Save 10 percent on Affiliate Summit registration

I’m really excited to be able to offer a nice incentive to my blog followers to attend Affiliate Summit West in January in Las Vegas.   I highly recommend this event for a couple of reasons: sessions and networking.

In the sessions you can learn from some of the top folks in the industry on a variety of topics in the industry.   The most important aspect of attending Affiliate Summit West (or any live event) is networking face to face with real live people.  In an industry where most business is done by email, chat or phone, it’s nice to be able to connect live with folks you may have  been following from afar for a long time.

There’s one more great reason to go - The 3rd Annual Affiliate Summit Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues - this is the ultimate affiliate industry networking event for believers.  It features awesome food, off the hook networking, and a stage show that will have you on your feet and singing along.  It’s a great way to kick off Affiliate Summit on a spiritual high note.  More info to come.

Shawn and Missy (the show organizers) are great folks and friends who have been generous to give me a coupon code for followers of the CAM Blog - you can save 10% on any registration level by entering “CAM10WEST” as the coupon code during checkout.   Please use one of the links on this page to click through as the affiliate commissions will support the CAM Blog.

Register now for Affiliate Summit West and Save 10%

CAMA Cruise wrap up

We had an awesome time at Affiliate Summit and especially on the CAMA Cruise.  There were a lot of reallycool folks that we met for the first time and some old friends who joined us again as well. In all 75 people joined us, shattering our previous attendee count record of 55 set at Affiliate Summit in Vegas last year.

CAMA Cruise attendees soak up the sun

We gave away a mess ( a Southern technical term) of free t shirts from 1M4JC and C28.com as well as some gift certificates.   All attendees also recieved a sample pack and program invite from MemoryCross as well.

We had an awesome time cruising around Boston Harbor, enjoying a really tasty buffet (the Quiche rocked)     I think God was definitely hooking us up on that one as the afternoon featured a thunderstorm that dropped raindrops so big I could see them hitting the water individually  from the convention hall 50 feet up.

The really awesome thing is that for the balance of Summit, we were bumping into a ton of people who were asking us about the event and how it went and how they could get involved next time.

A view of the Boston skyline from the CAMA Cruise at Affiliate Summit East 2008

Planning is starting soon on a CAMA event for Affiliate Summit in mid January in Las Vegas - might put up for a vote whether we hit the Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues again or do something a little different.

Thanks to Angie Seaman of Paulson Management Group for the pictures.  You can see more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulsonmanagementgroup/page2/

More to come!

Thanks again to sponsors oneNetworkDirect.com, IBSDirect.com, Andy Rodriguez Consulting, GTO Management,  1M4JC and MemoryCross.

God Bless,

Wade

The CAMA Cruise at Affiliate Summit is sold out!

I am super excited to announce that this Sunday’s 2008 CAMA Cruise at Affiliate Summit is sold out.  All 75 slots are filled and I just wanted to give a “Praise God!”

If you didn’t get in and would like to be contacted if someone can’t make it, please email me through the site form.

God Bless,

Wade

The CAMA Cruise is nearly sold out!

Praise the Lord!

Ticket sales lately have been fast and furious for the CAMA Cruise 2008 with people from all walks of the affiliate industry signing up to come and break bread and kick off Affiliate Summit in fellowship. As of 3:45 on Friday August 1st, there are 8 tickets left for the CAMA Cruise.

If you would like to get in on this awesome fellowship and networking opportunity, please click the button below to sign up.

God Bless and see you in Boston!

The CAMA Cruise - Tickets are on sale now!

the Lexington, host vessel of the 2008 CAMA Cruise

In town for Affiliate Summit and looking for some Christian Fellowship?

I am super excited to announce that tickets for “The CAMA Cruise” are on sale now!

Just what is The CAMA Cruise? It is the premier Christian networking event in the Affiliate Marketing industry and if you are a follower of the CAM Blog, you should check it out.

The CAMA Cruise will be held on Sunday August 10th on the paddle cruiser Lexington. We are departing from the World Trade Center dock just outside of the Seaport hotel, the site of the Affiliate Summit. We’ll meet at 8:30 am, board at 8:45 AM and depart at 9:00 AM for a 2 hour site seeing cruise featuring an awesome Breakfast Buffet as well as relaxed networking with other believers in the affiliate industry. We’ll see historic Boston from the harbor side, then return to the Seaport Hotel at 11:00 AM, giving attendees plenty of time to prepare for the Affiliate Meet Market or the afternoon sessions that start at noon.

Who should come? Anyone and everyone. Whether you are an affiliate, merchant, service provider, consultant, network representative or outsourced manager… or even if you just want to get involved in affiliate marketing and want to meet some great folks with Faith in common, we’d love to have you on the Cruise. This event is all about casual networking and fellowship and the connections you will make are awesome!

The cost of the Cruise is $50 per person if you register by 7/16 or $60 per person if you register between 7/17 and 8/3.

Space is limited, so register early to make sure you don’t miss out.

CAM Blog Podcast #13 : Rachel Honoway of Affiliate Classroom Live

Rachel Honoway of Affiliate Classroom

I had the pleasure today of sitting down for a chat with one of my oldest friends in the business - Rachel Honoway - the VP of Marketing at Affiliate Classroom. Rachel and I go back to about 2001 when I joined Kowabunga Technologies as the original manager at Team Affiliate - KB’s outsourced program management division. Rach was awesome to work for and is one of the sharp minds in the business.

We talked quite a bit about the Affiliate Classroom Live event coming up on the Saturday preceding the Affiliate Summit East in August. I attended the initial Affiliate Classroom Live event in Las Vegas and it was well put together in terms of speakers and was well organized as well. My only complaint was that there were no tables for laptops and notebooks and that the chairs were not the most compfortable. Rach has promised more comfortable accomodations. The event was a full day event with more classroom content than networking time and was definitely intended as a pre-sell for the Affiliate Manager Certification that Affiliate Classroom was releasing at the time.

Rachel mentioned that this event will be more networking focused. There will be some classroom sesstions this time lead by Heather Paulson and Rebecca Madigan as well as a number of Round Table discussions lead by industry luminaries like:

  • Peter Figueredo
  • Trisha Lyn Fawver
  • Lee “The Lead Man” Gientke
  • Sam Harrelson
  • Lisa Riolo
  • Brad Waller
  • Karen Garcia
  • Wade Tonkin

Lisa Riolo’s presentation sounds really interesting as she is focusing on how to sell an affiliate program internally as this can be tricky. Affiliate marketing and the techniques involved can be a bit tricky to sell in some companies and I am sure that Lisa will have some awesome metrics that we can use to help make the case to either launch an affiliate program for the first time with a client, or to help garner more resources for the affiliate channel.

You can find more information and register for Affiliate Classroom Live at www.affiliateclassroomlive.com

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CAM Blog PodCast with Shawn Collins on Affiliate Summit East, new marketing tools and more.

I took some time last week to site down with Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit and talk for about 25 minutes.

We covered a ton of topics including:

  • Recap of Affiliate Summit West where a record number (~3000) of affiliate industry folks gathered in Las Vegas
  • Look ahead to Affiliate Summit East in Boston in August including discussion of some new educational tracks that are being offered.
  • Talkin’ Baseball - Shawn and I are both degenerate baseball fans and we’re excited to be in Boston and hitting a game in Fenway Park
  • Talked at length about some new innovations including the new Amazon MP3 Widget and MyWedding Favors video integration with Qoof.com
  • Quick discussion of Shawn’s video review site at WeViews.TV
  • Talking a bit about how to get started in video blogging
  • More talk on Affiliate Summit and what newbies to the business can expect out of the show.
  • Talked about Affiliate Summit Twitter Giveaway
  • Talked about the “Jim Kukral is ruining Twitter” controversy
  • Shawn’s wife’s new blog at AsktheMama.com that has outpaced Shawn’s traffic out of the gate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Coming soon on the CAM Blog: Podcast with Jim Kukral

Jim Kukral I am pretty excited about next week on the CAM Blog as I am going to be sitting down on the Podcast with Jim Kukral. Jim is a long time online marketer and blogger who I have worked with for a number of years on a couple different projects. Jim was the Affiliate Summit Blogger of the Year and recently was the MC of Affiliate Summit West 2008. He also hosts a daily video cast called “The Daily Flip” that features video’s Jim shoots with his Flip Cam that he has now infected nearly the entire secular affiliate industry with. In 2007 Jim launched Scratchback a fun “blog tipping” widget that makes it possible for bloggers to accept “tips” from followers and reward them with a link. Jim is a blogging and social media mentor to me and I am excited to chat with him.

We’re going to be chatting about “Finding Your Voice in Online Video” which is a topic that I think is really topical and awesome. Online video is very hot and destined to get hotter, and can be a powerful tool in both developing a following through Viral Marketing, but also when used to promote and review products and services as an affiliate.

Jim and I are chatting on Monday afternoon, so expect the podcast to be updated Monday night or so.

Some people will write anything to get attention

I just got an email from Shawn Collins alerting me to a thread at ShoeMoney’s Blog posing the question “How long is it until someone is killed at Affiliate Summit?

Jeremy Shoemaker, a “super affiliate” references some alleged threats and incidents that occured at past Summits and poses the question above.   A friend of mine, Carl from ChristianMySpaceLayouts.org jumped into the fray and brought up an incident that occured at ASE in Miami last year where a couple of apparently too -recent Frat Boys engaged in inappropriate behavior at the SAS Beach party.   I actually saw these  clowns myself when they got thrown off the bus going back to the show  hotel because they were drunk and stupid and shirtless.

I have been to all but 1 Affiliate Summit and I have to defend Shawn and Missy and the brand here.   To my experience, the show has been professionally done from day one.  Every official event I have been to has been disturbance free and everyone behaved as though they were at a business event.   The one issue that I referenced above happened at an off-site party and the idiots responsible were tossed from the event, tossed from the bus, and banned from Summit events forever when it was reported.

I thought that this most recent Summit was actually the best I have attended from the standpoint that the networking events were more controlled and more professional with an emphasis on networking and business.   Why?

I think the industry is growing up and a lot of people have figured out that the best way to get someone online as a business partner isn’t to get them wasted (like they’ll remember any discussions anyway)  but to engage the people that you want to work with in a relaxed, discussion encouraging environment.    Digital River, famous for their extravagant parties even backed off - offering a hostpitality suite and a really nicely executed invite only reception on the patio of their suite instead.  Why?   Because doing the big parties cost them a TON of money, branded them a bit, but generated little revenue.  Doubleclick/Performics had a private event at Bellagio, ThePartnerMaker had an intimate event at The  Wine Cellar,  and the entry to the SAS party was actually really restricted to invite holders only.   Heck - from what I hear,  last years Affiliate Summit Horizon Award Winner Todd Crawford,  was refused entrance for a while.

Like a lot of us, the industry is growing up.  I started doing this when I was 24 and recently married with no kids.  Yeah - when I travelled, I liked to get a bit torn up and have a good time.   Now, married 11 years, with 2 kids that I miss terribly when I travel and my tolerance for alcohol not what it used to be, my recovery time off the charts, and most importantly, some direction in life (thanks to Jesus Christ)  I’m just not up for the drinking all night and howling at the moon any more.  I go to shows to do business and catch up with a lot of old friends that I consider second family.   I think a lot of us that I hhave been around for a while are in the same boat.

I think Shoe’s post was sensationalist crap destined to get some reaction.. and now I have fed that by linking to the  clown.

I think Summit is still THE event to go to in the Affiliate industry and I will continue to go, and CAMA will continue to put on events that are inspirational and family friendly as long as we go.

Speaking of which… watch for a CAMA announcement on our Affiliate Summit Boston event next week.

Affiliate Summit Recovery Mode

Hi,

I have so much to blog on here in the next couple of days with a wealth of video and insights gained from Affiliate Summit. I have to say that from what I was able to experience, this was probably the best Summit I have hit to date. The sheer scope of it (3000+ attendees) was awesome.

I was held back a bit because I came down with the flu and missed most of Sunday and Monday’s events and all of the parties.

I did runs into lots of great folks once again who were believers that I didn’t know about previously and got awesome feedback on the Gospel Brunch event.

Stay tuned for video featuring Joel Comm, Geno Prussakov and Colin McDougal as well as my own observations.

God Bless,

Wade Tonkin