If you use search to reach new or existing customers, or rely on search marketers to expand your program or network, you need to pay attention to the blooming mobile market. This week, Microsoft announced a deal with Sprint to place Windows Live Search on phones to enhance its local and national search reach… “It’s very easy to use, and it automatically comes up on the [screen],” says Michael Inserra, Sprint’s director of strategic alliances. …

Windows Live on Mobile Phones: Implications for CPA and Affiliate Markets? Continue Reading >

The podcast this week was an interesting experience. Only three of the regular cast were able to attend (Lee, Jeff and myself), so the conversation felt more personal and directed than it has in the past. There’s always a different dynamic in a conversation such as this when only a few people participate as compared to four, five or six. Again, I think we are slowly increasing the quality of talk and Jeff has done …

Weekly Insight 11/17/2006 Continue Reading >

There’s still time (two hours) to participate. Email me your answer to my question… “Are CPA Networks a threat to affiliate networks? Why or Why not?“

Jim Kukral, publisher of ReveNews and operator of BlogKits, has submitted a short but intriguing piece on MarketingProfs Daily Fix. The main question he poses has reverberations that continue to expand like a rock thrown in a pond if you consider the essence of what he’s asking. Here’s his question: What is affiliate marketing’s brand? When you think of it, what comes to mind? I should also point out that this is a good exercise …

What is Affiliate Marketing’s Brand? Continue Reading >

I have a proposal for anyone interested… I want to bring together a number of different insights into a specific question brought up over and over on the Molander/Ms. X podcast and in the debate raging in the comments below. It’s a question that I’ve been pondering for about three years since I was there at the launch of AdDrive (a CPA network) and have worked on but never come up with a satisfactory answer. …

A Modest Proposal: Homework Assignment for Readers (Due Friday) Continue Reading >

Do a search for “co registration.” It can be a scary thing. Consumers have complained voraciously. As Wayne Porter and the brilliant Jan Hertsens point out, there are also serious security concerns over these types of offers. Nevertheless, companies have made millions on co registrations in the CPA network space. Not only that, but new firms are popping up every day attempting to monetize the reg path and make use of the path that users …

End of Co-Registration Craze in CPA Marketing? Continue Reading >

Today brings the launch of another partnership marketing network, AllAdSpace.com. However, this network is putting a twist on the common notions of what being a network means. As more of these networks launch, what sorts of implications do their hybrid way of doing marketing online have for more traditional affiliate and CPA networks? AllAdSpace’s hook is that it is free for both webmasters and advertisers. So, webmasters and site owners are able to sell ad …

The Future of CPA Networks? Continue Reading >

Affiliate (or partnership-based) online advertising can and must change dramatically in how it is executed. We are truly in the junior leagues with “affiliate marketing” and “shopping comparison” in terms of cost and delivery structure. There are too many limitations. There are tectonic shifts occurring, today, beneath our feet and driven by advertisers. Specifically, systems flexibility will drive change. Are you a vendor to advertisers who doesn’t provide flexible delivery and payment options for advertisers? …

Q & A with Riya / Like.com’s Marketing Director Beth Kirsch Continue Reading >

I’ve spent a small amount of time working with marketers devoted solely to the mobile side of things, and to be sure the space has taken off in the past 18 months.  The United States does seem to behind Europe and Asia both in terms of mobile technologies and mobile ad serving (large use of mobile internet, or WAP, in Europe is just one example). As these technologies continue to drop in price here in …

Mobile Marketing Making an Impact on Affiliates? Continue Reading >

Again this week we overstepped the thirty minute barrier that Jeff was aiming for. We even went a small amount over the hour mark, but the conversation was interesting for the most part. The asides and random tangents were there, but we’re ringing them in much more effectively and the conversation is really becoming more developed (and valuable) every week. The addition of David Lewis to the regular cast of Amanda, Jeff, Wayne, Lee and …

Weekly Insight – November 10, 2006 Continue Reading >

In his wrap-up coverage of this year’s ad:tech NYC, Scott Rewick of NextInternet writes that one of the things unique about this year’s conference was: Rise of the “new networks” XY7, ClickBooth, CPA Empire, HydraMedia. I grew up in the early days of the Internet when the companies attracting all of the attention were Adteractive, MetaReward, and Azoogle. I sense a “changing of the guard” as the older companies mature, while the younger ones are …

Affiliate Networks – Changing of the Guards? Continue Reading >

Valleywag is reporting a tip that some of the top people at Yahoo! are going to be receiving the pink slip in the immediate future. Guaranteed Bill Demas, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Yahoo Publishing Network Will Johnson, VP & general manager of the Yahoo Publishing Network Any connection to the coming class action lawsuit first elaborated on by Jeff Molander?

Steve Rubel writes Within a year we’re going to see blogs transforming themselves into customized start pages. This won’t happen with all blogs. It will start with high-traffic sites that zero in on popular verticals like tech and politics. As these tools become more sophisticated and easy to use, the trend will migrate down the Long Tail into other niches. As I have mentioned before, you can easily transform your default home page into a …

Widgets and the Future of Affiliate Marketing Continue Reading >

Alterian is a provider of software for analytics and lead integrated marketing.  According to their press release, the goal of their software platform is to make it cost effective for marketers to gain insight into their data and use this to drive an integrated marketing strategy, across multiple online and offline channels, from a single set of applications and infrastructure.  A few of their clients include Accenture, Acxiom, Allant Group, Carlson Marketing Group, Experian, Epsilon, …

Merkle Taps Alterian for Email and Online Marketing Continue Reading >

Big week for MediaWhiz. Last night in NYC to celebrate ad:tech, MediaWhiz threw a poker tournament. Today, it was announced that they’ve acquired Text Link Ads. Was this a good buy for MediaWhiz? Where are they looking to move with this buy? Text Link Ads doesn’t use “no follows” for their links, which has given the platform a good deal of suspicion and has given rise to some debate about its long term health as …

MediaWhiz Buys Text Link Ads Continue Reading >