EQUTE — If you’re even slightly involved with internet marketing, or affiliate marketing as it’s more commonly known, you’ve probably heard of the Affiliate Summit. Way back in 2003 is when the conference started out in New York City. That year the show saw around 200 visitors, mostly affiliates. Fast forward to 2009 where there were 3076 attendees. Don’t forget that’s not counting the number of people who brought friends and didn’t register for the actual summit.

Of course this attendance isn’t just affiliates by any means. People attending the conference vary from year to year but generally there will be any number of Vendors, Affiliate Marketers or Publishers, Agencies, Merchants or Affiliate Networks to stop and talk with or sometimes even sign up with right on the spot so you’re ready to start running traffic as soon as you return to the office, or from your iPhone later on in the evening if you’re that gung-ho.

Now, there are there are two Affiliate Summits held every year, one on the east coast and one on the west coast. The west coast ones are always held in Las Vegas while the East Coast ones vary between New York City, Boston, Miami and Orlando. The location for ASE is based on user feedback generated throughout the affiliate community with coordinators of Affiliate Summit.

These shows are a great opportunity to meet other people involved in a similar business, to find the latest offer to run with on your campaign, or just to put faces to names of all the people you’ve been speaking to online on popular forums like WickedFire.

Attending any of these conferences is a great idea for new, and experienced affiliates a like. Regardless of your experience, just showing up will psychologically tell people that you’re interested in the business and industry and aren’t just some faceless ‘internet person’. Creating these types of relationships can have a lasting impression on your business for a lifetime and are not to be passed up.

The New York conference is more about business than pleasure, with many deals going on both behind closed doors and open doors in restaurants, pubs and sometimes even late at night during the network parties.

Did we mention the parties? Yes, many of the networks have parties for their affiliates, whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the entire industry as long as you’re hooked up with a few networks you will be sure to be invited along to some of them. These parties are great social events, and definitely worthwhile for meeting other affiliates in the scene. While business can’t always be conducted at these parties – thumping bass and copious amounts of alcohol, it’s still a great way to meet more people in the industry and get introduced to others you probably never would have met or talked with otherwise.

Some of our best ideas have come out of attending Affiliate Summit East and without it we wouldn’t be where we are today, and know what we know now.

Attend Affiliate Summit East and see for yourself what it can do for your business too. See you there!

The Search Engine Strategies conference is one of the greatest conferences to hit up for the SEO worker. Experts and novices alike can get some good information out of the show.

The conference features a lots of great speakers from big New York powerhouses such as the New York Times company SEO staff, the ABC News SEO staff, the author of World Wide Rave and of course a Googler.

The main page of the SES site said it perfectly:

Your customers, colleagues and competition will be in attendance — will you?

It’s always something to ponder, going to these type of events. Sometime you’ll come home thinking you didn’t learn anything. But even if you didn’t learn anything new, a whole slew of other people did. So if you learn one thing, it’s exactly what your competition knows.

I don’t think I’ve been to a conference where I didn’t take at least a small helpful nugget of advice. It’s always good to see what the big dogs are doing — even if they are far behind the smaller agile SEO experts.

See you at SES New York!

EQUTE — The Affiliate Summit is the place for anyone in the affiliate marketing space for one big reason — the people.

If you are working as a full time affiliate marketer, it’s sometimes hard to remember that it is still a major business with major business people on top of the scrappy small to mid-sized players.

Networking can sometimes be a pain, but the Affiliate Summit is the place to do it. Even if you don’t like networking, two or three days of chatting with everybody in the business and you’re done for the whole year.

I just got back from Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas (ASW10) where I had the great opportunity to speak with and meet affiliate bloggers such as PPC.bz, Bryn Youngblut, John Chow, Andrew Wee and catch up with friends from past events — all big players and all veritable fonts of information. They are all also great sources of information, and if you can give them a bit of information or a novel way at looking at things, they will return the favor.

The smaller players are also great sources of information you might not have thought of, and perfect partners for the future. I always make sure to give a few tips or best practices, and I cannot say how many new ideas they have given me — drop the whole crowd in a party and the ideas flow like the free liquor.

Speaking of those parties, and there are many, it’s a great way to build a base with the hosts and the guests for the future.

The parties are always a great experience — and there were countless people who really got me thinking and taking sloppy notes! The Buy.at party was a thumper, maybe I didn’t do much networking, but met up with Heather from the Paulson Management Group, who was having quite a time with Paul Oakenfold at the DJ booth.

Oh yeah, the summit was great too! The keynote from Dr. Robert Cialdini was outstanding; you could look around the room and see light bulbs going off across the audience. To have such a mind focused on such a small niche of marketing, it was quite a privilege.

And just walking the summit floor, you have the opportunity to meet just about anyone you’ve met in the business.

Stopping and talking with the managers at the booths can also be invaluable, I can’t remember how many better commissions, secret offers or future plans I got just by talking with the people in the networks. That little interaction is just another way the summit can change the way you do things for the next year.

At the end of the 2010 Affiliate Summit, I’ve got a stack of business cards and a notebook full of ideas. And if I gained nothing solid from the summit, it gets the mind working in a new way, searching for new ideas and new ways to engage our customers.

With Affiliate Summit New York set to begin soon, a lot of people are wondering what they can do to make the most of the event.

Affiliate marketers, especially new ones, are likely wondering how they can get all the best information, the best contacts and find the best parties to make it worth their time. But there are a few things that everyone should do to prepare for the cacophony of information.

• Pack What You Need

It seems simple, but make sure you have exactly what you need. Mostly this is a pad of paper and a good pen. You’ll probably get an armload of free, branded notebooks and pens, but bring a notebook you use at home, you’ll be less likely to set it down and forget it and the information inside.

Make sure to bring plenty of business cards. Running out or using your colleague’s card makes you look unprofessional. Big industry contacts will be at the affiliate summit, and if you want to talk to them, it’s best to look professional. We might make money with our feet up and our pajamas on, but a business attitude will stick with the business types and could get you a higher payout or a better reputation.

Bring one or two sets of nice clothes, if an appreciative affiliate manager wants to take you out for a nice dinner, you don’t want to look like a hobo — again your professionalism will make a good impression. Affiliate managers are more likely to help out the publishers and marketers that look like they have their eye on the next level whether they do or not.

• Decide What You Want To See (And What You Don’t)

A little planning goes a long way. Find the schedule and make a rough itinerary. If you don’t care about the future of foot cream affiliate offers lecture, skip it and pencil in a lunch. Talk to your favorite affiliate network manager or a colleague and invite them to lunch or a quick drink — it’ll be easier to get them away from the action when the lectures are going.

If you make yourself a schedule, you’ll be more apt to maximize your time and your talks with industry folks. Go in, make a good impression, then get back to the schedule. By limiting your chatting time and deciding who you want to talk to will help you get right to the point instead of chit-chatting with what might be a great person but a bad business contact.

Choose the lectures you want to see (if any), Affiliate Summit pays good money for huge names. You might only get a nugget of information, but as you probably know, every little bit helps. The lectures are also a good way to find a different perspective, even if it’s a rather mundane lecture topic, a big name could give you some good inspiration or new ideas. Hearing lecturers from Google or super affiliates outside your verticals might give you a new outlook on how to do things.

Do leave some wiggle room in your schedule. If you start talking to a promising business contact, don’t neglect your bread and butter to make the rounds for more free stress balls.

• Plan Some Downtime

Find a nice party or two, and when you’re there have fun. If you get burned out on the first day, you’ll miss a lot the next day. Have some fun, meet some people in your field but don’t worry too much. If something promising comes up over free drinks, write it down and put it in your pocket.

Make sure to take advantage of your hotel room, if there are no lunches, dinners or lectures you want to go to, head back to the room for a powernap or a little break. It’s easy to get burned out talking about affiliate marketing all day, but with a little personal time, it’s easier to focus, plan your next move or digest what you’ve already learned.

This is also a great time for some one-on-one time. Meet up with a couple buddies from the industry and crack open a beer — after all the most important thing for seasoned marketers is meeting and making an impression on their contacts face to face.

A little downtime is also idea for sorting through your inevitable pile of business cards, swag and one-sheets. Make a shortlist of the people you want to talk to more after the summit ends — you simply cannot get in touch with everyone.

• Get Back To Work!

As soon as you land, decide how you want to implement your new ideas and how to use your new information. It’s essential to do this right away, even if your notebook of ideas is sitting on your desk, you won’t push yourself to the next level unless you hit the ground running. There were 100 other people who got the same information at Affiliate Summit, so be the first to try that new way of doing things.

Weather those new tips pay off or not, the only way you can rise above your competition is to keep changing and continue trying new things.