The nominees and winners are as follow
The Best New Advertiser award recognizes the Advertiser whose program launched within the last year and who are exceeding their Affiliate Marketing goals

• CarRentals.com
• Crocs
• The Limited (WINNER)

The Best New Publisher recognizes those who are new to LinkShare or Affiliate Marketing and who have experienced significant growth in their business over the last year.

• Blastoff Network
• Deals.Woot (WINNER)
• Mall Networks for USAA

The Innovative Advertiser of the Year is awarded to an advertiser that shows innovation with their creativity and passion for driving results.

• CheapOair (WINNER)
• Dollar Days
• Macy’s

The Innovative Publisher of the Year is awarded to a publisher that embodies the cutting edge of our business today

• Airmiles.ca
• Click2Customers & RingRevenue (WINNER)
• StyleFeeder

The Affiliate Manager of the Year is a new award this year awarded to an affiliate manager that uses LInkShare tools and technology to drive success.

• Gus Brito of Tiger Direct (WINNER)
• Michelle Brown of Drugstore.com
• Nette Martino of Orbitz

The OPM \ Agency of the Year is a new category this year awarded to an OPM or an agency that effectively uses LinkShare tools and technology.

• Gen3 Marketing
• The Jar Group (WINNER)
• OPMPros

Genius Award is awarded to an affiliate in the LinkShare Network who has have used LinkShare’s web services in a completely new way.

• TheFind
• ScanBuy
• Skimlinks (WINNER)

The International Advertiser of the Year is awarded to an Advertiser who demonstrates global success in performance-based marketing.

• ASOS (WINNER)
• Drugstore.com
• Topman & Topshop

Performance Marketing’s Most Vocal Advocate is given to someone in our community that has influenced change within the performance marketing industry.

• Melanie Seery of Affiliate Advocacy
• Shawn Collins and Missy Ward of Affiliate Summit
• Steve Schaffer of the Performance Marketing Association (WINNER)

The Advertiser’s Choice Award is award is selected by LinkShare advertisers through a poll of their favorite publisher that helps them grow their businesses.

• Coupon Cabin
• Mall Networks
• Mr. Rebates
• Savings.com (WINNER)

The Publisher’s Choice Award is selected by publishers to represent an Advertiser who delivers compelling results for their partners through great offers and incentives.

• CheapOair (WINNER)
• Gaiam
• Omaha Steaks
• OneTravel

While I attended my first CJU in Sept. 2003, I kept a pretty low profile in the affiliate industry until Sept. 2006 when I was on [my first panel at CJU]. After that I became more active and in April 2007 was asked to be an initial member of the CJ Publishers Advisory Board. In 2008 I helped launch the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) and I was elected to the board and serve as the first president. The PMA’s goal is to help grow the industry and raise the profile of performance marketing by demonstrating the value of this multi-billion marketing channel, which comprises more than 200,000 businesses and individuals.

I am now a frequent presenter and panelist at industry conferences. In 2009 I participated in 13 sessions at a total of 9 conferences, including Affiliate Summit Las Vegas & New York, LinkShare University, ad:tech San Francisco & NY. Topics I spoke on included The Future of Performance Marketing, Creating Lasting Publisher and Advertiser Relationships, Affiliate Marketing: A Better Alternative and others.
So after all this, have I decided I also need a Blog? I am not sure. I think part of it is that I have more to say and share than I can on panels and advisory boards.

I will be posting on such topics including: performance and affiliate marketing, starting a business, domains, marketing & branding, and other random observations. Please check back and feel free to comment on any of my posts.

A Shift
Many early affiliate marketers were Website owners who added affiliate links and hoped for a sale. In some cases, these affiliate links were very successful. In other cases, the volume and conversion rates were too low to generate any meaningful income. But the possibility for profit has since turned some of these early affiliates into large performance marketers.

An Attractive Model
Merchants and affiliates found success in the new performance model. By only paying for transactions, much of the marketing or advertising risk shifted from the merchants to the affiliate publishing partner. This method appealed to many online marketers and consequently the industry grew. With an increase in the use of search and the advent of performance publishing, the industry transitioned to performance marketing.

Affiliate Networks
Much of the growth in performance marketing has come from the development of affiliate networks such as Commission Junction and LinkShare. These popular networks enable merchants to use a network to quickly and easily add an affiliate program to their Website. They provide tracking, reporting, payments, and a way to reach top affiliates.

Direct Relationships
With the growth in the market and the maturation of tracking technologies, many companies set up their own internal programs. In some cases these are run along with affiliate networks. Other times they operate exclusive to affiliate networks. The growth in lead generation, a segment of performance marketing, has also contributed to the industry’s growth.

Performance Marketing Industry Emerges
Performance marketing has contributed to the success of many leading e-commerce merchants and online companies. Amazon.com, which introduced the first well-known affiliate model for driving traffic and transactions, is just one example of a company that has achieved significant success thanks to its affiliates’ marketing efforts. Since it began in 1996, affiliate marketing has evolved into a thriving industry now referred to as performance marketing.

With the growth in performance marketing, several top affiliates have expanded from one-person shops into successful companies. While these top affiliates are often referred to as “super affiliates,” many (Vertive included) prefer the term “performance marketing company” to describe these businesses.

Performance Marketing Industry Size
The performance marketing industry is now a large and growing market segment of Internet marketing. Because it is a relatively new and fragmented industry segment, it is difficult to pin down the actual size of the market. Various research groups have sized the market differently:

• Marketing Sherpa sized the affiliate marketing industry at $6.5 billion in 2005
• The IAB estimates Referrals/Lead Generation (which overlaps with performance marketing) to be a $1.3 billion industry in 2007
• JupiterResearch pegged affiliate marketing fees at $2.1 billion in 2008.

The one common theme in each report is that performance marketing continues to emerge as an influential industry.

“Offers.com  is only a year old. We have built a great site in a year, but over the next one, two, to three years we will be doing a lot more incredible things to help consumers save time and money”

Part 1

Part 2

Panel Members:

Steve Schaffer, Founder & CEO, Offers.com
Eva Klein, Director of Business Development, FatWallet
Jillian McGary, Affiliate Manager, Target.com
Stephen Siphron, Senior Marketer, Cashbaq
Ryan Sorensen, Affiliate Program Manager, Overstock.com

Panel Members:

Steve Schaffer, Founder & CEO, Offers.com
Brook Schaaf, Founder, Schaaf Consulting
Shawn Collins, Co-Founder, Affiliate Summit
Peter Bordes, CEO, MediaTrust
Will Martin-Gill, Director Internet Marketing, eBay Inc.
Gil Abir, VP, Corporate Partnerships, Payoneer Inc.

PowerPoint slides from panel

Panel Members:

Steve Schaffer, Founder & CEO, Offers.com
David Lewis, Founder & CEO, Cashbaq
William Martin-Gill, Director of Internet Marketing, eBay
Chris Symons, Senior Account Manager of Partnerships and Alliances, Travelocity

Panel Members:

Peter Bordes, CEO, MediaTrust
Steve Hartman, Senior Director-Publisher Development, eBay Inc.
Rebecca Madigan, Founder, Performance Marketing Alliance
Wes Mahler, Prosper202
Steve Schaffer, Founder & CEO, Offers.com

“As affiliates, we have to trust…we make big investments and at the end of the day, the only thing we have is our methods and our creativity”

Podcast of the Panel