I just want to thank several people in the affiliate community for taking the lead in alerting others about bad affiliate behavior and also for taking the necessary steps to help halt the offending actions.
Thursday afternoon affiliate consultant Shawn Collins was kind enough to instant message me about some shady behavior. He alerted me to the fact that ReturnOnAffiliate.com, an upstart social networking site for affiliates, was using MyGeek.com to serve ReturnonAffiliate pop-ups to visitors of a variety of websites including Collin’s AffiliateSummit.com and RevenueToday.com.
Collins informed me that he contacted the site’s founder Richard Lewis by email and requested that this activity cease immediately. He also noted that this type of inappropriate behavior “could easily give your site a big black eye.”
I told the appropriate folks here at Revenue what had transpired and they immediately began an investigation into the situation. But before we could even make a call to Lewis or hit the send button on the email, I heard back from Collins.
He let me know that within several hours of receiving an email from him, Lewis responded with an email apology and noted that he was alerted by some upset ROA members and had “suspended the account with MyGeek” and was “not aware exactly how they were generating traffic to ReturnOnAffiliate.com through there [sic] model.”
Stevens is the person who first let Collins know about the problem. She discovered it while doing some spyware testing.
The email from Stevens reads, “The ads were being run through MyGeek.com with targeting of URL’s of ROA to pop on. For those who may not be familiar with MyGeek, they are an ad network where you can set up ad campaigns similar to AdWords. They have two types of ads available: CPC and CPV (cost per view). The CPV ads are specific to be farmed out to numerous adware companies for ad popping. Basically it’s like having an account with 180solutions only your ads are delivered through numerous adware applications. Richard was running CPV campaigns. I’m sending this because your web site was one of the sites being targeted for the ReturnOnAffiliate website to pop on. That’s the bad news.”
The good news, she says, is that she also contacted Lewis and that he responded within hours. He admitted he was wrong and turned off the account. Stevens says that she has verified that the “account is indeed turned off at this time.”
What is particularly troubling to many involved, including Revenue, is that those targeted have been participating as active members of the ROA community and leaders in the industry. Not people that you want to tick off. Stevens, Collins and a legion of others will now be watching ROA extra closely.
Stevens also offered up a tip you can use to see if you are being targeted by someone through MyGeek for pop ups.
“Go to www.mygeek.com. Under the “Advertisers” section in center screen, click the link to AdOnNetwork. Make sure any popup blockers you may have are turned off. In the search box at the top of the page, type in any keyword or domain name (ie yourdomain.com) and do a search. You don’t have to be logged in to do this. If you receive a pop up, then that ad is being run through adware. If you receive an ad listing on the search return Web page itself, those are CPC ads which are provided for placement on actual web pages.”
I’m thankful that this industry has people that will take time out to inform, alert and educate people when inappropriate actions occur. lisap@revenuetoday.com
So many things that I’m not allowed to talk about like Todd Crawford’s replacement at Commission Junction and what big accounts are pondering a switch to a network no longer run by siblings. And then there are things I just can’t bear to speak of such as the departure of Chicken Little, Adam Morrison in the fetal position and my imploding bracket.
Instead, let’s focus on the good. So, here’s a baker’s dozen of tasty events and juicy news from this week that you must consume. Dig in and try not to spill anything on the keyboard.
For some reason I had an inordinate number of searches to conduct this morning. I’m always looking up something as part of research for my job. I would say that I am on Google for a good part of most of my work days.
In my personal life, I often write down little things, or words or the names of people in movies, or anything that I want to know more about. Then, when I get home I run to my computer and immediately Google the items. Okay, my name is Lisa and I’m a searchoholic.
That’s why instead of dedicating this space to March Madness (go Boston College!) or to St. Patty’s day, I’m putting the emphasis on search. A comScore report crossed my desk today stating that there is evidence that the growth in the U.S. Search market is slowing.
The good news for search companies, according to the report, is that the utilization of search queries for advertising purposes continues to increase. In December 2005, 57.2 percent of search query results included a sponsored advertisement, up from 49.1 percent a year earlier.
Additionally, the international search market continues to be strong, with a growth rate of 34 percent, the report states.
Total Internet Searches January 2006 vs. January 2005
Searches Jan-05(Billions) 4.95
Searches Jan-06(Billions) 5.48
Percentage Change 10.7 percent
Still, Google reinforced its status January 2006 as market leader of the U.S. search market with a 41.4 percent share of all searches submitted, up more than 6 share points versus year ago. Yahoo maintained the number 2 spot in the ranking with 28.7 percent share of all searches, while MSN ranked third capturing 13.7 percent of all online searches.
Here are some additional findings from the January monthly analysis:
•Americans conducted 5.48 billion searches online in January, up 11 percent from the previous year. This growth reflects a substantial slowdown from the 42 percent surge seen in January 2005 versus the previous year.
•Google Sites led the group with 2.3 billion searches followed by Yahoo Sites (1.6 billion searches), MSN-Microsoft Sites (752.5 million searches), Time Warner (432.6 million searches), and Ask Jeeves (307.3 million searches).
•Google Sites won top honors in share of tool bar search, capturing 49.5 percent of all tool bar searches, while Yahoo! Sites secured 45.5 percent.
Tell me what you’re searching for….lisap@revenuetoday.com
Some things are hard to believe – like snow (okay, more like slushy stuff) falling from the sky on Friday night in San Francisco. Hopefully, you’ll find these 10 happenings a little less surreal.
I just received the March/April issue of Revenue hot off the press. Your copy should be arriving in the next week or so. The latest issue focuses on changes that dramatically impact the industry.
My editor’s letter is about how change is good and the letter from our publisher is titled “Embrace Change.” I had no idea just how prophetic those letters, written months ago, would prove to be right now.
It is one thing to observe and write about change from a somewhat detached perspective, it’s quite another when profound changes rock your own little corner of the world.
Just a few weeks ago, our much-loved publisher Nick Smith left Revenue. He’s gone off to New York and reunited with his former boss and mentor Lisa Taylor (sadly, I am now the “other Lisa”). He’ll be working on an innovative television project with a new media component. His new job as sales director at Morphogenix is the opportunity of a lifetime that he couldn’t pass up. I’m deliriously happy for him, but selfishly sad for my personal/professional loss.
If you’ve encountered Nick you know he is a high-energy, witty, whip-smart and very charming guy (that British accent certainly doesn’t hurt). He is a salesman at the core, which normally gets my guard up and makes me second guess everything that’s said, but Nick proved himself to me as a truly one-of-kind, genuinely caring person. Roger and Linda, you should be very proud.
Nick made most people he dealt with feel like a million bucks. I was fortunate to have that feeling nearly everyday of working with him. Seriously, how many of you can say that about your boss? Whether Nick was regaling you with tales of his favorite football team (go Liverpool!), buying you a coffee, or chatting about music, motorcycles or one of his rock star nights in a hot tub, he made you feel like part of the story. He was fun to be around and people wanted to be wherever he was.
I’ve never really had a boss that I felt such respect for and kinship with. Nick was the glue that held our staff of talented but very different people and personalities together. He was an inspired diplomat and the Revenue staff psychiatrist (sometimes both at once). He was not only our visionary, our boss and our partner in producing Revenue, he was our friend.
Nick opened up his heart and very often his home to all of us. More than once, I was on the receiving end of a beautiful bouquet just because I was ill or down in the dumps or just because. He was also the person you could rely on to have the Super Bowl party, the basketball bash or host any other event that required a huge screen plasma TV, a kick ass sound system and an extra dry martini. I can’t count how many Friday nights after an especially rough work week we all ended up at his place.
He even hosted a Revenue cocktail party at his swanky Nob Hill bachelor pad during the LinkShare Partnership Summit in January. You’d probably have to search hard to find anyone that didn’t have a great time at that event – even if they lost their favorite sweater. Months later I still run into folks that are talking about that party – especially the amazing downtown skyline views of San Francisco and Nick’s fabulous party hosting prowess.
Nick was extremely passionate about performance marketing and especially about the leadership role Revenue Magazine plays in the industry. For him business was a pleasure. He loved forging partnerships inside and outside of Revenue. He wanted to work with people when it made sense and most times he could figure out an innovative way to make the best for all parties involved.
That spirit of partnership and passion was not lost on the entire Revenue staff. We’ve all cried in our beers and toasted Nick’s departure from Revenue, but our commitment to continue making Revenue the success that Nick had envisioned hasn’t waned a bit. We are moving full steam ahead on all sorts of planned improvements. Revenue is gaining momentum and in many ways, I think we all want to do even more with Revenue to ensure Nick continues to be proud of the brand he helped build.
I speak for the Revenue staff, and our parent company MRI, in wishing Nick all the best. I know that he wants the same for each and everyone of us as well as for Revenue Magazine. We’ve got some big shoes to fill, but we are up to the task. I’ve already stepped up to the plate and purchased a gigantic plasma TV and rocking sound system of my own. After all, March Madness is just around the corner.
If you have any questions about Revenue’s editorial direction contact me at lisap@revenuetoday.com. You can direct advertising inquiries to c.smith@revenuetoday.com. And if you want to wish Nick good luck in dealing with all those pregnant mums, he can be reached at nick@mgxmedia.com.
I’m still working on my feature article for the magazine about facilitating better communications among all parties in the online marketing space. As I mentioned before, during the course of many interviews with various types of industry folks, a lot great ideas have come up to help fix the communication problems.
Today I’m curious specifically about the forums/message boards. I want to get to the bottom of what role the forums, such as ABestWeb.com or AffCommunity.com, play in your daily life.
How important are affiliate forums to you? Do you get useful information on these forums? How often and how many community message boards do you visit? What forums are your favorite and why? Ever get flamed or have an unpleasant experience? Is the anonymity of forums a good or bad thing?
If you’ve got something to say on this topic I want to hear it. All views welcome. Send me an email (lisap@revenuetoday.com) and I may include your comments in my story or contact you for a more in depth interview.
I spent all day Thursday at the New Communications Forum 2006. The conference, held in Palo Alto, Calif., focused on new strategies for PR, marketing, advertising, the new media and the new face of journalism. Translation – lots of discussion, debate, hype and “inside baseball” references about blogs, blogging, bloggers and the blogosphere.
You would think all that enthusiasm would have me all fired up to write today’s blog entry; just the opposite. Instead of looking forward to sharing some thoughts and ideas with you, I’m worried. Will whatever I write below be “authentic” enough? And, is this a truly a real “conversation”? Am I really engaging you?
It’s hard to just let it flow, like I usually do, when I have so many constraints and bloggy things to fret about. But I’ll give it a shot anyway and try to point out any issues or bad blogging behavior where they might occur.
Despite, my previous emphasis on the blogging aspect of the conference, the bulk of sessions that I actually attended focused on marketing and advertising. One of the sessions, “Engaging the Audience: From Listening to Co-Development”, was moderated by Rob Key, CEO of Converseon. It touched on whole bunch of interesting points – most related to big brands and how they engage customers.
The idea is that with the web and blogs and other methods of mass communication by individuals, companies no longer own their brands. Word of mouth marketing and social media was a huge focal point of the discussion, which included other knowledgeable panelists; Dan Buczaczer of Reverb, Per Hoffman, founder of AdCandy, Owen Mack of co-BRANDIT, and Cory Treffiletti of Carat Fusion.
Not surprisingly, buzz marketing has generated quite a buzz at this conference and beyond. In fact, Revenue has a fascinating feature article on word of mouth marketing in the issue that is due on your desk in just days (promotional/corporate voice).
A panel on “RSS as an Advertising Platform” also sparked some interesting debate and some rambling that wasn’t helpful or easy to follow. But here’s what I could get from this session. While most agreed that RSS is poised to be a huge delivery platform for a variety or things (from feeds to creatives to ads) Stephan Spencer, founder and president of NetConcepts, claimed there were issues regarding ads in feeds. He said that clicking directly on ads in feeds loads a 302 redirect that gives affiliates their due commissions, but robs the merchants of the click tracking (Google juice) needed for much coveted search rankings. He claimed that is a huge issue that needs to be addressed immediately. Louis Moynihan, director of strategy and development for Pheedo, promised to look into it.
One of the best parts of the day for me was lunch. The food was great (fake voice), but the best part was sitting with a great group of people that were all from the corporate world and had some reservations and trepidation about the hype surrounding blogging and podcasting. Two of the folks from Plaxo talked about how their corporate blog was sort of a huge sore point and that despite the hard work in creating the blog and the effort to engage customers – especially disgruntled ones – there didn’t seem to be a big or even little pay off.
It was a nice reality check to chat extensively with people that were questioning blogging rather than just drinking the Kool-Aid.
However, after hours and hours of talking about blogging and now writing this blog about blogging, I need something a little stronger than a fake juice drink. Let me know if you’ve got a blog or are thinking of creating one. lisap@revenuetoday.com.
