Interview Shawn Collins

January 16th, 2012 04:27 PM

Interview with co-founder of the Affiliate Summit

Shawn Collins has been an affiliate marketer since 1997. Shawn is a co-founder of the Affiliate Summit, the leading industry conference for affiliate marketing, which regularly sells out and features the biggest names in performance marketing. He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine and Founder of GeekCast.fm, a marketing podcast network where he has co-hosted the weekly Affiliate Thing show since 2006.

Hello, Shawn!! Thanks a lot for your interview agreement. Please, say some words about you, when and where you was born, what is you education and when did you start make money online?
I was born in April 1970 in the state of New Jersey in the U.S., but grew up in Maryland. I studied Communications at the University of Maryland and graduated in 1993. I started as an affiliate with Amazon in 1997.

Your about page is great! What plans for updating it in 2012?
Thank you. I've made a commitment to myself for the past few years to post to my blog at least one time a day every day of the year, and I plan to continue that schedule through 2012.

How much Affiliate Summit Conference will be in 2012? Why not more?
We just wrapped up Affiliate Summit West 2012 in Las Vegas, which was our biggest to date with over 5,000 people, and there will be two more this year. We'll be in Austin, TX in May for a smaller one of about 350 people, and then New York City in August with about 4,500 people. We also have meetups running monthly in many cities. We usually do two a year, so we're expanding a little this year.

When did you start blog.affiliatetip.com ?
I blogged for the first time in 2004, but I started writing a lot more often in 2005, and have been doing it steadily ever since then. I had been focused on forums and newsletters back then, but I really liked the power of RSS to broadcast information.

How much affiliate programs do you now at this moment?
I actively work on 6 or so affiliate sites now. I used to run many more, but with Affiliate Summit and other projects, I don't have the time.

By your mind, how much affiliate programs were started in 2011 and how much were finished work?
I really couldn't even guess on those numbers.

What is the difference between Affiliate Summit and Pubcon Conference?
Affiliate Summit has a foundation in affiliate marketing, while Pubcon is more focused on search engine marketing.

How much web sites about internet and affiliate marketing do you have?
I have dozens that are out there, but just 6 or so that I actively monetize. And then there are about 175 domains that I plan to do something with at some point.

What is you hobby without internet and affiliate marketing?
I love to write and plan to write a fiction book in the near future, as well as watching movies and live music, going to baseball games, and coaching my kids in soccer.

How much time do you usually work per day?
I try to keep it to no more than 10 hours on weekdays and an hour or two on the weekends. This varies when I am in the middle of working on FeedFront magazine, which comes out quarterly, or one of the Affiliate Summit events.

Pesonal questions:
Mac or PC?
PC
Tweetdeck or Hootsuite?
Hootsuite (formerly Tweetdeck)
iPhone or Droid?
Droid and Blackberry
Favorite drink/beer?
Diet Dr. Pepper

Say some words about extramoneyanswer.com, feedfront.com and geekcast.fm.
Extra Money Answer was originally going to be a book, but I didn't like the direction the book publisher wanted to go, so I decided to make the information on how to create an affiliate site free online. FeedFront is the online extension of the print FeedFront magazine, which is free to U.S. addresses and published four times a year. All of the articles in FeedFront are written by people in the affiliate marketing industry and a maximum of 500 words. And then GeekCast.fm is a podcast network focused on business podcasts. Most of them are related to affiliate marketing, including Affiliate Thing, which I've co-hosted with Lisa Picarille since 2007.

Say some details about Affiliate-Summit-AffStat-Report, do you plan publish such report in 2012?
I started the AffStat report in 2002, because I was frustrated with the lack of data on affiliate marketing. A couple of years ago, I brought it into the Affiliate Summit brand. In 2012, we will publish the 10th annual report, which is available online for free.

Thanks a lot for Shawn Collins. See you on Affiliate Summit Central 2012.