Archives for October 2005

The following is what Veronica Dubak of surveybounty.com had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

Online affiliate marketing is a relatively new field, and yet ethics are lacking.

‘Cyber-crime’ sums up what’s wrong with online affiliate marketing today. Those who create spyware that redirects website affiliate links through their own affiliate links are a huge problem.

This malicious programming is not only difficult to trace but it is difficult to combat, and costs honest affiliate marketers huge sums of money.

Blackhat SEO techniques applied to websites are also frustrating in the affiliate marketing arena. Gaining recognition in the major search engines is difficult and takes time – especially for the little guys.

How can one compete with webmasters who generate thousands of dynamically generated web pages, and spam the search engines with their affiliate link filled content-less pages?

This problem not only affects affiliate marketers, but also the quality of search engine results in general.

Clickfraud is another big issue affiliate marketers are faced to deal with. This usually stems from the jealous competition, and is a problem within the affiliate marketing community.

Clickfraud allows a company to directly cost a competitor money, without them knowing, thereby allowing a powerful sense of anonymity.

A crackdown on these who infringe on user’s privacy needs to happen, search engine indices need to be cleaned up, and the issue of clickfraud needs to be tackled. Because there is no official governing authority of the internet, nobody seems to want to combat these problems.

They are touchy issues, but they will only become bigger and more serious if nothing is done. The internet is here to stay, and it is up to those who are a part of it, to participate in its cleanup so it can continue to thrive.

Education is the first step – educating users on affiliate marketing and how it works, will help weed out the unethical players in the industry.

Affiliate marketing need not remain an underground industry – once websurfers understand the concept of affiliate marketing, they will recognize the value in it, and will be more cautious of who they choose to support.

Ignorance on this topic has not benefited affiliate marketers to date; users have often not realized that they are making webmasters money by clicking through a simple web link – and who can blame them?

Once they are provided with the proper knowledge, the power of affiliate marketing will go back to the people, and they will be given the option to choose which websites survive.

Back in the summer of 2004, I polled affiliate managers on whether they belonged to a fraternity or sorority in college.

At the time, 31% or respondants indicated that they were involved in the Greek system during their college days.

I figured I would check how those numbers looked this year, so I ran a similar poll with affiliate managers. This time around, the numbers were consistant with 32% responding that they were fraternity or sorority members.

That got me wondering – how do those numbers compare with the national averages. So I checked out the North-American Interfraternity Conference site, and while Greeks make up only 3% of the U.S. population, they constitute 30% of Fortune 500 Executives.

So maybe there is more to it than parties and building floats, eh?

The following is what Franklin Banker of BBL Internet Media had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

I have been an affiliate marketer since 1998. I have considerable experience and I market online with websites only, no email (my choice) using my domain www.bblmedia.com.

One of the practices I really hate, and I see some affiliates doing it, is cross linking their affiliate sites in unrelated markets. Affiliates who, like me, use SEO to promote content enhanced affiliate sites should never cross link in unrelated areas.

If I ask another webmaster for a link, I always look for a related market niche to the niche I am working in. The search engines like that better, and the results are less confusion for the surfer and improved listings for the entrepreneur who is doing the cross linking.

Too often I see affiliates trying to promote their gambling website on a retail food site, or on a health site. The fact is that some of these spammers are just doing mass linking with software programs.

I believe this is a shady practice and should stop. If affiliates who use SEO as their primary source of traffic will practice ethical business standards, the overall reputation of affiliate marketing will improve in the eyes of everyone online.

Affiliates should use common sense and think like a business owner, and stop trying to make the quick buck. Over the long haul, a higher level of ethical behavior will serve their success rather than failure in marketing online.

The following is what Stu McLaren had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

I think the thing that is wrong with affiliate marketing is the focus.

Both the advertiser and the affiliate manager are constantly focused on the transaction instead of the relationship with the customer.

There needs to be a way where both the manager and the advertiser can continually build a relationship with the market, but there aren’t any tools to build a relationship, and this is why it becomes so difficult.

Ad-Tech is accepting speaker proposals for San Francisco and Chicago next year:

ad:tech San Francisco 2006
Moscone Center
April 26 – 28, 2006
http://www.ad-tech.com/sf.asp

ad:tech Chicago 2006
Sheraton Chicago
July 24 – 26, 2006
http://www.ad-tech.com/chicago.asp

To submit a speaker proposal for either show, visit: http://www.ad-tech.com/speakerproposals.asp

As reported in the Online Media Daily, “180solutions, currently facing a class-action lawsuit alleging non-consensual installations of its software, recently laid off 50 employees–or 20 percent of its workforce.”

If you recall six months back, Wayne Porter asked a laundry list of questions to 180solutions, and got some interesting answers.

At the time, Cory Magnus of 180solutions protested that “The notion that many of our users came from improper installs is an urban legend started in the anti-spyware community.”

But just last week, according to Online Media Daily, 180solutions “announced that it no longer allows third parties to distribute 180solutions software through Active X, unless 180solutions itself controls the installer.”

Those darn urban legend maker uppers.

Despite the reorganization at 180solutions, if you are in search of work in the Bellevue, WA area, they are currently looking for “scary smart individuals, who are also really cool” to work over there.

The following is what John Denton of MyConnection2Wealth had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

What’s Wrong With Affiliate Marketing? Hmmmmm. Well I’ve been in the business for 6 years now and it seems to me that this business is over saturated with the same ole, same ole saying they will show you all the tricks of the trade when in fact it is the same material refabricated over and over again in various forms.

A lot of the material circulating today in fact came from good ole Corey Rudl; its just all been rewriten 🙂

I’ve read most of it in the time I have been online and have learned many things, but I think we just need some new blood in here to breath new life and new ideas.

The fact is that most people will never duplicate what the “Gurus” are doing so the ones currently online have a long reign ahead.

I just hope that they come up with new material that helps others bottom lines rather than their own 😉

I try to find those that are unique and that I feel will turn a buck for others, but they are far and few inbetween and even some of those a sketchy on who’s actually making the majority of the money.

There is always a back link somewhere. Your best bet is to carbon copy what you see going on behind the scenes and duplicate it yourself. I think that may always be the case is you’re savvy enough.