Having a Blast at the Affiliate Summit, Part II

Day 1

The first day at the Affiliate Summit started with the BEST breakfast buffet I’ve ever had (at the Indigo restaurant). They had tons of fresh fruit, yummy sausage, and yes, even grilled tomatoes!

After breakfast we all headed to the keynote speech by Ze Frank. Frankly, I was laughing so hard I don’t really remember what he talked about. It was something about airplane safety, viral marketing, and building online communities.

Phenomenal speaker, check out Ze’s site on how to dance properly. This site made him famous.

Next on the agenda was merchant/affiliate manager interrogation. You see, walking into the exhibit booths-with all the merchants-while you’re wearing an affiliate badge (especially a speaker’s badge) is like being a wounded bleeding seal encircled by a pack of hungry sharks.

I’m NOT joking.

Normally I’m a nice guy, but when dealing with overly aggressive merchants that are desperate to recruit affiliates (and trying to lure you towards their booths with scantily dressed women), I can be a little rude.

My goal is to cut through all the crap and hype and find a good merchant or affiliate network to work with. This year I really didn’t find anything until I started talking to several other super affiliates who strongly recommended Azoogle.

Azoogle is renowned for their excellent affiliate offers and dedicated customer service.

So I’m excited to say that I’ll be working with Azoogle (I already have an account manager, who came highly recommended).

Later in the afternoon I had a chance to see mega affiliates Jeremy Palmer, Rosalind Gardner, and Scott Jangro talk about “What Super Affiliates WANT.” It was a great talk.

I even had a chance to take a picture with Rosalind and Jeremy…

It was really an honor to take a picture with them. I’ve learned so much from them, especially when I was just starting out.

Next on the agenda was my talk. I was a little nervous before the talk, but I was fine once I started talking.

I really really enjoyed the opportunity to speak. Affiliate marketing is a subject I’m very passionate about. In my opinion it’s the greatest business opportunity in the world, and I dare anyone to show me something better.

I had lots of people come up to me afterwards and tell me how much they enjoyed my talk.

And if you enjoyed my talk that’s great, but my purpose was not to entertain anyone. I really hope that you go out and take action after listening to my talk and make some affiliate profits.

I’m going to ask Shawn Collins if I can post the video of my talk online, so stay tuned. I want everyone, who didn’t attend the Summit, to have to opportunity to listen to it.

Later that night we all headed to the Mansion party, which was phenomenal. The highlight of the party for me was the opportunity to speak to the CEO of PepperJam, Kris Jones!!

He had actually heard about my talk, and thanked me for speaking at the Summit! Wow! This guy is only considered the top internet marketer in the world, so that meant a lot to me.

Kris is a real down to earth guy, very easy to talk to.

I’ve been to the Affiliate Summit several times in the past, and this time it was really unique. Going as a speaker, I really had a chance to talk to a lot of affiliates, and made a lot of new friends.

The real magic of conferences like this is the chance to meet and mastermind with like-minded people.

Tomorrow I’m going to rap it up with Part III (day 2), and give you my final thoughts on what I learned from this conference.