I was recently reading a post that my business partner, Shawn Collins had up on his blog, AffiliateTip.com, entitled “Cynical Marketing.”

In the post, Shawn talks about how there are some marketers out there that simply don’t get the fact that not everything they do has to revolve around making money. They forget that sometimes, it’s more important to just give back.

The content of his post was dead on and the timing in which I read it, couldn’t be more ironic.

You see, earlier that day, I was approached by a marketer who read a post on my blog, MissyWard.com, that discussed me coming out of affiliate management retirement to help support breast cancer research and treatment – a cause that is very close to my heart.

This marketer had the chutzpah to ask me “what my angle was and why on earth would I bust my a** to grow someone else’s company when there was absolutely nothing at stake for me”.

Rather than chastising him for his ludicrous implications, I simply told him how I felt.

Giving is in my DNA and since affiliate marketing is what I do best, it seemed like a natural fit.

He followed up with a “you’re nuts.”

You know what, Mr. Cynical Marketer? Maybe I am.

But I keep very good company.

Aside from the folks that Shawn mentioned in his post that give back to the online marketing community without ever asking for a thing back (Haiko de Poel, Jr. of ABestWeb.com, Scott Jangro of Jangro.com, Jim Kukral of JimKukral.com, Melanie Seery of NYAffiliateVoice.com and Kellie Stevens of AffiliateFairPlay.com), I can think of dozens of marketers, including Shawn, who neglected to name himself) who do the same.

Chris Brogan who takes the time to answer every single questions he’s asked on Twitter; Brian Clark who provides amazing free content on CopyBlogger.com everyday; Brian Littleton of ShareASale who takes the time to educate his merchants and affiliate marketers to both make the affiliate marketing industry better and push it forward.

Also, all of the folks that walked 60 miles with me to raise money for breast cancer research on behalf of AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com ; Jeremy Schoemaker who provides dozens of case studies and tips to marketers to grow their businesses — the list goes on and on.

Now, it’s not to say that I’m averse to making money. I think I do a pretty good job at it. So do all of the people that I’ve mentioned above.

Maybe I’m just an idealist, but I believe that when one does well, there is an inherent responsibility to give back to the industries that have helped us get to where we are today and to help the less fortunate.

So, to all of the other idealists out there that give so much, with no strings attached – I salute you. Please keep doing what you’re doing. You ARE making a difference.

Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.

Missy Ward is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine. She also manages the ThesisAffiliates.com program in which all of her management fees are donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 5 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue5.pdf
FeedFront issue 5 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00category/issue-5

“The secret of success is constancy of purpose.” – Disraeli. This quotation appears over 18,000 times on ABestWeb.com – the largest affiliate marketing forum with more than 43,000 registered members. The founder of ABestWeb, Haiko de Poel, Jr, has included this citation in every one of his posts to remind readers that if one commits to their goals and those objectives are honorable, they will triumph. In these words, you will find the formula to ABestWeb’s and Haiko’s success.

Before ABestWeb, or ABW as it is frequently called, Haiko was one of the progenitors of prepaid phone cards and owned a small, long distance resale company. He also experimented with a few inventions and design trademarks.

Haiko learned about the potential of the Internet while watching television. He quickly ascertained that the domain name would be crucial and in 1998 he began to buy and speculate in popular domain names.

Once the domain name market crashed, Haiko turned to affiliate marketing to derive revenue from the domain inventory he had acquired. His first website was a personal website containing Homer Simpson eating a donut in space. This site, he readily admits was the kind of site that members of ABW would tear apart.

In 1999, he created his first business site, MarlboroMiles.com – an online petition to have the Marlboro Miles catalog placed online. He soon realized that his visitors were also looking for a place to redeem their miles. His long-term goal was to convince Phillip Morris that MarlboroMiles.com had become the source for Marlboro Miles information, so that they would eventually purchase the website – or so he hoped. (Keep in mind that at this time, selling trademark domain names was not against ICANN nor Trademark rules.)

In an effort to offset the costs of the site and what he felt would be impending legal issues with Phillip Morris, he affiliated with Ask Jeeves to promote their search engine. While he didn’t quite figure out everything there was to know about affiliate marketing then, he did realize that tracking was an inherent problem as he earned a whopping $0.30 on millions of hits.

Needless to say, his first brush with affiliate marketing left a sour taste in his mouth and he decided to take leave, post-haste.

About a year later, he decided to join Commission Junction in an effort to monetize his remaining domain inventory. After a major tracking incident and what he felt was unacceptable responsiveness, he realized the need to facilitate the affiliate’s right to be heard. In 2001, ABestWeb was born with a goal of becoming a trusted third-party to protect and allow for the unencumbered affiliate voice.

The forum began to gain critical mass and cause quite a few stirs in the affiliate marketing community. In its infancy, moderators were recruited who were respected and trusted, including “Leader”, who Haiko believes added additional credibility to the forum.

By 2002, ABW became known as the forum to go to when you wanted to know about affiliate marketing. Later that year, ABW was featured in three articles covering Parasiteware™, a term Haiko coined to describe, in a nutshell, any technology that overwrites affiliate links.

Today, with nearly 1 million posts and an Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award for Affiliate Marketing Advocate under its belt, ABW is more than just a forum that focuses on the challenges within the affiliate marketing industry. It’s a community of affiliate marketers that share ideas, joke around, talk about their lives and families and challenge each other.

However, the fundamental principles in which the forum was founded are still first and foremost. There is and will never be any love for affiliate marketers that are unethical unless they are willing to change, prove it, and continue to stay that way.

For those individuals or companies bordering on the “grey area” with their policies, that wish to continue doing business “as is”, this author’s advice is to enter at your own risk.

Fundamentals

de Poel’s childhood was unique. He was born in Mexico City where his father worked for Jose Cuervo, Int’l and his mother, the Norwegian embassy. His parents separated when he was two and he subsequently moved with his mother and sister to the Upper East Side of NYC to live with his godfather, who was the Norwegian Ambassador. His life was privileged and fun and values were instilled in him at a very early age.

Today, Haiko lives in Jamaica Estates, NY, a small family community that had once been filled with Tudor-style, tree-lined streets. Unfortunately, the recent influx of a younger generation has changed the area dramatically by building what Haiko calls “McMansions” and as such, he’s currently looking to move to Florida, with Amelia Island being a targeted location.

One of his personal goals is to try to learn and make a difference in everything he does. He currently teaches Lacrosse to children in a non-profit organization in which he belongs. Haiko is also a vocal voice in his local community and has a passion for home-improvement and gardening.

Looking to the Future

Haiko believes that the largest hurdle that affiliate marketing faces can be summed up in one word. “Ethics. Those who have them will keep fighting those that don’t.” In his opinion, ShareASale and AvantLink are good examples of companies that are doing affiliate marketing right. He attributes their success to good principles and open-communication, which leaves no room for speculation or doubt.

One piece of advice that Haiko gives to affiliates just starting out is, “Get the best hosting plan that they can get. If their site is down, they’re not making money.”

de Poel also points out that “Affiliates need to pay attention to the economy. They need to realize which niches and keywords will work in a recession.” He also suggests “staying away from niches like travel, car sales, and high-end electronics and looking more towards eco-friendly and savings type offers.”

When asked to provide a wish-list of things he would like to see happen to the affiliate marketing industry, Haiko took no time in sounding off a laundry-list of items including:

• “Industry reputation improvement. The bad players have besmirched it through almost heinous activities so there needs to be some major damage control.”
• “Policing. We either do it as an industry or some other entity will.”
• “Standards and best practices. As an industry we need to get together to develop standards and best practices that we will all adhere to.”
• “Enforcement. If we don’t legally enforce these standards and best practices, then all we will do is continue to have to work on our industry reputation. Enforcement is crucial for the long-term viability of affiliate marketing.”
• “Separation. The industry needs to be separated so that the individual voices of the group can be heard and their interests protected. If this doesn’t happen, larger money groups within the industry will continue to steam roll the smaller ones and we go back to reputation management once again.”
• “Communication. As I’ve always said, communication is the key. You just have to allow all to speak and all to listen.”

When asked what he wants to do in the future outside of ABW, he chuckled, “You mean, what do I want to be when I grow up? I don’t know. Maybe a police officer or fireman. All I know is that I want to keep helping people no matter what industry I’m in.”

Missy Ward is the Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit, the premier conference for the Affiliate Marketing Industry and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine. She is also an active affiliate.

Download issue 2 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue2.pdf.

Articles from issue 2 of FeedFront will also be posted at http://feedfront.com/archives/category/issue-2/.

The second issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, has been published and it will be hitting mailboxes over the coming weeks with 60 pages of affiliate marketing goodness.

Issue two will also be in the attendee bags at Affiliate Summit 2008 East.

The cover story is a profile of Haiko de Poel, Jr. of ABestWeb.

There are also articles on conference networking, diversifying affiliate revenue, perils of white hat SEO, ten affiliate manager commandments, working with video, and coupon codes in affiliate marketing.

Issue 1 of FeedFront Magazine can be downloaded as a pdf file or you can read the articles online.

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