As promised today’s blog entry comes from Tobias Siegel, one of Revenue’s ad sales representatives, who just spent three days at the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. This is Toby’s first shot at blogging. He may be new to the blogsphere, but I’ve heard he’s already got quite a following as a Vegas table dancer. Take it away T…..

Thanks Lisa. Did I ever tell you about the time I wrestled a Grizzly Bear at the top of Half Dome? It’s a great story, but not nearly as interesting as Team Revenue’s trip to Vegas this week for the 2005 Affiliate Summit.

I was very excited about making the pilgrimage to my first Affiliate Summit with our Publisher, Nick Smith and Advertising Manager, Chris Smith. Within the first hour of our arrival Sunday I was checked in at The Riviera and off to the pre-game festivities hosted by our friends at XY7.com.

One of the first things I realized in the early rounds of schmoozing is that the affiliate marketing community is a small world bonded by geographic regional networks, one of which is the Bay Area Affiliate Marketing Association, managed by Phillip Kidwell at eHealthInsurance.

After a couple rounds of cocktails at the Peppermill with my friends from the Rocky Mountain Affiliate Marketing Association, I hit the Venetian for bite to eat, then headed to The Palm’s roof deck hot spot, Ghost Bar. I felt like my Uncle Bugsy Siegel looking over all the bright lights on The Strip and dreaming of big things to come.

With a solid 4 hours of beauty rest under my belt, I hit the show running on Monday. Declan Dunn kicked off the Summit with the keynote address. As the track sessions began and the caffeine started to kick in I popped in to hear what the panel had to say about “Affiliates Bidding on Trademarks.” There was healthy debate between panelists Carolyn Tang, Affiliate Manager at Orbitz, David Lewis, Founder of 77Blue and Beth Kirsch, Senior Marketing Manager at Audible.com.

All offered seasoned points of view on how affiliates and merchants can work in harmony. As the track began to wind down and the panel started to heat up, Carolyn and David went toe-to-toe with an inspired exchange between the brand sensitive merchant and a Tier-1 affiliate with trademark attorney David Kibel literally stuck in the middle. Ultimately the shot clock expired on this panel and I was off to the next session.

Next up: lunch and an address delivered by Steve Messer, CEO of LinkShare. I was eager to hear what Steve had to say as he has played a big part in shaping the world of affiliate marketing as we know it today. Despite any pre-conceived opinions the audience had about Steve and LinkShare, I had to give him props for delivering a passionate speech about the current and future affiliate landscape for publishers and advertisers. He also gave a resounding call to action for the affiliate community to align their forces to prevent Darth Google’s Internet empire from destroying what it has worked so hard to build.

On to the afternoon tracks I went. The panel called “What Affiliates Want,” moderated by Linda Wood, President of PartnerCentric, was a good one. Panelists included: Rosalind Gardner, Author of The Super Affiliate Market Handbook (and one of Revenue’s newest columnists), Amy Lehman, account manager at Commission Junction, Brian Marcus, director of partner services at Performics, Nassim Nazemi, director of Website content at iGive.com and Hector Salcedo, senior sales manager at Ebates.com.

The track was rich with tips and tricks on how to cultivate relationships with affiliates. The topics included resources such as sortable EPC (earnings per click) ratings for merchants; being a hands-on affiliate manager who get excited and promotes compelling call-to-action offers for their affiliates; guidelines for assessing the value of a merchant; well constructed, clean RSS data feeds; the value of keeping images and prices up to date; and of course the importance of providing fresh, compelling content. The bottom line – affiliates want to be treated with respect and valued as unique partners by the merchants.

My day ended with the “Recruiting Affiliates” track. Mark Romanelli, DirectTrack manager with Direct Response was the Moderator. The panel, which included Liz Gazer, affiliate manager at Rugman.com, Bret Grow, vice president of Ouimette Communications, Liz Lloyd, director of strategic development at YFDirect and Dan Murray, Internet marketing strategist with Ravenwood Marketing, discussed strategies and best practices for merchants to recruit new affiliates.

They indicated there are many niche affiliates to consider and many merchants do not think through their affiliate recruitment strategy. For merchants, the panel suggested a need to define the channels of your affiliate strategy such as search, email, coupons, contextual, online, and shopping comparison. In addition, merchants need to determine their overall marketing strategy objectives including brand awareness and competition gaining market share.

Ultimately the best strategy for recruiting top-tier affiliates is the age-old relationship building mantra of bonding and rapport. As we all know word of mouth in the affiliate community spreads like wild fire. Loyalty and support of your affiliates will work wonders for your recruitment strategy. Needless to say, haggling with affiliates over nickels and dimes or misrepresenting an offer can create and uphill challenge for future recruitment. In the end, stay creative and responsive with your offers and remain loyal to your active affiliates, big and small. And by all means, nurture, nurture, nurture!

After resting by the pool for as long as I could bear the 100 plus temps, I was onto the post-game festivities, beginning with the Partner Weekly Tiki Lounge cocktail party. A couple of Mai-Tai’s later and I headed for the Wynn Las Vegas for a dinner date at the magnificent SW restaurant with my Revenue cohorts along with Melissa Salas, affiliate manager at Buy.com, Pat Terrell, affiliate manager at CollectiblesToday.com and Jason Stutes, affiliate manager for ShoppersChoice.com.

Next stop the Wynn Penthouse suite for a party hosted by one of our most loyal Revenue supporters, Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale.com. It was like partying with the rock stars of affiliate marketing, complete with plenty of food and libations and breathtaking views of The Strip. It was also Brian’s birthday. Happy birthday Brian.

With the Penthouse festivities winding down, we headed back to the casino and stopped in club Lure. It was a Monday night and folks were not exactly lining up to get in the door. I made my rounds through the club and chatted with some folks and then as we were clicking a few photos I felt a tug on my arm from behind. Suddenly I was whisked into sea of 18 women. Next thing you know I was on top of a table with Nelly bumping out the sound system. That’s right. I put the rump shaker in motion and instantly light bulbs were flashing and the club paparazzi were out in full force. It was now a sea of folks 10 deep up on tables getting loose and busting a move. As my girl Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott likes to say everyone was getting their freak on.

So as the morning beckoned and the Cinderella experience at the Wynn was over, I returned to The Riviera for some late night poker. I was struggling to keep myself going and down to my last $20 when lady luck struck big in the form of four Queens! That really made it a night to remember.

Overall the show was great. It was exciting to see all our partners and those that have supported Revenue coming together for the affiliate cause. I definitely felt the love and appreciated the enthusiastic feedback for the magazine.

I just wanted to extend a big thank you to Shawn Collins, Missy Ward and the entire team at the Affiliate Summit 2005 for producing such a great event.

We would love to hear what you got out of the Affiliate Summit, so be sure to send your thoughts to our Editor at lisap@revenuetoday.com