What does the future hold for affiliate marketing? Ask Wayne Porter, Google, Brian Clark, Rob Key of outsourced marketing services provider Converseon and they'll give you a similar answer and it looks nothing like today's affiliate realm.

Oddly enough, it's about affiliate marketing's original promise -- the right product being hyped by loyal customers. No... not coupon, incentive or comparison shopping sites. This is affiliate marketing Amazon style. Remember?

The Old Guard
Commission Junction remembers but, today, they clearly understand affiliate marketing Circa 1999 can get out of control and require fixing. Today the company is scrambling to clean up its mess.

Google remembers. They're not going to be coy about things either -- when it comes to affiliate marketing pollution and cleaning things up. Today, Google gets to define 'valuable affiliate' however it sees fit.

A Return to the Original Promise
Wayne Porter remembers... his experience in affiliate marketing goes way back to the late 1990's and is now paired with expertise in the Dark Side of the Web -- malware, spyware and adware which, lately, is shifting away from fun-loving hackers and toward a criminal element that seeks financial gain -- gain brought to them through affiliate programs.

Porter, the folks at Converseon, Brian Clark and others in our industry see a brighter future. They see, as Porter points out this week, a future where affiliate and word-of-mouth (aka viral) marketing and "citizen journalism" collide in a much more harmonious and beneficial way.

Do you?

Posted by Editor on May 25, 2006 12:41 PM

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