Seeds to Stalks: Cultivating your Affiliate Program presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Mike Catania, Vice President of Business Development, America One Funding

The vast majority of us do not manage affiliate programs for multi-billion dollar companies. Our monthly advertising budgets might, in a good month, break into four digits.

We know the names of way too many of our affiliates and how much they made last month without having to look it up. We walk to a co-worker’s office to ask a question because we can.

With careful management and organization we still successfully compete on the highest level with Household Name Companies for the attention of affiliates; and they love us.

The basic principle for running a small affiliate program is controlling only what you can and ignoring the rest. You can control your conversion rates, your payouts, where you find affiliates and how they feel about you–so control the heck out of them.

From October 2005 through March 2006 we have been (are) running six simultaneous studies to answer six questions that are key to not only our company but any other small/medium sized affiliate program.

1. Showing them the money: Does raising the payouts really increase affiliate signups? Is “the magic formula” for determining the dollar-value accurate?

2. The Map of Doom: What do you do when something is broke and you can’t fix it?

3. SEO versus Affiliate Managers: Do more affiliates signup because you’re in the top 5 for their keyword or because one of your affiliate managers contacted them personally?

4. Custom Landing Pages: Personnel costs versus amount of revenue from affiliates with custom pages. Is it worth the trouble? What about affiliate-hosted forms? Can you trust the affiliates?

5. Transparency: How did we screw up when affiliates weren’t paid or tracked accurately? How can we fix it and ensure it wouldn’t happen again? What can you do to prove your trustworthiness in the often-deceitful world of affiliate marketing?

We have a 1200 member in-house affiliate program that we’ve been developing since 2003. The leads they provide supply about 20% of the leads we process.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Seeds to Stalks: Cultivating your Affiliate Program

Co-Opetition, Comparison Sites and Conversion: Lessons Learned From The Adult Online Playbook presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Jim Lillig, Dir. Business Development, LobsterGram International

98% of people who visit your site do NOT buy from you! Let them go? Hell No!

Co-opetition is a strategy derived from an adult industry practice of leading non-buying visitors to competitor’s offers and profiting in the process.

This session will explore how brands, merchants and affiliates can effectively use online co-opetition strategies to improve their edge over their competition, get paid for doing market and optimization research and lead to additional revenue generating opportunities.

The second half of the session will explore the Comparison Site Strategy in which a merchant or affiliate employs a “ranking and rating” Web site to dramatically improve PPC and organic search campaign conversion percentages.

First used in online adult affiliate circles, merchants and affiliates in almost any niche can benefit from using a Comparison Site model to entice users to convert to customers with fantastic success.

WARNING: Prolonged use of these high level strategies will lead to intense profits.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Co-Opetition, Comparison Sites and Conversion: Lessons Learned From The Adult Online Playbook

Benchmarking presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Chris Henger, VP, Affiliate Marketing, Performics

Advertisers are always asking how their program is doing relative others and we know that affiliates compare programs with other advertisers. “How can we benchmark our progress” is a very common phrase uttered by marketers.

Performics is currently compiling research and metrics that will truly enable advertisers and affiliates to conduct critical “benchMarketing” or better marketing through benchmarking.

Chris will present data, case studies and best practices around how merchants can and should benchmark their programs.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Benchmarking

Benefits and Liabilities of Coupon Affiliates panel from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Marty Fahncke, President, FawnKey & Associates (moderator)
• Ian Larsen, Director of Affiliate Relations, Digital River’s OneNetwork
• Jonathan Miller, CEO, ForgeBusiness USA Inc
• David Lewis, CEO and Founder, 77blue.com
• Michelle Madhok, President, SheFinds

This is a moderated debate on the pros and cons of coupon affiliates for an affiliate program.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Benefits and Liabilities of Coupon Affiliates

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Merchants panel from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Forrest Schaaf, Partner, Schaaf Consulting (Moderator)
• Dan Chiss, Director, Affiliate Strategy, Performics (Affiliate Segmentation – the devil is in the details)
• Peter Figueredo, CEO and Co-Founder, NETexponent (Outsourced affiliate program management)
• Rob Key, CEO, Converseon (Search engine optimization)
• Fran Maier, Executive Director and President, TRUSTe (Goodware or badware – making black and white out of gray)

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Merchants

Affiliate Marketing Legal Issues panel from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Rachel Honoway, VP of Sales & Marketing, KowaBunga! Technologies (Moderator)
• Tom Manspeaker, Director and Affiliate Manager, DirectLeads
• Linda Goodman, Partner, The Goodman Law Firm
• Steven Richter, President and General Counsel, OptinRealBig.com, LLC
• Mark J. Rosenberg, Of Counsel, Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.
• Ernie St. Gelais, Co-founder and Co-president, LinkConnector Corporation

Overview of legal issues that impact the affiliate marketing industry.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Affiliate Marketing Legal Issues

Loyalty Affiliates: Loyal Allies or Evildoers? presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• W. Kimathi Marangu, EVP Business Development, Mall Networks, Inc.

Discussion of the positive role that loyalty affiliates play in a merchant’s marketing program. Recently the conversation has reached a fever point with many affiliates feeling vilified for being successful in helping merchants retain customers. Kimathi will have an open conversation on this topic.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Loyalty Affiliates: Loyal Allies or Evildoers?

eBay Web Services for Affiliates presentation from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Alan Lewis, Technical Evangelist, eBay

As excitement around affiliate programs grows, people are constantly looking to increase the effectiveness of their offerings.

eBay has taken affiliate needs seriously and has opened their platform in ways that allow affiliates to successfully leverage the popularity of eBay.

Specifically, the eBay Developers Program allows people to join the Affiliate Tier, which gives members access to eBay’s API to create more powerful solutions that enrich their already robust business models.

In fact, the APIs can help create innovative solutions for any of the primary business models leveraged by the most successful affiliates including paid search and content sites.

Alan Lewis, Technical Evangelist with the eBay Developers Program, will help explain how affiliates can easily incorporate and utilize eBay’s API into their existing programs.

In addition, Lewis will show how affiliates who have joined the Developers Program have been able to earn greater commissions by retrieving real-time price and product information for all of eBay’s listings, optimizing search marketing practices with access to product details, and through access to other important resources.

By combining the benefits of the Affiliate and Developer Programs, eBay is putting the full force of the company’s technological resources in the hands of affiliates. Lewis will demonstrate how being an affiliate member of the eBay Developers Program can give a competitive advantage by helping keep costs low using reliable, scalable technology.

Affiliates can also learn how to expand into new, untapped markets through leveraging the eBay marketplace and moving quickly through development and testing with Developers Program resources.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

The Value of Pay Per Click Affiliates panel from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Dan Murray, Internet Marketing Strategist, Ravenwood Marketing (Moderator)
• Tim Ash, President, Epic Sky and SiteTuners
• Adam Viener, President, Imwave, Inc.
• Mike Jacobs, Vice President – Search Marketing, iMarketing ltd.

Panel on the pros and cons of pay per click affiliates for an affiliate program.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

How PPC is Used by Affiliates panel from Affiliate Summit East 2006, which took place July 9-11, 2006 in Orlando, FL.

• Corey Newhouse, Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer, ICG America (moderator)
• Vinny Lingham, Chief Strategy Officer, incuBeta
• Kevin McCormick, Owner, dresskevin.com
• Lori Weiman, Director, KeywordMax

Interactive discussion on how affiliates leverage pay per click search engines.

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.