There is a misconception among the younger affiliate marketing guys that the seminars at Affiliate Summit suck and are a complete waste of time. Although I haven’t been to tons of the sessions in the past, I made it a point to get to at least a few of them at Affiliate Summit East 2010 and I have to say, they were really really good. In the sessions that I saw the speakers really knew their niches but the people that got up and asked questions were complete dummies. Here are 3 sessions I really liked:
Jason Akatiff aka Smaxor
Jason talked about using paths and building lists. He went into what different data is worth, how to collect it and how to monetize it. Jason is pretty laid back so it wasn’t your typical in-your-face kind of session.
Shoemoney
People give Shoemoney a lot of crap for being a guru. I’ve always kind of liked his honest approach to things. His session was about Facebook. It was well researched, had some awesome case study data and was well worth any affiliates time. I like Shoemoney’s presentation style. He keeps it interesting, keeps you engaged and educates you all at the same time.
Jim Kukral
Kooky Kukral did the keynote on the last day of the Summit. Although he wasn’t teaching any killer internet marketing strategies, I did find his keynote to be motivational. He had some great life stories, talked about lessons learned and made you want to take action when you left the conference room. He mentions Ad Hustler in his new book too so how bad can he be?
Besides these sessions, I heard affiliates saying good things about other sessions as well. I’m not saying that getting a pass that includes sessions is going to make you a success in this industry but if you have the money and it doesn’t hurt too much to spend it, I suggest getting a conference pass that includes sessions at the next Affiliate Summit.
Please Note: I do receive a Press Pass to Affiliate Summit which get’s me in for free however, all statements and thoughts are my own opinions.
Thanks man. Yeah, I heard these were the best sessions ever. Shoemoney’s was great!
I liked Jim Kukral’s keynote. Declan Dunn’s session was good too.
Wow it really seems ASE took a big step up this year. Last year I was really disappointed by ASE. It marked it down as the worst conference to go to business wise. Mind you I have never gone to sessions before. I should try them out next time!
Mr. Green – what was it that disappointed you about ASE last year?
Agreed! It’s important to attend the sessions. I was at 90% of them including The Audience Conference. (Sunday – Tuesday)
I found Supercharging WordPress for SEO (Jon Henshaw) to be the most valuable for me.
Jon did a great job starting off slow (for beginners) with an outline for action. (Setting-up stats, Sitemaps, etc.)
While it started off basic, Jon provided a list of WP Plugins (that he uses or has tested) that have positive SEO properties. It really was valuable information.
I’ve used or tested many WP Plugins that were mentioned; however, I did pick up some useful tips that will help my SEO efforts. (Automation tools, 301 redirect tools, etc.)
The ASE sessions reminded me of college. The presenters felt like professors. (All of which were approachable and happy to chat!)
I spoke with Jon for 10 minutes after the session. He’s very laid-back, approachable, and extremely knowledgeable!
Awesome! I’ll be sure to check out more sessions at ASW! 🙂
I definitely agree. At some other industry shows I’ve been to in the past, the sessions end up being nothing but sales presentations from vendors trying to sell you on their services. But, Missy and Shawn really do a nice job of getting quality speakers and putting together good sessions. Looking forward to more good content during ASW in January!
Just to follow up on what Tom said, if anybody did hear a pitch in a session, please let us know, because we don’t want them back.
I wouldn’t say the younger guys are the ones that think that way, most of them are the ones always asking if they should plunk down the dough for an upgraded pass.
Affiliate Summit sessions for the most part, have been completely disappointing. It seems however, this round did far better and that’s great.
Does that mean the sessions are suddenly worth going to? No, the majority of sessions not just Aff summit but all shows are generally put together by people who either don’t know shit and fake their way through it, or people who do know but refuse to give solid info (like google).
Aff Summit is a great show, I go to both each year, but the reality is, most sessions are a huge waste of time and money, time being worth far more and if a session is any good you can generally score a recording or at least top notch notes of it free after the show if you ask around, presenters, attendees, etc.
You have to make your own decision, but for me, I’ll spend the extra G on paying for a dinner with real people doing real things in this space and if I happen to miss a good session, cliffs notes do just fine.
Affilthyate – can you share which are some of the sessions you’ve attended in the past?
I agree that most big companies don’t share a lot of information, which is why we don’t focus on having them as speakers.
They are better than what I thought before reading this post.
I attended the last three Summits and A4UE in Europe. The ASE2010 was clearly the best one for our crew.
I like the wide range of sessions and that Shaen & Missy clearly state the level of each session in advance. It enables our team to spread out based on knowledge and interests.
Personally I loved the Crowdsourcing, Outsourcing and Facebook sessions, whereas Mr.10GoldenRules was a joke.
He did nothing, but self-promote himself.
The most important thing besides the knowledge and inspiration from the sessions, is clearly the networking with the other attendees in the same sessions in the 10 mins after the session ends.
Keep up the good work, so we will keep flying 6000-8000 miles every six months to meet you guys.
Robin, Denmark
@Robin – That’s all Jay Berkowitz does is promote himself. I remember thinking that a couple of years ago at Affiliate Summit Social Media in NYC. I didn’t see his presentation at Summit this time but I can tell you he has to promote himself by going up and asking questions during other peoples sessions and dropping his 10 golden rules twitter URL.
Flew to ASE from New Zealand so it’s a pretty big commitment, but was impressed with the sessions. Some were better than others, and I found it a bit hard to choose which stream to go to (should’ve prepared better). But because of the time and money invested the seminars had to be worthwhile 🙂
Sometimes it’s not the actual ideas in the talk that help, instead it’s the inspiration that this is a big industry and there’s plenty of directions you can take things. The motivation that engenders is what’s most valuable.
Hi Y’all,
I have attended a few of the sessions in the last 2 years at
Aff Summit and most of them were ok, but i have to say
that Tim Ash does not belong at any more of the events.
His sessions are crap and are just a sales pitch for
his stupid company that sucks balls.
Please don’t invite Tim Ash again.
Nice write up! I heard Shoemoney’s was pretty good and I highly respect Smaxor, so that would have been a good one to see. I’m looking forward to ASW!