Wow I had a great weekend! As many of you know, I made the long trip out to Orange County, California to speak at the Meetup202 about Media Buying. The event was sponsored by Habitat Agency and their CEO Ryan Rasmussen made sure everything went smoothly to get me out! This was actually my first speaking engagement that was conducted in person. I’ve done several audio and video interviews but this was the first going out and speaking.

I arrived on Friday after a very tiring flight from Atlanta. First class was sold out (I waited too long to book) so had to cram five hours in the middle where a lady had her eyes glued to my computer screen. She also insisted I show her how to see ‘all’ of her Facebook friends (isn’t that a no brainer?). Once arriving at the airport I was picked up by Ryan (Habitat Agency CEO) and was taken to my hotel in Huntington Beach. They were nice enough to comp me a beautiful room at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa. I’ve traveled a good bit and have stayed in a ton of nice hotels, but this one was definitely in the top as far as luxury goes. When I arrived at the hotel I decided to lounge by the pool and called it an early night.

Saturday, before my presentation, I decided to plan out my weekend. I first started by deciding to rent a car. Ryan offered me his sick S550 Mercedes Benz but I felt much better driving a car owned by Enterprise (I tend to drive a bit aggressive). We had also passed a Bugatti Veyron on the way from the Airport and I considered renting one of those. Somehow I couldn’t talk John and Richard into letting me spend the $25,000 a day (I don’t know why LOL). Anyways I settled for the $69/day Mustang (yeah I know I’m cheap).

Ryan picked me up for the meet-up around 11 a.m. so we could be plenty early to get things ready (I also wanted to eat before I started). He also gave me a tour of their office which provided me with a lot of ideas for myself. My presentation lasted around an hour and a half as I had a very lengthy Q & A session (this is my favorite thing to do). Surprisingly enough I saw a lot of familiar faces at the meet-up including, Mike Chiasson from IU and Jason Akatif (President of Ads 4 Dough). I really have to give it to Jason, he asked a lot of great, informative questions, as well as added to several of my answers. Nice meeting you man You can download a copy of my PowerPoint at this link.

Following the successful meet-up I made the trip to Los Angeles to enjoy a nice dinner with some friends. I capped the evening off by going to a few clubs in Hollywood.

I decided to leave Sunday open for sight-seeing. Driving my jet black mustang I drove a solid 100 miles from Beverly Hills, to LA, to Bel Air, to Sana Monica. I don’t think I missed a single sight! I also spent a good bit of the day doing some shopping in Hollywood (bought the same JCrew shirt as some movie producer btw). After a full day of seeing things I capped things off with a double lobster tail dinner and about an hour in a hot tub with a fire-pit beside it (so relaxing). Monday morning I hit up the beach one last time before Ryan and his business partner Matt picked me up to go to the airport. We enjoyed one final conversation together.

In conclusion I had an EXCELLENT trip to California. I wish I could have stayed longer but did need to get back to work. I want to personally thank Ryan Rasmussen and Matthew Marsh. They really did a great job of making me feel welcome. As I mentioned above I also want to thank Jason Akatif for coming out and adding to my presentation. Finally, I want to thank all of YOU who came out and heard what I had to say. I hope I gave you some great ideas that will make you lots of money . You can checkout what people thought of my presentation at this link.  You can also see pictures from the meet-up at this link.

Saturday afternoon I spoke at the Meetup202 in Orange County about Media Buying. As promised I’ve uploaded my Power Point presentation for those of you that missed it (you should have came we had some awesome food). You can download by clicking on the image below:

Keep check on the blog I’m going to be posting pictures shortly!

Yahoo and Microsoft confirmed yesterday that Yahoo’s search results are now fully powered by Bing.  This comes after the two companies signed a 10-year deal for Microsoft to power the search results and for Yahoo to use Microsoft’s AdCenter advertising platform.  The deal was approved by authorities in the United States and Europe this past February.  Microsoft is slated to takeover several other languages in the weeks and months to come (according to a senior vice president for Microsoft).  Yahoo is expected to begin using AdCenter as early as October but according to a recent earnings call, Yahoo’s CEO said they’re not going to be rushed.

If you would have told me this ten years ago I would say you are crazy.  This just shows how fast things in the online world can change.  Once an industry leader, Yahoo is now paired with competition.  Google still remains strong but Facebook is creeping up behind as the second most popular site online (according to Alexa).  What is the next big thing?  How many new opportunities does this deal bring for affiliate marketers?  Another reason why I love my job…

Thoughts??

As I posted at the beginning of the month, I’ll be heading out to Orange County this week to speak at the Meetup202 sponsored by Habitat Agency.  I’ve prepared a presentation titled ‘Leveraging Display Traffic To Enhance Your Affiliate Marketing Campaigns’.  I plan to cover the following items:

- Introduction about myself
- What is Media Buying?
- What offers have been promoted via Media Buying?
- How to select a winning offer for a Media Buy
- Breaking into Media Buying Internationally
- The future of Media Buying

There are a few more things I plan on talking about, but you’ll have to come to hear them.  I’m also going to be giving out a few coupons to our Internet University and will be taking questions.  As of this post, there is only 50 spots left so you may want to go ahead and register now at this link.  There will also be a lunch which is always a good thing…

Can’t wait to see you all and I look forward to your questions!

This past week SuperAffiliateTwins.com turned one year old. It was at Affiliate Summit East in New York City last year that John and I made the decision that we wanted to start blogging. Over the last year I feel like we’ve produced some very useful content and the type of stuff I like to read as an affiliate. I hope you have enjoyed the talent of Richard, John, and I.  I look forward to expanding our readership even more.

Some of the more popular posts include:

- Media Buying 101: Introduction To Inventory (A Step-By-Step Guide) – Part 1

- Landing Pages That Convert

- Make Bank With Content Gateways

- ‘This Is The Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened During My 11-Year Internet Career’

- How We Lost $1,026.47 On Google Yesterday

- Media Buying 101: Finding Sites That Convert (A Step-By-Step Guide) – Part 2

- Why Do Most People Struggle Promoting CPA Offers?

- Media Buying 101: HELP – My Rebill Media Buy Is Tanking What Else Can I Promote? – Part 4

Additionally my Media Buying 101 Guide still remains one of the most popular sections on our blog (if you haven’t downloaded it, I highly recommend that you do).

This past year certainly has been fun and I can’t wait to continue growing! Special thanks to my buddies Justin Barr and Jonathan Volk for helping us get our start — you guys rock! Thanks again for reading, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us!

As most everyone know, Richard, John, and I spent most of last week at Affiliate Summit East in New York City (the rest of the week was spent catching up with tons of work). This year’s show didn’t disappoint and was the largest ASE to date. This was also the first show that John, Richard, and I have all attended together. It was really great going out and putting a face to many names in the industry. Here’s a daily breakdown of our trip:

Sunday, August 15th
We arrived at LaGuardia Airport at approximately 1:00 p.m. ET. For those of you that have never been to this airport, it’s nothing glamorous. I really prefer to fly into JFK but the schedule just didn’t work for us. We didn’t hang around long, but we happened to be on the same flight as Eric Schechter from Clickbooth. While waiting for our luggage we engaged in a nice conversation with Eric and he even hooked Rich up with a pretty sweet case for his iPhone. We then all four took a cab together to the Hilton.

After arriving at the Hilton we found out the suite we were on the waiting list was already booked. Therefore we had to settle for a small room on their executive level (boo). It ended up working out, but I would much rather the suite we had last year as it provided a lot more room to entertain guests. The executive level was pretty sweet though as they have a lounge that offers complimentary nonalcoholic beverages, a continental breakfast, snacks throughout the day, and my favorite, complimentary wifi access (beats paying $20/day in the room).

Finally after getting settled in we went down to the Meet Market to get some work done. As usual it was extremely loud and crowded. We did however get to talk to our buddies over at Convert 2 Media, Eagle Web Assets, Copeac, Epic, and even met up with Mike Chaisson who is one of our top guns inside Internet University! Overall it was a success and it should make Shawn and Missy both proud to see so much action in the Meet Market. Even with expanding to almost double the space as last year it was VERY crowded. I’m not really sure what they can do to make more room!

Following the Meet Market we went up to the executive lounge at the Hilton to get some quick work done (self-business owners understand work never ends). We then prepared to head to dinner. Richard and John met up with our good friend Jason Venters who is not only a SEO expert (and active at helping people in Internet University) but also works as a Performance Marketing Manager at Hybryd Ads. They went to a pretty sweet Japanese BBQ restaurant where actually cook your own meet in the center of the table. I was invited to attend Ian Fernando’s IANteract Dinner at the Capital Grille. I enjoyed an excellent meal with some of the top affiliate marketers in the world. Notable names included (in no particular order): Wes Mahler, Kris Trujillo, Morgan Thomas, Brandon Hoffman Ad Hustler, Bryn Youngblunt, Matt Wasserman, Brian Evans, Mike Chiasson, as well as several people from Kitara Media (the company who sponsored the dinner), and last but not least, my good buddy, Ian Fernando. We not only had a great meal together but enjoyed a nice discussion of the Internet marketing industry in general.

After dinner I went back to the Hilton to meet back up with Richard, John, and Jason and we enjoyed some drinks at the bar with Ken (founder of Point Click Track). It ended up being a great first night!

Monday, August 16th
We woke up a little late Monday missing the keynote. Before hitting up the exhibit hall we enjoyed a killer sandwich at the Stage Deli (Shoemoney had the same idea). John tried to explain to our waitress what the conference was about but she was more interested in his iPhone 4! After our stomachs were full Richard went back to the executive lounge to get some work done (Rich works harder than anyone I’ve ever met) while John and I made some rounds around the exhibit hall. Eventually we caught back up with Rich and enjoyed the show together.

After a day full of walking we enjoyed a nice sushi dinner and even ate beside actor Josh Gad (remember the movie 21). John claims that one of my pieces of sushi had a ‘fishy’ taste, but I didn’t get sick. Following dinner we went to one of our favorite bars on Wall Street and capped things off with the Clickbooth/Pulse 360 rooftop party. This was my favorite ‘Internet parties’ I’ve ever been too as it wasn’t so crowded and loud you could actually talk to others and enjoy yourself. Many notable bloggers were there such as Zac Johnson, John Chow, Ian Fernando, and many more (too many to name). After the party we had some killer NYC cart food and hit the sack.

Tuesday, August 17th
Once again we woke-up a little late (I hate being on a schedule). Rather than busting down to the exhibit hall we went to the executive lounge and did some more work before heading to 5 Napkin Burger with the cool people at Media Whiz. Honestly, this was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had as well as onion rings and fried pickles stuffed with pastrami (yes it’s possible). We then hopped a cab back to the Hilton where we walked through the exhibit hall a few more times and met with numerous companies interested in working together. Sadly, Affiliate Summit officially came to an end at 4:00 p.m. While I was sad to see the show end, I was happy to sit down and relax for a while. I actually lost my voice from talking so much.

After some more work was completed and goodbyes were said to all our friends, Richard, John, and I made our way down to Wall Street once again where we acted like tourists. We snapped pictures of all the notable sites and visited a sad ground zero. Finishing up our sightseeing we enjoyed a killer white pizza pie and made our way back to the Hilton. What started out as an early night ended up being a great time as we met up with Ruck and enjoyed a solid talk about everything in the industry. We even introduced him to our favorite cart food in the city (unreal Greek gyros). Btw Ruck if you’re reading this, what time was your departure flight, do you know?

In conclusion this year’s Affiliate Summit East was my favorite one ever! Shawn and Missy have done a fantastic job keeping everything organized as well as expanding the show so it was comfortable to navigate. While I’m really far behind on work it was interesting to hear the latest buzz and industry rumors. I also was very intrigued to hear some of the top affiliates are now focusing more on long-term stable business models and leaving the ‘berries’ behind (I don’t blame them). To everyone we met, it was certainly a pleasure. To everyone we saw again, I enjoyed it as always. I look forward to November when I return to the city for AdTech and Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas!

Affiliate Summit is wrapping up as we are all just hanging out in the executive level at the Hilton with a couple of drinks. It was definitely a solid trip and as many have agreed with us, definitely grew from last year.  I wanted to give a couple of shout outs as we pack up our stuff and shake the empire state of mind.

- First off, it was awesome finally meeting all our IU members that attended.  Definitely a pleasure to chill with you guys and put a face to a name as always.

- Big props to Copeac with their new tracking system they are breaking out in the near future.  Copeac’s President/Founder, Mike Krongel,was on the floor at the exhibit hall and gave us a solid 20 minute demo of the system which we were extremely impressed with.  It really does the beat the shit out of just about every other tracking platform out there right now so they are definitely raising the bar with their script that is set to fully release in December to early January according to Mike.  We were pretty blown away by the powerful tools they are using with the EPC data in particular.  So you can see how the offers are performing on the network as a whole and how specific they were getting with this tool so it definitely eliminates some major variables when testing unfamiliar verticals/offers to gauge how your EPC compares.  We’ve always heard about people rolling out the next big tracking platform but actually seeing a demo was a whole different ballgame.

- Big props to APMEX, who just released their affiliate program last Friday.  They really impressed us with their booth and definitely look forward to expanding into that niche.  We actually have never heard of the company beforehand but we thought bringing in a gold brick worth $500K was pretty badass along with 1 ounce .999 grade flash drives that we managed to snag.

- Big props to Eric over at Clickbooth for the iPhone case that saved Richard’s ass numerous times throughout the trip. We were at the airport and since Richard just sold his caseless iPhone 3G on eBay, he was scared it might break before he could ship it.  He mentioned it nonchalantly and Eric whipped out a case on the spot.  Pretty sick case too!

We had an awesome time and definitely looking forward to hitting on all cylinders for the remainder of 2010 with our new contacts.  Reach out to us if we spoke in NYC and we will get things cooking.

This Sunday Affiliate Summit East will kickoff at the Hilton Hotel in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. If you haven’t already registered for the show I’m afraid it’s too late (unless you get lucky on eBay) as the show has sold out. Shawn Collins and Missy Ward have done a fantastic job creating an informative show that has become the most popular in the affiliate marketing industry.

John, Richard, and I will all arrive in the city on Sunday and will be staying until Wednesday. We’ve got a pretty tight schedule, but look forward to meeting many of our readers during the Exhibit Hall and various events. I also look forward to attending the IANteract Dinner Sponsored by Kitara Media on Sunday with many other top affiliate marketers. If you see any of us walking around don’t hesitate to come right up to us as we’re not shy .

I’m also going to be bringing my Flip Cam (thanks again Azoogle) and will try to capture some mini interviews with a few people in the industry. Additionally, you’re going to want to stay tuned to SuperAffiliateTwins.com throughout the weekend and early next week as we’ll be blogging throughout the duration of the show! I love New York City and can’t wait to return!

Are you going?

Two years ago I was in awe when I purchased my first iPhone.  It had a full functional web browser, I was able to check my email quickly, and the applications were unmatched by any of the competition.  Today, I want to throw up just thinking about paying my monthly $200 bill from AT&T for my two business lines…  What started as a technological break though and ingenious company ended with a sour taste in my mouth that cannot be described.

August 2008 my long-term contract with US Cellular was up and I couldn’t wait to make the switch to AT&T.  In May I had experimented with their Internet Connect card but returned it as it didn’t work in the locations I needed to use it.  I figured the iPhone would be different.  The sales team assured to me that while 3G was not yet available in my hometown of Beckley, West Virginia, that it was being installed and I did not need to worry.  Two years later, 3g is still yet to be found in Beckley.

Last August John and I went to Affiliate Summit East in New York City only to find our phones will zero reception and consistently dropping calls.  Things only got worse when Richard and I returned in November to attend AdTech.  We had a very important meeting scheduled and found it hard to make important calls to meet up as their was absolutely no service at the Javits Convention Center.

While aggravated Richard and I just assumed New York City couldn’t handle all the network usage and tried to dismiss the problem.  When we arrived in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West in February we found the exact same thing.  No signal with AT&T.  Important business meetings would have to be rescheduled via email with aggravated reps.  The final straw came when I took my vacation last month to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  As any of you self-business owners understand it is essential to have contact via telephone while you’re away.  With AT&T it was impossible.  No signal there either.

My two year contract finally ended on Sunday, August 8, 2010 and I made the switch to Verizon on Monday.  So far I’m very impressed with the speed of the network, the service coverage area, and the Android operating system.  If Apple knows what’s good for them they’ll work as hard as possible to dismiss their exclusive agreement with AT&T as soon as possible…

As a final note, Richard and John still remain very big fans of the new iPhone 4.  I asked Richard to switch and he said he simply could not get rid of ‘his favorite thing he owns.’  When we go to New York City this weekend I’m not going to let either one of them use my cool new phone to make calls while they’re left with zero reception!  AT&T SCREW YOU!

I was recently asked by a student in Internet University, “when do I need to use an ad server?” Before I answered I thought long about my history media buying and pondered when I made the decision to use one. For those of you unfamiliar with technology, an ad server is basically a piece of software that allows you to upload your creatives and destination URLs for the purpose of optimization and tracking. You have the option of installing the software on your own web server or using a third party solution.

The majority of people in the affiliate marketing industry utilize the third party solutions. First (and most important), many advertising networks and websites have a certain ‘list’ of ad servers that they’re willing to accept. If the server you’re using isn’t on their list, then you can’t use it on that source. The third party solutions also handle the server hardware setup and provide redundant backups (to secure speed and uptime). Installing your own ad server and managing it on your web server can be tedious especially if you’re not experienced at server administration.

So when is the time to begin using an ad server? Third party solutions are fairly expensive and some even require a long-term contract. So what’s wrong with just giving your ad network/website a few creatives, your destination URLs, and letting them run? I for one, like to know the EXACT amount of impressions/clicks I’m getting. I also want to make sure that if I paid for United States traffic, I’m getting US traffic. By allowing an ad network or a website to run your ad without a server, you’re putting a lot of faith in that webmaster. What’s going to stop them from billing you from a few ‘extra’ impressions? With an ad server you are constantly informed which creative is garnering impressions and converting.

Speaking of creatives, when you give the traffic source your creatives to test, how do you eliminate the ones that aren’t working? Chances are you have to contact your rep and let them know to pause the un-performing ad. This is all good unless your rep is out of the office or at lunch while you’re spending hard earned money on a creative that you KNOW is tanking.

I decided to look at some of my own data before I started using an ad server just to see if there were some things I missed. The results were stunning. While I monitored creative CTRs by the day I never looked at them on a ‘monthly’ basis. When I ran a ‘monthly’ report I realized that if I would have paused two of the ads during the duration of this one campaign, I would have made an additional $30,000 net profit that month (give the conversion rate stayed the same). That’s seriously money we missed out on!

I could continue to go on and on about the benefits of having an ad server, but after my $30K figure I’m sure you get the picture. For those of you that can’t afford an ad server, I suggest working with the self-serve advertising networks before moving to a media buy. Get things profitable, learn the ropes, and then move into the ‘big leagues’ with your own ad server. Several months ago John posted a review on the Zedo Ad Server Review which you may want to check out again at this link.