Sam Harrelson

Jim Kukral has launched a unique tool to promote Forge Corporation’s BlogKits platform. BlogKits, an AdSense rival, is being promoted as a more efficient and easier way for bloggers to earn money compared to AdSense.

From the site:

Adsense doesn’t work for bloggers, yes, we know, such a bold statement… But it’s true!

1. Low-traffic blogs will never make more than pennies per day
2. One sale from BlogKits could bring you a week’s worth of click $$$ from Adsense

The tool is an AdSense comparison engine based on the amount of traffic a blog receives. The information shown is calculated based upon research and polls, taken from a sample of web users anonymously over a period of two years. The comparison engine is an interesting facilitation of a call-to-action sign up process for bloggers.

Will this have widespread adoption or offer bloggers a better chance to monetize their content compared to AdSense, Performancing’s platform or a pay per post model?

Cable and blogs are reporting that James Kim’s body has been found in the Oregon wilderness after he set out to find help for his stranded family on Saturday.

James was an editor at CNet and widely known and respected in the tech industry.

Our thoughts certainly go out to his family and the CNet family as well.

Spyware, malware, social memetic and all around universal researcher Wayne Porter was intrigued by attacks by the Second Life Liberation Army on advertising entities within Second Life such as the new Reebok Store.

Believe it or not, this mini-microcosm of over a million early adoption, hi-tech and attentive users does have implications for online marketing. The struggles, issues and situations being worked out on platforms such as Second Life or Digg will ripple out and help determine the shape of user interaction on the web as the online world (including the marketing part) continues to evolve.

The group’s site includes the following statement:

The SLLA’s demands are simple:

“The establishement of basic ‘rights’ for Second Life Players. Having consulted widely we now believe the best vehicle for this is for Linden Labs to offer public shares in the company. We propose that each player is able to buy one share for a set-price. This would serve both the development of the world and provide the beginnings of representation for avatars in Second Life.”

Porter actually found the leader of the clandestine and secretive group and interviewed them on their motives, intentions and general philosophy. They admit to attacks and defending avatar rights by claim not responsible for grey goo attacks which have led to a crippling of some parts of the Second Life economy, and given skeptics of the platform ample fodder for ridicule.

Interesting questions are asked at the end of the interview which do have some connection to the
“cost per” economy that online marketing has created such as: “Even in this new and incredible terrain are we destined to walk down the very same paths we have for centuries?”

Interview on Digg

Interview on ReveNews

Interview on wayneporter.com

Thomas from eBags sent this over to me by email earlier. Thoughts?…

eBags & Google Checkout

“The current eBags promotion with Google Checkout has proven to be a huge success. Although Google Checkout orders are not currently being properly reflected in CJ, please rest assured we are tracking each and every sale internally and can attribute these sales to all of our publishers.

We will be crediting every affiliate with the commission due to them from Google Checkout orders so no-one should think they are not getting proper credit for any referrals that use Google Checkout.

Our Account Managers at CJ are aware that we are tracking these orders and we are working out a means to reflect in the CJ system.

Our affiliates are on track to have record months of sales and commissions. We are one of only a small handful of merchants that Google has chosen to offer a $20 off $50 incentive that can be combined with other discounts and our affiliates have the ability to leverage and be fully compensated. We are confident that the affiliates that promote eBags during this holiday season will be pleasantly rewarded and taken care of by our team.

If anyone has any further questions or concerns regarding the eBags affiliate program, and Google Checkout orders please feel free to e-mail me at Thomas@ebags.com.

We look forward to finishing a strong holiday with our partners.”

If any other merchants, networks or affiliates would like to have their positions posted, email me your responses and I’ll post them.

PrimeQ has expanded its geography of business to include the Russian market with the announcement that it had opened an office in St. Petersburg, Russia to augment its growing European branch headquartered in London. PrimeQ is mostly known in online marketing for its registration path offers and technology services.

Jason McClain, PrimeQ’s founder and CEO, writes:

“After years of studying and preparing for the Russian market, we are proud to spearhead a drive into a largely untapped online environment that will grow leaps and bounds over the next decade,” said McClain. “The number of Russian internet users is currently the same as the UK, approximately 28 million people and, in a few years, will be double that of Britain.”

Today at Search Engine Strategies in chilly Chicago WebTrends, a web analytics and marketing performance management solution provider, announced its acquisition of ClickShift, who specializes in search engine optimization.

Monetary value of the deal was not disclosed.

Insiders are saying that WebTrends is planning on offering a more detailed and robust SEO engine for its clients as more advertisers continue to demand the use of search in their media buys.

1.  Help bring about the CPA revolution.

2.  Create a sustainable market for RSS use and integration.

More on this soon…

Another week, another ValueClick buy. European shopping portal Shopping.net has been acquired for 13.3 million dollars by ValueClick.

The buy adds more punch to VC’s European B2C endeavors and allows the company more of a footing to compete with European competitors TradeDoubler and Zanox.

Perhaps just as interesting for ValueClick are some of the other properties Shopping.net owns and operates outside the shopping specturm (million.com, mortgages.net searchengine.net, etc).

“Shopping.net is a great fit for ValueClick Europe,” said Carl White, chief executive officer of ValueClick Europe. “This acquisition expands our online shopping destination site presence in the marketplace, and is another significant step in our European expansion. Shopping.net will complement our other businesses, including PriceRunner, Commission Junction and vcmedia.”

“Europe is an important growth area for ValueClick, and we’re excited to add Shopping.net to our European operations,” said James Zarley, chairman and chief executive officer of ValueClick. “Shopping.net gives Carl’s team greater opportunities to leverage their expertise in monetizing online traffic and expands ValueClick’s overall presence in Europe.”

As we enter 2007 will the European advertising networks begin buying up American properties (some are still at a good bargain price) to compete with ValueClick?

How does this acquisition affect ValueClick’s other B2C shopping portal, PriceRunner?

Just got through reading this piece by David Berlind at ZDnet.

Read it.

Here are my key points of disagreement…

“TinyURL is the next YouTube. In fact. It’s better. It’s a dream come true for the Madison avenue types whose Holy Grail has always been how to serve people with an advertisement at their moment of greatest need.”

No, it’s not. Seriously. Insulting users with the insinuation that they must link to something in order to show intention (and he quotes Doc Searls in this article) by disengaging attention from that intent is simply off the mark.

“I’m not sure whether Doc would agree, but TinyURL is like a stealth intention engine.”

I can’t speak for Doc, but I don’t think he would agree that TinyURL is a stealth intention engine. It’s a way to send links without taking up too much space. It’s not YouTube. It’s not an intention engine. It’s not an attention engine. Simply put, it’s a useful tool, but it’s one that is quickly becoming obselete as the intention architecture of the web as we know it continues to change.

I’ve been using TinyURL for years and I do appreciate its makers, users and features. But, let’s elevate the web culture past the need for shorter links (and linking all-together) rather than elevating a program like this to YouTube status.

Are you a CJ affiliate promoting any of these programs with Google Checkout coupons?

If you are, you may need to look closely at how Google Checkout is affecting your commissions

The following is from an email from CJ’s Ziggy Kopetti on the forum thread discussing this issue…

I recently learned that the Google Checkout process which some CJ merchants are promoting on their sites will affect affiliate commissions. Here is an explanation of how Google Checkout works and how it affects affiliates who are working with CJ merchants that offer Google Checkout.

Please note: this explanation is specific to Commission Junction merchants only.

HOW IT WORKS

Google batches all the Google Checkout orders with the CJ PID and (if appended) the SID to the merchant. The merchant then conforms the order to our batching system, and batches it in to Commission Junction. The responsibility is on the merchant to filter the data from Google, identify the traffic from the CJ affiliates and batch it in. (Note: the CJ system does not distinguish if it is a Google checkout transaction or not.)

Further, pixel tracking does not work with Google checkout and most of our CJ advertisers utilize pixel tracking.

Thus, if the merchant relies solely on pixel tracking, affiliate tracking is lost when Google checkout is used even if the customer came to the site on an affiliate link.

Consequently, only those merchants that are batch merchants with CJ are encouraging publishers to promote their Google Checkout offer…

I recommend that affiliates NOT promote the Google Checkout offers for eBags, Petco, Golfsmith, eCost or Starbucks Store because these merchants pixel track. Unless the Advertiser batches in the order with the PID and SID received from Google, the order will never reach our system and you will not be paid a commission for the order. Loyalty shoppers who make purchases on these sites after clicking through from your site but then utilize Google Checkout will not receive their incentive.

This is an important issue at the moment as some merchants are pushing affiliates to push these offers and increase traffic during the holidays. Google itself is making a major push to promote the Checkout platform with merchants and the general public for the holidays as well.

Kopetti goes on to write that:

ValueClick is in negotiations with Google at the moment deciding if they want Google to insert the CJ tracking pixel into Google checkout, or not. This will depend on the revenue impact to the publishers. Please let me know if you can quantify the impact to your program.

How will these negotiations between ValueClick and Google play out over the coming months? Will Google see the issue from the affiliate point of view and make changes? Is it already too late to find a solution for the busy and important holiday season? What does this mean for the future of Google’s inroads into CPA?

Are Linkshare or ShareASale affected as well??

[Update 12/1/6 10:25pm est: Connie Berg also blogged about this on ReveNews. Check out her insightful post as well.]