I know, I know. I’ve been an affiliate for over a decade now [I'm not old, I'm not old]… how have I not attended an Affiliate Summit before? I must have been asked that question thirty times this week.
I really don’t know… I think because I’ve always been an organically focused affiliate, I’ve tended to mingle within the SEO community more than the affiliate community.
That said, I was asked to speak at ASE, had always wanted to attend the conference and figured now was the time to pop that cherry.
The Organizers
I was actually impressed with how well the conference was organized. Aside from a lack of a “schedule at a glance” in the conference bags (maybe we were blind), it was a well oiled machine. Check in lines were short even though the place was packed. Missy Ward and Shawn Collins were on hand and mingling up a storm with any attendee who wanted to meet them. And it was the first conference I’ve ever attended where I didn’t hear a single complaint about the WiFi.
The People
First, let me say that Affiliate Summiters are a very attractive group of people on a overall whole. ;-) Secondly, from all the folks I talked to, PPC is definitely the weapon of mass choice for these conference attendees. I’d say one out of every fifteen people I spoke with was a primarily organic affiliate. The average age was also much younger than any other tech conference I’ve ever attended (not saying that’s a bad thing, just saying).
The Expo Hall
You’d have thought there was money falling from the sky in the expo hall based on how packed it was. I’ve seen an expo hall with that many merchants before, but I’ve never seen one that large that was literally packed to the rafters. It was almost impossible to walk there were so many people. And while SEO conferences have increasingly reduced swag giveaways over the last few years, it seemed that every single merchant with a booth was giving away swag at ASE – and nice stuff too!
Some of the merchants were a bit, uh, on the shady side. But, all the big players were there, including CJ, Google Affiliate Network, Linkshare and the like. I had some good conversations, found some interesting programs and was able to get faces to match the names of folks I’ve been receiving support from via the networks over the years.
I won’t lie – at first I was like, who charges 100 bucks just to get into an expo hall (that was the cost if you didn’t have a regular conference pass and ONLY wanted to hit the expo hall)? After seeing the expo hall, the free drinks flowing and the networking going on within it, I can say that I honestly get it now.
My Session
I spoke on an Organic SEO site review panel along with Michael Gray, Michael Streko, Frank Watson and Chris Pearson – who “moderated” ;-) the panel. The room was packed with people standing at the door for most of the session. To be honest, I think we made a great panel, because all of us on it are affiliates ourselves, with almost all of us earning our primary full time livings off the trade.
In addition to being very experienced with building out successful affiliate sites, we’re all also very experienced with SEO. I think it helped us look at sites in a way that even a good SEO, who doesn’t have heavy experience in the affiliate realm, wouldn’t have been able to. It’s an affiliate conference, but an SEO panel. I hope we brought some additional value to those in attendance because of our combination of experience and success with both realms. I love doing site clinics – I love thinking on my feet.
If you want to read the best liveblogging coverage of the OTHER sessions that occurred, head on over to Outspoken Media and read the ASE 09 coverage there.
The Parties
First, let me admit that I hate the “exclusive gatherings” parties a lot of merchants put on. That goes for every conference, not just Affiliate Summit – where they only invite 200 people (and usually the same people) and want to seem exclusive and elite. I hate elitist bullshit and don’t think I’ve attended one of those in a long time. I’m at a conference to network with folks I don’t know, not reciprocally back pat those I do.
That said, I wasn’t there for the entire conference, so I have no idea how many “open” parties there were. But I did attend one party, which was open to anyone who went to their booth and grabbed an invite – the Shareasale party.
It was held on the roof of the Empire Hotel, drinks – both beer and liquor – were served free of charge for four hours, there was a DJ, plenty of areas for the smokers and it was a really, really good time. Shareasale definitely earned some good will with me via being generous enough to host it and they’ll be getting more business from me in the future. It was really well done.
Overall
To be honest, I had a damn good time. It was good getting out of my conference comfort zone and Missy and Shawn put on a damn good show. Hopefully I’ll be asked to return for another site clinic during the next ASE. ;-)
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Rae,
Wish I could have experienced all that ASE had to offer but I foolishly waited till the last minute to get a ticket and then it was too late. I look forward to attending the next event in Las Vegas at ASW. Hope to meet you at the next one. Thanks for all your posts and hilarity on Twitter.
Have a great week.
Sounds sweet, wish I coulda been there
My next two conferences will be PubCon and Affiliate Summit West, both in Las Vegas! See you there?
I had tickets, but had to bail at the last minute due to a family illness. Thanks for the recap … makes me feel like I was there! I do regret missing out on all the free swag, though :)
Rae,
I agree ASE was a great conference. Missed your panel, the only one I actually wanted to see haha. Flight landed after it had ended. Oh well. I’ll grab the video off the ASE site in a few weeks.
As far as parties, ShareASale was amazing, they were super generous and threw a great party. The shindig at Touch wasn’t half bad either. Me and @Markus941 cut a rug. Just wish Biz Marke would have sang more than 1 song. He finished his 1 hit single and said “PEACE PEOPLE” and walked off. Kinda funny in retrospect.
All else accounted for it was a blast and well worth the trip.
Hey Rae -
It was a pleasure to finally meet you – we’d love to have you back to speak in Vegas.
This sounds stupid, but I really have to give ASE props on keeping the WiFi up the whole time. It’s always a constant problem at EVERY OTHER CONFERENCE, so it was actually something I noticed when I didn’t have to worry about it or freak over lossed productivity.
Awesome show all around. And yeah, the attendees are seriously hot! :)
Yeah, I didn’t even think about the wifi until you mentioned it. Why? Because “it just worked”. Rae, come to Vegas in 2010, you won’t regret it. Cya at Blogworld?
Rae,
Was great to meet you and wish we had had more time to talk – thanks for coming to our party as well and for the kind words. See you at the next one for sure. :)
Rae,
So glad you could make it out and speak. I heard good feedback from a few folks that saw the panel. Can’t wait to see the video of it (and all the other sessions for that matter).
Oh and yeah, schedule at a glance… well, it was inside the bag as a pull-out section in FeedFront and then posted on each floor on the LED boards as soon as you got off the elevators/escalators. We used to have little ones in the bags, but because we had 4 concurrent sessions going on and not a whole lot of room to print out the names/session descriptions, folks said they were useless. (I can’t win on this thing…ever.)
And yes.. you’re welcome back to speak in Vegas. Hope to see you before that.
-M
I take it after not going to one for 10 years you’re now planning to go to one each year for the next 10 years!
Sounds like it was great. You know, I never thought about most affiliates using PPC until reading this just now. I’ve always preferred SEO, and have always focused on getting better at it. Tried PPC a few times, but I guess it’s not my thing.
The good thing though about there being less SEO affiliates is that 1, there’s less competition, and 2, we get a much larger cut of the traffic- if we manage to get to the top of the SERPs.
…two photos of you from ase09
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=2565169&id=570451269
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=2559661&id=570451269
This was my first ASE as well. Shawn and Missy put on a really great show and they are also incredibly nice and friendly people.
I hope you come to ASW Rae, it would be great to meet you.
I attended the conference as well and I came away with a good sized bag of free goodies including T-shirts, energy drinks pens the list goes on and on the free stuff is worth the price of admission alone..