In a couple weeks affiliates, affiliate managers, and other industry professionals will descend on Las Vegas for another Affiliate Summit. This year along with the meet market, the exhibit hall, the parties, the networking, and the overall mirth and merriment there will be over 40 educational sessions available for affiliates, merchants, affiliate managers, bloggers, social media professionals, SEOs, and anyone else related to the affiliate industry.
If you are a first timer to Affiliate Summit or even a season vet it can be pretty overwhelming trying to figure out which sessions to attend. There are so many topics to choose from that you don’t want to miss anything but there are also many great networking opportunities, private meetings, meals, and more that make it difficult to attend every session.
First off I would recommend you don’t necessarily plan on going to a session in each time slot. Take a few of them to set up some private meetings (you can schedule a meeting with me at http://meetme.so/fanaticsjoe if you are an affiliate interested in selling some licensed sports gear) or even just walk around and talk to people. There will be so much information available and if you try to take it all in you will be very overwhelmed so take a break every now and then.
Secondly, after the conference the session videos will be available so if you do happen to miss a session you really wish you could make it to you will be able to watch it later if you are a Networking Plus pass or higher holder.
If you are looking for some sessions you should check out here are a few I am looking forward to. I will try to make some of these but I don’t know if I can make it to all of them:
Sunday:
Session 1a: 30 Real Life Examples Of Affiliate Tools & Strategies @ Champagne Ballroom 1: 11:00-12:00 – Chad Waite from Avantlink will show you some real examples of different tools and strategies affiliates can use to grow their business. Avantlink has some pretty awesome tools available for its affiliates and I am sure some of these will be highlighted.
Session 1c: Writing Pages to Rank in the Search Engines @ Versailles Ballroom 1 & 2: 11:00-12:00 – Adam Riemer has been around the SEO/Affiliate industry for many years and has some great knowledge to share when it comes to writing to get listed in the search engines.
Session 3b: Generating Massive Traffic and Profit Using Facebook Pages @ Champagne Ballroom 4: 2:00-3:00 – Luke Kling has built some huge Facebook pages and since we have a lot of affiliates using Facebook pages I want to see what knowledge Luke has that I can share with some of our affiliates.
Session 4b: How to Diversify Your Affiliate Portfolio for Better Results @ Champagne Ballroom 4: 3:30-3:48 – Affiliate managers (good ones anyway) are always looking for new affiliates who can drive value. Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing will be talking about how to find these affiliates.
Don’t forget the Shareasale Under the Stars party Sunday night which is always a highlight of any Affiliate Summit.
Monday:
Session 5b: Your Baby Is Ugly: Rapid-fire Live Landing Page Critiques @ Champagne Ballroom 4: 10:00-11:00 – Tim Ash will be reviewing landing pages and giving out a ton of practical tips to improve conversions, interactions, and sales.
Session 5c: Grill the Affiliate Manager: Questions You Want Answered @ Versailles Ballroom 1 & 2: 10:00-11:00 – This will be a great session to ask some experienced affiliate managers the questions you have always wanted. Ask about how to get commission increases, what info an affiliate manager can share and what they can’t, what an affiliate manager is looking for from their affiliates, and anything else you can think of. Greg Hoffman, Mike Nunez, Rebecca Pollard, and Tricia Meyer will be answering your quesitons.
Session 5d: Beyond Affiliate Income: Diversification in the Industry @ Versailles Ballroom 3 & 4: 10:00-11:00 – This is the session I will be speaking at. Along with Eric Nagel and Robert Adler we will be sharing how we took the knowledge we built as affiliates and turned it into additional income in different areas of the industry apart from just affiliate commissions. If you are an affiliate who is looking to supplement your income or a merchant wanting to know how bringing in someone with experience as an affiliate can benefit you this session should be a good one.
3 sessions I would want to see all at the same time! This is where the sessions videos will come in handy.
Session 6b: The Top 5 Affiliate Management Myths Debunked @ Champagne Ballroom 4: 2:00-3:00 – If you are a merchant looking to launch a program or an affiliate manager just starting out you will get some great information from some of the best people in the industry.
Session 6c: 22 Effective Ways to Recruit Quality Affiliates @ Versailles Ballroom 1 & 2: 2:00-3:00 – This will be another great session for affiliate managers and merchants where Geno Prussakov shares some great methods to recruit affiliates.
Session 7c: Ensuring Incremental Growth in Any Affiliate Program @ Versailles Ballroom 1 & 2: 3:30-4:30 – Dave from BrandVerity and Rob from Acceleration Partners are two of the smartest people in this industry and will surely have some very useful information for affiliate managers. Affiliates can also benefit from a session like this by learning what types of affiliates generate real value for their merchants.
Session 7d: Generating Affiliate Income with a Branded Blog @ Versailles Ballroom 3 & 4: 3:30-4:30 – Have you seen the great knowledge Rae Hoffman has been sharing on her blog lately? Her posts about identifying keywords for your site, conducting niche research, brainstorming profitable affiliate niches, and how to find merchant programs are some of the best affiliate marketing posts I have seen in a long time. Whenever you get the chance to hear Rae talk you will learn something.
Tuesday:
Session 9a: Transitioning to Working At Home: Your Questions Answered @ Champagne Ballroom 1: 10:00-11:00 – I worked from home for over a decade and have recently transitioned to working from an office and as many of you know those are two totally different animals. Learn from some industry vets who have over 30 years experience working from home. Learn how to stay productive, how to avoid distraction, and how to set boundaries while working from home.
There are a lot more sessions you can check out depending on what you are looking for from this conference. Take a look through the Affiliate Summit West 2014 agenda and get your schedule set up.
What sessions are you looking forward to? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Joe, I am honored to have my “22 Effective Ways to Recruit Quality Affiliates” session listed in your above compilation. Thank you.
I believe that between recruiting and activating their affiliates managers should be spending at least 80% of their “affiliate management” time. Looking forward to sharing many overlooked methods of finding and recruiting new affiliates. See you in Vegas in just two weeks!
Recruiting and activation can be huge time commitments for an affiliate manager. Many of them see it as an afterthought to get done when everything else is finished and there is some extra time but in many ways it should be a main focus. Too much time can be spent on maintaining a program instead of growing it.
Thanks for the mention Joe! All these sessions look great and have incredible collective power behind them. Looking forward to a rock solid 2014 with the kick off of a great show at Affiliate Summit! See you there!
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say in your session Sarah. Can’t wait to see you and everyone else in a couple weeks.