A4U Expo October 2008 - Start Saving Now!
Seriously - it was that good.
If you thought it was too expensive or you simpy couldn’t afford/justify the cost - you were totally wrong - start saving for it now or get a loan (memo to self, insert finance link here)
If you’re unfortunate enough to have a ‘proper job’ either pack it in or save some holiday time for next year.
And if you’re a sole operator try and get yourself a couple of clones - you’ll need one to go round the exhibition while you’re in the seminars and one to eat while you visit the lunch time bonus sessions - or hire a Virtual European Assylum Seeker for the duration - one of the very many tips I picked up ( although I could have got that one wrong, it was 1.30 am outside the pub).
AND I DON’T EVEN DO THE NETWORKING THINGY - (for all you literary pedantics I know you’re not supposed to start a sentence, never mind a paragraph with ‘and’, but, hey, I’m getting ‘with it’)
I stick to my tried and trusted friends, beit other affiliates, agencies, merchants or networks - who I’m sure keep me uptodate and informed all year long - so think how much more I could have gotten if I was a serious networker.
I’m not going into detail about the Expo - there’s a plethora of blogs, including (in random order) Jason’s, Keith’s, Joe’s, Paul’s, and Keiron’s who’ve done a magnificent job of detailing the event. But (yeah, I know, don’t start a sentance …) here’s a few things I learnt
- start videoing - if you’re subject lends itself, in any way shape or form to being featured on a video - do it and include it on your webpage/blog. (if it’s porn and you’re not doing this already, start thinking about another subject!)
- disguise your affiliate links - this is something most of us know and probably do - but if you’ve never got round to it, it’s time to start. Two reasons - increase your natural search rankings and also to prevent networks/agencies/merchants from discovering your best PPC keywords and phrases.
- backlinks, backlinks, backlinks, quality relevant backlinks and backlinks
- if you’re a ‘good’ affiliate and can fill one of those 21 spaces on Google’s first page - start negotiating a higher rate.
- by 2009 online advertising will have the largest share of all advertising - and probably sooner.
- not a tip, but interesting, what if Google changed the order of paid and natural search and moved the paid search into the main arena! - start thinking about that now.
- the major search engines are concentrating more on what the end user wants and less on onpage/offpage factors - so if your visitors are hitting that back button because your content is rubbish then Google, Yahoo and MSN are taking note!
- think about the type of person (not visitor - a real person) who visits your page and why they’re buying, are they looking for cheap and cheerful, something to impress the neighbours or eco based.
- sign up for Karl and Ben’s Conversion Rate Experts 101 Tips - genius
- I’ve discovered 2 new major merchants who I thoroughly expect to increase my revenue next year.
- and one sweet little golden nugget that I’m not sharing with anyone - it pays to steel yourself, down the wine and stay to the bitter end of the afterhours shindig.
In a nutshell - am I going to revisit Affiliate Summit in Vegas next year - only if someone’s going I can shop with - am I going to A4UExpo next year - DEFINITELY.