Download audio file (brandmouthing-20.mp3)

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about the importance of a brand staying true to itself.

While I was sitting in church this morning, the Pastor was speaking about David and Goliath and how Saul gave David his own armor, but David didn’t like the way it felt. So, he went without it and conquered Goliath using his skill set.

Just the same, you shouldn’t try to change the personality of your brand to suit the recommendations of a consultant or columnist. Stick with the things that got your here and focus on your strengths to take down the Goliath in your business.

Show Notes

• David and Goliath
  
• David and Goliath: When the Armor Doesn’t Fit
  

Check out http://brandmouthing.com/ for a collection of all future episodes of Brandmouthing, as well as images, videos, etc. that I mention on the podcast. Subscribe to the Brandmouthing RSS feed.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on Stop Trying to Wear Saul’s ArmorDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

I was recently interviewed by Tim Schroeder of emonetized.com about how how I got started in affiliate marketing, my biggest learning experience to date, biggest success, and how I learned the business.

Also, who would play me if a movie were made about my life, how often I check my stats, and my explanation of affiliate marketing, so a child could understand it.

Read the interview at http://www.emonetized.com/565/an-interview-with-shawn-collins-of-affiliatetip-com.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on Shawn Collins on Affiliate Marketing Past, Present and FutureDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

Tracking202, a PPC affiliate tracking tool, has been acquired by Bloosky.

Tracking202 was founded a little over 2 years ago, and they’ve assembled a really robust tool that tracks every PPC network, and includes a number of useful features, such as an EPC calculator, top performing ads reporting, and keyword cloaking.

But the most popular feature is probably Spy View, which allows you to see real-time actions your visitors make with your ads.

More details at http://prosper.tracking202.com/blog/tracking202-has-been-acquired.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on Tracking202 Acquired by BlooskyDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

The LinkConnector affiliate network has announced enhancements to their Naked Link Technology, which allows LinkConnector affiliates to link directly to merchant sites without any arguments or parameters.

NLT Plus offers enhancements to the tracking and reporting of Naked Link campaigns.

The technology tracks using information provided by the browser, and previously the data made available by browsers allowed for roughly 93% of the traffic to be tracked.

The rate of recorded traffic has now increased by 2-3%.

More details about the new enhancements at http://www.linkconnector.com/nakedlink.htm.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on LinkConnector Makes Enhancements to Naked Link TechnologyDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

AWeber teased their new Web Form Generator a couple weeks ago, but it was only available to certain accounts.

This feature enables users to create highly customizable signup forms directly in their accounts, instead of just taking the basic form HTML and editing it in another program, and I just noticed that it’s now available to me.

I am going to be playing with the new feature, but I guess you’re not necessarily going to notice. It’s more of a backend treat.

Some of the things I am anxious to test drive are the new templates (over 100), a new interface to make changes to forms (I used to throw the code in Notepad and manually edit it), and lots of design options (change gradient, images, sizing, background, header, footer, etc.).

Not that sexy if you’re not using email forms on your sites, but cool stuff for those of us using AWeber to create forms. If you’re in the latter group, go to create a form in your account to see if you have access to the new tools.

Video: Walkthrough of AWeber’s New Web Form Generator

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on Just Got the AWeber Web Form GeneratorDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

I started noticing DailyBooth links on Twitter a month or so ago, and didn’t really get it at first. I would click through and just see pictures of people doing stuff.

I figured it was just another place to post pictures. So what?

But then I realized the photos on DailyBooth was the start of conversations, and they had an element I like in a conversation – seeing the person that’s communicating with me.

Sort of like Twitter, but with pictures and without all of the junk.

Come on over, start posting your pictures, and join the conversation. If nothing else, reserve your username.

Check me out on DailyBooth at http://dailybooth.com/affiliatetip.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on DailyBooth is Social Media that is Truly SocialDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

CT Moore interviewed me at Pubcon in Las Vegas last week about trends in affiliate marketing for the NVI blog.

We chatted about the intersection of social media and affiliate marketing, pay per call, the impact of the economy on the industry, and whether Google will kill affiliate marketing.

Video: Pubcon 2009: Shawn Collins on Affiliate Marketing

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on Pubcon 2009: Shawn Collins on Affiliate MarketingDisclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

There is a new way to get free Gold passes to Affiliate Summit West 2010, taking place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas.

I’ve been posting codes daily for the last month or so, but it’s come to my attention that some people have supposedly figured out a way to cheat the system.

I haven’t been able to verify that it’s happening, or whether it’s just an empty claim from some digital gangster in his mom’s basement. Either way, I’m changing up the way these codes are made available.

Moving forward, the codes will be announced on the voicemail of a new phone number – the voicemail will be updated at random times and then a Tweet will go out to announce that a new code is up there (if you don’t want to make the call to NJ, there will be an alternate way to get the info.).

Here is an action shot of me setting up the first code voicemail.

Since this process is a little more involved, I will probably do it five days a week, and then either Monday or Friday the code will be good for three uses to account for the missed weekend days.

Otherwise, just as it was in the past, the code will only work for the first person to successfully enter it in.

Follow @affiliatesummit and/or @affiliatetip on Twitter for more details.

Video: New Way to Get Free Passes to Affiliate Summit West 2010

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn CollinsRead and comment on New Way to Get Free Passes to Affiliate Summit West 2010Disclosure policy for the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

I blogged about LinkShare’s Easy Links back in summer 2008, and then promptly forgot about them. If you don’t recall hearing about them, Easy Links are contextual product ads that use proprietary intelligence to serve up relevant offers.