Category: Affiliates

Looks like someone is catching the bug…

Twitter / Jason Calacanis: oh snap,we sold two items o…: “oh snap,we sold two items on CJ.com!$15 buckseach for a Real.comSuper pass. $15 *each* -puts the CPM on that page at $7.50 for *one* link.”

Now multiply that by all of the Mahalo pages with quality content, and you can haz business model.

I’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.

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.

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

I have to wonder how close we are to a “cheap computer” revolution when linux based laptops start eating into the non-Apple laptop market.

I know personally that the Asus eee is a fantastic little piece of tech. I’ve said more than once that it is my favorite laptop ever (even more than the high end Dell I had for a few years and my new MacBook Pro).

So, the thought of Windows moving into this territory and squishing some of the linux momentum scares me…

Asus and Microsoft working an Eee-targeted version of Windows 7? – Engadget: “Given the Eee’s ‘other requirements,’ Asus and Microsoft ‘couldn’t go the Vista route,’ presumably because the Eee doesn’t really have the horsepower for it. Sure, but what caught our interest was that Microsoft is ‘in close discussions with Asus [regarding] how to take that forward… in regards to the Windows 7 Europe timeframe.’ Windows 7, you’ll recall, has that lean new kernel, which would presumably make building a stripped-down version specifically for Eee-class machines easier — but the last we heard, Windows 7 wasn’t due until at least mid-2009 (and possibly not until 2011), so either Microsoft is planning to continue shipping XP after June or Windows 7 is coming much earlier than we thought. Our money is on XP continuing to soldier on, but here’s hoping.”

What does this have to do with online marketing? A great deal, I believe since the machine that people use to access the web or get things done has a great deal of influence on how they view online products or services. The more people that wise up to linux and open source products, the more people become web and savings savvy.

Looks like the “affiliate spammers” are starting early at Penn State University.

Although, this is more of a CPA network offer (email/lead based) than an affiliate offer, but few people in online marketing can actually cite the difference between affiliate and cpa, let alone innocent bystanders who get creamed with this sort of unsolicited garbage.

Penn State Affiliate Marketer Spamming Fellow Students: “I can’t believe someone on the PSU domain is spamming me with an affiliate offer. I received this email from the President of ‘PSU Free Student Offers.’ This character named Samantha Volley is obviously fake, and I confirmed it because the name is not in the Penn State Directory or even Facebook.”

Again, this raises the Calacanis Keynote question of how to “clean up” the affiliate industry but also brings in the interesting component of how affiliates should kick their often less-than-honorable lead based cousins to the curb…

Here’s a quick vid updating you on the status of the soon-to-be ReveNews move to WordPress: