Posts Tagged shawn collins

Earth Day - Environmentally-Friendly Affiliate Practices

In case you missed it, today is Earth Day, a day for all of us to consider ways in which we can be better stewards of the earth given to us.Earth Day Affiliates - Environment

There are a lot of ways, big and small, that affiliates can make environmentally-friendly practices a way of life.

Here are some of them from GoingGreen:

  1. Unplug things when you are not using them. (Our stereo for example uses a lot of energy even when it is off, so I unplug it daily)
  2. Power down your computer.
  3. Turn your water heater down to 120 degrees.
  4. Test your windows and doors for leaks. Simply caulking it up could save lots of energy and MONEY!
  5. Have a faucet leak? Fix it.
  6. Stop junk mail. Find tips here.
  7. Use less energy in other ways, such as energy-efficient light bulbs.

More tips here: 40 ways to celebrate Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary.

Other affiliates and authors have covered affiliate-specific tips in depth, so I will simply link to their posts here and encourage you to consider our responsibilities to do what we can to help maintain a clean and safe environment.

Happy Earth Day!http://www.affiliatesummit.com/images/GreenAffiliate_small.jpg

Being a Green Affiliate by Eric Nagel

Becoming a Green Affiliate Marketer by Shawn Collins - Page 20 of FeedFront

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New ShareASale Pay Per Call Recording

Yesterday I was listening to the Affiliate Thing podcast with Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille and Shawn mentioned a new site called Fiverr.com.

I have been wanting a new recording for our Pay Per Call greeting on ShareASale but haven’t been able to find the right person. Fiverr made it very easy and we found a few great voices, from which we picked one, a lady named Geri (her Fiverr profile is here), who recorded our new greeting for all calls that go through our Pay Per Call platform. It is a great greeting, much better than our current one and as Jason Rubacky at ShareASale said, it will definitely increase conversions even more!

For more about our Pay Per Call Program on ShareASale read these posts:

RingRevenue CEO Writes about Legacy’s Pay Per Call

About ShareASale Pay Per Call

Lots of Great Press about our ShareASale Pay Per Call Program

You can listen to it below or download it and listen here.

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FeedFront Magazine Issue Ten is Online

FeedFront Magazine Robert CialdiniIssue Ten of FeedFront Magazine is online and has some great articles, affiliate tips, coverage of Affiliate Summit West, including the Pinnacle Awards, and tons more!

My article entitled Of Golf and Affiliate Marketing on page nine talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people in affiliate marketing. I share some valuable lessons in my life that learned growing up playing golf.

One of the quotes I reference is from one of my favorite people, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones who said:

“You are the same today as you’ll be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.”

In the articFeedFront Magazine Robert Cialdinile I warn affiliates against being sabotaged by negative relatives, friends, and online associates in the forums on in social media.

We all know them. They are the ones who think affiliates sit around all day playing on the computer or the affiliates who write 10 posts a day and 9 of them complain about how hard it is. They are all negative influences who drag us down.

Here is an excerpt:

If you want to be successful in affiliate marketing, stop hanging out with affiliates who whine all the time about the industry, their merchants, or their performance. Quit reading posts from people who demotivate you. Quit associating with friends who tell you that you need to get a “real job.”

Instead, find people who have a positive attitude about affiliate marketing and support you in your efforts. Find people who have been doing this for a while, had their ups and downs, failures and successes, and associate with those people. Find members at a forum like ABestWeb who are positive and helpful and read their posts. If you find someone who is always negative, avoid their posts at all costs.

You can read the full article on page nine.Patrick Vesperman FeedFront Issue Ten

My friend and fellow Affiliate Manager, Patrick Vesperman, also writes a great article about building relationships and learning from them. Ironically, it is a great follow-up to my article :)

Here is an excerpt of that article:

Around this same time I met Matt McWilliams at Legacy Learning Systems. I was looking for advice and he responded to one of my questions. He could have emailed me and that would have been that. Instead, he called. He didn’t have to, but because he called, Matt and I continue to correspond and find that we have more in common than just our roles as affiliate managers.

Issue Ten might very well be FeedFront’s best yet. Check it out here. Well done Shawn Collins and Missy Ward.

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Lots of Great Press about our ShareASale Pay Per Call Program

Legacy Learning Systems, ShareASale, and RingRevenue have been getting a lot of press lately about the success of our Pay Per Call Program on ShareASale.

Here is some of it.

Shawn Collins

RingRevenue Press Release - ShareASale Pay-Per-Call Exceeds Expectations

Dial R for Revenue

Actual Case Study on the ShareASale Blog - Legacy Learning Finds Calls Convert with ShareASale Pay-Per-Call

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Language Lessons from Orwell and Luntz

What can you learn about writing for your site from George Orwell and Frank Luntz?

Shawn Collins had a post yesterday that inspired me to revisit some of my notes on the topic of language and writing.

I have a piece of paper on my desk (well it is currently buried under a few articles I am writing and a list of things to do) that I constantly reference anytime I am starting an article or editing an article, or even when I am writing these posts here.

It is language lessons from two books and an essay that I have read in the past few months, Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, Words that Work by Dr. Frank Luntz, and the essay Politics and the English Language by George Orwell.

Here are my language lessons from these great authors.

  1. Don’t Bury the Lead. The lead is the most important, simply stated point of the article or page. Make it the first thing your readers see. Don’t make the mistake of “building up to it.” Give them the best part first and then give them a reason to keep on reading. A question is often a great way to start off (see the beginning of this post for example).
  2. The first paragraph is one sentence only. See #7 for more on this.
  3. Don’t use tired language, cliches, or common figures of speech. In other words, be original.
  4. When at all possible, tell a story.
  5. Paint a vivid picture. Your words should spark creative thoughts in the minds of your readers. Give them details and vivid portraits of what you are trying to say.
  6. Use small and simple words. Don’t make people have to find a dictionary.
  7. Make your sentences and paragraphs short as well. Usually this can be done by limiting paragraphs to one train of thought and by following rule #8.
  8. If you can eliminate a word, do it. This is especially important when editing down. I usually find at least 30 words in a 500 word article that I can do without. Example: “As I was thinking about what to write here, it occurred to me that I had nothing to write.” A better wording might be: “I was thinking about what to write here and I realized I had nothing to write.” It’s a subtle change, but it is both more active and three words shorter. Other examples “I often find myself considering…” becomes “I often consider.” “Due to the increased cost of attending college, I decided to skip my final year” becomes “As college costs rose, I decided to skip my final year.” Last example: My original wording for the 2nd sentence in rule #6 was “Don’t make people seek out a dictionary.” I changed it to “Don’t make people find a dictionary.” One word. It’s slightly more powerful, easier to read, and shorter.
  9. Don’t use jargon. This is particularly relevant to internet marketers who often use “techie” language.
  10. Use no more than two commas per sentence.

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Pinnacle Award Came Today!

I got my Affiliate Summit 2010 Pinnacle Award Affiliate Manager of the Year “trophy” at the office today.

Thank you again to Shawn and Missy for putting on the awards and to the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board members who voted for me.

Here are some pictures of me with the trophy.

Pinnacle Awards Affiliate Manager

Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award

It’s attacking me. What kind of an award is this?

Affiliate Manager Pinnacle Award

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Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Announced

Earlier today I was extremely honored to be named the Affiliate Manager of the Year at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards.

I was not at the awards ceremony (I was busy serving you here after all) but I did have one of our affiliates Joe Sousa notify me of the results and accept on my behalf on the off chance I won.

Well, I was incredibly surprised and honored by announcement that I won. I really don’t know what to say at this point other than thank you…

  • To my Heavenly Father for creating me and endowing me with the gifts I simply try to use to the best of my ability each day and fall woefully short of doing so…and for leading me here to Legacy Learning Systems.
  • To my wife, Tara, for being the voice of sanity in usually hectic days and always encouraging me to serve our affiliates better, among much more for which I am thankful to her. I love you so much, Sweetheart.
  • To you for being such great affiliates. Truly, you make it absolutely a true joy to serve you each day. Coming to work is a blast…except when our internet goes down or my printer doesn’t work haha.
  • To this company. To Gabriel Smith, our CEO, for trusting me to do what is right with this program and to our entire team for making such great products.
  • To those who nominated me. I found out there were more of you than I ever knew. I appreciate you thinking of me.
  • To Shawn Collins and Missy Ward for putting on the awards.

OK, I will spare you anything else, but I did want to write this and express my heartfelt gratitude for this honor.

Back to working on our Pay Per Call Campaigns on ShareASale!

About the Pinnacle Awards: The Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards are affiliate marketing?s most prestigious, competitive honor for the leaders in the space. Award winners are recognized because they are innovative leaders with vision and influence.

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More ShareASale ThinkTank Recaps and Pictures #ThinkTank09

As expected, a lot of the attendees are posting their recaps of the ShareASale ThinkTank event this past weekend, so I thought I would share as many of them as I can find with you, along with some more pictures of the event.? My recap is below amongst the pictures.? Yesterday I posted my Lessons Learned from ThinkTank :)

Unfortunately, I often forget that I have a camera and so I only took a few pictures, most of them of the beautiful golf course views and of Shawn Collins’ face :)

Shawn Collins Recap - Great recap. Shawn (@affiliatetip), Missy Ward (@missyward), and Jason Rubacky (@jasonrubacky) followed my foursome around on the golf course and constantly stalked us.? Weirdos :)? I had forgotten about that until I read the recap.? He covers other stuff too.

Joe Sousa Recap - Joe (@drcool73) is an absolutely awesome dude that I finally got to meet this weekend.? His misfortunes on the golf course were legendary and amused the masses profusely.

Logan Thompson Recap - I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with Logan on Saturday. Thanks for the kind words in your post!

Missy Ward Recap

Scott Jangro Recap - Scott is a fellow Red Sox fan so it’s always enjoyable seeing him.

Friday Tara and I went to Balboa Island and enjoyed the shops and ate breakfast there.? I had salt water taffy for the first time in my life and ate about 50 pieces over the weekend. Yum!

When we got back to the hotel, I headed to the golf course and warmed up before playing golf with Rob Duva of Ring Revenue, Durk Price of eAccountability, and David Zelken of ShareASale.

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Me, Durk, Brian, Rob, and David

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David Zelken taking a rip

We had a lot of fun and truly enjoyed the views of the course.? Here are some views of the course:

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View of the 5th Hole at Pelican Hill from the 4th Tee

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Number Seven on the South Course

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14th Hole on the South Course

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View from 14th tee back to the 13th hole

Here is a view courtesy of Shawn’s Flickr stream from the balcony where we ate breakfast and lunch Saturday of the 18th hole on the South Course at Pelican Hill:

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South Course 18th Hole - Pelican Hill Resort

Friday night, we had a great networking reception and the food was absolutely incredible.? I met some awesome people for the first time, like Liz Fogg Abanon (@eababon) and Mike Lyman with Signing Time,? and caught up with some old pals and acquaintances like Deborah Carney (@loxly), Joe Wojciechowski, Melanie Seery (@mellies), Ratna Venigandla, Adam Riemer, Geno Prussakov (@eprussakov), and more.

Saturday morning started off with a great breakfast.? I ate a LOT so I was in the mood for a nap after that, but instead I caffeinated myself and headed into the first sessions of the day.

After the men and women demographics sessions, we had a break, during which I began an apparently new trend of dipping white chocolate shavings into whipped cream, a la tortilla chips, at the coffee bar.? Yum!

Then it was time for my session, only I forgot it was my time.? I sat at my table looking up at the panel thinking “who is the doofus that is missing his panel?”? Come to find out that it was me! Oops!

So I ran up and began our session on Education and Life Experience.? My panel included Iman Jalali of Train Signal IT Training, Mike Lyman of Signing Time, and Kelly with Viator Travel.? Here is a picture of that.

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Panel on Education and Life Experience at ThinkTank

One of the cool features of the event was the big screen Twitter feeds behind us.? Of course, I, with my infinite ADD, got stuck behind the laptop controlling the screens and was constantly distracted by the various humorous posts with the hashtag #thinktank09, especially Shawn Collins’ hashtag spamming efforts.? He will stop at nothing!

After our sessions, we all had lunch with the various vendors.? Each vendor had a table and it was great to sit down with some of them and discuss how we could work together.? I truly finally meeting Sabrina Malone from WorkingMom.com and her husband for the first time. Sabrina, your painting course is on the way!? I also got to catch up with Angel Djambazov (@djambazov).? Here is the setting of the lunch:

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Vendor Lunch at ShareASale ThinkTank

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Shawn Collins and I Talking and Enjoying the View on Saturday

After lunch I wanted to take a nap, but instead I changed into shorts and a T-shirt (I was sweating profusely in jeans and long sleeve shirt) and headed over to our private cabana around the pool for meetings with affiliates.? What a cool setting!

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ThinkTank Cabanas

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Meeting with Jen Goode and Joe Sousa

Part of the way through, Brian brought us cupcakes and I devoured at chocolate with chocolate and more chocolate cupcake. Then I slept while affiliates came by and stole courses (kidding!).? It was around 5:00 PM and I had a break and found out that Tennessee lost to Alabama on a last second blocked kick.? I was then depressed for a bit but thankfully I got to meet with some people who cheered me up and truly inspired me.

That night, Tara and I headed down to Laguna Beach for dinner.

Sunday morning started off with another amazing breakfast. Waffles, and muffins, and omelets, oh my!? Then we had the “Things We Need to Fix Session” with Brian and the ShareASale crew.? Everyone had the ability to openly share feedback, ideas, and pose questions to each other and ShareASale.? It was a great learning experience as well as a great time to offer some ideas to ShareASale and discuss them with other merchants, affiliate managers, and affiliates.

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Things We Need to Fix Session

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Shawn Collins During the Session Twittering Away

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FeedFront Issue Eight - Check out Page Five!

Check out page five of the latest FeedFront Magazine!

My article entitled: "Affiliates: Stop Waiting for Overnight Success" is the first article in Issue Eight of what has become the leading affiliate marketing magazine.  It discusses some of the common mistakes affiliates make in trying to do too many things all at once, and trying to go from a newbie to overnight millionaire.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward have truly put together a winner each and every time and it only gets better.  If you have not already, make sure to subscribe to it and get it in the mail. 

I hope you enjoy the article!

http://legacyaffiliateblog.com/images/blues-guitar-small.jpg

http://legacyaffiliateblog.com/images/blues-guitar-small.jpg

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Affiliate Summit Slides

Thanks to Shawn Collins for commenting on my last post about this.

Yesterday I posted about the audio sessions for Affiliate Summit West 2009 and referenced the slides that are missing.? Shawn then commented on that post:

You can find the slides at http://www.slideshare.net/affsum

Now you can follow the slides along with the audio and really get the benefit of these sessions!

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Latest Issue of FeedFront Magazine is Out!

If you are not reading FeedFront Magazine, you should be!

It is published by Shawn Collins and Missy Ward and is always chock full of great information, helpful tips, and some awesome profiles on top affiliates.

Issue 6 is now online and has some great articles, but my favorites are by Andrew Wee (”Gearing up For Affiliate Marketing Success”) and a profile of super affiliate, Connie Berg.

Check out the latest issue here and subscribe to their updates…it is well worth it!

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