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The stakes are high in the game of chance known as online marketing.
Super-affiliate and search marketer Adam Viener ruffled some highrollin' feathers in late March when he posted a letter on his blog (Goyami.com) saying hotelier Wynn Las Vegas invited a select group of industry influencers (hey, where was mine?) and specific affiliates (not Viener) to come to the posh hotel for a swanky junket.
The event was billed as a way for partners to "enjoy the many pleasures of the Resort," including a complimentary twonight stay, dinner at the restaurant of some famous New York chef and tickets to see a popular Vegas show (sadly, for the army of Fanilows, this is not the Hilton). Viener posted the invite verbatim on his blog, including the special group code to be used when reserving the free rooms.
Viener was positive about how much of a commitment the event shows from Wynn in treating their affiliates as partners - "A great win-Wynn deal," he called it. Still, that didn't quell the ire of Wynn executives who were peeved about having to put in place extra methods to cross-reference the reservations with the invitee list. After a call from Wynn, Viener immediately reworded his blog to omit the reservations code.
Speaking of miffed, affiliate super-nice guy Shawn Collins was apparently not pleased that unauthorized videotapes of his Las Vegas Affiliate Summit conference are being circulated. OK, so this is not exactly spicy Kid Rock sex-tape scandal stuff or Affiliates Gone Wild, but still, the sessions were recorded without permission and then posted to two different sites - http://affiliatevideo.blogspot.com and http://www.affiliatevideo.com.
Lawyers got involved when the videotaper began aggressively promoting his sites and gathering leads by forcing people to register for access to the videos. A strongly worded cease-and-desist order prompted the taper to pull down the offending videos, but they later resurfaced at another URL, with a note apologizing for being offline that read, "We have received a request to take affiliate videos offline while we're working on securing all necessary permissions. Please stay tuned as there is more to this story than you might think." The last time I checked my Law for Dummies book, cease and desist meant STOP.
In other news of the miffed, social networking site ReturnOnAffiliate.com angered some powerful people by using MyGeek.com to serve ReturnOnAffiliate pop-ups to visitors on various sites including AffiliateSummit.com, ReveNews.com, AMSWO, ABestWeb.com, Performics, ShareASale.com, Commission Junction, Share Results, IncentaClick, CPA Empire, AffiliateBoards.com, eComXpo, LinkShare and RevenueToday.com.
Teacher's Pets
Petco left LinkShare for Commission Junction but will they be the top dog with the network - since Doctors Foster & Smith, which also has a massive petrelated affiliate program, is also at CJ? Alas, the grass is always greener. There are some other big CJ accounts that just aren't feeling the love and are considering a move to LinkShare, which since the Messers departed in February, has been repeatedly referred to as "the kinder, gentler LinkShare." But one thing hasn't changed - LinkShare still demands exclusivity on the part of its merchants. According to one large merchant that tried to play the "but-we're-huge-and-thiswould- be-a-major-coup-for-LinkShare card," Mr. Denton may be a softie, but he's no pushover.
When it comes to matters of the heart, former LinkShare COO Heidi Messer has met her match. The newly minted multimillionairess is engaged to Tad Martin, the senior vice president of operations at Overstock.com (you know, I just couldn't go a whole column without mentioning my favorite Utah-based company). I was going to get them a big old pile of cash as a wedding gift, but then I remembered they already have one of those.
Speaking of Big Love, many partners that hook up eventually realize they just weren't meant to be. Such was the case with CPA ad network AzoogleAds, which in early March dumped its deals doing business with notorious adware firms 180solutions (MetricsDirect) and DirectRevenue. Turns out that 180solutions isn't compatible with many folks. A week after AzoogleAds spurned 180, a merchant with a very large affiliate program called 180 to halt business dealings and was told that they were the third company that day to dump them - and it was only 10 a.m.
Timing is everything. Contact me if you've got any hot industry gossip or juicy information. I want the skinny, and if I use your tip in the next column, I'll send you a Revenue T-shirt. Email me at http://TheSpider@RevenueToday.com or call the hotline directly at 415-732-7456.
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