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.

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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.

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Yesterday was kind of uneventful.

I drove out to the Hoover Damn in the morning and went on a tour. On the way back I went to the sleeziest casinos in the middle of the Las Vegas desert that I could find.  Quick Tip: If you like cheap table games forget the strip and drive into the desert.  I was playing 25 cent table roulette at a casino called The Hacienda.  After 2 hours of play I still left a winner (only $2 though, not a great ROI).

Early registration for Affiliate Summit started.  I decided to get my pass early because last year the line for check in was like a mile long.  Early registration was SUPER organized and I got my pass and welcome package very quickly.  A nice little surprise was that when I opened the welcome package, they had a book in there and I’m actualy published in it.  When I have the book available, I’ll pimp the name and where you can buy it.

I spent the next couple of hours bumming around the Rio and running into people.

Next was Dinner with PPC Bully.  It was at Del Friscos.  Not the best steak i’ve ever had but decent.  The weird part was at the end when they took the bill and split it.  I’ve never been to a dinner at Summit that the company hosting the dinner didn’t pay.  Just kind of odd.

After dinner, I headed over to the Buy.at party at Rain.  Paul Okenfold was the DJ so there was huge lines to get in.  There didn’t appear to be a line to just get into the party and there were 100s of people swarming the place waiting to get in so we just left and skiped the party.

Next we headed back to the Rio and met up with some people at McFaddens.  The party was bumping and there were guys grinding on each other.   Sounds gay, and in fact it is, but it was funny.

Next, Ian Fernando, Jason & I went for a wild adventure through the seedier parts of Las Vegas.

Good Times & More To Come

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Affiliate Summit West 2010 Las Vegas edition is upon us.  I can assure you, that you won’t see that same coverage of ASW10 anywhere but AdHustler.com.  Each morning I will be writing about whatever happened the day before.  if there’s drama or hilarity…I will Find it.  Follow my ASW10 experience.  Stay tuned and tell your friends to keep an eye on this site.

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