Nearly everything I’m doing and thinking about this week is focused on Affiliate Summit East 2008. For me, it’s not just preparing for the actual event, but the whole experience of going to back to Boston for the first time in two years. Plus, I’m taking a very short vacation to visit with my family in Western Massachusetts after the show.

I used to be able to count on one hand the must-attend shows and conferences related to online marketing for a given year. Plotting out my travel schedule wasn’t much trouble and there wasn’t really any overlap among shows. And for the most part I was also able to tack on a few personal and vacation days to most of my trips in order to simulate actually having a “vacation”.

I like to use events as milestones to get things. Lots of times I’ll just pick a show or conference and decided that I must have X,Y, and Z all finished before, say, Affiliate Summit in Boston. When I initially make the plan, the event always seems so far off – giving me plenty of time to plow through the long list of must-do’s. But along the way other things crop up, I get sidetracked, or I find some other excuse to delay doing what needs to be done.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has been closely monitoring the developments of the New York Internet Sales Tax issue. Yesterday the DMA’s Tax Counsel, George Isaacson, issued a brief analysis of the June 30, 2008 Technical Services Bulletin (TSB) related to the Internet/Affiliate Nexus Law.

Many of the merchants and publishers that I’ve been talking with this week are focused on the holidays. And while, the holidays for me, right now, mean the Fourth of July and my sweetie’s upcoming 40th birthday – these folks were referring to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I’ve finally returned from New York and the LinkShare Symposium. It was a great time catching up with merchants, publishers and LinkShare executive. I also enjoyed attending the Golden Link Awards on Monday night. It’s so much fun to see everyone get all dolled up and it’s not just the ladies that look like a million bucks.

It’s not just the summer heat wave. There’s lots of debate and discussion where people are fired up about the possible formation of an industry trade association.

I recommend you check out the threads about the topics on the online forums – ABestWeb is a great one. There are many different opinions on the topic. I like that people in the online community are smart, vocal, passionate and opinionated.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the BAAMC (Bay Area Affiliate Manager Coalition) monthly meeting. Held at the offices of Real Media in San Francisco, the two hour lunch meeting was attended by about 25 affiliate managers from leading companies and merchants in the area.

Revenue is pleased to be nominated for a 2008 LinkShare Golden Link Award for the Performance Marketing’s Most Vocal Advocate. This is the same category we were nominated in last year, but lost to the fabulous Kellie Stevens of AffiliateFairPlay.com.

Nearly two months after LinkShare President Steve Denton stepped down, the company announced it has appointed co-presidents.