May 2009

Getting the most out of a conference

by Joe Sousa on May 21, 2009

in Affiliate Stuff

I was reading a blog post by a friend of mine (What constitutes a friend?  We follow each other on Twitter and have talked a bit there and that is good enough for me) Logan Thompson where he talks about Preparing Early for Affiliate Conferences and he is spot on in everything he says. Some of the main things he talks about is registering and setting up travel plans early, networking before the conferences and setting up some meetings, and setting your goals on what you waht to get out of the conference.  All very great stuff.

But as I look forward to Affiliate Summit in August I wanted to share with you some tips of how you can maximize your experience at this conference or any other one you choose to attend. Many people always ask “Is it worth it to attend these conferences?” By the time you register, pay for airfare, hotels, taxis, food etc. you can easily drop a grand or two but in my mind it can definitely be worth the expense as long as you make the most of it.  If you just plan on coming, sitting in some sessions, walking around the exhibit hall and then leaving I would say save your money. If you want to make sure you money is well spent here are a few tips:

Network!!! – By far the greatest value I get from going to conferences is networking with others. I would say it is probably 90% of the reason I go. I am not the most outgoing or social person by any means but over the years I have attended at least a dozen conferences and by networking I have developed some great friends and business contacts. I remember going to my first internet conference in Irvine, CA.  It wasn’t a traditional conference, more just a bunch of people from around the world getting together at a bar. When I went I had only really met one of the people going ahead of time but I “knew” a lot of the other attendees from different forums, chats, emails, etc. 

When I got there I spent the first hour or so just standing around trying to figure out who was who but eventually I started recognizing some of the names and went up and introduced myself. Over the next few hours I was able to meet a few dozen people, some of who remain good friends to this day.  A year later we all met up in Boston and it was like we hadn’t been apart for a year.  I met many more people at that conference and every conference I go to my list of friends in this industry grows.

If you just go to a conference and don’t meet people or talk to them you are wasting your time. This industry has so many great and interesting people that are very open to talking and meeting you. So how do you do it?

  • Come up with a list of people you want to meet ahead of time - This will be a great head start for you. As you develop your list look for people in the industry that do stuff similar to what you do but also look for people who are doing things you would like to do.  There are many different ways to find these people from Twitter and Facebook to different blogs and forums. You might not be able to meet all the people on your list but this will give you a good start. And you will also end up meeting people you never expected to meet or hadn’t planned on meeting. Also start planting seeds with these people beforehand. Send them and email, DM them on Twitter, comment on their blogs, etc.
  • Don’t be afraid to join in a group – If you are at the hotel bar or looking for a meal ask some other people at the conference to join you or ask if you can join them. There will be some groups that are having private meetings and they won’t really want you nosing in but for the most part you will be welcome to join. Don’t be a jerk about it but more often than not a lot of people will happy to let you join. And if you pick up the dinner or bar tab you will make friends really quick.
  • Don’t be a jerk – If you are one of those people who always talks and who feels the need to dominate a conversation with useless crap learn to shut up once in a while. Be content to just sit and listen. And don’t be rude when approaching people. If you are a jerk people will be jerks right back
  • Look for other “loners” – Be willing to go out and find other people who are in your same situation. Invite them to join you, offer to buy them a drink, or just sit and chat with them for a few minutes. You never know who that loner is and they might end up becoming a great business associate or friend in the future.

Don’t just be a taker – Many people just attend conferences hoping to get something for themselves. But if you just do that you are wasting a great opportunity. Don’t expect others to share with you if you don’t share with them. Sounds like something we learned in kindergarden doesn’t it?  I always fall into the trap of thinking I have nothing valuable to contribute to a conversation or a meeting but you never know when what you have to share will really resonate with someone else. I remember an instance at the conference in Boston where I was just sitting in the lobby chatting with a couple friends and another guy sauntered up to join the conversation. We eneded up sitting and talking for about an hour and by the end of that conversation I was able to share a lot with this guy about SEO, affiliate marketing, and how to be successful in this industry and he is still doing it over 5 years later. Be willing to share and help others whereever you can. You don’t need to spill all your secrets but the more you help others the more you will get out of these conferences.

Stay in contact – Once you meet someone at a conference be sure to stay in touch with the people you meet.  Exchange contact information and drop them a note when you get home. These contacts can be very valuable to you in the future. Some of my best ideas, tips, etc. have come from follow up chats and emails with people I have met at conferences. 

Find sessions that interest you – Many conferences have dozens of different sessions that run all day. If you try to spend all day attending sessions you will be burnt out and bored fairly quickly. Pick the sessions that you think will help you and maybe a couple others you think could be valuable but don’t think you have to attend them all.  Take some time away from sitting in sessions to talk with people, take a walk around the exhibit hall, go take a nap, or anything like that. One of the worst things you can do at a conference is to get too burnt out on sitting in sessions that you don’t want to talk with people.

I am sure there are many more tips I can give but I have rambled long enough for now. What are some of your favorite tips for getting the most out of conference?  Comment on them below.

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Say Hi to my intern – Seth Weber

by Joe Sousa on May 18, 2009

in Affiliate Stuff

After sifting through piles and piles of applications (OK, there were only 5 of them), talking to others, taking bribes, and figuring out who I could best mold in my image I have chosen my intern for the summer.  Say hello to Seth Weber. He will be working with me over the summer and learning all about affiliate marketing.  I will be showing him how to take an idea, do the research to see if it is a viable affiliate option, create the relationships with the merchants, build sites, promote the sites through SEO, social media, PPC, etc, and hopefully in the end make some money.

I have known Seth and his family for a number of years now. Seth is actually the guitarist for my band http://www.moderndissent.com (his dad is also our drummer) and I have gone to church with him and his family for quite a few years. I think Seth will do great as my intern because he has a desire to learn, likes tinkering with stuff on the computer, is creative enough to think for himself and take what I teach him and make it his own, and he really seems like he wants to do something similar to this for a living long term.

We will be documenting the whole process, making a bunch of blog posts, filming videos, and other stuff like that so hopefully you will be able to follow us and maybe learn something as well.  Seth will probably be coming into my office (the spare bedroom of my house) 2 or 3 days a week and the plan is to do a few hours of training and a few hours of production every day. 

I will also be setting up some chats, phone calls, video conferences, etc. with some other experts in the industry because if Seth just learns from me he will only be seeing a very small piece of the pie and I want to expose him to the big bad world if affiliate marketing.  So if you are an “expert” (or if you are any sort of affiliate, merchant, industry expert, social media person, merchant, etc) and you think you can help Seth be successful let me know and we will get you on the list. We are looking for anyone and everyone who wants to help us out. Just drop a comment here, DM me on twitter (http://twitter.com/drcool73), email me at joe @ macor.com or send me a smoke signal.

Also if you have a question about affiliate marketing and internet marketing leave a comment and we will try to hit it sometime this summer.

Or you can just leave a comment to say hello to Seth and give him an idea of what he is getting into with this.

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Ideas that got away

by Joe Sousa on May 15, 2009

in General business stuff

I was watching Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel a couple days ago. Personally I think it is a great show.  It takes a couple people with some new products for the direct marketing industry and Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan listen to their pitches, test the products, come up with ideas for the informercials and commercials, and see if they are good products for direct marketing.  I will admit I am a sucker for informercials. When I am flipping around the TV at 2 AM I always get sucked into watching them and am often amazed how slick the product pitches are.  I can’t really remember when I have ever bought anything from an informercial but they still intrigue me.

One of the most intriguing aspects of it is how they take a product and make the public think they need it.  Take the Shamwow for instance. Millions of these have been sold off the 2 minute commericals with Vince demonstrating how great they are, how they replace paper towels, how they soak up a ton of water, etc.  They really make you think this is a product you can’t live without.  But if you stop and think about it they don’t do much more than a regular kitchen towel or paper towels.  How often do you really have a spill that is big enough that a paper towel won’t soak it up?  Does anybody regularly need to soak up a quart of liquid?  But after watching the informercial everyone thinks this is a product they can’t live without.  And this isn’t a new product.  I remember seeing something similar at the local county fair 25 years ago.

Or take the Snuggie.  Before I saw the commercial I never realized how difficult it was to answer the phone or use the remote when using a normal blanket.  How have I survived this long without a blanket with sleeves???  Now the Snuggie is a pop culture icon and they have sold millions of Snuggies over the past few months.  And the Pedegg.  Do we really need a cheese grater for our feet?

But back to the main point I want to get at.  As I was watching Pitchmen there was a 17 year old kid who had come up with an idea for the Spot Sucker.  It is a portable stain removal device that sucks cleaning solution through the fabric to remove the stain.  Watching this episode I was pretty suprised.  About 3 or 4 years ago I formulated a very, very similar product in my mind.  I was watching a commercial for a carpet cleaner and was thinking “wouldn’t it be cool if there was something small you could take with you that could take a small stain out of a shirt like a carpet cleaner?” and the idea I formulated in my mind ended up being very similar to the Spot Sucker.  But that was as far as it went.  Even if I would have thought about it more and decided maybe this is something I should look at making I really had no idea where to start to make something like this.

We all have ideas like this.  We see something and think of a way to modify it or have a problem and think of a theoretical solution but that is as far as it goes.  I am sure many of you internet types have thought of cool ideas for websites and then done nothing with those ideas and then a few months or years down the road you see someone else has made millions (or even thousands) off a similar idea. Or maybe those ideas are still sitting there in our minds and we haven’t seen them implemented elsewhere yet.

Of course many of our ideas are impractical or impossible to pursue in the real world but I am sure most of you can think of an idea you wish you would have run with and developed. I know I have dozens of ideas for new affiliate sites in my mind but I never get around to doing anything with them.  Why is that?  Why do we let our ideas go to waste?  So my challenge to you (and to myself especially) is to do something with those ideas.  Obviously we can’t always drop everything to pursue what could end up being just a pipe dream and there might be other practical obstacles in our way but do something with those ideas.  It could be something as simple as taking an hour or two a week to work on that new website idea or take some time to research what it would take to develop that new product you have been thinking about for years.  Or find someone to partner up with for your idea.  If you don’t have the technical ability to program that new site find someone who does.

But don’t let all those ideas slip away.  Take some of them and see what you can do with them.  You never know when they will turn into a gold mine.

What are some of your ideas that have gotten away?  Leave a comment and let me know.

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