All in the Family
By: The Spider
In the world of online marketing, there's love, dysfunction and squabbles, just like with most clans.
The summer heat has been causing The Spider to break a sweat. Something I rarely like to do. I look forward to the fall cool-down – especially since digging for any sort of solid information on Commission Junction's Link Management Initiative (LMI) has been quite a workout. Few people were willing to give up the real reasons for this change at CJ, which had affiliates absolutely fuming. It looks like ValueClick is calling the shots on this one. It's all about behavioral targeting, and I'd say this kind of behavior missed the target.
Most CJ workers are merely the messengers and sick of living with multiple bullet wounds. Lisa Riolo, a CJ vet, who was named SVP of business development last spring, left the company in early September. Insiders say it was not related to LMI.
As for tiny missteps, I've discovered that everyone makes them – even moi! I know, I know. Say it ain't so. Last issue, I confused two distinctly different items and melded them together. Too much Spider fodder, I guess. Or maybe it's just that keyboards and Cognac don't mix. Lesson learned.
That said, LowerMyBills.com was never planning on fleeing Commission Junction. They are a long-term CJ client and in April, a month prior to the LMI hubbub, LowerMyBills.com had already inked another long-term contract with the network. Mea culpa over.
LinkShare had an even bigger apology to make – to the tune of $89,000. At the end of July the network settled with the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a watchdog trade group that represents most major software companies, regarding claims that LinkShare had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft, McAfee and Symantec applications installed on its office computers. And talk about adding insult to injury – McAfee is a LinkShare client. That one's got to sting.
The overall BSA bust was $2 million (for 19 U.S. companies), which means that LinkShare's settlement was nearly 5 percent of the total BSA haul.
But that's not the only damage. Remember when the old folks used to threaten that every crazy little stunt you pulled as a kid would "go down on your permanent record?" Well, this one did for LinkShare. Look up LinkShare on Wikipedia.org. There are just two entries under History:
The first is about Linkshare's company and founders and the second is regarding the BSA settlement.
Ah, what a legacy for the Messers.
Speaking of family affairs … at Overstock (how could I resist?) Jack Byrne, father of mercurial CEO Patrick Byrne, has retired from his position as deputy chairman of the board, where he's sat since 1999. His decision to leave follows several months of heated disagreements with his son over management style and how to run the online seller. The senior Byrne is best known for resurrecting Geico and Fireman's Fund and has recently returned to the chairmanship of an insurance company in Bermuda he helped launch more than 22 years ago.
A quarter of a decade ago, I was watching Michael Jackson and Madonna videos on MTV, and now people are watching videos from Affiliate Summit on YouTube.com. That's entertainment, my friend. What they are not watching is any Affilliate Summit video on Affiliate TV. The Canadian start-up got off to a very rough start after a litany of serious missteps in Orlando. They continued to use the names of Summit co-founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward as partners to leverage new business after being rejected as a partner that's a little brash. But attempting to film even after being barred from having your cameras at the conference (and being warned nearly a half dozen times) is just plain rude, eh?
The company was also asked nicely to remove any reference to Affiliate Summit from its website. The links and banners have disappeared but there's still a video making a wild claim that Affiliate TV will be filming hundreds of merchants at the Affiliate Summit. It's ironic that the remaining promotional video takes a dig at magazines being out of date by the time they are printed (ouch!). Yet I visited their site nearly a month after the Affiliate Summit, and they still had the same video up, which speaks in the future tense for an event that had ended more than 30 days ago. Back at ya, baby!
Think being shunned at the Summit is bad? Try having censorship issues with Google. That's what happened to producer Steven Rosenbaum (of MTV UNfiltered fame). But now Rosenbaum has hooked up with Affiliate Legend award winner (2005) and security expert Wayne Porter to discuss (WaynePorter.com) how Google ads are being censored on Rosenbaum's site, which provides a source for people to upload iVideos of the conflict in Beirut. Rosenbaum pulled four of the videos, but at Porter's urging, reposted them. For now, Rosenbaum has shifted the site to a new server and resolves to sit it out until Google apologizes.
Don't you be sorry. Send some hot industry gossip or juicy information my way. I want the real dirt and if I use your tip in the next column, I'll send you a Revenue T-shirt. Email me at TheSpider@RevenueToday.com or call the hotline directly at 415-732-7456.
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