This has been on my mind since I returned from Affiliate Summit. There is still a wild west, sometimes jubliant atmosphere there. People throw around big numbers. There are the high rollers. People saying they make over $50K a month and more.

There are the reclusive super affiliates who’d rather you not know they exist. Chris calls them the spiders - who flee to the shadows when you turn on the lights.

There are stories I wish I could capture. People I want to talk to. When I was at Affiliate Summit I was working. Since I enjoy what I do it was enjoyable. I’m in awe at the many different characters.

It’s almost like a second wave. I was in on the tech boom and happened to get a job at an internet startup. I learned a little HTML. I built a career starting right there. Now you’d have to know PHP, javascript, and more.

Affiliate marketing is still an emerging industry, one that changes quickly. It’s rarely boring. Just look at the comments on my posts.

Many of you ask me for affiliate marketing resources. I’ve been working on the design for Affiliate Flash for over a month. Unfortunately I haven’t found a design that fits my vision. I needed something before Affiliate Summit but the designer let me down. So I created Affiliate Flash - the Source for Affiliate Marketing News & Information.

I will add a blog and guest columnists. I’ve teamed up with a sound engineer to do some podcasting. I want Affiliate Flash to be the single place you go to learn about affiliate marketing — the source.

Watch for updates, sign up for my newsletter, (original articles will are filed under “AffiliateFlash”) and let me know what you think. If there is something about affiliate marketing you would like me to cover, please ask: Janet@AffiliateFlash

Overall it’s been a great week in Florida (my skin loves it here). Affiliate Summit has a lot of excitement. It’s the place where the no names and the big names can mix.

Here’s my list of hits and misses:

MISS: The keynote speaker.
Jim Bouton, who played for the New York Yankees spoke. First, it was the first thing in the morning. Second, it was about sports. Third, it had nothing to do with affiliate marketing. As they say in baseball, 3 strikes you’re out.

HIT: Wil Reynolds on Search Engine Optimization.
An articulate, opinionated, and practical speaker. I was absolutely enthralled. I hope we get the powerpoint and bookmarks.

HIT: Dave Taylor of Ask Dave Taylor on blogging.
Search engines LOVE new fresh content. Give it to them and they’ll come back more often. Blogs make it easy. The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth is his shameless plug for his books. In one breath he said he made enough off AdSense alone to pay the mortgage. A few minutes later he said he needed to sell some books to pay for his trip to Disney World. Tacky.

MISS: The closing session, the rotating tables, and the networking sessions.
They were much better in Vegas. The good thing about no one showing up for the first networking session is that if you did meet someone, they had plenty of time to talk to you.

HIT: Rosalind Gardner for being no nonsense and stressing content and business practices.
I got to meet her. It’s always nice to see a woman speak because they’re the minority for sure.

Smart people with a lot of technical know-how or understanding don’t always make the best speakers. Read Guy Kawasaki’s blog post: How to Get a Standing Ovation.

HIT: The great people I met like Eric Targan, Bob Land, and several others.

Final thought. Affiliates needing to learn business skills seemed to be a theme. I find it frustrating and funny that affiliates have knowledge but lack business skills. Businesses have business sense but lack knowledge.

The U|tech Conference will teach business leaders online marketing techniques to grow their business. Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 18, 2006. We’re lining up some of the best minds and businesses in internet marketing for one day. I just signed up a company I met at Affiliate Summit for a table. Stay tuned for more information.

Somehow I booked my hotel for 4 nights instead of 5! I explained the situation to the front desk. I asked for the best priced room (it is midweek after a holiday weekend). They said $105. I said no thank you.

I pulled up a chair in their lobby. Next I got out my laptop and went to Priceline - clicked on the name your own price on a hotel link. I submitted a price for $49. It was accepted. I went back and checked in. I GOT THE KEY TO THE SAME ROOM. LOL.
If you’re in Orlando near DisneyWorld, it’s the Sheraton Saffari. It’s about 5 mins. from DisneyWorld. It says it’s a 3-star hotel but it’s not that great. However, I’m not picky on these kinds of trips.

I’ll go back next year and take my son to DisneyWorld. Then I’ll stay at a nice resort. Yes I did get suckered into pre-purchasing a vacation. I need one. I’m already looking forward to it. Instead of trying to fit it in with all that’s going on I decided to come back another time.

For weeks I’ve been looking for the best resource on PPC (pay-per-click), especially Google AdWords advertising. I asked Jeremy Palmer. I read Amazon reviews. Today at Affiliate Summit I sat next to one of the presenters at lunch. He’s a super affiliate. After I learned that he owns a search marketing consulting company, I asked him.

He recommended Andrew Goodman’s The AdWords Handbook. I didn’t ask him for testimonials about it but he literally gushed. He told me he sent Goodman a bottle of wine thanking him for writing the book. He started a business based on the ideas he got as a result of this book. Three years later his business is so successful he isn’t looking for new clients. He’s turning away business.

I got out my notebook and started taking notes. “I read it 5 times” and marked it up” he reported. “If I had to say what value it’s been worth to me, I’d say $10K at least”. I noticed it’s been recommended by Seth Godin. That is solid.

BTW, today I heard one of the best presentations on search engine marketing that I’ve ever heard. I could’ve listened to it 5 times. I’ll blog more about it later.

Note: The above link is an affiliate link. That means I’ll make a commission if you buy the book. I only recommend quality products. I don’t know what level you are, so individual results may vary. You get the same book no matter how you buy it. But if you buy it from my link you get BONUS good karma points (we all need some of those right?). If you want to buy it directly from the source feel free at http://www.page-zero.com/google-adwords-book.asp.

Clickz reports that Google is going to charge more for people low quality pay-per-click advertising that link directly to landing pages. Google has tweaked natural search algorithms to weed out junk sites. They will continue to do the same with paid search. In natural you get delisted or drop in rank. In paid you will be charged more, poor quality will cost you.

I just listened to a short overview about how to design high quality landing pages. It was by Mark Widawer of LandingPageCashMachine at Affiliate Summit.

How to Design a Quality Landing Page, 5 Tips:

1. If they don’t take your offer, at least get their email address (give a free report or something else of value). If you’re really savvy get them to subscribe to your RSS feed and give their email at the same time.
2. Split test your ads. He recommended hypertracker.com or 1shoppingcart.com (shopping cart with ad tracker).
3. Spend the money or learn great copywriting. The words you use are of vital importance. http://www.breakthroughcopywriting.com/ is a resource (warning: sales page but no affiliate link, I haven’t checked out the quality).
4. Remove all obstacles to the sale. No distracting graphics. No links except to buy link or submit (when getting their email address). Don’t put extra information that isn’t needed like ‘about us’ or ‘contact us’. Remember a landing page has one purpose, which is to SELL.
5. Instead of thinking how you want to increase your conversion rate by 1% instead think of it as how to reduce the rate of failure by 1%.

Raad Google’s landing page and site quality guidelines.

Changes are coming for Yahoo Search Marketing. One session today talked about Yahoo’s new search marketing. Panama is more like Google AdWords. Right now you can buy position. In the future it’s a combination of the performance (are people clicking on it?) and relevance (does the ad match the search terms?). They’ll have built-in analytics. You can run multiple ads and test them. It will also have demographics capabilities.

Good news. Google needs some competition. Coming this Fall…wait, make that this Winter.

So I’ve been trying to find the ideal source to interview for a story. Linked in is a great resource for this. I wasted a lot of time. I should’ve gone there first. Lesson learned.

While I’m learning about the business basics of blogging, I’m going to blog. My favorite chat today was with a clown. A professional, credentialed clown. He trains flees. He’s studied under clown masters. He blogs. A blogging clown. Isn’t that funny?

One thing I love about internet marketing is the possibility that an online business can be created around your passion. Adam is an example of this. He’s at Affiliate Summit learning how to make a business online around clowning. I wish he could do the show he told me about pay-per-download. He could do a weekly podcast or newsletter of tips for clowns. Add affiliate programs.

Here’s how the show goes. The clown starts by telling everyone he’s a clown. Then he goes into all the problems about being a clown. He decides not to be a clown anymore. So he goes and sits in the audience. He doesn’t get how to be a member of an audience. He asks the people around him how it’s done. He asks them to show him. Someone in the audience performs. The clown loves it. He decides he wants to be a clown! He gets up and introduces himself again. Hi, I’m Adam, and I’m a clown.

I feel like saying hi, I’m Janet and I’m a blogger. It’s so bad. I’m afraid that people will hate me when they read what I say about them. People think I’m a nerd. Sometimes they don’t get my sense of humor. Plus, most people still don’t know what blogging is. [Note: so far it's tough for me to think of problems with blogging, except I so far haven't made a living off blogging, and sometimes I lose sleep. Also, when someone is talking to me I'm sometimes not listening I'm composing a blog post about it]. I think I’m going to become an MLM distributor. Wait, how do you do that? Ok, I think I better stop here.

I have more exciting details coming about U|Tech coming this October 18. We’re getting an exciting lineup of experts to tell you how your business can benefit from online marketing.

Local vendors and speakers will gather for a full day. They will come away knowing how to grow their business online.
Utah is a hotbed of Inc. 500 companies. It has the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita in the US! Even though the tax system isn’t incredibly business-friendly. We have so much talent here. That is why I’m proud to bring in some of the best business minds in the state.

Many businesses are struggling to understand how to apply web marketing. They are overwhelmed. Topics range from using press for higher search engine rankings, to business blogging to paid search advertising.

We will feature a few local business owners speaking about the ways they’ve applied and succeeded with online marketing.

Even if you sell pianos and have a web site, you can do things to grow your offline business online. I’m sure you’ll find this conference valuable. I can’t wait for it myself.