Archives for August 2007

Back in May 1993, I graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park. One of my fellow graduates was Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.

I was just looking back at some old pictures of our college days, and have to wonder why Sergey’s days as a Terp are minimized in press coverage, in favor of his times at Stanford University.

We had good times back in College Park, didn’t we, Sergey?

I’d have to imagine that all the tailgates at Byrd Stadium, all-nighters in the computer lab in Hornbake, marathon sessions of Tecmo Bowl, and late nights at the Vous must have contributed in a big way to the foundation of Google, right?

Once a Terrapin, always a Terrapin!

Video: Sergey Brin – the College Years

Kellie Stevens has reported over at AffiliateFairPlay.com that things are moving forward with the class action lawsuit against ValueClick, Commission Junction, and Be Free.

It looks like a ruling was handed down yesterday on ValueClick’s motions to dismiss. From the web site of the plaintiff’s attorneys:

“On August 27, 2007, the Honorable Florence-Marie Cooper issued two orders denying, in part, ValueClick’s Motions to Dismiss the Class Action Complaints. The Court held that Defendants failed to meet their burden of establishing that Plaintiffs could not proceed in the lawsuits.”

Not the sort of news to put the folks in the Santa Barbara in a festive mood as we near Commission Junction University on September 9-11.

More details at http://affiliatefairplay.com/newsblog/2007/08/28/valueclickcjbf-classaction-lawsuit-to-proceed/.

Chitika has launched a new application on Facebook called iBought.

iBought lets you show off the cool gadgets and items you’ve bought, and then friends can rate your purchases by giving you a thumbs up or down.

And you can tell your friends how you feel; give their purchases a thumbs up or thumbs down if you don’t like it.

While the application is a a silly gimmick, like most Facebook applications I’ve tried, it also provides a useful service by providing links to deals for the product mentioned on Facebook.

Also, if you are a Chitika affiliate, you can earn commissions for referring Facebook users to the iBought application.

HydraMedia was identified by Inc. Magazine as the fastest-growing online advertising company in the country, and the tenth fastest-growing of all U.S. companies.

Posting three-year revenue growth of 6,030%, the CPA network surpassed the growth rates of 4,990 others to secure its top ten ranking.

The company also ranked second in the category of Advertising & Marketing, and is the top fastest grower in the Los Angeles metropolitan region.

See the complete list at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2007/the-full-list.html.

There is an article in PC World that provides a decent elementary overview of affiliate marketing, and highlights the innovative affiliate storefront solution provided by PopShops.

If you run a popular informational Web site–perhaps a blog–there are several ways to capitalize on the value of your Web visitors and develop a new source of business income. One of the most popular methods is affiliate marketing, which lets you earn money by marketing other businesses’ products and services on your Web site.

Read the complete article at PC World.

I currently use three Web hosting companies for a variety of sites I operate, and I’d say my hands down favorite for hosting blogs is LivingDot.

The reason I mention blog hosting in particular is that LivingDot, who refer to themselves as “Blog Hosting Experts,” make it supremely easy to get going with a blog.

At the time you set up an account with them (lowest plan is $10.95 a month and should be good for most blogs), they give the option to have the latest version of Movable Type or WordPress installed on your domain at no extra cost.

This alone was big to me, because I don’t like spending time installing and configuring software if I can help it.

Shortly after I moved this blog over there (thanks to a recommendation from Sam Harrelson – thanks, Sam!), I had some technical issues.

This usual brings dread to me when dealing with a vendor I haven’t used before – I’ve been programmed to expect lousy, slow service based on past experiences.

But LivingDot was fast (I submitted a ticket late on a Saturday and it was resolved early on a Sunday) and very helpful.

This is the sort of service I’ve come to expect from somebody like RackSpace on a dedicated server for exponentially more per month. But a low-cost, shared hosting account – not only was I pleasantly surprised by the quality of their technical support, I was astounded.

And it wasn’t one time thing. I’ve contact them multiple times to request upgrades to WordPress and other things – it’s always the same. Efficient responses and solutions.

Now I’ve got four blogs at LivingDot (Affiliate Tip, Affiliate Summit, Make Video, and WeViews), and if the need arises for another one, I’ll get it going there, too.

Great job, LivingDot!

E-consultancy will be providing a free copy of an affiliate marketing report to folks who complete an online survey on affiliate marketing by September 4, 2007.

The survey is geared towards UK merchants and agencies working in affiliate marketing, though others are welcome to participate in the survey and give their thoughts about industry trends.

The report is delving into topics such as the effectiveness of affiliate marketing, resourcing, budgets, and challenges.

Linus Gregoriadis, Head of Research for E-consultancy, will be presenting the research findings at Affiliate Summit London, which is taking place on 28 September at Olympia Conference Centre.

There are a limited number of registrations for Affiliate Summit London, and the conference is already near capacity.

buy.at is sponsoring the research for this report.

Missy Ward and Connie Berg kicked off their three day trek of 60 miles to raise money in the fight against breast cancer.

Their team, Team Affiliate Marketing, raised $16,809.52 for the walk, which began yesterday in Coon Rapids, MN and ends in Minneapolis on August 26th.

Net proceeds from the Breast Cancer 3-Days benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, to fund breast cancer research and community outreach, as well as the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, to provide an endowment for breast cancer initiatives.

Here’s a picture of Connie and Missy right before they set off on the walk:

Visit http://www.affiliatesagainstcancer.com/ for pictures and videos as they make their way through the 60 mile walk.

Great going, ladies!

In previous generations, every rock star aspired to be on the cover of the Rolling Stone. But I’m not about the past, I’m about the now, and this week I had the honor of being a cover boy on the DM News.

I have an article in the August 20, 2007 issue (p. 14) on the emergence of video in affiliate marketing.

The article touches on some interesting statistics and examples of how affiliate marketers are working with video. Also, there’s a mention of the new YouTube Overlay Ads.

Read my article in the August 20, 2007 issue of the DM News.

And if you’d like to see some affiliate video stuff I’m working on, check out WeViews.tv.