TwitterLit is My New Favorite Twitter Friend (And Affiliate)
“TwitterLit’s” bio reads…
Twittering the first lines of books so you don’t have to.
Points given for the nice Ze Frank reference.
However, getting the first lines of books such as this immediately sucks me in…
“I am in a medical laboratory at the Central Intelligence Agency, waiting to pee in a cup”
The best part? There is an Amazon.com link after each first line…
Yes, that’s an affiliate link from Amazon. TwitterLit has a (nice looking) website spelling it all out…
TwitterLit is an Amazon affiliate. The links that appear in the posts/tweets point to Amazon.com, and they contain TwitterLit’s affiliate ID. Sales resulting from clicks on those links will profit TwitterLit.
Now THAT is affiliate marketing, folks. Nice job, TwitterLit. Keep it up and I’ll keep buying books from you (throw in some Science Fiction too!).
Shall I Compare Thee (Google) to a TV Station?
The ClickZ Blog rightly takes the Financial Times to task for a downright silly article on their site today. The article, covering Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick (which is “oddly named”) includes pearls of wisdom such as this…
Google plans to acquire the oddly named Doubleclick - most web adverts land you in an online casino with one or sometimes zero clicks - for $3.1bn. Doubleclick specialises in animated “display” ads rather than the text-based “search” ads that are Google’s bread and butter.
Whaaaa? Most online adverts take you to gambling sites with either one or (sometimes) zero clicks??
If it was April 1st, I’d chalk this up to an April Fool’s Day Joke. Perhaps Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska (”The internet is a series of tubes!“) composed this piece as a ghost writer. Or perhaps this piece was scraped from The Onion.
Regardless, here are a few other gems…
Google and Doubleclick are different kinds of business. Google is like a TV station, attracting viewers and then selling their attention to advertisers. Doubleclick is more like a media buying agency, buying space from broadcasters on behalf of advertisers. Buying Doubleclick does not increase Google’s share of the total web audience, a more meaningful measure of the market.
The real questions are why Google wants to be in advertising, and whether agencies such as WPP should be worried. Google is good at wacky stunts and has unusual office furniture, both advertising staples, but its laid-back computer engineers probably lack the necessary lunching skills. The right career advice for Silicon Valley’s finest: an adman’s pointy calfskin loafers are all very well, but the real money is in search engines.
Just goes to show that “Big Media” can print things worthy of the worst blogs in the blogosphere.
Is there really this big of a dividing line between online and offline media?
Yahoo Acquires Right Media
Big news breaking (first in the NYT) that Yahoo has fully acquired Right Media for $680 million in cash and stock.
Right Media’s Right Media Exchange provides Yahoo with a way to delineate itself from Google (with it’s recent acquisition of DoubleClick) in the online advertising space (specifically graphical ads)…
“The acquisition of Right Media will further Yahoo!’s goal to create the industry’s most open, accessible and vibrant advertising marketplace, which will help democratize the buying and selling of digitally enabled advertising,” said Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!. “This acquisition is an important step in our long-term vision to build the industry’s leading advertising and publisher ecosystem. We believe that Yahoo!’s open approach is a clear differentiator from others in the industry and provides significant benefits to advertisers, publishers and Yahoo! itself.“
Yahoo has owned 20% of Right Media since last October, but in this move completes the buyout. The interesting part of this story is the exchange and auction type system which Yahoo sees as a valuable component for the future growth of it’s Panama and ad serving system. According to the NYT piece, DoubleClick is developing a similar auction style system as well.
The battle ground is in the brokering of graphical display ads. So far has been won by Yahoo but with the Google acquisition of DoubleClick, this area is sure to heat up going forward.
“Yahoo! is the largest online publisher and one of the leading ad networks on the web, and we believe it is in our strong financial interest to make sure there is a widely adopted, neutral, frictionless exchange that enables publishers and advertisers to benefit from a basket of the best solutions rather than having to accept a single solution from one of the larger players,” said Susan Decker, head of advertiser and publisher group and CFO of Yahoo!. “Furthermore, as the industry’s partner of choice and as a leader in both search and display advertising, we believe that we are well-positioned to rally the industry support to make the promise of Right Media a reality for the entire digital media community.”
Right Media’s Pat McCarthy has offered some thoughts on the acquisiton on his blog (one of my personal favorites), ConversionRater, which are definitely worthwhile to read as well.
Wiki Marketing
I‘ve asked this question before, but after working with a new client this week I’ve really begun to change my opinions on the effectiveness of wiki’s in the online marketing space.
Wikis are not, by their definition or purpose, easily used in every circumstance. In fact, I’d argue that many merchants or programs should do a good deal of homework before hopping on the wiki bandwagon.
However, for some affiliate programs, a wiki can be a useful tool.
- Communication in one place
- Easily editable
- Not as one-way as a blog
- Incorporation of other widgets, platforms and streams of information
- Open to conversation
Again, not advisable for everyone, but using a wiki in your affiliate program (specifically with the very niche-merchant client I’m working with to develop their community including the use of wikis) can pay dividends.
Sexism and Affiliate Marketing
Why is our industry so unabashedly sexist?
“Sex sells! We are targeting affiliate marketers who happen to be mostly men. So what?”
It’s the “so what” factor that is the most disturbing. We sit by and allow companies to hire out “booth babes” or prominently place and display young women who we deem as “eye candy” in our booths to draw in traffic at industry conferences. Then we glorify this on industry blogs and laugh and play along while stroking our delicate and insecure self images.
Sickening.
And, even worse, God forbid a female speak out against something as perverse as Shoemoney’s “Booth Babe” contest from this year’s AdTech. Lauren Kolodisner spoke up about the portrayl of one of her employees and is currently being ridiculed by Shoemoney himself and his merry band of blog commenters.
Disugsting.
I was told not to post this from many good friends because it would “start a firestorm.” I don’t care. I’m sick and tired of this incessant and accepted blatant sexism that pervades our industry.
My wife is pregnant and this sort of thing turns my stomach for our son or daughter (we find out the sex next week). If it’s a girl, I want the child to be able to look up to the industry and business that her dad participates in, since it provides so much for our family. However, the presence of booth babes, “so what?” attitudes and ridicule against those who speak up about how horrible sexism is for the bright and professional young women in our industry makes me filled with shame.
Ironically, it’s the men in our industry who are the biggest fools for falling for the lame marketing of booth babes and the bloggers who draw in traffic by promoting them.
It’s no wonder affiliate marketing (and online marketing as evidenced at AdTech) have such an image problem.
Affiliate Twit List
Following in the path of the Affiliate Skype List and Affiliate AIM List, there is now an Affiliate Twit List courtesy of Adam Viener…
In addition, there’s an interesting conversation going on at ReveNews regarding Converseon and Jamie Birch’s use of the platform as well.
And you all called me crazy last year for believing Twitter could be a useful affiliate marketing tool…
Affiliate Programs Should Stress Usability
When I saw this gas pump yesterday, I thought about affiliate marketing…
The instructions on how to use the pump are outweighed by redundant instructions on how to “pay to play.”
Affiliate marketing has a rather high barrier to entry that stresses the risks rather than the benefits.
Figuring out how to naviagate and use some affiliate programs or networks can be a nightmare. We are keeping this industry small by keeping the barriers to entry high.
Not to mention that it’s difficult to buy a domain, find a host and then get a site together. Granted, this is much easier than it has been in the past because of platforms such as GoDaddy, Blogger and hosted WordPress blogs.
Think of the average users and realize that content is not being generated by just professionals or super affiliates anymore. There’s a great deal of money and market share to be made by helping “amateurs” realize their earning potential. If we in the affiliate marketing industry don’t figure that out, Google or Amazon will.
Affiliate Trademark Bidding: Point and Counterpoint
The April 26 edition of MediaPost’s PerformanceInsider column by Angie McCloskey of SendTec raised a few eyebrows.
In the column entitled “CPA Affiliates Are Pilfering Your Brand Through Paid Search,” (which you should read in its entirety) McCloskey includes:
I am surprised time and time again when I search in Google and see that there are many large brands and advertisers who allow — and, more important, pay — their affiliates to leverage their brand name through paid search tactics. They are unknowingly allowing this to happen, or are doing this because it is a no-risk media proposition to drive new customers on a performance model by their affiliates…
In affiliate models, third parties or affiliates receive some bounty to deliver a new customer. If they are driving this new customer through your brand name, they are doing what you could be doing without any competition. Keep in mind that paid search terms are priced on a bid basis. Often I see affiliates competing for the top listings on an advertiser’s brand name — or even worse, I see the advertiser or its agency competing against those affiliates….
This leads me to my last point: there’s a solution for advertisers who want to keep their affiliate program and enjoy the economic benefits of customers driven through SEM. I will state that with very few exceptions, most advertisers can enjoy significant economic benefits by controlling the paid search channel. If advertisers want to utilize affiliates, then they must control and limit the affiliates’ paid search activities on the brand and brand-related keywords.
Instead of providing my own thoughts on McCloskey’s piece, I decided it would be more interesting to bring in a counterpoint from one of online marketing and advertising’s most vocal voices about the issue of trademarks; Jeff Molander. Jeff is the Principal of The Partner Maker and has been a part of many valuable conversations about this issue. A quick search through the ReveNews archives shows the evolution of this debate on affiliates and trademarks going well back into 2004.
Here is Jeff Molander’s response to Angie McCloskey…
Why is Sendtec dragging out an issue that is so old and tired as affiliate trademark bidding? Ms. McCloskey’s position has long been SendTec’s position via CEO Paul Soltoff’s comments in a large DRTV industry article. More importantly, Ms. McCloskey completely ignores the #1 argument FOR allowing trademark bidding. This makes her either tragically ignorant of how her clients think (doubtful) or invested in not talking about the real issues (likely).
Which is it? Perhaps she might actually offer some insight into why she devoted so many words to presenting what amounts to be a single viewpoint on an issue that the industry has incessantly debated for years. Hence, there’s another side!
As I see it, most of us understand (if you don’t you’ve had your head buried in sand!) that advertisers can either use lawyers to police paid ad search results pages or they can use affiliates to “block and tackle.” Each have pros and cons — financial and branding related. NEXT!
So, where do you stand on this still relevant and controversial issue?
BUMPzee Major Updates: STATS!
BUMPzee is rapidly becoming the Techmeme/Technorati/Digg of the online marketing sphere.
Today, Scott Jangro and his team released another major upgrade to the BUMPzee service.
This time, users are allowed to see “HotSpots” which show where the most action within a particular community is taking place as well as the ability to “show” and “hide” the various menu’s on a community’s main page in a very snazzy fashion.
To go along with that, users have the option of getting stats on their blogs where the BUMPzee widget is placed. This is not only helpful, it puts BUMPzee above and beyond what platforms such as MyBlogLog have built.
All of this, along with the implementation of “Zee’s” (Twitter like short messages) is putting BUMPzee in an incredible position as both a filter and a mediator of online content.
Look for good things to continue there…
Jungle Disk Rocks
I’ve been backing up all of my hard drives and external hard drives with Jungle Disk…
Jungle Disk is an application that lets you store files and backup data securely to Amazon.com’s S3 ™ Storage Service.
- Store an unlimited amount of data for only 15¢ per gigabyte
- No monthly subscription fee, no startup fee, no commitment
- Your data is fully encrypted at all times
- Data is stored at multiple Amazon.com datacenters around the country for high availability
- Access files directly from Windows Explorer, Mac OSX Finder, and Linux
- Automatically back up your important files quickly and easily
Unlike other services, with Amazon S3 ™ there is no mimimum and no maximum amount of data you can store. You pay only for the actual amount of storage you are using.
Of course this is not for everyone, but the plug-n-play Linux capability was a really nice feature for me. I highly recommend if you’re looking for a way to back up your data and don’t want to rely on Platypus/GDrive when/if it comes out this year.
