In a few days, I will be leaving for Affiliates Summit East in NYC. Shawn and Missy always put on a great show and I think this is going to be one of the most productive ones for me.

I am getting in on Friday early so I can spend at least one day relaxing and gathering my thoughts. I am taking my husband to see “Spiderman Turn off the Dark” on Broadway. He is a huge Spidey fan and has probably all of the Spiderman comics in existence.

Saturday morning I am attending the Full Day SEO Training Course with Rae Hoffman-Dolan. I am really excited, SEO has changed so much since I first started this business 12 years ago. I love Rae’s straight shooting no bullshit ways and look forward to learning a lot.

Sunday is the Meet Market and a panel I am looking forward to, including my own:

Taking Advantage of Seasonality in Affiliate Marketing

Session 2a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Learn how affiliate managers and affiliates can work together to maximize earnings during seasons and also extend sales throughout the year. Includes holidays, sports, bridal, graduation, and more.

Todd Farmer, CEO, PerformStreet Media (Twitter @toddfarmer) (Moderator)
Kristen M. Grace, Affiliate Marketing Manager, BuyCostumes.com | Celebrate Express (Twitter @kristengrace)
Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards (Twitter @sunshinetricia)

The Future of Coupons in Affiliate Marketing
Session 4a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

With the introduction of mobile & local deals to affiliate marketing, coupon affiliates must evolve. Experts will discuss the future of affiliate coupons & what trends benefit coupon affiliates.

Trisha Lyn Fawver, Client Services Manager, For Me To Coupon (Twitter @TrishaLyn) (Moderator)
Connie Arnold, Head Bird, FlamingoWorld.com LLC (Twitter @conniearnold)
Carolyn Kmet, Director of Affiliate Marketing, Groupon (Twitter @catango)
Carrie Rocha, Owner, Pocket Your Dollars (Twitter @carrierocha)
Kim Rowley, Owner, Key Internet Marketing, Inc. (Twitter @kimarketing)

The rest of the days are filled with other various sessions, meetings, brainstorming, and of course parties!

I feel like the last year or so my brain has gone stagnant, I need to refresh, come up with new ideas, and create something awesome! If anyone wants to get together at Summit just to pick brains let me know!

I will check in here during Summit to update on what I am doing, who I am talking with, and maybe pick some of your brains too!

Come check out our Session at Affiliate Summit! I am humbled to be included with this awesome group of coupon experts!

Affiliate Summit East 2011, the premier affiliate marketing conference, is taking place August 21-23, 2011 in New York City.

The Future of Coupons in Affiliate Marketing
Session 4a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm

With the introduction of mobile & local deals to affiliate marketing, coupon affiliates must evolve. Experts will discuss the future of affiliate coupons & what trends benefit coupon affiliates.

Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Coupons

• Trisha Lyn Fawver, Client Services Manager, For Me To Coupon (Twitter @TrishaLyn) (Moderator)
• Connie Arnold, Head Bird, FlamingoWorld.com LLC (Twitter @conniejarnold)
• Carolyn Kmet, Director of Affiliate Marketing, Groupon (Twitter @catango)
• Carrie Rocha, Owner, Pocket Your Dollars (Twitter @carrierocha)
• Kim Rowley, Owner, Key Internet Marketing, Inc. (Twitter @kimarketing)

This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

If you aren’t registered, it is a not to be missed event for all affiliate marketers. Register Here!

A few years ago I was frustrated trying to keep up with the thousands of coupons to hunt down in the networks and add to my coupon site FlamingoWorld.com. There were so many emails coming in daily and it was hard to keep up. Some of the networks had rss feeds or coupon feeds but they were sorely lacking. Because of the issue I decided to become the solution to the problem by founding ForMeToCoupon.com.

ForMeToCoupon.com is a service that aggregates all of the network coupon feeds, all of the emails and edits them, makes sure the links work, make sure the coupons work and put them in a standard form. It is a lot of work and I really wish the networks did a better job so ForMeToCoupon.com wasn’t needed.

I am heading a Coupon Feed Standards Working Group for the Performance Marketing Assocication. We a have a few people already interested in joining, but could still use some members. I would really like to see network involvment so we can fix the issues from the source.

Too many merchants add their offers and coupons into the network coupon feeds, but much of the information they add is not standard. They add the coupon code in the deal text, not in a separate field, they do the same with the expiration dates instead of putting them in the expiration date fields. Some add long descriptive text and it isn’t a deal at all. Maybe the networks themselves could do a little quality control before the offers go out? And if they notice issues they could contact the merchants to train them better. I really think if the networks were to require certain information, and in specific fields it would be easier for affiliates to use.

If anyone is interested in joining me on the working group email me at connie(at)flamingoworld.com Or feel free to just email me your gripes and suggestions on the network coupon feeds.

As a coupon site, many times we will work with merchants and offer special placements or special terms in order to get exclusive coupons. One longstanding problem has been other coupon sites taking other coupon site’s exclusive coupons and posting them on their own site. Many times these coupons include our site name, FlamingoWorld or another coupon site’s name or some variation there of.

There are some merchants that track the sales back to those exclusive coupons and they make sure that the affiliate given the coupon code gets credit for all sales. This way the site that lifted the coupon from another site does not benefit financially at all. But most of the time whatever site the shopper clicks through the link on will get credit for the sale no matter what coupon code they use.

Coupon Cabin, a popular coupon site has decided they aren’t going to take it anymore. Coupon Cabin has decided to take legal action against competitors who have been posting and financially benefiting from their exclusive coupons that include their trademarked name. They have started to send cease and desist letters to those using their exclusives, or suing for damages.

There are a lot of coupon sites out there that claim their coupons are entered by users of their site and that their model is a community based website and they have no control over the content. In reality many of these sites are actually posting these coupons themselves and using the member’s as an excuse to post coupons they shouldn’t.

The networks don’t do anything about these websites, They get away with posting any coupon they find whether it belongs to another affiliate or if it is unauthorized for affiliate use. Some merchants kick these affiliates out of their programs while some networks give them awards.

Coupon sites beware if you post other coupon site’s exclusive coupon codes there may be consequences.