AffiliateSummit day 3
Mike Blumenkrantz reports on day three of AffiliateSummit West 2008
It was a little tough waking up this morning after last night’s Affiliate Bash. Presented by Pepperjam, RocketProfit, Forge, and The BlueManGroup Affiliate program. Held at Tao in the Venetian Hotel, it was a super fun evening with the affiliate crowd. A high-energy club atmosphere was the background for more networking, DJ Music, drinks and fun. The highlight of the evening was an awesome performance by The Blue Man Group or to watch a sample
My last morning at Affiliate Summit started off with the “Ask the Experts” session. 15 Experts in various elements of Affiliate Marketing each hosted a table where attendees could sit down and pose their questions to that expert and the other attendees there. It was a great way to be exposed not only to the ideas of the experts but to get feedback from others at each table. Three of the most popular tables were “Leveraging Video to Boost you Affiliate Program” hosted by Jonathan Stefansky of Qoof.com, “Affiliate Program Launch and Management” hosted by Heather Paulson of Paulson Management Group and “PPC Search Engines” hosted by Affiliate John Hasson
My other morning session was entitled “Super Affiliate Strategies that Work”. The panel consisted of Kristopher Jones (left) of Pepperjam.com, John Chow of TTZ Media, Zac Johnson of MoneyReign, Inc., and Amit Mehta of SuperAffiliateMindset.com. After brief backgrounds, it was mostly Q&A between the panelists and attendees. There weren’t many issues that hadn’t come up in other sessions but a few key point here were made. Amit noted that in his experience, it’s best to stay with Google, Yahoo and MSN for PPC. He feels Google has a lower conversion rate due to it’s users being a bit more web-savvy than Yahoo or MSN. Kristopher stresses the importance of putting at least 350 words of good, relavant content on your landing page so Google will spot keywords quickly. Everyone in the panel seemed to agree once again that good relationships and communication with Affiliate Managers, and building quality websites correctly from the start are keys to maximizing revenues while also creating the best user experience.
After lunch, my last session was a lively panel hosting “Social Media Strategies in Affiliate Marketing”. Sam Harrelson of OnCard Marketing, Stephanie Agresta of The Conversation Group, Justine Ezarik Tris Hussey of b5media.com and Deborah Schultz made up the panel. The session was packed with standing room only as the buzz this Affiliate Summit seemed to be about social networking and blogging. Most of the Q&A seemed to be blog related and the panel shared their varying experiences. All agreed the best way to introduce your blog or idea is to have an interest and a point of view but not to force it into the conversation. It’s best to post complimentary thoughts on other related blogs to get your idea noticed. Social networks like Dig, StumbleUpon, Facebook, MySpace were cited but most of the panel advocate Twitter as the preferred communication network, especially in the blogging community.
I had some time in the afternoon to walk the busy exhibit floor and spoke with Quinn Kavanagh, Director of Sales at Pepperjam.com, an exciting, new full-service online marketing agency. Quinn was excited about what Pepperjam is capable of with it’s impressive following of key Merchants and Affiliates from various industries, full-service marketing program development, PPC and SEO expertise.
Taking some time to reflect on some of the great people I’d met at ASW, I found many to be relatively new to Affiliate Marketing, but brought their own expertise from various other areas into the mix. All-in-all it was an exciting, educational yet humbling experience for me, yet I’m strangely looking forward to the next one!
For some great photos from this Affiliate Summit West 2008, go see Tris Hussey’s Flickr album.
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