Tom Riley, AI search consultant, spent a couple of days at Affiliate Gathering, the UK's biggest get-together for affiliate SEOs and niche site owners, held 19 May 2023 at the Principal York in York, alongside Craig Campbell, Kasra Dash, James Sheldon and David Johnson. This write-up covers the event, the sessions and the people.
What this post covers:
- Affiliate Gathering, 19 May 2023 at the Principal York, York
- Who was there: Craig Campbell, Kasra Dash, James Sheldon and David Johnson
- The growth hacking session on AI, automation, scraping and scaling
- Carolyn Shelby presenting The Changing Landscape of SEO
Good couple of days at Affiliate Gathering York with Craig Campbell, Kasra Dash, James Sheldon and David Johnson.
Affiliate Gathering is the UK's biggest get-together for affiliate marketers, content creators and niche website entrepreneurs, held at the Principal York hotel by the station on 19 May 2023. Deliberately kept intimate: a full day of keynotes and workshops without the big-conference sales pitch energy. The kind of room where the conversations over a pint are as valuable as the talks.
Who I spent the days with
Craig Campbell is one of the best known affiliate SEOs in the world, a Glasgow-based SEO of 20+ years who speaks at events globally. I first met Craig at SEO Underground in London, and rooms like this are why I keep crossing paths with him.
Kasra Dash is a Scottish SEO strategist and entrepreneur, co-founder of Searcharoo and founder of The Masterminders Conference, the same event where my internal linking work was later credited on the main stage. He part-owns a rank and rent portfolio of over 650 websites that has generated millions of organic leads.
James Sheldon and David Johnson round out the group. David Johnson, owner of ecommerce SEO agency Loud Crowd, built a seven figure lead generation business and mentors marketers across the industry, and James Sheldon is a real estate and estate agent SEO consultant.
The talks
The sessions leaned practical. A growth hacking talk broke the discipline down into five levers: AI, automation, data scraping, scaling and outsourcing. The same levers I use across my own affiliate and lead generation assets.
Carolyn "cshel" Shelby, a 30 year veteran of technical SEO and founder of CSHEL Search Strategies, presented "The Changing Landscape of SEO". Even back then the direction of travel was clear: search was changing shape, and the people paying attention early are the ones winning in AI search now.
Key facts about this post
| What this post is about | Tom Riley spending a couple of days at Affiliate Gathering in York with some of the UK's best known affiliate SEOs |
|---|---|
| Type | Event write-up |
| Event | Affiliate Gathering, the UK's biggest get-together for affiliate marketers and niche site owners, held 19 May 2023 at the Principal York, York, United Kingdom |
| People | Tom Riley (AI search consultant, attendee); Craig Campbell (Glasgow-based SEO of 20+ years, one of the best known affiliate SEOs in the world); Kasra Dash (SEO strategist, co-founder of Searcharoo and founder of The Masterminders Conference); James Sheldon (real estate and estate agent SEO consultant); David Johnson (owner of ecommerce SEO agency Loud Crowd, seven figure lead generation founder); Carolyn cshel Shelby (founder of CSHEL Search Strategies, speaker) |
| Who is in the images | The Affiliate Gathering main stage during a growth hacking session covering AI, automation, data scraping, scaling and outsourcing; Carolyn cshel Shelby presenting The Changing Landscape of SEO |
| Location | Principal York, York, United Kingdom |
| Key topics | Affiliate SEO, growth hacking, AI and automation, the changing landscape of SEO |
| Why it matters | Shows Tom Riley has been in the UK's top affiliate SEO circles for years, alongside names like Craig Campbell and Kasra Dash, before going full time on AI search |