I just want to recap my vacation and share my insights and pictures that I took while I was in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since I live in New Jersey, it has gotten cold and dark here. This mini break was a great way for me to relax, enjoy the sun, and get a bit darker for the winter time. When I landed in Puerto Rico, actually a second landing as the plane did a double jump then decided to fly back….. yea a bit sketchy.

Puerto Rico is an amazing place to be at with their beaches and women. I met up with the NJ Affiliate HangOut Group and we just traveled old San Juan, ATV through the rain forest, then Kayak at night. It was a good set of days with adventures and exploring. We also did the modern hangout at clubs and bars. The best part was definitely being a tourist and exploring as a non tourist.

Some pictures…

Traveling is one of the best part about having an online business. It allows me to work anywhere I want to and at any time. Even though I was on vacation, I did do some work. Relaxing on the beach, watching the waves crash while adjusting bids and looking over campaigns. Soon my goal is to get an affiliate house for 3 months and just plan a trip with other affiliates or online marketers who loves traveling. The other goal is to travel every other month.

Related posts:

1. Amazing Day of Activities at the Puerto Rico Meetup
2. Affiliates, Don’t Be Scared of Puerto Rican Women
3. IANteract Dinner Miami and Miami Video

This itself was a great experience as I have never went snorkeling. It showed how beautiful Puerto Rico is with their clear waters, amazing islands, soft sands, and beaming sun. Sailing the open waters itself was just a great relaxation for me, taking a quick break from all the online marketing ventures I have been doing.

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I took a nap for about 2 hours because a day in the sun and activities is tiring.

During dinner we headed off to old San Juan to take a dinner cruise. A night filled with good music and good people. After the dinner, me and some affiliates started walking the streets of old San Juan and did a quick tour of a fortress. It was interesting to see the fort walls and the city within these walls. After a quick run of old San Juan, we met up with the group and headed back to the Ritz.

Even this was a one day meetup, Mike and Ndemand did a great job at organizing a full day of events. Memorable events at that. I personally have never been to Puerto Rico, so the experience of snorkeling, boating, corals, etc was just a great experience. I will be here in Puerto Rico for another 3 days and we will end up doing other activities before thanksgiving.

I wan to thank Mike for having such an amazing meetup.

more pictures…

Related posts:

1. Affiliates, Don’t Be Scared of Puerto Rican Women
2. NDemand Affiliates Sponsors IANteract Dinner East 2011
3. Oklahoma Affiliate Meetup 2010 – CraZy!

I started this because I wanted to surround myself with friends that are in the industry and where we can share the same insights of marketing, especially affiliate marketing. I don’t mind hanging out with my friends, but I can’t discuss money with them. For example, if I tell them I had a bad day because I lost an X amount in a week. Their remarks are not supportive and it then becomes a joke, “You could have given me $X,XXX”. Some of my friends respect what I do and I def enjoy their company, others is a different story.

The mindset of my friends are totally different from an entrepreneurs mindset. I love my friends and no disrespect to them, but sometimes it is hard to discuss my passion for the internet with them.

… so the NJ HangOut Meetup has been created. It allows me to network and friend entrepreneurs in the NJ area. This way I can ping the group and see if anyone wants to ball out. Traditionally, a response I would get from friends is they do not have money, they are broke, they just paid their bills. Understandable. Now I can hangout with a group of friends who is always about making more money and expanding their business.

The Hangout consists of some affiliates like Rohail Rizvi, NJ advertisers, and even an NJ affiliate network – CPA Staxx, which I have yet to meet. There are others as well that do big numbers in the affiliate space and some are also starting out but at least have done affiliate marketing.

The purpose of the hangout is to grab a beer on a weekend, relax, and talk whatever is on our mind. Not only do these hangouts become just a weekly networking event, it becomes a close circle of friends who enjoy the industry and enjoy talking about marketing. I know personally I have grown attach to the group, making friends and enjoying everyone’s company. We don’t always talk business, we talk about life, vacations, clubbing, and everything in between. The group isn’t JUST a networking event, but more of friends you can talk in depth business with.

Preview of the HangOuts:

Our hangouts are becoming more of a place to hangout with friends who enjoy the industry and become close friends. I have a tattoo on my arm saying:

“He that walks with wise men, shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” – Proverb 13:20

This is true and I got this tattoo done because I started going back to the old me. I started hanging out with friends that are not as driven as me and are in situations that I do not want to be part of anymore. It was a chapter of my life and I want it to be just that, a chapter. I wanted to keep a reminder to myself, who I hangout with I will become. Making sure I am with the right people at all times.

This is also another reason why I travel a lot to multiple trade shows and conferences because I am surrounded by people who are passionate about the internet industry as a whole.

I will never leave or forget my friends I grew up with, I even invite some to these hangouts in hope they can get some encouragement to do even more. Without my circle of friends that I grew up with, I do not think I would be in my situation now. So I will never forget who they are, especially the ones who support what I do.

They say you are who you are base on your surrounding environment and this is the case with friends and people who you are with.

Related posts:

1. Local Marketing Meetups and Why You Should Join
2. Don’t Tell Your Friends You Make Money, but Tell Your Friends
3. Why You Should Have a Meetup

I honestly can’t wait as I never been to Puerto Rico.

The meetup will almost be like a mastermind meetup style, where affiliates can network and also have fun. I have been to mastermind meetup, ThinkTank. I can tell you the environment is totally different from conferences and the traditional trade shows. It is almost like having a BIG local meetup with people that speak your language.

Mike has arranged a special deal with the Ritz Carlton in San Juan at a discounted rate for the dates of November 18th-20th. I personally may stay a bit longer than those 3 days, maybe for a week as I never been to Puerto Rico.

Mike has this set with some great plans – day with great activities. Here is the itinerary that he has planned:

Catamaran http://www.saltydreams.com/index.htm

• 7:30 am start boarding outside of ritz carlton for catamaran
• 8:00 am leave for catamaran
• 9:00 am Check In at catamaran
• 10:00 am Departure
• 11:00 am Arriving to (Icacos, Palominito, Lobos, Tortugas o Palomino)
• 12:00 pm Lunch
• 1:00 pm Departure to (Icacos, Palominito, Lobos, Tortugas o Palomino)
• 2:30 pm Sailing to Villa Marina
• 3:30 pm Arriving at Villa Marina
• 4:30 back at ritz carlton
• 6:00 pm board for La Rumba Dinner Cruise(sales around bay of San Juan) http://www.larumbacruises.com/index.html
• 6:30 to 8:30 possibly 9:30 still working out time but dinner and open bar will be provided

This looks like a promising meetup and definitely a fun way to get away from the cold (East Coast) during the month of November. If you are interested in participating with a bunch of veteran affiliates and have fun as well, I suggests you pre register for the Puerto Rico meetup. I will be participating in this event and I already know several affiliates that will be doing the same.

Related posts:

1. Strong Relationship with NDemand Affiliates
2. 5 Traits Why So Called Super Affiliates are Super Affiliates
3. New Jersey IANteract and my Facebook Group

Prior to my meetup I was at the Meetup NY – first of 2011. The NY meetup was a good event as well, I got to meet with Ken, Matt, and other NY affiliates. I got to meet with a lot of new people and even networks that flew out from Canada for this just one event. After the NY meetup a couple of us, networks, product owners, and affiliates went out to get a grab to eat. It was a great night out.

Fast forward to this past Saturday, my IANteract meetup is more of just networking during the afternoon and then we either do something entertaining or grab a drink. My meetup consisted of some bloggers, past users from NY meetup, Ad Hustler, Heavy T, and everyone in between.

My meetup is more of a networking event than doing a session, as I know some users were expecting. Anyways, the best part about my meetup is people across the United States come and not just local. It was great to hear that affiliates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and even Virginia.

The meetup ended with people finishing up their networking and I wanted to see what some users wanted to do. I asked several people if they wanted to go bowling and we have about 12 people playing a game. It def was a great break from talking business. It is important to balance these things out and just go out and have fun. After the game we all broke out and several affiliates were hungry so we decided to go out and grab some food and drinks.

The purpose of these meetups is to link with other link minded users and entrepreneurs in your local area. The saying goes, you are who you hang with. I want to make sure I surround myself with like minded users. I know that I sometimes ‘fall backwards’ because of friends I grew up with. This is another reason why I attend conferences a lot because I enjoy just hanging around with friends in the industry.

Local meetups is a great way to find new friends and even new partners in the your state or local area. For my meetup 3 states decided to come and join my meetup which is just amazing. I want to give a shout to those attendees who drove more than 6 hours to attend my meetup.

Conferences and networking is important, I wouldn’t overdue it but find ones that are very beneficial. For example I definitely think Affiliate Summit is one of the best events to be at. There are so many other conferences in between that are not worth t and some that are. I know the more private and higher ticket networking events are even better to be at.

All in all, if you want to find entrepreneurs in your area I would suggests hosting an event at Meetup.com and then allowing users to find you. You are not the only person that is making money online in your area, there has to be another person you can share the experience with and  I think meetup.com is the best place to find those users.

I find these meetups entertaining and engaging, it helps me stay up to date with the industry and keeping conversations I find appealing – marketing. If you feel you are the only person in your area that is doing online marketing, post up or search meetup.com and find ones that will fit you.

Related posts:

1. Why You Should Have a Meetup
2. The Problem with Local Lead Marketing
3. New Jersey IANteract and my Facebook Group

I arrived Friday the day of the meetup and started to talk to affiliates that were already there. There were affiliates that drove all the way from Dallas to come to the meetup. I met some merchants that were on ShareaSale and even business owners wanting to learn to expand their business online.

We had some crazy good beef for lunch and a very spicy BBQ sauce. I met up with Riley Pool and some other affiliates in the area. There were some affiliates that drove all the way from Dallas, Texas as well. It turned out to be a great event.

Later, Murray and I presented to the attendees of the meetup. Murray spoke about ‘high volume email deployment’ while I spoke about finding a niche and finding an offer. Each presentation was about 30 minutes long and we answered question at the end.

To see my presentation slide, you can find it at my Scribd account here.

After the meetup we just hanged out and networked with everyone that attended. Later we had a party bus come along to take us to dinner and take us around town. We ate at a place called the Boulevard which had some really good appetizers and steaks. Mike Pacheco of Ndemand had a dinosaur thigh, while I just had a 7 ounce. BIG difference. Good food though.

Back on the party bus we all went bowling and let’s just say it has been a while since I bowled. But I caught on and got the feel of the lanes that one of the affiliates wanted to sponsor me because of the ‘cursive’ I put on the ball.

After bowling, we all went back to the office. It was still early and I wanted to hit out the city for a bit longer. So Rusell Parr and I went out and decided to see what the city has to offer. We decided to hit a club/bar which was really good.

The only difference is the music was a mix of hip-hop and country, interesting combination. We then saw Dylan of RevenueAds and hanged with him till the place closed. It was still early so we started to hit up everyone that we met today and try to see what everyone else was doing.

We tried to meetup with Kevin of XY7 but everyone closed at 2pm it seemed everyone called it quits for the night.

The next day we had lunch with Ndustry Clix and Kevin at a pizza spot. Since I am doing the P90X workout, I decided to have a salad. I had way too much meat the day before. The salad was good…

The craziest part is there was a high alert of a snow storm in Oklahoma, but the day I landed it was beautiful! It was so cold the snow touch the ground and turned to instant ice. Well, it didn’t matter much since we were inside watching the NCAA game.

We watched 2 games that were being played and it was a very close and good game, both of them. The interesting part of the whole night was trying to drink. At the event no one was allowed to drink when the ball is in session, that is is a first for me. So it was interesting to see cops tell everyone to down their drinks.

After the game we all went to a crab-fest restaurant, where they steam all the seafood and just dump it on the table. Riley, James, Kevin and I destroyed the food. Nothing was left besides onions and shells. It was some really good seafood.

The game was really good and being filled with good seafood that everyone was tired ass hell and we called it quits around 11pm. Plus it was too cold out to even go out and hit the city. I definitely didn’t pack well for the confusing weather in Oklahoma.

Sunday, yesterday, we just had one last congregation about online advertising. Very good stuff. Kevin and I exchanged ideas about advertising.

I want to thank NDustry Clix, NDemand, RevenueAds, Revenue500, and Riley Pool for having such an event. I honesty didn’t think I would have had a good time but I did.

Video of what happened in Oklahoma.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Presenting at the Affiliate Meetup in Oklahoma City
2. Affiliate Summit Social Meetup: NY
3. Copeac Sponsored NYC Meetup202

I was kinda of hesitant of participating in this event because it is in Oklahoma, what is there really to do in Oklahoma. I have been to Nebraska which is a state up. I hated being in Nebraska… so I was just thinking will it be the same in Oklahoma?

I have been in communication with Mike of NDustry Clix and he stated the March Madness event is being presented the following Saturday. Which is pretty cool since i have never been to one of their shows.

So I decided to accept their proposal and see what Oklahoma got in stores for me. Presenting with me will be Murray Newlands, he is one of the other presenters that will be presented at this meetup. So I will be at this local meetup and it will be interesting to see local affiliates in the Oklahoma area.

So what will I be doing in Oklahoma… Really not sure… I will be meeting up with some local affiliates there and I guess they will show me the ropes of what to do in Oklahoma. Since it isn’t anything like Jersey or New York, I may be bored out of my mind or have a blast.

Also, today I finished my presentation for the event and I will post it up on scribd.com once I return back form the meetup. I will also try to get it recorded if I can and post it on Youtube. It should be a good event… I was undecided on what topic to talk about, since I do not know the skill level of the attendees attending.

The one thing though is Oklahoma steaks better be good! Its a cow state isn’t it?

Are you attending? Register if you are in the Oklahoma area or want some insight in the affiliate industry. Plus I don’t think I have ever met an affiliate from Oklahoma.

On a side note lots of free stuff… food beer prizes … now who doesn’t like free?

Related posts:

1. End of the Year IANteract Meetup and ASW
2. Why You Should Have a Meetup
3. Will be Back in 2 Weeks

This meetup had a lot more people and more new people. The new people were also new and some were also making money with affiliate marketing. One person recently quit his job 3 months ago and just recently returned from Disney World! Congrats!

This meetup was very interesting as it was again an open forum type of meetup and it provided a lot of questions about what the average EPC should be for an offer, what to look for, keyword tools, etc. Here is a pic of the first wave of people that came:

Readers drove from Montclair to meetup and many others from around the way. This meetup was very big and I am considering on getting a library room or something. There was a lot of good information and a lot of exchange of business cards.

More people started to come later and it got more interesting, my buddy cousinvinnie came in and he basically took over. The IANteract literally split into 2 section: SEO/email and PPC – vinnie had one part of the group and I had the other.

I helped and gave advice on Rohail’s landing page. I also met him at Affiliate Summit West, which was great to see another Jersey dude going to one of these great events.

Another great milestone is one of the regular meetup started their first campaign, though he is doubting the niche, I gave some pointers on what he can do next and saying failure is just a testing phase. Providing that positive feedback definitely help boost him to keep going. We also discuss osme posts I wrote and even started to talk about the census which I wrote yesterday.

By the end of the meetup cousinvinnie took over by providing great information on some SEO stuff, called siloing:

I do not really know too much about SEO stuff but he provided really great stuff about create a hub of information and ranking within hours on Google – really good stuff. At the end pictures taken and I was hungry, so I left while others decided to do some late networking.

Another milestone of the group is a member actually does info marketing! I do info marketing with affiliate marketing. We discuss ways on creating a sales page and how fast to get a sales page up and running. We discussed all about the testimonials and optins – it was great to take a break from the affiliate marketing scenario and talk about info marketing.

The majority of the users were all affiliate marketers and definitely a great way to talk and find out how others are doing in our industry. Met a lot of great people and definitely will have to meet up again next month, if I am not too tired from my vacation this coming week.

But I definitely haveto find a bigger quiter place, we literally were too loud.

Related posts:

1. End of the Year IANteract Meetup and ASW
2. IANteract NJ Meetup: 2nd Edition
3. IANteract New Jersey Meetup202 Tomorrow!

I either case the group runs itself. I usually break the ice and then the group just starts to ramble with one another. I do not want the meetup to be a session just an open forum of ideas and discussion. Even noobs can contribute to conversations. There are a lot of experienced members and more so noobs, but everyone starts somewhere.

Speaking of networking and learning, Affiliate Summit is just a couple weeks away! I encourage everyone to attend that is into the affiliate marketing space. This is a meetup similar to IANteract but 1000x bigger and better. You get to talk to merchants, advertisers, affiliates, networks, CEOs, etc. There is just a boat load of information and networking opportunities at Affiliate Summit.

Win 2 Silver Passes to Affiliate Summit

There are blogs out there that are giving passes away for FREE as well! Andrew and Kris from CashTactics.net are providing 2 Affiliate Summit Silver Pass to you for free! Their rules is pretty simple you sign up under Direct Agents Network and leave a comment, you can find more detail by visiting their blog. I know both guys from CashTactics and I look forward to meeting up with them at Affiliate Summit West.

If you are strap on cash and really really really want to go to Affiliate Summit, I encourage you to participate in this little giveaway contest, I mean its a FREE pass to Affiliate Summit. You get to gain so much knowledge and interact with readers and even networks. Start hustlin and get those tickets!

Ian is Speaking Again!

If you have not already known I will be speaking at Affiliate Summit on the topic of Keyword Blasting. I have spoken about keyword blasting to my meetup groups and even on this blog. It is a topic most affiliates will not talk about because it can be very powerful. I also look forward to seeing some of my friends as well speak at Affiliate Summit.

Look forward to see you either at the IANteract Meetup or Affiliate Summit West 2009!

Related posts:

1. IANteract NJ Meetup: 2nd Edition
2. Why You Should Have a Meetup
3. New Jersey IANteract and my Facebook Group

It is great to have a group where you can just bounce ideas without anyone taking your ideas or even trying to just bank off your idea. We share a lot of our stats and even do group testing, where each person does a specific strategy to find a way to bank off a specific niche. It is basically testing in 3 different directions, beats testing all the ideas yourself.

But other than that specific group, I have a monthly meetup call IANteract. This specific meetup is a just a mixer of marketers from noobs to experts. Which is fine with me because there are people in the group that I can network with and it also help brand myself even more. I do not mind sharing some of my insights to marketing and how to make some dollars, I am there for the comfort to others and giving a helping hand out.

This is the reason why you should have a meetup. A meetup can be easily done by simply creating one at Meetup.com and creating your own little local group. Having such a local group is great because there is not need to travel to conferences or even try to find relative people to join your meetup. Meetup does all that for you. Specifically with the New Jersey IANteract Meetup – our setup is more of an open forum. Everyone can ask questions and gather information from others in different fields of marketing.

Here are some of the topics we discuss in the past meetup:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Search Marketing
• Getting Traffic to a New Site
• How to Promote
• Tools and Resources
• …etc

There is just a boat load of information that we discuss at the meetup and sometimes it will be a good discussion. It is great to have some people interact with one another and argue the basis of marketing. It is even good to hear other ideas and even leverage them and working with the specific person on it.

A localized meetup can be very beneficial to you and everyone. You earn a brand and you earn knowledge. I specifically want my monthly meetup to be more interactive and not to just listen. I encourage everyone to ask anything, even though the question maybe too noobish – everyone needs to start somewhere.

The next New Jersey Meetup is coming up next week on the 13th of December and if you would like to join and are in the NJ area register here: New Jersey IANteract

Besides just having a monthly talk about marketing, I gain some friends. Last meetup we had dinner at a local sports bar right after the meetup, courtesy of Erik Ahlgren. I want to create that relationship and not be just a person that makes some money. There is also a big reason why I personally like to have meetups, friends.

Prior, I wrote about how my current friends are just friends. When I want to hangout and chill – it is hard to chill with specific people or travel with specific people. The reason is because of their situation with income. I go out of my way sometimes to lend money to my friends so that I can have a good time, if they are just sitting at a bar – that kills my night. It is the reason I go to all these conferences, meetup with entrepreneurs and just BALL Out and ofcourse learn.

With the meetup I try to do something after and create that borderline friendship and relationship. But having a local meetup is very beneficial and definitely can impact what you can learn from someone else who has a different way of thinking.

Related posts:

1. New Jersey IANteract and my Facebook Group
2. IANteract NJ Meetup: 2nd Edition
3. Affiliate Summit Social Meetup: NY