Missy Ward

I Love This Bar #ASW10

by Missy Ward

“Friendship isn't a big thing – it's a million little things.” ~Author Unknown

If you happened to be monitoring the #ASW10 hashtag on Twitter after Affiliate Summit West 2010 ended on Tuesday, January 19th, you may have come across some goofy tweets from me and my cohorts about heading off to Toby Keiths Bar.

For those of you that know me, you may have been surprised that I would go to a place that serves nothing but greasy food and has a modest wine list that features three simple choices: pink, white or red.

As if that isn't enough, the coup de grâce… Toby's only plays country music (something this die-hard rock chick just can't cope with).

Now, what if I told you that I've gone there 3 years in a row?

One might wonder why I would subject myself to this excruciating torture, year after year. The answer quite simply is that I've got friends in low places and I wouldn't change them for the world.

This restaurant, however agonizing for me causes my business partner, Shawn Collins such happiness. And that's the reason why our li'l internet family gets together every year. We love seeing him that happy over something as silly as this.

The video above was produced by Todd Farmer, my friend for many years. Besides being a master of video, he also happens to be pretty darn smart.

Enjoy!

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Affiliate Marketing

Marketing War: Affiliate World vs. Brand World, who will…

by Missy Ward

The above blog post was written by Pace Lattin and appeared on IndustryPace.com

While I don't necessarily agree with the fact that the “Affiliate Marketing World” and the “Brand World” operate as mutually exclusive as the author suggests, I do concur that as budgets get tighter, the latter will need to work with innovators who know how to connect with their audience to ultimately generate an action.

Affiliate marketers are those trailblazers… and we're hungry. It is the combination of savviness and moxie coupled with the retailer's belts continuing to tighten on non-proven ad spends that offer up a huge opportunity for the affiliate marketing industry to continue to flourish in 2010, which I previously wrote about here.

To read the full article, “Marketing War: Affiliate World vs. Brand World, who will win? Missy Ward Knows!”, that appeared on IndustryPace.com, click here.

Let me know what you think.

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Affiliate Marketing

Get a Review Copy of Internet Marketing from the…

by Missy Ward

Do you have a blog, publication, site, podcast, video series, or some other outlet where you'd like to review Internet Marketing from the Real Experts?

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social media rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.

The dozens of contributors in the book are the people that do this stuff every day, and the chapters in the book are comprised of their voices, their ideas, their action items, and their lessons learned from mistakes – all for Internet marketers to grow their business the day they start reading the book.

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is the first book from Velocity NYC Press, an imprint of Morgan James Publishing, and a division of Affiliate Summit.

Please note – your audience should be focused on entrepreneurs, small businesses, etc., and the place where you plan to review the book must be regularly updated with original content.

Submit your request for a review copy of Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.

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Affiliate Marketing

Connecting with Other Affiliate Marketers in the Affiliate Aquarium…

by Missy Ward

“And in the kingdom of transparency, he who creates technology to foster conversation is king” – Unknown

For years, many networks have taken a cryptic approach when it comes to connecting their advertisers with their affiliates in an effort to avoid the direct collaboration between the two and protect the network's “cut” of commissions.

In my opinion, the lack of transparency is *one* of the major reasons why the affiliate marketing and performance-based lead generation industry has gotten a bum rap in years past.

As our industry matures and the need for transparency increases, those networks that foster a collaborative environment will wind up with the keys to the affiliate marketing kingdom.

To that end, I was pleased to hear about the launch of ShareASale's Affiliate Aquarium during Affiliate Summit West 2010.

The Affiliate Aquarium is a social platform located within the ShareASale network which connects affiliates with merchants in all the usual “socially acceptable” ways such as searching and friending, groups, blogs, events, etc.

According to the ShareASale blog:

…Our goal is to create a more open communication platform where Affiliates and Merchants can be introduced to each other based on their mutual interests (either professional or personal). It has been our experience that increased communication leads to greater realized profits for both parties.

I for one am pretty stoked about the collaboration opportunities from both a merchant perspective (Affiliate Summit runs its affiliate program on ShareASale) and an affiliate perspective (I'm also an affiliate on their network.)

So, I spent some time swimming around the Aquarium today and found a ton of folks that I already know as well as some prospective affiliates to work with on the Affiliate Summit program and a few good merchants to feature on MissyWard.com and a few of my other sites.

To kick things off, ShareASale has also announced that they will donate $5.00 to the Mercy Corps efforts in Haiti, for each ShareASale affiliate or merchant that sets up their profile in the Affiliate Aquarium between now and January 31st. In addition, they will match the donation up to $15,000.

So my advice to any ShareASale merchant or affiliate is to set up your profile in the Affiliate Aquarium and find out how transparent conversation through social networking can really boost your profits and give Haiti a helping hand.

Then swim on over and Friend Me 🙂

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