Career

When a microblog stands in for a real blog…

Posted on Jan 18, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking | 2 comments

twitter-plane-brown-iconAnyone who follows me on Twitter (if you don’t yet – what’s your excuse?) could see that I was more than making up for my lack of internet on my laptop by tweeting notes from the sessions I was in.  I strained one of my fingers on my dominant right hand Sunday night bowling with the folks from GTO Management, and even taking traditional written notes was a challenge.

So before I kick off all the notes I took at the sessions (it was lighter this conference than I have in the past), here’s all the tidbits of knowledge I tweeted while attending sessions at Affiliate Summit West 09.

From the Buy.at Party at Moon:

From The Ultimate Pitching Guide Session:

  • @skydiver just said re pitches on twitter “if u can’t pitch in 140 char u need 2 work on brevity anyway”
  • Twitter has replaced focus groups- @skydiver

From the ShareASale Under the Star’s 80’s themed party:

From Affiliate Videos: Where do they work best? Session:

  • Video session: Youtube is larger than Microsoft in search engines- 77mil uniques
  • u don’t have to have a professional prod studio to develop video
  • .tv traffic increasing but still nowhere near as high as .com
  • very brand & vertical specific video creative is the most requested
  • People buy from people – at the end of the day video is the most effective medium for that. Amen!
  • I love @andrewwee for bringing up ShamWOW in his question!
  • get out there & try it!

From the Pinnacle Awards Gala:

  • Nice touch on the tux & beer @affiliatetip
  • Right on for Train Signals donating $10k for Breast Cancer Research- squish a boob save a life!
  • Mike Allen – Affiliate of the Year
  • AM of the yr- @djambazov Angel
  • pinnacle award exceptional merchant CelebrateExpress.com
  • pinnacle award Affiliate Mktg Advocate @mellies! Melanie Seery
  • pinnacle award Best Blogger @jangro! Scott Jangro
  • affiliate marketing legend – congrats to Kellie Stevens!
  • congrats to thew winners!

From Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages Session:

  • 2% avg conversion rate: 2009 year of conversion optimization
  • test everything assume nothing
  • Lisa Crossly Hunter: what are your affiliates doing that your search team can borrow from?
  • start now, but don’t start without a plan. And test.
  • gen rule of thumb- at least 100 conversions for at least a week (per element you change, I forgot to include that in the tweet)

From the Affiliate Triathalon:

Of course if you’re REALLY bored you can just go to Twitter Search and enter in “#asw09 trishalyn” and see EVERYTHING I tweeted while at the conference 😀

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Back from Affiliate Summit West 09

Posted on Jan 14, 2009 in Conferences & Networking | 4 comments

Well, for those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter or didn’t see me at Affiliate Summit West 2009, you’ve likely been wondering why I didn’t post from the conference.

Let’s just say that the only way to be connected when travelling is to bring your own internet with you.  Wired and wi-fi didn’t work for me while in Las Vegas, but I’m back to reality here in California and back to a stable internet connection!

I have wrap ups, summaries, exciting events that happened, and notes from the sessions I attended to share witih you.  But, we can leave that for later.  In the meantime, I just want to give a big shout out to Stephanie Lichtenstein, Karen & Joel Garcia, Wade Tonkin, Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg, and Michael Buechele for providing excellent company during the conference.  Also big thanks to Buy.at and oneNetworkDirect for providing awesome prizes that I won, but I’ll get into that later too 🙂

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Tips & Tricks for Affiliate Summit

Posted on Jan 9, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking | 4 comments

I believe I mentioned before, I’m participating once again in the Affiliate Summit Mentor program.  I sent these same tips and tricks to the person I’m mentoring, and since people are starting to filter into town today for the show, I’ve decided to share these last minute tips with everyone!

Now, some are just general conference/trade show things that a first timer might not really be aware of.  Some are probably common sense, but hey, they’re there for good measure.  So take my advice here, don’t take my advice, it’s up to you.  But some of this might help!

If all goes well and my flight is on time I should be in the air soon, so I hope to see you in Las Vegas!  If you want to meet up with me at any point, send me a Direct Message on Twitter – I’ll have the SMS updates turned on so it’ll be as good as texting me 🙂

General Conference Tips

  • Business Cards – Bring plenty!  I can’t stress this enough.  It’s the best way for people to remember to contact you when they get back to “the real world” of work after the conference.  Also, if you’re the type of person that likes to enter booth drawings for prizes, most want you to drop off a business card to enter.
  • Added Personalization of Business Cards – For an important contact that you definitely want to get back to you, write something distinctive on the back of the card when you give it to them.  It could be your cell phone number or some other bit of contact information that’s not already on the card, or just a note about who you are, like “Met at lunch on Tuesday”.  That will give the person a reminder when they get back that they actually wanted to later connect with you.
  • Comfort – wear comfortable clothes and shoes that won’t slow you down or make sitting around in sessions unbearable.  As well, it’ll help to fully assess the conference bag and its contents to know if they’re suitably comfortable for you.  For example, despite being provided a notepad in the bag, I don’t usually use it.  I prefer to use a Composition Book to take notes – not only because the cover is thick and it’s easier to write in when there’s no surface to write on, but also I keep my notes when I get back, so it’s easier to keep them in the same notebook than loose all over.  Be aware of these kinds of personal preferences.
  • Literature – don’t be afraid to grab literature from booths & meet market tables.  What I do is take it up to my room and unload at the end of each day.  Then I can fully read more into stuff and decide what I’ll be taking back with me.  I also find that taking stuff back with me does help me remember who I wanted to do more research into working with, more than a business card necessarily.
  • Leave Luggage Space – it’s Vegas, and there will be booth people wanting to give you knick-knacks and t-shirts and you may just want to bring home souvenirs, so remember to leave space in your bags for any literature, paperwork, goodies, souvenirs, etc. that you may be bringing home with you.  Buying another bag for that stuff to bring home isn’t fun (trust me, I’ve been there).

Affiliate Summit Specific Tips

  • Conference Bag – you’ll be provided with a bag when you register.  Mostly it’ll have literature inserts that businesses have paid to have included.  I recommend going through the literature immediately and removing anything you know you have absolutely no interest in.  Added papers will just bog you down when you’re walking around.  The bag usually also contains a pad of paper someone has sponsored and a pen, amongst other random goodies.
  • Registration – Register earlier, that way you have time before anything important starts to get rid of the excess in your bag & get comfortable to embark on more important stuff.  If you go to the conference area just to register before any intentions of going to the Meet Market or sessions, that will give you time to examine the bag itself, pen, notebook, goodies, etc. to see if you’ll need to grab your own supplies to be comfortable and effectively meet your conference goals.
  • Meet Market – GO!  I admit, my first Affiliate Summit I didn’t go because the description made it sound like it was a row of merchants sitting around waiting for affiliates to approach them in a creepy way.  But it’s a huge networking opportunity.  There’s drinks, wandering, and yes, you can have some good conversations with industry colleagues.   There are often companies that just get a Meet Market table (they’re less expensive) and won’t have a booth during the exhibit hall, so take the opportunity to talk with anyone you’re interested in doing business with – that may be your only opportunity.
  • Water – I don’t know if hotels and conference centers do this for everyone or if the organizers have to request it, but there’s almost always pitchers of cold water and glasses in all the session rooms or just outside.  Carrying around a bottle never hurts either if that’s more your style.
  • Timeliness – being on time to sessions will greatly help your comfort level and learning.  I usually try to get there at least a couple minutes early.  That gives me time to find a good seat, get a drink of water, and get settled before the panel actually starts.  That way I’m not interrupting anything by trying to get comfortable or by walking in late.
  • Meals – if you have a full conference pass, they provide a continental breakfast & light lunch (usually sandwiches, soup, burgers, that kind of thing).  It’s nothing gourmet but it’s a good chance to talk to some people casually, approach speakers you want to follow up with, things like that.  And you’ve already paid for it with your conference registration, so you might as well take advantage of it, that’s my theory.
  • Business Meetings – you may have already scheduled some.  Don’t schedule too many though – you want ample time to explore the exhibit hall and attend panels and sessions.  Also – I made this mistake at the last Summit held at the Rio – make arrangements to meet your appointments near to the conference area.  The conference center of the Rio is at the back of the hotel, so if you’ve made arrangements to meet in the lobby or closer to the casino area, it might be incredibly out of your way to go all the way out there to meet the person.  Besides, you’ll have a more professional meeting anywhere in the back near the conference center than you would out by the casino floor anyway.
  • Agenda – take a few minutes now to check out the agenda for the show online.   It’ll save you time now to decide on some of the sessions/events you definitely want to attend than to have to make those decisions on the fly.  However, being flexible isn’t a bad thing – sometimes you hear things from other attendees that you can’t know by reading the description on paper.
  • Session/Event Recommendations – these are a couple of sessions that are geared more towards affiliates than merchants. You might want to check out:
    • The Black Ink Session, Sunday 1:30p – 2:30p Classroom C (Miranda 5-6). Jeremy Palmer is a great guy and successful affiliate and really takes a basic “this is how you do it” approach.
    • Ethical Issues in Affiliate Marketing, Sunday 3-4pm Classroom D (Miranda 7-8). There was a session just like this with almost the same lineup of panelists in Boston, and it didn’t turn out that great, to put it politely.  I’m really hoping that they took the feedback given then and will put out a more productive and well run panel this time.
    • Mentor Program Meet Up, Sunday 6:30-7:30pm Brasilia 1-3. You’re probably already planning on attending this, but it’ll be a great mixer and balance amongst new attendees and old hat attendees, so the networking will be great.
    • Opening Remarks & Keynote, Monday 9:45am-10:45am, General Session Room Brasilia 1-7. For one, the keynote will set the tone and you’ll be sorry if you miss it. For two, Gary Vaynerchuk is the keynote and he’s a fantastic speaker!
    • Advanced Optimization for Landing Pages, Monday 2-3pm Classroom C. I’ve heard Olivier Chaine & Lisa Crossley Hunter speak before and they definitely know what they’re talking about, so with just them the session should be good. I’ve never heard Trevor Claiborne speak and I’ve spoken to Beth Kirsch before but never seen her on a panel so I can’t vouch for them.

Las Vegas Tips

  • If you’re staying at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, take a cab from the airport.  The shuttles, while less expensive, take at least an hour to get from the airport to the Rio since it’s off the strip, so usually it’s the last stop before they return to the airport.   If you’ve been traveling all day, you’ll thank yourself for saving the hassle.
  • Chapstick is your friend!  If you’re not used to a relatively dry climate like Las Vegas, be sure to carry around some good chapstick or lip balm.  Even if you don’t leave the hotel at all to expose yourself to the elements, the recycled air & smoke in the casino area can be a lot to take with repeteitive exposure.
  • There’s a cafĂ© down the hall on the way to the conference area of the Rio called the Sao Paulo CafĂ© – avoid it!   Terrible service, mediocre food.
  • There’s also a Starbucks next to that cafe, so if you need your morning latte fix, it’ll be there, but the lines may be long so plan ahead.
  • The conference center is in the very back of the hotel, so from the guest elevators and gaming area, it’s a 15 minute walk if you’re taking your time, 5-10 if you’re booking it.  Remember that when planning out your arrival times and any other events during the day.
  • The Carnival World Buffet is really good; I highly recommend trying it at least once while you’re there.  Don’t let the $27 price tag scare you – it’s worth it.
  • The All-American Bar & Grill is a good option for a decent burger or fries at any hour.
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Affiliate Summit Sneak Peak!

Posted on Jan 8, 2009 in Conferences & Networking |

Thanks to the wonders of advanced planning, all the presentations for Affiliate Summit West 2009 – which starts on Sunday – are available to view now at http://www.slideshare.net/affsum.  I’m going to try to bring my head above water enough to read through some before heading to Las Vegas tomorrow.

Are you going to Affiliate Summit?  I am.  Check out Ten Ways to Meet Me At Affiliate Summit from the New Edge Media blog.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open for some tips and tricks I’ll share with ya just in time for Affiliate Summit…

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Avoiding Sick Leave Guilt

Posted on Jan 6, 2009 in Career | 4 comments

So I’m up at 2:00 am with the compulsion to note that I’ve already broken one of my blogging goals this year: to blog daily. Unfortunately, I was struck down today with a fierce migraine which, until now, kept me in bed hiding from noise and light. My dedication has not wavered, but I know had I not flushed away the migraine it would be worse tomorrow, taking me out of the count for work for two days instead of one.

So quickly I’ll pose a question for my fellow workaholics out there – how do you deal with the guilt associated with being sick?  You WANT to work, but just can’t.  Are there techniques you employ or a mantra you tell yourself?  How do you avoid the guilt associated with taking a day off to take care of yourself when you’re a workaholic?

Share… let the healing begin!

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Goals for 2009

Posted on Jan 1, 2009 in Career |

There seems to be a rule in blogging that on January 1st, any self-respecting blogger will take a few minutes to wax poetic on one of two topics – a recap of their year previous, or an outlook on their goals of the new year ahead.  All the cool kids are doing it, so I’ve decided to jump into the mix.  I’m not doing anything better today, so why not? :p

I’m going to opt for the latter, and set forth some goals for my 2009.  Some more important than others, but listed in no particular order.

  1. Work out the technical kinks on my blog.  I’ve got some issues with the CSS on this theme regarding spacing in lists, so Id like to either learn enough about CSS to fix this or find a new theme that I like as much as this one.  I also had a problem upgrading to WordPress 2.7 and had to revert back, so I’ll figure out what the heck was causing that & upgrade.
  2. Post every day.  Even if it’s just a quick note about how work is going or something interesting I saw online that day.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to post crap, but just a bit more current things than necessarily waiting until the end of the week to mention some things in my Cribbed Content post.
  3. Get back to doing the Free Toolsday and Saturday Shopper features.  I enjoy doing them, I’ve just been slacking.
  4. Write more guest posts & accept more guest posts.  I’ve been given the opportunity, so I should collaborate with fellow bloggers more than I do.

That’s really it.  If I set a lot of lofty goals, I’ll never finish them all.  So these few are here.  Keep me honest on this and we’ll friends.  Check back here in a year to see if I succeeded!

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