The New Rich Blog

Well, day 3 of the Affiliate Summit was really calm. Most of the people were tired from the last busy 2 days. A lot of people slept late or just didn’t arrive… Actually, from the morning of the third day it already felt like the Summit is over. I’ve been to two sessions, ate lunch, met some people and went to the apartment to rest a little before the final party - party202 held by the 202 group.

Before I will tell you about the party, I want to try and sum-up Affiliate Summit East 2009:

The Good

• It was a lot of fun - above all the other benefits, it was big fun! I had a great time meeting people, traveling, going to parties, drinking cocktails and eating great food.
• Ideas - during the Summit I always carried a small notebook in my pocket. While I was meeting people, listening to sessions and thinking, every now and then a new idea has popped into my head. So I just wrote it down. Now I have a notebook full of great ideas!
• Cooperations - Being an affiliate doesn’t have to be a one man show. I think that maybe the best projects are created by groups of talented people. In the Summit, I have started some cooperations with great people and talked about potential cooperations for the feature.
• Seeds - I really feel that when you go to a convention like this, you planet seeds. You get to know a lot of people, you give most of them your business card. You hear a lot of new information. You get motivation. The real benefits of convention like that, doesn’t have to be instant. It can take a week, a month or a year. But the seeds will grow and the benefits will blossom, of course, as long as you water them enough

The Less Good

Although I always like to look only on the bright side, I want to be objective.

• The sessions - I was a little disappointed with the sessions. For me, most of the sessions were irrelevant, not practical and minimally beneficial. I wanted to hear more about: traffic sources, media buy, email marketing, landing pages, self-management, product types and from the merchant side - how to recruit affiliates. The are so many interesting subjects to talk about and I feel this was somehow missed.
• The exhibition - The exhibition was really big, but most of the booths were controlled by affiliate networks. A lot of networks are similar and have the same offers. You don’t need to be a member of hundreds of networks… I wanted to see some more interesting stuff - services for affiliates, tools and unique merchants.
• The space - I think it was a bit too crowded, there was no specific place to just sit down, relax and network. I was looking for a place to chill out and there wasn’t any good place for that.

For me, the Affiliate Summit was great and valuable. And each time I realize that more and more - the real value comes from the people! There are so many interesting and talented people and I believe you can learn something from each and every person out there.
There is no greater way to finish the Summit than a party… So at the evening, at sunset, we arrived at this amazing penthouse downtown. The view was beautiful and calming. We have been there for a short time but because there was a problem with the bar, the party had moved to the bar across the street.

View from the penthouse

From left to right: Ori Manor, Ilya Glezer, Myself

I had a burger and couple of drinks, hanged out with a couple of friends and talked about interesting ideas and cooperations…

Now I am sitting at Starbucks, writing the post and working a bit. Life is good.

Have a great day
The New Rich

Yesterday night we have been to the Shareasale party. The party was really nice, on the roof of hotel in NY, free bar, appetizers… People were there mostly to network and meet other people but in a party atmosphere.
I hanged out, met people and just enjoyed the fact that i’m at that great party on the top of NY

The Shareasale Party

The second day of the Affiliate Summit started out with a real American breakfast - bacon, sausage, eggs and bagles (where are the vegetables?).

Then I head out to my first session for that day: “7 Deadly sins of landing page design”. Most of it wasn’t new to me, but it did strengthen stuff, very important stuff… You can read about those sins in this blog post.

Then we had lunch - really good and tasty lunch!

After the lunch I went to the main exhibition hall. Very big and a lot of interesting companies. I had one problem with the exhibition - there were just too many affiliate networks from the same type. Why do I need a hundred of networks that has the same offers?!

The Exhibition Hall (part of it)

Although it is not very valuable, who doesn’t like to get free stuff? So today I got:

• A hat for Hydra Network
• Squeeze ball from Smiley Media
• Another star shaped t-shirt from Shareasale (different color)
• Pen from RevenueWire
• Laptop sticker-stand from Disk Doctors
• Missile from Copeac

After that, I headed to the second session - “Social Media Marketing for Affiliates”. This was the most interesting session so far! I have learned a lot about the power of social networks and how I can use it do drive traffic to my offers and to my own product.

Then I went to the third session - “Advertising on Facebook”. It was a session with some experts, including Alex Schultz, a manager from Facebook itself. They actually talked a lot bla bla bla, but when people started asking questions, this is where the real tips started to be heard.

After the session I was pretty tired, and just hanged out with some friends at the coffee room.

At the end of the day, we went to the Clickbank exclusive cocktail party. And this was the place where I enjoyed the most all that day. It was a very small and intimate party, maybe around 30-40 people, with free drinks and appetizers. They also had a special cocktail - The Clickbank Moneymaker It was goooood.
I met some of the people in Clickbank. Very nice people, communicative and helpful.
Clickbank is actually improved a lot lately, and they are improving constantly. Some of the next improvements I have heard about at the party:

• A one way communication for vendors to write to their affiliates.
• TID also for vendors.
• Physical products - yes, Clickbank will actually start to support physical products!

From left to right: Chris Fox, Ilya Glezer, Myself, Ori Manor (top), Asaf (bottom), Ashley Adamson - account manager from Clickbank, Arial Soudak, Ran Aroussi, Igal Pines

I had a lot of fun at the Clickbank party. Then we headed out to the next party… Which held out in a club. So we (myself, Ilya Glezer and Ariel Soudak) went there, but just the line to get in was so crowded and noisy, and we were already tired. So we went home.

The club that we didn't got in to...

Wow, It is 2:38 AM now and I am still awake. Oh well, writing in the blog is more important… This was a very busy and fun day. Going to sleep now.

Good Night
The New Rich

After waking up, ironing my outfit and getting ready, I got on the subway and headed out to the Hilton hotel where the Affiliate Summit is taking place. Just as I arrived I already met some friends I know which was very nice.
After just a few minutes I rushed to the first session about Microniches, by Dush Ramachandran from Clickbank. It turned out that the session was pretty much for newbies… But still it did strengthen some things.
When the session was over, I went to the meet market, this is where I kind of lost myself… So many people, so many offers and so crowded. I was looking mostly to meet people quietly, but it was very difficult there. So I hanged around, talked with some affiliate managers and other people with tables. I got:

• T-Shirt from BlinkAds
• Beer holder from AcmePeopleSearch (very cool)
• Star shaped t-shirt from Shareasale
• Led lamp from PPCBully

The Meet Market

This is cool but of course, my main goals here are not to collect memorbolia…
Then I went to the second session for that day about viral campaigns, by Larry Bailin. The session wasn’t mindblowing, but rather it was really amusing - the guy is funny. He showed this video.

The third session I went for was the SEO site clinic. I also do some SEO, but I found that session pretty useless for me. So I went outside to grab a sandwitch, and what I found out that while I was at the summit, outside was a whole different party - some kind of a latin-american parade at the Fifth Avenue… Is this a crazy world or what? (yes it is).

The Latin-American Parade

When I went back to the Summit, I met some friends I know, we sat togather around the table and discussed interested things. This is where I really started to feel good, this is the place where the real value is - the small talks with interesting people. So we gave each other some advices and they gave me tips about my new product.
Then I went to the lobby of the hotel, got myself a beer (with my new beer-holder, yha) and had a chat with some more interesting people.

Now I sit in my friend’s apartment and soon we will head out to the Shareasale party, held at the Empire hotel roof!

Just to be clear for myself (and for you), I think it is good to write down my goals for the Affiliate Summit:

• Get inspiration, ideas and practical information that will help me to create new campaigns.
• Recruit affiliates or at least get the word out about my new product.
• Find out a winning offer for a new niche I started working on.
• Discover new information and ideas for a new a service for affiliates I started developing.
• Meet people and make friends from all over the world (not just Israelis)

Today was just the warm-up for me, tomorrow i’m sure it will be more interesting, more fun and of course, a lot more networking with great people!

Have a nice day
The New Rich

The Affiliate Summit will take place in 2 days and this is very exiting. However, to be honest, a month ago when I imagined myself at the Summit, I was sure that my situation will be different. I was sure that $100 profit a day will be a routine for me… I was sure I will have at least one successful campaigns and few others running. But the situation is different.

Right now I have one big campaign and you actually know what it is - eczema. I was running this campaign for a long time as an affiliate, and now i’m promoting it as a vendor. It is working, and it feels good to sell my own product, but it is still not “it”. It is not $100 a day.

I also worked together with a friend on a new campaign. We were sure it will be highly profitable, but it wasn’t. We had a lot of leads but it was always almost break-even.

So before the affiliate summit, I feel like I have a lot of knowledge. I feel that with all that knowledge I can be a “super affiliate”, but i’m not. It is like I know how to cook like a chef, but I don’t have the ingredients. So I stay hungry… Or I just make myself an omelet or something…

But i’m still optimistic I don’t give up! I believe in myself and I believe that I will find that amazing campaign that will bring me the profit and success I look for.

I really hope that this Affiliate Summit will bring me ides, inspiration, opportunities and new friends.

See ya
The New Rich

After a long night flight, I finally got to New York!

I going to the Affiliate Summit Convention and travel.
So right now I am sitting at Starbucks, browsing online and relaxing from the long trip in the subway.

The life of the New Rich… travel, have fun and work online

I am almost finished reading an amazing book that I must share with you. The book’s name is The Diamond Cutter. It is written by Michael Roach, an American, who moved to a Buddhist monastery, lived there for 20 years and got the degree of Geshe, the highest degree for a Buddhist academic monk. After 20 years, they sent him from the monastery with a mission: go back to America, join a modern company and implement the principles of the Buddhism within the company. The result was that after a few years Michael brought that company from a loan of $50,000 to a yearly volume of $1,000,000.

In the book, Michael explains very clearly why some business man fail in the same market where other business man succeed greatly. Or in our case - why some affiliates succeed while other affiliates in the same field or with the same persistence and effort, fail. I am sure you will say to yourself “There are a lot of reasons: products, keywords, landing pages, bid management…” but the true, the root reason why one fails while the other succeeds is deeper than that…

In the book, Michael explains that the reason is “mental registraions”.
Any conscious act you do in your life, creates a mental registration in your sub-conscious. If you did a negative act, like lied or harmed someone, you will create a negative registration. If you did a positive act like being truthful or helped someone, you will create a positive registration in your mind.
Those mental registrations created effects. Those effects, or results, can be manifested days, week or years after the mental registration was created. And the results, as you can guess, will be negative or positive according to the registration that created them.
I am sure you hear about Karma. This is basically what Karma is. But the problem is that most of the people in the western world think that Karma is something lie this: “if I will do something bad, the universe (or god) will punish me”. It is so far from the real meaning! the real meaning is basically “if I will do something bad, I will punish myself”. Can you see the difference?!

What this has to do with affiliate marketing?
It doesn’t have to be related. I am also a spiritual person and can write in my blog about all kinds of stuff
But actually it is related - those principles, if understood and practiced, can give you all the success that you want. It can make you a super affiliate, a successful business man, an entrepreneur or whatever you want!

And here are some basic principles you can use right now:

• Don’t deceive your customers (maybe you will think: what about my presell landing page where I say “my name is Kimberly Smith and I lost 50 pounds in 5 days”. This is tough, I know! I have one of those landing pages too!)
• Share your profit - be willing to share your profit even if it is a small amount with friends, family or someone in need.
• Don’t be jealous in other affiliates success.
• Don’t be arrogance with other people.
• Always present yourself as who you really are. Don’t try to be something you are not (this is very important for blog writers…)
• Don’t think or act miserly.
• Do your best to Keep your promises.
• Create partnerships and joined ventures only with honest people. Even if you have an opportunity with rich but dishonest partner…
• Don’t feel happy when your competitors lose - there is a piece of the pie for everyone.
• Be thankful for the people (and tools) that helped you achieve your goals or gain success (even if you paid money for it! you can still be thankful).

You should think about these principles each day and even write down your experiences during the day. Actually, in the book he guides how to create a special daily diary for mental registraions, But I won’t write about it now, I will leave something for the book

It can be difficult to comprehend how “acting nice” can bring more conversions for the product you are promoting… But maybe other mental registration would have got you to choose other product, or other method of promoting… You can never know what works.

The principle of mental registrations (or Karma) is practiced and proved to work at the easten world for a thousands of years.

I feel it is true. Like a lot of affiliates I also tried some funky and not so truthful techniques along the way. I asked myself sometimes - “should I do it or not”? And a lot of times I did the funky thing… Probably because I wasn’t aware of the great power of those mental registrations… It was more important for me to go ahead with this technique I have in mind because maybe it can lead to greater conversions…
From now I will do my best to practice those principles and the other principles written in the book daily, and become successful as I wish for

I wish you all the success and abundance in the world,
The New Rich