Month: March 2008

Why I’m Bullish on AOL

aol.jpg

On last Friday’s “Paying for Performance” podcast, Jeff Molander remarked that I’m rather bullish on AOL’s position in the online advertising market. I think with new president Lynda Clarizio in place, my optimism about them be proven true…

AOL Highlights Platform-A Integration Focus With Unified Search Marketing Services | paidContent.org: “AOL announced that Platform-A has combined contextual ad targeter Quigo’s FeedPoint search marketing tool with Advertising.com’s OutSearch data analysis product.

Secondly, the combination of the OutSearch’s “bid management solutions” for buying keywords and FeedPoint’s analytic tools, also highlights another recent area AOL hopes to be more active in: ecommerce. In February, AOL acquired UK-based affiliate marketing network Buy.at, which was intended to round out Platform-A’s ad network offerings with online sales and performance-based marketing solutions.

AOL has a tremendous amount of potential due to its reach into the global performance and display ad business, which is where Google is lacking (hence the DoubleClick acquisition). Add to that the existing long-term relationships that AOL has with global brands with deep pockets looking for more responsive and performance-based advertising, and AOL’s future looks bright.

It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of AOL from darling in the 90’s to pariah in the early ’00’s into global advertising powerhouse in the late ’00’s into the ’10’s. Keep your eye on AOL and its subsidiaries.

Performics Employ Submit Resumes?

Is this potentially true for Performics as well?

Google Makes DoubleClick Employees Apply To Keep Their Jobs – Silicon Alley Insider: “Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned DoubleClickers that Google still hadn’t decided how many (and which) of them to fire. Now, Google has reportedly ordered DoubleClickers to submit their resumes to a committee so Google can determine if they’re actually Google material.”

I hope not… lots of good folks over at Perfomics so hopefully there will be no blood-letting. There’s still speculation that Performics will get spun off since Google doesn’t want to double dip in the SEO space, but I don’t see that happening.

Azoogle’s Pitch

Azoogle’s Don Mathis gives their elevator pitch at AlwaysOn…

Azoogle | AlwaysOn: “AzoogleAds, founded in 2000, is an end-to-end online marketing solutions provider for advertisers, publishers and online affiliates. Initially a pioneer in performance-based marketing, AzoogleAds generates the highest volumes of quality traffic through its affiliate network, its proprietary search technologies and optimization, and its in-house CPM/CPA/CPC Media Buying.”

Head over there to watch the short video. Interesting to hear Azoogle’s take on performance advertising and how they see it as the future of all online advertising, especially CPA.

eBay Leaves Commission Junction, Starting eBay Partner Network

ebay.pngThis morning, eBay is announcing that they are moving their affiliate program in house to the eBay Partner Network effective April 1, 2008 (no fool’s day joke). eBay is also bringing Half.com over to the new network. Affiliates and publishers need to have links changed over by May 1, 2008.

Of course, this means that eBay is leaving Commission Junction as its affiliate network platform. This is a blow against CJ in terms of a solid long lasting program with significant revenues and strong brand name in a month where CJ is already wrapped up in a PR food fight with Pepperjam Network.

With over 60,000 affiliates here in the United States and 100,000 affiliates worldwide, eBay is a significant powerhouse in the affiliate marketing world. So why the move?

I spoke to the Senior Manager of the eBay affiliate program, Will Martin-Gill, and he emphasized that the move had nothing to do with a dissatisfaction with CJ or ValueClick.

Instead, Martin-Gill said it was time to bring the affiliate program in-house the same way eBay brought their search services in-houe a couple of yeas ago. Martin-Gill told me eBay is also looking to build in more flexibility and innovation into their program to reach and sustain the more diverse crowd of affiliates and publishers on the web today and to have a direct relationship with those affiliates (key point, I believe). In short, eBay wants more control over data and wants to be able to coordinate across marketing channels.

Martin-Gill said the international factor was also a major reason for the move away from CJ to in-house managing of the affiliate program. eBay is looking to turn its program into a global platform where publishers and affiliates can sign up to all the various country-specific programs at once through the same interface.

Shopping API’s and eventually RSS will be implemented into the program as well as in-depth reporting.

I also spoke with ValueClick VP John Ardis and CJ’s Dave Osmond on Friday about eBay’s departure. They emphasized the mutual good will on both sides and said the move was not a surprise, but something that CJ had been working with eBay on for the last couple of years realizing the needs that eBay had for their affiliate program.

Ardis also pointed out that eBay is not severing all ties with ValueClick or Commission Junction since VC’s Mediaplex tracking solution is being used for the eBay Publisher Network and Tradera AB, ProStores, Reseller Marketplace, Media Marketplace, eBay Stores and StubHub will continue to be on the CJ platform.

This is certainly a major development and could signal a sea change for the place of the networks in the affiliate marketing world. We’ll have to see how affiliates and merchants respond to the news.

I Can’t Wait for Flickr Video

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The long standing rumors that Flickr would open a video channel for users to share their uploaded video content similar to their wonderful photo sharing service looks like it will finally be validated according to TechCrunch.

So the question becomes… why? With YouTube, Viddler, Blip.tv, Revver (?), Vimeo, Metacafe, etc why would Flickr want to get into such a crowded space.

Matthew Ingram raises similar questions:

One question on Flickr Video: Why? – – mathewingram.com/work: “So Mike Arrington says in a post over at TechCrunch that Flickr is going to be adding video soon — really. This rumour has been around for awhile, as Mike himself acknowledges, and in fact Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield has been talking about adding video for at least a year. One obvious question is why it has taken so long (likely answer: Yahoo red tape), but a related question is: Why bother?”

Here’s my take: I can’t wait for video on Flickr. The community of friends and colleagues that I’ve created around my photos there is a very valuable and high quality one with which would love to share video.

nelson.jpgI can’t say the same for any other video uploading platform, especially YouTube. Have you ever posted a video on YouTube and taken the time to read the comments that follow? In other words, the “community” on YouTube is terrible and reminds me of a middle school lunch room full of Nelsons.

So, just for my own selfish sharing reasons, I am excited about Flickr Video.

Affiliate Panel at Web2.0 Expo

I’ll be speaking on a panel at the upcoming Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Lisa Picarille (Revenue Magazine), Stephanie Agresta (Affiliate Karma), Marc Levin (formerly of Yahoo) and Cam Blazer of DoubleClick Performics and I will be discussing responsible affiliate marketing strategies in a web2.0 world…

The Changing Landscape of Affiliate Marketing: Bloggers, Social Media and Online Merchants : Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco 2008 — Co-produced by CMP Technology & O’Reilly Conferences, 04/22/2008 – 04/25/2008, San Francisco, CA: “Affiliate marketing is a proven way to monetize online content, and emerging publishers know it’s important to maximize relationships with merchants. Merchants also derive value from the growth of the blogosphere and social media. Experts in affiliate marketing (representing the publisher, merchant and affiliate network perspectives) will explore how these new publishing paradigms use existing affiliate models, and further enhance strategies for monetization of blog and social media content.”

Should be a blast and will be the first time I’ll have spoken at Web2.0 Expo. Let me know if you’ll be there.

BTW, where is everyone staying? I need to “get a room.”

Free Full Pass to Affiliate Summit East

The Affiliate Summit team is having a mini-contest for a free pass to the Affiliate Summit East event coming up in Boston on Aug 10-12 just announced on Twitter…

Twitter / Affiliate Summit: Share an idea for Affiliate…: “Share an idea for Affiliate Summit by midnight tonight – if we use it, you get a free full pass for Boston http://tinyurl.com/3698wl”

If you do affiliate marketing on any level, this is a must-attend event. So, hop on this if you’re looking for a way to score a full pass.

Marketing to Millennials with Molander and the Gang

I did the Jeff Molander “Paying for Performance” podcast yesterday since the subject was on marketing to millennials (that age group born between 1980 and 1995). I was born in ’78 and share many characteristics of this much-stereotyped group, so I thought it might be fun to discuss.

Paying For Performance: “So who are these people and is what we hear in the media really true? To what degree and to what degree is this being over-sensationalized? What ARE the expectations of the people entering our workforce and are they out of line with those who are in need of hiring them?”

Here’s the mp3 for download, or you can head over to the site to listen to the stream.

Hot Trends is Hot Marketers Resource

gasbuddy.pngI’ve said time and again that I live my online existence through my feed reader (NetNewsWire on the Mac at the moment). Everything from email to Twitter messages from my favorite people flows into there.

One thing that I always enjoy checking is the hourly update of Hot Trends from Google search. For instance, GasBuddy.com was hot a few hours ago. Evidently there was a report on soaring gas prices here in the states and ways to save money at the pump..

Google Trends: gasbuddy.com, Mar 15, 2008

Of course, Ashley Alexandra Dupre (of Spitzer fame) is hot as well as the college basketball tournaments that precede March Madness.

hot trends
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

In other words, Hot Trends is a way for you to see what is hot all throughout the day in a convenient RSS feed. If you’re a keyword or niche marketer, the long time data is a gold mine for staying ahead of the curve and watching how fast certain topics, or keywords, go from being hot to cool.

Coming Back

As part of my settlement after leaving ReveNews, I get to retain the ownership of CostPerNews.

Welcome back, everybody. This place is going to fire up again. You ready to go?

Hope you stick around 🙂

Sam

CostPerNews FTW

If you’re here for affiliate or online marketing posts, you might also want to check out the revived CostPerNews site that I love so much and get to keep…

Cost Per News: “As part of my settlement after leaving ReveNews, I get to retain the ownership of CostPerNews.”

It’s going to be a blast dusting off the cobwebs and getting that place back in order. Join me?

Calacanis on GeekCast: Mahalo Affiliate Workshop

Shawn, Jim, Lisa and I did a special GeekCast (our weekly geek marketing podcast) today with weblebrity Jason Calacanis of Mahalo.

I think this is our best show yet and offered a ton of practical affiliate marketing advice along with the customary humor and irreverence.

GeekCast 9: Jason’s First Time : GeekCast.fm: “Lisa Picarille, Jim Kukral (Kurkal), Shawn Collins and Sam Harrelson were joined by Jason Calacanis for a 45 min long conversation about how Mahalo should incorporate affiliate and performance marketing monetization techniques. The conversation became a workshop applicable to any business looking to monetize content through the affiliate channel and has a high amount of practical value (as well as the normal ratholes and humor).”

Go have a listen on the GeekCast page or download the podcast mp3:

Yahoo Just Got Cool Again

Yahoo is embracing semantic web standards / microformats…

Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web – Expect The Internet To Organize Itself In A Hurry: “What does all this mean? It means we can expect the web to get itself organized, in a hurry. At stake is a significant amount of traffic from Yahoo search, and anyone else that may choose to build applications on top of this data.”

In other words, all those random social networks and places of content creation that you have joined or participated in (MySpace, LinkedIn, blogger.com, etc) are going to be more easily incorporated into Yahoo search because the data will be properly structured on the backend.

This is huge and has been a coming avalanche one snowflake at a time.

Hats off to Yahoo and all the open standards evangelists like Chris Messina that have made this happen.

Updated: Marshall Kirkpatrick has a great piece about what this all means on RWW

Amazon, Affiliates and Facebook

TechCrunch is reporting on a new set of Facebook Apps from Amazon.com. First, let me say that I absolutely love Amazon.com and it has changed how I buy everything from toilet paper to music (the DRM-free mp3 store kicks iTunes’ butt) to toys to electronic gear.

In no small way, that game changing is due to the feedback and product reviews from actual purchasers and users. They still make a big difference if I’m torn between two competing products. Even if I’m at a physical store like Best Buy, I’ll often browse to Amazon on my mobile and do some quick research on the fly before a purchase.

So, it would be killer if Amazon could or would integrate its associate program with this new Facebook app…

Amazon’s Latest Product Launch is a Couple of Facebook Apps: “Amazon has now officially joined the Facebook craze. It has launched two of its own Facebook applications: Amazon Giver and Amazon Grapevine.

Amazon Giver shows your Amazon wishlist on your Facebook page. Of course, there are more than a dozen apps on Facebook that already let you do that, but only Amazon Giver lets your friends actually buy those gifts for you without leaving Facebook. Ah, distributed commerce. Your friends can also click on a recommendations tab that creates Amazon product recommendations based on interests reflected in your Facebook profile. So if you are ‘fan’ of The Killers, it might recommend one of the band’s CDs. If you are a ‘fan’ of a soccer page, it might recommend a soccer ball. It also provides recommendations for your friends, conveniently listed by closest birthday.”

Think it’ll happen? I’m not so sure, but this would be a very steady revenue stream for Amazon and influencers who use Amazon and Facebook.

I’m chalking this one up to a possible “affiliate marketing future” paradigm, even if it is the old skool Amazon program.

Hulu, Radioshift and the End of Scheduled Programming

I’ve been in the beta of Hulu for the last few months, and I have to say that I’m loving the service. New shows, old shows, rather new movies and old movies…. fantastic.

Between this, bittorrent, Joost (they are carrying March Madness live this year) and Apple’s iTunes movie rental service and ability to download Lost, I’m seriously considering canceling cable. Now if Nascar would only go online…

Here’s a clip from The Jerk, which I’m watching now:

http://www.hulu.com/embed/HsIOWOOx6OKr1bnfM0uNjg

The ability to share, create a profile and embed stuff from Hulu is really nice and will help with the adoption. I just wonder if they’ll keep that around since I could basically just embed entire movies here.

The age of having to watch or listen to a program at a certain time is over. I rarely listen to FM music anymore with my ever growing collection of music and iPod. I do have a thing for AM radio, but there’s a great app for the Mac called Radioshift which allows you to rip AM from the stream. Add to that the two dozen or so podcasts that I actively listen to and I just don’t have the time or need for scheduled programming.

Amazing times we live in, folks.

8 Random Things About Sam Harrelson

James Omdahl asked me to take part in the “8 Random Things About Me” meme. Although I hate these memes, I like James so I’ll play along.

1. I cut my finger off just before I entered 9th grade. I was on a boating trip with my parents the weekend before school started and got my hand caught between the edge of the boat and the dock when another boat sped by and knocked our boat against the dock. I got my left hand out in time, but my right hand wasn’t fast enough. I ended up slicing off the end of my ring finger (from the top knuckle up) and crushing my other fingers. We actually saved the finger and it got re-attached. However, I have no feeling in it, so typing “L’s” and “O’s” on a keyboard is a pain.

2. Speaking of fingers, I can bend my pinky fingers all the way back. I have a rare condition called Ehlor’s Danlos that results in “hypermobility.” Basically, I’m like Rubber Band Man.

3. I love scifi book and movies. I’m reading 5 or 6 scifi books at anytime. Edgar Rice Burroughs (Martian Tales and Tarzan) is my favorite author. I’m also a huge Robert Heinlein fan. Science fiction is the last bastion of theology and philosophy in this post-modern age.

4. I’m working towards a PhD in Assyriology. I should be finished by now, but I started the program at Yale in 2000 and moved back to SC with my wife in 2002 so that she could attend medical school. Looks like I’ll be finishing around 2050 or so at this rate. I did, however, get a book published by Yale Press on Assyriology in 2006 called Asia Has Claims Upon New England. I was proud.

5. I met Ravi Shankar at an Anoushka Shankar concert in Newberry, SC a few years ago. I’ve never shaken hands with someone so awe-inspiring.

6. I want to be a teacher. I’ve been an 8th grade Science teacher and a Religious Studies Prof at a small univ in NC. Both were great experiences but I realized that you can be a teacher in whatever capacity you serve… even in marketing.

7. Macaroni and cheese (Kraft out of the box with way too much pepper and skim milk) is my favorite food.

8. When I graduated college with a Religion degree, I had every intention of becoming a minister (did the Pre-Ministerial club and everything) because of my experience in the AmeriCorps. I went to seminary for two years and realized that I was a heretic and got out with a master’s degree in Religion and Ancient Art. Jesus still loves me (I think).

Thanks for the nod, James… that ended up being more fun than I thought it would be.

Say It Ain’t So, Twitter

I’ve said over and over that I hope Twitter doesn’t go down the route of being acquired by Micro/Hoo/Goo. Even an ad deal with one of them seems a little troublesome to me (but it’s a business, so they’ve got to pay the bills).

I think Twitter has the potential to become a platform to compliment pop3 or IMAP with open 2 way API’s.

Yahoo & Twitter Ad Partnership in the Works?: “I just signed up for a new Twitter account today and my first Twitter generated friend was Yahoo! or Yahoo Search Marketing’s YahooAdBuzz Twitter profile…”

This probably doesn’t hint at anything substantive, but it does make me nervous.