Quote of the Week:

Gord Hotchkiss at MediaPost's Search Insiders Summit
"1. Search is 2% of all media budget. Big agencies aren't incented to 'get' search.

2. To agencies, search is DR (direct response) and should be relegated to a DR silo and judged on DR metrics.

3. Search is granular (lots of pushing little levers). That's not what big agencies do best.

4. Agencies exist to persuade people to buy something when they weren't considering it. Search is 'multiple choice' giving people a list of things to choose from when they're already in the consideration phase."

DoubleClick Performics experienced a system outage due to a complete power failure at their data center at approximately 9:30 a.m. CST on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007. While data was protected, the issue affected tracking, links and system availability. Power was restored and tracking and links were operational by approximately 2:30 p.m. CST. The interface experienced intermittent downtime throughout the afternoon but tracking is operational. We sincerely apologize for this situation. The root cause remains under investigation and updates will be forthcoming as more is known.

Representatives makes Do-Not-Call Registry permanent
The US House of Representatives voted to make the Do-Not-Call Registry list permanent. The measure still needs approval from the Senate. Before the passage of the Do Not Call Improvement Act, consumers had to renew their participation in the registry every five years. The bill also requires that the FTC remove disconnected and reassigned numbers periodically.

Ask.com starts AskEraser for users seeking privacy
Ask.com yesterday launched AskEraser, a new product that aims to give Internet users more control over their privacy when they search online.

Mixx (a la Digg) + LA Times = ??
Mixx, a social news startup from McLean, VA which announced its first round funding in October, has now added an interesting strategic investor: Los Angeles Times, part of the the hopefully-soon-to-be-private Tribune. Mixx is a bit like Digg, though for non-geeks, and LAT will now integrate the service within its website: Mixx buttons will show up o each LAT story, and LAT's stories will also be syndicated within Mixx' site/service. Mixx sports a number of established media veterans among its ranks: CEO and founder Chris McGill was formerly at USA Today and Yahoo while board members include former AP chairman Burl Osborne and former Yahoo VP Dave Mandelbrot.

Autobytel Sues Insweb Corp
News on the online lead generation front... Autobytel Inc. said Tuesday it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against online insurance quote provider Insweb Corp. in a U.S. District Court seeking damages and a permanent injunction. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Autobytel said the suit also names as defendants Leadpoint Inc., Internet Brands Inc. and Auto Internet Marketing Inc. The company alleges infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,282,517, entitled "Real Time Communication of Purchase Requests," but said it can't be sure the patent will be enforceable or the action will be successful.

"Hodgepodge and Hotchkiss"

(45 MINUTES)
This Week's Gossip and News:
- Search, Agencies, Gord Hotchkiss & Local!
- Debating Monetization of and Viability of Search (as we know it!)
- Search Privacy Erasers: PR or Real Movement?

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Call and leave us your UNCENSORED feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips, saucy gossip! We'll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

SEARCH ENGINE STRATEGIES & PUBCON ROUNDUP:

Perhaps best summarized by Kevin Ryan:


"I was surprised when getting involved with this conference how many people could not distinguish between strategy and tactic."

Great Conference Coverage Recaps: SES Chicago & PubCon Vegas 2007




THIS WEEK'S NEWS
Salesforce.com Launches Social Leads Network
Salesforce.com is rolling out features that allow customers to share sales leads, product info and other communications securely. With the site's subscriber base expected to pass the one million mark by the end of December, the firm hopes to turn its membership to an advantage by inviting them to make transactions and share information, according to ZD Net. The service focuses primarily on sharing and building sales lead and CRM-related information. Dell and DoubleClick are already on board with the new features. Connections between businesses cost just $100 a month, with the inviting party paying the fee.

Major Copyright Bill Boosts Penalties, Creates New Agency
Congress is preparing to amend copyright law. Politicians want to increase penalties for copyright infringement. Top Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a sweeping 69-page bill that ratchets up civil penalties for copyright infringement, boosts criminal enforcement, and even creates a new federal agency charged with bringing about a national and international copyright crackdown. The legislation, called the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, or PRO IP Act. Probably the most extensive part of the PRO IP Act is its creation of a new federal bureaucracy called the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative, or WHIPER. The head of WHIPER would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Nielsen Launches Video DRM/tracking/digital mark Service
Nielsen is releasing a new service that will guarantee that online videos are distributed in ways that are approved by the owners of the original content. The Wall Street Journal reports that the service may be announced as early as Wednesday. Nielsen is looking to offer this to media companies including the Discovery Channel and NBCU. It was reported that the company has already approached Fox and Google regarding the service called Digital Media Manager, which will be available next spring the report continued.

Google Offers Free Trackable Phone Numbers
As reported by Sebastien Provencher, Google is now offering free trackable phone numbers to advertisers in the U.S., with phone activity reporting through the AdWords interface.

Research: Social Media Spending to Zoom
A survey of 260 senior marketing PR and marcom professionals by the Society for New Communications Research found that two-thirds plan to increase spending on social media during the next 12 months and 81% expect to spend at least as much on social media marketing as on traditional marketing in five years. Someone is figuring this out.

Google and Yahoo Will Turn eMail and Personal Pages into Social Networks
Ignore Orkut, OpenSocial, Yahoo Mash and Yahoo 360. These are just the beginning. Google and Yahoo have come up with new plans to respond to the challenge from MySpace and Facebook: They hope to turn their e-mail systems and personalized home page services (iGoogle and MyYahoo) into social networks. Web-based e-mail systems already contain much of what Facebook calls the social graph — the connections between people. That's why the social networks offer to import the e-mail address books of new users to jump-start their list of friends. Yahoo and Google realize that they have this information and can use it to build their own services that connect people to their contacts.

Trademark Office Rejects Hormel's Claim Against Spam Arrest
In a stinging loss, meat company Hormel's effort to have anti-spam firm Spam Arrest's trademark registration canceled has been dismissed. This is a huge letdown for a company that has rigorously defended its SPAM trademark against dozens of firms. However, because of an odd accompanying decision, what this means to all the other technology firms battling Hormel over use of the word spam is unclear. A three-judge panel on Nov. 21 unanimously decided in favor of Spam Arrest, which argued that the word spam in relation to e-mail is a generic term that is not likely to dilute Hormel's Spam trademarks.

DoubleClick Performics Crashes!
DoubleClick Performics experienced a system outage due to a complete power failure at their data center at approximately 9:30 a.m. CST on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007. They claim in an email that data was protected, the issue affected tracking, links and system availability. Power was restored and tracking and links were operational by approximately 2:30 p.m. CST. The interface experienced intermittent downtime throughout the afternoon but tracking is operational. The company reports, "The root cause remains under investigation and updates will be forthcoming as more is known."

Zuckerberg Flogs Himself, Apologizes
Perhaps Mr. Zuckerberg is the poster child for a coming bubble?

GSI Commerce agrees to buy European fulfillment provider Zendor.com Ltd.
Targeting retail e-commerce growth in Europe, turnkey e-commerce systems provider GSI Commerce Inc. has agreed to pay approximately $7.9 million in cash to acquire U.K.-based Zendor.com Ltd., a provider of fulfillment and customer care services with five U.K. retailer clients, GSI said today. The deal would increase GSI’s client base to 85 companies.

buy at, Inc. Launches Affiliate Network in the US
Read more from buy at Inc.'s President, Malcolm Cowley, as he describes his aim -- to eat the lunch of affiliate marketing networks/companies here in the U.S.

Nokia: The Future of Music
Nokia's plan to offer unlimited music downloads challenges the dominant pay-per-track sales model and is likely to upset carriers already worried that Nokia is poaching their customer relationships. The world's biggest cellphone maker announced a deal on Tuesday with top record label Universal that will give customers buying particular Nokia devices unlimited access to millions of tracks for a year and allow them to keep the music afterwards. Nokia hopes the deal with Universal Music Group -- a unit of Vivendi whose artists include 50 Cent, Sting, and Mariah Carey -- will be followed by deals with the three remaining major international labels, to whom it is already talking.

Google Unleashes a Google Local (Plus) Box Bidding Qar
Google is opening up new social media ad territory -- the coveted Local Plus Box. Ka-ching!

LA Times Invests in Online Music: Digg-like Site
Mixx, a social news startup from McLean, VA which announced its first round funding in October, has now added an interesting strategic investor: Los Angeles Times, part of the the hopefully-soon-to-be-private Tribune. Mixx is a bit like Digg, though for non-geeks, and LAT will now integrate the service within its website: Mixx buttons will show up o each LAT story, and LAT's stories will also be syndicated within Mixx' site/service. Mixx sports a number of established media veterans among its ranks: CEO and founder Chris McGill was formerly at USA Today and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) while board members include former AP chairman Burl Osborne and former Yahoo VP Dave Mandelbrot.

(35 MINUTES)

This Week's Gossip and News:
- SES, Pubcon and Conferences
- Salesforce.com Goes Social
- Google Offers Trackable Phone Numbers
- Amazon: Kindle, Whispernet and Disruption
- ProIP: Congress Amending Copyright Law

Weekly Insight Talk Back Line:
641-985-5999 x20937#

Call and leave us your UNCENSORED feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips, saucy gossip! We'll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

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Welcome to Michael Perham of Adknowledge this week!

(35 MINUTES)

This Week's Gossip and News:
- The Risks of Yahoo Stores and Outsourcing eCommerce
- Pacing Google: Mobile, Storage and Wireless
- Ain't Gettin' No Pay Per Click Satisfaction
- Another Facebook Blunder: Molson, Booze & Chasing Girls
- Yahoo, Online Jobs and teasing next week

Weekly Insight Talk Back Line:
641-985-5999 x20937#

Call and leave us your UNCENSORED feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips, saucy gossip! We'll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

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The Ironic Future of Affiliate Marketing: MLM
Inspired by an upcoming Revenue Magazine article discussing Social Media affiliates, this piece tackles affiliate marketing's big opportunity in social media -- in particular monetization of social networks/spaces. Surprisingly MLM companies like Amway are jumping in head-first to Web-based affiliate marketing. As well eBay is launching its own RadicalBuy program which turns Facebook-ers into eBay style affiliates!

Amazon's Kindle Bypasses Affiliates and Then Some
Andy Beard asks if Amazon is looking to bypass its affiliates with its new Kindle eBook reader. Sure seems that way and affiliates aren't the only ones being bypassed! Wireless, digital downloads of books are made possible by Amazon Whispernet, a proprietary wireless delivery system that uses the same national high-speed data network used by advanced cell phones. Kindle users shop the Kindle store via the reader, and download books and other content without even having to find a Wi-Fi hotspot, according to Amazon.

Facebook Retreats on its Buying Beacon
ZDNet's Steve O'Hear: BusinessWeek is reporting that Facebook executives have been contemplating a backtrack on the social networking site's new advertising play, Project Beacon. The system automatically publish interactions users make on any of the 44 participating sites (from Blockbuster, Joost, to Overstock.com) onto their Facebook mini-feed, so that Facebook "friends" are able to track those interactions, such as making a purchase or renting a movie. As it stands, however, users are opted into Beacon by default, and only have the option to opt-out on a per site or per interaction basis.

Molson: The Latest Social Media Blunder
Molson brewing company has pulled a promotion on Facebook after complaints that they promote binge drinking. They ran a photo contest targeting 19-24 year old college students. Called the The Molson Canadian Nation Campus Challenge the ad said, "Be the #1 party school in Canada" and says that the school with the most pictures uploaded would win a trip for five people to spend spring break in Cancun, Mexico. The next line said: "Show everyone how you and your crew get the party started!" Then it listed the top 10 party schools.Universities and parents both contacted the company to complain. Xavier University administrator Joe MacDonald, who is the dean of students said: "This is not something that is welcome within our campus community."

The Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with Adteractive
The FTC is settling with Adteractive for its alleged use of "deceptive" spam e-mails and online advertising to draw people to its Web sites. The settlement, filed on behalf of the FTC by the Department of Justice, requires that the San Francisco-based company pay $650,000 in civil penalties. While doing business as FreeGiftWorld.com and SamplePromotionsGroup.com, Adteractive allegedly sent e-mail spam to consumers advertising free gifts such as flat-screen televisions and laptops. For example, one e-mail subject line used by the company stated, "Congratulations! Claim Your Choice of Sony, HP or Gateway Laptop," according to the FTC. However, when consumers went to Adteractive's promotional Web sites, they discovered that these items weren’t free, said Stephen Cohen, senior attorney for the FTC.

TV Stations to Sell Google AdWords
What this means is that Hearst-Argyle will now sell more comprehensive advertising solutions to its clients. Instead of just print and television, now they can also leverage online - helping to increase control over a client's advertising budget. Hearst-Argyle Television and Google have entered a new strategic agreement today where Hearst-Argyle, operator of 29 TV stations and more than 30 Websites, will become an official reseller and will use its Web sales force to provide marketers in its 26 local markets access to Google AdWords.

Rumor: News Corp to Buy LinkedIn
VentureBeat ran a follow-up story, also claiming a "well-placed" source. The post adds to Butcher's theory: News Corp. would incorporate LinkedIn into its various newspaper properties around the world. "News Corp.'s strategy, from what we understand: Somehow integrate LinkedIn's network with the Wall Street Journal as well as its other newspapers around the world, hopefully figuring out how to recoup News Corp.'s newspapers' declining classified ad revenue in the process."

Research: Social Media Spending to Zoom
A survey of 260 senior marketing PR and marcom professionals by the Society for New Communications Research found that two-thirds plan to increase spending on social media during the next 12 months and 81% expect to spend at least as much on social media marketing as on traditional marketing in five years. Someone is figuring this out.

Yahoo Stores Down on Cyber Monday
Ouch. There's already movement among marketers to sue Yahoo.

Google and Yahoo Will Turn eMail and Personal Pages into Social Networks
Ignore Orkut, OpenSocial, Yahoo Mash and Yahoo 360. These are just the beginning. Google and Yahoo have come up with new plans to respond to the challenge from MySpace and Facebook: They hope to turn their e-mail systems and personalized home page services (iGoogle and MyYahoo) into social networks. Web-based e-mail systems already contain much of what Facebook calls the social graph — the connections between people. That's why the social networks offer to import the e-mail address books of new users to jump-start their list of friends. Yahoo and Google realize that they have this information and can use it to build their own services that connect people to their contacts.

The New York Daily News Joining Yahoo's Newspaper Alliance
This is the fifth-largest circulation newspaper in the US. The consortium launched last November with Belo, Cox Newspapers and Hearst Newspapers as premier members, and membership has since tripled to include nearly 400 newspapers from 21 publishing groups. The Daily News, with a reported weekly online and print readership of 4.5 million, is the largest to join Yahoo's year-old group. Consortium partners use Yahoo's HotJobs to amp up their job listings and send out local ads to a national audience. HotJobs has launched 160 newspaper co-branded sites to date, serving 377 newspapers. In return, Yahoo is allowed to sell national ads on individual newspaper sites.

Google Readying for 'GDrive' Launch
Google is reportedly preparing to roll out its previously-dubbed "GDrive" online storage service in as early as a few months, according to sources cited in a Wall Street Journal report. While online storage services are already available from third-parties (including from rivals Microsoft and Yahoo!), Google's potential offering is of interest because of high expectations the company can offer a simplified, reliable service with tie-ins to its Apps suite. However, Google faces a number of obstacles in creating a service that meaningfully challenges Microsoft's long dominance of the way people access and store files. Key concerns are privacy, which is partially related to whether advertisements will be displayed as a part of using the service, and copyright issues related to the capability of sharing files, including media files. Also of importance is the reliability of the service and it having a simple on/offline user interface, which makes using the storage similar to accessing a local hard drive.

Fox Interactive to Power Other Web Sites Too
TechCrunch: Fox Interactive Media (FIM), the online arm of News Corp has plans to become a full service online advertising agency that provides advertising to non-News Corp sites. Peter Levinsohn said that the service, known internally as "FIM Serve" was originally built to serve advertising on MySpace, which would be presumed to be part of, or the same service announced by MySpace November 4. He also noted that the service focuses on graphical advertising and would not conflict with the Google/ MySpace search listings deal.

Google Puts SEO in the Hands of USERS!
Google is experimenting with Digg style voting features on search results that allow users to vote up or bury search results they see. The program, part of Google Labs, works like this: This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made.

WebTrends joins forces with Silverpop

PPC Spending on the Increase but Satisfaction in the Crapper
Retailers are spending more on PPC and will continue to -- but their satisfaction is nil. Go figure. Kinda like cel phones -- we ALL pay lots of money for lousy service... and accept it.

Trademark Office Rejects Hormel's Claim Against Spam Arrest
In a stinging loss, meat company Hormel's effort to have anti-spam firm Spam Arrest's trademark registration canceled has been dismissed. This is a huge letdown for a company that has rigorously defended its SPAM trademark against dozens of firms. However, because of an odd accompanying decision, what this means to all the other technology firms battling Hormel over use of the word spam is unclear. A three-judge panel on Nov. 21 unanimously decided in favor of Spam Arrest, which argued that the word spam in relation to e-mail is a generic term that is not likely to dilute Hormel's Spam trademarks.

Last week Linkshare's Joe Sabatino, ShareaSale's Brian Littleton, Collectibles Today's Mitul Gandhi, Brad's Deals Brad Wilson and Performics' Chris Henger provided the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association with a report on the state of affiliate marketing.

Questions from the audience ranged widely and included "what's the different between 'affiliate' and 'business development' partners?" Ghandi says it's all about perception.

"If you consider your affiliate partnerships to be just revenue share deals then you're limiting your scope," Gandhi says.

What's more he suggests that it's "a very cheap way (for merchants) to do branding" as an inherent part of the cost-per-action affiliate process. When controlled Gandhi suggested it's a boon for merchants.

"If someone starts an affiliate program worst case is the get no sales and free branding... best case is they get branding and sales," says Wilson.

Many of the questions posed to the panel in the Q&A session were aimed squarely at controlling affiliates, network quality and what networks are doing to facilitate greater control for marketers. Surprisingly most network representatives on the panel suggested that since 2004 network quality has been less of an issue for the industry (perhaps in an attempt to quell questions aimed on quality issues).

When asked to comment on trade articles suggesting that affiliate marketing has peaked and there's potential for dis-intermediation Wilson was quick to react by suggesting,

"I've read some of that too and I don't think it's right... I don't think it's sound. People (affiliates) are always going to be doing useful, interesting things. Whether or not we're still able to do that in five years that's a different story but someone will be... and I think there's going to be more of that. If you take the entire affiliate realm I think more of it is going to be that kind of thing and less is going to be the stuff you really can't place."

Henger believes there will be a role for affiliate marketing for a very long time based on its ability to add consumer-side value, "We've trained the consumer, when they shop online, to find a benefit. They derive some type of benefit and affiliate marketing has contributed to that whether it be in the form of a discount or... a rewards program or loyalty points."

Interestingly, Henger's comments seemed to put a box around affiliates that send repeat customers to marketers. Search affiliates were not mentioned and other panelists did not respond.

On the subject of "off line" (not tracked on the Web) affiliate tracking Littleton shared a case study scenario wherein a marketer coded individual catalogs (on affiliate basis) so as to reward future sales (of any kind) coming from customers who had requested a catalog from the marketer.

AffiliateTip's Shawn Collins points out that David Hasselhoff is popular in Europe so he's cautious to suggest German-based zanox's new solution has got legs. The solution, dubbed zanox-Shop is a "shopping portal in a box" -- allowing affiliates to set up a slick looking store in little time.

Sound familiar? It should and isn't this rather 1.0 in a 2.0 world?

Specifically, many affiliates are struggling to survive in a changing world -- from affiliate networks changing link structures to Google and Yahoo Search continually weeding out "thin affiliates" (those providing little or no value in the eyes of search engines). Specifically, affiliates are being forced to provide some kind of tangible value in order to attract regular visitors (not just capture them in search engines and shuttle them on to advertisers). Many affiliates have evolved into areas such as shopping comparison to keep things "sticky."

Affiliates need solutions that can help them build value -- not so much those that help shuttle traffic. No doubt that the multi-million (if not billion globally) "domain industry" is thriving based on Google and Yahoo Search affiliates sending traffic from "parked" (not actively used) domains on to advertisers (a practice that is under fire by Ben Edleman among others). But is this the future? Likely not.

What is the future for affiliates? The answer seems clear: owning the customer relationship and playing an active role in providing value. In fact value should reside with the affiliate just as it resides with super affiliates FatWallet, FlamingoWorld and Smarter.com (sister site CouponMountain.com). Why do these affiliates (dare I call them businesses!?) have in common? They have advertisers by the hoo-haas because they have active relationships with customers.

Are stores that provide links pointed at advertisers the future for affiliates or are stores like those facilitated by Shopster.com that point inward -- at the affiliate -- the future?

It's rare that we, Stateside, pay attention to the European or UK marketplace but given a recent UK Affiliate Marketing Roundtable event hosted by Advertising.com it's worth tuning into. In a nutshell, industry executives, agencies and super affiliates are discussing highly controversial issues right out in the open -- putting them on the Web (via podcast) for all to listen to. And these aren't poorly executed (transparent) propaganda podcasts as Commission Junction has been criticized for recently.

Although the recording quality of the podcast made nearly 40% of the event unintelligible I strained to listen. Why? Bold statements and, in fact, arguments were put forward by powerful voices including executives from:

Advertising.com
TradeDoubler
Net Imperative
Buy.at
iPoints
Leadpoint

TradeDoubler on the Defensive
At one point TradeDoubler was put on the defensive as the company was pressed for answers with regard to the accountability of affiliate networks -- from a legal perspective. Case in point, European giant (and TradeDoubler client) Tesco successfully won a summary judgement against one of its largest affiliates for ALL commissions earned over the course of YEARS (of visitor referrals to Tesco.com). The affiliate was using mis-spells of the Tesco brand name as its tool of choice... a popular affiliate strategy and a legitimate one, argued one gentleman in the group.

Legitimate considering:

A) Tesco knew of the practice and did nothing (to stop the affiliate)
B) TradeDoubler knew of the practice and kept facilitating the relationship

Rogue Affiliates or Rogue Merchants?
What's more it was suggested that the affiliate could have (if it wanted to) waged a serious, costly legal battle against the affiliate network. The affiliate network also could have been targeted by Tesco based on gross negligence -- given TradeDoubler's claims (like all networks) of constant vigilance against deceptive or illegal affiliate practices.

The topic of "rogue affiliates" was quickly turned around and aimed at "rogue merchants" who act without regard for serious legal considerations.

Network Quality: Entry Fee for Affiliates
Many topics were discussed including AffiliateWindow's move to start charging affiliates a small entry fee to participate in the network (refundable as a credit in their account and available upon racking up a minimum earnings threshold).

Blacklisting affiliates, cookie deletion, the diminishing reputation of affiliates were also discussed with TradeDoubler (I believe... it was difficult to hear) suggesting that affiliates need to move from infancy to adolencnce... and soon.

Affiliate manager Nate Griffin gives reaction to the statement and question:

"Commission Junction's Link Management Initiative will inevitably alienate a large number of affiliates in the network. Is anyone still fighting for the little guy?" (small affiliates)

Griffin suggests that this question raises a number of interesting issues, especially for affiliate managers that work dilligently at building niche vertical partnerships in their affiliate programs.

He asks, "Does CJ need the little people? Or is it the little people that need CJ?"

To Griffin, integrating new technology (CJ's in this case) is a natural cost of doing business that all online businesses need to accommodate on occasion.

He goes on to point out that CJ is part of a publicly traded company (Valueclick, NASDAQ: VCLK) and suggests he's confident that a change of this size is part of a larger strategy that their finance team believes will boost stock value.

Griffin astutely points out that affiliates and affiliate managers are just "along for the ride" and will simply need to buck up and do whatever work needs to be done to transition into the new link formats. He believes that any platform switching costs (assuming advertisers might reject CJ's new scheme) are too scary for advertisers.

Griffin gives pause when considering some AM's/advertisers may consider jumping ship since CJ is, in effect, irritating (if not telling "go away!") a certain flavor of affiliates. He suggests CJ leads the affiliate marketing industry due to some amount of internal savvy. Although affiliate managers may not understand the full reasoning behind this change there is one. He questions if this change is a good reason to jump ship.

Griffin plainly states that affiliates will likely follow the money and that affiliates threats to leave will be "empty and/or meaningless" given that in ditching advertisers they forfeit the ability to generate cash.

He wonders how valuable (to the advertiser) an affiliate may be who is unwilling to invest time and effort in the relationship.

"The fact that 'Affiliate Manager' is even a job title is a testament to the power of networks," he says.

Griffen believes that affiliates and publishers who have the most to lose will do whatever it takes to stay a part of the network in which they are most deeply entrenched.

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?

All signs seem to be pointing to PPC arbitrage dying as an affiliate "revenue stream". Without low hanging fruit, what will affiliates do? My answer: Scramble.

What is precipitating all of this buzz is that CJ is taking back control of its links. With the implementation of their java links, they don't have to rely on site owners to update or remove html from their sites - the sites instead call the java code which serves up whatever CJ feels like serving.

I have to say that I've been waiting for this day to come. I have secretly always been a fan of ABW's infamous Webmaster Mike's signature quote - and I'll paraphrase here because I think I'm banned from ABW - "What value have you put into a click, from a SHOPPER'S perspective?" The short answer for most affiliates has been NOT MUCH.

Continue reading "Overheard: A Collective "NOW WHAT??""

As a Marketing Manager working for both large and small organizations for the last 13 years, I have experienced first hand the evolution of the e-Commerce marketing space. I have seen the rise and fall of impression based banner advertising, the onset and continued evolution of search engine marketing which includes bid management tools and the rise and fall of affiliate programs/partnership programs which do not provide adequate ROI due to "black hat" marketing practices.

The Case for Pay-Per-Click
In my experience, I have found the internal (pay-per-click) PPC channel is proving to be the channel of choice for many organizations to acquire and retain customers for it provides a better customer experience, higher ROI and improved overall branding which is of utmost importance in the increasingly competitive landscape of comparative shopping portals, affiliate and start up sites.

Organizations who have gained experience in this space have a better understanding of their competition, are able to benchmark their performance, set strict goals and objectives for their e-Commerce marketing channel managers, incorporate SEM bid strategies, hold affiliates to agreed upon guidelines, improve internal "white hat" SEO tactics and have begun to budget e-Marketing spend wisely moving budgets to the appropriate channels (those which provide the best ROI). These organizations are performing cost benefit and life time value analysis of their e-Marketing channels and are realizing their internal paid search channels out-perform others based on both internal and external data.

Affiliate Marketing Re-discovered
With rising CPC rates, and "black hat" marketing tactics by both competitors and affiliates, organizations have taken a serious look at their inflated PPC and Affiliate budgets and have realized the affiliate channel is no longer an acquisition channel but merely a portal in which their portfolio customers are using to obtain free shipping, coupons and special discounts. This being said, I envision organizations scaling down their affiliate channels to a handful of top performers if not discontinuing the channel all together and moving affiliate budgets to internal PPC channels.

I am not stating the Affiliate channel is not a profitable channel for many organizations nor will it cease to exist; merely stating this acquisition channel over the last several years has led many organizations questioning the value due to affiliates finding new ways to work around or defy the guidelines in which smart organizations have clearly defined in the initial sign up process. One of the major concerns being, the labor intensive process of policing affiliates and their "black hat" SEM and SEO tactics of driving traffic and/or stealing traffic from other affiliates. This is in no way saying all affiliates are "bad or unethical" but a handful of the bad apples in a portfolio can make an organization question the affiliate channel as a whole.

Affiliate Network Concerns
Another major concern with the affiliate marketing channel has to do with the networks themselves. When organizations hire networks with a revenue share model, they have an understanding their network is looking out for their best interests. In many instances this is not the case. With the rev share network model, both affiliates and networks are earning commissions based on referrals and/or conversions, therefore, is it really in the network's best interest to police affiliates on the behalf of the organization which has trusted them to do so? I think not... The responsibility of policing is being placed on the shoulders of the internal affiliate marketing manager who should be focusing their attention on providing affiliates with the most up to date banners, promotions, and offers to assist the affiliate in doing their job; which is to driving converting traffic and increasing online acquisitions.

What's Next?
In my experience and observations, organizations are becoming cost savvy with respect to their channels and hiring internal experienced e-Commerce managers who are proving to management they can provide a better ROI and improved branding via internal means.

Kelly Cuva, President of Cuva Consulting, holds 13 years online/offline marketing experience, an MBA in e-Business and a Bachelor degree in Marketing.

She has worked for both large and small organizations such as AT&T Universal Card Services, Citibank, Home Shopping Network, Venus USA and Odimo Inc. and has held positions in Internet Marketing, New Business Development, Marketing Communications and Advertising.

Rakuten continues to beat the we're-coming-to-the-U.S.-market drum this week as its executives continue to tell Japan's The Daily Yomiuri that they will use Linkshare as a means to "... expand our business into the international market... we want to open a full-fledged Internet mall (abroad)", says Atsushi Kunishige, VP at the company.

According to Daily Yomiuri the well-known Internet mall operator (in Japan) is studying a plan to go public in the U.S. although he said the firm has not yet decided on where to list itself.

Nonetheless, Rakuten is bracing to open Rakuten Ichiba, an Internet mall, and go on the board here in the States. It's rival, Yahoo Japan Corp., can only do business in the Japanese market -- one that is far smaller than the U.S. market.

A report released by the Economy, Trade & Industry Ministry in 2005 stated the size of the market (consumer e-commerce) in Japan was 5.64 trillion yen in 2004. Contrast that with the market in the United States which was 2.89 times larger or 16.29 trillion yen (in the same year).

What does this mean for Linkshare's customers? Linkshare's affiliates? It would seem that customers will soon have competition and affiliates will have a new array of products to sell.

Which of these things doesn't belong? A good affiliate manager. A good brand. Thousands of affiliates. Thousands of potential links. Compliance checks on all of them.

Continue reading "Do The Right Thing"

Recruiting affiliates is tough, mainly because most of the ones you really want have already been recruited by others and the networks.

Continue reading "Recruiting Affiliates"

Jeff Molander writes at ThoughtShapers.com about Greg Shepard of NetTraction.com, and his new approach to affiliate marketing called "Cost-Plus-Performance".

My first concern was, "Oh Geez! Not another acronym... now I've gotta remember what CPP stands for!" And then I started to think about Greg's idea. Is this the future of affiliate marketing? My answer is "Yes and No".

Continue reading "Do Affiliates Deserve a Salary PLUS Commissions?"

A new report paints a less than pretty picture about Internet user trends, usage is up, trust is down!

Continue reading "Doom - Not the Film... E-Commerce"

Running a bonus / contest for your affiliate partners can be a huge pain, create work, result in people cheating, that 50% of the winners never knew that they had won.. or why they had won... but there's more to it than that...

Continue reading "Bonus Time - It's more than just prizes"

"I think you realize that you and your kind are not welcome here..."

Wondering what that statement is all about? Wondering who I'm quoting? Wondering who "You" is?

Well... let me start by stating that the "you" being referred to is myself. And... the person making the statement is the owner/manager of an online affiliate marketing forum.

Wow!

Continue reading "The Truth Has Been Revealed!"

Sometimes I wish I were a drinker. I could totally make up a drinking game wherein any time someone reports on how ineffective affiliate programs are, I would do a shot. Of course, I'd have to carve out time for my AA meetings, then, too, so maybe it's good that I continue to be a teetotaler.

Continue reading "THE END IS NEAR - The Impending Doom of Affiliate Marketing"

Flock wants to get rid of the notion of "browsing." The new browser is looking to take "not browsing" to a new level of sharing and community... and at the same time make revenue from affiliate marketing... domain targeting anyone?

Continue reading "Flock A new "not" Browser Coming your way."

eSTARTUP is selling the domain name "AffiliateDirectory.com" to the highest bidder via an online auction at Pool.com. Is this "big news" bloggable? On it's own, I don't think so. But... there's something else about this story that I find interesting.

Continue reading "AffiliateDirectory.com to Be Sold to Highest Bidder"

From a great idea to sell more product to a full-fledged marketing channel, affiliate marketing has evolved significantly. But where is the passion that used to drive affiliates?

Continue reading "The thrill is gone - How the passion was drained from affiliate marketing"

The networks exist to facilitate relationships between merchants and affiliates. I guess no one thought to ask who owns the relationship.

Continue reading "Network vs. Merchant - Who owns the affiliates?"

There are still merchants around who filter their affiliate applications before they review them. Isn't this a little naive?

Continue reading "Automatic Rejection"

Affiliates often spend more time going over your site than you do, checking out landing pages, comparing it to competitors. They can be an amazing well of feedback

Continue reading "Getting Site Feedback from Affiliates"

Continue reading "How well am I really doing."

The following is first in (what I hope will be) a series of entries from the affiliate manager front lines. Have you received a nastygram from an affiliate? If so, please share yours.

All company names and URLs have been changed so as to keep things anonymous although I'm trying to stick as closely as possible to the original content and have replaced company and URLs with similar (in the same genre/industry) yet fictional information. This will help keep things as vivid and "real life" as possible yet protect the innocent. All punctuation and spelling is verbatim.

The below letter was written by an affiliate of a muti-billion dollar entertainment conglomerate.

I received a letter from you today regarding my companies Websites.

TheFamilyGuy-book.com
TheFamilyGuy-games.com
TheFamilyGuy-movies.com
TheFamilyGuy-toys.com
books-TheFamilyGuy.com

First off I do not appreciate Being threatened.

I purchased and own these names legally, and have a legal right to own them.

I am an affiliate of the disney shop.

all these sites have been approved by the disney shop affiliate program through cj.com.

as you can see all my buy links point to the Disney Shop.

I am sending you last months reports as evidence.

I do not advertise any of these sites.

All the traffic I receive is because of my own hard work.

If disney does not want to run an affiliate program then they should not.

I thought the Idea behind the affiliate program was to drive traffic to their site.

Your Letter was very generic. Perhaps you should investigate a situation before you send off a letter such as that. Disney should be happy with the traffic that us affiliates are sending their way. If they do not want the buisness I will make these sites simply Informational sites.

Have you received nastygrams from affiliates? Share yours! Reach me at jeff *at* affiliatecluetrain.com.

Does anyone working in affiliate marketing realize that the continual discussion about fraud and ethics, no matter how its spun, doesn't serve the industry very well? It seems that the answer is no.

This week, Filinet pens a piece for eCommerce times discussing how "... it is simply a matter of time before an effort toward some solution solidifies into real standards." In a real mind-bender the author goes on to present readers with a rather large pill:

"Approximately 10 years old, the affiliate marketing industry is one of the newest in performance marketing. Legalities, best practices and associations are in their infancy stages. That said, affiliate fraud is rampant."

Continue reading "Why Does Affiliate Marketing Continue to Taint Itself?"

Just when you thought you (the industry) couldn't possibly consume any more written material, Advertising.com announces an e-mail delivered publication called the Performance Standard.

Move over Revenue Magazine.

Ho hum. Another day, another dollar over at FastClick. Again, no EULA (end user license agreement) is given upon clicking of a remarkably well-done piece of Windows-like consumer trickery. This application entices and then jams Systweak's "solution" onto the user's PC.

And where can you see it? So far it's a very popular pop over at TheDrudgeReport. Rumor has it that Drudge doesn't care about the wham-bam-thankyou-m'am driveby installation as they won't return calls to Pace Media, a suddenly red-hot source for juicy news.

Details on their affiliate program can be found here and they have no "networked" provider. Who needs one when you've got Fastclick?

If Fastclick's Q/A team can't see this thing popping all over one of the hottest blogs on the face of the Earth then it leads one to ask "what CAN it detect?"

Scott Delea, Sr. VP and GM of eMarketing at Digital Grit (voted the hottest joint to work at in New Jersey, apparently) made a recent entry on a topic that just won't quit: allowing or not allowing affiliates to bid on trademarked search terms.

He does a nice job of laying out all the pros and cons yet I think, like many others in our industry, he leaves out one critical con and for the life of me I can't figure out why people leave this part out:

The cost attributed to sales/leads that come as a result of an affiliate investing in $0.25 clicks (on average, about $2 worth before a sale is made when using trademarked search terms). Typically, the commission is pretty hefty as compared to the couple of bucks an advertiser might have spent themselves had they kept the marks for themselves to bid on. On that note, aren't advertisers *required by law* to actively protect their marks?

Here's a quick a look at Scott's pros...

The pros of letting affiliates bid: They occupy search engine real estate which could otherwise be occupied by your competitors

Having affiliates listed instead of your competitors will usually increase the number of net clicks you receive from any given search because you will obtain clicks from your listing and those of the affiliates. All are selling your product.

Affiliates would be using different types of copy and landing pages. It may provide us an opportunity to learn something from them. Better to learn from them then from your competitors.

If you can't afford to bid on additional keywords, the affiliates may be willing to, so you are getting more visibility without having to spend the cash on the media. You only pay the affiliate on the conversion.

I agree with Scott's last two pros as they don't rely on affiliates trading on an advertiser's brand equity but the first two I disagree with... and sometimes I feel all alone in doing so :(

Not only does it add un-needed cost, advertisers shouldn't be sitting on their hands when it comes to protecting their marks in paid search situations... yet many are. In fact, David Lewis suggests that one use their affiliates as a weapon to do so... which, it seems, is what Scott suggests when he says "They occupy search engine real estate which could otherwise be occupied by your competitors."

Protecting your marks with marketing budget. Hmmm.

Don't get me wrong, I was very much a part of selling retailers and advertisers large and small alike on the many benefits of affiliate marketing. I definitely made some promises as part of my pitching and so did my team but I've found it hard the last few days to leave this one alone.

Are online marketers as dumb as some in our business would have you believe or are some in our business just not good at talking to the media? Case in point, the 2nd DM News piece covering eTail this week (which, bye the way, Mickey did a fantastic job at in my opinion):

Her colleague (ValueClick's Elizabeth Cholawsky), Joe Doretti, Marlborough, MA-based director of sales, thought the line of inquiries was more advanced. "I've been hearing a lot more questions about expertise and service as opposed to what does it do, technology and 'What's all this online stuff?'" So I think people are becoming more online savvy. It's been pretty good as compared to eTails past. There are a lot of vendors, but that's par for the course."

So let me get this straight, buyers of affiliate marketing services and technology have for some time now been asking "What's all this online stuff?" when going about interviewing affiliate marketing solutions providers?

Does this surprise anyone other than me (someone who has been talking technology and service with prospective clients and/or clients since 1999)?

This was followed by Linkshare Corporation actually crying about how many catalogers they aren't doing business with.

Robert O'Fee, client development manager at affiliate marketing firm LinkShare, said catalogers don't use affiliate programs to their advantage.

"I think there are a lot of catalogers out there who are not embracing affiliate marketing -- traditional Midwest catalogers who are risk averse to e-commerce," O'Fee said. "Sure, they're willing to come to these conferences and learn, but they?ve come to listen to someone at Home Depot talk, but they still don't do affiliate programs. And affiliate marketing's been around for nine to 10 years."

Time for some media training, y'all! Insulting the client is a pretty poor PR technique.

Should affiliate managers be concerned about affiliates using product data feeds such as GoldenCAN? I've had a number of conversations with tech heads and users lately discussing how many such service providers have built bells and whistles into their products... so as to deal with this concern and, essentially, allow affiliates to "work around" / avoid potential issues with search engine bots (which penalize for duplication of information).

Search Engine Journal's Joe Duchesne provides valuable insight on the subject of duplicate content in search engines as it relates to affiliate marketing.

It has been common practice for high traffic websites to establish an affiliate program. Affiliate programs themselves don't worry Google. What it doesn't like though, is for an affiliate program to take a template and then offer it to its base of affiliates to use. Some of the higher traffic websites end up with thousands upon thousands of duplicate websites all promoting the very same things and, according to Google, not offering any real value to the Internet community. A website offering this type of cookie cutter website can easily find themselves de-listed by Google as happened to Template Monster a while back.

So is the duplicate content issue really one that centers more on template sites being dolled out rather than how affiliates use data feeds or is it a little of both?

Montgomery Research's Revenue Magazine will now be available online via a partnership with Zinio. Apparently overseas subscribers have been suffering from serious lag times in receiving the print publication.

"The benefits of this program go beyond the subscriber, who will be able to receive immediate delivery of the magazine via the Internet anytime, anywhere in the world. This relationship with Zinio will also benefit advertisers by providing them with the ability to communicate directly with their target audiences, providing interactivity through Web hyperlinks."

Nice to see that someone still uses the word hyperlink. More details at Arrive.net.

I was chatting up Wayne Porter recently discussing how many well known brands / advertisers just can't get enough pop-ups and such via working with adware-based affiliates. The business and leads generated from these "bad actors" tastes great especially when the advertiser is distanced from the actual dirty work... and under constant pressure to meet revenue expectations.

Thanks to John Toskey of Blue Nile for recently pointing at a fantastic MSN article in response to my mentioning of Kraft Foods being sued over its Gevalia coffee spam spree. If you have a heartbeat and an in-box, you know what I'm talking about.

Liar Liar, Your Affiliates are on Fire
Via an e-mail interview, Kraft spokesperson Abbe Serphos said, "Gevalia has no tolerance policy regarding SPAM, and we have strict policies in place that govern our e-mail communications to consumers."

What's more, she even told MSN that some affiliates have been dropped for breaking those rules. When asked to elaborate on the subject, she declined.

Continue reading "Kraft Called Out for Gevalia Spam"

Brad Waller seems to be a blogger for hire!

Brad does a nice job of re-capping the AdTech panel discussion this week (Affiliate Marketing: Step by Step Overview). Overall, I was impressed with the strong moderation choice (Peter Figueredo) and the diverse and experienced panelists but Brad's review leaves me wanting more. The same-old debates and issues seem to be discussed... so in my opinion (maybe someone else was there and can share other viewpoints) I didn't miss much.

Brad did point out that Ryan Erwin, affiliate manager from Oakley, working with Commission Junction (a network well-known to have strength in providing access to the thriving masses of affiliates) was odd in that Oakley's focus was on working with the cream of the crop (not the thriving masses).

Says Brad... "Oakley would be better served with an in-house or third party program that does not charge a premium for their Network. CJ is a great choice for mass market merchants and those who want to get a lot of affiliates quickly. Since this is the opposite of their desires, the choice seems odd."

Perhaps this decision says more about CJ's other strengths (i.e. technology/reporting?) in terms of Oakley's decision on which affiliate solution provider to choose.

Audience Q&A was a big hit it seems and lasted longer than any other session Brad attended. "The audience was most interested in the pros and cons of using a networked provider (the answer is that it depends), multiple providers (they can be a pain because you have to remove duplicate orders), and keyword bidding."

Tune in to Brad's entry to find out what the panelists see in the future for the industry. I found Carolyn Tang's prediction to be rather interesting.

According to the Denver Post...

"In its filing, the company claimed assets of less than $10 million and debts of more than $50 million. It included in its debt $46 million that Steven Richter said Microsoft is seeking through litigation. Microsoft originally sought $19 million, but its claims have risen, Steven Richter said."

As reported today in Dirct Magazine

Spam King Abdicates into Bankruptcy
"The King is dead... broke. Self-titled "Spam King" Scott Richter said his e-mail marketing company, OptInRealBig.com, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a result of a lawsuit by Microsoft Corp. According to a statement from Richter, his Westminster, CO-based company filed for bankruptcy March 25, in a Denver federal court.

Richter said the pending multi-million-dollar suit by Microsoft was the immediate cause for the bankruptcy step, although OptInRealBig.com also faces a $50,000 fine as part of a legal settlement reached last year with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer and Microsoft filed their suits simultaneously in Dec. 2003, alleging violations of both Washington state and New York anti-spam laws, and announced them in a joint press conference...

Continue reading "Microsoft Kills Spam King: Richter Now Bankrupt"

I recently received an email from my good friend and respected colleague Carolyn Tang. Apparently she knows someone from a "performance based marketing solution" company who thinks I'm angry with affiliate marketing in general. He suggested to ask me:

"Why do you seem so angry with Affiliate Marketing Programs? What would we be your suggestion to make us better?"

This is a common mis-perception based entirely on my taking easy target practice at things that just cry out as being ridiculous, show complete lack of foresight or perhaps a disregard for reality.

I'm not angry. I'm a news person who has, for years, had an insiders position... having built an affiliate network from scratch with a team of sharp colleagues and a motivated CEO.

Affiliate programs are built a foundation of mutual mis-trust... all propagated by affiliate networks (that were built during the late 90's... from the ground up to sell out) who claim that it's all good since it's all based on performance. I was there. I made the promise. This is patently false and, frankly, relies completely on advertiser ignorance. Of what? Mostly of the various financial and branding aspects of the multi-channel buying environment that we all live in. AKA reality.

Continue reading "Jeff Molander: Angry or Just Embarrassed?"

One affiliate... three major brands. Netflix and Match.com are happily (I can only assume) paying affiliates a premium for traffic that belongs to them - based purely on simple mis-spells that they, themselves, have failed to register. I invite either affiliate/e-commerce manager to explain why they would find value in affiliates using such tactics. Here are the URLs.

http://www.Matchj.com
http://www.Netflixc.com

The most shocking of all, Prada's trademark is being infringed upon in a rather obvious and daring way. This is a huge brand and considering all of the buzz around lawsuits and trademarks I find this affiliate's tactics to be bold. I can't imagine that one of their lawyers would appreciate this URL being shuttled to Amazon. Speaking of... what do you suppose Amazon's exposure is in a situation like this? Are they at risk with an affiliate like this?

http://www.Pradda.com

Are marketers over-paying for repeat customers coming to them via affiliates? Indeed, it would seem they are.

Yet another study published today via DM News that confirms - consumers are increasingly using brick-and-mortar stores, the Web and catalogs interchangeably.

If this is the case, and these are the most valuable customers, how does affiliate marketing fit in when many affiliate compensation programs remain fixed - in "customer acquisition mode" wherein affiliate commissions ASSUME each transaction comes from a new customer and was 100% attributable to the affiliate's efforts? Many marketers have nowhere to turn as affiliate solution providers have such in-flexible technology - not allowing for multiple "ways to pay."

Here are the gems from the article:

Continue reading "Multi-channel Shoppers & Affiliate Marketing"

Special thanks goes out to Shawn Collins who gave me a sneak peak at some of his AffStat 2005 report data. I have to admit, he asked some new and important questions this time around in addition to making routine inquiries of those charged with managing affiliate programs (marketers). He leaked a great bit of information out this week to Internet Retailer regarding affiliate trademark bidding practices in pay per click search engines.

Today, Shawn shared the following juicy tidbit. It resonated strongly with me... given the fact that I have made entries discussing the very same phenomenon that this bewildered affiliate manager refers to. Here's the excerpt from Shawn's report:

Continue reading "AffStat Report Promises Insights"

Tim Storm, CEO of Fatwallet.com, is making a comeback over at Revenews and he's in rare form... calling on affiliate networks to take things to the next level and provide cash-back (and other data-driven) affiliates with more sophisticated reporting. Heck, he's willing to recommend (to marketers who ask) the first network that does.

Indeed, any transactional network lives and dies by transactions. It seems silly to argue that one network does it better than any other... although it does happen and sometimes owners of networks even get involved. After all, it is important that networks, themselves, track as much as possible. Revenue is at stake and revenue drives valuation of companies like Performics, Commission Junction and privately held companies like Linkshare and Kowabunga.

What about marketers? Hmmm... it could be argued that they do not really want to get things tracked couldn't it? The merchant has everything to gain by omitting certain transactions from the file they send to their provider. In fact, there is only one major affiliate network out there that makes it possible for marketers to omit transactions with greater ease.

Continue reading "Storm to Affiliate Networks: "Here, Jump This""

Affiliate marketing. I've never seen an industry so filled with, yet starved for, data. Not that there haven't been some interesting releases... there have been from AffTrack (a larger effort having been snuffed out by multiple, expensive lawsuits emanating from a frightened affiliate network) to Forrester and, of course, Shawn Collins. Even though, most of the really good stuff is kept locked up by affiliate networks and marketers.

Last week, the industry's first "all online" conference rather un-expectedly found itself producing moderately interesting bits of affiliate marketing data... all gathered in real time and among show attendees who were polled by presenters. Each presentation had the option of providing 5 polling questions... allowing attendees to give responses and view group response totals/percentages in real time.

As an example, I learned the following about the composition of attendees in my session:

Continue reading "eComxpo: Affiliate Marketing Datafest 2005"