Group (GTUG) in addition to PubCon. Michael Martin has also collaborated in SEO posts on such sites as SEOMoz, Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal.

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Gillian Muessig

Gillian Muessig is the president and co-founder of SEOmoz, the world’s leader in search marketing tools, resources, and community for Search Marketers. With more than 20 years of success as the owner of traditional and search marketing companies, Gillian shares her in-the-trenches experience and insider tips in the SEO and rev-share space at conferences around the world. SEOmoz’ game-changing tool, Linkscape is the cornerstone of the most complete suite of Search Marketing tools in the industry. Learn more about the free and paid services at www.seomoz.org.

Melissa Canepa Murphy

Melissa Canepa Murphy is the founder of CrazyforBargains.com. Founded in 2000, CrazyforBargains.com is an online retailer of fun sleepwear for the whole family located in Fort Mohave, AZ. CrazyforBargains.com launched their affiliate program on the Shareasale.com network in 2004. The program was named Best Affiliate Program of 2006 by aBestWeb and is currently managed by Suluta.com.

Melissa Canepa Murphy

David Naffziger

David Naffziger is President and CEO of BrandVerity, a firm that detects abuse and fraud in online advertising. BrandVerity’s first service, PoachMark, provides a complete PPC trademark monitoring solution for merchants, affiliate program managers and affiliate networks. PoachMark currently monitors over 200 affiliate programs on behalf of leading brands and agencies. David was formerly the VP of Engineering at Judy’s Book, an online local search company. Prior to Judy’s Book, David co-founded and ran the Internet geolocation technology team at Quova, the provider of Internet geolocation technology to Google, Yahoo and MSN. The search engines use Quova’s technology to geotarget PPC advertisements, while e-commerce merchants use Quova’s technology to combat transaction fraud. David received his BS from MIT.

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Murray Ross Newlands

Murray Newlands is an online marketer, marketing blogger and founder of the Affiliate Heat network.

Jeremy Palmer

Jeremy Palmer runs QuitYourDayJob.com, an affiliate education Web site. He initially worked part-time in the field of affiliate marketing in 2003. After six months he quit his day job to become a full-time affiliate. Today, he actively runs over 100 affiliate sites across dozens of different industries. In 2005, Jeremy received the Commission Junction Horizon Award for Innovation, and he is also recognized as a CJ Performer, Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador and Google AdWords Professional. Jeremy is a frequently featured speaker and panelist at affiliate conferences and is a regular contributor to high profile internet marketing Web sites.

Keith Plocek

Keith Plocek heads up social media efforts for Mail.com Media’s family of sites, including Movieline, Hollywood Life, Deadline and OnCars. Formerly he was the social media manager for Village Voice Media, where he started as an editor. He specializes in crafting and identifying eyeball-grabbing content that connects writers and readers. Follow Keith on Twitter.

Geno Prussakov

Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov is a graduate of the University of Cambridge. He is the author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” (2007), the “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes” (2008), international speaker, senior editor for the affiliate marketing section of the Search Engine Marketing Journal, and regular contributor to Website Magazine, FeedFront Magazine and Econsultancy.com’s blog. Geno is the founder of AM Navigator LLC and Prussakov Consulting LLC, and he was voted the “Best OPM of the Year” for three years in a row (200608) by the largest online affiliate marketing community, ABestWeb. com. He is now working on his doctorate, and continues to write and contribute to the industry.

Dush Ramachandran

Dush Ramachandran is the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for ClickBank. ClickBank is the largest on-line retailer dedicated to digital products and operates a global network of 110,000 active affiliates.

Speaker Bios Wil Reynolds

Over the past 10 years, Wil Reynolds has dedicated himself to doing two things well: driving traffic to sites from search engines and analyzing the impact that traffic has on the bottom line of companies. Wil’s career began at a web marketing agency in 1999, where he spearheaded the SEO strategies for companies like Barnes & Noble, Disney, Harman Kardon, Debeers, Doubleclick, Hotjobs, and Mercedes Benz USA. For the last 6 years, Wil and the team of search professionals at SEER Interactive have been assisting clients in maximizing their visibility and sales using search engines in both SEO and SEM. You can catch Wil speaking with anyone who wants to learn about search, whether it is in a coffee shop or a major conference, it just runs through the veins! His goal at every speaking engagement is simple: Make sure everyone walks out with at least 1 new piece of information or perspective on an SEO topic.

Carrie Rocha

Carrie Rocha is CEO of Pocket Your Dollars, a website devoted to helping people keep their money where it belongs, in their pocket. She became a money-saving expert after she and her husband got out of $50,000 in debt in less than 3 years. She started Pocket Your Dollars to help others learn to do the same in March 2009. Pocket Your Dollars has had explosive success and she has moved from a full-time role as Chief Operating Officer at a Minneapolis-based nonprofit to part-time Strategy Consultant to allow herself to focus on growing her business. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the College of Saint Benedict, is mother to two small girls, an active volunteer in her community and dreams of living in Brazil one day.

Kim Rowley

Kim Rowley @KIMarketing has been in the affiliate marketing space since 1998 and is the founder of Key Internet Marketing, Inc. where she authors several niche blogs, including ShoeaholicsAnonymous.com. Ms. Rowley has been featured in several publications including USA Today and Revenue Magazine and has presented on specific topics of ecommerce entrepreneurship, content creation and affiliate marketing secrets at such events as BlogWorld New Media Expo and Infotec. Kim volunteers her time as a SCORE counselor to share her marketing expertise, is a regular panelist on TheSpew.fm podcast, and serves as a member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board.

Jared Saunders

Jared Saunders is currently the Affiliate Program Manager at Jenson USA. In his role he is tasked with building familiarity of the Jenson USA brand, collaborating on offline marketing strategies and finding new ways to let customers interact with Jenson USA. Jared joined Jenson USA in early 2007 as an analytics assistant to both the marketing and purchasing departments. He was tasked with creating cross department communication, tracking and measuring marketing efforts, establishing campaign effectiveness, and developing new strategies for future campaigns. After working for Jenson for a year, Jared was given full responsibility over the program. Previous to Jenson USA, Jared was a regional account manager for PBD West and negotiated and maintained purchasing contracts, display agreements, and handling payments between major product vendors and franchised Exxon Mobil owners. Outside of Jenson USA, Jared is a husband, father, avid cyclist, and consultant for Snow-Consulting.com

Steve Schaffer

Steve Schaffer is the founder and CEO of Vertive, Inc. and Offers.com. Offers.com is the first place to go for all the best offers – from online coupons & coupon codes for retail stores to service and travel offers. The site combines intuitive categorization and design with unique editorial content. Updated daily, Offers.com provides 10,000+ offers from 1,700+ merchants in 150+ categories. Vertive was founded by Steve Schaffer in 2003. Steve has been involved in the Internet industry since 1995 and is an active speaker at industry conferences. Offers.com is a charter member of the Performance Marketing Association where Steve is on the Board and serves as President. Prior to Vertive, he spent 10 years in product management and marketing roles at companies including eRegCard and Symantec. Steve is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of business administration in finance.

Alex Schultz

Alex Schultz has an MA, MSc. in Physics from Cambridge university. He paid his way through college through ppc arbitrage and seo. After college he joined eBay.co.uk moving to eBay HQ in San Jose in 2005 where he subsequently managed international paid search and affiliate marketing. He currently heads Facebook’s internet marketing team as a manager in the growth, mobile and international department focused on user growth, user activity and advertiser acquisition.

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Melanie Seery

Melanie Seery is the President and Founder of Affiliate Advocacy, the organization which grew from the advocacy work that earned Melanie the Affiliate Marketing Advocate 2009 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award and the ShareASale Industry Advocate Performance Award 2008. Co-chair of NY Affiliate meetings and speaker at industry events in 2008 and 2009, she continues to work on ways to improve the industry for everyone through education and addressing critical industry issues including the representation and protection of ethical affiliates and merchants. She believes that all affiliates, merchants and networks need to have voices. Also the owner of NYAffiliateVoice, Melanie continues to speak out on various industry issues including the internet tax issues. Melanie is also involved in several community service projects including raising awareness, acceptance and understanding of children with health challenges and serves as a volunteer tutor in reading and math for both children and adults.

Dharmesh Shah

Dharmesh Shah is chief technology officer and founder of HubSpot, an Internet marketing company dedicated to helping small businesses leverage the Internet to get found by qualified prospects and convert more into leads and customers. Prior to HubSpot, Dharmesh held a number of technology management and development positions and was founder and CEO of Pyramid Digital Solutions, an enterprise software company in the financial services sector. He also authors OnStartups.com, a top-ranking startup blog with more than 14,000 subscribers. He is an active member of the Boston area entrepreneurial community and a frequent speaker on the topic of startups and Internet marketing. Dharmesh holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in the Management of Technology from MIT and is author of a new book entitled Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs published by Wiley.

Peter Shankman

Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, a marketing and PR firm. He launched HelpAReporter.com to connect journalists with sources via social media. He launched AirTroductions, which was acquired and relaunched as TripLife. He is the author of “Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them.”

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Carolyn Shelby

Carolyn Shelby has been involved in developing and marketing Internet technologies since 1994, when she was the managing partner of an Internet Service Provider start-up near Purdue University. She has been professionally designing and developing Web sites for businesses and not-for-profit groups of all sizes since 1995. She is an advocate of including SEO in all phases of the SDLC and encourages businesses to be “search aware” from square one. She specializes in rehabbing underperforming/out-dated Web sites and helping larger corporations adjust their structure and focus to make the most of new media. Carolyn can be heard on the weekly SEO 101 podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com, or she can be found online at Cshel.com.

Heather Sokol

Heather Sokol is the founder of Inexpensively and has been featured in the Chicago Tribune and the Indianapolis Star. She has also appeared on CBS Nightly News and as a weekly contributor to Fox59 Morning News. She is the married mother of three beautiful, active girls who have created in her a Montessori Mom, Scout Mom, Dance Mom, Allergy Mom and avid coupon clipper. She shares her deals and tips at Inexpensively.com and reports progress on learning to be a grown up at Just Heather.com.

Jason Spievak

Jason Spievak, CEO – Prior to founding RingRevenue, Jason was a Director and Chief Financial Officer at CallWave, Inc. (CALL), a voiceover-internet software and service provider. Jason led CallWave’s successful IPO in 2004 and was a member of the senior team that delivered 12 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, profitability and positive cash flow with more than 750,000 paid subscribers. Prior to CallWave, Jason was Vice President of technology M&A in Broadview’s Silicon Valley office, where he was the execution lead on more than $1.25 billion in successful transactions. Jason has also held product management roles with Nextel Communications and with Netopia (NTPA), where he helped the company complete its successful IPO in 1996. Jason earned his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and his BA from UC Santa Barbara.

Speaker Bios Michael Streko

Michael fell into organic search when he was told by a former employer to “make the company site show up on Google”. Fast forward 3 years and Michael now owns Streko Media, which operates a network of affiliate sites across multiple verticals.

Carolyn Tang

Carolyn Tang is the director of Client Services for ShareASale.com, an award-winning affiliate network. In this capacity, she is responsible for facilitating relationships between merchants and affiliates. Prior to joining ShareASale, she managed affiliate marketing channels at Orbitz.com and CollectiblesToday.com. She is also an adjunct lecturer with Loyola University of Chicago, where she teaches an upper-level undergraduate course in eMarketing. Carolyn received her MBA from Loyola University Chicago. She also holds a Masters of Science degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Vorel

Michael Vorel is president and founder of Vastplanet Corporation, a dynamic firm specializing in e-Commerce Web Development, Internet Marketing and Management Consulting for a variety of top brands since 1998. Prior to Vastplanet, Michael worked within the computer industry for ten years in international product marketing, purchasing, sales management, pricing and strategic analysis. He has expertise in affiliate marketing and management, e-commerce web design, social media strategy, video marketing, ppc, seo, email marketing and competitive analysis. As an affiliate marketer and outsourced affiliate program manager, he is actively involved in creating niche sites and promoting offers in addition to managing programs for clients. Based in Tampa, Florida, Michael is a member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board and recently helped with the formation of the Performance Marketing Association.

Lyndsay Walker

Lyndsay Walker is the Director of Online Marketing at Canada’s Web Shop, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is responsible for the strategy and coordination of clients’ online campaigns including organic search, paid search, email marketing, banner advertising, conversion consulting and social media. Lyndsay’s experience includes several years of working with internationally recognized brands and some of the most competitive industries such as Internet pharmacies, payday loans and travel. Also involved in web design and development for over ten years, she brings a technical background to compliment her marketing skills.

Evan Weber

Evan Weber has been online marketing since the late 1990’s promoting a series of diverse web properties including decomermot. com and utauction.com. Evan then spent 5 1/2 years as Marketing Director for DentalPlans.com, a leading heath web portal. Evan then moved on in 2007 to launch an outsourced affiliate management agency, Experience Advertising, to address the need for competent and professional affiliate management for Advertisers on the major affiliate networks. Experience Advertising has become a leading affiliate management agency with almost 50 clients, mainly on the Commission Junction affiliate network. Experience Advertising specializes in working with novice and intermediate affiliate marketers, providing free affiliate tools, training, and resources. Evan has extensive practical experience in the following areas of online marketing: SEO, HTML, PPC Management, Email Marketing, Customer Loyalty, Conversion Rate Optimization, and Social Media.

Andrew Wee

Andrew Wee is an Asia-based Internet Marketer. Formerly a tech journalist and web content developer for Singapore Press Holdings, one of Asia’s largest media groups, Andrew has covered the dotcom boom and subsequent crash. As a business consultant and trainer, he has worked with brick-and-mortar businesses establishing an online presence. Andrew’s background in psychology includes a specialization in personality theory and social/organizational psychology helps him bring a demographic-based marketing approach to his marketing campaigns. An active affiliate marketer, Andrew also blogs at WhoIsAndrewWee.com. His blog content is syndicated across several networks, including WebProNews, Revenews, 9Rules and IM Newswatch. He also serves as a member of the Yahoo! MyBlogLog Advisory Group. Follow Andrew on Twitter.

Lori Weiman

Lori Weiman is CEO of The Search Monitor, whose software automates the monitoring of paid, organic, and local search results to provide marketers with insight on competitors, keywords, ad copy, market share, trademark abuse, brand buzz, and affiliate marketers. Lori writes the BrandAid column for Search Engine Land, covering areas such as affiliate marketing, trademarks, and reputation management. Lori has been creating products for SEM and SEO marketers since 2002. Prior to The Search Monitor, she co-founded KeywordMax.com (now a division of Digital River, Inc.), which provides campaign optimization software to SEM marketers and agencies. Lori started her career at Time Warner Cable as part of the team responsible for inventing on-demand television. She has held executive-level positions at several early-stage ventures, including Click Forensics, Webquarters, and Food.com. She holds a degree in business from Emory University, and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

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Speaker Bios Pete Wellborn

Pete Wellborn is one of the most well-known practitioners of Internet Law in the United States. For nearly fifteen years, his primary practice focus has centered upon Internet Law. Wellborn has successfully represented a wide variety of Internet-related businesses and clients, including affiliate managers and mailers charged with violations of CAN-SPAM. His practice areas also include litigation and a wide array of technology-related corporate, transactional, and IP services. Wellborn’s victories have been featured in/on the Wall Street Journal, Boardwatch magazine, CNN, 60 Minutes II, Newsday, NPR, and numerous other media outlets. Wellborn has been recognized as one of the top ten attorneys in the United States by Lawyers’ Weekly, as an “Elite Attorney” by Georgia Trend magazine, and as a “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine.

Adam Weiss

Adam leads four distinct yet related teams: Publisher Business Development, Publisher Account Management, Network Quality, and Publisher Support. Responsibilities include securing new partnerships while insuring the quality of the of the LinkShare Network in the US and Canada . Adam has 10+ years experience in online advertising with a specific focus on the Publisher side of the business and has been with LinkShare for six years. Adam earned a BA in History at SUNY Buffalo and an MS Internet Technology for E-Commerce at Pace University.

Nicole Williams

Nicole Williams is an Advertiser Account Director at Commission Junction managing teams growing revenue for top-performing retail accounts in the Northwest region. Prior to Commission Junction, Nicole spent seven years working on the publisher side of the affiliate business and also held online marketing positions at Wells Fargo. She has a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University.

Matthew Wood

Matthew graduated from Bristol University in 2001 and after travelling through Asia opted out of the corporate .com world and incorporated Existem Ltd, of which he remains Managing Director. Matthew has built a strong team of talented developers, designers and marketing professionals based at the Paintworks in Bristol, UK who wireframe, develop and monetize consumer focused websites utilizing the many corners of affiliate marketing, including paid search, organic SEO, social media, voucher codes, product feeds and cash back. In mid 2006 Matthew launched a4uexpo, Europe’s leading affiliate marketing conference and June 2008 saw the birth of Existem Events Ltd, coinciding with the launch of a new black tie awards ceremony for the affiliate marketing industry. Matthew continues to diversify as an entrepreneur and also invests in start-ups and joint ventures on a national and global scale.

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Mary Young

Mary Young had been Head of Account Management for AffiliateFuture’s North American Network since August 2008, working on US and Canadian programs in all sectors. In 2009 AffiliateFuture’s travel web services have broken new ground, taking affiliate marketing into the next generation with tools and technology not available anywhere else. Prior to this, she spent three years at AffiliateFuture UK as Senior Account Manager, where she managed key programs and educated merchants on best practice. She also had the privilege of taking affiliates who won the annual AffiliateFuture Barbados incentive on vacation to the sunny Caribbean island for a week of networking and fun.

Josh Ziering

Josh Ziering is a 24 year old writer, comedian, and SEO enthusiast. He’s been programming and developing websites as a hobby and a job for more than 7 years. Learning SEO came naturally while trying to manage his reputation online after a family member posed for a popular magazine, and outranked his name.

By Gary Kibel

Implications of FTC Endorsement Guidelines On October 5th, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced revisions to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials (“Guides”). As the most significant changes in almost 30 years, the regulators had a lot of catching up to do.

to make certain disclosures online. Marketers will do their best to set forth policies in this area, and then seek to hold the bloggers liable if they violate such policies and expose the marketer to liability. Results not typical – Try and forget that tag line. What might become typical is the harsh response from regulators if marketers seek to avoid disclosing typical results to consumers and mislead them into believing that one person’s experiences with a product are typical.

The revised Guides (which went into effect on December 1st) make clear that traditional marketing law principles apply equally to the world of blogs and social media. While there were many aspects to the revised Guides, the two key changes for the affiliate marketing industry are: (1) disclosing material connections between a marketer and a blogger (or anyone online) and (2) insufficiency of the “results not typical” disclaimers.

Social media policies – Before taking any actions against a marketer, the FTC will consider the existence of a social media policy. Therefore, all companies should have written social media policies that bloggers affirmatively accept.

Gary Kibel

It is well known in our industry that bloggers occasionally receive free products from marketers in the hopes that the bloggers will speak positively about such products. Some marketers will even pay bloggers outright to influence their comments. However, the FTC is worried about the effect upon consumers when such reviews are presented as unbiased. If the blogger is writing positively about a product because they have been paid or received free products, then the Guides demand that such relationship be disclosed because the comments may be considered “sponsored” by the marketer and are therefore an “advertising message.” The revised Guides would also require that celebrities disclose their relationship with a marketer when touting the marketer’s product or service on talk shows, interviews or social media sites. Another major change in the Guides was

guidance regarding advertising disclaimers. We are all familiar with the “results not typical” tag line. The revised Guides now require that if the results displayed in the ad are truly not typical, then the typical results must be disclosed. So if the ad says that the user of a dietary supplement lost 50 pounds but in reality typical users of the supplement spontaneously explode, then the marketer needs to disclose the typical result.

Gary Kibel (gkibel@dglaw.com, Twitter @ GaryKibel_law) is a Partner with the law firm of Davis & Gilbert LLP and practices in the areas of marketing, new media and privacy law.

What does this all mean for affiliate marketers? New terms and policies from marketers - The FTC has stated that if a material relationship between a marketer and a blogger is not disclosed, it is the marketer who will likely be liable. Therefore, bloggers who previously received free items from marketers can expect to either see fewer free items, or receive such free items only if they agree to agreements that require the blogger

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Twitter Beginner’s Guide Ten Tips By Jay Berkowitz Twitter originally asked the question, ‘What are you doing?’ But now Twitter has evolved into a personalized news feed, as well as a source of helpful tips, business messages, and words of wisdom. Here are ten tips to get started.

Step #6: RT (ReTweet) A common practice on Twitter is to ReTweet or ‘RT’ messages written by others. Credit the original “Tweeter” by mentioning their Twitter name with @.

Step #7: Search.Twitter.com

Step #1: Sign up Now Create your free account at Twitter.com. Reserve your name or select a ‘brand name’ that’s consistent with other social media identities. If it’s available reserve your company name.

Step #2: Create a Basic Profile Start with a simple description about yourself and good photo. Definitely include a link to your Web site or blog.

Step #3: Listen First Listen on Twitter before you type. Get a feel for how people in your niche Tweet. It’s easy to find interesting people to follow through a Twitter timeline – for example, see who I follow at www.Twitter.com/JayBerkowitz and click icons on the right to find interesting people to follow.

Step #4: Write Some Great Tweets When you follow people on Twitter they get an email with a link to your page. They’ll have a quick look and decide whether to follow you. Set a strategy for what you are going to Tweet about - share smart insights in your area of passion to build a following.

Step #5: Follow the Leaders TwitterGrader.com lists top “Twitterers” by city. Another site, WeFollow.com, identifies top people to follow by category or tags.

Jay Berkowitz

The search function at Twitter is amazing, and instant. Twitter Search may pose the first significant risk to Google with instant search results.

Step #8: Upgrade Your Profile Your profile is your Twitter calling card. It tells others about you in a nutshell and should be visually appealing. Inject personality or an accurate description of your company. Add images, logos and calls-to-action.

Step #9: Upgrade Your Twitter Applications Can’t get online to Tweet? You can stay connected with a mobile phone - set it up from your settings under device tab. There are great apps for the iPhone and Blackberry. For your desktop, an application like TweetDeck lets you sort incoming Tweets by columns, based on queries you set.

Step #10: Follow the Three E’s of Social Media – Educate, Entertain and Engage If you’re using Twitter for business or building a personal brand - provide valuable information and links, I call this the first E of social media, Educate. The second E is Engage: develop a two way dialogue with followers. Ask questions. Reply to happy and sad news. Lastly, have fun! Entertain with a funny YouTube video or a Blip.FM song selection. Having some fun keeps it light and lets your personality shine through.

@JayBerkowitz is CEO of internet and affiliate agency www. TenGoldenRules.com.

By Shannon Simmons

Affiliate Program New Year’s With the start of a new year, it’s the perfect time to give your affiliate program a fresh new start. Here are 10 great ways to renovate your affiliate program and optimize it for success in 2010: 1. Audit Your Affiliate Program – This is vital to the success of your program and it also holds the greatest potential impact. An affiliate program audit should look at every area of your affiliate program. The purpose of an audit is to identify areas within your program that you can alter or modify as well as identify additional opportunities that will grow the performance of your program. You should look at everything from a detailed competitive and banner/link analysis to a paid search analysis. 2. Respond to Affiliate Inquiries Within 24 Hours - Taking care of your affiliates should always be your main priority. By answering their inquiries promptly you show them you value their partnership and will promptly assist them as they continue to work with you. 3. Confirm that Your Creative and Links are Up to Date and Valid – This will make a huge difference in revenue for your affiliate program. Confirming that your creative and links are always up to date will make your users shopping experience easy and more productive. 4. Tracking Testing Procedures – Creating a process that is frequent and consistent for your tracking procedures will boost confidence for your program’s affiliates. Affiliates rely on proper tracking for their livelihood and they won’t promote offers that aren’t easily monitored and tracking correctly.

appreciation to them. Frequently contacting your top performers will ensure that they continue to promote your offers. 9. Merchandising – Ensure that you are creating link templates for top products and sending them to your affiliates via weekly newsletters, affiliate blog, or Twitter. 10. Content, Creative & Collateral – The more of these items that you create, the better! Keeping these items up to date will definitely help your program be successful. Shannon Simmons

I plan on implementing each of these steps for all of the programs I manage in 2010. I hope that you find this information helpful and prosperous with your programs too.

5. Ample Notice of Promotions to Affiliates – Giving affiliates plenty of advance notice about new promotions will ensure that they will keep your offers current. Two weeks at minimum is generally considered ample notice. 6. “Activate” Affiliates – Are your affiliates performing as well as they should? Reach out to those affiliates that you feel could be performing better and see what kind of offer you can provide them with in order to boost their performance and commissions.

Shannon Simmons is an Assistant Affiliate Manager for the affiliate management agency JEBCommerce.com, MyAffilateCoach.com and NewsForAffiliates.com.

7. Correct & Complete Information for Promotions – When you are sending out coupons or promotions to affiliates, be sure that they have start/end dates, restrictions (if applicable), etc. 8. Exclusive Offers to Top Performers – Offering your top performers exclusive offers is a great way to express your

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Acquisition Strategies for Mailing in the UK By Cari Birkner

Working in the marketing department at a company whose core business is monitoring email compliance, I spend a lot of time studying global email marketing laws. So, I asked reputable networks and publishers how conflicting laws and cultural nuances translate into reality for email. I got great feedback from Warren Corpus, Vice President of Business Development at Vayan and Kimberlee White, President of AKMG. Warren: “Because of the different opt-in procedures and the different data collection laws in the UK, we find much smaller quantities in UK files and the files themselves harder to come by for list management.” Kim: “There are definitely better open and click rates in the UK. More revenue is made off smaller amounts of data compared to US data. However, more often than not, I am seeing lower payouts for UK leads.” Zack Bernato, Vice President of AdMarketers, gave me a run down on the pros and cons of publishing in the UK market. If you’re thinking about mailing in the UK, here are the essential takeaways from my interview with Zack: The amount of data is much smaller, but the quality is better. “The offers convert much better. They click on everything.” Consumer data records have a much shorter lifespan in the UK. “The open rates and click rates are great right off the bat, but a record in the UK is only responsive for about two weeks. In the US, it would take at least a month for a static list to go cold.” The UK advertiser has a different time table for processing payouts (in pounds, not dollars). “In the US, most payouts are net 10, net 15, or net 30, meaning you’ll have your money by January for traffic from December. In the UK, advertisers pay net 60, so payment for traffic is delayed considerably, and hinges on the exchange rate on the last day of the month.” Follow CAN-SPAM and maintain a suppression file, in addition to following publisher-based UK opt-in laws. “As a US company mailing in the UK, I don’t take chances with regulators on either side. It’s my responsibility to respect opt-outs from my offers by maintaining my own suppression file, even though the UK doesn’t require it.” Utilize your own technology for tracking and reporting.

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Cari Birker

“Most traffic comes from the US to other countries because we understand the space. Hosting your own UK sites allows for better filtering and reporting, and ultimately better lead quality.” If you’ve heard expanding into the UK is the right move, I’ll end with some words of wisdom from Zack that ring true in affiliate marketing and perhaps in all business ventures: “Email in the UK is lucrative, if you work with the right people.” Cari Birkner is the Marketing Coordinator at LashBack, LLC and contributes on the subject of email marketing compliance to Deliverability.com.

Greg Rollett

By Greg Rollett

Become a YouTube SEO Rock Star Did you know that YouTube is serving over a billion video views every day? With that amount of entertainment, news, information and mayhem clogging up your customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s computers, you need a more efficient way to reach them in the Goliath of online video and cluttered search engine results. With the growth of universal search, affiliates need to utilize video to get their products and services in front of potential buyers and the best way to do that is through proper optimization of their videos. Here are 5 techniques to get your videos pulling inside of YouTube and within the major search engines. 1. Proper Titles. Writing a title that is compelling for both viewers and search engines can be tricky. Digging into keyword research is your best bet here, as long tail phrases are easier to rank for and often lead to higher conversions. When writing these titles, keep them to 65 characters with your strong keywords to the start of the title.

2. URL Leading Description. When writing your description there are a few things to note. The first is that by using http://yourlink. com, YouTube will automatically make a live link that can send viewers directly to your landing page, offer, or Web site. I recommend using this as the first thing in your description so viewers can easily click over to your site. 3. Above The Fold Description. The next section of your description should read like a Tweet. Keep it to 140 or so characters, loaded with your key phrase and descriptive text. The reason to keep it short is that YouTube only displays about 160 characters of your description on a video page before the viewer has to click on the more information link. Keeping this introduction descriptive will entice the viewer to click your link while giving the search engines something to crawl and index. 4. Rock Star Tags. Giving your video proper tags gives you leverage not only in the search results, but also in the related videos section on a video page. Try using long tail keywords and also look at videos from your

competition. See where they come up in the results for your top keywords. A good rule of thumb is 6-7 long tail keywords for your rock star tags. 5. Links and Embeds. YouTube videos are just like Web pages, the more links you send back to your videos, the higher they will rank in YouTube and Google. Another tactic is to embed your video on multiple sites. This means taking the code that YouTube provides for you and placing it on your blog, inside of appropriate forums, social networks, and other relevant sites. This is a great way to rapidly increase your visibility of your video. When creating videos, create them with an end goal in mind. Always perform keyword research and see what other videos are working. Now go out there and start capitalizing on the power of YouTube.

Greg Rollett is a Rock Star Marketer from Orlando, FL who blogs about Internet Marketing and Lifestyle Design at http://www. rockstarlifestyledesign.com.

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People to Follow on

There are lots of folks Tweeting about affiliate m Here are some weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d suggest following - they are Shergul Arshad http://twitter.com/shergul

Michael Coley http://twitter.com/MichaelColey

Scott Jangro http://twitter.com/jangro

Larry Bailin http://twitter.com/LarryBailin

Mark Colacioppo http://twitter.com/globalizermark

Michael Jenkins http://twitter.com/MarketLeverage

Jim Banks http://twitter.com/JimBanks

Todd Crawford http://twitter.com/toddcrawford

Kristopher B. Jones http://twitter.com/pepperjamceo

Drew Bennett http://twitter.com/BenSpark

Melanie Canepa Murphy http://twitter.com/pajamalady

Tim Jones http://twitter.com/TheRealTimJones

Connie Berg http://twitter.com/ flamingoworld

Matt Enders http://twitter.com/MattEnders

Rebecca Kelley http://twitter.com/RebeccaKelley

Jay Berkowitz http://twitter.com/JayBerkowitz

Marty Fahncke http://twitter.com/FawnKey

Gary Kibel http://twitter.com/GaryKibel_law

Jamie Birch http://twitter.com/JamieEBirch

Liat Fuchs http://twitter.com/affiliateply

Kristin Kinsey http://twitter.com/KC

Debbie Bookstaber http://twitter.com/buzzmommy

Karen Garcia http://twitter.com/KarenGarcia

Dr. David Klein http://twitter.com/purposeinc

Kristy Bolsinger http://twitter.com/kristy

Rosalind Gardner http://twitter.com/RosalindGardner

Eva Klein http://twitter.com/EvaKlein

Greg Boser http://twitter.com/GregBoser

Kristen Grace http://twitter.com/KristenGrace

Chris Knight http://twitter.com/ChrisKnight

John Carcutt http://twitter.com/JohnCarcutt

Michael Gray http://twitter.com/graywolf

Jim Kukral http://twitter.com/JimKukral

Deborah Carney http://twitter.com/loxly

Chuck Hamrick http://twitter.com/Chuck_Hamrick

Wendy Limauge http://twitter.com/sweetiesswag

Dr. Robert Cialdini http://twitter.com/RobertCialdini

Rae Hoffman http://twitter.com/sugarrae

James Little http://twitter.com/3wdl

Brian Clark http://twitter.com/copyblogger

Erik Hom http://twitter.com/Route53

Graham MacRobie http://twitter.com/GrahamMacRobie

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marketing and issues related to the industry. the speakers from Affiliate Summit West 2010: Michael Martin http://twitter.com/googleandblog

Jared Saunders http://twitter.com/Pakiha

Evan Weber http://twitter.com/experienceads

Tricia Meyer http://twitter.com/sunshinetricia

Steve Schaffer http://twitter.com/SteveSchaffer

Andrew Wee http://twitter.com/AndrewWee

Kate Morris http://twitter.com/KateMorris

Alex Schultz http://twitter.com/AlexSchultz

Lori Weiman http://twitter.com/searchmonitor

Gillian Muessig http://twitter.com/SEOmom

Melanie Seery http://twitter.com/Mellies

Matthew Wood http://twitter.com/MatthewWood

David Naffziger http://twitter.com/brandverity

Dharmesh Shah http://twitter.com/dharmesh

Mary Young http://twitter.com/MaryAffFuture

Murray Ross Newlands http://twitter.com/murraynewlands

Peter Shankman http://twitter.com/skydiver

Josh Ziering http://twitter.com/JoshuaZiering

Jon Nunez http://twitter.com/Jon_Nunez

Carolyn Shelby http://twitter.com/cshel

Jeremy Palmer http://twitter.com/quityourdayjob

Brian Smith http://twitter.com/singlefeed

Keith Plocek http://twitter.com/KeithPlocek

Heather Sokol http://twitter.com/justheather

Geno Prussakov http://twitter.com/eprussakov

Jason Spievak http://twitter.com/RingRevenue

Dush Ramachandran http://twitter.com/DushR

Michael Streko http://twitter.com/Streko

Wil Reynolds http://twitter.com/QilReynolds

Carolyn Tang http://twitter.com/catango

Carrie Rocha http://twitter.com/dollarspocket

Michael Vorel http://twitter.com/MichaelVorel

Kim Rowley http://twitter.com/kimarketing

Lyndsay Walker http://twitter.com/lyndseo

Affiliate Summit Related Twitter Accounts Affiliate Summit http://twitter.com/affiliatesummit FeedFront Magazine http://twitter.com/feedfront GeekCast.fm http://twitter.com/geekcast Shawn Collins http://twitter.com/affiliatetip Missy Ward http://twitter.com/missyward

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People are talking... “CJ Pay-Per-Call is a great opportunity for many of our clients: Advertisers get access to large numbers of high-quality publishers who can expand their affiliate programs online and offline, and publishers get access to top-brand advertisers and an additional Kerri Pollard, General Manager revenue stream.” “Pay-Per-Call offers higher ROI potential because calls can increase conversion rates and give us new places - online and Russ Pechman, VP of Lead Advantage offline - where ads can show up.”

Brian Littleton, CEO

“Pay-Per-Call offers a great new revenue opportunity for both merchants and afﬁliates. Afﬁliate marketing is no longer just online. The system is simple to set up, easy to use, and integrates with a merchant’s traditional online initiatives.”

“RingRevenue has built a very powerful platform that integrates call centers and performance marketing in a very intelligent way. We can now allow the consumer to choose how they interact with our advertising Peter Bordes, CEO partners and allow our afﬁliate partners to participate in the revenue.”

Bret Grow, President “The potential to reach consumers making purchases over the phone is huge. We’re committed to providing the best solutions to our customers, so it was a natural ﬁt for us to partner with RingRevenue, the leader in tracking and managing call-based campaigns.”

“The Pay-Per-Call Afﬁliate Program has been a valuable tool in our efforts to integrate our acquisition strategies and extend the reach of our marketing promotions.” – Rita Zahir, Sr. Marketing Manager “We have added the Pay-Per-Call application to a number of clients’ programs. The numbers have been outstanding. When we saw in excess of 1,500 calls in less than 30 days for a retailer with an average order size of over $500, we were blown away as was our customer. We are now getting all of our qualifying clients into the program as fast as we can.” – Durk Price, President

“Adding Pay-Per-Call to the Angie’s List afﬁliate program was key to delivering a 25% Results Based Marketing month-over-month increase in sales. And afﬁliates who advertise both a web address and a phone number stand to earn as much as 83% more!” – Ben Kiblinger, Co-Founder

RevUpNet

“We’ve been looking for ways to grow our afﬁliate program, and this is it. We want more calls. They convert at a much higher rate than clicks.” – Todd Wilson, President

“RingRevenue enabled us to incorporate a phone number into our email creatives, which allowed us to generate up to a 30% lift on the total conversions we delivered to the advertiser. Add RingRevenue to your marketing efforts. Your email publishers will thank you!” – Mike Stocker, CEO

...about RingRevenue Opportunity’s calling. Sign up for Pay-Per-Call now! Contact your affiliate network or call 877-871-4338

RingRevenue, Inc.

125 E. De La Guerra St. Ste 204, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

www.ringrevenue.com

ASE10 AUGUST 15-17 - HILTON NEW YORK

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