ASE10 Monday Keynote: Frank Luntz
Monday of Affiliate Summit started off with a keynote by author Frank Luntz, who most notably wrote the book Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear
Considering I focused on creative writing in college (specifically as a playwright, but that’s another story), the idea of using different words to illicit a different response from people fascinates me. So I was very interested to hear some actionable items and learn some psychological wordsmith tactics to use in my writing. Unfortunately, I was distracted during the first few minutes attempting to get the conference wifi to work on my laptop so I could tweet some nice tidbits out to folks (and check my email, I’ll admit). I had to finally give up and accept that the wifi had reached user capacity and I was too late to hop on. So I missed some stuff, and I’m sad to report that the speaker’s contract prohibited filming… bummer. So here’s what I did pick up!
Bullet Point Review!
- Names matter – there’s a right and a wrong way to say things.
- The word “imagine” transcends culture.
- Click on the image above for the 21 Words for the 21st Century.
- Inspire is the closest way to get people to do things.
- Cleaner, safer, healthier = all are better ways to say sustainability.
- Efficient & hassle free are good terms.
- “Security” means there’s something to be afraid of, whereas “peace of mind” means less worrying.
- “Committment” is stronger than “guarantee”. Only 9% of people believe the word “pledge” to be trustworthy.
- The word “value” has increased in importance.
- “Service” is a more human component – you want to humanize your products. “Product” is more emotional.
- The younger the target audience is, the shorter your sentences need to be with less syllables, more examples and metaphors.
- The most powerful form of communication is rhetorical questions.
- The average American loses their job and runs out of savings in just 5 weeks.
- Young target audiences want their products to be customized, personalized, and humanized.
- People complain about security and privacy, but it’s actually their last priority.
- Color is less important than the visual itself on websites.
- If you’re under age 30, you prefer digital interaction over talking to people.
- Men want more money, women want more time.
ASE10 Experience Extravaganza: Tuesday
More Booth Time, Session Fail, & Decompressing
I took the lead on managing the booth most of Tuesday while Forrest ran errands. I did attempt to head into a session, but quickly learned that it wasn’t what I’d initially thought it would be. I guess I must have read the description wrong (or, not at all, though that’s unlike me). Tuesdays, especially in the afternoon, are always slow in the exhibit hall. I had plenty of time to enter Buy.at’s twitter contest, and win a sweet gift card for DebShops.com (which I’ve already used!) and to enter into a booth war with nearby Andy Rodriguez Consulting.
I’d say they started it, but that might not be entirely accurate.
The day before, Andy Sr. loaded me down with a million tins of mints and an entire 12pk case of Oreos to lighten their shipping load. By Tuesday afternoon, they were attempting to be rid of all the beach balls and stress balls they’d brought as well. I went down to chat, and collect the Ear Pollution headphones I’d been promised (thanks again, Andy) and accused Andy Jr. of littering. He said it was branding. Potato, Potahto I guess. Stress balls were thrown at me, which I successfully caught (at least, after that first time of being pegged in the knee with one). I was also very proud of my throwing arm to return one of the balls clear past the three booths between ours and into their area (didn’t hit anyone…but honestly I was just glad I didn’t hit an innocent bystander!).
The afternoon ended after a rather disappointing lunch (I was hungry, so I still devoured it) and an early exhibit hall end time. I had wanted to go to the closing session, but since I was pulling booth duty alone, I didn’t want to leave the booth unattended for too long. The benefit is that the most colorful characters seemed to stop by the booth towards the end of Tuesday. Many New York locals that wandered over after work on Tuesday to see what this “affiliate marketing” is all about, apparently. It was interesting.
Earlier in the day, I’d gotten a text from Jen Goode trying to get a large group together for a final dinner in NYC, and of course for lack of a better decision (because it’s easy, and affordable) we headed around the corner to good old Oldcastle Pub. I think I was there almost every day I was in NYC for one reason or another… Tuesday night was at least the 3rd dinner I’d eaten there! We had a lovely dinner, and gracious Mike Nunez of AffiliateManager.com picked up the check for us – thanks again Mike! We meandered downstairs to keep drinking after they decided to close the upstairs due to lack of staff, and kicked back in a corner discussing how our conference experiences had gone.
At a certain point, a few of us wandered over to Lindy’s to get some dinner and I took care of my New York cheesecake fix (thanks Debbie of Team Loxly!). I realize that we got back to Oldcastle and then left to go back to Bridges Bar in the Hilton to see a few other people over there, so I think I owe someone a couple bucks for the ginger ale I had (if it was you, let me know, and I’ll send you a nifty craft or something in return!). It was a nice chill way to close out the summit and say goodbye to my peeps. Until we meet again in Las Vegas, folks!
Please feel free to view all the photos I took in New York: Affiliate Summit East 2010 on Flickr
Read MoreASE10 Experience Extravaganza: Monday
Expo Hall Booth Duty, The Best Steak Ever, & Trivia Tweet-Up
After going to bed at a relatively decent time considering I was still battling with a 3 hour time difference, I got up in time to get ready, rush up to grab a little breakfast, and make it into the ballroom for Frank Luntz’s keynote. I have his book, Words That Work, though I haven’t yet sat down to read it. I’ll spare you the details here, as I plan on writing another post with the notes I took, so let’s skip ahead to the FMTC booth. We had a sparse set up, but simplicity worked. Despite issues I had working with PromoPeddler.com, the notepads we ordered came out looking great. And the flyers we ordered from PsPrint were awesome as well. I was sweating bullets for weeks because we had the pieces shipped directly to the hotel, sight unseen, so if they were messed up, so were we. Everything at the booth went swimmingly, and after a long day I was headed out with the Schaaf-PartnerCentric crew for dinner.
This is the part where the food lover in me comes out. Of course, I’m a big girl, so I must love food of all shapes and sizes, right? In reality, I’m actually a very finicky eater with an almost ironic love for Food Network. The night before, I’d passed on going out with the team as they were going to a Greek place, and that’s not for me. So a steakhouse sounded much better. Let me tell you, we went to Rothmann’s Steakhouse and I had a fabulous fillet Mignon. It was, hands down, the best steak of my life. That’s not really saying a whole lot considering I’m just 29 and am accustomed to steak places such as Texas Roadhouse and Black Angus.
After said fabulous dinner, the crew went to a party thrown by Google and I opted to go back to the hotel for some Trivia. Unfortunately, someone forgot to send the Trivial Pursuit disk down from their room, so Drew Bennett came to the rescue with some Mario Kart he had brought with him. Not being the biggest Mario Kart fan, I opted to utilize the room for the free conference WiFi and get some work done. For whatever reason the wifi in my hotel room wasn’t working, so I hadn’t been online and checked emails since the previous Thursday! I was able to get some work done, have a nice impromptu meeting, and even play a couple of heats of Mario Kart before the evening was through. And by the end of the evening, Trivial Pursuit was brought down and extended the evening from 12 am to 1 am. I stayed until the bitter end when they kicked me out… utilizing as much free wifi time as I could before getting back to the grindstone of booth duty the next day.
Please feel free to view all the photos I took in New York: Affiliate Summit East 2010 on Flickr
Read MoreASE10 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 37: Affiliate Summit East 10 Recap
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!
We’ve escaped from New York & have returned back to our respective home offices after a great time at Affiliate Summit East 2010. In what shapes up to be epic in length, Mike & I talk about our experiences at the show and the variations in how different some of our activities were. For a Goliath 1 hour & 28 minutes, we discuss:
- The parties hosted by ABestWeb forums, Buy.at, & ShareASale.
- The keynotes high & low points.
- Shenanigans in the blogger lounge with @HeatherInBC.
- Trisha’s newcomer Jennifer graces her with a fantastic purse from HandbagHeaven.com.
- A brief discussion of booth babes & controversy (see some great post-ASE articles on the booth babes thing… I’m sorry…why are you here? by Karen Garcia & Professional events and sexual harassment, when did that become ok? by Jen Goode)
- John Chow egging on James Thompson to use the beer bongs being given out by one exhibitor. And yes, there’s video.
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!
Read MoreFaces & Voices behind the Affiliate Nexus Tax Mistake
Recently I was asked to come to San Francisco and participate in shooting a video to help convince legislators here in California that passing a nexus tax law similar to those passed in New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina would be detrimental to the state economy, rather than positive. Unfortunately I fell ill at the last minute and was unable to participate, but I recently see that the video the Performance Marketing Association put together is available online and really puts some faces to the issue.
I hope this will help legislators reconsider their views on the advertising tax and consider it’s impact on 25,000 small businesses here in California. Please take a look at the video and do what you can to share it. If you’re sharing on Twitter, please use the hashtag #noadtax.
They’ve already been thanked once, but I’ll send out another big thanks to those that spared their time and opened their offices to the shooting of this short video:
- Rebecca Madigan, Performance Marketing Association
- Loren Bendele, Savings.com
- Alan Gray, Newsblaze.com
- Kevin Johnson, Ebates.com
- David Lewis, Cashbaq.com
- Lisa Picarille, LisaPicarille.com
- Eva Rosenberg, TaxMama.com
- Brook Schaaf, Schaaf-Partnercentric
