Affiliate Summit provides updated educational sessions and networking for professionals in the affiliate marketing business. When I entered Summit’s signature networking session — the Meet Market – my jaw hit the floor. Can you say, “baptism by fire”? Wow! Affiliates walk from table to table in a fury to strike deals with individual merchants and networks. It looked and sounded like the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. In many cases, you had to almost scream to be heard! The interaction between merchants to find affiliates willing to market their products was a feeding frenzy. The Meet Market was an impressive introduction to the aggressive nature of the business, as well as the thriving heartbeat of affiliate marketing.

Educational sessions were packed with topics such as incorporating more video into affiliate sites, how social marketing is impacting the industry, and what the increase in mobile ecommerce means to the business. A majority of the topics were a bit recycled from “how-to” lists posted daily on industry blogs, but I guess you can never be reminded enough about the fundamental building blocks of SEO, analytic tracking, and quality networking.

Many thanks to Carolyn Tang from ShareASale for volunteering to serve as my mentor. It was obvious from the swarm of people surrounding her that she is a respected expert, well networked and attuned to the industry. Hats off to Affiliate Summit for having the foresight to incorporate a mentorship program into the event planning and choosing Texas-based affiliate Teresa Caldwell – the friendliest affiliate in the business — to marry mentors with “newbies.”

I look forward to introducing 2Checkout’s affiliated brands to the industry and carving a unique niche of our own. Based upon the hot verticals promoted at Summit, I am confident a number of 2Checkout merchant products will raise eyebrows and pique the interest of affiliates. See you in Vegas at Affiliate Summit West!

The terms outlined in our Supplier Agreement and Operating Regulations are geared towards the standard purchase of goods and services, and are not readily serviceable for conferences, events and seminars. It is a requirement of the card association that goods/services be rendered at the time when the credit card is actually charged for a sale. In the case of a seminar/conference/event, the product is not supplied until well after the time in which the credit card is charged.

The Risk Management department of 2CO is prepared to allow for your conferences/seminars/events to be accepted per the “Restricted Product” guidelines of our Allowed Products list, based on the following conditions:

1. 2CO will hold-back 25% of each sale in a “reserve fund” pending verified completion of the event. The 25% hold-back will be released in 2 installments. The first installment will be released no earlier than 1 week following the event. This is required to allow the 2CO verification department ample time to verify that the event took place, and that there are no initial customer complaints. At this point 80% of the hold-back (approximately 20% of your total sales) will be released to you. The remaining funds will be released on the pay period 90 days after the completion of the verification process.For example:
   If your event is scheduled to take place on January 1st, the hold-back payout would be as follows:
   • approximately January 10th — 20% of total sales
   • approximately April 10th — remaining 5% of total sales (less refundsand chargebacks)

   Please note: Verification will NOT take place until after you inform 2CO that the event has taken place.*

2. Purchasers/attendees must be provided with some tangible evidence of purchase, such as a ticket, a certificate of registration, etc., at the point when the sale is made.
3. 2CO will require a guarantee that will protect us from the possibility of the event not taking place, or other circumstances that may result in large numbers of cancellations or refunds of funds that we would have paid out to you before the conference/event takes place. This should be a written statement, signed by the account holder, specifically stating 2Checkout bears no responsibility for reimbursement of ticket costs for which the vendor has already been paid in the case of canceled events.
4. 2CO will also require a completed copy of the Risk Form, a record of your business history, as well as documentation of a previous event (you may submit a newspaper posting, copy of a brochure, etc.) faxed to 614-921-2451 ATTN: Risk.

If you agree to these conditions, please respond with the requested paperwork and completed Risk Form.