Last week, Commission Junction announced their Link Management Initiative, Phase I. A notice in the Advertiser side of things at CJ.com indicated that this is “a program which will make it easier for you to get the most out of your publisher relationships.”
According to the announcement, this initiative will be released in multiple phases, with Phase I launching on June 23, 2006.
Forums and blogs quickly lit up on the issue with all sorts of hysterical notions and speculations. The item that got everybody worked up was that CJ will be updating their link code to JavaScript.
Pundits and pontificators quickly took one part fact and mixed it with three parts speculation on this issue. The result was an industry whipped up in a frenzy. There are FAQs that spell out lots of the details when advertisers and publishers log into CJ, but most of the “coverage” I read didn’t bother with technicalities like contacting CJ with their questions or reading the FAQs to get basic answers.
I’d say the post that most perfectly summarized the whole situation was one from Scott Jangro when he wrote:
Lighten the f$%@ up.
It’ll be ok. Really. 🙂
CJ will be addressing the Link Management Initiative on the new CJU Online Podcast Series. The first podcast in the series takes place Tuesday, May 30 at 3 p.m. EDT.
I’m curious to hear what they have to say about the whole issue. According to the FAQ, “the industry standard is moving towards JavaScript links.” Time will tell whether CJ’s Link Management Initiative is an example of affiliate marketing 2.0 or affiliate marketing beta.