Mommy Blogger's Quiet Descent onto Affiliate Summit

#asw10 Two weeks ago Affiliate Summit West took place in Las Vegas and a small group of mom bloggers quietly crept onto the scene. We came to share our interest in affiliate marketing, to learn, and to be introduced to this untapped world.

A group of us, which included Heather from Inexpensively, Carrie from Pocket Your Dollars, Kim from KIMarketing, and myself were invited by Deborah @Loxly from AffiliatesABCs. Deborah has been in the affiliate marketing game for 10 years and is very knowledgeable. She has even been published in the new book we received at the Summit entitled, Internet Marketing From The Real Experts. My husband is reading this now so he can be my affiliate manager :-) Kim goes even further back than Deborah, starting her affiliate journey back in 1999. Heather, Carrie, and I are the newbies in the group but we have all been using affiliate programs on our blogs and knew enough to get our feet wet.

Mom bloggers are really not a new addition to the Summit, just a quiet voice that will hopefully grow as more women attend. I think that the Summit was made up by probably 70% men. I think many mom bloggers haven't been exposed to these types of opportunities but once they learn how much money is waiting to be made they will be all over it. Right now only about 25% of my current income comes from affiliate marketing but since this conference I have plans to change all of that.

While our little panel was not the buzz of the conference we did get a chance to air our concerns and explain who we are and how we use affiliate marketing to make money to the audience.

This small mommy blogger group made a tiny crack into the world of affiliate marketing will hopefully widen the door as more mom bloggers start attending future conferences. I already have plans to go back to Affiliate Summit East this coming August in New York City and hope to attend as a blogger instead of a speaker this time.

Missy Ward and Shawn Collins

This is a expert pair who started and run the Affiliate Summit. Everytime I would see them in the hallways or at parties they would be calm, cool and collected and it must be because they are good at what they do. They are good at surrounding themselves with good people who take care of a lot of the details for them. You have to be a good leader to get people to work for you as well as they do.

I never did get to really talk to them. I only stood next to Missy (@missyward) at the bowling fundraiser but did get to meet Shawn (@affiliatetip) in the hallway after lunch once. They seem to be super nice people and I would love to learn more about how they started the Summit.


Shawn at his goofy best

The Mentor Program

If it wasn't for the Mentor program I wouldn't have gotten as much out of this conference as I did. I signed up on the site about 3 weeks before the conference and was paired with Stephanie Lichenstein @MicroSteph. Stephanie is well-known at the conference. She blogs about the event weeks before, during, and then afterwards. She was a wonderful mentor and I can't say enough about her and Jen Goode who setup and ran the program.

The mentor program helps newbies get acclimated to the conference and if you get a good mentor they will help you get on party lists before the event, show you whos who, help you get into parties at the event, and keep you on top of things. Stephanie was an exceptional example of a good mentor. I owe her big time :-)

If you decide to attend the Affiliate Summit East in New York City I highly suggest you sign up for the mentor program.


My mentor, Stephanie Lichtenstein (on the left)

The People's Conference and Lunch

One thing that struck me was the fact that I would meet multi-millionaires who had just sold their last company who would talk to me and ask me about myself. They seemed generally interested in what I had to say. There was no divide at this conference between the have and the have nots and that impressed me a lot. You are able to learn from everyone and anyone.

The conference ran as smoothly as you would ever want. There were never any glitches or long lines. Everything was in order during the sessions and as a newbie and attendee I didn't even have a care in the world. I just followed the summarized schedule they put in my bag and I was good to go. That schedule sure did help because it was all on one page.


@SteveHall of Adrants, Eric Schechter of Clickbooth, Murray Newlands - sorry, I didn't get the middle guy's name. Anyone know?

The lunch was magnificent! I wish I had taken pictures of it because it was just great. It was buffet style and there were trays of fresh fruit and then hot dishes from potatoes to pasta, rice, chicken, salmon and even Mexican food the last day. Then there was a long dessert table with all kinds of delectable treats. I met some great people each day that I had never bumped into anywhere during the conference. Lunchtime is a great place to network because everyone is so relaxed. Actually, everyone is relaxed all through the conference because Missy and Shawn set that kind of tone.


Janet @onlineprbook, me, and the ClickBooth dude

Some Highlights from the Conference

One of the highlights for me was meeting and personally thanking Peter Shankman from HARO. HARO is an email list that you can sign up for to submit your request for pitches made by reporters, freelance writers, bloggers, TV shows, and more. My success from HARO was based on a story a freelance writer wrote that included my site. I went from a lowly 1,000 readers to 10,000 readers and it made me an overnight success. I will be sharing more later. Since HARO is free I wanted to make sure I at least thanked Peter in person. I even got my picture taken with him.


Me and Peter Shankman - thank you!

As noted above, I sat in on the Site Review clinic - in the front row no doubt - and handed in my business card first so they would pick me to have my site reviewed. A fellow attendee, Bryan, suggested I do this and told me to sit in the front row and try to be first because they only pick a handful of sites to review. Besides, sitting in the front row makes you less nervous because you can't see the looks on people's faces because they are staring at the back of your head! The panel, along with moderator Sugar Rae, poured over my site and gave me a list of things that were wrong and gave me the fixes for them as well. I heard that a consultation like this could cost me $10,000 if I were to pay them for this advice so I found it invaluable. Anytime you are at a conference and can take advantage of an open door like this do it and don't worry about what people think of you.


Don't I look scary? I took my glasses off and am squinting to see the screen. This pic was taken by Dave Dugdale. Check out his Rental Houses Blog

The ShareASale party was the bomb! I went to a lot of parties and many were just people standing in a room or a bar drinking and networking. The ShareASale party was interactive. They had dancing, a great DJ, video games on huge screens in one corner, Karaoke going on in between dancing, tons of great finger foods, and then there was that bouncy room you see 5 year-olds get in at someone's summer birthday party. Well, 20+ adults don't really fit too well in there and I think some of the chandeliers got broken - whoops! It wasn't me!

During the party they also gave our boas and fun glasses and rings that lit up. In another corner there was a photo booth that you could get in with your favorite peeps and taken some fun pictures. It was the best party ever!

There were lots of things going on all of the time and I know I missed out one some awesome sessions but you really can't do it all. I found that the most valuable time during the Affiliate Summit was when I met people one-on-one. Whether it was ducking into a room to talk with an affiliate program manager face-to-face or meet up with him in the hallway for an impromptu meeting, or sitting next to someone in a bar, at a party or at dinner, I learned SO much valuable information that I would just go again for those networking opportunities. One night I went to Cafe Martorano to eat dinner (and no, that creepy looking DJ wasn't there), and I met Warren Whitlock (@warrenwhitlock) who told me I was a celebrity but didn't know it and that I should be using my celebrity to make money. On the other side of me I met someone who told me about 30, 60, and 90 day sessions and how I could make money if someone goes back to a site I suggest over a longer period of time. At yet another event I learned how to use Tubemogul.com to blast a video I want to promote to 10 sites instead of using YouTube to show it just on one site. So, you see, the networking alone is worth it's weight in gold.

And, I hope I was able to share some of the things I know that might help someone. What I find is that EVERYBODY has something to give, both newbie and old timer and everyone is in a friendly mode that there is a lot of learning going on.

Catch you at Affiliate Summit East in New York City - a week after BlogHer in August!

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