If you’re running an affiliate program or at least considering to do so, I think you agree that education  is very important – seeing the best practices, getting to know where and why some were not so successful at this and so on will help take the best decision in order to maximize your affiliate program performance.

A couple of weeks ago, our close friend Geno Prussakov announced the launch of a new conference series dedicated especially to affiliate program managers. So, naturally, I had to know more about this. Geno was very kind to answer to a few questions regarding the event.

1. Geno – congratulations for this brand new event! What were the things that inspired you to do this?

Thank you, Cristian. I am excited, and very much looking forward to our launch event in San Francisco on March 8-9, 2012. To answer your question two main things have moved me towards starting Affiliate Management Days:

• Widespread and largely unsatisfied demand for face-to-face affiliate management education (and important element of studying process which got eliminated by the specifics of the context),
• Absence of an affiliate management professional forum, an event where digital marketing managers and online merchants could gather on a regular basis — to share affiliate management knowledge and experience, and work out solutions to common problems and challenges.

2. Affiliate Management Days is primarily aimed at affiliate program managers. Do they need to have prior experience to join this?

The answer to this question will, actually, also address the statement you’ve started it with. No, attendees do not need to have any prior experience in affiliate marketing (or affiliate program management) to benefit from the conference. In fact, as mentioned not too long ago elsewhere, the 4 keynote speeches that we will have will be of use both to affiliate marketing-savvy managers, and to novice. As for the 24 breakout sessions that we’ll run over the course of two 10-hour days, the attendees will have a choice of two tracks, and will always be able to pick the better-fitting session depending on their particular situation and readiness level. It is on this reason that we are neither limiting our audience to affiliate managers only.

Anyone involved in e-commerce on the merchant’s end (be it the owner of the business, company’s executive officer, digital marketing manager, and affiliate manager specifically) will come out with a portfolio of actionable and immediately-applicable knowledge to implement for the betterment of their affiliate (and other!) marketing campaigns.

3. Why should software merchants affiliate program managers attend this event?

Regardless of your vertical (retail, software, services, digital goods) or target audiences (businesses, or individual consumers), the principles, situations and case studies covered will enrich your marketing strategy.

If you have a look at AM Days San Francisco 2012 agenda, you will see numerous sessions that will benefit an online merchant regardless what they sell. We have sessions on affiliate marketing analytics and attribution, landing page and checkout optimization, combating fraud, digital payments, mobile, social, and many other cross-vertical subjects.

4. What are the key elements that differentiate this event from other shows where affiliate program managers are within the target audience?

As mentioned at the outset of our conversion, AM Days will (a) have the heaviest focus on education, and (b) be unique in terms of professional networking. By the way, speaking of education: our San Francisco 2012 sessions will be conducted by folks who graduated such top schools as Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, University of Chicago, Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), Kellogg (Northwestern University). If you register and come, you won’t regret it.

5. Thank you for this short interview and looking forward to a successful show in March!

We look forward to seeing Avangate there, and happy to extend a special 10% off to all Avangate customers and your blog readers. The coupon code to use is AVANGATE.

Thank you for the opportunity, Cristian.

Another Affiliate Summit event went by and I’m happy to say that it was the most successful one so far for us – not only for the new connections we made, but also the number of folks to whom we got to introduce Avangate. A lot of people involved in the software business – merchants, affiliates and service providers – came to event making the 13+ hour flight there worth it … plus, of course, it’s Vegas :) Check out some nice pictures and videos on our dedicated Facebook page.

In terms of getting exposure, I hosted a roundtable discussion about selling software. We had a lot of fun – the table was full and we had a lot of interesting questions. I expected mostly affiliates wanting to explore the software niche, but was happily surprised to see that about half of the folks who came to the table were affiliate program managers looking on how to leverage affiliates to grow their business.

Getting to the title of this post, here are a few pointers that helped us get the best of this show – I recommend you keep these in mind when attending an industry event as big as ASW12 (5,000+ delegates):

1. Clearly set the objectives for attending the show. For example – we want to talk to X new affiliates, get in touch with our partners Y and Z at the show, learn more about this business, etc. You will have to measure them afterwards to decide if it was a good event or even if it’s worth for you to go there next time.
2. Start planning meetings as early as possible. Check your leads pool and see if they’re attending. Don’t forget to follow-up with the people you’re contacting at least once. Also monitor the event’s social media channels (Twitter, Facebook). We’ve also had success reaching out to leads attending by social media, so don’t underestimate this.
3. Get the attendees list early and scan for updates weekly. I like the fact that Affiliate Summit always makes the attending companies public on their website, which clearly helps you meet the right people for you. As for the early thing: it’s easier to go through a big list months before the event than rush this in a few days right before the event. Meet possible partners in the exhibit hall – this will be a time saver for both parties. For important leads, set up a time to meet them separately.
4. See what your competition is doing at the conference. Keep an eye on your competition for the show. They could be sponsoring the event or organizing a party. Or maybe they have a presentation or are involved in a panel discussion. Do drop by and say hello if you have the chance – after all, we’re only competition, not enemies ;)
5. Clients are your best asset. Set up meetings with them, even outside the event, if they’re based there. If there’s more from your company going to the show, you might want to organize a special event for your partners where they have the chance to talk to each other and to you. From my experience, schmoozing leads to best results and when you’re having fun it’s even better.
6. Take advantage of the live sessions. Check out the event agenda and join the sessions appealing to you. You can meet the big people in the industry and get their advice.
7. Follow-up after the event. Remember those business cards you received during the show? Now it’s time to follow-up with the people and get things moving. You don’t have to do it in the same day, but some 2-3 days after the event ends is a good period to reignite the discussion.

Do you have any other items to add to the list? How was Affiliate Summit West 2012 for you?

Affiliates in the Avangate Network already know this, but here’s the “official” announcement: we’re going to Affiliate Summit West 2012, set to be the largest event of such kind to date. And, of course, we hope to see you there, chat and maybe close some deals ;)

This will be our first Affiliate Summit West after 2 consecutive experiences on the East coast. To tell you the truth, we already have quite a busy schedule, filled with event-related activities and meetings we’ve set up there.

Avangate will be present in the Meet Market area on Sunday, January 8th 2012, between 12 PM and 6 PM – we’re waiting for you to drop by our table (#95) and we will be more than happy to meet you there during the summit.

Then, on Monday afternoon, I will speak about promoting software products as an affiliate based on some best practices from the Avangate Affiliate Network . You can join the discussion in the Ask the Experts Roundtable area starting 5 PM.

So, stay connected with our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook) for the latest updates related to our participation at Affiliate Summit. Whether you’re a software vendor, affiliate interested in promoting software or want to open a business partnership with Avangate, drop me a message to request a meeting at the summit – my colleagues and I will be more than happy to meet you there.

Viva Las Vegas! :)

Yet another Affiliate Summit went by – the largest yet so far with almost 4,000 attendees. It had all the good stuff an Affiliate Summit would come with: interactive sessions, captivating keynotes (videos available Mark Ostrofsky, Wil Reynolds and Bryan Eisenberg) and the hyper-dynamic Meet Market which is a first class networking area.

So how was it for Avangate at ASE this year?

There were 2 first-times on our part:

1) We held a presentation on 5 Software Niche Affiliate Success Stories which got the venue full and generated lots of questions from the audience.We covered some of our affiliate partners’ strategies to successfully promote software online, from approaching a certain software niche (utilities, multimedia etc.), using the deal-of-the-day business model to tailoring an entire shopping experience to a target audience’s specific needs.

From the feedback we got, it seems that we should do this more often :)

Here’s a copy of the presentation on Slideshare, in case you missed it:

2) We had a table in the Meet Market area where thousands and thousands of people flocked during the 6 hours scheduled. We got some great leads there and we’re looking forward to turning them into working projects.

One of the best things about these conferences is that you get to meet your partners face to face and get to know them better. We met with some of the affiliates in our network and gathered important feedback – this will be put to good use for future developments in the platform so that you can benefit from new and exciting tools.

We didn’t have much time to attend the sessions, since our goals were mainly on the networking / leads side, but the ones we did were very enticing – congrats to Shawn and Missy for yet another successful event.

So, looking forward to the next Affiliate Summit and to meeting our partners. See here our pictures from the event.

It’s go time again for the Affiliate Department here at Avangate – we’re packing our bags and heading west to New York on August 21-23, 2011 to attend the Affiliate Summit East conference.

Software presents big opportunities for all online affiliates, so as an established software specific affiliate network, we will be on hand to offer insight on the benefits of promoting software online. We will do that both through networking during the event, and Avangate’s very own Michael Ni will be speaking on “5 Software Niche Affiliate Success Stories” (thank you for that!).

Be sure to drop by on the first day of conference (August 21^st), 11 AM, to visit us at the Murray Hill Suite. After 12 PM, you can find us in the Meet Market at booth #49, where we’ll be ready to exchange ideas and see how we can work together with some of the affiliate marketing industry’s best and brightest. We even have a few surprises in store.

Drop us an email to schedule a meeting or contact us directly to meet us in the Big Apple: Adriana, Corina, Mike (our speaker) and Cristian are looking forward to meeting you.

We’re heading off to Germany at the beginning of June 2011 to attend A4U Expo Europe – one of the largest European affiliate conferences.

I’m particularly excited because this year we’re going to have our own meeting room during the first conference day and already set up a couple of important get togethers.

So if you’re into the software business, as a merchant or as a publisher, drop by the Avangate hosted meeting room “Miro” on June 7th. Me and my colleagues Adriana and Sorin will be looking forward to meeting new partners. We also have lots of surprises for you there ;)

And speaking of surprises – if you haven’t yet booked your ticket for the event, do it today and use this special Avangate coupon for 10% off the registration price: AVAN_MUNICH_10.

Don’t be shy – ping us at affiliates@avangate.com or leave a comment here so we can schedule a meeting.

Outside the event, I’m looking forward to seeing Munich again and, of course, delighting myself with some unfiltered Bavarian beer :D