Day 3

The last day of the affiliate summit was a little more laid back, as the summit was coming to a close. We took the opportunity to get into the "cashinator" machine and grab some wind blown cash, take some pictures and generally just enjoy some casual networking.

Kyle, Software Projects Sr. Engineer, took some time to pose with yet another set of "booth babes". I think this may have been his favorite part of the summit.


By the end of the day most booth owners were trying to give way the left over promotional props, to avoid taking them back home. The Software Projects team scored some really cool gifts, which I took home and shared with my kids. I am now known as, "the coolest mom ever".

The gifts ranged from T-shirts, light-up pens, coffee cups, fake stacks of money and many other unique props.

A few of the unique giveaways offered at the Affiliate Summit.




Overall, the summit was a great networking event. We will cherish new friendships made and carry away some newfound Affiliate Marketing knowledge. I can't wait to attend the next Affiliate Summit. We at Software Projects are looking forward to speaking with the new contacts we made and helping them grow their business online.

The second day of the Affiliate Summit was the first actual day of the Exhibition. More spacious than the previous day's Meet Market, the Exhibition was an excellent way to meet all the merchants, networks and affiliates.

The Software Projects team made our way around to visit each booth and network with some new friends. Each booth had unique give away promotional props. The NextWeb Media booth was a big hit, as they were giving away grand prizes such as, an IPOD’s and a Wii.

We were in the drawing, but did not take the prize. Kyle, Software Projects Sr. Engineer, enjoyed his prize of posing with the booth model, Sara.





We attended a great presentation given by Super Affiliate, Amit Mehta. Amit did a great job revealing little known secrets and strategies he uses to drive huge volume and generate large revenues through PPC affiliate marketing. The specific focus of his seminar was using PPC to drive traffic to your pages and become a profitable affiliate marketer.

Among the topics discussed were bid optimization, split testing of landing pages and creative's, website value (specifically, how to create a site that will keep Google happy), common pitfalls of those new to affiliate marketing, and even the psychology of Affiliate Marketing. Amit is a great speaker who knows his stuff, and the speech was informative and interesting. Definitely one worth attending.

Afterwards we got a chance to speak with Amit about his apartment hunting adventures, while in Boston.

(Below) Amit presenting his PPC strategies.



The main ‘Affiliate Bash’ was canceled unfortunately, so that night Software Projects hit Boston downtown, to check out some of the night life.

We had the pleasure of going by to see the "original" Cheers.

Day 1

The Affiliate Summit East 2008 was held in downtown Boston, at the Seaport Hotel, overlooking the Boston Harbor.

Day one started off with a “Meet Market”. There were about 100 companies that had tables set up all around the room. I had the opportunity to visit most of the tables and spoke to an interesting range of businesses. The turnout for the Meet Market was impressive, so much so that getting around to everyone was a challenge, as it was standing room only all day. We got to meet with great people and get a taste of what was to come for the next 2 days.

(Below) View of the Meet Market.


We enjoyed an interesting presentation from PepperJam, given by Brock Siegel. They offered the best tips and tricks of how to most effectively work with PepperJam merchants. They laid out the nuts-and-bolts of their network. Brock covered background of Pepperjam, upcoming products and unique features of the Pepperjam Network.

Maura gave a quick run-down of the typical account and a how- to of the basics, as well as showcasing various features of the PepperJam network

(Below) Brock giving an awesome presentation of the PepperJam Network.


Later in the evening we attended the Share A Sale party. The party took place aboard a beautiful cruise ship on the Boston Harbor and offered awesome views of the harbor and downtown Boston. The grand list of attendees enjoyed 2 full levels of entertainment, complete with seafood bar, desert bar, cocktail bar, 2 full bands and dance floors. Later in the evening, the brave souls participated in karaoke.

(Below) View from the Share A Sale party boat.



Update: Check out Day 2 and Day 3.

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We do a lot of Joint Ventures here at SoftwareProjects.

Many turn out successful, some fail but every single one is carefully planned and monitored. If there's no money in it after 90 days, we're out.

Most businesses and entrepreneurs who approach SoftwareProjects for a Joint Venture, get rejected by our gatekeepers. Not because it's not a good fit, but simply because most people don't know how to position and sell a JV.

So I've decided to put together a basic "How to do a Joint Venture" guide, complete with a template JV Executive Summary document for you to download.

Step 1: Identify Potential JV Partners

Great tool to find JV partners: Google.

In a typical JV, one partner brings traffic and the other brings IP (Intellectual Property) to the table.

Traffic = Eyeballs. Ideally qualified eyeballs as in prospects who are actively looking for the product/service you're selling

IP = Software product, an ebook, a service, business know-how, a database/list, algorithm, patent etc.

Understand what you're bringing to the table and then Google for matching partners that have what you need.

Examples:

* You have a new product/service, you're looking for a partner with an existing list/website who will promote your stuff to his followers.

* You're a gifted software engineer, you're looking for a marketer to help convert your skills into mega bucks.

Important things to remember:

* Stay away from Gurus. Gurus are in the business of selling their own products and educational information to their followers. Unless you have a prior relationship, you'll have a very hard time selling your JV to a guru.

* Pick potential JV partners who are in your niche. Someone having a huge list of people who are interested in diving equipment, is not a good fit for your vitamin products.


Step 2: Crunch the numbers

Quantify what you've got and work out a business model for the Joint Venture partnership.

A joint venture is all about capitalizing on the strength of each partner, to generate more revenues than what each party could accomplish on it's own.

It is very important to attach a dollar value to what each partner brings to the table. This will help packaging the JV, keeping everyone comfortable about the agreement and determining a fair revenue split.

Examples:

* I have a product that was developed for 3 years by 2 engineers. It sells for $49/month and we've got 100 active customers. I am looking for traffic and willing to pay a 20% recurring commission.

* I have a membership site with a monthly newsletter. The newsletter is mailed out on the first of the month to 50,000 recipients with a 23% open rate and 11% click-through rate.

* I love to travel. I have been traveling around the world for the past 6 years and wrote 200 pages of tips on how to get by when you're traveling abroad.


Step 3: Package and sell the JV

Once you've identified a list of potential JV partners, analyzed what each partner can bring and attached a dollar value to your offering, it is time to approach the prospects and sell them on your idea.

Unfortunately, this is the most important yet overlooked step.

I lost count of how many times we get approached by CEOs of respectible companies, sending emails saying "financial projections are awesome", "we should really do some business together", "let's talk about a partnership" or my personal pet peeve "we have a great product, no customers yet but the market is huge!"

Wakeup call.

This is the information age. We're all suffering from information overload, all trying to accomplish 10 things at once and all have a list of projects on our ToDo list that will never get done because there's not enough time.

To sell a potential partner on the idea of doing a JV with you, send a short one page JV executive summary, outlining in a few short words what your project is about, why you feel this is a good fit and most importantly - the estimated short term opportunity cost / opportunity gain.

If you can't keep everything down to one page (without reducing font size so that I need a magnifying glass to read it), delete all and start again.

Luckily for you, I'm attaching our tried and tested JV Executive Summary. You can download this template here.

-

Remember JV is a numbers game. The more JV proposals you send out, the higher your chances are that you'll get a "yes".

Follow the steps I described, use the attached JV Executive Summary template and you'll significantly increase your chances of making it happen.

Good luck!

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