The Affiliate Summit is over. It’s late Tuesday night - though it seems early compared to the past three evenings of wee hours fun and frolicking . A lot of people have already boarded flights for home, but there are still some folks here. Many had small quiet dinners, gathered in the bar area and once again, ended the night signing tunes to the piano stylings of Brian Littleton.

Today was a very long day. The morning kicked off with some general session confusion. The Remarks and Rotating Roundtables seemed disorganized. Jeff Molander, the Summit’s emcee, didn’t do much to help. His explanation of who was supposed to rotate when and where only added to the confusion. Eventually, it all worked itself out and people where able to get to the speakers they wanted to hear.

Next up for me was a panel on Affiliate Marketing Legal Issues. I love hearing lawyers speak when I’m not paying them and I haven’t sworn to God to uphold anything.

There was nothing ambiguous about what this panel of three lawyers and two tech people had to say. FTC compliance regarding the laws of Internet advertising is mandatory. Everyone in the chain is being held responsible and that means publishers/affiliates. Steven Richter, president and general counsel for OptinRealBig.com, says the affiliate space needs a trade group or association so that there is a single body working to resolve issues.

Panelist Mark Rosenberg, an attorney with Sills, Cummis, Epstein & Gross, also chimed in on how trademark issues – especially bidding on key words – is one of the hottest issues.

So is fraud. Richter claims “Fraud is here to stay.” And offered some advice; “Know thy customer.” Don’t simply rely on software to catch the bad guys. “Click fraud will bite you in the butt and it will be a serious bite,” he says.

And here’s a real shocker, all the lawyers were in agreement that should any legal issues arise hire a good lawyer.

Linda Goodman, a partner at The Goodman Law Firm, went on to say that one simple way to test the Internet knowledge of any potential lawyer your looking to hire is to ask the question: “What is your dealing with spamhaus?

After lunch (what no Krab today?) I went to hear Jim Lillig, director of business development for LobsterGram, speak on Co-optetion, Comparison Sites and Conversions: Lessons Learned from the Adult Online Playbook. I really enjoyed this one. Lillig is a charismatic speaker that also seems to deliver the goods - lots of specific advice for what works. I couldn’t take notes fast enough. In addition, to passing on the information to the reporter working on a Revenue story about this very topic (for the Nov./Dec. issue), I thought there were some extremely valuable nuggets that I could use as we redesign our own site (RevenueToday.com).

The conference wrapped up with many of the show’s speakers offering a minute or two of their insights from the show. A common theme was how communication has increased and even gotten better.

My observations from the show:

*Ninety-eight percent of the people I polled about their jobs said they were meant to do be online marketers and couldn’t imagining doing anything else or having a better jobs. Wow. What lucky folks.
*Crocs with socks – so wrong.
*Getting a video jam packed with footage from the show is a very good thing. Thanks Shawn and Missy. You guys rock.
*There is no substitute for meeting face-to-face.
*LinkShare President Steve Denton’s ability to slip into parties and then vanish from conferences without a trace is almost superhero-like.
*Faux Mickey Mouse costumes are truly frightening.
*Blogging software needs a Breathalyzer attachment.

I’m vacation for a few days. lisap@revenuetoday.com