Cash Keywords

Affiliate Summit 2006 - Part 2

I have more connections I made while attending the Affiliate Summit - really what makes attending a conference worthwhile (I think for a _seminar_ the content is just as important or more so).

I talked with Debra Rabin from American Life Direct. I do promote a small amount of life insurance and Debra followed up with me after the conference - she was fast and the very first e-mail contact I received after getting home (you go girl!). American Life Direct has an attractive landing page with only 3 questions and an e-mail required to count as a lead. Their offer is appealing to the consumer as an easy-to-qualify for life insurance plan that they can literally fill out, qualify for and print out the paperwork in 10 minutes!

I have to admit I gravitated to other women at the conference. I found I got the best response and communication from other women, although we must've comprised maybe 15-20% of the attendees. Many of the women were there for Affiliate Merchants (programs), so I bet the number of women affiliates (webmasters) were a much lower percentage.   Think we should all band together as "Women on the Net" and create our own "old girl" network.

I missed Tuesday as I had to check out early due to floor maintainence, but that was fine. I knew I had met quite a few people and that some of the new connections would lead to some long term projects, so I was ready to head back.  On the way home though, I sat next to a gal that was reading Revenue Magazine. I asked her if she had attended the conference and she had. It was Amanda Rosauer, Marketing Manager from Real Networks' Real Arcade Games division.  Very cute and very nice gal. 

She was promoting Real Arcade Game Pass for affiliates and said their target market is, surprise, women ages 30-45! I definitely fall into (and know) that demographic - and I am a total sucker for games like Bejeweled.  We talked for quite awhile, and I mentioned, you know, we have a Rosauer's grocery store in my town....And she said,"Oh, that's my husband's family."  Small world in the Northwest.  His family started the chain, but sold it to the employees. 

From everyone I met, I can say I have 2 new articles being published - Look for a case study I wrote for Affliate Classroom published by the end of January -  1 new promo, and some promising affiliate deals I can take advantage of with a real person to talk to and get the best results! 

Affiliate Summit Revew Part 1

I appeared at the Affiliate Summit Sunday and Monday of the total 4 day event. First of all I'd like to thank Joel Comm who made it possible for me to attend - Really, thanks Joel!  I got to meet him in person for the first time, and he's a genuinely nice guy.  I went to Joel's special AdSense Workshop Sunday and I estimate there were around 75 in attendence.  The session went well and although I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable AdSense publisher, I heard some interesting things and the interaction of audience questions and Joel's insight made for a more useful session than others I attended :^)

Sunday night I went to the Speed Networking event - my list of 8 people to meet in hand. I got to meet with 6 out of 8 - not bad since a number of people had 50% no shows.   Most of the people I met with I had requested to meet with them, either because I use their product, or hoped to hear more about what they offered that I may want to tap into as either an affiliate or to our Cash Keywords users.

Here's who I met:

Magdalena Giacone - Loved her! They lost her meeting list so she was meeting anyone she could.  She had a neat giveaway of a paper cone with her card, 2 free pints of ice cream coupons (Who doesn't like that?), all wrapped in cellophane.  Magda is Affiliate Marketing Associate for IMarketing LTD.

Susan Milligan - Co-founder of Basic Templates.com. She also wrote about her experiences at Aff Summit. I have bought their templates in the past and they are really clean, with external CSS files and designed with interchangeable graphics. I love that it's easy for a design challenged person like me and the prices can't be beat.  Susan was very nice and genuinely glad to meet a customer in kind of an unexpected place. 

Samantha Hensch - Wow! What a bubbly lady! She certainly got alot of info about Digital River in a short 5-8 minutes of meeting.  Samantha is strategic marketing manager, and while I am already a Digital River Affiliate - not doing anything with it - and she made me rethink that I need to look at them more seriously.

Ankush Nayar and Anik Singal - AffiliateClassroom.com - I was really wanting to meet these guys and that's why I scheduled both of them. Anik and I had a shorter amount of time to talk, but Ankush and I had longer. I actually got a call back today from Ankush, so look for an article from me or some other CK related content/ads in Affiliate Classroom Magazine this spring!   They have been publishing a beautiful online magazine - FREE -  since 2004 and it coming from the perspective of the affiliate webmaster, so make sure to take a look.

Noreen Thurston - Godaddy.com's Affiliate Manager.  I am a longtime Godaddy customer and I wanted to hear if they had anything new that I should know about. Noreen and Mary Diers, the Advertising Manager, were alot of fun and obviously serious about communicating with their affiliates. They are the kind of affiliate managers I like to work with.  We ate at the luncheon the next day, laughed alot, and all I can say is "Girls Rule!"  If the "Godaddy Girls" aren't at my next conference, I will be very disappointed.

Clark Stephens - Overstock.com's Affiliate program manager.  I wanted to meet Clark out of curiosity because I enjoy sneaking a peek at Woot.com and I knew there is a connection with Woot and Overstock (he explained all that).  Also as I look at products and profitable keywords from a top paying keyword standpoint, Overstock has a tremendous variety of goods and at very competitive pricing.  If you mix AdSense and Affiliate links on the same page, Overstock probably has a  retail product to match your topic. Not sure if Clark could see where I was going with a connection between what I do at Cash Keywords and Overstock, but I see one and will get some ideas out to him. 

Day one and speed networking ended at 10:20 pm, and left alot of East Coast attendees yawning (it was 12:20 am there), but overall a good start for many of us. I can tell you the contacts I made just at the speed networking event will lead to some long term relationships for sure.