After a hugely successful first outing of the UK-focussed Affiliate Marketing conference last year, Matt and the team from Existem faced the “difficult second album” that is a4uexpo 2008 – How could they possibly hope to match the success of last year, keeping new attendees happy with the basics whilst not just re-hashing the same topics that were covered last year? Well, the agendas just been released, and I’m afraid they’re not going to.

The reason? Well, I reckon this year’s agenda is even better than last years. Of course there will be some of the more basic areas covered again, but old farts hands such as myself can find more than enough in the agendas to excite us. In fact, a quick skim through the agendas for the 2 day conference reveals quite a few topics that I’m really looking forward to: Whereas last year I highlighted seven sessions over the two days that I was looking forward to, this year, I’ve selected 7 per day, and there’s still a few more to be announced!

Here’s the sessions that really appealed to me (as a content affiliate that does a little PPC, hence it’s a little heavy on SEO and affiliate focussed)..

Day One (Tuesday 14th October)
Wordpress SEO – Joost De Valk talks you through how to optimise your Wordpress Blog. As I’ve got a number of these now, this should be a great session. I loved Joost’s sessions last year, and use one of his plugins on a couple of our blogs, so this is one not to miss.

Internet Marketing Howlers – Think Affiliate Marketing meets It’ll be Alright on the Night, only hosted by Dixon Jones rather than Dennis Norden. A good light hearted session that will have more than a few people thinking “i’ve done that!”, and of course hopefully avoiding making the same mistakes yourself!

SEO101 – This looks like a basic SEO session for the newbies, but should give a good grounding.

Developing Profitable Websites with Mash-ups and APIs – This really got the juices flowing, as it’s an area we’re loking to work in more and more, integrating merchant’s technology within our own affiliate tools. The only problem being, it clashes with…

Extreme SEO – THE session of 2007, last year it was entertaining and informative, and I’m sure this year will be no different, with a great mix of the black hat and white hat experts, hopefully striking a balance for everyone.

Landing Page Optimisation – I missed this topic last year, but everyone who attended came out totally raving about it, so it’s on my “must not miss” list this year!

Linking Strategies – The details of this session are yet to be released, but we all know that more links, and more efficient linking can really reap the rewards, so I’m looking forward to this session.

Day Two – (Wednesday October 15th)
Video in Affiliate Marketing – Thanks to youtube, it’s now easier than ever to include video demonstrations of products etc into your affiliate websites, and now the whole country is on broadband, video should become more commonplace within websites, so bring your site into this century with this session.

PR Strategies for Affiliates – the fantastic Imal Wagner is back again. Whilst her session last year was very enjoyable, it was a little light on “how-to”, so I’m hoping this session will contain a few more practical ideas and tips. I also look forward to Imal critiquing everyone’s business cards for innovation again!

SEO/PPC/Competitor Analysis Tools – Anyone who’s ever had a Hitwise trial knows a) How amazing these tools are, and how useful they can be to growing your business, and b) How much Hitwise try and charge for their service. Which is why this session will be very welcome, as it promises to uncover a host of free tools that enable you to give your site the edge.

I have to question however how wise it was making a Data Analysis session first thing in the morning on Day Two – There were more than a few sore heads on the second morning last year (as well as quite a few absentees.. Mr Wheatley..), so a session heavy on data might struggle to draw the crowd it deserves. Why not swap the Internet Marketing Howlers from Day 1 for this slot?

PPC Strategies – A must-attend for anyone planning a PPC assault in the coming year.

How to increase conversions – Affiliate Marketing meets Psychology. I went to a similar session last year, and found it very interesting (although I didn’t take many notes as a lot of it went over my head and I was under the impression that all the sessions were being recorded to be watched on DVD later, so planned to watch it again with a better idea). Hopefully this year, I’ll have a better idea about the core psychology behind the methods.

The Graham and Zak show – Or “How to manage a successful Affiliate Program: Strategies from Award Winning Affiliate Managers” to give this session its full title. Graham Keen from Buyagift and Zak Edwards from Prezzybox are two legends when it comes to Affiliate Marketing, and every Affiliate Manager should attend this session and do three things: 1. Listen. 2. Learn. 3. Emulate.

Affiliate Doctors Live – This could be a fantastic session, or it could be the dullest hour of the expo. That all depends on the audience, as leading figures in the Industry give out advice on SEO, design, conversions and more to any member of the audience live. If I were one of the doctors, I’d have a few “stooges” in the crowd ask the first few questions to get things going.. Just like Trisha used to do lol..

That’s looking like some brilliant sessions – I know I’m going to miss a few of them as they clash, so hopefully this year the sessions actually will make it onto a DVD or online so we can re-visit those we need to, and see those we missed. There’s now less than two months to go, and I’m really starting to get excited about what should be a great affiliate marketing conference. What sessions are YOU looking forward to?

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