Affiliate Summit – Day Five

by Vinny on August 23, 2010

It seems funny writing day 5 for Affiliate Summit since the conference is only three days long but since we got there early and left later it ends up being longer. It is just so much information to take in that leaving a day later is advised. I always count Affiliate Summit as a vacation and tack on a few days no matter what city it is in to unwind.

So Tuesday is here and we are getting out of the dump hotel and heading over to the Hilton for summit. No real plan today except the two affiliate meetings we have lined up. I am glad because I still have not been to the show floor really and my stomach pain is becoming more annoying. At first I thought it was gas but now I am leaning towards something else. We get to summit in time for breakfast but we missed meeting the super affiliate friends in the bloggers lounge. It seems that something is abuzz and we need to get together with them. We trek up to breakfast and sit down with Andy Rodriguez  and Charlie from buy.at. It is a pleasant breakfast discussion and then down to the Jim Kukral keynote.

As we head towards the keynote we see all the affiliate super friends in capes and masks. A truly amazing site and within five minutes Debbie and I are in capes and mask also. We know Jim has no idea what is about to hit him. We all gather and walk into this big hall as if it was Halloween and no one else got the memo lol. We gather up into the front tables that are reserved for us. Jim is sitting at our table and I could see the relief come right off his face. He was at such a relaxed state you knew he was going to rock the keynote (and he did).

Keynote is over and we all get up on stage with Jim and get a picture taken with a chin pose of course.  It is now 11:15 and we have an affiliate meeting at 11:30 so we transform back to our regular selves and head over for the meeting. Our meeting goes well and we are off to the show floor. We talked to a few people and then it was time for lunch.

We sit with Kim and Greg from buy.at, Trica and Cindy from Sunshine Rewards and a few others. I really don’t feel like eating so I make a small plate. We met a lady from the San Fransisco area who is an affiliate and wants to do a podcast. As lunch is over I see Lisa Picarille leaving then next table and introduce her to the lady since she lives in SF also. They plan to meet when they get home. Once again we are making people connect lol.

We talked to a few people and then it was down to the bloggers lounge.We hang out there for a little while. We get to the bloggers lounge and set up our laptops and some people are getting ready to go to a session and Debbie joins them. At this point I am just glad to sit down and work on some blog post and relax a bit. John Chow gets all the extra drink tickets together and goes upstairs and brings back 98 beers. Hmmm at this point there is 6 of us in the bloggers lounge, who is going to drink all these beers? It isn’t going to be me since my stomach is not right. The beers go one by one and a few bloggers come in and now I am sure they won’t go to waste. Good Job John.

The show is coming to an end and we are making plans to go to dinner with Jen Goode and others. We all meet in the Hilton lobby and head over to the Old Castle for dinner. Jen reserved a table upstairs for 10 people and we are joined by some good people including Joe Sousa and his wife Kate. Once again that Joe found me eating lol.

Almost everyone had the Shepard’s pie and raved about it, as dinner was over the pain in my stomach became unbearable so I excused myself and went back to the dump hotel. I just needed a place to lay down so I told Debbie to stay out with the group and have a good time. I get back to the dump hotel and try to get some sleep as we suppose to take James Martell and his wife Arlene site seeing the next day. Guess what happens next? Firetrucks, cop cars, garbage trucks all night long and the pain in my stomach keeps me tossing and turning all night. It is another night of no sleep.

Morning comes we check out of the hotel and I am really feeling bad. We figure out I got salmonella poisoning from the bad eggs benedict. All I want to see is my own bed and get some rest. We have to go to the Hilton to get some bags we left with Jen Goode and to see James and Arlene to let them know they are on their own. We meet them all in the lobby we get our bags and get a cab home.

It is now four days later as I write this and I am better. I lost about 7 pounds not exactly planned but I will take it. Can’t wait for Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas :)

If you missed any of these post start from the beginning Affiliate Summit East 2010 Recap.

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Affiliate Summit Day Four

by Vinny on August 22, 2010

So it is Monday morning and I actually got some sleep, sure there was garbage trucks again and some firetrucks but I guess I am immune to them by now. We got a late start over to Summit and missed breakfast, not really a surprise there. Think all the summits I have been to I probably made breakfast three times total. Today is all about catching up on some work and we have a few meetings with affiliates.

We head over to the Hilton and set up in the bloggers lounge for a while and plan out the day. As we get to the Hilton we meet up with an affiliate from Abestweb that we know for years and lives nearby but somehow have never met. How this has happened I have no idea, maybe its time to put together a monthly group of nearby affiliates. We are asked to be a guest on the GeekDads Weekly podcast by Daniel Clark and Debbie says sure. My stomach isn’t exactly right and last thing I want to happen is be in the middle of a podcast and have to run to the bathroom lol. We head up and have lunch and sit with a few affiliates talking about the parties that happened.

After lunch we have a meetings with two super affiliates, kind of funny being on the other end of these conversations since I almost know what they are going to ask for before they say it :) . Meetings go well, now it is time for my favorite part of Affiliate Summit the SEO site review panel with Sugarrae from Outspoken Media and Michael Gray. Debbie and I trek down to the session rooms and get a place up front. It seems we are a little late but we didn’t miss anything as they were having computer issues. I love watching Rae go behind the scenes and breakdown a website and letting them know how they stand and offer suggestions on how to make their site better. I usually pick up some things that they see ahead of time and wait for them to say it. It seems that every time they do this session there is always a website that has too many webmasters over the years fiddling around and they mess up something major. This year one of the sites actually had the Googlebot blocked. I just shake my head every time I think about it. I am glad that Affiliate Summit has had this session the last few Summits I really enjoy it.

Session is over and its off to the bloggers lounge to see whats happening. Glad we decided to come back here because there is beer and a funnel and John Chow is pouring beer and someone is downing it. I pulled out my Droid and recorded it.

We are off to dinner with Kim and Amy from buy.at. We plan on heading down towards Times Square and see what that brings, no plan really just hanging out and talking shop with two of our favorite people in the affiliate industry. (I can hear Kim right now saying aaaah that is so sweet we love you guys too, while Amy is blushing).

We end up at Rosie O’Grady’s near the Sheraton on Broadway and have a nice steak dinner. I sat there for a hour as they all talked about how great I am. (it is my site so I can dream sometimes) Actually we catch up on whats going on and it was very nice dinner. After dinner we stroll down to Times Square and then head back up to the hotel where Trivia night has already begun. Kim, Debbie and I head up as Amy had other plans.

Here is where the power of Affiliate Summit happens. As we enter the room we see a bunch of familiar faces sitting around and we start to mingle. Debbie is approached by an affiliate who is talking to a merchant. It seems he needs some affiliate manger stuff done I am not sure, it ends up not exactly our niche but it is in Kim’s expertise so Debbie sends me to get her and bring her into the conversation. I stay talking to the affiliate manager that Kim was talking to and telling her whats going on. We both sit there and laugh as we see Debbie and Kim’s mind working a mile a minute. A connection is made and I am sure this will end up being a good thing for both the merchant and Kim’s company buy.at. I wish I had a nickel for every time I have seen this type of thing happen at Affiliate Summit.

Some affiliates are heading out early on Tuesday so we end up saying goodbye to them and we call it a night. Back to our dump of a hotel. On to Day five of Affiliate Summit

If you missed any part of this recap you can see it from the beginning Affiliate Summit Day One – Day Two – Day Three.

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