Incent CPA Offer Poster Boy

February 21, 2007 Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Just For Laughs — Kellie AFP @ 6:29 am

You’ve seen the marketing approach many call gratis marketing. Win a free iPod, gift card, plasma TV (or numerous other prizes) or earn cash simply by signing up for a certain number of offers. There are many companies out there that market merchants this way and usually more than one such offer available to affiliates on CPA Networks.

I came across this video the other day. I found a few videos on YouTube along these same lines, but this guy won the prize as Poster Boy for Incent Offers and explains some of the reasons debate rages around gratis/incent offers. He’s promoting a web site called FusionCash and explains why people should join and how they should participate. BTW, he’s an “affiliate” also and yes he did have a referrer link in the video description area. :) (more…)

Recruiting Faux Pas

February 20, 2007 Filed under: Just For Laughs — Kellie AFP @ 8:00 am

I got an email the other day with the Subject “Follow Up”.

The contents of the email (in it’s entirety) were:

Hello, 

I am interested in promoting your affiliate program through ClickXchange.
Would you consider working with us?

Best Regards,
Amanda Warman
Business Development
tel: 714-861-4041 x.224
ClickXchange.com 

First of all, I’ve never had any discussions at all with ClickXchange, so I’m not sure how this can be a follow up.

But most importantly, I don’t have an affiliate program. So I’d have to say, no. I’ll probably not consider working with ClickXchange to promote my nonexistent affiliate program. :)

When will people start to learn to at least research a little bit before they send an email? The only benefit from that email was to give me a giggle. And to wonder how effective their promotion would be if I did have one. ;)

The Advertising Mindset: Friend or Foe for Your Affiliate Program Podcast

February 19, 2007 Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, AFP Podcasts — Kellie AFP @ 9:39 am

AFP Affiliate Salon presents at podcast with Andy Rodriguez today at 11 am EST. The topic will be The Advertising Mindset: Friend or Foe for Your Affiliate Program.

We will be talking about how affiliate marketing is a unique channel for a company’s online marketing strategy and what impact can viewing and managing your affiliate marketing channel with an “advertising” mindset have on your program.

If you miss the live podcast, you can listen to the archiver (as well as previous podcasts) here. 

Affiliate Salon Podcast Launches

February 19, 2007 Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, AFP Podcasts — Kellie AFP @ 8:51 am

AffiliateFairPlay has launched our podcast series, Affiliate Salon. The podcasts will be educational in nature focusing on topics for both affiliates and merchants/managers for all levels of expertise. We will try to keep them high on information and low on marketing pitches and spin. We will also be bringing in Industry experts as guests. We have received great interest and support from many already who have agreed to share their knowledge and we thank them.

You can listen to our latest podcast, listen to archives and see our upcoming podcasts in two places:
Our BlogTalkRadio Host Page
AffiliateFairPlay web site

We will also be posting announcements of upcoming podcasts here. We also welcome any suggestions or feedback regarding our efforts. Thanks for listening in advance.

DirectRevenue Settle With FTC

February 18, 2007 Filed under: Adware, Legal Issues — Kellie AFP @ 7:32 am

FTC Press Release

The settlement calls for $1.5 million to be paid in fines for questionable installation and removal tactics of the DirectRevenue adware. There are also clauses regarding how the adware can be distributed in the future as well as ads being displayed through “legacy” installations.

The Commission vote to accept the settlement was 4-1. The dissenting vote came from Jon Leibowitz (who has publicly called for the reporting of advertisers using adware to shame those financially supporting adware) on the grounds he felt the monetary fines were to little, as DirectRevenue as profitted by more than $20 million.

Public comments are open to the FTC until March 21, 2007.

TRUSTe Unveils First Trusted Download Whitelist

February 15, 2007 Filed under: Adware — Kellie AFP @ 8:00 pm

TRUSTe today announced their first whitelist of download software who passed their beta certification process.

Certified software on their list include:

CamFrog Video Chat 3.81 (Camshare LLC)
Coupon Bar 5.0 (Coupons, Inc.)
Coupon Printer 3.3 (Coupons, Inc.)
Crawler Toolbar 4.5.0 (Crawler LLC)
Illumio 1.2.73 (Tacit Software, Inc.)
MostFun 1.0 (NeoEdge)
Save/SaveNow 4.0 (whenU)
Vomba 1.2.0.0 (Vomba Network Inc.)

TRUSTe states in the press release regarding their beta certification:

quote:
The program sponsors, representing leading content and search providers, anti-spyware vendors and online advertisers, offer market incentives for downloadable software publishers to get certified. AOL, CA, CNET Networks, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo! will use the whitelist as a tool to help make business decisions related to advertising, partnering and distributing software products. By providing a whitelist of trusted applications, the program aims to provide attractive market incentives to software publishers to meet the requirements and earn certification.

Some may remember questions raised regarding TRUSTe Privacy certification process. Carolyn Hodge then answered fourteen questions posed by Wayne arising from the controversy. In her responses, Carolyn mentions the Download Certification program that was then in the works.

More to come on this I’m sure.

Protect Yourself the Zango Way

February 14, 2007 Filed under: Adware, Affiliate Marketing, Editorials — Kellie AFP @ 12:59 pm

On the plane to the Affiliate Summit, I was reading my January/February issue of Revenue. I was somewhat astounded by some quotes in the Out of Commission article. I’ve watching to see if any talk was stirred up in the community over specific quotes. Either I’ve missed the talk or no one is talking about it, so here I go with my opinions. (more…)

The Real Threats…Be Afraid…Very Afraid

February 8, 2007 Filed under: Adware, Affiliate Marketing, Legal Issues — Kellie AFP @ 1:50 pm

Developing Story

pg-wayne.jpg So where are the real threats in the world of adware, malware and spyware? Wayne Porter has been stringing me along for weeks now about the contents of his upcoming coming presentation at RSA. I just got an IM from him, clueing me in on what he and Chris Boyd (PaperGhost to the security world) laid out during their presentation. Hold on to your hats folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…. (more…)