Archives for December 2005

Back in November, there was much talk about Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Thanksgiving) being the big online shopping day of the year.

But as the numbers came in, Cyber Monday turned out to be more of a silly marketing ploy from Shop.org to get journalists to quote Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org.

According to eMarketer, Monday, November 28, 2005 or Cyber Monday, was merely the 9th biggest online shopping day of the year.

Below are the days in order of non-travel online holiday shopping spending days among US home, work, and university Internet users (November 1 – December 16, 2005):

1. Monday, December 12
2. Tuesday, December 13
3. Tuesday, December 6
4. Wednesday, December 14
5. Thursday, December 8
6. Monday, December 5
7. Wednesday, December 7
8. Friday, December 9
9. Monday, November 28
10. Wednesday, November 30

On a very good note, ComScore estimates that online shopping in the US will exceed $19 billion (excluding travel) for the 2005 holiday season (November/December). That’s 24% growth over 2005.

Reuters has announced a new affiliate program that will enable blogs, news organizations and other online publishers to feature Reuters news video on their Web sites.

The video from Reuters will not require any installations from visitors to the affiliate’s sites, rather it will be embedded into the sites and compatible with Windows and Mac.

But here’s the catch. According to a report at News.com, during the pilot period of the affiliate program, the video player will be offered free of charge to any participating Web site, but it may contain ads.

The program is projected to fully launch in the first part of 2006, and at that time, affiliate sites may have the option of showing ads or paying a license fee.

Oh, and there is no commission involved.

Granted, Reuters has historically charged sites for the privilege of offering their video on sites, but they seem to be confused about affiliate marketing.

As affiliates help to broaden the Reuter’s audience and further build their brand, the affiliates get what? Not a share of the ads that run on the videos at their sites.

In the past, there were some syndicated news affiliate programs out there, such as EchoFactor and Moreover. While neither paid affiliates for displaying the news, they did pay commission to affiliates who got other Webmasters to sign up to display their news.

Then again, that model seems to have gone extinct.

I do have to wonder how many sites would rather feature Reuters video for no compensation, when they could put up some targeted affiliate offers and make cash.

Did you ever work with one of those people that openly made phone calls in the office for their job search? They were not happy with their current situation, and decided it was time to move on. Fair enough.

But their lack of discretion was always amazing to me.

I was reminded of that sort of behavior when an affiliate program on CJ recently sent out the following e-mail to their affiliates.

It seems CJ is getting too expensive and difficult to use for them, so they are asking for recommendations of other affiliate networks.

That’s reasonable enough, but to ask such a question through CJ’s internal e-mail system! Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Hello,

First, thank you for “publishing” for BeanDate.com.

I thought I should put this out to you here. CJ.com recently contacted us and said they will be raising there monthly fee by 100%.

We might have been ok with this if it were done in increments over time, but a 100% increase just comes across as greedy.

So I’m writing to you today for some help, please.

Could you recommend another Affiliate Marketing software that would be a bit more reasonably priced and/or easier to use?

Thank you and happy holidays,

Sincerely,
/Bill McMahon

President
BeanDate.com

Unfortunately, selecting the affiliate network that’s best for your company isn’t as simple as getting a cup of coffee.

Affiliates4u, the top affiliate marketing forum in the U.K., has expanded to Australia, Europe and the United States.

Each new area requires a new registration:

• a4uforum.com: Affiliate Marketing Forum USA
• a4ueuropa.com: Affiliate Marketing Forum Europe
• a4uaustralia.com: Affiliate Marketing Forum Australia

I’d suggest joining and participating in all of these forums, so you can keep an eye on International trends in affiliate marketing and better understand the various audiences out there.

I’m continuing a tradition that I started up back in the old century by collecting New Year’s Affiliate Resolutions.

I’d like to know where you see things heading, what you plan to do or change, forecasts, predictions, etc. That sort of thing. It’s quick and easy – no more than 100 words and the due date is December 23.

Back at the end of 1999, here are some things folks hoped to see or accomplish as affiliate marketing was pushing into the 21st century…

“Our New Year’s Resolution is to provide the affiliate community with the best customer and technical support, the easiest management system, and a paycheck every month – that’s 12 paychecks in the year 2000.” – Todd Crawford, Vice President of Sales, Commission Junction

“I’d like to help a million people learn how affiliate marketing works in 2000. With that knowledge, Netizens can build great Web sites that make their lives – and the lives of others – a better place.” – Daniel Gray, Author, “The Complete Guide to Associate and Affiliate Programs on the Net”

“In the year 2000 I want to generate 5,000 ActiveStorefronts generating over $5 million in gross sales via our tested, affiliate merchandising approach. My ultimate goal is to empower as many affiliates to make sales instead of trying to sell advertising at their sites. Unlocking the power of affiliate programs means putting the right offer to the right list, and I will share new tools to make this easier for affiliates to put into action now.” – Declan Dunn, Vice President, Active Marketplace

“In the new year I would like to see more people understand the true power of affiliate programs. They will become the new dominant advertising method online within a few years and those that get on board now will have enormous advantages. My real wish (but not expected) is for regular advertising mediums to accept and use affiliate programs in the offline work (instead of the occasional ‘per inquiry’ some businesses do). It would be an enormous evolution and change in the way business is conducted in the world today.” – Corey Rudl, CEO, Internet Marketing Center

Share your New Year’s Affiliate Resolutions at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=767201620429

The following is what Franklin Banker of BBL Media had to say in response to the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing?

I believe the future of affiliate marketing is good, and the model will continue on as a successful way for merchants to bring targeted buyers into their sites for a reasonable ROI.

That being said, it is evident that changes of various types will occur. Because of the unfortunate presence of fraud, merchants with robust operations will screen affiliates more carefully to ascertain their credibility.

The future holds more rejection letters for some affiliates. I predict that the most successful affiliate managers will be the ones that work closely with their producing affiliates, and we will see less of the “absentee management” that is prevalent still in many good operations today.

Future affiliate agreements will include language that requires some sales results from new, unproven affiliates in certain time periods. Some of this exists now, but it will increase in the future.

Computer resources will be allocated for truly productive affiliates. I also believe that many small companies that have not discovered affiliate marketing as a solution to increase sales will find it and use it.

That will require new developement of cheaper solutions for affiliate network hosting solutions. Some cheaper and more reasonable ones exist now, but more are needed.

In conclusion, affiliate marketing will definately continue to grow and prosper, with reasonable controls and modifications naturally occurring in an evolving industry. It is a success, and success speaks for itself!

How would you answer the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing? There are no right or wrong answers.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive their choice of one of the following:

• Size: small ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
• Size: medium ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
• Affiliate Summit coffee mug
• Affiliate Summit optical mouse for a notebook computer

Share your thoughts now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=281531467120

By Linda L. Goodman, Esq.

Recently, an e-mail marketer and its owners paid over $621,000.00 to settle a Federal Trade Commission Complaint that charged the Defendants and their affiliates with practices that violated federal laws.

The settlement included an injunction preventing the company and its affiliates from future violations of the CAN-SPAM Act and requires the marketers to monitor their affiliates to assure they are complying with federal laws as well. Federal Trade Commission v. Global Net Solutions, Inc. et.al., United States District Court, District of Nevada, DVS050002PMP (LRL).

This well published case answered the long over due question of whether a marketer is responsible for the acts of its affiliates, with a resounding yes.

The best practice to assure affiliates will not run a marketer out of business is to closely monitor the affiliates for compliance. Affiliate monitor requirements should be initiated at the beginning of the relationship.

A marketer should require the full identification information from the affiliate including a physical address as well as the names of the principals of the company, and keep this information on file. The reputation of the affiliate should be checked and double checked within the industry.

All contractual agreements between the marketer and affiliate should require a certificate of compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. The affiliate should be prepared to reveal all opt-in information upon request including and the manner and method by which the e-mail address was obtained.

Continued at http://affiliatetip.com/news/article00427.php

The registrations are just about closed for the next Affiliate Summit, taking place at Bally’s Las Vegas from January 8 to 10, 2006. We’re closing in on 1,000 attendees (up from 550 attendees at the June 2005 Affiliate Summit event).

The exhibit floor has more than tripled in size from June 2005, too. Look for that part of Affiliate Summit to keep growing at future shows.

Anyhow, the time has come to start preparing for our next event. We are tentatively planning a September 2006 show on the east coast, and we need your input. Where would you like the next Affiliate Summit to take place?

A recent poll of affiliate managers indicated that Orlando is the preferred spot for Affiliate Summit East 2006, followed by New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington.

What do you think? Want to go to one of those cities or someplace else? Share your opinion at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=582301613166

This poll will be open through December 23, 2006 at midnight EST.