Affiliate Marketers Stirring Their Own Straws

time.jpgI did a similar post on my personal blog earlier this morning, but think is fitting for the CPN readership to ponder as well…

My friend Shawn Collins writes:

Affiliate marketers are the epitome of the Time Person of the Year accolade. They are the straws that stir the drink. Experimental Netizens that explore, test, and evolve.

I was not going to write about the Time Person of the Year (surprise, it’s “You”) which has gotten so much coverage in the blog universe. If you haven’t heard the news, you can read up on the much discussed “award” there.

However, I don’t think affiliate marketers, as a whole, are the experimental bunch that Shawn describes, and definitely not the epitome of the web2.0 movement.

Are affiliate markters, as a whole, resourceful? Yes. Are they experimental on the web2.0 level? No. Affiliates and affiliate marketers are good at using metrics and figuring out more efficient ways to move traffic from point A to point B, but few affiliates actually push the limits of the top-down hierarchical structure which was predominant on the webs before 2003.

I’m not arguing that affiliate marketers are bad people or ineffectual because of the slow adoption of next-gen platforms and services. But do we really think they are the epitome of what Time is describing as the Person of the Year?

Are there any affiliate marketers on Second Life? Are there any affiliate marketers on Twitter? Are there any affiliate marketers effectively using YouTube (or even MySpace beyond spamming and networking)? Do most affiliate marketers even know what StumbleUpon is? Or how to use Ma.gnolia and del.icio.us to gain quality readers? Flickr? Meebo? 30Boxes? Do most even use a feedreader and not just email subscriptions?  Widgets anyone?

The straws that stir the drink??  Hopefully one day, but not now.

The Value of Traffic

trafficsized.jpgInteresting discussions floating around the blogosphere about the value of traffic from various sources such as social networks, search results, organics, etc.  Putting a specific value on that traffic can be difficult because a static metric to measure the importance and monetary value from different traffic sources is hard to pin down.

Technology Evangelist has a nice summation of the discussion and includes some stats such as possible CPM figures on various traffic types:

Clearly, Yahoo of MySpace aren’t dependent on only one form of advertising. For example, MySpace generates PPC revenue from searches. Yahoo generates CPM revenue from tons of non-search related page views. Google has the highest percentage of search related click revenues of any company at this point. That’s where the big money and margins is at today. Could it move to other things, like online video advertising in pre or post-roll ads on YouTube or a new form of online advertising that hasn’t been invented yet? Absolutely. But for now, any valuation based on page views without taking revenue into consideration would be a mistake.

Are Affiliate Bloggers Worth Their Salt?

salt-shakerthumbnail.jpgRecently, there have been numerous discussions of hysterics, drama and link baiting by those in the affiliate marketing industry who blog. This discussion has run its course in other sectors of the online marketing and advertising spheres (think TechCrunch, TechMeme and the “echo chamber” discussion if you follow those conversations in the blogosphere).

In the spirit of FTC full disclosure: I think links are dead (that’s not hysterics and extends well outside of “affiliate” marketing), and view link baiting as pretty much worthless. The traffic you get from such antics rarely results in a conversion to reader based on the metrics and experiments I’ve run on my personal blog, so I prefer to engage people’s attention rather than their browser url. My LinkedIn profile is open to full view, so please take a look at that if you want to see where I’ve been, what I’ve done and what it might tell you about my own worldview within the context of affiliate marketing.

So, here are my questions and you’re free to add more:

  • Is there a place for blogging in the affiliate world?
  • Should it be all practical based or should there also be some speculation, theories and future thinking?
  • Is there a litmus test for who you read based on their experience in the industry?

Free Exposure: Your Stickers on My Laptop

Please send me your stickers for my new laptop. The laptop is a new Sony Vaio VGN-FE770G running Ubuntu Linux, and I want to cover the top of the machine with pretty stickers featuring my favorite companies.

What’s in it for you? Exposure at many online industry conferences (such as Affiliate Summit this January) and various online marketing meetings and conferences.

Send your sticker(s) to:
Sam Harrelson
7 Lookout Road East
Asheville, NC 28805

I’ll make a post about who sends stickers with a link to your site, affiliate program, affiliate network, CPA network or blog.

Here’s what the laptop looks like so far (that top sticker is a quote from Obi-Wan Kenobi that a friend provided, and yes I recognize the irony of having an Apple sticker on a Sony laptop… that’s the point)…

laptopface.jpg

Yahoo Denies Clickfraud, Offers Credit as Measure of Goodwill

yahoobang1.pngThe PepperJam Blog has an interesting account of a recent interaction with Yahoo over a potentially fraudulent situation involving unusual click numbers.

I suggest reading the entire account there, but here’s an interesting snippet…

FROM YAHOO (e-mail #2):

Thank you for your patience while our Loss Prevention team reviewed your activity….

In response to your concerns about the click activity your account has received, we have issued a goodwill credit to your Yahoo! Search Marketing account balance in the amount of $X,XXX.XX for clicks that were billed to your account during the period of November 19, 2006, to November 27, 2006.

Please note that we have issued this credit as a measure of goodwill and appreciation for your business. Please allow up to five business days for the adjustment to appear in your account.

Who says Google and Yahoo are all about automation?

Google Selling Domains

googappsforyourdomain.png

Google will begin to offer domains for $10 a year in partnership with GoDaddy.

“Hey, wait, Costin,” you say. “That’s great for them, but our organization doesn’t have a custom domain.”

Well, I’m excited to let you know that we’ve made signing up for Google Apps for Your Domain much easier for those of you that don’t yet have your own domain. We’ve partnered with GoDaddy.com and eNom, two leading domain registration services, to offer domains for $10 per year. And I like the fact that we’re including private registration to protect your personal information.

Now you’ve got one-stop shopping for all the services currently on the Google Apps for Your Domain platform — just find a domain, buy it, and get started. We’ll do all the behind-the-scenes configuration work for you. For now this is available for .com, .net,.org, .biz, and .info domains, but we’re working on bringing it elsewhere soon.

The Google Domain Registration service will result from a partnership with GoDaddy and eNom. Google is integrating the service with its Google Apps for Your Domain, which they are hoping to use to entice more people to their Google Pages and Checkout service.

So, the question begs… what is Google hoping to gain by providing free and easy web sites to small companies?

Merger-licious

Schmuel Tennenhaus is gathering quite a bit of publicity for his latest YouTube offering on the merger of AT&T and SBC.

“This matter is auspicious, ATT has good wishes, FCC don’t be vicious, wash the dishes,” Schmuel raps between suggestive finger wags. “BellSouth is so hot, merger-licious.”

Flaming Lips Utilize YouTube for Fan Interaction

I’m a huge fan of the Flaming Lips, so using this platform to plug their music doesn’t seem like such a bad idea when they are engaging in such cutting edge fan interaction as this.

You can submit a video to the Flaming Lips YouTube channel to see if you’re good enough to dance with the band during their New Year’s Eve show in LA. Dancing with the band is a time honored tradition, and normally involves some sort of animal suit. It’s strange, but that’s what community is all about.


This New Year’s Eve the Flaming Lips have decided they want to add a special guest to their line up…you.

This is your chance to be a part of the psychedelic cacophony that is the Lips. Your directive: To film yourself in short-form, auditioning to be a member of the Lips on-stage dance troupe; In-costume, showcasing your skills.

Submit your audition video for a chance to win a place on stage dancing with the Flaming Lips during their New Year’s Eve 2007 show in Los Angeles!

Sound good? Well, we think it sounds great.

The band has also put up all of their videos on their YouTube channel. Now that’s just awesome.

If you haven’t seen the Lips live, it’s up there with hearing Brian Littleton playing Rocket Man.

Online Advertising More Effective than Word of Mouth

No big surprise here…wordormouthsml.jpg

DoubleClick Inc., the premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, today announced the results of a study centered on determining how companies can focus marketing investments to impact the role “word of mouth” plays in purchase decisions. The study, titled “Influencing the Influencers: How Online Advertising and Media Impact Word of Mouth,” is part of a series of reports based on DoubleClicks Touchpoints IV survey of online consumers.

The DoubleClick Touchpoints IV survey results revealed that influencers consider online advertising a key factor of their shopping process, second only to websites, as a source of further learning about purchase decisions. Nineteen percent of influencers cited web advertising as a source of information when they were researching a purchase, compared to 8 percent among the remainder of the sample. Both segments cited websites as their top source of research when they are shopping, but influencers clearly rely more on the web than non-influencers, with 40 percent of influencers citing websites for this purpose versus 31 percent of non-influencers.

More interesting stats and methodologies to chew on, so check out the press release about the survey here.