Wearing both publisher and merchant hats at Affiliate Summit
Affiliate Summit is a great event in many ways, but ironically affiliates themselves are actually severely under-represented at this show. The majority of attendees are affiliate networks (trying to attract new merchants or publishers) or merchants (trying to attract affiliates/publishers to promote their wares). The smallest group at Affiliate Summit is actual affiliates – which is surprising, because the ones who do show up are treated like royalty. And if there was ever a time to negotiate the terms of an affiliate relationship, it’s at this conference.
We know this because we’ve represented both merchants and publishers at the conference – this will be our 4th – and we’ve found it a great source of leads for both sides of the business. We’re proud that one of our key differentiators as a consultancy is that we have a strong functional and business-side understanding of our our clients’ technical and marketing projects – from our experiences as owners/operators of web business and as career professional service providers. That balanced perspective translates well in the world of affiliate marketing, too – the best advertisers (aka: merchants) understand and consider what makes an affiliate program successful by understanding what makes their affiliates tick.
So, as Affiliate Summit approaches we’re looking forward to again being among the few attendees who play on both sides of the field – by wearing both our publisher and merchant hats.
