Who is Shawn Collins? Shawn is one of the most respected and well know faces in the affiliate marketing industry. Chances are that if you are in the industry then you already know him. Shawn Collins (along with Missy Ward) is the co-founder of the affiliate marketing convention Affiliate Summit and also well know for his blog at blog.affiliatetip.com

I first introduced myself to Shawn at an Affiliate Summit convention. If you can only attend one convention each year then this THE affiliate conference to attend. I hope to get to know Shawn on a more personal level over the coming years.

Shawn Collins was nice enough to allow us to interview him. Thanks Shawn! Here we go:

An Interview With Shawn Collins of AffiliateTip.com

1. How did you get started in the industry?

I was looking for a way to supplement my income back in summer 1997 and I joined the Amazon.com affiliate program to monetize a horrible site I’d created on AOL. In November 1997, I got a job running the affiliate program for Medsite.com – while I had no marketing experience, I understood affiliate marketing from being an affiliate and could hand code HTML. I guess they were desperate.

2. What was your biggest learning experience to date?

It was one that came gradually – that creating content for people, and not spiders, is the best plan if you want to be in affiliate marketing for the long term.

3. What was your biggest success to date?

My biggest success in terms of ROI came back when I was getting started. I was buying targeted traffic from GoTo.com for $0.01 a click and pointing it to CPC affiliate programs that paid back high multiples of my investment.

4. How did you learn the business? (eBooks? Webinars? Membership sites? Freebies? Paid services?)

I learned by doing. There were no resources to help when I get started. After two years, I moved on to Refer-it.com, the first affiliate program directory, and began attending their Affiliate Solutions conferences, where I started getting more of a formal education in the business.

5. What do you think is the true value to consumers in affiliate marketing?

I don’t think affiliate marketing overall is valuable to consumers, but certain affiliates who create value by solving problems and providing shortcuts for consumers are valuable.

6. Do you think sponsored conversations have their place in the industry?

As a consumer, I am cynical about the usefulness of the sponsored conversations, as I think it’s too tempting for some people to take money for products and services they don’t believe in.

7. Besides yourself, who do you think is the most valuable resource to the affiliate community?

I couldn’t sum it up in one area, as I am consistently inspired and educated by a wide variety of forums, blogs, Tweets, conference speakers, book authors, etc.

8. How do you balance professional v. personal?

I work from home and work around my personal commitments. Work starts after my kids are at school and it stops at 6pm EST. Then I pick it back up after everybody else has gone to sleep. Also, my Blackberry is never far away, so I obsessively check on things when away from my home for errands, meals, etc. I was at a dinner party last Saturday, and I am embarrassed to say I excused myself to go to the bathroom a few times just to check email.

9. How often did you check your stats….1 month in? 1 year in? Today?

In 1997, Amazon used to email the stats on a monthly basis, so there wasn’t an option. As stats became more available, I came to expect more immediacy. These days, unless there is a big event like Black Friday, I typically check them a few times a week.

10. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

I’d have to go with Campbell Scott when he was in Singles, but not any other roles.

11. OK, now who would REALLY play you?

Vince Vaughn – the version of him in pretty much any role.

12. What are some of the key differences between a ‘super affiliate’ and the veteran, less successful affiliates?

I’d say “super affiliates” are bigger risk takers – they have often put lots of money into the game or taken different risks like building up a company for their affiliate operations, and meanwhile the affiliates that have been around for a while, but haven’t become “big” are following a more slow and steady path to success.

13. Is where you are now where you thought you’d be…10 years ago? 5 years ago? A month ago? Why/ why not?

I had no idea where I’d be 10 years ago – the thing I most enjoyed about my job then was the ability to write columns, because writing has always been my primary interest. More recently, I sort of backed into the conference business, as Missy and myself created Affiliate Summit as an alternative to the old Affiliate Force conference. The growth and success came as a pleasant surprise, as I saw it as something positive for the industry that would supplement my affliate manager and affiliate income. Currently, I am loving what I do, especially the marketing, and the opportunity to work with a magazine and book publishing.

14. Explain affiliate marketing so a child would understand it. *Note- Please don’t just say I make money online. Assume the follow up to that would be ‘How?’

Affiliate marketing pays people for successfully accomplishing goals, just like you get your allowance for completing your chores. But it’s a little different – just doing the chore in affiliate marketing doesn’t earn the allowance. You make more money for doing a better job and working hard to take on more chores.

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Shawn, Thanks again for doing the interview with eMonetized! You can read more about Shawn at AffiliateTip.com and can follow Shawn Collin on Twitter here. If you attend the next Affiliate Summit then be sure to introduce yourself to him.

If you have been to any of the previous Affiliate Summits then chances are that you may have tried the Market Leverage Cashinator in the Expo hall. I tried it for the first time at ASW 2009.

The Cashinator machine is a lot harder than it looks. You can easily spend too much time chasing one bill and zap away your time quickly. In any case, I crushed the measly $27 dollars in winnings from John Chows first try in the Market Leverage cashinator! My total was a gigantic $30. Take that Chow! I guess it’s only fair to tell you that the Cashinator at ASW 09 was filled with $2 bills and I think John Chow was chasing $1 bills?

If anyone wants to challenge me to a Cashinator Duel at the next Affiliate Summit, reply here. Winner takes all and then gives the money away on their blogs. Here is the previous ShoeMoney vs John Chow cashinator dual (+ Tyler and Zac).

And here is my first shot in the Market Leverage cashinator.

Here is myself and Mike Kelly of Market Leverage:

If you are not working with Market Leverage yet, you should be.

P.S. _ I have one more Affiliate Summit West 2009 recap post to make (with pics)!

Another one of the highlights for myself at Affiliate Summit West 2009 was dinner with Market Leverage.

I want to thank Market Leverage CEO Michael Jenkins and Marketing Manager Dina Riccobono for the invite. My wife and I were invited to a private dinner with Market Leverage at the Switch in The Encore. The food and atmosphere was amazing.

Here is myself, my wife and CEO of ML, Michael Jenkins. I look forward to chatting with him more at the Market Leverage offices. I also sat in on his Affiliate Videos session. He is one really smart guy and I have a lot of respect for him. During the dinner Michael announced ML’s new Green Links technoogy. It’s the first of its kind among affiliate networks. Hover over a green link on their website and a video will popup explaining it. It’s really cool. I’ll write more on this soon.

Here is myself and Dina Riccobono of Market Leverage. She is sweet, smart and from what I’ve seen, a superb marketing manager. Also quite the busy bee. Michael, you should give Dina another a raise. It was also nice to chat with Mike Kelly, Jen Fluker (and the rest of the ML crew), Ms Danielle, and Nate Whitehill of (Unique Blog Designs).

Here is another picture of the table with a side-view of Andrew Wee. I was able to talk to Andrew quite a bit during dinner and other parts of the Summit. Nice guy.

It was nice to meet Zac Johnson at the dinner. Hopefully we can hang out more at the next Summit.

ShoeMoney was also at the dinner. I was only able to chat with him briefly because he was sitting at the end of the table but he is very approachable and likes to make silly faces in most of his pictures.

And here is a picture of myself and my beautiful wife during the dinner.

Here are a couple videos of the dinner, one which shows the walls moving at the Switch.

Thanks again to ML for the dinner.

If you are not working with Market Leverage yet, you should be.

On the first “official” day of Affiliate Summit the sessions didn’t start until 12am. I woke up and decided last minute that I’d try and make the CAMA brunch.

“CAMA” stands for Christian Affiliate Marketing Association and it’s a faith-based organization that was formed at Afffiliate Summit East 2007 in Miami. I wasn’t registered for CAMA but I knew they were all meeting downstairs to catch some cabs together.  CAMA was sold-out but thankfully they still were able to get me in.

CAMA does something different at each Affiliate Summit. I think they did a boat ride at the Boston Summit in 2008.  This year at Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Vegas they held a gospel brunch at The House Of Blues in Mandalay Bay Hotel.

This CAMA brunch was really one of the highlights of my first Affiliate Summit. The food was amazing, the gospel singer was amazing and I was able to meet and network with a lot of great people.

I met Jim Kukral for the first time at CAMA. He is one of the most down-to-earth genuinely nice guys you could meet. Jim Kukral is pretty well-known in the Social Media scene and also the emcee of the Affiliate Summits.

I met so many other nice people at CAMA and I can’t name them all but I was also nice meeting fellow Orlando resident Tyler Patton (and wife), the nice lady who sat across the table from me, Wade, George Hanson and the crew from OneNetworkDirect, and more…

CAMA, thanks for hosting this event. I hope to be at the Affiliate Summit East event in NYC as well.

Hi All!

Affiliate Summit 2009 Vegas is quickly approaching and has sold out! This will be my first Affiliate Summit and I’ve never been to Vegas so I’m really looking forward to it. Because I can’t write this post based on previous Affiliate Summit experiences, I’ll share with you some posts a couple Affiliate Summit veterans have made about preparing for this Affiliate Summit!

I was fortunate enough to get a Platinum Press Pass (thank you Amy!) so I plan to do a lot of blogging, take lots of pictures and also some video of the event.

My When, Where, How and Whats….

I’ll be in Vegas on Saturday the 10th and return on Friday the 16th. The Sat, Sun and Mon I’ll be staying at the RIO and Tues, Wed, and Thurs we will be staying at the Bellagio. My wife will be joining me on Monday afternoon.

I’m considering going to the CAMA brunch on Sunday but there are only a few tickets left so it might sellout before I decide. That starts at 8:30 (bus pickup time) and returns at 11:45.

I also wanted to attend the “Affiliate Strategies for Traffic Generation Session” moderated by Andrew Wee which starts at 12pm and ends at 1pm. I won’t have much time at all between the two. I assume I’ll obviously have to register either before CAMA or just after returning if I go. Hopefully the registration line will be shorter at that time??

On Monday I look forward to the Keynote and the “Advertising on Facebook session” although I’m not so sure they will be giving away any new secrets. I’m actually doing decent on Facebook although the inconsistency of my conversion rates drives me crazy. I also plan to attend the “Affiliate Videos: Where Do They Work Best” session among others….

If you would like to meet up at some point, please drop me an email or twitter ( twitter.com/timschroeder )

And The Parties:

So far I have received unofficial invites to the Advaliant (Monday) and CX digital (also Monday) parties. I hope to also make it to the ShareASale party and the Copeac parties if I can get an invite. If you are a network having a get together please let me know! I’d like to hang out with the MarketLeverage team some too (waiting for an invite somewhere!)

There are also a whole bunch of smaller get-togethers in which I hope to stop by (202, WickedFire)…

And here are some people I hope to meet in no particular order:

• Wes Mahler (aka Prosper202)
  
• Jimmy Ramos
• Andrew Wee
• Dina Riccobono, Chelsea and the rest of the Market Leverage Team)
  
• John Chow
• Zac Johnson
• Nate Poupko (my CX Digital manager)
• Alla Semenchenko (my Advaliant manager)
• ShoeMoney
• Chad Frederiksen (CDF Networks)
• Jim Kukral
• Ian Fernando
• Shawn Collins (Mr. Affiliate Summit himself)
• Jonathan Volk (are you going?)
• George Hansen
• I’m getting tired of adding links but here are a few more off the top of my head: Tamar, Ruck, Linda Buquet of 5 star, all my other Affiliate Managers, any of the CAMA members, any Webmaster-Talk.com members… I know I’m forgetting a whole bunch of other people…

Here are a couple more recent posts about preparing for Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Vegas:

1. How to plan, attend, and thoroughly enjoy your first Affiliate Summit Conference
2. The Affiliate Summit 2009 Survival Guide, Session Picks And Party Party
3. and for the very latest news, visit the Affiliate Summit Blog

What Are Your Plans For ASW?

Hi Everyone! Happy Holidays and an early Merry Christmas to those that celebrate!

For those of you thinking I might never post again, you are wrong. I just took a little 3 month break from blogging. What’s the big deal! haha

The cool thing is that my RSS subscriber number actually stayed about that same. Believe it or not, I actually do plan to start blogging again in 2009.

What I think I’m going to do is keep eMonetized.com but just keep it for affiliate marketing news such as offer updates and contests etc… Then I’m going start start a new bog over on timschroeder.com that will basically be about anything and everything related to running an internet business. I’ll talk about some of my websites and projects, cool stuff I find online, news, rants and whatever else…

During my blogging break I’ve stayed really busy working on some new content websites, getting pissed-off at Facebook ads, and losing money with Myspace ads (partly kidding about that). Actually my daily affiliate income is like a huge roller coaster lately but overall I can’t complain.  Despite the economy, 2008 has been by far my best year with affiliate marketing.

My wife and I will also be in Vegas for the Affiliate Summit West festivities. I think I’ll just be getting an Expo pass this time since I am primarily going to have some fun and do some networking. This will be my first Affiliate Summit but I know it won’t be my last.

Are you going to be at Affiliate Summit West in Vegas? I hope to meet some of my blog readers.

We have hotel reservation at the Rio but because this will be our first visit to Vegas I think I am going to cancel out and stay at the Bellagio instead. There regular room rate is about the same price as the Rio.

Vegas must really be hurting right because you can get a 2000 square ft Penthouse Suite at the Bellagio for just $399 a night right now! That’s about the same size as my house! I was really tempted at getting one (I still might) but I figured that it would be overkill considering it will just be my wife and I. Next time I’ll have to plan better and have a pre-dinner networking get together… Then I’d have a better excuse to get the Penthouse suite.

I am really looking forward to the Affiliate Summit festivities and chatting with other affiliates and networks.

I hope to see you there!