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SAVE THE DATE: Affiliate Summit East 2010 - August 15-17 in NYC

The Official Magazine of Affiliate Summit Issue 9 | January 2010

AND THE WINNER IS…


Find out the Winners of the 4th Annual
Pinnacle Awards at Affiliate Summit
West 2010 Page 36

The Importance of Branding


in Affiliate Marketing
By Rae Hoffman Page 3

How to Recycle Your


Affiliate Blog Content
By Justin Premick Page 13

FTC Endorsement
Guidelines
By Gary Kibel Page 61

www.affiliatesummit.com

Table of Contents
03 The Importance of Branding 18 Living the Life of an 32 Choosing an Affiliate
in Affiliate Marketing Affiliate Strategist Network
Rae Hoffman Erin Cigich Geno Prussakov

04 Video Marketing and the Law 19 Productivity: How to Start 34 Social Media: Rebranding
Mark Rosenberg Your Day Customer Service
Aaron Dragushan Nathan Smith
05 The Quest for Social
Marketing’s Holy Grail 20 The Merchant as Affiliate 35 Increase Landing Page
Larry Bailin Conundrum Performance by 162%
Deborah Carney Kristen Groom
07 The Song Remains the Same
21
Matt McWilliams
Being Different Can Be 36 Affiliate Summit West
Very Profitable 2010 Agenda
Andrew Wee
08 Using Analytics to Identify
Affiliate Abuse 46 Keynote Bios
David Naffziger 23 How Networks Can
Motivate Affiliates 48 Speaker Bios
Bobbi Leach
09 If It’s Wet, Sticky & Not Yours… 61 Implications of FTC
Ask
Lisa Barone 24 Dealing with Latent Endorsement Guidelines
Affiliate Links Gary Kibel
Lori Weiman
11 Money Talks
62 Twitter Beginner’s Guide -
Rob Duva
25 Unleashing the Potential of Ten Tips
PPV Advertising Jay Berkowitz
12 How Trust Leads to Success
Bryn Youngblut
Matt Enders 63
Affiliate Program
26 Fourth Quarter is Over. New Year’s Resolutions
13 How To Recycle Your Affiliate
Now What Shannon Simmons
Blog Content
Vinny O’Hare
Justin Premick 64 Acquisition Strategies for
Mailing in the UK
14 Lateral Thinking in 27 Building a Fortress Around
Cari Birkner
Vertical Markets Your Business
Ryan Osborne
CPA Hustle 65 Become a YouTube SEO
Rock Star
16 Running Email Campaigns 28 AffStat Charts
Greg Rollett
Amy Rodriguez & Shawn Collins
Across Third Parties
Todd Boullion 66 People to Follow On Twitter
31 3 Federal Regulations Online
Marketers Must Follow
17 Is Local The Future Of Anne Mitchell
68 Rio All-Suite Hotel
Affiliate Marketing? & Casino Map
Ad Hustler

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 1


Issue 9 | JANUARY 2010
Editors’ Note – 9th Issue
™ Affiliate Marketing in 2010 — Bring It!
on creating their own content
STAFF to add to their sites including
Co-Editors in Chief
words, images, audio and video
Missy Ward, Shawn Collins in an effort to personalize their
customer’s shopping experience
Co-Publishers and garner incremental sales.
Missy Ward, Shawn Collins
For 2010, I see new technologies
such as pay-per-call and other off-
Contributing Writers
Larry Bailin, Lisa Barone, Jay Berkowitz, Cari Birkner,
line tracking initiatives becoming
Todd Boullion, Deborah Carney, Erin Cigich, Shawn more mainstream, and as such,
Collins, CPA Hustle, Aaron Dragushan, Rob Duva, new marketing opportunities
Matt Enders, Kristen Groom, Rae Hoffman, Ad will emerge. Additionally, with
Hustler, Gary Kibel, Bobbi Leach, Matt McWilliams, the popularity of smartphones
Anne Mitchell, David Naffziger, Vinny O’Hare,
increasing (along with download
Ryan Osborne, Justin Premick, Geno Prussakov,
Greg Rollett, Mark Rosenberg, Shannon Simmons,
speeds), I believe 2010 may finally
Nathan Smith, Missy Ward, Andrew Wee, Lori be the year where mobile marketing
Weiman, Bryn Youngblut Missy Ward takes off and affiliate marketers
really leverage this virtually
Graphic Design untapped market.
Lynn Lee Design It’s that time of year when everyone
is trying to predict how consumers I believe this will also be the year
Magazine Coordinator will react in 2010 and beyond as we where smart online merchants, both
Amy Rodriguez emerge from the recession. big and niche that have weathered
the 2009 storm will concentrate on
Affiliate Summit But, there is no crystal ball needed solidifying the relationships they
1253 Springfield Avenue, Suite 327 to see that online marketing tactics have with their affiliates.
New Providence, NJ 07974-1935 are going to need to change in
tel (417) 2SUMMIT (278-6648) order to keep up with the new See, they know that us affiliate
fax (908) 364-4627
consumer buying habits and brand marketers have the advantage
Articles in FeedFront Magazine are the opinions
awareness that have developed over so many other companies and
of the author and may not necessarily reflect the since the downturn of our economy. industries. We know how to leverage
views of the magazine, or its owners. FeedFront However, with these changes, comes trends. We’re used to bootstrap-
Magazine always welcomes opinions of an tremendous opportunities and those marketing. We know how to fail and
opposite nature..
that innovate will continue to thrive rebound swiftly. And yes, we know
in the year to come. how to hustle.
For more information, visit: www.FeedFront.com

Through technology, consumers are These strengths coupled with


Interested in advertising? Please visit
http://feedfront.com/advertising/ or email us at:
becoming more connected and the retailers’ belts continuing to tighten
contact@feedfront.com world is becoming much smaller. In on non-proven ad spends offer up
2009, I observed affiliate marketers a huge opportunity for the affiliate
© 2010 Affiliate Summit, Inc. and Individual invest in social media marketing marketing industry to continue to
Authors and other relationship-building flourish.
techniques on a much larger scale,
Here’s to a prosperous 2010!
in order to communicate efficiently
and in a more transparent manner
to subsequently build trust and
consequently, increase sales. Missy Ward is Co-Editor-in-Chief of
FeedFront
I also spoke to numerous
affiliates who were now focusing
Rae Hoffman

The Importance
of Branding in
Affiliate Marketing
By Rae Hoffman

When I discuss advanced affiliate Shopping.com is a prime example of a • Identify and capitalize on your “point
marketing, I often suggest creating affiliate huge affiliate brand. The site, at its core, of difference”. Figure out what sites in
brands instead of affiliate sites and provide is nothing more than an affiliate datafeed your niche are lacking and fill those
these two recommendations: aggregator. But because they bought a holes to separate yourself from the
memorable domain and were ahead of the pack
1. Start buying “brandable” and not pack giving consumers the ability to do
keyword-laden domains. If you can product reviews, they were able to create a Not only does creating an affiliate brand
include a keyword in your domain name, strong point of difference. make it easier to compete in the search
great, but branding is important and engines, but it also opens you up to
necessary. That point of difference has since translated additional revenue streams, as well.
into 4 million unique visitors a month
2. Differentiate yourself and add value. according to Quantcast.com (and those Many branded affiliate sites are able to
Let’s get one thing straight - Google numbers are probably low) and millions of make additional profits off of CPM based
doesn’t hate affiliate sites. Google hates dollars in revenue each quarter. and contextual ads, in addition to their
thin affiliate sites. Treat your affiliate site affiliate earnings.
like any “real business” and develop a Of course, Shopping.com is an extreme
point of difference. success story (and proof that yes, Virginia, The important thing to realize is that
you can not only make an income, but you affiliate marketing has evolved. You’re
Defining a point of difference is something can support an entire company on affiliate going to need to learn how to evolve with
that I’m asked about often. And the bottom marketing), but there is no reason you can’t it and how to create an affiliate brand if you
line is that creating a point of difference create the next extreme success story. want to stay viable in the online world.
essentially means creating a brand.
And even if you can only create the next
In the old days, creating affiliate sites “medium” or “small” success story, it can still Rae Hoffman is the CEO of internet marketing
based on 50 three hundred-word articles be a very lucrative story to tell. firm Outspoken Media and website publisher
all focused on keyword variations was MFE Interactive. She is also the author of the
the norm. However, when it comes to How do you create an affiliate brand? often controversial Sugarrae.com blog.
successfully marketing affiliate sites via
• Buy memorable, “brandable” domain
search engine optimization in today’s
names
economy, those tactics are long dead.
• Make sure that at least 20% of your
If you want to not only survive organically site content is unique, compelling
in Google, but thrive, you need to step up and “flagship” in nature
your site-building game. • Allow for and encourage user-
generated content… the Web is no
So what exactly is an affiliate brand? longer a monologue

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 3


Video Marketing and the Law
By Mark J. Rosenberg
Videos can be a very effective Internet marketing tool. Yet, from YouTube or from a television network’s or a show’s
this tool comes with several hidden legal issues. These Web site without consent is a copyright violation.
pitfalls can be avoided if the video marketer is aware of
them and takes proactive measures. While the basics of copyright infringement are usually
obvious, the concept of copyright ownership is not. As
The most overlooked issue in video marketing is the right a result, affiliate marketers are often not aware that just
of publicity. This right relates to a person’s ability to control because they pay someone to create a video, they do not
whether and how his or her name, likeness and voice are necessarily own the copyright in that work.
used. In order to avoid right of publicity disputes, affiliate
marketers should have all persons appearing in their videos In many cases, the person who actually creates the video
sign a release granting the marketer the right to use that is considered the work’s author and the owner of its
person’s name, likeness, image, etc. in connection with the copyright. In fact, everyone involved in the creation of
recording, display and distribution of the video. the video, including the script writer, the director and the
production crew may own a portion of the copyright in
These consents must be in writing. That is because some the finished video and possess the legal right to determine
states do not recognize oral consents even if the consent whether and how the video can be used.
is recorded on video. Everyone appearing in the video
should sign a release, regardless of whether the person is This issue can be avoided by having all persons involved in
an employee, family or a friend. That way, if an actor has a the creation of the video sign a work-for-hire agreement
change of heart after the video is taped or after it begins before production commences. These agreements
to be displayed, the marketer is protected. Otherwise, the are written contracts which specify that entity which
actor could potentially bring a lawsuit for a monetary award commissions the video owns the entire copyright in it.
and an injunction prohibiting the use of the video. Background music is an additional copyright issue in video
Copyright law also plays a major role in video marketing. marketing. This issue is often overlooked. Unless the video
Preliminarily, in almost all cases, using video images copied uses only original music created by the affiliate marketer,
the marketer must obtain consent to use the music.
Otherwise, there is a potential infringement issue.

By employing these basic measures, affiliate marketers can


avoid many of the legal issues raised by video marketing.

Mark J. Rosenberg is Of Counsel to Sills Cummis & Gross


P.C. where a significant part of his practice focuses on legal
issues relating to ecommerce, and he can be reached at
mrosenberg@sillscummis.com.

4 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


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

Social networking giant Facebook recently offerings. You understand your customer’s Twitter, but the greatest book ever written
surpassed Wikipedia as the fourth largest wants and needs as they relate to your on achieving success in the social space was
Web site in the world while micro-blogging services. written 70+ years ago.
powerhouse, Twitter, reportedly handled
5,000 tweets per minute when the king-of- Most importantly, you know how to speak to In my opinion, Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win
pop passed. These announcements have a customer, and that is what will ultimately Friends and Influence People” is the Holy
businesses scrambling to social Web sites like deliver success in the social space. Grail, the secret to social nirvana. This book
they were, well, the Holy Grail of marketing teaches you to speak, think and write with the
Let the gurus obsess over the perfect formula
success. intent to persuade. Carnegie’s book teaches
of Re-Tweets to Tweets and which shortened
you to think like a customer and provide
Here’s the thing about finding the Holy URL gets clicked the most. You need to
value in order to evoke a desired outcome.
Grail: what do you do once you’ve found it? spend more time strategizing the creation of
Companies large and small, although excited valuable dialogue. Social websites and ninjas come and go.
over the promise of social marketing, often When you master the skills to think like a
Study your customer’s wants and needs,
have no idea what to do in this new and customer and subtly entice, your next quest
misconceptions and objections, then create
unfamiliar space. for marketing’s Holy Grail will be a short
shareable contributions that educate and
crusade. You’ll only need to look inside
Certainly, there is no shortage of social subtly entice. Contributing, educating and
yourself.
marketing gurus, experts and even ninjas subtly enticing - sounds a lot like selling.
(yes ninjas), but you can’t rely solely on these Despite popular opinion selling is not a bad
social Sherpa’s to achieve true success in your thing.
Larry Bailin is the author of the bestselling
social quest. There is nothing wrong with using social Internet marketing book, Mommy, Where Do
A good or even average social media media to attract and convert customers, just Customers come From? and CEO of Single
consultant can help you traverse an learn to sell in a friendly non-disruptive way. Throw Internet Marketing.
unforgiving social terrain by creating a sound Learn to join the conversation as opposed
social media strategy and implementing best to interrupting it. You have to sell without
practices. selling.

However, you can only be catapulted to You may be asking, how do you sell without
success if you have something worth flinging selling? Let me share a little secret with
into the air. you: it’s not so much a secret as an often
overlooked resource.
Success is imminent when you realize that
the knowledge necessary to succeed, no I’m frequently asked to recommend books
matter the marketing vehicle, comes from on social marketing. There’s no shortage of
within. You have intimate knowledge of your books about the intricacies of Facebook and

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 5


Matt McWilliams

By Matt McWillilams

The Song
Remains the Same
Remember 2001? Tweeting was I’ve paraphrased some of the 8. Respond quickly. Immediate loneliness that sometimes comes
reserved for birds and a Web site book’s tips that are still true today response gives the customers with being an affiliate marketer.
was an afterthought for most for both affiliates and merchants. a sense of support and service
businesses. Affiliate marketing (and importance). Thinking back to my own
was hardly a viable career option 1. Keep it simple. Don’t require beginnings in online business
and most of us still dialed up plug-ins that some people 9. Keep track of what’s selling. in 2003, not much has really
to the internet. It seems like so might not have. Avoid As a merchant, you have to changed. Email is still my primary
long ago. unnecessary graphics and analyze buying trends and means of communication, but as
special effects. habits to help plan inventory. always, I prefer actually talking to
Recently I was reading one of my Don’t run out of something someone.
wife’s old business books from 2. Provide value. The more that is selling. This upsets
college titled “Understanding information you have, the customers and affiliates alike. The data still doesn’t lie. If one
Business”. In the section about more likely people are to buy. You have to know conversion header outperforms another, it
entrepreneurship, it offers tips rates too. wins, no matter how un-Web 2.0
for attracting customers to an 3. Make buying easy. it might be. And I still believe,
ecommerce site. 10. Build a support network. The perhaps more so than ever, that
4. Display certification. Be secure book says “build relationships customer service is of the utmost
Saying that Web-based businesses and show it. with other Web-based importance.
were “still in their infancy,” the entrepreneurs.”
book offered tips for these baby 5. Post a privacy policy. It’s true in the online world for
ecommerce sites, ranging from While forums were not as popular sure. The more things change, the
Web design to customer care. The 6. Be accessible. Give prospects then as they are now, the advice more they stay the same.
amazing thing is that all of the tips a phone number, email, fax, still rings true. Participate in
are still relevant today. and physical (NOT P.O. Box) forums like ABestWeb.com,
address. AffiliateTrust.org or others. Matt McWilliams is the Affiliate
In spite of, or perhaps because of, Read, learn, and share. Attend Manager for Legacy Learning
all of our innovations online, the 7. Get it right the first time. conferences like Affiliate Summit. Systems’ Learn and Master Courses
simplicity of what was true eight Merchants, note this: Meet with other affiliate marketers at www.learnandmaster.com/
years ago is still true today when Customers who receive the in your area. Becoming a part of affiliates.
it comes to selling and customer right order on time are more a community will not only help
retention online. likely to buy from you again… you with your business, but will
and your affiliates will love this. also help alleviate some of the

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 7


By David Naffziger

Using Analytics to Identity


Affiliate Abuse
Detecting affiliate abuse is one of the more informative. Two things to look out for:
challenging aspects of affiliate program
management. Since the majority of affiliates • A temporary traffic surge: A quick,
add value to a program, identifying the short burst of traffic could have come
abusive affiliates can feel a bit like finding a from an unauthorized email campaign
needle in a haystack. or a successful social media campaign.
Regardless, it is probably a good
The performance data provided by the
indication to look further.
affiliate networks is one of the most valuable
aspects of the affiliate program, and can be • Off-hours transactions: Transactions
used to identify affiliates engaged in abusive that only occur at night or on
behavior. weekends might be indicative of a
day-parted PPC campaign.
Study the Inbound Referrers
Most visitors to your Web site come with
information in their request that tells the There are plenty of good reasons why a non-
Web site where the visitor came from. This abusive affiliate might be using a technique
David Naffziger
information, known as the “referrer”, is used identified in this article. Simply discovering
by programs such as Google Analytics to an affiliate that matches one of the patterns
identify traffic sources. There are three least shows the domain the traffic came above does not confirm the affiliate was
important patterns to look for: from. doing something wrong.
Understand Abnormal Conversion Rates The best approach is to develop a
• Referrer from the Search Engines: If Affiliates using different promotional relationship with the affiliate so that the
the referrer shows one of the search methods will have different conversion rates merchant understands their promotional
engines as the source, the affiliate in your program. Significant differences in methods. These techniques should be used
is probably purchasing PPC ads and conversion rate from your program average to identify affiliates that warrant closer
using an uncloaked affiliate link in might indicate something is amiss. investigation.
their ad.
For example, unusually high conversion
• Referrer from Webmail Clients:
rates can be indicative of trademark bidding,
Affiliates using email as a marketing David Naffziger is CEO of BrandVerity, a firm
while unusually low conversion rates
tool will often show referrers from web that detects affiliate violations of merchant
(coupled with high traffic) can be indicative
email clients. paid search policies.
of adware.
• No referrer: A number of trademark
bidders (or affiliates trying to mask the Many merchants group their affiliates into
source of their traffic for other reasons) categories (email, SEM, coupons, website,
are using cloaked affiliate links with etc.), and then study the performance of the
a referring technique that strips the affiliates in each group. This approach allows
referrer from the user’s session. for a clearer identification of suspicious
activity.

Not all networks provide full referrers, Study Transaction Timing


however they often provide a report that at Just looking at when an affiliate’s
transactions occurred can also be very

8 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Lisa Barone

If It’s Wet, Sticky & Not Yours…


Ask By Lisa Barone
I don’t know how it works for boys, but if you’re an overly- me dimples. That line of thought, though, does not work if
ambitious female, you’re taught from an early age that you’re a business saying “sorry” to a customer. Businesses are
it’s a lot easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for generally not as cute (or forgivable) as young girls.
permission. It’s a small morsel shared with a knowing twinkle
Larry Chase wrote a post on this in October 2009 that really
that gives young girls a license to be horrible.
stuck with me. He talked all about how being cavalier in
And I won’t lie – when it was shared with me, I ran with business isn’t worth the potential consequences. Because you
it. It made sense. If I actually ASKED to be allowed to do can’t just ask for forgiveness and expect the slate to be wiped
something, then I gave the other party a chance to say no. clean. It’s a lesson that I wish more businesses and brands
If I just did it and they got mad, well, that’s why God gave understood.
(continued on page 10).

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 9


(continued from page 9).

• Signing me up to your newsletter, because I handed Spamming with a newsletter I never asked for, so you can
you a business card at a conference – cavalier. get out your marketing agenda, will burn more bridges
than it will build. You should just go sit in your timeout
• Releasing features with a “we know better” attitude
chair now. Because no one wants to deal with you.
and then ignoring the outcry you knew would come
– cavalier. Why is it no longer easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask
• Cold-calling me without at all targeting your sales permission? Because social media is permission marketing.
pitch or knowing who I am – cavalier. It’s the price of admission. Always having to say “you’re
sorry” does nothing but destroy your brand and label you
• Expecting trust instead of earning trust – cavalier. a bully in the eyes of your consumer. Before you throw a
rock through someone’s window, ask them if they wouldn’t
And customers won’t put up with it. It doesn’t matter if you mind opening up the door.
say “you’re sorry”. Their impression is that you’re a jerk. That
you tried to take what wasn’t yours. And that you’re more
concerned with yourself than the privacy or wants and Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer of the
needs of your users. That’s not a brand people are going to SEO consulting firm Outspoken Media and obsessively tweets
do business with. [You really should change that ReTweet at @lisabarone.
feature, Twitter.]

If you’re still living by the “do now, apologize later”


approach to business, then you’ve let this whole social
media thing go right over your head. Your customers
probably want to engage and talk to share with you… but
you still have to ask their permission before making that
assumption. They’d probably like your newsletter, but sign
them up without their consent and you’ll see that hell hath
no fury like a scorned socially-savvy consumer.

Your customers are far more connected than they used to


WHERE
be. They’re more vocal. They know that you have people
out there listening. So when you violate them by being
cavalier about their needs, they get loud and tell their
entire network. EARN MORE!
You haven’t just stolen the privacy of one person; you’ve Top Payouts Guaranteed Visit us at
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your brand. It makes it undeniably weaker. Make it a habit 25 True Exclusive’s Hotel & Casino
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ask for permission first.

Today’s world is like direct marketing on steroids. Yeah, Performance Incentives


we’re all social and informal and friendly, but you still need 24/7 Customer Support
to ask for permission before entering a room. You still need
Focus on Brand Name Offers
to build that relationship and prove to your customers that
you’re worth their time.

Search Marketing Bloggers Email Marketing Websites


10 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE
Money Talks
By Robert Duva

“In most cases, when a prospect calls the


merchant’s phone number, the affiliate will not
get credit if there is a sale. So when a merchant Robert Duva

puts their phone number on the landing page,


especially in a prominent location, that can For advertisers, call tracking isn’t new. But
the way that pay-per-call is now being
serve to ‘siphon’ legitimate commissions away implemented for affiliate marketing is.
Affiliate networks have now made it easy
from the affiliate.” for advertisers to integrate and scale their
call-based campaigns alongside their online
Dan Murray, Ravenwood Marketing, June 2008 issue of FeedFront
campaigns.

I got involved in affiliate marketing over to speak with someone to get our questions The intuitive campaign creation, call pricing,
a decade ago. I’ve been a publisher and answered. “Will it ship it by Tuesday? What and management tools provided ensure that
an advertiser and have leveraged affiliate colors do you have it in? What’s the return advertisers are able to offer generous per-call
marketing and other performance marketing policy?” commissions and achieve their target ROI
channels to generate over $100 million in objectives.
revenue. Advertisers want these calls because they
convert into sales at an average rate 30-50% For publishers, pay-per-call represents an
I’ve experienced the benefits this industry and at an average sale price of 1.5 to 2 times opportunity to expand promotions online
has to offer when you put the time and that of online sales, but publishers don’t want and venture into offline media: mobile, TV,
effort into building strong long-term win- calls going to advertisers because they aren’t radio, print, etc.
win relationships, and I believe that affiliate able to get credit for them.
marking is just getting started. With pay-per-call, when consumers want
As a result, publishers won’t aggressively to talk, advertisers, publishers, and affiliate
A couple of years ago, I pulled together promote offers that include phone numbers. networks are now all making money.
a team of the most talented people
I knew in the software development This issue has limited the success affiliate
and telecommunications space to start marketing can have when promoting higher- Robert Duva is the co-founder and CMO
RingRevenue. Our goal was to build a end more consultative products and services. of RingRevenue, and you can learn more
platform for affiliate marketing that would This is also one of the main reasons you don’t about their pay-per-call services at www.
allow advertisers, publishers, and affiliate see many successful business-to-business RingRevenue.com.
networks to track calls like clicks. or local business sales transacting through
affiliate networks today.
Let’s start by talking about the problem. For
years, affiliate marketing has faced a simple Did you know that U.S. consumers make
challenge: what happens when people millions of purchases over the phone every
shop online but then buy offline? Many of us day and advertisers spend over $200 billion
live online and are comfortable purchasing dollars a year in offline marketing?
online.
Now, with pay-per-call, we as an industry
But often, when it comes to those more are starting to get access to those offline
expensive or complex purchases, we want advertising dollars.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 11


HOW TRUST LEADS TO SUCCESS
By Matt Enders
As an affiliate manager, your job is to drive sales for your company
or client via the various affiliate partnerships you develop. Too often,
affiliate managers (or more aptly, merchants) take the “if you build it,
they will come” approach to affiliate management.

This is a recipe for disaster. Proper management of any affiliate


program requires time, attention, effort, and most importantly,
relationships built on trust.

The affiliates who participate in the affiliate program you manage


must be viewed as partners, not as a faceless entity looking to make
a dollar through your program. Each affiliate is important and has the
potential to significantly contribute to your bottom line.

Of course, it would be impossible to personally know each and every


affiliate who has been approved to your program. You must work to
develop relationships and work as closely as possible with as many
affiliates as possible.

In developing relationships with affiliates, you are developing trust,


which can lead to amazing results. Once you have developed trust and
learned how a particular affiliate does what it is that they do, you have
an opportunity to expand the working relationship.

But remember, trust is a two way street. If an affiliate trusts you with
their business model, you have to trust them with items like your
brand name, VIP commission rates, and special privileges.

Let’s look at an example.

My company manages affiliate programs for our clients. One of our


clients had historically used Yahoo! Paid Inclusion (RIP) with moderate,
but consistent success.

One particular affiliate, which mgecom had worked with significantly


over the years, approached us about also using Yahoo! Paid Inclusion Matt Enders
(“PI”) as one of their promotional methods. Since we knew and
trusted this affiliate, we were able to vouch for the idea and strongly
• We trusted the affiliate
recommend the opportunity to our client.
• We were able to communicate all of this to the client and
The client agreed to a limited test with the affiliate. The test went so demonstrate the value
well that the client turned off their in-house PI campaign and allowed
this affiliate to fully represent their brand via Yahoo! PI.
To summarize, if you are an affiliate manager, get to know your
The result? The affiliate was able to increase sales via this channel by affiliates as more than just a name in a report. Learn what they do, earn
a staggering weekly average of 349%. The lowest weekly increase their trust, and in turn trust them. Greater results are possible when
was 82% and the highest to date is 1,176%. This is an increase above relationships are nurtured and expanded.
and beyond what the client had been able to achieve via their own
in-house efforts.

Why was this level of success achievable in this particular partnership? Matt Enders is the CEO of mgecom, inc., a leading Outsourced Affiliate
Program Management firm.
• We knew the affiliate well
• We had worked with the affiliate closely in the past

12 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


By Justin Premick

How To Recycle Your Affiliate


Much of your blog’s content isn’t only provide a list of links to your posts on
relevant at one particular time. And that topic.
to borrow from an old NBC slogan, if
subscribers haven’t seen an old post, it’s 3. Put Your Emails in an Autoresponder
new to them. Series

Get that old content out to them and Once you have your emails together, plug
make it fresh again! them into your autoresponder.

Create an Autoresponder Campaign For As you create each email, think about how
Your Blog in 3 Easy Steps much time you want to pass between
those messages and schedule accordingly.
1. Identify Your Best Content
Remember, new subscribers will also be
Justin Premick Go through your old blog posts and getting your new posts (right?), so don’t
decide which are the truly high-quality space the emails too close together.
If you’re one of the many smart affiliate ones that new subscribers need to see.
marketers who blog regularly, I bet you As you create more quality posts, you can
put a lot of effort into creating high- 2. Turn Each Post or Group of Posts into continue adding autoresponders or edit
quality content. an Email your existing ones to work those posts
into the emails you’ve already created, and
Often, that valuable content is timeless, A few ways to go about this: get even more clicks and traffic to your
but only appears on the most-viewed affiliate blog.
part of your blog – the homepage – for • The fastest, simplest way is to
a short time. Other posts push it off your just copy and paste your full post
homepage and into oblivion. Justin Premick is the Director of Education
content into an email, style as you
Marketing for AWeber Communications,
see fit, and save. No introduction,
This is frustrating, after all, new visitors and you can follow him on Twitter @
no conclusion, just the post as a
could benefit from this content, right? justinpremick.
standalone email. A little boring/dry
Even if they sign up days, weeks, months but it can work.
or years after you publish it.
• Paste a compelling excerpt from
your article, link to the full post,
Fortunately, with a simple email marketing
and add a brief introduction and
tactic, you can resurrect your content from
conclusion to the email. I like this
the depths of your blog and keep it in
method because it encourages
front of your ever-growing, ever-changing
click-throughs, but you may find that
audience.
including the full post is better.
Turn Your Blog’s Best Content Into an
Automated Email Newsletter • If you have two or more good posts on
a topic, write an email that combines
There’s no reason to put all that hard work the ideas in those posts and links to
into creating great content, then get just them in context (you might be doing
one round of visits, comments and sales this with blog posts already). Or, just
from it. Why be satisfied with that? write a simple introduction and then

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 13


By CPA Hustle

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you know how


Vertical Markets
If you shift your focus on market research and
hard it’s becoming to find a niche market keyword strategy, and start thinking about
where you can promote affiliate offers who your everyday customer really is, you’ll
without a lot of competition. With more find many different markets you can target
and more people trying affiliate marketing with little or no competition that will produce
each day, markets are becoming ruthless exceptional results.
and saturated where it has become almost
impossible to compete. By expanding your level of thinking, you
can reach whole new markets of targeted
In order to survive in today’s aggressive customers ready to complete the offer
markets, you need to find a unique approach you are presenting them.
to marketing to move yourself ahead of your
competition. What will be your end result?
You will find new markets with
Thinking and researching laterally can give new traffic that will result in
your business the leverage it needs to stay campaigns creating profits for
ahead of your competitors. The first step both you and your advertisers.
in lateral thinking is figuring out who your
target audience really is. Who are your
customers? What will your customers be CPA is a successful underground
searching for in order to find your offer? What affiliate marketer, copywriter, and PPC
is their personal situation? Are they wealthy expert, and you can contact him by
or poor? What are your customers probably going to CPA-Hustle.com
doing right at this very moment?

These are some of the questions I ask myself


when I’m trying to learn about my target
customer.

A well respected affiliate marketer, Amish


Shah, originally introduced this concept of
thinking to me. He told me he was marketing
a dating offer and noticed the most common
search terms like “dating” or “personals” were
over-saturated, so he started targeting words
like “php error” and “computer repair”.

He figured out he was marketing to mostly


guys who couldn’t find a girlfriend either
because they were sitting in front of their TVs
or computers most of the day. By thinking
“outside-the-box”, Amish was able to create a
highly-targeted campaign that proved to be
very lucrative and made him a lot of money.

I have done the same thing in my business


to take otherwise dead campaigns and give
them new life by marketing laterally.

14 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Running Email
Campaign Across
Third Parties
By Todd Boullion
Todd Boullion

According to the US Email Marketing need to be consolidated, updated and their list against the MD5 hashes in the
Forecast, 2009 To 2014 by Forrester shared again for the next campaign. suppression list. If a match is found, the
Research, “Marketers tell us that they mailer removes the corresponding email
enjoy an ROI (return on investment) that Timing is a critical factor as the CAN- address in their list.
is two to three times higher with email SPAM act requires you to remove
than it is with any other form of direct unsubscribes requests within 10 Here’s what’s at stake:
marketing.” business days. You also want control
and visibility over your opt-out lists. 1) Legal compliance. Hefty fines if you
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that do not comply with the CAN-SPAN and
marketers are increasingly utilizing There are two options to securely remove unsubscribes.
email and broadening their reach by protect consumer data when managing
2) Brand reputation at risk if your messages
running email campaigns via third and distributing email opt-out lists:
are sent to consumers who have opted-
parties. These third-party channels
out.
can be highly effective in generating 1. List Scrubbing - instead of
meaningful revenue and broadening downloading a suppression list of email 3) Industry reputation. If you bend the
an advertiser’s reach, as long as they are addresses to not mail to, email partners rules even a little, few will be willing to
adhering to the latest CAN-SPAM rules upload their mailing list(s) to a neutral work with you in the future.
and regulations. third party to be “scrubbed” against
the advertiser’s suppression list(s). The
The challenge advertisers often face suppression list never leaves the third If you are leveraging third parties to
when trying to remain compliant lies in party’s secure environment. deliver your email messages, you must
securely managing and distributing the take compliance seriously. You can’t
list of unsubscribers, often known as an After the data has been scrubbed, the afford not to.
opt-out list or suppression file, with their email partner can either download a
third-party vendors. “scrubbed,” mailable list, or a list of
matching records that are not to be
As an advertiser you have a list of mailed to. Either way, consumer data has Todd Boullion is the president of
consumers who have opted-out from not been exposed to the third party. UnsubCentral, a leader in email compliance
receiving your email communications. and suppression list management.
You must now share that list, in a secure 2. MD5 Distribution – MD5 is a one-
manner, with your third-party partners. way hashing algorithm that renders
email address useless for mailing by
Furthermore, they are sending offers to converting plain-text email addresses
their lists on your behalf and are also into 32 character hashes. Advertisers can
capturing unsubscribe requests to add use MD5 to encrypt their suppression
to your opt-out list. Your list is growing lists before sending to third parties.
and multiple third parties are sending Third parties then encrypt their mailing
you updates at different times that all list and compare the MD5 hashes in

16 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Is Local The Future Of
Affiliate Marketing?
By Ad Hustler
Ad Hustler

Affiliates are starting to hear more be surprised when they ask you to that you should run away from the
and more about local affiliate redesign their logo for free. Since market like a dog with your tail
marketing. Some affiliates are local businesses are doing business between your legs. In long term
so excited about the prospect of with you in one capacity they get a business plans, diversification is
picking some low hanging fruit that strange notion that they own you key. Having a few local clients can
they claim local affiliate marketing is in every capacity. Set them straight potentially help your bottom line
going to be the next hottest niche. early or suffer the consequences. when affiliate sales are down.

Various bloggers, including myself, Lead Quality: Local clients typically To read the entire Ad Hustler local
have written about their local online cannot close the sale with an online online advertising series please visit
marketing experiences. You often lead. Many businesses do not http://www.adhustler.com/local
hear about the successes, but very have call centers. This leads to a
little about the challenges involved receptionist handling an Internet
in managing local clients. lead. When the receptionist’s Ad Hustler has been advertising online for
terrible sales skills fail them, they more than 7 years, and you can read his
Local Clients Know It All: No claim the lead quality is bad. case studies at www.adhustler.com.
matter how good the results are in Even businesses that assign their
your campaign, local clients think salespeople to Internet leads usually
they know more than you. They get think their salespeople are a lot
hung up on the most bizarre selling better then they truly are. I consider
points about their businesses and the lack of sales skills in these local
sabotage their own campaigns. businesses one of the most major
hurdles faced.
Local Geotargeting Is Weak:
Even the big players have not yet Payment: Affiliates get upset when
perfected geotargeting. I can’t an affiliate network misses their
begin to tell you how many out weekly payment. How about having
of market leads I’ve generated to wait 90+ days to get paid by slow
through Google AdWords. Don’t paying clients? Payment upfront
be surprised when your campaign can alleviate this issue, but many
targeting only the NYC area local businesses will not make this
produces unusable leads from concession.
Florida and Texas.
These are just several of the
Freebies: Local clients love to try to challenges facing anyone
get you to throw in way more then wanting to pursue local business
their paying for free. Doing a local relationships. Just because there
lead generation campaign? Don’t are challenges, does not mean

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 17


Erin Cigich

Living the Life of an


Affiliate
Strategist
By Erin Cigich

One of the inevitable questions that campaigns you want to learn more about, Once you finally head to bed, you
always arise when we sit down with one or at the weekly marketing team meeting double check your cell phone to make
of our affiliates for a dinner meeting at (hopefully lunch is catered in from Pei sure your ringer is on in case there are
a show or on a deep sea fishing trip in Weis today!). any developments that require your
Sarasota is “What’s a normal day like for immediate attention.
you?” You grab your second energy drink of
the day and then, it is time to make some If that sounds hectic, it doesn’t even
While no day is typical, they are all calls. Good affiliate managers are not offer compare to what your schedule is like
exciting. If you are heading in to the office, pushers, they are data analysts. Most while attending a conference in New York,
chances are you’re throwing on your flip afternoons are filled with strategic calls Las Vegas, Denver, San Francisco or even
flops, shorts and a t-shirt and arriving with top affiliates. London; or entertaining an affiliate who
around 9 AM. You’ve already checked your has come to tour the office and go out on
stats from home and said good morning After catching up on how their family and the town.
to a few affiliates at that point, too. favorite sports teams are doing, you’ll hop
into discussing their marketing methods, Like most roles in this industry, being
Once there, after grabbing your first free business model, cash flow and goals. This an affiliate strategist is fast paced and
energy drink of the day, you meet with will allow you to develop a plan of action stressful at times, but knowing you are
the marketing research team in order to for the next days, weeks, months and helping people grow their businesses is
take a deeper look at statistics. Are there years. extremely rewarding.
any new offers that are winners? Any
with potential but need a stronger test? The rest of your calls will be touching
Are there any new creative elements or base with prospective affiliates in order
promotional codes? The research team to determine if they are a good fit for the Erin is the Director of Affiliate Publishing
makes sure you are always ahead of network. and leads Clickbooth.com’s team of affiliate
market demands. strategists.
Before you leave the office for the day
Between statistics, emails, AIMs and (somewhere around 7 or 8pm), you’ll
calls, the morning typically flies by. Your review any new campaign information.
stomach starts grumbling and that is After dinner at home, odds are you are
when you realize it is already 2:30 and logging back on to connect with affiliates
time to grab lunch. and do a little market research to make
sure you are staying on top of industry
You either eat with some of the other trends.
affiliate managers, an ad rep whose

18 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


By Aaron Dragushan

PRODUCTIVITY:
How to Start Your Day
The Problem: For most of us, the first thing we do in the The Secret: You’ll find that simply having priorities will give you
morning is check our email. As we start reading and replying, a sense of empowerment and control over your work, even if
it’s easy to forget that we are now in “responding to other there are days when you can’t stick to them.
people” mode.
Have a great day!
Of course responding to others is an important part of work,
but when you start your day that way, you often end it by
thinking, “Argh! I never worked on _______!” Aaron Dragushan is the founder of UpgradeMe.org, a site dedicated to
helping entrepreneurs move faster.
The Solution: Before you start work, take three minutes and
decide on your top priorities for the day. You’re never going to
get everything done, so what’s most important for today?

Write it down and put it somewhere prominent.

With your priorities in place it’s easier to choose what to work


on first and avoid “stumbling into your day”.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 19


The Merchant as
Affiliate Conundrum
By Deborah Carney
want to look professional and trustworthy to the shoppers that find
your site. If you have links that send your shoppers away, even if they
were going to purchase your products and they were just curious and
they clicked a link that took them away, they might never find their
way back to you. Oops.

Plus, it devalues your site and your product(s). Shoppers could get the
uneasy feeling that you don’t believe in your product line if you are
also selling other people’s products through outbound links.

While you may not have enough merchandise to sell, or you think
people are looking for something you don’t have when they land on
your site, the better way to handle that is to be sure that your site
marketing efforts attract the right shoppers.

Then once you have them, you make them feel that you are the only
place they should be buying from. If you are selling blue widgets and
people are landing on your site from searches for pink widgets, then
you need to look at your site structure and content so that you are
getting consumers who want to buy blue widgets.

It is the same for information products and sites selling services. If you
can’t supply the service directly, have your visitors contact you about
what they need, and then you can refer them privately after you have
discussed their needs and determined you aren’t the right fit.

Sites selling information products tend to cross promote, but again,


you are sending your potential buyers off on a “maybe”. It’s much
better for you to focus and sell them your own product instead.

Deborah Carney You built an ecommerce site to make money by selling your own
products. If you want to sell other people’s products, make a separate
Web site.
I am puzzled by a question that has been raised frequently as of late:
“In my store can I affiliate link to other products that I don’t carry?”
Deborah Carney is an Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager and
The short answer is no. The longer answer is to actually ask a question eCommerce Consultant (TeamLoxly.com) with a site dedicated to
back - “Why do you want to send the shoppers looking for your teaching affiliates and merchants (ABCsPlus.com) how to maximize their
products away to someone else?” online earnings.
If you are an ecommerce site (meaning you sell products using a
shopping cart) and you have an affiliate program (meaning you pay
affiliates to make sales of your products) you want to keep your traffic
on your site purchasing from you.

Many affiliates will not promote merchants that are featuring products
not for sale on their own site. They don’t want to send you their traffic
when you might receive compensation, but they definitely will not.

Aside from the affiliate aspect, there is the fact that you as a merchant

20 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


By Andrew Wee

Being Different Can


Be Very Profitable
Creativity and innovation in your
marketing campaigns can be
Andrew Wee well worth your time

In the online marketing world, it can be a moved it up a couple of notches. You won’t know what will or will not work
struggle to get your voice heard, especially when it comes to a traffic or conversion
since many marketers will be adopting Within the affiliate marketing context, most tactic in a campaign. I’ve heard more than
similar tactics when it comes to promoting affiliates are promoting their campaigns my fair share of stories about marketers
products to their prospects. primarily through text and graphics, thin trying something wild and unexpected on a
affiliate sites, which may not provide much whim as they’re setting up a campaign, only
The proliferation of competitive intelligence value beyond specifications lifted from the to have it go gangbusters on them.
and spy tools means that a new affiliate merchant’s site and product pricing.
can create a clone copy of another affiliates Unfortunately, you won’t often read blog
campaign, often within a few hours. Going the extra mile to create additional posts or forum postings about these
content, especially catering to buyers earlier techniques because they’re some of the key
The net result? A potentially profitable in the sales cycle, can help boost your tools of the trade. If you do hear about them,
campaign, although with an uncertain conversions. it’s usually after some time has passed and
lifespan. the affiliate has made a killing and moved on
Although there have been numerous to something new.
Instead, affiliates who are planning to be presentations at trade events and seminars
in the industry for the long haul can better about the power of video in branding The lesson here is to think about what
channel their energy to create a sustainable yourself and getting more sales conversions, you’re doing in your business and find ways
presence on the Internet. The following there are just a handful of affiliates who use to innovate. Creativity can pay off very
factors can help you shape the direction of these services, and more importantly, use handsomely in these circumstances.
your business them well.

Improve on How Everyone Else is Running Always Be Testing Andrew Wee blogs about affiliate marketing
Their Business Department store pioneer John Wanamaker at WhoIsAndrewWee.com and is co-founder of
Think of companies like Apple, FedEx has been quoted as saying “Half the money the InternetMarketingCookbook.com resource
and Twitter and see how they positioned I spend on advertising is wasted; the site.
themselves above the competition. trouble is I don’t know which half.” Although
Although personal computers, overnight Wanamaker, considered the father of
delivery and social networks had been advertising, came up with the words in 19th
around before these companies were century, the saying still hold true when it
established, these new entrants looked at comes to online marketing today.
where the bar was set in their industry and

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 21


By Bobbi Leach

How Networks Can


Bobbi Leach Motivate Affiliates
Like all sales professionals, affiliates are can ensure that your site converts higher than when pitching them to sell a product that is
primarily motivated by financial incentives. your competitor and tout that fact to your new to them.
Contests and commission hikes are good affiliates.
examples of strategies that work. 6. Creative Services: Making Affiliates More
3. Commission Scales: Pump It Up Effective
Affiliates can also be inspired by anything Commission scales are the financial incentives Offering creative services like product
that can help them make more money faster that a network has in place to spur its affiliates landing page design, micro-sites and other
and more easily. With this in mind, here towards achieving greater sales numbers. complementary marketing collateral makes
are seven strategies that will energize your Examples include bonuses and commission your affiliates more efficient and effective. It
affiliates to sell. percentage increases, awarded to an affiliate also makes affiliates feel good. This is a simple
when they reach specific preset milestones. customer-service strategy that works by
1. Contests: Creating a Buzz eliminating tasks usually handled directly by
Contests are one of the most effective ways to For example, when an affiliate reaches X the affiliates, in turn giving them more time
get affiliates to sell merchant’s products. The number of unit sales per month, they receive to sell.
most effective contests use a strong hook and an X percent commission increase on that
have clear, concise rules. product. 7. Account Support:
When you offer strong account support, your
Big-bang cash prizes work well as incentives. 4. Payment Frequency: Flexibility Means affiliates feel confident that they can meet
You can also try running contests that offer Profitability any challenge. The best programs provide
more meaningful prizes than cash alone. Flexible payment options are popular with their affiliates with educational and problem-
Anything that provides an added emotional affiliates. For example, offering weekly solving resources tailored to the demands of
dimension— like trips to exotic locations, payments to your top-performing affiliates a product’s niche. Account support includes
exciting events, and cool gadgets and toys— puts a more readily available cash-flow tutorials, training materials, articles, videos,
is great for building affiliate ties. You can also in their hands, which they can then sink Webinars, and more.
try using competitive games and interactive, back into their marketing efforts on a more
task-based challenges to enrich the contest consistent basis.
experience. Bobbi Leach is Director of Business Development
5. Compelling Data: Show Them The at RevenueWire (www.revenuewire.com).
2. Higher Commissions: Making Your Money!
Product Competitive Show your affiliates hard data upfront
If another competitor is offering 60% that quantifies why your product is worth
commission on a given product, and you their time and effort; data that proves a
only pay out at 50%, you’ve got a problem. selected product will be lucrative for them to
The best way to make sure your rates will promote. High-conversion rates are the most
get the attention of affiliates is to match or compelling numbers to share, as well as traffic
better your competition’s commission rates. volumes and low refund rates. Providing your
If increasing commission is not an option, you affiliates with this data is especially effective

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 23


Dealing with Latent
Affiliate Links
By Lori Weiman
Dina Riccobono Lori Weiman

Latent links refer to affiliate URLs that are b. Old Offers / Out of Stock: Redirect 3. Out of Stock: Just like with old
for expired offers or are no longer valid, traffic to a best alternative landing offers, you might not be notified. Ask
but are still active e.g. listed in a search page to ensure a good user merchants who you work with what
listing, blog, or other Web page. Because experience. Don’t let consumers their policy is regarding out of stock
the link is not valid, the landing page for a land on an ‘out of stock’ or ‘invalid items including notice to you and
latent link is likely an error page. offer’ page. traffic re-direction.
These links are damaging to the merchant 2. Monitoring & Pro-Active 4. Monitor: If you have it in your budget
due to a poor user experience and Management: Monitor your offers to get some software, it doesn’t hurt to
damaging to the affiliate’s ROI due to poor and landing pages to track and monitor the landing pages where your
conversions. There are several events that divert traffic that is hitting error or traffic points and look for out of stock,
can cause a link to become a latent link: inappropriate pages. error pages, or invalid offer pages
so that you can refresh links without
3. Affiliate Notification: Notify your having to spend your hard earned
• Affiliate Removal. The affiliate
affiliates of changes in offers or if links commissions on traffic that links to
is removed from the merchant’s
are hitting error pages. nowhere.
affiliate program. In this case, the
link usually will redirect to an error 4. Media Provider Notification: If you
page hosted by the affiliate network. aren’t able to redirect traffic or to
• Old Offers. The merchant removes encourage the affiliate or ex-affiliate Lori Weiman is the CEO of The Search Monitor
the offer. In this scenario, the link to take down a latent link, then notify which provides market research on online
may resolve to an error page on the the media providers where latent links advertising covering competitors, brand/
merchant’s web site or hopefully to are displayed – most media providers trademark abuse, and affiliate compliance on
an appropriate alternative page. and search engines will de-activate ads paid & organic search, local, shopping, and
that resolve to error pages. social media.
• Out of Stock. The merchant sells
out of an item. Usually these kinds Advice for Affiliates
of links point to the actual product
1. Affiliate Removal: If you are removed
/ offer page with an ‘out of stock’
from an affiliate program, be sure to
message on the page.
review ALL of your destination URLs
and replace the latent links with fresh
Advice for Merchants affiliate links that actually work.

1. Redirect: 2. Old Offers: You may not always get


a notice from the merchant that an
a. Ex-Affiliates: Ask your affiliate offer has expired. Ask merchants who
network provider to redirect links you work with what their policy is
with the affiliate’s ID to a landing regarding notice to you and traffic re-
page on your Web site – not the direction.
affiliate network’s Web site.

24 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Unleashing the
Potential of
By Bryn Youngblut
Bryn Youngblut

So what exactly is PPV advertising? The first step is to choose which you’re not sure, why don’t you split test
product or service you want to it and find out? Some offers work well
PPV (pay per view), also known as promote. The most recommended are direct linking to them, and some do
CPV (cost per view) is usually referred simple and short-form submits; but much better with a jump page.
to as contextual advertising. PPV is don’t limit yourself to these.
technically adware; not to be confused If you take PPV serious enough, you
with spyware. Adware comes from After you have chosen an offer, it’s will likely experience a financial
an ad-supported program that a user time to start researching keywords; rollercoaster. You WILL lose money
installed onto their PC, which they and most importantly URLs. There are testing things. You WILL have
agreed to when installing it. PPV allows a number of ways to do this. If you unsuccessful campaigns. You WILL fail,
you to not only bid on keywords but are not familiar with the process, just and that’s life. But if you make it past all
also domains (URLs). search around the Web for keyword the failures and don’t give up, success
researching tools. could be right around the corner...
So what’s so good about PPV? From my
experience, it is incredible if done right. As far as finding URLs goes, it’s
I have some campaigns, for instance, pretty simple, but does require some
where I spend approximately $50 on a creativity. What I typically do is a Bryn Youngblut is a full time
day and they each generate thousands simple search for my offer or things entrepreneur and affiliate marketer, and
in revenue. Not bad, eh? related and copy down the URLs that he blogs at www.Bryn.me
come up. Then I take those URLs over
Why am I sharing this information? to Quantcast.com and get a ton more
Probably because I am a mad man related Web sites using the “Audience
or maybe because I do well enough Also Likes/Visits” feature on the right
that I feel like giving people some hand side.
inspiration. It has always helped me in
the past. Once you have your list of keywords/
URLs, it’s time to setup your campaign.
Now that you know the basics, I It is VERY important that you track
will walk you through the steps to everything, so you can eliminate the
get started. You’re going to need keywords/URLs that are not converting.
to be signed up for a network. For
beginners, I recommend signing up for The most common question I get is
MediaTraffic, and when you are more “Should I direct link the offer or use a
advanced, try out TrafficVance. landing page?” and I always reply that if

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 25


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

The rush of Christmas is over, so now would be a good time to see Some categories that are strong across the calendar year are home
what sold during the holiday season and dedicate a site to that topic. renovation, cooking, tools, automotive, and you can break each one
I normally use January as a time to focus on one brand-new site. of them down into a niche.
You can go into your analytics programs and see what people were
looking for and make a new niche Web site. For home renovation you might just want to focus on bathrooms.
Cooking can be anything from recipes to cooking utensils. Mechanics
I like to make sites that are not just sites that sell products in the use tools all year round, and the automotive industry could be
fourth quarter. Too many marketers focus on making a site just for broken down in hundreds of ways, from tires to auto insurance.
Christmas. You should focus on a site that sells year around. It is also
a good time to make that hobby site that you’ve wanted to make for Speaking of automotive, many people research new cars online
a long time... you know that labor of love that you’ve always wanted before they go into a dealer. They could be doing this research on
to make. your site. Automotive manuals are always a big seller for people
trying to repair that car.
Try to think of things that would sell throughout the year, such as
team sports products. Every time you turn on a game all you see Affiliate programs exist for almost every niche, and if you can’t find
is people in the stands with jerseys on from their favorite team. a good one, you can always turn to Google AdSense or some other
Somebody has to sell them the jerseys it might as well be you. You contextual advertising program.
can also think of all the sports that run the most during the year, my
last site was based on NASCAR, since the season practically runs 10
months out of the year. Vinny O’Hare is the founder of Vincent O’Hare Consulting, (VinnyOHare.
com) an Internet marketing service that provides information on how to
Kids are playing soccer all seasons, especially in the warm weather make money online with affiliate programs and contextual advertising.
states. These kids need new cleats, shorts, balls, etc. You can also look
towards your favorite hobby and develop a site around it. Hobbies
are all year round also, you don’t take a break from your favorite
hobby. Like I’ve said there are many ideas you can get just by looking
at your analytics programs.

In addition to your analytics program, you should also look at


Google trends, and take a look at the fourth-quarter searches. Odds
are using these two tools will enable you to come up with a new
site idea.

26 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


By Ryan Osborne

Building a Fortress
Ryan Osborne
Around Your Business Registration at Affiliate Summit East 2009

If data truly is “the new oil”, then how are you events or when an aggrieved party seeks • Estimated total cost to company
supposed to protect yourself from the liability further payment for their injuries. $33.8M
and risk that pervade the affiliate marketing
landscape? No doubt you have taken the Your company should obtain insurance Scenario 3:
requisite technical measures to protect your that protects against data privacy breaches,
• Retailer loses customer specific
sizable investment in your business, and intellectual property violations, breach of
information over the span of two years
frequently consider what more can be done. contract, and media/advertising risks.
through firewall security breach
But, what do you do when something With this protection, you have the insurance • 20 class action lawsuits are filed
breaches the defenses? What happens when policy to defend the lawsuit and pay damages
• Retailer had to reimburse expenses
clients, customers, or the public begin making as necessary.
for some customers, undertake
demands “to be made whole”?
data security measures and system
Here are a few examples:
evaluation, address identity theft for all
There are two defenses that each company
lost records
needs, regardless of size, in order to Scenario 1:
withstand the attack: (1) strong licensing • Estimated Total Cost $156M
• Major Oil Company with 10,000 stations
agreements, and (2) insurance.
• Outsources credit card processing/Point
A strong, well-written, licensing agreement of Sale network to third party These scenarios highlight loss of data events
is the first step to limiting the liability each and a loss of network/service event. All
• System fails for 6 hours
company faces after a catastrophic event. The three scenarios could present hurdles too
licensing agreement serves to limit liability • Claim of 20 lost sales per station at an significant to overcome.
and clearly define relationships. In most cases, average of $30 per sale (Total claimed
it will effectively enable the parties to resolve loss of $6M) By structuring the proper licensing
the dispute and continue the mutually agreement and then complimenting it with
• Arbitration panel awarded claim of $4M
beneficial relationship they entered in the the proper insurance policy you will have the
to Oil Company on Breach of Contract
first place. best chance to operate a successful affiliate or
claim
online marketing business in today’s volatile
However, the license agreement will business climate.
Scenario 2:
not stop some parties from seeking an
additional “pound of flesh” from you after • Company deceived into selling
an unfortunate event. In fact, you may have customer information to con artist Ryan is a partner with Citadel Program
acted within the licensing agreement and still • Data included financial data and other Managers which offers insurance services and
face a lawsuit. important personal information can be reached at rosborne@citadelus.com.

This is where insurance comes in. Insurance • Class action lawsuits and 43 states
is the security blanket in case catastrophic Attorneys General became involved

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 27


Affiliate M
The AffStat 2009 Report, a compilation of survey
data from more than 450 affiliates, was published
in the middle of 2009. This was the seventh
annual edition of the report.

The survey covered a wide array of issues from


the affiliate perspective.

Areas covered in the survey included favorite


affiliate networks, preferences of network vs.
independent affiliate programs, where affiliates
find affiliate programs and more.

The report is currently available from to


download at http://www.affstat.com
The following are excerpts from the report.

28 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


By Amy Rodriguez & Shawn Collins

Marketing Stats

(continued on page 30.)

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 29


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

30 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


3
By Anne Mitchell

3 Federal Regulations
Online Marketers
Anne Mitchell Must Follow
2009 was an interesting year for changes to advertise the vendor’s product or to For example, if Acme provided you for
in Federal regulations which affect Internet otherwise generate sales for the vendor. free with that nifty widget that you just
marketers. There were changes to CAN-SPAM, This means that if your affiliate sends email reviewed, you must disclose in your review
and a revision of rules by the Federal Trade featuring your product or service, and that your relationship with Acme, and that Acme
Commission; both of which directly impact email is deemed to be spam, then you may be provided the widget at no charge.
Internet marketers. legally as guilty of spamming as your affiliate,
especially if you knew or should have known While these three rules may seem onerous or
Below are three Federal regulations which that the affiliate was using spam to advertise burdensome, they are not really that difficult
Internet marketers must follow: your product. to follow once you understand them, and
following them not only keeps you within
1. Email Sent Out Featuring Someone Else’s 3. Testimonials, Reviews, and Endorsements the law, but distinguishes and identifies your
Product or Service in Marketing on the Internet business as being above-board and ethical.

Email sent out featuring a third-party’s The use of testimonials on the Internet is
product or service must also include now being more strictly regulated by the Anne P. Mitchell is an Internet attorney and
information about the entity that is actually Federal Trade Commission, and testimonials law professor, and runs the Institute for Social
sending out the email, otherwise the third- that suggest outstanding results that are not Internet Public Policy (ISIPP), best known for
party can be deemed solely responsible actual typical results must disclose that the their SuretyMail Email Accreditation service.
under CAN-SPAM for handling all opt-outs. results being featured in the testimonial are
Put another way, if your product or service not typical, and must indicate what typical
is advertised in email being sent out by results can be expected.
someone else, be sure that they include
information about themselves in the email, or Additionally, if you favorably review or
you may find yourself legally liable for helping endorse a product or service, and you have
users opt out of the mailings. This is known been in any way compensated or provided
as the “designated sender rule”. with a benefit in exchange for the review
or endorsement (or even if you just have
2. Email Sent by Affiliates a relationship with the provider of that
product or service) you must disclose that
Vendors are legally liable under the Federal information.
CAN-SPAM law if their affiliates use spam

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 31


Choosing an Affiliate Network
By Geno Prussakov
With the multitude of options out there, the question of how to
choose an affiliate network frequently becomes the first one for a
merchant to answer.

First of all, let’s clarify what we are really selecting. When looking for
an affiliate network, you are looking for a vendor who will handle all of
your affiliate program’s tracking, reporting, and affiliate payments.

At the very outset, every merchant must understand that while


selecting an affiliate network they are not selecting an agency that will
run the affiliate program by recruiting affiliates, and driving in sales/
leads. While some affiliate networks do offer management as add-on
service, none do this by default.

It appears that some merchants are merely extending the definition


of advertising networks to include affiliate networks. While just as ad
networks, affiliate networks do connect advertisers with publishers;
they do not ensure that the advertiser actually gets advertised.

In most scenarios, it is the advertiser’s own responsibility to manage


the affiliate program and recruit affiliates. Unlike ad networks, affiliate
networks do not get paid on a CPM basis.

Affiliate networks make their money on transaction fees, which


are normally calculated as a percentage of each affiliate payment
subtracted from your account. You can think of it as of a credit card
processing fee. Geno Prussakov

Just as credit card processing companies charge 2-4% of the


a few, it’s worth mentioning phone order tracking, video creatives,
transaction amount to process it, so do affiliate networks charge you
data feed import tools, dynamic product and/or coupon feeds, etc.
a fee on every transaction, with the only difference being that the fee
4. Popularity – You want to partner with a network that is loved
is not tied to the order, but to the transaction amount that happens
and respected by affiliates.
between you and the referring affiliate.
5. Support – It is no secret that many affiliate networks provide
poor merchant and affiliate support. Do your due diligence to pick a
So, whichever affiliate network you decide to go with, make sure you
network that cares.
are clear on the expectations, and do have someone to manage the
program.
Lastly, a word of warning about free-to-join affiliate networks: do your
homework in researching the network prior to joining it. There could
Speaking of the decisive factors for choosing an affiliate network, let’s
be good ones among them, but as the famous Italian couturier Aldo
look at five:
Gucci used to say, “The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long
after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.”
1. Ethics – There is nothing more important that partnering with
an ethical affiliate network which takes a clear stand against adware,
spyware, and rogue affiliate techniques.
2. Financial – There will be setup/integration fees, minimum
Geno Prussakov is the Founder of AM Navigator, and author of “A Practical
monthly fees, and other charges. Get this data from different
Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and “Online Shopping Through Consumers’
networks, analyze, and you will see the difference.
Eyes.”
3. Technical – It is extremely important to find out what additional
capabilities, tools and technologies are made available. To name but

32 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Thank You
Affiliate Summit West
2010 Sponsors
DIAMOND SPONSOR

TITANIUM SPONSOR

PLATINUM SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSOR

BRONZE SPONSOR

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2009 | 33


Nathan Smith
By Nathan Smith

Social Media:
Rebranding Customer Service
Your business can live or die based on the friends, family, and others who consider that These social platforms are the new word of
quality of your customer service. But what person worth listening to. mouth and are powerful because you can share
exactly is customer service? your experience with everyone in your sphere of
Recently, I was less than thrilled with a coffee influence instantly and simultaneously, whether
The definition has evolved through the years, product I purchased at a local McDonald’s. they live in New York or New Delhi.
but one aspect remains constant: caring about After tweeting my feelings, I noticed that I
your clients in a meaningful way on a personal was being followed by @McCafeYourDay, a Your thoughts are also archived and displayed
level. Once upon a time, milk was delivered to Twitter profile managed by Jessica Thompson, in search engine results, widening the potential
your door, doctors made house calls, and your US communications manager for McDonald’s audience all the more.
grocer knew you and your family by name. Corporation.
One attribute of social media is whether your
Over the years, customer service moved away I told her about my experience via a direct business is a Fortune 500 corporation, or a sole
from the old-fashioned “take time to care” message, and she ensured that the proper proprietorship, you can compete on a level
customer service model. It was replaced department addressed my concerns. I was truly playing field. Businesses who choose to engage
with catch phrases, upselling techniques, and impressed by her attention, and it prompted me those talking about their product or company
pushy sales people looking to maximize their to further explore her Twitter usage. can reap huge rewards.
commissions. Old-fashioned customer service
seemed to be a thing of the past… until now. What I found was that McDonald’s is getting it Conversely, brands that neglect or misuse
right with @McCafeYourDay: connecting with social media and do not listen and respond to
Social media platforms such as Twitter customers, listening to their concerns, engaging customer reactions will be left behind.
and Facebook have enabled even coerced, in the conversation, and offering exclusive value
businesses to once again engage their via Twitter contests. Be proactive, show that you care, and your
customers personally. I say coerced because business will win!
with email and phone interaction, an Although they have branded their account
organization could hide from the masses. under McDonald’s and McCafe, there is a
picture of Ms. Thompson and her name is Nathan is the founder of Zynali Inc, and
Today, online communities give consumers a clearly displayed, making it easier for followers manages several Web sites including a coffee
venue in which to relay their thoughts about to identify with a personality rather than just a video blog, CoffeeNate.com.
a particular organization or product to their generically branded profile.

34 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Increase Landing Page Performance
By 162% By Kristen Groom
I can hear the sighs now – another article Ah, the miracle of multivariate testing – in • Headline – updated headline,
promising to increase landing page a matter of one week, WiderFunnel tested highlighting the value proposition of the
performance. While it’s feasible to achieve our 45 different combinations of landing pages, product and listing the product features.
success on your own landing page, the extent isolating 11 different elements. Now that is
• Call to action – added the missing value
will likely vary depending on your niche and efficient optimization. Additionally, Google
proposition and significantly increased
level of existing optimization. Website Optimizer automatically determines
the size of the download button.
the smallest sample size necessary to be
There are some killer takeaways from our confident in the results, so traffic is not • Copy – the original copy performed the
experience so read on to find out what wasted. best.
you can do to maximize your landing page
• Demo – to improve the clarity of the
performance. The experiment broke down like this: five
flash demo (which previews some
style variations dramatically altering the
of the product’s features), a mouse
W3i worked with WiderFunnel, a conversion overall look and feel, three copy variations
image was added over the buttons to
optimization services company that provides aiming to increase clarity and value
emphasize their function.
everything required to design and execute a proposition, and three demo variations
conversion rate optimization strategy. intended to increase clarity of the product
Validation
WiderFunnel increased the click-thru rate on offering.
Internal testing on our experimentation
one of our highest-volume landing pages by
platform confirmed the click-thru gains seen
162% – on the first experiment. Their team The winning combination
with the free testing platform. Combination
analyzed six major factors: value proposition,
• Style – the original color palette was not 2 actually was the highest performer, once
relevance, clarity, urgency, anxiety, and
relevant enough for the target audience, revenue was factored in with a 51% lift in
distraction. After determining what was
which is young and female. Although earning per click.
lacking in the landing page, Google Website
aware of the demographic, I suspect
Optimizer (a free testing platform offered by
everyone was a little nervous to go full Takeaways
Google) was used to setup and flight the test.
on feminine. But that’s exactly where the Plan. Spend some serious time understanding
test led us – to some very female-driven your audience and then catering to their
designs. preferences. Don’t be afraid of big pink
buttons. Speak to your audience. Put the
value proposition directly in the headline –
don’t make it hard to find. And, keep the copy
simple.

There are many tools out there, some of them


free like the Google Website Optimizer. We
highly recommend using a testing platform
to run multivariate tests. Also, the analysis
and changes can certainly be done without
an agency, but we suggest working with a
company who specializes in those areas.

Kristen leads the charge in marketing


management, optimizing all touch points with

consumers, for W3i.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 35


Saturday, January 16
Early Registration Purpose Inc’s Affiliate Summit Charity
Location: Registration Area Poker Tournament
Time: 4:00pm – 8:00pm Proceeds to benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Location: Rio Hotel
Come by Saturday evening to pick up your badge Time: 9:00pm
and attendee bag so you can enter immediately at
noon on Sunday when the show opens. Buy-in: $150 Payable at the Event Only ($110 goes
directly to NBCF / $40 goes to Rio for Expenses to
host the tournament. $100 Rebuys during the first
hour also goes directly to NBCF).Winners: Prizes,
Trophies and Bragging Rights!

Sunday, January 17
Booth Setup Affiliate Meet Market Areas I and II
Location:: Amazon G-T Location: Amazon A-E and Brazilia 4/5
Exhibitor Move In: 8:00am – 6:00pm Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm
Exhibitor Move In: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Registration
Location: Registration Area Affiliate Summit kicks off with an extended session
Time: 8:00am – 6:00pm of structured, face to face networking. Merchants will
have tables set to meet with affiliates to discuss their
Blogger Room affiliate programs and cut deals. Vendors that cater
Location: Coco to affiliates and merchants will also have tables to
Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm share information about their products and services.
Each table is a meeting spot for teaching, learning,
The Blogger’s Lounge is an area reserved for closing deals, creating partnerships and finding new
credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk opportunities.
space, blog, interview, relax and network. Heather
Smith will be the BlogMistress of the Affiliate
Summit Blogger’s Lounge, where she’ll be acting
as liaison between Affiliate Summit and the press
and bloggers attending the show.the Affiliate Meet
Market.

• Heather Smith, Blogger, Beautiful British


Columbia (Twitter @heatherinbc)

OCTOBER2010
36 || JANUARY 2009 | | FEEDFRONT
FEEDFRONTMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda
A Primer On Search Engine Optimization • Rebecca Kelley, Director of Social Media, 10e20 (Twitter @
Session 1a rebeccakelley)
Location: Brasilia 1-2
• Keith Plocek, Social Media Manager, Mail.com Media
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm
Corporation (Twitter @keithplocek)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) doesn’t have to be a black art. It’s
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
deceptively simple. Learn the basic and intermediate ways to increase
your ranks in Google that the pros use, and you can too.
Increase Search Revenue While Protecting Your Brand
• Josh Ziering, Owner, Full Speed SEO (Twitter @JoshuaZiering) Session 1c
Location: Palma
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm

Effective Social Media Techniques Learn how to increase search revenue by letting your affiliates bid
Session 1b on trademark terms. Affiliate managers present case studies while
Location: Brasilia 6 TheSmartestSearch provides an affiliate’s perspective.
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm • Debbie Bookstaber, VP, Strategy & Business Development, The
JAR Group (Twitter @buzzmommy) (Moderator)
Get insights into the techniques behind effectively using social media
to build your brand and achieve business growth. Includes a question • Brendan Lawrence, Publisher Extraordinaire, The Smartest
and answer session with the panelists. Search

• Andrew Wee, Owner, WhoIsAndrewWee.com (Twitter @ • Lori Weiman, CEO, The Search Monitor (Twitter @searchmonitor)
andrewwee) (Moderator)
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Merchant Challenges in the Affiliate Space • Deborah Carney, CEO, Team Loxly (Twitter @loxly) (Moderator)
Session 1d
• Wendy Limauge, Blogger, Sweeties Swag (Twitter @
Location: Tropical
sweetiesswag)
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm
• Carrie Rocha, President, Pocket Your Dollars (Twitter @
Identify several key merchants and have them speak on new and dollarspocket)
future challenges seen by the merchants in the affiliate space. Open
• Kim Rowley, President, Key Internet Marketing, Inc. (Twitter @
the floor to participants to ask questions as well.
kimarketing)
• Charles Calabrese, Product Manager, buy.at Affiliate Network
• Heather Sokol, Proprietor, Inexpensively (Twitter @justheather)
(Moderator)
• Dave Gaetano, Online Marketing Consultant, The New York (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Times
• Erik Hom, Sr. Director, Business Development, Ticketmaster Using Pay-Per-Call to Grow Affiliate Programs
(Twitter @Route53) Session 2c
Location: Palma
• Madeleine McGregor, Affiliate Manager, CSN Stores
Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm
• Jared Saunders, Affiliate Program Manager, Jenson USA (Twitter
@Pakiha) Online consumers want more human interaction. Learn how new
pay-per-call technology is enabling advertisers to scale their affiliate
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) programs and improve ROI for both advertisers and publishers.
• Jason Spievak, CEO, RingRevenue, Inc. (Twitter @RingRevenue)
Monetizing Blogs for Affiliate Marketing and SEO
Session 2a (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Location: Brasilia 1-2
Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm
Affiliate Program Case Studies: Strategies and Practices
Learn to maximize affiliate commissions using blogging, increasing Session 2d
your community, and utilizing SEO. Location: Tropical
Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm
• Kristopher B. Jones, President, Pepperjam Network, A GSI
Commerce Company (Twitter @pepperjamceo) (Moderator)
Discussion of what it takes for a retailer to get their affiliate channel
• Drew Bennett, Professional Blogger, BenSpark.com (Twitter @ to the next level. Multiple merchant case studies reveal and illustrate
BenSpark) strategies and practices that attract affiliates.
• John Carcutt, SEO Manager, MediaWhiz (Twitter @JohnCarcutt) • Melanie Seery, President, Affiliate Advocacy (Twitter @Mellies)
(Moderator)
• Tim Jones, Owner, TheRealTimJones.com (Twitter @
TheRealTimJones) • Karen Garcia, Partner & Co-Founder, GTO Management (Twitter
@karengarcia)
• Murray Ross Newlands, Founder, Affiliate Heat (Twitter @
murraynewlands) • Kristen Grace, Affiliate Marketing Manager, BuyCostumes.com
(Twitter @kristengrace)
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
• Jon Nunez, Affiliate Manager, Football Fanatics (Twitter @
Jon_Nunez)
MommyBloggers: Changing the Face of Affiliate Marketing?
Session 2b (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Location: Brasilia 6
Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm

MommyBloggers are involved in many types of monetization


strategies for their blogs, affiliate marketing being one, however they
aren’t necessarily doing it in the “traditional” ways.

38 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda

Start Monetizing Your Blog Today De-Duping: the Great Unknown in Affiliate Marketing
Session 3a Session 3d
Location: Brasilia 1-2 Location: Tropical
Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm

Have a great blog but new to affiliate marketing? Learn from a network De-duping affiliate sales against other channels is common practice,
representative, an affiliate manager, and an affiliate the terminology but what are the rules and how far is too far? Find out common
and tricks behind turning your blog into earnings. practice and why we need an industry-wide best practice standard.
• Marty Fahncke, President, FawnKey & Associates (Twitter @ • Mary Young, Head of Account Management, AffiliateFuture
FawnKey) (Moderator) (Twitter @MaryAffFuture)
• Kristin Kinsey, President/CEO, MadHatter Consulting, Inc. (Twitter
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
@KC)
• Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards (Twitter @sunshinetricia) Affiliate Summit Mentor Program Meetup
• Carolyn Tang, Director of Client Services, ShareASale.com Location: Tropical
(Twitter @catango) Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm

(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only) (Open to all attendees enrolled in the Affiliate Summit Mentor Program)

Video: Biggest Affiliate Marketing Opportunity Since Google ShareASale Under the Stars Party featuring Affiliate Karaoke
Session 3b Location: Rio Hotel, Miranda
Location: Brasilia 6 Time: 8:00pm-12:00am
Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm Additional details coming soon.

Discover the secrets of affiliate video promotion. Learn how you can
increase your traffic and conversions by leveraging some of the most
popular video sites.
• Rosalind Gardner, Super Affiliate, Rosalind Gardner Consulting
(Twitter @rosalindgardner)
• Jeremy Palmer, President, Quit Your Day Job, LLC (Twitter @
quityourdayjob)

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

20 Affiliate Program Management Mistakes To Avoid


Session 3c
Location: Palma
Time: 3:00pm-4:00pm

We will cover 20 mistakes that affiliate managers routinely commit.


Real life examples will be provided. You will take away practical
knowledge, and a checklist to compare against your own style.
• Geno Prussakov, Founder, AM Navigator (Twitter @eprussakov)

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

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 39


Monday, January 18
Continental Breakfast Opening Remarks & Keynote
Location: Amazon A-E Location: Penn & Teller Theater
Time: 9:00am - 10:00am Time: 9:45am – 10:45am
• Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @
(Breakfast is Open to Platinum Pass Holders with Breakfast jimkukral)
Tickets Only) • Dr. Robert Cialdini, President, INFLUENCE AT
WORK (Twitter @RobertCialdini)
Coffee Service
Location: Amazon A-E Influence During Times of Uncertainty
Time: 10:00am-12:30pm and 2:00pm-6:00pm In today’s uncertain environment, the need for
simultaneously effective and ethical influence is
Registration necessary, pertinent, and now more vital than ever
Location: Registration Area to our success. During this profound presentation,
Time: 7:30am - 5:00pm Dr. Robert Cialdini briefly reviews six research-
based universal principles of influence, but focuses
Blogger Room on those principles that are most effective during
Location: Coco conditions of uncertainty and that leaders can
Time: 8:30am - 6:00pm employ to bring about positive and lasting change
among individuals located both inside and outside
The Blogger’s Lounge is an area reserved for
their organizations.
credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk
space, blog, interview, relax and network. Heather
Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the ground-breaking
Smith will be the BlogMistress of the Affiliate
book, Influence, and co-author of the New York
Summit Blogger’s Lounge, where she’ll be acting as
Times best-seller, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways
liaison between Affiliate Summit and the press and
To Be Persuasive, is your guide in translating highly
bloggers attending the show.
relevant but poorly-understood scientific research
• Heather Smith, Blogger, Beautiful British into practical business applications. His books
Columbia (Twitter @heatherinbc) have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.
Dr. Cialdini is the world’s leading authority on
Exhibit Hall
influence and his widely acclaimed studies are highly
Location: Amazon G-T
instructive to those who want to be more influential.
Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm
(This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)
(Exhibitors may set up beginning at 9:00am)

40 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda
How to Fix Failing SEO Efforts perspectives: the industry, the network and the publisher.
Session 4a
• Nicole Williams, Advertiser Account Director, Commission
Location: Brasilia 1-2
Junction
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
There are many misconceptions about search engine optimization.
This session will detail five reasons SEO efforts fail.
Affiliate Showcase
• Wil Reynolds, Associate, SEER Interactive (Twitter @wilreynolds) Location: Brasilia 4, 5
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Affiliate Showcase will be an opportunity for affiliates to preside over
Product Datafeeds: The Next Level tables where merchants and networks can visit with them to discuss
Session 4b working together.
Location: Brasilia 6
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm (This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Product datafeeds are among the most powerful tools available to Luncheon
affiliate marketers. We’ll discuss the current state of datafeeds and Location: Amazon A-E
industry progress, best practices, and moving toward standards. Time: 12:30pm-1:45pm
• Scott Jangro, President, MechMedia, Inc. (Twitter @jangro)
(Moderator) (Lunch is Open to Platinum Pass Holders With Lunch Tickets Only)

• Larry Adams, Product Manager, Google


• Shergul Arshad, VP, Business & Corporate Development,
StyleFeeder, Inc. (Twitter @shergul)
• Brian Smith, CEO & Founder, SingleFeed (Twitter @singlefeed)

(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Law Enforcement Risks for Advertisers, Affiliates, Networks


Session 4c
Location: Palma
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm

We will explore recent state/federal actions, assess legal exposure risks


to advertisers, affiliates and networks, and discuss best practices for
avoiding and dealing with unwanted regulatory scrutiny.
• Thomas A. Cohn, Of Counsel, Venable LLP (Moderator)
• Dean Graybill, Assistant Regional Director, Western Region,
Federal Trade Commission
• David Katz, VP Corporate Development and General Counsel,
Cyberplex Inc.

(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

Affiliate Marketing by the Numbers


Session 4d
Location: Tropical
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm

Data from comScore, Commission Junction and Affiliate Benchmarks


will illustrate the current state of affiliate marketing from these three
Self-Promotion Will Save The World Where do the compliance responsibilities of an affiliate network end
Session 5a and a merchant begin? A discussion of the expectations from both
Location: Brasilia 1-2 parties and approaches to building an effective relationship.
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
• David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity (Twitter @brandverity)
(Moderator)
“It’s the economy, stupid!” has given way to “It’s the social economy,
stupid!” We’ll examine a handful of successful companies, what they • Rachel Corcoran, Director of Compliance, Hydra
did to turn customers into Raving Fans, and how you can, too.
• Graham MacRobie, President and CEO, Alias Encore, Inc. (Twitter
• Peter Shankman, Founder, HARO (Twitter @skydiver) @grahammacrobie)
• Jamie Birch, President, JEBCommerce (Twitter @JamieEBirch)
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Killer Facebook Advertising Tactics
Session 5b Vertical Exchange
Location: Brasilia 6 Location: Brasilia 4, 5
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm

Tired of ad disapprovals, low CTRs, terrible conversion rates, and Vertical Exchange will be an opportunity for affiliates, merchants and
inconsistent traffic volume? CPM or CPC? Pages or direct link? Hear networks to find one another by vertical to network and work our
how several super affiliates do it, plus tips from Facebook. deals.
• Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @jimkukral) (Moderator)
(This Session is Open to Gold and Platinum Pass Holders Only)
• Mark Colacioppo, President, Globalizer, LLC (Twitter @
globalizermark)
SEO Site Review/Clinic
• Markus Frind, CEO, Plentyoffish Session 6a
Location: Brasilia 1-2
• Dr. David Klein (dk), CEO, Purpose inc (Twitter @purposeinc)
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
• Alex Schultz, Manager, Internet Marketing, Facebook (Twitter @
alexschultz) Live Q&A, site audits and suggestions on how to help the internal
site structure, as well as ideas how to build a better site for organic
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) rankings.
• Rae Hoffman, CEO, Outspoken Media (Twitter @sugarrae)
Running a Network: Business, Legal & Practical (Moderator)
Session 5c
Location: Palma • Greg Boser, President, 3 Dog Media, LLC (Twitter @GregBoser)
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm • Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web (Twitter @graywolf )

Networks are on the front lines of positive, negative, profitable, • Michael Streko, Co-Founder, KnowEm.com (Twitter @Streko)
and dangerous issues in the affiliate world. Are they the digital hall
monitors of affiliate marketing? (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

• Gary Kibel, Partner, Davis & Gilbert LLP (Twitter @GaryKibel_law)


Making Social Media Make Money: Ten Strategies
• Mary Beth Padian, Global Affiliate Manager, Loylogic, Inc. Session 6b
Location: Brasilia 6
• Adam Weiss, Vice President, Network Development, LinkShare
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Social Media Websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have
exploded in popularity. This presentation will share 10 proven
Affiliate Program Compliance: Working with the Networks strategies to generate massive profit from top social media websites.
Session 5d
Location: Tropical • Jay Berkowitz, CEO, Ten Golden Rules (Twitter @JayBerkowitz)
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

42 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda

Oprah, Flogs and FTC: Hot Topics 2010 • Jim Banks, CEO, Unanimis (Twitter @jimbanks)
Session 6c
• James Little, Head of Affiliates, AffiliateFuture (Twitter @3wdl)
Location: Palma
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm • Matthew Wood, Managing Director & Founder, existem /
a4uexpo (Twitter @matthewwood)
This session un-muddies the murky waters of the FTC’s ever-changing
focus, the proliferation of IP-related lawsuits, and the legal ambiguity (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
regarding many forms of Internet-based marketing.
• Pete Wellborn, Managing Member, Wellborn, Wallace & Ask the Experts
Woodard, LLC Location: Brasilia 4, 5
Time: 5:00 pm-6:00pm
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
(This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)
CPA Affiliate Marketing Opportunities in Europe
Ask the Experts will be an opportunity for merchants, networks and
Session 6d
affiliates to ask questions about various specialties and issues.
Location: Tropical
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
Hand picked experts will handle topics in their specialty, and conduct
chats, answer questions and share opinions during this networking
European affiliate marketing is a few years behind America in some
and education session.
areas, but ahead of it in others. This session will provide insight into
the growth areas in Europe. • KISS SEO: Michael Martin, SEO Director of Project Management,
Internet Marketing Inc (Twitter @googleandblog)
• Dush Ramachandran, Vice President, Sales Marketing & Business
Development, ClickBank (Twitter @DushR) (Moderator) • Landing Pages That Take the Money – Everytime!: Gillian
Muessig, President, SEOmoz, Inc (Twitter @SEOmom)
• Merchants Who Relinquish Control and Trust Affiliates: Matt
Enders, CEO, mgecom, inc. (Twitter @mattenders)
• Niche Site Builder and Content Production: Evan Weber, CEO,
Experience Advertising (Twitter @experienceads)
• Strategies for Long-Term Revenue Growth: Michael Jenkins,
CEO/Founder, MarketLeverage (Twitter @MarketLeverage)
• Video Content Monetization for Affiliates and Advertisers: Liat
Fuchs, Affiliate Director, AffiliatePLY (Twitter @affiliateply)

Affiliate Summit Trivia Tweetup


Location: Miranda 1&3 and Miranda Patio
Time: 9:30pm – midnight

Sure, you can impress your friends with your knowledge of all of the
dog’s names that have lived in the White House, but will they buy you
drinks? Give you prizes? We doubt it.

Here’s your opportunity to get what you deserve. Join the Affiliate
Summit team and your Trivia Host, Lisa Picarille for the Affiliate Summit
Trivia Tweetup where you can show off your random-fact prowess, get
unexpected high-fives and make some new friends. If you’re lucky,
maybe you’ll even win drink tickets or passes to Affiliate Summit East
2010 in New York City.

(Internet and Phone usage by players is not permitted during the


game.)

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 43


Tuesday, January 19
Continental Breakfast for the leaders in the space. Award winners are
Location: Amazon A-E recognized because they are innovative leaders with
Time: 9:00am - 10:00am vision and influence.

(Breakfast is Open to Platinum Pass Holders with The following awards will be presented:
Breakfast Tickets Only) • Affiliate of the Year
• Affiliate Manager of the Year
Coffee Service
• Exceptional Merchant
Location: Amazon A-E
• Affiliate Marketing Advocate Award
Time: 10:00am–12:30pm and 2:00pm–6:00pm
• Best Blogger
Registration • Affiliate Marketing Legend
Location: Registration Area
Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @jimkukral)
Time: 8:00am - 3:00pm
Blogger Room Brian Clark, Co-Founder, DIY Themes
Location: Coco (Twitter @copyblogger)
Time: 8:30am - 4:00pm
(This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)

The Blogger’s Lounge is an area reserved for


credentialed bloggers/press to grab some desk Site Clinic by the Women of SEO
space, blog, interview, relax and network. Heather Session 7a
Smith will be the BlogMistress of the Affiliate Location: Brasilia 1-2
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Summit Blogger’s Lounge, where she’ll be acting as
liaison between Affiliate Summit and the press and Come have your site reviewed under a microscope by the women of
SEO. They will critique websites for content, landing pages, design,
bloggers attending the show.
HTML and conversions.
• Heather Smith, Blogger, Beautiful British • Kate Morris, Founding Demon, Marketing Demons (Twitter @
Columbia (Twitter @heatherinbc) katemorris) (Moderator)
• Kristy Bolsinger, Social Media Marketing Strategist,
Exhibit Hall RealNetworks (Twitter @Kristy)
Location: Amazon G-T • Carolyn Shelby, Web Experience Manager, United Way of
Time: 10:00am – 4:00pm Metropolitan Chicago (Twitter @cshel)

(Exhibitors may set up beginning at 9:00am) • Lyndsay Walker, Director of Online Marketing, Canada’s Web
Shop (Twitter @lyndseo)

Opening Remarks, Pinnacle Awards & Keynote (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Location: Penn & Teller Theater
Scaling Article Marketing For Affiliate Marketers
Time: 10:00am – 11:15am
Session 7b
Location: Brasilia 6
The Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards are affiliate Time: 11:30am-12:30pm

marketing’s most prestigious, competitive honor Drive millions of high-value free traffic/visitors with articles. Avoid the
7 common pitfalls that could hurt your pocketbook & reputation.

44 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Affiliate Summit West | 2010 Agenda
• Chris Knight, CEO, EzineArticles.com (Twitter @ChrisKnight) Igniting Viral Campaigns by Creating Relevant Conversations
Session 8b
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) Location: Brasilia 6
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Coupon Problem Solving Clinic
Session 7c Creating persuasive momentum in the social media space is the key to
Location: Palma viral success. Blogs, viral video, podcasting, Twitter, Facebook, SEO…
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm which tools are right for your campaign?
• Larry Bailin, Author / CEO, Single Throw Internet Marketing
Merchants, bring your questions about coupons and coupon affiliates (Twitter @larrybailin)
and let this panel of industry experts show you the best practices to
resolve your concerns and meet your goals using this channel. (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

• Todd Crawford, Co-Founder, Impact Radius (Twitter @


toddcrawford) (Moderator) Creating Lasting Publisher and Advertiser Relationships
Session 8c
• Connie Berg, CEO, FlamingoWorld.com (Twitter @ Location: Palma
flamingoworld) Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
• Michael Coley, Founder, Amazing-Bargains.com (Twitter @
MichaelColey) Results are what matter in performance marketing. These industry
leaders will discuss how they work together to create long-term
• Chuck Hamrick, Affiliate Manager, AffiliateCrew.com (Twitter @ partnerships, and explore communication, commission, policies and
Chuck_Hamrick) more.
• Melissa Canepa Murphy, Owner, Crazy for Bargains LLC (Twitter • Steve Schaffer, Founder & CEO, Offers.com (Twitter @
@Pajamalady) SteveSchaffer) (Moderator)
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) • Stephen Siphron, Señor Marketer, Cashbaq (Moderator)
• Eva Klein, Director of Business Development, FatWallet (Twitter
E-Commerce Site Deconstruction: Strategies for Affiliates @evaklein)
Session 7d
Location: Tropical (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Using Thought Leadership to Generate Leads
As an e-commerce web developer and affiliate marketer for 11 years, Session 8d
Michael Vorel will deconstruct leading e-commerce web sites to Location: Tropical
uncover strategies and trends that can be utilized by affiliates. Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
• Michael Vorel, CEO, Vastplanet Corporation (Twitter @
michaelvorel) Creating content is one of the best ways to establish community
around a brand. This session will show how to use business blogging,
(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only) video, webinars, etc. to reach prospects and generate leads.
• Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO, HubSpot, Inc. (Twitter @
Luncheon dharmesh)
Location: Amazon A-E
Time: 12:30pm-1:45pm (This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

(Lunch is Open to Platinum Pass Holders with Lunch Tickets Only) GeekCast.fm Live!s
Location: Palma
How To Get Motivated For Success! Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm
Session 8a
Location: Brasilia 1-2 A mixed bunch of podcasters from GeekCast.fm will have an open,
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm candid discussion about the hot topics in affiliate marketing.

Get off your butt and get to work. Motivational tips, tricks & strategies (This Session is Open to All Pass Holders)
that can put you on the path to online success.
• Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com (Twitter @jimkukral)

(This Session is Open to Platinum Pass Holders Only)

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 45


Keynote Bio

Dr. Robert Cialdini


Extensive scholarly training in the psychology of
influence, together with over 30 years of research into
the subject, has earned Dr. Cialdini an international
reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion,
compliance, and negotiation.

His books including, Influence: Science and Practice ,


are the results of more than 30 years of study into the
reasons why people comply with requests in business
settings. Worldwide, Influence has sold over 1.5 million
copies. Influence has been published in twenty-five
languages. His most recent co-authored book, Yes!: 50
Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive , has been on
the New York Times, USA Today & Wall Street Journal Best
Seller Lists. Additionally, CEO Read lists Influence in their
100 Best Business Books of All Time.

In the field of influence and persuasion, Dr. Cialdini is the


most cited living social psychologist in the world today.

Dr. Cialdini received his Ph.D from the University of


North Carolina and post doctoral training from Columbia
University. He has held Visiting Scholar Appointments
at Ohio State University, the University of California, the
Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate
School of Business of Stanford University. Currently,
Dr Cialdini holds dual appointments at Arizona State
University. He is a W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor
of Marketing and Regents’ Professor of Psychology,
where he has also been named Distinguished Graduate
Research Professor.

Media coverage of Dr. Cialdini and his research include


Dateline NBC, CNBC, CNN, ABC, Washington Post, New
York Times, On Wall Street, Forbes Magazine, Chicago
Tribune, USA Today, London Times, Scientific American,
Los Angeles Times, Psychology Today, Selling Power, Sales
and Marketing Magazine, Leader to Leader Magazine, The
Atlantic Journal, The Denver Post, The New York Times,
Harvard Business Review, and Fortune Magazine.

Dr. Cialdini is President of INFLUENCE AT WORK, an


international consulting, strategic planning and training
organization based on the Six Principles of Influence.

Dr. Cialdini’s clients include such organizations as


Google, Advanta, IBM, Washington Mutual Group of
Funds, Coca Cola, KPMG, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Kodak,
Merrill Lynch, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, Northern
Trust, Prudential, The Mayo Clinic, Glaxo Wellcome,
Harvard University – Kennedy School, The Weather
Channel, the United States Department of Justice,
NATO, Microsoft and Charles Schwab.
Keynote Bio

Brian Clark
Brian Clark is a ten-year-veteran of Internet publishing and marketing. Brian’s
companies produce millions of dollars in annual revenue thanks to a mix of online
educational content and direct response copywriting, and his influential blog
Copyblogger is read by over 67,000 people. Brian is also the co-founder of DIY
Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress; the Teaching Sells
interactive training program; and the creativity blog Lateral Action.
Affiliate Summit West 2010 Speakers
Larry Adams Drew Bennett
Larry is a product manager for affiliate marketing for the Google Drew Bennett is a Husband, Father, Photographer, Traveler, Wired
Affiliate Network, formerly known as Performics. He has been an Kayaker and Transformers Fan. He has taken a Photo-A-Day for
advocate for affiliate marketing within DoubleClick and Google as nearly 5 straight years and he blogs about them on BenSpark.com.
well as the industry at large for the past five years. Prior to Google/ BenSpark.com is a personal blog where Drew builds community with
DoubleClick/Performics, he was an engineer and technical architect his readers through conversation, contests and compelling content.
for software and consulting companies specializing in eCommerce. Drew also builds community through his newsletter Behind The Lens
Larry graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 with where he offers his photography tips. Drew is constantly looking for
a bachelors degree in Industrial Management and a masters in opportunities to expand his brand. You’ll often find him at industry
Information Systems. conferences and tradeshows.

Shergul Arshad Connie Berg


Shergul Arshad is the VP of Business & Corporate Development at Connie Berg is the Founder of FlamingoWorld.com which offers
StyleFeeder, Inc. In his role, Shergul is responsible for all revenue discounts and coupons from online retailers, and ForMeToCoupon.
generation from advertising and affiliate relationships as well as com a consolidated coupon data feed for affiliates covering most
strategic partnerships for the fast growing personal shopping engine. major affiliate networks and almost 2000 merchants. Through the
Shergul joined StyleFeeder prior to its A Round as the second fulltime years, Connie has attended many affiliate marketing functions and
employee in 2006, where he was able to leverage his online shopping actively opposes unethical affiliates and practices within the affiliate
experience from eBay, FairMarket and Amazon to set up early community. Connie is a member of several affiliate network advisory
partnerships that led to immediate growth for StyleFeeder. Shergul panels and sometimes contributes to Revenews.com on topics related
has spoken at Digital Hollywood, PMA, CJU and at several investment to affiliate marketing. She is the winner of the 2004 Linkshare Golden
banking conferences. Shergul holds a BA from Harvard University and Link Most Vocal Advocate Award and the 2008 Affiliate Summit
an MBA from the University of Michigan. Originally from Florence, Pinnacle Award – Affiliate of the Year Award.
Italy, Shergul resides in the Boston area with his wife and kids. In his
spare time, Shergul enjoys coaching his boys soccer teams, skiing,
golfing, traveling and following all Boston sports teams (plus Italian
Jay Berkowitz
Jay Berkowitz is a dynamic marketing professional. He has managed
soccer team, AC Fiorentina!).
marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Sprint, Coca-Cola and
McDonald’s and successful dot-com eDiets.com. Mr. Berkowitz is the
Larry Bailin Author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing Workbook, Host
Larry Bailin, author of the bestselling marketing book, Mommy, Where of the Award-Winning Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast
Do Customers Come From? and CEO of the award winning Internet and Founder and CEO of tengoldenrules.com, an internet marketing
marketing company, Single Throw. A renowned expert in the field consulting agency. Ten Golden Rules helps companies get more traffic
of Internet marketing as well as in the new customer culture, Bailin to their websites and convert that traffic to sales with a focus on
has been a keynote and conference speaker for: Microsoft, UPS, Bath improving profit. Mr. Berkowitz is the Past President of the American
Fitter, HealthSouth, The DMA, The Conference Board, BMA and many Marketing Association South Florida and a founding Board Member
others. Bailin has been called “one of the top minds in the business” by of SFIMA, the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association. Mr.
Yahoo’s marketing team and was named one of New Jersey’s top forty Berkowitz is a popular presenter at conferences and events such as
under forty in business in 2007. As a go-to expert for the media, he has Affiliate Summit, The American Marketing Association, The Direct
written for and been featured in articles for Yahoo!, The Street, CNN Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies, Ad-Tech, and the CEO
Money, Entrepreneur Magazine, DM News, Tech News, Fortune Small Executive Forum.
Business, NJBIZ, Realtor Magazine, and AOL. Bailin has proven to be a
powerhouse in marketing as well as in the business world as a world-
class speaker, a business leader, and bestselling author.

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

48 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Speaker Bios

Jamie Birch Greg Boser


Currently I am the owner of JEBCommerce. We manage affiliate Greg Boser (aka WebGuerrilla) is an internet marketing consultant
programs for our clients as well as paid search, SEO, web development who has specialized in search engine optimization since 1996. Having
and more. Since 2005, I have also been a contributor at Revenews. served as President of WebGuerrilla, LLC for over 10 years, Greg has
com. Prior to JEBCommerce, I was the Director of Affiliate Relations now launched 3 Dog Media, a new full service internet marketing
at Converseon, where I managed all aspects of affiliate programs company that supports more client needs than traditional SEO. 3
including recruiting, retention, strategy, while managing a team of Dog Media provides a fresh look at how to maximize Web 2.0 in any
experienced affiliate managers. At Converseon, I managed programs vertical, while grasping every SEO opportunity. Greg Boser has been
such as Hilton Hotels, Palm, Mikasa, Edmund Scientifics and more. quoted in Newsweek, WSJ, as well as having been a former moderator
Prior to Converseon, I managed a multi-million dollar affiliate for WMW. You may also recognize Greg from his weekly radio show
program and search campaigns for Coldwater Creek, a top 5 national “SEO Rockstars” on WebmasterRadio.FM. Greg has been speaking in
women’s apparel retailer. I have also held positions with a number of the conference circuit since 1999. 3 Dog Media specializes in SEO,
e-commerce and online marketing companies where my focused was SMM, Reputation Management and Wordpress Development.
on performance marketing and customer retention and activation
initiatives. I also have many years of experience in Search Engine
Optimization, Email Marketing and other tech marketing areas.
Charles Calabrese
In his current role as Product Management for the buy.at Affiliate
Network, Charles Calabrese is responsible for setting the strategic
Debbie Bookstaber direction of buy.at, developing and managing the US product
Debbie Bookstaber is the VP of Strategy and Business Development at roadmap, and translating the high–level product strategy into
The JAR Group. Debbie’s experience as both an affiliate manager and specific functional requirements and marketing plans. Charlie joined
a top affiliate makes her uniquely suited for this role. Debbie has over Platform-A (then Advertising.com) in January 2005 as a Business
nine years of experience in online marketing, business development, Analyst and was responsible for managing data analytics across the
product management and affiliate marketing for brands such as breadth of Advertising.com’s products. After helping grow the analysis
Expedia and Travelocity. She won both the Travelocity Enterprise team he ventured into the New Product Development group where he
Award and the Expedia Horizon Award for her job performance. did research into emerging technology which could benefit Platform-A
Debbie brings an understanding of media buying, search, social as a whole. Before joining Platform-A, Charlie was a Development
media and negotiation to affiliate engagements. Passionate about Consultant for a medical software design firm. His specialty was on
social media, Debbie started a successful product review site (www. the use of information technology and data for business process
mamanista.com), which was picked as one of six influential mom improvement. Charlie is a member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory
blogs by Playthings Magazine in February 2009. Mamanista.com Board.
generates revenue through affiliate marketing as well as traditional
CPM advertising, and Debbie donates her earnings to charity. Debbie
graduated from Yale University with a Bachelors and Masters in John Carcutt
History. John Carcutt is a 12 Year SEO veteran who started working as an
In-House SEO and moved to agency management. He worked as the
previous Director of Natural Search for MoreVisibility and is currently
Kristy Bolsinger the SEO Manager for MediaWhiz Holdings, the parent company of
Kristy Bolsinger is currently employed as a Social Media Marketing Text-Link-Ads and others. He is a guest author on numerous industry
Strategist with RealNetworks in Seattle, WA. Prior to her time at sites including the Search Engine Journal, and the Co-host of SEO101
RealNetworks Kristy was working as a Social Media Marketing on WebmasterRadio.fm. He also speaks at various industry trade
Consultant and completing her MBA at Willamette University. She shows.
maintains a social media blog and can also be found on Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 49


Deborah Carney Rachel Corcoran
Deborah has been a professional photographer for 30 years, including Rachel Corcoran is the Director of Compliance for Hydra, the largest
photographing weddings, other social events and conferences, pure performance-based advertising network. As an attorney with
on location cat shows, as well as a fine art photographer. She has extensive corporate regulatory and Internet marketing experience,
been creating websites for 15+ years, that all included photographs Rachel is focused on continually improving Hydra’s compliance
optimized for the web, because back then they had to be since we program by adding new technologies and processes that help
were all on dialup! A selection of her photos hang in hotels, homes advertisers maximize the advantages of the CPA advertising model
and offices, and are published in several cat breed books, as well as while still retaining control over their campaigns. Hydra’s commitment
being scattered all over the web and some newspaper publishing to compliance brings higher quality and greater control than has
along the way. Currently an affiliate and Outsourced Program Manager traditionally been available to advertisers employing performance-
that teaches affiliates how to optimize their sites and that uses images based advertising.
heavily in her own sites. You can hear her tips on Affiliate ABCs and
Make Your Mark (art marketing) podcasts.
Todd Crawford
A recognizable veteran, Todd Crawford brings to Impact Radius a
Thomas A. Cohn passion for performance advertising and a commitment to its growth.
Tom Cohn, of counsel to the law firm of Venable LLP, is a former As a co-founder, he evangelizes the opportunities presented by a
FTC attorney [17+ years, NY regional director] representing a multi-channel approach to the performance model. Prior to Impact
variety of online and offline advertisers and marketers, including Radius, he served as vice president of sales and business development
affiliates, merchants and ad networks. He has spoken at ad:tech for Digital River’s affiliate network, oneNetworkDirect. Todd also
SF, Meetup202NYC and numerous advertising law workshops contributed to the founding team at Commission Junction in 1998
and conferences sponsored by Promotion Marketing Association, and led its business and sales development efforts as vice president
Interactive Advertising Bureau, Direct Marketing Association and many for more than seven years. In 2007, Todd won the Affiliate Marketing
others. Tom counsels advertisers, online marketers, media companies, Legend Award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards in Las Vegas. He
ad agencies and production companies on advertising, marketing holds a bachelor of arts at the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities.
and promotion matters, and represents them in connection with
state and federal litigation and investigations, as well as before the
National Advertising Division and other self-regulatory organizations.
Matt Enders
Matt Enders is the founder and CEO of mgecom, inc., a leading
He is a member of the Committee on Consumer Affairs of the New
Outsourced Affiliate Program Management Firm. Based in Cary, NC,
York City Bar and the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Section of the New York
mgecom represents some of the greatest brands to be found online.
State Bar Association, and he is admitted to the bar in New York and
Our client roster spans international borders and international waters,
Massachusetts.
where we work with companies in both the B2B and B2C markets.
In 2009 mgecom was nominated as a finalist for the Commission
Michael Coley Junction University Agency of the Year award. Matt personally has
Michael Coley is a veteran of the affiliate industry. He founded one been in the online marketing industry since early 2002, when he
of the first coupon sites, Amazing-Bargains.com, in 1999. Michael is a launched and fully managed his first affiliate program. Over the years,
moderator and active participant on ABestWeb.com. He has been a his career has touched on all verticals of online marketing, with a
long-time advocate for affiliate marketing and is a member of several heavy focus always being paid to the development, management,
industry advisory boards. and growth of affiliate marketing programs. Matt has been operating
mgecom, inc. since March 2006, where the sole focus is the outsourced
management of our client’s affiliate programs.

50 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Speaker Bios

Marty Fahncke Karen Garcia


An expert in multi-channel direct response marketing with over 20 Karen Garcia is a co-founder and partner at GTO Management, an
years experience, Marty M. Fahncke brings a unique and experienced outsourced affiliate program management company. Karen has ten
perspective to his audiences. As President of FawnKey & Associates, years of experience in e-commerce and marketing. Beginning in 1999,
a consulting and project management firm, Marty has generated Karen successfully developed and managed the affiliate program
hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for his clients using direct for Shari’s Berries. While at Shari’s, she increased brand awareness,
response television, the telephone, and the internet. His most recent affiliate performance and customer retention through the effective
venture, BizKidz.com is a website designed to educate, entertain use of digital methods, e-mail marketing and promotions, print
and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs…kids age 7-15. advertisements, SEO and SEM campaign development. Karen has
On www.BizKidz.com, children learn real business, marketing, and consulted on and profitably managed dozens of affiliate programs
entrepreneurial skills in a safe, fun environment, all while earning real on many different network platforms ranging from large national
money. Marty speaks to audiences across the country on topics related brands such as National Geographic and MediFast to niche merchants
to internet marketing, social media, affiliate marketing, and more. like BowlingShirt.com and MakeBeer.net. Karen is also a co-founder
Marty also shares his knowledge as an Advisory Board member and of CAMA, the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association, a faith-based
feature writer for Electronic Retailer magazine. His writing can also organization formed in 2007 to promote fellowship, wholesome
be found at the popular blog “My Perspective”, which can be read at Christian affiliate programs, and integrity and fairness in affiliate
http://www.MartyFahncke.com. marketing.

Markus Frind Dave Gaetano


Markus Frind is the CEO of PlentyofFish.com, which he founded in Dave Gaetano is the Online Marketing Director for The New York
2003 from the comfort of his apartment. In just over six years, POF has Times Store. He created and launched the store’s affiliate program in
become the world’s largest online dating site with over 100 million June 2009 and has been striving to create a program that is publisher
visits per month and more than 2.5 billion page views. Markus started friendly. In addition, he has been responsible for launching paid search
his career as an affiliate and employed his tactics on POF to grow campaigns on all the major search engines and has focused on gaining
his revenue to over $10 million a year. Listen and learn from a super more exposure for the store in the social marketing world. His diverse
affiliate. background includes management and ownership of a residential
real estate brokerage, where he first realized the value of internet
marketing in the mid 90’s. Dave graduated with a finance degree
Liat Fuchs from Syracuse University and has a JD in Law from the University of
Liat Fuchs is the Affiliate Director at AffiliatePLY.com, a video based
Connecticut.
affiliate network, and has been working in the online affiliate industry
for four years. Previously, Liat was at 888.com, the biggest online
casino in the world, and then affiliate Director at Duplicate Poker, a skill Rosalind Gardner
based online poker room. Liat was also providing affiliate and online Rosalind Gardner has been a leader in the affiliate marketing industry
marketing consulting services for online companies that wanted to since 1998 and is recognized best through her best-selling affiliate
establish their affiliate program, or to those who already have one, training manual, the “Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797
and want to leverage it and take it forward. Liat has experience with in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online” and her contributions
all aspects of online marketing and advertising (media buying, SEO, as the ‘Affiliate’s Corner’ columnist for Revenue magazine. As a speaker,
PPC, forums, viral marketing), and has been around all the industry’s consultant and prolific blogger, Rosalind teaches affiliates how to build
major conventions (Affiliate Summit, ad:tech, SES, WebmasterWorld, sustainable online businesses and teaches merchants how to structure
CAP etc). She has a deep understanding of the affiliate’s work, needs their affiliate programs to attract and retain loyal Super Affiliates like
and expectations. Liat holds a BA degree in Political Science and East herself.
Asia Studies from Tel Aviv University, and an MBA with a marketing
orientation.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 51


Kristen Grace Rae Hoffman
Kristen Grace is the Affiliate Marketing Manager for BuySeasons, Inc., Eight years ago Rae started a small website about her son and
the parent company to two of the largest online costume and party his medical condition that became one of the first international
retailers; BuyCostumes.com and Celebrate Express. In her role she support groups and largest website in general on the topic. It earned
is responsible for overseeing and personally managing the strategy national media coverage and helped further medical research in
between highly seasonal and year round brands. She has been the field. Investigating ways to support that site, she found affiliate
in the affiliate marketing space for over 5 years and ‘has survived’ marketing and became one of the most well known voices in the
6 Halloween seasons! She’s mastered the art of managing a very affiliate landscape and organic search engine optimization. Today,
seasonal affiliate program which won BuyCostumes.com the CJYou her current area of research is site auditing and advanced organic
“People’s Choice” Award in 2008. She prides her management style on link development techniques relating to all of the major engines. Ms.
creating transparency, providing program and affiliate side training Hoffman is the Principal of Sugarrae SEO Consulting. She also owns
and enjoys the opportunity to work with affiliates, big or small. Kristen numerous successful personal websites on a wide range of topics.
holds an MBA and in her spare time she enjoys teaching Yoga.

Erik Hom
Michael Gray As Sr. Director in Business Development for Ticketmaster, Erik is
Michael Gray has worked in the internet world since 1998, when he responsible for the daily direction of Ticketmaster’s Affiliate Program
became Webmaster for a major retailer in New York. He developed as well as managing its larger strategic marketing partners. Erik also
their website strategy and grew their online sales from $100,000 to acts as the head of Ticketmaster’s social media marketing community
over $25 million in annual website sales. Michael then moved into promotion efforts. An early pioneer in online marketing since 1997,
affiliate marketing and started his own consulting firm. Michael has Erik has been a corporate advocate for affiliate marketing since the
worked with many businesses to develop and implement their Social early days of affiliate conferences run by Refer-it.com (later Internet.
Media Strategy. He also specializes in blog development and Search com), creating Reel.com’s affiliate program and serving on the board
Engine Optimizations for businesses of all sizes. Michael has been a of Shopper Connection, a consortium of retailers. Erik built one of the
speaker at Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, SEOClass and SMX. He is largest affiliate programs while at Reel.com, an experience that helped
also moderator at Sphinn and Webmaster World. Michael is President to shape his philosophy that merchant mass marketing online is about
of Atlas Web Service, located in Long Island, New York. building social networks of informed merchandisers. Erik has also
acted as an advisor to such companies as The Gap, Williams-Sonoma,
Visa, Netflix, Idealab, Travelocity, and Amazon.
Chuck Hamrick
Chuck Hamrick is an outsourced program manager (OPM) at
affiliateCREW, a Salt Lake City, UT based internet marketing company, Scott Jangro
managing Register, Little Giant Ladder, Rug Doctor, Bosleyinfo, Sole Scott Jangro is the president and co-founder of MechMedia, Inc.,
Treadmills, Proform, WORX Yard Tools, 1000Bulbs, and more. Active a performance marketing company started in 2004. MechMedia
in online marketing since 1999 with SEO, PPC, email marketing and specializes in niche retail community websites, such as Shoehunting.
lead gen. Full time Affiliate Manager since 2005 previously managing com and Costumzee.com, giving consumers a place to share their
ToolKing, Backcountry and Ancestry. You will also find Chuck as a passions and favorite products with like-minded individuals. Prior to
moderator on ABestWeb.com. He also had a prior 13 years career MechMedia, Scott served as a Director of Product Management at Be
in manufacturing as project management. To learn more visit Free, Inc. and later Commission Junction, both divisions of ValueClick,
affiliateCREW. Inc. Through industry events, affiliate network advisory boards, the
Performance Marketing Alliance, and his writing activity on Jangro.
com, Scott remains an active and vocal member of the affiliate
marketing community.

52 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Speaker Bios

Michael Jenkins David Katz


Michael Jenkins is the Founder and CEO of MarketLeverage Interactive As VP Corporate Development and General Counsel, Mr. Katz is
Advertising, Inc. the parent company of one of the Internet’s fastest responsible for sourcing and initiating new corporate development
growing performance advertising networks: MarketLeverage.com. opportunities, assisting with the overall growth and strategy of the
He is responsible for the creation, vision, and overall direction of organization, as well as managing the company’s legal affairs. Mr. Katz
several Internet advertising related businesses. Under Michael’s started his career as a corporate lawyer at Lafleur Brown in Toronto
direction, MarketLeverage was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the from 1995 to 2000. Mr. Katz then joined InsLogic Corporation, a
Fastest Growing Private Companies in America, and in the top 10 private label e-Brokerage for personal lines insurance, as Executive
on the list of Florida Trend’s Best Companies to Work for; Mid-Size Vice President – Corporate and Legal Affairs, Secretary/Treasurer.
division. MarketLeverage employs over 50 people and has grown While at InsLogic, his responsibilities included corporate development
revenues nearly 500% over the past 3 years. Michael is an interactive and strategy, legal, corporate HR, PR, financing activities and investor
advertising veteran with hands-on experience at the affiliate level in relations. Mr. Katz was instrumental in developing partnerships with
search engine, email and web marketing. His recent efforts in social Ford Credit, Charles Schwab, Citibank and other leading U.S. financial
media have led to significant increases in the size of MarketLeverage’s services companies, and ultimately in the sale of InsLogic to Capital
publisher network, and the debut of the affiliate industry’s first affiliate One Bank in 2005. Following InsLogic, Mr. Katz operated a strategic
video network: MLTV. consulting practice, and also served as CEO of Portfolios.com, a leading
online community serving the marketing, publishing and creative
services industries. Mr. Katz received his L.L.B. from Osgoode Hall Law
Kristopher B. Jones School in 1995 and was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada
Kristopher B. Jones is well-known throughout the search-engine
in 1997.
and affiliate marketing community as a true pioneer and leading
voice on trends and strategies for effective online marketing. An
accomplished best-selling author (www.amazon.com/pepperjam), Rebecca Kelley
Kristopher is the President of Pepperjam Network, a next generation Rebecca Kelley is the Director of Social Media for 10e20 (http://10e20.
affiliate network recently acquired by GSI Commerce (NASDAQ – GSIC). com), a social media marketing company based in New York. She
Under Kris’ leadership Pepperjam, the company he founded in 1999, began her Internet marketing career in 2006 as an SEO consultant and
was a three-time Inc. Magazine fastest growing company. Kristopher quickly developed an expertise in organic SEO, social media marketing,
was recognized in 2005 as an Entrepreneur of the Year by Bank of content creation, blogging, viral marketing and linkbait. In addition
America and as one of the “Top 20″ Business Leaders in Northeastern, to consulting clients on their social media marketing campaigns,
Pennsylvania under the age of 40. Kristopher previously worked as a Rebecca manages the 10e20 blog and their social media presence.
senior staff member to Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) and is She also guest blogs for various Internet marketing publications and
a frequent speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies has spoken about Internet and viral marketing at dozens of industry
(SES), eTail, ERA, and Affiliate Summit, among others. conferences. Follow Rebecca on Twitter.

Tim Jones Gary Kibel


Tim Jones has been working with internet projects and affiliate Gary Kibel (gkibel@dglaw.com) is a partner with the law firm of Davis
marketing for the last 8 years. Tim is the co-founder and CEO of & Gilbert LLP. He practices in the areas of New Media, Advertising/
DestinationsInFlorida.com; a travel site that focuses on the number Marketing and IP law. Gary regularly counsels clients with respect
one travel destination in the world, Disney World. This company to issues such as interactive advertising, search marketing, affiliate
revolutionized the way Disney travel is sold. He authors several marketing, enterprise technology implementations, contextual/
blogs and maintains several affiliate marketing sites, including behavioral advertising, privacy and data security, gaming, content
TheRealTimJones.com. Tim participates on the RedHatBlueHat political licensing, wireless services and entertainment, joint ventures,
podcast weekly, presented by the geekcast.fm network of podcasts. copyrights, trademarks, corporate matters and laws affecting the
Tim attends and speaks at many conferences including Affiliate Internet. Davis & Gilbert is widely regarded as the premier law firm
Summit, BlogWorldExpo, RocketPlace, and the Disney Earmarked in the U.S. representing advertising, marketing and promotions
Conference. agencies, from specialized shops to the largest advertising holding
companies in the world, and also represents prominent technology
and entertainment companies, marketers, and advertising trade
associations. Prior to becoming an attorney, Gary was an Information
Systems Analyst with Merrill Lynch.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 53


Kristin Kinsey Jim Kukral
Kristin Kinsey is the founder of MadHatter Consulting, Inc., through For over 12-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and
which she manages affiliate programs for clients such as SleepyHeads. large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and
com, SigningTime.com, LiLash.com, and BadBoy.com. Kristin’s Progressive Auto Insurance understand how to build successful new
philosophy of combining smart marketing savvy with strong ethics online businesses or energize and refresh existing ones. A graduate
has won her the respect of merchants and affiliates alike. She holds a of The University of Akron with a BA in Public Relations and a minor
degree in New Media Arts and Sciences from Indiana University, and in Sales & Marketing, Jim has spent time working for publicly traded
Applied Computer Science from Purdue University. Kristin also holds a firms and small businesses alike. Jim’s work and experience in the
key position on her local Rainmaker Advisory Board. Internet marketing industry has branded him as a leading thinker and
thought-leader in the community. Jim started work in the Internet
business in 1995, mostly in the trenches writing code, designing
Dr. David Klein (dk) websites and managing large projects for one of the USA’s first Web
dk is an entrepreneur, the social director to the internet business
firms based in Cleveland, OH. Jim is credited with building some of the
world, as well as hired gun, and confidant to many of the biggest and
first major Fortune 500 websites and blogs in America. His work has
baddest in the internet world. dk helps companies with facebook
been viewed by millions around the world.
advertising, reputation management, and unique “out of the box”
marketing. His little black book of contacts includes many of the most
powerful people in this industry. With a few phone calls, he has solved Brendan Lawrence
some of the biggest companies, biggest problems. dk is known as Dr. Brendan Lawrence is the founder of www.thesmartestsearch.com. His
David Klein outside of the internet world, and first became well known understanding of affiliate marketing and advertiser concerns led him
amongst the internet geeks when Matt Cutts of Google put him out to found an affiliate site that specializes in running long-tail search
as a poster child for local marketing, and how to get links the white campaigns and working with merchants to protect their trademarked
hat way, with his marketing of bodyabcs.com. He has helped some of terms. Brendan’s consistent involvement in the field of search has
the largest companies on the internet such as Facebook and Azoogle enabled his experience in online strategic marketing to sky-rocket. His
with their online marketing. dk has also assisted internet marketing publishing efforts not only meet his clients’ needs, but his creativity
legend Jeremy Schoemaker with his Elite Retreat, and other projects. and well-rounded knowledge of search marketing techniques ensures
dk puts on some of the most sought after events in the internet sustainable results. While mastering an innovative approach to
entrepreneurial world including the Purpose Inc. thinktank. the development of new programs and the management of client
relationships, Brendan cares about delivering the hard work that
optimizes his clients profitability.
Eva Klein
Eva Klein manages the Merchant Development Team at FatWallet and
is an active member on each of the major network advisory boards. Wendy Limauge
In May 2004 Ms. Klein joined FatWallet, a site specializing in many of Wendy Limauge has been online since 1993, but only became a
the business models used by publishers today – Deals and Coupons, blogger in 2008. She now earns a full-time living as a blogger and
Loyalty/Cashback, Price Comparison and Forums. Prior to her position writes for LifetimeTV. Her sites have been featured on MSN, CNN
at FatWallet, Ms. Klein was the affiliate program manager at Date. Living, AOL, and CareerBuilder.com. She was also a guest on the Tyra
com. She also held a number of positions at Be Free, Inc., including Banks show in 2009. She has over 10,000 readers across the five blogs
the successful management of outsourced programs for BestBuy. she updates daily, and consistently comes up high on the search
com, ShopNBC, Brookstone and Netflix. Eva’s nine years of industry engines for her niches. She has over 5,000 Twitter followers and almost
experience spans all aspects of the affiliate marketing relationship 900 Facebook fans. As a former computer trainer, she is now putting
including provider, publisher and advertiser. her computer, blogging and Internet skills to good use teaching
moms to blog on the Mommy Bloggers Guide. She is also a successful
business owner in business for four years. Along with her husband,
Chris Knight they produce and sell their own line of wholesale lavender products to
Chris Knight is the CEO & Publisher of the wildly popular EzineArticles.
both small and larger businesses. Because of her wide range of skills,
com community of over 225,000+ expert authors who write & submit
she is able to understand the business, mom, and blogger side of
fresh quality original articles in exchange for traffic back to their
affiliate marketing and online business strategies.
website. EzineArticles.com serves more than a million unique visitors
daily and covers 700+ niche markets.

54 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Speaker Bios

James Little Madeleine McGregor


After leaving college, James Little, 26, went straight into work as a Madeleine McGregor is the Affiliate Manager for CSN Stores, the third
Developer for Onetel where he remained for five years. During this largest online retailer of home goods in the U.S. Throughout more
time he moved to the marketing team and learnt about main aspects than three years with the company, she has taken an active interest
of online marketing including affiliate marketing, SEO and PPC. He in learning many facets of the business. After beginning in customer
then took the post of Online Marketing Manager at Field & Trek service, Madeleine progressed to the role of Trainer. In this position,
where he was responsible for all online sales. James managed this by she developed a unique Week One program, compulsory for all new
building an effective PPC campaign, improving the SEO, increasing the employees. During this time, Maddy trained +400 employees and
online conversion rate and creating a strong affiliate campaign. James ran more than 50 training classes, and created material that is still in
moved on from Field & Trek to St. Minver where he was the company’s use. Her dedication to this role and program spurred the creation of
first Affiliate Manager responsible for setting up the gaming affiliate the formalized Training and Development Department at CSN. She
system for the likes of Littlewoods Bingo, Lastminute.com Gaming and then moved into the Advertising Department in the Summer of 2008
Yahoo Bingo. At the time of leaving affiliate marketing was generating and began working on the Affiliate Marketing team, which she now
around 30% of all the online players. James then joined Altogether manages. Her background includes time spent in the AmeriCorps
Digital to setup its affiliate divisione. He left it in safe hands to join the program, City Year, living abroad, and a B.A. from the University of
team at AffiliateFuture. Massachusetts in Psychology and Spanish.

Graham MacRobie Tricia Meyer


Graham MacRobie is President and CEO at Alias Encore, a publisher Tricia Meyer is the owner of loyalty site Sunshine Rewards, in addition
focused on helping companies increase highly qualified traffic to to various other niche sites including HelpingMomsconnect.com,
their websites through strategic acquisition of misspelled domain BuyTwilightStuff.com, and WOWPStuff.com. Originally starting her
names. Prior to Alias Encore, Graham was founder, President and CEO career as a lawyer working for LexisNexis, she has been a full-time
at CitizenHawk. Graham believes that it is no longer sufficient for a affiliate marketer since 2006 when she attended her first Affiliate
company to just own the domain name that exactly matches their Summit. She holds a B.A. from Ball State University and a J.D. from
trademark because significant revenues are surreptitiously diverted to Indiana University, Bloomington.
competitors through literally millions of “typosquatting” sites that seek
to improperly capitalize on the accidental keystrokes of unsuspecting
Internet users. Passionate about helping the good guys win, Graham is
Kate Morris
Kate began in search marketing in 2003 doing paid search
an expert on many forms of Internet-based fraud. At Alias Encore and
management. She joined with an agency later that year working in
previously, Graham has designed automated systems to detect fraud
SEO and paid search. She has worked in-house in a variety of industries
and practical business processes for large-scale fraud management.
allowing her to understand that the needs of every organization differ,
Affiliate programs, and the particular challenges that they present,
and is dedicated to finding the right solution for your company. She
have been an area of special interest for him.
speaks regularly at PubCon and SMX events. Check out her personal
blog at http://www.katemorris.com.
Michael Martin
Michael Martin is the SEO Director of Project Management at
Internet Marketing Inc. based out of San Diego, California. Michael
graduated from UMass Dartmouth with a Computer Engineering
degree and a minor in German before quickly entering the IT Project
Management field in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In his 10+ years of
Internet Marketing experience he has project managed & overseen
the online marketing improvements to such sites for: SC Johnson,
Avaya, IGN, Road Runner Sports, Deepak Chopra, Trump Properties,
The Active Network and his own Google Android Mobile platform site
GoogleAndBlog.com. Michael Martin is part of the SEMPO Education
Committee & has previously spoken at SMX Advanced, SES Chicago,
WordCamp LA, SMX East & The San Diego Google Technology
User Group (GTUG) in addition to PubCon. Michael Martin has also
collaborated in SEO posts on such sites as SEOMoz, Search Engine
Land & Search Engine Journal.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 55


Gillian Muessig Murray Ross Newlands
Gillian Muessig is the president and co-founder of SEOmoz, the Murray Newlands is an online marketer, marketing blogger and
world’s leader in search marketing tools, resources, and community founder of the Affiliate Heat network.
for Search Marketers. With more than 20 years of success as the owner
of traditional and search marketing companies, Gillian shares her Jeremy Palmer
in-the-trenches experience and insider tips in the SEO and rev-share Jeremy Palmer runs QuitYourDayJob.com, an affiliate education Web
space at conferences around the world. SEOmoz’ game-changing tool, site. He initially worked part-time in the field of affiliate marketing
Linkscape is the cornerstone of the most complete suite of Search in 2003. After six months he quit his day job to become a full-time
Marketing tools in the industry. Learn more about the free and paid affiliate. Today, he actively runs over 100 affiliate sites across dozens of
services at www.seomoz.org. different industries. In 2005, Jeremy received the Commission Junction
Horizon Award for Innovation, and he is also recognized as a CJ
Melissa Canepa Murphy Performer, Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador and Google AdWords
Melissa Canepa Murphy is the founder of CrazyforBargains.com. Professional. Jeremy is a frequently featured speaker and panelist
Founded in 2000, CrazyforBargains.com is an online retailer of at affiliate conferences and is a regular contributor to high profile
fun sleepwear for the whole family located in Fort Mohave, AZ. internet marketing Web sites.
CrazyforBargains.com launched their affiliate program on the
Shareasale.com network in 2004. The program was named Best Keith Plocek
Affiliate Program of 2006 by aBestWeb and is currently managed by Keith Plocek heads up social media efforts for Mail.com Media’s family
Suluta.com. of sites, including Movieline, Hollywood Life, Deadline and OnCars.
Formerly he was the social media manager for Village Voice Media,
Melissa Canepa Murphy where he started as an editor. He specializes in crafting and identifying
Melissa Canepa Murphy is the founder of CrazyforBargains.com. eyeball-grabbing content that connects writers and readers. Follow
Founded in 2000, CrazyforBargains.com is an online retailer of Keith on Twitter.
fun sleepwear for the whole family located in Fort Mohave, AZ.
CrazyforBargains.com launched their affiliate program on the Geno Prussakov
Shareasale.com network in 2004. The program was named Best Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov is a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Affiliate Program of 2006 by aBestWeb and is currently managed by He is the author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” (2007),
Suluta.com. the “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes” (2008), international
speaker, senior editor for the affiliate marketing section of the
David Naffziger Search Engine Marketing Journal, and regular contributor to Website
David Naffziger is President and CEO of BrandVerity, a firm that Magazine, FeedFront Magazine and Econsultancy.com’s blog. Geno is
detects abuse and fraud in online advertising. BrandVerity’s first the founder of AM Navigator LLC and Prussakov Consulting LLC, and
service, PoachMark, provides a complete PPC trademark monitoring he was voted the “Best OPM of the Year” for three years in a row (2006-
solution for merchants, affiliate program managers and affiliate 08) by the largest online affiliate marketing community, ABestWeb.
networks. PoachMark currently monitors over 200 affiliate programs com. He is now working on his doctorate, and continues to write and
on behalf of leading brands and agencies. David was formerly the contribute to the industry.
VP of Engineering at Judy’s Book, an online local search company.
Prior to Judy’s Book, David co-founded and ran the Internet
geolocation technology team at Quova, the provider of Internet
Dush Ramachandran
Dush Ramachandran is the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and
geolocation technology to Google, Yahoo and MSN. The search
Business Development for ClickBank. ClickBank is the largest on-line
engines use Quova’s technology to geotarget PPC advertisements,
retailer dedicated to digital products and operates a global network of
while e-commerce merchants use Quova’s technology to combat
110,000 active affiliates.
transaction fraud. David received his BS from MIT.

56 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Speaker Bios

Wil Reynolds Jared Saunders


Over the past 10 years, Wil Reynolds has dedicated himself to doing Jared Saunders is currently the Affiliate Program Manager at Jenson
two things well: driving traffic to sites from search engines and USA. In his role he is tasked with building familiarity of the Jenson USA
analyzing the impact that traffic has on the bottom line of companies. brand, collaborating on offline marketing strategies and finding new
Wil’s career began at a web marketing agency in 1999, where he ways to let customers interact with Jenson USA. Jared joined Jenson
spearheaded the SEO strategies for companies like Barnes & Noble, USA in early 2007 as an analytics assistant to both the marketing
Disney, Harman Kardon, Debeers, Doubleclick, Hotjobs, and Mercedes and purchasing departments. He was tasked with creating cross
Benz USA. For the last 6 years, Wil and the team of search professionals department communication, tracking and measuring marketing
at SEER Interactive have been assisting clients in maximizing their efforts, establishing campaign effectiveness, and developing new
visibility and sales using search engines in both SEO and SEM. You strategies for future campaigns. After working for Jenson for a year,
can catch Wil speaking with anyone who wants to learn about search, Jared was given full responsibility over the program. Previous to
whether it is in a coffee shop or a major conference, it just runs Jenson USA, Jared was a regional account manager for PBD West
through the veins! His goal at every speaking engagement is simple: and negotiated and maintained purchasing contracts, display
Make sure everyone walks out with at least 1 new piece of information agreements, and handling payments between major product vendors
or perspective on an SEO topic. and franchised Exxon Mobil owners. Outside of Jenson USA, Jared is a
husband, father, avid cyclist, and consultant for Snow-Consulting.com

Carrie Rocha
Carrie Rocha is CEO of Pocket Your Dollars, a website devoted to Steve Schaffer
helping people keep their money where it belongs, in their pocket. Steve Schaffer is the founder and CEO of Vertive, Inc. and Offers.com.
She became a money-saving expert after she and her husband got out Offers.com is the first place to go for all the best offers – from online
of $50,000 in debt in less than 3 years. She started Pocket Your Dollars coupons & coupon codes for retail stores to service and travel offers.
to help others learn to do the same in March 2009. Pocket Your Dollars The site combines intuitive categorization and design with unique
has had explosive success and she has moved from a full-time role as editorial content. Updated daily, Offers.com provides 10,000+ offers
Chief Operating Officer at a Minneapolis-based nonprofit to part-time from 1,700+ merchants in 150+ categories. Vertive was founded
Strategy Consultant to allow herself to focus on growing her business. by Steve Schaffer in 2003. Steve has been involved in the Internet
She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the College of Saint Benedict, industry since 1995 and is an active speaker at industry conferences.
is mother to two small girls, an active volunteer in her community and Offers.com is a charter member of the Performance Marketing
dreams of living in Brazil one day. Association where Steve is on the Board and serves as President. Prior
to Vertive, he spent 10 years in product management and marketing
roles at companies including eRegCard and Symantec. Steve is a
Kim Rowley graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of
Kim Rowley @KIMarketing has been in the affiliate marketing space
business administration in finance.
since 1998 and is the founder of Key Internet Marketing, Inc. where she
authors several niche blogs, including ShoeaholicsAnonymous.com.
Ms. Rowley has been featured in several publications including USA Alex Schultz
Today and Revenue Magazine and has presented on specific topics of Alex Schultz has an MA, MSc. in Physics from Cambridge university.
ecommerce entrepreneurship, content creation and affiliate marketing He paid his way through college through ppc arbitrage and seo.
secrets at such events as BlogWorld New Media Expo and Infotec. After college he joined eBay.co.uk moving to eBay HQ in San Jose
Kim volunteers her time as a SCORE counselor to share her marketing in 2005 where he subsequently managed international paid search
expertise, is a regular panelist on TheSpew.fm podcast, and serves as a and affiliate marketing. He currently heads Facebook’s internet
member of the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board. marketing team as a manager in the growth, mobile and international
department focused on user growth, user activity and advertiser
acquisition.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 57


Melanie Seery Carolyn Shelby
Melanie Seery is the President and Founder of Affiliate Advocacy, Carolyn Shelby has been involved in developing and marketing
the organization which grew from the advocacy work that earned Internet technologies since 1994, when she was the managing partner
Melanie the Affiliate Marketing Advocate 2009 Affiliate Summit of an Internet Service Provider start-up near Purdue University. She
Pinnacle Award and the ShareASale Industry Advocate Performance has been professionally designing and developing Web sites for
Award 2008. Co-chair of NY Affiliate meetings and speaker at industry businesses and not-for-profit groups of all sizes since 1995. She is an
events in 2008 and 2009, she continues to work on ways to improve advocate of including SEO in all phases of the SDLC and encourages
the industry for everyone through education and addressing critical businesses to be “search aware” from square one. She specializes in
industry issues including the representation and protection of ethical rehabbing underperforming/out-dated Web sites and helping larger
affiliates and merchants. She believes that all affiliates, merchants corporations adjust their structure and focus to make the most of
and networks need to have voices. Also the owner of NYAffiliateVoice, new media. Carolyn can be heard on the weekly SEO 101 podcast on
Melanie continues to speak out on various industry issues including BlogTalkRadio.com, or she can be found online at Cshel.com.
the internet tax issues. Melanie is also involved in several community
service projects including raising awareness, acceptance and Heather Sokol
understanding of children with health challenges and serves as a Heather Sokol is the founder of Inexpensively and has been featured in
volunteer tutor in reading and math for both children and adults. the Chicago Tribune and the Indianapolis Star. She has also appeared
on CBS Nightly News and as a weekly contributor to Fox59 Morning
Dharmesh Shah News. She is the married mother of three beautiful, active girls who
Dharmesh Shah is chief technology officer and founder of HubSpot, have created in her a Montessori Mom, Scout Mom, Dance Mom,
an Internet marketing company dedicated to helping small businesses Allergy Mom and avid coupon clipper. She shares her deals and tips at
leverage the Internet to get found by qualified prospects and convert Inexpensively.com and reports progress on learning to be a grown up
more into leads and customers. Prior to HubSpot, Dharmesh held at Just Heather.com.
a number of technology management and development positions
and was founder and CEO of Pyramid Digital Solutions, an enterprise Jason Spievak
software company in the financial services sector. He also authors Jason Spievak, CEO – Prior to founding RingRevenue, Jason was a
OnStartups.com, a top-ranking startup blog with more than 14,000 Director and Chief Financial Officer at CallWave, Inc. (CALL), a voice-
subscribers. He is an active member of the Boston area entrepreneurial over-internet software and service provider. Jason led CallWave’s
community and a frequent speaker on the topic of startups and successful IPO in 2004 and was a member of the senior team that
Internet marketing. Dharmesh holds a B.S. in Computer Science delivered 12 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, profitability and
from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in the Management of positive cash flow with more than 750,000 paid subscribers. Prior to
Technology from MIT and is author of a new book entitled Inbound CallWave, Jason was Vice President of technology M&A in Broadview’s
Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs Silicon Valley office, where he was the execution lead on more than
published by Wiley. $1.25 billion in successful transactions. Jason has also held product
management roles with Nextel Communications and with Netopia
Peter Shankman (NTPA), where he helped the company complete its successful IPO in
Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, a marketing and 1996. Jason earned his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern
PR firm. He launched HelpAReporter.com to connect journalists with University and his BA from UC Santa Barbara.
sources via social media. He launched AirTroductions, which was
acquired and relaunched as TripLife. He is the author of “Can We Do
That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs
Them.”

58 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Speaker Bios

Michael Streko Evan Weber


Michael fell into organic search when he was told by a former Evan Weber has been online marketing since the late 1990’s
employer to “make the company site show up on Google”. Fast forward promoting a series of diverse web properties including decomermot.
3 years and Michael now owns Streko Media, which operates a com and utauction.com. Evan then spent 5 1/2 years as Marketing
network of affiliate sites across multiple verticals. Director for DentalPlans.com, a leading heath web portal. Evan then
moved on in 2007 to launch an outsourced affiliate management
agency, Experience Advertising, to address the need for competent
Carolyn Tang and professional affiliate management for Advertisers on the major
Carolyn Tang is the director of Client Services for ShareASale.com, an
affiliate networks. Experience Advertising has become a leading
award-winning affiliate network. In this capacity, she is responsible
affiliate management agency with almost 50 clients, mainly on the
for facilitating relationships between merchants and affiliates. Prior
Commission Junction affiliate network. Experience Advertising
to joining ShareASale, she managed affiliate marketing channels at
specializes in working with novice and intermediate affiliate
Orbitz.com and CollectiblesToday.com. She is also an adjunct lecturer
marketers, providing free affiliate tools, training, and resources. Evan
with Loyola University of Chicago, where she teaches an upper-level
has extensive practical experience in the following areas of online
undergraduate course in eMarketing. Carolyn received her MBA from
marketing: SEO, HTML, PPC Management, Email Marketing, Customer
Loyola University Chicago. She also holds a Masters of Science degree
Loyalty, Conversion Rate Optimization, and Social Media.
in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts
degree from University of California, Berkeley.
Andrew Wee
Andrew Wee is an Asia-based Internet Marketer. Formerly a tech
Michael Vorel journalist and web content developer for Singapore Press Holdings,
Michael Vorel is president and founder of Vastplanet Corporation, a
one of Asia’s largest media groups, Andrew has covered the dotcom
dynamic firm specializing in e-Commerce Web Development, Internet
boom and subsequent crash. As a business consultant and trainer,
Marketing and Management Consulting for a variety of top brands
he has worked with brick-and-mortar businesses establishing an
since 1998. Prior to Vastplanet, Michael worked within the computer
online presence. Andrew’s background in psychology includes
industry for ten years in international product marketing, purchasing,
a specialization in personality theory and social/organizational
sales management, pricing and strategic analysis. He has expertise
psychology helps him bring a demographic-based marketing
in affiliate marketing and management, e-commerce web design,
approach to his marketing campaigns. An active affiliate marketer,
social media strategy, video marketing, ppc, seo, email marketing
Andrew also blogs at WhoIsAndrewWee.com. His blog content
and competitive analysis. As an affiliate marketer and outsourced
is syndicated across several networks, including WebProNews,
affiliate program manager, he is actively involved in creating niche
Revenews, 9Rules and IM Newswatch. He also serves as a member of
sites and promoting offers in addition to managing programs for
the Yahoo! MyBlogLog Advisory Group. Follow Andrew on Twitter.
clients. Based in Tampa, Florida, Michael is a member of the Affiliate
Summit Advisory Board and recently helped with the formation of the
Performance Marketing Association. Lori Weiman
Lori Weiman is CEO of The Search Monitor, whose software automates
the monitoring of paid, organic, and local search results to provide
Lyndsay Walker marketers with insight on competitors, keywords, ad copy, market
Lyndsay Walker is the Director of Online Marketing at Canada’s Web
share, trademark abuse, brand buzz, and affiliate marketers. Lori writes
Shop, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is responsible for
the BrandAid column for Search Engine Land, covering areas such as
the strategy and coordination of clients’ online campaigns including
affiliate marketing, trademarks, and reputation management. Lori has
organic search, paid search, email marketing, banner advertising,
been creating products for SEM and SEO marketers since 2002. Prior to
conversion consulting and social media. Lyndsay’s experience
The Search Monitor, she co-founded KeywordMax.com (now a division
includes several years of working with internationally recognized
of Digital River, Inc.), which provides campaign optimization software
brands and some of the most competitive industries such as Internet
to SEM marketers and agencies. Lori started her career at Time Warner
pharmacies, payday loans and travel. Also involved in web design and
Cable as part of the team responsible for inventing on-demand
development for over ten years, she brings a technical background to
television. She has held executive-level positions at several early-stage
compliment her marketing skills.
ventures, including Click Forensics, Webquarters, and Food.com. She
holds a degree in business from Emory University, and a J.D. from the
University of Baltimore School of Law.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 59


Speaker Bios

Pete Wellborn Mary Young


Pete Wellborn is one of the most well-known practitioners of Internet Mary Young had been Head of Account Management for
Law in the United States. For nearly fifteen years, his primary practice AffiliateFuture’s North American Network since August 2008, working
focus has centered upon Internet Law. Wellborn has successfully on US and Canadian programs in all sectors. In 2009 AffiliateFuture’s
represented a wide variety of Internet-related businesses and clients, travel web services have broken new ground, taking affiliate
including affiliate managers and mailers charged with violations marketing into the next generation with tools and technology
of CAN-SPAM. His practice areas also include litigation and a wide not available anywhere else. Prior to this, she spent three years at
array of technology-related corporate, transactional, and IP services. AffiliateFuture UK as Senior Account Manager, where she managed
Wellborn’s victories have been featured in/on the Wall Street Journal, key programs and educated merchants on best practice. She also had
Boardwatch magazine, CNN, 60 Minutes II, Newsday, NPR, and the privilege of taking affiliates who won the annual AffiliateFuture
numerous other media outlets. Wellborn has been recognized as one Barbados incentive on vacation to the sunny Caribbean island for a
of the top ten attorneys in the United States by Lawyers’ Weekly, as an week of networking and fun.
“Elite Attorney” by Georgia Trend magazine, and as a “Super Lawyer”
by Atlanta Magazine.
Josh Ziering
Josh Ziering is a 24 year old writer, comedian, and SEO enthusiast.
Adam Weiss He’s been programming and developing websites as a hobby and a
Adam leads four distinct yet related teams: Publisher Business job for more than 7 years. Learning SEO came naturally while trying
Development, Publisher Account Management, Network Quality, and to manage his reputation online after a family member posed for a
Publisher Support. Responsibilities include securing new partnerships popular magazine, and outranked his name.
while insuring the quality of the of the LinkShare Network in the US
and Canada . Adam has 10+ years experience in online advertising
with a specific focus on the Publisher side of the business and has
been with LinkShare for six years. Adam earned a BA in History at
SUNY Buffalo and an MS Internet Technology for E-Commerce at Pace
University.

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

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

60 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


By Gary Kibel

Implications of FTC
Endorsement Guidelines
On October 5th, the Federal Trade to make certain disclosures online. Marketers
Commission (“FTC”) announced revisions will do their best to set forth policies in this
to its Guides Concerning the Use of area, and then seek to hold the bloggers
Endorsements and Testimonials (“Guides”). liable if they violate such policies and expose
As the most significant changes in almost 30 the marketer to liability.
years, the regulators had a lot of catching up
to do. Results not typical – Try and forget that tag
line. What might become typical is the harsh
The revised Guides (which went into effect response from regulators if marketers seek to
on December 1st) make clear that traditional avoid disclosing typical results to consumers
marketing law principles apply equally to and mislead them into believing that one
the world of blogs and social media. While person’s experiences with a product are
there were many aspects to the revised typical.
Guides, the two key changes for the affiliate
marketing industry are: (1) disclosing Social media policies – Before taking any
material connections between a marketer actions against a marketer, the FTC will
and a blogger (or anyone online) and (2) consider the existence of a social media
insufficiency of the “results not typical” policy. Therefore, all companies should have
disclaimers. written social media policies that bloggers
Gary Kibel affirmatively accept.
It is well known in our industry that bloggers
occasionally receive free products from
marketers in the hopes that the bloggers will guidance regarding advertising disclaimers.
speak positively about such products. Some We are all familiar with the “results not typical” Gary Kibel (gkibel@dglaw.com, Twitter @
marketers will even pay bloggers outright to tag line. The revised Guides now require GaryKibel_law) is a Partner with the law firm of
influence their comments. that if the results displayed in the ad are truly Davis & Gilbert LLP and practices in the areas of
not typical, then the typical results must be marketing, new media and privacy law.
However, the FTC is worried about the disclosed. So if the ad says that the user of
effect upon consumers when such reviews a dietary supplement lost 50 pounds but
are presented as unbiased. If the blogger is in reality typical users of the supplement
writing positively about a product because spontaneously explode, then the marketer
they have been paid or received free needs to disclose the typical result.
products, then the Guides demand that
such relationship be disclosed because the What does this all mean for
comments may be considered “sponsored” by affiliate marketers?
the marketer and are therefore an “advertising
message.” New terms and policies from marketers
- The FTC has stated that if a material
The revised Guides would also require that relationship between a marketer and a
celebrities disclose their relationship with blogger is not disclosed, it is the marketer
a marketer when touting the marketer’s who will likely be liable. Therefore, bloggers
product or service on talk shows, interviews who previously received free items from
or social media sites. marketers can expect to either see fewer free
items, or receive such free items only if they
Another major change in the Guides was agree to agreements that require the blogger

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 61


Twitter Beginner’s Guide -
Ten Tips By Jay Berkowitz
Twitter originally asked the question, ‘What are you Step #6: RT (ReTweet)
doing?’ But now Twitter has evolved into a personalized A common practice on Twitter is to ReTweet or ‘RT’
news feed, as well as a source of helpful tips, business messages written by others. Credit the original “Tweeter”
messages, and words of wisdom. Here are ten tips to get by mentioning their Twitter name with @.
started.

Step #1: Sign up Now Step #7: Search.Twitter.com


The search function at Twitter is amazing, and instant.
Create your free account at Twitter.com. Reserve your
Twitter Search may pose the first significant risk to
name or select a ‘brand name’ that’s consistent with
Google with instant search results.
other social media identities. If it’s available reserve your
company name.
Step #8: Upgrade Your Profile
Your profile is your Twitter calling card. It tells others
Step #2: Create a Basic Profile
about you in a nutshell and should be visually
Start with a simple description about yourself and good
appealing. Inject personality or an accurate description
photo. Definitely include a link to your Web site or blog.
of your company. Add images, logos and calls-to-action.

Step #3: Listen First


Listen on Twitter before you type. Get a feel for
Step #9: Upgrade Your Twitter
how people in your niche Tweet. It’s easy to find Applications
interesting people to follow through a Twitter Can’t get online to Tweet? You can stay connected with a
timeline – for example, see who I follow at mobile phone - set it up from your settings under device
www.Twitter.com/JayBerkowitz and click tab. There are great apps for the iPhone and Blackberry.
icons on the right to find interesting
people to follow. For your desktop, an application like TweetDeck lets
you sort incoming Tweets by columns, based on
queries you set.
Step #4: Write Some Great
Tweets Step #10: Follow the Three E’s of Social
When you follow people on Twitter they Media – Educate, Entertain and Engage
get an email with a link to your page. They’ll If you’re using Twitter for business or building a personal
have a quick look and decide whether to brand - provide valuable information and links, I call this
follow you. Set a strategy for what you are the first E of social media, Educate.
going to Tweet about - share smart insights in
your area of passion to build a following. The second E is Engage: develop a two way dialogue
with followers. Ask questions. Reply to happy and sad
Step #5: Follow the news.
Leaders
Lastly, have fun! Entertain with a funny YouTube video or
TwitterGrader.com lists top a Blip.FM song selection. Having some fun keeps it light
“Twitterers” by city. Another and lets your personality shine through.
site, WeFollow.com,
identifies top people
to follow by category @JayBerkowitz is CEO of internet and affiliate agency www.
or tags. TenGoldenRules.com.

Jay Berkowitz
By Shannon Simmons

Affiliate Program New Year’s

With the start of a new year, it’s the perfect appreciation to them. Frequently
time to give your affiliate program a fresh contacting your top performers will
new start. Here are 10 great ways to renovate ensure that they continue to promote
your affiliate program and optimize it for your offers.
success in 2010:
9. Merchandising – Ensure that you are
1. Audit Your Affiliate Program – This creating link templates for top products
is vital to the success of your program and sending them to your affiliates via
and it also holds the greatest potential weekly newsletters, affiliate blog, or
impact. An affiliate program audit Twitter.
should look at every area of your affiliate
program. The purpose of an audit is to 10. Content, Creative & Collateral – The
identify areas within your program that more of these items that you create, the
you can alter or modify as well as identify better! Keeping these items up to date
additional opportunities that will grow will definitely help your program be
the performance of your program. You successful.
should look at everything from a detailed Shannon Simmons
competitive and banner/link analysis to a I plan on implementing each of these steps
paid search analysis. for all of the programs I manage in 2010. I
hope that you find this information helpful
2. Respond to Affiliate Inquiries Within 5. Ample Notice of Promotions to and prosperous with your programs too.
24 Hours - Taking care of your affiliates Affiliates – Giving affiliates plenty of
should always be your main priority. By advance notice about new promotions
answering their inquiries promptly you will ensure that they will keep your Shannon Simmons is an Assistant Affiliate
show them you value their partnership offers current. Two weeks at minimum is Manager for the affiliate management agency
and will promptly assist them as they generally considered ample notice. JEBCommerce.com, MyAffilateCoach.com and
continue to work with you. NewsForAffiliates.com.
6. “Activate” Affiliates – Are your affiliates
3. Confirm that Your Creative and Links performing as well as they should? Reach
are Up to Date and Valid – This will out to those affiliates that you feel could
make a huge difference in revenue for be performing better and see what kind
your affiliate program. Confirming that of offer you can provide them with in
your creative and links are always up order to boost their performance and
to date will make your users shopping commissions.
experience easy and more productive.
7. Correct & Complete Information for
4. Tracking Testing Procedures – Creating Promotions – When you are sending
a process that is frequent and consistent out coupons or promotions to affiliates,
for your tracking procedures will boost be sure that they have start/end dates,
confidence for your program’s affiliates. restrictions (if applicable), etc.
Affiliates rely on proper tracking for their
livelihood and they won’t promote offers 8. Exclusive Offers to Top Performers –
that aren’t easily monitored and tracking Offering your top performers exclusive
correctly. offers is a great way to express your

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 63


Acquisition Strategies for
Mailing in the UK
By Cari Birkner
Working in the marketing department at a company whose core
business is monitoring email compliance, I spend a lot of time
studying global email marketing laws.

So, I asked reputable networks and publishers how conflicting


laws and cultural nuances translate into reality for email. I got
great feedback from Warren Corpus, Vice President of Business
Development at Vayan and Kimberlee White, President of AKMG.

Warren: “Because of the different opt-in procedures and the different


data collection laws in the UK, we find much smaller quantities in UK
files and the files themselves harder to come by for list management.”

Kim: “There are definitely better open and click rates in the UK. More
revenue is made off smaller amounts of data compared to US data.
However, more often than not, I am seeing lower payouts for UK leads.”

Zack Bernato, Vice President of AdMarketers, gave me a run down on


the pros and cons of publishing in the UK market. If you’re thinking
about mailing in the UK, here are the essential takeaways from my
interview with Zack:

The amount of data is much smaller, but the quality is better.

“The offers convert much better. They click on everything.”

Consumer data records have a much shorter lifespan in the UK.

“The open rates and click rates are great right off the bat, but a Cari Birker
record in the UK is only responsive for about two weeks. In the US,
it would take at least a month for a static list to go cold.”
“Most traffic comes from the US to other countries because we
The UK advertiser has a different time table for processing payouts (in understand the space. Hosting your own UK sites allows for better
pounds, not dollars). filtering and reporting, and ultimately better lead quality.”
“In the US, most payouts are net 10, net 15, or net 30, meaning If you’ve heard expanding into the UK is the right move, I’ll end with
you’ll have your money by January for traffic from December. In some words of wisdom from Zack that ring true in affiliate marketing
the UK, advertisers pay net 60, so payment for traffic is delayed and perhaps in all business ventures:
considerably, and hinges on the exchange rate on the last day of
the month.” “Email in the UK is lucrative, if you work with the right people.”

Follow CAN-SPAM and maintain a suppression file, in addition to


following publisher-based UK opt-in laws. Cari Birkner is the Marketing Coordinator at LashBack, LLC and
contributes on the subject of email marketing compliance to
“As a US company mailing in the UK, I don’t take chances with Deliverability.com.
regulators on either side. It’s my responsibility to respect opt-outs
from my offers by maintaining my own suppression file, even
though the UK doesn’t require it.”

Utilize your own technology for tracking and reporting.

64 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


Greg Rollett
By Greg Rollett

Become a YouTube SEO Rock Star


Did you know that YouTube is serving over 2. URL Leading Description. When writing competition. See where they come up in the
a billion video views every day? With that your description there are a few things to results for your top keywords. A good rule of
amount of entertainment, news, information note. The first is that by using http://yourlink. thumb is 6-7 long tail keywords for your rock
and mayhem clogging up your customer’s com, YouTube will automatically make a live star tags.
computers, you need a more efficient way to link that can send viewers directly to your
reach them in the Goliath of online video and landing page, offer, or Web site. I recommend 5. Links and Embeds. YouTube videos are
cluttered search engine results. using this as the first thing in your description just like Web pages, the more links you send
so viewers can easily click over to your site. back to your videos, the higher they will rank
With the growth of universal search, affiliates in YouTube and Google. Another tactic is
need to utilize video to get their products 3. Above The Fold Description. The next to embed your video on multiple sites. This
and services in front of potential buyers and section of your description should read like a means taking the code that YouTube provides
the best way to do that is through proper Tweet. Keep it to 140 or so characters, loaded for you and placing it on your blog, inside
optimization of their videos. with your key phrase and descriptive text. of appropriate forums, social networks, and
The reason to keep it short is that YouTube other relevant sites. This is a great way to
Here are 5 techniques to get your videos only displays about 160 characters of your rapidly increase your visibility of your video.
pulling inside of YouTube and within the description on a video page before the
major search engines. viewer has to click on the more information When creating videos, create them with an
link. Keeping this introduction descriptive end goal in mind. Always perform keyword
1. Proper Titles. Writing a title that is will entice the viewer to click your link while research and see what other videos are
compelling for both viewers and search giving the search engines something to crawl working. Now go out there and start
engines can be tricky. Digging into keyword and index. capitalizing on the power of YouTube.
research is your best bet here, as long tail
phrases are easier to rank for and often lead 4. Rock Star Tags. Giving your video proper
to higher conversions. When writing these tags gives you leverage not only in the Greg Rollett is a Rock Star Marketer from
titles, keep them to 65 characters with your search results, but also in the related videos Orlando, FL who blogs about Internet
strong keywords to the start of the title. section on a video page. Try using long tail Marketing and Lifestyle Design at http://www.
keywords and also look at videos from your rockstarlifestyledesign.com.

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 65


People to Follow on
There are lots of folks Tweeting about affiliate m
Here are some we’d suggest following - they are

Shergul Arshad Michael Coley Scott Jangro


http://twitter.com/shergul http://twitter.com/MichaelColey http://twitter.com/jangro

Larry Bailin Mark Colacioppo Michael Jenkins


http://twitter.com/LarryBailin http://twitter.com/globalizermark http://twitter.com/MarketLeverage

Jim Banks Todd Crawford Kristopher B. Jones


http://twitter.com/JimBanks http://twitter.com/toddcrawford http://twitter.com/pepperjamceo

Drew Bennett Melanie Canepa Murphy Tim Jones


http://twitter.com/BenSpark http://twitter.com/pajamalady http://twitter.com/TheRealTimJones

Connie Berg Matt Enders Rebecca Kelley


http://twitter.com/ flamingoworld http://twitter.com/MattEnders http://twitter.com/RebeccaKelley

Jay Berkowitz Marty Fahncke Gary Kibel


http://twitter.com/JayBerkowitz http://twitter.com/FawnKey http://twitter.com/GaryKibel_law

Jamie Birch Liat Fuchs Kristin Kinsey


http://twitter.com/JamieEBirch http://twitter.com/affiliateply http://twitter.com/KC

Debbie Bookstaber Karen Garcia Dr. David Klein


http://twitter.com/buzzmommy http://twitter.com/KarenGarcia http://twitter.com/purposeinc

Kristy Bolsinger Rosalind Gardner Eva Klein


http://twitter.com/kristy http://twitter.com/RosalindGardner http://twitter.com/EvaKlein

Greg Boser Kristen Grace Chris Knight


http://twitter.com/GregBoser http://twitter.com/KristenGrace http://twitter.com/ChrisKnight

John Carcutt Michael Gray Jim Kukral


http://twitter.com/JohnCarcutt http://twitter.com/graywolf http://twitter.com/JimKukral

Deborah Carney Chuck Hamrick Wendy Limauge


http://twitter.com/loxly http://twitter.com/Chuck_Hamrick http://twitter.com/sweetiesswag

Dr. Robert Cialdini Rae Hoffman James Little


http://twitter.com/RobertCialdini http://twitter.com/sugarrae http://twitter.com/3wdl

Brian Clark Erik Hom Graham MacRobie


http://twitter.com/copyblogger http://twitter.com/Route53 http://twitter.com/GrahamMacRobie

66 | JANUARY 2010 | FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE


marketing and issues related to the industry.
the speakers from Affiliate Summit West 2010:

Michael Martin Jared Saunders Evan Weber


http://twitter.com/googleandblog http://twitter.com/Pakiha http://twitter.com/experienceads

Tricia Meyer Steve Schaffer Andrew Wee


http://twitter.com/sunshinetricia http://twitter.com/SteveSchaffer http://twitter.com/AndrewWee

Kate Morris Alex Schultz Lori Weiman


http://twitter.com/KateMorris http://twitter.com/AlexSchultz http://twitter.com/searchmonitor

Gillian Muessig Melanie Seery Matthew Wood


http://twitter.com/SEOmom http://twitter.com/Mellies http://twitter.com/MatthewWood

David Naffziger Dharmesh Shah Mary Young


http://twitter.com/brandverity http://twitter.com/dharmesh http://twitter.com/MaryAffFuture

Murray Ross Newlands Peter Shankman Josh Ziering


http://twitter.com/murraynewlands http://twitter.com/skydiver http://twitter.com/JoshuaZiering

Jon Nunez Carolyn Shelby


http://twitter.com/Jon_Nunez http://twitter.com/cshel Affiliate Summit Related
Twitter Accounts
Jeremy Palmer Brian Smith
http://twitter.com/quityourdayjob http://twitter.com/singlefeed Affiliate Summit
http://twitter.com/affiliatesummit
Keith Plocek Heather Sokol
http://twitter.com/KeithPlocek http://twitter.com/justheather FeedFront Magazine
http://twitter.com/feedfront
Geno Prussakov Jason Spievak
http://twitter.com/eprussakov http://twitter.com/RingRevenue GeekCast.fm
http://twitter.com/geekcast
Dush Ramachandran Michael Streko
http://twitter.com/DushR http://twitter.com/Streko Shawn Collins
http://twitter.com/affiliatetip
Wil Reynolds Carolyn Tang
http://twitter.com/QilReynolds http://twitter.com/catango Missy Ward
http://twitter.com/missyward
Carrie Rocha Michael Vorel
http://twitter.com/dollarspocket http://twitter.com/MichaelVorel

Kim Rowley Lyndsay Walker


http://twitter.com/kimarketing http://twitter.com/lyndseo

FEEDFRONT MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2010 | 67


People are talking...
®

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

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

“RingRevenue has built a very powerful platform that Bret Grow, President
integrates call centers and performance marketing in a “The potential to reach consumers making
very intelligent way. We can now allow the consumer purchases over the phone is huge. We’re committed
to choose how they interact with our advertising to providing the best solutions to our customers,
Peter Bordes, CEO partners and allow our affiliate partners to participate so it was a natural fit for us to partner with
in the revenue.” RingRevenue, the leader in tracking and managing
call-based campaigns.”

“The Pay-Per-Call Affiliate Program has been a valuable tool in our efforts to integrate our acquisition
strategies and extend the reach of our marketing promotions.” – Rita Zahir, Sr. Marketing Manager

“We have added the Pay-Per-Call application to a number


of clients’ programs. The numbers have been outstanding. “Adding Pay-Per-Call to the Angie’s List
When we saw in excess of 1,500 calls in less than 30 days for RevUpNet affiliate program was key to delivering a 25%
a retailer with an average order size of over $500, we were Results Based Marketing
month-over-month increase in sales. And
blown away as was our customer. We are now getting all of affiliates who advertise both a web address and a phone number stand
our qualifying clients into the program as to earn as much as 83% more!”
fast as we can.” – Ben Kiblinger, Co-Founder
– Durk Price, President

“RingRevenue enabled us to
incorporate a phone number into
our email creatives, which allowed
“We’ve been looking for ways to grow our affiliate us to generate up to a 30% lift on the total conversions
program, and this is it. We want more calls. They we delivered to the advertiser. Add RingRevenue to your
convert at a much higher rate than clicks.” marketing efforts. Your email publishers will thank you!”
– Todd Wilson, President – Mike Stocker, CEO

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

RingRevenue, Inc. 125 E. De La Guerra St. Ste 204, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 www.ringrevenue.com
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AUGUST 15-17 - HILTON NEW YORK

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Register today @ www.AffiliateSummit.com

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