Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Learning to Take Chances at Affiliate Summit

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Although I’m usually considered to be an outgoing person, I actually get nervous when I have to introduce myself to other people cold. I’m always self-conscious and afraid they will give me one of those looks like “who are you and why are you talking to me?” I challenged myself this Affiliate Summit and was pleasantly surprised to find how responsive everyone was to meeting.

I didn’t really set out to meet anyone in particular this trip. That made it a little bit more challenging because I had to introduce myself on the spur of the moment when I had the opportunity to meet someone. Here were some of my tactics:

  • Be where the people are. Well, no kidding? Except not where ALL the people are. Introducing myself in a crowded exhibit hall didn’t lead to a good introduction. Instead, I took the opportunity to meet people in quiet places like the Blogger’s Lounge or the Trivia TweetUp.
  • Introduce myself clearly but not make it a sale pitch. I didn’t even mention Sunshine Rewards to most of the people that I met. The goal wasn’t to introduce my business, it was to introduce MYSELF.
  • Wait for an opportune time. But not too long. If you wait for someone to be totally by themselves to make an introduction, you may never get the chance. Don’t interrupt a conversation but at the same time don’t be afraid to step in when you see a break.
  • Don’t act starstruck, even if you are. Some of the people you have the chance to meet at Affiliate Summit are great at what they do an almost “stars” in their own right. I took Chris Brogan’s advice and approached them like an equal (but with just a little deference).

As a result of the above, I finally got to talk to people like HeatherinBC, Murray Newlands, and Peter Shankman. I also had some great conversations with people I already knew but had never really “talked shop” with before (like Connie Berg from Flamingo World.) No matter what else comes out of this conference, I will consider it a personal success because of that.

Presentation Fun at Affiliate Summit

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After months of build up, my presentation at Affiliate Summit is now complete. I was lucky enough to have two great speakers with me (Carolyn Tang and Kristen Kinsey) along with a seasoned moderator (Marty Fahncke). For those of you who missed it (which was all but about 60 people!), we spoke about Monetizing Blogs. It was a true introductory session on affiliate marketing, including definitions and real life examples. We even walked through a couple of audience members’ blogs live and gave suggestions. Here are a few of my takeaways:

  • It always helps to have your mom in the front row cheering you on.
  • My fellow panelists are some of the smartest women in affiliate marketing and can answer just about any question on the spot.
  • My favorite part of the presentation was the end. Not just because I had been so nervous but because I loved the chance to talk to the people who came to the session and exchange ideas with them.
  • Speaking at Affiliate Summit is both an uplifting and a humbling experience. You realize both what you know and what you do NOT know.
  • The best way to figure out how well you really know how to do something is to try to explain it to someone else.

For those of you who didn’t attend, I forgot to mention one really important WordPress plugin that you should be using. If you want to use the php includes options of sites like GoldenCan and PopShops (and you should for SEO purposes), you’re going to need to be able to insert php into your WordPress posts and pages. Check out the Exec-PHP plugin for that.

I hope to be lucky enough to be chosen to speak again in the future. More importantly, I hope to learn enough between now and then to be sure that I can continue to provide helpful information to others in my industry.

New Blogger Attending Affiliate Summit?

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I’ve had the privilege of serving as a mentor at the last two Affiliate Summits. Each time I was paired with an affiliate who was very new to the industry. In both cases I was able to see Affiliate Summit through their eyes and remember back to my first time, when I was so new to affiliate marketing that I didn’t know CPA from CPS or a toolbar from a network. It can be confusing and overwhelming, especially when you are a blogger and do something else full-time.

Last summer I participated in a panel at Blog Indiana with two women who are both educated about and instrumental in affiliate marketing– Carolyn Tang and Kristen Kinsey. We were lucky enough to be chosen to give a similar presentation at Affiliate Summit West. If you are relatively new to monetizing your blog or affiliate marketing in general, here is a little taste of what you can learn from our presentation:

  • Affiliate marketing basic terminology such as “merchant,” “network,” and “affiliate”
  • Ways to evaluate potential merchants for your site
  • How to use PayPerCall technology
  • Different ad types including banners, text links, and specific products
  • Widgets and plugins that help add content to your site while monetizing it
  • How best to work with your affiliate manager
  • General resources for affiliate marketing

As I said, this is meant to be a basic session geared to those who are new to affiliate marketing and/or monetizing their blogs. We’ll show you some examples and also give you an opportunity to have your blog looked at by the panel live for feedback on how you can better monetize it. If you are interested, our session is at 3:00 on Sunday and is titled Start Monetizing Your Blog Today. If you are already a seasoned affiliate marketing veteran, please help spread the word to those who might be interested and would find it valuable.

Thanks to Marty Fahncke for moderating for us!

My 2009 Book List

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Looking back on 2009, it appears that it was the “year of indulgent reading” for me. After spending years giving up most of my reading time to kids books and books about affiliate marketing and SEO, I spent almost all of this year reading what made me happy. Here’s a list of what I read this year, as close as I can remember. I know I read a few others that I gave away in our book night swap and a few that I checked out from the library and don’t  remember anymore. But this should be most of them.

Obviously my tendencies this year were toward chick lit, young adult, and supernatural. Prior to this year, I read mainly legal thrillers and chick lit. I can’t believe that the only business book that I read this year was Trust Agents! And more than business, Trust Agents was about life and connections. So I don’t think it even counts as totally a business book.

46 books total. That’s about a book a week! I think 4 of them were actually over Spring Break alone. And the Harry Potter books took more than a week each. There was only 1 book that I didn’t finish completely (I really, really tried but just couldn’t get more than halfway). I’m in the middle of 2 right now but won’t finish either by tomorrow. I guess they will be the start of my 2010 list!

Walt Disney: An American Original (Bob Thomas)
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
The Tales of Beetle the Bard (J.K. Rowling)
A Walk to Remember (Nicholas Sparks)
Message in a Bottle (Nicholas Sparks)
-Losing It (Valerie Bertinelli)
Change of Heart (Jodi Picoult)
There’s No Place Like Here (Cecelia Ahern)
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination (Helen Fielding)
Julie & Julie (Julie Powell)
-Tale of Edward Sawtelle (until I gave up)
*Dead Until Dark (Charlaine Harris)
*Living Dead in Dallas (Charlaine Harris)
*Club Dead (Charlaine Harris)
*Dead to the World (Charlaine Harris)
*Dead as a Doornail (Charlaine Harris)
*Definitely Dead (Charlaine Harris)
*All Together Dead (Charlaine Harris)
*From Dead to Worse (Charlaine Harris)
*Dead and Gone (Charlaine Harris)
The Undomestic Goddess (Sophie Kinsella)
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married (Marian Keyes)
-A Minor Indiscretion (Carole Matthews)
A Touch of Dead (Charlaine Harris)
Trust Agents (Chris Brogan and Julien Smith)
Remember Me? (Sophie Kinsella)
The Kingdom Keepers (Ridley Pearson)
*Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
*Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
*Marked (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Betrayed (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Chosen (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Untamed (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Hunted (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Tempted (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Burned (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
Vampire Diaries I (L.J. Smith)
Vampire Diaries II (L.J. Smith)
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
*Beautiful Creatures (Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl)

Stars denote the books that you couldn’t pry out of my hands while I was reading them. I would recommend pretty much everything else that I read this year as well except for the ones with minus signs. If you are a fan of  books similar to the ones I read this year, I would be anxious to hear what else you recommend for me.

Social Media Friends and the Birthday Paradox

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I was noticing last night that of my 400 Facebook friends, 5 of them have a birthday on Thursday. That’s not including the ones that are businesses with a “start date” of the end of the year or friends who do not allow access to their birthday. I mentioned to my husband that it was improbable. With 365 days in a year, I should only have one birthday friend per day–two tops. He started talking about the “birthday paradox” and how if you put only 23 people in a room, you would have 2 people with the same birthday. I thought he was nuts. I mean, 365 days? Out of 23 people 2 will have the same birthday?

So of course I did a search for it. I found the “Birthday Problem” Wikipedia page, which explains that if you have 23 people together, there is a 50% chance that 2 of them will have the same birthday. If you get 57 people, there is a 99% chance that 2 of them will have the same birthday. It still doesn’t seem possible. 366 possible birthdays. 57 people and you have a 99% chance of the same birthday popping up?

Here is where YOU come in. I need a little help from my social media friends because I can’t get 23 or 57 people into a room today. Can you leave a comment below with your name and your birthday? I don’t need the year. Leave your name so I can verify you’re real people when two birthdays pop up the same and it isn’t just someone messing with me. I’ll make a little chart and we’ll see how many people have to comment before we get the same birthday. Curiosity has gotten the best of me now!!

Edited: It took only 18 people posting to get our first repeat birthday. We defied the odds! And my husband proved, once again, that he is better at math than I am.