Ryan and I returned home from Ad Tech: New York late Friday night. The trip was very busy for us but very successful as well. It was great meeting everyone and if I didn’t get to meet you, I hope to see you in Las Vegas in January for Affiliate Summit West. I uploaded over twenty pictures on Saturday on the Photo Gallery page so be sure and check them out. Always looking for a good blogging opportunity, I had several observations from the trip. Check them out below:

Watch out, I’m an AFFILIATE!
If you’re a high volume affiliate then you already know that we are stereotyped by advertising networks. Either they love us or they hate us. There doesn’t seem to be much in between. I could figure out within the first minute of our conversation where they stood on our offers. If they didn’t like us, I was polite (in most cases) and let them finish what they had to say before moving on. Thanks to the folks at Convert 2 Media for the ?Super Affiliate!? tag I put on my badge. I figured I might as well just put it out there to avoid explaining who I was at every booth. You can check out my badge at this link. Personally, I do not understand what is so bad about affiliates. I understand there are some complaints with what we run, but there are complaints with any advertisement. As long as what we are running is legal and compliant, I don’t understand why the advertising networks don’t want our money. Nonetheless there are plenty of traffic sources out there willing to work with us and it was a pleasure meeting with them.

Different Niches Work for Different Affiliates
Ryan and I met with several other Super Affiliates and it is funny how what works for them doesn’t necessarily work for us. It seems like everyone has their niche combination’s that do very well and the ones they continue to work on. That’s affiliate marketing for you. There’s no ?winning formula? as you figure out something that works and you blow it up. You can copy everything you do for a particular niche and take it to another one and it tanks. Success depends on every variable from the traffic source to the ad copy to the landing page. It’s always important to keep plugging in different things for every niche to make it work.

Affiliate Networks Have the Best Booths
Some booths were more pleasant than others to visit but I have to give it to the guys at Copeac and Convert 2 Media. Copeac had cold Coors Light and Convert 2 Media had Amstel Light. I was too busy to enjoy it, but what a great way to build relationships with new affiliates. It was a completely different vibe at the affiliate network booths and much more relaxing.

AT&T Sucks in New York City
I’m not sure what happened but Ryan and I had almost no cell phone service while we were at our hotel (the W Times Square) or the Javits Convention Center. This made for some very interesting moments when trying to get a hold of people that we had setup meetings with. I heard everyone that had AT&T had problems with their reception at the show and while the lines must have been jammed with all the iPhones, they really need to do something to get that fixed. I didn’t know I needed to learn how to send smoke signals in 2009 in New York City.

Super Affiliates Party Like Rock Stars
From a stretch Hummer limousine to fresh McDonald’s food being served with an open bar, the parties done by both Copeac and Azoogle were amazing. It was great to meet with everyone in a relaxed environment and just have a little bit of fun. This trip was exhausting for us because we had so many meetings setup but it was really nice to be able to relax with all of our friends in the business. Thanks guys for the great times!

To wrap it up Ad Tech: New York 2009 was a great trip. We ate a lot a great food, got a ton of work accomplished and made great memories with a lot of fun people. I hope to see everyone in Las Vegas in January!