Good morning affiliates! Day 2 of Affiliate Summit West 2010 wrapped with a bang yesterday at Azoogle’s party in the Hugh Hefner suite at The Palms. Azoogle is known for having killer parties and last night was no different. I don’t usually get excited for nice hotel suites. I’ve traveled a lot of places and I’m staying in a pretty nice suite myself here at The Wynn. However, at the Hugh Heffner suite at The Palms last night I was amazed.

The place was immaculate and is something that I will never forget visiting. I forgot to bring a digital camera with me but I took some cell phone photos I posted in the Photo Gallery. Luckily Ryan did a video tour of the suite before the party got too crowded and I’m sure he’ll upload that here on the blog as well.

The party featured a DJ, a couple of fully stocked open bars and the famous pool (with the Playboy logo) overlooking Vegas was open for business. It was pretty cold outside last night so I didn’t see anyone get in, but Ryan and I left early. I was able to briefly meet Azoogle co-founder Alex Zhardanovsky on our way into the party.

It’s funny because I recently saw the Huge Hefner suite on one of the shows Kara watches on E! and last night I got to experience it in person. Thanks Azoogle for a great party and more great memories!

Shortly after posting this blog we’ll be heading back over to The Rio to wrap up Affiliate Summit West 2010.  I hope to see you there!

Hello from the desert, it’s “the other Gray” reporting live from Las Vegas.  Today was our first full day in Vegas for Affiliate Summit West 2010.  We’ve only been here a short time but I already feel like a lot has been accomplished.  I also learned some new things today:

The Meet Market Is Chaotic
No offense to the people planning but the Meet Market today at The Rio was utter chaos.  There were too many people in the rooms with the tables thus making it impossible to move from table to table.  I missed Affiliate Summit East in New York but Ryan told me they had the same problem at The Hilton.  Something needs to be done to better accommodate the event.  For starters they need to have the Meet Market in a larger space and better organize the way tables are displayed.  The way the tables were presented made it hard to distinguish who was at which station.  If you’re claustrophobic and spent any time at the Meet Market today you probably utilized the cash bars a good bit.  I’m having anxiety just thinking about it.

There’s A Lot of Interest in Affiliate Marketing
People came to Vegas in droves and it’s good to see with the current problems with our economy that so many affiliates are doing well.  We always hear a lot of negative stories but I talked with several people today that saw significant growth in their businesses last year.  Good job guys! We’re proud (and fortunate) to have achieved record success last year.  Hopefully 2010 will be even better.

AT&T Still Sucks
I’m not sure how many of you are carrying iPhones but mine has been very limited again this trip.  I had the same problem with AT&T at AdTech back in November.  It’s enough to make me want to change carriers but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love my iPhone.  The device is great but the service needs to be improved, especially in larger cities.  It gets old not being able to call out or send text-messages.

I’m Getting OLD!
The first time I came to Las Vegas was in 2006 and I’ve been back every year since.  Every year I can tell a difference in what I am able to do but I just can’t party like I used too.  I should be at the COPEAC party here at Tryst in The Wynn but I just can’t muster up the energy to go.  I had a busy evening working and still haven’t been able to shake the jet lag.  Maybe tomorrow will be a different story, but I’ll be going to bed shortly after I post this.  For those of you still able to bounce from party to party and are still under 25 years old, enjoy it while you can.  If you’re over 25 and can still do it, my hat is off to you.

Aside from my Dallas Cowboys completely tanking, today was a good day.  I got to enjoy Las Vegas, meet up with several readers of the blog and ate some great food.  I highly recommend the sushi at Wazuzu at Encore (I’ve already eaten there twice).  Ryan and I had dinner alone tonight at Red 8 in The Wynn and it was enjoyable.  I look forward to meeting with several of you tomorrow.  If you’re reading this before heading out to a party, be safe and drink one for me!

Tomorrow Richard and I will be leaving West Virginia and heading to Las Vegas, Nevada for Affiliate Summit West 2010.  While I enjoy Adtech more on the business side of things, Las Vegas is one of my favorite vacation spots, thus I would never miss an opportunity to go.  I’ll be blogging throughout the weekend/next week and include video with our new Flip Video Camera (thanks again Azoogle).

I know my favorite affiliate networks: Copeac, Azoogle, and CX Digital are having some unreal parties and we’ve scheduled meet ups with Yep Revenue as well as a newer network, that we’ve recently started working with, EWA.  I look forward to seeing everyone there and hope to meet many of our loyal readers.  Feel free to come up to me and Richard, we’re by no means shy, and would love to talk!

See you in Vegas!

As Vegas is coming around the corner it’s become built up more and more and I am becoming more and more depressed.  Unfortunately I can’t make it because of a number of reasons.  Mainly I can’t miss 5-6 classes since the semester just started and secondly I’m not 21 yet so kind of pointless from what I hear.   On the bright side, I will be making it next year since I will be 21 and after I hear how awesome it was from Richard and Ryan I won’t be able to resist I’m afraid.

If you are going, hopefully you’ll be spending more time learning and networking more than you do on the craps table but I can’t say I blame you if that’s the case.  Regardless of what you spend most of your time doing while there, I would definitely recommend attending the PPV Mastermind Group meeting that’s being held on Sunday for three whole hours.  Justin Dupre and Dave from PPVPlaybook will be conducting the group and after checking out what kind of information both of them have been spilling on their blogs and forums, it’s going to be a very valuable session.  We’ve done PPV marketing off and on for a couple of months now but we certainly have room to improve judging by the content/tips I’ve found especially on Dave’s membership site.  The cost for the group is $450 – $500 but, as you can see from the agenda posted on both of their blogs, the plan is to make that back very shortly and I would consider it a very wise investment.  The thing about these conferences, if you’ve never been to one before, I find that people are much more willing to give out more specific tips, secrets, and other information since you are face-to-face.  Maybe having alcohol in the equation helps loosen lips but I can tell you this type of meeting will be much more beneficial than just browsing and hitting up people randomly and asking questions through email/IM most of the time.

I know Richard and Ryan are going to try to make it to the PPV Mastermind meeting and I also know I speak for them when I say that they would love to meet any and all of our readers that attend Affiliate Summit so just hit us up and we will buy you a couple of drinks.

As some of you may know I’m big on reading books in my spare time and one of my favorite things to do is apply the concepts to affiliate marketing.  It’s a unique thought process because affiliate marketing is usually very different than what the author is relating to in his book.  The authors of the books I read usually have brick and mortar business experience and as affiliate marketers we know that the two lifestyles are definitely contrasting so it’s sometimes hard to apply the guidelines and principles they recommend.

The next book that I picked up after Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris was How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.  I hate recommending this to friends outside of affiliate marketing/business  because I feel like the title is kind of cheesy.  They usually snidely remark about how they don’t need a book to make friends, they are already good at that.  The idea of the book is not to teach losers how to make friends because they don’t have any but rather to teach businesspeople how to handle people.

So why should you read this on your plane ride over to Affiliate Summit West?  Well for one, Sky Mall is only entertaining for so long.  Two, you can apply the principles that Carnegie talks about and have amazing results in a business setting.  The information will be fresh in your mind and chances are it will open doors that you wouldn’t have been able to open unless you are already practicing some of the good-natured habits.  For example, Carnegie dedicates a section on the following theme:

You must have a good time meeting people if you can expect them to have a good time meeting you.

It’s so true.  At these affiliate shows some people limit themselves and are too nervous to do more than just go to the affiliate meet market and make small talk.  Have drinks, lunch, etc., be outgoing and other people will be outgoing with you.  We’ve struck a lot of deals at ASW and most recently it scored us a nice little bottle of Cristal for Christmas, among thousands of dollars of profits.

If you don’t have a chance to pick up the book or you just plain don’t read, please just listen to this piece of advice if nothing else:

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language

You might say, “Well I have their business card, so I’ll have there name later…”.  That’s stupid, remember it immediately and use it frequently and it will strengthen your relationship with that person.  You might make another excuse like, “There’s so damn people there that I might I’d never be able to remember all those names…”.  Well, Carnegie talks about Napoleon the Great and President Roosevelt remembering names and their techniques so I don’t see why you couldn’t, alcohol permitting of course.  If you don’t think remembering names is important than you might as well shoot yourself in the foot and carry around a Poken for all your networking needs.

I’ll let you find out more of the principles when you buy the book but I couldn’t recommend this book more, it’s about 275 pages long and has a ton of examples of the principles he preaches in real life business settings.  I know for a fact you can grab this book at the New York Times book store in most airports so check there if you have a minute.  I’ve read it twice and have practiced the principles many times with a lot of success!

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!

AdTech: New York City is complete.  It went by just as fast as it came around!  The last three days have been an excellent experience for me and Richard.  We met with companies, made contacts with new traffic sources, and enjoyed all that New York City has to offer.  We fly out this evening, and I have to say I’m sad to leave the city!  However, on the other hand, I’m excited to return to the office and get some new projects rolling while scaling our current campaigns to new levels!

Last night Richard and I took an evening off from meetings and just enjoyed the city alone.  We recognized happy hour with one of our online friends we’ve known for ten years and then went to an excellent restaurant in The W Times Square to enjoy a nice bottle of wine and fresh sushi.  Following our dinner, we went to the Hilton to watch the Chicago Bulls defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Richard and I are Bulls fans, so while it is always entertaining seeing LeBron, it was nice to see Chicago pull away with the close win.  We capped the night off with a quick sandwich at the Stage Deli (unreal place btw).  On the walk back to our hotel, we saw our friend Tom from Neverblue Ads.  Its funny how even in a big city like New York, you randomly run into people!

After several days of hard work, Richard and I slept in this morning!  We’re going to find a nice place to enjoy some lunch, and we’re going to head to the JFK airport to fly out.  I’ll type a full recap post of AdTech when I get home and include several photos!

Two down, one more to go! AdTech: NYC has certainly been one of the most fun conferences I’ve attended. While yesterday was VERY busy (meeting after meeting), we had a very successful day businesswise and topped it off with some phenomenal entertainment.

Yesterday morning I started my day off with the “breakfast of champions” – lobster and eggs. Richard and I then made our way over to the Javits Convention Center where we conducted several meetings and walked the exhibit floor. It was nice seeing several people such as Ian Fernando, Ruck from Convert 2 Media, and of course all the great people from Intermark/Epic.

We finished up the day with a few more meetings and had some drinks with my good friend and business associate Elias from Yep Revenue! We were joined by Bryn Youngblut, Brandon Hoffman, and a few other large affiliates. Following our drinks, Richard and I attended a very nice Italian dinner with the good people of Neverblue Ads.

We capped the night off with Epic’s Heaven or Hell party at Marquee. Those folks sure know how to party! Not only did they have an open bar until midnight, they had waiters handing out McDonald’s hamburgers and fries. Now, seriously, who doesn’t like a McDonald’s hamburger and fries with alcohol?!? Richard told me he thought he was in heaven (I quickly reminded him we were actually standing in the “hell” section of the bar).

Here’s a pic of me/Rich as we were entering the party. I’ll have more when I return home. Now, we’re heading back to the convention center to get more work done!

One night down, two more to go!  Last night was an excellent time!  Our good friends at Copeac took us out for an awesome sushi dinner followed by boarding a Hummer Limousine to TenJune for a party in the VIP section.  It was nice to finally meet some of you guys and put a face to a name.

In a rather humorous note, Richard and I flew first class from Charlotte to New York beside Brandon Adcock and didn’t realize it until he sat in the Hummer Limousine.  Very small world we live in!  That’s all I have for now, time to head over to the Javits Convention Center for several meetings.

Didn’t go to AdTech?  Yeah… me neither. Why didn’t you go though?  Too expensive?

If you said yes to that last question then I think you are making a huge mistake if you are trying to jump from to the next highest “level” in affiliate marketing. (Who’s not?)  Sure, if you are just starting out affiliate marketing and still haven’t done anything special then maybe you should keep choppin’ away but if you know what you are doing this networking opportunity is more valuable than anything you’ll ever come across online.  Hell, if you can really afford it though and you are just starting out, go, by all means but most people aren’t in that situation and don’t have $1,000 – $2,000 free for travel.

Trust me, I’m one of the most frugal guys out there when it comes to spending money like that.  It’s an investment that you really can’t gauge like stock investing or investing into a campaign/buy.   It can only be considered a bad investment if you don’t try to be out-going or if you just go to the speaking events. (Although it would be pretty cool to hear Wikipedia’s founder speak this year) You aren’t really going to learn anything at those things unless it’s some super limited gold platinum pass that is through the roof.   Trust me, I’ve been there done that. You can learn all that stuff by just reading blogs if you can absorb the concepts.  Chances are the valuable stuff will be plastered all over blogs anyway.

You are going to learn the most by talking to people on the trade show floor and networking.  If you don’t know anyone else that’s going, start by just reaching out to your affiliate manager.  Tell them you are going and would like to meet up for some drinks or something.  (Especially if your AM is hot and she won’t take it as a date if you aren’t too advancing) Hopefully one things leads to another and they can introduce you to something/someone or even better, invite you to a party.

It’s funny how a face-to-face conversation can make people click so much better if you’ve heard or talked to them online before.  We put a lot of faces to names when we went to NY that turned into many, many dollars.  Hopefully Ryan and Rich can take it even further and make this $2,000.00 investment have as much ROI as last time.  I’m really looking forward to the next conference that doesn’t conflict with my school schedule so I can be apart of that investment.

PS: If anyone happens to be sitting in a NYC hotel right now, comment/email and I’m sure Ryan and Rich would love to chat or have a couple of drinks.