Which verticals would you like to see at the Vertical Exchange during Affiliate Summit West 2010?

The Vertical Exchange will be an opportunity for affiliates, merchants and networks to find one another by vertical to network and work out deals.

We’ll have tables set up for the verticals that are most popular.

Vote for the verticals you’d like to see at http://twtpoll.com/y0y1la.

This networking event is taking place 2:00pm-3:00pm on Monday, January 18, 2010 and it is only open to Gold and Platinum pass holders.

This poll closes on Dec 11, 2009.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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E-commerce solution 2Checkout.com is limiting what affiliates (suppliers in their lexicon) can do to promote them to no more than placing a link on their site, based on language in their agreement.

According to the 2Checkout.com Supplier Agreement (bold added by me)…

3 F. Limitations on Solicitations.
Supplier may refer customers to the 2CO website for the purchase of Products of Supplier only through the link provided by 2CO. Supplier may not use any other method of referral of customers for purchases of its Products from 2CO and shall not solicit customers on behalf of 2CO. Supplier will provide a certificate of compliance with this obligation to 2CO within 30 days of the request by 2CO. 2CO shall not request this certificate more often than annually. Such certificate shall be substantially in the form attached hereto as Appendix I and be signed by the Supplier. Failure to provide the aforesaid certificate in a timely manner shall result in the loss of Supplier’s ability to offer Products for resale through 2CO.

Also, 2Checkout.com has sent a compulsory agreement to account holders where it appears they are also making their merchants responsible for any taxes that might be due (see below from the 2Checkout.com agreement sellers have to sign), even though the Knowledge Base on their site says there’s no tax liability:

What about tax liability?
December 30th, 2006, by: knowledgebase
You are not required to charge sales tax at all. Legally we are a reseller and every time a purchase is made we are buying from you for the purposes of reselling to the end customer. Since you are selling to us for the purpose of reselling, there is no tax liability on your end.

Here is the new passage from the Supplier Agreement that contradicts the Knowledge Base information:

11. TAXES.
B. Supplier’s Obligation to Pay Taxes Resulting from 2CO Services.
The parties agree that if additional taxes in the nature of an excise, sales, or use tax are imposed in connection with 2CO’s Services and paid by 2CO on behalf of the Supplier, Supplier shall be liable to 2CO in an amount equal to the amount of such tax payment made by 2CO. Supplier authorizes 2CO to collect and pay over taxes in the nature of an excise, sales, or use tax on behalf of Supplier or on account of 2CO’s sale of Products if reasonably required to do so by any jurisdiction’s taxing authority. 2CO shall have the right to recover from Supplier the amount of any such taxes, related penalties, and interest paid by 2CO with its own funds. Supplier shall also pay 2CO for any related expenses incurred by 2CO, including reasonable attorney’s fees, in its collection of any amounts due from Supplier.

But wait… there’s more.

Last month, 2Checkout.com informed New York affiliates that their services were no longer needed.

2Checkout.com has always valued the business relationship that we hold with you. We appreciate the fact that you may have helped to create affiliate opportunities for other 2CO Suppliers. However, due to changes in New York state law, we must discontinue the Affiliate program with supplier’s in the state of New York.

I am not promoting 2Checkout.com, but if I were, I’d be having second thoughts now with their contradictory communications and limitations on affiliate promotions.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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I put together a video a couple years back about Cyber Monday for affiliate marketers.

My Cyber Monday video was a weirdly edited music video where I sang a modified version of Manic Monday from the Bangles.

Best of luck to affiliates for all of the manic Cyber Mondays this year.

Video: Cyber Monday

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Brian Littleton of ShareASale posted an entertaining look back at the affiliate marketing industry with his Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Moments for this Decade.

It’s a fun look back at significant happenings for affiliate marketers over the years.

It’s humbling to see all of the mentions of Affiliate Summit in there, and hard to believe the first Affiliate Summit was over six years ago already.

Back in 2003, we maxed out at 200 people. As we close in on Affiliate Summit West 2010, the 14th Affiliate Summit, we’re expecting 4,000.

One of the key moments Brian mentioned was when then LinkShare Chairman Stephen Messer delivered a lunchtime talk at the first Affiliate Summit to took place in Las Vegas back in 2005.

Stephen Messer discussed how Google was a competitor/threat to affiliate programs. Many in the audience scoffed, and Messer turned out to be spot on. David Lewis wrote about the Messer talk at the time on ReveNews.

And here is a shot of my partner, Missy Ward, with Brian Littleton from that same show.

One milestone I would have added to the list was the Performance Marketing Summit on adware, which tool place back in 2002 at the Yale Club in NYC.

At this meeting, networks, merchants, and affiliates got together to work on industry practices and policies regarding the use of adware.

See the full list at http://blog.shareasale.com/2009/11/27/top-10-affiliate-marketing-moments-for-this-decade/.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Bloggers – The New Super Affiliates presentation from Affiliate Summit West 2007, which took place January 21-23, 2007 in Las Vegas, NV.

• Jim Kukral, CEO, JimKukral.com

Super affiliates today are essentially the webmasters from 5-10 years ago. Bloggers are the next wave of super content producers, soon to be turned super affiliates; this session will discuss what affiliate managers can do with them.

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: Bloggers – The New Super Affiliates

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Most companies are planning to invest more in social media next year but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity, according to new research from Econsultancy.

The Social Media and Online PR Report, published by Econsultancy in association with bigmouthmedia, is based on a survey of more than 1,100 companies and agencies.

The research covers how companies are using online PR tactics and social media for marketing and customer service.

Some interesting information from the report:

• 86% of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010
• 13% of companies are planning to maintain their current social media budget
• 54% of companies citied lack of resources as a hurdle for participating in social media
• 90% of companies say social media takes up more time internally than a year ago

I think this provides a golden opportunity for affiliates, as there will be lots of areas in social media that companies can’t tend to, so affiliates can do it for them.

Also, I’d suggest that any companies expanding into social media ensure that they’ve got their username across the social media sites.

More details at Econsultancy.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Today is a day where people feel compelled to state to whom or what they are thankful. Well, I’ll jump on that train and say I am very thankful to people who fight cancer.

It’s our mutual enemy and we all stand to benefit when there is more research to fight it.

So, what can you do easily – literally in just a few seconds – to help the cause? Follow @drewfromtv on Twitter.

Just do that and we’re all one follow closer to comedian and game show host Drew Carey donating a million dollars to LiveStrong if he gets a million Twitter followers by January 11, 2010, according to The Huffington Post.

If you’re not familiar with the backstory here, Drew Carey wants to get @Drew on Twitter, and he originally offered $100,000 for the Twitter name, which is being sold by Drew Olanoff in an online auction to raise money for cancer research.

Come on – follow @drewfromtv on Twitter already. Check out Million Dollar @Drew.

Please spread the word about following @drewfromtv – it would be great if all of the people with giant lists of Twitter followers would pump this up.

Come on Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, Shaq, Demi Moore, Ashley Tisdale, Diddy, Jimmy Fallon, etc. – all you with millions of Twitter followers – make some noise for the cause!

And while you’re feeling good about fighting cancer, I ran the Damon Runyon 5K Run for Cancer Research on November 15 to raise money for another great cancer research cause, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

You can still donate in my name through December 18, 2009 at http://www.drcrf.org/netcommunity/affiliatesummit

Happy Thanksgiving.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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I’ve been a little obsessive about trying to sell Zhu Zhu pets as an affiliate and buy them for my kids lately. They seem to be out of stock or scalped for 6x or so their retail price everywhere I look.

But then I saw a Tweet from @peterkoning this morning that may be the solution I need.

Peter Koning is an affiliate and he has created a site called AZ Grabber that tracks items as they are added in stock at Amazon.com and makes a horrible audio alert to let you know you can jump in and make the purchase.

I am using this as a consumer, as well as an affiliate to detect when products become available. It could be a useful tool for any affiliates that are trying to live updates on Twitter and other places for products that have limited availability.

Check it out at http://www.atozgrabber.com/.

More details at http://www.affiliate-software-review.com/asrblog/new-amazon-alert-site-beats-amazon-zhu-zhu-scalpers.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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There will be a new networking opportunity at Affiliate Summit West 2010 called the Vertical Exchange.

The Vertical Exchange will be an opportunity for affiliates, merchants and networks to find one another by vertical to network and work our deals.

There is no sponsorship or anything – we will have designated areas for verticals, so anybody interested in a given vertical can just go to the table with the sign for that vertical to meet other folks.

This networking event is taking place 2:00pm-3:00pm on Monday, January 18, 2010 and it is only open to Gold and Platinum pass holders.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Download audio file (affiliateabcs19-history-affiliatetip.mp3)

I had a fun chat with Deb Carney on her AffiliateABCs podcast the other day about my early days in affiliate marketing.

This discussion came out of a link I Tweeted recently for an article I wrote in 2000 on the history of affiliate marketing.

We touched on the origins of the industry, as well as my start as an affiliate and an affiliate manager in 1997 at Medsite.com.

Back when I started as an affiliate, I joined the Amazon.com affiliate program and created a horrible site on AOL, which was a shoddy guide to New York City. I got my first domain, velocitynyc.com, on August 25, 1998.

This was an online version of a zine, Velocity NYC, that I was publishing offline for a few years.

“The writing was on the wall for Shawn Collins when he named his year-and-a-half-old quarterly zine, Velocity N.Y.C. Walking past a stairway, Collins noticed graffiti spelling out the title of his soon-to-be zine. Like the graffiti, Velocity N.Y.C. is a spontaneous expression of one life in the urban jungle. Collins ruminates on bachelor parties, stuff in his mailbox and the zine’s most reprinted feature, movies that affected his life.” – FOLIO

“A wonderfully sophisticated zine that captures the energy and style of New York City life. Shawn has done a lot, experiences a lot, and has a lot to say. He doesn’t come off as preachy or pretentious, just genuinely friendly.” – Factsheet 5

This domain is now used for the Velocity NYC Press, a book publishing imprint from Affiliate Summit.

My second domain, babylounge.com, was registered on July 19, 1999, and the initial purpose was to manually create online birth announcements, after lots of friends and family enjoyed the one I created for my first daughter months before.

These online birth announcements were available in a free version (with affiliate ads) or a few paid versions.

As of today, I’ve got 152 domains, and I couldn’t even tell you how many have been affiliate sites, or are currently affiliate sites. Plus, there are many domains that I grabbed for a year or two for projects and let go.

Anyhow, the podcast also gets into my experiences in the early days as an affiliate manager and it’s a fun trip down memory lane for the resources and such from back then. Have a listen to episode 19 of Affiliate ABCs to hear how things used to be in affiliate marketing.

Audio: Affiliate ABCs #19 History of Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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