The March/April issue of Revenue is going to the printer in mere days, so needless to say I’m swamped with last minute editing, corrections, proofing and of course, finishing up two of my stories that are way too late.
Part of the delay is that I decided at the last minute to include a small piece in the magazine about the recent situation where three Commission Junction employees exited the company after the affiliate network decided to reinforce its policy that staffers are not allowed to be affiliates.
The fear that there might be a perceived conflict of interest (even if there is no wrong doing) is an important subject that seems to have struck a nerve with nearly everyone I speak with. Many have chimed in on the discussion started by David Lewis. There is no shortage of opinions, but what I’m digging for is facts.
I spent most of yesterday (and plan the same for today) on the phone calling all my sources, industry leaders and people that might be in the know about what went down at CJ. I have a lot of details but I’m still missing some key pieces of information. That’s where you come in. If you have any information about what happened related to this issue, give me a call at 415-321-2493 or drop me an email at lisap@revenuetoday.com.
Slightly off topic…two things that came up in the course of my reporting this story:
Conflicting interests. In the past some affiliates have suggested that in order to cover this industry that I (and others at Revenue) should become affiliates so we’d have a much better understanding of the space from the inside out. I’ve resisted for two reasons; one, I have a job that already takes up a huge chunk of my life; and two, I’ve always felt it would be a conflict of interest. It seems that after talking to some of those affiliates this week, they are coming around as to why having a neutral third party cashing commission checks from companies they write about might be a conflict of interest. (I know we, as a magazine, already take advertising money from businesses we cover, but that is an age-old media debate that I’m not getting into here). Now, if I could just get these hard working affiliates to see why I might want only one job and more than three hours of sleep per night.
The tables have turned. Also as I reported this story at least a half dozen people mentioned they might want to blog about my conversation/interview with them. In the old days, I could report a story without worrying that the interviewees were going to be publicly revealing what I’m on to (which might actually jeopardize the information I’m attempting to gather). I’m all in favor of the idea that bloggers keep journalists honest, hold their feet to the fire on facts, and are faster to get the story out to the masses before bigger media outlets. I applaud that. It was an eye opening dose of reality to have that extra layer of complexity added to my reporting. Now, I have to start off all my conversations by saying that my comments are “off the record.”
I wanted to write more about the LinkShare Parnter Summit today, but it’s just not happening right now. The list of excuses why is getting longer; the nasty cold still lingers, deadline is pressing for Issue 10, I’m too distracted to concentrate on a single subject, and it’s raining. Whatever.
Instead, I’ll give you the end of the week download. Here goes.
I’m still smiling from a great dinner with the gracious people at eBay. Our table was by far the liveliest. I’m attributing much of the witty banter to Sean Crotty. Oh, yeah. There was also some wine involved and lots reminiscing about old Apple regimes.
Also seated at my table were two nice folks from an affiliate company. These guys had lots of very interesting opinions on ad networks, blogs, podcasting, RSS and knitting.
At the eBay dinner there was some chatter about the recent Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. The consensus was that the show is the best overall affiliate event and it’s getting even better each time.
However, there was a collective “huh?” over the choice of venue for the Affiliate Summit taking place in July. This week Shawn Collins, the show’s co-founder and organizer, sent out a notice that the summer show would be in Orlando, Florida. Shawn, have you ever been to Florida in the dead of summer? No one wants to see hundreds of sweaty merchants and affiliates (or press people). Trust me.
However, if you’d rather instant message with perspiring (and drier) members of the affiliate community then check out affaimlist.com. The Affiliate AIM List is a simple but clever idea. It’s a growing list of the AOL instant messenger handles of people in the industry. Members opt to sign up and then others on the list can see if you’re on IM or offline and contact you directly. The Affiliate AIM List was started by Goyami.com blogger Adam Viener, the president of IM Wave, a search marketing affiliate. The impressive list boasts some high profile industry leaders.
And talk about buzz. It seems like half the people I’ve interacted with this week (and this month) have directed me to Guy Kawasaki’s new blog. You might remember Guy from his days as an evangelist for Apple. He started blogging at the very end of 2005 and while he writes about entrepreneurship, venture capital, innovation, public speaking, the Macintosh, and hockey, there are still many valuable nuggets for anyone doing online marketing or starting a business.
Ok, so this was really at the end of last week not this week (sue me), but it looks like Commission Junction finally decided to actually enforce its policy that employees can not be affiliates in the CJ network. Several people emailed me saying that three publisher managers quit over this. I have those names, but I haven’t been able to confirm anything so I don’t want to put any names in print (don’t sue me). Once I get the full story, I’ll get back you with all the details.
But enough about me, tell me what happened in your world this week. lisap@revenuetoday.com
I’ve got a nasty cold and that means I’m extra snotty today. Take that whatever way you want.
I’m blaming LinkShare for my headache, runny nose and coughing. That’s because I spent last Wednesday evening and all-day Thursday schmoozing with more than 350 merchants, affiliates and LinkShare folks at the LinkShare Partnership Summit 2006. In addition to the nearly two solid days of imbibing and networking, I firmly believe there was some serious germ spreading.
I’ll do my best to recall the highlights of the LinkShare Summit but at some points it just might be the massive doses of Robitussin doing the talking, er typing.
The event kicked off with a cocktail reception at the plush Fairmont Hotel. I didn’t make it to that party; I was too busy primping for the real soiree. The Revenue Magazine shindig took place just a block from the Fairmont. Our gracious publisher, Nick Smith, held the lovely gathering at his swanky pad that has a nearly unrivaled view of downtown San Francisco (and in a city known for it’s views, that’s saying something).
Based on the great people I met that night, the number of LinkShare Summit attendees with huge hangovers the next morning and some reports of missing items of clothing, I’d call our party a rollicking success.
For me, the Summit provided some great networking opportunities. The opening Town Hall session, moderated by LinkShare VP Steve Denton, offered a little glimpse of LinkShare’s roadmap going forward. Denton was also part of a panel (mostly of legal eagles) that provided some good insights about the risks and rewards of sub networks (more on that in a later/more coherent post).
However, I was a little disappointed in the keynote luncheon speaker, Tim Draper. He’s a big time venture capitalist and I expected something very inspired from him. I thought his talk was generic and not really geared toward the very Net savvy audience. Also, his musical stylings weren’t my speed. Truthfully, I never like Don Henley so I wasn’t too impressed that Draper won (in a silent auction) the chance to pen a ditty that would be sung by the former member of the Eagles. Trust me, Draper’s The Riskmaster ain’t no Dirty Laundry, but then again I never liked that song either. Don’t even get me started on Hotel California.
It’s me, Maria, blogging again. Lisa’s letting me take over this space again to announce two exciting new partnerships for Revenue.
We are very pleased to welcome Mike Moran as our new columnist for The Searchers. I’m sure many of you have heard of Mike, but for those who don’t know, he’s the man, as far as search goes. His day job at IBM as Distinguished Engineer and the Manager of Site Architecture for ibm.com keeps him fairly busy, but he still manages to write books and make personal appearances. We are very happy he’s decided to add a bimonthly column to his jam-packed schedule.
If you’re still not convinced, here are his credentials:
•Has worked at IBM since 1998
•Led the product team that developed the first commercial linguistic search engine in 1989
•Has been granted four patents with two more pending
•Is a member of Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society
If that’s not exciting enough, we’ve also sealed a deal with Dave Taylor to contribute to our monthly newsletter. You’ve heard of AskDaveTaylor.com, right? He’s the man you go to when you need technical info. Dave has been in the tech industry forever and pretty much knows everyone and everything.
If you don’t know Dave, here’s his abbreviated story:
•Worked for HP
•Founded The Internet Mall, Inc., the first online shopping directory
•Wrote approximately 20 books
•Has written for most major tech magazines
•Founder of Intuitive Systems, a consulting business
So if you have a tech question for Dave, send an email to askdavetaylor@revenuetoday.com with “Ask Dave Taylor” in the subject line. Dave will check out the submissions and answer at least one question in our newsletter every month.
Cool, eh? Yeah, we’re pretty proud of ourselves for scoring 2, count ‘em, 2, industry hotshots in one week. It’s good to be Revenue.
P.S. Don’t forget about Inside Track, the new personnel section of our newsletter. It debuts in February, so we’re accepting submissions now. To submit a candidate for consideration, send an email to InsideTrack@RevenueToday.com with “Inside Track” in the subject. Please include the candidate’s name, their new title and full company name, the date they started their new position, and their previous title and company. We will also be accepting photos. They need to be jpeg or gif format, and should be no larger than 200 dpi.
Having a blog means that I get to sound off on whatever topics catch my fancy. It also means that readers get to comment on those posts and call me an idiot or sing my praises (not surprisingly, I prefer the latter).
Recently, however, the Revenue blog has been inundated with spam comments. Last week I spent about five hours deleting thousands of spam comments and still didn’t make a dent in the pile. Every time I thought I’d made some headway, I’d scroll down and there were still hundreds and hundreds more. There wasn’t a word of praise or any kudos in the bunch – just lots screens filled with links and more links to drugs, cures for performance issues and sexy babes that really wanted to chat with me.
We are currently using an open source (read free) blogging software product and the documentation and customer support for those types of products is not exactly comprehensive. I gave it my best shot to stop the spam comment flood, but my technical wizardry is often surpassed by most tweens. So, I turned over the task to our IT folks. They couldn’t figure out how to block the spam comments or perform a mass delete of them, so the comment feature has been completely turned off.
Anyway, I realize that some of you might have something to say about our most recent posts regarding the Affiliate Summit. If so, you can email me and I’ll post your message (provided it’s not profane). I’ve already heard from Peter Figueredo, CEO of NETexponent: Here’s his unedited message.
Lisa,
I am sorry that you did not enjoy the Future of Affiliate Panel at the affiliate summit. While I agree the panel could have been better I think your review was overly harsh. The panel was geared to discuss the Future of Affiliate Marketing, not the past or present. As I mentioned during the session, all of the panelists made a conscious choice not to let this panel take on a “Jerry Springer” type form. For those two reasons the discussion about CJ and Azoogle was not appropriate. The goal was to prepare merchants for the future of affiliate marketing and to get them thinking about pressing issues. I feel that we did accomplish this goal. If you recall there was a segment where Todd and Joe each gave their thoughts on the role of ad networks. This allowed them to discuss their opinions about what happened without getting into specifics about their recent troubles and pulling the panel into a discussion unrelated to the future of affiliate marketing.
You should know that the feedback I have received from several conference attendees has been very positive. Perhaps the session could have been more entertaining and for that I apologize and take full responsibility. I appreciate your feedback and your opinions even if I do not completely agree. You can sometimes learn more from your harshest critics than your biggest fans. I also welcome the feedback of affiliate summit attendees, as it will be valuable in getting a balanced look at this panel and help to improve future panels. I will encourage all who attended to complete the feedback survey that Shawn will be distributing soon.
Thanks,
Peter
Peter and I may disagree, but that’s what makes this industry interesting. If you’ve got any comments about recently blog entries or just want to let me know about your experience at the Affiliate Summit shoot me an email at lisap@revenuetoday.com.
The Affiliate Summit 2006 in Las Vegas earlier this week was great. I met tons of interesting people doing innovative things. I think the final tally for the conference was something like 1,200 attendees with 400 more on a waiting list. Wow. That’s a far cry from the humble beginnings just three years ago when about 300 affiliates took a cruise to Nova Scotia.
While some of the “old timers” recalled those cruising days with fondness, most others claimed that being trapped on a ship with no escape, having a roommate in a cramped cabin and feeling seasick for three days wasn’t their idea of a good time. No one, however, seemed to mind being land locked in the desert with strippers, an abundance of booze and an infinite number of ways to lose their hard earned commissions. Go figure.
The whole shebang kicked off Sunday evening with a speed dating-like networking event. I was dreading this part of the conference. I opted not to meet with anyone but made myself available if people wanted to meet with me. Turns out that each participant had a total of eight “dates”. Four of mine were no shows. To the 50 percent that blew me off (you know who you are) I will be marking this down on your permanent record. You’re now officially on my list.
Thanks to our host Shawn Collins for pointing out my shame. I’ll be sure to call him next time I have another embarrassing moment that I want highlighted for all to see. However, fear not, I wasn’t sitting alone sad and pathetic as originally imagined. I actually ended up chatting with some other great folks who were also stood up – Brian Littleton, CEO of Shareasale.com , spyware expert Ben Edelman and blogging guru Dave Taylor among them. My conversations with those folks were far more interesting than what any of you no-shows wanted to chat about anyway. So there!
The keynote, which was generously slated for 10am to accommodate the late night imbibers, was enlightening. It was packed with fascinating facts and figures and keynoter Anne Holland, publisher of MarketingSherpa, had an engaging style. But one thing puzzled me. Anne appeared oblivious on stage to the bird (yes, a bird inside a Bally’s event hall) that flew in her path at least a dozen times.
Later she informed me that she had in fact seen the bird and was alerted to its presence even before she began her speech. The man who hooked up Holland’s wireless microphone told her that over the years he has often mic’ed Wayne Newton. Anne quizzed the AV man on how Wayne might handle such a situation. She was told that Wayne, being the consummate performer, would not acknowledge the bird and would simply go on with the show as planned. So, Holland explained to me that every time the bird whizzed by, she would just ask herself ‘what would Wayne do?’ then she would compose herself and continue without missing a beat. The speech was great, so all I can say to Anne – and Wayne – is danka schoen.
Following that keynote I was all revved up for the Future of Affiliate Marketing track. As mentioned in a previous post, I was expecting the sparks to fly since Commission Junction had recently ousted Azoogle from its network and executives from both companies were joining an esteemed panel.
I didn’t expect any screaming matches, but at the very least I was anticipating some lively and provocative discussion. However, the entire hour was disappointing and pretty lackluster. The moderator, Peter Figueredo, CEO of NETexponent, just could never get it together to ask a coherent question that didn’t have eight parts and require a two-minute preface from him. By the time panel members were called upon to respond, they either forgot the questions or the audience did.
That entire session was a can of gasoline and Figueredo only had to light the match. Instead I watched him spend an hour rubbing two sticks together with no resulting sparks. At the end, he called for audience questions. There were none. Not a surprise since most attendees just woke up from the snooze fest. Truthfully, I spent most of the session huddled with Edelman commenting on the questions we would have asked the panel.
However, it was clear from the session that LinkShare’s VP Steve Denton is likely the smartest guy regardless of what room he enters. Also LowerMyBills.com’s affiliate manager Beth Kirsch garnered a rousing round of applause for her comments about the technology she’d like to see in the future. Kirsch let CJ’s vice president of sales, Todd Crawford, know that it would be nice if she were able to see the actual contact information for her affiliates.
Speaking of Kirsch, the longtime affiliate manager’s friendly rivalry with consultant Jeff Molander was highlighted with T-shirts that said Kirsch vs. Molander. Prior to the show, attendees were asked to notify host Shawn Collins or FlamingoWorld.com’s Connie Berg whether they would like the back of their shirts to read “Team Kirsch” or “Team Molander.” Like a good journalist, I declined to take sides.
But I’m not afraid to take sides on the Affiliate Summit Legend Award. I’m squarely in favor of honoring Wayne Porter for his extensive work in affiliate marketing dating back to the 1990’s. I can’t even list all of his vast accomplishments. He’s a fascinating guy and I wish he could have made it to the show. Jim Kukral, publisher of ReveNews, was there to accept on Wayne’s behalf.
I also really enjoyed Edelman’s speech on spyware. It was great fun to watch several executives attempting to look unfazed as Ben took the audience through meticulously documented examples of how their respective companies played some role in facilitating spyware.
My entire table was grinning throughout the presentation – mostly because of Edelman’s delivery. The Harvard Ph.D candidate has a boyishly handsome appearance along with sweet and earnest demeanor. Honestly, he looks like a kid. But he’s whip smart and scary good at bringing the facts to solidly back up every point he makes. It was hard not to giggle just a little when he mentioned that in the past big, bad spyware villain Claria had planted two men outside his Cambridge apartment to document his comings and goings.
Later that evening, while dining at N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms, I ran into LinkShare’s Denton, who was hosting a dinner for 45 of the network’s top affiliates. For me thinking about being trapped in a private room for a lavish and lengthy meal with 45 people that do nothing but marketing all day long, is a little frightening – kind of like being on that original Affiliate Summit Cruise.
The day ended at the Shareasale.com party in the MTV Real World suite at the Palm’s. The party was packed and everyone was buzzing about how much bigger the apartment looked on TV. I was happy to know that I wasn’t alone in my guilty pleasure of religiously watching the Real World. But it seems like I left too early to catch a glimpse of the hot tubbing that went on in the wee hours. Since I know most partygoers didn’t bring a swimsuit I’m hoping there were lots of bubbles in the tub, not just bubbly.
Finally for me, the roundtable discussions on Tuesday morning were informative (albeit way too short). And at the show I also had the chance to chat with Matthew Lesko. You know him. He’s the guy with the brightly colored suit with question marks all over it. His attitude about making business fun and not worrying about failure was enlightening (for me), and from what he told me about his previous business experiences, liberating (for him) as well.
I headed home to SF before the excitement of Jeff Molander shaking his booty at PartnerCentric’s decadent chocolate party at the Wynn, but I think I’m okay with that. There’s always next year.
Hi there. My name’s Maria — I’m the senior editor here at Revenue. Our editor-in-chief, Lisa Picarille, is in Vegas at the Affliliate Summit, so I’m the designated blogger today. Have you seen how much tickets for that sold-out show were going for on eBay? Last time I checked, it was up to $1400. Dang, that’s a lot of cash.
So the cat’s away, but I can’t play because I have all kinds of work to do. Let’s see if you can help me out. How’d you like to write a column or come up with an idea for one of our columns?
Write for the Manager’s Corner. If you’re an affiliate manager with something to say, we might be able to hook you up. Our Manager’s Corner column features a 1100-word article written by a different author every issue, and the next one could have your name on it. We’re happy to help you think of potential subjects, but the rest is up to you. Of course, I will be editing the column, so it’s really up to me. Just kidding – it’s up to Lisa.
Get a Free Makeover. Have you seen Pedro Sostre’s ByDesign column in the new issue? You should check it out. There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but how about a free launch? Or should that be re-launch? Either way, it’s a great opportunity to get your site redesigned for free. And we’re currently accepting candidates for the May/June issue. Interested? If so, follow these steps:
1. Send an email to ByDesign@Sostreassoc.com
2. Put “Revenue’s By Design Makeover” in the subject header
3. Include your name, company and contact information (phone, email, etc.)
4. Include a brief description of your business and its goal
5. Include the URL for your home page or landing page for Pedro to review
This kind of work usually costs upwards of five grand, but here it’s free. So get your entries in quick. In order to be considered for Revenue’s By Design Makeover for the May/June issue, we must receive your submission by Thursday, January 26, 2006. Also, if your submission is chosen, you must agree to let Pedro show the before and after designs in our magazine.
Thanks for reading my first blog. And don’t fret – Lisa will be back on blog patrol Friday with the inside scoop on the show from Sin City.
This needs to be a quick one. I’m trying to wrap up lots of last minute work so I can get on a plane to Las Vegas for the Affiliate Summit.
The sold out conference kicks off with a special training session on Sunday (yeah, you’ve got to pay extra for it). Later that night there’s a networking event, which looks to be some sort of speed dating-like thing. People sign up to be included and then they can opt to meet specific people and others participating also have the option to select them. Then you spend a couple of minutes chatting with each person before they move to meet someone else. That doesn’t sound too awkward, does it? Yikes.
My nightmare is that I’ll be sitting there in my designated space alone and looking sad because no one opted to meet with me. But don’t feel too bad for me, I always got picked first or second in gym class so I won’t be psychologically scarred too much if no one wants to meet with me. I’m sure I’ll get over it after a little blackjack and a stiff drink.
Actually, I’m really looking forward to the conference and not just the swanky ShareAsale party in the MTV Real WorldSuite at the Palms. Plus, at the show our host Shawn Collins will be releasing his annual look at the state of the industry – the AffStat2006 Report: Affiliate Marketing Benchmarks. I saw a sneak peak of the comprehensive report, but my lips are sealed – for now at least.
Anyway, while I’m mixing and mingling and networking with the affiliate community’s finest in Sin City, our new Senior Editor, Maria Sample, will take over the blogging duties on Tuesday. Maria started at Revenue at the end of last year and she’s overseeing our columnists and several departments (Impressions and Statistically Speaking) in the magazine. She’s got some impressive journalism credits (Ziff-Davis, CMP Media) and I’m sure you’ll enjoy her wit and wisdom. Come back here on Tuesday for her maiden Revenue blog.
I’ll be back at the blogging helm next Friday (the 13th) with all the juice from the conference. If you can’t wait until then follow the excitement via Shawn’s blog from the show.
And, if you’re attending the Affiliate Summit be sure to say hello. lisap@revenuetoday.com
Stop your arm-twisting. Uncle. I give. This is the if–you-can’t-beat-em-join-em blog entry. I was adamantly opposed to droning on about my resolutions for the New Year or the resolutions that the online community should be making (and sticking to), but you begged (okay, one of you might have asked nicely). Plus, time constraints, some critical family issues that need my attention and just general post-holiday laziness have thrown any objections out the window. So here goes:
On the personal side, my resolutions are like nearly every other person on the planet: be healthier, work more efficiently so I can spend more time with my family and friends, and get more organized. Oh, yeah, I also feel deeply ashamed that I haven’t done a whole lot more during my lifetime to help save and protect the environment. That’s my biggest personal resolution for 2006 and beyond.
I’m not going to make any grand promises when it comes to work – especially since the boss reads this. I want to make promises and resolutions that I can be sure to stick to for 365 days. So here are the top five things that I resolve for Revenue Magazine in 2006:
*We will continue to bring you the highest quality stories about every issue that impacts online marketing.
*We will bring you more Revenue – six issues in 2006. And if you’re good there might even be a special supplement.
*You will see lots of new voices throughout the magazine. We’ll continue to branch out and expand the universe of people we talk to. This should add a broader range of perspectives to help you get the full picture on all subjects.
*More interaction with readers. We’ll be rolling out several new and interesting ways for you to communicate with us. And also for us to make sure others hear what you have to say.
*We will be finding more ways to deliver you even more timely and useful information. There’s likely to be more blogging (and not just by me); we may even try some podcasting; there’s talk of streaming video of interviews with industry movers and shakers; more exclusive content on the website; beefing up our newsletters; and adding more tools and resources to make your job easier.
If you still want more resolutions see what Shawn Collins has to say.
