Internet Retailer 2006 promises to be the largest e-marketing and e-retailing show in history. I wish I was going, but I’m not. Are you? It’s being held in Chicago June 5-7, at the Hyatt Regency. If you go to the show, please stop by and say hi to 2 of our 5 Star advertisers who will be exhibiting there. AzoogleAds, the #1 rated CPA network and MPORT their new affiliate network will be at Booth 815. If any merchants or affiliates are attending and want to meet with them please let me know and I can hook you up!

After a quick scan I only see one workshop that’s 100% AM related. Here’s the scoop.

Affiliate Marketing: The Unsung Hero of Online Marketing “Workshop Content: This workshop will take retailers through the entire process of affiliate marketing including:

* Choosing the right affiliates
* Making sure you have enough affiliates but not too many to manage
* The hidden costs of unproductive affiliates
* The importance of providing incentives and early product information to your best affiliates
* How to know which affiliates are doing the best job
* How to measure the all-in costs of an affiliate program, including not only commissions paid to affiliates but the cost of staff to manage the program and to maintain up-to-date databases of your affiliates
* Making the in-house vs. outsourcing decision
* Key questions to ask prospective outside affiliate management companies
* The importance of keeping in touch with your affiliates-and how to do so
* The staffing required for managing both in-house and outsourced affiliate marketing programs

This workshop will be led by acknowledged leaders in the affiliate marketing area.

Steven Denton is President of LinkShare, the largest affiliate marketing company. LinkShare has more than 500 clients, including such stellar brands as J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, Avon Products, Dell and Netflix, and manages more than 10 million affiliate relationships. In 2004, $1.4 billion worth of e-commerce sales passed through the LinkShare network.

Boris Wertz is COO at Abebooks, Inc, a book retailer with $150 million a year in online sales. Abebooks.com manages a large but highly targeted network of affiliates that it has segmented based on audience demographics, sales generated and other factors and sets its compensation levels based on each affiliate’s performance in generating sales.

Stuart Frankel is General Manager of Performics, a unit of DoubleClick Inc., which provides online marketing services for large retailers, catalogers and other direct marketers with performance-based media. Its more than 300 clients include America Online, Blair Corp., Bose, CompUSA, Eddie Bauer, HP Shopping, J. Jill, Jos. A. Banks, Kohl’s, L.L. Bean, Motorola, OfficeMax, PC Connection, RedEnvelope, Staples & others.”

Merchants that can’t make it to this conference and want answers to the questions above are invited to give me a call for a free consultation and some free advice. Or you can always ask questions in the merchant discussion section of our forum.