Early on in my stay, I was assigned the Affiliate Marketing beat, and I found that one of the best ways to familiarize myself with the industry in an efficient manner was through social media, specifically Twitter. I had bookmarked a ton of blogs and affiliate network websites, but it was the simple act of following various Twitter accounts (and occasionally talking with them through direct messages) that really helped me get a feel for the world of performance marketing.
In a highly saturated and diverse industry like affiliate marketing, making connections and staying informed is of utmost importance. And while there is a plethora of resources out there for affiliates of all shapes, sizes and levels of experience, Twitter can be the easiest, most practical place to start.
So, let's take a look at 30 of the best Twitter accounts for affiliate marketers to follow:
Affiliate Marketers
Shawn Collins (@affiliatetip) - Affiliate marketer, author and co-founder of the Affiliate Summit conference, Shawn Collins boasts over 38,000 followers and tweets to them about affiliate marketing tips and information about his conference.
Rae Hoffman-Dolan (@sugarrae) - As one of the most popular and entertaining affiliate marketers in the industry, Sugar Rae likes to share advice and anecdotes with her 13,500+ followers.
Jeremy Schoemaker (@shoemoney) - Another popular figure in the affiliate marketing world is Jeremy "Shoemoney" Schoemaker, as evidenced by his nearly 157,500 Twitter followers, as well as his popular affiliate marketing blog.
Geno Prussakov (@ePrussakov) - This affiliate marketer, author, blogger and consultant is famous for his work in the industry, as well as founding the AM Days affiliate marketing conference and AM Navigator, a resource site for affiliate marketers.
Zac Johnson (@moneyreign) - Affiliate marketer Zac Johnson shares his money-making secrets and helpful tips on his Twitter account.
Steph Lichtenstein (@MicroSteph) - Steph Lichtenstein is the president of Micro Media Marketing, an outsourced social media solution, and tweets about social media, affiliate marketing and other Web-based marketing topics.
Jonathon Volk (@jonathonvolk) - With nearly 31,500 followers, Jonathon Volk is well-established in the affiliate marketing industry for his performance and insights.
Matthew Wood (@matthewwood) - U.K.-based affiliate marketer Matthew Wood is the founder of Affiliates4U, a site for affiliate and performance marketing news, and the affiliate marketing conference that shares the site's name.
Affiliate Marketing Events
Affiliate Summit (@affiliatesummit) - Since 2003, Affiliate Summit has been one of, if not the premier conference for the affiliate marketing industry.
LeadsCon (@LeadsCon) - This is the best conference in the U.S. for the lead-generation industry, with top buyers, sellers and technology solution providers meeting to discuss the always exciting world of lead generation.
ad:tech (@adtech) - One of the largest digital marketing conferences in the world, ad:tech, boasts over 21,000 Twitter followers.
PubCon (@pubcon) - Though this is technically a set of social media and search marketing conferences, PubCon offers helpful information for all types of Web publishers, many of whom are also affiliate marketers.
AM Days (@AMDays) - Geno Prussakov's Affiliate Management Days is an event built for CMOs, affiliate managers and digital marketers tasked with improving the affiliate marketing strategies of their respective companies.
Affiliate Networks
Commission Junction (@CJnetwork) - Possibly the biggest affiliate network on the Web, Commission Junction has over 14,000 followers and provides great information for partners, and potential partners, on both sides of the affiliate aisle.
Clickbooth (@clickbooth) - Clickbooth is an exclusive CPA and CPC affiliate network with over 12,000 Twitter followers.
ShareASale (@shareasale) - This growing, Chicago-based affiliate network is followed by some of the biggest names in the affiliate marketing industry.
Rakuten LinkShare (@LinkShareBlog) - As of late, this affiliate network has been highly touted by its partners and third-party reviewers for its work in affiliate marketing, search marketing and lead generation.
buy.at (@buyatUS) - This U.K.-based global affiliate network recently expanded into the United States and has shown impressive growth thus far.
ClickBank (@ClickBank) - This digital marketplace and affiliate network features over 70,000 and has nearly 20,500 followers on Twitter.
XY7 (@XY7) - This Las Vegas-based affiliate network tweets about a variety of topics and has created a number of key connections on the social network.
Affiliate Window (@AffWin) - Affiliate Window is one of the most popular and influential affiliate networks in the U.K.
Convert2Media (@convert2media) - This private CPA network deals with PPV, PPC and social media.
AvantLink (@AvantLink) - AvantLink is an affiliate network that offers its affiliate partners a wide selection of tools and scripts that are integrated directly into its platform free of charge.
Other Affiliate Marketing Accounts
AM Navigator (@AMNavigator) - The Twitter account for Prussakov's website about affiliate tips and information shares much of the same type of content as its Web-based counterpart, providing followers with helpful information to improve their affiliate performance.
Affbuzz.com (@affbuzz) - The official Twitter account of Affbuzz.com, an affiliate marketing news and blog aggregator, links followers to sites that offer news and blog posts about the industry.
NoExpAffiliates (@NoExpAffiliates) - Like the other accounts in this section, NoExpAffiliates shares useful information about affiliate marketing with its followers, usually by retweeting helpful links from the 13,000+ accounts that it follows.
AffiliatePaying (@AffiliatePaying) - This website features over 700 affiliate networks to help publishers and marketers find the best fit for their campaigns, and this Twitter page is a great way to get started with the service.
Int_Marketing (@intmarketingtip) - This Twitter account focuses on sharing helpful tips about the Internet marketing industry.
ReveNews (@Revenews) - Boasting the most clever pun on this list, this is the official Twitter handle of ReveNews, a site dedicated to covering the Internet advertising industry, which, of course, includes affiliate marketing news.
Affilorama (@Affilorama) - Affilorama is dedicated to educating affiliate marketers and priming them for success with free video and written lessons.