12 floors below me in my 4-star San Francisco hotel there were 400 people networking at the LinkShare Summit and it was only 7am.

LinkShare had kindly paid $2000 for my flights and enough for a 4-nights stay in the Japanese style Nikko Hotel. So it was wise for me to get up early and attend.

It was Thursday and I’d arrived on the Tuesday afternoon after a 15 hour journey with KLM via Amsterdam.

On my first night in the United States, I made the mistake of venturing out alone in the dark, not knowing where I was going. Instead of walking into the bussle of Union Square I went in the opposite direction and was approached by people at every corner. I quickly retreated back into the hotel, switched on the 42 inch plasma tv and caught up on my sleep.

On Wednesday there were several people attending a LinkShare training day for advertisers and publishers and so I used this day to do some sightseeing.

It was a bright day and I got the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf up to Alcatraz, where I took pictures and ate plenty of sea food. On the return journey I took a detour via China Town and again, just for fun, got lost in the dark.

I returned to the hotel to find a goodie bag from the likes of Boden and Mr and Mrs Smith in my room, which included soap and jewellery.

In the evening I met up with Andy Greaves, the UK face of LinkShare, who I’d previously had a chat with at the a4uexpo in October.

At the hotel bar I discussed that it was timely that I was in the US at this time as I’d just acquired the domain ShopCodes.com that week. More on that development another day.

So, on the Thursday, the main day of the Summit, I went downstairs and ate breakfast standing as I mingled amongst the crowd.

It was pretty much a fifty-fifty split between affiliates and advertisers, so it was a good mix. I particularly looked out for affiliates that had ‘bargain’ or ‘coupon’ on their name badge. Interestingly, I found that several of these affiliate sites are rather large and have up to 25 staff each.

I also approached merchants that offer coupons and managed to persuade a few to offer an Exclusive code, once my new site is live.

The keynote speaker was Ian Ayre and his speech on the value of number crunching got me immediately thinking in how I could A/B split test my site using free Google software and compare the click through rates. I implemented that thought the same afternoon and I’ll share the results in the future.

David Schatsky also had a TrendWatch presentation and basically, we’re all going to do fine us affiliates as more people are getting online and retail shopping.

The closing party that evening was held at the impressive Slide club, with a slide for an entrance. I seriously took advantage of the free bar and danced the night away with the best of them. Belatedly I realised that the LinkShare party had long gone and the only people left dancing wore masks.

On my last full day I took advantage of the good exchange rate and went shopping with a seriously bad hangover before going for a quick drink in a nearby Irish bar with Andy and Account Manager Tiina.

The next event is the LinkShare Symposium 2008 in New York, 23rd-24th June. If you fancy a shopping trip it maybe a worthwhile event to attend.

I’d love LinkShare to somehow get me over there again. Hopefully I’ll have a ShopCodes.com site full of exclusive codes from their US merchants by then.