Time flies, and lots has changed since my original announcement of the new affiliate management conference.

In fact, things have even changed since the day I announced the full agenda — believe it or not, but it has expanded even further!

But being a big fan of structured approaches, and easy-to-digest presentation, let me highlight the key points about upcoming Affiliate Management Days for you in a bullet-point format (which should be helpful both to those familiar with the event, and to those who are hearing about it for the very first time):

• Date: March 8-9, 2012 / Place: San Francisco, CA
• Target audience: affiliate managers, online merchants, digtal marketing professionals
• Content: 4 keynote presentations, 24 breakout sessions, covering affiliate recruitment, fraud, adware, black hat techniques, web analytics, attribution data, landing page optimization, branding, influence and persuasion, trends and innovations, mobile, video, social, and much more [full agenda here].
• Speakers: 28 speakers including (a) affiliate marketing legends Todd Crawford, Kim Rowley, Sam Harrelson, Karen Garcia, Rebecca Madigan, (b) such digital marketing celebrities as Tim Ash and Linda Bustos, and (c) experts from such organizations as Harvard, Google, eBay, Best Buy, JC Penney, and many others.
• Press: the conference has already received a good amount of press, and should you want to find out more about it see these links.

How to Save $620 on Registration

Okay… Here’s the three-step secret:

1. Find a speaker coupon code (like one mentioned here)
2. Go to SF 2012 registration page
3. Register within Early Bird period (which ends Jan 20)

These three steps will help you save $619.50 off the on-site price (or $419.50 off the regular price). But hurry! The Early Bird rate expires this Friday.

I hope to see you there.

I have done this in 2009, 2010, and in 2011.

And now again, for the fourth time in a row I am happy to bring you worldwide affiliate marketing events (conferences, symposiums, conventions and expos) that are worth considering in 2012, which will be here in less than 3 days.

As always, I am using the * asterisk to mark the conferences that I have personally attended in the past, and/or highly recommend.

2012 Affiliate Marketing Conferences & Events

• 01/08-01/10 – Affiliate Summit West (Las Vegas, NV, USA)*
• 01/17-/01/19 – LinkShare Symposium West (San Francisco, CA, USA)
• 01/26-01/29 – London Affiliate Conference (London, UK)
• 02/14-02/15 – PubCon Paradise 2012 (Honolulu, HI, USA)*
• 02/28-02/29 – LeadsCon Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV, USA)
• 02/28-02/29 – Online Advertising & Affiliate Expo (London, UK)
• 03/08-03/09 – Affiliate Management Days (San Francisco, CA, USA)*
• 03/13 – PerformanceIN Travel & Leisure (London, UK)
• TBA – LinkShare Symposium UK (London, UK)
• 05/15-05/15 – Affiliate Summit Central 2012 (Austin, TX, USA)
• 05/16-05/18 – ShareASale ThinkTank 2012 (Austin, TX, USA)
• TBA – LinkShare Symposium Japan (Tokyo, Japan)
• 06/19-06/20 – a4u Expo Europe (Barcelona, Spain)*
• TBA – Affili@SYD (Sydney, Australia)
• 06/25-06/27 – LinkShare Symposium East (New York, NY)
• 08/12-08/14 – Affiliate Summit East (New York, NY, USA)*
• 09/04 – PerformanceIN Fashion & Beauty (London, UK)
• 10/11-10/14 – Barcelona Affiliate Conference (Barcelona, Spain)
• TBA – Commission Junction University (Santa Barbara, CA)
• TBA – a4u expo London (London, UK)*
• 10/15-10/19 – PubCon Las Vegas 2012 (Las Vegas, NV, USA)*
• TBA – Affiliate Management Days (New York, NY, USA)*
• TBA – LinkShare Symposium Canada (Toronto, Canada)

As usual, if I have missed an event that belongs here, please post about it in the “Comments” area under this post, and I will add it to the list too.

In the course of the past three weeks we were flooded with speaking proposals for Affiliate Management Days, the new professional forum for affiliate program managers, and everyone involved in affiliate marketing on the advertiser’s side. It wasn’t an easy task, but we’ve selected the speakers for the San Francisco 2012 conference, and the agenda is already live on the website. Here are just a few things to highlight:

• 4 keynote presentations
• 20 breakout sessions
• 25 speakers
• Topics include affiliate recruitment, dealing with fraud, adware, and black hat techniques, web analytics, attribution data, landing page optimization, branding, influence and persuasion, trends and innovations, mobile, video, social, and much more!

The full agenda for AM Days SF 2012 (which will take place on March 8-9, 2012) may be viewed here.

Here is also an alphabetic list of all confirmed AM Days speakers (with the corresponding Twitter list located here and speaker bios here):

1. Kush Abdulloev, Affiliate Program Manager, VMInnovations
2. Tim Ash, CEO, SiteTuners ← keynote speaker
3. Sarah Bundy, CEO, All Inclusive Marketing
4. Linda Bustos, Director of Ecommerce Research, Elastic Path Software
5. Todd Crawford, Co-Founder, Impact Radius
6. Ben Edelman, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School ← keynote speaker
7. Karen Garcia, CEO, GTO Management
8. Chris Goward, CEO, WiderFunnel Marketing
9. John Greathouse, Partner, Rincon Venture Partners ← keynote speaker
10. Kristin Hall, Head of Publisher Development, Google Affiliate Network
11. Peter Hamilton, Partner & CMO, HasOffers
12. Sam Harrelson, Publisher/Editor, PayPerTrends
13. Simon Jones, VP of Strategic Solutions, Plimus
14. Siva Kumar, Co-Founder, TheFind.com
15. Joanna Lord, Director of Customer Acquisition & Retention, SEOmoz
16. Rebecca Madigan, Executive Director, Performance Marketing Association
17. David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity
18. Tony Pantano, CEO, Imwave
19. Ali Pasha, Product Manager, Google Affiliate Network
20. Geno Prussakov, Chair, Affiliate Management Days
21. Kim Rowley, Founder, ShoppingBookmarks.com
22. Jared Saunders, Affiliate Program Manager, JensonUSA
23. Jason Spievak, CEO, RingRevenue ← keynote speaker
24. Kevin Webster, Internet Marketing Manager, Forbes Custom Products
25. Jenny Williams, Merchant Manager, Skimlinks

We’re still in the “early bird” registration phase, and if you register by January 20, you’ll save $300 off our regular price pass. So, don’t delay. Register soon!!

We also have a number of sponsorship opportunities available. So, if your target audience matches with the one we cater to, do consider them.

As always, should you have any questions, the “Comments” field under this post is all yours; and I’ll be happy to answer.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With great pride, and slight tremble with excitement more than anything else! in my voice, I bring you………… a brand-new conference — a different conference, a professional forum geared specifically towards affiliate program managers and marketing executives responsible for their businesses’ affiliate marketing programs.

It is going to be a two-day event, which will be a part of the Data Driven Business Week (which traditionally combines such fine conferences as eMetrics Summit, Predictive Analytics World, Conversion Conference, Text Analytics World, and others) to take place in March 2012 in San Francisco, California. Here are more details:

• Name: Affiliate Management Days
• Dates: 8-9 March, 2012
• Venue: Westin San Francisco
• Conference chair: yours truly
• Website: AffiliateManagementDays.com
• Official press release: here

I am also proud to bring you the two confirmed keynote speakers (both no strangers to the affiliate marketing world): assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, also known for his extensive expertise in affiliate spyware, adware, click and commission fraud, Ben Edelman; and Co-founder and CEO of RingRevenue, Jason Spievak. The keynote addresses will cover the latest research on adware and affiliate marketing abuses (naturally, this one by Ben), as well as the latest performance marketing trends, specifically when affiliate programs leverage the rapidly growing offline and mobile channels (this one by Jason).

In addition to the keynotes, we will have numerous breakout sessions, covering an array of topics from affiliate marketing analytics and program optimization to landing page conversion optimization and the latest tools to streamline your affiliate management processes.

If you’re interested to speak at Affiliate Management Days, we are now accepting speaking proposals, and I would like to encourage you to submit yours.

Here are three important links that I’d also like to draw your attention to:

• Registration — register here (save $500 if you register by December 20, 2011)
• Speaking proposals — submit yours here (deadline: December 23, 2011)
• Sponsorship opportunities — contact Paul Gillis

If you’re an affiliate program manager, this event is for you! If you’re an affiliate, there are other good conferences to consider: Affiliate Summit being my personal US preference, and a4uExpo — my European favorite.

I hope to see you there, and should you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them (either via the “Comments” area below, or by email).

Two weeks ago, shortly after delivering my keynote address at a conference in Israel, I agreed to keynote another international conference, and took my passport to an embassy in Washington, DC.

Today I’ve received my passport back, and you may see a part of my visa on the left.

Yes, my next stop is China. It’s exciting, and I’m already very much looking forward to it; especially that the conference is being organized by Avangate, a company which was among the first ones to publish a full interview with me a couple of years ago.

Avangate offers several services, one of them being an affiliate marketing platform for numerous software vendors.

The Avangate Global Software Selling Conference – which will be held on November 19, 2011 in Beijing — is going to gather both software developers/vendors and software-selling affiliates, aiming to motivate and equip them to perform better in the space. You may learn more about the conference by clicking the screenshot below. Once again, I’m excited and looking forward to it.

Less than a week ago I returned back from Israel where I was speaking at an affiliate marketing conference.The name of it was Take Charge 2011 Digital Commerce Summit.

Plimus (together with conference’s co-host Itay Adam of GoTraffic) has put together one impressive affiliate marketing event in Tel Aviv. There were some 650 attendees, amazing speakers, lots of quality networking; first day being fully devoted to sessions and networking, second — to one-on-one scheduled-in-advance meetings. Without exaggeration, this was one of the more productive conferences I’ve attended.

Besides the location, the uniqueness of this particular conference to me was in the fact that this was my first ever conference to keynote. I’ve been speaking in front of audiences large and small for the past 5 years, but never keynoted a conference… In my speech I focused on building affiliate-friendly programs. I liked how it went. It seems that the audience appreciated it as well.

Here are a few pictures that should give you the feel of the conference:

Simon Jones of Plimus speaking

Panoramic Views of the Audience

Take Charge 2011 Keynote

You may find many more photos at the conference’s official website here.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank Plimus’ team (especially, Eldad Ben Tora, Charlie Born, and Simon Jones), Itay Adam, as well as Sarit Ressler and the whole Smart Projects (conference production company) team for making it an unforgettable trip for me. I had a blast; and some of my more personal pictures may also be found here.

I had a great time speaking at a4uexpo Europe 2011 in Munich, Germany earlier this year. If there’s one European affiliate marketing conference you must be aware of, it is precisely a4uexpo. Now, as I mentioned elsewhere, a4uexpo is currently being run twice a year: in summer it’s in Munich, while in fall it’s in London.

Today I am proud to announce that I accepted an invitation to sit on the advisory board for the London conference (yes, in addition to being on the a4uawards judging panel):

a4uexpo London 2011 is set to take place in less than 7 weeks (on October 18-19, to be exact), and there is still time to register! We’ve already selected some great speakers, and this is promising to be another amazing show.

If you decide to attend, make sure to use a coupon code GENO10 which gives 10% off all passes; and also, keep in mind that you can apply for an a4uexpo Bursary (in translation from British English — “scholarship” // deadline: August 31, 2011; so hurry!) which covers 70% of your ticket to the conference.

While I, personally, won’t be able to attend this year, I wish Matthew Wood and the whole Existem team best of luck in running a4uexpo London 2011!

Don’t know if you’ve heard of it yet, but there’s a new affiliate marketing conference coming up in September. It is being hosted by Plimus and will take place in the vicinity of Tel Aviv, Israel on September 13-14, 2011. The name of the conference is “Take Charge” and here’s how the organizers themselves describe the event:

Take Charge 2011 will address the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce. Join us for a full productive and interactive day of presentations by savvy and experienced industry vendors and affiliates that will share with you best practices and strategies for the future of e-Commerce. Through plenary sessions, product showcases, panel discussions, targeted small breakouts and various networking opportunities you will be exposed to the best of breed of this exciting world.

I am honored to be invited to speak at this conference. My keynote speech on affiliate program management best practices will take place at 9:45 am (Israel time) on Day 1 of the conference. This will be my first time in Israel; and I am already looking forward both to the conference, and, of course, to visiting the Holy City after the conference.

Six and a half weeks from now (yes, that soon!) the new Affiliate Summit is going to take place in New York City, NY. Since my blog is primarily focused on the needs, wants, concerns and demands of merchants and those appointed to oversee and grow affiliate programs (in-house or externally-based affiliate program managers), I’ve looked at the conference’s agenda from the merchant’s/manager’s angle, and picked 5 non-conflicting as far as time goes sessions that jumped at me as most relevant and interesting for this particular crowd.

Here is my list (the order is merely chronological):

– 1 –
What: Are Your Affiliates Adding Value?
Who: Adam Riemer (aka @Rollerblader)
When: 11:00am-12:00pm, 08/21/2011
Why: Judging by Adam’s blog posts, he knows what he’s talking about; and his session promises to cut right down to the essence of the things that can make or break an affiliate program.

– 2 –
What: Using Testimonial Claims in Social Media Platforms
Who: Peter Marinello, Tom Chernaik, Thomas A. Cohn, and Jeffrey Greenbaum
When: 11:30am-12:30pm, 08/22/2011
Why: Ignoring the importance of this topic is just too expensive for any business. Much is still let unclear, and I really hope this session will help with at least some of the many questions that merchants and managers have.

– 3 –
What: Live Merchant Site Reviews
Who: Mike Allen (aka @mta1), Jeannine Crooks (@Jeannine_Crooks) and Cresta Pillsbury
When: 2:00pm-3:00pm, 08/22/2011
Why: An affiliate, a network rep, and an OPM “will identify strengths & weaknesses separating top performing merchant sites” pinpointing affiliate-friendly elements and focusing on how to evaluate merchants.

– 4 –
What: Key Affiliate Program Components You’re Probably Missing
Who: Yours Truly (aka @ePrussakov)
When: 3:30pm-4:30pm, 08/22/2011
Why: There won’t be one merchant/manager in the room who will leave it without something important to implement in their affiliate program. Come. You won’t regret.

– 5 –
What: Do-Not-Track? Not-So-Fast
Who: Sarah de Diego, Peter Hamilton (@PeterHamilton), and Kimberlee White (aka @Kymbrla)
When: 2:00pm-3:00pm, 08/23/2011
Why: Hugely important topic. And while the session organizers are promising to talk about “how to rally, educate and fight this misguided effort” I’m also hope to hear about alternatives that we have.

There were a few others that caught my eye as well, but due to the time conflict, I had to choose.

If you’re attending the conference, enjoy the show; and I hope to see you in my session! Remember to also check out my earlier-compiled 10 tips on how to make the most of every Affiliate Summit.

While some may say there is a million and one reason to attend conferences, when it comes to conferences on marketing I like every attended trade show to bring measurable results. Then it has a truly positive ROI in my eyes (hence, a good reason to be there). Just as 74% of CEOs I believe that a hype is always a wrong thing to spend time on. As marketers we always want to focus on measurable performance — always and everywhere (conferences included).

Besides inspiration that I always draw from a good conference, there are three very specific areas that I am generally looking for: (a) learning something, (b) making new connections and cementing old ones, and (c) getting some additional exposure, thereby gaining better visibility among peers and prospective clients.

To see how this aligns with other conference attendee’s goals and objectives, two weeks ago I’ve put together a multiple options poll where I asked fellow-marketers to vote for their reasons in attending conferences. The poll closed just yesterday and here are its results:

I did expected networking to beat education and publicity, but, frankly, I was expecting a much more confident lead. I can see how much will depend on the type of conference, though.

What do you attend marketing conferences for?