Affiliate Summit – What I Really Learned

Things I really learned at Affiliate Summit.

Since my last post was kind of about what I learned personally about myself I decided to post about things I learned at Affiliate Summit.

In the creating a mastermind group session I learned that any number above 3 is too many people to have in the group. I have seen groups larger than this and it never works. If a group larger than 3 is working for you than fine but in general I think anything over 3 people is too much.

You Never Know Where Future Business Will Come From.

I was approached with so many different opportunities in the strangest of places. While I was in the mastermind session we were approached by a guy that has over 300 quality domain names that were never developed. The guy was in my session so he approached me asking what I would do with them.

After that session I went to the bloggers lounge where I was asked by two guys about his product and if he was ready for an affiliate program. Both the product and his idea of affiliate marketing was way off. Not only was his product a bad idea, his payout ratio was really really bad.

On Monday I had a time slot at the speakers lounge where I was expecting a whole lot of questions and answers. One guy came up to me that attended my session and told me about his website and that everything I said in my session he needed. I didn't think too much about it until I was in the airport on the way home and took a look at his website. Out of my 28 things to look at in my session his website needed 27 of them. I will be contacting him during the week and help get his website improved.

As I walked around the show floor I was approached by many many people asking me questions. With my voice being so bad it was really really interesting to listen for a change instead of talking a lot. Many of the questions were basic, I learned that there was room in the affiliate marketing and website building for more training aimed at newbies. The more questions people asked me, the more I realized that a lot of stuff I take for granted really needs to be shared in the open.

Most of the networking, is done after the show. I made more connections just sitting around the show hall after the closing keynote than I did during the show. I exchanged business cards with about 10 to 15 people as I was walking out of the show hall. Out of the 10 or 15 I probably grabbed 5 to 7 cell phone numbers.

I learned that one of the benefits of speaking at affiliate Summit is the amount of sign-ups to happen afterwards to your affiliate programs. In the days after speaking, actually while I was still at the show we received many quality applications to all of our affiliate programs. This was a very unexpected benefit, and one that I didn't count on.

Affiliate Summit really is about networking, and seeing old friends that you haven't seen in a long time. I saw an affiliate I haven't seen in about five years and didn't realize his whole game plan had changed about three years ago. I also gave him a lot of advice, I'm sure that just by touching base with me we will be able to make him more money and affiliate programs.

I didn't go to many of the sessions this year, as I was not feeling well and I watch them on video. I can't say I learned anything in any of the sessions as I didn't go to many. I did have some great conversations and the bloggers lounge with a few people who let some good ideas out in the open.

I am big on helping people, it makes me feel really good when I can make the connection between two people and they do business. I was sitting at my friend and she mentioned that she wanted an iPhone app and maybe a droid app for her websites. I sent out a tweet to my buddy Brad Waller who came to the bloggers lounge within minutes and will probably be making her two apps.

I didn't make it to the white boarding sessions as they were too early in the morning for me. I did hear some rave reviews from some affiliates that said Eric Nagel really knocked it out of the park. I attended the closing keynote which was okay but nothing really groundbreaking came out of it for me. But since I got a whole bunch of contacts after the closing keynote was well worth it for me.