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Jessica Luthi has been a fixture in UK affiliate marketing since 1999. Recently, she sat down with Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog to discuss all sorts of affiliate marketing issues.

She currently runs a company called Affiliate Program Advice which offers consulting to e-commerce sites. Previously, Jessica worked at UKaffiliates, Affiliate Window and ASOS.

The podcast of this discussion is broken down into two parts.

Part one covers the start of affiliate marketing in the UK, her favorite affiliate network, Affiliate Program Advice, tips for affiliate managers, and communicating with affiliates and changes.

The second part of the interview goes into Jessica’s impressions of Affiliate Summit and affiliate marketing in the US, UK Affiliate get2gethers, whether there is a need for an affiliate association and getting started in affiliate marketing.

Interesting stuff - I’d definitely recommend giving it a listen.

Check out Jessica’s affiliate marketing blog for more on her industry insight and opinions.

Co-Opetition, Comparison Sites and Conversion: Lessons Learned From The Adult Online Playbook, a session presented by Jim Lillig at Affiliate Summit 2006 East, is now available to watch on video.

Jim is the Business Development Director for LobsterGram, the world’s largest home lobster delivery service. Previously, he was a co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of SK Intertainment, Inc. SK owns the popular adult site, MrSkin.com.

See Jim’s blog presentation for free on Google Video.

You can watch it on the Google Video site or download it to view on the Google Video Player (recommended for uninterrupted playback).

The session is also available for download as an MP3.

Read the transcript from the Co-Opetition, Comparison Sites and Conversion: Lessons Learned From The Adult Online Playbook session and view Jim’s slides.

Registrations are open for the next Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas on January 21-23, 2007.

We have traditionally put affiliate sales on the back burner, but as our market matures, and we try to squeeze more profit, we have started looking to attract more affiliates. We currently use Commission Junction to handle our sales, and that is where most of our affiliates have come from. I am working on attracting more affiliates, and have been just searching online for sites that would be a match for our affiliate program. However, the response has been pretty low. I was wondering if there is a more efficient way to get more affiliates?

I’m not sure from your question how you are soliciting your affiliate prospects, but if you’re like most affiliate managers, you’re using e-mail.

If that’s the case, it’s time for a paradigm shift. Yes, e-mail is easy and low-cost (especially if you aren’t investing in CAN-SPAM compliance - which you must for unsolicited e-mail), but the results stink.

Since you’re already spending the time to identify these potential affiliates, utilize an approach with more impact, such as a piece of direct mail about your affiliate program followed by a telephone call.

Also, try some targeted recruiting via paid search and ads on blogs.

If you don’t have the time and resources for ongoing affiliate recruitment, check out the affiliate recruiting services from Syntryx.

The August 2006 issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine is out and this month’s issue focuses on affiliates and the hats they wear: black hat, white hat, or something in the middle.

This issue covers all sides of SEO… the good, bad, in-between practices. Jeff Perren, Associate Editor of Affiliate Classroom Magazine, explains what black, white, and grey hat SEO are all about.

Helpful information from Brad Callen with (almost) ban proof tips for clean and ethical SEO. Plus, Affiliate Classroom student Evelyn Grazini explains her lessons learned about what not to do from the black hat side.

The August issue also includes an update on Affiliate Classroom’s participation at Affiliate Summit East in Orlando, and the winners of the power affiliate competition for The Affiliate Manager, 1st Edition.

Check out the new issue at http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/magazine.php.

Pepperjam, a company that acts as both an affiliate as well as managing affiliate programs, has been named to the 2006 Inc. 500 List.

The Inc. 500, published annually by Inc. Magazine, represents a list of the fastest growing privately held businesses in the United States.

“If you want to find out which companies are going to change the world, look at the Inc. 500,” said Inc. Editor Jane Berentson.

Pepperjam came in at number 293. In addition to their affiliate marketing services, Pepperjam also provides search engine marketing and online media buying services.

For more information, check out Pepperjam on YouTube.

I brought on a new protege to help with all of my affiliate marketing happenings - a little guy named Jack Bell.

Jack Bell was born at 3:04pm on Friday, August 25th.

He came in at 8 pounds even and 21 inches long.

So far, he’s got blond hair and blue eyes. Jack aced his Apgar test scoring 9 out of 10.

Meet the newest affiliate marketing Bell at http://www.babycollins.com.

While I’m training Jack on the ways of the industry, I’ll be taking a bit of a paternity leave over the next week.

If a merchant has affiliates who don’t have Web sites, but they want to refer people to the merchant’s site via e-mail or offline methods, how can their referrals be tracked so they’re paid for sales?

The merchant will provide you with a unique affiliate link to use. That link will identify you as the referrer of a given sale or lead that you send over irregardless of whether you send the traffic from a Web site, e-mail, paid search, etc.

A typical affiliate link will be somewhat unmarketable offline and too long for text e-mail.

So what you might want to do is use redirects or domain forwarding to shorten your links and make them easier to remember.