A tremendous tsunami of blog posts and articles has been raised by the recent Federal Trade Commission’s announcement of its guides for disclosing the sponsor-endorser element in testimonials and endorsements. At the time of this post there currently are 948 news articles and close to 4,000 blog posts on the […]
FTC Says the $11000 Fine "is Not True" Read More »
While parasitism in affiliate marketing frequently being synonymized only with downloadable applications that intrude with the end user’s shopping experience with a purpose of facilitating cookie setting/swap on the customer’s machine, the term should really include everyone who is extracting wealth from merchants/advertisers without assisting them in any way to
Trademark Violators — a Type of Parasite Read More »
In some instances affiliates ask merchants to pay them a flat monthly amount for a link placement on an affiliate website. Such insertion fees are commonplace in online marketing, and in some cases affiliates (especially the more selective ones with good traffic) use them to justify the investment of their
Affiliate Placement Fees Read More »
In one of the newly launched affiliate programs (where specific types of affiliate promotion are explicitly prohibited in a short and easy-to-read program agreement), we have observed that over 38% of affiliates who apply into this program do not read that agreement. Yes, there is a mandatory requirement to agree
38% of Affiliates Do Not Read Program Agreements Read More »
Back in March I posted my 5 recommendations on how to make killer landing pages. In July I showed 5 examples of well-put landing pages. Today I have conducted an analysis of specific affiliate campaigns (coupons, promos, featured products/services and product lines) run by 50 Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Google
74% of Merchants Do Not Have Landing Pages Read More »
[Updated: 6/26/2019] Did you know that in North America alone there are nearly 180 affiliate networks? In affiliate marketing, an “affiliate network” is, essentially, an intermediary between a brand (merchant or advertiser) and an independent marketer (affiliate), the party bringing merchants and affiliates together and providing both of these parties
Affiliate Networks in North America: The Complete and Updated List Read More »
Many people come to my blog searching for “free affiliate tracking software”. There are a number of free (and inexpensive) scripts that merchants can install on their server to start an affiliate program. Here’s just a brief list: Affiliate Program Script Cosmic AffiliateClick SimpleAffiliate TigerTom’s Affiliate Program Software TWSC Affiliate
Free Affiliate Tracking Software Read More »
We have been registering a surge in applications from affiliates who either list no other website but a URL of their social media profile (on Twitter, Facebook, etc), or list their social media profile(s) (some – more than one) as the main website(s) where they plan to promote the merchants
Social Media Affiliates – a New Trend? Read More »
Over the past few days I have been receiving proposals from affiliates who came up with new ways to position themselves in the online space. Not to give away anyone’s secrets I’ll have to stay generic, but they have essentially come up with tools that help merchants’ existing customers and
When Affiliates Require Merchant's Involvement Read More »
Ben Edelman, a Harvard Business School assistant professor, well-known in the affiliate marketing circles for exposing parasitic affiliate behavior, click fraud and affiliate commission fraud, has posted an online advertising Bill of Rights proposition. He proposes 5 rights to help safeguard advertisers “from increasingly powerful ad networks”, from “wasting advertisers’
Online Advertisers' Bill of Rights Proposed Read More »