For the third year in a row, Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back took to the streets with their feet to do their part to fight breast cancer; this time during the 39 mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Los Angeles.

This year’s team consisted of Brook Schaaf of Schaaf Consulting, Chris Pearson of DIYThemes, Melissa Salas of Buy.com, Kevin Strawbridge of DealTaker.com, Lynette LaPlante a 1-year survivor and Team Captain, Missy Ward of Affiliate Summit and Founder of AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com.

After months of fun and sometimes whacky fund raising activities, Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back blew past their goal and raised nearly $53,000, earning as them the #5 highest fundraising team spot overall.
Day 1 started at 5:30am for team as they geared up and headed on the bus for the Opening Ceremony. After some stretching and motivational words, we set forth on our 26.2 mile walk for the day which would take us through panoramic waterfronts, charming neighborhoods, Pacific Coast Highway and the tree-lined parks of Long Beach and Seal Beach.

We loaded up on healthy snacks and hydrated roughly every two miles at the welcoming rest stops. We were doing great until the blisters started setting in and spent lunch wrapping all injured toes with mole skin.
Miles 20-26 were the roughest. All of the hours of walking were finally taking their toll. But watching some of the women at the cheering stations that were currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer along with survivors encouraging us on gave us the motivation to keep on trucking.

The first day ended at Wellness Village, located in El Dorado Park, where many of the 1,800 walkers had dinner and snuggled up in their tents. Our team however, went directly out for a victory dinner at the Grill Restaurant in the Westin Hotel, sans showers. (That could have been the reason why they kept us away from the other diners.)

After sitting down for an hour or so for dinner, it was very difficult to get back up. We clearly provided entertainment value to the employees as they laughed at our stiff waddling leaving the restaurant.

All of us were out cold before 9pm as we knew that 13 more miles were ahead of us in the morning.

Day 2 started out rough for us. All of our muscles were hurting and blisters were oozing, but we knew that the day was only half as long as the Day 1 and we were determined to finish.

We blew past a number of rest-stops out of fear that if we sat for even just one minute, we’d never get going again. With the Queen Mary in sight, our finish line, we drummed up the final burst of energy to make it to the end. Amazingly, even with stopping for a relaxing lunch and a couple of pit-stops, we finished up today’s half-marathon in less than five hours.

We were all excited to learn that the walk that we participated in this weekend raised a total of 4.6 million dollars to support five areas of the breast cancer cause, including: awareness and education; screening and diagnosis, access to treatment; support services and scientific research.

I am proud of my team and I thank them so much for volunteering their time. I’m also very grateful to all of our sponsors and supporters who helped us reach our fundraising goal.

To view our exciting journey or find out more about participating in the 2010 walk, please visit www.AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com

Missy Ward is the Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit, Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine and Founder of AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com

Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10

If you’ve been in the affiliate marketing industry for some time, chances are that you’ve heard of Melissa Salas, bumped into her at an industry event or at least have seen her smiling face online.

Salas is the Director of Marketing at Buy.com in Aliso Viejo, California and the co-host of BuyTV, the popular show for tech-savvy shoppers. She is also the 2008 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award Winner for Affiliate Manager of the Year, and will be speaking on a panel during Affiliate Summit Social Media 2008 in New York.

FeedFront’s Co-Editor-in-Chief, Missy Ward recently talked with the industrious Salas about her career and her views on life and affiliate marketing.

Missy: So tell me a little bit about young Melissa. What was your life like growing up?

Melissa: When I look back at my childhood, I have nothing but fond memories. I grew up in a very loving, Christian home, where I was the oldest of three children. My mom didn’t believe in daycare, so she worked days and my dad worked nights, which meant that someone was always home with us. After 34 years, my parents are still married and love each other dearly.

My mother got me involved in everything when I was a kid. I was a Brownie and Girl Scout and wore my mother’s handmade dresses until I was in 5th grade – where I discovered fast-pitch softball… my entrée to sports. Life went from Bobby Sox and Track & Field in the spring to Football in the fall. From there I got involved in drama class, homecoming court, JV and Varsity Cheer as well as Varsity Track & Field.

After graduating high school, I moved to Hunting Beach, California where I attended Long Beach State University.

Missy: So now you’re living in Aliso Viejo, right down the road from Buy.com. How’s that working out?

Melissa: It’s great. I’m just ten minutes from Laguna Beach. I’m a beach girl and need to be close to God’s most magnificent creation. The beach is such a peaceful place to collect my thoughts and give thanks. Plus, being so close to work allows me to go home and play with my Maltese, Bentley.

Missy: So how does a sports-enthusiast, beach-going gal like yourself, get involved with the Internet?

Melissa: Funny story, really. My first job was as a bank teller at Wells Fargo and was eventually promoted to Branch Manager. At that point, online banking was just starting and I had to learn about it to train my staff. We all believed at the time that customers would never adopt online banking as it was even a problem getting them to use an ATM machine!

Missy: How did you make the leap from banking to Buy.com?

Melissa: After 8 years with Wells Fargo, I moved to Also Viejo. My neighbor at the time worked for Buy.com. For over a year, he tried to recruit me. But I was like, “What? People buying stuff online??? “ No way will people share their credit card information over the internet. In 2000, I decided to join the staff and now 8 years later, the Internet is my everything.

Missy: When did affiliate marketing hit your radar and how did you figure it all out?

Melissa: I was in Business Development at Buy.com for two years, when an opening came up in Affiliate Marketing. I began managing both. I love building relationships, so getting to know our affiliates was easy. I sure learned a lot from them and my boss was a great mentor. I also read a lot of trade articles and magazines. At the time, our network was LinkShare and I owe a lot of my knowledge to Stephen and Heidi Messer, as well as Kelly Beougher.

Missy: What is the secret to Buy.com’s success?

Melissa: Scott Blum’s vision, Neel Grover’s execution and the Buy.com team who carries a lot of tenure because we all believe in our company. Success starts with vision, and it’s our job to make sure we offer online shoppers the absolute best shopping experience. We are a company who has evolved to the online customers needs. Our goal is to be the one destination for all their shopping needs. Great prices, free shipping offers and superior customer service. In the future, I believe Buy.com will grow its product offering, globally.

Missy: How do you think Social Media has helped grow Buy.com?

Melissa: With the development of our FaceBook application Garage Sale – Buy.com has had success in the social media space. We even took our own stab into social media with our site Yub.com (its Buy backwards). I am heavily involved in all social media sites such as posting our Buy.com deals on Twitter (Twitter.com/buy_com), as well as addressing any customer service related questions. BuyTV has a MySpace page (MySpace.com/buytv), where we can interact with our fans.

Missy: How would you characterize the current state of affiliate marketing?

Melissa: Affiliate marketers are not only entrepreneurs / small business owners but more and more they are an important extension of the advertiser’s marketing team.

Missy: In your opinion, what are some of the biggest hurdles facing affiliate marketers right now?

Melissa: 1) Ethics. 2) Differentiating themselves from other affiliate marketers. 3) Keeping up with multiple offers from multiple merchants and learning to scale campaigns. 4) Getting traffic to their site with ever-changing index algorithms and higher bid prices if using PPC. 5) For new affiliates, learning to incorporate technologies like conversion tracking, click trackers, installing analytics, analyzing analytics for better optimization of their business.

Missy: What are 3 trends affiliate marketers should have on their radar in the next few months?

Melissa: Definitely, new mobile phones that can do everything! Smartphones, TV on your PC and Ultra Portable Laptops.

Missy: What is the biggest piece of advice you would give an affiliate just starting out?

Melissa: Build strong relationships with the top merchants you plan to work with they are the source of your content. Build out your site with a lot of content. Brand yourself as an expert in whatever interests you.

Missy: What are some of your other passions other than affiliate marketing?

Melissa: I really enjoy hosting our TV show BuyTV. Aside from work, I have a passion for kickboxing, live music, traveling, snowblading, going to USC football games and well, any sports event really. I also love eating A LOT of chocolate.

Missy: Work aside, what do you want to do in the future?

Melissa: I want what every girl dreams of… travel the world, get married and have a family. All in God’s time.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 3 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue3.pdf
FeedFront issue 3 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-3/