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!

This winter we saw an extremely good show at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas. If you’re not familiar with Affiliate Summit, check out our previous articles on Affiliate Summit. These conferences are specifically designed for individuals involved in the Affiliate Marketing industry and aims to help them gain connections, learn new business strategies and network with like-minded individuals in the same general industry.

Let’s face it Las Vegas is a party city. If you haven’t been to Las Vegas you’ll immediately notice the lights, glitz and glamour everywhere you look – even some of the alleys. Not to mention the rampant use of alcohol and all sorts of other nefarious activities one can get up to. What better place to hold a conference for a bunch of people who spend copious amounts of time on their computers setting up campaigns or researching the latest trending keywords.

Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas is huge. The exhibition floor caters to more advertisers, networks and merchants than you will often see at the Eastern Conference, but that’s not to say it’s better – just different. Because of the nature of the city, it’s common for individuals to stay out late and party with friends they haven’t seen since the last conference and maybe not conduct as much business, as they are establishing longer term social relationships.

In our experience Vegas saw more attendees probably because it seems many affiliates, and their friends are from the west coast so it’s easier to travel to and often cheaper than it is to stay in New York or Miami. The parties in Las Vegas are much different than the events in New York, with many smaller and more private parties held in expensive hotel suites or similar venues. Often with bands or other forms of live entertainment to keep affiliates and friends sufficiently entertained.

Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas provides more opportunity to meet new networks, vendors and merchants. This is the place to visit if you’re looking for new offers to run in your campaigns or just for new ideas on what you could be running.

Attending the Western conference is different than the eastern sibling, but mostly because of the 24/7 party nature of Las Vegas, and many attendees haven’t visited the town before so they want to get the full experience from it, as well as from the conference. Which undoubtedly leads to a little bit less business conducted in some cases, but in others more business or networking conducted so it does balance itself out and help any affiliate whether new, or experienced implement new ideas and ultimately dollars to their business.

We attribute some of the relationships we’ve made at Affiliate Summit West with helping us double our income in the past 4 months since the event, and our entire team has made lasting friendships with people from around the world that we wouldn’t have otherwise met. We hope to see you there next winter for Affiliate Summit 2011.

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EQUTE — The uproar over flogs or fake blogs continues, but who is really responsible for them?

I liken the current Federal Trade Commission crackdown and all out Oprah war on flogs to the banking crisis. Both bring up the question of where is the regulation and who should be doing the regulating?

All along the way from the fake blog to the CPA action, people could have stopped and said, “Well, this doesn’t seem right, maybe I should stop.”

The affiliate marketing writer cold police him or herself, but when it’s a matter of livelihood, are they really going to stop when their storefront site is getting hammered by Lucy’s Juicy Diet and Wally’s White Teeth? Adding pressure to make more commissions from affiliate managers also pushes them to follow the path that works. Sure, one could ask if everyone were jumping off a cliff, would you? Affiliates would likely answer, “Sure, if we’re landing in a big pile of money.”

Then there is the networks, they might throw a line or two into their 40-page terms of service about fake blogs and trademarks. But beyond that, they don’t have the time or resources to wonder where each link is coming from — especially if that link is bringing in money for them and their advertisers. Adding regulation at this point seems logical until you think about how many thousands of new landing pages pop up every day for everything from acai berries, Obama grants, Google money, teeth whitening and all the rest. Unlike entities like Facebook, affiliate networks aren’t going to set up an expensive lander submittal process that would only succeed in making them less money.

Then there is the advertiser, the one visible person that gets a negative image in the eyes of the consumer if they catch on that what they’re reading is a flog. Some advertisers have sought out flogs and stopped them, but more often than not, even the advertiser isn’t going to be eager to cut themselves out of the profit. Perhaps they could send that free trial offer to reviewers and bloggers — which some do — but that means more overhead and putting a lot of trust in the blogger’s hands. If they are hawking acai berries and colon cleanse anyway, do they even want people telling the truth?

So where does that put us? Nobody wants to lose money by quashing flogs altogether, but nobody really likes them. It’s not an easy question to answer, and in the sea of dubious information that is the Internet, aren’t flogs exactly what everybody expects to find?

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.