Rakuten LinkShare has announced significant growth through their affiliate networks around the world for the first quarter of 2012.

The Rakuten LinkShare network outperformed overall e-commerce by a wide margin in the U.S.

According to Forrester Research Inc., overall e-commerce is expected to grow by 12 percent in 2012, while same store sales in the Rakuten LinkShare Network increased 31 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.

Rakuten LinkShare in the U.K. also saw double-digit gains with overall same-store sales reaching 52 percent year-over-year.

Also, the company signed over 100 brands across their various networks in the first quarter of 2012.

More details on Rakuten LinkShare at linkshare.com.

Affiliate Summit Central 2012, the first Affiliate Summit in Austin, TX, kicked off with the official welcome party on May 14, 2012 with live music from The Cody Jasper Band, Sam Sliva and the Good, and FallenAsh.

The first day of the conference started at an early (by Affiliate Summit standards) 7am, when registration opened up.

Full pass holders got a limited edition Affiliate Summit t-shirt.

Emcee Heather Romiti began the day with some announcements before turning things over to Maribel Sierra, Social Media and Communities Director, Listening and Engagement at Dell.

This first day also included a Meet Market, two sets of sessions, and Ask the Experts Roundtables, which were complemented by Nate the Great, a local balloon artist.

The first day finished up with ShareASale.com hosting their traditional Under the Stars party for conference attendees.

The second and final day kicked off with a drum circle, organized by Benjy Portnoy, to wake up attendees.

This was followed by a series of sessions in a new, truncated format where they only lasted 20 minutes each.

The conference finished up with open networking after an intensive day and a half off fun and business.

Big thanks to the sponsors, speaker, and attendees.

I look forward too reading the session feedback and hearing what folks have to say about the conference.

Have you signed up for Affiliate Summit East 2012, yet?

It’s taking place August 12-14, 2012 at the Hilton New York.

This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

This was a conference session titled Building Niche Affiliate Sites That Produce Revenue from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speaker:

• Evan Weber, CEO, Experience Advertising, Inc.

Session description: Come learn how to build exciting niche affiliate websites that produce traffic and revenue! Topics covered: site building, content creation, & social bookmarking.

Experience Level: Intermediate
Audience: Affiliate/Publishers
Niche: General

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/3c-building-niche-affiliate-sites-that-produce-revenue

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Building Niche Affiliate Sites That Produce Revenue

If you liked this video, be sure to register for the next Affiliate Summit. The session videos aren’t made public until a year or more after each conference.

This week on the Affiliate Thing podcast, Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille preview Affiliate Summit Central 2012, talk about the new Dell XPS 13, and how Fort Lee, NJ cracking down on walking texters.

They also talked about Eduardo Saverin being a creep, affiliate nexus tax dead in MN, writing headlines, and the most friendly states for small business.

Show Links

• Parties at Affiliate Summit Central 2012
• How to Ask Questions in Sessions at Affiliate Summit Central 2012
• Affiliate Summit Central 2012 Exhibitor Guide and Agenda at a Glance
• #ASC12 is the Twitter Hashtag for Affiliate Summit Central 2012
• Don’t Miss the Affiliate Summit Central 2012 Sessions
• Unboxing the Dell XPS 13
• New Jersey town bans texting while walking; gum chewing still allowed
• Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO
• Affiliate Nexus Tax DEAD in Minnesota!
• Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monster
• Attribution Part 5: How It Impacts the Perception of Performance Marketing
• Dear Affiliates – We Need You!
• Friendliest States for Small Business

Subscribe to the Affiliate Thing RSS feed or listen on iTunes. You can also send a blank e-mail to affiliatething@aweber.com to get each podcast delivered by e-mail.

I’ve been on a long journey with Dell products that began back in the mid-1990s. I have continued buying Dell machines for my business and family, because they’ve been reliable, easy, and fast.

My latest computer is the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, which is just a gorgeous, light, and speedy laptop. I was excited to get this one as a gift from Dell to share my candid views of it.

I got a chance to meet a bunch of the folks at Dell in 2010 when I was selected to sit on their inaugural Customer Advisory Panel, so thank you to them for sending the XPS 13 my way.

Anyhow, on to the XPS 13 – it’s amazing to see how Dell has evolved from some of those back-breaking laptops I used to haul around years ago.

This beauty weighs less than 3 pounds and it’s less than a quarter inch thick, which is not so much more than an iPad.

I think this is significant, because I’ve been hearing from lots of people that they travel with their iPad over a laptop these days. Personally, I want and need the power that comes with a laptop over a tablet.

Some other specs I like are the backlit keyboard, nearly 9 hours of battery time, and the HD display (Corning Gorilla Glass – nice when it encounters my rough travel and my 4 rough kids).

It’s also got a machined aluminum body and carbon fiber base. Now that doesn’t really mean anything to me, but I like the way it looks, and the fact that this enables it to be light and cool to the touch.

Now for the guts of it – the XPS 13 boots super fast with it’s SSD (solid state drive) and Intel Rapid Start Technology. They’re available with 2nd generation Intel Core i7 processors.

The base model runs $999 with 4 GB of memory, a 128 GB solid state drive, and it runs on Windows 7.

As far as ports, it’s got two USB ports and one Mini DisplayPort.

I was going to say my one issue with the XPS 13 is that I often take my laptop to use for presentations with my projector, and the projector uses a VGA connector.

But I just searched and found that I can just grab an adapter for pretty cheap to run the XPS 13 to my projector. Nice.

I’m excited to make this my everyday laptop.

The 10th annual AffStat survey of affiliate marketing statistics is open through May 31, 2012, and we’re trying to get as much input as possible.

This AffStat survey is focused on affiliates, so please do not complete the survey unless you are an affiliate.

Affiliate managers and networks – that would be really cool if you would spread the word.

Data from the AffStat survey will be published in future editions of FeedFront Magazine (get a free subscription), and the full report will be available for free.

Take the survey now.

If you’re interested in the 2011 edition of the AffStat report, it is available to download or read online.

This was a conference session titled More Money, Same Traffic, List Building & Paths from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speaker:

• Jason Akatiff, President, Coleadium Inc. dba Ads4Dough

Session description: Want to make more money for the same traffic? Learn about ideas on how to gather data before, increase sales and show multiple offers after you make the sale.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Monetization

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/3b-more-money-same-traffic-list-building-and-paths

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: More Money, Same Traffic, List Building & Paths

If you liked this video, be sure to register for the next Affiliate Summit. The session videos aren’t made public until a year or more after each conference.

This was a conference session titled Simplify the Web to Achieve Your Goals from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speaker:

• Chris Pearson, Overlord, DIYthemes, LLC

Session description: Content Management Systems (CMS), themes, templates, SEO—AAAAHHHHHH! Initially, it all seems very confusing, but today, we’re going to simplify the Web and learn what it REALLY takes to dominate.

Experience level: Beginner
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: WordPress Themes

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Simplify the Web to Achieve Your Goals

If you liked this video, be sure to register for the next Affiliate Summit. The session videos aren’t made public until a year or more after each conference.

This was a conference session titled Supercharging WordPress for SEO from Affiliate Summit East 2010, which took place August 15-17, 2010 in New York City.

Speaker:

• Jon Henshaw, Co-Creator & Product Manager, Raven Internet Marketing Tools

Session description: WordPress provides an excellent foundation for SEO, but there are many ways to improve it. I’ll present key techniques and powerful plugins that can supercharge a WordPress site for SEO.

Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: SEO

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/2d-supercharging-word-press-for-seo

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Note: the companies and positions listed above were current as of the time of the conference. Some of this information may have changed since then.

Video: Supercharging WordPress for SEO

If you liked this video, be sure to register for the next Affiliate Summit. The session videos aren’t made public until a year or more after each conference.

Affiliate Summit Central 2012 is sold out and auctions for registrations are starting to pop up on eBay.

If you are interested in passes listed on eBay, please be sure to contact Affiliate Summit to confirm that the pass can be transferred.

All registrations have an associated reference number. Request this number from the seller, as well as the name on the registrations, and provide it in your e-mail to the Affiliate Summit registration team, so they can determine whether the pass in question is transferable.

Just search for Affiliate Summit on eBay to find auctions selling the conference registrations.

Also, please note that the transaction is between you and the seller for any registration purchases on the secondary market. None of these passes are being sold by myself or anybody else that works for Affiliate Summit. Please ask any questions about the pass to the seller through eBay.

If you have questions specific to Affiliate Summit, contact us by phone or email.

Bear in mind that Affiliate Summit starts Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in Austin, so bid on auctions ending before that date.