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For the MLM Industry: Affiliate Summit West 2009 Review

Posted By Debbi A. Ballard On January 23, 2009 @ 11:47 am In MLM Articles, MLM News, MLM and Affiliate Marketing | No Comments

by Debbi A. Ballard, MLM consultant, copyright, 2009, Debbi A. Ballard All rights reserved.

Affiliate Summit West 2009 was held in Las Vegas recently and I attended. I was there last year as well. As you know, as an MLM consultant, I have been tracking affiliate marketing for a long time now and keep abreast of the dynamics of that relative to the MLM industry. There will be tremendous changes in the affiliate marketing world and the MLM industry due to how the two will crossover and the accompanying synergies that will take place. I know that my MLM consulting clients and my readers must be kept informed of how this will occur as it will surely impact MLM best practices.

Last year, the Affiliate Summit West was excellent with the one exception being the keynote speaker whose idea of moving an audience to action was to denigrate them. Sorry, but as someone who has done a lot of speaking over the years, that’s just not the way to do it. People left that presentation with their heads down low walking out in silence.

Now contrast that with the motivating, highly spirited presentation by this year’s speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary.com who built a wine business with reportedly over $50 million in sales. He had the audience in the palm of his hand from the very beginning…hilarious and very informative. When people walked out of that keynote address, they were brimming with enthusiasm…smiling, talking. What a difference from last year’s speaker!

I had heard Gary in 2008 when he gave a seminar at the Affiliate Summit West. He gave some very good tips on video marketing online and spoke about how it helped him increase his wine business.

This year he spoke about how people are not monetizing the way they should be with the social networks. Too many people are just wasting time and not bringing in the money they could be if they focused more on monetization.

He also noted the importance of being yourself, being “authentic” and hence, it’s better to film live instead of re-recording various video sessions. He also recommended patience in building your online business. Many people are thinking that they can just build too quickly. Then they become discouraged and quit too early.

In addition, he encouraged people to think big. He said to stop thinking that you can’t get on Oprah, the Today Show, etc. The media is always looking for great stories and you could be one of them. (He’s been on those shows and many others.)

I don’t just like what Gary says…when you hear him speak, you like him as a person. Why? There’s no phoniness. He’s very empathetic with his audience and willing to really share fantastic information. You just feel like he’s a great guy.

Here’s my only complaint…

the swearing.

He didn’t need to do it. OK. OK. Many of us slip now and then even when at a speaking engagement with some minor things…but why let loose with some of the “biggies” that can be offensive to people (like myself)?

All this does is divert attention away from the real message.

These slips also occur sometimes at MLM industry events, both offline and online.

During the keynote presentation, Gary himself said he made a New Year’s resolution not to curse and noted that he already obviously failed in keeping that. After the keynote, I congratulated him but, in an effort to help him, also mentioned the swearing. When I brought it up to him, he said “I know. I know.” Then he apologized. I gave him a big hug.

Like I said, seems like a great guy, a hard worker, a very smart cookie. So, Gary, next time remember that ….

Words count. Words mean something.

People like you. They want to keep learning from you. You want to keep helping them. You can remain your authentic self and let your great personality shine through without the bad language.

You have too much to offer to allow anything to divert people’s attention.

In the MLM industry and the affiliate marketing world, we all need to remember this in the scope of our communications offline and online. This might just be another MLM best practice we’ll add to our list here on our mlm blog.

To Shawn Collins and Missy Ward, thanks for such a great event!

See Part II soon of my Affiliate Summit West 2009 Review for the MLM Industry.

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