Affiliate Summit Mentor Program – Deadline is CLOSE!
For those of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, at the last Affiliate Summit in Boston a great new tradition was started. The Affiliate Summit Mentor Program. This program, headed by the gracious Teresa Caldwell for Affiliate Summit East and now headed by awesome Jen Goode for Affiliate Summit West, is a way for first time conference attendees to learn the ropes.
I remember my first summit, not that long ago, in Miami in July 07. SO overwhelmed with information, especially considering that was my first trade show at ALL and I was relatively new to affiliate marketing and hadn’t been exposed to the industry at large. I’m not the only first time attendee to feel consumed by it all, hence why the mentor program was created. The program matches up volunteer mentors who have experience attending the shows and know generally what to expect and how to get the most out of your attendance, with newbie first timers who’ve asked for a bit of guidance.
At the last summit I agreed to be a mentor, having that be my 3rd show attending, and I felt the experience didn’t go all that well. I exchanged a few emails with my assigned newbie/”mentee” and after they didn’t respond to the last email, that was it – unfortunately I didn’t know if they even ended up attending the show or not.
Hence my reluctance to sign up this time around. I didn’t feel like I was that helpful, and I guess the person was less-than-impressed with who I was the first time, which made me think that perhaps I’m not the best person to be a mentor. But the ever wise Jen Goode convinced me to give it another shot, so I’m happy to say that once again I’m participating in the mentor program for Affiliate Summit West 09 in Las Vegas next month.
I just received the email with my newbie’s information, and I’m off to shot them a welcome – if you’re a veteran attendee of the Affiliate Summit, and haven’t signed up yet, DO IT! Go to http://blog.affiliatesummit.com/affiliate-summit-mentor-program and sign up today – the deadline is December 28th!
Also, watch this video that former mentee turned mentor Michael Buechele of 11|15 Media did if you need more convincing!
Cribbed Content for December 22nd
The holidays are upon us finally! I suck and forgot to post this shorter version last week! Hanukkah started on the 21st, and Christmas is around the bend this week! Do you have sugar plum fairies dancing in your head yet? Here’s a few interesting things from this past week to keep your feet on the ground until you’re off for the holiday officially!
- Are you an affiliate? Take the AffStat Survey Here and let your voice be known in the industry. This coming year the results will be made available through FeedFront Magazine rather than by purchase.
- Speaking of FeedFront, publishers Shawn Collins & Missy Ward of Affiliate Summit have put together a compilation cover complimenting their story about the women of affiliate marketing. Yours truly is on the cover in the lower right hand portion, sharing space with some truly awesome and amazing women that I both adore and admire!
- ShareASale hosts a great party at every Affiliate Summit, and this coming January for Affiliate Summit West 2009, they’re hosting an 80s prom themed “Under the Stars” party. Righteous, dude.
Tales of a Home Office Worker Dad
Guest Post by Joe Magennis.
Just over a year ago we completed a restructuring of the agency that would allow us to eliminate the massive overhead of an office. My biggest hesitation for disbursing to home locations was what to do about the phone system. I did not want to go through the hassle of notifying clients of a bunch of new and unique phone numbers. When our local CLEC service provider informed me that we could have a virtual system that allowed me to have the same number right down to the same extension, I pulled the trigger.
This is the second time that I have worked from home. In the late nineties I converted the upstairs bedroom into an office and established a diligent work routine. I function much better within some structure, so I complete the typical morning rituals, grab a cup of coffee and head upstairs to start the workday. I derive a great sense of productivity from this new work from home operation since it saves me an hours commute on each end of the day. It also means I can get to the daycare to pick up my toddler earlier than ever before.
On November 3rd of this past year things changed drastically. My wife and I decided that due to the enormous cost of placing a second child into daycare, she would head to work while I would keep our three month old daughter Lily with me during the day. This new arrangement was certainly made easier by having a home office work environment, but has greatly extended the length of time that I spend in the office each day.
It’s not realistic to attempt to give work full attention during the typical work day and attend to all of Lily’s needs. Her feeding requirements every three hours with interspersed diaper changes, play time, and prep for the next round of feeding limits my day time functionality to short bursts of tasks while she is napping. When my wife comes home at the end of the day we share dinner time with both of the girls and I retreat to the office to focus on the greater tasks of the day.
However, I still attempt to arrive at the desk by 9:00 am with a coffee in hand and a bottle for Lily. It’s typically a good time to catch some podcasts since my hands are tied up. I still have numerous standing Skype appointments throughout the week and so far there have not been any huge conflicts due to Daddy Daycare. It is a work arrangement that is completely manageable with the right determination, the right technology and the right home office set up …. for how long is the big question.
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Joe Magennis is the founder and principal of Fluid Media Inc. an online marketing and brand development company in Atlanta Ga.
Read MoreAffiliate Summit West 2009 is Fast Approaching!
Can you believe that there are only 45 days left until Affiliate Summit West 2009?! Depending on your outlook of time, this might seem like it’s a long time from now, but just like a project’s deadline, Affiliate Summit sneaks up on you!
At this point all of the meet market tables are sold out, as are most of the sponsorships. According to co-founder Shawn Collins, there are still about a dozen booths available for any interested merchants or vendors. Conference passes grant attendees access to the expo hall, all break-out sessions, and the courtesy meals and drinks the conference graciously provides. These passes usually sell out about a week or two before the conference, so if you’re even considering going I highly suggest you register for Affiliate Summit West 2009 now.
When looking for a place to stay, I really do recommend staying at the conference hotel in all cases, and especially in this case I can personally vouch for the comfort and convenience of the Rio. Being an “all-suites” hotel is awesome as the rooms are totally comfortable and large, and downstairs if gambling isn’t your thing there’s a bowling ally and plenty of shops. Their Carnival World buffet is also excellent.
Or, you can read the reviews I did on Yelp after my stay there last year:
Sao Paulo Cafe
Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino
Carnival World Buffet
McFadden’s
Harry Reid International Airport
Mayor Cory Booker on Real Time with Bill Maher
I’m sure I’m not the only person that’s really taken note of Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker since his moving keynote at Affiliate Summit East 2008. Last week, Booker appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher and gave a great interview on what an Obama presidency means to him and to America. It was very reminiscent of the keynote speech – inspiring and motivating – so I felt it best to share. Remember that his words can inspire you on a number of levels – which can boost your motivation to chase your own American dream and work harder to reach your goals in both business and pleasure.
I’m a Bill Maher fan from way back in his Politically Incorrect days, and I was glad that he seemed to really appreciate what Mayor Booker had to say and, apart from the occasional jabs about not having to ask a question before Booker spit out an answer, he was a really gracious interviewer. Among some of the inspiring things he had to say, here’s one of the better nuggets:
We, as Americans, drink deeply from wells that we did not dig. This generation that I live in had so many sacrifices of those who’ve come before us, and the best thing we can do is show some measure of sacrifice to honor those people who bled on beaches from Normandy to Midway for us, or who stood on line to register people to vote back in the day that you could get killed for doing that. So, I’m not about a position. I’m really about a purpose, and I think we are a purpose-driven country. And I think it’s time that we exalt all of the spaces of our nation, that we honor the sacred nature of human dignity and human life, and try to make the idea of democracy more emboldened and more inclusive, so that all of us enjoy the fruits of this great nation.
You can listen to the entire episode (140) as a podcast through iTunes. Here’s the video clip of the segment with Mayor Booker via satellite on Real Time with Bill Maher:
Read MoreCribbed Content for November 7th
Welcome to November! I can hardly believe we’re in November already… it seems like it was September just yesterday! Do me a favor and remember that there’s Thanksgiving to think about before Christmas and stall on decking everything out in red and green for a month, will ya?
- Recently I wrote an article for the New Edge Media blog, Top 14 Tips for Affiliate Success. Check it out and be sure to follow New Edge Media on Twitter!
- Scott Jangro wrote a good post on Affiliate Marketing Network Blog Scorecards. The comments are interesting as well, so be sure to read the whole thing.
- Affiliate Summit now has a Fan Page on Facebook. Join up for updates.
- 37Signals now offers an affiliate program for their super awesome products, one of which is Basecamp, a great project management system that we proudly use at New Edge Media. Sign up for their affiliate program at http://affiliate.37signals.com.
- An interesting note about branding and your personal brand, Jim Kukral is going to re-brand himself next week. I’m very interested to see what he does and how this is executed, so stay tuned.
