This week we bring you our exclusive interview that we shot in Tel Aviv Israel with the CEO of El Al Airlines, Haim Romano. I’ll grant you, this is not your typical performance marketing fare, but I thought it was interesting to see how a major airline thinks about their business in the context of globalization and online marketing.

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If you attended Affiliate Convention in Denver and saw Peter Bordes’ keynote presentation, you’ve already seen this video. It was put together to lay some groundwork for the concepts that Peter would later be speaking about, first on his own, then with his panel. We thought it had lots of great data in it and that our audience would find some value in it.

This data came from a 2008 IAB online revenue report and a survey that Econsultancy did with U.S. affiliates. Whether you’re brand new to performance marketing or you’re a veteran in the space, this data really paints a detailed picture of both sides of the industry and hopefully gives us all something to act on for the remainder of 2009.

You can view Peter’s presentation slide deck HERE. We shot Peter’s presentation in HD video and will be putting that up in the coming weeks.

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This week we’re covering Affiliate Convention in Denver. It’s a first-time event for the organizers so it will be interesting to see how they do pulling it off.

There are lots of great industry leaders attending the event and tons of great sessions. Two events we’re really excited about is the keynote presentation by Peter Bordes called “Conversations on Affiliate Performance Marketing.” In addition to Peter, this talk will feature Steve Hartman of Ebay, Steve Schaffer of Vertive, Rebecca Madigan of the PMA and Wes Mahler of Prosper202. The session is at 9:00 AM on Friday, June 19th in Super Affiliate Room I.

The second event we’re excited about is a session called “Lead Generation Strategies” with our own Jivan Manhas. He’ll be covering ways to get better leads as an affiliate marketer. That session is at 11:30 AM June 19th also in Super Affiliate Room I.

We’ve also got some news from outside Denver. Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing is getting amassive ad push and the IAB Europe has released their 2008 report.

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We’re back in the comfort of our California studio this week after an excellent trip to Israel for Affilicon. Another big thank you to Itay Paz for bringing me over to cover the event.

This week, we begin showing some of the interviews we gathered at Affilicon. The first is from the CEO of Unique Leads, Shai Pritz. We talked about what makes Unique Leads different from other networks and the growing problem of fraud in our industry.

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If you answered “no,” why not? 

First off, affiliates get to attend for free. So, grab a cheap plane ticket – or if you’re close enough, drive to the event – and get your friends together and pile into a hotel room. Then spend the next few days learning how to improve your business.

Second, look at the list of speakers! Keynotes from our very own CEO, Peter Bordes as well as Kris Jones from Pepperjam. Additionally there will be people from Ebay, Vertive, Clickbooth and Yahoo. Not enough you say? How about industry legends like Jeremy Schoemaker, Hamlet Batista, Heather Paulson and our own Jivan Manhas? There is definitely no shortage of talent at this event.

Third, you can’t forget the social aspects of a conference. These are usually the best opportunities to shake hands, have a drink and spend a little more time talking with potential partners. Affiliate Convention will have ample opprtunity for these types of interactions including a golf tournament, a pre-party hosted by the likes of Shoemoney and WickedFire, an “Affiliate Bash” hosted by Webmaster Radio and a closing day-two party.

Finally, we’ll be there covering the event for our blog and Relevantly Speaking. If you are a regular reader here, you know we’re always searching for interviews with the best and the brightest in the online marketing industry to share their wisdom. If you’d like to be a guest on Relevantly Speaking and you’ll be in Denver, please email me at sparentATmediatrustDOTcom.

UPDATE 6/11/09: Read our press release on Econsultancy.

After a 25-hour travel day from Tel Aviv, I am back in the familiar settings of my office in Santa Barbara. Even though I was in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Israel two days ago, it now seems like a world away. I’ve been thinking a lot about Affilicon over the last 24 hours and wanted to share some thoughts.

First, this is the second Affilicon conference – the first was less than a year ago. You’d never know it. The event has a maturity and a polish to it that rivals some of the most well-produced events that I’ve ever attended. The facility was top-notch, the food was far and away better than anything I’ve ever had at a conference and the staff was courteous and professional. Combine all that with the fact that the  registration was one-third the cost of most other industry events.

Second, let’s talk about the content of the show itself. Like every conference you attend, there were some speakers and sessions that just weren’t that interesting. There’s no way to eliminate that completely. Unfortunately, in our industry I’m finding that trend more and more. Too often events get speakers with “names” that show up and give us all a bunch of vague jargon that doesn’t help anyone. Not so at Affilicon. The vast majority of the sessions I attended were built with practical applications in mind. Presenters used specific examples and answered really tough questions from the audience. If you were an affiliate attending this event – and the vast majority of attendees were – you left with a stack of good notes that will help elevate your business to the next level.

The only advice I would offer is to look at renting a car if you attend next year. The conference facility is located in Airport City which is about 30 minutes from downtown Tel Aviv where all the hotels are. A cab to and from the event runs about 135 Shekels, or $35 US. That can get pricey. My advice would be pool your money with some friends and rent a car.

The final thing I want to say is about the founder of Affilicon, Itay Paz. I met Itay at Affiliate Summit West in January. Since then you’ve seen him doing field reports for us all over the world on Relevantly Speaking. He’s one of those people that just radiates a warmth about him. Besides being very knowledgeable about the nuances of international affiliate marketing, Itay has a way of making everyone feel valued and important. You feel like you can trust him. I believe that is the single biggest reason for the success of Affilicon.

I want to extend my thanks to Itay, his wife Anat, Udi Netzer and the rest of the team at Affilicon for making it possible for me to attend. I hope to see you all at next year’s event.

This week we’re coming to you from Tel Aviv Israel from the floor of Affilicon. It’s been interesting to see the knowledge and passion that affiliates here have for internet marketing. We’ve been attending panels and sessions and capturing some great interviews – including an exclusive with the CEO of El Al Airlines.

We’ll be back to our usual format next week from the U.S.

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Hello from Tel Aviv, Israel. Day one of Affilicon is over and my head is spinning from all the sessions, panels and interviews I was part of today.

This morning our own Jivan Manhas lead a panel about international affiliate programs – lots of great information about leveraging performance marketing on a global scale. Panelists included representatives from Copeac and ClickBank.

After an epic lunch spread (and I do mean epic by conference standards), I saw Igal Pines deliver a spirited presentation called “Cash Chicken Engineering.” In addition to becoming a very finacially successful affiliate, Igal also talked about karma and the importance of giving back to the affiliate community. In fact, he shares much of his knowledge with his readership of his PJS blog. Unfortunately for us English-speakers, his blog is in Hebrew.

During the late afternoon, I got a chance to interview Stefanie Amini from NeoGames Partners, Dush Ramachandran of ClickBank, Ran Aroussi - an internet marketing strategist and Igal Pines. All provided some great insight in the global, and particularly, the Israeli online markets.

On a final – and decidedly random note – Relevantly Speaking has proven to be pretty popular here. I’ve had quite a few people stop me to say they watched the show. It’s always nice to hear that people dig what we’re doing. It’s funny how small the world can be even when you’re halfway around the globe.

Tomorrow’s another big day. I better get some rest.

We’re several days into the Just Think Media Publisher Rewards Program. Have you checked it out yet? You should – it’s really simple: Make a sale on any of the Just Think Media offers you run on the Advaliant platform and you get 1 point. Take a survey about the offers and rewards that you want and earn 100 points. Plus, the top 25 publishers can earn an additional 25,000 points!

You can check out the list of current prizes you can redeem your points for HERE and you can get answers to your questions HERE.

This is is a pilot program that we are trying out. We need your input and participation to make this thing something that you really benefit from, so feel free to talk to you account manager or leave your feedback in the comments.

The program runs from May 15th – June 30th. We look forward to your participation!

I was reading this great article over at Ad Age. It’s about how several small businesses are using Twitter in a proven way to drive sales. For example, Naked Pizza in New Orleans ran a Twitter promotion on April 23rd that accounted for 15% of that day’s business.

“Every phone call was tracked, every order was measured by where it came from, and it told us very quickly that Twitter is useful,” said Jeff Leach, the restaurant’s co-founder. “Sure, there’s the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff. … But we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?”

The article goes on to point some very specific tips that businesses should be mindful of when using Twitter as a promotional tool:

TRACK EVERY SALE - Consider sending out a codeword in a tweet that customers have to repeat to get a discount. This will give you an absolutely granular look at the real impact the promotion has.

TWITTER IS NOT FACEBOOK - Twitter is more immediate – it is more likely to harness action in a more urgent and spontaneous way whereas Facebook might be better to plan a longterm contest or promotion using groups or an application.

CREATE A CONVERSATION – Don’t blast promotions incessantly. Intersperse them with other nuggets of wisdom or news related to your products and industry or neighborhood. Or, if you have a broader social mission, use Twitter to communicate that. Naked Pizza co-founder Jeff Leach suggests that if these kinds of social technologies become game changers, there may be a day when companies’ initial business plans take into consideration whether they have anything worth microblogging.

SELL LAST-MINUTE INVENTORY - Twitter’s immediacy is its biggest strength — so use it to pump up business during lulls or discount last-minute unsold goods, said Zack Steven, co-founder of LocalTweeps, a local Twitter directory, who caught same-day discounted tickets at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis via Twitter.

ALERT FOLLOWERS WHEN YOU’RE ON THE GO - Venture capitalist Fred Wilson likes to point to KogiBBQ, a Korean taco truck that drives around Los Angeles, alerting its almost 20,000 followers to its current and future locations via a Twitter feed.

Looking at the above points, how can Twitter help you achieve your performance marketing goals? For us, we’ve used it to search for SEM firms, fill staff positions, recruit publishers and advertisers and get the word out about important issues in our industry like the affiliate tax. Then, monthly, we gather reports and see where we had an impact and where we can do better.

How is your company or business using Twitter to increase your bottom line?