Mike Allen founded Shopping-Bargains® in February of 1999 and currently serves as President and “Chief Executive Shopper.” Designed to be everything you need to save money online, Mike and Shopping-Bargains have won several awards including induction into the Mississippi BBB’s Business Integrity Circle of Honor (2007). Mike was also named the “Affiliate of the Year” for the 2009 Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. (Learn more about our awards.)

Shopping-Bargains began as a hobby to help family and friends save money shopping online. Prior to “quitting his day job” to dedicate full-time attention to Shopping-Bargains, Mike worked at the Mississippi State University Extension Service in the Center for Governmental Training & Technology as a Governmental Training Specialist. There he oversaw a variety of state-mandated education and certification programs for local government officials and their staffs.

Mike earned a BS degree in political science from the University of Southern Mississippi and his Masters of Public Policy and Administration degree from Mississippi State University. He completed all coursework and comprehensive exams for a Ph.D. degree in Public Policy (but decided to suspend that quest to focus on the startup of Shopping-Bargains).

Mike attends most affiliate marketing conferences, has presented at Affiliate Summit, CJU, BlogWorld, Affiliate Management Days, and the Performics Client Summit (later changed to the Google Affiliate Network Client Summit), and has been quoted in Revenue, Small Business Trends, and Electronic Retailer to name a few. Mike serves or has served on a variety of industry boards including the LinkShare Affiliate Advisory Board, the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board, the Google Affiliate Network Publisher Advisory Board, and the a4uexpo Advisory Board. In 2010 Mike was elected to serve a two year term on the Commission Junction Publisher Advisory Board. Mike also serves on two councils for the Performance Marketing Association (PMA).

Mike has written for ReveNews, a blog devoted to affiliate revenue news and opinion. He also writes periodically for FeedFront magazine, the Shopping-Bargains blog, and various other online and print publications. Mike authored a chapter for the Military Family Money section of the book entitled Your Military Family Network: Your Connection to Military-Friendly Businesses, Resources, Benefits, Information and Advice (2008; with a foreword by Senator John McCain). Mike is also a frequent guest for the “Caught in the Web” segment of WCBI-TV’s MidMorning with Aundrea news show.

For more information, see Mike’s LinkedIn profile and Facebook profile.