Day 2 of Affiliate Summit - Suck All!

Almost a month ago I was granted a press pass for the Affiliate Summit. I was excited to get into the bloghaus and blog about the day as it happened. I was thrilled to walk around and network with people. I really wanted to get some great coverage of the Keynote (coverage hell, I wanted to just listen too), but... none of that happened.

Why? Because Las Vegas hates me. And there are far too many germs here. And somehow during the day on Sunday...I developed a cold. A bad one. Damn this dry air & germs!

So I didn't get up in time to make it downstairs to have breakfast AND make it to Jason Calacanis' keynote like I wanted to. I managed to grab some breakfast and share some stats about our affiliate program with my colleague here with me from PsPrint to help out and then to man the booth. I sent her out to get the table top sign made that wasn't made in time for the show. I station the booth for awhile and talk to some good people before it's time for me to head off to the morning session I planned on going to.

Oh, incidentally, for anyone who wants some GREAT coverage of the keynote, check out J. Botter's Blog.

I digress.

I attended this morning's "Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing" panel. Good stuff, although I was a bit disappointed in moderator Melissa Salas reading off a prepared script pretty much verbatim. But I really enjoyed the insight from video professionals, and it's comforting to know that content really is king, and that production value isn't as important. Woo Hoo! I was wondering how you'd go about monetizing a video, but Revver.com seems to answer that. I'll definitely be checking that out when I get back to the joy that is desktop computer (this older laptop isn't that great). I really enjoyed Gary Vaynerchuk's sense of humor & ballsy honesty. I'm excited with my new Aiptek A-HD 720P 5MP CMOS High Definition Camcorder

Some great points from the panel session:

• Most people come on the internet for two P's - pleasure or problems. If you solve someone's problem, it's a good video.
  
• KNOW what you're talking about. As long as you know your subject, you can produce great content.
• In the next 12 months, you should test video on your site. By 18 months from now, if you don't have video on your website you may be in trouble.
• Video really works to sell as it gives your brand more credibility & builds brand equity.
  
• Depth of information is quality will translate to a successful video.
  
• Work on integrating video into your current web experience for the most effective video experience.
  
• The average video watched online is about 2 minutes long.
• An enormous amount of video watching is done at work, so keep that in mind. Melissa added that a Click to Listen button is much appreciated by these people.
• In terms of size & format, go for the best quality you can when shooting, even if it has to be compressed when uploading online. If you can afford it, shoot in HD. It's where everything is headed. (Side note - this makes me really glad that I bought my new HD mini cam! It's the one in the picture.)

Day 3 should be good - hoping for some informative sessions and to feel better.