This was a great keynote, given by Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV.  He killed it in terms of getting the crowd riled up and rearing to go for the rest of the show.  He also did something I haven’t seen from other keynote speakers – he actually opened it up for questions. Gary has a very real, conversational style of speaking, which I appreciate.  He curses, and beware I have republished some things verbatim so there’s some choice words below.

The show organizers did something else cool and different – they streamed the keynote speech live on Ustream.  Here’s the recorded keynote in it’s entirety, but if you’re like me and don’t have time to watch the whole thing, my notes are below too.

Webcam chat at Ustream

Bullet Point Review!

• More emphasis is needed on community.
• Content is king, but marketing is the queen and she runs the house.
• Be authentic – he never does double takes or edits out stray bits for WLTV.
• 45-60 minutes spent on content, the rest is on monetization.
• If you’re not doing vanity searches for your name or your brand, you’re a monumental clown.
• Too many people preach to this crowd.
• We’ve been aiming to hit singles but we all have the talent to hit home runs.
• Sink your teeth into your passion.
• Why can’t we be artists AND entrepreneurs?
• If you want to make money, then you should.  Don’t feel bad for it.
• If you have cockroaches in the back of your pizza place, clean that shit up!  (i.e. anything you do that’s wrong or shady WILL come out).
• People don’t want to see ROI numbers.
• People are not creating multiple channels and should.
• Create more angles and more opportunity to make money.
• ROI will be much more important with the economic situation we’re in.
• Social Media is bullshit – it’s just the extension of business.
• Watch a 13 year old interact – they’re not going to be reading the newspapers or watching the nightly news.
• Details are what really build business.
• When you build brand equity, you’re always able to make money.
• If you think Twitter is your main play for the rest of your life, you’re an asshole.
• When you care, you win.
• We all now go direct to consumer.
• Twitter is word of mouth on steroids.
• If you leave here with nothing else, ask yourself this: Where the hell am I going?  What do I want to do?

Points brought up during the Q&A

• How do you build multiple brands?  There are no tactics, just be who you are.
• How do you cross pollinate across different brands and networks?  It’s like fishing in other ponds.  Your message carries.  When you step outside this space, you sound like fucking yoda!  Focus your message across multiple channels.
• How has PleaseDressMe.com not fizzled?  They said from the beginning that the goal was affiliate marketing to make money.  People took them more seriously.  They created the hype to leverage the hype.

All in all, a good way to start the conference!  Getting people riled up at 9:45am on a Monday morning isn’t an easy task!

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I’m so excited I can hardly sit still!  In just a few hours I’ll be on a flight headed to Las Vegas.  I really do love going to Affiliate Summit – it gives me a chance to catch up with colleagues, have some fun, and learn a bunch of new stuff.  As always, I’ll be sharing it dutifully with you!

In the meantime, here’s the roundup of some of the stuff that passed through my peripheral consciousness this week!  Forgive me if it’s heavy on the Affiliate Summit stuff – whenever a conference comes near that’s almost all that’s on people’s minds!

• Can’t be at the show?  Gary Vaynerchuk Keynote at Affiliate Summit Streaming Live on Ustream.tv.  Awesome!  If you’re already a Ustream.tv user, just search for the affiliate-summit channel.  Otherwise go be a voyeur at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/affiliate-summit.
• Charter Membership is now open for the Performance Marketing Alliance.  The price tag is a bit hefty (keep in mind – I have no base of reference for how much professional organizations usually cost), so I’ll be grabbing some literature to show my company
• ReveNews editor Angel Djambazov shared his Top 5 Must See Sessions at Affiliate Summit West 2009.  I know I expect to be in at least 2-3 of those.
• Angel’s on a tear with the sessions stuff, sharing his Top 10 Must See Sessions at CES 2009.  For those of you not entirely geeky (yet), CES is the Consumer Electronics Show, with manufacturers vying to show off their goods to the masses.  This show is going on in Las Vegas as well and ends right as Affiliate Summit West 2009 starts.
• There’s a good two part series on the Affiliate Classroom blog that any webmaster should read: Why Content is Still King (and Queen) Part 1 of 2 and Why Content is Still King (and Queen) Part 2 of 2.
• With some news about a client of ours, PrintPlace Expands with New Printing Facility in California. Did you hear that?  It was the sound of shipping times being cut in half!

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