Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

Affiliate/Online marketing is an interesting industry.  A lot of the players are younger guys & girls with very little business experience.  Being young I think that the language and attitude of a lot of people you’ll meet in this industry are different then other places of business.  There’s also a lot of joking around, partying and a friendly nature between different business associates.  Take the affiliate/affiliate manager relationship.  A lot of affiliates are very friendly with their affiliate managers and vice versa.  What I find obnoxious, is when people don’t know the difference between joking around and wasting my time when I’m talking serious business.  Here are 2 examples:

Affiliate: Hey man, I’m looking for an auto insurance lead gen offer that accepts social traffic.
Affiliate Manager: Better Get Geico
Affiliate: haha, seriously
Affiliate Manager: I got one so easy a caveman could do it.
Affiliate: ok what is it?
Affiliate Manager: Did you know 15 minutes could save you 15%?
Affiliate: OK, im going to go ask another network because your a jerkoff.

Or This example:

Yesterday I saw an ex-affiliate manager of a certain network say they were looking for a job.  I have some connections to get people jobs as affiliate managers.  I sent her a message

Me: How good of an affiliate manager are you? Do you have a lot of really big affiliates? I may know of a company looking for AMs – Lemme know
Her: Im an awesome affiliate manager of course What company are you referring to? Thanks!!
Me: Do you have a big book of business?
Her: These fuckers know me all over the world!

Uhhh, ok.  With a response like that, she’s the last person I’d recommend for a job.

Joking around is fine and fun but know the difference between when someone is talking serious business vs. just killing time.

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Affiliate Summit West 2010 is officially over.  Yesterday was the lasy day.  I went to the exhibit hall to meet with some more people and did some more networking.

Nickycakes won the “Affiliate Of The Year” award which I think is pretty cool considering its usually some geriatric merchant based affiliate that wins.

Overall Affiliate Summit was a great conference with a lot of networking opportunities.

In one of these previous posts someone asked “but what did you learn?”  It’s a fair question and everyone gets something different out of the conference.  My main goal is always to network and talk to other affiliates/networks.  I don’t attend a lot of the sessions, however that doesnt mean someone else wouldnt find value in them.  My gameplan at these shows is always the same.  Meet people that are smarter than me who I can pick up some knowledge from.  You would be surprised what affiliates will share in a relaxed bar setting.

I highly recommend going to affiliate summit, if youve never attended.  The next one is in NY.  It may cost you some travel related expenses but you will make it back many times over.

A lot of thanks goes to Missy Ward & Shawn Collins for putting the conference together and allowing guys like me to cover it.

P.S. Shawn Collins looks gangsta as a cowboy.

Please Note: I do receive a Press Pass to Affiliate Summit which get’s me in for free however, all statements and thoughts are my own opinions.

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Affiliate Summit Day 2 was busy.  The exhibit hall opened so I spent a lot of time walking around, talking to vendors and networking.  Not too many booths really stood out.  One company who I think is really doing a great job with their booth is Convert2Media.  It’s not that their booth is super fancy but they create a good enviornment for affiliates to stick around and talk.  I find that affiliates (particularly wickedfire ones) tend to always gravitate back to the C2M booth.  It could be the beer or it could be the vibe.

I went out to lunch with Jason Rubacky from ShareaSale.  We were going to go to a nice seafood place at the Rio but it was closed, as were most of the other decent restaurants so we went to an asian place.  It was a good time, with good discussion.  Jason is a good guy so If you want to work with Shareasale, hit him up.

I spent some more time at the show then headed back up to the room to chill for a while before a busy night.

I met up with Brittany Bankston, Emily Thomson & Josh From Monetizeit in the lobby at the Rio and drove over to the Meetup202/Bloosky event at the Palms.  We hung out for a while and then I headed over to a dinner with Emily.

It’s Birdman Time

Dinner was with EWA Network.  If you dont already know they are a private affiliate network run by Ryan Eagle & Harrison Gervitz.  The dinner was at a nice french place in the Paris overlooking the fountains of The Bellagio.  I got to see the fountain go off many many times which was cool.  The people at this dinner were EWA Network employees, girlfriends & affiliates.  The discussion was good and I had a good time.  EWA knows how to do it up.  Thanks for having me.

I next head to the Mundo Media Party.  It was at the Kingpin Suite at The Palms.  The Kingpin Suite is the only suite that has a bowling alley in the hotel room.  I met some of my friends like Cousin Vinnie, CashTactics Kris, Ian Fernando and many more at the party.

After Mundo Media, I went to the CX Roll Like A Billionaire Party.  It was a few floors up at The Palms in a really nice suite.  They had a lot of cool things going on like acrobatics and dancers.  I spent some time talking to Chad from CDF Networks about local.  It was a good discussion and its always nice to know someone else who shares the same pains and problems within a certain niche.

That was it.  Today is the last day off Affiliate Summit.  Keep It Real.

Please Note: I do receive a Press Pass to Affiliate Summit which get’s me in for free however, all statements and thoughts are my own opinions.

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Affiliate Summit kicked off yesterday with a bang.  The Meet Market opened.  For those of you that don’t know what the Meet Market is, its basically a very small version on an exhibit hall where people talk and network.  Compared to last year, the Meet Market seemed packed.  I spent most of the day talking with people and making new connections.

After the show ended for the day I headed over to the Ian Fernando Ianteract / Elite Clicks Media dinner at CraftSteak in the MGM Grand.  They had about 25 people attend.  I had a great mix of people at my table including Ian, Matt Wasserman, Andrew Wee, Kris From CashTactics, Logan Thompson, Jonathan Volk & his beautiful wife.  We had a really good time just talking about the industry and eating some great food.  Big thanks to Ian Fernando as well as Ryan Machara and all the other guys from Elite Clicks Media.

After we left the MGM Grand it took a solid 45 minutes to get over to the Palms because of bad traffic on the strip.  We hit up the PPC.bz/Nickycakes/Neverblue/Plenty of Fish Party.  I wasn’t on the guest list (thanks guys) but got in anyway.  The party was hopping and very full.  YTCracker and the Paper Clique crew were their rapping and they were actually really good.

That was the day in a nutshell.  More to come.

**EDIT** – I forgot to mention the Ads4Dough Dough 4 Hoes party at the Spearmint Rhino.  I didn’t actually make it to this party but was invited.  I really wanted to make it but ended up unable to.  I heard it was a killer party with an open bar.

Please Note: I do receive a Press Pass to Affiliate Summit which get’s me in for free however, all statements and thoughts are my own opinions.

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