Navigating the Tricky Terrain of Affiliate Marketing in Social Media
December 19, 2011 by Daron Babin
Filed under WMR Blog
Affiliate marketing may be a simple concept, but like anything that’s worth doing, there are subtle complexities behind its successful execution. The explosion in growth of social media has made affiliate marketing easier than ever, technically speaking. You now have a broad diversity of platforms that you can utilize to achieve your aims–but this is all the more reason to tread carefully. Remember, the operative word in social media is “social.” And if there’s one great truth about affiliate marketing, it’s that the instant your motives are recognized as purely financial, all bets are off. Here are a few tips to help you navigate the tricky terrain of affiliate marketing in social media.
Stick with what you know. One of the most effective inroads to successful affiliate marketing is by working with companies that offer services or sell products that you actually know something about, and can discuss with authority. In other words, if you have a music blog or a website dedicated to the discussion of contemporary music, it makes a lot more sense to become an affiliate for Amazon.com than, say, an online merchant that specializes in wholesale medical supplies. This underlines the importance of staying relevant when picking your affiliate partners.
Stand behind your partners. This doesn’t mean that you have to take a blanket approach to the support of your affiliate partners. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you have to start using the products and services of the companies you’re engaged in a partnership with. But it does mean that you should do your homework. Never enter into a business relationship with any person or company that you’re not completely confident in, and that you wouldn’t want your brand associated with. Doing otherwise could come back to bite you.
Be up front. The last thing any of your Twitter followers or Facebook friends want to find out is that you’ve been hawking other people’s wares in exchange for a commission, and not because you were making an honest recommendation out of the kindness of your heart. If they do, they’re likely to un-friend you fast. This kind of reaction by your online followers might seem petty–but in the world of social media, pettiness has a tendency to rear its ugly head from time to time. Be aware of these dynamics. More importantly, be sensitive to them by disclosing your affiliations clearly.
Don’t let your affiliate marketing goals take over. There’s a delicate balance that has to be achieved in order to really make affiliate marketing work for you. The reason that it works so well for some people is because they have the ability (whether instinctive, taught, or picked up along the way) to pull it off without turning their website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed into the equivalent of a commercial feed. In order to accomplish that, you’ve got to keep a good amount of humanity and personality in your social marketing profiles. If all you ever do is fire off links to irrelevant services and products, your audience will tune out.
AffCon2010 – Denver, Conference Update
March 4, 2010 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
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WebmasterRadio.FM is organizing a third affiliate marketing convention similar to our two previous shows in Denver and Los Angeles last year.
Re-branded and reorganized as AffCon2010 – Denver, the affiliate focused conference and tradeshow will take place at the Colorado Convention Center June 21st – 23rd. As with the previous conventions in the AffCon affiliate marketing series, working affiliate marketers are eligible for free full-access admission.
AffCon2010 – Denver is designed as a convention specifically targeting affiliate marketers. While there is a great deal of involvement from affiliate networks, managers, programs and merchants, the information panels and interactive sessions are primarily targeted to working affiliates. (Our definition of “working affiliate” is one who is promoting products or services on their own web pages through one or more unique affiliate programs or networks.)
Registration
We’ve made registration for AffCon2010 – Denver easier with a distinct registry process for Affiliates and another for Networks, Managers, Merchants and others. Those applying for free admission as affiliates will be asked a series of questions to determine their business and personal interests so we can match them up with relevant network sponsorship.
Accommodation
AffCon2010 has secured a large room block for the Denver convention and tradeshow at the Hyatt Regency Denver. The Hyatt Regency is offering a healthy discount on rooms for AffCon2010 attendees with rates starting at $164/night for a standard King sized or 2 double bed room. Book your room early to take advantage of this rate and to be placed near other AffCon2010 participants.
We’re getting another great agenda together and plan a larger show and a far more interactive experience. The two previous shows were considered tremendous successes and we look forward to hosting the affiliate marketing industry in Denver from June 21 – 23 at AffCon2010 – Denver. See ya there.
California Studies New Affiliate Tax
February 22, 2010 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
The state of California is again studying the implementation of a tax on sales of goods or services at Amazon.com and other affiliate programs. A similar measure passed by the state house and senate was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the autumn of 2009.
As it stands today, California residents are supposed to declare the value of all online purchases. The effect of this legislation transfers responsibility for paying taxes on online purchases from consumer to seller. Naturally, online merchants are reluctant to visibly increase prices by 8.25%. Affiliate programs are also reluctant to assume the costs of calculating, tracing and paying sales taxes in differing jurisdictions.
Facing an estimated $20Billion budgetary deficit, the state government is believes it can reap over $175million from a California affiliate tax. Unfortunately, the state legislators might not have thought this plan fully through.
The introduction of similar taxation programs by other state governments have resulted in affiliate networks abandoning those states. When affiliate programs leave a state, they also leave all affiliate marketers in that state. Ultimately, the effect of affiliate taxation tends to be a reduction of realized revenues as the state loses taxes on the incomes of those affiliates.
Recently, a coordinated effort in Colorado led to the alteration of a tax on online sales to exempt affiliates. WebmasterRadio.FM will watch the California situation and inform readers and listeners on how they can participate in opposing California’s latest efforts to impose such a tax.
Amended Colorado Affiliate Tax Goes to Senate
February 5, 2010 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
Rebecca Madigan of the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) wrote an update on the Colorado Affiliate Tax (HB 1193) today. The tax measure, which at last word was being discussed by the state senate finance committee, has been passed on to the state senate with a critical and potentially beneficial amendment.
In her post, Ms. Madigan states,
We were given an opportunity for an amendment that would exempt online affiliates from establishing nexus for out of state retailers. It would give the retailers safe harbor of 30 days to terminate any affiliates who did personal marketing or selling, which would establish nexus, thereby requiring out of state retailers to collect sales tax for online purchases.
The PMA fought the introduction of this bill with a lobby effort led by seven professional lobbyists. They were joined in the fight by over 150 affiliates from Colorado, an organized turn out that obviously surprised state legislators.
That level of organized opposition to the bill won the affiliate marketing community nearly 15 hours of negotiating time with legislators in a bid to water down or kill the bill. At this time, a draft of the amendment is not available but the senate committee promised modifications to the bill would be completed by Monday before the bill is presented to the senate for vote.
Ms. Madigan suggests advertisers seek legal counsel when the amended bill is passed saying,
This amendment, if completed as promised, may make some merchants comfortable enough to continue working with Colorado affiliates. For others, it may not. The amendment needs to be completed and available for review, and advertisers should immediately consult legal and tax experts.
Congratulations to everyone who worked together to fight the Colorado Affiliate Tax. Though a tax measure is virtually certain to pass sometime next week, the amended version should be enough to keep most advertisers available to affiliates in Colorado.
For more information, please visit the Performance Marketing Association website.
AffCon2010 Denver Agenda Posted
January 27, 2010 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog, affiliate convention
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Earlier today we posted the preliminary agenda for AffCon2010 Denver, June 21st through 23rd at the Colorado Convention Center.
Building on the success of WebmasterRadio.FM’s experience in building an affiliate convention, we are expecting a larger, more dynamic show than we’ve been involved with in the past. We’re trying out new approaches with several of the sessions. The goal is to create a more direct and actionable experience for attendees, vendors, sponsors and presenters.
Though we expect increased attendance, we want to allow for more interaction between speakers and audience during sessions.
AffCon2010 Denver will be organized in three unique tracks, Marketing, Technology and Business, with eight topics addressed by each track. More basic sessions are featured at the start of the agenda with advanced sessions towards the end. Most of the sessions will be delivered by moderated panels but many are designed to be more interactive.
Some sessions, like the One on One Site and Campaign Clinics and the Lead Gen Super-Charged will be held in breakout group format in which we place a set of experts at the head table in a room and they begin tearing apart attendee volunteered sites, to help them better understand how they should be building their sites for maximum conversion & monetization.
Others, such as the Affiliate Ethics Round Table and the Final Debate Panel will be organized as town-hall style debates with audience participation welcome through out. The Final Debate Panel that closes out this affiliate convention will be fueled by two days of high level information and networking and two or three container trucks of free beer. Ok, maybe not that much beer!
AffCon2010 is a part of an on-going series of welcoming, community events for everyone from grassroots affiliates to network CEOs. From top level education and skill sharing sessions to premier networking opportunities, to attend a convention for affiliates that is geared to give you the greatest convention experience and an extraordinary value at a zero cost is absolutely unheard of.
Registration is now open. Working affiliates always attend AffCon2010 for free. For non-affiliates, the earlier you register, the better the discount you can receive.
Join us at AffCon2010 Denver, June 21st- 23rd at the Colorado Convention Center.
RevenueWire Town Hall – Identity Pro – 5PM Tues.
July 21, 2009 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
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In April 2009, RevenueWire introduced the Identity Pro software to their affiliate network. Atherion’s Identity Pro Software was designed to locate and protect user IDs, credit card information, passwords and more. Built with US military technology, Identity Pro automatically scans your machine, and finds and protects your important personal data with a powerful scan, encryption and lockdown protocol.
In this scheduled Town Hall Meeting, Atherion co-founders Matthew Henne and Jamie Southworth along with Kyle Murphy, Merchant Account Manager of RevenueWire tell us about the Identity Pro software and the marketing strategy behind releasing the product.
“We’re going to utilize the effective marketing strategies that affiliates have built up over the years,†Henne said. “What we’re going to do is give them a new, hot product that they can immediately recognize and sink their teeth into.â€
This town hall meeting makes it the third to be broadcast on WebmasterRadio.FM. The previous two episodes have offered the following:
This radio program will be available on demand after the broadcast inside the Town Hall Meetings Channel of WebmasterRadio.FM.
Affiliate Convention Exceeds Expectations
June 22, 2009 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
“Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it…” WebmasterRadio.FM, along with AffEuro wished to throw a convention for Affiliate marketers in Denver. To make things more complicated, the idea was to make the convention free for affiliate marketers to attend.
We wanted to throw a good first show. We needed to see five to six hundred people move past the door, numbers we would have considered a victory. We had hoped everyone would have a good time. Nervously approaching the opening of our first major convention, the organizers of Affiliate Convention fretted our way through the first day of social events working at a fevered last minute pace to put everything else we could think of in its proper place.
We were nervous and there wasn’t nearly enough time to do the number of things that needed doing. By the time we rolled into the absolutely wild Affiliate.com, WickedFire, Shoemoney and GetAds party figuring the Convention would function. We knew we had good speakers and a good information line-up. We knew the organizational end was ready from registration to break-down. Fred Rumsey and Nomad provided our AV foundation so we knew that was well covered.
It was what we didn’t know that scared us. Though we knew how many had registered but we had no real idea how many actual people would actually attend. The price was FREE, a cost often taken with little to no commitment on the part of the person paying. Registering was easy, attending was a bit harder. We had no idea what was about to take place…
A large crowd stood in front of the venue, milling about the door smoking, talking and trying to deal with the party happening inside. I’m not going to write about the party happening inside. Suffice it to say the opening night event was one of the wildest industry parties I’ve had the pleasure of attending. What got us was the numbers. I walked over to the bouncer to ask if everyone in and around the building was associated with Affiliate Convention. “This is a private party sir. Everyone here is from the convention.” He might have thought he was turning me away but at that moment, I knew we had smashed far past our earlier expectations. It was going to work!
Everything seemed to work right. The inaugural Affiliate Convention was a tremendous success. Over a thousand affiliates walked through the door, past a small (soon to grow, no doubt) but excited trade show floor and into one of three concurrent sessions. Attendance in most sessions was high and folks have been heard saying good things about the speakers. One session in particular, Tim Ash’s was so over-attended he had to hold a second one.
Too many things happened to specifically mention them all in one post. I have a lot of thank-yous to write both personally and in this blog. For now, on behalf of everyone at WebmasterRadio.FM and the other organizers of the first Affiliate Convention, an enormous and emotional THANK YOU to everyone who participated, sponsored, attended, spoke and/or otherwise assisted in making the Convention a success beyond the show we wished for. The next one will be even better.
Follow this link to hear the files we broadcast live from Affiliate Convention. More files from the show coming soon.
Affiliate Convention – One more day for free registration
June 11, 2009 by Jim Hedger
Filed under Tradeshow Coverage, WMR Blog
Next week’s inaugural Affiliate Convention is shaping up to be a great conference. The speakers list is full, the keynote presentations are ready and the vast majority of the heavy lifting on the part of the organizers is complete.
When we started planning Affiliate Convention, one of WebmasterRadio.FM’s most important goals was to make the convention free to all working affiliates. WebmasterRadio.FM has a long and extremely proud history of bringing the best information to webmasters, Internet marketers and others in the online B2B marketspace. We take the same philosophy into all our endeavors in the hopes of building a stronger and more unified industry.
As much as we love giving stuff away for free, there has to be a cut-off point to allow us time to make lists and check them twice. For Affiliate Convention, that cut-off point comes tomorrow at the end of the business day (pacific-time).
If you are interested in attending Affiliate Convention for free, sign up in the next 24-hours!
Sign-up for a free pass to Affiliate Convention here.
Affiliate Convention Contest – 10 days left to enter
May 5, 2009 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
As most readers and listeners already know, WebmasterRadio.FM has partnered with AffSpot Forums and Ticonderoga Ventures to produce a new conference series known as Affiliate Convention. We’ve been busy the last few weeks getting the details together and honing the line-up for the Convention which takes place June 17 – 20 in Denver.
Because each of us at WebmasterRadio.FM and our partners have all been working webmasters at one time or another (many of us still are), we deeply value the efforts webmasters put in each and every day. In the affiliate marketing world, webmasters are the workers and we appreciate how hard that work is. To that end, any affiliate marketer who can prove their affiliation with a major network will receive free admission to the event.
Affiliate Convention Contest
One lucky registrant will receive a bit more than that. Anyone who registers for Affiliate Convention before May 15th (that’s a week from Friday), will automatically be entered into a draw for free round-trip airfare and accommodation at the conference hotel, courtesy of WebmasterRadio.FM and our Affiliate Convention partners.
Registration is fairly easy and the cost of admission is even easier. We’re still adding to the list of speakers and finalizing details of one of our legendary WebmasterRadio.FM parties to be held on June 18th. Watch the Affiliate Convention website for more details as they develop.
AB178, California Affiliate Tax Bill Dead (for now)
April 28, 2009 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
Debate over a California bill that would apply state taxes to sales of merchandise over the Internet has been put off until next year by the Assembly Revenue and Tax Committee. The bill, AB178 did not receive a hearing at yesterday’s meeting of the Committee thus pushing it to the back of a long list of other taxation bills for the Committee to examine.
The temporary shelving of AB178 is seen as a small victory for e-commerce businesses and affiliates who worked hard to lobby against passage. The California decision to put off debate on AB178 comes two weeks after a similar bill in Maryland, (Senate Bill 1071) was also allowed to be shelved without debate. Similar bills have also recently been defeated in Hawaii and Virginia.
While AB178 is unlikely to become Californian law in 2009, opponents warn that the bill might make a comeback in 2010 or be used as a negotiation chip in 11th hour negotiations during debate over the regular budgetary deadlocks that befall California. The California Board of Equalization estimates taxation of online sales could bring almost $150million into state coffers annually.
The California Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation published its analysis of AB178 before yesterday’s hearing. The analysis gives a good overview of the purpose of the bill and includes information from supporters and opponents. It also includes a list of supporters and opponents.
State taxation of online sales will be a session at the upcoming Affiliate Convention in Denver, June 17 – 20.
