| LED Digest 1845: Is Affiliate Marketing Coming of Age? |
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================================================== 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 ................................................ July 22, 2004 Issue #1845 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Affiliate Network Consolidation ==-- ~ Linda Buquet "Is affiliate marketing as we know it coming of age or about to morph into something new?" --== Google Dancing Again? ==-- ~ A. Brantley "I'm hearing rumors through the grapevine that Google will soon be dancing again..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Adding Disclaimers to Ezines? ==-- ~ Kathryn Martyn "If you're including other people's suggestions... then yes, I'd include a disclaimer." --== Site Redesign Blues ==-- ~ Lee Roberts "Let me prove this single point with a paraphrasing of the HTML standards..." ~ Janet Attard "We've been using Front Page for years [and are] attracting over a million visitors a year..." --== The End of Email as You Know It? ==-- ~ Adam Boettiger "One of the best ways of combatting sp*m is to direct customers to a brief form on your site..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Attorney Referral Needed ==-- ~ Mary Johnson --== Cached Pages ==-- ~ Deke Hammel ~ Kathy Wilson Anderson --== Random Spam Email ==-- ~ Joe Halbrook ======= NEW ===================================== From: Linda Buquet Subject: Advertising.com (AOL) Launches Affiliate Network 1st ValueClick, (a traditional ad network) acquired Be Free in 2002, then snapped up Commission Junction in October 2003. This March, it joined Be Free and Commission Junction under the CJ brand. Recently in a "keeping up with the Joneses" move DoubleClick (another traditional ad network) agreed to purchase Performics. Now Advertising.com, soon to be owned by AOL launches what they call an "Affiliate Network". What's with all the consolidation between CPM, CPA networks and affiliate networks??? What does it mean for the Affiliate Marketing industry? Advertising.com's new offers look more like CPA offers than traditional affiliate marketing as we know it. See yesterday's article in Clickz: -------------------- Advertising.com Launches Affiliate Network http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3383861 "Interactive marketing services firm Advertising.com, soon to be acquired by America Online, launched an automated affiliate network for publishers on Tuesday." -------------------- So is what Advertising.com just announced REALLY an affiliate network, just glorified CPM / CPA advertising or some new type of hybrid? See what Brian Clark has to say on Revenews: Advertising.com "Affiliate Network": A CPA Banner Solution http://www.revenews.com/brianclark/archives/000122.html What do you think? Is affiliate marketing as we know it coming of age or about to morph into something new? Linda Buquet http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: A. Brantley Subject: Google updating again? Hi, I'm hearing rumors through the grapevine that Google will soon be dancing again. Anybody have any info on that? Thanks A. Brantley ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Ezine disclaimers > So, my question to LED-ers is: Should you include > disclaimers in your e-zine? If so, what should they say? - Martha Retallick, LED 1844 If you're including other people's suggestions (rather than strictly your own), then yes, I'd include a disclaimer. Something similar to what news programs use, "I am unable to verify all programs, links, software, etc. that others may mention herein, so please do your own due diligence. If you note something that is fradulent, please let me know so I can remove that information as quickly as possible." I don't know, the precise words you use would be in the tone you use regularly, and just openly address the issue. They'll get it. "Management is not responsible for the opinions of others posted in this newsletter," seems sort of harsh. ;-) Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Lee Roberts Subject: Redesign blues > But Lee, you are right on when you say there's a heck of > a lot more to HTML than learning some stuff about tags. > I'd say about two year's worth at least if you really want to > know your stuff... - Stephen Mareches, LED 1844 I would tend to agree, but the problem with WYSIWYG editors is they don't follow standards as much as they should. Dreamweaver comes the closest. And I would venture to bet that anyone using WYSIWYG editors haven't even taken the time to go into the standards and learn them as they are written and discussed on http://www.w3.org. Let me prove this single point with a paraphrasing of the HTML standards. No heading tag shall be used except that an H1 tag is used first on the web page. No heading tag shall be skipped. Therefore you cannot have an H1 then an H3. Heading tags shall not be used to declare font sizes. I do not refer to the ISO standards. I refer directly to the HTML standards. There is a long section with specific examples about heading tags and how they should be used. So, those that think they know all they need to know because they used some WYSIWYG editor need to back and re-evaluate their position. I hope this makes my point as to why I won't hire someone that uses FrontPage. Not to mention the fact that for years Microsoft declared FrontPage as a "personal web page designer". They have made a change in their claims, but for me it hasn't changed any. FP2003 has made some adjustments and apparently allows you to use your own codes, but we're still down to someone more often using the WYSIWYG editor. My online WYSIWYG editor uses Microsoft technologies and outputs the worst code around. But, I have give my clients some tool to use that will help them with their online stores. At least I know how to get around the problems it causes. I don't even like graphic designers that use their graphics program to make HTML. That is another nightmare. Sincerely, Lee Roberts http://www.roserockdesign.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Janet Attard Subject: Redesign blues > ... these contentious assertions that somehow the quality > of someone's work is damned if they are one of us heathen > FrontPage initiates, and damned as well if they don't subscribe > to the myth that the tool makes the person's work acceptable? - Stephen Mareches, LED 1844 I guess BusinessKnowHow.com must be damned then. We've been using Front Page for years - and gee, all we've achieved is attracting over a million visitors a year and winning some awards (one was in a contest that attracted web designers and agencies in the NYC metro area - 1800flowers.com won best in that show; Businessknowhow.com "only" won first place in the category we entered). The thing with FrontPage and with any tool, is to use the tool to solve problems that it's good at solving. It helps us to a lot of the routine work on our sites. We use other software and custom-written code for things that require custom work. (databases, ad serving, syndication, stuff like that.) Janet Attard Business Know-How -Celebrating 15 years helping small businesses online http://www.businessknowhow.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Adam Boettiger Subject: End of Email > I found out that people are reluctant to fill forms and > I keep using the direct approach "mailto:". Of course > this generates spam: within 5 months 1000 spam > email a day. - Jean-Jacques Joseph, LED 1844 I find it interesting that you are finding that people are reluctant to fill out forms but are not reluctant to click on an email link. One of the best ways of combatting sp*m is to direct customers to a brief form on your site, using something like the Master Form script at http://www.willmaster.com/. Their communication still arrives to you by email, but your address is not sucked up by the spam vaccuums. Have you ever considered finding out *why* people are reluctant to fill out a form? Do you have a privacy link or statement next to the form explaining why you use a form? I would think it would be an incredible pain in the rear changing addresses every 2 months... > I got to the habit of changing the email > address every 2 months... I've found a great service that I've used for a couple years now at http://www.pobox.com/. It is about $19.95 per year and is a very simple email forwarding service, however it has powerful server-side sp*am filtering capabilities. For example, you can use the advanced settings to say that you do not want to accept any mail from China or Nigeria. Or you can have all of your incoming email checked against one or more known blacklists and either bounced / rejected or flagged as sp*m. They even have an option now for incorporating Verified Sender and SPF technology which are two new filtering techniques that are extremely effective. Very much definitely worth a look as it is cheap to set up an account there and then all you need to do is set up your domain alias to forward to your pobox.com address and then from there to an unpublished POP or IMAP account. Hope this helps! Adam Boettiger digitalocean.cc/ Free newsletter on time management, email and information overload ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Mary Johnson Subject: Attorney > ... I was wondering if anyone had any referrals > for a regular business attorney that understands > commercial software and licensing issues... - Emanuel D. Errico III, LED 1844 In response to the individual who wanted a business attorney who understands technology, I can heartily recommend Bob Huntsman of Belnap & Curtis out of Boise, ID. (phone 208-345-3333 (MT), email bob, bobhuntsman.com). He is astute in technology, being an experienced programmer himself, as well as an attorney. We have done business together and I have been very pleased with his knowledge. Mary Johnson Web Site Helper www.websitehelper.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Deke Hammel Subject: Cached pages > How can I make sure that a browser ALWAYS pulls the > recent web page from my server as opposed to pulling > a cached page from the local machine? - Steve Wicks, LED 1842 AOL has long documented the fact that their caching firewalls ignore the content of web pages. If you use headers, headers will work, but those cutesy little HTTP- equiv META tags aren't headers. Deke Hammel AmishHosting.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathy Wilson Anderson Subject: Cached pages > One of your problems may be with the ISP itself. AOL, > Earthlink, and NetZero all use caching servers, which > seem... to ignore any NOCACHE or CONTENT EXPIRES > directives. - Richard Dudley, LED 1844 Richard Dudley is correct when he says that the ISP may be the problem with cached website pages. And it's not only the biggies that he mentions, such as AOL, Earthlink, etc. who are doing it. I discovered that one of our local ISPs uses caching, with the reason given that it saves them bandwidth. After much discussion with them, they grudgingly turned it off for my client. The larger ISPs may not be willing to do this, but if you are using a smaller ISP check with them to see if they are indeed using caching, and if so, find out if they are willing to exclude you from it. Love, Kathy Wilson Anderson http://www.under-one-roof.net Life Purpose Coaching ~ Website Solutions ~ Vibrational Healing ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Random email > I have now resigned to checking mails in web browser before > downloading in my Outlook. I do have anti-virus protection, but > this way I can delete all virus mails before it lands in my PC. - Viggie Bala, LED 1843 Viggie brings up an exceptional point: Removing unwanted email at the server, before downloading it to the email client. This was the concept behind the initial design on my mailbox cleaning service. And I still provide a web-based mailbox previewer to do just that. However, I decided to take it even one step further. After processing email, based on each mailbox owner's preferences (i.e. Sender and Subject whitelists, auto-whitelisting, etc.), I wanted to add the ability to manage the filtered email items via a Summary Report, which users could have the service email them up to 3 times a day. On these summary reports, each filtered email item is listed with the following information: - Message Date, Message Size - Sender Email Address - Subject Line Along with hyperlinks for each item, to: - Read the filtered email in the web browser - Restore the filtered email back to the originating mailbox - Restore the email to the originating mailbox, and whitelist the Sender With this strategy, users can now manage their mailbox cleanings right from their mailbox. How much easier can it get? Granted, some may want less involvement -- not even having to scan the summary reports -- but others want more control in determining when to permanently delete incoming email items. Joe Halbrook http://www.cleanmymailbox.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "There are many paths." - Stephen Mareches |
