Connie Berg is one of the most respected names in affiliate marketing, where she has earned a reputation as hard-working and an innovative affiliate in her ten plus years in the business. Among her industry accolades have been the LinkShare Golden Link Most Vocal Advocate Award in 2004 and the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award – Affiliate of the Year in 2008.

FeedFront’s Co-Editor-in-Chief, Shawn Collins, recently talked with Connie about her career, fighting the advertising tax in Minnesota, and which Aerosmith song sums up her life.

Shawn: What was the first domain you purchased?

Connie: My first domain was FlamingoWorld.com in 1998.

Shawn: Most people know you for FlamingoWorld.com. How did you get started with it?

Connie: I was really poor and found out there were coupons for online stores so I started a website to collect them for myself. Then I found that on some of the store websites that they had this thing called an affiliate program where you got paid a percent of the purchase. I figured I would sign up and use the commission as a rebate. Somehow, I don’t know how, others found my site and started using the coupons and my links. I got the flamingo theme from an old boyfriend; he used to call me Flamingo Girl.

Shawn: How about ForMeToCoupon.com, what is that project all about?

Connie: For a long time coupon affiliates, myself included looked to the networks to give us consolidated, accurate data feeds of their merchant’s coupons, sales and special offers. Tired of waiting, a light bulb went off in my head; instead of looking for the solution I would be the solution. ForMeToCoupon offers an automated, customized affiliate coupon feed and deal feed from across all major networks. It covers all kinds of deals -not just coupons – but also rebates, clearances, product deals, deals of the day, and free shipping deals.

Shawn: What has been the highlight of your time in affiliate marketing to date?

Connie: The highlight has been all the wonderful people I have met whom I now call close friends. Some of the best people are in affiliate marketing. When I go to affiliate events it is like a family reunion. I have also gotten a better education in business than I could have gotten if I had taken business course in college. There are so many smart and inspiring people in the industry, they constantly challenge me and spark ideas.

Shawn: What has been the lowlight?

Connie: The cheaters, those who try to game the system. Those who find ways to steal sales and commissions from other affiliates and the networks who look the other way. There are a lot of unethical players out there. For each one that is outed there are ten that no one knows about.

Shawn: Which affiliate programs are your favorites? Why?

Connie: I don’t have a favorite program but I do have 2 favorite networks. ShareASale and AvantLink. Both are honest and ethical networks and I deeply respect the people who run them.

Shawn: You’ve been a vocal opponent of the advertising tax issue in Minnesota. Have you been in touch with your lawmakers?

Connie: I went to one hearing where they postponed hearing on the issue. Since then I have sent emails, letters and had a few meetings with lawmakers.

Shawn: I saw that you blogged, “Minnesota Affiliates Where Are You?” Have more Minnesota affiliates stepped up to fight the advertising tax?

Connie: I have heard from 2 affiliates in Minnesota total. I don’t know if there are no other affiliates in Minnesota that are active or that would be greatly impacted; if they don’t understand the issue or if they just don’t care and want to leave it up to others to take care of.

Shawn: Are you concerned about the impact if the advertising tax passes in Minnesota?

Connie: I am hoping the Governor will veto the bill, but if it passes I think I will lose a lot of merchants. However, we are hoping to keep some to use just in ForMeToCoupon and not post on FlamingoWorld.com. On ForMeToCoupon we don’t earn any commissions on any sales, those go to the affiliates using our service who are active in the programs.

Shawn: How many people do you employ?

Connie: I have 6 employees, whom I also count as friends. All work from home. One is my ex-husband.

Shawn: If the advertising tax passes in Minnesota, do you think you would have to lay off staff?

Connie: I don’t foresee having to lay anyone off since we still need staff for ForMeToCoupon. We have a lot of ideas we want to implement. We know that we can’t keep all our eggs in one basket, we have to have a game plan, in this industry anything can happen so we have to be prepared and have more than one niche.

Shawn: What is your favorite site today (not including anything related to affiliate marketing)?

Connie: I love TMZ.com, it is a nice distraction from the day-to-day grind. It is fun to see celebrities acting stupid and it makes me realize that my life is pretty good compared to some of them.

Shawn: You’ve sponsored music festivals to promote FlamingoWorld.com. Have you used other strategies to promote your site?

Connie: Most of my promotion is word of mouth. I sponsor Rock-Fest every year in Cadott, Wisconsin and that is about it for organized promotion.

Shawn: What is the last book you read?

Connie: The last book I read was “Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s “, by John Elder Robison. I also read a lot of true crime books. Forensics fascinates me.

Shawn: Complete this sentence: Affiliate marketing was __________ five years ago, but now it is __________.

Connie: Complete this sentence: Affiliate marketing was fun five years ago, but now it is a lot of work and politics.

Shawn: What’s your favorite movie?

Connie: Anything with Johnny Depp! My other favorite is Gone With The Wind.

Shawn: If your life could be summed up in an Aerosmith song, which song would it be?

Connie: Living on the Edge, although I wish it were Love in an Elevator!

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 6 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue6.pdf
FeedFront issue 6 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/06

Issue 6 of FeedFront Magazine came in the mail to me yesterday.

My son Jack snatched the copy right away to read the interview with super affiliate Connie Berg.

Here are the articles for this issue:

• Things I Wish I Knew 10 Years Ago by Jim Kukral
• Guy Kawasaki Keynote at SESNY 2009 by Shawn Collins
• 3 Social Media Marketing Tips for Affiliates by Brent Csutoras
• Online_Charles_44254 is in Charge of your Brand? by Brian Littleton
• ad:tech San Francisco 2009 Recap by Shawn Collins
• 15 Things to Look for in Affiliate Programs by Dan Leman
• Crying Need for Education by Geno Prussakov
• Search Engine Pessimization: Don’t Make Google Cry by Mark Schumann
• Four Great Tools for Twitter Marketing by Ian Fernando
• Who Owns and Controls Your Content? by Deborah Carney
• How the Web’s Rich Get Richer by Michel Leconte
• Gearing Up For Affiliate Marketing Success by Andrew Wee
• I Wish I Was Rich Like You by Zac Johnson
• Five Minutes with Connie Berg by Shawn Collins
• Trust is a Two Way Street by Ad Hustler
• Affiliate Marketing Stats by Amy Rodriguez & Shawn Collins
• The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing by Jay Berkowitz
• Compliance in Advertising by Stacey Sicard
• Affiliate Summit East 2009 Speaker Preview
• How to Build Your Message with Twitter by Murray Newlands
• The Tradeshow Jungle by Chantelle White
• 5 Ways to Keep WordPress Running Smoothly by Karen Jackie & Dana Rockel

The issue mailed at the end of last week, so it should hit mailboxes all over the U.S. in the coming weeks. It will also be available at the LinkShare Symposium in New York City.

If you can’t wait to see your copy (or you’re not currently a subscriber), you can download issue 6 of FeedFront.

Free subscription to U.S. addresses at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription.

The sixth issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, is at the printer and it will be hitting mailboxes later in the month.

Issue six will also be distributed at the Linkshare Symposium East in NYC.

The cover features super-affiliate, Connie Berg, founder of FlamingoWorld.com, and the issue includes a frank discussion about her career, her thoughts on the affiliate marketing industry and the fight against advertising tax in Minnesota.

There are also articles on social media tactics, tips for keeping WordPress running smoothly, things to look for in an affiliate programs, search engine marketing strategies, and more.

Issue 6 can now be downloaded in PDF format, as well as on Scribd.

Get the FeedFront RSS if you’d like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

Also, become a fan of FeedFront on Facebook to see past issues, covers, etc.