Archive for the ‘AT Site News & Info’ Category:
Just the facts ma’am…
Observation - Analysis - Testing - Reporting
 In the midst of an ailing economy, the Internet marketing industry is abuzz with activity. Much of that activity revolves around tuning affiliate programs and trying new methods to glean every possible sale from that vast cloud of potential Internet shoppers. Many merchants and affiliates alike are beginning to exploit affiliate marketing methods that have existed for years, but have been continually railed against by some in the affiliate community.With a recent proliferation of new toolbars that pop, drop, flash, beep, and change color to entice shoppers to pick a coupon, get a deal, receive cash back, donate to their school, or any number of other reasons to click, affiliates involved in conventional search engine marketing are feeling the squeeze. Many are expressing their distaste of such methods in belligerent dialog through their favorite forum venue. This distaste manifests itself in the form of insult, name calling, and threats toward a many times hapless affiliate manager who turns out to be clueless of the negative impact certain affiliate marketing methods may have on his program. And there are times that the vigilantes, after beating up on an affiliate manager and her program, will learn that steps WERE taken to protect the marketing efforts of the merchant’s other partners, which results in egg on their faces. I suppose intimidation is one way to skin the cat, but there must be a more effective way than this seat of the pants approach of discovery, accusation, intimidation, and hope. |
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Affiliate Trust is taking a more systematic approach than your typical intimidation vigilante forum… Observation When suspicious activity is reported or observed, rather than calling in the dogs for a free for all, Affiliate Trust is nearing completion of a merchant alert mechanism that will notify merchants of potentially detrimental methods reported by their marketing partners. They will be invited to join the discussion. Analysis Information learned from the merchant will serve as input to analyze their technique and determine it’s process. Testing AT will then test the method to ascertain the validity of the analysis. Reporting The recording and documenting of tests will serve as input for accurate reporting of findings. Reports will be published and posted. A favorable outcome would be that the merchant would decide to forgo using the methods of concern. In that case, the merchant will be added to the AT Trusted Merchant List. Otherwise it will be added to a list disclosing the detrimental methods in use. Simple as that. Affiliates may just happen to refer to that list and decide not to join with merchants utilizing certain marketing methods. So if you prefer the emotionally charged approach, AT is probably not for you. If you’d like to take a more objective, Joe Friday “just the facts ma’am” systematic approach, visit AffiliateTrust.org, have a look, and join right in… |
Fair weather seating, but when it rains?
Ah, the AT Sidewalk Café. The breeze is soft, the shade cool. Hushed More »
When Affiliates Unite
It’s a beautiful thing!
This blog post takes a departure from my routine rant about BHOs and ParasiteWare, with their unscrupulous methodology of snatching unearned commissions and thei
The Affiliate Trust opened for membership just a few days ago. A number of dedicated affiliates have already joined and are More »
New Years Call To Action
In the latter part of ‘08 the Internet marketing industry experienced an onslaught of ’cause’ affiliates working under monikers like A Good Cause, One Cause, Give Clicks, and others. Their methods are not new by any means, but their numbers are More »
Expediency Trumps Flawless Implementation
When I worked in the corporate IT world for a large national retail chain, a new philosophy emerged from the execs in their corner offices. The philosophy of expediency taking priority over flawless implementation was met with disdain by those of us who bore the burden of implementation. This spawned a lot of speculation about how we More »
Hang on for the ride…
I posted an Affiliate Trust update today on ABW just to let those who are interested know that the basic site is up. I installed Analytics here today and am seeing a good amount of traffic already. Some of that traffic is coming from More »
The Parasite War…
Dear ABestWeb Reader,
Over the past few months we’ve given attention to four or five of these “cause” parasites. I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. While we give so much attention to More »