The 10 Top Affiliate Blogs of 2007

1. Jangro.com. Scott Jangro always has been at the top of the affiliate industry for years. His blog has always been very consistently excellent. In particular we attended the ShareASale Think Tank. One of the major issues encountered during the event related to coupon sites. Scott wrote this post about affiliates related to “forced clicks” and “deceptive clicks”. The post also includes excellent comments from all sides of the industry.

2. Shawn Collins is one of the leaders in the industry and the creator and person behind the hugely successful Affiliate Summit along with Missy Ward. His Affiliate Summit Blog comes out daily and reminds past and future attendees of the value to attending his conference. Shawn is also into video marketing and his videos range from the silly to the silly. In saying that his tongue in cheek offerings are a light spot in this increasingly serious business. So to egg everyone on, Shawn sponsors a contest and to the provider of the best video on “why I want to go to Affiliate Summit” he gives away a free pass. One of the award winning videos is provided with this link.

And of course who can forget Shawn’s own video: “Day in the Life of an Affiliate Marketer”:

3. Carsten Cumbrowski is one of the most interesting people I have met in the affiliate industry. He is not from the US which is the reason I can only understand about 50% of what he tells me when I talk to him. the other reason is he is so full of ideas, it is hard to keep up. But when he writes on ReveNews it is ordered, timely and deep. Carsten and I agree and the need of openness in all of the affilaite networks, and his post about advances in the LinkShare API leads him into that discussion: click here to read.

4. One of the newest entries to the blogging world is also one of its senior affiliates. Scott Hazard began posting under CooperativeAffiliates.com just a few months ago. His posts are always a good read since he is a very knowledgeable affiliate. Scott also attends most major affiliate events, where he is known for his “bear hugs”. Here is his post on this summers Affiliate Summit.

5. My friends at AvantLink are always introducing their newest technology advances, posting on new merchants to their network and generally writing first class blog posts. I don’t know of any other affiliate networks that have embraced this amount of openness. But their merchant launches using their blog are truly wonderful and far exceed all other network merchant launches in comparison. I also like the Performics launch announcements, but they are pale in comparison to what AvantLink does. Here is one sample for a new merchant launch for AmericanFlyFishing.com.

6. Mike Allen of Shopping-Bargains.com is one of my most favorite people I have met in the industry. He is very low-key and nice and has a first class understanding of the affiliate industry and how he fits in. Mike was one of the first affiliates to write a Facebook application so you know he understand coming trends and opportunities. Here is a recent comment about affiliate efforts in and with Facebook.

7. Linda Buquet edits one of the most read blog feeds in the industry at at 5 Star Affiliate Programs. her blog has lots of timely and on-time postings gleaned from all areas of the affiliate industry. This blog is always a great place to read the latest from all of the major networks as well as what affiliates are up to. Here is a recent post about a new idea popping out of the head of Mark Cuban.

8. I also like Allan Gardyne (Earning a good living from affiliate programs since 1998) and his AssociatePrograms.com. He has a focus on helping newbies to the industry but it is in no way a cut down version. Smart and easy to read, it is good for the newbie as well as the seasoned “thinks he knows everything” affiliate pro. Here is a detailed article about an affiliate who claims to be number 1 in the industry.

9. James Omdahl created one of the first blogs for the InsureMe company he works for and who wanted to change the way he communicated with affiliates. His writings are smart, technical and readable. He gives basic as well as high level opinions and advice to his affiliate channel. He does a great rant about Forrester not including affiliate marketing in their survey on online marketing trends.

10. I couldn’t help myself, I have to plug my own blog: AffGoo- Sticking Affiliates and Advertisers Together. While I use my blog primarily to plug the affiliate programs I manage, it still has a pretty good reach and some of the pictures are pretty good too. One of my clients is a store in New York specializing in celebrity fashions. He is in the Performics network and doing quite well and his ads are just a hoot. He sells the goods that celebrities buy and that tout the celebrity connection. As a result he can say, tongue in cheek of course: “Victoria, Jessica and Lindsay Shop at Singer 22“. The interesting this about this is that when I post one of these ads, my traffic and comments spike dramatically. Not sure I have signed up a single solitary affiliate with this technique, but hey all traffic is good!