Thanks to Shawn Collins and Missy Ward who conceptualized Affiliate Summit and have been grown it from strength-to-strength at about 200 participants in the first AS in 2003 till more than 2,000 at the recently concluded ASW.

It was a great opportunity to meet up face-to-face with a number of the online marketers I’d been reading and talking with over the past few months like ShoeMoney, Scott Jangro, Kris Jones, PlanetAndrea, Jon Fisher from WickedFire and Joe Whyte.

Becky “Webmoxy” Ryan was a friendly and intelligent person to talk to (even though I was deep in thought and seemed to have unintentionally ignored her when she called out a few times).

Maura, Robyn, Andrew Wee at the Pepperjam booth

Shoemoney’s assistant Nicole

Webmoxy Becky Ryan

More surprising still was the fact that a number of affiliate managers and affiliates whom I hadn’t met prior to ASW mentioned they enjoyed reading this blog.

Blogging can be a solitary affair and it’s comforting to have face-to-face validation (which gives a human face to the otherwise clinical awstats’ 6000+ monthly uniques).

Although I missed them, perhaps I’ll have a chance to catch up with Super Affiliate Ros Gardner, BlogKits founder Jim Kukral, Sam Harrelson and SleepyBlogger Robyn Tippins at the next event. I heard Neil Patel and Cameron Olthuis had to leave Sunday evening for school, so I probably missed them by a hair.

What I greatly appreciated was the opportunity to meet Mike Krongel and his team over at Copeac. They threw a killer party for the WickedFire folks over at the Caramel Loung in the Bellagio.

It’s a great opportunity to have met up with WickedFire founders Jon and Brandon and WF members like John “I like c**k”, SEO_Mike, chrislingle, lerchmo, jDog, DruSam, Surly, Kaveman, Smaxor, Jon Warass, ExEngima, Rick.

Mike Peters from Software Projects had some interesting stories to tell too.

I’ve been listening to some of the post-ASW buzz and one of the issues I’ve heard is that the workshops didn’t provide good information.

I think the major element of a ‘summit’ is to share ideas. And given the time constraint of a 1.5 hour session, I’d doubt it’s fair to compare AS’ workshop sessions with Elite Retreat or other multiple day workshop focused on a single topic like SEO or list building.

I had the opportunity to speak to merchants making their first foray into affiliate marketing and they seemed to have got basic information to follow up on their efforts.

The biggest benefit of ASW is ‘being there’.

And ShoeMoney has rightly pointed out that the best exchange of ideas takes place after the workshop, in the bars and restaurants after the sessions end. In a more relaxed environment, you have an open exchange of ideas and trading information on what works and what doesn’t.

And herein lies the rub, Internet Marketing has more to do with relationship building and personal contact, than just the technology aspect that people generally get obsessed about.

Online marketing is more than composing the best Web copy, or optimizing your landing page or PPC campaign.

If you don’t have grassroot supports from your peers, whether it’s getting feedback on something you’re implementing, or even working together on a project, you can still succeed, it will just take a much longer time.

You can, of course, read about ASW and other events from this blog, though in the long run you’d be missing out on some great networking opportunities.

Affiliate Summit East will be coming up later this year.

Will you be there?

You don’t already need more content than what you’ve already seen on their blogs and forums, but here’s the difference that makes a difference.

The major obstacle and stumbling block for 99% of online marketers is your mindset.

And it’s not something you can rationalize, but rather an emotional reponse.

Sure, all of us can think we theoretically earn a million dollars a month, but the question is whether you feel you have the ability and are motivated to achieve it.

Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney), Andrew Wee, Jon F (WickedFire)

If you have no expectations about your online earning potential, you’d likely be happy with earning $1.

But from there, whether you hit the $10/day, $100, $1,000 or $10,000 level all depends on the ‘glass ceiling’ you’ve set for yourself.

Internet Marketing is truly a mind game.

Because once you’d set your mind in motion, you will go all out to find the strategies to reach the next level.

Here’s my personal beliefs that will help you reach the next level:

• Never Stop Learning

Things never stay the same. Expect change. And deal with it. Whatever doesn’t stop you will only create a barrier of entry for other.

• Problem-centered or Solution-centered

Are you someone who’s apt to complain or get stressed when a problem arises.

If you shift to a solution-oriented approach when something happens and you’re able to deal with it sooner than the others, you’d have a headstart on your competitors.

• Test, Test and Test

The first step is to take action, the second is to test everything. Never take anything for granted and you could see increases of 10-20% in your results.

The most important attribute, however, is persistence. If you work at something long enough, you might not get the same results you’re aiming for, but you’d be pretty close.