First, we experienced the earthquake that rattled the East Coast, and then, the looming force of Hurricane Irene that blew in just as we departed! Poor Erik in our New York office was left to fend for himself, but we did put up some shiny new signage before we abandoned him, so he was happy as Larry.

Our Account Director Mark Macdonald represented at the always awesome Affiliate Summit, while the rest of us got the party started at the Houndstooth Pub on Monday night, welcoming friends, publishers and merchants with a glass of Pimms and a mini English Jacket.

Thanks to everyone that made it along, it was great to see everybody, especially during such an interesting week in the history of New York City!

Check out the photos from the event on our Facebook page (and don’t forget to ‘like’ us!).

With a 5am wake up on Saturday morning, Tom J, Mark, Hannah, Jenny and Tom A arrived at the challenge base in darkness, rearing to go.

Aside from a moment of intimidation thanks to Team ESPN’s sweet matching jumpsuits, the crew felt confident heading into the first leg.

The mountain trail included a number of checkpoints with challenges to be completed by the team, and they arrived back at base in just over three hours.

With a quick break to refuel under their belts, the team mounted their mighty mountain bikes, and began the second section, a 12km demanding on and off-road course.

At it’s end, they faced a 30-minute canoe relay, before getting back on their bikes once more for another circuit of the course.

Finishing in a total time of six hours, twenty minutes, Skimlinks placed 5th out of 13 teams.

Winners SeeSaw had an impressive run with five hours, ten minutes.

The crew had a brilliant time, with the event organised to perfection – there are already mentions of next year’s challenge!

But remember, it’s all for an amazing cause; with the money we raised going to CARE International. We’re still open for donations, so if you didn’t get in before the event, no worries; you can pitch in here now!

Also, do take a look at CARE’s awesome new initiative; LendWithCare.org – an opportunity to help entrepreneurs in need raise funds to start their business. It’s a very cool way to give back, so make sure you check it out.

And yes, that is a balloon behind Tom’s head.

On September 4th, we’ll be taking part in a ten hour multisport event to help CARE International, including hiking, biking and canoeing the distance of a marathon in Somerset’s Exmoor National Park, with all money raised from the event going to CARE – as they attempt to raise over £10 million for Pakistan.

CARE has already rushed water purification tablets, tents, family hygiene kits, kitchen sets, tarpaulins and mosquito nets to thousands of survivors, but there’s so much more to do as the disaster continues to unfold.

You can read about CARE International’s efforts on their website here, or visit our fundraising page to help us raise £1,500 for the cause.

We’d love to do everything we can to help CARE, and hope you’ll give generously.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward finished up with Affiliate Summit East, and they did it on a high; with more than 3,500 attendees in New York City – their biggest turnout ever.

Our co-founder Joe Stepniewski was lucky enough to get a slot to present his session on innovation in affiliate marketing, with loads of awesome content.

There was  lot of buzz around Joe’s session before the Summit, on Revenews, the eBay Partner Network Blog, Affiliate Advocacy, and he was even interviewed for GeekCast.fm ahead of the conference!

The presentation was well attended and received, with Udi of Industry Review saying he thought Joe’s presentation was one of the best at the the conference!

Just in case you missed the session, or want to see it again, we’ve pestered Joe to give up his slides, and they’re available now on SlideShare. Check them out!

We play ping pong in our lunch breaks, Fleetwood Mac every Friday at 5pm, and our office is decorated with a deflated dinosaur, a stuffed lion and a dusty bag of salted licorice.

We also sign up for marathon charity events.

Come September 4th, five Skimlinkers will take part in CARE New Media Adventure Challenge. The challenge, aimed at teams from across the new media industry, will raise money for leading international aid and development agency CARE International. CARE helps 59 million people a year, in 70 countries, find routes out of poverty.

The team; Mark Macdonald and Tom Allin from the account management crew, Tom Joy from the developers corner,  Hannah Keys of marketing, and Jenny Williams from the sales squad, will be faced with the ambitious challenge of hiking, biking and canoeing the distance of a marathon in ten hours. The challenge will take place in Somerset’s beautiful Exmoor National Park.

Says Skimlinks’ Team Leader Jenny Williams, “We’re doing what now?”

CARE hopes to raise a staggering £40,000 through the CARE New Media Challenge and Team Skimlinks aim to raise at least £1,500.

To encourage donations to the worthy CARE cause, the Skimlinks crew are offering up a spot on their shirts for your company logo, motto, or perhaps even a big picture of your face.

Every £20 increment you donate will give you one entry into the draw to win the prized space on the back of the Skimlinks t-shirts, to go along for the ride with the team, have your logo in all our photos, and right in front of all of the other teams when we beat them. *cough*

Anyone who wants to support Skimlinks can visit www.justgiving.com/skimlinks/

About CARE International

CARE International is a leading aid organisation fighting global poverty and delivering emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters. In over 70 countries around the world, CARE works with communities to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, improve maternal and child health, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources.

Places are still available on CARE Challenge events this summer- for further info visit www.carechallenge.org.uk.

My first thought when I entered was “Woah! This is much much bigger than I’d anticipated!”  The crowd was surprisingly attentive and interactive, and the quality of the speeches was incredible too – they weren’t sales pitches at all, but rather really useful content from very smart experienced people. Just the way I like it.

After the morning and early afternoon flew by, it was time for my 15-minute presentation on the ‘The Trials of the US Funding Trail by European start-ups,’ or as I preferred to call it, “Why did the chicken cross the Atlantic?”

I really wanted to explore and share the philosophical and anecdotal reasons why European startups seek big-name U.S. VCs, and to see the degree to which the answer was just “To get to the other side” or whether there was more substance to the desire.  Our recent experiences taught us so much about the real value of U.S. investment, and the reasons one should seek it, which are different from the reasons we started thinking about. It was exciting to be able to share these learnings with the great crowd at GeeknRolla.

One of the highlights of the event was the highly amusing talk by Morten Lund (he was one of the founders of Skype).  He gave a very energetic and audacious talk that had the whole room in stitches with some language that wouldn’t fly in many offices, and very entertaining clips from “Californication” and “Entourage.”  Within the hysterics, he also reminded everyone of the need to focus, to do what they do best, and to appreciate that luck plays a major part in any successful business.

I also thought Andrew Scott from Rummble.com did a fantastic well-delivered talk about the top 15 do’s and don’ts in running a startup. He is a very good friend of Skimlinks so I am a bit biased, but even so, it was a well-received talk.

You can check out the presentations of me, Morten, and Andrew at TechCrunch (it’s the last video).

I was really glad to be able to meet with my good friend James Bromley, Managing Director for the Mail Online, as well.  He is easily one of the smartest people working in online content.

Overall, GeeknRolla was great as the attendants were from all ends of the spectrum: from VCs to Angels to experienced entrepreneurs to people thinking about starting a startup. I loved the diversity and energy.

What did you think of GeeknRolla?

Alicia is Skimlinks’ CEO and Co-Founder and you can find her on Twitter: @alicianavarro

We’re excited to meet new and existing merchants and publishers, and these events are always a great opportunity to hear and express new ideas, partake in stimulating conversations about the industry, and listen to some insightful experts.

The industry is changing by the minute, and events like these are a fantastic way to help bring an understanding and incite some inspiration.

If you’re planning on attending don’t forget to swing by the Skimlinks DealMaker table for some goodies.

1. Much of the action isn’t in the actual conference, but in the serendipitous encounters in bars, the streets, and the lounges of the conference hall. It pays to say ‘Hi’ to everyone, you never know the person that could turn into an interesting lead or business contact. For instance, I met the lovely Eliane Fiolet from UberGizmo who came to watch my panel and got to attend The Flaming Lips concert with the very fun Josh Guttman from Surphace. Among many others, Evan Cohen from foursquare, SEO Whiz Tony Adam, and mediagazer’s Megan McCarthy were also a joy to meet.

2. SXSW is incredibly overwhelming as an event. I was warned, I knew it would be, but nothing prepares you for its enormity, breadth, richness…. for someone like me that likes to be in control and experience everything, it can be very distressing to attend, until you give up both these expectations, and just go into a zen-like mode of absorbing and accepting what happens to you at SXSW. The Spotify keynote would have been great to attend, although as one of my British friends said, “the one thing I took out of that talk is how little people in the US know about Spotify.”

3. Americans are much lovelier and more fun than they are perceived in Europe. I’m so grateful for the hospitality, humour, and inspiration given to me by fellow entrepreneurs in America. Sarah Prevette from Sprouter.com and Dan Martell from Flowtown.com were particularly welcoming and helpful, although they are Canadian so this doesn’t necessarily prove my point! Also thanks to the ever gregarious Lewis Howes who seems to know everyone. I am glad to have had this eye-opening experience, and look forward to more encounters with the American family!

Alicia is Skimlinks’ CEO and Co-Founder and you can find her on Twitter: @alicianavarro

The Social Media World Forum seemed like an interesting proposition: ”Shaping the future of Social Media’. I was expecting a challenging, dynamic event filled with top SocMed minds, that would provide a sandbox for new ideas.

I was wrong, and it didn’t take long to realise why.

The first person I spoke to on my arrival at the event explained that they used Twitter only to automatically tweet their latest blog posts, and had never actually interacted with anyone through the service. There was a massive gap between our thoughts, ideas and uses of Social Media, and yet, we were both expecting to get something out of the same event.

They went off to take a flurry of notes, picking up brochures left and right, while I was left feeling a little cold. Sure, I met some great people, but the sessions fell flat, especially with the painfully obvious fact that the speakers paid for their slots.  The hard sell was no stranger; in reality, it overshadowed any value present in the sessions. But of course, I could be a little cynical.

While I felt this conference was probably most relevant to SocMed newbies, it most valuable to the ‘Social Media Experts’ that were selling to them, and I also get the feeling that the biggest take away was inspiration, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Smoke and mirrors had the place feeling like a funhouse, and the poor guys that left with a little inspiration will probably have a lot of trouble implementing any strategies when they get back into the office. The content of the conference was in a weird space. Not ground-breaking enough for people who already utilise Social Media, but too high level for newbies.

I’m not trying to pretend I’m an ‘expert’ – there’s already enough of those around, but here are my top resources if you want real action points to help you get started in Social Media.

How to crack into the Tweet-elite if you’re a late-starter

This post from Daily Bloggr, written by Mani Karthik is basic stuff, but the basic is not always the obvious in SocMed. Really, frank, and really helpful.

Don’t have a Facebook account for your brand? Do it right first time

From blogging wunderkind Neil Patel, these tips on QuickSprout will get motivated to kickstart your Facebook profile.

Thinking of using Social Media to further your business? Harness the power of LinkedIn

Here’s 33 ways that you can enhance your LinkedIn profile to grow your business by Meryl K Evans on WebWorkerDaily. This piece from Sharlyn Luby on Mashable is also a good resource.

How to maximise your blog traffic with Social Media

Check out this guest post by Mark Hayward on ProBlogger for small business blogs using Twitter, and this piece on using LinkedIn.

Promoting your brand across Social Media

This is a really smart and simple take on how your should use Social Media to build your brand; either your personal brand, or your company’s; the tips apply to both. It’s from Grace Smith, on Liz Hover’s blog.

Hannah is Skimlinks’ Communications Manager and you can reach her on Twitter: @hannahrohi or email hannahATskimlinksDOTcom

Call it what you will; ‘socmed’, ‘invaluable tool’ or ‘waste of time’, the impact is undeniable; Social media has quite literally changed the world, and trying to ignore this revolution is futile. Futile I tell you!

The beast itself is a beautiful thing. Social media is allowing brands to engage with users, closer and quicker than ever before, it makes real life connections even stronger with a personal…but not too personal, instant new form of communication, and your average Joe can become a Twilebrity overnight if he can string together some valuable musings  in 140 characters or less.

The only backlash of the rise of social media is the side effect that comes with all new marketing/communication phenomenons; self-proclaimed ‘experts’. Those looking to get their head around the medium are hit from all sides by those looking to make a quick buck off the back of a new trend and selling their ‘expertise’ to anyone that’s buying.

If you’re about to throw yourself in the social media ring, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that the majority of people and events claiming to help you along your way will, in fact, lead you down the garden path.

Choose wisely.

Here’s my checklist to help you decide whether you should attend a social media event.

The speakers

Do a bit of research before you part with any attendance fees. Check out the listed speakers, and don’t just take the event organiser’s word for it; look up their names and credentials and explore whether their experience is relevant to what you are trying to achieve within social media.

Big names pull in attendees, but they don’t always add value to an event. Check out their LinkedIn profile, or their Twitter stream, and look at what they’ve really achieved when you strip away the shiny brand name they work for.

The sponsors

There is nothing worse than having irrelevant sponsors’ material shoved down your throat at an event. Are the sponsors relevant; or did the organisers bring on any man and his dog willing to pay the sponsorship costs?

Check up on the sponsors. Look into the companies behind the logos to help you decide whether the sponsors are going to help you; or just annoy you when you’re trying to learn.

The agenda

Check out the titles of the sessions and speaker presentations. Yep, they’ll all probably sound the same. By the looks of things, they’ll be examining, evaluating, adapting, measuring and analysing the life out of social media, its state, potential and future.

Look a little deeper; is the presentation or session going to provide you with any real value?

It’s easy for speakers to rattle off social media metrics and trends, but at the end of the day, you want real action points to take away with you, and ultimately, implement into your own use of social media. Cut through the buzzwords and be brutal. Will you really get anything out of it?

The audience

Is there are public guest list? Can you search attendees through a event hashtag on Twitter? Does the event have a Meetup page, Facebook fan or event page?

If you can get an insight into who’s already going, you can get a better idea whether you should be there or not. There’ll be quite a few of the ‘social media experts’ I mentioned earlier, but ideally, you’re looking for people in a  similar situation to you; you’ll find it better for learning.

However, networking is networking – you can always find great new contacts at events like these, so be on the look out for people you want to link in with. Just a word of warning; if you’re completely new to the space, don’t waste people’s time asking questions about the basics. If you’ve got a question, Google it. Topical discussions, or even just a ‘how about this weather’ will get a better response.

So, the Social Media World Forum is coming up next month, and, in-keeping with the checklist, I thought I’d give it a once-over.

Based on the points below, I’ve decided to attend; but check it out for yourself before you sign up!

• Yes, there are big names attending, but I’m actually interested in what they have to say. For example; Kristin Wadge of Metrica is an expert in PR evalution and measurement, a subject I’m interested in, I can see from her Twitter stream that she is a seasoned speaker. That’s a good start. See the list of speakers here.
• One of the silver sponsors; yiid looks like a great concept. As someone who uses multiple social media tools, their offering looks like just the thing I’ve been waiting for. I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to offer at the event, and also, Social Media UK is the event’s main networking partner – I’ve been to one of their events before, and thought it was great. Good sign.
• I spotted a session on the second day; Social Network Advertising and Monetisation, a subject I think will be one of the biggest talking points in social media this year. I’d love to engage with the panel on this one.
• A quick Twitter search of the event name has given me an insight into who’s already going; as well as an idea of how much buzz this event is creating. I can see lots of new, interesting faces I’ve never met at social media events before, so the networking opportunities look to be well worth it! Search #SMWF.