Ian Fernando » Networking

NDemand Affiliates Sponsors IANteract Dinner East 2011

Ian — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:32:18 +0000

Affiliate Summit approaching rapidly and once again it is time to setup the IANteract Dinner. If you have been to my private dinner, then you know it is all about business and networking. I started this private dinner during my attendance at my second Affiliate Summit in Boston. After Boston, it started to get attention and every Summit it is always a great turn around.

I started IANteract dinner to be a place where everyone can network. Sometimes loud music doesn’t really establish a strong relationship with affiliates and members of the industry. The dinner is taken place during the first night of Affiliate Summit and before all the parties. Food in stomach before alcohol is always a good idea.

This time my IANteract dinner is being sponsored by NDemand Affiliates. This network has grown rapidly over the years and I am glad to be Mike friend during those years. This network has been growing and they have been growing strong. Even getting great branding since they are also hosting the Puerto Rico Meetup!

This dinner will be no different from the past dinners – I chose a place to eat, we network, talk business, have a drink, and enjoy the great company. From my first IANteract Dinner to my most recent, each dinner is meant to create a strong and reassure existing relationships I have with friends in the industry.

Everyone makes money online differently and my goal is to learn how. I am always in a learning mode and that is my goal with this dinner, to learn and network. This year, the IANteract dinner will probably be near the Hilton for easy commute for affiliates and of course a great restaurant.

Here are the past IANteract dinners…

Crazy Movable Walls in Vegas – West 2011
Capital Grille in New York – East 2010
A Massive Dinner for the Masses – West 2010
Popping Bottles of Dom all Night – East 2009
Reserved the Whole Restaurant – West 2009
My First Baller IANteract Dinner – East 2008

I want to thank NDemand Affiliates for Sponsoring this years IANteract Dinner.

New Jersey IANteract and my Facebook Group

Ian — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:06:42 +0000

This is a well over do post but I have been trying to create a more social community. But with so many ideas in my head and just trying to keep up with my campaigns and testing new traffic sources and more stuff here and more stuff here, I lost track of time and even what I want to let you guys know about.

So to get a social community gathering going I decided to do 2 things. I want a physical New Jersey meetup, in where I can interact and share ideas with other like minded affiliates. This specific meetup is open to anyone, noob or expert. It is all about networking and learning something different. Even after the meetup we can grab a drink after.

I wanted to create a meetup similar to what Wes Mahler has been doing at Meetup202.com. I had this in my mind for a while even before meetup202 and even before my current meetup. I just didn’t have the drive to do it or even had the time. But the New Jersey IANteract is in collaboration with Meetup202 and will be a community of affiliates and entrepreneurs. I want to thank Wes for just pushing me to get shit ready.

About Meetup202

MeetUp202 is a place for affiliate marketers to meet with other like-minded marketers locally. Get together with super affiliates in your area, grow your personal network of contacts and share tips and tricks with fellow marketers. Each MeetUp202 event is different, headed by different organizers, they are generally causal networking events at placing that sell food and provide WiFi access.

My Current Meetup

I already have a mastermind group with 2 other people, we meet up about 1 a month in NY or via tele conference. This specific meetup consists of me, Ad Hustler, and Wayne Dog. Our group is very diverse, which is why I think our group of 3 is very powerful. This specific meetup is very intimate and we discuss and share stats, talk about offers we do, do 3 way split testing and share the results. I have learned a lot within out intimate group. Within our group, I trust my 2 mastermind friends and same with them. I think it is a reason why we kept it so small. Since our industry of affiliate marketing is a difficult industry to find trust.

IANteract New Jersey

This specific meetup will be a mix and be more of a networking and learning aspect. I look to see what other smaller affiliates are looking at and see what their issues are. I know I am not that big of an affiliate but I do know my basics – I should be adwords approved, just need the time. I also want to talk to affiliates on their ideas and how they attack offers and promotion. I know most of the discussion maybe about Adwords and PPC. I would like to have an interaction with others and just see what everyone else talks about.

Facebook Group: IANteract FB

Recently I also created a Facebook Group. The reason is because I was at Blog World and was really impressed with Shama’s session on Facebook. I created the Facebook group to get closer with my readers and which was the reason why I launch my forum IANteract.com but it seemed to be a little slow at this time. I also wanted to get a little more personal with people and see what their daily lives are all about. It isn’t just about marketing anymore it is about getting personal with everyone you meet.

With Facebook I can communicate with my readers taht friend me and if they join the group it is more of a secluded environment where we can just discuss topics. I hope to get more social with my readers and people that have the same mindset as I do. I just hope I have the time to keep up with all the other projects I am working on.

Join New Jersey IANteract | Join IANteract FB

IANteract.com Released for Interaction

Ian — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:50:23 +0000

So with all the domains I have I have decided to turn one of them into a forum. In the past I wanted to go ahead and interact with a lot of people and wanted a place to gather with people I know. IM can get very hectic and I get over whelmed sometimes. I decided I wanted to create a community in which I can interact with and others as well. There are a lot of forums out there and there are very popular ones as well, but most of them are not as intimate as I want my social network to be.

I was looking at a few things: forums, creating a myspace clone, using Ning or Flux. I ended up with a forum because I thought it would be the most beneficial. Everyone can interact with one another and just see what others need help with. Also, a forum can be public and certain threads can be closed, private, limit by post, etc. I think it was more beneficial for me and to all my readers.

I did want to create a social network similar to myspace but I didn’t really know how the interaction would work. I wanted things to be a little more open than going from profile to profile. In any case I posted this on my company website and now I decided to start working on it heavy, with all my other campaigns, product releases, projects, etc.

IANteract.com – why the name?

A lot of my domains consists with IAN some how. my first domain was theIANternet.com (kinda dead) and from then I wanted to make my network with my name in the domains. I have registered multiple domains with my name in it and have started working on them already. I mean my LLC consists of my name, IANternet Media.

Well the forum is open to everyone and anyone that wants to join, you can even see new forum posts on this blog. If you look to the right you will be able to see recent forum posts, this should make better interaction among readers and marketers.

Want to start interacting with like minds – Let’s IANteract!

The Power of Networking Outside of Clubs

Ian — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:53:31 +0000

Ad:Tech is done and I want to discuss about networking. Networking is very powerful where ever you go and even more powerful at conventions. There are a lot of like minded people surrounding you, which means it is easier to talk to those type of people and discuss openly about topics. Ad:Tech was awesome and I had a great experience. The down side is there were very little formal parties or gatherings. Affiliate networks housed their parties which were more private and more interaction while bigger networks or joined networks through the biggest loudest party on the block.

While the parties are entertaining I found the private dinners and smaller gatherings more indulging of information. It is more interactive and even more talkative. I an express myself more and talk about business at the same time. I think networks start these big parties to attract smaller time people. I mean I was sucked in to parties because I am a party guy. I love to go out and have a good time all the time.

There is a time where I want to learn more and even get to think about my future more, so the parties can be sometimes and not all the time. As more conventions come along I want to start to mingle and interact more outside of these strip bar – maybe, but the bigger club bangers. I want to sit dinner with a small group or people and see what their aspects of making money online are.

For example at ad:Tech I was invited to a private dinner hosted by Ms. Danielle. I met with several people I would probably never have met before or even have converse with them in the future. I spoke and joked with several new people and even learned a couple new things. One actually wanted to hire a super hacker to hack into his network to find its flaws right on the spot. It is amazing the small private gatherings will be more beneficial than loud parties.

This was also beneficial at Affiliate Summit West. Smaller dinners and private parties were far more helpful, even to just sit, eat, and listen. Even big conventions that have smaller meetings educate more than bigger conventions. Recently Elite Retreat was held in San Francisco and it was more of a private invite, first come first serve. Learners had to sign an NDA, you know it is all about serious business.

Having something more enclosed and more private proves to be more profitable than actually going to the bigger invites or more public invites. I can tell you there are more closure and more interaction going than just loud music and passing out cards. An atmosphere that is not so much crowded but able to talk to multitude of people who is more likely to get more information and exchange ideas.

As for me being a learner I want to expand my horizon more, so the next couple conventions that I go to and visit I will want to enjoy myself but also learn. I will still go to some parties but have a time with private dinners and invites to have a more intimate conversation. The next conventions I am geared towards creating a small group maybe do something via a forum style or email invites – not sure how I will be planning future events but I would like a more private discussion. I mean it is hard to talk to someone with the bass banging in your ear.

I know for affiliate summit east I will be organizing some aspects of private parties or dinners, just we all can have an advantage of networking. I have already brought the idea to Shawn Collins and Mark from 45n5.com to see if this would be feasible, both enjoy the idea and I know many others would.

Networking with Twitter

Ian — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:33:46 +0000

Recently i have been noticing a lot of bloggers getting involved with twitter. JohnChow has recently joined to interact with all his readers. But twitter is not a social tool to use and get in touch with so many a-listers. Twitter is a great networking tool! I personally find it very valuable since now I have found a great web designer and programmer.

I have been talking about twitter several times on my blog. Twitter has been very beneficial to me in several ways. The fact that I am able to speak with big time A-Listers is a big advantage. For example if I send an email to Darren Rowse, I may not get a direct email response from him right away. A-Listers are always busy and always swamped with email.

With Twitter I have a higher chance of communicating with Darren or anyone else. Twitter is similar to a chat client but seamlessly integrates with their network. What is far better than contacting A-Listers, contacting everyone at once! I love the fact that I can just ask one question and get numerous responses from other people that are following me. This proves to be a great networking tool for me and an asset since I can ramble about small things and get responses about ad networks, problems with CJ.com, etc.

There are also many posts coming up about Twitter and its advantages. A lot have to do with programs, websites, wordpress plugins etc. It seems recently Twitter has found its benefits among social people and bloggers. Bloggers can easily just ramble and say “I am about to go down a high roller coaster” off their IM client and others will jump in stating other aspects or more creatively someone might leave a comment yea I am on that ride too! The networking possibilities is endless!

Advantages of Twitter:

Networking Possibilities
Advantages to Chat with A Listers
Helpful Responses from other Twitter Users
Easy Twitter API – JoeTech has generated TwitterTech
Let everyone know that you just ‘farted’ and see who ‘farted’ with you

Twitter Tools I Use:

Twhirl – Desktop App
Twitter Tools – WordPress Plugin which publishes your tweets on your blog and auto tweet your new posts on the twitter network.
Twitter Scan – Online search on the twitter network – see who is talking about you or a specific topic
Twitter Atlas – See who is twittering all around the world
Twitter on Facebook – Twitter updates your Facebook status everytime you twit
TweetStats – Great little Analytics to see a visual view of your activities and spy on others – check mine out

I find no disadvantages with Twitter with the exception maybe it can be a time waster. I notice myself watching the alerts from my twitter desktop app, Twhirl. It does take a way from the time when I am doing keyword researching and landing page designs. I seem to want to know what others are doing, its just human – we like drama.

Video of what I basically just said above:

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

Trying to Network Before Affiliate Summit West 08

Ian — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:10:28 +0000

I am trying to network with some people before Affiliate Summit West 2008! I have been visiting the networking section of Affiliate Summit West website, trying to talk to a couple people before the summit begins. The only problem I have is there is really no interaction. I send notes, no response – I think I must have put up an ugly picture of myself.

Well again I will be there a day early, I may be attending a Saturday dinner and might bump into Paul from Uber Affiliate and Andrew Wee. This is good I get to talk to great affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs. I also asked about the pricing of the dinner, 85$ DAMN – for an affiliate marketer that is really nothing I guess. I will be there early Saturday and I already have some plans with some past friends I have not see in like 10 years!

So anyways, back to trying to network. So I log in and I see no one with pictures. I try to leave messages with no replies, I am not sure if the community is alive or no one really pays attention to that part of affiliate summit website. But I want to go ahead and meet up with people a day early or a day later, since I will be going on my own. …sighs…

Another reason I want to network is because I want to go party – Las Vegas style. The only party I have heard of is the Under the Stars Party hosted by ShareASale. ShareASale will be hosting a cocktail party Sunday night February 24th in Las Vegas, in celebration of the Affiliate Summit. The party will be held in the 2-story Sky Villas on the top floors of the Palms Hotel “Fantasy Tower” and will include food, drink, prizes, maybe a piano, and definitely a pool.

I know John Chow will be there and I will be there to shake his hand and take food pictures with him and my Nikon! John said this was a private invite and indeed it was, I was just recently invited and I will be there to celebrate under the stars! I saw some of the invites on who are going and I can not wait to meet them all and push Mr. Chow in the pool! …shhh… Maybe I will get a real interview with Mr. John Chow himself!

Also I have decided to cancel my business cards that i have printed out and I will be making a website on my “brand” and have a better logo and business cards to hand out. I want to look more prepared than I am, but being more prepared can be a bad thing as well.

In preparation I also will be meeting with someone who is designing my shirts that I will hand out! I mean Zac Johnson will be there, the super affiliate!

This is how my shirt will look like, what do you think? I hope to have it digital stitched and not screen printed. I think I will only make about 24 shirts. I already know who I want to give some to and of course Mark from the blog war room. He has done a great job keeping up with the news and status of Affiliate Summit West thus far.

I am really eager and can not wait to go. I am prepping up and trying to network very early so I can meet and spend time maybe to talk about ideas and marketing and entrepreneurship. Again I am a learner and I like to listen to a lot of ideas and take in ideas. So if anyone will be there a day early let me know, I will be glad to meet you there!

Here is a small video of what I am trying to do and network prior to Affiliate Summit West!

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are you doing for affiliate summit west? What makes you different from everyone else? What are your plans when you get there? Are you curious to meet other people?