Calacanis might actually try to monetize Mahalo with affiliate links (w/disclosure, of course) very soon. Cool, huh?

Jangro and Sam have the story.

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Affiliate summit pinnacle awards - Congratulations to Haiko - Affiliate Marketing Advocate, Connie - Affiliate of the year , Sam - Best Blogger, Brian - Affiliate Marketing Legend, Melissa Salas - Affiliate Manager of the Year and CSN Stores - Exceptional Merchant.

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“Are you an affiliate marketer? You suck!” ~ Calacanis

Jason calacanis keynoted at the Affiliate Summit’08 today. I was very curious what the SEO hater would talk about at the summit ever since it was announced that he will be keynoting the event. Sam Harrelson live-blogged the speech at revenews, which I just finished reading (I’m not at the summit, just sitting here in Bombay wondering what happened - thanks, Sam for the liveblogging!).

Not surprisingly, Jason’s general sentiment during the speech seems to be filled with hate towards the industry with statements like “Give up a life of crime”, “You are at the bottom of the food chain” and “Affiliate marketing is bullshit”, there couldn’t have been a worse affiliate summit keynote speech.

“Someone in this room could create the next digg, StumbleUpon, Flickr, etc. None of you probably will create these companies because you’re wired for the quick buck.” ~ Jason Calacanis

Clearly, Jason, who thinks all affiliates are spammers and haven’t added value whatsoever to the web doesn’t really understand what affiliate marketing is. Let me define it for you here jason. Affiliate marketing is the simple act of connecting a buyer with a seller, and it has added tremendous value to the web, and created bigger brands that you will ever dream of creating. Which brands? okay .. lets see .. Affiliate number 1. Ebay - connects buyers with sellers, takes a cut. 2. Google, Same thing, only more CPC. Shopping.com and shopzilla, etc - same thing. Smaller affiliates are also doing the exact thing in smaller, unique and niche specific ways. Jason, I had really hoped you’d have done your homework this time, everyone is tired of your same old hate-speeches.

It is true, some people in the affiliate industry need to do cleaner businesses, but Calacanis - by classifying every affiliate at the bottom of the food chain and etc, has been a total waste of an affiliate summit keynote.

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