Affiliate Marketing Recap – The past couple weeks

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.