As many of you know in the last couple weeks my father fell ill, and passed away.  It’s been tough.  But through it all, your thoughts and prayers expressed to my family and me have been both a comfort and have given that extra measure of strength we all needed.

In some businesses there are little, if any, real connections made with people.  Fortunately, working with all of you is an exception and it is both a privilege and an absolute joy to be able to have friends as well as business relationships with you all.

One of you sent me an email that contained the quote “some say life is too short, others say it is too long, but I know that nothing that we do makes sense if we don’t touch the  hearts of others…….while it lasts!”.  And that you all certainly have done.

On behalf of myself and my family, we all thank you so very much.

Scott Medlock

Burl Medlock
(November 1, 1931 – January 10, 2011)

Burl M. Medlock, age 79, of Gordonville passed away Monday, January 10, 2011 at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

Memorials may be made to Christ Lutheran Church (Gordonville Missouri) Building Fund or the donor’s choice.

Like many of us in the United States, I’ll be spending Memorial Day with my family and friends.  We’ll have some BBQ, Cranking up some homade ice cream, and haringa few stories and more than a little laughter.  We’ll be watching our kids play in the sprinkler out in the yard too.

In many ways, this is the way Americans celebrate the sacrifice of others: spending and appreciating quality time with the people who matter most to us. Because without the brave Soldiers, Sailers, Airmen, and Marines who we honor on this holiday, we wouldn’t have the privilege of these freedoms. It’s a fitting tribute, but it’s not enough.

Let’s take some time amidst the frisbee and BBQ,  the fun and frolic, to observe the true meaning of Memorial Day and pay respect to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who have given their lives in the line of duty. Visit a memorial. Fly your flag.  Plant some poppies. Talk to a veteran or an enlisted soldier. Or just stop for a moment to appreciate what so many have given on our behalf.

USS Missouri at the Pearl Harbor Memorial

]]> http://blog.affspot.com/2010/05/us-memorial-day-2010/feed/ 0 http://blog.affspot.com/2010/05/more-fraudulant-affiliate-tactics-with-network-approval/ http://blog.affspot.com/2010/05/more-fraudulant-affiliate-tactics-with-network-approval/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 14:34:31 +0000 scottm http://blog.affspot.com/?p=431

In the realm of tactics used by fraudulant affiliates (those persons/entities who use affiliate marketing but damage our industry) it never ceases to amaze me the amount of work and effort a fraudster will do for a few quick bucks.  Only this time, I’ve seen it myself.  First Hand…  And someone at one or more networks had to have known about it.

You see, last summer I went somewhere with my son.  “Guys day out”.  And we were greeted at the entrance of a public venue and asked to register on our way in.  Okay, free event, I get it.  They had a couple tables with computers with new screens/keyboards.    So I go to the screen and proceeded to register into the event.  Okay…  this looked familiar.

Way too familiar!  It was a web browser in “kiosk” mode where you were supposed to put in your name, email addy, phone, etc.   So, I used a Google Voice number, a spam bucket email addy, etc.  And later when it wasn’t so busy I saw a guy that was obviously in charge of the registration area.  I chatted him up.  Got a touch “techy” and found out they were a “outsourced” company for doing registrations.    The computers were connected (with a switch/hub) to a WiFi setup.  Cool…   I asked them what they charge for doing this and was told that their “fee” was sharing the registration data with the event promoter…  Huh?  Where’s the profit in that?

I asked them how they could do that?  I was told that the surveys went through a “survey company” that paid them for the opinions.  That made me curious…  So I walked back later and put in a bogus registration and paid real careful attention to the screens…..  AHA!  I got the URL…..

After getting home I went to that URL and really checked out every page, read their code, etc.  That second email address “verification” line??  Yup, it was in an iframe..  But the first one wasn’t.  I smelled “email submit”.  Then I saw some curious javascript…  And without the server side I can’t be totally certain..  But.  Given the uptick in email in the “spam account” I think about 4 email submits happened.  I also think a zip submit or two happened as well.  And curiously enough, .edu offers started flooding the spambox email account.

Now, that WiFi couldn’t have had more than one IP address…  So here’s what I think was really going on.  Whoever was doing the registrations sold the promoter on being their registrar for the free event.   Then the “registration company” was using some clever page javascript to effectively “multiplex” answers to the registration and “survey” questions…  And putting in multiple email and zip submits to affiliate programs.

How much money would that be?  Let’s say two email submits and two zip submits (and all the email addys to a targeted list) for the 3000+ people attending the event?I’m guessing $12000.00 or more.  Not bad for a days work.  And just how did all that happen on a single IP address????  The network carrying the offers had to know.  A call or email with an AM at one or more networks asked by the “affiliate” who told them they were doing registrations and wanted to offer an “optional” survey or offers, etc.

Pretty fraudulent if you ask me.  If they took the registration, asked if I wanted to take an optional survey, then be shown “Would you like information from these companies”? and offered the choice to submit my info or not?  Okay.  To mask it all and the networks not stopping it dead in their tracks…  Not good.

I don’t know which networks in this case.  It was a year ago.  But the network had to know.  I’d place odds on the “affiliate” chatting up an Affiliate Manager with some BS story to get permission to do it.  And just what AM in their right mind would approve of this?  One that either didn’t care where the submits/clicks came from, or just too lazy to think things through.  And a “Compliance Department” that isn’t being run well at all.

Remember the movie “The Prime Gig” with Vince Vaughn?  And “Boileroom” with Vin Diesel and Ben Affleck?  Well, some of those very same tactics illustrated in these two movies are being employed in the seedy side of the  Affiliate Marketing industry.  I’ve been looking a little harder at organized affiliate fraud and the very same attributes of telemarketing boilerooms are being used.  Which hurts our bottom line, reputation as an industry, and increases our workloads (networks, merchants, and affiliates alike).

Only these arn’t physical boiler rooms.  These are physical, virtual, and outsourced.  Those participating have very advanced computer systems.  I thought my setup was big (5 servers for my desk alone).  But no, this isn’t anything like you’ve ever seen before.  Tens of multi-core systems and 4 monitors minimum.  All set up in an apartment where two or three people are cranking out Craigslist ads, bogus blogfarms, and pushing “guru” how-to’s 24×7.  And they are connected with JVs (Joint Ventures) with individuals and are outsourcing other tasks across the globe.

And what is it that they’re doing?  The answer is simple…  Anything for a buck.  Preferably anything where they can make a “big hit” and pull in several thousand dollars per month per cycle.  With any deceptive means possible.  Examples?  Craigslist posts for Apartments for Rent, then subject interested parties to a link where they can get their credit report in order to be qualified to rent the non-existent apartment (or house, or car)!  Then they take the affiliate commission for the credit report and build email lists to sell to others (and use for their own email campaigns) later.  And the link they gave the person hunting an apartment?  Why yes, it stuffed a few dozen cookies along the way and maybe one or two email submits happened as well.

And these groups get caught and banned from networks frequently.  Their PayPal accounts dropped.  Their program accounts dropped.  Even their hosting and email accounts cancelled.  But they continue because their tactics bring them money.  Email accounts?  They hire Indian, Pakistani, and Malaysian contractors to create Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo emails by the hundreds.  They do the same for Craigslist posters.  They hire out (or use JV) for all the background gruntwork to create, track, and use thousands of false identities.  And when you have thousands of emails tied to thousands of Craigslist/Ebay/Amazon accounts and are creating network and affiliate program accounts with these same emails the “inventory” is sizeable enough that if one gets banned, they just delete it from their list and go to the next one in line.  Sometimes 8 or 10 per day!.

Do you know anyone that has 100+ email accounts tied to 1000+ domains, with matching PayPal, Ebay, Amazon, and 10 network accounts?  Each enrolled in hundreds of affiliate programs?  And if you had a way to organize and manage that many accounts how much would you make?  Let’s do a little math.

100 bogus Craigslist ads for an Apartment for Rent or Roommate ad.  Every response directed to provide a copy of a credit report..  Only accepting the credit report from one of your 100+ bogus sites.  Capture their info from the bogus site and toss it at an email submit along with the credit report offer.  Stuff some cookies while they’re on the bogus site.  Then after your banned on all of this do it all over again (and sell the email list to a list broker).

500 email submits = $2500.  500 credit reports = $6000.  Sell the email list = $100  Total = $8600.00!

Split that profit with a JV, pay off your contractors and general overhead and your taking home $5000+/month. And the really hard workers will do this 8+ times per week with different targets, different programs, and all on different fake accounts.

The big catch is that these boiler room affiliates are not operating a sustainable business model.  But they’ve figured out a way to “Wash, Rinse, Repeat” to turn it into a sustainable model.  You see, they KNOW their emails will be dropped, their accounts banned, etc.  So, what do they do?  They’ve created a system that relies on their ability to purchase email accounts, network accounts, PayPal accounts, even shell corporations.  And an entire micro industry has built up around that demand.

How do we stop the scammers from ruining our industry?

There are a few things that can be done.  Simply not allowing free email provider addresses to be used for Networks and Affiliate Programs is a start.  If you don’t have a domain and emails in that domain you don’t get a network or program account.  And the domain must have public listing that matches the name/phone/addresses.

Require a real business entity.  If there isn’t a personal or business IRS EIN (Employer ID Number) then access to networks and merchant programs should be denied.  And the networks need to verify all this information.

Those two items alone would be enough to nearly break the ability for these fraudsters to simply inventory fake business identities.  And would have the lowest impact on true Performance Marketing Affiliates.  It might be a little inconvenient.  It will certainly cost everyone a little money out of our profits in the short term.  But all of us in the industry will benefit from less competition from those employing deceptive practices and managers for networks and programs will end up gaining more time to concentrate on our needs instead of chasing down those that damage our industry.

I could expound poetic about how Affiliate Marketing combines the power of the Luge, with the grace of Figure Skating, and the speed and risk of the Super G. But I won’t, because it would be wrong. These sports don’t translate very well into Affiliate Marketing..

But one does… Curling

Multiple players sliding granite stones on ice…  With the “sweepers” applying effort to help the stone curl into the perfect spot in “the house”.  The center of “the house” is called the button, by the way.  Hence the phrase “right on the button”.

Affiliate Marketers (all Performance Marketers actually) are the Curling Sweepers of the Internet world.  Applying skill, tactics, and intelligence while sliding around on an icy plane in order to  help a merchant reach a goal.  And to be rewarded for their efforts in measure to their success in hitting it “Right on the Button”.

But that’s only part of the equation, what alot of Affiliate Marketers forget is that this is a team sport, and Defense is required as well.  Just as a good Curling squad puts out “guard rocks” is precise locations at precise times we need to guard against undue interference with our shots as well.  Like Affiliate Nexus Laws.  Which takes all Affiliate Marketers, Networks, AMs, and OPMs as well as Merchants to come together as a team and play a little defense.

It’s important to know the field, where the rocks are placed in relation to the house.  Which stones are in play and which ones don’t matter.  And they work WITH their Merchants, Networks, and Program Managers to make things happen for the benefit of all.  Now, more than ever, the Affiliate Marketer that can maneuver on a slippery icy plane, apply strategy, effort, and skill to their task they will always hit it “Right on the Button”.

Granted, the application of statistical analysis used in baseball (specifically, Sabermetrics, invented by Bill James) seems to be a little “out there”.  And it is, kind’ve.  But using the data available lets us do more than simply report the measurement of observations of our campaigns.  You can take these observations and apply the numbers in ways that help you properly judge past efforts, and see what you need to work on to improve future performance.

For example…  Runs Created.  Bill James came up with a system that could grade a player’s offensive ability regardless of if he is a speedster who walks and steals a lot, a high-average singles hitter, or a low-average slugger.   the essential computation of Runs Created is:

RC=(H+W-CS)X(TB+.7SB)/AB+W+CS

Runs Created equals hits plus walks minus times caught stealing multiplied by total bases added to seven-tenths of bases stolen divided by the sum of at bats plus walks plus times caught stealing.  Sounds a little goofy (especially having Caught Stealing on both sides of the equasion).  But it woks.  The deviation from real life is a scant 4% and generally within 3%.  There are a couple exceptions, but overall you can take this formula, apply it to an entire team over the past 30 years or so it’s very, very close.  Which is to say after 20 or so games into a season you can begin using this to predict how many total runs a team will score for the season and get pretty close.  Not Vegas Bet close, but close.

Now, how do we apply this to Affiliate Marketing?  Let’s look at the information we have available to us.  We have Traffic, ClickThru, Sales, Visits, Pages Viewed, etc.  Traditionally we have all been measuring ourselves with CTR, CPC, etc.  Which are extremely simplistic measures.  What if we apply a little bit of Sabermetric thinking and come up with our own measurement for Runs Created?  How about Sales Created?

Let’s lay out a possible scenario:

SC=(Clicks-Bounces)X(Page Views+Uniques)/(Visits+Clicks+Bounces)

This would reward Clicks and Uniques, penalize Bounces, and rate it all against the total number of Pages Viewed.  Run some of your stats over this and see what the ratio of the resulting number (SC) is compared with the total number of sales made…  I’m seeing some results that are making sense.  The first site I compared this too was spooky. I had cleared 74 sales on an offer.  This example came out with  a score of 72.50.   Thus “predicting” the number of sales within 2% of actual.

I compared it with a few other sites, called a couple friends and got some example numbers.  So far, it’s doing a reasonable job of computing how many sales based on the numbers and statistics alone.  The interesting thing is that one of the examples was high traffic with high bounce rates, another had low traffic with very low bounce rates…  And the numbers held up.  I don’t believe this is the final form of this.  Let’s not kid ourselves, this is counter-intuitive and I spent less than a week on this.  But a logical conclusion to this little experiment is that we arn’t recording and analyzing the data we’re already gathering in effective ways.

We Affiliate Marketers need to start really looking at the data, the history, and figuring out better ways to measure what is really happening with our offers, etc.  Judging ourselves by the observations made (logs), and discovering ways to make ourselves better.

(Guest Post by Simon Gornick, CEO of Spotcher)

As the economy tightens, advertisers and their agencies are looking inward to discover the best way to deliver effective marketing messages.

The landscape is in a state of deep flux. There are a flood of new approaches out there, all competing for eyeballs. But there’s one that’s rising faster, and burning brighter than most. Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketers are some of the most confident, entrepreneurial and innovative people in America. They don’t need hand-holding.

And they’re a big reason why we created our new web app.

It’s called Spotcher. Think of us as the “Craigs List of Online video”.

Spotcher is designed to help bloggers, affiliates, small businesses and mini-moguls of all kinds monetize their video libraries with interactive overlays.

At Affiliate Summit West, there was a great deal of buzz about how affiliate marketers can leverlage video, but also some hesitation.

Video adds value and staying power to a web page, and especially a landing page. Plus videos are treated well by the search engines.

And one more thing. Creating, hosting and syndicating an effective video is easier than you think, and we can point you in the right direction.

Whether your video is global, national or locally targeted, our simple system gives UGC and small business video a path to real revenue potential. If you’re interested in selling products via your own videos, Spotcher can really help you.

We don’t host videos. We just give you more control of them. Partnering up with video share sites gets you a ‘portion’ of the ad revenue. With Spotcher, we know you do an awful lot of revenue sharing as it is. Do you really need another outfit taking a bite out of the hard-won revenue your content is earning?  Didn’t think so.

THE WORKFLOW

• We’re a simple, no frills app that offers only two things. One, Interactive Overlays for your hosted videos, and two, the help and guidance you need to use them effectively.

• Affiliates drive their self-hosted videos through our brandable player, create and add monetizing or info links to their own interactive overlays, then market,  distribute and share their videos.

• Links can continue to monetize across all instances of each video for as long as they’re active, so the process works well for long-tail e-commerce.  And the good news is that videos index better the longer they’re around.

• Our site guides and helps our users on creating great videos, as well as converting, hosting, linking, indexing and marketing their libraries.

• Except for our free plan (which starts free and stays free), we charge a small subscription based on number of videos users link to us, and that’s it.

WHY INTERACTIVE OVERLAYS

• Interactive Overlays are a seamless, intuitive, opt-in way to get commercial messages across without compromising enjoyment of your video content.

• When used best, commercial message overlays enhance a video rather than distract from it. That can mean a big boost in engagement and click-throughs.

• We think self-generated overlays will be a far more effective way of monetizing the video explosion than any other ad format. So why offer anything else?

• Because the content is driving the consumer’s decision to buy, that potential buyer is often far more motivated punch that ‘click to order’ button.

• The best indexing algorithm is the one in your head. You know best the relevant products and links for your video content.

• With the help of our easy to use metrics package, as well as your network stats, you can figure out what’s what’s flying and what needs changing.

LINKING WITH SPOTCHER

CPS Text URLs work best. Use Skimlinks, Viglink or any deep-linking engine from your CPS networks like CJ, Linkshare, and Google to create product, category or site links that you can add to your overlays. If it works in your browser’s address bar, it will work in an overlay. Simple as that.

TRY SPOTCHER FOR YOURSELF

We’ve just got started, so we’re keen to get your feedback on how to make our service even better. And remember, Spotcher helps you monetize your first two videos for free, so you can get to know the system before you move to a pay subscription.

Simon Gornick is the CEO of Spotcher

http://spotcher.com

@spotcher

]]> http://blog.affspot.com/2010/01/add-cps-links-to-your-videos-with-spotcher/feed/ 0 http://blog.affspot.com/2009/12/an-icon-from-1969-celebrating-the-new-year/ http://blog.affspot.com/2009/12/an-icon-from-1969-celebrating-the-new-year/#comments Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:28:34 +0000 scottm http://blog.affspot.com/?p=276

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How far we’ve come in 40 years.  In 1969 a hunk of highly engineered metal departed Florida and went the full 238857 miles with computing power roughly equivalent to a handheld calculator.  And at the same time (1969) ARPANET (the forerunner of the Internet) was established.

As we say goodbye to 2009 I walked outside and in the clear cold Missouri air I saw a Full Moon and thought back to when in 1969 we saw the Earth from the opposite perspective just as the beginning of the Internet was established.

How better to ring out 2009 than to show the iconic image from 1969 as we ring in 2010…  The Earth as taken from Apollo 11.  Happy New Year!

Alot of people have written alot of things about the new FTC Endorsement rules…  And a few things I’ve gathered from it all (and reading the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising) is this…

Old Blogposts that still are being read as people visit your site would be current (i.e. new) activity.  If someone clicks an embedded link in and old post..  That’s a new sale.  And this fact alone means you need to disclose.  If someone complains about an old blogpost of yours that contains an endorsement (i.e. real person, or a not so honet competitor) you could be in trouble… Along with the Network and the Advertiser.

Here’s what I would do…  I would find a way to add a universal disclaimer to every blogpost you have.  More than likely (I havn’t found a Wordpress plugin for this yet) would be to modify your template and simply include a quality universal disclaimer.

The other thing I would do would be to change the way you write.  Start with the disclaimer.  Then write your blogpost and then do your editing.  This way you can still produce a quality post knowing that your covered by your disclaimer.  And yes, I would put a disclaimer into every single post.

Speaking of putting a disclaimer in every single post…  And knowing that I didn’t include a sample disclaimer earlier.  Here’s both an example and official disclaimer for this post:

But I’m not going to make it that easy for you.  Why?  Because you need to consult an attorney and I’m not one.  And no, nobody has paid for this posting, no free product received, no free trials, nothing, zip, nada.  Advertisers pay for banner space but if they don’t like what I write..  Tough Noogies.

So, there you go.  I’m assuming you’ve already put full compliance into place on your current and new blogposts.  Now it’s time to CYA and get your old posts and archives in order too.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower sailed. It manifest included a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford.

The journey to the New World was a long and difficult trip. And when the Pilgrims landed on the New England cost in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate land. He wrote that there were no friends to greet them. There were no houses or shelter. But the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning.

During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford’s own wife – died of either exposure, sickness, or starvation.  When springtime arrived, local Indians freely shared their knowledge, teaching the settlers how to plant corn, fish the local waters, and skin beavers for coats.  Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper.

The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.  All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. Nobody owned or were personally invested in anything. They just had their common share.

Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, realized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken half their number. Bradford took bold decisive action. He assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace as each family was incentive’s for their own industriousness.  Their own prosperity was now coupled with their own performance.

Bradford wrote about this, ‘The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,’ Bradford wrote. ‘For this community was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense…that was thought injustice.‘

Which also summarizes Performance Marketing and why being an Affiliate Marketer is so fulfilling.  We all are working together with our own individual endeavors to advance ourselves.  Our own ingenuity, hard work, accumulated knowledge combined with the sense of community this industry enjoys has allowed what began as nothing in the early 1990s to be a multi billion dollar industry today.  Many of us make our entire living in Affiliate Marketing.  A greater number are building their own business to sustain themselves or are involved to bring in a few extra dollars each month.  All because the Performance Marketing industry as a whole has not had to learn about using incentives to motivate individual marketers to attain ever higher levels of performance and efficiency.  We have never had to do a complete regroup and re engineering because the basic principles were already well known and practiced for three hundred plus years before Affiliate Marketing as we know it ever existed.

Bradford wrote of the Pilgrims new found prosperity, ‘This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.‘

We are all thankful for many things.  For our families, our children, our friends, country, and that we are free to pursue our businesses as we see fit.  That we are measured for our performance and rewarded in kind.

All rooted in the original example where the Pilgrims, led by William Bradford, reformed their system and got rid of the communal teet and started what was essentially free market capitalism, they produced more than they could possibly consume, and they invited the Indians to dinner, to show how their lessons were applied by the Pilgrims and producing enough for all to share as they gave thanks.

And so today we all give thanks for all we have.  For our families.  For our friends.  For the unique opportunity we are privileged to enjoy as members of the Affiliate Marketing Community.