David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

The A4U Expo presentations are online and I wanted to make sure I went through them all so thought I'd share some of the more useful points I stumbled across.

Tips cover all aspects of affiliate businesses. I've only pulled the points I find interesting or useful. The full presentations (including those not cited from) can be found here.
 
Risk Management For Affiliates - Andrew Slack of MoreNiche

Don't have all your eggs in one basket.
Don't be dependant upon one merchant.
Factor in seasonality when establishing your portfolio.
Think long term - look for programs that offer recurring affiliate income or longer cookie lengths.

Getting Authoritative Mentions Online - Lisa Myers

Once you have created the content you have to spread the word.

How To Get Even More Out Of Your Affiliate Marketing - Michael Steckler of Buy.at

Try new things or try things again.
Think beyond the homepage (deeplink to merchant product pages to help improve conversions).

What does the future hold for perfomance advertising in general? - Nicky Lapino

Quality over quantity.

How Creative Content Increases ROI - Hannah Swift

Writing Techniques - Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
Understand your customer.

Disproving Common Misconceptions In Affiliate Marketing - Kevin Edwards of Affiliate Window

When there is a multiple referrer sale, loyalty/reward sites are much more likely to take the sale.
Price comparison/PPC lose out on first click vs. last click.

Advanced Site Architecture And Product Feed SEO - Judith Lewis

Be a big fish in a small pond not a small fish in an overcrowded lake.

Writing Killer Proposals and Selling Yourself To Merchants - Nadeem Azam

If you meet Affiliate Managers in person, they are more likely to work closer with you (and pay you more $$$s).

Strategies To Earn More From Your Affiliate Paid Search Campaign - Sri Sharma

Create ad copy relative to the buying cycle:
Awareness > Interest > Education > Comparison > Purchase:
Laptop Computer > Laptop Info > Laptop Reviews > Acer Laptops > Acer Aspire 4935

Summary

The above areas I found most poignant. In terms of running a business, you need to consider the long term as well as the short term. Spreading your risk is important, especially as your sites grow more popular and 'important'. Remember that whilst switching web hosts can be a pain, it may be necessary for the greater good and for a sustainable business.

Once you have set up a portfolio, you need to create content and generate backlinks.

In terms of site content, it's worthwhile looking for something different. Price comparison, voucher code sites and cashback sites are extremely dominated sectors. It's worthwhile looking beyond the obvious when creating content. Oh, and generic may not be the best strategy. Niche is probably best.

Writing relevant articles that you can share with others is important to attract backlinks. Networking is probably more important as you need someone to share your content with! Quality is more important than quantity although quantity still is important. Relevant reciprocal link exchanges are very much old school but still help. Relevant contextual links are much more valuable though.