http://www.craigalinder.com an insider's perspective Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:46:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Google has just announced that it is integrating the Performics affiliate network and rebranding it as the "Google Affiliate Network". Google describes it thus: Google acquired the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate operations in March 2008. Together, we're creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion, and innovation in affiliate marketing. Performics was founded as the first ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2008/07/google-rebrands-performics-into-google-affiliate-network/ I just got an email that confirms what I have been saying for a long, long time. Most affiliates know by now that Adwords hates affiliates. They do not like affiliate so-called "doorway pages". They do not like the fact that affiliate marketing is a lucrative internet business that they ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2008/03/adwords-wont-help-affiliates/ Yahoo Search Marketing has just announced that after 6 months of internal deliberation on the subject, they are opening up their advertising platform to allow direct linking by affiliates and other advertising partners. Up until this announcement, it was Yahoo's policy that you couldn't send sponsored traffic to a site that ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2008/02/yahoo-search-opens-direct-linking/ In a surprise unsolicited bid this morning, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for the purchase of Yahoo! Inc. This comes out to just over $31 a share, and it seems that Microsoft is attempting to take advantage of the soft stock market. As the news hit, Yahoo! stocks were immediately up almost ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2008/02/microsoft-offers-buy-yahoo/ I'll let your imagination fill in the blank in the title. On January 15th Pepperjam, one of the oldest and fastest growing affiliate marketing companies has announced the launch of their "next generation" affiliate marketing network. While Pepperjam doesn't have enormous corporate backing like Linkshare and Commission Junction, the new ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2008/01/pepperjam-network/ When I first heard about Affiliate Radar what intrigued me was the ability to manage reporting and convert Adwords campaigns easily into Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter's bulk upload formats. I have been outsourcing the conversion of campaigns from Adwords into Yahoo and MSN formats for a long time. ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2008/01/affiliate-radar-review/ Linkshare recently implemented weekly payment processing in an attempt to address their biggest weakness: late payments to their affiliates. I have waited many weeks to evaluate this new change and the verdict is in: it has made no improvement whatsoever. Linkshare continues to belittle their affiliate partners, by allowing merchants ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2007/12/linkshare-affiliate-payments-late-late-and-lacking/ E-consultancy just released a research piece on the cost effectiveness of affiliate marketing. E-consultancy is a UK based internet marketing research firm. Their research is held in high regard by all, while their particular market is in the UK. They surveyed 700 merchants who were actively using the affiliate marketing ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2007/09/affiliate-marketing-deemed-most-cost-effective/ Linkshare announced this morning that they will start paying their affiliates on a weekly basis effective immediately. They are attempting to improve on what has been a weakness of their affiliate network for a long time: delayed and poorly organized payments. Unlike Commission Junction, Linkshare allows its advertisers to pay their ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2007/09/linkshare-improves-payment-system-at-last/ Google announced this morning to Adwords advertisers that they are going to change the formula used to determine whether your ad is placed in the top positions above the search results. Up until now, this has been determined by "Quality Score and your actual CPC, which is determined in part ... http://www.craigalinder.com/2007/08/google-adwords-changes-top-position-formula/