As promised, I want to give you a recap of the Affiliate Summit event, the sessions that I attended, my observances and personal experience, and a few tips for those that may be considering a trip to an Affiliate Summit event in the future.
I'll start with a quick recap of the five sessions I attended. I had intentions of taking more sessions, but I'll explain that in a minute.
This was my first Affiliate Summit, and it was definitely a learning experience, but not at all in the way I expected...
ASW11 Session Recap
There were four sessions going on in different rooms during each of the time slots. I registered early on the evening before the event, and sat down with the schedule to map out my event plans. I chose four of five sessions for day one, plus the Meet Market which was only open on Day 1 from noon-6pm.
Day 1, Session 1: Creating A Successful Mastermind Group
Tawnya and I both decided to attend this session as we are accountability partners, and also both run mastermind/brainstorming communities online. She runs the top VA community at VAnetworking and I have a private brainstorming group inside the discussion forum here at ClickNewz.
To be honest, the session was a bit dry. I did pick up a few tips that I can use, but it was very basic information. It was labeled as an Intermediate topic (not Beginner) so I was expecting more out of it. That may sound harsh, but I heard that the session got a poor rating overall, so I wasn't alone in my thoughts on it.
Day 1, Session 2: Dominating Your Niche w/Blogger Outreach
This session was panel-style, lead by Chris Brogan. On the panel were John Chow, Greg Rollett, Eric Schechter and Jonathan Volk. Murray Newlands was scheduled to be on this panel, but wasn't there unfortunately.
They did a great job sharing their strategies for Blogger Outreach, or using blogs & bloggers to get exposure and traffic. They discussed guest blogging, giving bloggers incentives to write for/about your brand, using contests, the affiliate angle, how to develop relationships with bloggers for better response, etc.
Overall it was a very good panel discussion.
At this point it was 1:30 and there wasn't a lunch break scheduled in - just 30 minute breaks between sessions. Given the location of the meeting rooms, it would take that half hour to go get a coffee and get back in time for the next session.
We decided to take lunch, and then check out the Meet Market since it was only open until 6pm on that first day of the event.
Note: it wasn't until Day 3 that I discovered meal tickets inside the back of my name badge, good for meals right there in a nearby conference room. Totally my fault that we trekked all the way back into the hotel for long lunch waits at Wynn restaurants. *sigh* lol
Day 1: Meet Market
The Meet Market is a spot for face to face networking between affiliates and merchants, and an opportunity to "cut deals".
It was jam packed with people, so hot & crowded and of course loud. It was hard to navigate and negotiate and actually have productive conversations.
The Exhibit Hall was the same way throughout the event. Rosalind Gardner commented on that in her recap saying merchants lost an opportunity to ever work with her when they ignored her waiting in line for new people walking up.
I did have an opportunity to talk to the ClickBank reps though, and Jeni Rogers (left) was super nice.
I made plans to follow up with her on some of the cool new changes ClickBank has been rolling out lately.
I left both the Exhibit Hall and the Meet Market with no swag, and no new relationships. I was hoping to score at least a t-shirt 🙂 and meet vendors I could feature on my new podcast & video series this year. I take personal responsibility for that in all honesty - chalk it up to lack of patience.
I missed the last 2 sessions of the day that I planned to attend - one on Increasing Website Conversions and the other on Using Datafeeds. Both of which were probably great sessions. I look forward to checking out the recordings for those.
Day 2, Session 1: Affiliate Marketing In A Digital World
I kicked off Day Two with a presentation by Brian Chapman of Amazon on ways to best monetize the major sales trend of low-priced digital products.
I was particularly interested in the topic as an Amazon affiliate, with a growing number of MP3 & Kindle ebook sales in my stats.
Brian touched on ways to overcome the challenge of low commission rates on these items - individual song & movie downloads, lower priced digital books, etc. His main point was volume and cross selling, and using widgets to engage visitors. You can use Amazon widgets to display samples, quizzes, free trials & offers, etc.
It was a one-hour session, that ended in 30 minutes. ❓ I was definitely expecting more out of Amazon, and walked out of this one disappointed.
Day 2, Session 2: SEO Site Clinic
This was the absolute best panel session I attended at the event. Lead by Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae the panel did live site reviews for attendees.
They moved fast, covered a lot of ground on each site reviewed, and packed in some serious tips & advice in their hour.
The Top 3 Tips I picked up from this session were:
- If you have a product-based (ecommerce style) affiliate site, use social media & blogging for link bait instead of "making a sale". Use content to engage your market with viral, outrageous, humorous topics - with the focus on getting quality links & valuable exposure.
- Create a custom 404 error page, and put a special (discount code) or gift on that page. A great way to keep the visitor on your site and interested in what you offer.
- When running a product based site, create a 301 redirect from pages/products that are no longer available. Redirect the traffic up a level, to the category page, to transfer both traffic and link juice from the original (missing/outdated) page.
Ask The Experts Roundtable Discussions
I had another exceptionally good experience at the Ask The Experts roundtable. You could choose from one of several "experts" and join their table for open discussion. I chose Rosalind Gardner's table as I mentioned in my last post.
Rosalind went around the table and hosted an open Q&A session. The topics were great, and the group input was invaluable. I jotted down quite a few resources she mentioned including a WordPress plugin called Advertising Manager, and GoldenCan.com for merchants with dynamic datafeeds.
Day 3 Sessions...
While I really enjoyed the SEO Site Clinic and the Ask The Experts session, my experience with the other presentations & panel sessions was not overly impressive. By Day 3 of the event, I decided my time was not best spent doing sessions.
I did step into the two sessions I thought I might want to see on Tuesday, but they were also panel-style and obviously not very well attended by anyone else:
The panel-style session was very much like eavesdropping on an open discussion between a few friends at a bar. That's just my personal opinion of course but I feel like they really missed the mark on educating, inspiring and motivating affiliates.
The screens could have been better used to show live examples or to illustrate points, and to engage the audience - instead of just displaying bios or contact info.
I admit, it being my first time at Affiliate Summit, I obviously walked in with the wrong expectations. It just seemed like such a good platform and opportunity for merchants and super affiliates to discuss trends, resources, the evolution of affiliate marketing, etc...
I also may have just done a poor job of choosing which sessions to attend. 😐
Everyone I spoke to said that the value was in the networking. I was asked more than once why I bothered with the sessions. All the action was happening in the hallways - and I agree. This was confirmed by several people I spoke to throughout the event, including Brian Spivak of Turn Two Media (affiliate attendee):
A quick clip of the hallway on Day 3:
Affiliate Summit: Overall, A Good Experience
I realize I'm pointing out a lot of negatives, but overall the event was a good experience. I spoke to several other affiliates at the event that had a positive experience as well and definitely met their objectives at ASW11. Therein lies the key to getting the most out of this particular event: have an objective.
Personally, I didn't consider it an "educational event", outside of what you learn by hanging out with other affiliates in the hallway or over dinner, but it is definitely a high-end networking event. An opportunity to meet your affiliate manager in person, to create relationships with new publishers or merchants, and to hang out with people you otherwise only know/see online...
You definitely want to set up meetings in advance. I missed several opportunities by not being more prepared for that, and by not being more available (instead of attending sessions).
I ran into Kim Rowley in the hallway for about 30 seconds on Day 1 for example, and that was the last time I saw her.
I'm not sure my opinion or experience is really objective. I had certain expectations regarding the event, but walked away with a different opinion altogether. It's very worthwhile for super affiliates and merchants, a high-end networking opportunity as I mentioned, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to newer affiliates as an educational event or a place to "learn affiliate marketing".
Since I didn't attend ALL of the sessions, I walked away feeling like I must have missed some of the better tracks - which may very well be the case. I tweeted about that at one point (Day 2 I believe) hoping to get some advice on the best sessions to attend, but got very little response.
I truly hate to end this on somewhat of a negative note. I did have a great time, and an overall good experience with the event.
I enjoyed catching up with Rae Hoffman over breakfast, hanging out with Rosalind Gardner and Dave Taylor over dinner, running into friends & meeting people in the hallway & blogger's room, and hanging out with my mastermind partner Tawnya Sutherland.
I feel it's only fair to share my personal opinion with you though, as I know many of you were interested in this event as a way to learn more advanced affiliate strategies and to hear about upcoming market trends. For affiliate networking, it's second to none. As an educational event, I do think there is a lot of room for improvement - and I would really love to see that happen.
I know that Shawn takes feedback very seriously, and they offered feedback forms for every single session at the event, so I have no doubt the tracks and training offered there will only continue to get better.
Will I attend Affiliate Summit again in the future? Absolutely. And better prepared to make the most of it the next time around, no doubt. Next time by attending parties & meetings instead of sessions. 😉
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Great meeting you Wednesday on the way to the airport. Let me know if you're ever in Chicago, dinner on me.
It was great meeting you too, Darryl! I just may take you up on that offer one of these days. My assistant lives in the Chicago area too. It's been a few years since my last visit. Glad to hear you had a good experience with Affiliate Summit and achieved your objectives there. 🙂
Having to choose from the different sessions available must be one of the hardest parts, but fortunately you'll be able to get recordings later on. 🙂
That's true, I'm looking forward to reviewing the sessions I missed.
Great article and spot on. Unlimited bottles of water make any conference 10X better (no exaggeration). I plan my visit entirely around the expo hall, and networking there, and parties.
I bet you would have loved our poker tourney. 70 or so high end affiliates. Plenty of room to sit. Plenty of time to talk. Quiet environment. Unlimited free drinks. And if you like to play, texas holdem!
If you want, send me an email and I will put you on the invite list for my events.
And yes, of course, Sugar Rae totally kicks ass. 🙂
Sounds like a great time - hate I missed out on that! I'll definitely send you a note, appreciate the offer.
Very interesting, the tips regarding 404 and 301 redirects are something I'd never considered.
Will make use of this in the future, Thanks!
Great Event! I have been constantly in touch with the updates for this event. I wish I would have attended this one. It's fun to be read all the important information that I can utilize for dipeshpatel.com
I will definitely be there next time. 🙂
It's great to see Affiliate Summit through your eyes - we're always looking to tweak things, and it's very helpful to hear which speakers were good and bad, as well as other things you liked and disliked.
Videos of all of the sessions will be available in a few weeks or so to folks that had Gold, Platinum and Diamond passes, and I'll be posting the three keynotes on YouTube when they're ready.
It was definitely a learning experience like I said. I'll be MUCH more prepared to take advantage of all Affiliate Summit has to offer on my next trip.
thanks for an honest review. I can understand where you are coming from. I recently went to an anti aging congress and the sessions were really poor ( a lot of the time ). My objective had been to learn more on anti-aging but also to meet people and I did not succeed in doing that at all. I find it extremely hard to do the networking. Perhaps a networking course before attending such an event would be great!
Sounds like an excellent event that I would like to attend, perhaps next year. I would've loved to sit in on the Blogger Outreach session. With all the ongoing changes with Google, developing a strong network seems to me to be a much better long term traffic strategy.
Guest Blogging & Blog Interviews are two of my favorite marketing strategies. You get both high quality direct traffic (from the readers) and some of the highest quality backlinks you can get... It's a double whammy. And truly, there's no shortage of bloggers in just about any niche!
Its an great event they put on every year..and to this day affiliate marketing is as popular as it was back in 2001..more people see the potential and taken advantage of it..
BTW Lynn..Can you can contact me on my contact page..Its very important..I need your help.
"Black Seo Guy "Signing Off"
This is Angie, Lynn's assistant. Feel free to use http://www.asklynnterry.com/ for any questions you might have. Thank you.
Thanks Angie 🙂 TC - do send me a note to that address and I'll keep an eye out for it.
Aw, thanks Lynn for the compliments! Like I said, I wished I could have stayed longer - to be honest, it's one of my favorite shows now - and Missy and Shawn do an awesome job of actually listening to and implementing feedback!
I agree. I loved that they had feedback forms for every session - nice touch! It was great to see you and I really enjoyed catching up over breakfast. And meeting Amanda! Hope you had a good trip home 😉
Thanks for taking us there via video. Love watching from afar what goes on at cool events like this. It has to be awesome to meet a lot of the higher end affiliates and get insights and trend spotting tips.
Too bad no one was smart enough to hand you some swag. lol.
Cheers,
Missy
Yeah no doubt 😛 To be honest, my eyes were glossing over in both the Meet Market and the Exhibit Hall. The poor guys were overwhelmed with people to deal with I think - so some of their "pitches" were a little off the mark. I think ClickBank was probably the most personable vendor there, second only to Andy Rodriguez who was awesome and hooked me up with some affiliate opps.
Lynn,
Good assessment. It was good to meet you there, by the way. It is true. ALL of the action is in the hall. I go to most affiliate and search conferences. I enjoy them. But, mainly I am there for meetings.
For me, the nights are just as important as the days. Deals are done at 1am. You have to adjust your schedule accordingly! It's a great opportunity to connect with affiliates on a personal level - a level that will pay off in the way of better relationships on down the road.
I try to line everything up before I leave but leave some padding for when things pop up or people want to meet. For what I was there for, it was a successful event. The content might be somewhat lackluster. And, I definitely get that - for the people who are there for that. That's another reason I don't go to the content much. I rarely learn anything. I think you can learn more about what people are doing and what works by randomly meeting people, or meeting them for drinks/coffee - rather than sitting through a session.
All in all, really good event!
It was great to meet you too, Phil. I do wish we'd had more time to talk though! Very good points, and something I'll definitely keep in mind for the next Affiliate Summit I attend. Glad it was a successful trip for you!
Lynn, Your review was very similar to my experience at ASE10. I didn't know any at all, and I met some great folks. For me, a newbie, the conference was a great overview of all the elements of the affiliate marketing world. I did make a few new contacts, and would go certainly go again if I have the opportunity.
Hi Rhonda - did you participate (or even know about) the Newcomer Program at Affiliate Summit?
It was created for folks coming to the conference for the first time to have a "buddy" to help them optimize their time and meet people.
I missed the buddy opp myself. I heard about it later - Rosalind filled me in - but somehow I totally missed that option. Were those arranged prior to the event, or during the orientation?
It was announced in November on our blog, newsletter, Twitter and Facebook: http://www.affiliatesummit.com/2010/11/15/get-involved-with-the-asw11-newcomer-program/
The match-ups started back in 2010.
We started it a few years ago and most of the people helping the newcomers were those who participated in the program previously.
You're welcome to try it the second time around if you wish.
Signup for the August conference in NYC is at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/affiliate-summit-newcomer-program/
Excellent - thank you!! 😀
Thanks for the recap, I have to make it down there sometime for this and meet some of you affiliate gurus. Im just starting out on this stuff and what some of you have accomplished is amazing, maybe one day I can.
Sounds great, Matt - would love to meet you there 😉
Lynn, it was fantastic getting to see you again in Vegas and thanks for just being YOU 😉 My comment is almost as long as your blog post but thought I'd put my two cents in here too...
This was my first Affiliate Summit and I was quite excited to attend to learn more about affiliate marketing which I want to focus more on in my business this year. I had a Gold pass which gave me admission to the Meet Market, Exhibit Hall, Keynotes, Sunday educational sessions (except the Monetize Summit track); access to all recorded session videos (looking forward to watching these when they come available); PowerPoint presentations; and Affiliate Summit Social Network (met a few Canadian Affiliates through this network which I plan on keeping in touch with). This pass did not include Monday and Tuesday sessions but thought I might upgrade ($700) once I'd seen how Sunday sessions went.
It was a tight schedule on Sunday trying to fit 5 sessions in, lunch and the meet market during the first day. I ended up only attending 2 sessions, lunch then the Meet Market. The first session on "Creating a Mastermind Group" was somewhat disappointing. I was expecting it to be geared more to an intermediate level as stated in agenda yet it was very basic information even for a beginner. The next session lead by Chris Brogan was a good one though and made up for the last. I enjoyed learning some blogger outreach strategies from marketers I've admired online for awhile now.
I missed the next session as my rumbling stomach was demanding lunch LOL! The Wynn is a gorgeous hotel (but it's HUGE to walk about!) and by the time we got back from lunch it was getting late so I decided to check out the Meet Market which was one of the reasons I wanted to go > to network with some new merchants! It was super crowded and loud though so I didn't make any new connections which made me wish I'd attended a session instead. I didn't have the patience to stand in the lines and wait to talk to the merchants so instead picked up their brochure ware to review when I got home.
I decided not to upgrade to attend the Monday/Tuesday sessions after Sundays sessions and instead just hang around the Exhibit Hall and network. I was told through the social network before the ASW11 to pack light and leave room for tons of swag. But sniffs, I only came home with one t-shirt and a couple packs of cookies. Thanks Robomail and Andy Rodriguez. The Exhibit Hall was fairly crowded all day and found myself, an affiliate (stated on our badges), having to start the conversations with the merchants. I thought it would be the other way around (merchants wanting to connect with me to sell their products) and being more of an introvert I didn't make as many connections as I would have liked. Lesson learned to speak up if I want to be heard 😉
On Tuesday I attended "Ask The Experts Roundtable Discussions" because I really wanted to meet Rosalind Gardner who happens to live just 4 hours west of me here in Canada. I was not disappointed! Her roundtable was crowded with attendees full of interesting questions with informative answers from Rosalind and others in the group. We did dinner that night with Rosalind, Lynn, Dave Taylor and Justin Parr which was a real hoot! Hmmmm...by the end of the event I finally realized that the dinners and parties after where were all the connections were made (wish I had read Phil Ayres comment before attending LOL!)
Overall, I too was expecting more of an educational event. Being a newer affiliate, I wanted to learn, learn and LEARN everything and anything about affiliate marketing which I felt got lost for me. In hindsight, maybe I should have prepared in advanced more for networking opportunities as that seemed to be what the ASW was all about after talking to others - Engaging!
What was the highlight of this business trip for me? I have to say, it was getting to room with Lynn Terry for 5 days in Vegas, that Super Affiliate we all dream of being one day. Are you all jealous or what?? 😉 Thanks again Lynn for being my accountability partner...YOU ROCK! 😉
Will I attend again next year? Sure, but I have to agree with Lynn in that I'll be focusing more on the after-parties and networking next time.
Shawn, I never knew about the newcomers as I signed up too late but will check it out next time and thanks!
Ok, how do I rid of my Santa hat before Valentine's Day? 😉 It's not in my Gravatar so not sure where it is showing up from LOLOL!
Looks like you fixed it 😀 Cute! lol
I truly enjoyed it Tawnya. And what a great time we had! 😀 Next time, we definitely skip the sessions and hit the parties. No doubt about it 😉
Tough I missed it but after reading your post I got the entire summary of the summit.Thanks for sharing it.
Well its really a wonderful and sort of unique one, I like the way it has shown the things, its really nice. Thanks a lot for sharing it. I would love to recommend it to others.
I've never attended an Internet Marketing conference, but the majority of blog posts I have read on the subject backs you up Lynn, the value is in the networking.
It follows then that anyone visiting should be very selective about attending formal sessions, they cut down networking time, and time in the bar!
Despite your disappointment, you still made it sound interesting, and I will attend an event if any come to Birmingham UK, which is not far from me.
John
Leamington Spa, England
I've been to some very content-rich events in the past. The kind with sessions you would skip sleep not to miss -lol. I love learning new strategies, getting creative new ideas and fresh inspiration.
I'm not much of a drinker (just ask Tawnya -lol) either, and not keen on walking through Vegas alone late at night to return to my hotel from a party... but that's just me as a woman traveling alone, and having had a few too many bad experiences.
So more often than not I stick to the event, and otherwise to my hotel after hours. Not such a good strategy for Affiliate Summit I learned. I am discovering I missed out on A LOT - including meeting up with one of my old partners that I've never had the chance to meet in person. Bah!
very nice info.. and I think your video is awesome 🙂
Lynn,
We missed our chance to meet in the Blogger Lounge. I was talking with Dave Taylor when you buzzed by to say hello to him. You seemed like you were in a hurry so I let you run.
I agree with you about the high end networking but I would also say that newbie affiliates can still learn a ton just by attending. In the end, however, it's the personal relationships you build that matter.
Maybe one day we can do that podcast we talked about a few months ago.
Sounds like a plan! I apologize for not stopping for any longer than I did. I really hated to interrupt... and sadly, was probably off to a session -lol. In hindsight, I should have hung out with you guys in the bloggers lounge 😉
Before ASE11 in New York, let's talk about schedules and parties.
Lynn, it was nice to finally meet you in person if only for a minute! Next Summit, let's plan a time to get together for lunch or dinner, if not room together - wouldn't that be fun?!