Five Tips to Get Ready for Affiliate Summit West 2011

We’re three days away from Affiliate Summit West 2011! It’s a great event for marketers and other professionals in affiliate marketing. Get ready to network, check out new vendors and learn about what’s new with the affiliate world.

Here are three tips to help you get ready for Affiliate Summit West.

1. Bring your network game on
Affiliate marketing conferences are really about meeting people. Yes, they have sessions to learn more about affiliate marketing, but how often do you get to meet other affiliates and advertisers in person? In Vegas! So don’t forget to bring your business cards, finalize meetings with your partners or vendors and RSVP to affiliate parties to maximize your networking game.

Make sure to get mobile numbers of people whom you’ll be meeting. And use text messaging; people won’t be able to hear your voicemail clearly with all that background noise at the conference.

By the way, Network Solutions will be hosting a private party on Monday evening. It’s at capacity already, but contact me at mia.vallo@networksolutions.com if you’d like to be added to the wait list.

2. Be flexible with your schedule
It’s a good idea to have meetings set up in advance, but don’t schedule it for every hour of the day. If you’re tied down to a schedule, how are you going to meet new people?

Leave time in your calendar to check out the exhibits to discover new partners or vendors. For all you planners, download this PDF map of the Exhibit Hall and Meet Market. Also leave time to grab drinks or dinner with your new affiliate buddies.

3. Behave
Yes, it is Vegas, but what happens in Vegas doesn’t really stay in Vegas. Plus it’s a business function. So have fun, but behave accordingly since you may be doing business with the person next to you at the party.

4. Be social before, during and after the summit
Before you head out to Vegas, follow tweets of Affiliate Summit organizers (@affiliatetip, @missyward and @heatherinbc) and speakers to check out what they’re up to and to find new things to do. Find out who else is going by searching for the summit hash tag on Twitter: #ASW11. Follow the Network Solutions Affiliate Team at @netsolaffiliate as well.

During the summit, tweet about your sessions and whatever else you find interesting for the affiliate world. Remember to use hash tag #ASW11. After the summit, blog about your experience from the summit, provide recaps of sessions that you attend and follow up with your new affiliate contacts.

5. Plan for the next affiliate conference
It’s helpful to do lessons learned and think about the next affiliate conference that you’re planning to attend. If you’re thinking about sponsoring the summit next year, check out the various exhibitors and sponsors that they have at the conference. What would you do differently at the next affiliate conference? More or less meetings, which sessions? Talk to other affiliate professionals while you’re at the summit to see if they can recommend other affiliate conferences to attend and/or sponsor.

For more tips on getting ready for Affiliate Summit West, check out these helpful posts:

• Affiliate Summit Survival Guide by Logan Thompson
• Why I Like Affiliate Summit by Joshua Ziering
• How To Get The Most Out Of Your Affiliate Summit Experience by ClickBooth
• Everything You’ve Always Wanted To Know About Affiliate Summit But Were Afraid To Ask!

So have a great time, learn a lot and meet tons of new people at Affiliate Summit West. See you in Vegas!