Are you looking for a place to meet others in the niche website and affiliate marketing industry to both network with and learn from?
Affiliate Gathering is the United Kingdom’s largest gathering of content creators and niche website entrepreneurs. Its debut was last year and it’s shaping up to be even greater this year.
We sat down with Affiliate Gathering creator Carl Broadbent, of carlbroadbent.com. Carl is a successful affiliate marketer who wanted to create an event that would pull people from different parts of the industry together to learn from experts and one another. In light of this, Affiliate Gathering was created.
Do you want to win tickets to Affiliate Gathering in York, United Kingdom on 19 May 2023? Check out our giveaway page.
Watch our interview with Carl Broadbent below.
What is Affiliate Gathering?
Carl first had the idea for Affiliate Gathering during COVID-19. With the pandemic just beginning to wind down, he set the first Affiliate Gathering to take place in May 2022. He wasn’t sure how it would all come together since the pandemic was still close in the rearview mirror, but still, people from all over the world traveled to attend. One of Affiliate Gathering’s greatest strengths is its accessibility. While there are still plenty of things experts can learn at the event, new publishers feel welcome and not overwhelmed.
He created the event for anyone in this space—content creators, blogger, YouTuber, affiliate marketer, drop-shipper—to come together to learn. The event is composed of speakers and presentations, workshops, networking opportunities, and some after-parties. Carl really believes in the importance of a support network surrounding this sort of work to help one another and bounce ideas off of each other. He believes that though there is a lot to learn from the presentations and workshops, ultimately the most important part of the event is meeting others.
Carl’s journey into digital publishing
Like many digital publishers and affiliate marketers, Carl used to have a job offline. He used to work in restaurant retail but after the company was franchised, he was forced to get another job. The idea of working his way back up through a business again once more was daunting and frustrating.
With absolutely no experience in digital publishing or affiliate marketing, Carl began learning as much as he could about how to build a successful website, mostly through YouTube videos. He found WPEagle by Alex Cooper, who had a lengthy tutorial on how to make a website, and Carl went to work to start his website. From that moment, he was hooked. This was the job that he had been looking for, one that would allow him to spend more with his family and provide him the freedom to be in control of his own destiny.
Carl began by starting a website on something he was passionate about—Monty Python. The site achieved moderate success, though he found it hard to compete with larger authority websites in the genre. At this time, he began his second website on another passion, tropical fish. He found that this website was a lot easier to monetize and rank for.
Carl believes that his strengths lie in testing things and putting things into action. He says he owes a lot of his success to the community he was able to join on YouTube, and also to Income School, an online school to learn internet marketing, SEO, and monetization. About a year into his digital publishing journey, Carl won a competition through the school and the leads of the program came to Carl’s house in the United Kingdom to give him two days of hands-on website development attention. Through their help, Carl was able to sell one of his websites for over £10,000.
Carl had taken up another job during this time to continue to support his family while he developed more digital publishing skills, but with this extra money he had earned through selling his website, he began to see if taking digital publishing and affiliate marketing full-time was possible. Two and a half years after beginning his online journey, he was able to quit his day job and just focus on his online business. At this time, he began sharing his journey on YouTube, hoping to show people what is possible and whatever he was testing to help others learn from his mistakes and triumphs. He quickly started getting a following.
Along his journey, Carl was able to sell a few more websites while developing his YouTube channel. After over four years, he recently just surpassed 10,000 subscribers.
Though he has had a lot of success online, he believes his greatest achievement is Affiliate Gathering.
Affiliate Gathering 2023
Ezoic is the headline sponsor for Affiliate Gathering this year. We are very excited to be participating once more and supporting Carl’s mission. Ezoic CMO, Tyler Bishop, will be presenting on remaining cutting edge in digital publishing, and Ezoic will also be hosting a workshop three times that day on how to use AI to accelerate your site’s video strategy.
Topics from all across the board will be presented by various experts in the industry—attendees will learn more about video strategy, using AI, affiliate marketing, building versus buying a website, and much more.
If you’re unable to attend Affiliate Gathering 2023, there will be a series of Affiliate Gathering Socials around Europe in the next year. Last year, small social meetups in the same spirit of Affiliate Gathering got together in London and Manchester. There is also one coming up in June 2023 in Spain.
We are excited to see everyone at Affiliate Gathering in York, United Kingdom on 19 May 2023. Tickets can be purchased here or enter to win free tickets through Ezoic.
