Welcome to the Real Deal - the Official Newsletter of Affiliate Summit. Please white list realdeal@affiliatesummit.com to ensure that your weekly copy will make it to your inbox.
If you'd like to stay in the loop on Affiliate Summit news and information, subscribe to receive the Affiliate Summit blog by e-mail. Just send a blank e-mail to affsummit@aweber.com
Articles in the Affiliate Summit Real Deal newsletter are the opinions of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of the newsletter, or its owners. The Affiliate Summit Real Deal newsletter always welcomes opinions of an opposite nature.
Register now for Affiliate Summit 2007 West - January 21-23 at Bally's Las Vegas.
Read past issues of the Affiliate Summit Real Deal newsletter in the newsletter archive.
Topics in this issue:
- Affiliate Summit in Pictures
- The Economics of Adult Affiliate Programs
- Meet the Exhibitors from Affiliate Summit
- Affiliate Marketing Classifieds and Other Stuff
- Affiliate Summit Sessions on MP3
Day 1 photos include the exhibit hall booth setup, the Affiliate Meet Market and Vendor Showcase, and the Ice Breakers Networking Event. 138 pictures in this set.
Day 2 starts with the keynote speaker, Jim Bouton, as well as Wayne Porter passing the Affiliate Marketing Legend Award to Tim Storm, exhibit hall snapshots, and speakers at the educational sessions.
The last session of the day was Bingo Networking, where Zac Johnson of MoneyReign won the prize ($1,000 and a pass to the next Affiliate Summit).
The Day 2 photos end with the Pure Imagination Party (sponsored by Digital River's oneNetwork, DirectTrack, PartnerCentric and Revenue) and other networking events that evening. 485 pictures in this set.
Day 3 photos start with the Rotating Roundtables session, and carry on with educational sessions, and Affiliate Summit Lessons Learned, where a variety of attendees got up to share a gem that they learned during the conference.
Also some scenes from the exhibit hall, the final Affiliate Summit cocktail party, and one last night of sing-alongs at the hotel piano. 175 pictures in this set.
Debbie "Loxly" Carney and her team of photographers captured the action.
Reminder: there was a card in each Affiliate Summit attendee bag for free prints from Snapfish.
Registrations are now open for the next Affiliate Summit - taking place January 21-23, 2007 at Bally's Las Vegas.
While the hyper competitive adult space tends to breed a lot of problematic affiliates who spam via e-mail, forums, blogs, etc., the overall mechanics of an affiliate program mirror those in the mainstream.
In the end, it's about relationships between companies and affiliates. But it sounds like adult affiliate managers may be more focused on affiliate retention than their mainstream counterparts.
An excerpt from the article...
Affiliates have been so successful at driving traffic to porn sites that purveyors spend a good deal of time and money keeping them happy. Affiliates drive about 60% of the 100,000 unique daily visitors to Vivid.com, the online unit of major adult-film producer Vivid Entertainment Group, said Michael Cardone, general manager of the company's affiliate program. The Los Angeles company regularly pays commissions to as many as 1,000 affiliates each month.Last week, Mr. Cardone attended an adult industry conference in Las Vegas, where he schmoozed with affiliates at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's swimming pool. The company treated affiliates to drinks and took a group out to the chic Japanese restaurant Nobu for dinner, he said. "We spend a lot of money getting new ones and keeping existing ones as well," Mr. Cardone said.
Sometimes, keeping affiliates happy means offering them gifts and bonuses, said Clark Chambers, who manages affiliate programs for pay sites OlderWomen.com and AuntJudys.com, among others. Mr. Chambers, based in Los Angeles, said he recently sent a $3,000 TAG Heuer watch to an 18-year-old in Moscow who runs a handful of affiliate Web sites. That was a bonus on top of the $5,000 to $8,000 a month in commissions he has been paying the teen. Mr. Chambers offers affiliates the option of either collecting 50% of referred sales, or receiving a flat $30 finder's fee per customer. Getting good affiliates to pitch your wares "is super competitive," Mr. Chambers said.
Read the complete article at WSJ.com.
This article will be available to non-subscribers of the Online Journal only through today.
We've added a couple dozen interviews with exhibitors from Affiliate Summit 2006 East, so you can learn more about the opportunities available to affiliates.
The featured exhibitor videos are from:
- Anik Singal of Affiliate Classroom
- Joshua Sloan of 1&1 Internet
- Jeff French of AdDrive
- Debbie Carney aka Loxly of CafePress
- Stephanie Schwab of Converseon
- Todd Crawford and Paul Wallerich of Digital River
- Mark Romanelli of Direct Response
- John Grosshandler of eComXpo
- Zack Preble of Foreclosure.com
- Jim Kukral of ForgeBusinessUSA
- Melanie Attia of Gambling Federation
- Danielle Iovino of Intermark Media
- David Rivero and Gary McNelley of JoeBucks
- Rachel Honoway of KowaBunga Technologies
- Monte Cahn of Moniker.com
- Ross Jones of NicheWorks
- Scott Richter of OptinRealBig.com
- Elton Pereira of ParetoLogic
- Linda Woods of PartnerCentric
- Ron Brightman of PartyGaming
- Kevin Collins of PCSecurityShield
- Kristopher B. Jones of PepperjamSEARCH.com
- Kristin Hall of Performics
- Play65
- Tobias Siegel of Revenue Magazine
- Forrest Schaaf of Schaaf Consulting
- Christopher Majeske of Ticket Network
- John Engler of UnsubCentral
- Elle of weRlive.com
Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/user/affiliatesummit.
Hydra Network is the leading CPA source for affiliate publishers. Over 1,000 campaigns and more than 250 exclusive offers available. Find all the right campaigns, market them to your site, email, path, pop or other audience, and get paid fast! Sign up today to begin maximizing your inventory profitability, while getting the attention you deserve from one of our Affiliate Managers. Call 310-659-5755 or visit: http://network.hydramedia.com/.
5 Star Affiliate Forums
Affiliates :: Discover supportive affiliate forums, filled with great ideas and discussions. Affiliate Managers :: Promote your program in the forums.
All :: Find the latest blogging tips and tools in our new blog marketing forums. Visit the 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums today.
New Payless.com Promotions
We've got some exciting, new offers for you to promote. Our site offer starts 7/27/06 and will be free standard ground shipping & handling with $45 purchase (no coupon needed).
Also - we have a coupon exclusively for publishers that gives $5 off purchases of $50 or more. Coupon: PSS5OFF50. The dates for both offers will be 7/27/06 - 8/16/06. Visit http://www.paylessaffiliates.com.
Snapfish Increases and Expands Commission
The base commission for Snapfish affiliates is going up to $10.00 (a $.50 raise) on every new customer. Also, for the first time ever, all affiliates will get an 8% commission on repeat customer purchases and a 60 day cookie. In order for current affiliates to receive these new terms, check your pending offers on CJ and accept the Snapfish offer. Visit snapfishaffiliates.com for details on the Snapfish affiliate program.
Topics covered include badware, benchmarking, blogging, coupon affiliates, data feeds, e-mail, legal issues, loyalty affiliates, outsourced affiliate program management, paid search, SEO, super affiliate strategies, and Web services.
Visit http://www.affiliatesummit.com/audio.shtml for details on the Affiliate Summit sessions.
The keynote address from former New York Yankee and entrepreneur Jim Bouton can be heard at http://media.webmasterradio.fm/episodes/audio/2006/AS-KeynoteJB.mp3.
If you attended Affiliate Summit, you should have received an e-mail last week with links to all of the MP3 files from the conference. Please contact us if you didn't get that e-mail.
Advertising is available at a price of $1,500 for display ads (728x360) and $300 for text ads (50 words or less). Affiliate Summit Real Deal is published weekly to over 5,000 subscribers.
Pay by Credit Card. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.
Book now at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/advertise.shtml
We'd love to hear from you! Drop us a line at realdeal@affiliatesummit.com and let us know if you have any suggestions, questions, or would like to advertise in future issues.