Gartner Web Development, LLC

I want to thank Shawn Collins and Missy Ward for the press pass they graciously provided Gartner Web Development. I got a chance to meet with Shawn Collins by the bloghaus and a nicer guy could not be found. I didn’t get a chance to personally thank Missy or talk to her- she was too busy being a gracious and ever present hostess welcoming all attenders everywhere I saw her. A big warm Wisconsin thank you to you both- you are a credit to the Affiliate industry.

You won’t be hearing a discussion or recap about Jason Calacanis’ controversial keynote here- it’s being played out in the press enough. He obviously enjoys the publicity he receives from talking down to the hard working people who pay him to speak at their conventions.

Rather- I want to recap the highlights of Affiliate Summit while they are fresh in my mind. First and foremost I met my friend and colleague, fellow marketing blogger Chris Bloczynski for the first time at Affiliate Summit. Chris is the hottest new internet marketing blogger and a must read for webmasters and bloggers. On Chris Bloczynski dot com you will find advice on entrepreneurship and internet marketing. You can check out my Thursday column on Chris Bloczynski dot com as I can be found guest blogging there with my personal take on the ins and outs of internet marketing.

I want to thank James Traynor, Director of Operations of Syntryx Executive Solutions for meeting with me. Stop back at Gartner Web Dev for more information about Syntryx in the near future as I will be getting an in depth look at their amazing services. Syntryx provides high-end serious market research tools to the big players in the internet world. If you are looking for real data that will help you zoom in and target your big game competitors- Syntryx is THE company to equip you with the data and research you will need to get ahead.

I also had a chance to talk with Mike Blumenkrantz of Affiliate Program Advice. Mike is the US Operations Manager of Affiliate Program Advice a company based out of the UK. For those of you not familiar with Affiliate Marketing I want to direct you to their page “What is Affiliate Marketing.” I actually found this to be the best working definition of Affiliate Marketing. In fact I printed off this page to bring to a marketing client I met with on Saturday afternoon.

Besides meeting so many brilliant marketers, astounding companies, and publishers- the sessions were incredibly enlightening. I have already come back and met with some of my clientèle about adopting the strategies I learned from Affiliate Summit. In particular, I found the session on Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing eye-opening. Tim Carter of Ask the Builder and Gary Vanerchuk of Wine Library TV really impressed me with their knowledge and valuable insights. Upon returning I visited both of their websites and felt that clearly they were both experts on video content on the internet. After returning from Affiliate Summit I truly believe as stated at the conference- “websites without video will go the way of the dinosaur.”

I am going to wrap up my thank you at this point, be sure to stop in later this week and you’ll will find out more about the valuable internet marketing strategies and tools I learned at Affiliate Summit.

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If you are not familiar with Affiliate Summit, you should be. Affiliate Summit founded in 2003, by Missy Ward and Shawn Collins- is the leader in affiliate marketing conferences. This year’s Affiliate Summit 2008 West is being held in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, February Feb 24-26, 2008. Michelle Gartner of Gartner Web Development is pleased and honored to be attending the conference as a part of the press coverage for Affiliate Summit 2008. If you are an interested member of the press or a blogger who would like to cover Affiliate Summit, I would encourage you to apply for a press pass.

The purpose of Affiliate Summit is to provide educational sessions on industry issues in affiliate marketing, at the same time allowing extensive networking opportunities between affiliates, merchants and networks in attendance.

The keynote speaker on Monday, February 25 will be Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo.com. Other notable speakers and companies being represented include John Chow of TTZMedia, Tim Carter, Founder, AskTheBuilder.com and Kristopher Jones, President & CEO, Pepperjam.

If you haven’t registered for Affiliate Summit West 2008 yet, don’t wait any longer. With less then a month out from the conference date, Affiliate Summit is almost sold out. That’s right- as of this weekend they are at 85% of their registered capacity for the conference. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to attend Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas and check back here often as we post continuing coverage of the conference.

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Company websites are unfortunately, vastly under utilized by small businesses. The irony is that a business website fully developed and properly promoted is potentially the best and the most cost effective marketing resource available to the small business owner.

Small business owners often don’t realize the huge markets outside of their local area looking for their service and products. Business owners often erroneously assume that their local business environment is typical. What they overlook is the fact that those consumers elsewhere are not always readily able to find the same goods and services or find them at the same market prices. For example; the cost of web development services is higher in larger cities such as New York and Chicago, etc., therefore it might be advantageous for a web developer in rural Wisconsin to do marketing to these areas offering the same high quality end result at a fraction of those areas local market price.

Bluntly put, the local small business owner often does not realize what a springboard their business website is for potential sales. Even if a small to mid sized company does have a website, the unfortunate reality is that their website may actually be an impediment to tapping into national or international markets.

Some of the biggest mistakes small business owners make with their websites include:

• Waiting to build a website. The small business owner may continue to put precious marketing dollars into traditional advertising products, such as bigger yellow pages ads, newspaper print ads, billboards, etc. While all these marketing products are very good marketing tools, the fact is they are all tied to the local market.

• Not establishing a logo or clear branding on their website. A website is going to be seen by more people then you think, don’t let an inconsistent design structure or poor branding scare visitors away.

• A poorly implemented website. A badly designed website will drive customers away in droves. Having a website with broken links, bad coding, poor navigation, or an unpleasant look will drive potential customers elsewhere.

• Not marketing their website. Jerry and I come across a lot of small business owners who believe that once they launch a website, customers will be banging down their doors to do business. This is not the case, a website like any other marketing campaign needs to be carefully planned and then implemented.

• Abandoning websites too quickly. Rome wasn’t built in a day; blasting out of your local marketing ceiling isn’t instantaneous either. Growth comes from cumulative marketing efforts, but can seem frustratingly slow when the daily business issues of bills and overhead seem larger then marketing results.

In the end, not all small businesses will tap into national and international markets. Many of them never even trying, because they don’t understand the capabilities and potential that can be unlocked in their business website.

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