Commission Explosion

I recently read another timely article on Perform Insider about Pinterest a popular and fast growing website where according to their website “People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes”.

Nothing really new about the service that hasn’t been tried before by similar community share platforms but why is Pinterest suddenly raising eyebrows? Apparently, their practice of automatically replacing any user generated product or retailer links with affiliate links of their own.

From Perform Insider: “Several blogs have questions this, not only as being deceiving but a possible violation of FTC rules that require that disclosure when content is disguised as an advertisement. Pinterest’s argument could be that they themselves are not actually promoting the product, they are changing the code and thus it’s not a real placement. Either way, its something they need to address because the FTC has already shown they don’t appreciate when people hide advertising in content without telling users about it.”

My overall concern is built on the whole user-generated ‘content’ aspect. I can appreciate website monetization challenges but I believe I am right in my assessment that the practice without notifying your users in clear language throughout is wrong in my own personal opinion.

Pinterest responded to the building criticism on their blog: “Online communities need ways to generate revenue to support their operations, and the preference is always to earn this revenue without disrupting their users or detracting from their UI with flashy advertisements. Creating a beautiful, user-friendly site, as Pinterest has done, mandates a non-intrusive way to make money.”

Now that that’s aside let us move onto the service they purportedly use called Skimlinks (affiliate link). Datafeed programs and javascript offerings tried in the past (albeit not exactly like this) have been around for a number of years, mostly small operations with a few dozen merchant offerings like Goldencan (who you still have to have an established merchant relationship with).

No program as far as I know has the reach of Skimlinks with a stated merchant program base of 18,000+ merchants and 32 affiliate Networks. Another enticing feature is that as a publisher, approval into Skimlinks then gets you ‘instantly approved’ to promote so many different merchants with just ‘one’ simple javascript placement. The cost to use the service is a straight 25% revenue share from any sales resulting from your publishers link.

What is your opinion of Skimlinks. What about the disclosure process? Even more important does it work for your website, blog and your content type ? What about the programs transparency? Do you feel confident sending your traffic through them as a provider? Do you only send select traffic or go all-out?

+Nick J. West

CityDeals, a daily deal Groupon type company located in Salt Lake City Utah suddenly and abruptly closed its doors on Wednesday leaving customers and merchants in the dark.

Customers were briefly being redirected to the DealsThatMatter.com website but customers were not able to access their accounts or to print certificates from their CityDeals.com accounts. A check of number 800-970-8824 is currently a non-working number.

Some local merchants are still honoring the certificates, other merchants who were never paid are not sure they can afford the loss of giving away services or products. Customers are advised to call-ahead.

Owners of Deals That Matter have said they have no affiliation with City Deals however they were apparently in-talks at one point about acquiring CityDeals.com but withdrew from the deal for an undisclosed reason.

A few reviews sited on Google from early August and none are positive. One says it all from the merchants perspective: “Still waiting to get paid for this company on product they sold for me over two months ago. Fortunately, we only ran our ad for two months. When we sign a contract, we expect each party to hold up it’s end.”

Is this possibly an area that the state legislatures needs to look at a bit closer, maybe requiring daily deal sites to maintain a bond or guaranty? I am all for free enterprise but the fast cash in this business model leaves little room for insuring the public trust. Without it, the entire daily deal industry could suffer greatly and or even disappear.

+Nick J. West

Another major retailer is migrating away from GAN. Click here to apply to be a Timberland affiliate.

With Timberland’s move comes more questions about the Google Affiliate Networks high costs, the expense of maintaining a program via GAN and the entry requirements preventing many smaller operators from entering the affiliate field through GAN.

With the resources at their fingertips I am still surprised that Google isn’t doing as much to bring more small businesses into the fold with an affiliate program mechanism. AdWords are being presented as the best option for small businesses when an affiliate program can bring the business owner conversions at a much lower cost and with a shorter learning curve to get a program going.

Fold3 (formerly footnote) is migrating from Linkshare to CJ. The big news is that the commission for early adopters is 40%. Get your links active now to take advantage of this offer. Click here to apply for the program.

As a website owner you probably buy traffic in one form or another. Many do so initially by using PPC ads, hopefully they convert into sales for you but for many websites getting traffic is an on-going enterprise with or without conversions.

Recently a number of good resellers have come into play that allow you to buy great ad space, at a huge discount without losing any of the tracking and placement controls you have come to expect.

Resellers and remnant ad space sellers like those listed below allow you to buy impressions for as little as $0.04 cpm which can greatly increase your exposure on a very limited budget, as low as $500 for an average campaign block.

The following are two of the best resources that I have found for quality remnant ad traffic: SiteScout and AdBuyer

The As Seen On TV store affiliate program is now available. Promote hundreds of top selling products from your visitors favorite infomercials. Affiliates receive 8% commission on purchases. To become a partner, sign up for the As Seen On TV store affiliate program on the Google Affiliate Network.

CPA offers are more and more often becoming the norm in affiliate marketing. After recently expanding the number of networks that we personally work with we are pleased to say that OJQ (Offering Just Quality) passed the mustard.

Enjoy a great platform, real-time tracking, pixel placement and great performance. Click here to request an affiliate publisher account with OJQ.

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