Chris Trayhorn's blog

Now that the Facebook IPO registration has been filed we can finally get real insight into their business. Key takeaway, Facebook's ad revenue in 2011 was $3.2 billion. That represents an increase of almost 70% from 2010. We can break that down even further: part of the increase in revenues came from an increase in ad rates of 18% - not bad at all in the current economic climate - but most came from a 42% increase in ads served.

The always reliable Brian Krebs with an amazing story of Russian spammers, huge botnets and oddly named pwnsters.

Michael Wolf tells you what you need to know:

LinkShare is holding its Symposium event here in San Francisco this week and the opening keynote by Forrester senior analyst, Andy Hoar, contained some terrific insights into the state of the performance marketing industry. I picked out five that look at coupons, social marketing, and growth opportunities:

1. Affiliate Marketing Growing 16% p.a.

2011 was a year that everyone is happy to have survived. Some advertisers and networks crashed while others thrived. It was a year in which financial stability, ability to pay on time and the smarts to avoid legal issues became mission critical competitive advantages for many networks. All of these factors affected the new BLUE BOOK Top 20 rankings for performance marketing networks. And the changes in our approach mean that the rankings - to be announced at Affiliate Summit on Sunday - are the biggest and most authoritative yet.