Lisa Picarille, Shawn Collins, Jim Kukral and Sam Harrelson discuss the week's news in affiliate marketing and online tech news.
Show Notes
– Affiliate Summit Tips
– Scoble Sells Out
– Ethical Standards and Blogging
– 45n5 and Affiliate Spam
– WickedFire N00bery
– John Chow
– Izea, PayPerPost and Ethics
– 5 Seconds of Suck
– Shawn is Yoko Ono
– Why is Jason Calacanis Affiliate Summit Keynote?!?
– Auto Approval Sucks… or Does It?
– Affiliate Certification?
One of my favorite events (or at least the one with the best food) at the Affiliate Summit is the Christian Affiliate Marketing Assoc’s Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues.
This is the second year the CAMA is putting on the event, and it should be even better this year since transportation is being provided from the Rio (where the Affiliate Summit is being held) down to the House of Blues. Last year, I walked from where Wayne Porter and I were camping all the way to the H.O.B. and I have to say that I got my exercise on that chilly morning. Good times.
The 2nd Annual Gospel Brunch, presented by the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association, is taking place at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on Sunday, February 24, 2008 from 8:45 AM to 11:30 AM. Yes, it’s early and most of you will have been partying late into the night on Saturday night, but you could probably use some good food and fellowship to cure that hangover and wash away some of the Sin City taint. In all seriousness, it’s a great event and I highly recommend. As the CAMA points out, you don’t have to be a Christian or from any denomination to attend (and no one is going to beat you over the head with the book of Deuteronomy to make you change your sinnin’ ways…).
So, if you need a moment of respite, rest and fellowship during a hectic Affiliate Summit week, make sure to attend the Gospel Brunch.
Missy Ward and Shawn Collins of the Affiliate Summit Conference are heading up a “pre-show” on WebMasterRadio tomorrow at 1pm. I’ll be taking part as a participant along with Jim Kukral, Wil Reynolds and Stephanie Agresta:
The Affiliate Summit Pre Show will feature the following guests:
Stephanie Agresta – Founder of Stephanie Agresta Consulting, which helps online entrepreneurs and emerging technology companies realize effective, cost-efficient online marketing programs
Sam Harrelson – VP of Biz Dev for OnCard Marketing and one of performance marketingâs best-known voices, designer of affiliate programs for top retailers, operator of marketing networks and manager of a variety of consumer advertising channels
Jim Kukral of JimKukral.com and active, multiple-roled participant in the affiliate marketing industry and leading expert in the blogosphere, recently awarded the Affiliate Summit âBest Bloggerâ award for his voice and participation, also former publisher of ReveNews.com
Wil Reynolds – Founder of SEER Interactive, dedicated to driving traffic to sites from search engines and analyzing the impact that traffic has on the bottom line of companies
More on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com.
Make sure to listen in as this should be a very good show. I’ll try to get a copy to post here and we’ll hopefully have one up on GeekCast.fm for you to tune into as well.
Forget the age old CPA networks vs affiliate networks argument.
What about CPA vs CPC? That argument stirs up fun fighting words.
Aaron Goldman has an interesting piece on SearchInsider about this issue and the potential for macroeconomic trends to have a very real impact on the search and direct response industries:
Will CPA Get its Day?
There are a couple macro trends that lead me to believe a move to CPA might be in the cards. The first is consolidation in the space. For the first time, each of the Big 3 owns reputable ad serving technology. Not only does this provide access to conversion activity, but it delivers more reliable data that marketers will accept for billing purposes. The second is a movement toward transparency thatâs pervading all facets of the marketing landscape. The inherent conflicts within GoogleClick, MicQuantive, and YahRightMedia demand a level of transparency heretofore unseen in the search space. There is simply no more transparent pricing model than CPA.
My take is that it is clear that marketers across the board have yet to realize the impact that CPA can have on the overall market economy given the reliance of more and more web2.0, mobile, video or social platforms on response instead of click or impression.
Clearly, there’s a need for improved and evolved metrics in online marketing. I think CPA could be hinting at the possible future of all online advertising and marketing.
Thoughts?
From my favorite new Flickr set, “Understanding Art For Geeks”
Last.fm has probably been my favorite “social” network since I joined in 2005. If you’re a Last.fm user, add me here.
With last week’s launch of the pepperjamNETWORK and the discussion that ensued about the role of affiliate networks in the online marketing space, it’s interesting to take note of some of the other networks out there that exist (in size but not necessarily quality) between the CJ/Linkshare/Performics/ShareASale affiliate network model and the more direct response driven CPA networks.
One of those networks is North Carolina based LinkConnector. LinkConnector has been active in the industry since 2004, but it looks as if they are picking up steam and advertisers according to a new press release.
LinkConnector kicked off 2008 with nine merchants from the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide, tripling its market share reach, and closing the gap between itself and other large networks, such as Commission Junction. LinkConnector has redefined for many merchants and affiliates what it is they want from an affiliate marketing network. Many merchants from the Top 500 Guide selected LinkConnector for its exclusive technologies, not found in other networks, and for its notable list of high quality affiliates.
“Many top Internet retailers took notice of LinkConnector in 2007, seeking new and better solutions in affiliate marketing,” said Choots Humphries, LinkConnector Co-President. “Internet Retailer’s independent survey affirms that we are rapidly capturing market share. We believe this is due in part to our exclusive technologies and unique approaches, differentiating us from the crowd. We expect to again grow by more than 100 percent in 2008, providing affiliate marketing solutions to a growing number of merchants from the Top 500 List.”
So, the important question here is how networks such as LinkConnector, or the new pepperjamNETWORK or even the increasingly important CPA networks like AzoogleAds (not to mention agencies like MediaWhiz or the budding widget ad networks) will impact both the affiliate market and the more mentioned “Big 4” networks?
Is there even a “Big 4” anymore?
2008 should be fun as we find out.
I could watch this all day long: