Lions Tigers and BHOs. Oh My!

Logging on to ABW this afternoon I was greated by a thread that burst into life and racked up a mass of interest in the blink of an eye. The attention grabbing thread had the title "ShareASale and Toolbars / Call for Participation on Guidelines" . Yes Oh My indeed, the bastion of BHO free marketing is considering its' stance.

I highly recommend reading the thread and joining the discussion.

My thoughts :

A major concern I have with this idea, is that, all "BHO affiliate" tool bars, at the end of the day, do far more than just influence/decide which "BHO affiliate" gets the sale. They also canabilize merchants other sales channels, especially the ones based on loyalty, organic (direct to site/seo) and PPC. The bigger the brand the greater the the impact.

When I talk to merchants about tool bars I usually discuss the effect on the affiliate channel along side the impact to the above channels, large brand merchants (the ones that toolbars target) tend to get the majority of their traffic through the above (Toolbar targeted) channels, which ads no value and simply steals sales from the merchant.

How does SAS plan / propose to prevent toolbars that they allow on to Shareasale from cannabilizing a merchants other sales channels? If their plan is not all encompassing then they will simply be enabling tool bars to go to town on Shareasale merchants just like they do on LS, CJ and so forth, adding no value, but certainly adding to the BHO Affiliates revenue.

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Affiliate Summit Wrap-Up: Day 2

The second and final day of the Affiliate Summit expo was slightly less busy than the first day of the event, as many participants had a very tight schedule and needed to return to their respective destinations, or perhaps, for some, just run for the hills from the enticing allure and over-the-top luxury that epitomizes Las Vegas. Although there was much affiliate marketing, networking business and deal-making taking place during the day, for AMWSO in particular, it was a pleasant opportunity to meet and greet in person a variety of colleagues, partners and potential collaboration opportunities, in a bit more relaxed atmosphere.

Some of the interesting and extremely influential people that AMWSO had the chance to meet and talk shop throughout the day included Brett Shearing, Business Development Manager for Commission Junction, who let me know that CJ is developing a Pay-Per-Call tracking technology, as well as Jennine Rexon, CEO and founder of the Rextopia network, Brendan J. Smith, CEO and founder of the Motive Interactive affiliate network, Gary Kamikawa, VP of Interactive marketing for Mpire and one of the fastest growing java-enabled ad networks Widget Bucks in addition to truly international participants such as Scott McCarthy, International Publisher Sales Manager for the largest U.K. affiliate network, TradeDoubler.

One of the most lively and spirited conferences taking place during the last day of the show was "ABW: loved or hated, but never ignored", featuring a panel of ABW moderators including Chuck Hamrick, OPM for Affiliate Crew, Deborah Loxly, OPM for Team Loxly, Michael Coley, founder of Amazing-Bargains, Ron, OPM of 7 Days A Week marketing and of course, Haiko de Poel, Jr., Administrator and CEO of AbestWeb. The key takeaway from this conference was that AbestWeb has become over the past 6 years, a trusted third party in the affiliate marketing industry that is open and honest as well as provides an ideal platform for any affiliate, to have a fair voice to communicate their trepidations. On the horizon for Abestweb, Haiko de Poel, Jr., announced a social marketing aspect that is in development for the 42,000-plus members, which features an expanded profile and ability to add friends, create groups and other affiliate business related functionality.

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Vancouver Affiliate Meet Up

This will be my third trip to Canada and the 4th Annual Networking Dinner is on at the same time again, great timing there Ian. It's strange to think that for first few years working in affiliate marketing I met no one from the business, not one. And then when I attended the Vancouver Networking Dinner for the first time it was stunning to find some many people in one location speaking about the affiliate business, from all kinds of backgrounds too!

This years event looks like being the biggest yet and we'll have the Western Union team as our guests too. Brian from Shareasale looks set to roll in , as do a good number of ABW folks that I have worked with for years and never met! That will be awesome!

For anyone in the area who'd like to attend but is short of a few dollars, let me know we're sponsoring 10 tickets to the event. Just drop me a mail, comment or post on ABW and I'll be more than happy to grab you a ticket.

I'll personally be looking for anyone with the insider news on how to skip over the border into the USA.... or has a large boot on their car :-)

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