BIZ - Someone should offer some different classes at shows instead of - BIZ
 

some of the things they have seminars on. Sometimes it seems like the have some of this stuff just to have it. I personally don't give a fuck about 99% of all these seminars that tradeshows have.

Someone's opinion on the things they have these seminars on, just doesn't interest me. No offense to people on panels, but I'd actually go to them if I was learning something that I use in my daily life.

Somethings like MPA, NATS, CMS's, Submission Softwares, Blogging Software, Yackity Yack, whatever these things are that we sell to each other and use to make money. We of course have working knowledge to make them work, but by far I'm pretty sure that alot of people don't know the detailed tricks and shortcuts to maximize your abilities. There's too much ball polishing about using softwares for traffic generation and not enough on how to use the softwares.

MPA CLASS ALL DAY LONG - INTENSIVE DEEP CORE STUFF. Stuff I bet half the people with the software don't know or use.

I say this because with stuff like MPA and NATS its like your main engine and a critical part of your program. If you have someone teach you how to drive it properly then you can fully take advantage of the capabilities of the program. I look at it like a NASCAR, I mean at least NATS and MPA. If you know what the car is capable of you know how it handles and the exact things that you can do with it. It also gives you the edge to create new affiliate tools with the software because you know its capabilities.

I want the people that build this stuff to offer something like this at shows, thats worth the price of admission to shows in itself. Same thing goes for NATS, or any other software that you people offer to each other to install on your sites and manage a program with. Whatever plugins, software, CMS, what not, Submission software, yadda yadda. Have classes on this stuff as part of the show.

Lets see something like this kinda thing at the shows.

:2 cents: :2 cents: :2 cents:

i totally agree with you

Yes let's to that and fill our shows with bunch of young wannabee porn millionnaires. To many shows to accessible made what our industry is.

I'd say charge more to attend a show so we have quality instead of quantity.

God I love mainstream ;-)

better idea. you have to be part of the existing infrastructure.

i don't really see anything stoppin n00bs now btw. charging more to attend the shows or even charging something for those classes would cut that shit down drastically. the smart ones already know that this biz isnt the goldmine it was.

i don't think that just anyone should be allowed to attend these shows. we need to lock this shit down, but no one will do that because the shows want the registration money and the turnout to look good.

we should issue cards to people that have the programs that i am talking about. say MPA would give their customers a card or you have to use it to take the class.

there are ways.

the shows letting jsut anyone in is what got us where we are today. saturation.

I have to say the "Hardcore vs Softcore" panel in Miami was the best seminar I'd ever been to, it's too bad it was limited to 1 hour :(

I disagree, the "young wannabe porn millionaires" are the ones learning how to make money from home... Barely any affiliates go to shows, the majority of the attendance are program owners and affiliate reps :2 cents:

politics 101

board is slow today.

good points:thumbsup

Mr. Romance

someone icq'd me and told me that i was gonna piss off the "big time" people.

lol.

this is my opinion, and a suggestion, nothing more.

:thumbsup

I don't think they always have the best seminars ... for instance, the back to basics. Currently, we don't need to go back to basics. We have all seen the latest trends in the industry and it's time to make new "basics." RSS feeds, blogs, VOD, etc. We all know by now the game that we are playing, so maybe it should be different levels of seminars. One day is noob seminars, the next day is paysite seminars, the next day is content seminars, etc.

bingo!

they should try to bring in more webmasters

What I dislike about the classes is that they always ussually follow the same formats.

Legal something to confuse, scare, and or clarify everyone of the same laws as before. Always comes across like an infomercial to me from the lawyers present.

Traffic courses. Same ol shit different day. Often with no new info and same speakers you heard before.

Newbie intro. Blah blah, you can do it, but dont quit your day job.

State of the industry. Yackity yack, please promote the following people.

It all gay. Listen to us damit, we are a niche get used to us or we will become even more flamboyant at the shows.

Its the new pet rock. Cell porn, blogs, rss, outsourcing, whatever has been a popular thing the year prior.

basically my point. :thumbsup

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh very nice

Great post, would love to attend such a course on Nats and cms's like Mas and Sitedepth as well.

classes would be a cool I dea I think.
something new to offer etc..
No one said to totally get rid of the seminars for people on that. Just an extra option for people to chose from.

great post airek!

It's kind of surprising that this isn't being done anyway, even if it's not an official part of the show.
How many people would sign up and go to a advanced nats (or into to nats, or both) class at show if TMM put one on? If you are a company that has a product or service this might be a really effective way to market yourself, rather then the same old dinners and parties. Not that I have anything against dinners and parties. :) But give an in depth training session in your product. Give a guide to promoting your product etc. That will close some deals.

NATs had a beautiful setup in Vegas ,too bad there were TumbleWeeds going across the show floor. They had a full inclosed learning center, answering any question you had. Plus a giant plasma to give visuall help

i wouldnt do it at internext. i'd like to see it somewhere that isn't so highly energetic and more business focused.

i would do it at phoenix forum or webmaster access l.a.

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

I'd like to see classroom style with a test and everything.

Give people blackbelts. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

thats a very good idea

someone should finally start seminars that AREN'T targetted to newbies but to
skilled webmasters who actually make money. 95% of all seminars are targeted
to help the new guy get a signup or 2. Don't get me wrong I have nothing
against newbies....but the people who actually make money and have real
business for them there's nothing. Good seminars for them will have a much
bigger results than just teaching newbies how to setup freesites and TGP's

a few newbee seminars are fine....but a few is also enough. :2 cents:

I agree with you. Some in depth seminars on these programs would be very helpful. Something else that might also be helpful would be a seminar on the ins-and-outs of 3rd party billing companies and merchant accounts. Seems like every other week there's some kind of processing question/complaint on the boards that might get cleared up in a thorough billing seminar. :2 cents:

i think the main problem with any tradeshow seminars in any industry is the people that are on the panels are direct competitors with those sitting in the audience.

if you were on a panel would you give up the really juicy ways and ideas that you have as a panelist to your competition? i sure as fuck wouldn't be giving up the hardcore, juicy, collect some bank information to my competitiors.

thats one reason i want more educational stuff at shows and less dog and pony seminars. like i said, no offense to people who sit on panels, but you are competition, and as much as everyone likes to think that everyone is friends, we all know the truth, you work with who makes you money. thats just the reality.

i will form my own opinions on what the state of the industry is, give me a day long, intensive MPA class or even CCBILL, Paycom core education anyday. i bet that lots of people using paycom and ccbill are not fully utilizing the capabilities and features of the two. i know i wasn't for a long time.

I honestly learn more eavesdropping on conversations in the bar between two drunkish webmasters with badge names I recognize than any panels I have attended. (sorry guys, I know it is rude and all but fuck it, this is business and well its good stuff)

By the way classes are also needing free pie and punch. That will definitely fill those chairs.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

don't eavesdrop on me, nothin i say is worth listening to when i'm drunk, unless you wanna know which waitress i think is easy or who has free liquor in their rooms.

:1orglaugh

That is why I said drunkish and not drunk. There is a point between tipsy and plastered that the lips get loose and what is said is still understandable.

Oh and one must not drink thyself while doing this or next thing you know you will wake up and invest madly in bunny's with pancakes on its head domains.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh


trueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

bump for valid ideas

Say it Airek! Say it!

good post, interesting points. I would love to see some off the wall things...but i guess that doesnt apply to the 70% newbie population at shows.

Hey A1r3k are you headed to the YP my man?

--P

what is amazing even more is that I said this exact same thing last week in the AVN thread, and the thread died

lol....i love you buddy...
But posting here on GFY is like me telling my black lab Suzy these ideas....lol

You know the people who to stick and pass along these great well thought ideas too...i am sure they would listen...good stuff...keep the passion!

:thumbsup

i am my friend. i will be there for the weekend. :)

FUCKIN AYY!!! Finally a GREAT suggestion on GFY. I'd love to see this.

You're absolutely right. The scare you into using my law firm and buy my traffic seminars are getting old. IMO the newbie type seminars are great for those just being exposed to the industry for the first time. (YNotBob hosted a great one at the Qwebec show). However, the industry also needs seminars for those who aren't new to the industry.

We have done NATS seminars the past two years at the Jan Internext shows and least year we even setup a classroom style booth on the show floor, but with the lack of a crowd it didn't create as much buzz as we had hoped. Feedback from those who did attend however was that they did walk away with a lot of good information.

I'd like to expand the concept at other upcoming shows. We'll be talking with the organizers of '07s shows and see what we can do. We'd like to run both NATS and CARMA seminars. Both basic and advanced. Hopefully we will be able to accomplish it how we hope to.

Honestly do you see people ever getting up and doing anything but promoting themselves or their company?

Get real.

NATS, MPA and anyone else with something to sell should be doing it anyway.

Bumo for this good thread.

This is a great post - I am on the traffic panel at the next Phoenix forum in October and I will keep this all in mind. There are some very valid points mentioned here that I wholly agree with. You have to remember that the more detailed you get about any topic, the less people will be listening. I too reached a point in my career where I felt that I outgrew the basics class. That is why people with the level of experience that (we) have, have to look elsewhere for "higher" education. Internext seminars are the grade schools of the industry because they target mass consumers. The Phoenix Forums are more like high schools targeting informed but not industry experts. The next level of education is message boards like this one. You can get personal one to one information about something very specific to you. The forums are much more general themes appealing to more than three people. I have no interest in NATS or CMS. There is no arena for advanced industry professionals to collaborate other than places like here. This is a free exchange of ideas with others that have attained a level of experience similar or more advanced than our own. Everyone one of us were noobs at one point and time. If someone started a CMS class at internext how much would you learn in an hour or two. This is the best resource available. There is a high probability that someone is using and recommends a product that you require more information about. So you can learn from their experience. Lastly, sometimes you just got to blaze your own trails. Why don't magicians tell their secrets because they will be out of business if everyone knew how the tricks were done.

A1R3K - I wholeheartedly agree with you on this one.
The seminars are a marketing tool - not much info is given.

Walk people through the tools they need - teach them shortcuts to become more productive and you got yourself an industry where the skillset will grow because of the time they & money they save. You sell more products - people talk about you more - you continue to sell your software. They'll have more time to think up new ways to make money.

I personally think it shouldn't be limited to backend software either.

Everyone with knowledge or software that is vital to the industry can make money in some shape or form in their downline if they know their 'baby' and there's a 'go-getter' crowd.

seminar is a horrible word. CLASSES are the way to go :thumbsup

:)

agreed :thumbsup

i agree with alot of what you are saying here. i'm asking for some classes for existing customers. it seems distance is the main detractor when it comes to getting a sitdown. i currently have MPA and MAS and both are drastically new to me. even though i have been in the biz since 99 and dealt with mostly proproetary affil backends and CMS, i now am faced with a brand new system and no time to teach myself. will i learn it? or course, but having an intensive class given by the people who created it and got you as a customer, is ideal and kills that learning curve by a great degree of time. i have a class thanks to worldwide content on tuesday next week. they know it really well and i am fortunate to be in l.a., and impatient enough to look around and ask questions. mansion has been a great help and it was oystein that even gave me raffi's name as someone who has their backend in l.a. and really knows it inside and out. this is not a demand by any means, it is merely a suggestion that i think those of us that have been going to shows forever would consider one hell of a motivator to attend shows.

good points you made as well. the classes shouldnt be offered to newbies. what does it really take to rent out a room at one of these hotels for 3-4 hours and allow "customers" or verified potential buyers into the classes. i bet you'd pull more potential customers out of one of those classes than you would sponsoring an entire party and buying free drinks for people. :winkwink:

hey Airek,

check out this topic/class/seminar list

- Blogs & RSS
- Data feeds
- Activating and Retaining Affiliates
- Lead Generation
- E-mail
- Business Basics
- Web 2.0
- Fighting Fraud
- How to Be an Affiliate Manager
- How to Be an Affiliate
- Incentives for Affiliates
- PPC and SEO
- Badware
- How to Recruit Super Affiliates
- Segmentation of Affiliates
- Incentive / Loyalty Sites
- Growing a Mature Affiliate Program
- Tools for Affiliates/Affiliate Managers
- B2B Affiliate Marketing
- Landing Pages
- Becoming a Super Affiliate

that is for Affiliate Summit in Vegas, like 2 weeks after Internext

tell me something like THAT for adult wouldn't be worth at least $1k to attend

people should listen and issue cards to get into these things. like it or leave it alot of us are not leaving this biz and the current cmpetition should embrace those that are staying as they will be their next b2b's if they don't they will lose out. i'm personally tired of dog and pony shows. and sometimes is so blatantly a slap in the face to someone thats intelligent that it can't even be considered a donkey show. :(

Why not someone do an online course makes videos online / stream that shit online, and charge like 5 bucks per seminar per person... slap a members area together and bam... simpler!