Just got back from Affiliate Summit in Boston. Great Experience and definitely glad that I went. If you’re new in the affiliate space, I’d highly recommend you try to attend at least 1 of these, if anything just for the networking.
The Summit
To be honest the exhibition and seminars were mediocre. It seemed the conference was more designed for the networks and the merchants. Maybe it was just me, I don’t know. I was able to speak to some of my affiliate managers which is great to put a face to the name. If I hadn’t already joined with a dozen or so networks, the exhibition floor would have been useful. I just didn’t want to sign up with anyone.
The Networking
This is what made the whole experience worth it. I’m not the most outgoing guy there is, but just to be able to talk to other affiliates was great. Here are just some of the people I got to talk, meet, and shake hands with:
- John Hasson
- Benny from GeekBlogger
- Zac Johnson
- The guys from Prosper 202
- Ian Fernando
- Eric Nagel
- Fellow Dallasite, Andrew Payne
- Wes from Masterless Samurai
- Charles from Art of Leads
- Jimmy Ramos from Somar Consulting
- and Paul from Uber Affiliate
I was looking for Jonathan Volk, but he seemed to be elusive. Anyways, being able to shoot the breeze and talk affiliate marketing was fantastic, can’t do that back home as I don’t know anyone who does this. Such a young and new industry. One thing I recognized is that most of the affiliates I met were either my age or younger. What does that mean? Cool though to see some very young and very successful guys.
Credit Card Roulette
On the last night at dinner, I introduced a game that I use to play when I was working (back in the day). Basically you just order whatever you want, and when it is time for the bill, everyone at the table takes out their credit card. Fan them like a deck of cards and then have the waitress pick one. The lucky card gets the bill. By the way … thanks for dinner Andrew 
Luckily there was only 4 of us…
All in all it was fun, good to be back though recharged to launch some new campaigns.
Hey Dave,
Thanks for the email. So, it looks like the Summit was a good trip. Did you learn anything that you weren’t already doing that is critical to success in affiliate marketing?
Also, who would you say from the folks you met was most fanatical about affiliate marketing? Maybe it was Volk and that’s why you couldn’t find him.
Appreciate the update.