You will hear them called “adware,” “malware,” “parasiteware,” and “spyware;” you will see them come in forms of toolbars, browser plugins, BHOs, pop-ups, and pop-unders. As Harvard’s Ben Edelman would say, “the techniques vary, but the key tactic is the same” — “finding a way to get between the user and the […]
Affiliate Toolbars, Adware and Malware: 19 Resources to Study Read More »
The best affiliates are highly motivated to make sales and use whatever tools available to interest potential customers, including ever-developing technologies and apps. Although this is generally a good thing for the merchant, affiliate managers must be discerning which promotional methods are acceptable and which are not. Several types of
An Invisible Thief: Affiliate Adware and Plugins Read More »
Yesterday, when blogging about the importance of affiliate-merchant transparency (and setting the right merchants’ expectations right from the start of affiliate’s relationships with merchants) I had no clue that on the very next day I will have to put together a “Part 2” in continuation of that post. Today a
Surprising Example of (Toolbar) Affiliate Transparency Read More »
Earlier this week an email came from BrandVerity, the developers of PoachMark, a famous tool of catching paid search violations. The email read: We’re happy to unveil a great new resource available to all Poachmark customers, at no additional cost! Our staff has been hard at work developing informational Affiliate
BrandVerity's PoachMark Now Also Analyzes Affiliate Toolbars Read More »
One would think that it is common sense to have a separate section prohibiting parasitic affiliate behaviors in your affiliate program and your program agreement. However, even larger online merchants sometimes do not do so. First of all, this makes them significantly more vulnerable to rogue affiliates. Secondly, it makes
Walmart Affiliate Program Now Prohibits Parasitic Behaviors Read More »
Today Kellie Stevens of AffiliateFairPlay.com has published her first free public adware reports: The two reports that are already available are: (i) A report on AllFreeCoupons, a Firefox add-on which displays coupon/deal notifications when the visitor is on a website that may have such available, and also offers the website
Kellie Stevens Publishes Two Free Public Adware Reports Read More »
In continuation of my last two posts, and pondering on some of the comments at Econsultancy.com, let’s see what parties can benefit from adware pop-ups, and if anyone really gets hurt. To begin with, let’s list who is involved in the game: (a) adware affiliate, (b) merchant, (c) affiliate network,
Who Benefits & Who Gets Hurt By Adware Affiliates Read More »
I have been thinking and discussing the issue of parasitic affiliates a lot over the past 40 hours (since the publication of this post, and the recording of this video), and there are 2 things that stand out to me as the main downsides of having a parasitic/adware adware affiliate
Parasitic / Adware Affiliates Hinder Affiliate Program Growth Read More »
Let me start with a story, a true story. I hosted a table at the last Affiliate Summit’s Meet Market. Meet Markets are networking events held for the purpose of affiliates, merchants, affiliate networks, outsourced affiliate program managers, and other agencies to “meet-and-greet” each other during the first day of
ShopAtHome.com or How Affiliate Marketing Gets Hurt Read More »