Say No to the Ad Tax

by Joe Sousa on February 19, 2010

in Uncategorized

The Advertising Tax Hurts Affiliates

I haven’t said much about the advertising tax on this blog but I figured it is time I mentioned it. There are plenty of other people who know much more than I do about it but here is a quick video I put together explaining how this tax would be detrimental to me, to any affiliate, and to the states that try to pass this tax:

As an active member of the affiliate marketing community, I am opposed to any state legislation that would attempt to use affiliates to establish nexus for out-of state merchants.

Also the Performance Marketing Association put out this unified message that I totally agree with that will be able to state things better than I can:

I depend on my relationships with many out-of-state merchants for my livelihood. I put their advertisements on my website and earn a commission when someone clicks on that link to make a purchase or registers with that merchant. I am not an employee of any of these companies. I do not collect any money. I do not make the transaction. And I do not ship any goods. I simply advertise these offers to consumers for merchants.

This type of business model does not meet the definition of nexus.  If bills like this pass in my state, many retailers will terminate their relationships with me and I will lose a large percentage of my income. That will impact my ability to provide for my family. I t will also impact the levels of income tax I pay to the state.

In fact, a handful of states that have passed legislation of this type (such as Rhode Island) have publically admitted that the states never realized the projected revenue and lost many small businesses in the process.

I want the affiliate marketing space to continue to thrive and grow. These types of laws will put small businesses, like mine, out of business.

So please do what you can to fight this. I will do my best to learn more about this, learn how I can better fight this, and how I can support those who are fighting for us daily.

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Is the Video Boss worth the money?

by Joe Sousa on February 17, 2010

in Affiliate Stuff

Simple answer? Yes, The Video Boss is worth the price ($1997 if you are curious).  Want more of an explaination?  Read on…

Let me start out by saying a couple things:

1.  I HATE the sales letters, internet “gurus”, all the terrible training programs that seems to come out every week, and all that crap. I have hated them for years and when I see one I want to puke. For the most part they are pretty bad. Of course there are some good ones out there from time to time but I could probably easily say that over 90% of them are pretty worthless.

2.  I only would recommend one of these products to someone if I knew the people behind it and saw it as something I would actually use.

With that said hopefully you will believe me when I say this:  Based on the preliminary videos I have watched, The Video Boss is pretty dang awesome. What is the Video Boss? It is a new video coaching program put out by Andy Jenkins. I am almost positive I met Andy a few years ago at a conference a few years ago. It was a “sales letter” conference with a bunch of the top “gurus” and such pitching their products. When I see stuff like this my BS detector usually goes crazy but it didn’t with Andy.  This guy really knows his stuff when it comes to video, video production, and marketing.

I already do some video stuff.  I film a quasi-weekly video for my football jersey site, I do some videos to promote some of my other sites, I do some videos for some local companies, etc.  So I know enough about video to kind of understand it. And I do plan to make more posts on how I use video. By no means am I an expert but I do know enough to be able to tell if a video training program is good or a piece of junk.  Hopefully when I tell you Video Boss is worth the money you will believe me. Yeah it does cost $1997 (Or just 6 easy payments of $388!!!) but based on what I have seen with the videos I have done and after seeing even the pre-release videos Andy has done I can confidently say that if you take the information Andy gives,  learn what he is saying, apply what he is teaching, and go out and make your videos you will make that money back.  I can’t guarantee that of course. It is mostly up to you and the amount of effort you put forth.

This really isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme.  You will have to put in a lot of time learning and producing videos. But don’t be scared by videos. They really aren’t as hard as they seem. With a $100 Flip camera and some other cheap equipment you can produce some great videos. Lots of people get nervous about being on camera, speaking in public, etc. but you don’t really need even need to be on camera.

I can’t go over every thing contained in this course here (because there is really a lot of info) but here are some of the key modules:

Module 1: Video Universe - Covers development, script writing, post production, distribution, and other general video stuff

Module 2: Video Laboratory - Real world experience, how to create slides, voice overs, and more practical “how to build your video” type stuff.

Module 3:  Live Video Production - Lighting, how to build a home studio, how to film live videos, etc.

Module 4: Edit Like A Pro - Teaches you editing techniques. Over 35 different chapters in this module.

Module 5: Traffic Boss - Covers Video SEO, Link building, Social media, and other stuff like that to actually start making money off your videos.

Plus a bunch of bonus modules.

Here is what I would suggest you do:  Go check out the first 3 videos Andy released. Just watching those 3 videos will give you plenty of info to get started with videos.  If you decide you like what he is teaching buy the course to learn a lot more.  If you watch those videos and realize that video isn’t for you?  Don’t buy!  Don’t waste your money on something you won’t use.

So go check out Traffic Boss and let me know what you think. 

*** Disclaimer*** the links above ARE affiliate links. If you click on them and buy something I will make money.  If you don’t want an affiliate link you can just click here but come on people. I have a wedding to pay for soon. Help me out here.  This isn’t a paid post or nobody put me up to reviewing this product but if you do decide to buy you can help me out by clicking on one of the links above. *** End Disclaimer***

Also if you ever do anything with video you should also check out Traffic Geyser. In Module 5 of Traffic Boss Mike Koenigs (one of the co-founders of Traffic Geyser) talks about video distribution and stuff like that. This guy really does know his stuff. And my company is one of the other partners in Traffic Geyser also so I pretty much have to tell you how great it is.  But hopefully you believe me when I honestly tell you it is a pretty good program with a TON of features in it. So check it out and I would also love to hear what you think about it.

I really hope this post doesn’t come off too salesy or anything. I really do hate stuff like that. I rarely will recommend a product like Traffic Boss unless I really think it is good and from what I have seen so far I think Traffic Boss will be very good. But if you would like to never see a product review or recommendation like this again from me please leave a comment and let me know. I don’t want anyone to think that I am just promoting every product out there just to make money (although I am realizing how expensive weddings can be so you could just buy Traffic Boss and help me out a bit.)

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Affiliate Marketing Recap - The past couple weeks

by Joe Sousa on February 11, 2010

in Affiliate Stuff

Of course you want to hear my opinions on some recent happenings in the world of affiliate marketing.

Since I don’t really want to take the time to focus on one specific topic I think I will just briefly comment on some of the stuff happening in the industry over the past couple weeks.  Let’s jump right in:

The “affiliate tax” hearings in Colorado: I will readily admit I don’t know anywhere near enough about this tax issue.  I have been a total slacker in doing my research, writing to my state legislators, and all in all getting involved on this issue. Luckily there are some great people like Jen Goode, Jennine Crooks, and others that took up the fight in Colorado. It was a close vote and for a while it looked like the law could pass but through the hard work of those ladies and hundreds of others the bill was passed but it didn’t include a tax on affiliates.

So if (more likely when) this becomes an issue in Washington I will definitely be calling on my friends for help and information in fighting this issue.  If you want to read more about what happened there are many more people who know much more than I do: 
http://www.jgoode.com/things-i-learned-from-battling-the-government/
http://affbook.com/what-really-happened-in-colorado/
and http://www.performancemarketingassociation.com/blog/2010/02/08/colorado-advertising-tax-is-dead/ are good places to start. Thank you all for your hard work!

Affiliate Summit West is moving from the Rio to the Wynn!

http://missyward.com/2010/02/08/affiliate-summit-west-2011-january-9-11-at-the-wynn-las-vegas/
http://www.affiliatesummit.com/2010/02/08/affiliate-summit-west-2011-at-the-wynn-las-vegas-%e2%80%93-save-the-date/ 

I gotta say, this is one of the best announcements I have heard lately. I for one hated the Rio. I love Affiliate Summit, I love Shawn and Missy, but the Rio pretty much sucked. The walk to get back to the conference was like walking down an endless hallway in an Escher drawing. The rooms were nothing special. The casino was pretty lame. The restaurants (other than the 50 cent wings at the All American Grill) were pretty lame. The Wynn is a HUGE upgrade from the Rio and the rooms probably won’t be that much more. Also since it is on the strip there are a ton more good lodging options for attendees. This last Summit I stayed at the Palazzo and having the conference at the Wynn could have saved me a couple hundred in cab fares.

Also since it is the 9th-11th that means I will once again be in Vegas on my birthday. So keep that in mind for next year.

Legacy Week from Legacy Learning Systems: For the second time in the past year Matt McWilliams ran the Legacy Week promotion. http://www.legacyaffiliateblog.com/bonuses/legacy-week-final-398  All in all they paid out just over $2300 in bonuses. This is just one of the reasons Matt won the Affiliate Manager of the Year Pinnacle Award.

On the Both Sides of the Tracks podcast a couple weeks ago Jason and Eric were talking about running contests and this Legacy Week promotion was a perfect example of one that works. In my mind an affiliate contest should have three main goals: Recruit new affiliates, encourage existing affiliates to get off their butt, and reward performing affiliates. With the 6 different incentives Matt used I think he accomplished all three.

I for one already work with Legacy and I sell a few ballroom dancing courses a month. Nothing huge. But when I saw the triple commissions on the painting course for the week I decided to give it a shot. So throughout the week I think I ended up selling 10 painting courses. Without the triple commissions I might not have tested it out but now I see that it converts better than the ballroom dancing and I will definitely be promoting that more in the future. So because of the bonuses I was able to find another program I could make money with.  And I know a couple affiliates who tried out Legacy for the first time.  Well done Matt.

Google Buzz launches:  What is Google Buzz? Kind of like Twitter but different. Kind of like Facebook but different.  Basically it is another “social media” type site that pulls in content from your profiles on Twitter, Youtube, Picasa, Youtube, and other sites. The thing I like about it is that it is right there when I go check Gmail so it isn’t really another social site I need to think about going and visiting. I don’t know if it will hurt Twitter that much but I really do like the threaded discussions.

The Saints Win the Super Bowl!!! Well, this doesn’t really have a ton to do with affiliate marketing but it does give affiliates a bunch of new stuff to promote. Within a couple hours of the game concluding I put up Saints Championship Gear and today I finished it off by adding in over 300 products from a datafeed. Hot markets like this are always good ones to jump on. It doesn’t have to be sports though. Maybe you want to somehow capitalize on an oscar winning movie or some merchant or product mentioned on Oprah. There isn’t necessarily a ton of long term potential for stuff like this but I do still see some sales now and then from the Phillies World Series win a couple years ago and the Steelers Super Bowl last year.

The Video Boss: Don’t want to say too much as I might keep this for a longer blog post but I am very impressed so far. I usually hate this type of stuff but Andy Jenkins knows his stuff and his new Video Boss videos are pretty awesome. Can’t wait to see the final product.

I think that is all for now. It seems like I am missing something. Was there something you would have liked to see me talk about? Leave a comment below and let me know.

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Joe is Engaged!!!

by Joe Sousa on January 31, 2010

in Personal stuff

It finally happened. You read the title right. Joe is engaged! Well, to avoid doing the rest of this post in third person I will rephrase:  I AM ENGAGED!!!

So who is the unfortunate victim?  Her name is Kate. She is originally from Columbus, OH but she moved to Spokane, WA just over 4 years ago. I have been friends with her sister and brother in law for a number of years now so I have kind of know her for most of that time but I really met her a bit over 2 years ago when she started working in the youth ministry with me at my church.  Apparently she started liking me almost immediatly but being the bonehead I am I wasn’t too aware of that for probably a year or so.

Joe and Kate at the Seahawks Game

Let me back up a bit and give you a bit of my history with the ladies… Basically there is very little.  I was never the type of person who wanted to date someone just for the sake of dating them. If I ever dated someone I wanted there to be a VERY strong chance it would end up in marriage.  So because of that I never had a girlfriend of any sorts and had maybe been on 1 or 2 dates my whole life.  I had many people recommend many different awesome girls over the years to me and push me to ask them out but I never felt right about doing it. I would pray about it and God would end up telling me no. This really frustrated a lot of different people over the years but I stuck to my guns.

There were a couple girls I did ask out at one time or another but I got shut down there. It did kind of suck in some ways but it was also encouraging because I knew that if God didn’t want me with those girls he had someone better out there for me. And that made me very excited. So I kept waiting.

It was probably about a year ago that I started noticing Kate more. We would hang out in groups, see each other at church and got to know each other more and more. 2 winters ago I remember following her home after a bad snowstorm and I think I helped push her car out of the snow about 8 times during that trip. Then a year ago at Christmas we had another bad snowstorm and I had to make 3 different trips to the airport with her since I had a 4 wheel drive.

months went on and we started talking more and more.  I think around March 14th I texted her bragging about the awesome grilled lamb with pomegranate molasses I made and that started our semi-regular texting conversations. But I was an idiot. I would text her and then not text for two weeks or so. It wasn’t anything I was doing on purpose but apparently she noticed that.  Thinking back I feel like a real dork for that but oh well, we live and learn.

joeandkate2

Around August or so I realized that I either needed to ask Kate out or tell her that it wasn’t gonna work out with us. I spent a lot of time praying and talking to other people and came to the conclusion that I really did want to start dating her. After that it only took about 2 more months for me to finally man up and take her out to dinner (I think it was November 2nd or so). I was helping her set up a blog so she was over at my house and we started talking and it was dinner time so I said “Do you want to go get some dinner?” and of course she said yes. Then the following Wednesday I asked her out on a “real” date.

Over Thanksgiving weekend we eneded up spending a lot of time together, stayed up way too late talking, watched some football, and all in all had a great time together. After this I pretty much knew than an engagement was necessary.

Kate is everything I have been looking for in a wife. When I look at the passages in the Bible describing a Godly woman, wife, and mother she either fits them perfectly or she is striving to fit them perfectly. She is what I have been waiting for for the past 37 years (well, I guess I wasn’t really waiting when I was a kid so lets say the past 19 years or so).  I am truely blessed that God has given me such a great gift.

So I started looking around for a ring. I wasn’t super urgent at this time so I would just pop into jewelry stores when I was driving by to see what they had. I would look online for diamonds and see what different kinds of settings there were. I pretty much figured out what I wanted but now there was just one more hurdle: I had to meet her parents and family.

Kate is the second oldest of 11 children so her family is quite big. This past weekend we finally got a chance to fly out to Columbus to meet her parents and her 6 brothers and sisters who are still at home. Her older sister Melissa lives here in Spokane and I have know her for a few years, her two oldest brothers Austin and Tyler live in South Carolina, and her next oldest sister Claire lives in England although she is moving here soon.  So we wake up early and fly to Columbus and a big van pulls up containing her parents Brian and Judy and her 6 siblings Rose, Beau, Charlotte, Cole, Sophie, and Graham.

I know her mom looks like she is disapproving but she really isn't

I know her mom looks like she is disapproving but she really isn't

We had a great weekend visiting them that was filled with driving, hiking, games, Wii, talking, and LOTS of food. Sunday morning her dad knocks on my door and says “Wake up, lets go to Waffle House” and we have “the talk”. Thankfully he approves and is happy for his daughter and says if I can live up to his other son-in-law I am in good shape so that is good. Thanks to Isaiah for setting the bar low.

And all that brings us to now. This past Thursday I stopped by the jeweler and picked up the ring. The only guidelines Kate gave me was she wanted something sparkley so I bought something really sparkley. On Saturday I gave her the ring and asked her to be my wife and spend the rest of our lives together. It wasn’t anything fancy or elaborate because I didn’t really want the event to overshadow the meaning. Also I was pretty sure she already knew it was coming that day so I really had no chance to suprise her. But I am fine with that because she said YES!  When I look back at my life this day will be right up near the top of my favorite days ever.

engagement_day_016

Sorry guys, I took an awesome woman off the market.  You can try to find someone that matches up to Kate but I don’t think you be able to come close. And all the single ladies? You can now breathe a sigh of relief because you won’t have to worry that you will end up stuck with me out of desperation in a few years.

So that is about it. I am engaged. You can’t believe how excited I am to be able to say those words. This has been a day I have looked forward to for years and it is better than I ever thought it could be. Thank you to my parents and friends who have been praying for me for years, thank you to Kate for putting up with me and accepting me with all my faults, and thank you to God for giving me such a wonderful blessing in Kate. 

kate

Quick update: The announced the engagement at my church Sunday morning.  I know dozens of people who have been praying for me over the years and lots that have been praying for Kate and I specifically. Here is a video of the announcement: Joe and Kate’s Engagement Announcement. It was so awesome to see so many people happy for both of us. I was a real blessing to be there and feel that loved from so many people. I have been at that church for dozens and dozens of engagement announcements and always imagined what mine would be like. It was by far the loudest cheer I have ever heard for one of them and I was blown away. And we gave out Ring Pops to everyone to celebrate. Such an awesome weekend!

As far as a wedding date we are still trying to figure that out. We have some scheduling issues at our church and some logistical issues getting all of Kate’s family here but we should be able to set a firm date in the next couple weeks. Our ideal plan would be some time in April but we will see what happens.

Thank you all again for your love and support. Kate and I couldn’t do this without you.

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Affiliate Summit West 2010 Recap

by Joe Sousa on January 21, 2010

in Affiliate Stuff

After sleeping for 12 hours and catching up on emails, tweets, etc. I think I am ready to write my recap of Affiliate Summit West 2010. I was a huge slacker taking pictures so you will have to check out other recaps for those. Overall it was a great trip and a HUGE thanks goes out to Missy Ward and Shawn Collins and the rest of their team for putting it all together.

Also for me 90-95% of these conferences is about the people. Personally I don’t usually get a ton out of the sessions or the exhibit hall or stuff like that. The reason I go is to hang out with old friends, make new friends, and connect with people. I do attend a few sessions here and there and take a walk or two through the exhibit hall but they could take that stuff away and I would still go to these conferences.

So lets get started.

Friday, Jan 15th

I hop on a plane and start the “I hope a fat guy doesn’t sit next to me” dance. Sure enough who sits next to me??? Fat guy. So I spend the 2+ hour flight sitting on 3/4ths of my seat while the guy takes up the other 1/4th. Oh well, at least it isn’t that long of a flight.

I get to my hotel room (I stayed at the Palazzo this time) and there is a basket with a bottle of champagne and some other stuff with a birthday card. Very nice. The Palazzo earned my repeat business. Very nice rooms and very good service. After I get settled I head down to play some blackjack before heading over to the Rio to see what’s happening and end up winning $100.  Pretty good start to the trip.

I get to the Rio and hit up the iBar and find a bunch of friends others so I sit with them for a bit. Then a few of us head over to check out Aria and City Center to see what it is all about. Overall the place is pretty amazing. We walk around, check out some of the restaurants and bars, and then head back to the Rio.

At this point I am starving so Todd Farmer and I head to the All American Grill for some 20 cent wings. Not bad at all.

Back to the iBar to wait for other people to show up and and we hang for a bit but I decide to call it a night around 11 or so. Got an early morning tomorrow. I get back to my hotel, climb in bed and then notice that Goodfellas is on TV. How can I sleep when that is on? So that sucks me in for a couple more hours.

Saturday, January 16th

Time for some golf!!! I wake up at 6:30 and head over to the Rio to meet up with my normal foursome to go play some golf. We take a limo over to the Cascatas golf course and get ready for 36 holes of fun. Overall this course is awesome. I loved the layout of the holes, some good risk/reward shots, nice terrain changes, and it is in great shape overall. The greens however are just downright evil. Any two putt is awesome on these greens. They are fast and there is really no good place to putt from. We finish up right at dark and head back to the Rio.

I had a dinner meeting so I run back to my hotel to drop off my clubs and get freshened up a bit and then back to the Rio to meet some friends for dinner at the All American Grill. More wings and a salad. Great time with a bunch of my close friends in this industry. I am constantly amazed how many awesome friends I have in the affiliate marketing world. Every time I get together with them we have a great time.

I make an apperance at the AWB meetup really quick and then head up to get ready for the poker tournament. There were 77 players and over $15,000 raised for breast cancer charities. I had a great time but in the end I just wasn’t getting many cards so I was running low on chips. I ended up finishing 19th which isn’t too bad. Had a great time overall.

Time to head over to McFadden’s to catch the end of Carolyn Tang’s bachlorette party. So I hang out there for about an hour and then a group of us head over to the Imperial Palace to play some blackjack with the Dealertainers. These are celebrity impersonator dealers who rotate through dealing and performing. There are about 7 of us in the group.  Our dealers were pregnant Mariah Carey, Rhianna, one of the Blues Brothers, and someone else I seem to be forgetting. Mariah and Rhianna were good to us but Elwood Blues killed us at the end. Good times though. I think we were there for over 2 hours. It is now 4 AM and time for bed.

Sunday, January 17th

Time for the conference to actually start. I get there around 10:30 and get checked in and meet up with my mentee Bart. We talk for a while and I kind of give him a lay of the land and then head down for some of the sessions. I drug my dad along on this trip just so he could be introduced to my crowd of internet marketing people.  He does internet marketing also but his crowd and my crowd generally don’t cross over too much.  But we head to a couple of the sessions. We meet up with a couple of the guys from Keyword Spy and talk some business over lunch. My dad goes to talk to them more and I head down to walk through the meet market and go to the video session.

The video session was pretty good with Jeremy Palmer and Rosalind Gardner giving some good tips on how to get started with video marketing. This is a hugly under utilized area for affiliate marketers.

At 6:30 I go to the Mentor Meetup and unfortunately my mentee had some other meeting so he couldn’t go but I did get a chance to have a good talk with a couple who is new to the industry. I gave them some tips to get started and hopefully pointed them in a good direction. It is tough sometimes when there is so many ways to approach affiliate marketing and it can be hard to tell people where to get started.

Time for the Shareasale party. This year there was ice cream, pizza, and a bunch of other snacks. For entertainment they had karaoke, a dance floor, some gaming tables, a bouncy castle, some racing games, and some Wiis. It was a pretty chilled time and it was fun to connect with people. My dad swung by the party at about 10 or so and we hung outside with Todd Farmer, Rosalind Gardner, Lisa Picarelle, and a few other people for a while before heading to the next event.

Strike Out Breast Cancer Midnight Bowling Fundraiser: This was put on by GTOmanagement.com, Bowlingshirt.com, and TFAW.com. I think there were around 100 people or so signed up but not all of them showed. Overall I think there was over $3000 raised for breast cancer. I was on a team with my dad, Drew Bennet from benspark.com, and his wife Allison. We have a great time and end up bowling until about 2:00. Time for bed so I head back to the Palazzo. 

Monday, January 18th

Time to wake up for the keynote by Dr. Robert Cialdini. I find it amusing that on his slides it says “Copyright 2003-2005  Newinformation.com”. If it is copyright that long ago is it really new information? Anyway, he spoke about principles of influence and how you can influence people to take an action in tough economic times. Overall it was very good and I have some ideas I want to eventually implement.

As I am walking down the hall to my next session Brian Littleton from Shareasale.com stops me and askes me to do an interview for them. Without hesitation I agree. In the interview I talk about why I like Shareasale so much and mostly it comes down to the people that are there. It is one of the most awesome groups of people in the industry and if you don’t work with them you are crazy.

Then I make it in time for Scott Jangro’s datafeed session. Overall it is good and the consensus seems to be that about 30% of datafeeds out there are good and 70% need work of some sort. I use datafeeds for many of my sites and find that to be true. Rarely do I get a feed I don’t have to tweak or reformat in some way to work with what I want to do.

I meet up with Bart, my mentee, and I walk through the exhibit hall and introduce him to a bunch of different people I would recommend working with. Once again I hope I am pointing Bart in the right direction.

By this point I am really dragging so I head back to my hotel for a quick nap before the next event. I get about an hour nap in and end up more tired than when I started. I head down to NYNY to the ESPN Zone to meet up with the GTO crew and Fanduel.com. We have some appetizers and talk about the Fanduel program for a while.  I sit at a table with John Carcutt, Jason Rubacky, and Stephanie Lichtenstein. We have a good time and then I head up to play some of the games at the ESPN Zone. I rock the basketball and football games and then head back to the Rio for the Trivia Tweetup.

I am on Team 4 and while we might have had a rough start we make a game of it and come pretty close to winning but we kept getting some tough questions at the wrong time. I then head to the next GTO event which is up at McFadden’s for the MakeBeer.net program. They have one of those games with a punching bag where you see how hard you can hit so we hang around that for a while. Brian rocks the dragon kick, Scott is the head butt master, and we use Steph as a battering ram. Brett Elias and I take turns trading the lead as the hardest puncher but on my last punch I end up with a perfect shot and get an 895 to take the crown. Time to move on.

We hop in a limo and head over to XS at the Encore to a party put on by Paresh of OPMPros.com. Awesome group of people here.  We meet up with a couple other people at the club and I end up there until about 4:30 when I decide to call it a night. I have been to quite a few of the Vegas clubs and this is one of my favorites. It is huge, there is a nice outdoor area, and the service is quicker than some of the others.

Tuesday, January 19th

Last day of the Summit. I wake up and head over to see the Pinnacle Awards. I put up a post a couple weeks ago giving some ficticious odds on the awards and sadly enough I only got two of my picks right. Nickycakes suprised a lot of people winning the Affiliate of the Year award and defying my 20-1 odds to come out victorious. If he can beat Eric Nagel and Kim Rowley for this award he must know his stuff. Ebay won for merchant of the year, Shoemoney won for Blogger of the year, and Angel Djambazov won for Advocate. Matt McWilliams took home the award for Affiliate Manager of the Year for his work with Legacy Learning Systems and sent Jamie Birch to 0-3 on his nominations. Scott Jangro won a much deserved Affiliate Marketing Legend award and solidified himself as one of the best people in this industry.

I hang around the conference for a bit, drop in on a couple sessions highlighted by Connie Berg calling out Chuck Hamrick for working with the devil at the coupon session. I wander around a bit, talk to some people and start saying goodbye to all my friends. I was really looking to get home but always hate to leave my friends also.

So I head to the airport and fly home. Trip over.

I think this is my 6th or 7th Affiliate Summit I have been to. It is hard for me to rank one as being better than another since they are always good and different. This one had some great aspects to it but so have all the others. I know most of the people reading this will already be making plans for Affiliate Summit East 2010 but if you aren’t planning on going you really should.

What are some of your favorite memories of this Summit? Who were some of the people you got to meet? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Handicapping the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards

by Joe Sousa on December 17, 2009

in Affiliate Stuff

The finalists for the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards have been announced and it looks like a very good crop of contenders this year. Some of these people I know very well, some I have only briefly met, and some I have heard of but that is about it. I sent in my nominations a couple months ago and it looks like 3 out of my 6 nominations made the cut.

So just for fun I thought I would handicap the finalist and give you some odds on who should win. I will be breaking down the competiton, letting you know what I know about the different contenders and I will also give you my picks and let you know who I think should take the awards. Also just so you know I have no say whatsoever in who wins. The people who choose that are much more qualified than me.  And remember, these picks are for entertainment purposes only. Please, no wagering:

Affiliate Of The Year

Nicholas Koscianski - I don’t know too much about Nickycakes. I have read his blog a few times but as far as I know I have never met him. Just from looking at his blog it looks like he does a lot of CPA stuff but other than that he is kind of a wild card in this contest. I do really like his Newbie Guide on his blog and think it is a pretty good place to start. The guide gives a good introduction into CPA and PPC marketing and will give someone just getting into the industry a good place to start.

Odds on winning? I think Nicholas is a longshot for this one. 20-1

Eric Nagel - I might have met Eric briefly before but the first time I really met him or talked to him for any length of time was at ASE09 in New York. Eric seems to strive for excellence in everything he does from his business cards to his Christmas light displays and I would assume that would transfer over to his business as well. This is Eric’s first time being a Pinnacle finalist and either the lack of post-season experience will get to him or he will rise up and show his true brilliance.

Odds on winning? Eric has a good shot here. I think the rookie has a good shot of going all the way. 3-1

Kim Rowley - Like Eric I first really met Kim at ASE09 but got to spend more time with her at the SAS ThinkTank09. She had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting next to me while I devoured 2 pounds of chicken wings and a plate of fried pickles. Kim runs many different shopping sites and also does consulting work as well. This is Kim’s second straight finals appearance for Affiliate of the Year. Will she be like the Buffalo Bills and go 4 straight without winning? Will she eventually break Jangro’s mark of 3 nominations before winning on the 4th try? Will she go 0-2 and join other people like Jamie Birch and Stephanie Harris with nothing to show for their multiple nominations? 

Odds on winning? Kim is very deserving of this award and I think would be a very good value bet at 4.5-1

So who is gonna win?  Sorry Nick. This isn’t your year. I like Eric’s chances (he was my nomination) but I think Kim will end up taking this one in a close race.

Affiliate Manager of the Year

Jamie Birch - Jamie is approaching Jangro territory with this being his third nomination and he needs a win here to avoid the dreaded 0-3. I have had the pleasure of having lunch with Jamie, visiting him in his office, and getting to know him more over the past year or so. His office is only about 45 minutes away from here so he does have the homefield advantage going in my mind at least. Jamie’s client list is very impressive and he does a great job working with his merchants and affiliate to make them both mutally successful.

Odds on winning? Jamie has the experience edge here having been to the dance before so that can only help. 3-1

Stephanie Harris - This will be Stephanie’s second straight nomination for Affiliate Manager of the Year and while I have never worked with her or really met her other than just saying hello she must be deserving if she can get to the finals two years in a row.  But since I don’t really know her it is hard for me to comment much on her chances. It is kind of like a Heisman candidate that while they might be deserving they just weren’t visable enough to the voters.

Odds on winning? I wish I could give a more educated guess on this one: 8-1

Matt McWilliams - I first met Matt at the Shareasale ThinkTank09 this year. I had exchanged some message with him before but had never met him in person. All I can say is I was VERY impressed. He is very good at what he does and knows how to help out his affiliates. I detailed him more a couple months ago in this post and he hasn’t let up since then. If I ever need anything he is very quick to get it to me. This Pinnacle Awards rookie has made a very strong showing so far.

Odds on winning? Matt has a very good chance here. I don’t think the rookie wall will bother him too much. 4-1

So who is gonna win? It is hard to ignore what Matt has done this year. Jamie has a bigger overall body of work though. I am gonna go with Matt on this one.

Exceptional Merchant

Amazon.com - Not too much to say here. They are like the Yankees in that they have a great chance to win every year and this is their 4th straight finals.

Odds on winning? Just based on their size their odds are pretty good. 2-1

Bowlingshirt.com - It is like David fighting two Goliath’s here. They are like the small market team that puts it all together and makes a run at the title. Wade, Karen, and Joel at GTO Management have done a great job with the Bowlingshirt.com affiliate program.  And they also bribed me by giving me an awesome bowling shirt and taking me bowling in NY. Bribery does wonderful things!

Odds on winning? They are a long shot here. 25-1

eBay Partner Network - If Amazon is like the Yankees then eBay is like the Red Sox. Just based on their payroll and size they are a consistant contender

Odds on winning?  Just a step behind Amazon. 3-1

So who is gonna win? You gotta take a chance if you wanna win any money. And I got a bowling shirt and bowling out of the deal. Bowlingshirt.com  pulls the upset here.

Affiliate Marketing Advocate

I am gonna be honest here. I don’t keep up on industry issues as much as I really should. Whether it is the affiliate tax issues, parasites, unethical merchants, or whatever I always seem to have the unfortunate mindset of “let someone else deal with it” or “I don’t really know enough about the issues to do anything”. So because of that I am very thankful for all three of the nominees in this category. Angel Djambazov, Karen Garcia, and Rebecca Madigan have all spent many hours working on industry issues so lame people like me don’t have to. And I am very thankful to all three of them and many others as well.

Angel is a 2 time winner but this is Karen and Rebecca’s first time in the finals. Will Angel go 3 for 3 or will one of the rookies take it? I don’t want to give odds on a category as important as this one but I will go ahead and pick a winner:  Gonna go with Karen Garcia on this one.

Best Blogger

Murray Newlands - Sorry Murray. I really know nothing about you. I have seen your picture out there, I am aware of you, I see tweets and the like but I have never really take the time to find out much more. Hopefully you don’t take it personally.

Odds on winning? I am gonna have to take these odds off the board due to my lack of information. N/A

Jeremy Schoemaker - This will be Jeremy’s second Best Blogger nomination. There are a lot of Shoemoney haters out there and a lot of people who really respect him and like what he does. Personally I like his blog and I think he shares a lot of solid information there. I have only met Jeremy briefly a couple times, mostly in passing but I have never had a bad experience dealing with him.

Odds on winning? Will politics get in the way or will the voters be objective? 4-1

Geno Prussakov - From what I can see Geno seems to be the most consistent affiliate blogger out there and his posts almost always contain great information. Geno seems to post something good every day and he never runs out of good stuff. This will be Geno’s first finals apperance but he is a seasoned veteran who shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Odds on winning? Lots of quality to support him for this award. 3-1

So who is gonna win? Sorry Murray. I wish I knew more. Sorry Jeremy. The politics and drama might hurt you here. Kind of like what happened to Micky Rourke at the Oscars last year. Gonna give this award to Geno.

Wayne Porter Affiliate Marketing Legend Award

Brad Waller - Unfortnately I will have to claim a bit of ignorance on this one again. I have heard of Brad before but have never really met him or dealt with him before. I do know he works with the PMA and from what I can see he likes cars. Other than that I don’t know a whole heck of a lot but if he is a finalist of the Legend award he must be deserving.

Odds on winning? Very tough to properly handicapp this one. 8-1

Heather Paulson - Yet another person I have never met that I probably should have by now. Heather is the president of the Paulson Management Group and they currently manage a large number of different affiliate programs. I have seen her name around for years and if she was nominated for this award she must know her stuff when it comes to affiliate management.

Odds on winning? Gonna be tough for a rookie to take this award. 5-1

Scott Jangro - 5 nominations for Scott? That alone shows you why he deserves to be on this list. He has a chance to join Brian Littleton and Angel Djambazov as the only multiple winners of the Pinnacle Award. Scott finally broke through last year with the Best Blogger award and this is his second straight year being a finalist for the Legend award. I have know Scott for years, been golfing with him many times, and there are few (if any) people in this industry I respect as much as Jangro. He knows his stuff when it comes to affiliate marketing but even more important than that he is a great guy and one of the nicest people you will meet.

Odds on winning? Easily the favorite: 1-2

So who is gonna win? Scott Jangro will take home a much deserved Legend award here.

Well, hopefully I didn’t hurt too many feelings here. For those of you I didn’t pick to win? Just use this as motivation to step your game up next year and take home some of the coveted hardware. If you made the finals you should feel very honored since there are so many people who are deserving of these awards. If you were lucky enough to make this list I will even pick up the tab for dinner or drinks at Affiliate Summit West in January. Just hit me up while we are there.

Do my picks line up with yours? You have anything to say to sway my choices? Leave a comment below and let me know.

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