They’re off to a good start with frequent, informative posts. Hopefully, Commission Junction in the US will follow with a blog of their own.

Visit the CJ UK blog at http://www.cjblog.co.uk/.

The study focuses on advertising channels and overall, email, search and display pace far ahead of offline media, direct mail and mobile as the strongest performing advertising channels.

Email was ranked number one by more than 80 percent of marketers, and marketers stated their budgets will be allocated towards email, search and display, while maintaining or reducing spending on offline advertising and direct mail.

Affiliate marketing was only referenced as a tactic in the study. I suppose it’s an odd landscape - I see affiliate marketing as a cross-channel platform from an affiliate perspective, but as a standalone channel for the merchants or advertisers.

When respondents were asked, “Which of the following marketing tactics are part of your 2009 strategy?”, 42% stated affiliate marketing is in their plans.

I’m curious how affiliate marketing would have fared if it were rated as an advertising channel against display, email, search, social media, mobile, offline media, and direct mail.

Visit http://www.datranmediasurvey2009.com for a complete view of survey results.

I am excited to announce the keynote speakers for Affiliate Summit East 2009, taking place August 9th-11th in New York City: Chris Brogan and Peter Shankman.

Chris Brogan (Twitter @chrisbrogan) is President of New Marketing Labs, a social media agency and events organization. He is a ten year veteran of using social media and technology to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and makes media of all kinds at chrisbrogan.com, a blog in the top 10 of the Advertising Age Power150, and in the top 100 on Technorati. He is co-founder of PodCamp, the international new media conference series. Chris won the Mass High Tech All Stars award for thought leaders for 2008. He has been quoted in US News & World Report, The Montreal Gazette, Newsweek, and some other places.

Peter Shankman (Twitter @skydiver) is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, a marketing and PR firm. He launched HelpAReporter.com to connect journalists with sources via social media. He launched AirTroductions, which was acquired and re-launched as TripLife. He is the author of “Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them.”

Chris will be delivering his keynote on Monday, August 10, and Peter is speaking on Tuesday, August 11. More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com.

Q: What is the best affiliate marketing convention that I could attend to learn the most about the business?

A: I am not sure how objective I can be, since I am a Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit. I’d suggest having a look at the agenda for the latest Affiliate Summit, as well as past conferences, to see the topics covered and speakers featured.

Also, you can listen to many of the past sessions from Affiliate Summit at GeekCast.fm.

Additionally, there are affiliate conventions run by the various networks. There are events from Commission Junction, Google Affiliate Network, LinkShare, ShareASale and others.

Check out whether the affiliate networks you promote are having any sort of convention, seminar, etc.

Then there are a number of other events that are not specifically focused on affiliate marketing, but they often have one or more sessions dedicated to the topic, such as ad:tech, Blog World Expo, PubCon, SES and SMX.

And if you are in Europe, there is the a4uexpo.

The 2009 AzoogleAds Publisher Challenge is open to publishers in the AzoogleAds network worldwide and winners MUST BE 21 or older as of August 29, 2009. Apply now if you aren’t already in the AzoogleAds network.

Once on the ground in LA, you will check into our luxury hotel of choice. The first night, you will get to spend time with AzoogleAds staff, including wining, dining and fun. The agenda is relatively open and will allow for free time during the day on Saturday, August 29. Then, around 8:30 PM on the 29th, the real fun starts. You will be picked up via shuttle right at the hotel and transported onto the Playboy Mansion property. As you make your way up the driveway, you’ll see the “Playmates at Play” street sign and wind your way past the famous front lawn. Upon exiting the shuttle, you will walk through the Mansion gates and into the expansive backyard, which has hosted the most legendary parties in the world. You will walk on the very same ground as the most famous people on the planet. Imagine, the huge pool, the “Grotto”, live petting zoo, multiple food and drink stations…all for you to enjoy. After the party is over, you will be shuttled back to the hotel, a stress-free end to the perfect evening.

More details on the challenge and rules at http://www.cuatthemansion.com/.

We are looking for some additional podcasters to join an expanding roster that includes Affiliate Thing, the GeekCast show, and more shows covering social media, affiliate marketing, search marketing, video, mobile, etc.

GeekCast.fm is also the official source for Affiliate Summit audio, including the recent Gary Vaynerchuk keynote at Affiliate Summit West 2009, as well as audio from past educational sessions, and keynotes from Cory Booker, Jason Calacanis, and Don Crowther.

The chance to have a show on GeekCast.fm is open to anybody currently putting out a podcast, as well as folks that are interested in getting into podcasting.

Your show will be free to all and we won’t insert commercials, though you’re welcome to include your own commercials and keep 100% of the revenue.

Hosts on GeekCast.fm will receive a Platinum pass to Affiliate Summit conferences, and the podcasts will be promoted on GeekCast.fm, as well as the Affiliate Summit Blog, Affiliate Tip blog, MissyWard.com, and in FeedFront Magazine.

More on this podcasting opportunity at MissyWard.com.

If you’re interested, contact us with any questions.

WhoIsHostingThis.com has launched a TwitterBot that provides people with information on the host for any given domain, and the link to the host is an affiliate link.

Twitterbots let you perform ‘command line’-style operations in Twitter. You typically send a message, and get back a response via direct message (DM) or an @reply with the information requested.

Queries on domain hosts can be sent as an @reply to @WhoIsHosting or a direct message to the same address, followed by a domain.

A couple of minutes later, you’ll get a direct message back with the answer and a link for more information.

Neat combination of a useful service and affiliate links.

More details at http://blog.whoishostingthis.com/2009/01/19/whoishosting-twitterbot/.

The “Big 50″ contest is already in progress and a winner is expected in the next eight days.

The 50,000th channel will receive a Magnify Pro Package valued at over $1000. The package includes the advertising buyout for 5,000 pages a month, custom branding (watermark on video player and logo on embedded players), and enhanced graphics for your channel (new buttons for the main navigation bar, a page background image, an “upload a video” graphic for your home page, and a logo for the channel guide watermark).

“We wanted to have a cake with 50,000 candles,” said Magnify.net CEO Steven Rosenbaum, “but then we realized that was going to be an awfully big cake.”

In addition to being a great tool to organize and feature your videos, Magnify.net also enables you to monetize the videos. More details at Magnify.net.

See the Affiliate Summit channel on Magnify.net at http://video.affiliatesummit.com/.

Andrew Wee of WhoIsAndrewWee.com had Missy Ward, Co-founder of Affiliate Summit, on his podcast for an interview about her background in affiliate marketing, Affiliate Summit, and charitable efforts she has spearheaded.

If you’ve had a chance to talk to Missy during one of the trade shows, you’d find that she’s personable and knowledgable. During the course of our discussion, I got to know Missy better, including:

• How she got involved in affiliate marketing
• The formation of the Affiliate Summit and it’s goals and growth over the years
• How she got involved with fundraising activities, concurrently growing her affiliate business
• A preview of upcoming Affiliate Summit conferences and related events
• The guerilla marketing strategies used to promote the summit (merchants and affiliate networks can take a leaf out of Missy and Shawn’s playbook)
• Missy’s video blogging and promotion strategies
• A number of inspirational moments from the recent Affiliate Summit
• Key updates involving projects like Geekcast.fm, a new podcast in the making, Missy’s return to affiliate management and the revamped AffStat affiliate industry survey

If you have issue 4 of FeedFront Magazine handy, Andrew wrote an article that appears on page 60 titled, “How to Effectively Blog for Branding and Monetization.” The issue is also available to download.

Listen to the chat from Andrew and Missy at http://www.whoisandrewwee.com/podcasts/friday-podcast-building-your-affiliate-karma-with-missy-ward/.

The Top Ten affiliate programs are calculated by the number of clickthroughs each program received in the affiliate program directory.

Disclaimer: While we attempt to include only legitimate programs in this directory, no warranties are made. Please research each company carefully to arrive at your own conclusions. If you experience difficulties with any of the programs listed, contact us, so that we may investigate them.

1. Shopzilla
2. AzoogleAds
3. eHealthInsurance
4. Hydra Network
5. Advanta Bank Corp
6. Orbitz
7. The Scholastic Store Online - Scholastic Inc.
8. FlexOffers.com
9. Amazon.com
10. zZounds.com

CPA networks are treated as individual affiliate programs for the purposes of the Top 10 Affiliate Programs list.

Affiliate programs can be submitted to the directory at http://www.affiliatething.com/reg.php.