This week on the Affiliate Thing podcast, Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille talked about buying business and oddball services from fiverr, white hat vs. black hat in NYC, optimizing Google Alerts, and affiliate applications of YouTube Rentals.

Also, SkimKit from Skimlinks, advertising tax in CT, ppc.bz raging about Affilicert, and a pay-per-call case study from ShareASale.

Show Links

• Shawn on fiverr
• Affiliate Marketing 3.0 Session at Search Engine Strategies NY 2010
• Affiliate Summit West 2009 Session Videos Available to Rent Online
• YouTube Rentals and Affiliate Marketing
• SkimKit Deep Affiliate Link Tool
• My Day at the Connecticut State House
• Solara tries to scapegoat affiliate marketing
• ppc.bz on Affilicert
• AlertRank
• Epic Advertising and Connexus Corporation Merge
• Success on the ShareASale Pay-Per-Call Platform

Subscribe to the Affiliate Thing RSS feed or listen on iTunes. You can also send a blank e-mail to affiliatething@aweber.com to get each podcast delivered by e-mail.

Co-host Shawn Collins is on vacation for this week’s episode. So, the fantastic Jim Kukral pinch hit once again to help me do a recap of Affiliate Summit East 09.

It was a great conference that just keeps growing. Here are some of the things we talked about:

The keynotes with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith about the concepts in their new book, Trust Agents, as well as Peter Shankman’s humorous speech.

The money raised by Affiliate Marketers Give Back

The charitable aspects of Affiliate Summit

Lisa’s disappointment in the lack of attendance at the Affiliate tax session

Affiliate Summit is now accepting proposals for speakers at ASW10

The book I am writing with Jim called Your Pitch Sucks

This session, Combating Fraud in Affiliate Marketing, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Discussion on new ways to keep affiliate programs safe from unethical merchant and affiliate practices. Reducing fraud frees up more money to be spent and earned in affiliate marketing.

• Todd Crawford, Founder, ToddTalks.com (Moderator)
• Kuba Poraj-Kuczewski, SVP Media Services, EducationDynamics, LLC
• Joshua Sloan, Director of Online Marketing, 1&1 Internet, Inc.
• Ernie St. Gelais, CTO and Co-founder, LinkConnector

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, The Art of Keyword Blasting, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

PPC campaigns on blasting keywords to find profitable keywords.

• Ian Fernando, Founder, IANternet Media, LLC

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, Understanding the UK Affiliate Landscape, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

This session will cover the culture of affiliate marketing in the UK, as well as statistics revealing growth rates, size of market and the latest trends.

• James Little, Head of Affiliate Development, AffiliateFuture

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, Managing Your Brand, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

It is essential to monitor your online reputation, and this panel of experts will explain how to manage your brand.

• Andy Beal, Founder, Trackur.com (Moderator)
• Fionn Downhill, CEO, Elixir Interactive
• Rob Key, CEO, Converseon, Inc.
• Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, Make an Impact in Governmental Affairs, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Now that marketers are learning that policy matters, this panel of political insiders will discuss what they need to do to have an impact?

• Bennet Kelley, Founder, Internet Law Center
• Wright Andrews, Partner, Butera & Andrews

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Learn how to optimize your landing pages and increase conversion rates by 50-500% using simple techniques and technologies. Get that competitive edge by increasing margins and return on marketing spend.

• Olivier Chaine, CEO & Founder, magnify360 (Moderator)
• Trevor Claiborne, Product Marketing Manager, Google
• Lisa Crossley Hunter, Senior Director CJ Search, Commission Junction
• Beth Kirsch, VP, Marketing and Business Development, uAmplify

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, Setting Quality Standards in Affiliate Marketing, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Join eBay for a discussion on improving the quality of its program, from detecting and removing back hats to working more closely with white hats to improve their affiliate marketing results.

• Steve Hartman, Senior Director, eBay Partner Network
• William Martin-Gill, Senior Manager, eBay Partner Network

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.

This session, Driving Leads Through Smart Domain Development, took place Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at Affiliate Summit West 2009.

Session description:

Are domains a part of your affiliate marketing strategy? If not, they should be. Discover the power of direct navigation and learn how domains can impact SEO/SEM.

• Monte Cahn, CEO & Founder, Moniker.com / SnapNames.com

More Affiliate Summit West 2009 audio is available at http://geekcast.fm/archives/category/affiliate-summit/.