affiliate summit

Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap Up

ASE12 wrap up

After five fun filled days in New York City, I am back at the PeerFly office trying to catch up from the days I was gone and also trying to follow up with all the great new contacts I met at Affiliate Summit East. This year’s ASE went fantastic and I not only met a lot of great new people I am looking forward to working with, but I had an opportunity to catch up with industry friends that I have made over the years.

The first conference I attended with PeerFly (and the first Affiliate Summit PeerFly ever attended) was just two years ago at ASE10. We did not exhibit or even have a Meet Market table. We simply got passes so that we could go, mingle with our current clients, and try to learn a thing or two from the sessions. Since then, we have grown immensely and we not only have a table in the Meet Market and booth in the exhibit hall, but we also sponsor parties, give away some of the coolest shirts that have ever been given out at any conference ( :) ), and are actually sought after by other attendees. It is pretty cool to be recognized for all our hard work.

The Meet Market
PeerFly Banner 250x250 Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap UpThe Meet Market at Affiliate Summit is always on the first official day of the conference. I like the Meet Market because it’s a little more relaxed than the hectic flow of people that walk through the exhibit hall during the other two days of the conference and it gives me an opportunity to walk around and speak with some of my friends in the industry. Even though we are direct competitors with a lot of the affiliate networks that attend Affiliate Summit, we are also pretty good friends and work with them on a regular basis. We work in a very friendly industry, which makes conferences like Affiliate Summit that much more fun.

While I was at the Meet Market I had an opportunity to speak with Zac Johnson and told him that I will be using his blog as inspiration for my new design for this blog that should be released towards the end of September or beginning of October. He seemed pretty excited about it and we are going to do an interview on his blog, which will be pretty cool!

The Exhibit Hall
booth1 250x250 Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap UpWorking a booth at the exhibit hall at Affiliate Summit is one of the most exhausting things you could ever do in your entire life. Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad, but it definitely will definitely make your entire body and mind tired.

The exhibit hall was open for attendees from 10-5pm on Monday and from 10-4pm on Tuesday. That’s 13 hours of standing at a table and speaking with the thousands of people that pass by. By the end of the day your feet are screaming at you to take your shoes off and your legs are prepared to buckle if you do not sit down. Despite all my wining, I really enjoy it.

I met a ton of new people and made some really good contacts. This year there were definitely a lot more advertisers walking around than publishers, but the publishers I did speak with seemed really excited to give PeerFly a try.

Our booth for ASE12 was brand new. We got a new booth with our new slogan, Custom Built. Performance Driven., and some new Incent.ly shirts to give away.

Incently
incently shirts1 250x250 Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap UpAt ASE we officially announced Incently. Incently (incent.ly) will be PeerFly’s new sister network specializing specifically in incentive based traffic. PeerFly has been 100% non-incent for a long time now and we wanted to give our publishers an opportunity to work with incentive traffic, but at the same time keep the good quality of the traffic at PeerFly up. So, we will be opening an new incentive network in the next couple of months.

We ordered blue and purple incent.ly shirts and gave them away at our meet market table and booth at Affiliate Summit. We’re really excited for incent.ly and I’ll be posting about it quite a bit probably over the next few months :)

Too Much Food
Del Frisko1 250x250 Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap UpThere are a lot of benefits that come along with working for PeerFly, but it goes without saying that the amazing meals we eat while we’re at conferences are a huge bonus. I consumed more steak over the five day span while we were at Affiliate Summit than I have the entire rest of the year combined. I’m pretty sure I may have consumed more calories than the entire time I was competing in the PeerFly Weight Loss Contest. New York has some really good food, but if you’re going to be visiting anytime soon and you are looking for a good steak I suggest going to both Del Frisko and Ruth’s Chris. They are both amazing and I am already looking forward to going back next year for ASE13.

Affiliate Ball
Affiliate Ball1 250x250 Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap UpI did a complete post a few days before we left for Affiliate Summit about the Affiliate Ball. Did it live up to my expectations? Sort of. The Copacabana was pretty nice, but it was a little farther from the Hilton that everyone was staying at than I expected. I would suggest getting somewhere a little closer for next year.

The performances I saw were pretty good. Trayne only did two songs, but they were good and then Mix Master Mike came on and he was awesome. Ice-T and Coco were there, but I didn’t get a chance to get a picture with them. The AFFY Awards were kind of lame in my opinion and I wouldn’t suggest doing them again. Overall, it was a pretty fun night, but I left early because I was really tired and the drinks were all too expensive.

Touring New York
Statue of Liberty1 250x250 Affiliate Summit East (ASE12) Wrap UpThe conference ended on Tuesday, but our flight back to Florida was not until late Wednesday night. We had intentionally scheduled our flight late on Wednesday so we would not be rushed to leave on Tuesday after the conference (a mistake we made at ASE11 last year) and it would also give us an opportunity to roam around New York. So, we took an all day bus tour of the city using Gray Line New York Sightseeing and it was awesome.

The bus was comfortable and our tour guide knew everything about every street we drove down throughout the city. We drove by Central Park (I didn’t know it was so big!) and even took a ferry around the Statue of Liberty. If you’re in New York and have a free day, I definitely suggest looking into a bus tour.

Affiliate Summit East this year was awesome. I had a great time meeting new people, catching up with friends, eating a ton of food, partying with the PeerFly team, and touring the city. I’m really looking forward to ASW13 in Vegas, but until then, let’s run some traffic and make some money!

Affiliate Summit Central (ASC12) Wrap Up

affiliate summit central 2012 wrap up

One of the biggest perks to being an Affiliate Manager is attending the affiliate conferences and Affiliate Summit is by far my favorite affiliate marketing conference. Each year there are usually two Affiliate Summit conferences. In January there’s Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas and in September there’s Affiliate Summit East in New York City. This year Shawn Collins, the founder of Affiliate Summit, decided to do another conference in his hometown of Austin, Texas and we decided at PeerFly that we needed to have a presence there so Davey and I flew out on Monday afternoon to see how it would go.

Affiliate Summit Central was small

The last Affiliate Summit, ASW12 in January, had over 5,000 attendees. Affiliate Summit Central I believe had about 400-500 people attending. It was about 10% the size of a normal Affiliate Summit. When I was walking around talking to people that I had met at previous Affiliate Summit conferences, it seemed like everyone said the same thing. It was “weird” for an Affiliate Summit to be so small. There was no large exhibit hall, but instead just some tables setup around a multipurpose room. I say multipurpose because it was the room they served breakfast/lunch in and also the room that everyone would hang out in between sessions. It definitely felt weird, but it was also pretty functional.

affiliate summit central 550x412 Affiliate Summit Central (ASC12) Wrap Up
Image from Shawn Collin’s Facebook

ASC sessions Affiliate Summit Central (ASC12) Wrap Up

The sessions were okay

We were not really sure what to expect as far as a turnout for Affiliate Summit Central so PeerFly decided not to exhibit. We have exhibited at the past three Affiliate Summit conferences, but for this one we decided to just get passes so we could network and go to the sessions. I don’t think I’ve gone to a session at Affiliate Summit since ASE10, but it was nice to be able to participate in the sessions at ASC. Some of the sessions were lame and didn’t have a lot of great content (or at least I wasn’t interested in the content), but there were a few that I really enjoyed. One that had a ton of value in my opinion was the Search Engine Optimization Q&A. There were three SEO experts who were basically taking questions from the audience. Now, because we are internet nerds and socially awkward, they had a system setup so you could text in your questions rather than having to ask in front of a room full of around 100 people. Nearly all the questions they took were from the text messages coming in (including two of my own. haha!) and it was a very interesting discussion.

IMG 0565 550x412 Affiliate Summit Central (ASC12) Wrap Up

The parties were great

Having graduated college about a year ago, I’ve attended a party or two. There is nothing that opens people up more than getting a little bit of alcohol in their system. That includes me. So, needless to say, I throughly enjoy the parties held at the different Affiliate Summit conferences. Even though Affiliate Summit Central was a lot smaller than the normal Affiliate Summit, there was no lack in the party experience. The parties were absolutely great and I had an awesome time hanging out and mingling with publishers, clients, and random people I don’t remember. Thankfully, I never forget to get a business card :)

I want to give a special shout out to Logan Thompson and Ian Fernando. The only thing that makes an open bar better is an open bar with great company.

ASC13?

One of the things Davey and I discussed on our flight back home was whether or not ASC12 was worth the money and if we should attend it again next year (if there is one). The decision…yes. Although the conference was a lot smaller than normal, there were many great contacts to be made and even without the contacts, just having a presence can be worth it. There were a lot of people there that we are already working with at PeerFly and meeting up with those people was great. Building a person relationship helps build trust and sometimes that’s all it takes to get the traffic or offer.

I am looking forward to Affiliate Summit East in August. If you’re a serious affiliate marketer I suggest you start saving now for airfare and a pass. If you have any questions or want to discuss conferences more feel free to contact me. Now, time to get back to work and make some money!

Where is Luke?

Where is Luke

Okay, I apologize for not posting. It has been well over a month (almost two months) since my last blog post. Honestly, things have been so crazy for me over the past month that I hadn’t even thought about posting. Some friendly readers that dropped by our PeerFly booth at Affiliate Summit East reminded me that I do have a blog and I do need to post, so here is a wrap up of what has happened in my life over the past month.

I got married!

wedding photo 550x366 Where is Luke?

On July 22nd I married my amazing and beautiful girlfriend of 9 years, Heidi. The wedding was great and it was by far the best day of my life. Heidi and I have been together since the summer before we went to the 8th grade and I can’t even begin to explain how much I appreciate having her in my life.

About a week after we got married…

We moved to Florida!

welcome to Florida 550x409 Where is Luke?

Heidi and I have lived in Illinois all our lives, but in order to help take PeerFly to the next level we had to move to Florida so I could start working out of the PeerFly office. I have worked for PeerFly for about 2 years now from my college apartment (I also just graduated from Illinois State University in May). PeerFly has grown immensely over the past 2 years and I will now be working full time out of the new PeerFly office. So, I’ve also been busy…

Setting up my new PeerFly office!

office desk 550x410 Where is Luke?

office computer 550x410 Where is Luke?

Okay, so it looks pretty plain. It’s a work in progress. We opened a new office for PeerFly in Alalchua, Florida earlier this year, but at the time there was actually only one of us working out of it (our CEO, Chad French). Soon, pretty much the whole PeerFly crew will be working out of our new office full time. We’re all very excited.

Oh, and about a month after my wedding and only a few weeks after I moved to Florida…

I went to Affiliate Summit in New York!

booth 550x410 Where is Luke?

One of the major perks of being an affiliate manager is having the opportunity to go to the conferences. I love attending conferences like Affiliate Summit. It gives me the opportunity to meet up with my current publishers and friends in the industry. It’s also a great chance to meet new publishers. We had a great time at ASE and I’m really looking forward to ASW in Las Vegas this upcoming January. I plan to do a complete Affiliate Summit East wrap up post soon.

As you can see, I have been a little busy. Graduation in May, wedding in July, moved 1000 miles in August and then just got back form Affiliate Summit. It’s been a hectic, but fantastic summer. I’m looking forward to getting myself into more of a routine starting September. Of course, part of that routine will be updating my blog.

I appreciate your patience and look forward to some great posts to finish out the year :)  

Hello World

world

Hello world!  As you can see, I have decided to start my own affiliate manager blog for PeerFly.  I wanted to create this blog because it will give me the opportunity to share my knowledge of affiliate marketing with my PeerFly publishers (and affiliate marketers who have not joined PeerFly yet) on a mass scale.  Obviously I plan to talk about PeerFly a lot and this blog will be somewhat biased towards PeerFly, but I hope to share information that will help any affiliate, no matter what network they use.  So, why should you listen to me?

Affiliate Marketing Experience

I have worked in the affiliate marketing industry since my sophomore year of high school about seven years ago.  The first company I worked for was XY7.com.  I worked for XY7 until my freshmen year of college at which point I decided to take time off so I could focus on school.  About half way through my sophomore year of college I realized that I needed a job to pay for my apartment and college expenses or I was going to have to increase my student loans.  So, I talked to Kevin from XY7 and he welcomed me back with open arms.  I went right back to managing affiliates and finished out the year pretty successfully.  Over the course of my junior year of college I was put in charge of managing several network accounts at XY7 and one just so happened to be PeerFly.  I have liked what PeerFly has done since day one.  I am a web developer at heart and PeerFly was one of the first networks to be built on an all custom platform, which is a HUGE asset and something I found very attractive.  I left XY7 and within a few months I was taking on accounts at PeerFly.

I have been working for PeerFly since October of 2009 and it has been amazing watching the company grow.  PeerFly was founded in December of 2008 and we are now recognized as one of the fastest growing networks in the industry.

Plans For This Blog

I have a lot of ideas on how I can really make this blog a good resource for an affiliate marketer.  To start with, I plan to do a complete tutorial and walk through of our Publisher interface at PeerFly.  I also will be posting about new offers we add to PeerFly that really stand out to me and I think are real winners.  We get some really good campaigns and I feel like some are overlooked because we have so many (over 1,000).  I also plan to do some case studies to show different marketing methods and how to setup campaigns with different ad networks.

So, over the course of the next few months I will be pushing to get the articles mentioned above up.  If you have any suggestions or questions please do not hesitate to ask!