mat t hewwo o dward.co .uk http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/affiliate-summit/

Matthew Woodward

A Virgin’s Guide To Affiliate Summit

Af f iliate Summit landed in Las Vegas last week and let me tell you, if you arethinking of attending the next one – do not hesitate!

It is the biggest af f iliate conf erence on the planet, where you can meet yourblogging heroes and party the night away – dot com style!

It was a blast and the contacts & connections I have made are priceless.

So let’s take a look at what makes Af f iliate Summit awesome!

Extra Thanks To ShareASale

Without the ShareASale team I would never have attended Af f iliate Summit.

Brian Litt leton (ShareASale CEO) reached out and of f ered to cover the cost of the f lights and conf erenceticket.

This was down to how well the blog did in the Af f iliate Summit Best Blog award votes which I eventually wontaking 38% of the votes. You, the readers are responsible f or that.

The entire ShareASale team pitched in to help plan my trip and took care of me while I was there. It is muchappreciated!

Special mentions go out to Brian, David, Erica, Lindsey & Nick.

Flying In Style

What I didn’t expect ShareASale to do is book f irst class f lights f rom Manchester to Las Vegas.

My regular readers will know I travel a lot and I usually take the cheapest option, even if that does meanhanging of f the side of a bus.

So you can imagine my reaction to f ind that Brian had splashed out over $8,000 on f irst class f lights.

They had seats that turned into f lat beds! The air hostesses would even ‘make the bed’ f or you and pull outsheets, duvets and pillows!

I have never really being one f or f ood on f lights, I alway skip over it because lets f ace it – it ’s disgusting. Thatwas until they put this in f ront of me-

I turned that into poo quicker than you can blink!

They also slaughtered you with f ree booze, slippers, pyjamas – you name it!

You even got this lit t le bag of shampoo, conditioner, a comb and this…

A Razor!!! Af ter all the hassle of security they just handed me over a razor. That’s the sort of thing that can getyou the rubber glove treatment at security!

Have I Sold My Soul?

I started to think, why would a company spend over $10,000 to get me there – had I sold my soul?

I asked Brian Litt leton (ShareASale CEO) why they went to that trouble and it turns out ShareASale are notyour average af f iliate network.

Most networks just f ocus on landing the big money merchants, but Brian wants to be dif f erent. He wants tobuild relationships with bloggers & af f iliates and get them in the same room as his merchants.

As someone that has worked on both the merchant side and the af f iliate side that approach is reallyref reshing. Most networks are just interested in charging merchants extortionate setup f ees and skimming thecommission f or the accounts lif etime.

But ShareASale are going that extra step to connect their af f iliates with their merchants on a personal level.Rather than just blasting out the best of f ers this week.

So if you are a merchant looking to launch a successf ul af f iliate program take a look at what ShareASale canof f er you – as you can see, they are not your average af f iliate network.

So I can saf ely say I haven’t sold my soul. If memes are to be believed, I didn’t have one in the f irst placeanyway.

The Venue

Af f iliate Summit was hosted at the Paris hotel which is slap bang in the middle of the strip and right oppositeThe Bellagio.

This was the view I had f rom my room in the hotel.

It was the perf ect setting to get all of the best af f iliates in the world in one place!

The Sessions

There were a bunch of dif f erent educational sessions running across Af f iliate Summit hosted by some of themost experienced people in the industry.

We had sessions with John Chow, Jeremy ‘Shoemoney’ Schoemaker , Zac Johnson, Rae Hof f man & manymany more.

You can check out the f ull list of sessions right here.

I only had time to check out a f ew of them though.

First Timers Orientat ion

Shawn Collins

As this was my f irst Af f iliate Summit I hit the orientation hosted by co-f ounder Shawn Collins.

He takes you through everything you need to know and how to get the most out of the conf erence. He alsohanded out packs of treats and a couple of books!

Click Here to Read the Transcript

If you do attend Af f iliate Summit f or the f irst t ime I highly recommend you check it out!

Thanks to Shawn f or sorting out access to the blogger lounge, I had some of the best conversations in there!

Writ ing Pages to Rank in the Search Engines

Adam Riemer

This session was a basic look at on page optimisation – there were some great t ips f or beginners-

intermediate SEO’s.

Unf ortunately I was called out half way through so had to make an exit.

Secrets of Top Six Figure Bloggers

John Chow, Zac Johnson, John Rampton, Syed Balkhi

This was one of the sessions I was more excited about – I have read John Chow & Zac Johnsons blogs f oryears and had crossed paths a couple of t imes online in the past.

The talk was great as each blogger shared their perspectives on a range of blogging related subjects.

Generat ing Aff iliate Income with a Branded Blog

Rae Hoffman (sugarrae)

Another blogger I have f ollwed f or a while is Rae Hof f man. I jumped into her talk without hesitation.

She shared her strategy f or starting with a blank piece of paper to build a branded af f iliate blog.

The Partys

There were 3 awesome partys open to all Af f iliate Summit attendees with open bars and superstarperf ormances.

ShareASale Superheroes VS. Supervillains

The f irst party to kick things of f was ShareASale’s Superheroes VS. Supervillains – with optional f ancy dressand an open bar it was a great opening.

They also had amazing tableside magician Joel Givens perf orming. I got up close and personal with him atdinner the next evening, I have never seen table side magic like he does it.

He is so good, he had to remove all his videos f rom YouTube because everyone was stealing his tricks!

Aff iliate Ball

The Af f iliate Ball was hosted at the Chateau nightclub and again, the open bar ensured the drinks were f lowing.

The night was hosted by Flavor Flav with perf ormances by B Real (Cypress Hill) & Too $hort.

While it was an awesome party the jet lag got the better of me and I was f alling asleep drink in hand soknocked it on the head early doors!

Aff iliate Nat ion

Last but not least was the Af f ilaite Nation party at club Tao. The same deal applied, open bar and awesomeperf ormances.

This year f eatured perf ormances f rom Warren G, Tone Loc, 2 Live Crew, Young MC & V.I.C.

Af f iliates certainly know how to thrown down the best partys! There is no doubt about that!

Never Meet Your Heroes

Whoever said you should never meet your heroes is an idiot.

I’ve been a long time f ollower of John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson, Missy Ward & Rae Hof f man to name af ew. I’ve read their blogs f or years and any books they have published.

Af f iliate Summit gave me the opportunity to meet and network with my internet marketing heroes.

I bumped into Shoemoney, spent t ime with John Chow in the blogging lounge and went to dinner with MissyWard, Rae Hof f man and the ShareASale team to name a f ew.

Each and everyone of them was open and approachable, it was great to f inally meet everyone!

HULKAMANIA

Hulk Hogan really stole the show at Af f iliate Summit promoting HostAMania which of f ers 6 months f reehosting!

The #ASW14 twitter hash tag was going absolutely crazy f or the hulk!

They did a great job promoting the new company and blew HostGators crappy basketball game stand out ofthe water!

Not only that but the of f er is great as well. You get your f irst 6 months hosting completely f ree!

Planting The Seed

The biggest value Af f iliate Summit provides is the opportunity to network and f orm relationships. Don’t bescared to talk to strangers, if they have an Af f iliate Summit badge they want to talk.

It ’s easy to shy away f rom people but approach the conf erence with an open mind and speak to as manypeople as you can, you never know what might happen!

I have only being back f or a f ew days but those new relationships are already opening some doors-

WPEngine

WPEngine have being testing my patience f or the past f ew months now.

The backend of the site is awf ully slow, it takes nearly 40 seconds to login, 30 seconds to approve a comment– all that extra t ime adds up. The f ront end is razor f ast though!

Support used to be awesome and take ownership of issues, now it seems they just push them back on you.

They even deleted a bunch of data f rom the live database without my permission OR taking a backup f irst.

So when I spotted co-f ounder Ben Metcalf e we had a pretty direct conversation. Needless to say they nowhave their best talent looking to resolve the problem.

It’s just a shame I had to f ly half way around the world f or that to happen.

Your Legal Questions Answered

I spoke to Paula Brillson (DigitalLawGroup) who has agreed to answer all of your legal questions on the blogf ree of charge.

If you have a legal question you want an answer to, then just post them here.

I will get them all answered f or you!

CDN Case Study

Af ter speaking with a couple of guys f rom MaxCDN in the bloggers lounge I managed to hook up a special treatf or you.

I use MaxCDN across most of my sites so I have spent this weekend collecting data f or a new case study.

You’ll be surprised at how much of a dif f erence it makes!

Opt In Case Study

I had previously tested a popup opt in on the blog that had poor results. I spent some time with Syed Balkhi(who runs WPBeginner) and he of f ered advice on how to improve things.

Of f the back of his advice I’m going to deploy a new test this week to collect data and report back.

Improving Outreach

I spoke to Michael Geneles who is the co-f ounder of PitchBox about his outreach system. I grilled him veryhard on the tool and he knocked everyone of my questions out of the park.

Based on that I set him the challenge to use his system to promote this post, promote my f ree seo tool andrecruit af f iliates.

Expect an awesome case study of f the back of this.

Competit ion Prizes

I’m not going to ruin any surprises here but I was able to secure a huge range of competit ion prizes f oreveryone.

I’ve given away thousands and thousands of dollars worth of tools and sof tware the past year.

It looks like that trend is going to continue this year =D

See You At The Next Aff iliate Summit

All in all the Af f iliate Summit experience was an awesome one.

3 days of wild partys with the most talented and experienced people in the industry.

Whats not to love about that?

The connections and relationships you make will be priceless.

The next Af f iliate Summit takes place in New York on August 10th-12th. I will see you there!