After four nights in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West 2010, Richard and I are now back in the office.  LOTS of catching up to do as I’m working on hour twelve right now with no break.  It was nice seeing everyone again as well as meeting several new faces.  I took some video footage from Vegas with the FlipVideo Camera Azoogle sent for Christmas.  I must warn you, I’m no cameraman, but i thought they would be more fun to watch than a simple photo gallery!  I want to thank Missy Ward & Shawn Collins for putting on another excellent show!

First Morning In Vegas:

Exhibit Hall At The Rio:

Azoogle’s Party in the Playboy Suite at the Palms (Richard and I got in an argument over if you were allowed to get in the pool or not. Did anyone get in?):

Our suite at the Wynn:

We’re finally here and ready to get down to business. But first, Richard is a HUGE Dallas Cowboys fan, so we’re going to watch them play the Minnesota Vikings here in the room first. Since my body is still use to EST, I’m had one heck of a time sleeping in.

Our first night was pretty quiet, just getting settled in, however we did have an excellent time. Richard and I arrived at the Tower Suites at the Wynn around 3:30 PST. Unfortunately our room wasn’t ready so they gave us a free pass for one round of drinks were we took them to Wazuzu in Encore and enjoyed the cocktails with a few rolls of fresh sushi. Great place, we’ll definitely hit it up again sometime today.

As we finished up our sushi, our room was finally ready, so we took our stuff up and got settled in. Ryan Eagle from the EWA Private Network briefly stopped by to say what’s up. It’s always a great feeling to be greeted by a network owner when arriving at a conference.

Richard and I then went off to a casual dinner at the Paris. Unfortunately, it was TERRIBLE. My prime rib (which was ordered medium) was cooked way past well done. I also had an order of crab legs which tasted like they came out of the ocean a year ago! I don’t understand how these little local Chinese restaurants can have good crab legs, but in Vegas, they can’t get it right. Richard kept saying “he didn’t see an ocean out here in the desert.”

Following our terrible dinner, I received an invitation from Ryan Eagle to join him and his crew for a nice dinner at the Wynn. Very nice restaurant called Wing Lei. We should have skipped the Paris all together! Anyways, it was nice chatting it up with most of the EWA crew (the rest of their team is coming in today). After our second dinner, it was either time to gamble or head back to the room. Since I retired from gambling last year, Richard and I decided to call it a night.

We have a full agenda today, so let’s get started! Feel free to follow our trip updates on twitter at twitter.com/affiliatetwins.

I also took a brief video showing our room this morning:

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!

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.

Meet the Super Scared Airplane Passenger pictured above.  This terrified lady was on one of our flights to New York City this week and it got me thinking about how similar the Super Scared Airplane Passenger is to the Super Scared Affiliate.

Anyone that reads this blog knows I like to talk a lot about the Super Scared Affiliate because I myself am a recovering Super Scared Affiliate.  In the picture above you can see this lady is very apprehensive about flying and is doing all she can to “hold on” for dear life.   Newsflash to her (and anyone else scared of flying) – there is nothing she can do.  As a passenger on an airplane you are 100% powerless when it comes to whether or not the airplane will land safely; like it or not you are placing all of your confidence in the pilots to get you where you need to go.  You can grab on with both hands, close your eyes and clinch to the seat as hard as you want but there is nothing you can do.

Being overly apprehensive about a particular Affiliate Marketing campaign is just as pointless.  Now I’m not saying you are 100% powerless when it comes to running your campaigns but there is a point where you have to place your confidence in your research and trust your ability to create a profitable campaign.

After you’ve done your testing and are ready to “open up the gates” on a particular campaign, you must let it run.  If you are terrified about losing money, the campaign is never going to get a chance to become profitable.  There are going to be times where a campaign is going to lose steam and need to be tweaked but when starting a campaign – do not be afraid of it.  Trust your research and understand how pointless it is to worry about it.  Like it or not, you are powerless.

Ryan and I were leaving Chili’s in the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport last night when the people we had been talking too told us to “have a safe flight”.  Obviously it’s not up to us to “have a safe flight” but it wouldn’t have made sense to say “tell the pilots to fly safe.”  So “have a safe flight” and give your campaigns a chance.  I know it’s tough when you think things might be going south but let it run and make your adjustments after things have been given a chance.

(Picture: Ryan Gray giving Copeac the thumbs up)

We’re BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ryan and I returned home late last night from a great trip to Atlantic City courtesy of the fine folks at Copeac.  The trip was very beneficial and a ton of fun.   For those that haven’t been following, we spent one night in a suite at the London in New York City and two nights in a suite at The Borgata in Atlantic City.  Not only does Copeac do it up right but those guys know how to eat.  We literally ate like kings all three nights at some of the finest restaurants around.  I highly recommend Porter House New York as I had the best Filet Mignon of my life.  We also got to meet another high volume affiliate at that dinner and capped the night off with a Dallas Cowboys win (even though our Copeac AM, Matt, is a Giants fan).  On Monday, we took a three hour limousine ride to Atlantic City which followed two days of partying, discussing campaigns and a little bit of gambling.  I’ll have more blogs about the trip later but I just added photos, so check them out at the photo gallery page.

Click Here To View Photos From Our Trip [>>]