“Digesting” The Affiliate Summit Social Media Event

Affiliate Summit Social Media NYC 2008
Having never attended Affiliate Summit in the past, I had very little expectations going to Affiliate Summit Social Media event that took place this past Sunday in New York. Needless to say the event surprised me on many levels.

I hope some one else writes detailed review of the conference. I am sure Shawn will have videos of the event ready soon as the cameras were rolling all day long.

I did not count how may times Twitter was mentioned during the event, but if I were to estimate I would say it was mentioned about 100 times every hour.

But what impressed me the most was that whenever “video blogging” was mentioned and the fact that most of us affiliates don’t utilize this medium enough in our work- I felt they were speaking directly at me.

What downed at me, thanks to Steve Rosenbaum, that those videos don’t have to be necessarily my own so I highly recommend his Magnify.net and maybe there is an idea or two for you as well.

It was also great to hear that some merchants are taking video technology to the next level as well. In fact I joined Buy.com’s affiliate program just because what I have heard at the conference during presentation by Melissa Salas . But there are more reasons why you would want to join their program besides what these guys are doing with videos (hopefully I will get to it one of these days).

Jim KukralOf course you can always make your own videos. Heck Jim Kukral managed to moderate the event while recording his, I suppose, next daily flip. However you can consider creating “screen cast” if you are not conformable to put your face out there. Few screen casting applications were mentioned during the keynote by Don Crowther, such as Camtasia (Windows) and Screenflow (Mac). I am currently comparing several solution for Linux/Ubuntu, hopefully I will update this post when I decide which one I will end up using.

The theme that resonatted with me the most was “video”. More than one merchant on Share A Sale now offering affiliates video creatives.

However if you asked me what was the best part about the event. I would have to say it was not the presentations. As informative and educational as the entire event was, it would mean nothing if if wasn’t because of the people behind the event and those who attended. Finally I got to meet the affiliates from the great state of New Jersey face to face instead of just crossing paths on Internet: Zack Johnson (I am ashamed to say that I have not attempted to meet him sooner since we live literally 5 minutes away for each other), Ian Fernando and Benny Tejeda. What can I say, New Jersey is the best! 😉

15 thoughts on ““Digesting” The Affiliate Summit Social Media Event”

  2. Good overview of the Summit – very helpful. As Vlad points out, video is the next internet frontier, especially for the local mom and pop shop. As this economy continues to turn down, I can see local business looking for more bang for the ever-disappearing buck when it comes to advertising, and video, in my opinion, is the most effective. Thanks for the info for those of us who couldn't attend.

  7. Zac,

    We definitely have to get out for a drink some time. I just signed up for Azoogle and since CPA in a way is an uncharted waters for me, could use some pointers.

  9. Julian,

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. I think many online entrepreneurs, including myself, may be a bit uneasy to do anything with video. In fact when I bought my camera, I have settled on DV format, due to an advise about editing. I do not regret it, but this summit (Jim Kukral in particular) showed me how wrong was I.

    I am not a movie producer, as I presume most of us are. “Plug n' play” kind of equipment is the key. I should have understood that long time ago. And this of course will change even more with the smart phones when the time from shooting a footage and making it available on the internet will be minimal.

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