If you read John Chow's blog, you may have seen a recent post offering a free ticket to the upcoming Affiliate Summit conference.

Heck, you might even have written one of your own. In fact, here are several other people's posts that I dug up:

Why It’s Important to Me To Win The Affiliate Summit Ticket - Geekblogger.net
I wanna go to the affiliate summit in Vegas next month! - Wannasmile's Blog
2008 Affiliate Summit West - The Judo Podcast

Well, I'm going to add my own post to the fray so John, here's why I think you should give that ticket to me.

I'll be honest and get the selfish reasons out of the way first…

I always enjoy a trip to Las Vegas, and it's just that much better when I can write it off as a business expense. I've never stayed at the Rio and it looks like there's still rooms available for the dates of the Summit.

And if I win a free ticket, it's harder for my wife to say no

As far as my business goes, there are several sessions on the agenda this year that would help me reach my goals for 2008.

• Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing - I'd really like to have a chance to speak to Tim Carter from AsktheBuilder.com
• Managing Legal Risks in Affiliate Marketing - Being from Canada, I suspect this would be valuable for learning more about the laws in the U.S. where the bulk of my visitors come from
• Ask The Expert Sessions - Widget Marketing, Wordpress and Leveraging Video in particular
• Social Media Strategies in Affiliate Marketing
• Super Affiliate Strategies That Work - I couldn't use your ticket and not attend your session

If I am chosen as the winning post, I'll take the opportunity to pass along everything I learn at the Summit to my blog readers. Plus, I would take questions from my visitors ahead of time that they would like asked at the Summit.

If they have a specific question for a particular speaker, I'll do my best to corner them and get an answer, and if the questions are more general I'll do my best to get an answer during the various sessions.

Basically, I'll do my best to help people "virtually" attend Affiliate Summit.

As far as what I'd like to get out of the conference, beyond what I learn in the various sessions, conferences like this are always good for networking. I have my plans laid out for 2008 and this would be the perfect opportunity to meet with the merchants and affiliate managers who offer products and services related to my various niches.

And it's always great to meet other affiliate marketers and share ideas and knowledge with them.

But you won't need to pay for dinner John - it's on me if I get the ticket. Whether it's at In-n-Out Burger or Envy Steakhouse is up to you.

Every time I go to Vegas I seem to meet someone new from right next door to me (I'm in Langley, just up the valley from you) so hopefully I can make it happen again.