| LED Digest 1735: Trademark & Keywords, also Good Pop-ups |
|
|
|
================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ January 26, 2004 Issue #1735 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Affiliate ID Rip Off? ==-- ~ Debra Sawyers "This was a 'feature' of Gator and once people caught on, it was a huge blowup." --== Web Ad Trademark Laws ==-- ~ George Forder "Ownership of a word is a major objective of most branding strategies." ~ Rick Meigs "Business Week just published an article that gives an overview of this issue." --== Ad Blocking Software ==-- ~ Steve Fleming "Everyone wants a free web, with free content, and free search engines. " ~ Mark Whitman "Proper use of pop-ups is an excellent way of allowing users to tailor their experience..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Local Sites, Local Hosting? ==-- ~ Sascha Hewitt --== Beta Testers Wanted ==-- ~ Brad Waller ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Debra Sawyers Subject: Affiliate stealing > I have a creeping suspicion that someone is stealing > my affiliate commissions by replacing my ID string in > the merchant's URL with their own. Is there a way to > prevent this...? - Heikki Nylund, LED 1734 I wouldn't be surprised if you're correct. A number of spyware / thiefware programs have been coded with the ability to actually change affiliate strings so that users with these programs installed (often bundled programs installed with shareware programs) are actually stealing affiliate links. The act is totally undetectable to the user. This was (and maybe still is) a "feature" of Gator and once people caught on, it was a huge blowup. Unwantedlinks.com appears to have a good article on "Who's stealing your affiliate earnings", http://www.unwantedlinks.com/affiliatetheft.htm One of the most frustrating aspects is that Gator and WhenU have already one their first rounds in court against Uhaul who sued for serving competitors ads to users on their site. Courts ruled that since installation of these spyware programs is voluntary, users give Gator et al the right to modify the functions of their browsers. http://netscape.com.com/2100-1104-5072663.html This was even discussed back in LED issue 1576: --------------------- From: Robert McRackan Subject: Gator Stealing Affiliate Sales? If there is any way that I could be more shocked at Mr. Schneider's pro-Gator letter, I'm not sure how! Not only have I never seen or heard about a single positive comment of Gator and the GAIN network (prior to his letter), but I can also personally attest to the damage it does to PCs and the damage it does to business. My last job was as the Affiliate Account Administrator at a dot-com with an in-house affiliate program of over 40,000 people. (The company still has a lawsuit pending with GAIN so I'll not say their name.) Within a week of Gator / GAIN signing up, their profits skyrocketed and the profits of all other affiliates plummeted by a comparable amount. When 4 out of our top 5 affiliates noticed the sharp and sudden decline in their profits, I asked our IT team to look into it. After much frustration, our IT team discovered that computers with Gator software installed on them were replacing any tracking referral IDs with the one they signed up with. Basically, my site "abc.com" has an affiliate program, the progress of which is tracked with affiliate ID numbers so that they work even if cookies are disabled. A surfer visits an affiliate of ours: "site.com" with referral ID 123. Gator has ID 987. When the surfer (with Gator installed on their computer) clicks on an affiliate link on site.com to abc.com?ID=123, Gator replaces the ID number and the visitor goes to abc.com?ID=987. This means that even though our affiliates were responsible for bringing us new clients, they earned nothing and Gator earned their commissions. Gator claimed this was simply a tracking feature of a plug in they installed. With the consent of my manager and VP, I froze their account due to suspicious behavior. Justice served? Not really. Before I left the company almost a year ago, they still had not decided a fair way to compensate those cheated by Gator. Anyone who is having problems with this viral program and cannot remove it from their computer is encouraged to use Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. They have a free version that I love and die by which can be found here: http://www.webattack.com/get/adaware.shtml Robert McRackan, Senior Technical Engineer www.keywordranking.com --------------------- Unfortunately, while it's true that users give permission for these spyware programs to be installed, the information is often buried in a long EULA rolled up with another program. Many users may not even realize that this thing is even installed, let alone what it does. How many people do you really thing knowingly install programs to see MORE ads (after our long heated discussion on ad blockers). A number of programs are available that claim to cloak affiliate links, but I can't personally vouch for any of them. Deb Sawyers, webmaster ------- new post - new topic ------- From: George Forder Subject: Trademark ads > ... a Trademark doesn't give you control of the word, only > the particular graphical representation. I believe that in > law you can own a word only if you invent it, not if you > adopt one from common language. - Ian Dickson, LED 1734 This set the brain cells going. Ownership of a word is a major objective of most branding strategies. I remember my mother always "hoovering" the house. We went "windsurfing" on the weekends, and even in South Africa we "Xerox" things although I don't think I've ever seen a Xerox machine! Trying to muscle in on word ownership strikes me as branding gamesmanship, a sort of desperate attempt at cheating without getting caught. This does show how powerful words are. "In the beginning was the word..." I am not sure I understand what it means but it has a powerful ring to it. Even Voldemort in the Harry Potter series is "He that cannot (or must not) be named" These words power is not so much in the meaning but in the emotional connotations. In South Africa at the moment a company, Laugh it off, have been spoofing trademarks on tee shirts. They were relatively obscure until "Black Labour" a spoof on Black Label beer invoked the ire of the South African Breweries. Read about it here http://iafrica.com/news/sa/211187.htm . It was a good branding strategy as they are now a high profile company, even though they spend a lot of time in court. Playboy will turn a blind eye to the use of their words and even possibly their trademark if it suits them. If they deem that it is negatively affecting them, be warned... Them that cannot be named will be after you... George Forder Spindrift International www.spindrift.co.za george [at] spindrift [dot] co.za ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Rick Meigs Subject: Trademark ads Business Week just published an article titled "Searching for Trouble" that give an overview of this issue. The subtitle was: "Keyword ads are big earners for Google, Yahoo!, and AOL, so trademark lawsuits currently in the courts could spell major hassles." Here is the URL: http://snipurl.com/42mj [businessweek.com] Rick Meigs, President 401khelpcenter.com, LLC www.401khelpcenter.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Steve Fleming Subject: Ad blockers > It is as if we need to recreate an internet that allows free web > site submissions to search engines and doesn't allow popup ads. - Vip Milton, LED 1734 I love this attitude. Everyone wants a free web, with free content, and free search engines. So how many people are going to provide all this free stuff forever? I enjoy free things on the web too, but there is room for both. Television has "free" broadcasting with advertising and it also has "free" stations like PBS that request donations. Either way, it requires money to produce. There is also cable, ad-free, but by subscription. It's your choice as to what to watch. It's the same on the web. It's your choice as to what to watch, but don't complain about how the site tries to pay the bills. If you don't like the ads, go elsewhere. If you want the content, then look at their ads (no one is forcing you to buy). But don't tell me that you want to look at their content AND not see their ads. It's not your content. It's theirs and they may present it any way they wish. Your only choice should be to either accept it or go elsewhere. A third alternative is that you can set up your own website and produce your own content any way you wish. But why someone would think that they have a RIGHT to view someone else's content, without seeing the way the content producer meant it to be presented is beyond me. Changing the way a website was originally designed to be presented is the same as using film, music or literature and changing the way the author originally created it. It is intellectual property theft. You want the content, you feel you deserve the content, but you don't wish to pay for it. You want your cake and eat it too! It's an old story. Just a new format. Steve Fleming ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Mark Whitman Subject: Ad blockers > I am in the process of opening an Internet retail store. > I intend to avoid using pop-ups for any purpose. - Mark Rogers, LED 1734 You can easily "throw the baby out with the bathwater" if you condemn all pop-ups as taboo. It's important to differentiate between the *automatic* pop-ups that launch when entering or exiting a web page and *manual* pop-ups that launch when the user clicks a link. Manual pop-ups are an extremely effective tool for presenting information in a highly focused and condensed way. Some users (such as novices) may want additional info on a topic when others may not need it. Providing optional information in manual pop-up windows allows users to get additional information if the want it. Those that don't want additional information can stay focused on the primary body of content without having to read through information they don't want. Proper use of pop-ups is an excellent way of allowing users to tailor their experience on a website to their specific needs. Mark Whitman ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Sascha Hewitt Subject: Should local sites be hosted locally? Hi All, A web site designer recently told a client of mine that because his business is based in Australia (and he only wants hits from Australia) he should host his site in Australia - as he will do better on the Australian search engines. I haven't heard this before and was wondering if it is correct. Thanks, Sascha Hewitt ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Brad Waller Subject: Wanted: Beta Testers for new Banner Ad Manager Do you have banner ads on your website? If so, we want to help you manage these banners and make you more money. We are almost ready to launch a new service to help you simply manage banner advertising on your site and give advertisers the ability to place ads directly onto your site. This grew out of my own frustration at managing our banners. Attracting paid advertisers who made it worth my time to actually make the insertion with a large enough order took too much time, so I pretty much left the default banners up and sent away a number of advertisers who wanted to pay smaller amounts of money. This system solves all that by taking me out of the loop once it is set up. Sites can set up default banners for when there is not a directed buy, and we will also build up a base of default advertising to fill in the earnings gap as well. Advertisers will be able to visit your site and make directed buys on your pages that can run without your intervention - optionally, you can manually approve all advertising campaigns. We're looking for a number of webmasters who are willing to be Beta testers for this new service starting in the next couple of weeks. Your only requirement is that you are willing to give us feedback on the system and that you will use it and paste our code into some pages on your Web sites. We're offering Beta testers a 10% bonus over our standard revenue share. Send me an email ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it - I get too much junk to worry about hiding my email) for more information on how to participate in this special offer. Brad Waller, VP Affiliate & Business Development Beta site not for public consumption... ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." JRR Tolkein |
