Affiliate Summit East Recap

I’m back from Affiliate Summit East – Boston. It was a great time as always…lots of fun and business. Here’s a recap of my trip:

• Met quite a few of our affiliates and ABW’ers for the first time. I’m in awe of the number of great people in this industry and it makes working on a program so much better knowing you get to interact with fun, inspiring individuals on a regular basis. A quick thanks to those who chimed in with ways we can improve the AC Lens program as well. 
• I bumped into Haiko from ABW a couple times. I can’t say enough good things about him as a person let alone as an advocate for affiliates. Being able to thank him in person for his most generous donation to the AC Lens Walk for Autism made my trip. 
• I mentored two people for part of the Affiliate Summit Mentor program. Both mentoree’s (is that a word), were great people and internet marketing veteran’s prior to ASE. I hope they learned as much from me as I learned from them. 
• The ShareASale party was excellent…again. SAS always throws a classy, fun party and this one wasn’t any different. Thanks to Brian for helping me with a question on our SAS program…a big addition coming to AC Lens affiliates soon… 
• If you plan on attending a future Affiliate Summit, or skip the sessions when you do go, I urge you to make time to attend the Wil Reynolds (SEER Interactive) SEO session in Vegas. Of all the Summit’s I’ve attended so far, the two Wil Reynolds sessions are the most informative. His sessions are no fluff, no sales pitches…just real information that you can take back and make immediate improvements to your situation. Wil said he contacts those who write about him but don’t include a link. I’m not including a link to his site to see how long it takes for our new blog to get back to him via Google Alerts and/or whatever watches he has set up. The test starts….now.
• ASE Review: As I said it was great again. My only complaint (besides Logan Airport) was the Meet Market. It was packed, dark, and louder than usual. The aisles were to narrow and several spots were bottle necked. The RIO was perfect last February and I hope AS will keep that in mind as they continue to grow. 
• The PMA (Performance Marketing Alliance) had a couple meetings and an open Q&A. I attended the meeting Saturday and was encouraged by some of the ideas and suggestions made. It’s still early to tell but I think it’s progressing in the right direction with fairness and benefits for the entire industry in mind. The Q&A was heated at times and I’m glad a lot of things said were brought out in an open forum. Hopefully the PMA working groups can use that session to build on their current ideas.

That’s it…time to work.

Bob

UPDATE: Almost forgot to mention Dave at BrandVerity. Their service has been a big help in watching our trademarks on G, Y, and MSN. I was able to meet Dave at AS and make a few suggestions for improving an already great product…everyone should check out their service.