Shawn Collins has been a great contributer to the internet marketing world. He co-founded affiliate summit, and runs a very helpful blog, blog.affiliatetip.com. Thanks to Mr. Collins for taking the time out to do the interview!

You currently have many projects going online, do you have a favorite?
[Shawn Collins] As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. So I see blogging as something of a passion project. I enjoy writing every day on affiliate marketing and other subjects.
 
Why did you decided to start Affiliate Summit?
[Shawn Collins] There was an existing conference called Affiliate Force, but I thought there were a lot of aspects that could be improved. I offered my suggestions to the guy running Affiliate Force, and he wasn’t interested in what I had to say. Soon after, I approached my current partner, Missy Ward, and we began devising Affiliate Summit.
 
Affiliate Summit has seen great success. Any big plans for the future?
[Shawn Collins] In addition to the big east and west Affiliate Summit shows, we are going to start putting on single day niche events around the U.S. (i.e. social media and affiliate marketing or video and affiliate marketing).
 
Why type of internet marketing got you started in the industry?
[Shawn Collins] I didn’t have any marketing background when I got started. In early 1997, I started up as an affiliate for Amazon, and later that year I managed to get a job as an affiliate manager for an online medical bookstore. It was on the job training and I’ve learned every day since then.
 
What effect do you think blogging has had on affiliate marketing?
[Shawn Collins] Blogs has been a blessing and a curse for affiliate marketing. The blog as a publishing platform has made it easier for aspiring affiliates to get into the business and make money without any technical skills. However, the automation enabled by blogs has led to extensive content theft, spam blogs, comment spam, etc.
 
Do you have any blogs you read on a daily basis?
[Shawn Collins] Off the top of my head, I regularly read 45n5.com, calacanis.com, CostPerNews.com, JimKukral.com, ReveNews.com, Search Engine Land, and Seth Godin’s Blog.
 
Any personal plans/goals you have coming into the new year?
[Shawn Collins] I actually just blogged about that a couple days ago: http://blog.affiliatetip.com/archives/new-years-resolutions-from-affiliate-summit/

 Thanks to Shawn Collins again for doing the interview! Everyone go and check out blog.affiliatetip.com, tons of useful information there! 

Affiliate Summit West is coming up and I wish I could go, however I am only 18 so going to Vegas would not be much fun for me. I will however be attending Affiliate Summit East in Boston this August! Is anyone else going?

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It seems there is another battle brewing between two blogs, WinningTheWeb.com and TylerCruz.com.

Both blogs are very similar in nature, however TylerCruz.com has much better stats than WinningTheWeb.com.

I have decided to participate in the contest. In the guidelines you must write a blog post about who you have decided to vote for and why. You can win $100 cash if your name is drawn, and there will be three $100 prizes. The loser of the contest must pay three lucky winners $100 of who voted for the winning blog.

My vote is going for Gyutae from WinningTheWeb.com. It was a tough decision as I love both blogs, however it seems like Gyutae is EXTREMELY motivated for people to read his blog. I like how he jump started his blog by buying all those reviews, and then gave away all those reviews. It was such a great idea, and brought him alot of traffic. I remember reading a blog post from JohnChow.com about the art of the ramp, which basically states that its better get a huge rush of traffic one day, than to spread out your advertising campaign throughout the week. I wish I would have thought of it :(  WinningTheWeb.com is also giving out 30 free t-shirts to the first 30 voters. That was a great idea by Gyutea, as everyone loves a free t-shirt, and even if they don’t win the $100, they are still winning something!

Stats say that Tyler will win, he has over 1000 subscribers and his blog has been around for much longer. However I am going for the underdog here. I think Gyutae is fresher in the minds of bloggers and internet marketers, as everyone remembers the big review giveaways just before Christmas. I think Gyutea is alot more motivated to get his blog noticed throughout the web, since it is so new.

I am pulling for you Gyutae, and hope you win!

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If you are new to promoting offers through Yahoo! search marketing, you may want to check out their free webinars for more information about how to get a campaign started with them. The webinars are pretty basic, so I would only register if you have never advertised on Yahoo! or just started.

Sign up for them here.

The sessions coming up currently cover: 

Webinar #1: Key Terms, Account Interface Overview and Structure
How the Sponsored Search product works
The account structure and the elements at each level
A high-level review of each main section of the account interface
 

Webinar #2: Creating a New Campaign
An eight-step process that includes:
Adding keywords using the keyword selector tool
Creating two ads to test performance
Geo-targeting and match types
 

Webinar #3: Keyword Tips and Best Practices
How adding keywords can lead to an increase in traffic and an overall improvement in your account’s effectiveness
Ensuring keywords are related to the content, theme and purpose of your web site
Using match types and excluded words

Again, as you can tell by the descriptions… they are covering the basics.

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So I just got an email telling me that Ask.com is being sued for click fraud. I guess alot of people didn’t really like the traffic, so they are suing for advertising credits. Here is how my story goes:

Back in October, Ask.com was at the ecomxpo, and they were giving away $50 advertising vouchers. I had never advertised on Ask.com before, so I thought I would try it as it was totally free. The campaign ran, and I got 0 conversions. I never advertised on Ask again.

About two weeks ago I got a phone call from Ask.com asking me if everything was “OK” with my account. Kinda a strange phone call as they basically asked me why I am not spending any money with them. I told them I didn’t like the traffic and they left me alone.

Then I get this email:

Legal Notice:

If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively “Ask”) between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.

You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.

The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court’s certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.
The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.

The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.

If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.
For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: AskSettlement.com/claim. Each advertiser will be allowed one claim per account.

I have no idea if this is fake or what, but it seems pretty legit. I am personally not going to do anything about it because technically I didn’t spend any money with them, so it doesn’t bother me. However, if you spent alot of money with them, it seems you may be able to get it back.

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I hope everyone has a great new year!

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I recently just added the MyTopSpots widget. If you haven’t heard of it yet, basically you “tip” me to add your link, rather than buying it. It is a great idea, as the blogger will not get slapped by the Google PR stuff for selling links, as the links don’t count towards pagerank. My blog has no page rank as it was started just after the last PR update.

In the recent Entrecard post review, a commenter gave me a great idea. Since alot of people using Entrecard dedicate hours daily to dropping Entrecards on blogs, now known as “chain dropping”, I thought I would add the widget just below the Entrecard widget, allowing those chain droppers to see the links. I started using Entrecard about the second week in December, and have had around 400 cards dropped on me. So if you buy a TopSpot, you are bound to get plenty of clicks and for $2 a spot, you will get your money’s worth.

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If you haven’t read NickyCakes.com yet, you need to! It is quickly becoming my favorite blog. The way NickyCakes writes his posts makes them extremely funny. The best part is, he actually gives great valuable information. Who cares what anyone had for lunch? I personally consider it the Facebook ads bible. If you are looking for a blog that after you read it, you are better off, then NickyCakes.com is for you. Thanks again to NickyCakes for doing the interview!

Your blog, NickyCakes.com is an extremely fun blog to read, what made you start it?
Mostly because Nickycakes was tired of seeing so many garbage blogs and forums out there with tons of readers, packed with affiliate links, but providing no real information on getting started in internet marketing, and presenting no real innovative ideas.  The guys making a lot of money tend to keep their secrets to themselves, to make sure they profit for
as long as possible.  But let’s face it, working alone and keeping everything to yourself is for basement dwelling losers.  Plus it’s boring.
 

Is NickyCakes.com something you are looking to profit from in the future, or just a hobby?
The primary purpose of the site is to help the newbie and non-newbie alike with new ideas.  However, a brotha’s gotta eat, so you will see affiliate links from time to time.  What you won’t see are affiliate links for bullshit products that Nickycakes has not checked out himself and found useful.  The site has already made a small profit, but that’s just icing on the cake.  The Cakes, in real life and online, likes to meet new people and make (non idiotic) friends, and so far that has been
the site’s greatest success.
 

Would you be interested in sharing some of the things you were doing when you were wearing the blackhat?
Nickycakes doesn’t have to call his lawyer to know that he’d advise against it.  You can be sure it wasn’t the “blackhat” that’s thrown around on webmaster forums referring to guys running autoblogs and trackback spamming.  The wikipedia article on blackhat has a decent overview of what blackhat is.
 

You talk about internet marketing and affiliate marketing alot, what  aspects of internet marketing are you currently doing?
Right now, trying everything and seeing what sticks.  The stickiest so far has been facebook flyers which are both incredibly simple to understand and incredibly easy to “game”.  The Cakes is also starting a series of local niche business directories with multiple monetization methods, such as contextual advertising (adsense), affiliate offers (dating, software installs, whatever), and subscription services for the local businesses if they’d like sponsored listings.  It will be an
ongoing, documented process on the blog and hopefully will make a little cash.  Other than that, the only other internet business Nickycakes is currently doing are small coding projects upon request.  Mostly things like content scrapers.
 

What affiliate networks would you recommend to the new affiliate marketer?
New affiliate marketers should, no matter what, sign up for these two networks:

NeverblueAds -
For a newbie, this network is perfect.  They have great affiliate
managers to help you get started, the interface is really clean and easy
to understand, they provide you with detailed information on what each
offer requires to get a conversion, and they pay on time.

CPAEmpire -
While CPAEmpire’s interface leaves something to be desired compared to
Neverblue, they make up for it with customer service.  They’re super
competitive and willing to bend over backwards for their affiliates.
When was the last time you got a call from the CEO of an affiliate
network 2 weeks after signing up asking how he could help you make more
money.  They also do weekly payouts which is rare in the affiliate
marketing industry.

One of your more recent posts, “The top 10 worst sites for making money online”, was hilarious and I agree with you on most of the top 10. Why do you think some of these websites like JohnChow.com are so popular?
It’s really a great example of how many gullible retards there are out there.  Does John Chow make a lot of money with his blog?  Yes, presumably.  The guy is obviously good at marketing, but at the end of the day, he got most of his subscribers by gaming digg for frontpage stories 3 days in a row.  The truth is, the way many people think they can get ahead in life is by copying the lifestyle of someone who is already successful.  They see someone like Chow and think that if they don’t subscribe and read his blog every day, they’ll miss the day when he drops some mad knowledge bomb that will make them millions, but that day never comes.  And why would it come?  The day John Chow gives people enough information to get rich is the day that they don’t need to read his blog anymore looking for ideas to make money, and they certainly have no reason to check out his e-book or click any of his get rich quick affiliate links.
 

What blog or website does NickyCakes hate the most and why?
Honestly, Nickycakes finds it hard to hate anyone.  All those crappy make money online blogs are just other dudes tryin’ to make a buck or whatever, so no real hate toward them.  If the Cakes had to pick a website he hates looking at it would have to be his dad’s website.  His dad is a famous artist, but his website is written in notepad with code from like 1998 and he refuses to change it.  The art is beautiful but the site looks so damn ghetto you could cry.
 

You talk about facebook ads alot. Do you think that advertising on facebook is still profitable?
Think?  More like KNOW.  Go read Gaming Facebook Ads Part 1, and Part 2.  Pretty much everything in those articles still holds true and will make you money if you aren’t a complete retard.  Let’s put it this way, with just the tools in those two articles, Cakes is gettin more Cash than the “Walk the Line” sound track.
 

Any blogs you read on a regular basis and would recommend to others?
Eli’s Bluehat SEO, while not updated on a very frequent basis, is an incredible resource for anyone starting out.  You are doing yourself a disservice if you have not read every post on thatsite. Uberaffiliatehas some good articles and was my original inspiration to get into facebook ads. Smaxor is pretty much a genius with “creative” SEO. Maddox is always good for a laugh.

Thanks once more to NickyCakes for the interview. You def. need to visit his blog and subscribe right away!

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Happy holidays to everyone! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday and time off!

Personally, I have alot of goals going into 2008. Promoting my blog, launching some new campaigns, and trying to finally break into email marketing. One thing I am going to do differently is stop reading so many blogs and using my time more productively. Anyone else have any goals for 2008? I would love to hear them!

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I have been running the Entrecard widget on my blog for around three weeks now. I wrote a review when I first added it to what my initial impressions were, so here is what I think about it after running it.

Pros:

• It will bring you some traffic, and the traffic is free. However, most of the traffic seems to be from “chain droppers” who just go around dropping their cards on every blog running Entrecard so they can get enough credits to advertise on Problogger or John Chow. One idea that I read somewhere was that maybe Entrecard could disable the 125×125 block for like 10 seconds after you drop a card so at least the person glances at your blog.
• Small chance to advertise for free on some great blogs. John Chow, Problogger, and John Cow are some of my favorites that you can get 24 hours of free advertising on. The only problem is, catching the ad when the advertising is filled up is extremely rare. I have never been logged in when John Chow or Problogger widget is open for advertising.
• Entrecard is motivated! It really seems like these guys are just going to keep improving and getting better. I really don’t understand why there aren’t more blogs available to advertise one. Maybe they should start some marketing?

Cons:

• The traffic is mostly from chain droppers, people who just go to every blog and drop their card so they build up enough credits.
• Only one size you can use. Maybe they could allow larger Entrecards, and depending on how large it would cost more and more credits.

So in my opinion, the pros out-weigh the cons. You definitely need to put the widget on your blog! It is free traffic, and a chance to advertise on some blogs that don’t normally allow advertising.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Check out the new theme! Personally I love it, and think Adii’s designs are amazing.

The blog really needed a new look, as the old one kinda looked like a 10 year old designed it. This theme has alot of really cool features on the back end for easy customization. Really helpful to me as I am retarded when it comes to coding websites.

Some new things are going to be in the navigation of the site. Under the logo, there are two categories right now however I am going to add an off-topic category and a videos section. The videos will be about internet marketing and will be collected from other sites. I’ll add a few random ones from time to time.

This is not a custom theme, it is one of Adii’s premium themes, however in the new year I am going to have a little customization done.

If you noticed on the right hand side, there are four 125×125 blocks for advertising. Rather than putting adsense in them, I am going to just give them away for free for January. So, if you want your ad in there for the month of January, contact me and send me your 125×125 ad, and I will put it up. (I am going to start an advertising campaign for the blog in the new year) Only one rule, it must be directed to your blog/website, no affiliate ads.  My Entrecard button has gotten 55 clicks and it has only been up for around 2 weeks. Granted, some of those are just “chain droppers” however still if I charged .20/click, that is more than $10.

Happy holidays, and let me know what you think of the new design!

P.S. For now I can’t get the built in feedburner links to change over, so if you would like to subscribe, use the link below.

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