Relevantly Speaking HD

If you attended Affiliate Convention in Denver and saw Peter Bordes’ keynote presentation, you’ve already seen this video. It was put together to lay some groundwork for the concepts that Peter would later be speaking about, first on his own, then with his panel. We thought it had lots of great data in it and that our audience would find some value in it.

This data came from a 2008 IAB online revenue report and a survey that Econsultancy did with U.S. affiliates. Whether you’re brand new to performance marketing or you’re a veteran in the space, this data really paints a detailed picture of both sides of the industry and hopefully gives us all something to act on for the remainder of 2009.

This week we’re covering Affiliate Convention in Denver. It’s a first-time event for the organizers so it will be interesting to see how they do pulling it off.

There are lots of great industry leaders attending the event and tons of great sessions. Two events we’re really excited about is the keynote presentation by Peter Bordes called “Conversations on Affiliate Performance Marketing.” In addition to Peter, this talk will feature Steve Hartman of Ebay, Steve Schaffer of Vertive, Rebecca Madigan of the PMA and Wes Mahler of Prosper202. The session is at 9:00 AM on Friday, June 19th in Super Affiliate Room I.

The second event we’re excited about is a session called “Lead Generation Strategies” with our own Jivan Manhas. He’ll be covering ways to get better leads as an affiliate marketer. That session is at 11:30 AM June 19th also in Super Affiliate Room I.

We’ve also got some news from outside Denver. Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing is getting amassive ad push and the IAB Europe has released their 2008 report.

This week we’re excited to show you an interview that we shot in Austin with Joe Stepniewski of Skimlinks. If you haven’t checked out their product, you really should. Essentially, it allows publishers with websites and blogs to become affiliates without having to really know much about the ins and outs of traditional affiliate marketing.

Don’t forget about MediaTrust’s two new initiatives that can get you prizes and cash. First, ourLucky 11’s contest is going on - all you need to do is run any of the four offer listed and bring in the designated number of leads. The second is called Just Think Media Rewards. All you have to do is run any of JTM’s offers and for each sale you earn a point. Those points are good for all sorts of stuff including business tools and cold hard cash!

Finally, we head to Israel for Affilicon next week. If you’re going to be there, let us know so that we can arrange to speak to you on Relevantly Speaking. If not, don’t fret, we’ll be providing coverage right here on the blog.

It’s not every day the CEO of your company gets mentioned in BusinessWeek among the 50 elite CEO using Twitter. This week we’re celebrating Peter Bordes accomplishment and his vision.

We’re also taking a look at what most companies overlook when they decide to implement an online marketing strategy. Matt Browne of Morefocus Group, John Geletka of Ratchet, Diane Deseta of White Knight and Chris Noble of Kompolt weigh in.

Finally, we’re launching two initiatives that will surely be of interest to our publishers. First is a contest we’re calling “Lucky 11’s.” Run any of the four offer listed, bring in the designated number of leads and get prizes. The second is called “Just Think Media Rewards.” All you have to do is run any of JTM’s offers and for each sale you earn points. Those points are good for all sorts of stuff including business tools and cold hard cash!

This week we’re all over Oprah and her use of Twitter - is it genuine or just another celebrity misstep? We’ll talk to John Geletka of Ratchet, Stephanie Agresta, Matt Browne of Morefocus and Mike Barash of Blurb to get their advice on how companies should tackle social media tools.

We also check in with Itay Paz of Affilicon from the Berlin Wall to get his take on affiliate marketing in Germany.

This week we’re recapping the MediaTrust panel at ad:tech. It was a spirited discussion and we’ve included a couple of our favorite quotes from the session.

Itay Paz of Affilicon has been hopping across the globe to report on the state of affiliate marketing. This week he’s checking in from Mumbai, India.

Finally, we’re getting ready to wrap up the MediaTrust contest for James Connor’s book “The Perfection of Marketing.” All you have to do to enter is leave a comment in the shownotes at blog.MediaTrust.com. I’ll pick six winners and announce them on next week’s show.

Some weeks, stuff just goes wrong. Despite our best laid plans, this was a rough one. We’re in San Francisco this week for ad:tech. The plan was to setup a studio at the hotel with lighting and the whole nine. This morning we got started and 10 minutes into it our camera died. We shoot our road stuff with a Canon 5D Mark II. Because this camera is still new, it’s nearly impossible to find as a rental. As a result, we had to settle for an inferior camera at an astronomical cost.

What’s my point? ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP PLAN! This applies to performance marketing - hope for the best, but plan for the worst and learn to adapt and adjust.

I think we’ll come out of OK, but it’s been a very stressful 24 hours. As a result of our tech-shortcomings, this week’s RS is an abbreviated diary update.

See you next week with a proper show from the studio in Santa Barbara.