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There have been lots of suggestions about how Affiliate Summit can enrich the conference experience for the attendees. One thing requested repeatedly has been a social network.

After a month of working on specs and looking at potential vendors, the Affiliate Summit Social Network is open for business.

The purpose of this social network is to enable Affiliate Summit attendees to make connections with industry colleagues before, during and after the Affiliate Summit shows.

We’ve set it up so you can find folks to network with in a number of ways, including segmentation by industry role (affiliate, merchant, network, etc.), zip code, country, employer(s) and school(s) attended.

Other features include private and instant messaging, message boards, shared bookmarks and journals, industry groups, events, and free classifieds for relevant services and job openings.

The Affiliate Summit Social Network is available as a value add to Affiliate Summit attendees. Please do not apply to the network if you are not going to be attending the upcoming conference in Orlando (July 9-11).

Visit http://network.affiliatesummit.com/ to join the Affiliate Summit Social Network.

The deadline for submitting speaker proposals for Affiliate Summit 2006 East is February 28.

If you are interested in speaking, please read through the information below to increase your odds on being selected. Please note - there are a limited number of speaking slots, so you may be offered a space in a session other that the one which you submitted.

If accepted, you’ll receive a pass to Affiliate Summit. Travel and hotel are not included.

Some important things to bear in mind…

We love case studies. Offer up some new, interesting data and you’ll get our attention.

• These spots are not for sale, so don’t bother to mention that you are considering a booth or any other sponsorship.

• Got something to sell? Get a sponsorship. Product pitches by speakers are not welcome. Share your knowledge and the crowds will find you to do business.
• When you submit a speaking proposal, you’re asking us to consider you for a spot to speak and share your experiences. If you’re reluctant to share information, please don’t submit a proposal.
• Nuts and bolts rule. We don’t want overviews and topline discussions - we want details. Not just that you had 10,000 sales last month - exactly how you made it happen.
• If you wish to speak, please submit the request yourself. If your submission comes from your assistant, PR firm or other source, we are less likely to consider it.
• The basics are too basic. Introduction to data feeds, SEO, e-mail best practices, etc. sessions need not apply. We are looking for high level content.

Submit your speaking proposal at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=143391696141

I was chatting with some affiliate managers recently, and they asked if there were any sort of mentor programs to help out new affiliate managers.

I was stumped. It seemed like a natural enough idea, but there isn’t really anything organized to help the newbies. Sure, they can lurk and participate in forums with other affiliate managers, but offline interactions aren’t really being leveraged.

This brought me back to the days when I first moved up to NYC. I joined up with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City. It was a very fulfilling experience - small amount of time commitment and some great rewards. In ROI terms, it was a great success.

So why not bring this sort of effort to the affiliate marketers in need?

Off the top of my head, the only group of affiliate managers to regularly meet is the Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition.

Way back when, I organized regular meetings for NYC affiliate managers, and this acted as an open environment for affiliate marketers to network and learn in person. But the New York Affiliate Manager Coalition, later the United States Affiliate Manager Coalition, went silent at some point.

So who’s with me? Is there interest from affiliates and affiliate managers to link up and learn from some of the more experienced folks in the industry?

There will be a series of free conference calls beginning Wednesday, March 8th at 3pm Eastern Time that will allow you to get to know the guest speakers for the upcoming Affiliate Summit 2006 Conference.

These calls will be hosted by Marty Fahncke, Founder of Conference Call University.

The first call will be with Missy Ward and myself, co-founders of the Affiliate Summit event.

We will be answering questions from anybody who is interested in the event. This is your chance to share your opinion and help shape the conference to fit your needs.

Other calls will feature business blog expert, Dave Taylor and the keynote speaker, Jim Bouton - - New York Yankee 20-game winner, best selling author, TV Sportscaster, actor, inventor, and businessman.

Each call will be recorded for playback via telephone, and on streaming audio via internet.

Space is limited - visit http://www.affiliatesummitpreview.com to register for free and reserve your spot today.

I have been running a couple of PPC campaigns via Google Adwords with mixed success. I do not own a Web site and hence I have been trying my luck as an affiliate via Google Adwords. Having read some advice on clixGalore, I am aware that it is more profitable to own a Web site and promote merchants via the Web site. I have not the faintest clue how to go about this. I would like to create a Web site through which I could promote merchants. Any pointers with regards to resources I could use to help me achieve this wish? Also just wondered if you had any tips regards choosing a successful merchant to run an Adwords campaign for and advice regards which affiliate network hosts the most profitable merchants.

Wow - you squeezed a lot of questions in there. I’m not sure who’s giving the advice at clixGalore, but you should take it with a grain of salt. There is no absolute rule on a Web site being more profitable than PPC arbitrage for affiliate marketers.

In my opinion, running a Web site is certainly more of a long-term play, and can net a steadier income than PPC, but like working with Adwords, you’ll need to invest time, strategy and money into a site to realize a profit.

Figure out a niche that really interests you, and work up a marketing plan to build a site around it. There are many ways to build a successful affiliate site, including the cultivation of a community, authoring unique content, and leveraging data feeds.

However you do it, you will need to add in your own unique value proposition to make your site a destination.

As far as getting started, I’d suggest checking out the Affiliate Classroom. This is a great resource for learning the ropes.

After you’ve gotten your affiliate site established, I’ve posted dozens of affiliate tips to market your site.

With regards to the merchants best suited to being promoted through Adwords and which affiliate network hosts the most profitable merchants, there is no black and white answer.

Any merchant that is selling a popular, desirable product or service can be worked successfully through PPC arbitrage. It’s all a matter of testing. Also, your results can vary based on the rules for any given merchant - be sure to read the terms to avoid violating the agreement.

There are many networks out there, and they all have their share of fantastic affiliate programs and dogs. My personal experience has been that programs that pay per lead work better for PPCs than those that pay per sale. But again - test all sorts of programs, copy, etc. to determine what’s best for you.

Anti-spyware crusader Ben Edelman recently posted a report that documented how he “received a nonconsensual installation of 180solutions Zango software through a security exploit.”

Edelman cited a press release from 180 Solutions stating that “Since September, all new affiliates have been required to distribute only the S3-enabled search assistants, while existing affiliates have been given until December 31, 2005, to switch over to the new distribution format at which point no affiliate will receive payment from 180solutions for distributing previous versions of the search software.”

S3, short for Safe and Secure Search, is a “new, more secure search assistant technology” touted by 180 Solutions.

Anyhow, 180 Solutions was not happy with Edelman’s recent findings, and they’ve defended their practices, while calling Ben irresponsible, according to TechWeb News.

The retort from 180 Solutions found Edelman to be irresponsible, as they compared his reporting to researchers that disclose bugs on software before a patch is ready.

According to reliable sources, Edelman has also committed irresponsible acts such as neglecting to put out the trash on the appropriate day and going to the express line at the grocery store with more than ten items. Clean up your act, Mr. Edelman!

Google has launched a new project in Beta that should be a hit with HTML challenged affiliates - the Google Page Creator.

According to the Google Page Creator site at http://pages.google.com/, “Google Page Creator is a free online tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

• No technical knowledge required.
  Build high-quality web pages without having to learn HTML or use complex software.

• What you see is what you’ll get.
  Edit your pages right in your browser, seeing exactly how your finished product will look every step along the way.

• Don’t worry about hosting.
  Your web pages will live on your own site at http://yourgmailusername.googlepages.com

I took it for a test drive and whipped out a page in a matter of minutes - see http://affiliate.manager.googlepages.com/

The tool is very easy to use and has limited capabilities, which is probably a good thing for anybody that doesn’t want to fool with real code.

It reminds me a big of synthaSite, the affiliate site builder from Vinny Lingham.

But don’t get too excited about the Google Page Creator, as the site is currently carrying the following message: Due to heavy demand, we are unable to offer new accounts for today.

Check back tomorrow to get your account going. In the meantime, see http://pages.google.com/-/about.html for more information.