I had the pleasure today of sitting down for a chat with one of my oldest friends in the business - Rachel Honoway - the VP of Marketing at Affiliate Classroom. Rachel and I go back to about 2001 when I joined Kowabunga Technologies as the original manager at Team Affiliate - KB’s outsourced program management division. Rach was awesome to work for and is one of the sharp minds in the business.

We talked quite a bit about the Affiliate Classroom Live event coming up on the Saturday preceding the Affiliate Summit East in August. I attended the initial Affiliate Classroom Live event in Las Vegas and it was well put together in terms of speakers and was well organized as well. My only complaint was that there were no tables for laptops and notebooks and that the chairs were not the most compfortable. Rach has promised more comfortable accomodations. The event was a full day event with more classroom content than networking time and was definitely intended as a pre-sell for the Affiliate Manager Certification that Affiliate Classroom was releasing at the time.

Rachel mentioned that this event will be more networking focused. There will be some classroom sesstions this time lead by Heather Paulson and Rebecca Madigan as well as a number of Round Table discussions lead by industry luminaries like:

• Peter Figueredo
• Trisha Lyn Fawver
• Lee “The Lead Man” Gientke
• Sam Harrelson
• Lisa Riolo
• Brad Waller
• Karen Garcia
• Wade Tonkin

Lisa Riolo’s presentation sounds really interesting as she is focusing on how to sell an affiliate program internally as this can be tricky. Affiliate marketing and the techniques involved can be a bit tricky to sell in some companies and I am sure that Lisa will have some awesome metrics that we can use to help make the case to either launch an affiliate program for the first time with a client, or to help garner more resources for the affiliate channel.

You can find more information and register for Affiliate Classroom Live at www.affiliateclassroomlive.com

Today was an awesome day as I had the chance to Skype it up the one and only Gary ” Gary Vee” Vaynerchuk

Gary is “The Man” when it comes to video casting - his video site at www.winelibrarytv.com is a definite must see for anyone who either likes wine… or just wants to see an example of a passionate human doing what he loves… or both.

We talked about a ton of things… wine being the least of them. Gary talked about the history of the Wine Library and how he was inspired to jump into the world of video casting, social networking and new media. He talked about his goals (buying the New York Jets and having a healthy family) and the obvious disparity there.

We talked about some of his recent appearances on major talk shows (Conan, Ellen, The Big Idea, Nightline, etc) and he talked a lot about how all of this media attention is great … he’s most blown away the the number of people’s lives he’s been able to impact and the feedback he receives every day because of what he does.

Gary also talked about what a day in the life of Gary Vee is like - (there is a TON of email interaction with fans happening) and just encouraged everyone to go out and live life to it’s fullest. Life is a blessing that is fleeting and we have to go out and put our passions into play.

We also talked about wine a bit including getting a tip on some tasty wines from Portugal and a Pino Grigio to avoid at all costs.

Gary is a really inspirational guy… an immigrant from Russia who loves America and the opportunities it has brought to him and his family. My favorite thing Gary said in the call was this:

“When I was about 30, I woke up and realized that I just wasn’t happy with my life… I was about 99% happy… but that was unacceptable”

So- he decided to “Bring the Thunder” and step up his efforts to take his message of togetherness built on a platform if wine to the masses.

Gary has stated that his one major public goal in life is to buy the New York Jets (you’ll see their logo on his spit bucket in his video casts) and I honestly don’t put it past him. The guy has a passion for life and for his family and for wine ( and no doubt for the Jets) that just oozes out of him. I’m fired up just Skyping with Gary.

Gary has done some awesome things in his business, building his family business from a $4 million a year business to a $50 million dollar a year business by attacking every day with a passion for life, and with a passion for impacting other peoples lives and bringing them together via his business and via his personal brand.

So - for all those folks who have emailed or commented here asking how to get started - I repeat the question I posed to you. What is your passion? What can you do to “Bring the Thunder” in your life?

You can learn more about Gary Vaynerchuk at www.garyvaynerchuk.com or check out his absolutely awesome wine ramblings at www.winelibrarytv.com

I am really excited to be involved with the marketing effort for GodBlogCon 2008.

I attended the show last year for the first time and I was really impressed with the conference that they put together. I had the chance to speak with Dustin Steeve, the Senior Director of the GodBlogCon and we had a great time chatting about how the GodBlogCon came to be, the evolution from an event hosted on the Biola University campus, the show’s co-location with the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas last year and again this year.

We also chatted on some of the presenters and presentations including mine, and on the networking and fellowship opportunities. The value of this event really goes beyond the content. It’s about being able to site down with and exchange ideas with folks from the the local pastor just getting started to major Christian groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and more. It’s a really cool event.

There is an affiliate opportunity here for Christian bloggers and podcasters. GodBlogCon is offering a 10% commission on registrations for GodBlogCon, BlogWorld Expo or combination passes. You can find out more about the program or join up via Shareasale.

I see it again and again; affiliates applying for an affiliate program of a merchant I work with.  I go to the application and click on the link to their site that they submitted for review.   I find…… a page full of banners and little or no content.

I do some homework with some cool little tools that I use to evaluate site’s traffic and I find very little or no traffic.   I’m not surprised.  Why would there be traffic?

Would you as a shopper knowingly seek out a page made up of just image ads?

The quality of the merchants you work with doesn’t even matter.   If you don’t offer any reason for someone to find you, let alone spend some time on your site, why would you expect them to act on your ads?

To be a successful affiliate - and by this, I mean someone who makes more than occassional latte’ or beer money from affiliate marketing, you need to add something to the conversation.  Better yet- why not start a conversation of your own?

“Banner farms” or sites made up of just a bunch of banner slapped up on a page - suck

Niche content pages are the way to go - find something you are passionate about, find a domain name that plays into your theme and start writing.   Review products, share your thoughts, share your expertise, react to other people’s thoughts and content - generate CONTENT.   Then, surround your content with ads targeting people who would be interested in your content.

Is your niche content page or blog about raising good Christian kids?   The you should be working with Nest Entertainment and Family Christian and promoting products that help parents raise good Christian kids.   Writing about Homeschooling from a Christian perspective?  You had better be hooked up with and promoting Alpha Omega Publications or Sonlight.

Do you see what I am saying?

Affiliate Marketing has NEVER been about just slapping up some banners and making money.  That is lazy.

Real affiliate marketing is about matching up people who are looking for a product with the product they want - and what better way to do that by giving your shoppers CONTENT to answer their questions and “pre-sell” them on the products that you would like them to buy.

You could also start a community based on your interest.  Chances are that other people have the same interests and concerns.  Let them start the conversations and suggests products and deals while you bring in the affiliate links.  It worked pretty well for FatWallet.com

Affiliate success is work… it’s not overnight.   But if you set out do do it the right way, you will be rewarded.

We’ll talk more tomorrow about pre-selling and reviews and the all important issue of INTEGRITY

God Bless,

Wade

I just read an awesome interview with Phil Vischer, the creator of the immensely popular Veggie Tales animated characters on Tony Kummer’s blog Ministry-To-Children.com

I really enjoy Tony’s blog as we both share a heart for ministry to children and youth. He puts together some good content on how to effectively minister to our kids so that they grow up with a love for and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

There were a number of cool things that Phil brought up in the interview on work and the relationship with our creator. Here are some of my favorites:

On what he learned about himself and his relationship with God in his book Me, Myself and Bob :

I wrote in the book that I had been drinking a dangerous cocktail - a mix of the Gospel, the Protestant work ethic, and the American Dream. “If you commit your life to Christ your work for him will be a huge success and all your dreams will come true.”

Well, that’s a lie. We aren’t called to lives of great success, great impact, great ambition. We’re called to lives of obedience. Lives of humility. Lives of waiting on God, listening to God, walking with God. That’s where we find our joy - not in our dreams of numerical success, in our relationships with God. I realized I had made the work I was doing for God more important to me than my relationship with God. And as I have been traveling and speaking, I have discovered that I wasn’t alone.

On the limitations of the ability to do complete ministry through entertainment products, even Christian ones:

And person-to-person contact is, by far, the best way to share God’s love. There is no “electronic” replacement for a hug. A loving look. A caring smile. Nothing I can put up on a screen can replace what a leader can do in a room with a child. Nothing can even come close.

He was asked what advice he would give to a zero budget church plant trying to do relevant kids ministry in a media driven age:

Focus on the things you can do that Nickelodeon and Disney can’t. You can tell a story - with eye contact and audience participation. You can hug. You can take kids on adventures outside - parks, pools, etc. You can make things together. Never assume that because kids sit in front of a screen at home, they should sit in front of a screen at church. Get up and move around. Sing. Years from now, those kids won’t remember what shows they watched or what video games they played. But they’ll remember the church worker that loved them.

Phil’s new project is “JellyTelly” an internet -based TV network targeting Christian families that he described as a “A tiny little Nickelodeon, where kids can spend time every day watching “mini-shows” (2-8 minute TV shows about science, nature, the books of the Bible, the work of the Church around the world, etc.) and play fun, safe online games. It’s sort of a cross between a kids gaming site like Club Penguin or Webkinz, and a high-quality, premium TV service like, say, HBO.”

If you would like more information on what Phil is up to next, you can check out his site at www.philvischer.com

I get a periodic email from the folks at Christianity Today that has a marketing focus.  I was just looking over the email that I received yesterday and I thought I would talk a little bit about marketing with email.   Despite all the talk of email being dead or on it’s way out as a hot marketing technique, you are still crazy not to build an opt-in list if you are a serious marketer.

I personally recommend using a tool like AWeber to handle the list management and delivery of your emails for you.  They specialize in running email campaigns for businesses and have great relationships with ISP’s and spam blacklists that insure high delivery rates.  They are able to do this because they are strict with their users, requiring a “double opt-in” to add  subscribers to your lists, and really strict when it comes to uploading existing lists to make sure that a solid opt-in relationship exists with your list through testing before allowing full  upload.

Once you have a list subscribed and permission to contact them, what are some best practices?   According to Nancy Flynn, author of The ePolicy Handbook and Writing Effective E-Mail, there are 9 tips you should keep in mind.  Some of my favorites include:

1. Write a subject line with “oomph.” A small but powerful weapon in the battle to capture reader attention, the subject line should reveal what the e-message is about before it’s opened. “Attracting and Retaining Top Performers,” for example, says more than “Employee Benefits.”

2. Never begin with thank you. You only have a few seconds to grab the reader’s attention. Start strong. Make your point in the first few words of your e-mail, then repeat, rephrase, and reiterate.

5. Remain gender neutral. Your intended reader may be male, but the ultimate decision-maker could be a woman. Avoid masculine pronouns and other “turn-off” language.

7. Resist the urge to CAPITALIZE!!! The eye is accustomed to reading a mix of upper and lowercase letters, so stick with standard style. And don’t slap exclamation points on the end of sentences!!! Instead, pump up your writing with descriptive language and well-crafted sentences.

I think that the bottom line on communicating with and marketing with email is that we have to remember that email is forever.   If we make a mistake and send out badly worded messages, or we get carried away with something negative in an email, it is going to find it’s way into hundred or thousands of inboxes.

As Christians, we are called to encourage others and be beacons of light to all we interact with.  Let’s make sure we do this in our email marketing and communications with clients and prospects.

You can check the rest of the tips at CTI Advertising

They have a pretty cool article on Lessons on Leadership from Moses - the First CEO as well.

God Bless,

Wade

I covered this on ChristianAffiliateNews yesterday, but I wanted to make sure that the word got out.

My partners and I at GTO Management have just re-launched the affiliate program for C28.com. If you aren’t familiar, C28 is a Christian multi channel retailer with a combination of their C28.com website and physical locations that are the Christian equivalent of mall stores like Zumiez.

C28 is a really cool company that is committed to seeing the Gospel preached to the nations. They look to inspire “sharing” conversations through their bold Christian clothing and accessories including t shirts, sportswear, hoodies, jewelry, shoes, and more. They are very committed to customer service and they do some things that I love in their ecommerce process that I noticed when I placed a test order. The “thank you” page and email that I received included a picture and a personal greeting from my customer service representative - Also included on the note was a prompt to send any prayer requests.

C28 is probably the best known and most established of the Christian clothing manufacturers targeting youth and young adults and if you have this traffic on your site, you should be working with them.

We chose to launch the C28 affiliate program in the AvantLink affiliate network for a few reasons. I am really impressed with some of the linking tools these guys offer centered around the C28 product datafeed including a store builder as well as raw feeds. One of the things that really impressed me the most is their Affiliate Link Encoder (ALE) technology that is awesome for content sites, bloggers and reviewers.

As an affiliate with the ALE script in place on your site, you can write reviews or articles on C28 products and link directly to them ( no need to look up individual product links ) and your visitors will be tracked to your site. Here is an example for you:

My favorite shirt of all at C28.com is the “Made to Love God Forever” t shirt - I love the bold statement that it makes to anyone who sees me wearing it. In fact - I was walking to lunch today and have a conversation with a guy on the street who saw the shirt and asked me what I thought it meant….

If you mouse over the link.. you will see the affiliate tracking in place. That is a seriously slick tool for people who like to blog or write reviews.

It’s an awesome reason to join AvantLink as well… as this linking technology works with any direct link to any active AvantLink merchants site.

C28 is paying commissions of 15-20% depending on sales volume. We’re looking for affiliates who will work hard to help us reach the world and share in our success. Are you interested?

Join the C28 Affiliate Program Now

Note: C28 does not allow trademark bidding on “C28″ “NOTW” or any mis-spells or derivatives.

In an effort to get my body moving, I am off tonight to do a little tennis coaching.   My hope is that I can pass on some of my love of the game while getting my butt moving from point A to C to C to D… etc for a while and get my heart rate up.

I need to get in and get some baselines done tomorrow for my cholesterol and blood sugar as well as get a good weight to see where I am starting.  I am determined to be in much better shape both weight-wise and cardio-wise before Affiliate Summit.

Any other Tennis players out there ?

God Bless,

Wade

I love seeing companies that are really involved in Evangelism and teaching the Word launch affiliate programs and i really love it when they have success with the affiliate channel. That sets the table for a conversation that I had last week with the team from MemoryCross.com

I sat down with Mike Vitamvas, Andy Lambert and Sandy Simpson and we talked about:

• The origins of MemoryCross
• Some of the major affiliations they have made (Billy Graham Ministries, etc)
• The prominent role of affiliate marketing in their online sales
• The details of their offer
• Their commitment to spreading the Gospel in all countries, including producing translations in a number of languages, as well as producing picture only versions.
• Their involvement in producing Vacation Bible School materials with a number of VBS publishers.
• Their commitment to putting product in the hands of affiliates to let them see what they are promoting.

The people behind MemoryCross.com are top notch folks with a heart for Evangelism. I heartily recommend that you check out their program. Here are some details:

• Software-based program - built into their cart
• Pays 10% commissions on sales on Tier 1 and 5% for Tier 2 sales
• $50 average order
• Affiliates often receive free product samples

If you would like to find out more about the MemoryCross affiliate program, please contact Sandy Simpson at sandy@memorycross.com or join now

I am super excited to announce that Gary Vaynerchuk will be joining me on the Podcast on June 23rd.

We’re going to be talking about “Passion” and how it pertains to building your business and how Gary has parleyed his passion for wine and his willingness to let that passion run wild on his video casts to build his business ten plus fold!

If you’d like to learn more about the incomparable “Gary Vee” check out his appearance on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch:

You can also check out Gary’s site at www.winelibrarytv.com

This is one podcast not to miss… if Gary’s passion doesn’t rub off on you… get your vital signs checked.

God Bless,

Wade