Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Help Determine Affiliate Summit East Sessions

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Over the past few years I have been lucky enough to serve on the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board and see submissions for Affiliate Summit sessions in advance. I always considered it a preview of sorts for the upcoming conference and would jump in and start reading them as soon as they were posted.

This year everyone is being given the opportunity to give their feedback on the sessions for New York. Over 100 speaker proposals were submitted. These will be narrowed down through visitor voting, the Advisory Board feedback, and the conference itself.

Although I have seen a number of posts and Tweets about the voting (including great posts by TrishaLyn Fawver and Adam Reimer), there are not all that many people voting. It’s incredibly easy to vote. You create an account on Slinkset (if you do not already have one) and then simply click on the arrow to the left of the session to turn it blue if you want to vote for it. You can also leave comments.

I won’t say what I voted for, but I do find it interesting that there are quite a few in the top 10 that I did NOT vote for (for various reasons). Maybe I don’t find the same things interesting as other people do? Or maybe my personal preferences for speakers (or against) can sometimes get in the way? At any rate, that is why we need more people in there voting–we need the feedback from as many people as possible to truly represent the variety of people who will attend the conference. I’ve seen people complaining after Affiliate Summit before that there were not any sessions that interested them or they didn’t understand why X, Y, or Z topic were left out. Now is the time to give your feedback.

Click here to visit the voting site. If you are so inclined, here are my two sessions:

Podcasting 101

Strategies for Marketing to Women

Run for Charity with Affiliate Summit

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I initially got into running because of the Race for the Cure. After walking it for a number of years, I decided to start running it. I didn’t run fast, but I could run a 5K. After a couple of those, I decided to run my first half marathon last May. For some crazy reason, I signed up for it again this year. Just as I was starting to tire of my training, a great new opportunity came along to turn my runs into money for charity.

Affiliate Summit has started a Nike+ Challenge in which they will donate $1 to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade for each mile run in the challenge (up to $5,000). When I saw this, I immediately hit my local running store to buy a Nike+ tracking sensor and wristband. I then visited the Affiliate Summit East 2010 Challenge page on Nike’s website and set up my account.

Now when I run, I have a higher purpose. I logged a little over 13 miles last week interspersed with my Zumba days. During each run I kept telling myself that each mile was more money being donated to help fight breast cancer. Hopefully this challenge will keep me running well past the Indy Mini and into the summer up through Affiliate Summit in New York in August. If you are an affiliate marketer and are up for a little fitness challenge (whether you walk or run, the sensor works the same), you should definitely check it out. If nothing else, help cheer the rest of us on!

Learning to Take Chances at Affiliate Summit

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Although I’m usually considered to be an outgoing person, I actually get nervous when I have to introduce myself to other people cold. I’m always self-conscious and afraid they will give me one of those looks like “who are you and why are you talking to me?” I challenged myself this Affiliate Summit and was pleasantly surprised to find how responsive everyone was to meeting.

I didn’t really set out to meet anyone in particular this trip. That made it a little bit more challenging because I had to introduce myself on the spur of the moment when I had the opportunity to meet someone. Here were some of my tactics:

  • Be where the people are. Well, no kidding? Except not where ALL the people are. Introducing myself in a crowded exhibit hall didn’t lead to a good introduction. Instead, I took the opportunity to meet people in quiet places like the Blogger’s Lounge or the Trivia TweetUp.
  • Introduce myself clearly but not make it a sale pitch. I didn’t even mention Sunshine Rewards to most of the people that I met. The goal wasn’t to introduce my business, it was to introduce MYSELF.
  • Wait for an opportune time. But not too long. If you wait for someone to be totally by themselves to make an introduction, you may never get the chance. Don’t interrupt a conversation but at the same time don’t be afraid to step in when you see a break.
  • Don’t act starstruck, even if you are. Some of the people you have the chance to meet at Affiliate Summit are great at what they do an almost “stars” in their own right. I took Chris Brogan’s advice and approached them like an equal (but with just a little deference).

As a result of the above, I finally got to talk to people like HeatherinBC, Murray Newlands, and Peter Shankman. I also had some great conversations with people I already knew but had never really “talked shop” with before (like Connie Berg from Flamingo World.) No matter what else comes out of this conference, I will consider it a personal success because of that.

Presentation Fun at Affiliate Summit

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After months of build up, my presentation at Affiliate Summit is now complete. I was lucky enough to have two great speakers with me (Carolyn Tang and Kristen Kinsey) along with a seasoned moderator (Marty Fahncke). For those of you who missed it (which was all but about 60 people!), we spoke about Monetizing Blogs. It was a true introductory session on affiliate marketing, including definitions and real life examples. We even walked through a couple of audience members’ blogs live and gave suggestions. Here are a few of my takeaways:

  • It always helps to have your mom in the front row cheering you on.
  • My fellow panelists are some of the smartest women in affiliate marketing and can answer just about any question on the spot.
  • My favorite part of the presentation was the end. Not just because I had been so nervous but because I loved the chance to talk to the people who came to the session and exchange ideas with them.
  • Speaking at Affiliate Summit is both an uplifting and a humbling experience. You realize both what you know and what you do NOT know.
  • The best way to figure out how well you really know how to do something is to try to explain it to someone else.

For those of you who didn’t attend, I forgot to mention one really important WordPress plugin that you should be using. If you want to use the php includes options of sites like GoldenCan and PopShops (and you should for SEO purposes), you’re going to need to be able to insert php into your WordPress posts and pages. Check out the Exec-PHP plugin for that.

I hope to be lucky enough to be chosen to speak again in the future. More importantly, I hope to learn enough between now and then to be sure that I can continue to provide helpful information to others in my industry.

New Blogger Attending Affiliate Summit?

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I’ve had the privilege of serving as a mentor at the last two Affiliate Summits. Each time I was paired with an affiliate who was very new to the industry. In both cases I was able to see Affiliate Summit through their eyes and remember back to my first time, when I was so new to affiliate marketing that I didn’t know CPA from CPS or a toolbar from a network. It can be confusing and overwhelming, especially when you are a blogger and do something else full-time.

Last summer I participated in a panel at Blog Indiana with two women who are both educated about and instrumental in affiliate marketing– Carolyn Tang and Kristen Kinsey. We were lucky enough to be chosen to give a similar presentation at Affiliate Summit West. If you are relatively new to monetizing your blog or affiliate marketing in general, here is a little taste of what you can learn from our presentation:

  • Affiliate marketing basic terminology such as “merchant,” “network,” and “affiliate”
  • Ways to evaluate potential merchants for your site
  • How to use PayPerCall technology
  • Different ad types including banners, text links, and specific products
  • Widgets and plugins that help add content to your site while monetizing it
  • How best to work with your affiliate manager
  • General resources for affiliate marketing

As I said, this is meant to be a basic session geared to those who are new to affiliate marketing and/or monetizing their blogs. We’ll show you some examples and also give you an opportunity to have your blog looked at by the panel live for feedback on how you can better monetize it. If you are interested, our session is at 3:00 on Sunday and is titled Start Monetizing Your Blog Today. If you are already a seasoned affiliate marketing veteran, please help spread the word to those who might be interested and would find it valuable.

Thanks to Marty Fahncke for moderating for us!