My Review of Affiliate Summit

My recap of Affiliate Summit: (warning – this is long and perhaps a bit too detailed?)

First of all, when you go to an event like this, its probably a good idea to try and stay in a hotel that is close to the event, rather than the one the event is taking place at. I stayed at Trump Tower for $119, while Wynn wanted $500-$700 for a standard room. Supply/Demand. Not only that, but for $50 more, the Trump gave me an upgrade to a huge suite on the 55th floor overlooking the strip! The had a free shuttle to the Wynn every 5 minutes and it was less than a mile away.

So anyway, I arrived on Sunday late afternoon after missing my flight from Diego – thanks to over 100 people in line just for baggage check! Not to mention the 200 person line for security. I’ve never seen anything like that on a non-hoilday. Usually San Diego airport is the easiest major airport I’ve ever been to. Oh, and it didn’t help that my new car decided to pop on its check engine light 5 minutes after I left my house, and started riding like it was on its last breaths. So going back home to switch cars just added to the delay.

Luckily flights to Vegas leave every hour so I hung at the airport bar for a much needed alcoholic beverage and a xanax (I’m notoriously nervous about flying). I’m still trying to get used to flying coach, because for 9 years I only flew first class, for FREE, thanks to Google Adwords, and American Express reward points. But now that Adwords isn’t my friend anymore, especially with bizopp stuff, my Amex miles have been all used up. But it was fun while it lasted! I can’t justify spending $1500 or more of MY OWN money on a 1st class ticket, but if you use adwords a lot, you should definitely use a credit card that earns you mileage points.

So I happened to meet a cool guy while waiting for the next flight, who was on his way to Aff summit as well, and he gave me some good tips on CPA networks I had never heard of, while we discussed lead shaving, and possibly taking our own offers to networks other than just clickbank. I don’t remember his name off-hand, but I have his card somewhere (When you get home from these events you typically have 50-100 biz cards, half from people you don’t remember even meeting).

He told me he particularly liked OfferWeb.com as a network, as well as “Unique Leads”, and the BizzOppNetwork.

Fast forward and we get to the hotel. “We” being myself and my girlfriend Sarah, who for once would like to go to a Cirque de sole show or anything OTHER than IMer mingling when we travel, lol. (maybe next time?) She told me a lot of funny stories about IM’er conversations she overheard, as well as the obviously over-liquored few who approached her and commented on her body parts as a means of introduction.

Trump towers is a great Vegas hotel in my opinion. I think its in my top 2, the other being THEhotel. I like them both because they are not casino themed, and don’t have a million tourists suffocating you. They are chill & classy, and again they aren’t expensive at all.

I got to Aff Summit around 5pm and it ended at 6pm. I am used to no longer being recognized at these things since I’ve been out of the scene for so long, and its been a couple of years since the RJ days. I kinda felt like the kid walking into the school cafeteria in high school for the first time, wondering if I would see anyone I knew from middle school. Finally I heard someone shout my name and it was Steve Iser. I had talked to him on facebook before but never in person (like most of my FB friends) and he was a really cool guy. He said he’d been hearing good things about BTF and would like to promote it, which was awesome. I also ran into a BTF’er named Chris Parkinson (the only new customer I met at the entire event!). He was super polite and said he was really digging the BTF content, and that made me feel pretty good! I was really surprised I didn’t run into more BTFers at the event. I know we all have our lives to lead, and live far away, AND the event was during weekdays… BUT I’m telling you, one chance meeting can change EVERYTHING (more on that later). So I really think you ought to reconsider missing the big events. Again, you don’t need a ticket! Hold onto the $2k you’ll save by not buying a ticket and just get a cheap flight, and a cheap hotel. Just get your arse there!

I planned on not buying a ticket to any part of the event, because I don’t enjoy keynotes or panels or any of that stuff due to my ADHD, but I did want to visit the clickbank booth and the offerweb booth, so I caved and paid $450 for access to the expo hall. It kind of irked me that I could have gotten the same ticket for $99 just 8 weeks earlier! Oh well. Its funny, I used to spend money like there was no tomorrow but in my old(ish) age I’m starting to get frugal. I never thought it would happen, but it has.

While entering the expo hall (with only 15 minutes to spare before it closed for the day) I ran into BTF superstar Rick Rivera. Rick was wheeling and dealing as usual. I’m pretty sure he lined up a lot more webinars and jv deals than I did! I’ve taken a liking to Rick, and at the past 2 events I’ve basically taken him around with me to all of the little parties and jv happenings during these events.

Personal note to Rick: Get a freakin prepaid U.S. Cellphone! You are the most difficult person in the world to reach when you are in the states! Rick calls me from his hotel room, and we make plans, but they often change and I have no way to reach him lol. For some reason, my iphone/ipad just will not work correctly in Vegas, so I can’t even email. AT&T I blame you. And I am planning on switching to Verizon and getting the iphone 4 soon.

So anyway, I talked to a few cpa networks about adding BTF to their lineup in the near future, and that was cool. I also talked to the reps at the Clickbank booth, who made me feel very humble when they had no idea who I was and had never even heard of the Rich Jerk or BTF . I gave them my contact info anyway and asked them to get in touch with Jennifer Johanssen, my favorite person at CB. I’ve known her for 9 years now. I was suspicious if they would actually deliver my message. My intent was to get access to the private clickbank party which was taking place at Tao nightclub at the Venetian, prior to the general clickbank party. At this point, I wasn’t feeling very special!

To my surprise, later I received an email from Jennifer with an “of course you’re invited!” subject line, so my ego felt a little better at that point.

The clickbank party was monday night, and since it was still sunday I was trying to see what everyone was doing for nightlife/networking. I contacted Jay Deiboldt, Adam Horowitz, Dan Brock, Tim Donovan, and nobody knew anything. No news, so by midnight I just went to bed. 5 minutes later, Jay let me know there was a party at a big suite just 8 floors above at the Trump. Since it was so close, I reluctantly got up and got dressed and headed up. Man, I’m sure glad I did. There were about 60 marketers up there, most of whom I didn’t know. But luckily I ran into Anthony Trister, who I remembered from a few years back when he ran the Arbitrage Conspiracy launch for Aymen B. He is the ultimate networker and introduced me to a ton of people. Some of the people I remember best were Dush from clickbank (VP of Marketing), Melford Bibbens, and Jonathan Herbet (who was throwing the party). The Mobile monopoly guys were there too. I also ran into Jay Deiboldt, who was with Alen Sultanic (currently has 2,000 gravity on clickbank!) I’m not the greatest with names, but I met a bunch of other people that I will be contacting once I go through my phone and all of the biz cards. Anyway, I left with Jay, Anthony and Alen (I think lol). Memory is a bit fuzzy but I know at some point I was denied access to “the bank” – a club at the bellagio because I was wearing tennis shoes. (even though I might add they are very slick looking air jordans ) We ended up at Alen’s huge suite at the Palms eventually, with Michael Kim and some others. After 7am, I decided to call it a night. The sun sure has a way of making you feel guilty for still being awake.

Next day I arose gracefully at 3pm and decided I should head back over to the expo. My poor girlfriend Sarah was such a good sport the whole trip. She went to bed at a reasonable hour the night before, and also woke up at a reasonable hour and did her own thing. So I headed over to the expo, just wanting to check it out b/c monday was said to have more vendors, but also keeping in mind that the College Football national championship game was approaching quickly. I went through the expo, much larger this time, with fancy shmancy looking booths, but it was very uninteresting to me for the most part. Just lots of people who do the same stuff. Mostly CPA networks. Anyone can have a CPA network really. You just need to buy the software. I wandered around, talked to HasOffers.com about their tracking platform, and left without seeing anyone I knew except an old buddy Jason Adams who was off to a party for some PPC company.

Next I headed over to the Wynn sportsbook to try to grab a seat for the big game which was starting any minute. There was literally only ONE seat left, but it was at a guy’s table who was sitting by himself. I asked if I could sit with him and he welcomed me to it. He asked me about myself, and I gave him the whole spiel. He seemed particularly knowledgeable and interested in SEO. He asked me to go into a lot of detail and I did. We really hit it off on a personal and professional level. Then I asked him what he did and I was blown away. He was Paul Edmondson, CEO of HubPages, lol. We talked for the entire first half of the game and this guy is brilliant. He gave me more good ideas than you can imagine. He even shared upcoming info about where hubpages is headed. Really cool stuff they have coming up. The guy couldn’t have been nicer. He even paid for my food and drinks, which was a nice touch. We exchanged info, and he asked for access to BTF! So shortly, he will be checking out our SEO stuff, and we may potentially work together on a project.

I was in a bit of a dilemma because the Clickbank private party started at 6:30 and it was now 7:00 and I had been talking to Paul for 2 hours. I really wanted to hit the CB party, but how often do you get a chance to rap one on one with a guy of this caliber? At the same time, I didn’t want to be a “clinger”, so I bid him farewell. One cool thing was that we were both rooting for Auburn, and we all know how that turned out . As a side note, I actually did a tour of Auburn when I lived in Alabama, and got accepted. I very nearly went there, but the lure of LA and meeting Katie Holmes was more important (if you don’t know what I mean, you can check the full story on this post)

I didn’t have time to change for the cocktail party now, so when I arrived at Tao, I believe I was the most underdressed person at the shindig, wearing my Marvin the Martian t-shirt.

I saw the Mobile Monopoly guys there, and also got a chance to talk with Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher for quite some time. They invited me down to Austin to check out their operation and their next mastermind in late February, which sounds really interesting. Another big plus for me was running into Mark Jenney. This guy is definitely one of the most forward thinking IM’ers I’ve ever met. He got his start with RJ, but now he is the student teaching the teacher. This guy always amazes me.

I talked to Sean Casey for a bit and a few other peeps, but the best part was I FINALLY got to meet all of the Clickbank executives I’ve been emailing with for the past decade. I gave a great big hug to Jennifer Johannsen and I also met Tom Denig of clickbank security, as well as Monty Sooter, the COO. Monty was very receptive when Ryan Deiss and myself discussed with him our future suggestions/changes/additions to clickbank.

Tom was quick to remind everyone that the best (or should I say the most *interesting*) gift they ever received from a vendor/affiliate was back in 2007 when the Rich Jerk sent them a care package full of liquor, cigars, condoms, RJ t-shirts, RJ thongs, and other mischievous items.

I discussed the future of BTF with them and we’re probably gonna roll it out to the CB marketplace publicly soon.

Next, it was off to get ready for the final partayyyy – I was meeting up with Nate Hopkins (Ryan Deiss’s JV manager) and Anthony Trister (Deiss’s Forex partner) at Marquee – a new club at the Cosmopolitan hotel.

My good friend Ted Dhanik had also reserved a table so it sounded like things were definitely gonna be fun. Ted used to be a big shot at Myspace, before creating his own ad network EngageBDR.com. I used to party with him in LA many years ago. We even hung out with Tom a few times. (You know Tom, the first friend you ever had on myspace lol)

Anyway, Sarah and I got to the club 5 mins late, so it was really rough trying to get in, since Nate Hopkins and his crew were already inside. The place was an absolute ZOO. I’ve never seen such chaos outside a club. Luckily I spotted Ted just about to go in and we jumped in line with him. He was with my buddy Nima from VictoryPoker.com.

So we get inside and this place is huge, but there’s almost nowhere to move. And I am quite claustrophobic, so this was not my cup of tea. They ushered us out to the pool area where there was room to breathe, and they had available cabanas/tables. Problem: this area is OUTSIDE of the club and it was currently 40 DEGREES. No bueno. The good news is, I spotted Nate and they had an inside table with plenty of room, so we all joined forces there for a night to remember! All the usual suspects ended up there: Dan Brock, Tim Donovan, Adam Horowitz, Anthony Trister, etc etc. I think we left around 3am.

That’s when some people called it quits and others went to the Palms where I was told John Chow had the “hardwood suite” which actually has a basketball court in it. And Jamie Lewis had a huge party suite as well, but I don’t remember the name of it. It was across the hall from the Barbie suite, lol. While waiting for a cab to go there, I ran into Simeon Moses. He is a “pick up artist” who won the VH1 reality show “the pickup artist”. He was really interested in learning some SEO so you’ll probably see him inside BTF soon. I had met him once before at Neil Strauss’s house, and he’s a cool dude.

Anyway, I opted for Jamie Lewis’s party because I wanted to meet him (especially since he said nice things about me on the warrior forum recently ). I also met Rob Benwell there. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a guy with more energy! We both used to be at the top of Clickbank back in the day. Me with RJ, and Rob with Blogging to the Bank. It was cool to meet the whole UK crew.

Eventually things started winding down, and while some of them were headed to another party, my body said playtime was definitely over. I headed back to my room for another “sleep until 2pm” session.

Another cool thing about the Trump Tower is they will let you check out at 4pm with no issues. Big ups to them for that! I will definitely stay there again.

Before heading to the airport, I had a quick meeting with Anthony Trister and we discussed/strategized his upcoming Clickbank product. This guy is awesome. If you ever get a chance to talk to him, DO IT.

Well thats about it. A bumpy flight home and doggies happy to see us come through the front door!

My advice: Do NOT miss these events in the future, especially if I give you the thumbs up that good people are gonna be there! Next up is Yanik’s underground seminar in March, in Wash DC. If you’re smart, you will be there. And again, you don’t need a ticket. The speakers are there to SELL you more stuff (while also providing some decent content). I would ignore that stuff (unless you like that sorta thing and have disposable cash), and stick to the bar outside the event, where the real deals are taking place. Make a friend and who knows, maybe you’ll get to tag along to a super secret meeting or mastermind that will change your life?

Be sure to check out http://www.bringthefresh.com for more info on what I do to make money online!

Best,
Kelly

Edited: January 12th, 2011

Back from Affiliate Dot Com Vegas Event

Hey everyone, just back from Vegas and Mike Filsaime’s event. It was my first event in quite a long time (at least 2 yrs).

As usual, I didn’t go inside the actual seminar room for long (maybe 10 minutes total), because I don’t like to get sidetracked with notes about what other people are doing, knowing there is a missing key component that will be pitched at the end for $2k from each speaker. I already have enough ideas on my plate as it is.

One bummer was that I stayed at the Venetian, and it was a $50 cab ride out to no man’s land where the M Resort and the event was. I didn’t know it was gonna be so far away, so I only attended on Friday. But while I was there, I had lunch with George Brown and Tom Miller. Tom has some amazing Facebook software I’m really looking into. I’m probably going to do a webinar with him about it because its just so killer. I’ll talk more about it once I’ve used it a bit more. It can get very black hat, but Tom’s been using it for about a year now himself, and just recently he started selling the software. It creates tons of accounts, gets 5,000 friends on each account, and a bunch of other crazy stuff. One post on a newsfeed to all of the accounts and instant sales of a Clickbank product. He updates it almost daily, to avoid ever-changing facebook codes. It reminded me of the days back in 2006 when you could make a killing on Myspace with bots. Obviously, if you aren’t comfortable with blackhat stuff, just skip it.

Aside from that, I got approached by dozens of people that want me to promote “the next big thing”. When I ask for specifics about how well it was working for their customers, most had no answer other than “good”. No specifics. No shining star case studies. Kinda bummed me out. But they were quick to tell me it converts well, which is classic IM.

I also met a few people who said they got started with the Rich Jerk a long time ago, and that now they had very successful businesses. I got a little emotional about it! Especially this guy “Gunner” from Germany. He seemed very nervous to approach me, and when he told me his story and how he went from nothing to 6 figures a year, providing a nice life for his family… man that was a really cool moment for me.

Anyway, Friday night I took Georgy Boy and Tom Miller and BringTheFresh.com super-member Rick Rivera out to Tao for George’s birthday. Mike Dillard stopped by, as well as Bryan and Ryan Tate (cool guys). Fun times.

Saturday I was wiped and didn’t even leave my room. Didn’t answer the phone or check email. It was awesome. Note to self: blackout shades are amazing. Apparently I missed a night of debauchery at Club XS. Oh well.

Sunday I took my girlfriend sight-seeing, as it was her first time in Vegas. This included dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world – CraftSteak at the MGM – owned by Tom Colicchio of Top Chef. Amazing stuff there.

Then Sunday night was THE night. The affiliate appreciation event where Mike Filsaime rented out half of the club “Lavo” at the Palazzo hotel. It was pretty nuts. More alcohol than anyone could ever consume, but I stayed sober enough to talk to a lot of IM’ers. I met tons of new people and reunited with others I hadn’t seen in years. I was most impressed by Rich Schefren. I sat down with him for at least 30 min and he really blew me away with how he is providing value to his customers. I was shocked that he actually cared – pretty unusual these days.

All in all it was fun. A few key conversations made the whole trip worthwhile. Same thing for Rick – he made a lot of good connections.

It just goes to show, the money and “secrets” are never from the seminar, but from the conversations that take place outside. Especially at the bar. So don’t ever feel like you’re not welcome to attend anyone’s event, just because you don’t have an invitation. Nobody cares, and one solid connection or conversation can change everything.

I’ll probably be back in Vegas in January for Affiliate Summit West, and then Wash DC in March for Yanik Silver’s Underground seminar. (again, not buying tickets to either one, or listening to any speakers) Let me know if you’re gonna be at either event, and if there’s any synergy for us to hang out or chat.

Edited: November 26th, 2010