Where the focus is everything about online marketing, including key business strategies, innovative marketing methods, effective online advertising techniques, emerging advertising trends in technology and much more.
Todd Crawford was the face of CJ; now he's facing the challenges
of developing a technology road map for oneNetworkDirect.
More than a year ago, Todd
Crawford created quite a stir
in the affiliate community
when he departed Commission Junction, a company he helped
found in 1998. He emerged at Digital River's oneNetworkDirect
as its vice president of sales and business development, where
he oversees affiliate recruitment and development, has profit and
loss responsibility, and develops the technology road map and
overall strategic direction for the company.
Although Digital River is headquartered in Minnesota, Crawford
lives and works just south of Santa Barbara in Ventura,
California, where he can ride his motorcycles and drink the
local wine in Southern California's year-round sunshine.
During his tenure at CJ, he was the vice president of sales. His
main responsibility was new advertiser acquisition, but he also
handled other business initiatives including industry relations
and CJ's international expansion in Europe and Asia.
Revenue's Senior Writer Alexandra Wharton asked Crawford
about a variety of topics including why an affiliate program for
the software industry makes sense, the constantly evolving affiliate
industry and the making of industry legends.
Alexandra Wharton: oneNetworkDirect is part of Digital
River. How do the two entities fit together?
Todd Crawford: oneNetworkDirect is Digital River's online
affiliate network – a network that specializes in providing
Digital River software publishing clients with affiliate marketing
services and technologies as well as access to a channel of more
than 70,000 affiliates.
AW: What is the reason to start an affiliate network for only
software products?
TC: Since 1994, Digital River has focused on e-commerce and
the digital delivery of software products, so it was a logical progression
to launch an affiliate network focusing on these types of
products to help our clients drive more sales.
AW: Has this been a long-standing opportunity or is it the
result of changes in the marketplace? TC: With broadband penetration where it is today, more and
more consumers are opting to download their software purchases,
and I believe this trend is only going to continue to increase.
Affiliates can benefit several ways from offering digital downloads:
1) When sold online, downloads have a lower cost of goods
than physical products, which means there are more margins to
pay affiliates higher commissions; 2) software is a natural fit for
affiliates to promote since the computers consumers are using to
shop online run on software; and 3) consumers can begin using
the software as soon as the download is complete, so affiliates do
not have to wait for physical products to ship before receiving
their commissions.
AW: During the eight years that you've
been in the industry, what are some of the
most significant changes that happened
in affiliate marketing?
TC: The first thing that comes to mind is
how much the entire industry has matured.
In 1998, affiliate marketing was a
great idea but did not generate significant
revenue because most companies did not
take it seriously. From 1998 to 2002, it
seemed like affiliate marketing was trying
to earn its wings as a legitimate marketing
channel. Fortunately, the dot-com
bomb accelerated this shift as it forced
companies to make smarter decisions on
how to spend their marketing budgets
and eventually moved affiliate marketing
to the front of the line.
The next big change was the emergence
of search arbitrage. I remember the day we
were doing some networkwide analysis on
recent unexplained growth trends and saw
a lot of referring URLs coming from Google
and Overture. We looked into it deeper and
figured out what was going on. It seemed
like such a simple idea that obviously was
working very well. Today of course, search
arbitrage is a huge part of affiliate marketing.
I believe that the success and popularity
of paid search today is due to the early
innovators in affiliate marketing.
AW: Over the next year, what are
some of the biggest challenges facing
oneNetworkDirect?
TC: The greatest challenge is taking advantage
of all the opportunities in front of us.
We have been growing at a tremendous rate
since we launched in November 2005. During
the past six months, we have made great
progress on the affiliate interface, reporting
and tool set. Prior to Affiliate Summit
in Las Vegas, we re-branded and launched a
new home page at www.oneNetworkDirect.
com. We have a road map of new features
and functionality and have been doing regular
releases. During the past year, we have
created more affiliate mindshare, which is
also attracting more attention and interest
in oneNetworkDirect. Some of our affiliates
have found great success as part of our network
and we are hoping that their success
stories will drive even more interest in the
industry.
AW: How many merchants are in your
network?
TC: Currently there are more than 50 programs
in oneNetworkDirect, including
programs from leading publishers of digital
products and software applications.
We typically add several new programs
each month.
AW: How many affiliates are in your network?
TC: More than 70,000 affiliates have signed up to participate in
oneNetworkDirect.
AW: Can you talk about how you will focus on recruiting and developing
affiliate relationships?
TC: Affiliate recruitment and development is our primary focus at
oneNetworkDirect. We have a dedicated affiliate development team.
Half of the team is responsible for recruiting new affiliates, and the
other half of the team is responsible for managing top-performing af-
filiate relationships. I recognized years ago that world-class affiliate
service is the key to growing a network. We are very active at trade
shows where we attract new affiliates and further develop our relationships
with existing affiliates. This year we will be exhibiting at the Af-
filiate Summit conferences in Las Vegas, Miami and London; Ad:Tech
in Paris, London, San Francisco, Chicago and New York; eComXpo;
SES; and at Digital River-hosted client events around the world.
AW: Can you explain what oneNetworkDirect's product, trialTracker,
does?
TC: trialTracker is a new conversion-monitoring technology that allows
affiliates to promote "try before you buy" versions of software
titles by integrating the affiliate ID dynamically into the download.
Because the affiliate ID is actually in the software trial, any subsequent
upgrades to paid versions will be credited to the affiliate that initiated
the trial download. Continued on Page 2...
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