Affiliate Summit – Hits and Misses


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.


5 Comments
  1. Wil Reynolds July 13, 2006
  2. Janet July 13, 2006
  3. Dave Taylor July 14, 2006
  4. newspapergrl July 15, 2006
  5. Wil Reynolds July 21, 2006

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