The countdown has started. There are only 19 more days until it’s officially Spring. I can’t stop dreaming about days without rain here in the Bay Area. The promise of better weather and Spring Training are all I can focus on right now.

So, if you’re looking here for a snappy, cohesive, insightful blog entry that will dramatically improve your affiliate life stop right here. Instead, I thought I’d use this entry to jot down a few random things that have come across my desk, have caught my attention or just piqued my interest in recent days.

Apparently Circuit City’s new executive management thinks that the company doesn’t need its largest affiliate partner – Amazon.com – anymore. Just two weeks after Circuit City promoted its chief merchandising officer, Philip Schoonover, to president, the company says it wants to concentrate on increasing sales at its own website rather than continue its 3 1/2-year relationship with Amazon.com.

A Circuit City spokesman declined to say how much his company has sold via the Internet or through Amazon.com. This is the first time I’ve heard of such a high-profile retailer dropping Amazon. If you know otherwise, please let me know.

At this week’s Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo in New York, Performics introduced FeedLab, its newest data feed management technology. There have been a lot of complaints over the last several months across the affiliate space about data feeds. They are cumbersome, complex and a pain the you-know-what to manage. Check out the current issue of Revenue for our complete take on the topic.

To its credit, Performics is among those looking to automate cross-functional processes and scale data feed marketing programs. The FeedLab technology focuses on distribution, data feed enablement, optimization and logistics to fully automate and improve data feed delivery and performance for clients. The technology is used by Performics’ data feed management team to acquire, segment, transform and produce customized data feeds. It also manages an advertiser’s data feed with comparison-shopping engines, Web publishers and participants in the Performics affiliate network. I’ll be anxiously awaiting your feedback on how much of an improvement this technology really is.

Spyware is in the news again, but this time it’s for a fight amongst those that are supposed to be united in their efforts to stop it. The Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology vendors, COAST, a high-powered coalition of anti-spyware vendors, has collapsed as three founding members –Webroot Software, Aluria Software and Computer Associates International’s PestPatrol– withdrew from the group. Another founder, Lavasoft, pulled out of the consortium earlier and accused COAST’s leadership of focusing too much on generating revenue. The latest withdrawals stem from the decision by COAST to allow membership to 180solutions, which has often been accused of using questionable tactics to install ad-serving software on computers.

Many of the companies that withdraw from COAST say they were uncomfortable with the idea of adware firms using COAST membership as a marketing tool. COAST was originally created as a place for anti-spyware vendors to meet, discuss and create standards for treating a common problem.

And finally, someone emailed me recently and the signature on the message included the job title of Chief Rainmaker. It immediately took be back to the late 90s when dotcommers were making up their own job titles. Everyone was trying hard to be different. That meant there were fewer Human Resource Specialists and more People Wranglers. Idea Guy replaced Business Development Manager and Chief Software Architect was out, while Head Geek was in. I’ve started noticing more and more of those oddball titles in the affiliate marketing space. Maybe it’s a way for a burgeoning this marketplace to differentiate itself by not taking on the job titles of the establishment.

So, from now on please refer to me as the Princess of Revenue magazine and start blogging now to let me know if you have a unique job title or if you’ve been dreaming up unique Spring promotions for your affiliate site.