The Rogue Marketer

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I've been a bit remiss in providing some thoughts and highlights coming out of Affilate Summit West 2012 (January 8 - 10 in Las Vegas). For those not familiar with the Summit, it's a biannual conference where performance marketers (translation: people that actually do the work to directly earn money that pays the mortgage) get together to share thoughts, ideas and to get a general sense of where we are all heading.  Everyone in attendance uses a different approach, but all are centered around new models for lead generation, conversion and retention.

As was the case at past Summits, we are at yet another inflection point in marketing where the tactics of the past are giving way to opportunities created by the communications channels of the next 12 months. Each channel alone and in combination offers an infinite number of possible communications and revenue models that can be leveraged via either a highly focused or broad based multi-channel approach.  As is always the case in marketing, those that take the time to learn faster, and then act with a test, read and role mentality can win, while those that cling to older models are destined to fail.  

Of course, the other benefit of going to Summit is to learn about new networks and tools that can be placed into your CPA, CPC, PPC, SEO, Social Media and any other toolbox.  This includes some innovative work being done by Sterkly, a company that is offering an interesting combination of software and affiliate offers that work alongside popular destination sites such as YouTube.  There were also great presentations by Vinny O'Hare on that state of SEO, Robert Adler on link building and the famous Jeremy Schoemaker who provided an insightful keynote on the potential of the performance industry.

Affiliate Summit West was a sellout for good reason and it's why the upcoming Affiliate Summit East conference scheduled for August 12-14, 2012 will be even bigger.