Month: January 2007

Thanks to Asa Dotzler and the Firefox team for sending over the t-shirt and showing some love…

You guys rock. Keep on changing the world, one browser at a time!

(I’m still waiting on my PodTech shirt, Robert!)

I’m seeing more and more affiliates attempting to monetize the registration path of their offers before the traffic redirects to the merchant or network’s offer page. A few “affiliate gurus” at the Affiliate Summit were even prescribing a complicated version of this method to “better monetize traffic.”

I’m not comfortable with this approach, and find it incredibly disruptive for both the visitor, affiliate and merchant.

How are merchants combating this sort of tactic?

Email has some serious obstacles in the current marketing context:

Spam.

Bounce backs.

Blacklists.

Near zero open rates.

Poor conversion rates on those opens.

Is email still worth it?

Yes.

However, you have to develop a highly relevant and involved format, rather than just an announcement of new programs, coupons or special deals. Those are wonderful “call to actions,” but they are not going to cause your customer base to open an email.

Instead, allow for full transparency and let readers/customers/users know the benefits of subscribing (beyond “GREAT DEALS AND HOT NEW COUPONS!”). Use email like you use your blog (don’t have one yet? tsk tsk… set one up over the weekend). Make email an involved conversational point that readers will want to open.

There’s a powerful place for brand advertising inside of an email.
Speaking of blogs and emails… who would be interested in a weekly or monthly CostPerNewsletter digest with extra content?

Last week, Wikipedia enacted a “nofollow” format, effectively cutting off any credit for outbound links from the popular user generated online encylopedia.

Now, there is discussion as to whether or not other popular, yet easily “gamed” social networking sites will follow Wikipedia’s lead and implement their own nofollow policy. This would help to ease the strain of spam and gaming that occurs on sites such as Digg, Reddit, TailRank and even TechMeme.

Allen Stern of CenterNetworks raises the issue of Digg enacting a nofollow policy and what ramifications it may have on attempts to game the social news site in order to receive increased traffic and better search rankings…

So my question is… should Digg do the same thing? When I look at the upcoming stories in Tech News (the biggest category), the posts come in like hot cakes. Besides the fact that so many are duplicates, how many are there for the sole purpose of gaining more inbound links.

I think going nofollow may remove a good bit of the “corporate” spam we see on Digg. Will people still spam Digg in the hopes of hitting the home page? Yep. But it may help deter users who are using Digg for the sole purpose of gaining inbound link traction.

Inevitably, these sites will seek an easy way to curtail the rise of corporate or adsense-farm driven spam that dilutes communities, frustrates users and drives down the value of a social platform. Even tag spam is becoming a problem for these sites and the core users of the platforms.

Will the nofollow inertia continue over into blogging, social search (think Sidekiq or the coming Jimmy Wales powered Wiki search)? If more of these social media sites see nofollow as the solution to the spam and “gaming” problem, how will SEO ultimately be affected?

When CostPerNews officially launched on November 1, two of my five one year statistic goals included crossing a level 3 Google PR rank and being within the top 50,000 blogs on Technorati.

I’m proud to say that within three months, I’ve met those two goals and the site is now a level 5 on the Google rank and ranks in the top 40,000 on Technorati. I don’t give a lot of credence to page view metrics, but the Google and Technorati ranks are not just about page views. They also represent consistent quality and lots of discussion. I think we’ve achieved some of that here on CostPerNews.

So, to celebrate, I’m pushing CPN out of “beta” and into a more stable backend. I decided while I was at it that I would give the site a complete redesign. If you’re reading the feed, please visit and let me know what you think.

Click around, see what you think and poke holes in the site structure (Jangro). Let me know what I need to improve, what you like, what you hate and what I can do to continue to make this an interesting space for discussion and investigation.

CostPerNews, like life and our conceptions of online marketing, is a constant work in progress! I’ll be upgrading to WordPress 2.1 over the weekend, so a few more tweaks will be coming…

(Thanks for the Love, Carsten!)

Google continues to pour on the Checkout blitz.

Now, products from companies affiliated with the Checkout service are denoted in the top “sponsored links” area with large Checkout images.

I’d love to see data on the effectiveness of these buttons (considering Google isn’t a fan of publishers using images to draw attention to AdSense contextual ads)…

Here’s an image…

By the way, Tim Storm from Fatwallet directed me to a fantastic laptop case that I’d like to purchase. If anyone has an eBags affiliate link they’d like for me to use (or a link from a competitor with similar products), send it over and I’ll use it for the case I want to purchase (and for future purchases). I know that’s not always kosher, but we’re all friends here, right?

Popular sites such as Time.com, Dow Jones Market Watch, ZDNet, TechCrunch and GigaOM utilize the Sphere widget in order to allow users relevant and personalized search platforms based on their own interests and reading habits.

I’ve just partnered with Sphere to also implement the widget here on CostPerNews to help facilitate conversation and promote good content. I consider Sphere a cross of StumbleUpon and Technorati with a dash of Techmeme thrown in for good measure.

What I do enjoy about Sphere, and the reason I encourage all of you to use it, is the fact that smaller blogs with less traffic but higher quality are easily discovered using Sphere. About a third of the feeds I subscribe to are a direct result of my use of Sphere. These are blogs with well constructed and highly interesting content about Sumerian archaeology, string theory, pencil fetishes (I’m a pencil/pen collector), and of course, online marketing and the social web.

To get the Sphere widget placed on your site is a complicated process involving personal emails with the Sphere team and a regular check of the content you are producing. This is especially true for WordPress blogs. That does help keep the quality of “sphere’d” sites high, though.

So, give Sphere a go and enjoy some new blogs you haven’t found yet.

I’ve also installed a button for the Jaxtr service over on the far right sidebar. The service is still in an invite-only private beta, but I’ve enjoyed the tests I’ve been running through Jaxtr. Basically, if you have VOIP set up on your computer, you can click to “call me” on my mobile without having to go through Skype or a similar service. Behind Jaxtr is a founder of LinkedIn, so I have faith in the service.

Jaxtr is intended for the MySpace/Friendster crowd. When you contact a person through the Jaxtr button on their site, neither the caller nor the recepient of the call has their number displayed, so it is ideal for some types of affiliate marketing programs as well.

Yes, I know it is problematic for some to throw out that kind of immediate access and contact (my number is 803-413-6834 for good measure), but when I’m not at my computer, I have my mobile with me, and it’s a convenient way to reach me.

So, give that a try. It’s for you to use and abuse as you see fit (though please do more of the former than the latter).

Let me know if you have any other ideas to make this site the best possible place for discussion and information!

Sam

In my spare time (all 10 minutes a day of it), I have been working on my Japanese, which along with the mobile marketing presentation at this year’s Affiliate Summit West by Linkshare VP Karen Verelly, has me thinking…

When will mobile infiltrate the US to the point that mobile users begin purchasing things through mobile auctions?

Will it take a mobile eBay with PayPal mobile? Or a GooglePhone pre-loaded with Checkout and Google Buy (or Google Auction)?

I think it will rely on the divorce between the hardware makers and the service companies. The iPhone partnering exclusive with Cingular (AT&T) was a major step backwards when it could have driven the mobile marketing revolution here in the US.

What is Linkshare doing to make this sea change happen sooner than later?

Think of:

Obopay

UnwiredBuyer

ClickandBuy