Reflecting on an Origin Story: Affiliate Summit East 2007
Yes, you read that right. After a whirlwind trip to Oregon this week for a wedding, I’m making off into the night on a red-eye flight to New York for Affiliate Summit East 2012.
This marks a milestone for me. Affiliate Summit East 2007 in Miami was my first Summit, so this will be (counting last May’s Affiliate Summit Central) my 10th Summit and the 5 year anniversary of this blog and my participation in Affiliate Marketing. I was just a baby in affiliate marketing back then.
Wow… how things have changed! Back then I didn’t know what I was doing at ALL, somehow teaching my co-worker everything I knew about affiliate marketing on our red-eye flight from Oakland to Miami. And by everything I knew – that means everything I’d learned since about November of 2006, so not much. How naive we were – we totally blew off the Meet Market thinking it would be lame (maybe back then it was, I wouldn’t have known) and didn’t participate in hardly ANY networking. We were more interested in South Beach every night to eat dinner on the strip.
The trip was not all fun, and I did take it seriously and so glad I did. I still use the same college-ruled composition book for notes. The sessions I went to at that Summit might make you chuckle:
I remember some of the speakers, but not all… Jeremy Palmer, Scott Jangro, Rosalind Gardner, Stephanie Agresta, most notable in my mind at the time was Jay Berkowitz and his 10 golden rules session. I remember offering up the merchant I worked for at the time for analysis in the Conversion Rate Clinic and going back to my manager at our booth saying, “We have a LOT to fix when we get back! Josh Sloan made a magical impression on me with his magic tricks as we exhibited beside 1&1,. We went to ONE networking event and only because we were told we could win some sweet prizes. It was there that I met Karen & Joel Garcia, who I count as friends now. I remember returning from that show and deciding that I should start a blog. I started it on Blogger (I know, I’m ashamed too…) and later got with it and ported it over to self-hosted WordPress. Want to read my first post? It’s a doozy… but it was 5 years ago on 8/2 (also my wedding anniversary & Kevin Smith’s birthday).
So in a few days I’m off to Summit again, and I’m so glad I went to summit back in ’07. It set me on this career path when I just had a job, so I’ll be forever grateful to the speakers in the sessions I attended and the people I met back then that ignited this spark. I’m proud to say that 5 years later, I’m still loving it!
Want to sit down with me and chat about any of the affiliate programs I manage? Check out my schedule at Tungle.me/trishalyn and let’s set something up!
Another laugh… my random photos from Miami in 07!
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 35: Interviewing Jay Berkowitz
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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!
We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit East 2010, coming up in just a month in New York City. This time, we talk to Jay Berkowitz about his origins in affiliate marketing & his presentation “Turn Website & Social Media Traffic Into Gold”. Jay’s actually going to be giving away a SOLID GOLD BAR as an incentive to go, so listen up for how to enter! In in this episode we discuss:
- Jay’s background in traditional marketing with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
- How Jay’s Ten Golden Rules presentations got him into consulting.
- Sign up to win the 10g GOLD bar at Facebook.com/TenGoldenRules.
- The head & head session battle against the fount of information that is Wil Reynolds.
- Jay actually shares some of the tips from his presentation with us with talks of Jeff Walker and Don Crowther.
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!
Affiliate Summit Won’t Come to You
Vegas… again. For faithful readers you’ll know that after having not been to Sin City since I was six, I’ve been twice since August. And I’m going yet again at the end of February for Affiliate Summit West 08. It should be sweet; AS East 07 in Miami was my first trade show attendance and it was a special and magical time. And since the show is directly involved with what I do on a daily basis, it’s like going to a crash course on my job.
Luckily for anyone who saw footage of the Monte Carlo on fire today, it’s being held at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino. Home of Penn & Teller, an excellent show if you’re looking to mix business with pleasure. I saw them in August and it was top entertainment for not bad of a price.
This year Affiliate Classroom LIVE is putting on an all day training session on affiliate manager training. And it’s FREE (well, aside from that $97 reservation fee to make sure you come). It’s 8:00 am to 6:00 pm so that much won’t be fun, especially since my husband will be joining me for part of this trip so he’ll be on his own to explore :(. But at that price, how could you pass it up? There’s only 150 seats, so if you’re interested go make your reservation now!
Jay Berkowitz of Ten Golden Rules is also putting on an Internet Marketing Bootcamp the same day. Which sucks for me because I’d love to go to both, but maybe some kind soul would give me a verbal crash course in how it goes ;). But this bootcamp is a lofty $200. In comparison to what you’re spending to attend the show that’s chump change, but still hard to swing if you’re a start up publisher wanting to learn the ropes. Affiliate Summit attendees do get $50 off though. Check out the Affiliate Summit Blog for more details on how to swing that.
For anyone even thinking about going to this, I highly recommend it. I learned SO much as a beginning affiliate manager, and got to network with some great people. It’s also an excellent resource for a publisher to check out all the different networks that are out there and all the best strategies and tactics for converting your website into your income. And just look outside at your winter weather then remember that Las Vegas will be warm and sunny and book your flight to go already!
Remember to take plenty of business cards as you WILL need them (we ran clean out last time). As a special, PsPrint is offering 20% off for attendees. But you have to register to get the code for the discount, so register today for Affiliate Summit!
