Category: Affiliates

Exactly…

“attention is not monetized, gestures are”

Twitter / Steve Gillmor

Merchants and affiliate marketers have been able to avoid the complication of state taxes on transactions, but that may be coming to an end if a New York state bill is made law and catches on with other cash-strapped states…

InternetNews Realtime IT News – ‘Amazon Tax’ Lands in New York: “The so-called ‘Amazon tax’ closes a loophole for Internet retailers who derive sales through affiliate programs in which Web site owners place a link to the merchant on their site and earn a commission on sales made from referrals. In lobbying for the bill, the industry group representing New York retailers had argued that the exemption from the sales-tax collection requirement gave out-of-state online retailers an unfair competitive advantage. “

Keep an eye on this one.

Marketing on the web is a constantly evolving practice mixed with a touch of art and success based on intuition. In other words, it’s very hard to come up with a solidified tried-and-true formula for marketing on the web that can be easily replicated. There are just too many variables, and time is an incredibly important vector in web marketing.

Add to this mix the realization that mobile web browsing will explode in the coming decade and web marketers should not feel guilty for scratching their heads and trying to figure out the best way to position themselves for the future.

Mobile Browser Market is Transforming and Will Grow to 1.5 Billion Units in 2013 | Press Release | ABI Research: “While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device. ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.“

How do we, as web marketers, make sure that we are in a position to play in the exploding mobile field? Display ads as we know them don’t work in a mobile paradigm. So, here are a few thoughts and possibilities for how to succeed in the mobile world:

1) Increased focus on mobile friendly sites that work both on the web and on mobiles and include clear call-to-actions (either affiliate, branding or lead based).

2) Dedicated mobile sites that are light on bandwidth but heavy on immediacy.

3) Heavy reliance on geo and demographic targeting as well as device targeting. Marketing experiences on an iPhone are much different than on a BlackBerry or a Motorola Q (not to mention non “smart phone”). Mass marketing and mobile are not happy bedfellows.

4) Mobile landing sites that encourage the “learn more” approach where the viewer can get more information via email, rss or related channels. AdMob is doing very interesting things with this concept.

5) Diving even more into the long tail and finding communities and hubs where dedicated and highly motivated readers/participants are more likely to use a mobile device in a marketing scenario and follow through with a purchase/conversion/sign up.

Whether or not you’re interested in the mobile space as an affiliate marketer or as a merchant leveraging the affiliate channel, one thing is clear… you need to be interested. Turning a blind eye to mobile and not being prepared for the future will lead to an expensive exercise in playing catch up in the coming years.

Steve Rubel posits that we are in for a global climate change type scenario on the web caused by the proliferation and unbridled polluting of web marketers…

Micro Persuasion: An All Too Convenient Truth: Many Marketers Pollute the Web: “The web is facing it’s own global warming crisis as marketers continue to pollute it. Consumers are voting with their clicks and eyeballs by engaging with authentic content that adds value, while ignoring the rest.”

I completely agree with him.

Steve’s supposition that consumers (yes, I still hate that term) are ignoring blanket marketing messages is accurate (at least from my stats and many other affiliate and online marketers). Remember how all the characters ignored the massive Coca-Cola billboards in Blade Runner? We’re there. We’re polluters of the senses and the web.

So, what do we do? What’s our analogue to the Kyoto Protocol?

1) Make good content. Be sticky. Offer a long term appeal and value proposition to people. Stop making MFA sites or PPC thin sites. Plus, they just aren’t economical…the margins aren’t there anymore.

2) Go multimedia. Make video, do podcasts, take pictures. People like that kind of thing. See #1.

3) Stop rehashing what everyone else is saying and talk about what you know. Find ads to structure around what you know. Those ads are out there.

4) Stop thinking that StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Twitter, YourMamaHasASocialNetwork are all great places to get traffic. They’re not. They’re terrible traffic for marketers who just want performance conversions. They are good for marketers who are making good sticky content. There are very few marketers like that on the web at the moment.

5) Think outside the box. Brainstorm. Don’t rehash. You can be an individual and be a marketer. Those things are not mutually exclusive despite what Techmeme or the eBooks tell you (and stop reading eBooks).

We do need to clean up our act and build for the future. Or, you can keep playing the short term game while those of us in the performance marketing world evolve and adapt and realize the benefits of a more “green” type of web marketing. Your choice.

Angel Djambazov of Jones Soda’s affiliate program pointed me to what might be the greatest marketing scheme of all time… making your LOLCat famous.

Make Ur Lolcat Famous Contest « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures – I Can Has Cheezburger?: “Jones Soda wanted to put a lolcat on their clever soda bottles across the country. So we asked if we can run a contest to find that special lol. (It’s like American Idol, but we don’t has to listen to ur singing voice.)”

Despite my wife’s eye rolling every time I check icanhascheezburger.com (or wear my tshirt from them), I still love LOLCats.

Well done, Jones Soda (and Angel).

Shoemoney® is early on the April Fools’ Day jokes…

How Long Until Someone Is Killed At An Affiliate Summit – ShoeMoney®: So lately I have been asked a lot why I no longer attend affiliate summits. Well this is basically it. I think I would have had a lot more fun at the affiliate summit back a few years ago when I used to love to get drunk and crazy but that is not really my thing anymore. Mix that in with the fact each time I was asked to speak it was a complete train wreck. Then mix in the death threats, and the fact its kind of become a thug conference … well I just have a hard time justifying paying money to experience that… if that makes any sense.

This is why I don’t watch much TV these days… I have posts like this on the internets to laugh at and entertain me.

Head over and read the whole gut-busting post (and don’t forget the comments from the Shoemoney® Sheep Show as well).

Shawn Collins has a new video demonstrating his crush on the Dell Vostro(I was waiting for him to lick it at the end).

He compares the Vostro to the Asus eee so I wanted to set the record straight…

The Asus eee (“Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play”) is a fantastic little machine that solves a number of problems in my life. It’s comparable to the Macbook Airor the Sony Vaiobut is still much smaller and much less expensive (around $400-$500 depending on memory, etc) than either of those.

Plus, the Asus is a solid state machine meaning that it boots up almost immediately (takes about 10 seconds), is very rugged and has an incredible battery life (around 3 to 3.5 hours for me).

With a gig of memory, 8 gigs of storage, 3 usb ports and a MicroSD slot, it’s the perfect travel machine.

So, there’s no comparison between Shawn’s bulky 14 inch Vostro that is sure to be dead in 3 years since it’s a Dell and my little Asus which will be humming along for years to come.

Looks like all of our wishes (well, mine at least) are coming true and Brian, Carolyn and the ShareASale gang are going to introduce affiliate marketing into the online video space.

Earlier today, this message was sent out to the ShareASale Facebook group by Carolyn Tang..

Facebook | V-Commerce Playahs: “Alrighty, we’re gettin’ with the times and exploring v-commerce. Nothing like bringing the magic of television online! Our tech team is hard at work developing a player with embedded tracking for affiliates to use on their sites.

So…open ended wishlist style question…in a perfect world, where we had boundless tech and financial resources, what features would you like to see in that player? Customizable? Size? Rating systems?”

This is every exciting indeed and the replies to Carolyn’s initial post have been beyond interesting with a number of affiliates weighing in.

It’s great to see an affiliate network using a channel such as a Facebook group to gather feedback. I only wish more networks would follow ShareASale’s lead on this sort of communication (as well as blogging) and feedback solicitation. You don’t need to control the conversation in order to produce value as Brian and team are clearly showing.

And I’m beyond excited to see an affiliate network getting into video. Take notes.

I noticed on Google Trends that one of the hottest terms this morning was “coupon mom.”

So, I dug a little deeper and it looks like the site received coverage from a local news outlet in Pittsburgh, PA…

kdka.com – ‘Coupon Mom’ Offers Tips For Shopping Online: “Searching for great bargains doesn’t have to be about spending hours hunting for the best prices in local stores. Instead, it can be done with just a few clicks of the mouse.

KDKA’s Consumer Editor Yvonne Zanos talked with ‘Coupon Mom’ Stephanie Nelson about some internet surfing secrets that can save consumers money. “

So while we continue to talk mostly about online social networks or web2.0 traffic, don’t forget to include more mainstream outlets if you’re trying to grow your brand.

If you’re in Chicago on June 9, this could be a “fun” talk to hear…

Affiliate Marketing: Far More Dangerous Than You Think: “For many years, Alan has been (and remains today) highly critical of the affiliate channel, so this promises to be a lively session!

Joining Alan on the panel will be Barbara Hurd, VP of Business Development, Harry and David; and Vicki Updike, VP of Merchandising and Marketing, Miles Kimball.

Affiliate fan or foe, come watch the fireworks!”

Or you could head over to the Oriental Institute at Univ of Chicago and ponder how, much like the consultants, false confidence in their own superiority (instead of developing better chariots) cost the Assyrian empire it’s position as a super power in the ancient near east. Both would accomplish the same thing.

TechCrunch has coverage of Yahoo’s 3 year revenue growth plan (slides) and it’s pretty interesting to see their take on the future of web advertising (heavy on mobile and display) and how affiliate marketing fits in…

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.

Let me just reiterate that I have nothing to do with the InternetGeekGuy site…

Internet Geek Guy: “Internet Geek Guy”

Personality jacking ftw.

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.

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.

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…