Love It, Buy It, Promote It

One appeal of affiliate marketing is the ability to get paid for promoting something you already like. This approach offers a particularly good fit for people who love fashion. buy.at, a recent addition to the family of affiliate networks overseen by Digital Window, noted that fashion retailers were showing an increased awareness of affiliate marketing and including it as part of their online marketing strategy. The focus appears to be on building brand awareness, acquiring new customers, and generating more revenue. This interest by global brands, including Accessorize, Lindsay Phillips, and T.M. Lewis, highlights the evolution of online fashion and its reported growth of 2000 percent from 2001-2011.

Connecting Fashion with Affiliates

Few blogs have the necessary traffic levels to support paid sponsorships. Some site owners have the connections for direct ad placement, but most bloggers that want to start making money need the ready-made networks associated with affiliate marketing. For the majority of people blogging, affiliate marketing represents a straightforward option to test whether they can generate revenue with their site. For the fashion brands, affiliate marketing represents a measurable way to expand their reach amongst an audience that’s already dedicated. There’s also the outfit effect.

One of the key components to fashion blogging remains the concept of sharing a “look” created by the blogger. The look is often a complete style put together using a variety of brands. Depending on the complexity of a look, from accessories to shoes, multiple brands can appear in a single picture. Compare that to the long and detailed posts often needed to describe the latest technology. From one picture, a blogger can potentially offer multiple affiliate links. And if someone likes and wants the complete outfit…clearly a keen fashion sense lends itself to doing well with this particular style of affiliate marketing.

While a strong visual talent is a plus, there’s also the need to have a distinctive personality and the ability to communicate one’s fashion sense clearly. It explains why some of the best fashion bloggers have landed themselves agents. Previously we’ve associated successful affiliate marketing with written reviews. However, in this instance, a strong, visual talent can excel in ways that have perhaps been overlooked in the past. And the fashion brands are figuring out that their loyalist fans may also be their best marketers.

Making a Mark

So who seems to have figured out the perfect fit between fashion and affiliate marketing? Long a leader among the fashion aware, SheFinds.com has created a great blend of original writing with eye-catching visuals that drives traffic. Alexa ranks the site in the top 10,000 of U.S. sites and the top 40,000 of global sites. SheFinds clearly knows its audience and delivers consistently, a plus in the eyes of any brand considering affiliate marketing.

For those of you enamored with what goes on your feet, ShoeHunting.com makes the strong case that one can love and market shoes at the same time. The inspired creators of the site have taken an existing technology (Shareist), built a community, and established a profitable affiliate strategy.

One of the newest members to the party, Shop It To Me (confession: a friend talked me into signing up), works a bit like a personal shopper. You create an account and select brands that you like. Shop It To Me searches the web for deals on the brands you’ve selected, then based on the number of times you’ve chosen to be notified, sends an email with images of items that match your profile. The images link directly to the items on the merchants’ sites. In some respects, it’s a service that was previously available only in the high-end shops. Now it’s available online and for anyone with a fashion bug.

Fashion’s Growing Reach

Through affiliate marketing, both bloggers and brands alike can benefit from the increased interest and willingness to buy fashion online. It will be interesting to see over the coming months if fashion tries to customize affiliate marketing for its purposes (Pinterest, anyone?) or continues to expand through traditional affiliate networks. For the uninitiated, fashion is easy to mock, but there’s no escaping the reality that fashion plays a key role in the growing numbers associated with ecommerce. Both viewers and advertisers are paying attention and looking for opportunities to get more of what they want. As fashion bloggers and brands look for ways to help the other, we’ll see more opportunities for affiliate marketing created.

As anticipated, Facebook finally filed for its much-hyped IPO February 1 – one that could set the company’s valuation somewhere between $75 billion and $100 billion, the New York Times (NYT) reports.

According to Econsultancy, the company is looking to raise at least $5 billion as it works towards its public offering, though that number could reach as much as as much as $10 billion “if it sees strong demand.” Needless to say, with a list of underwriters that includes Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America, among others, Facebook’s is shaping up to be largest web IPO we’ve seen yet.

“Facebook’s I.P.O. marks another stage of the Internet’s evolution,” Charlene Li, Founder of tech consulting firm the Altimeter Group, told the NYT . “It’s so valuable, because it’s not just about content, it’s about our connections.”

Naturally, there are many reasons why investors should be excited for this public offering. As Econsultancy noted, “it appears Facebook has avoided using goofy accounting metrics that would put ‘hair’ on the deal,” and the company doesn’t seem to be inordinately dependent on Zynga, as some had presumed. 12 percent of Facebook’s revenues come from the game developer, a considerable amount, to be sure, “but perhaps not enough to lose sleep over,” says Econsultancy.

However, even with an IPO as highly anticipated and highly valued a this one, there are risks to consider.

Facebook has already run into problems with the FTC over privacy issues, the NYT notes, and there’s also the fact, unsettling to some, that Mark Zuckerberg will continue to have control of the company following its IPO.

Finally, there are questions as to just how much further Facebook can continue to grow, and just how far the limits of sharing can be pushed.

“With sharing at the center of Facebook, and the new Web,” the NYT writes, “analysts [...] wonder whether the constant chatter will create too much white noise.”

Nevertheless, the announcement is one of the biggest pieces of news to come out of the tech industry in the past decade, and investors and industry observers alike are sure to be watching closely as it develops.

Sales up and profits down in Amazon’s Q4

With the release of its fourth quarter earnings report January 31, Amazon had a lot of growth to boast about.

Over the past year, almost every area of the company saw growth in the double digits, Mashable noted, with net sales reaching $17.4 billion (up 35 percent,) and sales for third parties growing by 65 percent. Sales for the Kindle were up by an impressive 177 percent.

But the fly in the ointment here is that profits are down.

Though Amazon’s press release highlighted the company’s growth in many areas, as well as the near tripling of Kindle sales over the holidays, the company missed Wall Street’s expectations and, due to a lot of spending their income has actually decreased.

According to TechFlash, in the fourth quarter, Amazon’s net income dropped by 58 percent, to $177 million. That figure is slim compared to the company’s $416 million net income in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Meanwhile, the company’s operating income also dropped, to $260 million this past quarter from $474 million at the end of 2010.

Not surprisingly, the news has taken a toll on the company’s stock value. The New York Times (NYT) reported that “shares of Amazon, which rose $2.29 to $194.44 on Tuesday, immediately slumped in after-hours trading by $18.”

One analyst  who spoke with the NYT, BGC Financial’s Colin Gillis, was unimpressed with the company’s earnings report, chiding:

“With the valuation Amazon is carrying, you got to perform [...] You’ve got to be like Apple — smash through the numbers people are afraid even to whisper. Instead, they’re only making slightly over a penny on every dollar in revenue. That’s pathetic in any industry.”

But not everyone agrees that the company’s stock will be affected for very long. Morgan Stanley’s Scott Devitt told the Times that, though investors might avoid buying Amazon stock for the next few months, “the long-term story is very much intact.”

YouTube pondering subscription service for niche content channels

According to YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar, the difference between a $2 CPM and a $20 CPM may lie in the way videos are served up to users.

In interview with AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka January 31, Kamangar said the company is toying with the idea of launching a subscription service for niche content channels on YouTube, which would give users access to a continuous flow of content related to very specific interests.

According to Ad Age, “Mr. Kamangar seemed to indicate that the investment in new YouTube channels was as much about branding — or rebranding — to meet advertisers’ needs as it was about creating content that consumers really and truly want to consume.”

Whereas a video of a dog riding a skateboard might ordinarily command a $2 CPM, Kamangar believes that same video, repackaged as part of a niche content channel, could command as much as a $20 CPM. His argument? “How you brand and package matters.”

Launching a subscription service is one way that YouTube could diversify its dependence on advertising, says Ad Age:

“If or when YouTube creates a subscription model, do not be surprised to see the company look to second- or third-tier cable networks to start offering their programming on YouTube on an a-la-carte basis.”

And though, Kamangar certainly concedes that such an idea is by no means assured to work, he’s willing to take the gamble.

“[It's] very difficult for any of us [at YouTube] to predict what will be successful,” Mashable quoted him as saying, though he added “we’d rather be early than late.”

Google+ reaches 100 million users

According to analyst and self-proclaimed “Google+ unofficial statistician” Paul Allen, Google+ should now have hit 100 million users.

In a Google+ blog post, Allen predicted the fairly newborn social network would reach 100.8 million users by the evening of February 1, and, in a separate post, forecasted that the network will have 400 million users by the end of 2012.

Mashable, which reported on Allen’s predictions, suggested some of factors that may account for Google+’s current growth. Among them, allowing teens to join the network, as well as Google’s recent social search integration, Search Plus Your World, are the main contributors.

But Mashable also suggested that some of that growth could be the result of competitor Facebook’s actions of late, and not just its own:

“Facebook’s recent moves may have also prompted some to check out the platform. For example, the company’s introduction of Timeline has rankled some users.”

Zynga stock surges in wake of Facebook IPO filing

We might have seen this coming.

Zynga, the game developer that does so much of its business on Facebook saw a boost to its stock value February 1, following the announcement that Facebook had filed for a $5 billion IPO.

As TechCrunch reported, in the two days following the revelation that the company was responsible for 12 percent of the Facebook’s total revenues, Zynga stock jumped over 26 percent, with shares hitting $13.39 at market’s close February 3.

“This is far more than most analysts had previously projected,” writes TechCrunch “The ones who began covering Zynga after its December IPO had pegged its stock well under ten bucks,” though, following the company’s quiet period, the main underwriters for the Zynga IPO projected the share price to rise to between $11 and $14.

Android Market gets malware ‘bouncer’

In an effort to deal with the problem of Android malware, Google will be introducing an extra security layer to the Android Market, TechCrunch reported February 2.

In a post on the Google Mobile Blog, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Android’s VP of engineering, described the new service, code-named ‘Bouncer.’ Mostly automated, Bouncer immediately scans applications for malware, spyware, and trojans, as soon as the app is uploaded.

An added feature, says TechCrunch is that, since  Bouncer isn’t 100 percent automated [...] once something is flagged, there’s a manual process for confirming the app is indeed malicious, reducing the risk of false positives.”

But what TechCrunch underscores as Bouncer’s biggest benefit is that “previous [malware] offenders will have a much more difficult time sneaking back on to the platform by registering under a new name, since Lockheimer’s post promised “we also analyze new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.”

Amazon acquires TeachStreet

Coming a a surprise to some, Amazon’s latest acquisition is Seattle-based online marketplace TeachStreet, a service that matches students with teachers.

According to a February 2 GeekWire article, the deal is “looking very much like a ‘talent acquisition,’” with TeachStreet shutting down its service February 15 and with its staff already joining Amazon’s daily deals service AmazonLocal.

TeachStreet founder Dave Schappell did not specify what kind of work the TeachStreet team will be doing at AmazonLocal, saying only that he’s excited to be “working on things that millions of people use.”

TeachStreet hit a difficult time last year, with the introduction of Google’s Panda algorithm, which severely injured the service’s traffic.

Following such challenges, Schappell says “End of the day, I believe this is by far the best result for us [...] this is really good. We stay here. We know the team, and I know Jeff [Bezos’] appetite for investing massively in businesses, so it is exciting in that way.”

This week in marketing studies and reports:

Ad spend on Facebook growing faster than paid search

According to digital marketing software company Kenshoo, marketers’ ad spend on Facebook is growing much more quickly than their spend on paid search advertising.

Kenshoo found that spend on Facebook ads grew by 109 percent between the third and fourth quarters of 2011, as compared to a growth of  just 27 percent in paid search on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

Mobile apps and QR codes top list for marketers budgets in 2012

A February 1 report from Econsultancy showed that, when it comes to investing their budgets, marketers will be focusing on mobile applications in 2012.

While 57 percent of businesses and 67 percent of agencies said mobile apps were their top priority for the coming year, QR codes followed close behind, the second highest choice for both categories.

Another item of interest, the report found that “45 percent of companies [are] increasing overall marketing budgets but only 16 percent [are] saying the same for ‘traditional’ marketing budgets.”

Valentine’s day spending to grow by 8.5 percent since 2011

Surveys from the National Retail Federation and from American Express predict that consumer spending on Valentine’s day this year will exceed the figure for last year, hitting  $17.6 billion total spending, up 8.5 percent from last year.

DailyFinance quoted Melanie Backs, Manager of Public Affairs for American Express, who said:

“Consumers have been consistent in saying they have a little more spending power, despite the uncertainty of the economy [...] We’ve seen this in our surveys over the last few months – from Halloween to [the] holidays and even travel – and Valentine’s Day is right in line with that trend.”

Revenue Performance Management

The cornerstone of Revenue Engine is the concept of revenue performance management. Woods and Shootman place it in the business strategy timeline after supply chain management and total quality management. To build their argument, the authors ask us to look at how marketing and sales cycles were handled in the past.

Clearly we had much less information and there was often a heavily guarded gap between sales and marketing, particularly when it came to allocated resources. Now as people look for us online and interact through our digital properties they leave a trail that Woods and Shootman say we need to follow. Doing so will tell us exactly where a customer is at in the cycle. Then, based on that information, strategies and resources can be implemented and used more effectively to improve the chances of moving the customer along or even closing the sale.

Adapt or Flounder

It doesn’t take an MBA to know that generating more revenue with less investment can be a huge advantage for a business. But Woods and Shootman argue that beyond increasing overall revenue, implementing revenue performance management allows a company to identify and time product adoption patterns, a valuable skill to have as product lifecycles shorten and adoption rates accelerate. Companies who are either too early or too late on either side of the equation will “flounder.”

Real-World Example

My timing in reading this book meant that I was also reading the New York Times stories about Apple and its supply chain. I could easily see a connection between what I was reading in Revenue Engine and why Apple has achieved its astounding success. While I don’t know if they internally refer to what they do as revenue performance management, the book’s descriptions seem to fit Apple’s business approach like a textbook.

Apple clearly understands the need to allocate resources strategically and seems to be a master of understanding product lifecycles and adoption patterns. That said, it’s perhaps also a reminder of the consequences of looking for too much fat to trim and what exactly are we willing to do in pursuit of ever higher revenues.

A Helpful Book for the Right Audience

While Woods and Shootman made valid and logical arguments throughout the book, I did find myself wondering, “Isn’t everyone doing this already?” In retrospect it’s clear that the primary audience for Revenue Engine isn’t someone already wise to the ways of the web and online data analysis. Instead I believe you’d recommend this book to an executive or manager who isn’t particularly comfortable or familiar with the idea of using search trends and other online tools for refining sales and marketing strategies.

So, to help you help your perhaps inexperienced manager (if you want to read it before passing it on, that’s okay, too) we’re giving away two copies of Revenue Engine. Just submit a comment below about how you think this book can help you (or your boss) get smarter about increasing revenue. Comments will remain open until 12 p.m. PT, Friday, February 3. We’ll then randomly select two winners.

Social media’s “game-changing” ability is so overstated and sensationalized that what you’re doing with it, right now, is probably working against your interests. How can this be? There is no money in your knowing the truth: The Social Media Revolution is a lie. Need proof? Look around. Where’s the revolution in your business? People actually acquiring customers and selling using Facebook, blogs, YouTube, and LinkedIn know the truth; they know something most of us don’t.

The difference between fooling around with social media and selling with it relies on the use of proven, time-tested (old) practices—not new tools and techniques. If your goal is to make social media marketing sell, you’ll need to start developing three habits. These are the fundamental ideas responsible for moving products and selling services using social platforms.

The Revolution will be Scrutinized

“Every time there is a sizable shift in the way businesses communicate with consumers, there is always a cadre of ‘experts’ … people that advise that a new business paradigm has arrived,” says Allan Dick, COO of Mountaintop, Pennsylvania-based Vintage Tub and Bath. “One in which traditional theories of running a business get thrown out the door. What these experts miss is that the theories (that drive ‘what works’) remain the same. It’s the ways you execute those theories that change.”

Throughout history, the breathless hype-and-spin surrounding the arrival of new technologies has been problematic. Unbridled exuberance about something new always produces a rush to adopt it. This behavior is mostly driven by fear (of being left behind, missing out on opportunity). At the same time, we experience inflated expectation about this new techno-thingy. This is always followed by regret and disillusionment,“Hooey… it’s not such a game-changer after all!” This process is pervasive and can stifle your business’s evolutionary process.

For instance, as part of my own research I met direct television infomercial sellers struggling with YouTube because they’re following the edicts of overzealous, misguided social gurus. Meanwhile, their competitors are trusting instincts and sticking with proven success principles to drive sales. Business-to-business sellers likewise struggle from lack of confidence in what they already know works. Yet some, like telecommunications giant, Avaya, stick to their knitting—finding and closing six-figure contracts using platforms like Twitter.

By throwing out the hyped-up, over-blown, supposedly game-changing, technical aspects of the social web for a moment, we can re-frame the entire context of the business opportunity staring us in the face: to evolve marketing, not re-invent it. Let’s discover how you can join the ranks of Avaya, Logan Services, and others like them by both shifting perspective at 50,000 feet and taking action, strategically.

The Three Habits

The fundamental concepts powering effective social marketing programs are rooted in a return to basic practices. Successful social sellers understand that the difference between fooling around on social media and selling with it relies on developing these three habits:

1. Solving customers’ problems
2. Designing to sell (planning social experiences to provoke customer responses that connect to the sales funnel)
3. Translating (discovering customer need as it evolves and using this knowledge to improve response rate)

How to Sell by Solving Problems

The truth is compelling. Making things like blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter, and the like actually sell challenges us to trust traditional instincts—to evolve, not reinvent. The social aspects of attracting, nurturing, and  earning a purchase are already known. Successful social sellers are designing interactions (“conversations”) in ways that solve customers’ problems. This approach makes it easy to help customers guide themselves toward products and services.

Solving customers problems has always been a successful way to produce awareness, interest, desire, and purchase behavior. Providing answers to customers’ questions remains the best way to effectively coax or nurture customers toward making a purchase. Social media is inherently interactive, making this process even easier to accomplish. The key is using this familiar process, not figuring out what time of the week earns more Twitter re-tweets (or other nonsensical yet popular recommendations we often hear).

Get Customers to Ask Questions That Connect to Products

Making social sell is simply a matter of facilitating and then connecting question-and-answer oriented, digital conversations to helpful products and services whenever they’re relevant. It’s an old idea that you can leverage to drive sales with “new,” social media.

Think about it in your own life. Have you ever found yourself suddenly more equipped to make a purchase based on knowledge you suddenly became aware of? Think about it in your business, outside the Internet. Do you publish white papers, magazine articles, or other self-diagnosis tools to help customers become more clear on problems, avoid risk, or exploit unseen opportunities? Are you doing it in ways that occasionally connect with your products or services?

Beware. Just like cranking out white papers or information-dense brochures, earning sales takes more. Success requires relevancy and earning response from customers. That means making a habit of inducing customer behavior with every tweet, post, or update you make on social platforms. And that takes a plan, a designed system of question-and-answer driven interactions.

Beware of Gurus in Consultants Clothing

Again, beware. Paradigm shifts and “total game-changers” are a goldmine for gurus and self-appointed experts pushing flash-in-the-pan software, books (full disclosure: I wrote a social media book) and consulting services. There’s nothing wrong with making a living, but beware of misguided advice designed to scare otherwise rational business people into making irrational, hasty investments and spending money on ideas that don’t work.

Successful social sellers understand that the difference between fooling around on social media and selling with it relies on developing three key habits. We’ll explore the other habits in more detail in days ahead.

The reason for this phenomenon is simple: The Super Bowl is traditionally the single biggest television event every year. Last year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched television show in history, averaging 111 million viewers. Reaching this kind of audience in a single block of time is nirvana for advertisers.

That’s why advertisers spent almost $230 million on 96 ads at last year’s Super Bowl.

This year, at a price tag of about $3.5 million per 30-second TV ad, only advertisers with the deepest pockets need apply.

Advertisers who spend that kind of money for a Super Bowl ad invest even more on top of it to make sure their ads break through and get noticed. More than that, advertisers want their ads to be talked about. That’s why some of the best television ads (and admittedly, some duds) appear during the Super Bowl.

But for the past several years, the ads on television have been only part of the picture. The real story has been the rapidly growing online component of Super Bowl promotion. For a relatively small incremental cost on top of the ad price, advertisers can buy a lot of before-and-after online support.

Already, some advertisers have begun to leak their Super Bowl ads via social media and other means to build the buzz. Kia is taking a unique media approach: Beginning February 2, the automaker will premiere its 60-second Super Bowl ad on 18,000 movie theater screens throughout the country. A single Super Bowl ad really becomes the center of an integrated media campaign that, if successful, keeps selling long after the Super Bowl has ended.

Coca-Cola’s Online “Polar Bowl Party”

At this year’s Super Bowl on February 5, a number of advertisers are pulling out the stops when it comes to online support. The most elaborate online venture may be from Coca-Cola, who will bring back its lovable animated polar bears in two new ads. The bigger story, though, is the novel use of online media.

According to Stuart Elliott of the New York Times:

“The campaign will be centered on a live video stream throughout Super Bowl XLVI at cokepolarbowl.com—a Web site hosted on Facebook.com—and also will include messages on Twitter. The contents of the video stream will be determined in real time… as bears wearing Patriots red and Giants blue react to the game, the halftime show and the commercials.”

Here’s the way Coke positions the online event on its special Facebook page:

“On Feb. 5, the Polar Bears are throwing their first-ever Coca-Cola Polar Bowl Party. They’ll be watching the game and chatting with friends from kick off unitl the clock runs out. RSVP now to hang out and chat with the Polar Bears during the game. Plus, with each RSVP Coca-Cola will donate $1 to World Wildlife Fund to help polar bears and their Arctic home.”

Bud Light, Chevy, and Bridgestone Get Into the Act

Other advertisers will also leverage online media to the hilt, according to Stuart Elliott.

Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light Platinum will feature a Twitter hashtag, #MakeItPlatinum, and another ad for Bud Light will urge viewers to visit facebook.com/BudLight. General Motors’ Chevrolet brand will offer a free “Chevy Game Time App,” available at both Apple’s App Store and Android Market. The app, which allows users to play games, interact via Twitter, and win prizes during the Super Bowl itself, will be promoted via a Super Bowl ad. Bridgestone Tires will tie its two Super Bowl ads to three online sweepstakes promoted on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Online Marketing Comes to Life

If you are a football fan, feel free to watch the Super Bowl for the game itself. But as an online marketer, keep a close eye on the ads run by some three dozen brands. Look behind the ads and study the fully integrated campaigns these brands will employ to attract attention. Notice what these advertisers do using online media before the game to generate interest, during the game to engage viewers, and after the game to extend the life of their marketing campaign.

Granted, most online marketers could never invest the kind of dollars these giants spend on Super Bowl advertising, but there is much to learn from the manner in which they use online media. You are sure to see some techniques that you can modify and employ in your own marketing. This year’s Super Bowl is where online marketing will come to life.

Last week will be remembered by some as the week that SOPA died, though that hardly means the issue of online piracy is going away any time soon. Mashable reported  January 27 on new anti-piracy legislation that is gaining steam, and this time, its reach is global.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, was already signed in October by Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the US, but just added a slew of European Union member states to their growing number of supporters January 26.

The international bill, which aims to prevent copyright theft online by normalizing copyright protection and intellectual property standards among countries that sign the legislation, is being called “more dangerous than SOPA.”

Mashable’s Stan Schroeder wrote that “Unfortunately (and unlike SOPA and PIPA), ACTA has been signed by many states without a wide, open public discussion.”

And, as cited by another Mashable article, US Congressman Darrell Issa told an audience at the World Economic Forum about the threat he thinks the bill poses:

“As a member of Congress, it’s more dangerous than SOPA. It’s not coming to me for a vote. It purports that it does not change existing laws. But once implemented, it creates a whole new enforcement system and will virtually tie the hands of Congress to undo it [...]

It sounded probably to people like a good idea, but people should ask, why did they work around the WTO [World Trade Organization] and all the existing bodies? I think the answer is: They could work in secret. They could get it done, and then they could tell people you couldn’t change it.”

As for how closely ACTA resembles SOPA, Issa noted “Many of the things in SOPA are basically implied in ACTA.”

Meanwhile, Mashable’s Alex Fitzpatrick took issue with the fact that ACTA is being considered in the US as an executive agreement rather than a treaty:

“When signing a treaty, the president must get at least two-thirds of the Senate’s approval. With executive agreements, the president is allowed to bypass the Senate completely.”

Among the countries that signed the agreement January 26 are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

ACTA must still be ratified by the European Parliament this summer before it can take effect.

More Twitter brand Pages coming, but only for big spenders

After launching its new ad format, Brand Pages, last month with 21 partners, Twitter will begin rolling them out on a larger scale February 1, Ad Age reported January 27.

However, in order to qualify, Twitter is requiring that advertisers commit to spending $25, 000 on the social network’s other ad products, namely Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.

That amount seems high, but it’s a bargain compared to the $2 million minimum Twitter ad spend required of the original 21 Brand Pages members, which included Disney, Coca-Cola, Nike and Pepsi.

And Twitter’s Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain believes that, considering the limitations of an ordinary twitter profile, advertisers will naturally prefer Brand Pages, which feature prominent display of logos and tag-lines, and allow brands to keep a particular tweet at the top of the timeline (which can, in turn, be auto-expanded to show an embedded picture or video.) Brand pages also allow advertisers to sort their @ replies and mentions.

“A tweet’s only 140 characters,” Bain said last month, contrasted with Brand Pages, which are “like an invitation to learn more. When consumers want to learn more, spend more time or get deeper in terms of engagement, we think they’ll end up on the brand page.”

Facebook IPO to be filed this week

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), it looks as though Facebook will be filing for its IPO as early as February 1.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the WSJ says Facebook is likely to choose Morgan Stanley as its lead underwriter for the IPO, as opposed to Goldman Sachs, which was once thought to “have an inside track to lead the IPO.”

Still as the WSJ notes, “while Morgan Stanley would likely land the coveted ‘lead-left’ spot on an IPO financial filing, Goldman would also likely play a significant role.”

According to the WSJ‘s sources, the earliest date suggested for the $10 billion IPO is just one of a few possible scenarios, as “executives are also considering filing a few weeks later.”

There has been no comment yet from either Facebook, Morgan Stanley, or Goldman Sachs.

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace engineers attack Search + Your World

ReveNews reported January 16 on Google’s new integration of Google + into search, wherein query results would draw on content from Google + but not from competing social networks, like Facebook and Twitter.

Now, networks have taken Google to task for its claims that other networks aren’t integrated into its social search because those sites haven’t given it permission or enough data to do so.

TechCrunch reported January 23 on a new tool, called “Don’t Be Evil,” developed by engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace that “uses Google’s own algorithms to serve up relevant social sites, you know, instead of all Google+ all the time.”

In its FAQ section, the engineers’ bookmarklet “Focus on the User” directly addresses, and debunks, Google’s argument as to why it doesn’t display content from other networks in its social search results:

“Q: I thought Google needed a deal and more info from social sites to integrate them into its new social features?

A: This is clearly not true. The bookmarklet never accesses any server or API outside of Google.com. The information has already been indexed and ranked by Google.”

In interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Search Engine Land Editor In Chief Danny Sullivan expressed his concerns about whether Google can “stay neutral on search results while trying to win the social media war.”

“They are both a social network and a search engine,” Sullivan told the WSJ, “You don’t expect to go into Google+ and for it to encourage you to use Facebook and Twitter, but as a search engine it’s not supposed to care. There should be that church/state divide.

Twitter now censoring on a country-by-country basis

In a company blog post January 26, Twitter announced a change to its policy regarding censoring content.

Citing cultural differences that account for different restrictions on free speech – they used the example of Germany and France banning pro-Nazi content – the blog post explained:

“Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.”

As TechCrunch points out, it’s difficult to say whether the policy change is a good thing or not:

“Before this announcement, Twitter was a global platform on which something was either said or not said, on a global scale. Now, Twitter’s new power to enforce censorship depending on your country both legitimizes the blocks and concedes international territory specifically to countries that ‘have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression.’”

Meanwhile, TechCrunch concedes that the move is only logical for a platform that is expanding its global reach. Just one day before this policy change, Twitter announced it will soon become available in a number of right-to-left languages, like Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Urdu. These languages, Mashable notes are “spoken in many countries associated with strict government media restriction.”

“A meta-national community like Twitter must both transcend and respect its constituent parts,” argues TechCrunch, “and that requires some tough decisions.” It remains to be seen what impact the change will have on global communication.

Google’s new sweeping privacy policy

In a January 24 blog post, Google announced a new privacy policy that would consolidate previous policies for the majority of its different products.

The company is promising users that the new master policy, which will replace 70 other privacy documents, will “make it easier for people to understand our privacy practices as well as enable Google to improve the services we offer.”

“Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience,” the announcement reads.

The change takes effect March 1.

Facebook wages legal battle against clickjacking

In time for its heavily rumored IPO, Facebook is taking its stance against clickjacking to court.

The internet giant has accused Washington-based marketing Adscend Media of the malicious, spam-causing practice of stealing users’ information, or taking control of their computer, when they click on a link, announcing a lawsuit against them January 26.

Meanwhile, Mashable reports that Washington State’s Attorney General General Rob McKenna has also filed a separate lawsuit against Ascend Media for similar reasons.

“We don’t ‘like’ schemes that illegally trick Facebook users into giving up personal information or paying for unwanted subscription services through spam,” McKenna said.

Ascend says they have done nothing wrong, vowing to fight the case in court. “At no time did we engage in the activity alleged in the complaints,” a release reads, ” Adscend Media will provide a vigorous defense against these false claims.”

Facebook’s almost certain upcoming IPO may not be the sole reason for bringing this suit right now, but it likely has something to do with the matter.

“In the run-up to IPO [initial public offering], we’re sure to see Facebook doing more to present itself as company that is fighting security threats like this,” Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at internet security firm Sophos told the BBC.

Curebit caught copying 37Signals design and code

Social referral platform Curebit is in a bit of a bind this week following the discovery that they have been copying both code and designs from 37Signals. The latter is credited with a variety of collaboration tools, like Basecamp and Highrise, while the former just raised $1.2 million in its most recent round of funding.

“The copying was called out on Twitter by 37Signals partner David Heinemeier Hansson,” reports TechCrunch. And though Heinemeier Hansson’s original statements included some pretty offensive vulgarities aimed at the Curebit team and at its co-founder Allan Grant, they have turned out to be true.

Curebit has since posted an apology to 37Signals on its blog, which reads as follows:

“Recently we launched a site with several pages copied from 37signals’ Highrise. We did more than take inspiration from their design – we actually used html & css code, and hotlinked to images on their site. We apologize to David and 37signals for ripping off their work. It was stupid, lazy, and disrespectful of their creative efforts. It’s particularly painful for us to have done this to 37signals because they are big heroes of ours. We just hope they will accept our apologies.”

As TechCrunch noted, one of the reasons the controversy has been so big surrounding this issue is that “Curebit was incubated by Y Combinator and raised money from 500 Startups (among others), something that Heinemeier Hansson didn’t hesitate to point out.”

For their part, 500 Startups is saying they don’t agree with what Curebit did, but that the error should be forgiven. In a couple of Tweets, 500 Startups founder Dave McClure voiced a sort of soft chiding, saying he “strongly asked them 2 re-evaluate thr policy on design & content; hope they take that 2 heart,”

As cited by TechCrunch, McClure offered that “new founders aren’t children, just inexperienced. furthermore investors aren’t parents, just uncles & aunts. and we all make mistakes.”

Apple under fire for manufacturing consditions

Apple may have just beaten out Exxon-Mobil as the world’s largest industrial corporation, but the tech giant has had a lot of bad press laid at its doorstep of late as well.

Most striking are the recent reports on inhumane conditions and disregard for safety at Apple’s Chinese manufacturing plants. January 25, in a lengthy piece better described as a series of articles, the New York Times (NYT) exposed what AdAge’s Bob Garfield describes as “the rot at Apple’s core.”

The NYT piece describes a slew of problems with Apple’s Chinese plants, including, but not limited to, underage labor, unhealthy working hours, crowded dorms, and safety risks that have led to deaths.

“Some [workers] say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records,” the NYT reports.

What’s worse, it appears that, in some cases, Apple was fully aware of the unhealthy or dangerous conditions in their plants:

“Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.”

Stories like these, Garfield says, could “sicken consumers” as well as Apple’s business, especially “in the social-media age [where] scandal is traded back and forth, perpetually, at the speed of send.”

In Garfield’s opinion, consumers should be concerned about these harsh working conditions, but no more so than Apple itself.

Studies and reports:

29 percent of Americans own a tablet or ereader

A study by Pew Internet, picked up by Mashable January 23, found that nineteen percent of American adults own a tablet, while 29 percent own either a tablet or ereader.

What’s remarkable about these findings, notes Mashable, is that this past holiday shopping period was almost entirely responsible  for the near doubling in the number of US adults who owned an ereader, and ditto for tablets. In both cases, the figure went from 10 percent to 19 percent between mid-December 2011 and January 2012.

“ It took only one holiday shopping spree for the number of U.S. adults who own either a tablet or an ereader to jump to almost one-third of the adult population – from 18 percent to 29 percent,” writes Mashable.

Viewers want short online video ads

Americans don’t want long video ads online. According to a Poll Position survey of 1,179 people, 54 percent said 15 seconds was an acceptable running time for video ads that appear before free content, while only 12 percent thought 30 seconds was acceptable. As the running time increased, the percentage of people who found it acceptable dropped.

Smartphones more prevalent than PCs

Data released by Google to AdAge shows that, among consumers in five key global markets, more have a smartphone than a PC or a laptop. The data, which looked at the US, Germany, Japan, the UK, and France, found that “in the US the difference is nearly 10 percent more (76 percent  to 68  percent), although consumers still report accessing the internet on multiple types of devices.”

Don’t Believe the Hype

On and off over the last few years, many of us with interest in quality content have watched the debate about short form versus long form. On one side resides the argument that given a limited amount of time and an overwhelming pile of data, we want short. On the other side sits the group who believes that 140 characters isn’t enough for every idea and that we still benefit from reading something that takes multiple minutes, perhaps even hours, as opposed to just seconds. Clearly there are great Twitter streams that make us laugh, teach us something new, and introduce us to great people. But how much weight should we put on the shoulders of short form?

As part of the ongoing debate about the value of long-form writing, people point to the ever-shrinking size of magazines and newspapers. We’re told that people don’t want to read. They want sound bites and synopses. Bullshit.

We have more tools and resources than ever before to aid us with consuming information. Long form is evolving. Whether it’s reading books on your iPhone or using a magazine’s app on your tablet, how we read long form is no longer limited to a printed page. And this is a good thing. Wider accessibility only lends itself to a wider audience.

The problem as I see it has less to do with quantity and more to do with quality. What are we willing to spend time consuming? In the same way that Michael Pollen and the eat local movement have encouraged us to think about our food, we need to ask similar questions of what we read. In the vein of you are what you eat, I believe you are what you read. And in the same way we could survive on junk food if we had to, we could get all of our information from tweets and Facebook updates. But I’m not convinced that we’ll continue to thrive intellectually if we only consume the mental version of junk food.

What are we reading, watching, and listening to? Does it really deserve our time and attention? Could we be getting more of something better? Like eating some junk food won’t kill us, reading some tweets won’t destroy our ability to reason. However, how long can we rely on the short form to sustain us before the mental muscles and discipline we need to devour long form are lost?

Friends vs Explorers

It reminds me of an argument in The American President (feel free to debate its value) between President Shepherd and one of his advisors:

Lewis Rothschild: People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.
President Andrew Shepherd: Lewis, we’ve had presidents who were beloved, who couldn’t find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.

It’s that last line in particular—they drink because they don’t know the difference—that sticks with me. For a while now, we’ve been letting these tools tell us what to drink. Granted it’s happening via “friends” (whatever that means anymore), but when did we stop wanting to be explorers, to be the one who discovered something new?

In some respects, technology has made us lazy. When it was incredibly difficult to get information, say pre-Gutenburg printing press, people treasured long form because of the implied sacrifice to create it. Now that it’s as simple as sitting down at a keyboard, stringing together a few words, and hitting publish, we’re quick to look for the latest post in our stream and consign the rest to the past with little thought.

We’ve become obsessed with the viral to the point that I wonder if we really like what we’re seeing or if we hit that damn Like button out of habit. My wish for you in 2012 is that you rediscover what it means to find something new. You may end up the only person who likes it, but isn’t that still worth something? For a group that prides itself on individuality and self-expression, we need to let others stop defining what that means for us.

At What Price Brevity?

A couple of weeks ago, the Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, announced that the much-maligned inscription on the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial would be changed. The abbreviated quote, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness,” was criticized for being taken out of context and making Dr. King sound conceited. In full, the complete thought goes as follows:

“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

When asked why the full quote wasn’t used, the architect overseeing the project responded that “the decision to paraphrase the full quotation had been made by the design team in the interest of brevity.”

What else are we losing when we opt for brevity?

“We heard from a number of e-commerce businesses that companies are willing to comply with their Pennsylvania sales tax obligations, but our original Feb. 1 compliance deadline is impractical from operational and technical standpoints,” said Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser. “In the interest of being reasonable and respecting the difficulty of tailoring sales tax software to Pennsylvania’s complicated sales tax rules, we believe extending the compliance deadline is the fair thing to do.”

The Pennsylvania situation originally caught our attention because no new “Amazon tax” law was passed. Instead the state took the position that existing (“complicated”)  law could be used to enforce business licensing and tax collection based on a physical presence in the state.

While Meuser’s move might be interpreted as a walk back from his original statement, he also noted in today’s announcement that the September deadline was early enough to capture sales connected to the next holiday season. But there’s no question that it offers a short-term reprieve for Pennsylvania affiliates as highlighted in an email from the Performance Marketing Association discussing the announcement:

That means advertisers can keep their Pennsylvania-based affiliate partnerships for now. We will continue to fight this and hope we can convince them to withdraw completely, in favor of federal sales tax reform, before the September 1st deadline. Many thanks to our coalition of advisers, attorneys and lobbyists who helped us negotiate this extension, as well as Secretary Meuser, Jennifer Branstetter (Governor Corbett’s Director of Policy), and Lieutenant Governor Tim Cawley, who took the time to meet with us and learn about the impact on Pennsylvania affiliate marketers.

It will be interesting to watch if states continue their wrongheaded approach to tax enforcement as opposed to waiting for federal sales tax reform. For all the talk from states’ governors and legislators about the desire to create jobs, it seems more than a little hypocritical that states continue to pursue an agenda that costs people income, if not their livelihood, which seems like it might have a significant impact on tax collection. But remember, this is all about being fair.

Knowing how to update your Facebook page, write an engaging blog, or create a viral YouTube video is, commercially speaking, worthless without knowing how to make them produce sales. Right? The truth is this: social media’s sudden arrival and instant popularity is causing most corporate marketing managers, executives, and small business owners to lose perspective on the ultimate goal—selling. In this struggling economy, putting bread on the table trumps being most “liked” or highly “engaged with.” Doesn’t it?

Donde Esta El Revolution?

The jury is out. Most businesses dipping toes in social media waters are not experiencing a clear, focused understanding of it, let alone netting customers. Most of us are enthusiastic about advances like Facebook but we’re rarely seeing them in a useful, practical way. Yes, social media gives us the ability to instantly and ubiquitously observe and react to customers like never before. But for most of us, the social media revolution has yet to reveal a clear path forward beyond running out and “just doing it.”

A year ago, my frustration finally piqued. I could not find a practical resource explaining how social media could be applied in ways that generate sales. There were scads of books expounding on the importance of things like Twitter—and how to use them—but none clearly explained how to sell goods and services with social media. Even more perplexing, more experts were claiming social media’s arrival represented a revolution. Yet in practice, most businesses were experiencing the same, mediocre results from social marketing that traditional advertising was producing. At best, most of us were grabbing at the fleeting attention of customers.

I kept wondering, beyond the hyped-up keynote speeches and sexy YouTube videos comparing Facebook’s population to that of countries, shouldn’t we be seeing more “socially revolutionized”  businesses? Where were they?

The Adventure of a Lifetime

I decided to set out and discover exactly how those who were quietly selling using social media were doing it. I realized these businesses, and the people running them, knew something that we didn’t; they likely had common practices powering their success. I also committed myself to examining a personal hunch: that the so-called social media revolution might be a lie—a false “paradigm shift” foisted upon business folks by charlatans looking to make a fast buck. I would find out if my instincts were right. Thus began my adventure.

A year’s worth of research confirmed my suspicions. While doing the leg work for my book, I discovered an exciting opportunity. There’s a chance for more of us to generate tangible business leads and sales using social media platforms. It took me a while but I found people like Amanda Kinsella who is selling dozens of heating and air conditioning systems and service contracts each month on Facebook.

Then I met entrepreneur, Marcus Sheridan who is busy selling big-ticket luxury items, at record pace, in a down economy. River Pools & Spas is selling more in-ground, fiberglass swimming pools than any business in North America using a fiberglass pool resource blog. Marcus is even increasing his profit margin, shortening his sales-cycle, and creating a new revenue stream using that same blog.

I discovered large corporations cracking the nut too. Software and services giant, Intuit is convincing more customers to sign up for its Online Payroll product using social media. Investment and property management firm, Jones Lang LaSalle is generating leads on seven-figure commercial real estate deals using YouTube. I also found examples of banks using social media to increase customer share-of-wallet (diversifying product portfolios) and acquiring new customers at record pace. Retailers like rural lifestyle stores, like the Tractor Supply Company, are using video-driven educational approaches to acquire new customers and grow purchase activity, too.

The Truth About Social Media

In doing this research, I uncovered the surprising truth: Selling with social media didn’t just happen as part of “good engagement” and had little to do with fluffy concepts like “positive brand sentiment.” Selling with social media requires ignoring the over-hyped “wisdom” of popular business gurus and returning to basic, rather un-sexy marketing principles.

For instance, my research revealed direct response marketing is at the heart of successful digital marketing campaigns that sell. All of them. The practice itself is not being revolutionized; instead, it’s being applied on the Internet using innovative tools like Facebook. The core principles behind “what’s working” is what has always worked. There was no revolution, only the chance at evolution.

Best-selling author, speaker, and conversion specialist, Bryan Eisenberg says there’s no question the impact social media is having on people’s lives. From breaking news, political revolutions, and connecting to old friends, social media is touching our lives in meaningful ways every day.

“But,” Eisenberg says, “with all the stories you’re hearing about Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks, the one question you should be asking is ‘how [exactly] can my business make money with social media?’”

What do you think?

Angel: How do you feel about the health of the Affiliate Industry overall?

Kevin: The affiliate industry in the UK is strongly positioned. Since cost per acquisition became the common currency a few years ago we’ve seen the emergence of what I’d call affiliate “brands,” a handful of spectacularly successful affiliates who are driving our industry mainstream. This is obviously a positive development as it means we stand to take a greater slice of advertisers’ online marketing budgets, but it also brings challenges, first and foremost in the area of transparency.

This is something we’ve always taken seriously as a network and have invested heavily in developing tools and technology to offer our affiliates, agencies, and advertisers greater clarity in all areas of promotion. This also extends to how exposed they are to unethical activity. In 2011 we invested a six figure sum in exceptionally robust checks and balances to ensure advertisers’ confidence in the channel grows alongside the burgeoning range of affiliate promotional opportunities.

Angel: Beyond posting coupons, how would you like to see affiliates use social media? 

Angel: What excites you most about mobile?

Kevin: We’ve tracked the progress of mobile on our network for the last 18 months and have seen staggering growth. Since we started looking at the statistics back in 2010 our traffic has increased sixfold. Whilst click to sale conversions are lower for handsets than our standard desktop transactions, we’re still posting around three to four thousand sales from mobile handsets and tablets daily. This sounds exceptionally exciting and clearly from the figures alone it is, but there is a warning attached: if advertisers don’t add tracking to their m-commerce sites, affiliates will have no incentive to develop their own mobile offerings. That said we have seen success, primarily with incentivized traffic offering coupon and in-store redemption cash rewards. I fully anticipate our more engaged advertisers will demand mobile strategies to sit alongside their standard “desktop” affiliate program within the next 12 months.

Angel: In what type of affiliate (coupon, loyalty, etc) would you like to see more of?

Angel: A lot of scrutiny has been placed on the SOPA legislation. How will it impact things if legislation like it passed?

Angel: Is there similar legislation like SOPA in Europe?

Anthony: There is not a specific law that so closely regulates online information in Europe. However, the EU has recently implemented its Privacy Directive to regulate how cookies are used across the internet. It is a far-reaching Directive that has now been passed into law in the UK, which will mean further information and options are needed for users before internet sites place cookies on a user’s machine. We have yet to see how this will impact the affiliate industry and others like us, however, we fully support further transparency for the end user as long as the online experience for that user is not adversely affected.

Angel: How did Illinois passing the so-called Amazon tax impact the industry? Have we seen the worst of it?

Anthony: The Amazon tax has actually been passed in a number of states, and has even been passed and subsequently repealed in some others. We are destined to see the worst of these state-specific tax laws over the next few years, especially if they continue to be passed in states with large online industries. Effectively, it means any publisher based in that state can no longer have a relationship with impacted online retailers, as the retailer cannot afford to have a “nexus” relationship exist in that state.  We have seen some publishers move the location of their entire businesses—including offices and personnel—to another state just to avoid the impact of the Amazon tax. In the near future we will know for sure whether the benefits it brings to a state’s economy outweigh the negative impact on jobs and businesses that might be forced to close down or leave the state.

Angel: How did the transition to being part of Digital Window impact things in 2011?

Anthony: It was an exciting year for the company, bringing change as well as consistency of ownership. Digital Window took control of buy.at in February 2010, and buy.at has gradually been blossoming under the guidance of a company that has its roots in the affiliate industry. Digital Window grew from similar beginnings to those of the buy.at network, so its senior staff often appreciated the challenges of being a small company looking to grow by doing the right things in a competitive market. The two companies shared an ethical view about how affiliate marketing should be conducted, and since the merger Digital Window has added tools that refine buy.at’s integrity-focused approach to the industry. Digital Window brings expertise, innovative technology, and a service-led approach to the buy.at network, which will hopefully see the company make big strides in 2012.

Angel: With so many properties: Affiliate Window, Digital Window, buy.at do you feel there is a branding issue?

Angel: At the A4U Awards, Affiliate Window won the Publisher’s Choice for the fifth year in a row. What do you attribute that success to?

Angel: What are buy.at‘s goals in 2012 in the U.S.?

Anthony: This year our aims are to consolidate the successes of 2011 and bring large-scale innovation to the U.S. market. We have a track record in the UK of building innovative solutions aimed at both advertisers and publishers. Some really exciting technology is planned for release in 2012, and we feel it will make a change to how affiliate marketing is viewed in the U.S. Our approach is ethical and transparent performance, and we feel the platform changes that we have lined up for 2012 will reflect that and lead to much better engagement between advertiser and publisher. It will be exciting times for the industry, as well as us, and we hope both advertisers and publishers will feel the benefits.

Photo credit: Affiliate Window