Taking A Stand: Q and A with Brian Littleton

November/December 2006 Issue: Page 76

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ShareASale may be tough on those stealing commissions from affiliates, but founder Brian Littleton also likes to shake things up and have fun along the way.

ShareASale is an affiliate network that has taken a hard stance on spyware, adware and parasiteware by not allowing any downloadable applications into its network. That business model has won legions of affiliate supporters. ShareASale is growing, and is still considered the smaller, nimbler, more fun network - throwing memorable parties and playing host for standout social events. The company's founder, president and CEO, Brian Littleton, is committed to affiliate marketing and creating a successful business by building strong relationships and sticking to his beliefs. He recently won AffiliateFairPlay.com's first-ever Fair Practice Award (see Revenue September/Octoctober, page 18). Meanwhile, he, and everyone around him, is having lots of fun making it happen.

Lisa Picarille:What made you decide not to allow downloads or applications within your network?
Brian Littleton: Several years ago when the issue first came up to us, we took a look at how some of the software download applications worked - and it was obvious to me that they didn't belong in any affiliate channel that I had any control over. As an affiliate network, our main job is to track a consumer from the point of a "click" to the point of a "sale" and commission the referring affiliate. Based on our testing, it's impossible to accurately track this and commission the proper affiliate if there is a download or application in effect. Further, we witnessed some extremely disturbing distribution methods and behavior from some of the players in that market. Thus, to ensure that ShareASale is not party to any practices that contradict our values, we do not allow any downloads or applications within the network.

It is my opinion that these downloadable applications, most of which involve customer loyalty of some kind, should be a completely separate channel from the affiliate channel, one that is tracked and commissioned differently. They perform an entirely different service than that of an affiliate - and actually remind me more of the type of action such as using my "Reward Miles" credit card for a purchase as opposed to a "sales generating" affiliate. I love consumers, but it has never been my understanding that a consumer has the right to dictate where a commission on a sale should go. That doesn't make sense to me. A lot of times, loyalty applications and affiliates could actually help each other out if they were properly channeled, but that may take time for affiliates to welcome back into the clickstream a party which has, in the past, taken money out of their pocket.

LP: What are the pluses and minuses to that business stance?
BL: The only minus is the occasional client who wishes to work with an affiliate who we do not work with. In those cases, we try to convince the client why partnering with a download or application is disadvantageous to their affiliate strategy. If that doesn't work, we guide the merchant to another network. We don't really see a financial downside to that, because our ultimate goal is to be a sustainable and long-term "sales focused" network. Also, it's our view that the loyalty channel, which is essentially what most of the download applications are, does not belong in the affiliate channel. The affiliate channel should be focused on bringing in new customers, new businesses. Affiliates are able to extend beyond the brand and seek out different demographics. The purpose of a loyalty marketer is to drive consumer loyalty; it's a different goal.

LP: Is there any other type of business/entity that ShareASale doesn't work with; religious groups, sex sites, etc.?
BL: We review each and every application into the ShareASale Network - and have done so for as long as we've been in business. While I don't want it to be our job to prejudge anyone's ability to become a successful affiliate, it is important to me that we keep a certain level of quality in the affiliate applications. To that end, we screen for things such as adult content, hate groups, etc. More important to us than the actual site content is being able to verify an affiliate's contact information as well as their ownership of the site that they have applied with. Because of the effort we put into this process, I feel we offer a great value to merchants in taking as much time as we do to verify affiliate information. Beyond that, we believe in every affiliate's right to "start small," and tend to err on the side of the affiliate in deciding if their site should be accepted for content reasons.

LP: You seem pretty tight with the ABW crowd. How has that relationship impacted your business?
BL: The ABestWeb community is a great friend to ShareASale, and I hope to continue to participate there as long as they will have me. I don't have any explanation as to why our network has become popular there except to tell you that I think it is because we make a dedicated effort to take every request seriously without regard for whether an affiliate generates $5,000 per month or $5. Every business has "big" clients that are important, and obviously we have some relationships that garner more of our attention at times; however, one of our greatest assets is the collaborative expertise of all affiliates and merchants in this industry who are willing to give us advice on each issue we come across - and I'm always grateful for the advice that they have given me over the years.

LP: People cite ShareASale as the fourthlargest affiliate network. Do you aspire to be among the "big three"?
BL: I aspire to put together the best product that I can for the market that we serve. If you take a close look at the individual networks that are out there, I think you will find that each has strengths within its individual market that makes it as successful as it is. For us, we started out with the hopes that we could provide a solid technology platform and a network of quality affiliates to a market that was being mostly ignored by most networks. We wanted to provide an alternative, mostly for small to midsize companies, who didn't feel like their needs were being addressed, and to that end we've been fairly successful. Our goal isn't necessarily to become one of the "big three" but just simply to continue improving both our technology tools and network of affiliates. There are distinct markets within which we compete very well, and within those markets we want to be not only the best solution available but also a solution that our customers are happy with.

LP: Do you any feel pressure to expand?
BL: I founded ShareASale in the year 2000, and have been able to launch and run the company without the assistance of outside capital. Continued on Page 2...

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