Affiliate Summit West: Day One

So the first day of Affiliate Summit West is coming to an end…although we are in Vegas so I really feel more like the day is just beginning! I was able to attend three seminars today and thought I’d share some of the interesting tidbits I know you’ll all enjoy. Of course now is the time for me to say – you should be here! I am very impressed with Affiliate Summit and if you like what you read then you should attend!

Blog Monetization
I went to an interesting seminar on blog monetization – while there was a good deal of information I already knew they enforced a point that I’ve seen emphasized more and more – monetization your blog/site by creating your own product. Darren at ProBlogger talked about this with his latest photography book and I think this is a very important concept for Domainers to look at when monetizing their domain names or blogs.

Along with creating your own product there are of course a number of other great ways to monetize your blog – here is the list the speakers provided:

– Traditional affiliate networks (i.e. Pepper Jam, etc.)

– Contextual ads

– In-text solutions

– Widgets – Chitika shopping ads

– Pay per post (becoming more and more popular)

– CPA Networks

– CPM Banners

– Product Feeds (I want to learn more about this)

Of course I’m a bit of a video nut…okay I’m a complete video nut so of course the seminar about video and affiliate marketing really got my goat.

Video: Biggest Affiliate Marketing Opportunity Since Google
There was a lot of great info in this seminar – I’ve decided to include a few of the key stats that make me excited about the future of video online!

– People watched 21 billion videos online in July of 2009

– 158 million online viewers watched an average of 135 videos a week

– Average viewer watched 8 hours/month

– 2.5 minutes is the sweet-spot for video content

Here is my absolutely favorite data point:

“81% of the total US Internet Audience viewed online video”

So if you didn’t think video was catching-on…you were wrong. In fact 25% of Google’s search traffic comes from You Tube search…which is actually more search traffic than Yahoo gets overall!

Okay – that’s it for now – the Chef and I have to head back to our hotel, drop-off our stuff and get ready for a night in Vegas!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton