I’ve invariably considered Examiner.com an “authority” site  – do you SEO experts agree?  Anyway, I was excited when Jen Goode, the Denver Work-at-Home Mom Examiner, offered to interview me, as my interview would include outbound links to my sites.

Read her interview article published here: Single mom success story, an interview with Kim Rowley

Then at Think Tank this year, I was asking Jen about Examiner.com, and she encouraged me to apply to be an Examiner myself. When I told her I didn’t have any more time to write new articles, she said I could use my existing blog posts as teasers and link them out to my websites.  So – thinking free inbound links, free traffic, plus they pay me to boot – I applied!

And now I am officially the Omaha Shoes Examiner! I’ve only uploaded six articles so far, and I have already made some money (they pay via PayPal).  If I find it to be real lucrative, I may apply for some other niches.

So, I encourage you to see what available topics are available in your area to apply for. If you don’t see any topics that fit your expertise, you can suggest a new topic as well. If you apply, be sure to say you were referred “by a current examiner” to speed up the application process.  I know either myself (Kim Rowley) or Jen (Jennifer Goode) would love the referral credit!  If you list me, I’ll buy you a drink at Affiliate Summit in Vegas next month. Or I can mail you a Starbucks gift card for a cappuccino if you won’t be in attendance.

Whatcha waiting for? Apply to be an Examiner now!

Eric Nagel did it.  Joe Sousa did it.  Did what you ask? Recap their Affiliate Summit East experience in New York City last week. So I thought I’d put together a post of my own of a few highlights as well.

Saturday

Didn’t get into NYC until evening, but when you stay up until 4 a.m. in the morning, you can still pack in a lot of fun!  First stop was the Buy.at party atop the Empire Hotel followed by pizza, pubs and private parties.

Ken O'Donovan, Jon Levine, Kim Rowley, Pat Grady, Adam Reimer at Quality Meats

Sunday

Luckily I got to sleep in for a bit to heal my self-induced headache. I bounced back in time to hit the first session: Getting Noticed FAST Session. The panelists (Lisa Picarille, Michael Buechele, Trisha Lyn Fawver, Jen Goode and Stephanie Lichtenstein) did a great job, even if they did use some embarrassing pictures of me in their slideshow.

The afternoon was spent carousing the Meet Market. I was happy to volunteer my time at the Affiliate Marketers Give Back booth to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

Kim Rowley & Melissa Salas - Photo courtesy of Warren Corpus

Next up was the Market Leverage Yacht Party which ran us late getting to the ShareASale “Under the Stars” Party.  Brian Littleton always plans the perfect parties! I actually hit the bed early at 1:30 a.m. knowing I needed some beauty sleep.

Monday

I enjoyed the keynote with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. I wish I would have brought along my copy of their new book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust to have it autographed.

My favorite session (as in most notes taken and I’m smitten by the guy) was with Wil Reynolds. He was kind enough to type up his presentation with links for us all: SEO Tools You Can Use Today.

There were so many parties scheduled Monday night that I couldn’t possibly hit them all. But I couldn’t miss MarketLeverage’s Pizza Party as pizza is my absolute favorite food!  I also made appearances at Linkshare’s Unofficial Affiliate Summit East After Party at Johnny Utah’s (I did not ride the mechanical bull this time), the Drop.io Party at the SoHo House, and the GTO Management Bowling Party.

Bowling & Beers with GTO Management! Photo courtesy of Karen Garcia.

Tuesday

I was anxious to see the keynote with Peter Shankman as I’ve always been a fan of his HARO – Help A Reporter Out newsletter.  He proved to be just as motivational live in person.

I skipped the afternoon sessions to take a subway to Canal Street in Chinatown. I considered this “work” as well since my main sites are shopping related!

I missed going to the Yankees game (thanks for the invite Jason Rubacky) in the new stadium as I had to fly out Tuesday night.

I got to meet a lot of internet celebrities that I had never personally met (ie Gary Vaynerchuck and Ted Murphy) that I plan to blog about individually in upcoming posts.  I also met several non-internet celebrities that you can read about here.

Thanks to Shawn Collins and Missy Ward for putting on yet another phenomenal Affiliate Summit! Can’t wait for #asw10 in Vegas!

Teresa Caldwell from 4urWorld originally headed up the Affiliate Summit Mentor Program that debuted at ASE08 in Boston. Teresa did a great job, and I made a new friend with my mentee, Cindy of Sweepstake Supplies - how cool that we both have sweepstakes sites!

Unfortunately, Teresa had to step down from coordinating the Mentor Program for ASW09 in Vegas to care for her mother. We missed you Teresa! Jen Goode (aka Penguin Lady and Buffet liner-upper) took over the program, and did a super fantastic job as well!

The mentee that I was originally paired with was only in Vegas for about 24 hours (wish we could have hung out longer, Mary), but after befriending @BajaLori on Twitter, I asked Jen if I could take on two mentees. Lori is a native of Las Vegas and heads up Las Vegas Net Daily. We had a lot of fun together!  She not only arranged a tour of Zappos for a dozen of us affiliate marketers, but chauffered some of us in her cool Hummer, and presented me with some awesome Chanel inspired earrings that I had been eyeing on her ears!  Thanks so much Lori!

Maybe next time, I’ll get paired with a young, good looking guy like Southbeach Annie did!