ASE10 Experience Extravaganza: Saturday Night & Sunday
Where do I begin? For maybe the first time ever, I don’t have a plethora of post-conference posts planned for this blog. This is mostly due to the fact that the only session I attended, aside from both keynotes, was the one I was speaking in. I spent the majority of my time at this summer’s Affiliate Summit East 10 behind a table talking to people about For Me To Coupon. Nor did I use a single drink ticket provided by the staff! Overall I was able to get some great networking jammed into my time in New York, as well as catching up with old friends from all over that congregate at Affiliate Summits like a family reunion. BUT, let me tell you some great things about the parties I attended & working the show based in the expo hall – something I haven’t done in a couple of years since my days at PsPrint.
Before I go into my long recap, some housekeeping. For the sake of keeping my long recount of the weeks events from overwhelming you, I’m going to devote separate posts to each keynote, my disgust at some things that have become common behavior at conferences, the Audience Conference, & something we like to call Affiliate Super Friends. So keep an eye out for those posts in the next few days…
Saturday Night: ABestWeb.com Reception & Buy.at Black & White Affair
Saturday night, after I was done with the Audience Conference and had some dinner & a nice short rest, it was all about the parties. What lovely parties, put on by some lovely folks! First was the ABestWeb.com reception, put on at Cinema the Brasserie. Don’t be fooled, this was no movie theater – it was a very open feeling restaurant with a small lounge area near the bar that we inhabited. I drank a lovely white wine while chatting with some great people. Appetizers were passed around along with great conversation with other posters from the ABW forums. I was able to put some faces to screen names of a few folks I didn’t know in person, and also able to catch up with some old regulars. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no where NEAR an old hat on the ABW forums, but I do like the crowd of posters that tend to show up when events are thrown.
Directly after, we walked over to the Buy.at party being thrown at trendy Inc Lounge. I LOVED the interior and vibe of the party when we first arrived. As a new advertiser on their network, Ghirardelli was sponsoring the shindig, so the trays of chocolate desserts were everywhere! There were comfy couches to hang back on, which was very well received by my tired feet after walking there from the ABW party. At the beginning of the evening as people trickled it, it was nice to sit & chat, have some drinks, and talk… but as more and more people showed up, it got very loud and hot and crowded. To me, it turned from chill lounge to something closer to a night club, which really isn’t my cup of tea. So a group of us left a bit earlier than the scheduled end time of the party & headed back to the deli across from the Hilton for some snacks before bed.
Sunday: Podcasting 101, the Meet Market, Newcomers, & ShareASale’s Under the Stars Party
To keep it short, I think our panel, Podcasting 101, went really well. If you were unable to attend, you can view the slide presentation here. My voice was almost gone from yelling to speak to people at parties, but I made it work. We didn’t have many people when the session began, but more filtered in…probably after they bum rushed the ShareASale meet market table to get their party passes first :). We got some good feedback from people, and I hope this finds a life beyond Affiliate Summit via the presentations and videos.
After the presentation and some questions afterward, I booked it over to the package room to grab the flyers & notepads we’d had shipped to the hotel in my name, then upstairs to the Meet Market to relieve Forrest at the FMTC table and deliver the goodies. BIG thank you to an unknown gentleman from Woot.com who noticed my struggle with the three boxes and kindly carried one up to the Meet Market for me! We sat for the remainder of the meet market talking to people about the service, save for one trip I made down to the sundry shop to grab some beverages and the short opportunity I had to walk around. Because most of my time was spent at the table chatting with folks, I didn’t get a chance to check out all the other tables, but I did walk an aisle or two to hit some that caught my eye (both via their products/services and brightly colored swag).
After carrying our materials down to the FMTC booth, I headed over to the Newcomer Program meet up, headed by the lovely Jen Goode. There I met my super newcomer Jennifer from Affordable Style, who opted to gift me with a fantastic purse from one of their brands HandbagHeaven.com. I am very glad that Jennifer seemed to really get a lot of help from what I clued her in on about the summit & she was able to have a very productive first conference and learn a lot about affiliate marketing in general while there.
Instead of dinner, we went straight to the ShareASale Under the Stars party at the Empire Hotel, with a promise of food. We had some difficulty getting a cab in the rain as someone jumped into our rightfully gotten cab, and then had to stand in the rain outside the hotel waiting for the bouncers to let us inside as the line for the elevator was longer than space inside the lobby would allow. As usual, SAS knows how to throw a spectacular party! Despite the rooftop bar location, the venue had rolling awnings so no one was rained on, drinks flowed freely, and appetizers were passed around. The appetizers only seemed to last for about an hour or so as droves of people started showing up. It got crowded quickly, and a couple hours into the party we’d reached capacity and people were being turned away. Some say this is because the bouncers downstairs stopped checking for the SAS party invites and let just anyone in, but I can’t really confirm this beyond people telling me that no one asked to see the pass they had. It’s a shame that people were turned away, but I guess that just means a bigger venue next time! Or, tighter controls on invitations 🙂
Don’t worry your pretty head… there’s more to come when I recap Monday and Tuesday! Please feel free to view all the photos I took in New York: Affiliate Summit East 2010 on Flickr
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 24: Early Bird Affiliate Summit Preview
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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
It’s been awhile, but we’re back, talking about the sessions we’re planning to attend at Affiliate Summit East 2010. Mike will be running around in his own back yard but I’ll be flying across the country to this shindig. In in this episode we discuss:
- Sessions we want to save a chair for at Affiliate Summit East 2010.
- Trisha trying to remember or search for the For Me To Coupon Meet Market Table & Booth numbers (31 & 1034, respectively)
- The apparently world famous halal guy on the corner by the NY Hilton.
- Inviting us to copious amounts of parties.
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!
Read MoreWin A Siver Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010!
I’m giving away a FREE Silver Pass to Affiliate Summit East 2010, the premier affiliate marketing conference. You read correctly! Affiliate Summit East 2010 is going down August 15 – 17th in New York City at the New York Hilton. I will definitely be there, along with my cohorts from For Me To Coupon. I hope to be speaking on a panel, but which panels will be on the agenda is still being determined. I will also have an article appear in issue 11 of FeedFront Magazine, being distributed at the conference.
The Silver Pass is a $250 value and gives you access during the conference to the Affiliate Meet Market and Exhibit Hall, Keynotes; and access to the Affiliate Summit Social Network. This pass will NOT give you access to any of the sessions taking place. Remember from past shows, if you follow me here at TrishaLyn.com, I do post reviews of all the sessions I attend for your educational pleasure.
How To Win:
- Follow me on Twitter – @TrishaLyn
- Tweet out this message: Enter to win a Silver Pass to Affiliate Summit East at TrishaLyn.com http://bit.ly/winase10 #ASE10
- Subscribe to TrishaLyn.com
- Post a comment about why you want to go. Be creative. This is what will decide the contest!
The winner must have completed all four steps and the winner will be chosen by the best, most creative reason why you want the free pass. The goal here is to think outside of the box. In your comment, please link me to your tweet and be sure to comment with an email address I can easily reach you at, should you win. All comments and tweets must be posted by June 11, 2010. A winner will be announced on June 14, 2010.
Runner Up- Bonus To the second best entry, I’ll give you a paperback copy of Internet Marketing From The Real Experts
Here’s the inevitable fine print. Passes are non-transferable, so if you win the pass you have to use it for yourself. Keep in mind that the winner must register for Affiliate Summit BEFORE passes sell out. As well, if you win the contest, register, and are then unable to attend, you have to contact them to cancel. If you don’t contact them to cancel and fail to check in at the conference, you won’t be eligible for any future complimentary passes from Affiliate Summit. These are their rules, not mine, so you must abide. Please enter only if you are not already registered and know you can attend, should you win.
Read MoreOne OPM Firm to Rule Them All
Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. But it’s close. Today, Schaaf Consulting announced their acquisition today of PartnerCentric, perhaps the first OPM firm launched in 2004. This merger will bring some of the top affiliate programs in the industry under the management of one roof. The press release is pretty cut and dry, but I have to give them a lot of credit for having fun with it and including this quote from Schaaf Co. client Moosejaw’s Kate Runyon:
“I have been working with Schaaf Consulting since 2007, and I haven’t been this impressed since my best friend’s boyfriend tried to kiss me at prom,” said Kate Runyon, Internet Marketing Coordinator at Moosejaw. “Maybe that didn’t come out right but you probably get it.”
Awesome.
Does this signal a new dawn in the affiliate industry of Super OPM firms akin to the mega marketing firms running traditional marketing? Perhaps, and it’s definitely an intriguing concept. Our industry is definitely big enough for this kind of expansion, but with the 21st century flexibility that affiliate marketing is known for. This is definitely a bonus for affiliates, giving them less people to have to contact when they need assistance.
The new company will be known as Schaaf-PartnerCentric and will be lead by Brook Schaaf. PartnerCentric president Linda Woods will stay on as a strategic adviser. Let me congratulate Brook & Forrest Schaaf on this venture and wish them the best of luck. Don’t worry fellas, For Me To Coupon is in good hands with me on board 🙂
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 19: It’s a Search Tool!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
In this all-too-RARE episode, we reunite and make lots of fun of ourselves for being inconsistent in our scheduling and shows. We discuss some things that are kind of old and some things that are brand-spanking new. It happens. Incidentally, I realize I said the name Richard Attenborough when we were joking around and I was trying to reference those classic nature shows from our childhood with the stoic British actor describing gazelles running across the Serengeti. Not sure what the actor’s name actually was, but I know now that it wasn’t Sir Attenborough. Oh well, despite that, episode 19 comes in at a cheetah like speed of 39 minutes.
Also, I just fixed the audio problem where it cut off about 33 minutes in. Sorry, should be all good now! In this episode we discuss:
- My new gig with For Me To Coupon.
- The Advertising Tax hits Colorado. Read more about it here:
- Fox 31 KDVR News: Online sales tax bill moves through House
- Examiner.com: Are state representatives going to put work-at-home moms out of business overnight? (by Jen Goode!)
- Performance Marketing Association: Colorado House Passes Bill that Threatens to Devastate Affiliates (by Lisa Picarille!)
- The launch of Impact Radius – more of an exchange than a network.
- Seesmic Look. Seriously, what is this? We decided – it’s a search tool!
- 1938 Media starts 1938 Business & teams up with some heavy hitters to produce this year’s Audience Conference.
- Loren Feldman and Affiliate Summit Team Up
- Shout outs went to the losers of the Affiliate of the Year Pinnacle Award, Kim Rowley and Eric Nagel!
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Or leave us a comment!
Read MoreDay 2 of Affiliate Summit West 2010
Monday January 18th
Day 2 of Affiliate Summit for me started off a bit rocky. I was far from hung over, but I awoke with the familiar feeling of an impending migraine. I decided that, despite the morning keynote by Dr. Robert Cialdini not being recorded, I’d have to skip it in favor of some more quiet time before the storm to dispel the headache on the horizon. Luckily it worked and I went down just at the end of the keynote to catch up with some folks to get the cliff’s notes version of the keynote and to find my first morning appointment. Luckily, the staff were handing out little cheat sheet cards with the main bullet points from the keynote, which I got and took note of.
I mentioned I had a meeting. I learned a valuable lesson at this conference – don’t just research what the person you’re meeting with does, research what they look like! We’d decided to meet in outside the theater after the keynote, and man was that a bad idea. A sea of unfamiliar faces and I have no idea what this guy looks like! I hang around for about 15 minutes, trying to find someone who looks like they’re also looking for someone, to no avail. I check my watch and decide that I have to move on in order to get to the session I wanted to go to. So now I know that next time I have to meet with someone, I’m either going to meet them somewhere not so busy or snoop on their Facebook profile to see what they look like!
My first session of the day was Product Datafeeds: The Next Level, which by nature was dry, but sill interesting. Scott Jangro did a great job as moderator and I did my best as a student. I figured that I know the basics about datafeeds, but moving on in my career to a company that provides a coupon feed, I better learn more! A full review of that will come later today.
After lunch, I did some time working in the For Me to Coupon booth in the expo hall. I’m glad that I did some homework about the basics of the company before standing in the booth, because we certainly didn’t have a whole lot of downtime to chit chat. People were coming by nonstop asking questions about the service, which is awesome. I was put to the test many times on my knowledge, and thankfully only had to defer to Forrest & Nate a few times for questions I had no clue about. But it was also a great opportunity to learn more nitty gritty stuff about the service when more technical affiliates stopped by with really detailed developer questions. A great introduction to my new job!
I ducked away from the booth for some rejuvenation time in the blogger lounge, then on to the Oprah, Flogs and FTC: Hot Topics 2010 session. It was interesting, but frustrated me that the presenter went through a LOT of good information in his presentation much too fast. I’m incredibly happy though that the presentation has been uploaded to SlideShare, so when I post my recap of that, it’ll have the presentation link!
Before the activity for the evening I had a lovely few drinks with Heather Smith, Julie Vazquez, Lori Herren, & Joe Vaughn from Izea. After playing with the Microsoft Surface table in the iBar, we moved our operation over to the All American Bar & Grill for the 20 cent chicken wings! It’s the Rio’s 20th anniversary, so they had all sorts of deals like that. About 60 wings, a basket of fries, and a few sodas all came in under $30! I learned a TON more about Izea and their products sitting with two insiders and Joe, a sales manager from Izea.
After dinner, it was time for our evening activity, one of my favorite activities hands down anywhere – TRIVIAL PURSUIT! They set up the Wii on a large screen and popped in the game. I was happily chosen 3rd or 4th for Team Missy Ward and we proceeded to kick ass. Of course, another team came from behind in an upset win, but it was a TON of fun playing the game. I know this is a game I’ll have to get for my wii. It was good times, and everyone who played & stuck around until the end was generously given a complimentary Gold Pass for Affiliate Summit East 2010, which we’ll be using to bring Dominic along!
For a normal, sane person, trivia’s end at midnight would have been the end of the evening, but oh no. Now it was time to wander over to McFadden’s Restaurant & Saloon for a party once again thrown by the folks at GTO Management in conjunction with MakeBeer.net. Coopers Brew makes some fine beer and their affiliate program is for the home brew kits that they sell, which are handy for the home brewer. It was a great time with displays of male competition and a punching bag game. A few heads hit it and then headed off to another club, but I was done for the night around 2am so I headed back to the room to get some sleep before my early meeting!
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