Are you heading to Affiliate Summit East this week? We’d love to meet you!
On Sunday, MediaTrust will be hosting a table at the Meet Market, where you’ll be able to chat with members of our team and find out about our newest exclusive offers. Follow us on our Twitter @MediaTrust for real time updates from the booth.
For each attendee that comes to our table (#64) and gives us a business card, we’ll donate to the Environmental Defense Fund, an organization providing relief down by the Gulf Oil Spill. We will also have Scott Parent snapping professional photos of donors for our Flickr and Facebook page. Make sure to stop on by, contribute to the efforts down south, learn about some of our unique and lucrative campaigns, and get your photo snapped.
Not going to Affiliate Summit? You can still participate in the donation process by snapping your own photo, and e-mailing it to ASE10@mediatrust.com/tweeting it to @MediaTrust — just make sure the MediaTrust logo is in the picture in some way. We will donate $1 for each digital submission, so make sure to tell all of your friends!
Here’s how the donations work:
Total amount donated to charity will be determined as follows:
If we reach 1-500 submissions, MT will donate $1000
If we reach 501-1000 submission, MT will donate $1500
If we reach 1001+ submissions, MT will donate $2000
Last week, I wrote a piece for Adotas about the evolution the performance marketing industry is undergoing. The point of the article was that in order to continue to attract deeper-pocketed brand advertisers, the Industry needs to be focused on the longer-term — both as networks/platforms and as individual publishers.
This is an adjustment any maturing industry needs to undertake to sustain its future viability. We need to stop chasing the quick buck/high payout offers that will be gone in a few months and focus instead on working with real brands that have products that truly solve consumer problems.
The black eye the Tech and Performance Marketing industries got from the scamville episode was unfortunate, but it illustrates why and what we need to do to improve. The actions Zynga took to try to eliminate the scammy offers was an example of how to take some short-term pain (reducing revenue by weeding out) to look out for the end user and their brand. Some of the good networks supplying these offers also took steps to weed out the bad apples. Those that did not are in worse shape today.
The Performance Marketing Schism
For some of the networks, Scamville presented a similar conundrum for the Networks running these offers: Do I cut out the scammy stuff and take a hit on the bottom line or keep going until someone sends me papers? Unfortunately for the Performance Marketing industry, some of the players kept at it. Others stopped it. For the industry’s sake, more of the latter needs to happen. The result of the decisions that Networks make on issues such as these will inevitably lead to the bifurcation of the performance marketing industry.
In one corner there will be a few “white glove” brand-friendly places for the smarter money to flow to…places where brands know they are getting quality distribution and quality results with brand protection. The other corner will be dominated by the “get me rich quick” guys that chase any offer. These greedy folks may be able to get some short-term results, but they will inevitably end up hurting their advertisers brands and abuse the end consumer.
The net to the Performance Marketing industry will be similar to the bifurcation that happened to the financial services industry years ago. Today there are only a few very well regarded banks (Morgan Stanley, etc) and the boiler room JT Marlins of the world that struggled for relevance and revenue were shut down or went bankrupt.
Like in the movie, the Truth always comes out for the JT Marlins of the world. The same will happen to our industry. Just watch…
Last Thursday the FTC announced a new set of rules surrounding debt related services that will affect the way affiliate marketers do business. As a network, we have already seen the results of such changes as our partners are trying to figure out how to adapt to changes in the market.
The FTC is labeling this “The Final Rule,” which was aimed directly at the telemarketing industry but broadened out to cover online marketing as well. The biggest changes being made address when fee’s can be collected from a consumer and the information companies are required to present to the consumer before the consumer purchases.
The intention is to add a level of protection to the consumer by not allowing them to get further into debt without having a debt settlement plan in place. “Too many of these companies pick the last dollar out of consumers’ pockets – and far from leaving them better off, push them deeper into debt, even bankruptcy.” Said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz
What do affiliates and advertisers need to know?
“The Final Rule” – Fee’s for debt relief services cannot be collected until:
The consumer’s debt has been successfully renegotiated or settled
Written documentation of the settlement has been agreed upon by the consumer and creditor
The consumer has made at least 1 payment towards the new debt relief agreement/plan
And:
Fees to the consumer must be in proportion to the debt amount settled
The advertiser must disclose the total cost of service and negative consequences to debt relief services (credit ranking)
How will Affiliate Marketers be affected?
Marketers that charge a consumer prior to the rules above will need to change their business model, website messaging, and back end profitability models.
Affiliates that focus primarily on debt related services will need to find new and improved ways to monetize debt related traffic and e-mail data as advertisers will have a tougher time collecting fees from consumers, thus lowering affiliate commissions.
Tracking success in the debt services industry will be difficult and time consuming in the near future.
This crackdown is a flash back to the similar changes that were made to continuity business models earlier in the year. The FTC appears to be targeting online marketing as an area that needs to be cleaned up and they seem to be just getting started. One thing is for sure, it’s not the first or last change they are going to make.
I would recommend that affiliates looking to diversify out of debt services take a look at Identity Protection campaigns. Identity Protection is something that all consumers should have and the performance metrics are proven for affiliates. Our top campaign is IdentityEdge and it’s a great campaign from a trusted advertiser.
This week we’re talking to Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz. Rand is an elite name in the field of SEO. I wanted to speak to Rand about the types of mistakes he sees companies making when it comes to employing an SEO strategy. We also talked about how search engines are taking on the challenge of indexing video and audio content in a meaningful way.
Have you ever wanted to be a guest on Relevantly Speaking?
Scott Parent will be filming the next season of MediaTrust‘s video interview series this August during Affiliate Summit East. We’ve put together a fantastic line up of guests, but left one spot open — possibly for you.
This week we’re talking to Stephen Robinson, Director of Affiliate Marketing at JEBCommerce. We wanted to get his take on what brands are most concerned about in the performance marketing space and how he thinks companies and individuals can achieve success in an affiliate marketing program. Resource Links : Blog : Twitter : Facebook
If you’re attending LeadsCon this week in NYC, make sure to RSVP for Meetup202 “Happy Hour.” Every year, Meetup202 gathers interesting leaders from the affiliate performance marketing & Internet marketing industry, and organizes a fantastic evening event. This is the first NYC event since Wes Mahler has taken over the reigns at Tracking202, one of our favorite PPC marketing platforms. Congrats again Wes!
On July 26th, the biggest influencers in Lead Generation gather in New York City to discuss the future of online business. If you’re involved in digital marketing, this is a great opportunity to develop your network and skill set. For more information on speakers and panels, check the Leadscon website.
If you’re attending the conference this year, make sure to say hi to members of the MediaTrust team — Jordan Kravitz, Peter Ettenborough and Mike Arsenault (pictured below) will be in attendance.
Greetings MediaTrust Publishers! A MediaTrust Exclusive Is Here.
Dr. Imber’s Youth Corridor’s Antioxidant Boost Starter Pack.
Campaign #2729 – Don’t miss the opportunity to promote a unique premium skin care package from Dr. Imber – a renowned plastic surgeon to the stars. The Youth Corridor Skincare package includes Dr. Imber’s own premium formulated antioxidant boost skin serum, green tea moisturizer, and natural, gentle cleansing foam – priced to the consumer at $99 (savings of $50 – normally priced at $149).
Dr, Imber has been featured on…
TV and the exclusive campaign landing page includes his compelling Good Morning America YouTube interview that introduces his antioxidant boost skin serum and new book.
Your next hot offer to promote!
High payout of $38.00
Converts on page 2 after a credit card submit
Performs very well on Social Network traffic
OPEN Search available – no restrictions!
Email and Banner available.
Why this will sell!
Product has been featured on ABC’s Good Morning America and in Bazaar, Departures, and W magazines.
Dr. Imber’s book has been recognized by surgeons as instrumental in the way they approach youth maintenance.
We know how much impact video has online. More than ever brands are finding new and engaging ways to interact with customers using video. The downside is that production can be expensive. What if you could crowd source a great commercial using thousands of talented video creators? XLNTads is doing just that. Resource Links : XLNTads Blog : Twitter : Facebook page
MediaTrust is an innovative market leader that provides trusted pay-for-performance digital advertising and publishing solutions. MediaTrust is headquartered in New York City with offices in Toronto and Santa Barbara.
The 2 of you need to connect re @Twylah . @kabaim & @AmyVernon it gives me great pleasure 2 connect 2 social media thought leaders we admire 6 days ago
Take a Photo, Donate to Charity at #ASE10
