Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who was very upset with how affiliates were being treated when Buy.com launched its new Yub.com shopping site on February 16. He claimed the advertisements for Yub.com were plastered all over the Buy.com site and they were effectively stealing the traffic affiliates send to Buy.com without compensating the affiliate. He called it “one of the most serious leaks” he has witnessed.
Yub.com (Buy.com backwards) is billed as a virtual mall where consumers can benefit from the sharing of opinions in an environment driven by social interaction. It is a combination of the popular trend of social networking (think Friendster.com) and online shopping.
Developed by some Harvard University grad students and subsequently bought by Buy.com in late 2003, it works like this: members of Yub can meet each other and shop in Yub’s virtual mall, which includes over 2.5 million products from partner retailers.
When members hang out on Yub, they can interact with other members, make friends with people they trust, and share product insight and recommendations. Basic membership in Yub is free and rewards users with 1 percent cash back on every item that they buy. When users buy something that is endorsed in a friend’s profile, Yub also gives the friend 1 percent cash back, as a thank you for the recommendation.
Yub has also created a premium program for more avid shoppers, called YubClub. Members of YubClub can earn up to 15 percent cash back every time they shop and Yub still gives 1 percent to the recommending friend. YubClub premier membership is currently priced at $19.95 a year.
The reader who emailed me was so incensed by how affiliates fit into this equation that he removed all the links and references to Buy.com from all his websites. I heard from others who were either taking the same action or thinking about it.
A couple of affiliates that contacted me expressed their displeasure at how the Yub.com situation was handled, but also went on to praise Overstock.com for doing a great job of including and rewarding affiliate when it launch its auctions back in September 2004. Several noted that a customer sent to Overstock.com that signed up for auctions would be credited to the Overstock.com affiliate. “Bravo, that is the way it should be done. This is a great example of how to launch a new service while keeping your affiliates in mind,” one reader said.
Buy.com must have gotten the message. To their credit, Buy.com acted quickly to settle the nerves of its affiliates. They sent out a letter to each affiliate detailing a new month-long promotion that offered a $5 bounty for each new customer referred to buy.com that makes a purchase within 14 days. Also, starting on Monday, February 28th, any affiliate-referred visitors to Buy.com will not see our “More Stores” tab or any advertising for Yub.com, the letter stated.
When I phoned the guy who originally sent me the email, he seemed pleased by Buy.com’s most recent steps to rectify the situation but still thought the “backpedaling” was due to affiliate pressure and viewed the launch as “very poor.”
I expect to see more missteps in the future as new programs and new methods of marketing appear on the horizon. But as long as affiliates continue to add value to the process and are willing to take a stand they will be rightfully rewarded for their efforts
Presidents’ Day weekend is over and I did not celebrate our past great leaders with that all-American tradition of buying a mattress or a new car. Instead it was a three-day weekend of partaking in events that I don’t do on a regular basis.
I spent most of my extra day off at a kid’s birthday party regaling a group of youngsters with tales of how when I was a child we got two different days off from school to celebrate the births of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Ah, the good old days.
Yeah, nothing makes you feel as old and decidedly unhip as observing more than a dozen 10-year olds for several hours. I kept having to hold back from shouting that jeans are to be worn around your waist not at your knees. But they wouldn’t have heard me above the custom ring tones constantly spewing from their cell phones.
My husband and I also went to the track. Neither of us had ever been to a live horseracing event. I’m not much of a gambler but how did I ever get to this ripe old age without knowing the glorious joy of the trifecta?
Also it’s not everyday that I’m semi-stalked by a nearly toothless elderly man, who repeatedly asks me (at least six times) if he could bum a smoke. I quit years and years ago, but was tempted to buy a pack and leave give them to him just so he’d leave me alone. And I’d have to go back to my rowdy college days to recall the last time I’ve seen so many people belly up to the bar just a hair past noon.
We also spent an evening at a poetry slam. I’m no stranger to prose and I greatly admire those who can use their words creatively, but when did being angry become a prerequisite for being a poet. In some cases, three minutes felt like a lifetime - a very angry lifetime.
Each of the situations had its share of stereotypical elements mixed with my own preconceived ideas. However, there were also many interesting and surprising (and very enjoyable) things that came out of my experiences and observations.
The bottom line for me was a great reminder that I shouldn’t make assumptions about people or situations. I think that’s very much like affiliate marketing. Take the time to find out who your audience is. Don’t make assumptions about your customers or what they want. Get to know your customers and it will pay off big for you.
Start blogging and tell me some techniques you use to get to know your customers better.
While I was working on several stories for our spyware issue, I had extensive discussions with affiliates, merchants and network executives who often pointed the finger at Microsoft for not doing enough to stop spyware.
Actually, most of the time they weren’t pointing that finger but rather raising it in a familiar gesture I usually reserve for motorists that lack my superior driving skills.
If you’re a Windows user you know about the damage spyware can do. It slows millions of consumer’s computers down to crawl and often steals vital personal information. And if you’re an affiliate, spyware is likely diverting a large portion of your commissions to unethical marketers.
So, you’d expect that earlier this week when Bill Gates announced at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco that Microsoft would take a stand to protect its Windows users against spyware (and it would be free) that critics would collectively say, “finally.”
But that’s not the case. Most are claiming that Microsoft shouldn’t be trusted to protect their computers or their commissions. Some analysts say Microsoft should be working harder to fix its market dominating Windows operating system and its Internet Explorer browser rather than releasing new programs to stop attacks on them.
Windows systems are the main target of the pernicious software. Microsoft fends off those charges and says it has made big security moves to protect its users by claiming more than 170 million users have downloaded the company’s Service Pack 2, an update to Windows XP, since its release in August.
By promising to offer the AntiSpyware program at no cost, Microsoft is expected to pose a threat to lifeblood of rival software makers Symantec and McAfee. Bad for them, but good for those who don’t want to shell out $39.95. Nearly 7 million people have already downloaded the beta version Microsoft AntiSpyware, which has been available since the first week of this year.
Microsoft also officially announced its plans later this year to begin selling an antivirus package that fights viruses and worms. That software will be incorporate technology from two Microsoft acquisitions: Romanian virus scanner GeCAD, bought in 2003, and antivirus software developer Sybari Software, which Microsoft agreed to buy last week. Gates didn’t say whether or not that software would also be free.
So start blogging and tell me what you think about this issue. Is Microsoft’s approach too little, too late? Or is the company on the right track? How does Microsoft’s move to combat spyware impact you and the affiliate space?
It seems like there are a lot of different research studies being released that look at some piece of ecommerce or online marketing. It’s good to put a scientific approach to examining how and why people make purchases in order to better serve those customers.
The latest study to cross my desk was conducted by Performics and comScore Networks. This study looks at how consumers use search engines in the process of making online purchases. The findings suggest there is an opportunity for marketers to attract and engage searchers throughout the buying cycle, and not only with their own branded keywords but generic keyword searches.
Called Search Before the Purchase, the study used a proprietary panel of 1.5 million US Internet users who made a purchase at one of 30 web sites during the month of September, 2004. The survey tracked search activity - both searches and clicks - of the buyers for 12 weeks preceding the purchase.
The study, which analyzes pre-purchase search activity across four categories (Apparel, Computer Hardware, Sports and Fitness, and Travel), showed that almost 50 percent of all online shoppers conducted related research at a search engine before making an online purchase. What is also outlined in the study is the frequency of searches and how close there are in relation to the actual purchase. All of this varies by category.
The study also looks at the types of keyword searches that are performed prior to making a purchase. The results show that buyers clearly favor generic terms early in the buying cycle. Brand-specific searches accounted for only 18.1 to 28.5 percent of all searches those buyers conducted, depending on the respective purchase categories.
For many of you this new data will just confirm what you already know or at least suspected. For others it might provide the hard data to convince you to tweak the way you do business.
Check out the study, then start blogging and let me know if this particular study or any of the other pieces of research that come out actually impact the way you do business or if you simply ignore them.
It’s earnings season. That wonderful, eventful period that comes around four times a year and gives us all a chance to see just how well all the publicly traded companies have performed over the last quarter. Many of you might be surprised to find out that I look forward to these periods more than the semi-annual blow out sales at Macy’s and Nordstrom. And that’s really saying something since I am quite a shopaholic.
But I’m also a journalist. That means having specific figures and exact numbers to scrutinize and possibly refute the claims of overzealous PR people makes me all happy inside. There’s nothing better than being armed with facts – not just information – facts.
And as most business school graduates, scientists and baseball stat nerds will tell you - numbers don’t lie. Sure, they can be manipulated in a lot of different ways, but thanks to Enron and WorldCom, more stringent government laws and regulations surround corporate governance. No one wants those types of financial debacles to ever happen again.
Over the next couple of weeks we will get a financial glimpse into several companies that help drive the affiliate marketing space. While some of the leaders, such as LinkShare are privately-held and don’t have to report financial information, others including, Commission Junction and Performics, are owned by parent companies that have stockholders and must break out their sales and profits.
If you’re involved in affiliate marketing it’s your duty to look very carefully at these results. They will give you a better peak into who you are doing business with and how their business may impact yours.
Commission Junction’s parent company, ValueClick, will report its 2004 year-end numbers February 17. DoubleClick, which bought Performics for $58 million in May 2004, released its earnings today. DoubleClick CEO Kevin Ryan says the company had better than expected revenue from its Search Engine and Affiliate Marketing products.
So check out the results, then start blogging and let me know if these results impact you in any way and what you’ve learned from looking at the earnings report.
Love. Love. Love. That day of hearts and flowers, chocolate and cupids is fast approaching. And for the last month I’ve been inundated with pink and red everything, everywhere I go. I’m all for love, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve barely recovered from the big holiday season and now I’m reminded that I need to spend even more to make sure that my special someone knows how much I love and adore him.
I’m not sure I can live up to the Valentine’s Day expectations that seem to be growing every year. When did Valentine’s Day become such a big deal? Used to be you could buy a mushy card professing your love, maybe whip up some heart shaped pancakes for a special breakfast in bed and top that off with an IOU for a back rub. Now, I feel pressured (not by my husband but society in general) to make a bigger, bolder, more expensive expression of my love.
Actually, it seems like this is happening with every holiday. The marketing and the hype starts earlier and earlier each year. There are Halloween costumes in stores at the start of September. The Christmas carols and holiday gift giving ads often start before we’ve even basted the Thanksgiving Day turkey. Back to school promotions start right after the Fourth of July fireworks have exploded.
Maybe I’m just more sensitive to all this because I spend so much of my day online and see tons of promotions and banners touting holiday goods. I realize that in order to sell seasonal goods you have to start reminding consumers early since many people seem to have such short attention spans.
In our upcoming April issue we explore strategies for boosting sales of seasonal goods all year round. But I’d really like to know if with all this holiday hype comes the chance of burning people out since we are now making such a big deal out of each and every holiday.
So start blogging and tell me what you think or give me your best ideas for holiday selling strategies that will keep people in the holiday spirit and wanting to buy. Don’t make me resent the Easter Bunny.
In the current issue of Revenue Magazine I wrote a story about an affiliate that was just starting out. I was sparked to write the column when semi-retired photographer Malcolm Lubliner contacted me to ask about resources, information and general advice (the nuts and bolts) for those trying to break into the affiliate marketing game. Malcolm’s biggest complaint was the lack of easily available rudimentary information on affiliate marketing.
I think his story struck a chord with some of our readers. I’ve gotten a handful of emails from others echoing his exact sentiments and in some case, saying that many people in this business don’t want you to know the secrets for success (not unless your willing to pay for them).
A January blog entry on inyourweb.com referred to our article and took it a step further. Inyourweb.com publisher Steve Johnson writes, “I'’m creating a new section here at In Your Web entitled, “Nuts and Bolts” out of respect for guys like Malcolm Lubliner. Yup, I'’m going to spill the beans. Maybe I shouldn'’t do this, but then again, why not? If I can manage to convert a couple of Malcolm Lubliners into 6-figure income affiliates, then that has to be good for the industry. The more successful affiliates we have, the more merchants will spend on their affiliate programs. That has to be good right?”
I agree that information about affiliate marketing and its successes should flow more freely. Tips, tricks and success stories can only fuel growth in the entire affiliate space. Start blogging and let me know what you think about sharing info – is it the key to success or road to lost revenues.
Two years after announcing it was developing its own search technology, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates took the wraps off a version of Microsofts long-anticipated search engine.
The company is looking to capture a larger piece of the lucrative search market from rivals Yahoo! And Google. According to market researcher comScore, MSN currently owns about 16 percent of the search space, behind Google (35 percent) and Yahoo! (32 percent). Some estimate that MSN Search will help increase Microsoft search traffic by more than 200 percent.
Although Yahoo! no longer supplies the editorial results at MSN Search, paid listings continue to come primarily from Yahoo!-owned Overture.
MSN Search is accompanied by a revamped look on MSN.com, which features the search box more prominently on the page.
And Microsoft is putting big bucks behind the launch. This is one of the Redmond, WA software giant’s biggest online campaigns ever. And that’s saying something.
Microsoft wouldn’t say how much it is spending on TV and print ads along with outdoor placements in 25 countries. However, the company did disclose that the campaign costs will top what it spent on MSN 8 and MSN 9, which each reached nearly $300 million.
Start blogging and let me know what you think of MSN Search or how this impacts the search market.
