Wiseaff

Shout out to Joel Comm!

I just wanted to send a quick shout out to Joel Comm, and say thanks for sending me this great picture of us at Affiliate Summit West 2008 in Vegas.  It was nice to finally get the chance to sit down and talk with you!

Good luck on those "JV" deals!

Adam

Kowabunga! Get's $20M loan

Yesterday, Kowabunga! released a press release detailing their $20 in new debt funding from Wachovia Bank.

Jody Brown, chief financial officer of Kowabunga!, stated, “The new credit facilities with Wachovia provide us greater financial flexibility at attractive borrowing rates. It will allow us to continue to maintain a strong balance sheet, while providing the company an additional source of capital for general corporate purposes.”

Scott P. Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of Kowabunga!, added, “We are very pleased to continue our long term banking relationship with Wachovia and consider these extended and more flexible credit facilities a strong vote of confidence for what we are building here at Kowabunga!. Access to capital on more flexible terms will enhance our ability to continue on the path of growth, particularly in our Ad Network business, which grew approximately 65% in the fourth quarter of 2007 over the same period 2006.”

Heading to Affiliate Summit West 2008

Affiliate Summit West 2008 is almost here, and I think it is very interesting how social media seems to be at the forefront. Twitter appears to be the conference networking channel of choice, and I have heard rumors of a live twitter feed at the summit that will show any twitter containing ASW08 in it live on the big screen.

Converseon has a complicated social media contest going trying to turn affiliates into poperatzi hunting down convverseon employees to try and win a desk chair... Oh my! It is interesting how they are using flickr to allow anyone to send in pictures. I have already sent a dealzam logo and a shot of shawn collins in tuxedo from last year's vip event at the wynn.

Of course the days are already filled up with meeting requests and the nights with dinners and parties.

I think I might need a vegas vacation after this one.

I'm still waiting for SOMEONE to organize an affiliate texas holdem tournament. Not this year I guess. I am willing to donate ALPT.NET to the cause if someone is interested. (affiliate legends poker tournament?) anyone???

See you in vegas!

Adam

Quick Domain Research for the Affiliate Summit Live Domain Auction

At the affiliate summit in Vegas, there will be a live domain auction.  Here is a list of some of the premium names that will be auctioned off.  I ran the list quickly through my Domain Research Tool and pulled some facts for you.  Google PR values, Link Popularity values, Estimated Value (Note only based info it has, this is typically low and you can adjust what settings add what value).  DRT can pull a lot more, but I thought you would enjoy this information.

Domain Name	Auto-Appraised Value	Google LP	Yahoo LS	Wayback Age
911parts.com	$0.00	*	1	2000
affiliateadvertisingnetworks.com	$0.00	*	0	0
affiliateconsulting.com	$0.00	*	*	2002
affiliatelists.com	$0.00	*	1	1999
affiliatemarketingcompanies.com	$0.00	*	0	0
affiliatemarketingdirectories.com	$0.00	*	*	0
affiliatemarketingmagazines.com	$0.00	*	0	0
affiliatenetworkdirectories.com	$0.00	*	0	0
affiliatenetworkmerchants.com	$0.00	*	0	0
affiliatenetworksales.com	$0.00	*	*	0
affiliateprogramconsultant.com	$0.00	*	1	2003
affiliateprogramconsultants.com	$0.00	*	*	2003
affiliatetrafficrevenue.com	$0.00	*	0	0
affililate.com	$0.00	*	1	0
cancunflight.com	$1.00	0	*	2004
certifieddiamonds.com	$0.00	*	*	2001
cigaretteattorneys.com	$0.00	*	0	0
comedians.tv	$1.00	2	1	0
computer.us	$16,028.00	0	1	2002
con.com	$576.00	*	1	1998
consumerprotectionlawyer.com	$0.00	*	11	2001
consumerwarranty.com	$0.00	*	1	2004
corporateamerica.com	$100.00	*	*	0
countrymusicians.com	$0.00	*	2	2004
cpc.com	$626.00	7	1	1996
democrat.tv	$208.00	*	*	2007
dietcookbook.com	$0.00	*	1	2001
digitalmemory.com	$0.00	1	*	1998
directmailmanagement.com	$0.00	*	5	2001
fastshipping.com	$0.00	0	*	2001
filmlabs.com	$0.00	0	*	1999
findalender.com	$0.00	*	*	2002
fineapparel.com	$0.00	0	*	1999
freshvegetables.com	$0.00	0	*	1999
garagesales.com	$289.00	*	1	1999
greatdeals.com	$1,484.00	*	12	?
hotdatesonline.com	$31.00	776	87	2002
lm.com	$340.00	*	*	1996
mortgageprovider.org	$0.00	0	0	0
motoring.mobi	$22.00	*	*	0
musiciansforum.com	$0.00	*	15	2000
newswire.net	$10.00	0	1	2001
nytheater.com	$100.00	*	2	1999
onlinefinanceguide.com	$0.00	*	*	2004
onlinemedicalguide.com	$0.00	*	*	2004
ornament.com	$1,086.00	*	*	1998
overnightservice.com	$0.00	0	*	1999
passoverfoods.com	$0.00	*	0	?
pay.com	$123.00	6	*	2000
peru.tv	$746.00	*	*	2002
pianodealer.com	$0.00	0	*	1999
pitboss.com	$3.00	*	*	?
prospecting.com	$264.00	*	*	2000
publicityagent.com	$0.00	0	*	2001
racehorse.com	$132.00	*	1	1999
replicating.com	$1.00	*	0	2001
republican.tv	$228.00	*	*	0
restorations.com	$424.00	0	*	1999
revenueshareaffiliates.com	$0.00	*	0	0
senorita.net	$30.00	*	*	2004
sexeducationclasses.com	$0.00	*	*	0
sleighs.com	$0.00	0	*	2001
snowboardingequiptment.com	$0.00	*	0	0
staffingonline.com	$0.00	*	*	1999
temps.com	$174.00	*	3	1999
vintageairplanes.net	$0.00	*	0	?
watchbrokers.com	$0.00	*	1	2000
webmastersconference.com	$0.00	*	0	2005

If you have never tried D.R.T and you are into domain names, it's a must have tool.  Take it for a test drive sometime.

Imwave launches Beta of DealZam.com

We are happy to announce our first beta release of DealZam.com!

This is our first major push into the deals and coupon codes field.  It's a work in progress, but we would appreciate any feedback and feature ideas for future releases.

Invalid Clicks - Affiliate Networks Can Do Better!

Forgive me for a mini rant here.  I have been dealing with affiliate marketing since 1996, when Amazon started their affiliate program and I owned an ISP called Cyberia in York PA. (Links: Cyberia 1996 | Tony's Archived Site 1998)

So, Affiliate Marketing has been around for a while now.  Why is it that the only network I have seen that is able to show me an invalid click report is Commission Junction?

How hard is it to track the links that come through the network that not working because of dead links, inactive merchants, or disabled programs?

This is invaluable information folks!

When I log in to CJ today, it shows 6 invalid clicks, and I can tell that Earthlink (oddly enough the company who ultimately acquired Cyberia through a series of acquisitions) is no longer an active merchant on CJ and I have an old outdated link getting clicks on my Great-ISP-Deals.com site.

Now I can take action to either remove them from my site, or figure out if they moved their program somewhere else.

In the past CJ used to link those bad links to a "No longer active page", but appears to now pass the old expired link and traffic on to the merchant without compensation.  I am not so sure how I fell about that personally.  It makes it harder for me to identify bad links when I click on them, but can understand it's a better user experience.

Honestly, I think that if they are not going to pay us for the traffic, than it should be up to the affiliate how this invalid traffic is passed, it might be nice to actually let us define a url where the traffic goes so we can track it and monetize it, after all it's OUR TRAFFIC, not theirs.

What do the rest of you think?

1. All networks should have an invalid click report, and show this number of invalid clicks on the login screen or via a daily email.


2. Networks should not pass non-monetizing outdated links on to the merchant for free, they should let the affiliates define a URL where we would like this traffic sent so it can be monetized and tracked.

More Merger Mania!

Yahoo / Microsoft
comScore, Inc. came out with a media advisory today showing that the total world wide visitors of a combined Yahoo & Microsoft’s websites would have exceeded Google's site visitors in December of 2007 by 77 million visitors.   However in the share of search traffic, Google would still lead with 58.4% U.S. market share and 62.4% worldwide vs. Yahoo & Microsoft's combined 32.7% U.S., and a 15.7% search market share worldwide.

AOL / Buy.at
After having been rejected in their $900 million bid to by Tradedouber, AOL announced today that they have acquired Buy.at, a smaller competitor to Tradedoubler.  The terms of the deal are currently undisclosed.   Buy.at is the fifth advertising acquisition AOL has made in the past 12 months. (more info...)

Microsoft makes a $45B Bid for Yahoo (MSFT / YHOO)

Microsoft made a bid of $31 per share for Yahoo today, valuing the deal at almost $45B.  This represents a 62% increase from Yahoo's closing price yesterday.   This just after Terry Semel announced he would leave the board of directors, and Yahoo stock touches 4-year low.

Microsoft and Yahoo explored ways to work together in late 2006 and early 2007, but Yahoo rejected the idea of being taken over.

Yahoo's stock has been troubled since 2000, dropping more than 80% from it's high of 101.81.  Yahoo's most recent high was 33.36 in October of 2007.  At $31 per share, Microsoft's tender offer is clearly attempting to take advantage of Yahoo's recent tough times and the current stock market uncertainties.

Here are some links to some of the best coverage:

• Search Engine Land
• Business Week (Microsoft's Letter to Yahoo)