Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, an affiliate marketer since 1997, co-founder of Affiliate Summit and author of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.

Back in November 2003 at the first Affiliate Summit, we ran a speed networking session. We’ve done so at every Affiliate Summit since then. But this year, rather than have it resemble anarchy with suits, we’ve decided to clean up and formalize the process.
We are working with NetworkingMatch (the company that ran the speed networking [...]

I have recevied many requests for joining our affiliate program. After I accept them, I hardly find my link on their site in most of cases. I don’t understand why?
I think part of the problem is that you’re asking me, instead of asking your affiliates. If you are typical of most affiliate managers, you are [...]

I was just chatting with John Grosshandler, the eComXpo Event Director, and he mentioned that the original goal for eComXpo next week was 3,000 attendees.
But it looks like they are going to blow past that figure. Currently, they are over 2,500 and adding hundreds each day.
I have a limited number of free passes left. If [...]

Though its not as big a part of their overall sales and marketing program as paid search or e-mail, affiliate marketing is an effective strategy to build broader brand awareness and drive motivated buyers to business-to-consumer e-commerce sites, say web retailers participating in the latest Internet Retailer survey.
Most web retailers have already made a multi-year [...]

Berkeley Heights, NJ — September 28, 2005 — The Affiliate Summit Convention will be held January 9-10, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Summit is presented by Shawn Collins and Missy Ward and provides the unique opportunity for affiliate marketing professionals to gather and learn from one another in a cooperative environment.
The Affiliate Summit [...]

I was checking in at Dave Taylor’s blog today and the headline, It’s time for an Internet Sales Tax, drew me in.
Dave sums up his argument for Internet sales taxes with the following reasons:

Internet businesses no longer need to be sheltered from taxation to be competitive;
The U.S. Government needs additional tax revenue and usage [...]

I just found out that I am going to be managing the affiliate program for my company, and I don’t know a thing about affiliate marketing. Is there a training course to teach me to run an affiliate program?
In the past, I ran an Affiliate Manager Boot Camp with Beth Kirsch to provide this sort [...]

The following is what Cheryl Smith of Money Mechanic had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?
Communication is Vital in Affiliate Marketing. If affilaites feel the merchants are not delivering, then work with the merchant to better conversions.
Affiliates know their market the [...]

I ran into Vinny Lingham last week at CJU, and he gave me an overview of his new product, synthaSite.
synthaSite is a data feed driven tool that enables affiliates to promote “more than 100 million products available through multiple affiliate networks.” One concern among affiliate marketers with this sort of tool is that it [...]

The folks behind Cydoor Desktop Media have launched a new CPA network, Oridian. I would expect that industry watchdogs have their eyes on this move.
According to SpywareGuide, Cydoor is classified as a minimal threat, but “Removal is hard.”
And Broadband Reports published a note from Cydoor asking the site to stop referring to Cydoor as [...]