Shawn: How did Affiliate Ball get started?

Darren: I started throwing internet marketing parties at business to business trade shows dating back to 1998. I was working for a technology based company called WebSideStory
When I left WebSideStory, I decided to throw my own parties with a completely different format with legendary artists performing. Over a year ago I decided it was time to expand into as many digital marketing trade shows as possible with my formula. I created the Affiliate Ball for the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas and had Three 6 Mafia as the headlining act. Over the past year I’ve thrown the biggest parties at the Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech and Leadscon.

Shawn: What is your background?

Darren: I was a student at Ohio State working for a big concert club on campus. I worked with Nirvana, Sound Garden, Digital Underground back when Tupac was in the group and more. After college I went a different direction and was in sales and marketing with a passion for learning how to “close the deal”. I built my career by being a “Marketing Firm” for internet companies.

Shawn: Are you an affiliate marketer?

Darren: I am an affiliate marketer. Been doing it since the very beginning and have had the honor to work with many of the very first successful affiliate programs. These days I’ve shifted my efforts into sending the affiliates to the affiliate programs either for the referral fee or as a sponsor of my events. I’m sure I pre-date 99% of our industry doing affiliate marketing in 1998.

Shawn: Who has been your favorite performer at an Affiliate Ball so far?

Darren: My favorite performer at an Affiliate Ball so far was Nelly. He was named by Billboard as a “Top 3 Artist of The Decade”. I like to mix things up and have old school legends and every once in a while get a huge current artist. Since I’ve been throwing parties at internet marketing shows, my favorite artists so far were Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube.

Shawn: If you could get any act, who would it be?

Darren: I’m working my way up to Jay-Z. Will it ever happen is another question. I always shoot my goals very high and the reality is based upon sponsor support. The Affiliate Ball isn’t only about doing hip hop by the way. I also try for big name rock acts and huge DJ’s. I’d love to have the Foo Fighters, LMFAO or Deadmau5 as well. Everything is situational depending on whether the artist is available on that date and at what price. Let’s cross our fingers we get great sponsor support so we can get to that level soon.

Shawn: What is your goal with Affiliate Ball / Marketers Ball?

Darren: The goal is always to provide the best social environment for our industry to network while providing an alternative marketing angle for our sponsors. We all know that sponsors get great branding from big parties but I try to help them see a return on their money. Our massive RSVP list of over 7,000 guests also receives our newsletter. This year we have plans to throw parties the Affiliate Summit, Leadscon, Ad Tech and also the BlogWorldExpo.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

Sunday, January 8, 2012 was the first day of Affiliate Summit West 2012 at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Registration check-in and set-up for the Meet Market kicked off the day at 8:00 AM, and then I gave my First Timers Guide to Affiliate Summit West 2012 session a couple hours later.

This was followed by breakout sessions throughout the day that covered tracking, SEO, recruiting affiliates, social media, daily deals, and more topics.

The Meet Market opened at noon and ran six hours with a steady stream of attendees meeting with the table exhibitors.

The day wrapped up with a Bingo Networking session, where affiliates and merchants had a chance to quickly meet a bunch of people in a short time.

This was followed by the Newcomer Program meetup, and then everybody heading out for their Affiliate Summit evening plans.

I checked out the ShareASale Under the Stars Party at the Chateau Nightclub in the Paris Hotel, which was a great mix of networking and views.

The second day started at 8:00 AM with the Early Bird Whiteboarding session, where Eric Nagel reviewed sites submitted by the audience and gave advice on usability, SEO, conversions and revenue streams.

Later in the morning, Jon Spoelstra, Author of Marketing Outrageously Redux, delivered the keynote address.

The exhibit hall opened on day two and thousands of affiliate marketers came together for a full day of networking.

In addition to all of the business talk in the exhibit hall, many attendees stopped to get a quick massage.

There were also educational sessions throughout the day.

Towards the end of the day, CouponCabin hosted a Happy Hour and Meet & Greet with Kate Gosselin, who is blogging for them now.

Day two wound up with some Affiliate Karaoke.

The third and final day of Affiliate Summit West 2012 kicked off nice and early with another Early Bird Whiteboarding session from Eric Nagel.

This was followed by the annual Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards.

Congratulations to the winners…
• Affiliate of the Year: CouponCabin
• Affiliate Manager of the Year: Kim Salvino
• Exceptional Merchant: Tiny Prints
• Affiliate Marketing Advocate: Tim Storm
• Blogger of the Year: Tricia Meyer
• Affiliate Marketing Legend: Kim Rowley

The Pinnacle Awards were followed by an inspirational keynote from Eric “ET the Hip Hop Preacher” Thomas.

A lot of people asked about the song that played when Eric walked up on stage. That was Dreams of Reality by Fame Or Juliet

The final day of Affiliate Summit West 2012 also featured a series of breakout sessions and lots of networking in the exhibit hall.

The conference closed out with a fun keynote from Jeremy “ShoeMoney” Schoemaker.

Thank you so much to all of the sponsors, speakers, and attendees who make Affiliate Summit the great community that it is – we look forward to seeing you August 12-14, 2012 in New York City.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

Back in September 2011, I had to make a quick decision about what I needed to run my business, because I was forced to evacuate from my home, due to a nearby wildfire.

Since I work from home, everything to do with my work is based there.

Fortunately, I’ve been a little crazy about having my files backed up and accessible in multiple places, and pretty much everything I do is web-based.

So, as I fled my house, I was able to focus on my family and dogs, as I needed minimal items from my office to continue working.

I grabbed my laptop, phone, and chargers. I also picked up my iPod and iPad, but those were not essential.

How did I set it up, so I could access everything I needed?

Well, a few years ago I switched over to Google Apps accounts for Gmail. This enables me to manage the Affiliate Summit email server easily and there is tons of space (25GB of email storage per employee). So, no issues with email access and locally installed software.

Pretty much all of my sites are on WordPress these days, so they are not dependent on local software.

And for my files, I do four different things to backup my data. Not only for my various documents, but also my archives of podcasts, photos, videos, etc. for Affiliate Summit, and other projects.

I have an HP SimpleSave 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive that is set to automatically backup any new files nightly.

I also use Jungle Disk and SOS Online Backup to backup new files. These are also set to make an incremental backup each evening. Jungle Disk becomes a virtual drive on my computer(s), so I can access those files from anywhere, and SOS Online Backup can be accessed online, as well as through my phone and iPad.

Plus, I’ve got a lot of vital, current business files on Dropbox.com, which is a sync’d folder on each computer where I have it installed.

I use another online backup service, Mozy, for my wife’s computer, so her files, photos, and videos are backed up offsite.

Having all of this redundancy makes me comfortable. Some people might call it paranoid, but it’s a modest fee to know my data is safe.

And when I was forced to evacuate, I didn’t miss a beat. The same goes for whenever I travel – I can access everything I need and never have to freak out about lack of access.

If you had to flee your office right now, would you be able to keep your business running?

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

Just nine years ago, when people thought about affiliate marketing conferences, it was generally a negative connotation. At the time, the reigning conference was Affiliate Force, an annual cruise around the Caribbean.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward helped to coordinate those conferences, but they thought there were ways it could be done better. To make a long story short, Shawn and Missy offered their opinions and were dismissed. So they decided to create an alternative shortly after the April 2003 edition of Affiliate Force.

The first Affiliate Summit took place in November 2003 in New York City. The goal was to differentiate from other conferences by focusing on content and networking. The first Affiliate Summit introduced Speed Networking, as well as an agenda heavy on the hot issues of the day in affiliate marketing.

The first Affiliate Summit had 200 attendees, and it grew by about 15% for the next show in June 2004. Though skeptical of the cruise ship as a conference venue, they gave it a shot with their approach.

The cruise conference was a sell-out, but the venue was not scalable, so they went on land after that one. After two somewhat basic shows with a single educational track, they evolved to have two tracks and an exhibit hall in June 2005 in Las Vegas.

This time around, Shawn and Missy grew the attendance from 230 on the boat to a crowd of 550.

Following the momentum of the first Vegas show, the pair ran another one in January 2006, where the crowd doubled again. As Affiliate Summit was growing, Shawn and Missy remained the faces of the show and always encouraged feedback. With each successive conference, they tweaked elements to improve them even more.

As they led up to the July 2006 show in Orlando, they incorporated various value-adds, such as a social network and free video of the educational sessions to conference attendees. The Affiliate Summit 2006 East conference also featured the biggest crowd and exhibit hall to date.

In January 2007, Affiliate Summit returned to Las Vegas and surpassed the 2,000 attendee mark, as well as another increase in the size of the exhibit hall. This conference also marked the first time Affiliate Summit held an industry awards show.

Then in July 2007, Affiliate Summit took place in Miami, and this edition of the conference was the largest U.S. east coast Affiliate Summit to date.

Next up was the eighth overall and first international Affiliate Summit in London in September 2007, followed by a return to Las Vegas in a big way – over 2,900 attendees.

In the summer of 2008, FeedFront magazine, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, was launched.

We headed to Boston on August 10-12, 2008 for another record-breaking east coast show that had 2,341 attendees, and we launched our first in a series of one day niche events in New York City on October 5, 2008, where we limited attendees to 300.

And Affiliate Summit continued the trend of growth in 2009 in both Las Vegas and New York City, despite the recession and overall fragile economic climate.

Then in January 2010, Affiliate Summit hit a new high for attendee numbers with 4,125.

Affiliate Summit East returned to New York City in August 2010 and this conference marked the biggest Affiliate Summit East with 3,527 attendees.

In September 2010, the first Affiliate Summit unConference took place in Orlando with a capacity crowd of 150.

This was followed by Affiliate Summit West 2011 in January 2011 at the Wynn Las Vegas. Once again, a new record crowd attended with 4,627 affiliate marketers at the conference.

As the economy has continued to struggle and unemployment has increased, Affiliate Summit East 2011 in August 2011 in
New York City marked another record for Affiliate Summit East with 3,943 attendees.

That brings us up to January 2012 in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West 2012, and the first time we’ve broken 5,000 attendees.

This is an exciting landmark for us and everybody in the affiliate marketing space.

Thank you for your past, present and future support.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. Actually, they probably won’t come.

In addition to creating a quality site, you also have to dedicate time to driving traffic from a variety of sources.

In chapter seven of ExtraMoneyAnswer.com, my free online book for getting started as an affiliate, I go through my eleven key sources for driving traffic to affiliate sites.

• Site Scrapers and Syndicators
• NetworkedBlogs on Facebook
• Twitter Tools
• AWeber RSS to Email
• YouTube Descriptions
• Meetup.com Perks
• LinkedIn Applications
• Paper.li
• Flickr Links
• StumbleUpon
• Podcasting
• Facebook Ads

These are in no particular order, and I didn’t include organic traffic from Google, Yahoo, etc., as I would encourage you to focus on creating quality content, and the search engines will find you.

Get details on how I work with all of these traffic sources at feedfront.com/traffic.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

Affiliate Summit East 2011, which kicked off on Sunday, August 21 at the Hilton New York in New York City, started out early and ran late.

Registration opened at 8am and a steady stream of attendees came through to collect their badges throughout the day.

Booths for the exhibit hall were being assembled from 8am to 6pm, and attendees will be able to visit the booths on the second and third days of the conference.

Educational sessions ran throughout the day with big crowds geared up to learn the latest in affiliate marketing.

The Meet Market was packed from noon to 6pm with attendees networking and cutting deals.

The agenda for day one wrapped up with the opening keynote from Marc Ostrofsky, author of Get Rich Click.

The day finished up with the ShareASale Barn Dance, which was a fun mix of live country music and dancing, appetizing food and drinks, a big game of dodgeball with Angry Birds (I wish I got it on video), a mechanical bull, and cowboy garb for all.

The second day began bright and early with Early Bird Whiteboarding from Eric Nagel.

Attendees were able to grab some coffee and share their sites to this open session and get advice on usability, SEO, conversions and revenue streams.

The whiteboard session was followed by a tasty conference breakfast of scrambled organic brown eggs, hickory smoked bacon, griddle potatoes, a selection of cereals, fruit salad, cinnamon buns, muffins, croissants, bagels, and more.

Next up was a fascinating keynote on effectively doing SEO the right way from Wil Reynolds, Founder of SEER Interactive.

There were also a series of educational panels on the second day.

The exhibit hall also opened up today with a big crowd of people visiting the booths from start to finish.

The educational portion of the day finished up with Ask the Experts roundtables.

After things closed up, affiliate marketers headed out for a night of networking and fun.

In addition to a variety of parties around New York City for conference attendees, there was an Affiliate Karaoke night at the Hilton New York.

The third and final day started off with a second installment of Early Bird Whiteboarding from Eric Nagel.

The Tuesday keynote was presented by Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Author of Call to Action, Waiting For Your Cat to Bark? and Always Be Testing, and he shared a steady stream of useful advice on improving conversions.

After the keynote, there were more educational breakout sessions.

The final day was also the second day of the exhibit hall, which was a great time for affiliate marketers to meet with their merchants and networks.

There were some neat promotions on the exhibit hall floor, such as the chance to win a “Back to the Future Time Machine”.

The conference wrapped up with a speed round discussion of industry issues.

Thank you so much to all of the sponsors, speakers, and attendees who make Affiliate Summit the great community that it is – we look forward to seeing you January 8-10, 2012 in Las Vegas.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/10

I started off Affiliate Summit West 2011 with my partner, Missy Ward, at a tattoo parlor to get inked up with the Affiliate Summit logo. You could say we have some passion for this conference, as we kick off our 8th year with 4,627 affiliate marketers at the Wynn Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West 2011.

That makes it the biggest Affiliate Summit to date

Day 1

The first day kicked off as I led a 10 AM session geared towards folks attending Affiliate Summit for the first time. It was great to have a large, packed room of conference attendees looking for advice on how to make the most of Affiliate Summit.

My session was followed by the opening of the Meet Market and a series of breakout sessions that covered all sorts of topics, including blog monetization, web redesign, email marketing, and local lead gen.

I really liked the way our new method of Q&A via SMS, Web and Twitter worked out.

While the action was taking place in the Meet Market and sessions, the exhibit hall was being built out for days 2 and 3 of Affiliate Summit West 2011.

In the evening, I headed to the ShareASale “Under the Stars” Party at Tryst Nightclub to continue the networking and good times. It was a nice celebration to mark the ten year anniversary of ShareASale, and there was a moving speech from Brian Littleton, founder and CEO of ShareASale.

Day 2

The second day of Affiliate Summit West 2011 got off to a great start with a funny, informative keynote from Drew Eric Whitman, author of CA$HVERTISING. The keynote took place in the Encore Theater, where Garth Brooks performs when he is in town, and Whitman had the packed crowd captivated.

Afterwards, there were a series of breakout sessions on SEO, social media, trendspotting, personal brands, and, of course, affiliate marketing.

The blogger lounge at Affiliate Summit West 2011 was buzzing throughout the day with podcasts, videos, and blog posts.
Crowds packed the exhibit hall throughout the day.

I was excited to meet legendary quarterback Warren Moon at the Digital River booth in the exhibit hall and get a signed football. But it wasn’t all good football news at Affiliate Summit, as I had to wear a New England Patriots jersey, as a result of a bet with Michael Martin, who was on a panel today about Mobile Affiliate Site Strategies.
But I did win some cash in a BCS football ball, which was run by the Football Fanatics Affiliate Program. It’s Vegas – I need to make some bets!

After the exhibit hall and breakout sessions finished up, there were a series of roundtable discussions, which were led by experts on legal issues, content creation, Facebook, buying sites and more.

The last event of the day was the launch of a new product from Jeremy Schoemaker called Linkcontrol. It’s a really cool looking project, and I look forward to hearing more about it.

Day 3

The final day of Affiliate Summit West 2011 started off with the announcement of the 2011 Pinnacle Awards winners.

• Affiliate of the Year: Deals.Woot
• Affiliate Manager of the Year: Carolyn Kmet
• Exceptional Merchant: Zappos
• Affiliate Marketing Advocate: Lisa Picarille
• Best Blogger: Eric Nagel
• Affiliate Marketing Legend: Todd Farmer

Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners.

The Tuesday morning keynote was delivered by Brian Solis, author of Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, to a big crowd in the Encore Theater. After the keynote, Brian gave away a bunch of copies of his book, Engage. I wish I was ready to capture some video, because a group of people pounced on the books. Clearly, they liked what he had to say.

The keynote was followed by a second day of crowds in the exhibit hall, as well as sessions on affiliate and affiliate manager relationships, mobile marketing, paid search, and industry regulations.

Affiliate Summit West 2011 wrapped up with a closing keynote from Dave Taylor of AskDaveTaylor.com. Dave gave an interesting and compelling talk about achieving a work/life balance.

Thank you to all of the folks that came out for Affiliate Summit West 2011 – see you August 21-23, 2011 at the Hilton New York for Affiliate Summit East 2011.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 14 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/52425616/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-14>
FeedFront issue 14 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/04>