Win a free pass to Affiliate Classroom Live!
The kind folks at Affiliate Classroom Live have given me a free ticket for the event August 9th at which I’ll be hosting a round table discussion on digital networking for affiliate managers. I can give it to whomever I choose, so I’m making it arbitrary and holding a contest.
The ticket is a whopping $300 value and gets you access to the entire morning’s worth of discussions and presentations geared towards affiliate managers. It’s a great event to attend! I went last February to their full day session and it was so worth it! I’m certain this event will be even better with the amount of interaction each participant will be able to get with the speakers.
All you to have to do to enter is email your name and address to Contests@TrishaLyn.com. The winner will be picked at random from all entries on July 7th! That’s two weeks from today so shoot those emails off now for your chance to win!
Read MoreAffiliate Classroom Live! August 9th
Part of advancing your career is continuing your education, so its important to learn what you can, when you can. Continuing doing their part for the affiliate community and affiliate managers, Affiliate Classroom is offering another Affiliate Classroom Live training session for Affiliate Managers the day before Affiliate Summit East in Boston this August.
I attended their full day session last February and I have to tell you – it was a completely invaluable experience. I learned so much… it was worth devoting an entire day to. I also recapped my impressions of the various sessions via this very blog. The only bummer to the whole day was the length of time in grossly uncomfortable chairs with no tables to write on. Incidentally, I spent most the time sitting on the floor using the chair as a platform – I’m just not a lap writer.
They’re at it again, this time taking in the feedback they received and cutting it down to a half day of mostly round table discussions lead by experts – and me.
That’s right, yours truly will be leading a round table discussion at this summit’s event titled: Virtual Social Butterflies: Online Networking & Its Importance for Affiliate Managers
Successfully managing an affiliate program relies heavily on being an approachable manager, developing good relationships with your affiliates. It’s equally important to develop good working relationships with your peers in the industry. We’ll talk about the blog community, social networks, social bookmarks, Twitter, and how they can benefit the affiliate manager.
Besides me, since I’m hardly an “expert” in this field, discussions will be lead by Sam Harrelson on web 2.0, Lisa Riolo on pitching your affiliate program internally, Brad Waller on the NY Affiliate Tax implications, a presentation by Heather Paulson on effective strategies, and some other well known industry leaders. So come on out and let’s talk! Register for the event now at AffiliateClassroomLive.com!
Thanks to Affiliate Classroom’s Rachel Honoway for extending the invite to me!
Read MoreEarly Bird Pricing for CJU Ends June 15
One of the leading affiliate networks (which the PsPrint program is also on), Commission Junction, is hosting their annual CJU (Commission Junction University) event September 16th – 18th in Santa Barbara, CA. This event is a chance for publishers and advertisers to meet face to face and talk about the issues facing the industry and ways of improving affiliate relations.
This year’s event has built in more networking time than any CJU before it. The organizers listened intently to the feedback the received last year wanting more chances to socialize with fellow industry professionals. This year’s keynote is Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple and current managing director of Garage Technology Ventures. It should be a good talk from someone with plenty of experience in the tech industry.
Personally, I’ve heard mixed reviews from industry insiders on this event, but hopefully so have the organizers and they’ve taken those reviews into consideration as well. The early bird pricing ends on June 15th, so now until then you can save $100 by registering now. More details can be found at http://cju.cj.com/events/. I’ve been told that the hotel books up quickly, so don’t wait. I’m still poking & prodding to see if we’re going!
Read MoreEarly Bird Price for Affiliate Summit ENDS TODAY
Boston, MA
Want to meet me?! Of course you do! Remember that today is the last day to sign up for Affiliate Summit East 2008 and still get the cheaper Early Bird Pricing. The full conference pass – today only – is just $949 while an Expo Hall Only pass is a very affordable $99. If you’ve been waffling about going, pull the trigger and do it now while it’s still cheap!
After tomorrow, the prices go up to $199 for the expo hall only pass and a whopping $1449 for the full pass. And of course, if you sit on your lazy duff until the last minute, you have to shell out $299 for an expo hall only pass or $1949 for the full conference pass.
There are a lot of great sessions already scheduled and on the agenda for the summit. A full agenda is online already. I’ve already added several to my TripIt account so I can plan out my time, including Sam Harrelson’s Leveraging Social Media, Andy Rodriguez’s Affiliate Marketing Basics for Merchants, and Lisa Picarille’s Content that Kills sessions.
There’s no reason not to save money and really, this is a great event for affiliate marketing professionals – both publishers and advertisers – to network and learn from. So go today and register for Affiliate Summit East 2008 in Boston while you can still get in with the best price!
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Day 2 of Affiliate Summit – Suck All!
Almost a month ago I was granted a press pass for the Affiliate Summit. I was excited to get into the bloghaus and blog about the day as it happened. I was thrilled to walk around and network with people. I really wanted to get some great coverage of the Keynote (coverage hell, I wanted to just listen too), but… none of that happened.
Why? Because Las Vegas hates me. And there are far too many germs here. And somehow during the day on Sunday…I developed a cold. A bad one. Damn this dry air & germs!
So I didn’t get up in time to make it downstairs to have breakfast AND make it to Jason Calacanis’ keynote like I wanted to. I managed to grab some breakfast and share some stats about our affiliate program with my colleague here with me from PsPrint to help out and then to man the booth. I sent her out to get the table top sign made that wasn’t made in time for the show. I station the booth for awhile and talk to some good people before it’s time for me to head off to the morning session I planned on going to.
Oh, incidentally, for anyone who wants some GREAT coverage of the keynote, check out J. Botter’s Blog.
I digress.
I attended this morning’s “Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing” panel. Good stuff, although I was a bit disappointed in moderator Melissa Salas reading off a prepared script pretty much verbatim. But I really enjoyed the insight from video professionals, and it’s comforting to know that content really is king, and that production value isn’t as important. Woo Hoo! I was wondering how you’d go about monetizing a video, but Revver.com seems to answer that. I’ll definitely be checking that out when I get back to the joy that is desktop computer (this older laptop isn’t that great). I really enjoyed Gary Vaynerchuk’s sense of humor & ballsy honesty. I’m excited with my new Aiptek A-HD 720P 5MP CMOS High Definition Camcorder
Some great points from the panel session:
- Most people come on the internet for two P’s – pleasure or problems. If you solve someone’s problem, it’s a good video.
- KNOW what you’re talking about. As long as you know your subject, you can produce great content.
- In the next 12 months, you should test video on your site. By 18 months from now, if you don’t have video on your website you may be in trouble.
- Video really works to sell as it gives your brand more credibility & builds brand equity.
- Depth of information is quality will translate to a successful video.
- Work on integrating video into your current web experience for the most effective video experience.
- The average video watched online is about 2 minutes long.
- An enormous amount of video watching is done at work, so keep that in mind. Melissa added that a Click to Listen button is much appreciated by these people.
- In terms of size & format, go for the best quality you can when shooting, even if it has to be compressed when uploading online. If you can afford it, shoot in HD. It’s where everything is headed. (Side note – this makes me really glad that I bought my new HD mini cam! It’s the one in the picture.)
Day 3 should be good – hoping for some informative sessions and to feel better.
Read MoreQuote of the Day
The feet you step on today are connected to the ass you’ll be kissing tomorrow.
-Star Jones
This should be the first rule in networking 🙂
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