Sam Harrelson

Local search has long held a tremendous amount of promise but shown disappointing results for Yahoo, Google, Ask and MSN. However, the major search engines have continued to put R&D into the local search space, and things might be turning around.

What has happened to make this turn around possible is the quick user adoption of social networking features within a local search structure. Yahoo, in particular, has been keen on this idea and has implemented tools such as Consumer Submit to allow for a more interactive local search experience.

We will see even more of this type of development in 2007 as search continues to undergo market pressure to stay relevant. Search will become more socialized, more niche-minded and more local.

One practical example is SuperPages.com.

Idearc’s SuperPages.com has launched a “Reviewer of the Week” feature as a step towards providing local content within a social networking environment based on geography and location. Users of the site in the same city “compete” against each other to be featured as the “Reviewer of the Week.” That person gets featured in a special section on the SuperPages.com homepage.

“Local search is hot and so is social networking, so it makes sense that we combine the two,” said Robyn Rose, vice president of marketing for SuperPages.com. “Whether you’re talking about finding the best Italian restaurant or a reliable plumber, SuperPages.com provides robust local search capabilities, along with ratings and user reviews, to connect circles of trusted individuals.”

To be featured as a Reviewer of the Week, users must write reviews of their favorite businesses during the prior week. Results are updated each Wednesday and precedence is given to reviewers who have written the most reviews. The tactic attempts to draw more repeat reviewers over time rather than just one time users.

Users who submit the most reviews are highlighted on the home page of SuperPages.com according to where the reviewer is located, which is based on the ZIP code provided in the registration. So, the effect is geo-targeted according to location.

SuperPages.com currently has more than 324,000 reviews and listings with consumer-provided content. And, they have even developed a Firefox plugin for users. Nifty communal web2.0-ness. Now all we need is a Superpages.com widget!

According to the Linkshare newsletter emailed out this morning, Linkshare has cleaned up their Deal Dispatcher interface. Based on suggestions from the recent affiliate survey, Linkshare writes that it has redesigned the Deal Dispatcher to make it easier to use for affiliates. Consumer and affiliate promotions now are categorized by type and listed alphabetically. In addition, the Deal Dispatcher will be emailed out once a month.

The improved site is much cleaner and does partition the content into “New Merchants,” “Consumer Promotions” and “Affiliate Promotions” which was needed.

How much influence does interface have on the network you use? In large part, Google’s simplicity has been hearlded as one of its strengths against Yahoo, and the reason it became the most used search engine. Is the same true for affiliate marketing in terms of preferring simplicity and ease of use?

By the way, Brian has updated the ShareASale blog with the second installment of “Month of the Interface” which features some drill-down features in the merchant stat report. Follow along there.

I did an interview with Lisa Picarille and Shawn Collins on the Affiliate Thing podcast, which is now up on their site for public consumption.

Interview with Sam Harrelson, Cost Per News founder and widget king.

Widget king? I don’t know about that, but I do find a good deal of promise and like to evangelize about how affiliate marketing’s future and those little window gadgets (hence ‘wid-gets’) are intertwined like the two strands of genetic material which make up the double helix of DNA.

DNA contains the information which allows all of the cells, tissues and resultingly larger and larger units in our bodies to function, grow and reproduce. That information is stored along and in the midst of double helix structure. The information is stored in a way very similar to how our computer stores and process bytes, and I like to think of bytes in our computers and on the web as analogs to the types of information which allows for cellular function and growth as they both are basically answering “yes” or “no” (or “1” and “0”) questions millions of times.

On a macro level, I see widgets and a few of the web2.0 platforms that have emerged (tagging, micro-formats, widgets) as carriers of the same types of information that will ultimately help to determine how online marketing, especially affiliate marketing, will continue to function, grow and reproduce.

However, this symbiotic relationship is not a given or completely obvious, even though I think it is a natural fit, and requires careful observations of our programs and marketing strategies to see the benefits of combining our affiliate marketing efforts with widgets or tagging. However, the pay offs are well worth it.

So, give the show a listen (it’s about 30 minutes) and let me (or Lisa and Shawn) know what you think. I think it’s an interesting yet practical discussion and one that we need to have every day!

Here’s the mp3 of Affiliate Thing 9.

Scott Jangro has finally ditched Akismet on his blog, much to the happiness of Brian Littleton and myself (as we express on this comment thread at BUMPzee).

This whole conversion experience away from Akismet started because of the conversation following Vlad’s post on his “My Affiliate Journey” blog detailing his struggles with Akismet catching the wrong people. If you’re not reading Vlad’s blog yet, you are missing out. He’s one of the sharpest bloggers I read. Highly recommended and clearly a real thought shaper as he’s caused us all to reconsider how we moderate comments!

Jangro has also improved upon the user friendlieness of the “Did You Pass Math?” plugin which I use for comment validation. So, now your experience should be much more pleasant for passing that quick quiz and in case you forget to put in the right answer, Scott’s coding allows you to copy your comment and hit the back button (FireFox users). You can download the improved php file there. Let Scott or I know if you need help getting it installed onto your WordPress blog… it’s simple!

Thanks, Scott (and Vlad)… superb work.

NeverBlue Ads, a Canadian performance marketing CPA network, has been acquired by fellow Canadian online marketing firm Vertrue. Also part of the acquisition is Neverblue Media’s sister company PhoneInterviewed.com, Inc., a direct phone contact center. Vertrue currently owns two other subsidiary companies based out of Canada, including the popular online dating services company, Lavalife Inc.

Neverblue Media will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Vertrue.

“We are excited to have Neverblue Media as a new subsidiary of Vertrue. Neverblue Media brings with them a specialized knowledge of the online marketplace and will be an integral part of bringing Vertrue into new areas of the Internet,” said Gary Johnson, President and CEO of Vertrue.

“We believe that this is a great opportunity to continue to service all of Neverblue Media’s current clients and further expand our client portfolio through Vertrue’s direct marketing expertise,” said Todd Dunlop, President of Neverblue Media.

2007 continues to bring about more acquisitions in the online ad space. Things will only continue to heat up as we enter the Spring months shortly. So, let’s start a wager on which CPA or affiliate networks will be acquired in the coming months.

Even their names rhyme (like possible future acquisitions??)…

The ShareASale team is really stepping up to the plate and doing some great things to improve the user experience for both affiliates and merchants.

Welcome to a string of blogs that will introduce features from our “Month of the Interface” which begins today, February 1st. 🙂

Each business day we will introduce a new feature or report, some will be “big” changes, some “little” ones.

As we go along, some of the reports we are introducing in stages so that you can get used to a new feature’s basic use before going deeper into the report…

Today’s new feature is the “Merchant Timespan Report,” which is a nifty AJAX powered summarized report on numbers, per merchant, over a chosen timeframe. Head over to their blog for a screen shot.

Some of you may recognize the technology used behind the report as “Ajax” which we have used in an attempt to make the report more interactive, faster, and easier to use (no reloading of the page).

Great job and idea, ShareASale. I’m incredibly excited to follow along throughout the month of February to see the rest of the new features and reports coming out. Coming right on the heels of Affiliate Summit, which pumped us all up again, this sort of serial installment of updates (including in house blog coverage) is sure to create some buzz and positive bumps!

Keep raising the bar!