Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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The ball has dropped on another year in affiliate marketing. Time again to make some resolutions for work and non-work.

I’ll trot out the standards first: exercise more, eat better, spend less time behind this keyboard, and more time in front of the wife and kids, etc.

Also, 2007 shall be the year that I start on my great American novel - the one that’s been marinating in my head and on scraps of paper since the early 90’s.

Enough of that stuff - how about the plans for work? I had a bunch of professional resolutions last year, and I lived up to some of them.

I wanted to grow Affiliate Summit significantly and that one is working out nicely. The 2005 show was 550 strong. Later this month, we’ll have more than 1,500 at Affiliate Summit 2007 West in Las Vegas. The exhibit hall from then to now has also grown well - from 15 booths in 2005 to 100 at the next show.

I also resolved to have two Affiliate Summits in 2006 and that happened - Las Vegas in January and Orlando in July.

Trying my hand at video blogging and podcasting was another goal. I didn’t get these started until late in the game, but I’ve churned out a few video blogs and many more are coming.

As far as podcasting, I teamed up with Revenue Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Lisa Picarille, to co-host Affiliate Thing, a weekly 30 minute show on BlogTalkRadio.com. We broadcast four shows in the end of 2006 and plan to continue weekly in 2007.

I also made plans to assist anybody who might strive to create an affiliate marketing trade group. Nothing is really happening yet, but I’ll be keeping a look out.

There were two other resolutions where I dropped the ball.

I wanted to read an average of one book a month on business, and I think I read through maybe five total in 2006. But fear not, because I am loaded with a bunch of new books (thanks Carsten!) and a desire to further my edumacation.

And I planned to host an affiliate marketing BBQ at my house for hungry networkers in the NYC metro area. Brook Schaaf ran a couple down the shore in NJ, but I failed to spark up the grill. I’ll rectify this in the new year.

What else to plan for 2007?

1. Expansion of Affiliate Summit. We’ve got two shows set for 2007 (Vegas in January and Miami in July), and I’d like to add in some other events. Two possibilities are a niche show TBD and crossing the pond for an Affiliate Summit in London.

2. Video Affiliate Action. I’ve been experimenting with video as an affiliate in a couple ways, such as clickable links in video and contextual ads served next to video. Much more to be done in this area.
3. Educate 2 Elevate. I wrote Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants back in late 2000. Lots of things have happened since then, so I want to update the book. I am not sure what form this will take, though. Perhaps a new book, a series of white papers, video how-to guides, or whatever.
4. Spreading the Word about the Affiliate Thing. I really like the idea of reaching out with news and information via podcasts and plan to invest lots of brain cells, bandwidth and creative juices to make this show a must listen in 2007.

So I’ve got a decent “to do” list with those four items, reading more books, BBQs, video blogs, and whatnot.

Happy New Year - here’s to a great 2007 in affiliate marketing.

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