Win 3 free passes for Affiliate Summit West 2010 - Las Vegas baby!
It’s been 2 years since I was last at Affiliate Summit West Las Vegas so I’ve decided that I’m well overdue a return trip and have booked up for it again this coming January.
The event is without a doubt the biggest Affiliate Marketing event of any size in the USA and there are already over 3200 attendees booked up for it. It will be taking place from January 17th to 19th 2010 at the Rio hotel in Vegas. Passes start at just $149 going up to $1249. However, event organiser Shawn Collins has kindly donated 3 full Platinum passes worth $1249 each to readers of this blog. All you have to do in order to be in with a chance of winning is to leave a comment below saying what you will be looking forward to most if you attend the event. Closing date for entries is December 24th 2009. Travel and hotel accomodation is not included, you must make your own way there.
There are already about 10 of us heading out from the UK so if you’re interested in joining us please get in touch. We may be able to help you out with a good deal on hotels too 
Some useful links:
The UK Las Vegas Affiliate Summit Roadtrip group on Facebook
Official Affiliate Summit site
Official Affiliate Summit Twitter feed @affiliatesummit
You can also save 10% on the price of an Affiliate Summit pass by using discount code ASW10HERE. See you in Vegas!
What I’m listening to right now: Pet Shop Boys Christmas
P.S. Last time I was in Vegas I saw Prince, unfortunately he’s not playing this time but what other shows/concerts should I see?
The BIG Affiliate Window Christmas Incentive
Affiliate Window are in my book at least, the most proactive and useful affiliate network in the UK. They have just launched their AWinter Wonderland site which is an absolutely essential resource for all affiliates wanting to make the most of the Christmas season. It’s jam packed with retailer offers, promotions, incentives and pretty much everything you’ll ever need. If that wasn’t enough they also have a dedicated Christmas Twitter account @AWinXmas as well as their regular Twitter account @AffWin and unlike most other UK affiliate networks’ Twitter feeds, these are useful and updated daily. Oh and let’s not forget their regular offers blog which is also updated daily. Seriously, Affiliate Window could not make it easier for affiliates to promote their merchants.
The BIG Affiliate Window Christmas Incentive
However, just in case you did need some added incentive to promote Affiliate Window retailers this Christmas then how about the BIG Christmas Present incentive?
This year one lucky affiliate can win a VIP luxury holiday and they can pick from 1 of 5 destinations including New York and the Caribbean. Here’s how…
Well, entering couldn’t be easier! Every time you generate a sale for an AWin merchant we will allocate you one ticket for our BIG Christmas draw; it really is that simple! No catches, no minimum order values, no maximum entries, just an opportunity for every single sale-generating affiliate to be in with a chance of winning.
How easy is that? It’s also worth mentioning that any affiliate who completes their Darwin profile will receive DOUBLE entries into the draw, so well worth completing it now
Hats off to Affiliate Window, what a brilliant and easy incentive. I’ll be pushing your merchants wherever and whenver I can.
What I’m listening to right now: Young Nate - “Mixed Messages“
Supporting London Nude Tech 2010
London Nude Tech 2010 is the idea of Milo Yiannopoulos, former TechCrunch and Telegraph writer and now “mature” Cambridge student. The idea is simple, get 12 ladies and 12 men involved in the London tech scene to pose for a calendar-girls style calendar and sell it for the charity, Take Heart India. As with most things that Milo gets involved in there has been a bit of controversy, but I have to say in this instance I just think it’s a case of some feminists getting their knickers in a knot.
So how can you help?
Well, due to increased printing costs Milo needs to find another £1000 or so just to get the calendars made. So he’s asking for anybody involved in the tech scene to put their hands in their pockets by way of sponsorship. I’ve already donated and so has Frostie. So who else is up for it? This is your ideal chance to get in front of 5000+ techies while at the same time contributing towards a very worthy cause. There has already been a fair bit of press for this project with more to come when the calendar goes on sale, a fantastic opporunity for some PR. Let’s not forget also that for every £37 we raise, we can change a disabled child’s life forever.
Contact Milo directly if you can help, but hurry! milo@yiannopoulos.net
What I’m listening to right now: Bonfire Night Playlist
Twitter Lists - big opportunity - ShareMyTwitterLists.com anyone?
Any readers of this blog or anybody who saw me speak at the A4U Expo this year will know that I’m a big fan of Twitter and use it for lots and lots of things, mainly as a marketing channel in it’s own right. When I was asked at one session to recommend a future niche with little competition and plenty of opportunity I said that Twitter community sites/apps had huge potential. Well, here’s an example of what I mean. Twitter Lists.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Twitter Lists are gradually being rolled out to all Twitter users as we speak - currently about 50% of all Twitter users can see the Lists feature, eventually everybody will after the full roll out. Anyway, Twitter Lists are really simple (like all good ideas), it’s a feature that enables you to keep track of people’s Twitter feeds by splitting out the people you follow into…you guessed it…lists. So lets say you want to keep track of everybody on Twitter involved in Affiliate Marketing then simply create a List called “Affiliate Marketing” or whatever, and add some nice affiliate people into that list. Simple. For some more in-depth explanations click here and here.
For example, when you have the List function enabled this is what you will see:
What this basically means is that 7 people have put me into their Lists. So if we click on the number 7 then it shows you just who and what the lists are called:
From this page you can follow other people’s lists and generally keep tabs on what lists you feature in. As you can imagine this is very interesting. BTW @Cmoz has me in her “onehb” list which I obviously thought meant “one hot boy” but disappointingly the name comes from a lecture at TED, 5000 days of the Web by Kevin Kelly, its 1 Human Brain, meaning the Internet is and ultimate thinking machine. This is where CMoz puts all her brainy, innovators & “smarties”. Clearly I don’t fit in that group but I won’t tell her.
Anyway, the point of my post is that while Twitter Lists is cool I think there is a potential for a community site to be built around it. In the same way that Spotify is a fantastic music app it’s not designed to help you discover new music and playlists, hence I built ShareMyPlaylists.com. The same thing applies here, Twitter Lists can be fantastic resources but the only way you can discover them at the moment is if you are featured in one. So instead of building ShareMyTwitterLists.com (available to register right now btw) I’m writing this blog post to see if anybody else wants a go at it.
Why do I think Twitter Lists will be big? Here’s why…a few Tweets I’ve noticed today:
What does everybody else think? Are we all going to be measured by how many Twitter Lists we are errm listed on?
UPDATE: Literally 20 seconds after I published this post someone tweeted me to show me Listorious.com. Just goes to show how fast things move. Anyway, it looks good, can anybody better it?
What I’m listening to right now: “Kieron’s Electro Vol. 1“
Going on a (digital) mission to New York, New York
A few weeks ago a friend of mine pointed out the Digital Mission website to me and said I should consider applying for the next “mission” to New York in November. Seeing as I have plans to launch ShareMyPlaylists.com into the USA next year (or whenever Spotify launch) I thought it would be a good idea. So I duly applied and filled in all the online forms stating why I should go etc. then I found out a couple of weeks ago that I had been accepted!
The Digital Missions are run by Chinwag in conjunction with UK Trade and Investment and are designed to introduce you to key people in the “digital” sector in territories that you want to grow your business in. I’ll be in NYC for 5 days and there is already a cracking itinery put in place to ensure we make the most of the trip, including drinks at the British Consulate, so yes I’ll be breaking the suit out
For me, this will be a really valuable opportunity to meet some key players in the USA but I’m also really looking forward to meeting and spending some time with the other attendees on the mission and sharing experiences of running a startup. The last time I was in New York was over 10 years ago so I’m also really looking forward to going back and seeing more of the city and doing the whole tourist thing.
Have any other companies/startups thought about applying for the forthcoming digital missions? It’s not something I would have known about until recently but maybe it will be of use to ranyone reading this blog. Let me know if you apply.
What I’m listening to right now: “Le List“
It must be nearly Christmas, here’s etoys.co.uk again!
Well it’s once again that time of year, Christmas is looming and I expect more people to buy toys and games online than ever before, so what better reason to put a bit of spit and polish onto etoys.co.uk to capitalise on the Christmas traffic.
As always, the site is built on the Affiliate Window Shopwindow (v.3 now) toolkit which, as I said 2 and a half years ago…rocks. Well done guys
What I’m listening to right now: Delorean - “Deli”
Win VIP Beyonce tickets and 5 Star hotel accommodation
We’ve teamed up with UK Tickets to give away this fantastic prize for readers of my blog. Here’s what you can win:
1 x pair of tickets to see Beyonce play live on Monday 16th November 2009 from VIP seats at the fantastic O2 arena London, with access to the VIP bar
1 night’s accommodation at the 5 star Sheraton Park Lane hotel to see the night out in style
UK Tickets are new to the world of affiliate marketing and are offering this fantastic prize to help get the word out about their new affiliate programme, launched on Webgains where affiliates can earn 7.5% commission.
How to enter:
Simply paste a UK Tickets text link or banner on your blog/site between now and the 8th November 2009 to be in with a chance of winning. Yes, it’s that simple. Once you have put your link up email rachel@uktickets.co.uk with the URL of where the banner/link is placed and you will be entered into the competition.
Please note that the prize is non-transferable.
Good luck and thanks again to UK Tickets for offering up such a fantastic prize for my readers. The guys are very keen to work with all affiliates so please feel free to email Rachel with any queries about the programme. Sign up to the programme here.
What I’m listening to right now: Beyonce - “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)“
a4uexpo thoughts
Last week was the 3rd annual A4U Expo and I thought I would share some thoughts on it here.
For me, the real benefit of the conference was the opportunity to network, have meetings with people that I don’t normally have the opportunity to and also to catch up with old friends. Because I’m based in Sunderland and the companies that I work close with or predominantly based in the South then the Expo was a great chance to meet up with them in the same location and cram as many meetings in a couple of days.It was also great to just wander round the exhibition and catch up with friends who I normally only get the chance to speak to at these events.
As I was on 3 panels over the 2 days I thought I’d give my impressions on how they went:
The Affiliate Doctors Live - Day 1, 12pm to 1pm
Myself, Chris Garrett, Duncan Jennings, Jamie Harwood and Dixon Jones gave our honest opinions and ideas for a whole range of websites that were submitted in advance to us via this blog. Some of the sites we talked about were Sletoh.com, DVDBoxsets.co.uk, HomeandGardengifts.co.uk, Geekery.in, MobileMentalism.com and WhereCanIBuyOnline.com. Speaking to some of the site owners after the session, they seemed happy with the advice we had given out. Overall this was a fun session to run and I hope everyone thought we gave some useful tips.
Start-up And Launch Strategy - Day 2, 12.15pm to 1.15pm
I was really pleased to be on this panel as it was the “music” panel with me representing ShareMyPlaylists.com, Seatwave, GigLocator and Spotify in attendance. We were asked questions from the audience as well as our moderator, Pamir, who did an excellent job of keeping the conversation running. Feedback after the session was absolutely fantastic and it was brilliant to see a full room for this session. For me it was interesting to hear how other companies in this space were affected with similar issues to myself, especially around getting word out for your business, boot strapping, investment etc.
Meet The Super Affiliates - Day 2, 4pm to 5pm
As this was the second last panel on the last day and there were more than a few people in the audience who had clearly suffered “death by Powerpoint” from previous sessions I knew that it would be a bit of a challenge to get the audience participating. So after a slow start I invited questions via Twitter which seemed to get things going and also helped out those in the audience who were a bit shy or hesitant to speak out to a room full of people. Sessions like this are always a bit out of my control as we rely completely on the audience asking us good questions. Hopefully we answered as honestly and entertaining as we could and nobody was disappointed. If anybody was wondering why I gave the guy in the front of the audience a bit of a hard time when he asked about what would we do when Google ban all affiliate sites it was because he spent the WHOLE of the session talking to the person next to him and was very distracting. In fact I was very close to asking him to leave.
The 3 sessions that I would have liked to have seen but unfortunately missed were Joanna Butler’s “Barriers to Conversion and Discovering Untapped Opportunities with Analytics” - mainly because Joanna is a good friend, knows her stuff and it was me who persuaded her to talk Judging by the feedback I heard about her talk afterwards she did a great job. I was also gutted I missed Dom’s, Naomi and Mel’s talk entitled “You want to Tweet What!? - Social Media, Twitter and Affiliate Marketing” which was very entertaining by all accounts. Finally, Nadeem’s “My 12 biggest mistakes in 12 years” was very well received, most probably because he used a quote from me in his first slide
What were your thoughts on the a4uexpo? Do you have any feedback from any of the sessions that I was involved in? Please leave your comments below, I’d love to hear from you
What I’m listening to right now: Polly Scattergood - “Please Don’t Touch”
More a4uexpo blog posts:
Official a4uexpo Slideshare channel
Nadeem
The Bearded Warrior
One Little Duck
Ray
Elaine
Messy Desk
Shopzilla
CJ
Lammo
GeoffBlog
SEOGadget
Search Cowboys
Meet The Super Affiliates - submit your questions
On day 2 of the a4uexpo next week at 4pm the “Meet The Super Affiliates” panel will be taking place with myself, Phil Wilkinson, Tina Judic and Sri Sharma in attendance. If you would like to submit a question for us then please do so in advance in the comments below. Or if you’re a bit shy then email me. This is always a lively and entertaining panel and this is your chance to ask the guys the secrets of their success! Here’s some questions from last year to give you inspiration.
What I’m listening to right now: The Big Pink - “Dominos” not my usual thing but love it since hearing it on the Xbox 360 ad
Affiliate Doctors Live at the a4u Expo - submit your site
On day 1 of the a4u Expo myself, Dixon Jones, Jamie Harwood, Chris Garrett and Duncan Jennings will be participating in the “Affiliate Doctors Live” panel. This is where anybody can submit their sites for advice on issues within affiliate marketing, start-up strategy, conversion, blogging and SEO. It’s a great opportunity for a free consulation from some sector experts.
We’ll be taking questions and site reviews from the audience live on the day but in order to guarantee your slot we would also like to have some prepared in advance. So if you have a site, old or new and are looking for some tips on how you can improve it then please either email me via the contact form or leave a comment below. We’ll then pick as many as we can to discuss on the day.
What I’m listening to right now: Jay Sean ft Lil Wayne — “Down”
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other businesses. I thought it would be fun to blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
