At Affiliate Summit West in February, I had the chance to sit down with Geno Prussakov, the owner of AMNavigator, an outsourced program management service, and author to chat on his new book “Online Marketing Through Consumer’s Eyes” that he has just released the day before.

Geno is also the guy behind “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” that I really enjoyed as well.

Geno and I spent some time together (thanks to oneNetwork Direct for supplying the hospitality suite where we did the interview) and chatted about the new book. We talked about how the idea came to be (his lovely wife inspired it) how his data was collected (over 2700 respondants returned surveys and average Joe’s and Jane’s were interviewed) and some of the findings in the book that he considered to be key. He also talks about 5 of the key findings that he thinks are compelling to affiliate marketers. One of my favorites deals with an issue that has been debated between affiliates, merchants and affiliate managers over the ages regarding the commission leaking potential of toll free customer services numbers posted on ecommerce sites.

87% of the survey respondents reported that they would complete their order through a shopping cart on a site even if a toll free number to call and order was provided

The book is a series of graphs and explanations of findings that are presented in super practical and easy to understand form. I was able to blast through the book in the first day of Affiliate Summit in my down time and I found it really useful. I agree with Geno in that this book would be a good read and desk top resource for anyone involved in ecommerce - from merchant to affiliate to consultant.

User experience is often overlooked and is critical to successful affiliate marketing and ecommerce.

You can pick up a copy today at Amazon.

NOTE: This is a video interview from the vaults of ChristianAffiliateMarketers.com. Because of the file size, it took me forever to get it live and I am sorry - it’s good stuff and I want to thank Geno for taking the time to chat with me.   He’s a good guy, a friend and a brother in Christ.

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

 

 Podcast with Gary Vaynerchuk on Passion [13:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (254)


I’m definitely recharged after the long weekend, and I was excited that I had an early appointment this morning to chat for a while with Josh Wexelbaum of PositionLeap and the Scrappy Business Blog.

Josh is a Believer and an affiliate who makes his living promoting merchant offers via paid search with Google, MSN and Yahoo.  His affiliate work has enabled him to see the world through some really far flung travel that will be continuing shortly as he heads off to Shanghai for 6 months (have laptop, will travel)

I met Josh through some of his travels - he had actually rented a room with a former employers sister in Cape Town. South Africa.  We had the chance to meet in person at Affiliate Summit - with Josh joining us at one of the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association events.

Josh and I spoke today on a range of topics surrounding affiliate marketing using paid search - here are some bullets on what we covered:

• Josh’s entry into the business
• The travel friendly lifestyle affiliate marketing has made possible
• The basics of paid search based affiliate marketing
• Some of terms and conditions he likes to see from merchants and networks
• The importance of merchants placing conversion tracking code for Super-affiliates using paid search
• Some of the techniques he uses to test offers, then profit big from the ones that work
• Why merchants shouldn’t fear paid search affiliates if well regulated

I had a great time and we chatted for about 30 minutes - I hope you enjoy.

If you’d like to follow Josh and his writings and videos on online and affiliate marketing, you can check out his blog at www.scrappybusiness.com

 

 CAM Blog Podcast #8 with Josh Wexelbaum [32:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (235)

I took some time last week to sit down with Anik Singal of Blog Classroom on Skype and chat a bit their launch that happened about an hour ago

As you can see in my previous post, I am pretty excited about the potential that Blog Classroom has in the affiliate space, and the Christian affiliate marketing realm as well. I think that blogs are an awesome platform for getting started in the affiliate business because they are easy for a non technical person to get into and they offer some distinct advantages in terms of Search Engine Optimization over building a site from scratch in HTML etc.

Enjoy the audio!

 

 Part 1 of PodCast focusing on impending launch of Blog Classroom [4:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (100)

 

 Part 2 of PodCast focusing on impending launch of Blog Classroom [4:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (97)

Just got into Vegas and checked in at the pleasantly not-burnt-to-a-crisp Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino

Heading to the Rio here shortly for dinner with some other early arrivers and looking forward to seeing the “Family” again.

Armed with my trusty Flip Cam, I shot some video in my cab on the way here to talk about what I’ll be up to and blogging on tomorrow. It’s goign to be a busy day with the Affiliate Fit Club 7:00 am walk, the Affiliate Classroom Live affiliate manager training day, service at the SinglesofFaith.com Workday, and a couple of parties (ThePartnerMaker and BuyAt)

I’m also meeting Geno Prussakov to get a copy of his new book, which I’ll be interviewing him on later in the week.

It’s going to be a busy few days in Sin City… stick around!

God Bless,

Wade Tonkin