I just got back last week from BlogHer12 in NYC. The show was absolutely insane and one that you have to attend. Not only were the corporate sponsors completely interactive, but the parties, events and networking were nothing like I had seen before. Take 4,000+ women bloggers, me and another guy blogger and keep their kids and husbands away, and these ladies let loose and party. Here is my recap of BlogHer NYC and then some links from people who asked on SEO and Marketing and then I’ll go into how to prepare for Affiliate Summit which starts this weekend.
BlogHer NYC started on Thursday. Unfortunately I did not get there until Friday morning. When I arrived people stared at me weird, however when I put on my BlogHer badge people wouldn’t stop walking up and talking. I did have an issue with registration since I had a party pass but they didn’t have any drink tickets in them. It didn’t make sense. Within the first 30 minutes I already had cards from Bloggers who have followings of 10K, 50K and even one who has 100K all looking for me to write guest posts, learn about my Affiliate programs which don’t work with adware, trademark bidders and coupon sites that poach the shopping cart so they can earn more money.
The rest of the show pretty much continued with me meeting hundreds of amazing women Bloggers who know how to build an audience but not how to rank or monetize their sites. This show has some of the most powerful resources that have yet to really dive into competition and join the Affiliate and Ad serving world. Going there showed me that channels like Affiliate Marketing have a long way before they get near peaking. Next were the 4 expo halls.
The exhibitors were like nothing I had seen before. Everyone of them had amazing giveaways and most were actually fairly high end. I got metal water bottles which cost $20 to $40 in retail stores, tons of food samples and at a couple they were handing out adult toys. You could win 6 months of eggs from EggLands Best, tons of free food from Dannon, I got really cool muppet bandainds and lotions from Johnson and Johnson, Jimmy Dean fed me breakfast every morning and then we were even served bethany Frankle’s Skinny Girl cocktails at another booth. I went home with water bottles, spatulas, offered iPads for reviews, etc… It was insane! Hershey’s combined with WalMart to create a campground where we roasted smores in an upstairs suite and next to that Hotwheels had a room for us all to play in. Out My Window let you take pictures kissing Zac Ephron and even Starbucks was demoing products that weren’t being released for a long time yet. Disney brought us to a movie where we watched the Secret Life of Timothy Green where all of us ended up crying at the end and they even showed us previews, shorts and trailers for movies that haven’t been announced like Monster Inc.’s prequel; Monster University, Paperman, Finding Nemo 3D, a new preview for a new Frankenstein movie directed by Tim Burton and a lot more. We also got to see the previews for the new Tinkerbell movie where she discovers she has a sister and why their wings are unique.
BlogHer is an amazing show where I made a ton of relevant connections for my clients. At the same time I heard a ton of bad marketing advice being given. Some people were told to build a link farm off of keywords to their friends sites in a circle off of keywords on their blog rolls. Others were told to no follow all outbound links across their site or 1. Google would penalize them and 2. Adsense would kick them out. Basically, whomever was trying to teach SEO needs to come to Pubcon and really learn their stuff before they attempt to try it again. Here are a couple of posts that people from BlogHer wanted me to share:
Title Tags and how to use them
Building a Media kit to get new advertisers
Tips on how to start and maintain a product blog or coupon blog
The difference between reviews and giveaways and how you can make money with them
BlogHer was an amazing conference and one that I will definitely be going back to again. I highly recommend it as well if you do media buys, are a PR company or and SEO firm. These ladies know how to build an audience, have a party and put on an amazing show. It was a great time and unfortunately when I finally catch up from it it will be time for a show that I absolutely love and have not missed in over 5 or 6 years, Affiliate Summit.
Affiliate Summit is one of my favorite shows to go to. Here are a few of the guides I have written for it as well as some of the sessions I think are worth going to. I am going to be busy at two booths and I am speaking on Sunday so there are a lot of time slots, etc… I haven’t seen. If your session isn’t on here, I apologize that I missed it. These are during times I have free to come see.
Packing for Affiliate Summit 1
Packing for Affiliate Summit 2
Here are some of the sessions that I would recommend and people I recommend going to see.
My session on Sunday:
Working With Affiliates and Adding Value
Session 4c
Location: Sutton (Beekman & North)
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
This session will help you to learn how to work with affiliates, negotiating, keyword lists, etc., and add value to your programs. I’m basically going to go through the types of Affiliates you are probably working with, determine if they are in my opinion stealing from you and how to turn them into incremental value adding Affiliates.
Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Merchants
- Adam Riemer, President, Adam Riemer Marketing, LLC. (Twitter @rollerblader)
Saturday:
Monetize Your Blog Using Affiliate Marketing Training Course
Location: Murray Hill Suite
Time: 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Speakers: Missy and Daniel are awesome at this. I have never heard of the other two speakers, but if they are on a Panel with Missy and Daniel then bring your computers or a pen and paper and be ready to learn a ton of information.
- Missy Ward, Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit (Twitter @missyward)
- Debbie Bookstaber, Co-Founder of Bloganthropy.org (Twitter @buzzmommy)
- Joey Fortman, Founder of RealMomMedia.com (Twitter @joeyfortman)
- Daniel M. Clark, Founder of QAQN.com (Twitter @qaqn)
Sunday:
Comparing Affiliate Networks: Tips and Tricks
Session 2c
Location: Sutton (Beekman & North)
Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm
Unbiased perspective of the unique pros, cons, reports and technologies of networks such as CJ, SAS, LS and GAN. Advanced tips on searching, sub-id tracking and getting the most out of network. Tricia is someone who I have known and worked with for years. She is incredibly knowledgeable and someone I will definitely go see if I can end a meeting early.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Networks
- Tricia Meyer, Owner, Sunshine Rewards (Twitter @sunshinetricia)
Monday:
Google’s Changes – What Matters and What Doesn’t
Session 5a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Will is a very creative SEO who always teaches you something new when you go to his sessions. He is always happy to teach and always shares a ton of amazing information. I highly recommend you go to his session.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers, Networks
Niche/vertical: SEO
- Wil Reynolds, Founder, SEER Interactive (Twitter @wilreynolds)
7 Secrets to Success at Home & Work
Session 5d
Location: Sutton (South & Regent)
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
She isn’t a working mom and giving advice to a ton of others without having a ton of experience. Sabrina is smart, organized and someone you can definitely learn a lot from.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Work and family balance
- Sabrina Malone, President, WorkingMom (Twitter @SabrinaOMalone)
Building Profitable Partnerships with Daily Deal Sites – This should be a very interesting one since my opinions differ from most of the people on the panel. Keep an eye on Robert Glazer…he knows his stuff!
Session 6a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
The daily deal industry presents a new kind of challenge to affiliates. In this session, we’ll discuss the benefits and challenges of working in such a dynamic environment.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Daily deals
- Carolyn Tang Kmet, Director of Affiliate Marketing, Groupon (Twitter @catango) (Moderator)
- Robert Glazer, Managing Director, Acceleration Partners (Twitter @affiliatemgr)
- Peter Hamilton, Partner/CMO, HasOffers (Twitter @PeterHamilton)
- Carrie Rocha, Founder, Pocket Your Dollars (Twitter @CarrieRocha)
FTC Issues in an ERSP Advertising Challenge
Session 6b
Location: Murray Hill Suite
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Watch ERSP’s Director and an FTC practitioner go at it in a simulated self-regulatory challenge that illustrates and illuminates timely compliance issues for advertisers, affiliates, and networks. We all want an update on FTC rulings and since they have people who can and will hopefully give legal advice instead of general answers, this is a definitely must attend session if you are a Manager or someone who wants to know about compliance.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: FTC compliance
- Theodore Monroe, Attorney, Law Offices of Theodore F. Monroe (Moderator)
- Peter Marinello, Director, Electronic Retailing Self regulation Program
- William Rothbard, Attorney, Law Offices of William I. Rothbard
Affiliate Improv!
Session 7b
Location: Murray Hill Suite
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
This is just a really fun session with some great people. I’ll probably be there for a while and it is opened for the audience to comment.
Experience level: Beginner
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Brainstorming
- Daniel M. Clark, Podcaster, QAQN (Twitter @QAQN) (Moderator)
- Todd Farmer, CEO, Performstreet Media (Twitter @toddfarmer)
- Trisha Lyn Fawver, Affiliate Program Manager, Snow Consulting (Twitter @TrishaLyn)
- Jen Goode, Doodler in Charge, JGoode Designs (Twitter @jgoode)
Ask the SEO’s
Session 7d
Location: Sutton (South & Regent)
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
Ask any questions about SEO. Each panelist not only runs their own affiliate sites, but also consults with companies large and small. These are extremely well versed SEOs and ones that you will definitely want to talk to if you have any questions or anything wrong with your sites.
Experience level: Intermediate, Advanced
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers
Niche/vertical: Search engine optimization
- Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web (Twitter @Graywolf)
- Rae Hoffman-Dolan, CEO, PushFire (Twitter @Sugarrae)
- Kenny Hyder, Founder, Hyder Media (Twitter @kennyhyder)
Tuesday:
Affiliate Compliance – Best Practices, Issues and Options
Session 8a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Although I don’t agree with everything on every topic with the people on this panel, they are amazingly smart and will help you to catch adware Affiliates, Trademark Bidders and others who may be poaching or stealing sales from you. This is going to be one of the best sessions at the show, however it may also be extremely advanced.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers, Other
Niche/vertical: Compliance
- David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity (Twitter @davenaff) (Moderator)
- Pat Grady, Owner, RhinoFish Media (Twitter @RhinoFishPPC)
- Marty Marion, Affiliate Manager, Deluxe Corp (Twitter @MJMDeluxe)
- Kellie Stevens, President, AffiliateFairPlay.com (Twitter @KellieAFP)
Flogs, Farticles, Facebook, Fraud, FTC, oh F%*!
Session 9c
Location: Sutton (Beekman & North)
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Anything to do that will help you learn about compliance and the FTC is probably going to be worth going to. I have heard Jim speak before and he is an extremely bright person so I am looking forward to hearing a great session. I’ve never heard o any of the other panelists, but it should be a good one.
Experience level: Intermediate
Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers
Niche/vertical: Compliance
- Sarah de Diego, Attorney, De Diego Law (Moderator)
- Jim Banks, CEO, Spades Media (Twitter @jimbanks)
- Susannah Booth, Senior Partner Manager, Union Square Media
- Vladimir Karetnikov, Media Buyer, Westwood Promotion Inc. (Twitter @westwoodpro)
- Tom Cohn, Partner, LeClair Ryan
Affiliate Summit is one of my favorite shows and one that I try to not miss. I highly recommend going and if you are, come to my sessions or set up a time to meet with me and talk about my services, my clients with programs (FunKidsPajamas.com, NationalAutismResources.com, Viewbix.com, Webs.com, Pagemodo.com and a few more which aren’t announced). All programs are on Share a Sale, are not partnered with adware companies and have extremely strict rules on coupon and review sites to help make sure it is fair for content, email and PPC Affiliates.
11 thoughts on “#BlogHer12 reviewed and prepping For #ASE12 – Good read”
Good recap article, Adam! Someday I hope to make it to a BlogHer event! See you at Affiliate Summit soon!
Can’t wait to see you either Kim. You definitely have to check BlogHer out sometime. =0)
Very interesting! I had never really considered going to BlogHer before because there didn’t seem to be much ROI for me. But I might have to think about it now. 🙂
You out of anyone would get a giant ROI from the show…btw I picked up some disney swag for you. I’ll bring it to ASE. =0) The next one is in Chicago so you should definitely check it out…even just the party/expo pass.
Thanks for recommending my session on blogging/affiliates at Affiliate Summit. Hopefully I’ll see you there.
Regarding the BlogHer sessions on SEO, which sessions did you attend? I led the Advanced SEO Session with Christina Inge. I’m really hoping you weren’t in my session because it wasn’t what you described above. For example, Google AdSense was never mentioned, and we gave actionable steps and plugs-in for blogs to use. The session I led with Christina was Saturday at 9:30am.
Also, we definitely did not tell people to no-follow all outbound links. We told people to check for Broken Links and to fix any broken links. If they truly cannot find the time to fix their broken links, we recommended that they — at a minimum–use the feature in the WordPress Plugin to set all broken links to no-follow.
We also reviewed other tools and plugins that would benefit bloggers who have moved beyond the basics but who have seen their organic traffic fall. We wanted to recognize their talents as writers and social media users while respecting that — for most– blogging is a hobby and they have limited technical expertise or interest in SEO.
For example, many bloggers would benefit from improving site load times, moving from a shared host to a VPS, or from caching their sites. Bloggers often ignore the non-social, non-creative aspects of their sites such as load times and hosting. I’ve helped numerous bloggers in the non-profit or social good area pro-bono and seen strong improvements in search results once they resolved these issues– since they were doing everything else right, had natural links, excellent content and lots of social sharing.
We also discussed topics that are seen as common sense to SEO professionals but which are news to bloggers such as Google Authorship Markup and using Google+ to boost SEO rankings.
Hopefully you attended a different SEO session? I’d hate to have you think I was giving bad advice.
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for commenting. I didn’t attend any of the sessions at BlogHer. People who had left sessions were talking about what they learned in the SEO sessions which is where I stopped them and jumped in to correct them and give them examples. They were basically confused and told one person one thing, then the next person said something else and it went on and on. I ended up doing site reviews and a basic SEO clinic after and they were on the right page. =0)
Looking forward to meeting you!
Adam
<— one of the awesome women that Adam was referring to 😛 And he's right, I had no idea what I was doing wrong with my SEOs… need serious training/retooling!
Megan it was amazing meeting you and I can’t wait to see what we can do together with a couple of my programs and our blogs. If anyone is looking for someone that is smart, amazing and dresses incredible….Megan is the person you need to talk too.
If I had the money, I would go with you to ASE13. You make it sound so interesting (and fun!).
That’s interesting about the SEO tips … was that from the session? I went to the session and didn’t hear any of that. Also went to about 1/2 of Google Analytics, hoping they put up the video on blogher.com sometime soon 🙂 I had to sit on the floor so I left early, no space was left for chairs.
Nice meeting you there!
Hi Liz,
Great meeting you. I wasn’t at the sessions but had heard people talking after they were over. I’m not sure who people were learning from but there was a ton of bad advice being given by someone that people look up to as an authority.
See you in Chicago!
Adam