First things first… I need to get something off my chest because it’s been bugging me. Why are affiliate managers so adamant about setting up meetings at Affiliate Summit? I don’t get it. I’m a very punctual person, but with so much going on at Affiliate Summit it’s tough sticking to a schedule. Why don’t you let me make my rounds and when I stop by your booth we can talk business then? This method works very well for me. Why do affiliate managers setup meetings like this every hour or half hour?

Affiliate Summit West 2011 – Day One – Meet Market

I woke up super early and couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided to get some breakfast before hitting up the Meet Market. I hit up Denny’s and while I was about to order some takeout, I ran into Mike and his team from Firelead, so I decided to sit down and eat with them. Luckily for me, they were next in line for a table. Perfect timing!

As I was making my way down to the Meet Market , I ran into a number of people I have yet to meet face to face, but have talked to a time or two. Face time and networking are the two biggest things for me as an affiliate, especially at Affiliate Summit. After about a 30 minutes trying to get to the Meet Market, I finally made it. The room was jam packed full of people. We were packed in there like Sardines and it should definitely be addressed at the next conference. I did get to talk to Alonzo and Smaxor from Ads4Dough and they got me pretty excited about a couple offers they’re bringing on for me. I spent most of my time hanging out around the C2M guys, had a couple beers and talked to affiliates as they stopped by their booth.

Later that afternoon, Adsimilis had a little gathering in their Suite that included Ben from POF. I thought he was going to give out some tips, but I was mistaken. I was kinda bummed about that as I was looking to help contribute to the cause.

I was lucky enough to be invited to Ian Fernando‘s IANteract Dinner that he has at every conference he attends. This time it was sponsored by Executive Fortunes and was held in Switch at Encore. The dinner invitees included Tyler from Executive Fortunes and his partner, Rohail Rizvi, Ian Fernando, Eric Schechter, AdHustler, Ryan Gray, myself and another individual whose name I cannot remember. The theme of the restaurant was kinda corny with switching themes and walls, but the food was top notch.

After dinner, we headed on over to the 10th Anniversary Party for ShareASale at Tryst. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t in the mood to party hard that night, but it was definitely a good time. Finally, it was time for the Ads4Dough, Dough4Hoes party at the Spearmint Rhino. I skipped this party last year and regretted it. I’m glad I didn’t start drinking earlier that night, because that would’ve been a night full of debauchery. The plan was to hit up XS, but I decided to call it a night once I got back to the Wynn.

AdHustler made a number of great observations about the first day of Affiliate Summit that I suggest checking out.

Affiliate Summit West 2011 – Day Two – Exhibit Hall

I was glad I got a little shuteye the night before and made it to the keynote on time and ready to listen. This year’s keynote was delivered by none other than Dr. Direct, Drew Eric Whitman, the man who wrote Ca$hvertising. I bought his book awhile back, I just haven’t read it yet. He covered some material that was nothing short of amazing. I took some notes on my iPhone and will definitely be putting some of his suggestions to use this week. I’ve been told pretty much everything he covered was in his book, so I’ll be sure to read this book soon!

After the keynote I made my way down to the Exhibit Hall. I was pretty impressed that they were able to cool the room so it wasn’t so warm as usual. I was even chilly a few times. Again, if you saw me, you probably saw me chillin on the couches C2M provided. I did make my rounds too hey the guys at Revenue Ads to discuss this year’s Oklahoma Meetup, NDemand Affiliates and the AKMG Girls.

Towards the end of the Exhibit Hall I went up to XY7‘s suite to catch the first quarter of the BCS National Championship game and to take delivery of my iPad that I won. Thanks Kevin!

Then I had dinner with the Revenue Ads team, at Les Artistes Steakhouse in the Paris, and a few of their other business partners. Thankfully the dinner was amazing because I missed every play of the second half of the football game except for the final field goal. What a game!

Now, it was time to get in. The moment I was waiting for… The Affiliate Ball, sponsored by Profit Kings Media with Three 6 Mafia performing. I’ve been listening to these guys since 1998 and was ecstatic that they would be on stage. I’ve gotta thank Yousif from PKM for hooking up the bottle service that night. Good lookin out boss! Me and my boy Shane Dollas were hollarin at every girl in the club that night and was tryin to get Sarah Peachez to come back to the crib (Chris Brown voice).

Then I tried like hell to get into XS, but they were hating on my New Balance shoes and it was already close to 3am so I called it a night.

Affiliate Summit West 2011 – Day Three – Exhibit Hall

Made it to the conference late, walked around the Exhibit Hall and it was noticeably less packed that day as it seems a lot of people were leaving that day.

Since we were on the west coast, you know I had to hit up In ‘n Out Burger. I just happened to notice that Brittany from AKMG was also trying to hit up that joint and we grabbed AdHustler on our way out. Man, I love that place.

We tried to hold a Newbie Meetup for newbies at the Wynn sports book, but nobody showed that didn’t already know what they were doing, so I kinda just bailed on those guys. Sorry fellas!

I was tired from the night before and didn’t feel like going out, so I stayed gambling at the Wynn for a few hours. Won a few bucks playing War and Roulette. I narrowly missed one of my favorite football players, Sam Bradford playing craps just 30 yards away from me. I was pretty disappointed about that.

Conclusion

All in all, it was a great conference and I did take away a handful of things I’m already putting in action. However, I do think I’m going to skip a few conferences as I’m getting pretty burned out on conferences. Until next time…

If any of my readers haven’t already met me in person, I encourage you to hollar at me at Affiliate Summit.  Regardless of where I am or who I’m with, don’t be shy.  Just come introduce yourself!  I’d love to meet all of you.

Also, I post this before every conference.  If you haven’t read this, please do!  It’s some of the best advice I’ve ever read in regards to attending any affiliate conference.

Affiliate Tradeshow Floor Tips by Smaxor

I flew into New York City late Tuesday night, around 8pm. I got to the room at the New Yorker and met up with Sam (conv3rsion) from Optimal Webworks. We were hungry so what else would you expect, we went to the halal cart at 53rd and 6th for some chicken and rice. With that, I accomplished the one thing I set out to do the entire trip.

Wednesday – Day 1

I was still hella tired from the day before, but Sam and I finally go to the conference around 11am.  We quickly made our way to a corner of the exhibit hall to start makin our way down the aisles and as soon as we stopped at a booth we ran into AdHustler and Mike from Firelead.  Chatted those guys up for a few minutes and continued to make our way throughout the booths.  We quickly noticed it was the same companies and the same faces.  It was kind of a disappointment.

After about 2 aisles through, Sam and I decided to hit up the Convert2Media booth to hollar at the C2M crew, their new team member, Rob Adler and to help float their infamous kegs.  At the booth, I was able to meet with my buddy Morgan Thomas and also got to meet another affiliate that I had been talking to on AIM for awhile, Jessica Chen.  It was great finally getting to meet her.  I think C2M had Stella on tap this time, but don’t quote me.  Before I knew it, it was time for my 1pm lunch lunch with one of my favorite traffic sources.  Sam, Jess and I all went to eat with them at Hudson Yards Cafe and they were packed, but the food was awesome!

By the time we got back to the Javits Convention Center, there was only a few hours left to finish making my rounds and I did so quite quickly.  As I already noticed, same companies, same faces.  Pretty quickly I ended up back at the C2M booth drinking beer.  Unfortunately the staff at Javits couldn’t figure out how to tap a keg so we were left drinking out of bottles.  I wasn’t complaining though.  I was able to meet up with AdHustler and Ian Fernando.  I also finally ran into Ryan Gray and it was great meeting him.

Soon enough it was 5pm and time to meet up with Plenty of Fish.  I got there considerably early hoping they might be there, but they didn’t make it there in time for me to get to hangout with them because I had another dinner to go to at 6pm.  That’s too bad, I was really looking forward to that meeting.  We’ll make up for it in Vegas though, I’m sure.  Next was the dinner at The Spotted Pig with Sam, Jess and the team at Adsimilis.  The food there was excellent as well.

Then it was on to the Clickbooth party at Marquee.  We decided to start the night off right and ordered 6 shots of vodka.  It was some cheap ass vodka and the total ended up being $108.  Fuck New York City and their outrageous cost of living. Anyways, so Sam and I decided to take full advantage of the open bar and started getting drunk.  It was pretty dead when we showed up and slowly started filling up and then all of sudden it was too packed to walk anywhere.  Just to name a few, Clickbooth, of course, C2M, ECM, AdHustler and Ian Fernando.  I actually met @Cheyyyaaboiii so for everybody who has asked me, he is a real person, but that’s all you get.  I was able to chat up Rohail Rizvi for few minutes before the party got to outta hand.  Once the open bar closed, we finished our alcohol and again hit up the halal cart and murked some chicken and rice.  Then it was off to the room to get some sleep before the final day of the conference.

Thursday – Day 2

Woke up super late and hungover, slept through my meeting at 10am and finally made it to the conference right at 12pm.  Went straight to the C2M booth to cure my hangover with a couple more cups of beer.   I hit a few spots in the exhibit hall, but I made it a point to say hey to my new affiliate managers at Neverblue and Copeac, Michael Crouch and Frank Ciuffo, respectively.  I’m glad they’re my new AM’s, they’re on top of they’re game.  Rescheduled my 10am meeting for noon and was finally able to meet up with Ben from Plenty of Fish.  Kinda had to cut that meeting short because my shuttle to the airport was scheduled to be at my hotel to pick me up at 1:15pm.  Sorry Ben!  We finished that meeting right at 1pm and while I was trying to flag down a cab, SuperShuttle called me to let me know I had 4 minutes to get to my hotel or they were leaving me.  So I said fuck it and ran about 4 blocks and barely made it in time.  Looking back on that I should’ve said screw it and just paid a cab to take me to the airport.

Conclusion

I was disappointed that there wasn’t a more diverse selection of traffic sources.  Seemed to me the traffic sources were the same ones at ad:tech San Francisco.  There seemed to be a lot of locally-focused booths exhibiting there.  So if you’re in the local affiliate marketing space, you missed out.  I was able to finally meet  a handful of people I’ve been wanting to meet for a while, strengthen existing relationships and most importantly eat chicken and rice, twice!

Day 1

As soon as I landed in San Francisco and checked into The W, I met up with Shawn Smith from Optimal Web Works, my buddy Tony Tsai and his wife, Jasmine.  We went and checked out Fisherman’s Wharf and was treated to dinner by NDemand Affiliates.

XY7 and NDemand also sponsored the evening by renting a yacht to take us around San Francisco Bay for three hours.  It was a great idea, but it was hella cold if you got on the deck of the yacht.  I did go out there a little bit and snapped a few pictures.  I was kinda bored at first, but as the party went on and everybody got some alcohol in them I started having a lot better time.  I must say that Jon Fondy, host of InboxedRadio is awesome.  He can liven up any party!

We were done with the yacht around 11:00pm and itzbert’s girl said she knew a club/bar that was a good place to go.  Caught a cab ride over there and it was time to par-tay!  I was kinda disappointed I had to request some west coast music.  I requested some songs by local Bay Area artists, Ya Boy and Clyde Carson and they had no clue who I was talking about.  So they eventually played California Love and the place got crunk.  They should’ve let me DJ, just sayin… l had a blast with XY7, NDemand, kaveman, itzbert and his girl.  I even ran into Amber Paul from AKMG up there.  Just as I was leaving Bryn, Trevor and Stanley were getting out of a cab and you know damn well I had to stay and kick it with the homies.  I was straight smashed by the time we ended up catching a cab to somewhere and he ended up stopping right down the road from The W.  I was smashed and tired so I wished the guys well and chunked the deuce.

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Day 2

As I expected, I woke up late and hungover.  Just as I was heading over to the floor at noon, I ran into Dylan and Matt from Revenue Ads and Shawn Smith and we all decided to grab some lunch.

After lunch it was time for the AffBuzz Birthday Party with Shawn, Tony and Mike.  Got up there and it was a who’s who in affiliate marketing.  Just to name a few affiliates, Dr. Ngo, Morgan Thomas, Nick Mattern, Bryn Youngblut, Jonathan Volk and Ian Fernando were all in attendance.  A few networks were there including A4D, AKMG and ECM.  We even had a traffic source, Plenty of Fish show up so you know I had to chat it up with Ben for a couple minutes.

Around 2:30pm I finally left the AffBuzz ordeal and made my way to the conference.  I only had 2.5 hours until I had a meeting wtih Amber Paul and Eleah Portillo of AKMG, so I had to make quick work of these booths.  Again, I have to give a shout to Jason Akatiff from Ads4Dough for the epic tradeshow floor tips.  God knows I used them on many booths. Shawn Smith and I went around from booth to booth finding out who did what and took a business card if we felt like we could benefit from the services they offered.  I didn’t get to finish checking out all the booths by the time I had to meet with the AKMG girls.  There wer e a number of new traffic sources I talked to and can’t wait to start buying traffic from.  I also let the Facebook Affiliate team have it.  I should’ve recorded it for all to see.  Shawn Smith will atest to this.

After that I went to the Meetup202 event and the place was packed.  Too many suits for my taste.  Meetup202 just isn’t what it used to be.   Then I had dinner with Shawn Smith, Tony and his wife, Mike, Alan Rutledge, Stanley and a few other guys whose names I do not recall.  We ate at some decent Chinese place and we all talked about the show, the meetup and what everybody’s plans for the night was.  It was almost unanimous that the EWA/PPC.bz party was where everybody was going.

We left dinner and started heading to the Mezzanine where the EWA/PPC.bz party was going down.  We were there before most people arrived and the wait wasn’t too long.  It was an open bar from 9pm to 11pm and everybody was taking advantage.  All the usual suspects showed up.  Dirt Nasty and Andre Legacy are freaking awesome.  I must admit, I never listened to their material beforehand, but their subject material was on point!  Their videos are at the bottom of this page.  I was talkin to the infamous Rob Hustle and was telling him to get on stage, but unfortunately nobody would battle him and Mic Davice couldn’t make it. I was also pretty disappionted that YTCracker never got on the mic.  Right before the open bar ended, I double-upped on drinks and already had a full one at the table.  After the open bar was over the place pretty much emptied out by 11:30, but I wasn’t going to leave until I finished my drinks.  The place was damn near empty when I left at midnight and decided to head home, but not before I stopped in at a Denny’s and absolutely murdered everything they put on my plate.  I later found out that Too Short was backstage and I wish I would’ve known so I could’ve met him.

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Day 3

Woke up earlier than I expected and surprisingly wasn’t hungover.  I had to fly out at 2:30pm and I decided I had to to hit the floor and make quick work of the last few booths I didn’t get to make it to yesterday. As I was making my rounds I ran into Steve Howe and Mike Kerry from C2M and chatted it up for a few.  I wish I could’ve talked longer, but we were both short on time.  Finished up the booths and decided I had to get some In ‘N Out before I headed home.

The award for best marketing gimmick at ad:tech 2010 San Francisco goes to Meta Network.  Picture below.  I think I found just the condom for Dirt Nasty and Andre Legacy.

If you’re going to ad:tech and we haven’t met before, don’t shy away from coming and saying hey to me. I’ll be making my rounds at the conference and would love to meet some of you guys that read the blog.

Before I go, let me once again stress to you how epic Smaxor’s Affiliate Tradeshow Floor Tips are. I’ve copied his entire post below or you can, preferrably, visit his blog by clicking the previous link and reading the original post.

Affiliate Tradeshow Floor Tips

Involved in affiliate marketing? Then you probably know that Affiliate Summit West is just a few days away.

So how can you get the most out of the show?

I’m sure you’ve read all the posts saying that all the real business at tradeshows happens at the parties. I agree a lot of business and information is shared in the settings outside the tradeshow floor. What niches are working well and where is a lot of the juicy stuff you’ll get off the tradeshow floor. Stuff that’s not usually shared publicly anywhere.

BUT….

There is a ton of good business to be done on the Affiliate Summit tradeshow floor as well, but you have to go with a plan. As affiliates what are the things we care about?

1. Traffic Sources
2. Things to promote
3. Creative and site design ( for some )

All of these things are bountiful at the actual show. Some shows are better then others for one or the other. I think Adtech is better for Traffic Sources and Affiliate Summit is better to meet networks and advertisers.

So what’s the plan? When I hit the tradeshow floor I want to meet as many people as I can. Network like a mad man meeting people that I “don’t” know. Seeing people you do know is fine but it’s the people you don’t know which is going to open new avenues, ideas and in turn create opportunities.

Here’s my plan:

Walk onto the floor and start at booth 1 then walk from booth to booth. Talk with every single person you can and find out which of your list items they have to offer you. Mostly I’m looking for traffic when I hit the tradeshow floor. More traffic sources is always what’s the most interesting to me. I know where to find offers at this point. So I walk from booth to booth collecting business cards asking “Do you sell traffic?” or “Who do you know that sells traffic?” If they answer yes I talk to them about how they sell it ie. ppc, cpm, cpv, cpa. How much inventory do they have. What does it take to get started, what offers are doing well with in their platform, what creative compliance stuff they have. Then I take all that and write as much of it as I can on the back of their business card so when I get home I can remember what they have to offer.

Now if they say they don’t sell traffic they’re going to tell me what they do. When they tell me I try and figure out how I can get to some traffic contact they know. For example if it’s an affiliate network I might ask “what offers are doing well on your network?”, “How are affs promoting them?”, “where are they buying traffic?” Keep in mind they may not answer some of these questions but guess what if you don’t ask they will be guaranatee’d not to answer. Don’t be a panzy ask, dig, pry and get every last bit of info out of everyone you talk to. Don’t be afraid you’re going to hurt someones feeling or overstep your bounds. Now I’m not saying be a jackass but I am saying dig like a archeologist looking for bones., keep diggin.

If you, like me, plan on staying in this business long term your business will grow and you’ll need more and more people in the tradeshow. So give everyone respect and file what they do away somewhere. Because you’re going to get down the road, and this business is like a puzzle. You’re going to have some project going and there’s going to be a few pieces missing. Those cards you collected years ago at some show will fill your puzzle and complete your project.

Have fun and meet as many new people as you can. You already know the people you know come home with new connections and grow your business.

Success,
Smaxor