Feedfront Magazine Issue 45 by Affiliate Summit

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The official magazine for Affiliate Summit Remembering Two Titans of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Links on Pinterest: Why and How?

Affiliate Summit West 2019 Agenda

In 2018 we lost two guys who have been part of the Affiliate Summit family since the beginning: James Martell and Wayne Porter.

With 250 million active users that are ready to buy, learn how and why Pinterest is a smart affiliate strategy.

By Shawn Collins, Page 4

By Ashley Klotz, Page 25

During January 6-8, 2019, more than 6,000 digital marketers will gather at Paris Las Vegas for the performance marketing industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier global event. Page 30

5 dumb things that get FTC attention BY KARL KRONENBERGER PAGE 12

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

AFFILIATE MARKETING

FEEDFRONT

JANUARY 2019 | ISSUE

FEEDFRONT | CONTENTS | JAN 2019 | ISSUE 45 STAFF Co-Editors in Chief Missy Ward, Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins

5 Ways to HighPerforming Influencer Content

3 Ways Advertisers Should Leverage SEO

Editor’s note

AFFILIATES

Co-Publishers Missy Ward, Shawn Collins Contributing Writers Vera Belinskaya Kevin Edwards Adam Enfroy Travis Glenn Jonathan Goodwin Sarah Gulbrandsen Zac Johnson Tim Kastner Ashley Klotz Mark Kosin Karl Kronengerger Dmitriy Kruglyak Jonathan Miller Corey Padveen Geno Prussakov Alex Roy Robin R. Talbott Amalia A. Thomas Anna Tumadottir Page White Priest Willis Sr. Tom Wozniak Ryan Zimmerman

4 Advanced Email Suppression List Strategies

5 Ways To Turn Expertise Into Clout

Attract Cross-Border Shoppers, Grow Your Domestic Sales

5 Career Lessons From An Affiliate Marketer

Amalia A. Thomas

Jonathan Miller

Affiliate Summit 35 Nutmeg Drive, Trumbull, CT 06611 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: feedfront.com/advertising/ or email us at: contact@feedfront.com

Geno Prussakov

Tom Wozniak

5 Dumb Things That Get FTC Attention

Elevate Your Pay-PerCall Ad Strategy

New Hire Training: Improve Your ROI

Karl Kronenberger

Sarah Gulbrandsen

The Importance Of A Diversified Publisher Base

Anna Tumadottir

Jonathan Goodwin

The Trends Shaping Affiliate Marketing In 2019

You Only Control The URL You Own

Increase Your Affiliate Campaign Profitability

Making The Leap From Affiliate To Brand

Robin R. Talbott

Travis Glenn

Zac Johnson

3 Ways Videos Make For Optimal Conversions

Overcoming Retail Email Fatigue To Convert

Corey Padveen

Tim Kastner

Social Media Sabbatical

5 Pillars Of A Facebook Chatbot Strategy

Affiliate Links on Pinterest? Why And How?

LinkedIn Profile Photos: Dos and Don’ts

Dmitriy Kruglyak

Ashley Klotz

Ryan Zimmerman

3 Success Steps To Influencer Marketing

11 Ways High-Risk Merchants Can Prevent Chargebacks

Manage Your Bottom Line With Lead Management

Alex Roy

Mark Kosin

Agenda

Keynote Bios

Speaker Bios

Kevin Edwards

Graphic Design Andy Medley for YMP http://youngsmedia.productions Magazine Coordinator Cruz Alvarado

Adam Enfroy

Paige White

CONVERSION

Priest Wills, Sr

Vera Belinskaya

AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST 2019

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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Shawn Collins

EDITOR’S NOTE

@shawncollins

END OF AN ERA FOR AFFILIATE SUMMIT RIP James Martell and Wayne Porter, two important characters in the origin story of Affiliate Summit. By Shawn Collins Over the years, we’ve sadly seen a number of Affiliate Summit attendees pass away, and each one is tough. But 2018 was especially hard, as we lost two guys who have been part of the Affiliate Summit family since the beginning: James Martell and Wayne Porter.

James Martell

Wayne Porter

James and Wayne were friends, supporters, inspirations, speakers, and mentors in the early days of Affiliate Summit, which was especially vital as Missy Ward and I tried to figure out how Affiliate Summit could best serve the industry. Hopefully you got to know either or both of these guys over the years, but for those who didn’t have the privilege, I’ll share a little about them… James Martell taught tens of thousands of business owners how to effectively market their businesses online through his books, courses, live trainings, webinars, podcasts, and speaking engagements. He was a true Internet pioneer, thought leader, and influencer with the proven know-how to bring success online.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

James had more than twenty years of online business experience, and found success in online marketing, blogging, podcasting, coaching, outsourcing, and video creation. He authored several business books, and developed twelve popular marketing courses. James was author of one of the first and best-selling eBooks on affiliate marketing, and was host of the longest running affiliate marketing podcast, starting in 2003, with listeners in more than one hundred countries. Wayne Porter was one of the formative figures in affiliate marketing. Back in 2002, when the affiliate networks in the U.S were particularly adversarial, Wayne managed to bring them all together in NYC, along with a number of affiliates and merchants, to try and hash out a common policy for dealing with adware. It was a groundbreaking event that got the decision makers in affiliate marketing talking about working together for the common good for the first time. Wayne created an early industry resource, AffiliateHelp.com, and he was also a founder of ReveNews. Wayne was on the Board of Directors for a group called Affiliate Union, which sought to create a certification for affiliate programs to protect affiliates. He also co-authored a book called Affiliate Marketing 101 to help people break in as affiliates in those early days. In 2006, we presented Wayne with the first ever Affiliate Marketing Legend Award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. But there aren’t really enough words to express who James and Wayne were and their impact. Just know that if you didn’t know them you missed out. They were a hell of a couple guys and I will miss them. [FF] Shawn is Co-CEO of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and blogs at affiliatetip.com.

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5 WAYS TO HIGH-PERFORMING INFLUENCER CONTENT

If you want to create high-performing influencer content, you need to think beyond the quality of the post itself.

1. Create Customer Personas Influencer content will generate a greater ROI (Return on Investment) if you have a customer persona on which to base the format and tone of your message. Well-developed customer personas will help to ensure that your content is targeted to the right audience at a macro level and, more appropriately, to the right individuals at a micro level. Targeting an audience, that is female aged 18-35, is not nearly as effective as creating a customer persona that is female, aged 24-35, college-educated, interested in content about fashion, and lives in the city.

2. Integrate SEO in Your Content Influencer content can generate positive results long after an article is posted. Potential customers may search for the product weeks or months later. Help them find your content by exercising SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices in your article or review. For added value, make sure that back links drive traffic to high value landing pages and conversion touch points.

4. Make Sure Your Content is Responsive Google is moving towards mobile-first indexing which means they will use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking as more web users access content from a mobile device. This means that it’s extremely important to ensure that you use responsive design so that your content is indexed properly by Google. It is also preferable as it eliminates the need to have one design for desktop and one for mobile.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

If you want to create high-performing influencer content, you need to think beyond the quality of the post itself. By Paige White

5. Make Sure Your Site Uses SSL Although not directly related to content, this is becoming an increasingly important issue since Google moved this year to more aggressively push webmasters to secure their sites. For now, sites without SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) show as ‘not secure’ in Chrome (SSL will show “https” in the URL compared to non-secure site that will only show “http”), but this warning is expected to become more pronounced in the months ahead. As this can impact how your content is ranked in Google, be sure to have SSL added to your site. It’s a simple, fast, and inexpensive way to further ensure your content is optimized for maximum audience exposure. [FF]

3. Use Infographics & Video According to brainrules.net, three days after you hear a piece of information you will likely only remember 10% of the message. However, if an image is added to that content, you’ll remember 65% of it. Video is even more powerful. According to a 2018 survey by HubSpot, 54% of consumers have indicated a preference to see more video content from brands. Also, branded video is nearly three times more popular than branded blogs, so be sure to include video in your influencer content whenever possible and appropriate. Adding video to your YouTube channel will also help with Google rankings.

Paige White is President and Co-founder of SheSavvy.com, a leader in influencer marketing solutions. FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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3 WAYS ADVERTISERS SHOULD LEVERAGE SEO Here are three expert tips to leverage SEO to drive inbound interest and grow your affiliate program. By Adam Enfroy

If there’s one thing that can be virtually guaranteed in affiliate marketing, it’s that more quality traffic equals more revenue. As an affiliate advertiser, you rely heavily on the organic traffic and search rankings of your affiliates to drive sales. Similarly, nothing is more powerful for driving interest in your affiliate program than a dialed-in search engine optimization (SEO) and content strategy. Here are three ways to tap into the power SEO to grow your affiliate program.

1. Improve your Inbound Strategy How are new potential affiliates finding you? Your affiliate sign-up page is a vital resource to speak to the benefits of your program and the reasons why affiliates should promote your products. This page should be visually appealing, have clear calls-to-action, and get affiliates excited about partnering with you. However, simply having this page on your site isn’t enough it needs inbound traffic. It’s true that you can drive website visitors to your affiliate sign-up page with pay-per-click or paid social ads, but the best long term strategy to drive traffic and affiliate sign-ups is with a strong SEO-optimized content strategy. Work with your content team to write long-form blog posts related to affiliate marketing with clear callouts throughout the article linking to your affiliate sign-up page. With just one affiliate marketing blog post linking to a sign-up page, BigCommerce saw a 36% increase in traffic to that page and an 83% increase in affiliate applications in one month, according to Google Analytics and Impact Radius data.

The first two to three pages of results are perfect organic affiliates to recruit into your program (if they’re not already in it). Keywords Everywhere is an excellent Chrome extension to view search volume and competitive data, right from the search engine of your choice.

3. Scale your Content Marketing Content creation may feel like a never-ending hamster wheel: there’s keyword research, creating outlines, drafting copy, publishing articles, and the need for new content never goes away. One tactic to take some of the burden off of your content team and scale your content marketing is to leverage the power of your affiliates. Co-branded webinars, easy-to-post content templates, link building efforts, and guest posts will increase your content’s reach while providing strong SEO benefits. Co-branded webinars and easy-to-post content templates supply your affiliates with ammunition to promote you quickly and without much effort. Guest posts and link building programs with your affiliate partners will generate more valuable inbound links to your affiliate web pages, increasing site traffic and positioning you as a premiere affiliate program to join. There are countless ways to leverage SEO to expand your affiliate program. With a few simple tactics, you’ll generate more traffic, more inbound affiliate sign-ups, and ultimately, more revenue for your program. [FF]

2. Find New Affiliate Partners The perfect new organic affiliate partners are in your niche, knowledgeable about your products, and are ranking highly on search engines. Search for the top non-brand keywords you’d like to rank for and examine which sites already ranking for these terms.

Adam Enfroy is the Affiliate Partnerships Manager at BigCommerce, a SaaS ecommerce platform.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

Want to know how we are protecting your business in an ITP & GDPR tracking world? Find us at the Awin & ShareASale Coffee Lounge at Affiliate Summit West 2019.

We power connections awin.com | ShareASale.com

Alexandra Forsch President, The Awin US Group

Sarah Beeskow Blay Vice President, ShareASale

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4 ADVANCED EMAIL SUPPRESSION LIST STRATEGIES Email suppression files can be used for more than removing opt-outs from your campaigns and can also power audience targeting. By Tom Wozniak

Using suppression files is second nature for email marketers to stay compliant with CAN-SPAM and other global regulations. However, savvy marketers know that suppression files can also be used in to reach certain target audiences more efficiently than with traditional targeting methods. Sometimes, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relatively straightforward to select certain audience characteristics and build a list by positively targeting that data. However, in other instances, it may be simpler to remove or suppress certain audience segments that should not receive a particular email campaign. Here are four suppression strategy examples that different marketers deploy to refine their audience targeting.

Over time, virtually every email list that is being actively mailed will include a number of recipients who have never engaged with any past campaigns (or for a long time-period). In the early days of email marketing, some marketers simply included every email address on their file in every campaign, largely because it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that expensive to include those incremental recipients. But, over time, marketers have seen the benefits of removing non-responders from future campaigns through enhanced deliverability, reduced spam complaints, a lower unsubscribe rate, and with at least some reduction in the cost of mailing. So, creating a suppression file of these non-responders can be beneficial to mailers in a number of ways.

1. Current Customers

4. Past Recipients

This is likely the most commonly used type of suppression file, outside of unsubscribes. When an advertiser is focused on new customer acquisition within a certain campaign or affiliate program, they want to ensure email messages are only sent to non-customers. The best way to do this is to use a file of current customers as a secondary suppression file, along with opt-outs, to ensure all marketing efforts are focused on driving net new customers.

Much like removing current customers or customer segments, another valuable suppression strategy is to remove past campaign recipients. While there is often value in sending an offer to the same email list multiple times, there typically comes a point of diminishing returns, when performance drops off to a point where it is no longer profitable to continue mailing to the same recipients. Mailers can avoid this by using suppression files as a tool for frequency capping. Once recipients have received an offer previously ( just once or a set number of times) they can be added to a suppression file so they can be removed from specific mailings going forward. [FF]

2. Customer Segments Suppressing current customers can also be taken to a more detailed level, where only certain customer segments are added to a suppression file. For example, an advertiser may want to avoid mailing to customers who have bought a particular product, who have made a purchase within a certain time period, or who typically buy a certain type of product. In each of these cases, it may be much easier to ensure mailings are only sent to an audience that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet these criteria, by suppressing this customer segment from the campaign.

3. Non-Responders

Tom Wozniak, Executive Director of Marketing at email compliance and suppression list management company, OPTIZMO.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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Here are several actionable ways to grow one’s clout with the ultimate purpose of leveraging as an affiliate or a brand. By Geno Prussakov

With United States’ social media penetration now exceeding 75% the growing interest in building online clout – frequently with a subsequent desire to monetize the same – is hardly a surprising phenomenon. We all also witness how this results in an increasing proliferation of self-proclaimed “gurus” of all kinds. Unfortunately, not everything that glows from your computer screen is a “real thing”. Many of those who possess true expertise are still often outshined by the more extroverted go-getters. Looking back at my own professional journey, I’d like to give you five actionable ways to leverage your expertise for growing your online influence.

1. Giving Free Advice A century ago, the founder of “Success” magazine, Dr. Orison Swett Marden, hit the nail on the head stating that “to get more” one “must give more” because “it is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest.” It is still the same today – in order to (ever) take, you must first learn to give: be it through answers on Quora or participation in industryspecific online forums, commenting on blog posts and LinkedIn articles, or offering free consultations, audits, or critiques. Learning to give is the integral first step to building one’s clout.

2. Teaching From how-to videos on YouTube to instructional courses on LinkedIn Learning, and from speaking at local American Marketing Association’s meet-ups to workshops and webinars, I’ve done them all. Nothing is more rewarding than sharing your knowledge with others. Not only does it help others, but it also frees up your own brain from the already-acquired knowledge – to develop and grow further.

3. Speaking Having presented speeches at more than seventy conferences worldwide – sometimes for money, sometimes pro-bono – I believe speaking to be one of the most effective ways to establish thought leadership and grow your clout. Preparations are often time-consuming and speech presentations are always stressful, but once you’ve given it your all, you go away uplifted and appreciated.

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5 WAYS TO TURN EXPERTISE INTO CLOUT

4. Writing From running your own blog to guest-writing at other resources to even taking a shot at authoring a book, writing gives you a great way to get your name out there, to be noticed, and to be heard. Heck, the authorship of this very article is an illustration of my point. When you can’t think of any topics to write on, my best advice is: read. Reading always helps you become a better writer.

Giving Interviews Finally, in line with everything above-mentioned, seek out opportunities to give interviews. Regardless of the format – be it a podcast, a print interview, or a blog post – interviews solidify our thought leadership and build clout provided quality answers, of course. I know full well how psychologically difficult it is to put your name and thoughts in the spotlight. Remember, though, the miracle of transformation always happens outside of your comfort zone. Now, get out of your shell and shine. [FF]

Geno Prussakov runs AM Navigator (outsourced affiliate program management agency), writes, blogs, speaks at Affiliate Summits.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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ATTRACT CROSS-BORDER SHOPPERS, GROW YOUR DOMESTIC SALES By 2022, cross-border transactions will make up 20% of all global ecommerce. Start now to sell globally from your existing site. By Amalia A. Thomas

Advancements in smartphone technology and lowcost data plans have empowered digital populations in emerging markets to come online and engage with global brands more than ever. Half of the world’s population—nearly 4 billion people—will be online by the end of 2019, and 84% of users worldwide will access the Internet on a smartphone this year, says eMarketer. This is exciting news for retailers, as there are millions of new consumers you can reach and convert on your existing ecommerce site with minimal effort. Odds are cross-border shoppers are already visiting your site—within the CJ Affiliate network, 96% of our advertisers and publishers last year received visits from cross-border shoppers. The key is to ensure you truly understand the cross-border shopper, what is important to them, and how to convert them. I’ve outlined the key characteristics of cross-border shoppers and how to solve for their needs. The Cross-Border Shopper…

1. Values Unique Brands and Authentic Products Cross-border shoppers purchase from non-native retailers, even if the website is not translated, because they’re seeking a specific product or brand not sold in their local market. Cosmetics, apparel, and luxury accessories are their top items. These shoppers are not necessarily price-sensitive either. In a Pitney-Bowes survey, shoppers in China, India, South Korea, and Mexico rated “product quality and authenticity” and “brand name” as top factors driving them to shop cross-border more important than price itself.

2. Seeks a Smooth Mobile Checkout Considering their high-rate of smartphone usage, a simple path to purchase on a mobile device is critical to converting crossborder shoppers. Many cross-border shoppers are mobileonly and are more likely to complete a purchase on sites with responsive navigation and easy international payment options, such as PayPal and FedEx Cross Border. A user-friendly mobile experience can make or break the deal with potential crossborder buyers.

3. Is Willing to Wait, With High Expectations The borderless ecommerce shopper is willing to accept shipping delays to get what they want and is savvy when it comes to shipping options. For example, many Chinese shoppers utilize freight forwarding vendors to aggregate large shipping orders when a retailer doesn’t ship to their market. The flip side of this willingness to wait is a heightened sensitivity to a bad shipping or product experience. Cross-border shoppers who experience a snafu with shipping or feel let down by a product that doesn’t match its site description will move onto a competitor for future purchases.

4. Shops Global Retail Events These shoppers show up for major overseas retail shopping events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Free Shipping Day, and Boxing Day. They know retailers release their best deals on these days and will postpone cross-border buying to get products they seek at a good price. By making international payment and shipping policies easy to find, retailers can help cross-border shoppers see their site as “cross-border friendly.” By paying attention to cross-border shopping characteristics and making simple tweaks to meet their needs, you’ll expand domestic revenue opportunities with this growing market. [FF]

Amalia A. Thomas is Director of Global Initiatives at CJ Affiliate’s New York City Office.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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Here are five critical business lessons I’ve learned the hard way that I apply in all my business ventures. By Jonathan Miller

Performance-based marketing has finally taken its seat at the boardroom table, where it belongs. Here are five critical business lessons I’ve learned the hard way that I now apply in all my business ventures.

1. Embrace Failure It sucks to fail, but our industry is all about failing forward. Figure out what sticks by testing. That means testing every element of the digital cycle, including UX and design, tracking, creative, and advertising media. Most of the improvements you make won’t make a difference or will fail, but you’ll learn fast and the improvements will improve your business.

2. You Live and Die by Your Performance Metrics In a world where traditional agencies once ruled the roost, performance marketing advocated spending more advertising dollars on measurable outcomes while the advertising agencies wanted to maintain the status quo. It’s not surprising we had to battle to get into the boardroom. Eventually though, more CEOs have learned the value of metrics-driven marketing and performance marketing now shares more of the budget with traditional marketing. It’s a double-edged sword though, as the metrics are not always within your control and you’ll often be held to a higher standard of performance. You’re only as good as your last set of performance metrics, and if they sway you need to be able to understand them, interpret them, and provide insight.

Sometimes though, you can look at the wrong data for the right reasons. Make sure your data hygiene is tested regularly. Is the data relevant, accurate and insightful? Are you measuring the right metrics? Everything that can be measured over time, can be improved, but that doesn’t help you if you’re measuring the wrong metrics.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

5 CAREER LESSONS FROM AN AFFILIATE MARKETER

4. I nsights Are More Important Than Statistics and Data CEOs don’t want to be inundated by data. They want improvement recommendations and business insights. Build your own custom dashboard with metrics that matter. Measure performance over time, and provide insight into why these changes are happening. You’ll be able to spot trends and shifts, enabling you to be at the leading edge of change in the online and offline sales consumer behavior. Your CEO will thank you someday.

5. Relationships Matter This industry is not just about cold-hearted numbers. Relationships and trust form the basis of affiliate marketing. Get to the Affiliate Summit and meetups. If you can’t get to the events, work the phones (or Skype). Build your personal network, build connections, and establish relationships. This may be the golden age of Messenger, but people still love doing business with people they know, so put your face out there and make new friends. As long as you operate in good faith, the business will follow. [FF]

3. Data Doesn’t Lie, Does It? Besides the usual metrics we all know, metrics like revenue-peruser (RPU), purchase frequency (RPF), and lifetime customer value (LTV) have become integral to our business. Performance marketers were instrumental in developing these metrics and once C-suite level execs started paying attention, it radically shifted the way they looked at business.

Jonathan Miller is an affiliate marketer, Digital Marketing Strategist, and Serial Entrepreneur.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

AFFILIATE MARKETING

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5 DUMB THINGS THAT GET FTC ATTENTION Stay off the radar of the FTC by avoiding these five dumb things that affiliate marketers do. By Karl Kronenberger

The worst nightmare for an affiliate marketer is to wake up in the morning and discover that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shut down your business, raided your offices, and frozen all of your assets, so that you can’t even use your ATM card. Simply put, the consequences for engaging in false and misleading marketing practices can be severe and devastating. However, one way to limit your risk is to know what the FTC looks for when identifying companies to investigate and eventually shut down. In fact, there are a number of really dumb things that affiliate marketers do that are massive red flags for the FTC.

1. Ignoring Customers Who May Complain The FTC maintains a database of consumer complaints from the FTC website, state Attorneys General, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB). When complaints pile up in the FTC’s system, the risks are high that the FTC will start an investigation. Thus, marketers need to implement customer service tactics to minimize consumer complaints to the FTC or government agencies. If you make it hard for a customer to contact you to cancel an order, or are otherwise inattentive to unhappy customers, they will file complaints against you.

2. Assume Your Competitor Did the Research For You So many advertisers make statements about product benefits without ever verifying whether or not the statements are true. This is especially true in the weight loss, anti-aging/ skin, and testosterone verticals. When questioned about the substantiation for such claims, advertisers may explain how many of their competitors make the same claims. Wrong answer.

Advertisers need to avoid the cycle of misinformation about certain ingredients and products. With so many advertisers repeating the same bogus or nonexistent “studies” and “clinical evidence,” it’s like shooting fish in a barrel for FTC attorneys. Do your own research, and make certain that you have substantiation for all your marketing claims, especially if you are asking consumers to ingest a product or apply it on their skin.

3. S uggest That It Is Possible to Lose Weight Without Diet or Exercise According to the FTC, it is not, so don’t do this.

4. Use Doctored or Stolen Before-and-After Pictures Advertisers may have gotten away with this fifteen years ago, but with advances in image search technology, it’s as foolish as committing a crime without wearing gloves. It is too easy for the FTC to track down the originals and determine that you have lied to consumers about the expected results of using the product. Similarly, don’t publish testimonials using stock photos or stolen profile pics. These, too, can be easily disproved.

5. “Wait! Your Order Is Not Complete!” Upsells These are upsells that appear after the original transaction is completed but that lead the consumer to believe the original order has not been completed. The FTC is coming down hard on these—don’t do it. To avoid trouble with the FTC, stay off their radar, and that starts with not doing these really dumb things. [FF]

Karl Kronenberger is an advertising practices and FTC defense attorney based in San Francisco.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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Master Pay-Per-Call ads and convert your consumers by using these three tips to help elevate your ad copy. By Sarah Gulbrandsen

Ads are often the first touchpoint a consumer has with your brand. They are a stepping stone to get the consumer to pick up the phone, click on your website, or fill out a form. With Pay-Per-Call, the goal of the ad revolves around having the consumer pick up the phone to call your business. This goal varies from ads done on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) or form fill basis because these leads are considered ‘hot leads,’ where the consumer is more likely to purchase the product or service. Compared to alternative lead generation methods, Pay-PerCall allows businesses to connect with consumers when it matters most, meaning the ads must be fully optimized for a phone call. So let’s walk through some tips for building better ads for Pay-Per-Call.

1. Highlight Immediacy

3. Display the Location With most ads, when the consumer is searching for a product or service online, it’s common for businesses outside of the consumer’s location to appear, which then pushes your ad out of the top positions. By stating your location in your description, you’re ensuring the consumer knows your business is nearby and catching the geo-based keywords.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

ELEVATE YOUR PAY-PER-CALL AD STRATEGY

Example of displaying location: a) Call now to book your appointment in San Diego b) Talk to a Plumbing Expert in New York c) Book Your Hotel Stay in Chicago After writing your ad, take a look back to make sure you highlight immediacy, have a clean and clear CTA, and display your location. Each component will help lead your consumers to take action and call your business. [FF]

Pay-Per-Call is immediate. If a consumer is ready to hop on a call with a business, it usually means they’re far along in their customer journey. By catering copy towards immediate action, it can help push the consumer to phone your business. You can do this by using a time restraint, an exclusive offer, or by offering an appointment. Examples of displaying immediacy: 1. Talk to a Plumbing Expert Now 2. Schedule Your Appointment Today 3. Call Now for 10% Off

2. Have a Clean and Clear CTA Make sure your call-to-action (CTA) is clear and defined within the ad. This can be done by simply adding in “call now” or “call today” in one of the description lines telling the customer to take action and call your business.

Sarah Gulbrandsen is President and COO at RingPartner, the Performance Marketing Experts.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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THE IMPORTANCE OF A DIVERSIFIED PUBLISHER BASE Having the right mix of affiliates and contributing to the overall affiliate revenue is critical to the success of the program. By Jonathan Goodwin

One of the most critical elements of a successful affiliate program is ensuring it does not heavily depend on a specific publisher segment. The affiliate contribution should be distributed amongst several types of publishers, such as coupon sites, voucher affiliates, technology partners (i.e. site solutions), subaffiliate networks, and most importantly, influencers. Each of the listed publishers bring different and unique value to the affiliate program as each has its own extensive reach and audience. Leaning on the extensive reach of these publishers can mean larger reach, more brand awareness, new customers, and a new affiliate marketing channel. While it is important to have a solid mix of publishers in the channel, it all starts with strategy. What do you want the affiliate program to be? If the strategy is to focus on new-to-file (NTF) or acquisition, then publisher revenue contributions will differ from that of an ROI-centric affiliate program. However, the commonality between the two executions is the need for affiliate diversification within each strategy and approach. Managing an affiliate program is a marathon, not a sprint, so activating partnerships in different divisions will help build a revenue generating program. There are drawbacks to hosting an affiliate program heavily dominated by select publisher segments. An example of this is an affiliate program driven by coupon affiliates. This could indicate an affiliate program is severely underperforming and could be an area of missed opportunity. The focus should be optimizing other affiliate partnerships, loyalty sites, technology publishers, content, and the like. Will Gaines, Senior Marketing Manager at DigitalRiver has a unique take in support of diversification. It is as follows: “Maintaining a diverse partner marketing mix is crucial to

managing a successful program. Changes to search engine indexing algorithms can severely hamper search partner revenue. Expansive new privacy laws can hurt your email publisher revenue overnight. A management decision to move away from discounts and promotions could suddenly mean you can’t work with those publishers anymore. If you keep a diverse based of partners, you will be able to pivot and adapt to whatever the market throws at you. Diversify—good advice for your investment portfolio, and your affiliate program.” There are many types of affiliates in the industry. It’s important to be patient and make sure the affiliate manager explores all segments of publishers. Recruiting, activating, and optimizing are the key essentials in affiliate program management. Being heavily dependent on one or two affiliate segments leads to an active, but not prosperous, affiliate program. Exploring other partnerships in the channel, understanding what those affiliates need to be successful, testing strategies, and optimizing those partnerships will make for a more rewarding affiliate channel. [FF]

Jonathan Goodwin is UpSellit Solutions’ Partner Executive, with eight years of experience in digital marketing.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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Onboarding new hires can be expensive and time consuming. Read an insider’s guide to relevant and free training resources. By Anna Tumadóttir

Hiring well, and doing so consistently, eludes many of us. All too often, you spend six months with a new hire before realizing they are a poor fit. By that time, you’ve spent far more than you may realize on training, which is a sunk cost if the hire doesn’t work out. Even if they do thrive and prosper, you lose productivity during the initial onboarding and training period. Thankfully, there are a multitude of free online resources that are highly relevant to performance marketing hires. Here are a few of the best online resources and certification courses to help new hires develop a stronger digital marketing toolset without breaking the bank.

1. Be a Better Analyst If you’re good at Google Sheets, you’ll be good at Excel, numbers, and potentially even database languages like Structured Query Language (SQL). The Collins School of Data offers training courses for users of Google Sheets, and the complimentary Advanced Formulas 30-Day Challenge will surprise even selfconsidered numbers nerds in its depth. To make the leap from “data” to “database”, try going through SQL Fundamentals from SoloLearn or Learn SQL from Codecademy.

3. Learn to Speak Digital You’ll also have your “people” people; non-technical hires who need to speak the language of digital marketing, so they can sell services or manage client relationships. For them, Google’s Digital Garage contains a number of high quality (and free) training resources. Similarly, HubSpot Academy covers a broad range of trainings, including on topics like Facebook, search engine optimization (SEO), and lead management. While the way you position your sales and service offerings will be unique to your company, giving a candidate a general understanding of the digital landscape before training with your internal materials gives them a huge head start. Typical hires for affiliate marketing companies will run the gamut. You’ll have sales people, account managers, and handson marketers. Regardless of where on the spectrum your new hire falls, proving she or he is a self-starter by making it through some of these programs will lower the time you spend and allow you to learn more quickly, if you’ve made the right decision. [FF]

AFFILIATE MARKETING

NEW HIRE TRAINING: IMPROVE YOUR ROI

2. Certified for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google’s Academy for Ads is a center of training and certification for all things related to Google’s advertising platforms. If any skills related to search engine marketing are relevant to the role you’re hiring for, ask applicants whether or not they’re already Google Certified. If you are considering a candidate who appears to be strong, but they aren’t certified, test their dedication by making their job offer contingent on completion of certifications for Fundamentals, Search, and any other ad format specific to your business.

Anna Tumadóttir is VP of Operations at Wickfire and loves to see new hires grow professionally.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

AFFILIATE MARKETING

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THE TRENDS SHAPING AFFILIATE MARKETING IN 2019 A whistle-stop tour of the trends set to shape affiliate marketing in 2019. By Kevin Edwards

Affiliate marketing has always struggled to tell a good story. Seen as a nuts and bolts channel, focused on results rather than the activity that drove the outcome, it often fails to resonate in the way a “hearts-andminds” brand advertising campaign can. With the wider crisis facing digital marketing, be it concerns about ad fraud, wasted budgets, ad blocking or data privacy, 2019 offers a unique opportunity for affiliate marketers to build a compelling, unique narrative. A key focus in the coming months should be how affiliates are expertly placed to communicate a clear value exchange to consumers. With the need for brands to build transparent and trusted relationships with their customers, they will realize that affiliates have substantial and engaged user bases. With data privacy laws coming to the fore again in 2019, the desire to ensure consumers are willingly and consensually sharing data with trusted platforms will also aid affiliates. Whether it’s through the medium of a coupon code, a cash or points reward, money saving price-comparison sites, or great content, affiliates have created businesses that are loved by consumers, available without cost, and offer a clear, tangible benefit. 2019 will also see a change in tracking upgrades. Moves by Apple, and others, to restrict third-party cookies indicates the general direction. Fuller integrations, however, will future proof sales, as well as offering a boost for brands via additional technology partnerships within affiliate programs expanding both their reach and effectiveness. A further pressure will come from regulatory bodies. With data privacy continuing to shape the agenda elsewhere, it’s likely the industry will need to take a more collaborative approach to topics such as affiliate disclosure.

The rise of the influencer and the desire to assimilate these budgets within affiliate programs means brands will demand a clearer, ethical standpoint from networks as industry gatekeepers. Measuring the success of influencer campaigns and other elements of an affiliate program will present a dichotomy in our new data conscious era. While the narrative for a decade has been to capture more and more data, the focus will shift towards storing selective information that has been respectfully collected. Ensuring robust processes are in place to protect and anonymize the data will also become increasingly important. This will be critical as the desire to understand the longer-term value delivered by affiliate marketing and the need to drive increased quality will be front of mind for many advertisers. While the digital squeeze may be occurring from all sides; consumers, brands, and regulators, affiliate marketing has an opportunity in 2019 to build a case for increased budgets and greater engagement. The key to unlocking this may lie with affiliates themselves. By telling the stories of how they built retail brands that connect and resonate with millions of consumers through creative and quirky campaigns, we will all be better placed to help further cement the affiliate channel in its rightful place at the heart of the marketing mainstream. [FF]

Kevin Edwards is Awin’s Global Client Strategy Director.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

AFFILIATE MARKETING

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YOU ONLY CONTROL THE URL YOU OWN Stay in charge of your online efforts by developing the URL real estate you own. By Robin R. Talbott

There once was a time, not long ago, when savvy marketers worked to make potential buyers aware of their need for the product, touting its benefits with clever slogans and jingles. Now, as affiliate marketers, we work to build relationships with potential buyers, who follow our online presence, trusting to buy following our product referrals.

A Short History of Blogging Things have certainly changed. The immediacy of blogging and social media has allowed the online presence of anyone purchasing a unique uniform resource locator (URL), creating a vast population of product reviewers with audiences devoted to their outlook. Reading, “A Brief History of Blogging,” dated March 2011, and found on Webdesignerdepot.com, we learn that: 1) “ The early 2000s were a period of growth for blogs. In 1999, according to a list compiled by Jesse James Garrett, there were 23 blogs on the Internet. By the middle of 2006, there were 50 million blogs, according to Technorati‘s State of the Blogosphere report. 2) “ By the mid-2000s, blogs were reaching the mainstream. In January of 2005, a study was released saying that 32 million Americans read blogs. At the time, it’s more than ten percent of the entire population. The same year, Garrett M. Graff was granted White House press credentials, the first blogger ever to do so.” 3) “During this time, the number of blogs grew even more, with more than 152 million blogs active by the end of 2010. Virtually every mainstream news source now has at least one blog, as do many corporations and individuals. 4) “Eight to ten years ago, blogs were becoming the primary point of communication for individuals online. But with the advent of social media and social networking in the past five years, blogs have become only one portion of an individual’s online persona.”

Blogging Now Demands Social Media Accompaniment As blogs have become enriched by social media, or “microblogging,” as it was first called, the emphasis on posting to one’s blog has shrunk. Whereas, in early blogging days, a blog publisher concentrated solely on their blog content, now bloggers must also present the four mainstays of social media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, to appear credible.

But, Make Sure Your Blog is Enriched, Not Eclipsed, by Social Media Social media outreach is unparalleled in bringing traffic to a blog. Some affiliate marketers are solely using social media to create a customer base. Problems occur when social media hosts initiate changes to benefit their platforms alone. These changes can be announced without notice and have dire consequences in traffic flow and quality. So called, “algorithms,” can easily decimate years of work and piles of cash by introducing unanticipated negative results.

Therefore, Don’t Sacrifice Your Online Endeavors to the Whim of an Outside Entity Remember to balance time and money spent between your blog and attendant social media. Prioritize your efforts into your own online real estate, for you can only control the URL you own. [FF]

Robin R. Talbott (@SunbonSmart) digitally markets at SunbonnetSmart.com.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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Here are three steps to increasing the profitability of your affiliate campaign through better client relationship tactics. By Travis Glenn

Affiliates are always looking for ways to increase the profitability of their campaigns. Many times early testing on a specific affiliate campaign will be Return on Investment (ROI) negative or breakeven. In that case, the ability of the affiliate to continue promotion of the campaign will depend on whether he is able to cut the costs of promotion or increase the revenue generated. If your business utilizes affiliates, you have to ensure that you are making it easy as possible for them to optimize their campaigns. Offer optimization tactics can fall into one of these three categories: First there is offer and demographic information sharing, the next step is optimal relationship communication, and the closing step would be reevaluation after long-term results are available. During the first phase, merchants should pass the affiliates as much reliable information as possible regarding the customer demographics for the product or service. This can include data such as primary age range, income levels, gender, geo-location data, and any other pertinent information that gives affiliates an idea of exactly who they are targeting. Depending on how the affiliate is advertising, they can choose placements that match the audience the product owner has had success with. Affiliates who are dialed into the correct target audience will save a ton of money by not wasting views and clicks from non-matching sources. The next phase comes after the affiliate has been running the campaign for several days or weeks. During this phase, the affiliate can make contact with their affiliate manager to see the profitability of their conversions. If the feedback is mediocre, the affiliate should analyze to see what they could do to improve quality. When the feedback is positive, affiliates should negotiate a payout increase.

If an affiliate is performing above average, the client may be happy to share more revenue with the affiliate. Good client affiliate relationships consider the long-term potential of the partnership. The final phase is much like step two above, but this time there is more concrete long-term data. This phase can look over months or years to see what the Life Time Value (LTV) of the conversions. During this phase, the affiliate and client have demonstrated a positive long-term partnership. This can be a good time to see if the affiliate or client can expand the relationship. Does the affiliate have other traffic sources and placements that they havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t yet tested? Does the client have other products or services that may be worthwhile for the affiliate to promote? Exploring these questions can lead to a gradual increase in the amount of business the parties are able to conduct together. Affiliate marketing can be a great boost to clients and marketers alike. It can be beneficial for everyone to keep in mind the opportunities to optimize results over the course of the phases of the promotion cycle. Just because something is breakeven initially, or worse, negative ROI, affiliates should plan to push into the longer-term opportunities if the campaign shows promise. [FF]

Travis Glenn is PeerFlyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Director of Business Development. @TheTravest

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

AFFILIATE MARKETING

INCREASE YOUR AFFILIATE CAMPAIGN PROFITABILITY

AFFILIATE MARKETING

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MAKING THE LEAP FROM AFFILIATE TO BRAND Making good money as an affiliate marketer? Now might be the best time to take the leap and become a brand. By Zac Johnson

Affiliate marketing is where many of us first got our start. We then master the process and make a decent amount of money along the way. However, at some point, many of us start to think about the end game and if this is where we want to be five or ten years from now. This is the life of an affiliate marketer. We find ads to promote, create campaigns, and make money in the process. In short, we have the best job in the world. We get to work from home, or wherever we like, and we also look for new opportunities at every corner. One such opportunity that many successful affiliate marketers take is the leap from being an ‘affiliate’ to becoming a ‘brand’. Not only is this expected, it’s also a required step to take your success to that next level. This is something I personally did back in 2007 when I launched my blog. I decided to focus more on my personal brand, expertise, and not being held captive to whether my next affiliate check was in the mail, or if whoever I was running ads for would soon go bust. Now, as a full-service brand and company, the opportunities are limitless -- many of which would never have been possible if I was still “just an affiliate”. Is now the right time for you to take the leap? More than anything else, this has to be a personal choice, and one that you are comfortable with. Once you put yourself out there, there really is no going back. At the same time, if you are still making good money with affiliate marketing, don’t think you need to cut off this revenue steam. Remember, it’s still your business. Never drop a great source of revenue for a new idea that doesn’t have a guaranteed source of continuing income.

With all of this in mind, the next step in the process is to have a solid business and branding plan. Take some time to plan this out, and don’t rush the process. This should consist of knowing what you are going to offer, why you are better than the competition, how you are going to brand yourself and stand out from the crowd, and also where and how to can use what you’ve learned in affiliate marketing to further grow your new brand and business. Lastly, one of the most important things to remember is that branding and self-promotion are everything. Get your name out there, show off your expertise, and help as many people as possible. The initial launch of your new personal brand and business may be slow, but it might also be one of the best personal and business decisions you’ve ever made. [FF]

Zac Johnson is the founder of Blogging.org and has 20+ years of success in online marketing.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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3 WAYS VIDEOS MAKE FOR OPTIMAL CONVERSIONS

Video is nothing new. We have seen its rise over the past decade or so to become one of the most useful tools in any marketer’s strategy. While its aesthetic appeal is clear, many of us often overlook its value in driving interest and even conversions from both new and returning customers. These three strategies can help you maximize the value of your video content to increase the interest you generate from prospects and convert new leads into revenue.

1. Provide Value There is more than enough content out there - video or otherwise - and plenty of that provides entertainment. You need to think in terms of providing that and more. The audience watching your video content will need encouragement to stick around. If the average online attention span is only a few seconds and getting shorter, the value you provide needs to be insightful, useful and, yes, entertaining to keep viewers watching and get them to click on a call-to-action at any point during your video.

2. Educate Viewers

3. Prove Your Worth By creating content, answering questions, and highlighting that you know more and are willing to share more information than anyone else in your industry, you are establishing yourself as a thought and industry leader. The reality is simple: people like working with the best. Video content is an excellent way to show them that you are, in fact, at the very top of the industry, and it personalizes your individual brand significantly more than other forms of content. Take advantage of those assets and leverage video in order to showcase your expertise and convince prospects to take that next step by clicking through to see more, asking for more information, and converting on the spot. Content is a multi-faceted strategy, and simply adhering to one form or another is almost never the way to go if you want to attract prospects and up your conversion rates. That said, video is one of the most easily digestible and engaging forms of content, and it needs to be thought of as something more than simply another asset. You need to be using video to drive conversions, and by taking these three approaches into consideration when creating your next video you’ll be doing just that. [FF]

CONVERSION

By using valuable content, educational material, and by showcasing your expertise, videos can help you drive up your conversion rates. By Corey Padveen

When creating video content, ask yourself something simple: if you were not a part of your industry and you were looking to get information, is your video the kind of thing that would provide the insights and information you would be looking for when you went searching? The answer should always be yes. Much like the value you provide viewers, you’ll want to take an explanatory or educational focus as well. When it comes to generating leads and converting prospects, quick educational tips and lessons through video content can go a long way to generating interest from an audience. It also helps highlight your expertise, which brings us to our third point.

Corey Padveen, author of Marketing to Millennials for Dummies, and Partner at t2 Marketing International.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

CONVERSION

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OVERCOMING RETAIL EMAIL FATIGUE TO CONVERT Here are three ways to personalize your retail email approach to maximize conversion from consumers. By Tim Kastner

Consumers polled for the recent Specialty Retail US: Discount Emails study complained that their inboxes are jam-packed with generic, non-targeted discount offers. They said that these impersonal offers, and the frequency with which they are sent, are among their top pain points in their email relationships with retail brands.

•

Improve Your Subject Lines & Offers: The study by L2 found that brands are under-utilizing product discovery subject lines and are falling short in the offers they’re making. Consider that the consumer left your website without converting for a reason, either what they found wasn’t a good fit, or the offer wasn’t enticing enough to get them to take action. Offer something better - either a better product fit or a better discount than they can find on your website. Brands that rely on formulaic subject lines such as “50% off [insert product name here]” need to explore differentiation to get attention. These subject lines simply aren’t working as they used to.

•

Segmentation: Retailers need to use the data they have to personalize, segment, and deliver unique messages to re-engage their consumers. It is critical that brands take the time to match consumer interest with their offers. Brands that send fewer messages to more targeted segments will see better results. The L2 study found that many brands and their competitors are sending their broad discount emails to the same groups of people. Instead, make your emails mean something. Send them to your most qualified prospects with an offer that is relevant to their needs.

•

Be Timely: Timing is key. It’s important to follow up on buyer intent quickly to get that conversion. Abandoned cart tools or email remarketing tools can offer the opportunity to send an immediate follow-up message.

Consumer dissatisfaction is being borne out in reduced open rates and engagement rates on blanket email campaigns. The study indicated that targeted email and automation programs showed open rates as high as 20% to 31%, while impersonal emails saw open rates around 16%.

Overcoming Discount Email Fatigue Combatting consumer fatigue is an ambitious goal – one that would require large, collective buy-in from brands to change their ways. While this is hardly likely, there are steps any brand can take to stand out from the throng and achieve more sales in the process: •

Email Retargeting: One simple tool that brands can implement that allows them to improve their retail email marketing performance is email retargeting. This tool allows brands to effortlessly send timely, highly-targeted emails that convert. Email retargeting tools can identify a brands’ anonymous website visitors who showed interest but didn’t convert - and then automatically identify their email address (even when one wasn’t provided) and immediately sends a targeted and timely discount email designed to convert. This sort of tool has been shown to increase overall website sales conversion rates by 10% or more.

This weakness in the retail industry presents an opportunity for brands to differentiate their approach. Take the time to truly personalize your email approach and your brand will realize dividends in the long-run. [FF]

Tim Kastner is the CSO at ReachDynamics, a leader in email retargeting solutions.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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SOCIAL MEDIA SABBATICAL

Time is my greatest asset. I think that might be true for all of us. Let’s even look at time like inventory. When that one second, minute, or hour is used, it’s gone. Sure, you have more, but whatever that moment was before is forever gone. Social Media’s original purpose still smartly serves in some areas, but largely has become a resilient echo chamber with blind tribalism, with dividing political debates, and venomous opinions about any and everything. It might be time to take a break or even consider walking away altogether. To be clear, I’m slowly walking away myself. I’m down to only Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. By the time you read this article, I will have either closed the Instagram account (5K “followers”), or switch it to business-only, which my virtual assistant would manage. I understand that many use it for business and brand building, but I’m wondering out loud if we’ve become more distracted. I don’t want to dismiss those that keep up with family or made great connections. I’m just asking if there’s been more dead space then real progress in our lives and with our time. If you are a fellow creative, then we need to keep distance from the glamorous arcade to revitalize our mind and solidify our unique outlook. Without the latter, I’m not sure we’re making a real impact. We also require this time to define our objectives, which should be free of public nonsense. Through taking a social media sabbatical, or even quitting, it’s been found that we can declutter our work and make the most of it by concentrating on what’s crucial. Being as prolific as possible implies using “digital minimalism”. This idea involves notions on how to manage our digital lives with less diversions.

Ultimately, real success comes from being good listeners. We do texting, updating statuses, tweeting, check-in, commenting, and uploading pictures while speaking with others. Taking a sabbatical, or even freeing yourself altogether, allows us to talk to people with full-focus, attend to every word, sustain eyecontact and give an apt reply while collaborating with others. According to TED speaker and author of the book “Deep Work”, Cal Newport, “if you treat your attention with respect, - so you don’t fragment it; you allow it to stay whole, you preserve your concentration - when it comes time to work, you can do one thing after another and do it with intensity, and intensity can be traded for time. It’s surprising how much you can get done in an eight-hour day if you’re able to give each thing intense concentration after another. Something else I can report back from life without social media is that outside of work, things can be quite peaceful”. I agree. We’re not binary as humans. Our worth is not measured in likes, comments, notes, or followers, but in our ability to connect on a genuine level. If you want to change your circumstance, consider changing the circle you stand in. [FF]

Priest Willis, Sr. is Senior Global Partnerships Marketing Manager at Lenovo and doer of online things.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Cutting out distractions and focus on being more productive by consideration Social Media Sabbaticals. By Priest Willis, Sr.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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5 PILLARS OF A FACEBOOK CHATBOT STRATEGY Want to know what separates chatbot winners and losers? Learn about the file pillars to success. By Dmitriy Kruglyak

If you follow marketing industry news, you have probably heard about Facebook Messenger bots. The gap between chatbot winners and losers is defined by the ability or failure to create a meaningful customer experience. Facebook Messenger is an excellent channel when used correctly. Yet, most unsuccessful projects start by “dabbling” without a plan or hoping that a purchased chatbot template would “just work”. Instead, we suggest designing your bots around the stages in the customer journey. Here is how to build a successful chatbot strategy:

Pillar 1: Grow Any chatbot program starts with a plan to drive subscriber growth. This is primarily dependent on the promotion channels with the matching campaigns and creatives. You should design an onboarding strategy for every channel at your disposal. For new customer prospecting and acquisition, you can use Facebook Ads, either with a customized welcome experience or via comment-to-message. For existing customers and visitors, use deploy links, web buttons, chat plugins, and scan codes.

Pillar 2: Engage Subscriber base is only as valuable as it is engaged. There is an important distinction between initial and repeated engagement and you need both to maximize the value. The place to start is with repurposing the most successful content and tactics from your other channels. Beyond that, consider contests, product selection advisors, entertainment, and quizzes driven by user personalities and styles. Focus on building trust and staying top-of-mind with relevant broadcast updates.

Pillar 3: Monetize Engaging subscribers in a relationship of trust provides ongoing opportunities to present monetization Calls-To-Action (CTAs).

Relevant offers should be integrated into every engagement sequence or context. Consider creating special deals available to bot subscribers only. This provides additional incentives for users to opt into the bot, and once captured, you will get multiple chances to remarket to them. Special mention goes to directly selling products with the Messenger’s “Buy” button.

Pillar 4: Service Chatbots offer massive potential to improve customer experience and streamline workload of the customer service reps (CSRs). The baseline opportunity is to provide instant responses to key inquiries. An automated Messenger bot may host frequently asked questions (FAQ) and knowledge bases, serving product information, and educational content. Deliver updates on order status and shipment via Messenger, which provides additional reasons to collect the opt-in. Automation should only be first line of support with harder questions escalated to humans.

Pillar 5: Advocate Your happy customers are your greatest assets. Use chatbots to spread goodwill and social proof, and translate satisfaction into positive word-of-mouth. Start by creating a standard post-sale sequence. With the lure of a giveaway or a future discount, present a customer satisfaction survey requesting product and service feedback. In case of positive answers, follow up with a request to leave reviews or share with friends. Be sure to take advantage of any physical presence with scan code inserts.

Key Takeaway Messenger can support marketing, sales, and services when used right. Invest in the right expertise to achieve success. [FF]

Dmitriy Kruglyak runs TargetChoice LLC, offering solutions for Facebook Ads and Messenger bot management.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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With 250 million active users that are ready to buy, learn how and why Pinterest is a smart affiliate strategy. By Ashley Klotz

A few years ago, Pinterest banned all affiliate links from their site in an effort to decrease spammers abusing the method. Fortunately for affiliates, Pinterest reversed this decision back in 2016 and opened the platform for affiliates to monetize their pins. With 250 million users on Pinterest, this is a great opportunity to gain additional exposure and hopefully drive more traffic and sales. Below, I will break down why you should be utilizing your affiliate links on the site, as well as how.

WHY? By the numbers, Pinterest is a smart source when it comes to monetizing your blog and increasing your affiliate efforts. Out of their vast number of users, 93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest (Source: Omnicore, Pinterest by the Numbers, September 2017). The reason being is that users go to Pinterest to do their research and get inspiration before purchasing anything. This decision to add affiliate links doesn’t just benefit the pinner, but also the follower. The pinner provides an improved experience for followers that are interested in buying a product and the pinner has the potential of earning a commission. It’s a win-win.

They look to your boards for inspiration and don’t want to see only products for sale. Trust your judgement and knowledge of your audience when exercising affiliate links on Pinterest. When you do use your affiliate links, adding them to Pinterest is easy. You can pin directly from any site that you’re an affiliate for and once it’s pinned, simply “edit” the pin and change the URL to your affiliate link. Have older pins you want to change? Go ahead and edit the pin and replace the URL the same way. 70% search, save, or click on a pin (Source: Sprout Social, 15 Pinterest Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2018, June 2018), therefore it’s a no-brainer to get your affiliate links on Pinterest and it couldn’t be easier. Start today and get your boards in order – try adding a board that’s specifically for your affiliate ads and fill with products you actually love. No matter your strategy, adding affiliate links is a smart decision that will have you earning more commission in no time. Just don’t forget your Federal Trade Commision (FTC) disclosure. [FF]

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

AFFILIATE LINKS ON PINTEREST: WHY AND HOW?

HOW? When affiliate links were banned, a blogger’s work-around would be to link to their blog post where their affiliate links could be found. This is still a good tactic as there are more links to be clicked on in the post than the pin. Adding affiliate links to your pins should be in addition to the past tactic and not in place of it. For one reason, the old approach still gives you a potential sale with the links in your blog, plus added traffic to your site. Another reason to keep a good balance between blog links and affiliate links is that your followers will still look for authenticity.

Ashley Klotz, Content Manager, All Inclusive Marketing. 7+ years of content, social and performance expertise.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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LINKEDIN PROFILE PHOTO DOS AND DON’TS Here are tips and thoughts as to what can help or hinder your Linkedin profile pic. By Ryan Zimmerman

According to the old idiom, a picture is worth a thousand words. According to a new idiom I just made up, a LinkedIn profile is sometimes worth just three words: What. The. F*ck?

• DON’T take a photo of a photo. Nothing says “I don’t understand how technology works” like the reflection of a camera flash on your pic. Take thirty seconds and scan that prized photo and upload it for a nice and clean result.

Here are some tips on how to choose the right profile pic and professionally connect with potential colleagues.

• DON’T use a photo of your kids. Look, I have kids and I love them. They’re adorable (usually). But this isn’t Instagram. Put your face or your company’s identity as the focal point, not your little ones. This also applies to cats, dogs, and any other pets. Remember, Fido=Facebook.

• DO crop it and crop it well. You may have looked amazing at your friend’s wedding with your date, but seeing a disembodied hand resting on your shoulder is just weird. • DO remember to have the photo in focus. It’s amazing how often I see pics that are blurry. If it looks blurry, don’t use it. Simple. That killer smile doesn’t have the same effect unless it’s crisp and clear.

In summary, LinkedIn is for doing business and meeting up with like-minded individuals in your related fields. Make that first impression a good one and show off that magnificent mug you were blessed with. [FF]

• DO size them correctly. Ideally you’re looking at 400x400, so we shouldn’t have to squint our eyes to see who you are or back up from our monitor to avoid plunging into your pores. • DO remember to take off your sunglasses. It’s not a photo shoot, Magnum. Unless you’re actually a sales rep at Ray-Ban, take them off and let us see those amazing peepers. • DON’T confuse LinkedIn with Snapchat. You’re not twelve years old and you don’t need bunny ears, puppy noses, or deer eyes. If you want to be taken seriously, leave the filters off. • DON’T forget to actually use a profile picture. If you are in the Witness Protection Program or are on the run from the law, then yes, those instances would be exceptions. If not, just take the time to replace the token profile outline provided by LinkedIn and make it personal. If you’re shy, use your company logo. Just make sure to use something. Doing so shows that you are active and open to doing business.

Ryan’s a 15 year industry veteran and the Director of Business Development at Avenue Link.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Success steps to Influencer Marketing and how to communicate brand novelty with audience affinity providing recognition and triggering complete registrations. By Vera Belinskaya We do not need to convince you why influencer marketing is vital to your app’s success, but we will tell you how to advance cost-per-action (CPA) driven campaigns and amass new registrations and bookings. Whether you are focusing on micro or macro influencers, the steps you take to find the right fit will allow you to communicate brand novelty with audience affinity, providing recognition, and trigger complete registrations of users who will continue using your app.

1. Pre-screening Pre-screening of influencers is a time-consuming task which will save you a lot of time later in your campaign. It is important to create a match between the brand and influencer’s personal brand. You should consider the geographical target market, size of following, reputation, language, engagement of the audience, and topics and interests of the influencer. In order to attract potential user’s interest before starting the campaign influencers with the right demographical data to ideally fit app’s offer should be approached.

2. Budgeting

3. Account Management Establishing daily strong communication with the influencer will nurture the adherence to guidelines. A dedicated account management needs to concentrate around the links being delivered on time, whether the links work, making sure the content is pre-checked, approved, and can go live. Influencers often do not work with an agency to handle the details and more shortcomings can appear than one expects. The little details such are a broken “swipe up” link on Instagram or a forgotten link in the YouTube video description box can cost a lot of lost potential users and money. Following these steps will allow increased engagement and brand awareness to consequently generate more revenue. The image the influencer will portray of the app will affect the positive perceptions, growth of keyword searchers of the targeted audience, and increased app orders. If the influencer is not responsive, does not engage with the audience and does not provide the expected reach, it is often the fault of the steps taken prior to the campaign going live. Allocate enough time and money to complete the steps above and it will bring you to a more successful influencer marketing campaign.. [FF]

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

3 SUCCESS STEPS TO INFLUENCER MARKETING

Budget setting and negotiations all come from an established daily communication and the motivation of influencers. Not only should you meet your own budget and apps budget, but the influencers requirements based on their reach, following base, and reputation in the online space to meet the optimal costs. This will affect the transmission of briefings and the overall delivery of the campaign. The influencer marketing industry is very competitive where influencers have set prices: they know how much brands are willing to pay, but the room for negotiation always allows you to find a compromise. If you cannot afford a mention in a YouTube video of an influencer with one million subscribers, an Instagram story on an account with 200,000 followers, but more focused and dedicated to influencers’ opinions, can be a win-win.

Vera Belinskaya is the Marketing and PR Manager of TAB, a mobile performance media company.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

11 WAYS HIGH-RISK MERCHANTS CAN PREVENT CHARGEBACKS Chargeback prevention is critical when running a successful business. Here are 11 ways a business can successfully reduce chargebacks. By Alex Roy

Preventing chargebacks is one of the most important things you can do as a high-risk business. Below are eleven ways a high-risk merchant can reduce their chargebacks.

1. Provide Product Details Customers’ product expectations, of course, impact chargeback rates. It’s important to provide accurate product information covering: • Color • Material • Size • Quantity An important note on digital products: Because they’re not “tangible,” it’s even more important to set clear expectations.

2. Set Custom Order Expectations. With custom product orders, customers are likely to invest more emotion into the product. This makes the orders more prone to “not as described” chargebacks. If possible, try to show what the finished product will look like as accurately as possible.

3. Analyze Your Marketing Sources You should carefully examine how your customers get to know your product, since this affects chargebacks. A pay-per-click ad campaign allows a great extent of control over how your product is marketed, as opposed to an affiliate system.

4. Get the Basics Right Using Address Verification Systems (AVS) ensures that the address the customer entered for their billing information is the address on record. Similarly, card codes are designed to establish that the customer is in possession of the card used for the transaction.

5. Make Use of Your Billing Descriptors The billing descriptor is the short description your customer will see on their credit card statement. Make full use of it as a way to reduce confusion on your customer’s end by providing an accurate business name and clear contact information.

6. Shorten the Time Between Sale and Delivery Obviously, delivery time significantly impacts chargebacks for ecommerce. If a significant amount of time passes from when you charge the customer to when they receive their products, the likelihood of chargebacks increases.

7. Notify Your Customers Before Recurring Billing With recurring billing, it’s highly advised that you give your customers a heads-up. When there are fewer surprises for your customers, you’ll undoubtedly help prevent chargebacks.

8. Have Realistic Delivery Estimates Be as objective as possible when you provide a shipping estimate to your customer. If your product arrives significantly later than what you indicated, it might increase your risk of chargebacks.

9. A User-Friendly Policy Can Mitigate Chargebacks Your return policies should be customer-centric to mitigate chargebacks. Make it easy for customers to find, understand, and access them. Policies should be easy to find before, during, and after a purchase.

10. Show Your Customers That You Care About Them Make sure your customers feel heard. There are multiple ways you can achieve this: • Live chats • upport email accounts • Call centers • Social media platforms However, keep in mind that speed is vital; customers have different expectations than yours.

11. Sign Up for a Chargeback Mitigation Program There are many things you can do to prevent chargebacks. However, some are outside of your direct control. The right professional mitigation program may help you avoid and manage your chargebacks. [FF]

Alex Roy is the founder and owner of E-Commerce4IM.com, and an experienced high-risk payments specialist.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Affiliate marketing is changing as technology advances: new lead management features bring about more opportunities and competition. By Mark Kosin

As automation and other technical advancements make it easier than ever to target prospects and collect data, affiliate marketing winners and losers won’t be decided by how many leads they can generate, but by how efficiently they can manage them. The new year makes prognosticators of all of us—peering across an opaque horizon with some hope of knowing what lies ahead. As we enter 2019, it is clear that the technology available to affiliate marketers and publishers has simplified the lead generation process. But any good marketer will tell you that just getting leads is half the battle. Having the right strategy to effectively manage every lead that comes in is the new metric of success. A sophisticated lead management system is the most powerful tool for optimizing your business. Here are four features that can help you conquer your next incoming wave of leads:

1. Automated Tracking We live in an age of big data and the best data you can collect is anything that gives you greater insight into your target audience. A lead management system can tell you which ads brought in specific leads. With this information, you’re better positioned to know which marketing channels provide you with the best Return on Investment (ROI). Plus, the more data you gather, the better you’ll be able to optimize your campaigns.

3. Enhanced Distribution Even after taking all the steps to optimize your campaign and track your leads, you may still be losing out on revenue if you aren’t distributing your leads to a robust buyer network. Utilizing an elite lead management system lets you take advantage of features like real-time distribution and ping trees to ensure you’re getting the most out of every lead. With the ability to sell or redistribute your hard-won leads, you’ll be in the best position to optimize your traffic and succeed.

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

MANAGE YOUR BOTTOM LINE WITH LEAD MANAGEMENT

4. Predictive Analytics One of the greatest challenges affiliate marketers face is how to interpret the massive quantities of data they collect from each campaign. Predictive analytics are rarely available as part of a lead management system—any platform with this feature can give marketers a competitive edge. A new technology in this space, predictive modeling, provides marketers with clear identifiable trends that are hiding in their data. Every prospect interaction tells a story about your strategy, but that story may not be clear even after manually analyzing every data point. Predictive analytics takes the guesswork out of data-mining and employs artificial intelligence (AI) technology to spot trends. These findings can be displayed in intuitive charts and graphs so that every member of the team can plainly see what the data is telling them. [FF]

2. Real-Time Reporting Knowing how prospects are responding to your marketing campaigns is necessary for ensuring a great ROI. Taking advantage of real-time reporting gives marketers the opportunity to know how their campaigns are performing as they’re happening. It presents marketers with the ability to shift resources at any time, meaning you can redistribute funds from underperforming campaigns sooner rather than later.

Mark Kosin is a copywriter at Phonexa who writes about emerging marketing technologies.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST Agenda 2019

Agenda

EVENT PASS KEY: n VIP Members Only \ n Networking Plus Pass \ n Exhibitors Only \ n All

Day 0

Saturday, January 5 12:00pm – 8:00pm

n Check-In Come by Saturday to pick up your badge and attendee bag so you can enter immediately on Sunday when the conference opens!

Day 1

Sunday, January 6 7:30am – 6:00pm

n Check-In Pick up your conference badge and attendee bag, and get started with Affiliate Summit. 7:30am – 6:00pm

n VIP Lounge VIP pass holders are welcomed to take advantage of this space that will include tables, WiFi, refreshments, massage therapists and more! 8:00am – 6:00pm

n Networking Lounge

All attendees are welcome to take advantage of the tables and WiFi to have meetings, catch up on work, or simply take a break.

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Day One Agenda

continued...

8:00am – 11:00am

n Meet Market Set Up Meet Market Exhibitors may set up their table at this time.

3 MONTH

FREE TRIAL

8:00am – 6:00pm

n Exhibit Hall Booth Setup Exhibitors may set up their booth at this time.

EMAIL SALES@TUNE.COM | REF: ASW LAS VEGAS

8:00am – 6:00pm

n Bookable Meeting Tables Private meeting tables will be available on each day of the conference and can be reserved using our Conference Networking App (Coming Soon!) Select the person(s) that you wish to schedule a meeting with, and book your 30 minute slot choosing one of the available tables in the location drop down. 9:30am – 10:00am

Measure, analyze, and optimize your clients’ mobile and digital marketing campaigns.

n First-Timer Orientation First-time attendees are encouraged to join Affiliate Summit Co-CEO, Shawn Collins, for tips and advice on getting the most out of your time at Affiliate Summit.

VISIT US

Booth Number #519 Meet Market Table #B13

10:00am – 11:00am

n Newcomer/First Timer Networking Meetup Stick around after the First Timer Orientation to enjoy some refreshments and meet new people at this networking event. Newcomer Program participants will have the opportunity to get together with their assigned mentors and pick up any last minute tips before their first Affiliate Summit begins. 12:00pm – 6:00pm

n Meet Market 12:00pm – 1:30pm

n VIP Snack Break VIP Pass Holders: Fuel up and recharge with some snacks and drinks in a relaxed networking environment.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

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AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST 2019 Day One Agenda TRACK 1

TRACK 3

1:00pm -2:00pm

n n Clever Ways to Automate Content Creation with WordPress (David Vogelpohl, WP Engine)

n n Live SEO & Monetization Site Reviews (Adam Riemer, Adam Riemer Marketing)

n n Profitable Influencer Marketing 101 (Trisha Lyn Fawver, Blinkstar Media, LLC)

Is your whole life spent coming up with your next blog post? Join this session to learn approachable tips you can use to automate content creation with WordPress. WordPress personalities David Vogelpohl and Brian Messenlehner share their favorite plugins, tools, and techniques for responsibly delivering automated and visitor-delighting content across a variety of digital strategies. If you’re trapped on the blog post treadmill, attend this session and automate content creation with WordPress!

Submit your website or blog, or watch and learn as others discover how to grow their website with SEO, recover from penalties, discover link building ideas and how to make more money with creative monetization strategies. This panel of experts is ready to help you in a constructive way, and there is normally a Q&A for any specific questions you may have if you don’t want to submit your site.

In this session, you will learn secrets, lessons, successes and failures from three creative visionaries successfully bridging the relationship gap between Instagram influencers, bloggers and affiliate marketing, for their merchant brands.

2:30pm – 3:30pm

n n Coupon Affiliates Speak Out About Incremental Value (Choots Humphries, LinkConnector Corporation) Can coupon affiliates add value to a merchant’s Affiliate Marketing program? The answer is a resounding YES. A panel of industry-leading coupon affiliates will be discussing the many ways this vertical can drive incremental value for their merchant partners. The conversation will include success stories, challenges, and insights like how merchant brands could better empower their coupon affiliates with data and tools to better help achieve a brand’s Performance Marketing goals.

4:00pm – 5:00pm

n n Beyond the Sponsored Post. 11 Other Ways Bloggers Make Money (Anne Parris, Midlife Boulevard)

TRACK 2

Influencers: work smarter, not harder! Sponsored posts are great for bloggers, but are you leaving money on the table? Learn innovative ways that can help you start increasing your revenue today. We will share money-making ideas you may not have thought of, often using the content you’ve already created. We will help you start cashing in pronto!

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2:30pm – 3:30pm

n n Leveraging Influencers in a Performance Marketing Arena (Tara McCommons, LinkConnector Corporation) In this session, you will learn secrets, lessons, successes and failures from three creative visionaries successfully bridging the relationship gap between Instagram influencers, bloggers and affiliate marketing, for their merchant brands.

4:00pm – 5:00pm

n n The 7 Do’s and 7’ Don’ts of Affiliate Marketing (Jeannine Crooks, Awin) Seems like it’s one decision after another when starting a new affiliate site. Some are easy to make - there’s information all over the internet with recommendations. But many are much harder - decisions on branding, choosing partners, selecting the right management tools. In this session, three award-winning industry veterans will review 7 things to definitely do, plus 7 things to never do, to help get your site off to the best possible start.

4:00pm – 5:00pm

n n The APAC Retail Opportunity is the Liveliest In the World In spite of increasing costs and uncertain economic prospects, 85% of luxury and business fashion retailers still focus their international expansion efforts in APAC and on the APAC consumer; with the size of the luxury market expected to exceed $135B in 2019. How should merchants, publishers and performance marketers ensure a consistent piece of the pie given APAC nuances? How is consumer behavior different and how do business strategies need to differ?

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Day Two Agenda 5:30pm – 7:30pm n Exclusive VIP, Advertiser & Affiliate Cocktail Hour INVITE ONLY. This invitation is exclusively for affiliates, advertisers and those who have purchased a VIP pass. Without a RSVP confirmation email/ticket, you will not be allowed in.

Monday, January 7 Day 2 6:00am – 9:00am

n Exhibit Hall Booth Setup Exhibitors may set up their booth at this time. 7:30am – 5:00pm n Check-In Pick up your conference badge and attendee bag, and get started with Affiliate Summit. 7:30am – 5:00pm n VIP Lounge VIP pass holders are welcome take advantage of this space will include tables, WiFi, refreshments, massage therapists and more! 7:30am – 5:00pm n Networking Lounge All attendees are welcome to take advantage of the tables and WiFi to have meetings, catch up on work, or simply take a break.

AS OUR PARTNER YOU BENEFIT FROM WEEKLY QUALITY FEEDBACKS

PERSONAL APPROACH We develop the ways of strategic growth for each partner in order to maximize the mutual proﬁt

AFFILIATE PORTAL FEATURE

We are constantly working on improving the traﬃc quality in order to build the long-term lucrative relationship for both sides

TOP CONFERENCES ATTENDANCE

All the partners have an access to the online traffic tracker where they can find all the offers-related information, as well as wide bank of creatives

Working with huge budgets and biggest networks in the industry, our brand is represented at the top aﬃliate events.

COMPLIANCE IN EVERYTHING WE DO

WIDE RANGE OF THE TRAFFIC TYPES AND PAYMENT MODELS

We advertise exclusive dating products that satisfy the users' needs. We also induce our partners to use only compliant promotional materials and constantly monitor this.

We buy e-mail, search, social, banner/native traﬃc, etc. We pay our partners at CPL, CPA, CPS, Revenue Share model and are open to test new opportunities!

MEET US AT

7:30am – 5:00pm n Bookable Meeting Table Private meeting tables will be Contacts: • www.aﬃliates.victoriadates.com • aﬃliates@victoriadates.com available on each day of the conference and can be reserved using our Conference Networking App (Coming Soon!) Select the person(s) that you wish to schedule a meeting with, and book your 30 minute slot choosing one of the available tables in the location drop down.

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AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST 2019 Day Two Agenda

continued...

9:00am – 10:00am n VIP Buffet Breakfast VIP Pass Holders: Fuel up on a hearty buffet-style breakfast in a relaxed networking environment. 9:00am – 10:00am

n Exhibit Hall Booth Refresh Exhibitors may come in during this time to refresh their booth from yesterday’s setup and prep booth staff. 10:00am – 5:00pm

n Exhibit Hall 12:00pm – 2:00pm

n RevShare Round Up Session 1 The Affiliate Summit RevShare Roundup is taking place inside the Exhibit Hall. If you are looking for new revenue share programs to drive traffic to, the Affiliate Summit RevShare Roundup showcases a variety of affiliate programs to discover. (Unrelated conversations will not be entertained during this event.

12:45pm – 1:45pm

n VIP Buffet Lunch VIP Pass Holders: Fuel up on a hearty buffet-style breakfast in a relaxed networking environment. 4:00pm – 6:00pm

n RevShare Round Up Session The Affiliate Summit RevShare Roundup is taking place inside the Exhibit Hall. If you are looking for new revenue share programs to drive traffic to, the Affiliate Summit RevShare Roundup showcases a variety of affiliate programs to discover. (Unrelated conversations will not be entertained during this event.

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@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

TRACK 1

TRACK 2

TRACK 3

10:00am - 10:30am

n n Discover New Growth

n n 7 Creative Ways to

n n The Guide to Getting Your

Opportunity with Mass Media Partnerships (Sarah Beeskow Blay, ShareASale)

Repurpose Video Content for Better ROI (Michelle Held, METRONY, LLC)

Amazon Associates Account Banned (Jesse Lakes, Geniuslink)

You will walk away from this session with an understanding of why Mass Media is an emerging opportunity in Affiliate Marketing and how you can grab ahold of it tight! Discovery what Mass Media partners are looking for and how they can drive new revenue to your program.

Businesses sometimes stay away from video marketing because of cost concerns. Like other content, we can reuse and repurpose marketing videos to net higher returns. Videos can be used across multiple social channels, in email campaigns, and on web pages to increase conversions.

10:45am – 11:15am

n n Ready, Set, Grow: Use Product Feed to Skyrocket Your Earnings (Valeria Pagano, OnMaCon GmbH)

n n Growth Through Partnerships - The Biggest Affiliate Secret (Dominic Baliszewski, Decision Tech)

Follow along as I run through the top 10 reasons for getting kicked out of Amazon’s Affiliate program. Taken from first hand experience in working with tens of thousands of Amazon affiliates, my team’s list of things to avoid ensures you don’t make one of the simple mistakes that could reset your efforts back to zero. I’ll also offer some best practices along the way to help you accomplish your goals while still staying on the right side of Amazon’s all-powerful Operating Agreement.

The potential of your future business is all in your product data feed and the content you will create. During this session will be shown how to build a solid product data feed that makes the difference between you and your competitors. I will dig deep in the specification and share some professional insiders about the art of producing unique content and implement it in the data feed

2:00pm – 2:30pm

n n Affiliates & Amazon- How to Handle Amazon “The Right Way” (Adam Weiler, Sunken Stone) In a world where over 50% of all ecommerce transactions are done on Amazon.com how do you compete? How can you utilize Amazon to get even more exposure for your products and use the massive amounts of traffic they generate to lift all ships vs fighting upstream?

2:45pm – 3:15pm

n n Finally use online Freelancers (like Fiverr) eFFectively (Sean Steinmarc, TFC Financing) Have you been frustrated when working with freelancers? Not all projects are appropriate for all platforms, yet, for quick tasks, sites like Fiverr can be extremely useful. We’ll review

As the affiliate industry gets increasingly crowded, more and more businesses are competing for the same budgets. Could the long-term secret to success for affiliates be for businesses to begin working with, and not against, each other. This session will explore how we’ve built a successful business over the past 15 years by taking a partnership approach with other brands. We’ll share what we’ve learnt along the way and how this can be applied by any affiliate in any vertical.

2:00pm – 2:30pm

10:45am – 11:15am

n n How to Start a Facebook Ads Project: 4 Must Have Phases (Dmitriy Kruglyak, TargetChoice LLC) “We want to run profitable Facebook ads, how do we get started” - ask countless advertisers day after day. Unfortunately the very people who could benefit the most from paid media often fail to understand how to properly plan and prepare. A simple 4 Phase framework (Qualify-Diagnose-Build-Operate) will help you prepare everything you need for success. Learn about why each of the phases is essential and how you can zero in on some quick wins.

n n 8 Ways To Automate Lead Generation With Machine Learning (Mariya Yao, TOPBOTS)

2:00pm – 2:30pm

Machine learning is accelerating all aspects of marketing, and lead generation is no exception. Marketers who master the use of modern AI and automation techniques will fly past the competition, while those who don’t will struggle. In this presentation, learn 8 different modern techniques currently being used for lead generation that all affiliate marketers should be aware of.

Is your content really positioned to dominate search results today? How can you differentiate yourself and stay ahead of the competition? In her session, Maryna talks about the most effective SEO and content strategies.

n n Secrets to Search Dominance Revealed (Maryna Hradovich)

2:45pm – 3:15pm 2:45pm – 3:15pm

n n Stand Out: 6 Steps to Rise

n n Awin Report 2019 - Global Definitive Guide to the

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AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST 2019 Day Two Agenda TRACK 1 continued... some outsourcing successes and failures, and discuss how to find talent and communicate your needs clearly for a positive outcome for all.

3:30pm – 4:00pm

n n Tips from an FTC Pro: How to Manage Your Regulatory Risk (William Rothbard, Law Offices of William I. Rothbard) From California to D.C. to the EU, the regulatory landscape for merchants and affiliates is changing at a head-spinning speed and becoming ever more complex. From continuity to text marketing, to new landmark data privacy regimes in Europe and California, to affiliate marketing, blogging and social influencing, legal and regulatory questions abound and risk mounts. Learn from an FTC Pro how to sleep better at night by understanding and managing your risk by day.

4:15pm – 4:45pm

n n Avoiding The Five Biggest Data Privacy Mistakes (Alexander Boyd, Fraser Stryker PC LLO) Successful internet marketers use an increasing amount data about their potential leads and users in order to serve more targeted advertisements and increase conversions. An increasing number of state, federal, and international laws regulate the collection, use, and disclosure of this valuable data. This presentation is designed to give practical advice on how to avoid five of the biggest mistakes internet marketers are making regarding their data privacy practices.

TRACK 2 continued.. Above the Noise (Matt White, Stop Selling. Start Helping.) You have a great new product. Or maybe it’s a service you know works well for hundreds or even thousands of current customers. But, when it comes to letting new prospects know you exist, it’s like you’re non-existent. Problem is…the world is so noisy, it’s difficult to get noticed. Seth Godin suggests a “Purple Cow.” Michael Hyatt recommends a “Platform.” Jonah Berger says to be more “Contagious.” All are great suggestions. But, in this session, I share MY top six tips to rise above the noise.

3:30pm – 4:00pm

n n Helping Influencers Promote Your Products w/ Optimized Feeds (Jonathan Brown, Wickfire) Influencers and content affiliates can do amazing things with the right tools. This session will explain the importance of product feeds and showcase creative uses of product data by influencers, content affiliates & others that promote your products. We’ll also cover how to create these feeds, and what needs to be included in them to best equip your promotional partners.

4:15pm – 4:45pm

n n Bringing Apps into the Affiliate Age (Bryan Leach, Ibotta) Mobile app transactions are no longer a nicety, but a necessity, when it comes to the strategies of retailers today. Despite this, traditional methods for driving user acquisition like affiliate marketing have been out of reach. In partnership with Button, Ibotta pioneered the first affiliate program in the US via a mobile app. Now, the world’s most progressive brands, including eBay, can elevate affiliate marketing to the world of app-to-app commerce, benefiting consumers and brands alike.

10:00pm – 1.00am n Affiliate Ball Official Party of the Affiliate Summit with legendary artist T-PAIN performing live.

FeedFront | January 2019 | No. 45

continued...

TRACK 3 continued.. Industry (Alex Forsch, Awin) Hear first hand the latest figures from Awin’s global definitive guide to the industry.

3:30pm – 4:00pm

n n Keep Calm and Crush Your Goals (Sara Margulis, Honeyfund) Do you have trouble focusing on your goals? Do you work yourself into the ground every day, struggling toward your goals and sacrificing your enjoyment of life, yet still wonder if you’re making the right kind of progress? Do you ever become overwhelmed with self-doubt or fear? This session will help you gain the knowledge, clarity and confidence to define and move easily toward your goals each day, without struggle. You’ll also learn how to conquer fear every time.

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Day Three Agenda Tuesday, January 8

Day 3

8:00am – 3:00pm n Check-In Pick up your conference badge and attendee bag, and get started with Affiliate Summit. 8:00am – 4:00pm n VIP Lounge VIP pass holders are welcome to take advantage of this space that will include tables, WiFi, refreshments, massage therapists and more! 8:00am – 4:00pm n Networking Lounge All attendees are welcome to take advantage of the tables and WiFi to have meetings, catch up on work, or simply take a break. 8:00am – 3:30pm n Bookable Meeting Tables Private meeting tables will be available on each day of the conference and can be reserved using our Conference Networking App (Coming Soon!) Select the person(s) that you wish to schedule a meeting with, and book your 30 minute slot choosing one of the available tables in the location drop down. 9:00am – 10:00am n VIP Buffet Breakfast VIP Pass Holders: Fuel up on a hearty buffet-style breakfast in a relaxed networking environment. 9:00am – 10:00am n Exhibit Hall Booth Refresh Exhibitors may come in during this time to refresh their booth from yesterday’s setup and prep booth staff. 10:00am – 4:00pm

n Exhibit Hall 12:45pm – 1:45pm

n VIP Buffet Lunch VIP Pass Holders: Fuel up on a hearty buffet-style lunch in a relaxed networking environment. 2:00pm – 4:00pm

n Exhibit Hall Networking Pub Crawl Refer to your Pub Crawl map of participating sponsors and visit each one for great networking opportunities and, of course, free beer and wine. All attendees welcome.

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AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST 2019 Day Three Agenda TRACK 1

continued...

TRACK 2

10:00am – 10:30am

10:45am – 11:15am

n n How to Win on Snapchat (Rosie Spindel & Mark McMaster, Snapchat)

n n Buying and Selling Online Businesses (Chuck Mullins, Quiet Light Brokerage)

As the newest major programmatic ad platform on the block, Snapchat is often misunderstood or overlooked by performance marketers. With the reach and efficiency that affiliate marketers require to drive ROI, Snapchat offers the inventory and tools needed to reach your goals. Join Snapchat’s Head and Lead of Global Online Sales to learn actionable strategies for driving growth on the platform.

This session will show you how to grow your affiliate business through online business acquisitions. We’ll discuss tools and tactics for acquiring businesses that will help you leverage your existing relationships to make more money online.

2:00pm – 2:30pm

n n 10 Proven Ways to Recruit New 10:45am – 11:15am

n n Running Influencer Campaigns With Facts, Not Feels (James Thompson, Bottlespark) We’ll take a dive into properly tracking, analyzing, and optimizing influencer impact. Many campaigns run based on feelings and that’s no way to manage ad spend. Specifically, we’ll be looking into live streaming on Twitch even though these methods hold true for almost any other social media platform, including and not limited to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

2:00pm – 2:30pm

n n The 3 Hidden Powers Inducing Influencer Marketing ROI (Declan Dunn, Simply Responsive) Discover the hidden powers few know that make or break ROI with 2 case studies. Start with a step by step formula to evaluate influencers, the audience, and making the right offer: Right Influencer + Right Audience + Right Offer = Performance We’ll then explore: Hidden Power 1. Unleashing the Audience to Engage, Share, and Buy Hidden Power 2. Building instead of Buying Influence: 4X Results case study. Hidden Power 3. Influencer gamification – turn the audience into influencers case study.

2:45pm – 3:15pm

n n Are We Actually Accomplishing Anything? (Adam Westreich, Uber)

As affiliate marketers does anything we do actually provide value? Are we just stealing traffic from the organic channel? How do we prove incremental gains? What is the true value add of an affiliate channel.

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Affiliates and Scale in SaaS (Adam Enfroy, BigCommerce) With hundreds of affiliate networks and millions of active affiliates, how can an advertiser break through the noise and find the right partners for their program? In this session you will learn: The most common mistakes companies make when recruiting new affiliates. How to leverage strategic partners and software to automate recruiting and activation efforts. What incentives and deals should be offered in an initial contract. How to turn a recruited publisher into a productive one.

2:45pm – 3:15pm

n n Key Compliance Issues Digital Marketers to Watch For in 2019 (Ron Tal Itzhak, Tal Ron, Drihem & Co., Law Firm) Recent years have seen a constant increase in fines and sanctions imposed on digital marketers. What is the reason for said increase? What are the differences in marketing allowed in different jurisdictions? Which are the best practices multijurisdictional marketers can use to solve upcoming GDPR and privacy challenges in order to optimize their revenues?

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Keynote Bios

Neil Patel

CO FOUNDER, NEIL PATEL DIGITAL, NEILPATEL.COM

eil Patel is the co-founder of Neil Patel Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations. [FF]

Ryan Deiss COFOUNDER & CEO, DIGITALMARKETER.COM

igitalMarketer.com is, the leading provider of digital marketing training & certifications to small and mid-sized businesses. Ryan is also the founder and host of the Traffic & Conversion Summit, the largest digital marketing conference in North America, and the creator of the “Customer Value Optimization” methodology. Ryan’s online business endeavors began at 19 when he launched his first website from his freshman dorm room so he could make some extra money to buy an engagement ring for his college sweetheart. It worked! Not only did the girl say “Yes,” but this one, little website ballooned into over 500, and a hobby grew into a real business. Today, Ryan’s digital media and ecommerce group, RivalBrands.com, owns and operates hundreds of properties including, MakeupTutorials.com, DIYProjects.com, SurvivalLife.com and Sewing.com ( just to name a few), and according to Shark Tank star, Daymond John, “His companies practically own the Internet.” He is also the best-selling author of the books, “Digital Marketing For Dummies” and “The Invisible Selling Machine,” and is considered one of the most dynamic speakers on modern digital marketing today. Most importantly, Ryan is a proud dad of four wonderful kids, Jonathan, Joyce, Ruth and Timothy, and husband to Emily…the girl who said “Yes” and inspired it all. [FF]

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@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Keynote Panel Bios

Waleed Al-Atraqchi PRESIDENT, CJ AFFILIATE As President of CJ Affiliate since 2015, Waleed has led with a focus on innovation and advocacy for the value of affiliate marketing. Previously, he led the growth and successful exits of marketing technology services companies Affinnova and Imagitas. Waleed first stepped into the world of marketing tech with Catalina Marketing where he advanced to sales leadership. Waleed began his career in brand management at Drypers and GlaxoSmithKline. Waleed holds a BS from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University where he graduated in the Top 10 of his class. [FF]

Julie Van Ullen GENERAL MANAGER, RAKUTEN MARKETING Julie Van Ullen is the General Manager, Americas for Rakuten Marketing’s growth business. In her role, Julie is responsible for overseeing sales and services as they pertain to the holistic suite of Rakuten Marketing’s solutions for Advertisers. Additionally, Julie drives the strategy and vision related to all aspects of go-to-market for RM offerings. Prior to joining Rakuten Marketing, Julie was the Vice President of Digital for FreeWheel. In her role, she served as digital segment GM to oversee product vision, client acquisition, and overall go-to-market strategy for FreeWheel’s suite of video ad serving and monetization solutions. [FF]

Todd Crawford

Mark Walters

VP STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, IMPACT

GROUP CEO, AWIN

As a co-founder, Todd Crawford evangelizes the opportunities presented by a multi-channel approach to the performance model. Prior to Impact, 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. [FF]

Mark Walters’ extensive commercial and managerial experience, spanning over 25 years, has seen him working across all areas of media, taking responsibility for management team building, project development and value creation. After 11 years as MD of Awin in the UK and US, Mark was appointed Group CEO in 2014 tasked with unifying and expanding the organisation as well as building on the key drivers of Culture, Service and Technology. [FF]

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#ASEuro19 AFFILIATE SUMMIT EUROPE 2019

March 12â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14, 2019 RAI Amsterdam

Meet Market and Exhibition Options Available

Whether your priority is lead generation, brand awareness or positioning, our Exhibitor and Sponsorship packages are designed to connect you with your target audience at Affiliate Summit Europe 2019.

1,636 ATTENDEES 49% AFFILIATES OVER 200 ADVERTISERS 50 SPEAKERS

View our Exhibitor and Sponsorship Packages at

www.affiliatesummit.com/euro

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Speaker Bios Mike Allen AFFILIATE PROGRAM MANAGER, BUSINESSWRIGHT CONSULTING LLC Mike Allen has been involved in affiliate marketing since 1999 and is a charter member of the Performance Marketing Association where he serves on two councils. He is the founder and “Chief Executive Shopper” at Shopping-Bargains® and, as such, was a finalist for the LinkShare Golden Link Merchant’s Choice Award in 2005 and the LinkShare Golden Link Advertiser’s Choice Award in 2008.Mike was the 2009 “Affiliate of the Year” recipient at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. In addition, Mike likes to provide solutions for online and local businesses. In doing so, he performs affiliate program management, website and social media development, and local Internet marketing services via Businesswright Consulting which he established in 2013. Mike has presented multiple times at Affiliate Summit as well as Blogworld (NMX), Affiliate Management Days, CJU, and several other performance marketing conferences.

Dominic Baliszewski DECISION TECH Dominic is a knowledgeable and highly respected expert in the performance marketing industry. He has over decade of experience in affiliates, and has managed high performing commercial teams, launched award-winning tech products to market and managed deals and accounts from start-ups through to owning all commercial deliverables for one of the UK’s leading comparison brands. He’s a regular commentator in national press and has made multiple appearances on television as an expert. A talented

and charismatic speaker, he talks passionately and engagingly on industry issues, as well as strategic ways to solve them. He regularly delivers speeches, chairs panels and has also contributed to, and informed, governmental policy in the affiliate and finance space. His current role focuses on bringing to market the cutting-edge data products and reporting technology that has helped establish Decision Tech as one of the UK’s leading publishers.

Mary Ann Bautista FOUNDER, BAUTISTA DIRECT MARKETING, INC. Mary Ann Bautista is a 25+ year veteran of the direct response industry, and a recognized leader to colleagues and clients alike. She launched Bautista Direct Marketing, Inc., a direct marketing media buying and consulting company, in 1998. Her expertise include DR TV (long and short form) DR Radio, DR Video, DR Podcasts and DR Social.

Sarah Beeskow Blay VICE PRESIDENT, SHAREASALE.COM, INC. Sarah Beeskow Blay has been with the Performance Marketing Network, ShareASale, since 2005. She started out as a program manager, was the Director of Client Services for 5 years, and recently grew to the Vice President role in 2018. Sarah is a graduate of Michigan State University where she holds a BA and MA in Communication and was a member of the Crain’s Business Leadership Academy. Sarah speaks regularly on the topic of Affiliate Marketing, has contributed to several industry publications, and sits on the board of the Performance Marketing Association.

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@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

SPEAKER BIOS

Debbie Bookstaber

Jonathan Brown

PRESIDENT, ELEMENTASSOCIATES.COM

CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, WICKFIRE

Debbie Bookstaber is the President of ElementAssociates.com, a digital marketing and influencer outreach agency based in Philadelphia. She also serves as the CMO of Hashtracking.com, a leading social media analytics company. Debbie has 15+ years of marketing experience and has managed online marketing programs responsible for several hundred million dollars in annual sales. Debbie has advised PR firms, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and government agencies on blogger relations and effective social media strategies. Debbie has been blogging since 2007. She was recognized as one of the “Top 25 Parent Bloggers Who Are Changing the World” by Babble.com in 2012 and as a “Best of the Net” Blogger by Working Mother Magazine in 2013. Follow her on Twitter: @buzzmommy.

Alexander Boyd CERTIFIED INFORMATION PRIVACY PROFESSIONAL, FRASER STRYKER PC LLO Alex is a data privacy and technology attorney and Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/ US) with the Fraser Stryker law firm. Alex advises clients regarding data privacy compliance and best practices for internet-based businesses, including online advertising and Federal Trade Commission compliance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), website terms of service and privacy policies, data breach notifications, copyright and trademark infringement, and other technology matters. Alex also utilizes his litigation background to advocate for his clients when disputes arise.

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Jonathan Brown is the Co-Founder & Chief Technical Officer of Wickfire, where he is responsible for technology and product design, including that of HighlightReviews.com. Previously, Jonathan worked as the Director of Automation Technology in ReachLocal’s development organization. In this role he designed, developed, and maintained a number of large-scale automated publisher integration systems. Prior to ReachLocal, Jonathan received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, followed by a Master’s Degree in Language Technologies from Carnegie Mellon University.

Kimberly Cashwell ACCOUNT MANAGER, FRESH PRESS MEDIA Kimberly Cashwell, kim@freshpress.media. Kim Cashwell is an account manager at Fresh Press Media, a sister company of FMTC. At Fresh Press Media, she has worked with a number of agencies and brands to develop and run influencer campaigns. She also works with influencers to get them connected and engaged in the Marketplace and in the blogging community. During her time at Fresh Press Media, she has seen a wide variety of influencer campaigns, getting a unique look into what works and what doesn’t work. Kim has worked in affiliate marketing since 2014, where she started as a data engineer at FMTC. She co-hosted the “Influencer Matters” podcast during its term as well. In addition to her account manager duties, she coordinates marketing at FMTC and Fresh Press Media. She enjoys developing content and curating relevant information to influencers, advertisers and agencies.

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Shawn Collins

Declan Dunn

Shawn Collins has been an affiliate marketer since 1997. He is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit, the leading global conference and tradeshow for the affiliate marketing industry, and Co-Editor-inChief of FeedFront Magazine. He has authored the books “Affiliate Manager Boot Camp“, “Extra Money Answer“, “How to Get the Most from Exhibiting at Conferences”, “How to Get the Most Out of Attending a Conference”, and “Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants“. Also, he co-publishes the annual AffStat affiliate marketing benchmark reports. Shawn blogs on affiliate marketing at AffiliateTip.com, and hosts the podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing, on GeekCast. fm. Additionally, Shawn has been quoted in numerous publications, including Entrepreneur Magazine, Internet Retailer, Inc. Magazine, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

FOUNDER, SIMPLY RESPONSIVE

Jeannine Crooks PARTNER ACQUISITION & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, AWIN US As the Partner Acquisition & Development Manager with Awin US, Jeannine works closely with many of their largest programs such as Viator, Etsy, eBags, and Lonely Planet. She is a frequent speaker at numerous events including Affiliate Management Days, TBEX, FinCon, CardCon and Affiliate Summit. Jeannine works with all types of publishers, especially bloggers, helping each to maximize their affiliate earnings. With nearly 20 years in affiliate marketing, she is always happy to share her knowledge to help other succeed in the industry she loves. Jeannine, her photographer husband Brad, and their three Siberian Huskies, Dusty, Cody and Hunter, live south of Denver. They love sports, especially hockey, and travel as often as they can. Fun fact: Jeannine was a labor coach and helped deliver 25 babies.

Declan is a pioneering insider in the fields of online education, performance, and affiliate marketing. This unusual skill set allows him to bring people together in business settings, enhance relationships, and empower them to monetize those relationships. By honoring the needs of businesses and the customers they engage, Declan’s unique systems consistently increase bottom-line profits. Declan delivers engaging presentations with no nonsense information that’s easy to understand. He is a Resident Mentor at ChicoStart.com, helping startups raise funds and create quick cash flow to survive. Today Declan develops businesses for growth and acquisition at Simply Responsive, a business development firm merging proven business models with social media and influencer marketing. He was also the CEO of his own OPM for 6 years, helping launch American Express and Network Solutions Programs. It’s this wealth of robust expertise that gives Declan his wideranging perspective on business.

Adam Enfroy AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER, BIGCOMMERCE Adam Enfroy is an accomplished Affiliate Partnerships Manager for BigCommerce, the world’s largest enterprise SaaS ecommerce platform. He is passionate about leveraging strategic partnerships and software solutions to scale digital growth. From directing a team of developers and specialists in an agency setting, to overseeing eCommerce marketing for national retailers, to scaling strategic partnerships for a large tech startup, Adam has a comprehensive background in digital marketing that spans many disciplines. Adam also happens to be a personal development fanatic who loves attending seminars and speaking at conferences to share motivation and insights to help entrepreneurs unleash their full potential. Adam graduated from Michigan State University and lives in Austin, TX with his girlfriend Jamie.

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@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

SPEAKER BIOS

Alexandra Forsch

Jen Goode

VICE PRESIDENT, AWIN US

OWNER, JGOODEDESIGNS.COM

Alexandra Forsch is the Vice President for Awin US. She is a seasoned online marketing professional with more than 15 years of interactive experience and a proven record of consistently outperforming corporate goals through strategic planning, key account acquisition and management, innovation, staff development and project executions. Alex has a strong background in performance marketing, media planning and buying, online marketing solutions, operational development, strategic and financial planning, team building and client relations.

Jen Goode is both geek and creative, a professional artist also working as an affiliate and merchant in the Performance Marketing industry. She is a workat-home mom of three, social media enthusiast and “doodler in charge” of JGoode Designs (JGoodeDesigns.com) with her work published in a number of magazines. Jen offers her illustration and design work for licensing to manufacturers while she promotes products featuring her art through various affiliate programs. Jen is the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program Coordinator and has been proactive in the fight against the Ad-Tax in Colorado. She has spoken about getting started in affiliate marketing at various conferences and shares her insight about business and creativity at 100Directions.com.

Charity Gerke Charity Gerke, cg@us-elitegear.com. Hi! I’m Charity Santos-Gerke, a strategist fueled by curiosity and pushing the envelope. My former iteration of life included 10 years of teaching Special Education children (Kinder-3rd Grade), and baking and selling my own gluten-free cupcakes and brownies at different LA farmers markets before it was considered mainstream. In 2009 I landed a job at a boutique ad agency where I bounced from one department to another to find where I can thrive. Since then, I’ve worked at various startups across functions like email marketing, analytics, account management, project management, user acquisition, and social media marketing. I am now the Marketing Manager for U.S. Elite, a veteran owned and vetted premium tactical shop based in New Jersey. I also co-own Xekusion, a digital marketing agency focused on proper execution for growth without the BS. I’m crazy about food, drinks, and dogs. I am allergic to mother nature, but it doesn’t stop me from enjoying the outdoors.

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Nick Goodling Nick Goodling, Nick@hats.com. Nick Goodling is currently the e-Commerce Marketing Manager for Bollman Hat Company where he manages the websites, marketing & affiliate programs for Hats.com, Kangol.com & BaileyHats.com. Nick is a seasoned marketing professional who has helped brands grow their presence internationally and on social media by creating brand ambassador teams and partnering with social influencers. Nick’s background is in the sports nutrition, health & fitness industry where he’s worked for GNC, ProSupps & BPI Sports. This past year he jumped into the fashion scene in his new role at Bollman Hat Co. While at BPI Sports, Nick was one of the first in the fitness industry to start a brand ambassador team with social influencers. He later transitioned the team of 1,500 ambassadors and 40 paid influencers into a successful performance marketing program. Since then, Nick has helped several brands in various industries start influencer and affiliate programs.

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Michelle Held

Choots Humphries

OWNER, MICHELLE HELD

CO-FOUNDER AND CO-PRESIDENT, LINKCONNECTOR

Michelle owns MetroNY, LLC where she develops marketing strategies for brands and businesses. She builds online marketing plans specializing in content and social media marketing, content creation, search engine optimization, and project management. She runs AskCyberSecurity.com. In addition, Michelle writes for various industry publications and conducts seminars covering online marketing. Michelle is the author of “Pinterest Tutorial” and cyber security resource guides. She also blogs about marketing metrony.com and about Pinterest at PinTalk.net. Michelle earned a B.S. in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Subscribe to her YouTube channel connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, on Twitter @metrony, or subscribe on YouTube.

Maryna Hradovich VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT, SEMRUSH INC I presented SEMrush brand and its product to over ... people by speaking at top marketing and business conferences, including delivering an opening keynote. These conferences include Growth Marketing Conference, Growth Marketing Summit, RD Summit, Digital Marketing Summit, Superlógica Xperience, Stukent Digital Summit, DOYO Live, etc. In the next couple of months, I will also be speaking at Inbound (due to my session turning out to be extremely popular, I have been offered to do an encore session) as well as for the second time at RD Summit and Growth Marketing Conference.

As a Co-Founder and Co-President of LinkConnector, Choots Humphries has driven the performance marketing industry forward for two decades. He is uniquely suited to thrive in a digital world, bringing a superior record of leadership, entrepreneurship & performance marketing experience to LinkConnector. Choots has served as both advocate & architect in the development of LinkConnector’s custom tracking technologies to fulfill the needs of thousands of worldwide brands. Choots is a thought leader in our industry and beyond. He speaks at various online marketing conferences, chairs the Industry Advancement Council for the Performance Marketing Association and serves as a business leadership advisor for students at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dmitriy Kruglyak CEO, TARGETCHOICE Starting in 1997, Dmitriy has worn the hats of marketer, publisher, entrepreneur, software developer and consultant in a range of private and public companies. He built CRM and Marketing Automation software since this category was originally created. At TargetChoice he is focused on applying his insights to help marketers drive Facebook advertising results through the use of cutting-edge processes, software, services, and training. You can reach him through his website at http://targetchoice.com

Jacob Huang DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, SLICKDEALS LLC Jacob is Director of Business Development at Slickdeals LLC and was formerly with Savings.com and Shopzilla.

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@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

SPEAKER BIOS

Brian LaFrance DIRECTOR, SEO, CBS INTERACTIVE Brian LaFrance is currently Lead SEO Analyst for CBS Interactive where he oversees search efforts for major sites such as CBS Sports, GameSpot, and CBS. com. He has been involved in various aspects of SEO and affiliate marketing for over 15 years. He continues to run his own affiliate sites and consults for a few clients that he has worked with for many years. In 2010, he sold his main affiliate site to a large internet media company and moved on to be the marketing director for an SEO data provider. Brian leverages his knowledge of development, SEO, tools, and data to take advantage of the ever growing list of APIs available for analyzing search data. This allows him to quickly and efficiently scale SEO strategy, regardless of the size of a site.

Jesse Lakes CEO, GENIUS LINK As the former Global Product Manager for the iTunes Affiliate Program at Apple, and consultant to the Microsoft Store Affiliate Program, Geniuslink CEO Jesse Lakes has focused the last few years on helping Amazon affiliates monetize their global audience. He’s also seen, and learned first hand, the hard lessons about staying in compliance of Amazon’s stringent operating agreement. Join Jesse in learning how stay on Amazon’s good side as an Associate to ensure your affiliate commissions keep flowing in.

Bryan Leach FOUNDER, IBOTTA

Bryan Leach founded Ibotta in 2011, when he realized the need for a more innovative approach to connecting brands, retailers and consumers through mobile technology. Bryan made it his mission to empower smartphone-savvy shoppers with an easy way to earn cash back on their everyday purchases. Today, the company is the biggest consumer tech company in Denver and the industry leader in offline performance-based mobile marketing. botta has generated more than 23 million downloads, raised nearly $100M, and paid out more than $375 million

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in cash back to its users. Prior to Ibotta, Bryan was a partner at a leading law firm and had clerked for Justice David Souter at the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a graduate of Harvard, Oxford and Yale Law School. On weekends, you’ll find Bryan enjoying dim sum or clinging to a rock-climbing wall with his daughters.

John LoBrutto DIRECTOR OF AFFILIATE SOLUTIONS & PARTNERSHIPS, LIQUID WED John P. LoBrutto is the Director of Affiliate Solutions & Partnerships at Liquid Web, Inc., an industry leading Web Hosting company. Liquid Web has a full suite of Managed Hosting services, including Storm Cloud, VPS, Dedicated Servers & Word Press. John’s previous positions include; Director of Affiliates & Partnerships for 1&1 Internet, Inc., Head of Global Distribution for the AllHotels, Sales Director for Holiday Autos USA (both divisions of Travelocity, LLP), President of Pencils Plus, and Technology Director for Sabre Travel Network. John has over 20 years’ experience in the travel, retail & technology sales channels and has managed affiliate programs for the last 7 years. He specializes in developing new programs, optimizing for success, with a focus on entering new markets. He believes, “the best approach to affiliate marketing is to keep things fresh, be creative and always think out of box, whenever possible.“

Sara Margulis CO-FOUNDER & CEO, HONEYFUND Sara Margulis is co-founder and CEO of Honeyfund, the online platform for crowdfunding weddings and honeymoons that received backing by Kevin O’Leary after she appeared on “Shark Tank” in 2014. Before starting Honeyfund with her husband Josh in 2005, Sara was associate director of marketing at Golden Gate University for four years. The couple also created and run Plumfund.com, a free crowdfunding and crowd-gifting site. Sara’s winning appearance on “Shark Tank” has propelled her into regional, national, and international broadcast media appearances, discussing topics including weddings and honeymoons, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and women in business.

@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

Brian Messenlenher

Jasmine McCoy

CO-FOUNDER, APPPRESSER.COM

PARTNER DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, COUPONS.COM

Brian, a former software developer for the United States Marine Corps, is the Co-founder of SchoolPresser.com, a web development company that specializes in building open source solutions for schools. He is the Co-founder of AppPresser.com, a WordPress based framework for building iOS and Android Apps. He is also the Co-Author of “Building Web Apps with WordPress”, a book published by O’Reilly Media about WordPress as an Application Framework. Brian enjoys learning about new technology and believes open source software like WordPress is the key to successful cost-effective web solutions in any situation.

Tara McCommons VP OF SALES AND MARKETING, LINKCONNECTOR Tara McCommons is VP of Sales and Marketing at LinkConnector, a performance marketing network providing superior service and technologies to affiliates and merchants for over 15 years. Tara leads a high performance team playing a pivotal role in identifying and recruiting new merchant and affiliate opportunities to continually expand the LinkConnector Network, while also taking a hands-on approach to effectively optimize existing merchant and affiliate relationships. Tara possesses over 20 years of business development experience spanning both corporate and start-up environments within the technology and financial industries. Tara began her career in affiliate marketing with LinkConnector (in 2004) where she has a proven record in the development and leadership of strategic partnerships and sales growth. Tara is has been a speaker at past Affiliate Summits, a contributor to FeedFront, and a Board of Directors member with the Performance Marketing Association.

My name is Jasmine McCoy and I’ve be in the affiliate space for a little over 5 years now. I came from Eckim which had definitive deals, then we were acquired by coupons.com shortly after, now formerly known as Quotient. I started off in the content department where I would deal hunt merchants meaning I’d add deals to store pages that we had live on our site which would be pulled from the networks for the most part. If not from the network, then it would be sent over to us directly from the merchant or agency rep. By keeping these pages cleaned up we were able to rank pretty nicely in SEO. However, where we really were able to flourish and show our value to merchants was with TM+. As a deal rep it was my job to hunt these store pages weekly, bi-weekly, sometimes even daily, depending on the merchant’s request. Starting off as deal rep, it taught me the importance of keeping offers up to date, ensuring that all links were working and not broken, understanding what kind of offers work well and resonante best with our audience demographic and giving care and love to these merchant pages with the goal of both them and us succeeding. About a year and a half after, I was promoted to be on the partner development account management team. Now this was a big shift because I went from being behind a computer and in our back end all the time to having to have face to face conversations, going to conferences and being on email at all time. Nonetheless, I adjusted fairly quickly and made it my duty to meet up with as many of my merchants that I could, rather it be with them directly or their network or agency rep. I wanted them to have a face to put to my name, but most importantly I wanted them to know how much I cared and was going to do everything in my power to make this the best partnership that they had in the affiliate space. Of course nothing is ever perfect and I ran across a lot of merchants that had a bad taste in their mouths from previous reps that had worked with their accounts in the past, but I made it my duty to regain that trust, even if it was just having monthly calls to discuss performance, whether it was down or up, just to show

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@feedfront | www.feedfront.com

SPEAKER BIOS

them that I was paying attention and that they weren’t being ignored. One of my favorite stories that I love to share is my relationship with Shutterfly. When I came on to the account is was incredible. We ranked 2 to 3 in SEO, we were killing it. They optimized on our site every single quarter, which was great for me because it helped me not just reach my quota but exceed it. In Q4 of 2016 things suddenly took a turn for the worst and revenue just wasn’t coming in like how it once did and the money that they were spending with us was no longer showing any kind of ROI. I was devastated and felt terrible because I knew that they had put their trust in me and when things stopped performing well I took it as it was my fault. I didn’t let that stop me from taking care of this account though. I knew that they weren’t going to spend with us anymore, but I did not let that stop me from still treating them like they were one of my top merchants. With my past deal rep experience, I would personally go into the backend myself and update the store page and ensure that the deal rep was constantly adding new offers and removing any expired offers. I would pull reports monthly, sometimes weekly to see which offers performed best then would add them into any remnant placement openings we had and would use that offer for those placements. After almost 2 years of silence from them, I finally got them back on track and back to the performance that was worth talking about. What I love most about the affiliate space is yes it’s large, but everyone still somehow knows each other and we are able to bond over a career that our family and friends just can’t seem to understand. We all have the same passion and one goal and that’s to simply show success and be success. These things don’t happen overnight, but we all seem to understand the talent and patience that it takes to make this happen. Before coming into this space I had never heard of it, didn’t even know anything like it existed. Now after being in it for 5 ½ years, I can only see myself continuing to grow in it and creating more partnerships that turn into friendships. I get a thrill from seeing a merchant go from a $0 revenue to $100k in year and knowing that I helped attribute to that because I cared. I am so happy to be able to be a part of all this and a part of an industry that continues to grow and reinvent itself.

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Chuck Mullins SENIOR BUSINESS ADVISOR, QUIET LIGHT BROKERAGE Chuck, a serial entrepreneur and early pioneer of the internet, built his first profitable website in 1996 at 18 years of age. In college he studied computer software engineering which taught him the skills to analyze search results and implement strategies that take advantage of the observations he makes. Throughout his career of creating, managing, and consulting for dozens of internet-based companies, Chuck has been instrumental in developing strategies that lead to growth and profitability. Among people he works with, Chuck is regarded as “the idea guy.” He is known for his ability to spot opportunities, create a plan, and execute. After seeing an opportunity to leverage his time by acquiring under-performing sites, he has participated in several million dollars worth of acquisitions.

Valeria Pagano HEAD OF SALES, ONMACON GMBH Valeria Pagano started a career as Sales Manager almost 20 years ago as pure causality. During the years she learned the art of selling and spread this passion through Social Media. Since 2011 she focused on E-commerce and Affiliate marketing, always as Sales Manager. In early 2017 she began her “career” as speaker and moderators during internationals online marketing summits, as The European Summit in Sitges, Gaelic Conference in Wicklow, Webmaster Access in Amsterdam. She has been chosen as Keynote Speaker at The European Summit in Prague and and as speaker at the European Women in Tech for a presentation about confidence and sales techniques. Moreover, she actively organizes workshops around E-commerce strategies, helping e-retailers to be profitables on channels like Amazon or CSEs.

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Anne Paris

Bill Rothbard

OWNER, MIDLIFEBOULEVARD.COM

FTC ADVERTISING LAWYER, LAW OFFICERS OF WILLIAM I. ROTHBARD

Anne Parris owns MidlifeBoulevard.com, an on-line lifestyle magazine for women over 40 and 50. Anne also manages a community of over two thousand midlife writers and bloggers, coordinates blogger/ brand campaigns, and has run two conferences for midlife bloggers. A southern girl to the core, Anne lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her family.

Scott Polk CEO & FOUNDER, MARKETINGNOMADS.COM Scott Polk has built his expertise as a knowledgeable and experienced Search Engine Optimization/Internet Marketing strategist for more than a decade. He concentrates his resourcefulness and skills on the diversified aspects of Search Engine Optimization for clients, where heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earned the distinction of consistent top rankings in all major search engines. Scott is consistently involved in technologies that maximize Conversion, Usability and Accessibility when optimizing & developing large web sites as well as identifying problems/solutions that result in major cost saving strategies. Highly successful and respected within the SEO industry, Scott Polk has consulted and been employed by successful internet companies such as: Bruce Clay, Edmunds.com, AT&T Wireless, ABC News, PGA.com & PGATour.com, Sports Illustrated, Toyota.com, Direct Brands, and numerous others.

Adam Riemer FOUNDER, ADAM RIEMER MARKETING, LLC Adam is an industry veteran and 2016 Pinnacle Award winner for Affiliate Manager of the Year. With a proven track record of managing top-of-thefunnel and value-adding affiliate programs, helping companies and bloggers get higher search engine rankings and working with data to help you monetize your traffic, he is ready to help you with a custom strategy that fits within your budget. You can reach him on his website at www.AdamRiemer.me and make sure to follow him on twitter @rollerblader.

Bill Rothbard is a seasoned FTC advertising lawyer. He counsels direct response advertisers, online merchants, affiliate marketers and telemarketers on their FTC, TCPA and privacy compliance duties and represents clients in federal and state deceptive advertising investigations and enforcement actions. He has litigated and negotiated settlements in dozens of FTC and state Attorney General cases. Bill is a regular speaker at ad industry conferences, a regular contributor to the Direct Response Marketing Alliance (DRMA) newsletter, and author of FTCAdLaw Alert, an FTC blog published at www.FTCAdLaw.com. Bill received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1976. From 1977 to 1984, Bill was an attorney with the FTC, holding positions as an enforcement attorney and AttorneyAdvisor to the FTC Chairman. Bill has practiced law since 1984, except for a two-year appointment as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1987-88.

Tal Itzhak Ron FOUNDER, TAL RON, DRIHEM & CO., LAW FIRM Tal Itzhak Ron established his firm, Tal Ron, Drihem & Co. back in 2003, focusing exclusively on digital marketers, ad-tech and the online industries. Today, his firm advises the world leading online operations, publishers and networks as well as governing bodies in Europe and Asia. He speaks in over 20 conferences each year and receives amazing feedback from his listeners.

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SPEAKER BIOS

Jana Seitzer FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, WHISKY + SUNSHINE Jana is a savvy strategist and clever marketing communicator with extensive marketing, design, and public relations experience. She founded her first company in 1998 and offers nearly 20 years of awardwinning experience in corporate communications, print & digital design, marketing strategy, social media strategy, and brand strategy. She’s also the proud mother of four kids, wife, a lifestyle and travel blogger, speaker, and rarely sleeps.

Carolyn Shelby CEO, TRONC, INC Carolyn Shelby has been involved in developing and marketing Internet technologies since 1994, when she was the co-founder and managing partner of an Internet Service Provider near Purdue University. She specializes in technical and enterprise SEO, and has been helping corporations adjust their structure and focus to make the most of new media by integrating “search awareness” into their corporate culture since the 90s. As Director of Search Engine Optimization at tronc, Inc. (formerly Tribune Publishing), Carolyn and her team are responsible for technical SEO and organic audience-generation strategies across tronc’s vast portfolio of properties including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Her team delivers data-driven strategies through a commitment to webanalytics, employee training, and honest reporting.

Paul Snyder DIRECTOR OF PARTNER MANAGEMENT, OFFERS.COM

Paul got his start in affiliate marketing over 10 years ago with a small publisher that would grow to to become Offers.com which was then acquired by Ziff Davis, an industry leader with numerous household brands including PCMag and Mashable. His current role as “player-coach” allows him to stay plugged in

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to top partners managing strategic relationships while leading a seasoned team that manages thousands of advertisers. Paul and his family reside in Austin Texas, and when not working (or sometimes even when on the clock) you can find him at the dance studio or softball field with his daughters, ages 12 and 9.

Sean Steinmarc CEO, TFC FINANCING Sean Steinmarc, in his leadership role at TFC Tuition Financing, is working to improve the affordability of education for all students. A graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Sean spent the first eight years of his career in financial services leadership roles across a Top 5 global bank and a Fortune 100 company. His primary roles were converging technology & business strategies and improving operational processes. After a few years in education financing, Sean launched an award-winning technology startup to help brands & nonprofits solve consumer engagement challenges and raise awareness through a combination of gamification & cause marketing. Sean now applies his financing, technology, and customer experience skills at TFC, which has spent nearly 50 years helping schools increase enrollment and revenue with financing options for students who might otherwise be turned away.

James Thompson CEO, BOTTLESPARK James ‘JT’ Thompson is the CEO of Bottlespark and has worked in the digital advertising industry since 2005. He’s spent tens of millions of dollars through AdWords and Facebook and understands campaign optimization from top to bottom. That experience has colored his approach to digital marketing and provided the foundation for his “Facts not Feelings” approach to life. In 2017, JT started Bottlespark, an influencer agency that represents large influencers online. Their digital platform takes notes from the self-serve ad platforms he worked with in the past and looks to the future, bringing that same technology to the wild west that is Influencer marketing in present day.

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David Vogelpohl

Matt White

VICE PRESIDENT, WP ENGINE

FOUNDER, STOPSELLINGSTARTHELPING.COM

David Vogelpohl is the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine, a WordPress digital experience platform. WP Engine is a global leader in open source focused technology. Since 1996, David has been building teams which create and market digital experiences for the web, mobile, and beyond. David’s teams at WP Engine focus on WordPress development, WordPress core contributions, and performance marketing. David’s speaking style is focused on actionable-insights inspired by the most recent advancements in digital marketing, seasoned with over 20 years of know-how, and backed by relatable and relevant real-world examples.

Matt White is an engaging communicator and a leading expert at helping business owners, salespeople and marketing professionals improve their bottom line by changing their mindset to one that’s focused on helping more than selling.

Adam Weiler CEO, SUNKEN STONE Adam Weiler is the founder and CEO of Sunken Stone, a performance-based, e-commerce agency, specializing in Amazon.com. Adam started Sunken Stone in 2007 during his Master’s program. Before Sunken Stone, Adam held various positions in sales and operations. Adam holds both an MBA and BS in Political Science from San Diego State University. He’s fanatical about fantasy football and enjoys hiking, travel and going to Seattle’s many dog parks. Adam is also involved with the Seattle Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) chapter where he serves in various roles.

Adam Westreich AFFILIATE MARKETING MANAGER, UBER Adam is an affiliate marketing manager at Uber managing the US/CA and APAC Driver and Rider campaigns. He has seven years or affiliate marketing experience across the agency, network, technology partner, publisher and advertiser sides.

Matt is author of the book “Stop Selling. Start Helping.” He has given presentations across the country at national conferences, conventions, and workshops. Background/Experience: advertising agency account management, serial entrepreneur, international non-profit fundraising, and tech start up marketing. For more info, check out http://www.MattWhiteSpeaks.com

Mariya Yao EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, TOPBOTS Mariya Yao is Chief Technology and Product Officer at Metamaven, an applied AI firm building revenuegenerating solutions for global enterprises, and also Editor-In-Chief of TOPBOTS, the largest educational publication for enterprise AI professionals. Metamaven enables Fortune 500 clients such as L’Oreal, WPP, PayPal, LinkedIn, and LVMH to drive business ROI in sales, marketing, and customer experience use cases through the use of data and machine learning. As a researcher and “AI designer”, Mariya helps executives gain mastery and a deep understanding of how to apply emerging technologies for consumer and enterprise innovation. She is a Forbes columnist and co-author of the award-winning and best-selling book, Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook For Business Leaders.

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