I took some time last week to site down with Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit and talk for about 25 minutes.

We covered a ton of topics including:

• Recap of Affiliate Summit West where a record number (~3000) of affiliate industry folks gathered in Las Vegas
• Look ahead to Affiliate Summit East in Boston in August including discussion of some new educational tracks that are being offered.
• Talkin’ Baseball - Shawn and I are both degenerate baseball fans and we’re excited to be in Boston and hitting a game in Fenway Park
• Talked at length about some new innovations including the new Amazon MP3 Widget and MyWedding Favors video integration with Qoof.com
• Quick discussion of Shawn’s video review site at WeViews.TV
• Talking a bit about how to get started in video blogging
• More talk on Affiliate Summit and what newbies to the business can expect out of the show.
• Talked about Affiliate Summit Twitter Giveaway
• Talked about the “Jim Kukral is ruining Twitter” controversy
• Shawn’s wife’s new blog at AsktheMama.com that has outpaced Shawn’s traffic out of the gate.

Shawn also has provided us with a coupon code for CAM Blog Followers - if you’d like to save some bucks on Affiliate Summit, please click on one of the links on this blog, then use the code ” CAMBLOG10”

Enjoy - Next Up Chris and Vinnie from PianoWizard.com on their products and affiliate program, then Andy Beal on Reputation Management and Monitoring

Last week, I had the chance to connect with longtime friend and mentor Jim Kukral to chat about online video and specifically, how people new to making user generated video can “find their voice” and use this to their advantage as marketers.

Jim and I discuss some of our favorite video bloggers as well as Jim’s new project OnlineVideoToolkit.com where he shares his techniques for generating quality online video on an entry budget of $200 or less.

Some of the video bloggers that we mentioned are:

Jim Kukral

Gary Vee

Tim Carter

If you are looking for a Christian example of awesome use of online video, search for “Mark Driscoll” on YouTube. Mark is the Senior Pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Seattle and is an awesome user of video to get both his sermons out, as well as some really fun shorter teachings and rants.

The main point of the discussion is that marketing with video is the wave of the present and near future. If you aren’t in the game, your competitor is or will be soon. The barriers to entry are low and you should not be afraid to jump into generating online video with passion on your area of interest.

To help folks who are new to the online video game, Jim has released a new free course at www.onlinevideotoolkit.com - check it out today.

God Bless,

Wade

The email from John indicated that all affiliates owed $10 or more in commissions would have a check coming their way by May 31st 2008 to close out the books. He also indicated that the hope at USN would be to resume operations if enough well converting Faith and Family friendly offers were identified.

I’m sad to see this happen within 1 month of Manna Marketing also going under. John and Jack are great guys, were excellent to work for (even though things didn’t work out) and were inspirations to me in my faith walk.

Christian merchants will now need to look to the secular platforms for their affiliate programs or to self hosted software applications. My recommendations for affiliate networks of choice are Shareasale for the budget conscious merchant, or AvantLink for the really serious Christian retail merchant who is looking for advanced datafeed handling and merchandising features.

I know there is a pretty serious concentration of Christian affiliates at Shareasale that are working with IBS Direct and Faithwear as well as SinglesofFaith, and I would love to see a good core of Christian affiliates at AvantLink as well.

Any existing USN affiliates or merchants with questions should contact John Porricolo at jjp [ at ] unitedsharingnetwork.com

I am also looking into another promising affiliate/ecommerce system targeted at the faith-based market, but I have some tire kicking to do before I recommend it.

Good luck and Godspeed to John and Jack in whatever venture they decide to attack next.

Wade - Why do you turn down application from prospective affiliates for the programs you work for? What can I do to make sure I get approved?

Great question - yes, I have been known to decline applications for affiliate programs that I manage. I’ve declined quite a few of them actually. Some ( a lot of folks on ABestWeb) would argue that this is a bad idea. They argue that you never know who your next big affiliate in development might be - and they may have a point in a few cases. I do have a few things that I look for in an affiliate application that I base my judgements on. Here is a short list:

• A live website or blog that I can look at and see some content
• Links live on the site from other affiliate programs
• I HATE “banner farms” and will decline any application from one. What is a banner farm? It’s a site that offers nothing but banner after banner after banner in a big long scroll monster, or even categorized.
• I look to establish actually ownership of the domain in question.
• PASSION - I love to work with affiliates who love their site topic and the products they promote
• Traffic levels - My clients want results - and sites with existing traffic (judged by a combination of tools like Quantcast and Compete.com)
• Blogs - I love active and well written and commented blogs. Well written blogs will have natural traffic from the search engines.
• Sites or blogs featuring product reviews, or better yet product reviews using video.
• If you are a Paid Search affiliate, send me to site where you explain how you drive traffic.
• Sites with a focus - if you try to be everything to everyone, chances are you won’t do well for any of them. If you love camping, blog or build a site on camping and camping products, etc.

If you have one or more of these things going for you, and the site you list in your application has something to do with the program I am managing, I will most likely approve you right away.

If you don’t, I will probably email you and ask you what you have in mind, and if you can show me any of your online properties that do match the program.

If I don’t see any obvious fit at all, or I see content that my client wouldn’t associate their brand with, I will probably decline. If I miss something, please email me and point me in the right direction or ask me to reconsider (professionally)

For best results, here is what I recommend that you do.

• Make sure to keep your network profile updated so I can see the right site or sites that you would like reviewed
• If the network (like SAS) allows you to make a note specific to the application, write me a quick note explaining what you have in mind.
• Email me when you apply - “Hey - I just applied for your program - here is what I do, here is what I have in mind, and here are some of the other programs I promote, and btw, I have 5 sites/blogs and an email list that I think would really work well for promoting XYZ.com’s products.

If you do this (with any program) you will have a great chance of getting approved.

God Bless and happy selling!

Wade

Kevin, one of the moderators discussed his experience when he applied for and was turned down (incorrectly) for an affiliate program:

So what? Don’t take it personally. Here’s my latest example.Signed up (applied) for a merchant I really wanted to work with at CJ, because they’re great for my vertical.

A few days pass, and I get the “We regret to inform you…” email in my CJ inbox.

So rather than coming here and blasting the merchant (even though my main website listed is a great fit for them), I did the human, common sense, friendly thing to do. I emailed them at the address provided at CJ.

Dear merchant:

I get 30 to 50 people a day looking for XXXX specifically. What say you reconsider?

Thanks,

Kevin

48 minutes later, I have an offer in the CJ interface. Done and done. Links are going up in a minute.

Now, this is obviously also a good merchant: attentive, responsive, and looking for value added affiliates. So it won’t always be like this, but do the smart thing before you start torching people. Send an email, pick up the phone, whatever….

I loved this post because I  feel in a lot of ways the “level of discourse” in our society and in our business is really going down the tubes.  If someone feels slighted in any way, instead of making a polite email inquiry or phone call to look into the issue, or ask for reconsideration, they launch into an angry diatribe on an industry forum or a blog.

As Christians, I think we need to set the tone here and make sure that we’re treating folks like “neighbors” even if they make a mistake that we can’t understand.   We need to take a deep breath,  maybe step away for a coffee ( sorry - was raised Lutheran,)  then respond by extending some grace.

Trust me, I know as much as anyone that it is easy to rip someone in a blog post, etc.   But we should always try to lead with some love and understanding first.

Way to go Kevin!

God Bless,

Wade

Wow - just returned last night from an amazing weekend on a marriage retreat put on by my church at Barnabas Family Ministries in Keat’s Island, British Columbia, Canada. The weekend, in a word was AMAZING.

The location was remote - no TV’s cell reception or wireless access - and also no distractions. 16 couples from my church joined speakers Steve Bury of Urban IMPACT in Seattle and his wife Sandi to focus on building healthy marriages and making healthy marriages contagious. The sessions ranged from the usual stuff (Communications, Praying together, etc) to the fun and goofy (planning special occasions for your spouse) that had us shedding tears of laughter.

We made a ton of new friends from our church as well as some friends at Barnabas that we’ll keep in touch with.

The accomodations were first class - more Bed and Breakfast style than hotel style with wonderfully decorated rooms with antiques, stunning views of the Howe Sound and the Sunshine Coast and food that was absolutely unbelievable. Gourmet with a focus on locally grown ingredients. Our favorite part of each meal (other than diving into the food) was the “unveiling” of each meal. Kathy, our host would uncover and describe each course of the meal in (drool inspiring) detail. They even do cereal right.. their home made Granola was to die for (we bought their cookbook)

The stories the staff members share on the origins of the Ministry itself are inspiring and speak to God’s hand and God’s timing. The ministry takes it’s named from Barnabas - Paul’s companion on his missionary journeys who was known as the “Son of Encouragement” - and their aim is to encourage Families and Marriages to be fruitful and meaningful in Jesus’ name.

If you are in the Northwest and looking for an awesome spot for a Marriage or Family retreat, you should check out Barnabas. You will leave with relationships with your family or spouse, as well as your fellow attendees strengthened and your batteries recharged.

Most importantly to me - it made a real impression on my wife. I was raised in the church but fell away for a time. My wife was not raised in the church due to family conflicts. Her faith walk and my faith walk are in different stages for sure and she went more as a favor to me. She genuinely enjoyed herself, loved the companionship with the other couples and got a lot out of the weekend that helped her in her walk. I even say her read the Bible and have a discussion with me on something she read for the first time in 11 years of marriage. The friendships we built with other couples will continue to nurture her faith walk and I am so glad we did this.

God Bless,

Wade

Please pray that we’ll have a weekend where God’s word is spoken and heard

God Bless and see y’all Monday.

Wade

The total cost you pay in the installment program is a bit more ($561.00 vs $497.00) but that is the cost of convenience and a smaller initial investment.

If you are looking to take the leap into serious blogging for profit, I recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity. Remember, there is also a money back guarantee in place here. If you buy Blog Classroom, and actually put their techniques into play and do not receive traffic to your blog, they will give you your money back.

NOTE: making a profit from the traffic you get is up to you and you should know this going in. Whether you plan to monetize with affiliate offers, your own product and services sales, or AdSense, you will need to produce quality content, and work the program to get your traffic.

I am here to tell you that blogging works. I started this site almost 2 years ago, and I wouldn’t have dreamed that I would be receiving traffic in the thousands monthly and would have companies approaching me to advertise their affiliate programs and place their products in my video casts, or that I would have generated enough revenue from the Affiliate Summit affiliate program to pay my way to Vegas.

Get started with Blog Classroom now for 3 payments of $187

If you work at it, it will work for you.

God Bless

Wade

I am curious to see what everyone else out the encountered. Thanks to all of you and my link partners, we took a positive bump back to our all time high of 6/10.

Traffic is at an all time high as well. Thanks for all of your support.

God Bless,

Wade

Each Wednesday morning, I gather with 8-12 men from my church for breakfast, Bible Study and prayer.

This morning, we watched one of Rob Bell’s Nooma videos - Nooma #3 “Trees” The message was a pretty cool one that I think we can all apply to our lives today as we work, and as we interact with our families, friends, clients, customers and the public at large.

Rob talked about how he was traveling once in a rental car and could not find the button to turn off the radio.  He ended up listening to a well known radio evangelist for longer than he wanted to.   The message presented was that we should all have Faith and wait patiently for the Lord to come and do what he would.   Rob differed with this guys advice and here’s why.

If we sit back and wait, and don’t let our Faith take action, we are wasting so much awesome opportunity to go out and impact the world for Christ.   Jesus was not a man of waiting… he was a man of ACTION.   In the roughly 3 years of his ministry, we hear constantly of Jesus DOING.  He preached, he taught, he healed, he interacted with people who needed help.   He LOVED the world through his actions.   The he called his disciples to do the same and calls us to do the same as well.

The time we are living in now is part of the Eternity we’re spending with the Father.  Are we acting like it?

Let’s go out and live our lives with the joy that we have in Jesus Christ every day.  Let’s be stoked about it and share that enthusiasm and passion with others.  Enthusiasm and passion are contagious and we have so much to be enthusiastic about.

Let’s have a Faith that lives and breathes and grows and ACTS.

God Bless,

Wade