« CPA Empire® Weekly Newsletter – August 3, 2007 | Main | CPA Empire® Weekly Newsletter – August 10, 2007 »
August 07, 2007
Affiliate Summit East Miami – Was it as Hot as the Weather or Not?
By Lou Difulvio
Network Affiliate Manager
CPA Empire
At every Affiliate Summit we look forward to meeting new advertisers and publishers, as well as reconnecting with current business partners. With the conference a few weeks behind us, I am asking the same question you ask yourself after every conference you attend. Was the conference worth it?
To me, every Affiliate Summit is a new experience which I always look forward to. Being able to walk the floor, attend the various types of presentations available, and – believe it or not – working at our booth.
Well this Summit we decided to switch things up and not have a booth. I thought this was an awesome idea. There were more opportunities to interact with other attendees while walking the floor. Not being tied to the booth, I was able to check out all of the exhibits, and I really got to spend more time catching up with the new buzz in the industry. One of the best conference experiences occurs when your company is able to generate a lot of positive buzz during the event. As you meet attendees who don’t currently work with you, they get excited about your business and are anxious to find ways to do business together – sometimes even before you get back to the office.
Working with CPA Empire, the one question that I always hear is “What makes your network better then others?”. Publishers who don’t currently do business with us may not realize that our main focus is customer service and how personable and knowledgeable our Affiliate Managers really are. When we meet with publishers who already work with us, it’s all about building stronger relationships. This is one of the things I always look forward to during the events we attend – the meetings in which we enhance our partnerships. Meeting with various people during lunches and dinners is always a great way to build these relationships as well. Not only do you get an awesome meal, but you get to know your partners on a more personal level. I strongly suggest that everyone set up meetings and dinners when you have the opportunity to help with your goals in this industry.
The best session I attended at Affiliate Summit East was “What Super Affiliates Want”. The panel during this presentation included several Super Affiliates: Rosalind Garder, Scott Jangro and Jeremy Palmer. They broke their presentation down into 4 key points: Recruitment, Merchant Site, Affiliate Program, and Relationships. It’s gratifying to see Relationships come up on this list, as it is such a focus for everyone at CPA Empire.
If there was one thing I wish I had more of during Affiliate Summit, it would be time to attend more of the presentations. Because I try to spend as much time as possible with my partners, it can be difficult to make it to every valuable session.
Overall, I feel my time at the Affiliate Summit East conference was well spent. Not only was the weather hot but the show was too.
Posted by Tom at August 7, 2007 03:44 AM