I'm in Vegas for the weekend (plus some) for Affiliate Summit West 2011. I flew in early to meet up with my friend, brainstorming & accountability partner, and Elite Member - Tawnya Sutherland (photo, right).
This is my first time attending Affiliate Summit, which was founded by Missy Ward and Shawn Collins in 2003. There is a huge crowd here (1400+ is what I overheard), and it's a good mix of Super Affiliates and merchants/networks. It's definitely the place to be if you want to speak with affiliate merchants in person...
This quick video will give you an idea of the crowd, the noise level (lol), and the type of casual networking going on between affiliates & merchants. It was taken during the Meet Market this afternoon:
Tawyna and I attended a couple of interesting sessions today. My personal favorite was "Dominating Your Niche With Blogger Outreach" - with Chris Brogan, John Chow, etc. Personally I think this is one of the best online marketing strategies, whether you even have a blog of your own.
Getting mention on blogs in your niche not only reaches your market exactly where they are (reading that blog), funneling targeted traffic to your site, but it also results in a permanent inbound link which helps your search engine rankings. For more on that topic, see How to Increase Blog Traffic.
We also attended "Creating a Successful Mastermind Group" with Randy Cassingham, where we picked up a few interesting tips. I'll make it a point to share those with you in an upcoming post.
The Meet Market was interesting. A bit crowded (and hot, and noisy) but I did get a chance to speak with the ClickBank reps for a few minutes regarding their new private affiliate program option for merchants. I'm going to get with them on more information for you, and share that with you in a future post as well.
It's a bit late, and we have another long day tomorrow, so I'll close for now. Stop by my Facebook Page if you'd like to see photos. I created an album there for the event, and am also uploading pics there on-the-go throughout the event. 😉
Best,
p.s. Tomorrow kicks off with breakfast with super affiliate Rae Hoffman, followed by a session with Amazon.com's affiliate channel manager. After that, who knows - I'm flying by the seat of my pants and enjoying the event. Regardless, should be another interesting day... and plenty more pics & video!
About Lynn Terry
Cool! Thanks for sharing, Lynn. 🙂
Read about the event on John Chow's blog too. Seems like an exciting one.
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Sounds fantastic. I wish we had things like this closer to where I am. Sounds like you got heaps out of attending and learnt a lot.
It's cool that you still had the time to share your experience on the first day of the event. I've actually promoted Affiliate summit west last month through my personal blog, and I envy those that were able to attend. I guess I'll have to prepare for next year's event.
All the best! And please do share some of the new trends and techniques that will be discussed there 🙂
Lynn, thanks for sharing the tip re: blogger outreach. This is one of my top goals for 2011.
Lynn,
Was great to meet you at ASW! Always enjoy content and humor you bring to IMTW. Keep up the great work!
Dan Safkow
Thank you Dan - it was great to meet you as well! Let's stay in touch for sure 😉
Ooh. That sounds like a really good one to attend for affiliates.
I just checked the dates for their "East" event in August and it's the same weekend as NAMS. So, maybe I'll hang with you in Vegas next January. 😀
Lynn,
I'm glad you posted this video. You see, once I am a full time online marketer (which should be no later than 2012) I plan to attend seminars like these at least 4 times a year. I got goose bumps just watching the video.
I've always enjoyed attending seminars and such. My last one (that I enjoyed) was for the home inspection industry. (Currently I own a home inspection firm and I do inspections for a living) And you know, at those seminars I typically learned more in the hallways with the "guys" drinking a beer than I did in some of the classrooms.
Looking forward to it.
Thanks Lynn,
Peace,
Shane
Looking forward to being at Affiliate Summit West 2012. 2011 was great, 2012 should blow away the others!