I much prefer Affiliate Summit West, but East is really cool too. This year there are two new editions of the beloved event, one in Asia, and one in Europe. Affiliate Summit Europe takes place about a month after Affiliate Summit East, and Affiliate Summit APAC is taking place on October in Singapore.

I'll tell you more about both events in posts coming up, but I wanted to share this video talking about why I love going to Affiliate Summit, especially in Las Vegas.

Check out Affiliate Summit here.

The post Why I Love Affiliate Summit appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Recently at Affiliate Summit West, during the Millionaire blogger panel, at least three of the four panelists talked about having a group of peers that hold each other accountable.

I decided to invite some of my close business friends to start a mastermind group. The benefits of the group are a mix of accountability, camaraderie, and mastermind objectives shared with like-minded individuals that are committed to their own success but also want to each other.

I'm taking tips and guidance from other people about how to run the group. I've been reading a lot of Pat Flynn's blog posts about his own masterminds, I've taken lessons from my friend Bob Watson and his super successful social media mastermind (SMMOC), I've also ran the Dot Com Lifestyle group and the Free Lunch Friday events.

I think the biggest challenge will be fine tuning this and finding out just how much I don't know yet about this. You would think that having so much experience teaching, running groups and attending groups I would know exactly how to do this but I'm smart enough to know that there's a whole lot that I don't know.

At first, I thought it would be good to make it a fully democratic endeavor and ask everybody for input before making decisions. That didn't work.

Everybody has an idea of how it should work and the input was so varied that I couldn't come up with a clear majority on anything, from topics to discuss, to schedule or even what type of medium we should use to meet and discuss things.

For any given issue I asked the members I had as many different responses as the number of members in the group.

I had to just step back for a little bit and take the reins. I hope that works out in the long term. The main goal is to help our businesses grow and to help each other with online marketing.

All the members are already good at what they do, some have physical businesses, some are in the service industry, some of us are bloggers, but our biggest common goal is growing our business.

I launched the group with a handful of friends and we meet using Slack to discuss issues, ask questions, and give each other tips and advice throughout the week. Once a week, we meet "face to face" using a Google Hangout.

I'm interested in sharing my experience about this mastermind group here in the blog, and perhaps invite you to join us. This has been something that I wanted to do for a couple years now, my friend Emily and I have talked about starting it as well, but the timing didn't feel right before.

I think that the right time is now, so without any more hesitation, I started it. I've had experiences with other masterminds and I can vouch for the positive outcome and the value I've derived from those groups.

I hope that I can replicate some of that in this mastermind and I want to provide value, support, and encouragement to all members while learning from them as well.

If you feel like you could be a part of this, let me know.

Also, I've just added my blog to Bloglovin' - Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The post Masterminds and Mentorship appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We met up during Affiliate Summit at the EIG party to have some drinks, food and to hit some golf balls at Topgolf. But the rest of the event was all about sharing tips, tricks, and learning how to take our blogs, videos, and businesses to the next level.

Hitting golf balls with my buddy Harsh, @denharsh from @shoutmeloudcom during #ASW17 At the EIG party. #lasvegas #topgolf #enduranceinternationalgroup #hosting

A photo posted by Oscar Gonzalez (@notagrouch) on Jan 21, 2017 at 10:02am PST

This time during Affiliate Summit West 2017, we met again to catch up. I also interviewed him and asked him some questions about blogging, his new project and I asked him for some tips to share with you. You'll see those in the video.

Want to help me share this post? Tweet it out with the link below, or share it on your favorite social network. I'd really appreciate it.

[bctt tweet="Interview with one of the world's most influential bloggers, Harsh from Shoutmeloud." username="notagrouch"]

Last year, Harsh attended Affiliate Summit as a regular affiliate. But this time around he was also a speaker. His session was dedicated to sharing his growth hacking tips which helped him double his affiliate revenue in about 1.5 years.

Naturally, I asked him about his growth hacking techniques during the interview. Even though I hate the term growth hacking because most people misuse it, I really got value out of Harsh's presentation. If you are a blogger, you should have been there. He was one of many speakers why it is always worth going to Affiliate Summit.

I asked him about his newest project which might surprise a lot of people. It's related to bitcoin and other alternative currencies; an emerging market to say the least. The name of that project is Coinsutra. And at the end, I asked him to share three tips for bloggers going into 2017.

On a side note, you can get the early-bird pricing for Affiliate Summit East 2017 already here. If you attended but missed Harsh's session then you should get access to a recording of the session soon.

You can watch my interview with Harsh in the video below:

The post Growth Hacking Tips From Harsh Agrawal – Affiliate Summit Interview appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The post Photos from Affiliate Summit West 2016 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Update: The second post in the series is available now.

1. Interview with Harsh Agrawal from shoutmeloud.com
2. Interview with John Chow and Syed Balkhi

During the last Affiliate Summit, I had a chance to hang out and interview one of the most influential bloggers you've never heard of. How can that possibly be?

Well, Harsh Agrawal (@denharsh) runs the largest blog in India. His site has an Alexa rank of 1,888 in the U.S. Ranked 198 in India, his blog Shoutmeloud.com ranks higher and probably gets more traffic than Oracle, Mailchimp, The guardian, Searchengineland, Entrepreneur, and even Techcrunch (source).

His following is just under three-quarters of a million people. And he's a young dude, but his blog is serious business.

He works as a full-time professional blogger and he probably makes more money than you, just by blogging. Harsh considers himself a blog scientist and a digital nomad. He employs one person and outsources some of his work to different virtual assistants.

Living the Dot Com Lifestyle

He truly lives the dot com lifestyle by leveraging all the technology to make sure his business runs no matter where he is. When I met him, we were in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West 2016, then he was going to San Francisco, then to Atlanta before making a stop in Los Angeles, then back home to India.

But how serious can a blog be? You may be wondering, how much money can you really make with a blog. I've told you in the past that you can make a full-time income by blogging if you do it right. And Harsh is one of the best examples of this.

Shoutmeloud's income report from September 2015 shows Harsh made almost $17,000, yes, that is USD. That is amazing considering most people in the US only dream about 200,000 per year! When you consider the cost of living in India, Harsh is living like a king.

But Harsh isn't someone to boast or brag about what he does or how well he does. When I met him, I expected someone full of himself, a young kid with a head overblown by the ego that often comes with such success. Instead, I met this humble man, an old soul if you would. Soft spoken and friendly.

We got along great and made the rounds about the meet market and the exhibit halls. He is thorough in his work and even though I've been doing this thing longer than he has, I felt like an apprentice. As we walked the aisles filled with vendors and exhibitors, he tried to talk to every single vendor along the way.

Speaks softly but carries a big stick

Never bragging, but always asking How can we work together? Most vendors dismissed him at first. Probably thinking "here's another affiliate that's just going to suck up my time, move along." Probably because Harsh doesn't stand out from the crowd. But the demeanor of most vendors would change when they would hear about his blog.

Other vendors knew him already and were glad to finally meet him in person. From walking up and down the aisles with Harsh, I picked up a few tips from him.

• Ask questions, many more than you may feel comfortable with.
• Listen, many people want to get their words in, instead Harsh listens.
• Oh yeah, and when it is necessary, drop in the fact that you generate 1 to 2 million unique per month.

Harsh is a perfect example why I attend Affiliate Summit. I have met and continue to meet amazing people there. Of course, you can meet online and chat, and Skype and do the Google hangout thing, but nothing beats a face to face conversation. Nothing beats having lunch with someone and talking shop and talking life.

I had only learned about Harsh and his blog about a month before when for some strange reason I started getting many people from India following me on Facebook and asking me questions about blogging. During my conversations with these aspiring bloggers, the topic would come up every single time.

They would say to me: I am very inspired by Harsh from SML. SML has great tutorials and the guy makes a lot of money, I wish to make only a small portion of that.

So I had to find out what "SML" was and who this Harsh character was.

Once I learned more about him and his blog I felt a little embarrassed that I didn't know about him before. But in the end, I'm glad I had an opportunity to meet him and get to know him. If you're a blogger, you should get to know him too.

Video Interview with Harsh Agrawal

Before we parted ways I had a chance to interview him. Here's the video, enjoy.

Don't forget to check out Harsh's blog, Shoutmeloud.com, or if you prefer, get the app (Android, iOS).

And don't forget to get your tickets for Affiliate Summit East 2016 coming up in the summer. Early bird prices are going on right now. Don't complain later and tell me you couldn't get tickets or they were too expensive.

Update: I met up with Harsh again during Affiliate Summit and interviewed him again. You can see that here.

The post Interview With Harsh Agrawal from Shoutmeloud – Affiliate Summit Profiles appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Minds is an open source encrypted social network with the ability for you to monetize your content. It's not like anything that is already out there.

For example Tsu tries to pay you a share of the money made with advertisements shown on your content; but nobody is really making money with it and it has become a spam and junk center. I dont think it will survive much longer.

So this is not Tsu, and it's not Facebook, but it has some gamification incentives and a way for you to make money with your content on a P2P basis.

In Minds, I can pay for boosted posts and you can also make deals with individuals to help promote content. You set your price, you call the shots.

Let me give you a quick getting started guide with Minds.com

Please keep in mind, that the site is still in beta so a few things may seem clunky, but it's very promising.

Sign up for an account

You sign up by visiting Minds.com, you don't need to provide any personal information beyond a username of your choice, and your email address. You can also do all this through their mobile app (Android, IOS)

My username is Oscar Gonzalez, feel free to follow me, or as it is called here, subscribe to me.

Customize your profile

The first screen you'll see is your profile and you can edit it by clicking on the pencil icon. You can always get back to this spot by using your profile icon on the top right corner.

You can customize your header banner, your avatar and bio from this page. It's a really elegant interface. The date picker to select your birthday is a little odd, but it's simple enough.

This is what I came up with on the first try, it feels a little similar to Facebook but the whole thing is a lot simpler and cleaner. I really like it.

Getting acquainted with the user interface

The top right corner has a small navigation menu with some neat features. Because the network is fully open sourced, you can actually submit a bug here and it will get looked at. If you are feeling adventurous you can also submit a feature request.

There is also an area where you can review your stats on your boosted content. Unlike Facebook, you can promote your regular posts on your profile so they get more visibility.

The small bell represents any alerts that are new since you checked lasta.

The last icon before your profile, gives you access to your wallet screen. In order for you to boost your content, you need to have credits and this is where your credits show up.

Your avatar button takes you to your profile where you can edit your profile picture, banner picture and bio.

Lastly, the three dots next to your profile open up a few more options. You can logout, adjust your global settings for the site or switch to the old interface.

This is a refreshing experience

The user experience is clean and even though the network is still in Beta, it feels solid. The user interface is clean and elegant and everything is simplified compared to Facebook or Twitter.

When you visit your alerts, you can see everything that has happened recently and you can take action from there.

The first few alerts help you get started with finding new content to explore. And as people find you, you'll be notified here when someone subscribes to you.

There is a gamification element too

This has been the downfall for many networks that have tried it but I think Minds.com has the right idea and execution. Certain actions give you credits which you can then spend to promote your content.

As you join, you'll get about 110 points or so to start. 100 for joining, then you'll get 10 points everyday for a "daily login" and you get one point for voting on someone else's post.

One thing I noticed is that they seem to be breaking the secret rules of social networks. That action which takes the most effort or commitment is, or should be the most valuable. For example, a comment is more valuable than a like, and a share should be more valuable than both comments and likes.

Case in point, if you like someone else's post, you'll get a point. But you will not get a point if you leave a comment, you should get more than one point because this is arguably a more valuable action. It represents more engagement.

After your profile is done, you can start using the site. Here's a quick rundown of what's available.

The action menu

The site features an icon-only action menu on the left hand side and if you're new to the site, the icons may not be intuitive enough for you to just figure it out. Here's a breakdown of what you can find there.

Some of the sections highlighted above have a few sub-menu actions. For example, the blog section lets you view featured blogposts, search for blogposts and create your own.

The blogging section is pretty standard and it has a WYSIWYG interface that works fine. Here is the first blogpost I created with it.

The most compelling features of the site

Social networks come and go, but the need for privacy is increasing and this may just be the best attempt at helping us with that. Minds.com is addressing this in two ways, the chats and the network are encrypted so people can't sniff what you're doing on the site.

The other way to help with privacy is to make the software open source. Developers can read through the code and figure out how things work, there is no hidden algorithm and "secret sauce."

The guys from Diaspora tried this before, but unfortunately a few years later the project is almost dead because it was too disjointed, Minds.com addresses this issue by offering a central location to interact with your connections.

Monetization is important for me and for other people that use social media sites for networking and business, and I really like the model offered by Minds. I acquired about 3000 credits and I will be putting the promoted and boost features to the test over the next week or so. I'll let you know how that goes.

For now, why don't you give it a try. Come join me, explore this new network.

The post Minds The New Social Network appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Shawn Collins is the co-founder of Affiliate Summit and he usually delivers the 1st time orientation session to kick things off at the summit.

Some of the great tips that you can take away from this "session" are pretty simple and sometimes, common sense.

Send a couple of texts to your loved ones to let them know you're missing them because you're going to be busy for the next 3 days. The event is jam packed with sessions and with over 5000 people attending, you should be networking and learning all day long, you are going to be busy!

When you go grab a meal, always try to find someone to eat or drink with. Sometimes you'll create great relationships when sitting down over a meal. Even if you came by yourself, this is a great way to network so don't just go out on your own to grab food and come back.

Get connected to the WiFi, the information is in the agenda.

Use the agenda to plan your days. There is so much to do and the days go fast. Make sure you have a plan of action, set some goals and follow through.

Be present here! Don't spend time on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or Social Media (unless you're posting about the event). You may be tempted to talk about the latest episode of your favorite show, or talk about your sports team, or whatever. But you'd be wasting your time if you did that!

Stay away from the noise and chatter that's not related to the event because in 72 hours or so, you'll be heading home so make sure you take advantage of it while you are here.

The post First Time Orientation at Affiliate Summit appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But you are not interested in becoming an affiliate, instead, you have a product. You want to get affiliates to sell your product or service. And you wonder, how do you get an affiliate program started so Joe will sell for you?

This is what I am exploring with you today. I guess, the first thing I would ask is not How?, but Why?

Should you start an affiliate program or not?

As with most marketing decisions, starting an affiliate marketing program isn't something to be taken lightly.

I am think that nearly every company, product or service can benefit from an affiliate program, if you deploy and manage it correctly. With that premise, it is easier for me to explain when you should NOT start an affiliate program.

You should NOT start an affiliate program...

Do not start an affiliate program as a way to save your company or as a last-ditch effort to generate revenue . If your company is in trouble and you need money, you need to fix the problems before you introduce a whole new set of complications to your business.

Do not start an affiliate program without sales statistics or brand recognition. If you are new and don't have a brand or endorsements, then most affiliates will want to see some proven conversions and sales before joining your program.

If you don't have these numbers to show, or if they're too low for your industry then your program may lose affiliates' attention quickly and then it can easily stagnate and make it hard to get traction later.

Do not start an affiliate program expecting the affiliates to do your work for you. You need to guide your program with strong direction and leadership. Even though they are selling for you, they are a type of customer to you as well.

Affiliates are a hybrid of employee, customer. You need to have strong communication channels that work for you and the affiliates. You need to give marketing materials, a good infrastructure, and most importantly, motivation and fresh campaigns to promote.

But if you think you are starting a program for the right reasons, then here is a list of a few basic things to keep in mind as you get ready to start your affiliate program.

If you think you are ready to start an affiliate program, then...

Study the best ones and most popular in your industry and overall. Study the networks, study the affiliates, study the competition, study, study, study.

Get yourself an affiliate manager with a decent track record to help you set it all up and maybe even manage it for you. You can find people and agencies that do this. You can attend local meetups and regional or national events to meet them as well.

Get your self to events with other affiliates and affiliate managers. Immerse yourself in the industry and culture so you can better understand how to work more efficiently, and effectively.

Join other affiliate programs as an affiliate and go through the experience. Did you find it enjoyable, inviting, motivating? What would you change in your program? Ask yourself questions to hone in your skills and develop a better program.

Affiliate Summit West is coming up in January and this is perhaps the best event you can attend to learn about all the different aspects of affiliate marketing also known as performance marketing. If you are serious about starting a program for your company then you owe it to yourself the due diligence of attending. Click here to find out more.

The post Should you Start an Affiliate Program? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you want to work from home then you gotta take the leap. There is no reason to continue dealing with a soul-sucking job that takes up so much of your time and gives you a minimal reward.

Working from home is awesome and I highly recommend it. But there are risks, and pitfalls and things you'll learn along the way.

This is another great video that will save you YEARS of experience with a barrage of excellent tips. It's like a compilation of things you forgot about and things you never knew could be a problem.

They also cover some of the best tools you could use to get your work done at home and some of the best productivity tips I've seen.

The post Working at Home. Tips, Hacks and Q&A appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

This is a question that I get from newbies, maybe just like you. I get the Now What question when they arrive to Affiliate Summit, and I get the Now what? question when they get home after the event.

Funny thing is that most people won't do what I tell them, then they'll look back and tell me  the next time around that they should have listened to me. Usually, the second time around they know what's up.

So I wrote this with two people in mind. I made some new awesome friends during this Affiliate Summit, but this is dedicated to two of them that are total newbs to the scene. Just like you may be a newb right now. And don't worry, we don't judge and it's not bad to be a newb. Everyone is one at some point.

So Now what?

After you arrive to the Affiliate Summit location

The first things you should do when you arrive to the hotel is settle down. Seriously, go to your room and put your shit down. You're not going to need anything except for your wallet, ID and phone. No need to be lugging your stuff around, bumping into people's ankles and making a fool out of yourself carrying your luggage, a backpack, your purse, your hair styling stuff and a bag of shoes (true story!).

While you're at it, freshen up and brush your teeth, you've been flying for 2 - 16 hours, seriously (another true story).

You're now ready to check-in to the event and get your registration badge. Depending on when you arrived there may be an early check-in schedule. Before you leave home make sure you know the schedule, once there you should see signs all over the hotel indicating where you should go.

At the checkin registration area make sure you check your badge for accuracy and if there are any problems just go to the separate section for badge corrections. But don't loose your badge, ever. It is your pass to go anywhere related to Affiliate Summit and it costs quite a bit to replace. Even when we go out, I usually just tuck it under my shirt and keep it with me. You never know what club or bar will be hosting an Affiliate Summit party and they use the badge as a way to get in sometimes, this is especially true when Affiliate Summit is in Las Vegas.

Of course, the basics of any conference apply next. Make sure you know where the events you want to go to are taking place. Find out the layout of the floor and learn the basics like: Restrooms & Water. Next, find the food rooms, this is where breakfast, snacks and lunch will be provided and find where the Meet Market and Exhibit Halls will be. Two places you should visit at least once during the event.

Now this is where I have to switch from the classic advice on the mechanics of attending a conference, specifically the best  internet marketing conference in the planet and dig deeper. I want to tell you about the questions that my buddies were asking me. These are the things you can easily miss. Your first Affilaite Summit attendance can make or break your entire experience and perception of the event and even the industry so if I were  you Id' follow my advice. In fact I did, and I've been back to every Affiliate summit since my first one because I love attending and I love how much I learn and grow there and for the months after.

While you are there, if I had to sum it up in one short paragraph, this would be it:

Meet people. Learn. Eat. Attend cocktail hours & parties. Rinse and repeat.

When you are a new attendee you may also be new to the industry. If this is you then you may even wonder why you're here. What can you do as a newbie? Why would any of these people care about you if they've been doing this for two years, four years or even 20 years. How can you possibly be of use or interest to them? -- Don't worry, this feeling is normal. You feel like you don't belong, and that's normal, because until yesterday you didn't belong.

You belong here. There's a reason why you're here, your sacrifice is the reminder of that. And these people you see walking around they also belong and  they want to talk to you.

In case you haven't noticed, you're cut out of a different cloth. You are different from your everyday peers. So are all these people. Affiliate Summit is when we all come together to talk shop. This is when our inner geek takes over and we want to talk to everybody. This is the one chance you have to meet some of the biggest players in the industry and everybody is okay talking to each other. So take advantage of that, get your geek on.

So Now What?

So now go out and meet somebody

Really meet them, get to know them, ask them why they're here, learn about them. Make a friend, not a lead.

By the way, DO NOT offer up your business card unless asked for. Feel free to ask for theirs first.

One thing you should know in advance is who the big attendees are and identify several that you would like to meet. It's easy to do this, just look them up on their blogs or Twitter or Instagram, maybe join their newsletter. Most of them will tell you what they're up to while they're at the event so mosey on over to where they are and introduce yourself.

If you totally don't know who is who, you can start by reading visiting the Affiliate Summit website, or Feedfront, Affiliate Summit's official magazine. Start by finding out more about the authors of the articles and go from there. From there, you'll find blogs, social media, and you'll be able to find people that resonate with you and that you'd like to meet.

I almost forced one of my new friends that was facing this paralyzing question of  "so now what?" to go and meet Sugar Hoffman from sugarrae.com. He wanted to know why, who is she? what does she care about meeting me? I told him to shut the f*ck up and go meet her, she's one person that has overcome huge difficulties and is an icon in the industry. Grudgingly, probably more because he wanted me to shut up, my buddy went to meet her. She was giving a talk and was about to finish.

Several hours later, I ran into my friend and he thanked me for making him go out to meet her.

See, my buddy didn't have anything to offer and didn't need anything from Sugar. This is the best time to meet people, and even better when you're at a conference like this. People want to meet people and we are all under the understanding that we're here to do business and grow; that is a given so don't rush to it.

The fatal mistake I see all the time can best be represented with a few lines of dialogue:

Hi, I'm Mike from Mike's Amazing Marketing Solutions for Everyone but Especially People just Like yourself,  How are you?

... other person responds...

Awesome, let me tell you about me and how I can help you because you need me, clearly you've been missing out in all that I have to offer you today. (very sly, extends his business card...)

... other person looses interest...

So what do you do?

... other person is desperately seeking a way out of this or already left. 

So don't do that. Be human and get to know somebody. In contrast to my friend meeting Sugar, I went to a cocktail party with one of the big sponsors and there was this guy floating around the tables pitching his shit. I mingle, and so I talked to several people in the room. As you mingle in a party, you move around, but this guy could not help himself from pitching and telling his god-awful story to everybody that was either too naive or too busy chewing their food to interrupt him. If you could have heard the comments from other attendees each time he finished his pitch and left.

Believe me, very few people if any will be calling that guy back. He forever will be remembered as "that guy."

You don't want to be "that guy."

Go and Learn Something

There is so much to learn that even if you could attend every session, you would not be able to retain or apply all of it. After the event you'll have access to the videos of all the sessions (select passes only). So you can always go back and review a session you really liked or one that you missed.

I say this because I don't want you to make the mistake of going to ALL the sessions you possibly can. There are several tracks and levels of sessions. Some are panels between experts, some are live reviews of your product/site/email etc, some are success stories. But all of them are announced in advance in the website. They are also listed in your welcome package in the schedule.

Take some time to identify the tracks that most can benefit your business a few days after you come back home, or the track that is most interesting to you. Then pick the sessions you want to attend but leave yourself a break between each one or every couple ones.

It's good to have breaks to catch up with yourself, maybe meet somebody new or just touch base back home. You can always review your notes and videos later after the event. Stay alert and fresh and ready for a full day of activity. I really can't emphasize this enough, don't burn yourself out attending sessions and stressing about rushing to each one. You'll miss out on half the fun.

I know that ideally this would require a few days of planning, but if you're there now and are asking "what now?" Grab the schedule and do the best you can for the rest of the event. Identify 2 sessions per day then network and mingle. Find out where the parties are and attend as many as you can.

The best time to network is at the parties. Why? because there are many people like "that guy" on the floor and usually they don't attend the parties. It is a lot easier and nicer to network at a human level than with the pressure of making a lead or closing a sale.

And last, after you got all these tips down... make sure you

Rest and Hydrate

You'll need as much rest as you can so catch a few naps when you can and always keep water with you at all times --but never sacrifice an opportunity for networking for a nap. Trust me is not worth it. Staying hydrated is one of the keys to surviving any conference.

Continue reading the second part: Your First Affiliate Summit. Back Home. So Now What?

I hope these help. Would love to hear your feedback too!

The post Your First Affiliate Summit. You are There. So Now What? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

That's why I go to Affiliate Summit, to learn, meet people and partner up. This is the premier event to talk affiliate stuff. But here are some things I wish I knew the first time around.

Affiliate summit is teeming with people looking for new business and partnerships. Bring your A game, be prepared and most importantly, be open to meeting potential clients, vendors or partners. These people are unlike any other group of people I've ever met or hung out with.

Tip #1

Never, ever, judge a book by its cover. Unlike other professional events I've been to, people here are comfortable with who they are. To you and me, they may appear to be something completely different than they are. One moment  you could be sitting next to a regular Joe like you, and the next minute you could have a millionaire blogger or a super affiliate on the seat next to you. During one of the parties you could be having a drink with the owner of a multi-million dollar company. I can't emphasize this enough, do. not. judge. Get to know everyone you can, and listen before you are listened to.

Tip #2

Take pictures. This may sound trivial, but if you are at Affiliate Summit, you most certainly have a website or a blog that will need content. Pictures are excellent source of material for blogposts and articles. Do not miss this chance to take pictures of, and with some really interesting people. Don't worry about your outfit, your hair, or the background too much. Take the picture and seize the moment!

Tip #3

Start listening and researching now. Start doing some google searches and finding out who is going to be there, who they are and what they do. Look for companies that may provide a product or service or potential clients or partners, but don't forget to just make friends. A good place to start is Google+ and Twitter by using the hashtag #ASW14. Here are a few good links to help you get more involved:

• Missy Ward is co-founder of Affiliate Summit. I highly recommend you check out her blog.
• Shawn Collins is the other founder for Affiliate Summit and you should also keep an eye on his blog.
• List of exhibitors coming to Affiliate Summit West 2014.
•  Tricia Meyer is a blogger and affiliate marketer very much in tune with the industry.
• #ASW14 on Twitter listen to what's going on Twitter about the event.
• #ASW14 on Google + If Google+ is your cup of tea then check this out.
• Shareasale, one of the big players at the event. They host a great party and you'll see their booth in the meet market.

Tip #4

Leave a little extra room in your luggage. If you like schwag, leave some room in your suitcase for it. Lots of vendors will have little giveaways or gifts for you. Some of these are actually useful or just plain cool. In some cases you could even win prizes and stuff.

Tip #5

Bring a backpack. If you're a girl, you may want something different but I would still recommend a backpack over anything else. You can put your laptop or ipad in there along with a bottle or two of water, some snacks and other stuff. You'll have room to put swag away too until you go back to your room to unload the loot! There is wifi connectivity for attendees and you should find a place to plug in your laptop & phone charger so bring those with you as well.

Tip #6

Must wear comfortable shoes! Whether you go from one session to the next or prefer to spend your time networking and meeting vendors at the meet market, you'll be doing a lot of walking. Just like any other big conference, the hallways are spread out throughout the convention center... but don't forget, this is Las Vegas. Everything is more in Vegas, including walking.

There are other tips that you can find throughout the internet, and here is a little video I asked my friend John to do for you. He's the first person that invited me to ASW back in 2013, and so I thought it would be fitting for him to give you some of his tips as he has attended every event since it started.

Tips from John Chow

So, are you ready?

The post Affiliate Summit Tips for New Attendees appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Please only apply for the pass if you intend on going. Read this carefully:

These passes cannot be transferred, and the pass codes become invalid in the event the conference sells out. Also, anybody registering for a complimentary pass who neither checks in at the conference, nor cancels, will be ineligible for future complimentary passes.

In other words, if you win, you must go!

If you are a new internet marketer or have just joined the ranks of affiliate marketers, online marketers or plan on implementing an affiliate program for your company, this may just be the best event you'll go to all year. It could be a life changing experience as it was for me in January 2013.

You'll get a chance to rub shoulders with some of the giants in the industry as well as make some really good connections to help you develop your business. Not to mention all the learning that goes on during the sessions. Of course, in the evenings the parties are on and this is in Las Vegas so you know the parties will be fun.

Remember: Please only enter if you actually plan on going. If you are selected, you must attend. The pass is not transferable and cannot be resold because it will have your name on it. I am only giving away the passes. I am not paying for your travel or hotel.

So to apply, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me why you are deserving of a pass. I'll be picking out the winners over the next couple of days and announce next week.

See you in Affiliate Summit!

The post Win a Networking Pass for Affiliate Summit 2014 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The Affiliate Summit West takes place in Las Vegas and it will be held at the Paris hotel January 12 - 14. If you want to learn about making money online, through affiliate programs and networks, systems and all that good stuff, then you need to be there. If you have a product or service which you need to promote and get out to the masses, then you should also be at ASW14 because you'll get a chance to talk to Affiliate Networks and Managers that can help you add an affiliate program to your business.

The sessions are intense, hour long usually and jam packed with information that you can use TODAY. With information about what is working and what isn't working, how to do things the right way. There are also expert panels with Q&A and tons of networking. Then there are the parties. Parties are off the hook! Check out this little video I made with footage from the Affiliate Summit East event that took place this past August.

In case you are wondering why "save the boobies"? Well turns out, Affiliate Summit donates a portion of their proceeds to research for breast cancer.

I'm really excited about attending my 3rd Affiliate Summit and I'm excited to tell you that I'll be giving away 4 tickets. I just have to figure out how to give them away. I'll announce it on Monday. If you've got any ideas about what I should do to reward 4 lucky individuals with a free ticket, then leave me a comment.

Hope you can join me and maybe you'll even win one of the free tickets! If you are not subscribed to my blog yet, then subscribe now so you get the announcement on Monday.

The post Affiliate Summit West 2014. Want a free pass? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The post ASE13 Attendees, ASW14 is next appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The article was full of mud-slinging, assumptions, and clearly Mr. Kogan has no idea how to run a business. Frankly, I'm surprised he's made it this far.

Let's start with some background. Ruslan Kogan has an online electronics outlet, Kogan.com is based out of Australia and does nothing more than resell other brand's products. It's a middle man, nothing more. That's not a bad thing per se, but it may put things in perspective when you read some of the quotes from his article, like:

We were then able to generate a list of sites that drove the sales to Kogan. I had not heard of a single website on the list.

For the record, I'd never heard of "Kogan" and you probably haven't either, at least not before this piss poor attempt at some PR. It's amusing how he knocks on the affiliate sites because they're unknown when his site himself is but a tiny speck in the electronics reselling arena.

I couldn't help but to take some of the article a bit personal since I am a full time online marketer and a huge part of that is being an affiliate. And this guy came out swinging and took aim at the entire industry. Not once did he take a moment to do some introspection and try to figure out how his disaster might have been caused by his lack of analysis, research and understanding.

He should have done some homework before hiring a so called "Marketing Consultant" to run his first ever affiliate program. Instead he chose to do his research after things went awry:

So I asked the Marketing Consultant to lower the commission we pay to the affiliate network to 5 percent. I wasn’t surprised a week later when he told me that we still did $200,000 of sales through them in a week. I then asked him to lower the commission to 1 percent. Once again, the affiliates delivered $200,000 per week in sales. Whatever these affiliate sites were doing to drive sales to Kogan.com, it didn’t change as our commission to them was lowered by 90 percent. This defied general economics principles, so I started to get very skeptical.

I then got the marketing consultant to lower the commission we pay to half the sites on the network to zero percent.

BTW, what kind of research is this anyway? Tricking the affiliates into joining his program and then lowering the commissions because things aren't going as planned? Now, that is the move of a shyster.

The fact is that this guy had no idea what he was doing and jumped in head first without so much as basic advice or analysis from an Affiliate manager. A marketing consultant had no business leading the efforts of running an affiliate program. The affiliate world is so broad and diverse that you really need an experienced, professional Affiliate manager to work with you. Not a consultant.

An affiliate manager, would have advised Mr. Kogan to review the terms of the program. The affiliate manager would have or should have also advised him to be selective of the affiliates and the methods used to promote the program. Everyone has their own terms, even within a large network like Commission Junction, Shareasale, Clickbooth and others.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, there are dozens of ways of promoting a product. Email marketing, PPC, Oragnic search, banner ads, social media, content marketing, coupons, vouchers, in person events, video marketing.

It's up to the merchant (Kogan in this case), to set their terms. For example, some companies do not allow you to run PPC campaigns targeting the brand's name as a keyword. Other companies do not allow voucher or coupon websites to promote the products. Some companies don't even allow email marketing. But the beauty of it is that this is all within their control.

Just as I wrote before, affiliate marketing is nothing more than performance based commissions. You produce a sale, you get a commission. Plain and simple from that point of view, but like almost any other sales process, there are restrictions as to how you can generate your leads and how you can promote and advertise. Mr. Kogan failed to do any due diligence into these matters. Which leaves all the blame of his affiliate marketing fiasco to rest on his shoulders and nobody else. Shame on you Ruslan for calling the entire industry a scam.

A little perspective please

Now let's bring some perspective into this for you, for my readers and for those of you trying to learn more about affiliate marketing, affiliate sales and the world around it.

Here's me, at Affiliate Summit East 2013 (#ASE13) in Philadelphia, and I took this picture explicitly to show you the caliber of companies that are involved with affiliate marketing. Perhaps you've heard of this little company before? You recognize the logo? I thought so. And you really think such an iconic household brand would affiliate (no pun intended) itself with a "scam industry"? I very much doubt it.

Some of the biggest brands in the planet use affiliate marketing. Some of them use it to promote their products and encourage their fans, consumers and others to promote them. Sometimes they themselves promote other products that add value to their own offerings. Now, these brands you'll recognize.

Here's a quick list that I compiled in about 10 minutes of well known brands that offer affiliate programs. You might have heard of some of these, perhaps...

• 24hour fitness
• Adidas
• Adobe
• Allstate
• Audible
• BOSE
• Best Buy
• Black & Decker
• BodyGlove
• CVS
• Capital One
• Columbia
• Cost Plus World Market
• Crucial
• Dell
• Discover
• Disney Store
• Etnies
• Firestone
• Gamefly
• Garmin
• Godaddy
• H&R Block
• Hertz
• Home Depot
• Jack LaLane
• Jelly Belly
• Kay Jewlers
• KitchenAid
• Lenovo
• Lindt Chocolate
• Loehmann's
• Lowe's
• Marvel
• Microsoft
• Netflix
• New Balance
• Norton (Symantec)
• Petco
• Phillips
• Public Storage
• Quicken
• Reebok
• Safeway
• Samsung
• Sears
• Sketchers
• Skype
• Spalding
• Sprint
• T-Mobile
• TomTom
• Toys R' Us
• TrendMicro
• TurboTax
• Verizon Wireless
• Vons
• Walgreens
• Warner Brothers
• Weight Watchers
• West Marine
• Zappos
• Zillow

I think that illustrates my point. Don't believe the hate, affiliate marketing is a completely valid industry. You can make additional money doing it part time, or do it full time, like any other job.

It requires skills, knowledge, connections, and hard-work. Just like any other industry, there are bad apples. Fortunately even in this case, we're not looking at a black sheep type of situation, but just an inexperienced and lazy business owner that took the easy path of putting the blame everywhere but where it should have been. Within his own organization and management.

After the original article, another more level-headed article was published at VentureBeat that puts things in perspective and is much more eloquent than my own.

The post Is the Affiliate Industry a Shyster’s Industry? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

So yesterday was awesome. This is by far the most fun and activity packed conference I've been. I didn't really know where to go because there were so many things going on. After registration we headed out to the Meet Market and toured the floor. Lots of cool companies that are starting out and also some established players.

#ASW13 is a pretty cool conference and you must attend if you get an opportunity. It is the only conference I've been to where you find beer and wine in the exhibit floors. It is party all the time here.

Part of hanging out with John and friends included going to the Vegas Speedway to Exotics Racing. That's where you get to play with high performance cars like Ferraris, Lamborghinis,  Audi, Mercedes Benz and others. Unfortunately not everyone got to ride, I didn't drive, but I will definitely be back to try one of these beasts out. By the time we made it out there, my phone was pretty much dead and I only got a few pictures, but I should get some pictures from other people to show you soon.

After racing came the best part of last night. First we headed out to Bouchon at The Venetian and had an awesome dinner with the guys from Avangate. I have pictures of that over in Google +.

The post Affiliate Summit Recap of Day 1 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.