Is it just me or does it seem like there are way more conferences, events, tradeshows and seminars for online marketers scheduled for this year than last?
I welcome the chance to get out of the office and see some old familiar faces as well as meet new folks that are doing interesting and innovative things in the online marketing space. Plus, did I mention that I get to get out of the office.
I also will get to travel to some places I haven’t experience in quite some time (Montreal and San Diego), and attend a show near where I grew up (Boston) as well as see some new places (Orlando, Miami). Okay, despite my previous complaints about heading to Orlando in mid-July, I have never been to Disney World (insert pity aaawwww here) and would like to visit the Magic Kingdom – even if only to poke fun at the mass-merchandising, middle America mind set.
Despite, all those enticing factors, I’m wondering just how I’m going to get all my work done if I’m out of the office so much. Now, please, don’t send me nasty comments touting online or virtual shows. I’ve participated in many of those over the last decade. They don’t work for me. I’m glad such online events as eComXpo.com serve a helpful purpose for so many. But I can’t sit at my computer for hours and not feel obligated to respond to the mountain of email in my inbox or get to work on all the things that have pressing deadlines. But that’s just me.
It’s much the same with shows that are local: Many events are slated to come to San Francisco in the next few months (Ad:Tech, Shop.org Multi-channel Symposium, E-Marketing Conference). And while I don’t have to pack or figure out how I’m getting to the airport, I just don’t get the same “conference” experience when it’s being held in my back yard.
Instead of attending the parties and the abundance of networking events, I feel the need to rush home and attend to items on my personal agenda. While most attendees are thinking about drinks with so and so, I’m wondering if the cleaners will be open after the session so I can pick up my favorite jacket or what my sweetie is having for dinner without me.
I’d love to hear from merchants and publishers (not tradeshow organizers) about which shows you’ll be attending over the next six months and what you expect to gain by attending. And, perhaps, if we are at the same event I can buy you a drink, providing it’s not in SF and the dry cleaners is still open. lisap@revenuetoday.com
My plan this morning was to wake up at the crack of dawn and write something thoughtful and thought provoking about facilitating better communication among all parties in the performance marketing space. But you know what they say about the best laid plans.
This morning was all about communication for sure. Unfortunately, most of it was me having a very loud, one-way dialog with my malfunctioning computer. There was some creative language used that would have made some salty old sailors blush.
This annoying situation just underscored to me some points about the art of communication. It’s hardly communication if there is only one party is involved in the discussion; not getting help or support when needed only raised frustration levels and creates resentment among parties; and not having a method to give and receive feedback doesn’t help anyone involved.
The whole topic of communication is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I was prompted to write a story about it after getting an earful on the subject from merchants, affiliates and network folks over the last several months. So, I’m working on an article for the May/June issue of Revenue and I’ve already talked to dozen of people about why communication is so important, where the breakdowns seem to occur and what possible solutions can be used to rectify the situation.
It’s been fascinating hearing the wide spectrum of responses, opinions and ideas. Some are simple and based on common sense, some require complex technology systems to be in place to work, and still others are hybrids that take the best elements for existing solutions (instant messenger, forums, message boards, emails, etc.) and apply some new processes.
The common thread is that all were born out of frustration. Merchants want more efficient communications with affiliates. Affiliates want a better way to wade through the mountain of message they receive from hundreds of merchants as well as the networks without missing the important stuff. The networks want better ways to communicate with all parties.
While everyone agrees about the need for better, more efficient communication methods, there is always the sensitive issue of privacy. Once you throw that into the mix, things start to get a little hairy.
Anyway, here’s were you come in. Let me know your opinion on the topic of creating better lines communication. I know you’ve got something to say and I want to hear it. We still haven’t fixed the situation with our blog comments, so you’ll have to send your thoughts to me at lisap@revenuetoday.com. Include your contact information and I’ll get back to you to set up an interview.
If you don’t have an opinion on this topic there are still a couple of other areas of Revenue where you can also get involved.
• If you have a technical question you can ask Dave Taylor. 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 Revenue newsletter every month.
• We are always accepting submissions for Inside Track, the new personnel section of our newsletter. 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.
• And finally, if you want a redesign of your home page, it’s simple and free. Our design guru and columnist Pedro Sostre is always looking for candidates for his next Revenue By Design Makeover. You can get your site in the running by following these easy 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 goals.
5. Include the URL for your home page or landing page for Pedro to review.
Just in case you’ve contracted Olympic Fever or are still recovering from your President’s Day festivities, here’s a look at some items in the news that might interest you.
How’s your health these days? I hope you’re OK. I feel like I’m coming down with something — and I think it’s Olympic Fever.
Unfortunately, I seem to be the only person I know who’s interested in the global sports competition currently underway in Torino. No one seems to know or care about the athletes or the medal count. If that’s not bad enough, the television broadcasts are getting pounded by the likes of American Idol and Survivor. When did talent-challenged and hygiene-challenged fame seekers become more entertaining than sports?
Some say their disinterest is due to the lack of hype leading up to the Games, other say they only like the Summer Olympics. I say they’re all a bunch of babies.
Why should you care? Well, I must admit that trying to connect the dots between the Olympics and a blog about affiliate marketing is a bit of a stretch, but weren’t there affiliates who bid on keywords such as “Olympics” and “Torino” in anticipation of fans searching for news? Didn’t gambling affiliate sites ramp up for increased betting during these 2 weeks of sports events?
I think they did and if I could figure out how to search for “Olympic affiliates” without getting results for all the affiliate TV stations broadcasting the Games, I could prove it. For now, you’ll just have to believe me. Besides, Google — the home of infinite affiliate ads — has had a different doodle for every day of the competition. At least someone in Mountain View is with me.
Still not buying the connection? How about this? The Olympics are much like the affiliate marketing field because the participants are entrepreneurs, in business for themselves, focused on marketing their skills for success, be it financial gains or fame. And it’s a global arena — anyone from any country (except China, of course) — can compete if they commit to working hard enough.
That’s all I got. Whether you agree or disagree with my arguments, my advice to you is to tune in before it’s too late. You just try to watch events like the women’s half-pipe competition without feeling some national pride. I think you’ll find yourself fighting the urge to chant, “USA! USA! USA!” In fact, I bet it will inspire you to go out and make some more affiliate money, thereby contributing to the bottom line of our fair nation. America could sure use some good publicity right about now.
Ever have one of those weeks? Oh, you know exactly what I mean. Nothing goes right, no matter how much effort you put forth. There’s not much you can do but press on and look forward to The Day of Love.
For the past two weeks, I just kept telling myself, “all you have to do is make it to Valentine’s Day and then everything will be better.” That’s was my big, red target. I just kept my eyes on the prize - in this case a huge pink chocolate heart. It was clear that once the day of hearts and flowers arrived, I’d feel nothing but love, love, love or at least a massive chocolate high.
But don’t think I’ve gone all soft and sentimental on you. Valentine’s Day was simply a target date. It was a milestone for me to finally complete many tasks that felt overwhelming and all-consuming. For me that means the March/April issue has finally been sent to the printer. Yay!
For most of you, Valentine’s Day signals the end of the pressure-packed holiday selling season. It’s when things begin to wind down to a “normal” or at least sustainable pace. No, I haven’t forgotten about Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, and, of course, there’s wedding season and graduations galore.
I know the cycle never really stops for hard-charging online marketers and I use that as my inspiration to keep pushing through. I’m also inspired by the passion of affiliate and performance marketers. For most of us here, Revenue is our passion and truly a labor of love. I hope you’ll feel the love when it reaches your desk early next month.
It looks like once again I’ve got some good timing going on here. Just weeks after I called out Steve Denton, LinkShare’s senior vice president of Client Development and Distribution Services, as the smartest man in any room, seems like there are some executives at Japan-based Rakuten who feel the same way.
Today Denton was named president of LinkShare, following the resignations of Chairman and CEO Stephen Messer and President and COO Heidi Messer, who led LinkShare’s development from its founding in 1996 through its $425 million sale to Rakuten in late 2005.
Denton will lead all day-to-day operations including management and continuous development of the talent and processes required to drive LinkShare’s continued growth. He will report to John J-H Kim, CEO of Rakuten USA and Executive Vice President of International Business Headquarters.
Here is a quote from Steve Messer that was included in the press release that crossed the wires this morning.
“Heidi and I are proud of the successful company that we, along with a great team of employees, have been able to build in a few short years,” said Messer. “As we go forward to take on new challenges, we are pleased that Steve Denton will be taking on a strong company, with talented people in place and a new range of global resources to fuel its future.”
Not exactly what I expected given that I interviewed Messer the day after the LinkShare sale to Rakuten.
At that time Messer said the he planned to stick around as did Heidi Messer.
“They plan to use Heidi and I as the core of the strategy to enter the market. From our perspective this is not about us leaving or cashing out,” he says. Instead, he’s looking forward to helping to “take the company to the next level.” Where LinkShare will compete with MSN, Google and Yahoo.”
I’ve spent a good portion of last week and this week looking into what many in the affiliate space believe is a clear cut case of conflict of interest.
Of course, I’m talking about whether employees of affiliate networks, or even the search companies, with access to crucial affiliate data (or that deal directly with affiliates), should be allowed to also be affiliates themselves.
This issue was brought to the forefront a couple of weeks ago when three Commission Junction employees left after the company restated its internal policies to say that CJ workers can not be affiliates.
During this hubbub I received dozens of emails, instant messages and phone calls asking me to further investigate the matter. In my 20 months covering the performance marketing space, I had never seen so many people from this community rally around a single point, so I gladly jumped into the fray. Plus, I spent much of my previous journalism career prying top-secret product information and business strategy from insiders at Apple, Microsoft and IBM. I love digging around for things people don’t want me to know.
In fact, Revenue magazine, which is planned several months in advance, thought this was such a hot topic we swapped out another story in order to accommodate a short piece on this topic. Talk about cutting it close, I’m still working on the story and the magazine goes to the printer in just a few days.
The article covers all the main points, but there was just no way to explore all the salient points in depth in only a couple of pages. Such are the constraints of the traditional publishing model. However, I have so much material that there will certainly be another full-length feature story in the following issue (May/June).
I’m not going to give away everything that I found out (you’ll have to read the March/April issue to find out the specifics), but here are some highlights from my reporting:
*ValueClick COO Jeff Pullen was quick to get on the phone with me about the subject. He was forthright and to the point. However, some of what he said regarding the way the information was communicated to the masses (read CJ affiliates) took me aback.
*It was like pulling teeth to get people on the record regarding this sensitive subject. Many industry leaders even took to posting in forums or on blogs under pseudonyms.
*Companies that don’t have policies in place to prevent this behavior don’t return phone calls or emails.
*Affiliates and even some affiliate managers want the issue to be addressed on a wider scale.
*The phrases “class action suit” and “government regulation” were brought up by nearly every party I spoke with. While all insisted they were no way advocating that outcome, many expressed fear regarding the direction this matter was headed.
“Also a big favorite in the affiliate vocabulary “nip it in the bud.” So many of you trotted out that phrase as a rallying cry that I wondered if there had been a meeting or a group email that I missed.
*This is issue far from over and unless addressed more openly could get really ugly.
*Already secretive affiliates claim they will be even tighter lipped than ever about disclosing anything about their sites.
It’s been a while, so it’s time to open the Revenue reader mailbag (or in this case email bag) and answer some questions from our devoted audience.
Question: I hear having a blog to go along with my affiliate site will help me make more money. I’m not sure what to write about. Since you have a blog you must have some ideas?
LP: You’ve already taken a big step by realizing that a blog is another great tool in your marketing arsenal. A blog, per say, is not going to make you more money, but it can help you reach out to customers, establish a connection with them and hopefully, increase loyalty to your site.
Since you didn’t include information about your site, I can’t give you specific topics to cover, but there are some general things that blogs can help you communicate to visitors. Use the blog to update visitors about items that might be new or to inform customers about the benefits of new items.
If you have a site devoted to a specific topic, mountain biking for example, then you can blog about your personal adventures, recent rides you’ve taken, the best trails in certain regions for riding, the latest technology developments in mountain bikes, and perhaps even product recalls or product reviews.
Don’t forget to include the ability for visitors to subscribe to an RSS feed. This way, all your blog updates will automatically be pushed out to those subscribing to the feed and serve as a great reminder for customers to return to your site.
Question: How do I get one of those Revenue makeovers?
LP: I’m assuming your site needs a makeover. Otherwise, you’re talking to the wrong person. Actually, it’s really simple and it’s free. Our design guru and columnist Pedro Sostre is always looking for candidates for his next Revenue By Design Makeover. You can get your site in the running by following these easy 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 goals.
5. Include the URL for your home page or landing page for Pedro to review.
What are you waiting for?
Question: My company just made an announcement this week, who should I send a press release to?
LP: Send it to editor@revenuetoday.com. If we are interested in following up on the information, we’ll be sure to contact you.
Question: I’m sending you an article written by the CEO of our company to be published in Revenue.
LP: That’s not a question. But if it was my response would be, “don’t.” Revenue doesn’t accept article submissions. We assign stories to our staff of writers and editors or to professional freelancer journalists. However, if your CEO has a unique perspective or some interesting ideas, we’d love to hear about them. Again, send the info to editor@revenuetoday.com.
As a result, we might just write an article on the suggested topic and call your CEO for an interview. He could end up being quoted in the story and go on to even more fame and fortune by having established himself as an expert on that particular subject. You can thank me later.
Question: You keep saying that Revenue is now bi-monthly. Doesn’t that mean it comes out twice every month. I’m confused.
LP: You’re not the only one. I get this question a lot. You’re thinking about semi-monthly, which means twice per month. In the past Revenue was published quarterly (four times per year). We are now published bi-monthly (six times per year). Many of you have said it would just be simpler and better for you if Revenue came out every month. Keep your fingers crossed. Maybe there will be even more Revenue in the future.
Question: Why are you extra cranky this week?
LP: I hate when my mom writes in. Whenever our deadline for the magazine to go to the printer approaches, I get a little testy. I’m totally committed to delivering the highest quality information about the performance marketing space in Revenue, but I also like to catch a couple of ZZZZs each night. And like many journalists, I thrive on deadline. Very often that means I subconsciously leave some things until the very last minute so I can feel the rush. While I love the rush, I also love to complain about the deadline pressure. It’s all part of the sick and twisted process of publishing. Question for you. Does that make me a masochist?
