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>

…from the Trash 80 to a black Mercedes

I was reading some posts on ppc.bz last fall and there was the audio of a song called Hogg Theme Song by YTCracker. That was my first exposure to what I later found out was Nerdcore hip hop and I liked it.

It had the sound of hip hop, but the lyrics covered nerd stuff like video games and programming. And this guy Bryce Case, Jr., aka YTCracker (pronounced “whitey cracker”), intrigued me. I checked out his Wikipedia entry and found it he’s a former cracker who gained infamy for defacing several federal and municipal government sites in the United States, as well as in private industry at the age of 17.

Since then, he’s made a name for himself in affiliate marketing, as well with his music, record label (Nerdy South Records), and as a DJ.

Recently, I sat down with him to get the rest of the story behind YTCracker.

Shawn Collins: What’s the origin of your name, YTCracker?

YTCracker: In a nutshell, YTCracker (or its various other forms of capitalization I utilize, depending on what mood I am in) is just a catchy infini-entendre that plays off the color of my skin, computer hacking, “youthful technology”, the Kourier girl “Yours Truly” from Snow Crash, the YucaTan Peninsula, and the simulation game Yoot Tower. Conveniently, when people want to know if I am around, they can text/email/IM me with the efficient, six-character message “yt yt?”

As a white nerd coming up in the rap game, I could take the wind out of the sails of many a battle rapper by being self-deprecating from the jump. Sadly, it is somewhat of a misnomer because I am actually only half-white – my dad is close to 50% Choctaw and Cherokee, and my mom is 50% Hawaiian and Chinese.

It is for this reason that YT most likely stands for “Young Trickster,” thereby joining the ranks of other famous rapping Youngs like Young Jeezy, Yung Joc, Young Buck, Neil (Kneel) Young, and the Young Money clique.

SC: Do you think government sites are properly fortified against cyber terrorism threats? How about air traffic, banks, public utilities?

YTC: In another nutshell, no, but not necessarily for technological reasons. The weakest link in any computer system is the moron sitting in front of the keyboard, and as long as there are morons to be socially engineered and manipulated like pawns or college-age girls, the hackers will always have the upper hand.

SC: Did you really learn to program BASIC from age 4? In your song, “meganerd”, you mention the “trash 80″ – did you learn on the TRS-80 as a kid?

YTC: I was a precocious Young Trickster. I loved reading, and my wonderful mother got me started early on with the books, and my dad was a rocket scientist who spent his day designing missiles to fight the Communists. Nowadays, computers are very commonplace, and can be found in almost every home; most kids from my generation didn’t grow up with personal computers, leaving only the alpha nerds like my dad with the hardware. We had a Timex-Sinclair 1000 and a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, both of which used a flavor of BASIC as their operating system. Since the Sinclair (our first PC) didn’t take any game cartridges, if I wanted to play on the computer, I had to write my own stupid games.

Let’s just say I had more fun than should be humanly possible with the words INPUT and PRINT. Nice life.

SC: What’s so funny about money from your song, “LOL Money”?

YTC: “LOL Money” is my thinly-veiled critique of the “mainstream” rap world. I attempted to capture all of the illustrious intentions of 98% of rap songs I recalled in recent memory. I was just really scientific when I made it, and frankly, I am reckless. With over 100k views, it is my most popular music video. Long after I am gone, it will probably be the thing I am most remembered for. My reputation is ruined. LOL Reputation.

SC: Who are your musical influences?

YTC: I have such an eclectic musical taste that I can’t even begin to enumerate them all. My favorite band is a group of scientists out of the United Kingdom named Pendulum. The cofounder/bassist Gareth is a friend of mine, and he just leaves his gold records lying in prefabricated ornate frames strewn about the floor of his flat. I think that is keeping it real to the max. Who lives like this?

SC: When you were a teenager, who did you like more, Angelina Jolie in Hackers or Sandra Bullock in The Net?

YTC: Angelina Jolie. You get to see her boob, too, so that is no contest.

SC: Mac or PC?

YTC: I’ve become an Apple fanboy in the last few years, but I can’t completely get away from Windows, so I run a virtual machine. OSX is POSIX-compliant, so it helps me keep my operating system polygamy low.

SC: How long have you been an affiliate?

YTC: I’ve been doing Internet marketing in some capacity since I was 16 years old. I started spamming back when you could scrape the entire AOL member directory AND mail a kajillion emails with no rate limits off of a single account. Even though it was as simple as pressing a button, I only did it a few hours a day because I was an idiot. I made egregious amounts of money for a 16 year old, but [insert platitude about a time machine here].

SC: What are you doing in affiliate marketing these days?

YTC: I’m kind of secretive about my dealings within the advertising space and operate exclusively with a select cabal of soldiers. My partners and I frequently joke that we are your “favorite ________’s favorite ________.” Mad Libs were awesome in elementary school.

SC: With all of your skills, why isn’t there a working site for Nerdy South Records?

YTC: There is an old saying that goes “a painter’s house is never painted” or something like that. Sticking with the Mad Lib formula, “a ________’s ________ is never ________ed.” Fill in the blank with something that has to do with me.

Check out ytcracker.com for music and more information on YTCracker.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 11 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/29057000/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-11
FeedFront issue 11 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2010/07

I came across a video this past spring with a guy named Joel Bauer talking about his business card. It was an oddly compelling couple of minutes on personal brands that I’ve re-watched dozens of times.
And I’m not alone. The video, “Your Business Card is Crap”, has been viewed about 750,000 times on YouTube.

So I had to find out more about the man behind the business card. It turns out Joel Bauer is a best-selling author, and he has been a professional performer since he was 7 years old.

Also, Joel spent a couple decades creating and producing Infotainment presentations and road-shows internationally for the likes of IBM, Nortel, Dresser Wayne, Polaroid, and ITT, as well as creating systems on personal marketing, branding, passion, Infotainment, speaking, and closing from the platform.

All that is great, but what about the business card video?

The Most Famous Business Card

Shawn Collins: So, the first place I came across you was your business card video.

Joel Bauer: Oh that thing. [laughs] I didn’t put that out there, let me tell you. I think that was someone trying to do damage. It actually didn’t do damage, but stimulated a lot of activity out there, in the form of a bunch of television shows and other stuff. It’s still ongoing.

Shawn: Yeah. I guess the place that actually was brought to my attention was on the show “Red Eye” on Fox News.

Joel: Yeah. Yeah, that was fun. It was kind of weird sitting in a room, staring into a camera while you are watching a monitor with a six second delay from New York.

Shawn: Yeah. One thing I was curious about there is, I guess, you were saying that you thought someone was trying to do damage to you. And, you mentioned on Red Eye that you were sort of playing a character there. So, was that you just sort of hamming it up for that?

Joel: Well, I mean, I’m on the phone with you right now. And you tell me, was I playing a character or not? I mean, obviously; the entire film, called “The Pitch, Poker & the Public”, is where it was extracted from.

The documentary which was made by a guy by the name of Chris Zubryd, who actually published an apology about how someone had taken this small 25 second or 35 second excerpt from the film, out of context.

Because if you watch the film, it has me with my children. It has Joel light, Joel family man.

And then when they asked me to go into the pitch mode, I went into what was a trade show-style pitch mode because that’s what I was doing then. I was a trade show performer. And I was going into that very intense mode… what you would use on a floor.

I’m sure you’ve been to MacWorld, or Comdex, or some major trade show, and you’ve noticed that the only people who are noticed there are those that are intense.

Shawn: Yeah. Absolutely.

Joel: And they’re loud and they’re kind of carnie. So that personality was very polarizing and very edgy and obviously very effective from a viral stand point because here you have a man talking about a business card, without taking his clothes off; and generating as many hits as usually the sites that do that kind of nonsense.

So that was kind of interesting. It’s been fascinating. I don’t think there’s any predictable formula behind viral other than using the word dog or cat. [laughs] Or Megan Fox or one of those things that tends to get people to click on the video. Your Business Card is Crap is not exactly a positive title.

And I do know who put it up there originally. And they did try to do damage and it kind of backfired. I think you fight the fire. They want you to start a fire. They want you to respond. And I don’t respond, because it doesn’t matter. The people that study with me and follow me, they know that what I do has integrity.

Joel on Social Media

Shawn: I was looking to see your real identity on Twitter, and saw there’s one, @TheJoelBauer, that has your picture and your Web sites and everything, so they are certainly trying to give the impression. But is there any reason why you don’t bother to go in there yourself?

Joel: The absolute, with clarity, revelation here, is that I am so consumed doing what I do for my students. Right now I am sitting here in front of an hour training that is going out to 74 recent students. I train professional speakers. People that want to do what I do. I am on platforms two, three, four times a month, training people in our marketing systems. And as a result of that, I do what most other speakers don’t do and that is I actually take care of them.

I’m so busy doing this stuff. Traveling. I’ve got three kids. I don’t have time. Really, if you want to be effective on Twitter or Facebook, you need to do it every day. And it needs to become very personal. That’s my belief. You need to participate.

And I am so busy servicing those who are quite frankly spending a fortune on my attentions. I coach. I coach a very small group. And I’m out there doing it. And I don’t talk the talk. I walk it. So if you hear me teaching, they know that I’m actually doing it. Because then that’s how they met me or that’s how they saw me. The stuff that I reveal actually works.

Joel on Affiliate Marketing

Shawn: I saw that you had some affiliate links to Amazon for your books. Do you do much with affiliate marketing at all, or is that pretty much the extent of it?

Joel: No. Really what we’re doing is I have a group building all that. And it will be done. The only affiliate marketing I will do is with people I actually believe in. Where I’ve actually used their system extensively for significant periods of time and had massive results.

For example, there’s a link on my blog right now that says, “Cancer free.” And I don’t make any money on it, and it’s not affiliate marketing. But I do make some recommendations. And obviously with the following I have, if I wanted to make money on people I could just have JV (joint venture) links everywhere. People would click all day.

And you might say, well, why don’t you do that? It’s because, quite frankly, I’m not looking for every dime. And the marketers who are doing that aren’t transparent. We all know what’s being done.

When it has Shawn’s last name at the end, forward slash Shawn. Well, we kind of get it. Shawn’s making money. I always tell people where I’m making money, and when I’m not. So when I’m doing a training, I say, “Here’s my contact for printing. Here’s my contact and my resource for audio. Here’s my contact.”
And I tell them, “By the way, I don’t make money on any of these resources. You’re actually paying direct what they would charge normally. There’s no markup. There’s no kickback. There’s no motivation for me. I don’t have anyone’s hand in my back pocket.”

And they appreciate that. They’re paying a considerable amount of money to train with me. See Shawn, the difference is when people train with me, they’re spending 10, 15 grand to be in a room with me for seven days. That’s not a lot of money, but it’s a lot to them. And they’re blown away. They’re absolutely blown away by the training. Again, I’ve never had a refund, a cancellation, or anyone upset with these live trainings. Anyone. Because I over deliver; I give them too much.

So my process is more of an offline process, in terms of what I’m teaching. I’m showing them how to speak on a platform, and generate massive dollars right there, right then, doing what it is they believe in, and communicating from their heart. Their area of expertise. An area they can empower others through.

And that’s very different than the Internet model. The Internet model complements it. I also believe that without the Internet you’re leaving at least 50 percent of your money on the table, and you’re leaving your forced continuity. You’re leaving that element of your business that would have enabled you to do it once and never have to do it again. And have an automated, replicatable, duplicatable, transferable process that generates income beyond your years. I believe in the Internet. No question about it.

Four Suggestions for Your Site

Joel: I’d love to close with four simple comments that would probably take us two minutes. I would just like to label them. I constantly see Internet marketers, with Web sites, not talking about your guys. I don’t know who your guys are exactly. I have an idea but there are four things they’re not doing and they wonder why their Web sites aren’t making money.

The first is, when you arrive, there’s no live video. There’s no warm, ingratiating call to action video that inspires someone emotionally. That has specifically you’re mission statement and benefit to them and why they would want to come to the other side. The video is generally missing and it’s not auto-play. That’s a mistake. It should auto-play.

Second component missing on those sites is an opt-in. They’re not even asking for name, email address. They don’t ask, they don’t get. Most sites you can go there check out the site and leave. It’s a massive error.

I don’t believe in sites where you just check them out and leave. I believe in sites that inspire a call to action with a video and have an opt-in that requires really only the email address. A double opt-in, of course, using an AWeber, iContact, or whatever service they decide to use.

If they ask for only the email address they’re going to have a much higher conversion level or opt-in level than they would asking for more information at that point. We don’t have trust, we don’t have rapport. We have nothing.

The email address is the safest thing to request, but double opt-in ensures that if they’re going to put “screw you Johnny” or whatever it is, they’re putting some stupid entry in there, that obviously you’re never see it. It will get kicked. It will never be confirmed in the system.

Opt in, video. Third component. At the end of the video, which is very short, 15 seconds, call to action. There should be social proof. A stream of 10 to 15 seconds of people raving about what it is you do. They should be monetized.

“As a result of Shawn, we generated 30 grand in the first three weeks. We couldn’t believe it. His writing style has enabled us to write more effective copy that has motivated people from the heart to invest in our products. We never thought it was possible.”

Then it goes on. “Before John, 30 pounds overweight. After John, his simple guidance and steps…” See, a monetizable testimonial is anything that shows the before and the after the transformation.

The fourth component missing from Web sites is the call to action. If there is no specific call to action, none will be taken. I would venture to say that in your group, we could go through a list together. We’re not going to. I’m just saying we could, and we could find 20 or 30 percent of them that aren’t doing those four things. They may know about them, Shawn. What I’m indicating here is, beyond knowledge, transcending knowledge is application. Are they applying it? Most of them aren’t.

Dan Kennedy, one of the top marketers on the planet, one of the most brilliant men in marketing, has finally embraced video marketing, and won’t argue the fact that it’s more effective than copywriting.

If you had an audience, and they had to make a choice between sitting and listening to a video, and reading 50 pages of copy, right now they’ll choose the video. Now if you do both, video and transcription, you’re going to optimize very effectively. That’s really effective, new, relevant data for positioning on the engines.
Absolutely the video of the call to action is what most are now using, some of the most effective marketers. I’m sure you could name names, because you’ve seen it done. That’s a massive change that’s taken place in the last two years.

Video now dominates. It’s huge. Copywriting is also very effective. I’m not putting it down. There are people that love to read copy, but the majority would rather be sitting and entertained initially, and then read the copy. I think both should be there, but on a different layer. I’d rather have video on the first layer, as it’s relatively non invasive and it’s an entertainment.

Anyway, I just wanted to make that comment. Very simple four principles. Auto-responder sequencing, the silent salesman. I’m amazed how many Web sites you go there, you opt in.

So those are the principles I discuss in detail prior to going to a live event, even though I don’t teach Internet at those events. I teach something very different, branding and differentiation, and yet I’ll talk about those four Internet principles because most people have a site, and it’s not generating any money.
They build it, and no one came. They’re not Kevin Costner. It’s not a field of dreams for most people.

They’re still dreaming about why it’s not working. I would start with those four repairs right there.

I would like to ask you something right now. Would you agree that if those components are missing, they’ve got a problem from the get go?

Shawn: Yeah. The one thing I would question is for me, as a user, I can’t stand auto-play video, and I’ve talked to a lot of people that don’t like it. So I use video a lot, but I always have the user having to take the action to play it.

Joel: No, that’s fine by the way. I would agree with your assessment, in terms of having interviewed audiences, but in terms of conversion level, our testing produced a very different result. If we want to strictly go according to the numbers, I would say everyone should ignore Joel Bauer, ignore Shawn, ignore everyone, and do their own test.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10

Affiliate Summit East 2009 (ASE09), the biggest of any Affiliate Summit East with 3,076 attendees, kicked off in New York City on August 9, 2009.

The previous peak attendance for an Affiliate Summit East show was 2,341 in Boston last year.
Day one of ASE09 featured a series of educational sessions and the Affiliate Meet Market, where six hours of networking took place.

After we experienced some long lines this past January at Affiliate Summit West 2009, a number of things were changed to alleviate the time for picking up badges and registration materials, and lines were low throughout the day.

The second day started with the keynote address from Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, co-authors of the New York Times bestselling book, “Trust Agents”.

The capacity crowd was engaged as the keynote ran beyond the end time with the entertaining banter between Smith and Brogan.

After the keynote, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith signed copies of Trust Agents for a line of Affiliate Summit attendees.

The day also marked the opening of the exhibit hall, which spanned two floors and was crowded until closing.
There were also a series of packed educational sessions on the second day.

Towards the end of the day, there was a progression of roundtables hosted by a dozen experts on various topics related to affiliate marketing.

Day two wound up with a four-hour session of networking and karaoke at TechKaraoke, where a long list of folks in the industry sang their hearts out.

The final day of Affiliate Summit started with a keynote address from Peter Shankman, who had the crowd laughing and thinking with his talk.

The day also featured a series of educational sessions and the final day of the exhibit hall.

The final session was GeekCast.fm Live, where podcast hosts answered questions from the audience on podcasting and a host of other issues.

Finally, ASE09 wound up with the Affiliate Triathlon, where participants contributed $100 each to Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City for the chance to win a booth or five Platinum passes at Affiliate Summit West 2010.

The three sports in the competition were toilet racers (motorized toilets on wheels), Skee-ball, and Whack-a-Mole.

As things drew to a close, I was chatting with a number of people about the syndrome that hits attendees as they leave an Affiliate Summit (or any other conference).

After several days of networking, we strengthen our bonds, and there is a sense of emptiness when everybody goes their separate ways.

But it doesn’t have to be that way – we’ve got YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, the Affiliate Summit Social Network, and other venues to stay together.

Then again, there is no replacing Affiliate Summit West 2010, taking place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas. We look forward to seeing everybody again next January.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10