Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Affiliate Summit East 2013 Recap, @VentureBeat Publishes an Objective Post, and @skimlinks News”. Collins Says, “On the August 26, 2013 episode of 7 Minutes in Affiliate Heaven podcast (listen to 7 Minutes in Affiliate Heaven), I the recently ended Affiliate Summit East 2013, checking out Philadelphia, and where to get slides and see videos. I also talked about Skimlinks redirecting links for iTunes and Groupon, a counter-punch supporting affiliate marketing in Venture Beat, and speaker opportunities for Affiliate Summit West 2014. Please review 7... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Skimlinks Will Automatically Redirect New iTunes and Groupon Affiliate Links”. Collins Says, “Skimlinks has announced that they will automatically rewrite old iTunes affiliate links to their new affiliate link format, so affiliates won’t be affected as iTunes takes their affiliate program in-­house. This feature will be built into the pre­existing Skimlinks’ javascript and APIs, so current affiliates do not need to do any additional work. iTunes recently announced that they will be taking their affiliate program in-­house via Performance... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Affiliate Summit East 2013 Passes on eBay”. Collins Says, “Affiliate Summit East 2013 is sold out and the auctions for registrations are starting to pop up on eBay. If you are interested in passes listed on eBay, please be sure to contact Affiliate Summit to confirm that the pass can be transferred. All registrations have an associated reference number. Request this number from the seller, as well as the name on the registrations, and provide it in your e-mail to the Affiliate Summit registration team, so they can determine whether the pass... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “You Get What You Pay for With Website Hosting”. Collins Says, “There was a big web hosting outage this past Friday with Bluehost, HostMonster, HostGator and JustHost having problems for an extended period of time. Apparently, the outage was related to server maintenance at a Provo, UT data center. This impacted me, because I have quite a few affiliate and other sites on Bluehost. These were not any of my “main” sites, but they resulted in a lot of headaches”. You Get What You Pay for With Website Hosting Shawn Collins’ Blog  [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Google Affiliate Network Overwrite Now in Effect at Skimlinks”. Collins Says, “Skimlinks has launched an automated solution to help former Google Affiliate Network (GAN) affiliates easily transition their inactive GAN links to functioning affiliate links. Very cool news for all of the affiliates who haven’t had a chance to get everything redirected. Google announced the closure of GAN on April 16, 2013. Here is how it works… when a GAN merchant link is detected in a Skimlinks publisher’s content, it will automatically convert to an active,... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Big Q2 2013 for Rakuten LinkShare”. Collins Says, “Rakuten LinkShare has announced they’ve had continued growth for the second quarter of 2013. The affiliate network spans the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia. Highlights of Q2 included: An increase in same store sales in the U.S. by 30 percent year-over-year. An increase in same store sales in the U.K. by 44 percent year-over-year. An increase in same store sales in Canada by 31 percent year-over-year”. Big Q2 2013 for Rakuten LinkShare Shawn Collins’... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Affiliate Nexus Tax Law Battle Might Go to the U.S. Supreme Court”. Collins Says, “Amazon and Overstock have filed an application to petition the US Supreme Court to hear their case against the state of New York, challenging its affiliate nexus tax law, according to the Performance Marketing Association (PMA). Amazon and Overstock lost their appeal in New York courts after a 4+ year legal battle. The PMA states that this likely indicates Amazon and Overstock have lost faith in the chances of the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). The MFA federal... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Affiliate Summit East 2013 Selling Out”. Collins Says, “Affiliate Summit East 2013 is on schedule to sell out in early to mid August, based on sales patterns of past Affiliate Summits. Don’t be a sad clown who has to experience the conference vicariously through social media. This will be the biggest Affiliate Summit East to date with more than 4,000 affiliate marketers attending. There are already more than 1,125 companies registered so far. Check out the list on the main Affiliate Summit East 2013 page. Affiliate Summit East 2013, the... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Affiliate Program Optimization”. Collins Says, “Affiliate managers are typically well aware of search engine optimization, and probably social media optimization, too, but how about affiliate program optimization? Affiliate program optimization is a process of auditing an affiliate program to determine which areas can be improved, and then applying those changes. I cover this a bit in my upcoming book, “Affiliate Manager Boot Camp: Recruiting, Educations, and Retaining Affiliates.” Stay tuned for more on that book”. Affiliate Program... [...]

Shawn Collins’ latest blog post is titled “Clear Old Yahoo Addresses Off Your Email Lists”. Collins Says, “Yahoo is closing email accounts that haven’t been logged into in 12 months or longer. These email addresses will be released for the public to claim. This is important for anybody with an email list, as it could affect some of the addresses on their list(s). Those subscribers won’t be valid after July 15. So you’ll either be mailing to dead addresses, which can impact your deliverability, or the new owners will start getting your newsletters, and will be upset that you are... [...]