Shawn Collins - Affiliate Summit - Podcast Interview

I agree with what Shawn Collins does and says in so many ways, in particular, the point he makes about getting his clients to become affiliates, respect

With regards to the Affiliate Summits, again his description is spot on, it is a compliment of education and networking with heavy emphasis upon fun.

Spot on re the issues of international affiliates and feel it’s a discussion waiting to happen. I personally feel affiliate networks in general seem to provide little or no information with regards to encouraging cross border affiliate partnerships.

Great Podcast Fraser, good to hear one of the most recognised names in the industry. However, I have a couple of points to make:

I listened with interest on the history of how Shawn came to launch the Affiliate Summit events, especially when he told us that he put the previous guy who ran similar events out of business after 8 months. So this made Shawn’s next point even more interesting when he told us he is going to plan an event in the UK soon. Now I know Affiliate Marketing is a large growth industry in the UK but I really don’t think there is room for 2 events. Especially as according to http://www.a4uevents.com, Matt is planning “large London based generic events, exhibitions and conferences with a more educational feel”. Maybe Shaun and Matt should join forces on this one?

Secondly Shawns comments regarding the fact that a lot of US affiliates are turning their attention to the UK and that we can expect “more competiton” led me to the conclusion that he thinks the UK is still largely untapped. Obviously there are still opportunities in the smaller niches but I think I’m correct in assuming that any US affiliate who thinks it will be easy to break into any of the larger sectors will be in for a big shock when they discover how many UK affiliates dominate these sectors.

“especially when he told us that he put the previous guy who ran similar events out of business after 8 months. So this made Shawn’s next point even more interesting when he told us he is going to plan an event in the UK soon.” I think you maybe walking down the wrong road here, there were some pretty major reasons why the guy was put out of business but the leap from this scenario to putting a4uevents out of business is way out and I will tell you now, you are way off.
Secondly a4uevents do not have any kind of monopoly on affiliate marketing events or would you say the same thing about e-consultancy. Whom you yourself have sat at their round tables.

The UK affiliate marketing sector is set to expand at a rapid pace. Fyi, US affs have always promoted UK merchants and vice versa..thats the beauty of the internet. Just what percentage of cross border affiliates there are is some thing Im working on at the moment. I encourage cross border affs and welcome it regardless if its the USA or not. I agree 100% with shawn re the headaches of Eastern European affs and others, unfortunately a small minority of dodgy affs have given good honest affs a bad rep.

Its a big world out there mate

I take your point about the guy who was put out of business, especially the history surrounding him and what happened. However Shawn didn’t mention this on the podcast (probably for good reason) and the impression I got was that Shawn wanted to do the same thing here in the UK.

Secondly, to be completely honest I really can’t see room in the UK for 2 major affiliate events. Matt and A4Uevents are looking to change the format of their events as I mentioned above. If there were 2 UK affiliate events, wouldn’t they just have the same people attending? Certainly the same networks and agencies and probably the same affiliates. Sure Shawn is very well known in the US, but not so much so over here. I also appreciate that he has great experince in organising these events but will the fact that he is organising a UK event bring out other attendees who wouldn’t go to an A4Uevents conference? I really don’t think so.

I don’t really see that the e-consultancy events compare with the events organised by A4U. E-consultancy have a maximum of 20 attendees sitting round a table for 2 hours. A4Uevents usually run over a day or 2 and have hundreds of attendees. Different formats also.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m all for cross-border affiliates and I even dabble in the US market myself. However, my interpretion of Shauns comments were because the US is advanced and saturated in most markets that a lot of US affiliated are targetting the UK as they view it as “untapped”. You and I both know this is not the case at all.

Hi Kieron -

I was not aware that plans were in the works for a conference.

I’m not trying to step on any toes. The demise of the guy that ran the US-based events in the past can be attributed to a number of factors.

I was referring a large portion of his attendees and when I started my show, I stopped promoting him and started promoting myself. The crowd shifted to me.

Also, my intuition proved to be correct that people were avoiding his show, because it was seen as a boondoggle. Not only did his previous attendees come out to me, but so did an increasing number of people who had never attended his events.

Last, but certainly not least, he had a history of questionable business practices, which culminated in never running his 2004 conference and not refunding the money to sponsors and registrants. He’s been on the lam ever since.

> I also appreciate that he has great experince in organising these events but will the fact that he is organising a UK event bring out other attendees who wouldn’t go to an A4Uevents conference? I really don’t think so.

I couldn’t say for sure, but I think I’d be bringing in some new people. In addition to some folks that would inevitably make the trip from the US, Affiliate Summit currently draws a number of attendees from around Europe, and I think they would be inclined to attend in the UK rather than making the trip to the US in the future.

> However, my interpretion of Shauns comments were because the US is advanced and saturated in most markets that a lot of US affiliated are targetting the UK as they view it as “untapped”.

Sorry if I was not clear - I don’t think the UK is untapped by any means, Rather, I think affiliates in the US have not discovered the opportunities in the UK to a great extent, and I expect that to change.

People regularly talk about different countries being more advanced or mature in affiliate marketing - personally, I think that’s nonsense.

At the end of the day, it’s about relationships, and I think we can all maintain relationships just fine.